WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Regressor and the Blind Saintess ◈
Chapter 77: To the Empire - 2
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Several more days passed, and the work of clearing out the forge was finally finished.
Dovan stepped into the yard and looked over the packed luggage with a strange feeling.
Dovan had lived in this forge an entire lifetime, yet after clearing it out, the things truly needed amounted to only three bundles. It was something Dovan had never noticed because it had never been given much thought.
“Seems I lived more frugally than I thought.”
There was a touch of playfulness in Dovan’s words.
Rene covered her mouth as she laughed and replied,
“I think it’s a good habit. Especially in the Holy Kingdom.”
“You flatter me.”
Dovan gave a hearty laugh, then handed Rene what Dovan had been holding. It was a black cane.
“Take it. I felt awkward simply asking you for a favor, so consider it a bribe.”
“This is...”
“A cane. It should last you several decades without trouble. It’s sturdy.”
Rene ran her hand over the cane in her grasp, savoring the sensation.
It was a little heavier than her old cane. Its surface was smooth beneath her fingertips. When she set it against the ground, it made a clear tap.
Thinking that Dovan had made it, Rene thanked them with an embarrassed expression.
“Thank you. You must have been busy clearing everything out.”
“Don’t feel burdened. Like I said, think of it as a bribe.”
Dovan smiled as Rene gripped the cane tightly, then added,
“I added a few little functions to that cane.”
“Functions?”
“Would you strike the ground hard once? Ah, put divine power into the cane first.”
Rene tilted her head at Dovan’s sudden request, then nodded and summoned her divine power.
White divine power swirled around the cane. When Rene struck the ground with it with a sharp tap...
Whoosh!
A white wave spread through the area.
“Ah!”
Rene’s entire body jolted. Astonishment filled her face.
“This is...”
Her tone was full of surprise. She could not believe what she had just experienced. Dovan looked at Rene and continued his explanation.
“Three times a day, if you pour divine power into the cane and strike the ground, you’ll be able to perceive the objects around you. The waves reflect off objects. I made it in case it might help if you ever find yourself alone.”
Vera, who had remained silent until then, asked a question. Even he had not expected such an item.
“You know magical engineering?”
“I played around with it briefly when I was young. But it was too complicated for an ignorant fellow like me, so I gave up. Even that thing was mostly possible because of the materials.”
Dovan nodded toward the cane.
“I mixed in the Proden left over from making your sword.”
“Proden...?”
“That’s right. Its mana conductivity is remarkable, isn’t it? With that, even someone with shallow knowledge like me can imitate magical engineering.”
Only then did understanding appear on Vera’s face as he looked at the cane.
Still, there was something he did not understand.
“It is black for something made with Proden.”
The cane’s color was the issue. If Proden had been mixed into it, its nature should have made it white no matter what metal had been used alongside it.
A question appeared on Vera’s face. Dovan, watching him, grinned and spoke to Rene.
“Saintess, would you turn the cane’s handle counterclockwise?”
“Ah, yes. Yes!”
Rene had been dazed by what she had just felt, and only answered after a slight delay.
It was an utterly mysterious sensation. She had not seen anything. She had truly felt it. She could tell where something stood when the spreading waves struck it, and what shape it had.
Unable to find words to describe the bewildering feeling, Rene simply followed Dovan’s instructions and turned the handle.
Then...
Shing.
A cold ring of steel sounded.
Click.
Rene’s body stiffened. Vera’s body stiffened as well. Dovan smiled.
“I put a blade in it. You need at least one weapon to protect yourself, don’t you?”
Dovan raised a thumb as Dovan said it.
Rene nodded, sweat trickling down her cheek.
“Th-Thank you...”
“Well, you can’t see, so you probably won’t use it often... Still, it’s reassuring to have, isn’t it? You know, find the enemy with the waves, then swing the sword! I think it has a certain romance to it.”
Dovan continued talking enthusiastically.
Rene had a thought.
‘Should I be grateful...?’
No, she should be grateful. She had received a gift unlike anything she had ever imagined.
Yet for some reason, she could not feel wholly grateful, and her expression began to grow strange.
Vera, who had been watching from beside her, looked at the pure white Proden blade, then nodded and said,
“It certainly would not hurt. Saintess, if you wish to learn the sword, please tell me anytime. I can teach you basic grips and stances.”
Suddenly, Rene felt like crying.
She wanted to say that she was not some kind of combat weapon.
However, she wondered if it would be rude to Dovan, who had given her the gift, and Vera, who was concerned for her. So Rene nodded with a somewhat tearful expression.
“Yes...”
All the while, she thought to herself that she would absolutely never swing a sword.
* * *
The day of their departure arrived.
After loading the baggage they had gathered into the wagon’s cargo bed, the group climbed aboard and set off directly for the Empire.
“Wow...!”
Aisha exclaimed in wonder.
Rene quietly laughed at Aisha, who had been continuously gasping ever since she left the forge and climbed into the wagon.
Young Aisha seemed excited the entire time simply because she was going somewhere new.
“Lady Rene, Lady Rene! There’s a lake over there!”
“Is there?”
“Yes! It’s huge...!”
Aisha’s eyes sparkled. The tip of her tail began to sway.
Just as Rene had thought, excitement had already taken over Aisha’s whole heart.
Going somewhere new. Going into a wider world. Those were surely part of the reason, but the greatest reason was likely that no one would trouble her master anymore.
She would no longer have to see the sad look that sometimes crossed her master’s face.
As Aisha excitedly stuck her head out of the wagon window...
“Aisha, what if you fall? Pull your head back in.”
“Ah, yes.”
Dovan stopped her.
Dovan knew, too, how much Aisha worried about Dovan.
A small warmth suddenly rose in Dovan’s heart. Their apprentice had grown into such a kind child, despite the environment where it would have been no surprise for her to go astray, despite how little time they had been able to spend caring for her.
The atmosphere was peaceful and leisurely.
Aisha had pulled her head back into the wagon and begun kicking her legs idly when she suddenly said,
“Lady Rene, do you think there’ll be lots of handsome people in the Empire?”
Her cheeks were slightly flushed.
For all Aisha could be stubborn and strong-willed, she was still only a twelve-year-old girl. She still had the fresh dreams that only girls her age could hold.
Dovan’s expression stiffened slightly at Aisha’s words. Rene laughed.
Rene nodded and said,
“Probably? Hmm, there’s someone who comes to mind.”
“Who?”
“The Empire’s second prince. He’s very famous.”
He was well known across the continent.
It might have seemed strange for a second prince, rather than the crown prince, to be so famous. But hearing what people said about him made it understandable.
“What was it? The youngest commander of the Imperial Knight Order, heir to a masterpiece... And I heard he is incredibly handsome. It was all that sort of thing.”
“Wow...!”
Aisha’s tail stood straight up. Her exclamation held even greater anticipation than before.
“Will we get to see him?”
“Hmm, who knows? A festival celebrating Founding Day will be held soon, so perhaps, if we’re lucky?”
Ahem! Cough!
Dovan cleared their throat. Rene giggled again at Dovan’s discomfort, then asked Vera,
“Ah, Vera is from the Empire too, right? Have you ever seen the second prince?”
“...Yes.”
Vera nodded. There was a hint of displeasure in his voice.
The second prince, Albrecht de Frihi. Though he was known by another name now, after the Demon King emerged, he would come to be called the Knight of Devotion, the name he bore as the leader of the heroes.
Naturally, Vera, who had fought those heroes, could not possibly fail to know him.
That was also why there was displeasure in his voice.
...Or that could have been the reason, but Vera was showing such discomfort now for a slightly different reason.
A reason that surprised even him.
For some reason, he did not like hearing Rene speak of Albrecht, especially in a favorable light.
“What do you think? Is he really like the rumors say?”
“Huh? Tell us! Is His Highness the second prince really that handsome?”
Rene and Aisha spoke one after the other. Aisha had already started referring to him as “His Highness.”
Vera suddenly remembered Aisha grumbling that all nobles were trash. He looked at her with a sullen expression.
His reply was equally sullen.
“He looks like a gigolo.”
“...What?”
“Looking at him puts you in a bad mood. His voice is shady too. His swordsmanship is passable, but I’m better.”
It was an assessment piled with nothing but personal bias.
Rene tilted her head, while contempt appeared on Aisha’s face.
“Why are you suddenly bragging about yourself?”
“Be quiet.”
“Bleeeh...”
Aisha stuck out her tongue and waggled it around.
For some reason, the atmosphere began to turn awkward.
Rene hurried to calm things down, but...
“W-Well, there must be a reason he is so famous, right?”
“I don’t know. The most famous rumor I know about the second prince is that he likes men.”
Vera’s baseless slander ruined her attempt.
Vera thought it was not a lie.
There had truly once been rumors that the second prince enjoyed men.
Of course, the rumor had been started by young ladies whom he had rejected because he kept women at a distance, but that was not important to Vera.
What mattered to Vera now was lowering Rene’s opinion of the second prince.
Vera’s attempt certainly worked.
...Just in a slightly different direction.
Rene’s smile stiffened.
“I-I see...”
A man who liked men.
As always, her intuition that was always wrong reacted to those words.
Rene flinched without realizing it. She tried to erase the thought that had come to her mind, but it was not easy.
‘N-No way...’
Men were crossing the line. How could she consider even men to be romantic rivals?
Rene’s complexion darkened.
The second prince. A man of overwhelming power. According to Vera, a shady man.
Rene thought that perhaps the second prince might use his power to kidnap Vera and imprison him.
-You will be mine forever.
A shiver ran through her entire body. Utter revulsion filled her face.
Her sense of danger sounded an alarm.
As Rene began openly showing her aversion to the second prince, Vera’s expression eased, while Aisha grew curious.
“What does it mean to like men?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“Huh? That’s not fair!”
Dovan, who had watched the entire scene from a corner, shook their head without realizing it.
‘It will not be easy.’
Watching Rene and Vera from the side was enough to make Dovan feel frustrated.
A thought suddenly came to Dovan’s mind.
Would Dovan live long enough to see those two start dating?
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