WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
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◈ The Regressor and the Blind Saintess ◈
Chapter 70: Garthea
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“Khehe...”
Laughter echoed through the tent.
It was a sound as though Todd's vocal cords were being scraped raw, a sound that ought to have been called a beast's cry. Todd lay sprawled over the spellcraft formation at the center of the tent, letting out that laugh.
Crack.
His skin tore open, and fountains of blood rose.
The spilled blood drifted through the air for a brief moment before falling back onto Todd's body and running down it.
Pain like a burn rose wherever the blood flowed, but Todd felt delight amid that pain.
The vitality that surged as Todd tore apart and regenerated, the feeling of omnipotence that made anything seem possible, was what caused it.
Hummm.
An ominous resonance filled the air. Todd raised their head slightly and saw the spellcraft formation glowing entirely red.
“How much longer?”
“J-Just a moment...”
The soldier inspected the formation in a trembling voice.
Todd savored the pain tearing through their body as they waited for an answer.
“The formation is activating smoothly, but it still lacks power. Your Majesty... It might be better to return and perfect your royal body more securely...”
“No.”
Todd interrupted the soldier.
“That will not do. Hasn't the Apostle come? Who knows where that damned Apostle might spirit the imperial descendant away? How can I afford to be so leisurely?”
It could not be allowed.
The imperial descendant had to die.
For the greatest unification, for glory that would wholly be Todd's, Todd had no intention of leaving even the slightest risk behind.
“Power, is it...”
Gurgle.
Phlegm bubbled in Todd's throat. Blood driven back from rupturing organs was mixed into it.
Todd felt a small regret toward this inefficient body, which still remained unfinished.
“So even adding the general's body was not enough...”
The spellcraft formation added another's life and strength to Todd's body.
Todd had thought it would let Todd achieve unification. Todd had thought unification was truly within reach. Yet the completion of Todd's body was far too slow.
Todd had ground the body of Barreta, Todd's general who had been considered to possess the strongest body among the generals of the Five Kingdoms, into this body. Yet even so, it remained incomplete.
“I am dissatisfied.”
“Y-Your Majesty, forgive me...”
“There is no time to be at ease like this.”
Crack.
Todd's body split open once again. Every blood vessel in Todd's eyes burst, and bloody tears streamed down Todd's face. Wearing that expression, Todd looked at the soldier and spoke.
“Adjutant.”
“Y-Yes, Your Majesty...”
“The Apostle is here.”
“Yes...”
“Not ‘yes.’ The Apostle is beyond that ridge. Do you not understand what that means?”
It meant Todd's long-cherished wish could fail. It meant the labor of all the people sacrificed for this could come to nothing.
Todd did not say those words. Todd merely looked at Todd's adjutant.
The adjutant fell to their knees with a thud and bowed their head.
“M-Mercy... Please have mercy...”
The plea came without warning. The adjutant's entire body began to shake. The hand braced against the floor had somehow moved forward, and the adjutant was rubbing their palms together.
“Mercy... Mercy...”
Todd tilted their head as they watched Todd's adjutant repeat only that word.
“What are you saying? I am not blaming you. Why are you begging so?”
“Mercy... Please...”
The adjutant's shaking grew worse. As if rubbing their hands together was not enough, they began slamming their forehead into the floor.
Thud! Thud!
Soon, the thud, thud became bang, bang as they struck their head harder.
“Mercy! Mercy!”
“Ah, I see.”
Todd believed cool reason had allowed Todd to discern the adjutant's meaning.
“Perhaps the adjutant fears the Apostle? Perhaps the adjutant fears dying at the Apostle's hands, and fears being unable to help fulfill that cherished ambition?”
“I understand. I understand my adjutant's intention, the intentions of my proud soldiers.”
Ah, what a blessed king he was. How could there be a more glorious life than one shared with so many soldiers devoted to the nation?
“I will never forget your resolve to devote yourselves to the nation.”
“Gah, aaah!”
The adjutant sprang to their feet and ran for the tent's exit.
Todd watched the adjutant's back.
“Thank you. I will remember you.”
Todd swung their arm.
Crunch.
The fleeing adjutant's body split in two.
Todd crawled forward with a thud, thud, opened his mouth wide, and swallowed the adjutant.
As he crushed flesh and ground bone between his teeth, he recalled his vow once more.
That Todd would never forget this sacrifice.
That Todd would never forget this noble cause.
Todd's body trembled in tiny spasms at the resonance rising from deep within Todd's heart. Then another question came to Todd.
‘But...’
What had that adjutant's name been?
The moment he tried to recall it,
Gulp.
The adjutant slid down Todd's throat.
Crack.
Todd's body tore apart and regenerated. Before the spurting blood could become a stream, the wounds closed.
Todd shed tears and laughter at the vitality filling Todd along with it.
“Kheh...!”
Todd looked toward the entrance of the tent.
“I... I will forget nothing.”
The mutter escaped him.
With boom, boom, Todd headed outside.
Todd was thirsty.
* * *
Dovan's forge.
There, Vera drew the unfinished Demon Sword.
“That is...”
Vera looked toward Dovan. Dovan's expression could have been surprise or hesitation.
“Please.”
Vera lowered his head.
Orgus had clearly shown him that sight for a reason. He still did not know much, but Vera suspected that reason was related to completing the Demon Sword.
‘Dovan does not complete the Demon Sword.’
Aisha's resentment completed it. If so, there had to be another way to complete it as well.
‘If the Masterpiece is completed.’
He could improve his odds.
Vera did not raise his head. As though he intended to remain that way until Dovan gave permission, he waited for an answer with his head bowed.
Dovan's expression darkened as they watched Vera.
“Are you going to fight?”
Anyone who was not a fool could tell. Asking to borrow a sword so suddenly in the middle of the night with such a determined expression could not be for some trivial reason. The Vera Dovan knew was not someone like that.
At Dovan's question, Vera raised the head he had kept bowed until then and chose his words.
‘Are you going to fight?’
That was wrong.
“I am going to protect.”
It was different from fighting. The reason he drew his sword now was not battle, but the principle he would uphold at its end.
Had he come to understand the Protecting Sword? If asked that, he would still shake his head.
Did he hold the light in his hand? He would still answer no.
However, if he were asked why he held his sword at this moment,
“Because I know there is a principle I must uphold, I am going to uphold it.”
That was how he would answer.
Dovan's gaze pierced through Vera.
Dovan watched him for a long while, trying to understand what lay within him, before asking another question.
“...You will not tell the Saintess.”
“Yes. I will return before the Saintess wakes, so I will not tell her.”
He would surely win, so there was no reason to make her worry.
“...Very well.”
Dovan answered and looked at Vera.
Holding the dark-colored sword and wearing his robe pulled over his head, Vera could easily have appeared to be someone with suspicious intentions. Yet the determination on his face erased that impression and left another in its place.
Dovan thought that was the face of a knight.
Then Vera turned away.
“Sleep well. I will return before sunrise.”
Leaving those words behind, Vera walked away.
* * *
The camp of the army of the Third Kingdom, reached after a long run, had become a complete mess.
Every palisade had fallen, and the soldiers' densely packed tents lay collapsed.
As Vera watched from afar, he saw the pools of blood gathered within the tents and realized what had happened.
Todd had eaten his own soldiers.
That had been Garthea's method of sweeping through the battlefield, so it was only natural that Vera recognized it.
Devouring.
It must have used that technique, swallowing enemies and allies alike to restore its demonic energy.
Vera bit down on his lip as he recalled it.
‘Has it been completed?’
Had Garthea been completed?
As that thought came to him, Vera exhaled deeply and cast aside the anxiety rising along with it.
‘...No.’
It did not matter.
There was nothing to fear.
What meaning was there in the principle of protecting others only after picking and choosing one's opponents?
Vera steadied himself and took a step forward.
At that moment,
Rumble!
The central tent collapsed.
A massive body rose from within it.
Todd. No, a demonic being that should be called Garthea.
It was perhaps three times Vera's size. Its entire body was bathed in blood and gleamed red.
Three horns rose from its head. Where its face should have been was a large hole. It was probably a mouth. He could only conclude that because the hole was chewing and spilling pieces of flesh.
Thump.
Garthea stepped forward on a front limb with no toes, its portion below the elbow formed into a single mace.
Vera watched Garthea, which still had not noticed him and merely stared into the sky while chewing flesh. His lips moved.
“I declare.”
Fwoosh!
Ash-gray divine power spread across the space. A massive dome filled with divine power encompassed Vera and Garthea, the tents, and even the forest around them.
Garthea turned its head toward Vera.
Gurgle.
Even the sound of phlegm bubbling was loud enough to echo through the entire space.
Drawing the unfinished Demon Sword, Vera recited the Rules.
“From this moment onward, every battle within this space must not cease until its outcome is decided.”
Golden Rules were inscribed across the space.
Garthea took another step forward.
Boom!
“One must not retreat. One must not betray one's conviction. One must not go against principle.”
He recited three Rules in succession.
What he inscribed into Sanctuary was his own resolve.
“So long as these are upheld, no one within Sanctuary can ever fall.”
It was Vera's resolve as a human facing a beast that had forgotten principle.
Vera raised his sword. His feet stood shoulder-width apart, his gaze faced forward, and the tip of his sword pointed in the same direction as his eyes.
Garthea crouched. Its muscles swelled. Its mouth opened wider. Its hips rose.
“I enforce all these Rules in Lushan's name.”
As the Rules were completed, Sanctuary shone.
The ash-gray space and the golden Rules engraved across it blazed brightly, blocking out the moonlight.
Boom!
Garthea charged.
Vera stepped forward to meet it.
The distance between them closed in an instant.
Within it, a faint golden light rose over the Demon Sword.
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