WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle

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◈ The Wandering Knight and the Moving Castle ◈

Chapter 3: The One Who Understands Three Worlds (3)

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Was it because he had never had the chance to face a truly formidable opponent in a remote mountain village?

"I thought I was raising a tiger cub, sharpening its claws for it, but it turned out to be an ogre cub."

Even Gopri, who prided himself on his experience, had failed to accurately gauge his disciple's limits.

Meanwhile, Homi ran over with a handkerchief, her expression perfectly calm. Her faith in her lord only ever grew.

If she discovered an amazing side of him she had not known before, she would not be surprised. She would simply welcome it as a new joy.

'This works?'

Eugene looked down at the club clenched tightly in his hand. He had been so tense before a monster he had never seen in his life that even after winning, his fingers would not loosen.

Yet even as he faced that savage charge, he had not once thought to run.

'Prey.'

'Devour it.'

It felt as if a voice from within were whispering to him.

Just then, Homi's bolt blinded the creature in one eye and drew its attention away.

That swept away the last of Eugene's hesitation, allowing him to charge.

With every step forward, he felt enormous strength he had never used before being unleashed. His true power, dormant until his life was in danger, had awakened.

The result lay at the bottom of the cliff, a boar carcass kicking up a tremendous cloud of dust.

"I'm fine. I'm not hurt, and I didn't even break a sweat."

Homi carefully wiped his forehead and held out a waterskin. Instead of drinking from it, Eugene poured the water over his hands.

Thud!

As the cool water soaked in, his fingers, stiff with tension, finally relaxed. The weapon fell to the ground.

He had gripped and swung it so fiercely that the handle had crumbled, while the club itself was cracked in several places.

"I can't use this anymore."

As Eugene drank the water, regretful over the ruined weapon, he suddenly cried out, “Ah!”

"What's wrong?"

"If this is the case, I have no proof that I completed the mission. How am I supposed to prove it to the monastery?"

He had accomplished something far greater than he had originally intended, but the proof had fallen below the cliff.

Wolves, drawn by the smell of blood, had already emerged and begun tearing into the young boar. They still had not touched the mother, perhaps because they feared her.

Grrr-!

As residents of the Demon Realm Forest, they were larger than ordinary wolves. The one that appeared to be their leader looked up warily at Eugene atop the cliff.

Tap, tap.

Homi tapped Eugene on the shoulder.

Then she suddenly held out one of the mother boar's tusks.

She must have picked it up at some point. It had likely fallen out when Eugene shattered the creature's skull earlier.

"This should be enough."

Gopri nodded as he took it. Though the tusk was small for the body of a female boar, it was still incomparably larger than that of an ordinary male boar.

Clever Homi had even cleaned the blood and saliva from the tusk.

"She's far too good a Squire for you, you brutish club-swinger."

"With all due respect, even if I'd stabbed it with your sword, Master, I would've only made it angrier."

"If only you couldn't talk."

Gopri tossed the tusk to Eugene.

"Where did a monster like that suddenly come from?"

"I don't know either. It isn't something that should appear in a backwater like this."

The group looked toward the western forest, which stretched endlessly before them. In that vast domain of the Demon Realm, nothing that emerged would be surprising.

"We should warn the villagers who go up the mountain. It could be dangerous if there are several more young ones."

"There won't be any more. Ordinary animals may have many young, but creatures closer to monsters give birth to few. One is normal, and two are rare."

Watching the wolves slowly approach the mother boar, the group turned away.

* * *

Homi packed Eugene a jar of honey, dried fruit, and jerky. She waved him off until he disappeared from sight.

Gopri crossed his arms at the sight of her devotion.

"You're a truly fortunate man."

"I think so too."

"Most knights only care about the warhorses they'll ride, but I see it differently. A fine Squire is an asset more precious to a knight than a horse."

When they entered the village, it was noisier than usual.

"Did something happen?"

Eugene stopped a passing farmer and asked.

"Oh, sirs. They say the monastery caught a vampire!"

They looked human, but had pale skin, cold body temperatures, and drank blood.

Their physical abilities surpassed those of humans, though not overwhelmingly so. Sunlight did not burn them to ash, and they were not afraid of crosses either. They had established a nation called Barsia in the continent's northwest and exercised influence from there.

"I was disappointed when you first explained them to me, Master. What kind of vampire is that supposed to be?"

"They don't drink enough blood to kill someone in the first place," Gopri said.

"Is that so?"

"Of course. They get full, so they can't drink that much."

That was a rather disappointing reason.

"Also, just as humans get drunk on wine, vampires enter a similar state when they drink blood. If they drink a reasonable amount, they pass out on their own. Drinking excessively is considered uncultured among them and gets them mocked."

Eugene listened with interest, since he had not known such details.

"They're taking them around the village in a cart right now. It looks like they're coming this way."

The farmer pointed to a prisoner transport wagon shaped like a cage.

Its wooden bars were widely spaced, leaving the inside completely visible. It was designed so onlookers could humiliate the prisoners by throwing stones or filth at them.

The priest at the front of the wagon shouted loudly.

"Guided by the Holy Spirit, we have captured an unclean abomination! Before long, it shall receive the punishment of purification! Then God's grace shall descend upon this village!"

The ignorant farmers simply nodded. They had been carefully instructed by priests of the Church of the Absolute in this isolated countryside.

Outside this village, vampires were indisputably a demihuman race that played their part in the world. Here, they were regarded as monsters that craved human blood.

The wagon reached Eugene. Three women rode inside, all bearing clear signs of hardship.

"The things priests will do."

After Eugene described what he saw, Gopri frowned.

"Aren't they already helpless? And to humiliate women and children like that."

"As expected of a knight."

"Don't tease me. I haven't quit being a priest yet."

One was a girl in her late teens. Though captured in enemy territory, she maintained a proud attitude and dignified bearing.

The other two were a woman in her late twenties and a child who looked about ten. They squeezed their eyes shut and clung to each other.

"Judging by their ears, they aren't pure-blooded vampires either."

Purebloods had slightly longer upper ears, like those of bats, but theirs were the same as humans'. That meant they were Dhampirs of mixed blood.

"Why are they making such a fuss over catching Dhampirs?"

"They seem to be a lady of some status and her maids."

They were covered in dust and mud, but their refined appearance, fine fabric, and embroidery could not hide their station.

The girl in her late teens appeared to be the mistress, while the other two were likely her maids.

"I'm worried."

"About what?"

"They have strong pride in their bloodline. Trouble may come to the village."

"Every noble has a great deal of pride."

"The people of Barsia take that elitism further than anyone. Why else would they call themselves the nobles of the night?"

Gopri had traveled endlessly, seeking to hear every sound in the world. He knew the cultures and habits of many races.

"Their intrigues are so vicious that human nobles' squabbling looks cute by comparison. They won't stay still after a member of their house has been captured."

"It looks like they've already made quite a spectacle of humiliating them."

The wagon was heading into the monastery. It seemed they intended to lock the women in the prison attached to its basement.

"Why would a Barsian noble be anywhere near here, let alone get caught?"

Gopri could not understand it. Between this village and the continent's northwest, where their territory lay, stood the Kingdom of Gord, the land of mighty warriors.

"If a Barsian noble who should not be here has been captured, then a pursuit party that should not be here might appear too. Doesn't the Church of the Absolute consider things like that?"

"They live with their eyes and ears shut. Even if they know, they're probably arrogant enough to think no one would dare attack a holy monastery."

Their fanatical belief that God would protect them was the root of every problem.

"I don't care if the monastery gets taught a lesson."

"It seems you've lost every last bit of attachment to the place."

"The same goes for you."

With nothing to say, Gopri gave a bitter smile.

* * *

After returning to the monastery, Gopri went to deal with his backlog of work, while Eugene submitted the monster boar's tusk.

"This is your proof?"

"Yes, Senior Priest."

The Senior Priest was the second highest-ranking person in the monastery of the Church of the Absolute and the one who had assigned Eugene the mission.

Holding the tusk, the Senior Priest turned it over and inspected it from every angle, his frown making it clear he was not pleased.

'What is he dissatisfied with now?'

Some people disliked others for no reason, but the priests here hated Eugene even when he gave them reasons not to.

His status as Gopri's direct disciple, his dependable appearance as a knight, and the goodwill he had earned in the village by driving away dangerous beasts and bandits all made him someone they ought to have treated well.

Rationally speaking, they had no reason to mistreat him.

Yet people were creatures of emotion, and this was the Middle Ages, a monastery ruled by fanatical belief.

With the Church of the Absolute being the most fanatical of the lot, rational judgment meant nothing.

"I have slain the boar that threatened the village. As promised, I wish to receive my mother's belongings. Please permit me to enter the Sealing Vault."

The monastery had several storehouses, but two were especially important.

One was the Treasure Vault, where they stored relics and holy scriptures. The other was the Sealing Vault, where they isolated evil objects from the world.

Naturally, his mother's belongings, classified as the possessions of a Witch, were in the Sealing Vault.

The Senior Priest fiddled with the tusk before shaking his head.

"I cannot permit it."

"Are you going to break your promise?"

"How am I supposed to trust you based on a single tooth like this? You could've bought it somewhere, or picked it up after finding it lying on the ground."

"Don't push such nonsense too far. As Priest Gopri's disciple, I would never do something so base."

His voice was low and calm, but fury lay beneath it.

Without realizing it, the Senior Priest took a step back. He felt as though a beast's breath had touched his face.

"You little..."

His lips twisted, wounded pride written across his face.

When Eugene had first entered the monastery, several brothers had bullied him openly and covertly. It never went as far as outright abuse, but they made him do needless chores.

As Eugene grew older, their harassment rapidly dwindled, until one day they simply ignored him completely.

The Senior Priest rarely had dealings with Eugene directly, so he had assumed the others simply went easy on someone who would soon leave.

But now he saw that was not it. The others had all been too afraid to touch him.

"I swear before God that I have brought the token of the hunt as promised. You should keep your promise as well."

His words were polite, but the pressure in Eugene's stare made the Senior Priest grit his teeth.

"You are not a priest! Do not recklessly invoke God's name! This is not sufficient proof, so bring more convincing proof."

He tossed the tusk back to Eugene, then left as if fleeing without looking back.

* * *

"That's what happened," Eugene said calmly to Gopri.

"Good grief. I felt sorry about leaving people I'd spent so long with, but they've neatly swept even that feeling away. I don't know whether I should thank them."

Even at the monastery, the Senior Priest had been especially hostile toward Eugene.

"Could the Senior Priest still be holding the Wine Ceremony against you?"

It was a ritual where one bathed and purified oneself, prayed before a holy icon, and drank wine. It was a sacred rite of passage representing the cleansing of worldly stains.

It did not make one a priest, but anyone who wished to live in the monastery had to undergo it.

But when Eugene prayed, the bonfire placed before the holy icon went out. It was a sacred flame that was supposed to burn all year for religious reasons. An apprentice priest who accidentally extinguished it had even been flogged.

"Just as expected of a Witch's bloodline."

"Oh! How could this happen..."

The priests whispered among themselves. Gopri defended Eugene, saying it had been a coincidence. Only a few tolerant priests agreed with him.

From then on, the Senior Priest had looked at Eugene with deep distrust.

"You're not angry?"

"I am."

Eugene smiled.

"You're not making fun of me, are you?"

"Of course not. I'm only trying to stay calm."

"This is beyond being calm."

Under Gopri's guidance, Eugene had been raised not as a priest, but as a knight.

Patience was both close to knights and distant from them. They lived beside pain like lovers, but kept humiliation away like filth.

Any knight would rage like a beast if a sacred promise was dishonored. Yet Eugene could smile in such a situation.

"At least they stored them instead of burning them."

"They're as devoted to Heresy Studies as they are to their faith."

Heresy Studies was the discipline of studying the origins and weaknesses of wicked beings in order to fight them effectively. Because examining evil carried the risk of being tainted by it, the task was allowed only to veteran priests.

"So what do you intend to do now?"

"I have a second option in mind. I wanted to retrieve them peacefully if possible, but I have no choice now."

Eugene shrugged.

"You know the monastery basement, right?"

"Of course I know that sewer."

It was where they piled up things that were too difficult to throw away, but had no use. A foul smell filled the place, and unknown mushrooms and mold grew there alongside fist-sized sewer rats and insects.

Everyone hated cleaning it, so Eugene, the ugly duckling, had usually been made to manage it.

"The building's layout places the Sealing Vault and the basement close together. I found a secret passage hidden there."

There was no need to explain where it led.

"Why would there be a secret passage there?"

"Who knows? Perhaps a priest in the past became interested in forbidden knowledge. It takes decades to receive permission to conduct research in Heresy Studies."

It was a plausible guess, and Gopri nodded.

"If you knew about something like that, why did you wait this long? If you were going to steal them, you should've done it long ago."

"Because I'd be found out sooner or later. It would put me in trouble and bring shame upon you as well, Master. I wanted to receive them properly."

Theft from a monastery was a grave crime. Love it or hate it, this was where he had lived and been raised, and he had not wanted to become enemies with them.

"But now, there is no other way."

Eugene resolved to sneak into the Sealing Vault through the secret passage and take his mother's belongings.

Footnotes:

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