WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
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◈ The Wandering Knight and the Moving Castle ◈
Chapter 86: The Lord's Return
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Ventilation shafts that circulated fresh air were scattered throughout the Wandering Castle.
At Eugene's command, they became the nostrils of a fire dragon.
"...?"
"Grrr!"
"Guh?"
The monsters spread throughout the castle raised their heads at the sudden blast of hot air.
"Groooargh!"
Then, as the heat scorched their faces and eyes, they immediately lowered their heads again.
Teeth that could rip apart steel could not bite the air, and hides that easily deflected a conscript's spear could not stop the heat.
Whoooosh.
The blast of hot air grew even more intense.
"Kyaaa."
"Krrrk."
Like petty demons confronted by divine radiance, the monsters scattered in every direction.
Yet it made no difference which rooms or corridors they fled into.
Like the opposite of a great flood from myth, heat rising within the sealed world swept the monsters away.
The following day, after a full night had passed.
A strange mist drifted around the Wandering Castle's outer walls. It was caused by the difference in temperature between the castle, which had become a steaming furnace from the heating, and the cool forest outside.
Countless footprints covered the ground before the enormous gates, as if several hundred soldiers had conducted maneuvers there overnight.
‘It was a good thing I let them loose here.’
The traces left by the monsters, seen from the window, exceeded Eugene's expectations in both scale and ferocity.
If he had opened the gates on the Rostok Plains, immense bloodshed would have followed, regardless of any dispute over claims. Eugene would not have been able to escape responsibility for the dead knights and nobles.
‘And I never expected them to fight each other, too.’
The ground leading from the castle to the forest was stained with blood like a red carpet. Unidentifiable scales, claws, and fragments of bone lay scattered across it.
Several trees had been knocked down or smashed apart, perhaps as the monsters fought while driving one another into the forest.
Eugene did not know whether the monsters had been natural rivals or had gone mad from the heat and begun fighting.
What mattered was that the operation had been a complete success.
* * *
There was only one problem.
Eugene and his companions were suffering from the heat as well.
“Congratulations on your plan working out.”
Varda greeted him in the audience chamber, drenched in sweat from head to toe. She looked like an ice sculpture slowly melting away.
Her ears, usually held high with pride and elegance, drooped limply, nearly horizontal.
Her hair, like strands of golden thread, clung damply to her forehead and nape. Against her flushed skin, it gave her a strangely alluring appearance.
“I'm sorry. The heating and cooling system isn't as flexible as I expected. They should've built it better.”
Because it was applied to entire floors at once, they could not exclude the audience chamber alone from the heating.
“You are probably the only person in the world who would criticize such incredible facilities so harshly.”
Of course, that lack of flexibility was only a problem by Eugene's unnecessarily high standards. Varda looked at him as if she could not believe what he had said.
“This is the central area, so it had to be heated properly.”
The central floor containing the audience chamber was spacious and close to the main gate. It could hold many monsters and release them easily, so it could not be left out.
“It is a sensible design. It may be unpleasant now, but considering that you will receive guests and rule from here later, it is an ideal location.”
Exhausted by the heat, Varda sighed. A silvery bead hanging from the tip of her chin trembled before falling.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
Eugene gathered her golden hair and tied it into a round bun.
‘Is it because she's an elf? Or because she's a forest mage?’
Varda's scent, rising from her damp neck and shoulders, was far from animalistic.
After sweating so much, it filled Eugene's nose with a rich scent, like ripening exotic fruit.
“Where did you learn such a skill?”
“I often did it for the children in my village when I was growing up. It's better now, right?”
Varda nodded, impressed. It was a cute hairstyle, hardly the sort of work one would expect from a fearsome knight.
“I did what I could to minimize the heat coming in. It is only hot enough here to make us dizzy, but outside the audience chamber must be like Hell on earth.”
“I envy you.”
Eugene was shirtless, enjoying the privilege of being a man.
“You can do the same if you're jealous.”
“Do not be ridiculous.”
Varda lightly struck Eugene's chest with the edge of her hand.
Her outfit was also more revealing than ever. She wore a skirt and cropped top Eugene had made by cutting up clothes found in the audience chamber.
“What is this indecent outfit?!”
When Eugene had first handed it to her, Varda had been horrified. Both her shoulders and navel were exposed.
“It is common attire in Samur.”
“This is Roman, and I am an elf. How could I wear something so...”
Varda swallowed the word “vulgar.” She could not insult the care and consideration Eugene had shown by altering the clothes for her himself.
“It is still better than getting heatstroke. Look at the floor beneath you.”
“...”
Sweat ran down Varda's upper body, thighs, and ankles, forming a small puddle. A faint embarrassment heated even her ears.
“If you're that embarrassed, should I wear a blindfold?”
“There is no need for that. I will wear it gratefully.”
Even an elven mage of noble blood had ultimately surrendered to the brutal heat.
“Hnnngh.”
Homi, equally soaked through, lay sprawled out. Her tail, always so lively, did not move at all.
The three of them took refuge from the heat in the cultivation room attached to the audience chamber. With so many plants, it absorbed some of the heat.
Flutter, flutter.
Under Varda's magic, crops with large leaves swayed back and forth, fanning them.
Varda looked curiously at Eugene as he examined the pumpkin leaves with interest.
“Are you not bothered by it? This terrible heat?”
“I can bear it.”
Eugene smiled calmly.
“A knight's endurance truly is different.”
Stories of knights charging while shouting with several arrows lodged in their bodies were not uncommon. Pain was like a knight's friend, thanks to the harsh training they received from childhood.
That was what Varda felt she saw in Eugene now.
‘The weather here is generally cooler, after all.’
Eugene was naturally sturdy, and his mind had been tempered by heatwaves far worse than this.
“Homi.”
When Eugene brought over a wet towel, Homi slowly sat up from where she had been lying.
As Eugene wrapped her face in the cool towel, a pleased little sound escaped her.
He wiped her neck, back, and firm stomach as well. Looking much better, Homi collapsed again.
“Varda, your turn.”
“...I can do it myself.”
Despite her words, Varda quietly entrusted herself to Eugene when he approached with the towel.
When he wrapped her sculpted face in the cool towel, Varda let out an alluring hum through her nose.
“Ah!”
Eugene dabbed at the little pool of sweat gathered around her white collarbone, making her breathing grow even more hurried.
When he tried to wipe both her ears with the towel, she hunched her shoulders and cried out.
“My ears are fine!”
“Hahaha!”
The heat was terrible, but nobody was in a bad mood.
Even in difficult circumstances, the three could not be unhappy so long as they were together.
Twitch.
Varda's ears turned toward the audience chamber windows.
“There is quite a disturbance outside.”
“With savage predators packed together and suffering from the heat, it was inevitable.”
Monstrous cries and the sounds of things being smashed echoed endlessly from the surrounding forest, like a city in the middle of a riot.
They were so loud and violent that the sounds faintly reached even the audience chamber.
Eugene could barely make them out, but the elf's long ears kept twitching.
* * *
Nothing else escaped through the gates. It was time to turn off the heating.
Rumble.
After the heavy castle gates closed, cool air began to flow from the vents that had once breathed like a dragon.
Finally freed from the heat, the two women looked as if they had arrived in heaven.
After taking turns bathing, they gathered around a table in refreshing comfort. A large map of the continent was spread across it.
“There were large quantities of maps piled up in the storage rooms.”
As a unified dynasty, the Ancient Kingdom had been able to produce high-quality maps of the continent as a national project.
Such a thing was impossible in the current age, divided among dozens of nations and thousands of noble houses.
Leaving aside the cost, if a lord interrupted by saying, “Who are you to survey my land?” there would be no choice but to withdraw.
To Eugene, these maps were worth more than a fortune. Other than the castle itself, they were truly a king's legacy.
“We drove out most of the unwanted guests. Still, there are likely dangers remaining, including undead.”
“We will have to deal with those ourselves, with steel.”
“Joining our forces comes first.”
The castle was enormous, and they did not know what variables might arise. Fighting alone would be foolish.
Eugene's finger stopped at a riverside village in northern Roman.
“Will you return directly to Northfork?”
“The mercenaries I hired should have returned there.”
“They may have left after you disappeared. One should not expect the virtue of loyalty from mercenaries.”
“They are not so faithless. Their contracts guarantee that the fief will pay them an additional month's wages even if I die.”
The treasurer who received Eugene's signed order had looked as if they had seen something utterly bizarre. They had never heard of a noble giving such an order.
“You are an unusual man. Most nobles would not go this far.”
“Loyalty is earned through valor and maintained with silver coins.”
“A reputation as a generous lord is not a bad thing, but it feels as though you are treating them too well. All of that costs money.”
Varda offered practical advice so Eugene would not become too much of an idealist.
“You will be respected enough simply by not culling them.”
Culling referred to nobles deliberately getting mercenaries killed to save on wages, whether by sending them out as arrow fodder or assigning them dangerous night scouting.
Varda had even seen drunken nobles at banquets competing to tell stories about how they had culled their mercenaries.
“What I want is not a reputation as a generous lord. I want a reputation for never falling behind on wages. It may take ten years, but once I achieve it, it will be useful.”
Nobles valued trust only between fellow nobles, but Eugene thought differently.
“Commoners are the people who get blood, sweat, dirt, and ink on their hands, and actually keep the world running. They value this kind of trust more than honor, bloodline, or martial strength.”
“So that is what you have been thinking.”
Varda was honestly impressed.
Such a virtue was found among merchants, but it was rare among nobles, especially knights who only thought about today and tomorrow.
The three looked down at the map again.
“The Black Hand Mercenary Company also has a base in your fief. If the castle appears there, the entire tribe will learn of it immediately.”
They were experts at hunting monsters and possessed many silver weapons. Since the enemies remaining in the castle were likely nonliving creatures, they would be especially effective.
“Once the castle is cleared out, we will bring supplies from Northfork and formally invite the tribe. After giving them a grand welcome, their prophecy will be fulfilled.”
Eugene's gaze moved from Northfork to central Roman.
“Still, there is one thing bothering me.”
“The Emperor's anger?”
“The moment it appears in my fief, it will announce to the entire world that Eugene Mayer has claimed the Wandering Castle.”
By now, the Emperor was surely watching the entire continent with burning eyes.
“Considering the Emperor's obsession, you and the Emperor would become irreconcilable enemies.”
“Well, it was bound to become known someday. Besides, I do not think even the Emperor's army would pose much danger.”
“The Ancient Kingdom's stonecraft, Dark Elves as the garrison, and a Victor Knight who slew a Wendigo and a death knight as their commander.”
Varda shook her head, dumbfounded. From an attacker's perspective, there was no clear way to take such a fortress.
“We do not intend to hide from the world. We are returning to Northfork.”
Homi snapped her feet together and gave a military salute. Varda bowed, placing one hand over her chest.
* * *
The next morning.
White lightning struck the barren wasteland some distance from Northfork alongside a storm.
Whoooosh!
As the enormous castle descended, the wind it displaced sent brown waves of sand rolling in every direction.
Lizards and rodents scurrying across and digging at the ground startled and darted underground.
Eugene and his companions, ready for battle, stood before the audience chamber's main doors.
“I will clear the way. Let us focus on escaping the castle and returning to the fief as quickly as possible.”
Varda and Homi nodded at Eugene's words.
The path from the audience chamber to the castle gates was not very long. They had to pass through several checkpoints, but all the doors had been opened and no guards remained.
When they released the lock and opened the main doors, a silent corridor lay before them. Signs of battle were visible everywhere, as though the monsters had turned on one another.
Clank.
Two suits of living armor blocked their path. One had only one arm and a crushed chest, while the other was covered in scratches.
Crack!
Bang!
Eugene's thrusting sword and Homi's military hammer smashed them apart at the same time.
It was the same journey the three had begun in the Emerald Forest.
Yet everything was different now.
If the three had been seeds brimming with potential back then, they were now enormous roots.
The group that would be born the moment they reached Northfork would have no equal in all of human history.
Footnotes:
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