WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
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◈ The Wandering Knight and the Moving Castle ◈
Chapter 84: The Lord's Path (3)
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Several days had passed since Eugene's group had been pulled inside the Wandering Castle.
The Rostok guards controlling the crowds around it ended their crowd-control duties.
"Withdraw. Dismantle the guard posts."
"Really, Captain?!"
"Finally!"
Mentally exhausted, the guards cheered and embraced one another.
"You bastards! Do you know who I am?"
"Our apologies. It is Duke Ismar's order..."
Travelers, mercenaries, and adventurers could be kept in line with the guards' authority.
The nobles arriving from every corner of the continent were another matter. Some were low in the line of succession, but even members of royal families were among them.
"Under ancient customary law, this castle is classified as above-ground abandoned property. It isn't even the Duke's private property, and you're saying we can't so much as touch it? Even if this is his territory, isn't that excessive?"
They were already difficult to deal with because of the vast difference in status. Now, nobles invoked customary law that the ordinary guards knew nothing about as justification, leaving them helpless.
"Call off the guards. We'll only make enemies of entire families while trying to prevent an accident."
In the end, even Duke Ismar had no choice but to give up control.
When people were standing, they wanted to sit. Once seated, they wanted to lie down.
Those whose curiosity had progressed to its next stage began to emerge. Greed. Many had arrived here greedy from the start.
"When are those dwarf bastards getting here?"
"They say they'll be two days late because they had to find a ship in a hurry."
"What if someone else opens it in those two days?!"
A count fumed as he watched mercenaries and adventurers feel around the castle gates.
"My lord, do you really think gates built by the ancients will be breached by the likes of them? Frankly, I doubt even dwarf siege engineers could do it. I'm more worried about whether we may strike the gates without Duke Ismar's permission."
Bringing siege weapons and attacking the gates could easily offend the Duke. After all, they would be operating something close to an army in another person's fief.
"Hmph! Challenging an abandoned ruin is clearly a noble's right. We haven't brought in additional troops, so the Duke will surely overlook it."
The lord of the land where it was discovered held the first claim over direct property such as mines.
Abandoned ruins and research facilities left behind by ancient mages were different. They were treated as ownerless spoils, and those who explored them first were granted significant rights.
It was customary law born when humanity lost vast stretches of land to monsters after the fall of the Ancient Kingdom.
Its purpose was to encourage the pioneering spirit of those willing to risk their lives. Even now that the world had stabilized, that right was still respected.
"Wizard. Open it somehow."
"Me?!"
"I heard from the one who introduced you that you're an expert at opening seals."
Before the gates stood a knight glaring fiercely at a flustered young mage.
"My magic lets me remove a letter from beneath a wax seal and put it back without breaking the wax, sir."
It might not have sounded impressive, but it was an extraordinary talent. It meant the mage could intercept and read the letters of high-ranking nobles without being discovered.
"I don't want to hear it! The Viscount ordered you to produce results no matter what, so get it done! Otherwise, I'll report you as a fraud who tricked nobles out of money!"
"N-No! Wait!"
The mage, struck by disaster out of nowhere, looked ready to cry.
Mages in this age served as advisors and all-purpose problem solvers. As a result, they were often asked to handle matters outside their specialties.
Tampering with a wax seal and breaking the seal on a massive castle gate that made one's breath catch at a glance were completely different fields. But the ignorant knight did not care. His reasoning was simple. The mage was an expert at opening seals, so the mage had to open it.
"Come now, Duke Berman. Have a drink."
As this went on, the nobles from across the continent held banquets without pause. They seemed to compete over who could set up the most luxurious tents and lay out the finest food.
Merchants, entertainers, laborers, city residents, mercenaries looking for work or amusement, and free knights hoping to form connections with nobles all gathered around them.
With candles and torches from countless tents, along with the lanterns of passersby, the plains remained bright even at night.
Yet that light only reached the lower portion of the Wandering Castle. No light from the ground reached as high as its middle levels.
Then, one night.
"Hmm?"
A Dark Elf who had been watching the upper levels without paying the gates any mind widened their eyes.
"What is it?"
"That, over there! Report it to Rex at once!"
An intense white light, unlike anything seen in any noble house, shone from the castle's middle levels.
Everything around it was pitch-black, so the lone glow stood out at once.
Rumble.
A low, heavy sound rolled across the plains, as though the enormous castle were stretching awake.
It was like muscles rejoicing as blood flowed once more through veins that had long been dry.
Flash!
Lights began to flicker on one after another across the castle, whose silhouette had already seemed darker than darkness itself.
"Good heavens!"
"Am I dreaming?"
Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared up in awe.
There were thousands of torches, candles, and lanterns across the plains. Yet fewer than a hundred lights surrounding the enormous castle overwhelmed them all.
"Beautiful."
A noblewoman who had looked bored beside her husband throughout the banquet clasped her hands together and gazed up at the castle in rapture.
It felt as though the stars in the night sky had descended right above her.
"So that's how it works."
The one who had awakened those stars clenched his fist within the Wandering Castle's core and nodded. He had successfully completed his first command after becoming the Castle Lord.
Hum.
The core of the Wandering Castle absorbed its new master's will with its entire being, as though delighted that its long existence as an empty shell had come to an end.
* * *
Eugene sat on a throne that would not have paled beside the one occupied by the Emperor in the Roman capital.
"It is remarkable that such a vast castle can be controlled by one person. Even a single galley would need dozens of rowers and a crew to lead them."
"I would've liked to show it to you, Varda, but it appears that only the Castle Lord can enter."
"That is unfortunate, but also a relief. No one other than you can dare sneak in and cause trouble."
Varda nodded in satisfaction.
She seemed happier that Eugene's authority as the Castle Lord was secure than she was disappointed by her own curiosity.
"May I offer a word of advice?"
"You needn't ask permission. Please speak freely whenever you wish. If I'm asleep, you may kick me in the backside to wake me."
"Hehe."
Varda let out a small laugh, though warmth rose in her chest. Happy yet strangely ticklish, she stroked her full breast.
One only truly noticed how much someone had grown after being apart from them for a while. It was difficult to sense it while living together.
Yet even though she was always beside him, the knight before her kept leaping higher with every passing moment.
Each time, he offered words like these and drew her closer to his side.
"Then I will speak freely. I think you can put away the sword on your lap now."
Eugene sat on the throne with Last Autumn resting across his lap. His hand gripped its hilt, ready to swing at any moment.
"I'm worried this damned castle might try something."
"The chains you saw in your dream? The ones that bound you when you tried to rise from the throne?"
Eugene nodded and swung the sword in his hand a few times.
"With this, I should be able to cut them apart in one strike."
"I see no sign that it poses any danger."
Varda recalled the first time Eugene had sat on the throne.
"The succession is complete."
"A tempered body and a tempered soul have become one."
"The cheap will born from a lump of flesh is no longer necessary."
The ecstatic voice had melted away as though it were rotting. After that, neither Varda nor Homi had heard another whisper.
All that remained were two bodies obedient to a single soul.
"This is not like a contract with an elemental spirit. You have simply become its master. The castle will not harm you as it did in your dream. It no longer has either the reason or the will to do so."
Varda's gaze lowered slightly.
Homi sat below the throne with her knees drawn to her chest. Beneath her was a soft cushion she had found somewhere.
"More importantly, there should not be a blade so close to your precious Squire's head."
"You're right."
Eugene immediately sheathed his sword.
"Isn't that uncomfortable? There are plenty of nice sofas and chairs. You don't have to sit there."
Homi shook her head.
She loved looking up at her lord seated on the throne. Now and then, she rubbed her tail or back against Eugene's leg and smiled brightly.
Resting his chin on one hand, Eugene stroked her head.
'That looks less like a knight and Squire, and more like...'
Varda stopped herself, perhaps deciding that the thought was rude. In any case, it was a warm sight that made her smile.
Thump!
A small impact sounded against the main doors of the audience chamber. Homi and Varda's ears twitched.
Grrr.
Krrk.
Faint monstrous cries seeped through the doors. Eugene could not hear them, but the two women, with their sharper hearing, frowned.
Even after Eugene had become the Castle Lord, countless demons, undead, and other monsters still roamed inside the castle.
Homi reached for the war hammer beside her, but Eugene stopped her.
"It's fine. They can't get in here."
The interior was sturdy too, if not as sturdy as the exterior, thanks to the ancients' construction techniques.
"I may be the Castle Lord, but this makes me little different from a hostage trapped in a fallen fortress."
"At least there are living facilities inside the audience chamber."
Perhaps in preparation for a siege like this, there were toilets, a bathhouse, and cultivation rooms maintained by magic.
No matter how strong Eugene was, it was wiser to take a step back when surrounded by monsters whose numbers and identities were unknown.
When Eugene rose, Varda and Homi followed him.
After walking some distance along the diagonal corridor extending from the throne, they reached large windows overlooking the outside. They were roughly ten meters wide and stretched from floor to ceiling.
"So many people have gathered."
They looked down at the countless tents and crowds surrounding the Wandering Castle on the plains before Rostok.
"The Black Hand Tribe is over there."
With an elf's vision that could pierce the darkness, Varda spotted a familiar banner.
"There are more of them than yesterday. It seems they've stopped taking mercenary work and are gathering all of the tribe's strength here."
"At this point, they must be starting to feel that it is fate. Those who claimed the prophesied place was another city or land will have nothing left to say once they see this castle."
Conflicts with other mercenary companies and nobles had already begun to arise.
"Are you planning to accept them?"
"Of course. A promise must be kept. Besides, such a vast castle needs many people. Wouldn't it be far too empty with just the three of us and a few dozen mercenaries?"
Homi pressed both palms against the glass. She looked frustrated that she could not immediately boast to the people below about what her lord had accomplished.
Though it was late at night, all kinds of craftsmen still moved around the main gate, pondering how they might open it.
"It would be nice if we could open the main gate from here."
"We can."
"...!"
Varda stared at Eugene in surprise as he said it so casually.
"I'm still learning, but among the operations available from the core are opening and closing the castle gates."
Eugene rubbed his temple.
Whenever he entered the core, whispers echoed in his mind. They seemed to imprint the castle's operating methods on his mind.
It was not a pleasant sensation, so he did not remain there long. He intended to learn gradually.
"I can't make fine adjustments yet, but I can do enough to demonstrate a Castle Lord's authority to my retainers."
"For example?"
"Like turning on the lights as I did earlier, controlling the castle's heating and cooling, or transmitting the castle to another region. Those are the major functions."
Homi tapped Eugene's arm and gestured that they should open the gates once daylight came.
With so many forces gathered here, all filled with a desire to investigate, they could surely clear out the monsters inside.
"That would be difficult. We could secure safety without lifting a finger, but then we would owe them."
"Ah!"
Homi gasped. Her expression showed embarrassment at having thought too simply.
"With so many nobles here, it would be troublesome if they demanded a share later."
"Yes. I possess an enormous castle, yet my army numbers only a few dozen. I'm a very unusual lord."
He was a lord with no baronial title, no blood ties or marriage alliances within noble society, and no family to support him.
The moment the gates opened, mercenary companies, free knights, and nobles of every kind would rush inside, thinking, 'This is our chance!'
They would stab some insignificant monster once, exaggerate the deed endlessly, and demand rewards.
"And when the gates open, our Dark Elf friends will rush in first, and more eagerly than anyone."
"Of course they would."
The promised place that would end the hardship and wandering passed down through generations stood right before them. Eugene's safety after being dragged inside was only a bonus.
"They are strong warriors, but they specialize in outdoor guerrilla warfare. If they fight the many monsters inside the castle, fatalities will pile up."
Eugene shook his head.
"I can't let that happen. They will have much to do for me in the future."
"Then what do you intend to do?"
"I have a plan."
Eugene took out a map of the continent from his pocket and spread it open.
"This place is...?"
"There's a reason people say there's no place like home."
Eugene's finger pointed to the southwestern edge of the continent, deep within the forest farther west beyond Kingdom's End.
"It is so dense that you cannot see the sky after walking just a hundred steps in."
"It is also one of the most dangerous places, teeming with all sorts of monsters and wild beasts."
Varda smiled, seemingly reading Eugene's thoughts.
"I plan to transmit the castle there, then open the gates. The easiest way to suppress monsters is with other monsters. Then we won't owe anyone anything."
Using one enemy against another was always an excellent principle for a ruler. It was simply difficult to put into practice.
"This castle has so many wonderful facilities. There are countless things Varda, Marbas, and our tribal friends would enjoy. I want to reclaim them soon and let them experience them."
Homi and Varda looked down from the window.
"They gathered in such numbers, only to return without achieving anything."
"Heh."
Despite their words, both women were smiling. They had no intention whatsoever of sharing this magnificent castle with anyone else. Their smiles were beautiful, yet somehow wicked.
"But what if the monsters refuse to leave even when the gates open? This place must already feel like home to them."
"There's a way to handle that too."
This time, Eugene wore a wicked smile.
* * *
A short while later, Eugene entered the core of the Wandering Castle. It was accessible through the passage reserved for the Castle Lord, which extended behind the throne in the audience chamber.
Before him stood a device resembling an armillary sphere.
It was roughly two meters in diameter. A metal sphere the size of a human head rested within several intricately intersecting rings.
Rumble.
The device vibrated as though delighted by its master's arrival.
Each time the rings turned, the air hummed. It became an indescribable whisper that seeped into Eugene's brain, no, into his soul.
As though it wanted him to learn about it.
As though it wanted him to use it fully.
Footnotes:
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