WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

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◈ The Regressor and the Blind Saintess ◈

Chapter 67: Strange Phenomenon

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Flinch.

Vera's body trembled.

‘Why is this...?’

Why was this dagger letting out a wail? His thoughts raced as he recalled what had changed at the moment the anomaly occurred.

Vera's gaze turned to the king approaching one step at a time.

The dagger's wail had begun when Todd appeared among the soldiers.

Amid his confusion, Vera sharpened his thoughts and watched the king.

He did not make the easy mistake of dismissing it as a coincidence.

A remnant of the Demon King had reacted. There had to be a reason.

As Vera heightened his vigilance, ready to confront anything at any moment, the king approached him and Dovan.

“It is good to meet you, Imperial Descendant. This is our first meeting.”

Todd greeted Dovan first.

“And... you must be the Apostle. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Todd, king of the Alliance's Third Kingdom.”

King Todd smiled. Meeting that smile, Vera began calculating in his head.

‘I cannot reveal hostility carelessly.’

He had no information. He could infer that Todd had some connection to the Demon King, but not what kind of connection it was, why Todd had come to see them in person, or how Todd had acted in Vera's previous life. All of it was shrouded in mystery.

‘There is no sign of hostility yet.’

Vera did not even know whether Todd truly lacked hostility or was concealing it.

Vera made his decision.

‘...For now, I will watch.’

Rather than acting rashly, he would observe the situation.

“...It is good to meet you.”

“I have always been grateful for His Holiness's grace. May the Lord's grace be with you.”

Todd made the sign of the cross.

Without relaxing the tension filling him to the crown of his head, Vera carefully watched Todd's every movement and followed suit.

That was when Dovan spoke.

“...Leave. I have no intention of involving myself in your political struggles.”

Dovan's words were filled with hostility.

Todd, who had been exchanging greetings with Vera, turned toward Dovan. The smile on Todd's lips deepened.

“I already know Your Highness's wishes. I came today to apologize for the discourtesy I have shown until now.”

Flinch. Dovan's fingertips trembled. Their eyes remained fixed on Todd, full of hostility.

The words held an intention Dovan could not understand.

Meeting Dovan's gaze, Todd bowed.

“There is something I failed to realize. No glory awaits the Third Kingdom in crying out for legitimacy. The only one with a rightful claim is Your Highness.”

Todd was so enormous that even with Todd's head bowed, it remained higher than Dovan's.

From afar, it would have looked as though Todd were looking down at Dovan.

In that position, Todd continued.

“Even if I persuaded Your Highness and achieved unification, would it truly be complete unification? The kings and ministers of the other kingdoms, who have yet to let go of their attachment, would all resist. The legitimacy they cry out for would become meaningless in that instant. Another war would break out. They would even deny Your Highness's rightful claim.”

The corners of Todd's mouth stretched upward, forming a deep smile.

“Would that not dishonor Your Highness? Would that not mean I had forgotten my respect for the former imperial family? Condemn this fool who realized it only now. Do not forgive this ill-mannered person who offers a belated apology.”

Todd continued, in a posture that made it impossible to tell whether Todd was bowing or looking down at Dovan.

“I wish to achieve unification in its true sense, one that does not dishonor Your Highness. That is why I came here, to tell you that I will never seek out Your Highness again. I thought words such as these ought to be spoken in person.”

Todd raised his head.

Standing straight again, Todd finished in a low voice, that same smile still on his face.

“That concludes my business. I shall take my leave.”

Todd turned away.

At that moment, Vera felt Todd's gaze pierce through him.

Todd walked away after turning fully around. Todd passed between the ranks of soldiers, and the army reformed behind him and followed.

“...What was that?”

Dovan murmured, bewilderment and confusion clinging to the words. After frowning for a moment, Dovan shook their head and cast the thought aside.

“No, it is none of my concern. Whatever they do now has nothing to do with me.”

Todd had come and said incomprehensible things, but the meaning of the words was that Todd would no longer seek Dovan out.

Since Todd had come in person to say it, it could hardly have been a lie.

Having reached that conclusion, Dovan spoke to Vera.

“Let us go back inside. The Saintess will be waiting.”

“...Yes.”

His reply came a little late.

Vera was still staring at the place where Todd had vanished.

* * *

That same evening.

After finishing the birthday celebration with an unsettled heart, Vera pulled his robe over his head, covered his face, and left the smithy.

He intended to follow Todd.

Something was suspicious.

The dagger's reaction, Todd coming all this way only to say those words and leave, and the way Todd's gaze had seemed to pierce Vera.

All of it stirred suspicion within Vera.

‘Todd would not have returned immediately.’

This place was halfway up a mountain range.

It would take several days to reach the western interior, where the Third Kingdom lay.

Todd would probably descend the range and rest for a day at a nearby village. Otherwise, they would have set up camp.

Vera needed to infiltrate the camp and learn something.

He ran through the darkness.

One by one, he cast divine arts upon his body.

[Night Step], to erase the sound of his footsteps.

[Dusk], to suppress his presence.

[Mirage], to blur the awareness of others.

Once he covered himself in every divine art he had memorized but had never used, Vera's body melted into the darkness.

Not even the faintest sound remained.

No outline remained either.

A single figure became a shadow racing through the night.

After running for some time, Vera detected a hundred presences gathered a little away from the village at the foot of the mountain.

It was likely the army of the Third Kingdom he had seen earlier.

Vera quickly changed direction and headed toward the gathered presences.

* * *

A broad clearing in the middle of the forest.

One large tent, smaller tents packed tightly around it, and a wooden palisade surrounding them all.

Vera frowned as he crossed the palisade.

‘Security is tight.’

The guard was too strict to dismiss as the ordinary precautions of a king's procession. It was suspicious no matter how he looked at it.

It was not merely a feeling.

Building a palisade around tents meant to be occupied for only a day, or at most several days, was far too inefficient.

And then...

Wooooong!

The dagger's wail grew far stronger than it had been during the day.

There was definitely something here.

Perhaps this place held the first clue in the chain of events that would fulfill Dovan's vengeance and place the Demon Sword in Aisha's hands.

It was little more than a hunch, but Vera could not ignore it. Gripping the dagger he had received as a gift, he headed for the central tent toward which the hidden dagger pointed.

He did not worry about being discovered.

Even now, the divine arts were melting Vera into the darkness.

He passed the outer tents.

Avoiding the soldiers resting around campfires and those moving about farther inside, he reached the central tent.

As Vera drew closer to the tent, the dagger's wail increasingly turned into a scream. He reached into his robes, gripped it tightly, and poured divine power into it.

Screeech.

It was a drastic measure.

He poured divine power into the dagger, opposing the Demon King's crimson glow, in order to silence its wail.

Once he confirmed that the dagger had begun to quiet, Vera pressed himself against the tent wall and focused on what was happening inside.

“Is everything prepared?”

“It is proceeding smoothly.”

“Good. Very good.”

Todd's voice was full of laughter, while the soldier's voice carried an odd fear.

“They are so stupid. Stupid beyond measure. Aren't they all half-baked fools?”

Todd chuckled.

Vera's brow furrowed at the sound.

‘It is different.’

It was unlike the formal voice he had heard earlier. It sounded grating, as though something were scraping harshly.

“What does the Imperial Descendant matter? What does legitimacy matter? They have all already experienced that something more important exists, yet they are too frightened to face it.”

A thrill that could only be called ecstasy colored Todd's voice as the king continued.

“Overwhelming force. That is all that is needed. Resistance? Arguments? What will they accomplish? If I crush them, none of it will matter.”

The voice became swallowed by emotion. It trembled as though reason were steadily fading.

“The Tiger King showed us. The Tiger King proved it.”

Flinch.

Vera's body jolted. His eyes widened.

He understood what Todd's words meant.

“With Haman's power, everything can be crushed beneath our feet, yet they insist on looking away from it.”

“Most correct, Your Majesty...”

“So they must be removed. Cleared away.”

Grrrgle. Todd's voice bubbled.

“Those stupid, cowardly idiots. The Imperial Descendant, who could become an obstacle. That damned Apostle as well.”

Something rippled out.

“All of them must be removed.”

Clench.

Vera's fist tightened.

The dagger in his hand flashed sharply.

‘I have to kill Todd.’

Todd was targeting Dovan.

Todd was targeting the kings of the other four kingdoms.

Todd was plotting something.

Vera should have killed Todd at once, but...

‘...This presence.’

The presence flowing from within stopped Vera in his tracks.

He knew exactly what it was.

‘The Demon King's presence.’

The same savage presence he had felt when fighting Gilly flowed from within.

It had emerged when Todd's voice had become swallowed by emotion.

Suddenly, a question arose in Vera's mind.

‘Why...?’

Why had he not noticed it until he came this close? Could he truly have failed to sense such blatant, savage presence?

As he followed that thought, another realization crossed Vera's mind. He ran his hand along the tent.

Mana stirred beneath his fingertips.

‘...A barrier.’

A barrier had been placed around the tent.

Vera held his breath, muted his presence even further, and made his decision.

‘I have to see inside.’

He needed to discover what they were doing so secretly and uncover its true nature.

Vera added one more divine art to his body as it melted into the darkness.

Exactly seven steps.

[Sky Step], a divine art that allowed him to walk through the air.

Ssssh.

A faint trace of divine power formed beneath Vera's feet, then faded.

Vera stepped onto the tent and carefully began to walk up the wall.

A shadow moved across the darkness.

Past the tent wall, onto the roof, and from the roof to its central peak.

At the top of the tent, Vera used the dagger in his hand to cut a small slit in the fabric. He brought his eye to the opening.

It was an extremely narrow gap, one through which he could only see parts of the inside by twisting his body this way and that.

Vera focused all his attention on the revealed interior.

As he had first suspected, a long barrier formula encircled the tent's perimeter.

And inside it...

‘...Spellcraft.’

A long, complex spellcraft circle had been drawn there.

Vera narrowed his eyes and examined it.

Even to Vera, who had pored over countless spells and spellcraft circles to strengthen Sanctuary, it was an unfamiliar formation.

A single perfect circle.

Four lines dividing that circle into exactly eight equal sections.

Unfamiliar inscriptions forming each line. And at the center was an enormous body.

‘...!’

Vera swallowed his gasp and stared down at it.

He could see a back curled toward the floor. He could see rippling red patterns crawling across it like snakes.

As the patterns crawled over the body, muscles twisted. Blood vessels burst and regenerated. Red energy exploded outward, then seeped back in.

“Grrrgh.”

A wet rattle struck Vera's ears.

“Your Majesty...”

The soldier spoke. Only then did Vera realize that the thing before him was Todd.

Amid it all, the enormous body, Todd, spoke again.

“Haman... Khh. I will become Haman.”

Haman.

‘...That is?’

Could something like that be called Haman?

The question naturally arose.

It was not merely because the thing's appearance was grotesque.

Vera already knew the name by which it was called.

Not now, but in the more distant future, when the fighting against the Demon King was growing fiercer, Vera had once seen that thing from afar.

He could say with certainty.

That was never Haman.

The name for that thing, the name the continent had given it in that era, was...

‘...Garthea.’

Garthea, the vanguard of the legion that had destroyed half the continent.

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