WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
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◈ The Wizard's Memoir ◈
Chapter 27: Mourning
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Etran was startled by the firepower, which was far greater than expected, and canceled the spell.
When the magic circles vanished, so did the stream of flame. Unlike military fire attacks fueled by oil and resin, this was pure “fire,” so it didn't spread. It had lasted only three or four seconds. Yet every attacker was dead.
That was nowhere near long enough to melt skin and burn muscle, but it was enough to collapse their airways and lungs. They had suffocated, not burned to death.
“Oho...?”
The elf mage Merial pursed their lips in admiration. Even Merial didn't realize it was the first sound of admiration they had made in nearly a hundred years.
A destructive spell like Fireball wouldn't have been so surprising. Flame March was powerful and impressive, but its foundation was Light Tracery, the most basic of basic spells.
All it involved was turning Light Tracery into flame and arranging the magic circles in a line. The only slightly unusual part was that there were well over thirty circles.
“Wow! That was incredible! You should've told us sooner if you had magic like that!”
“But...”
Despite using such an impressive spell, Etran didn't look happy. The experienced adventurer and the former wartime mercenary knew why. Genius mage or outstanding artillery, Etran was still only seventeen.
“If you'd been a little slower, I would've been cut down. Think of it as saving a friend, not killing someone. We are friends, right?”
“Of course we are.”
It was a tired line of comfort, but it helped. Etran forced a smile and looked over at the others.
These weren't monsters, and this wasn't a dungeon, so there was no need to collect ears. Still, they needed to identify the attackers while gathering the loot. Dahlia focused on gathering the loot, while Rolf worked on identifying them.
“These people are barbarians.”
“What?”
Rolf pulled open a corpse's outer clothing, revealing armor made from linked iron plates.
“I couldn't mistake this style. It's the scale armor worn by the eastern barbarians.”
“Barbarians? But they don't have tattoos.”
Rolf tore a sleeve and pushed it up. Blue lines were etched into the inner arm in an ugly pattern.
Olivia adopted a grave expression and checked the other bodies. The skin of the one with the twin axes had been scorched by the flames at close range, making it hard to tell, but the other three were the same. Scale armor and blue tattoos.
“Barbarians are known for growing beards and tattooing themselves.”
“But these ones...”
“They must have chosen people who wouldn't stand out to send here.”
At a glance, even their faces looked like those of people from the kingdom. That meant they were spies sent here deliberately.
“A dark elf and barbarian tribes... What are they plotting?”
It felt as though more and more enemies of humanity and the Alliance were appearing. Something too big for any individual to handle seemed about to happen.
“Found iiit!”
Dahlia's cheer at finding a pouch of silver coins stopped the mood from growing any grimmer. Selling the collected weapons and armor would at least bring in their value as scrap iron.
“Work comes first.”
Olivia pushed those stray thoughts aside and pulled the arrowhead from the round shield. Even with a hole in it, the shield was still usable.
“Let's catch that dark elf.”
Whatever worries each of them carried, their final goal hadn't changed. They advanced one step at a time toward the flooded area just ahead.
@
They called it the “sewers” because of its purpose in the days of the ancient kingdom, but it had long since lost its actual sewage-treatment function.
The city's water drained away through channels on the surface and never reached this deep underground. That was why most of the waterways were dry. But water flowed beneath the earth, too.
There was a spring where groundwater gathered, overflowed, and drained away somewhere. Since no filth from the surface mixed with it, the water was even clean, apart from the rats and insects it attracted.
“What's this?”
“It looks like a mechanism for opening and closing a sluice gate.”
Olivia's party had reached the end of a waterway. More precisely, they had reached a place where it had been closed off.
A heap of fallen stones had crushed and broken the metal mechanism. Looking down to the left, they could see an underground lake of unknown depth.
“If it hasn't overflowed this far, there must be somewhere for the water to drain on the other side, right?”
“We'd need an underwater breathing elixir.”
The barbarians seemed to have picked up a few things, at least. Perhaps the long-lived dark elf had told them. As they were not “human,” they apparently hadn't realized, though, that it was an expensive potion no tiny backstreet workshop could supply.
“Where could the dark elf be?”
“Maybe they've already escaped? And only their lackeys got trapped by the city lockdown?”
“That's certainly possible.”
“It would've been good to keep one alive for questioning... Oh! I'm not blaming you! You did well! Really!”
There were small passages nearby, so they would have to search carefully. Splitting up would have been faster, but they couldn't do that. This was a dark elf they were dealing with. Dividing their strength might leave them as the victims instead.
“Dahlia?”
“I can't hear anything.”
Even round ears could hear the running water and squeaking rats, but there wasn't a single sound from anything resembling a person.
“Not this way either?”
“We don't know yet. It's a dark elf.”
Their race was skilled at hiding any sign of their presence. Having to check everything with their own eyes made the search take twice as long.
Tension wasn't a very durable cord. Pull on it for too long, and it would snap. After they finished searching the third waterway, the warrior and crossbow wielder began to complain.
“Etran, Merial, can't you do something with magic?”
Olivia regretted asking as soon as the words were out. Keeping Light Orb active and using spirits to find the way already meant the two mages were doing plenty as support. Sure enough, Etran looked apologetic.
“With the spells I have...”
Light Orb, Floating Disc, Homing Arrow, and the newly learned flame-throwing spell were all Etran had. None was particularly useful for searching.
The party turned to the elf mage. Merial had joined them almost by accident, but they couldn't quite call the elf a companion, so they were cautious.
“I know it's rude to ask, but what spells can you use?”
Merial struck the ground with their staff. Tap! The spirits scattered around the area returned.
“I know a great many spells.”
“That's an old elf for you!”
“But none that would help us now.”
The warrior, seeker, and crossbow wielder all looked disappointed. But Etran snapped their fingers. Snap! It wasn't spellcasting, just a gesture.
“You knew how to cast Silence (Silentium), didn't you?”
“Silence?”
“The spell you used in the Guild Pub.”
“The one that makes people shut up?”
Etran gave a knowing smile. By now, the party knew that look fairly well. That hopelessly clever mage had come up with something.
@
Following the mage's advice, Olivia's party withdrew for the time being.
Adventuring wasn't about charging blindly ahead. They had to act sensibly, considering their strength, time, and the risks. In other words, it would be better to ask the Guild for support and come back.
Once Light Orb and all signs of people had vanished, only the sound of collected moisture dripping remained. Drip... Drip... Plink... Drip... And there was a shadow.
The black shadow descended silently from above the waterway. Both hands and both feet touched the ground without making a sound.
Darkness posed no problem, either. Like a creature born underground, the shadow took in the surrounding terrain with every sense.
After waiting a little longer, the shadow felt certain. Each step was silent and unhesitating. It was time to move elsewhere before more humans arrived.
“I told you I was right.”
Etran spoke proudly. But nobody heard.
“......!”
“......?!”
Olivia and Dahlia waved their arms and legs, saying something. When they couldn't make themselves understood, they thumped their chests and stamped their feet. Even so, the underground waterway remained silent.
It really was a useful spell. It could stop a noisy fight, or let someone hide perfectly in the darkness. Prolonged use seemed as though it might cause mental illness, but that could be checked later.
“So you really did appear.”
The spell's caster spoke for everyone. The sudden sound made someone flinch, but it wasn't anyone in the party. The footsteps approaching them stopped dead.
Etran snapped their fingers to activate the magic circles. Light Orbs appeared in every direction, burning away the darkness. Pitch-black night became day in an instant.
“......!”
Olivia struck a bold pose, pointing the mace forward. Then, flustered, the warrior turned around to complain. About two beats too late, Merial lifted Silence, the spell that suppressed sound.
“...that's what it looks like!”
The sudden shout was like thunder. Etran covered their ears, and Dahlia laughed, “Wahaha!” Olivia recoiled, startled by the volume of their own voice.
“We're listening now. Say it again.”
“...No. I'd look stupid.”
Rolf aimed the crossbow. Beneath the Light Orbs, their target was finally visible.
A body so thin it looked like skin stretched over bones. Gray skin so dark it was almost black. Sharp, vertically slit eyes. The long, pointed ears were just as the rumors described a dark elf's.
“Drop your weapon and surrender. We'll see that you get a trial.”
Since the dark elf had murdered the margrave, the only difference would probably be whether they were hanged or beheaded, but Rolf made the offer anyway. After all, bringing the target back alive meant a hundred thousand dena.
“Elf mage.”
The dark elf parted their lips. A lovely voice emerged, quite unlike their appearance.
“Pathetic kin, bowing to mere humans.”
The venomous words didn't suit that clear voice. Merial was about to say something, but Dahlia spoke first.
“Sorry, I can't quite hear you over the sound of a criminal hiding in a tunnel because they're scared of humans.”
The dark elf turned icy eyes on the halfling. If looks could kill, Dahlia would have been cut to pieces. The halfling, rather more timid than they let on, hid behind Etran with only their head peeking out.
In any case, Olivia's party held the upper hand.
The dark elf had listened carefully enough to catch breathing, footsteps, and, with a little exaggeration, even heartbeats. But they hadn't imagined that every sound had been erased. It was a trap they couldn't have avoided.
“Even if you get past us, adventurers and guards are blocking the entrance. You have no chance of winning, so please surrender.”
“A chance of winning?”
The dark elf sneered at Etran's attempt at persuasion.
“You know nothing.”
The dark elf drew a blade from their waist. It was a shotel, its blade curved like a crescent moon.
Rolf tried to shoot without giving the dark elf a chance, but Olivia held out a hand to stop them. For some reason, Olivia wanted to hear more.
“Do you think you truly rule this world?”
“What?”
“No matter how much you erase and forget, the truth does not disappear. The laws of cause and effect always catch up in the end.”
“W-wait!”
The dark elf chose escape. It was a method no normal person would choose, or should ever choose, but in this situation it was a certain way to escape capture.
The dark elf pressed the keen blade to their own neck and drew it across.
“Urgh!”
Etran looked away. Seeing people die was still unfamiliar enough, never mind watching someone cut off their own head.
Compared with a human's or halfling's, the neck was so thin it seemed to be little more than bone. One stroke severed it, and the head rolled along the waterway. Olivia rushed forward, but it was far too late to stop it.
The body sank down, spraying dark red blood. The sight felt empty. Empty, pitiful, sorrowful, and chilling. While everyone else stood in shock, only the elf mage showed no surprise and offered words of mourning.
“So it was as I thought. Rest in peace...”
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