WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

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◈ The Regressor and the Blind Saintess ◈

Chapter 50: Edrin - 3

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The next day, before Aidrin’s roots.

Watching Mari manifest her Authority, Vera described the sight before them to Rene.

“Mari’s divine power is the color of lush green. The divine power flowing from Mari’s fingertips is seeping into Aidrin, restoring vitality to its leaves. The places where its outer bark was torn away are regenerating as well.”

The Authority of Vitality.

This was the first time he had seen it in person, but Vera knew well how useful that Authority had been during the war.

Used simply, it could raise the combat abilities of an entire legion.

Beyond that, it could replenish food supplies on the spot during an advance or when a legion became isolated and rapidly exhausted its provisions.

The Authority of Abundance could infinitely duplicate food from nothing but seeds.

Vera remembered clearly. During the height of the war against the Demon King, Mari had gone to an isolated fortress on the front lines and copied food for three months, somehow allowing them to hold the fortress.

I suffered some losses because of that, too.

At the time, he had judged that the front line would retreat and pulled back all the black-market routes he had set up near the battlefield.

He had made that decision because he did not want to suffer needless losses in manpower. In the end, Mari held the fortress and the front line remained intact, turning his decision into a loss.

As memories of his previous life came to mind, Vera stared blankly at Aidrin. Rene, who was holding his hand, spoke.

“...Is it still difficult even with this?”

She was speaking of Aidrin’s growth. Though she could not see it, Rene could clearly feel the divine power flowing from Mari.

An amount far greater than her own, simply in terms of total divine power.

Even with so much divine power, even with an Authority that governed growth, could Aidrin not be healed?

“That is so. Mother’s body is governed by the growth of her essence.”

Freide answered.

“No matter how much divine power is poured into her body, only a very small amount reaches Mother’s essence. Naturally, there are limits to this method.”

The words were spoken in an ordinary tone, with a faint, loose trace of amusement layered over them.

Hearing Freide, Rene felt her curiosity about Freide rise again.

“...Are you all right with this?”

“What do you mean?”

“This means everything will end. But...”

You seem too unaffected.

She swallowed those words. It was only Rene’s own assumption, after all.

But Freide understood what Rene wanted to say. The long years granted to Freide had given the elf the intuition to notice something like that.

“...I believe it cannot be helped. Hm, does not everything in the world have an end? Mother’s long, long life, and the lives of the elves who protected her. We have merely reached the end we ought to face.”

Freide sincerely believed that.

What had come was here, and Freide only intended to face it. Why would Rene wonder about such a thing?

“Are we not all mortals within Providence?”

For some reason, Rene found Freide’s words, and the dryness within them, sad.

“Even so, you can still want to live.”

“Hm?”

“I think it is only natural to hope that even if the end comes someday, it will not be today.”

She turned her head toward Freide.

Rene spoke as she remembered the years she had spent curled up beneath the blankets, weeping.

“Even if things are utterly hopeless, even if you cannot see any hope at all, I think you can still want to live. Even if you wish for an end, I think it is only natural to want it to come in a happy form.”

That was why she had clung to prayer.

Though she could see no hope at all, she still wished for it. She thought that if she continued living this way, someday the light would return to her. She wished for her end to come beneath radiant light.

That was why this seemed natural to Rene.

No one would want to despair. They would wish for light to arrive at the end.

They would not wish for an unwilling end like this, an end like a disaster.

“Do you have no regrets, Freide?”

Freide fell silent for a moment as though gathering their thoughts. Then they looked at Aidrin and answered.

“I do not.”

Freide’s answer was firm.

“I do not know how this will sound, but... I have no regrets. Do regrets not arise from things one has failed to finish? Yet I have nothing unfinished. I was born with the talent to accomplish anything I wanted, and I had all the time in the world to do so.”

Freide continued, recalling a distant childhood.

“Now that I think about it, I have never truly longed for anything. Hm, I am sorry that I cannot empathize.”

“Ah, no, it is not that...”

Rene flinched as she answered.

Freide smiled faintly at the sight, then added,

“Well, perhaps the Saintess is not entirely wrong. The siblings who ran away do wish to keep living, just as you said.”

She was speaking of the Noier.

“I cannot understand it myself, but... surely those siblings possess what you would call longing. Ah, is this what they call romance?”

A small question rose within Rene at Freide’s playful ending.

“...Do you not resent them?”

“Why should I?”

“They betrayed you. I heard they are after Aidrin and that you are fighting them now.”

“You could see it that way. But I love my siblings. I respect them. We simply walk different paths, so I had no choice but to turn my back on them.”

A lie.

Those words, too, held no emotion at all.

As she listened to words that carried not the slightest trace of feeling, Rene felt as though she understood something about Freide.

Ah.

This elf did not understand emotions.

Rene did not know why, but she could tell that Freide felt no longing at all.

To Freide, all of this, life, death, and every conflict that arose between them, was merely part of a single flow.

Freide was a complete observer, merely watching that flow.

Rene did not voice her thoughts any further.

She only felt sad.

It was sadness for the life of that elf, who had lived through such long years without ever desiring anything, a life Rene could not even begin to imagine.

“...Is that so?”

Her voice naturally sank.

Freide showed a small hint of confusion at Rene’s darkened expression.

“What is wrong? Is something bothering you?”

“No. It is just...”

Rene chose her next words carefully. She thought it would be rude to voice what she had been thinking.

“...I think it is a little sad for siblings to fight.”

That was all she could finally say. She was speaking of the conflict with the Noier.

“Yes. It is truly unfortunate. We can no longer understand what those siblings intend.”

“No longer?”

“That is right. No longer. Until the siblings cut off their ears, we could vaguely feel their intentions as well.”

Rene tilted her head.

“What do ears have to do with that?”

“Hmm, of course you would not know. Elven ears are highly concentrated bundles of nerves. At the tips of these ears are nerves connected to Mother, and through those nerves, elves share their emotions with Mother and their other siblings.”

“Ah...”

Rene understood, but her expression began to take on an odd shape.

Somehow...

For some reason, she felt as though the romance of elves had vanished. It was not a pleasant feeling when something that had lived in one’s heart as a childhood fantasy was explained academically.

Freide smiled at Rene’s strange expression and continued.

“Disappointed? I suppose that is possible. Every outsider who has heard this has reacted that way.”

“Ha ha...”

“Elves possess greater academic depth than you might think. There is no better hobby for easing the boredom of long years.”

Rene nodded and added,

“Then are you still sharing emotions with those who have not cut off their ears?”

“That is so. The siblings scouting at the entrance to the Great Forest feel tense. The siblings who went to harvest fruit feel fulfilled. And...”

Freide added artificial emotion as the elf changed tone.

Rene thought her words sounded like an observer’s report.

* * *

Several more days passed.

During that time, Rene and the others had done... nothing.

There was nothing they could immediately do for the elves, and there was nothing the elves wanted from them.

So Rene passed the time doing trivial things, such as walking through the forest with Vera or listening to Mari speak about life in the forest.

Naturally, frustration built within Rene.

The situation was so dire, yet she felt ashamed to merely eat as a guest. She wanted to help, but could do nothing, and that made her feel helpless.

Today, too, as she sat on Aidrin’s roots with that frustration weighing on her, Rene sensed that the atmosphere around her was different than usual.

“Vera.”

“...Yes.”

“It is noisy around us.”

More sounds than usual were tangled together. Urgency could be felt in the footsteps she heard.

The elves did not speak loudly, so she could not make out their conversations. Even so, Rene could tell the cause of this atmosphere.

The smell of blood.

A thick scent of blood drifted from afar on the wind.

“What happened?”

Vera hesitated at Rene’s question.

He wondered whether it was right to describe the scene before him to her.

The scouting party that had left early in the morning was returning badly injured.

One had lost an arm, while another had lost everything below the knee.

Among them were those who had already died and become corpses.

Rene tightened her grip on Vera’s hand, urging him on as he hesitated.

“Vera. Do not lie to me.”

Her expression was firm as she spoke. Knowing that Rene would never listen when she looked so determined, Vera lowered his head slightly and answered despite his hesitation.

“...Some of those who returned from scouting are seriously injured.”

“Are they badly hurt?”

“Yes.”

Vera answered, moving his lips a few times before adding,

“...There are dead as well.”

Jolt.

Rene’s body froze.

“I believe there was a clash.”

He must have meant a clash with the Noier.

Rene bit down on her lip, then rose to her feet.

“Saintess?”

“Take me there.”

Rene thought she could not remain here like this. There were surely elves who had placed their hopes in her. Even if she could not save Aidrin, she had to offer whatever help she could instead of merely eating their food.

That was what she thought.

Vera knew that Rene would never listen to him when she wore such a resolute expression.

“...Yes.”

* * *

A wide clearing.

Freide tilted their head as they watched Rene and Vera approach from afar.

“What brings you here?”

“I came because I want to help.”

“Hm?”

“I heard that some people were injured.”

Rene focused her senses on what reached her.

Suppressed groans. Hollow breaths that escaped now and then. The thick, metallic scent of blood.

All of it was filled with deep pain.

“I will treat them.”

Rene’s Authority, and the divine arts she had learned, could heal them.

Freide looked at Rene’s hardened face and added,

“Is that necessary?”

Jolt.

Rene’s body stopped. Vera narrowed his eyes at Freide.

Receiving their gazes, Freide let out an “Ah,” then added,

“Hmm, I did not mean anything else by it. We cannot impose such a burden on our guests. Besides, the siblings must have expected injuries like these.”

Freide had their own reasoning.

“The siblings are willingly accepting death now. They believe that dying to protect Mother cannot be helped.”

Freide thought the logic was valid. The emotions Freide sensed took the form of resolve and acceptance. The siblings had sensed their own deaths.

But those words did not persuade Rene.

“That is different.”

“Hm?”

Rene understood why Freide spoke that way.

She also knew it was wrong.

“No one wants to die in pain. Accepting it does not mean it does not hurt.”

Dying with resolve did not mean one was not afraid of death.

Rene knew how weak people became before despair when it finally arrived, and what longings took root within them.

She knew that Freide’s judgment based on reason was useless at a time like this.

“I will try to heal them.”

Rene wanted this dry elf to understand.

Freide could not feel it because Freide did not understand emotions, but Rene still hoped Freide could at least understand intellectually that an ending like this was not happiness.

Without Rene realizing it, her Authority was responding to that wish.

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