Chapter 372: Like a Whirling Thundermill
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 372: Like a Whirling Thundermill
If Deca had done one thing right, it was bringing Peru's horse, Aurea. To be precise, Aurea, whom Peru had left behind, had followed Deca of her own accord, but still. After mounting her beloved steed to board the Golden Ark, Peru barely managed to start it before collapsing. Aurea whinnied as if worried for her master and stood guard by Peru's side.
Seeing Peru groaning on the bed, Hilde commented.
“He looks like he'll die before we reach Claudia. Shouldn't we get a written pledge from him beforehand~?”
She said such harsh things while pretending to be innocent. The Regressor responded with irritation.
“Don't say such ominous things! He won't die that easily.”
“Oh no~. I happen to have some expertise in the healing arts, you see, and Peru's body seems to be in quite a dangerous state. This can't be healed, not even with Holy Power~.”
Tyr reacted slightly at the mention of Holy Power, but Hilde was no fool to reveal she could wield it in front of a vampire. She let the words slip out casually, as if talking about someone else entirely.
“Peru may look fine now, but her energy is all tangled up, isn't it? That's because she filled her body with a homunculus. Grafting, replacing the body with another power, is a Type 2 Anathema. Once it's done, the body can't be restored with Holy Power.”
Healing by Holy Power was a matter of restoration. However, when a part of the body had been replaced by another power, as with Peru, restoration was impossible. Hilde, once a paladin, saw through this and essentially declared her on her deathbed.
But the Regressor answered nonchalantly.
“It's fine. There's someone who can heal him.”
“Heal him? Is there a Saintess? No, not even a Saintess can heal someone who has committed an Anathema, can she?”
“Not a Saintess. The Doctor Sage.”
“The Doctor… Sage?”
Hilde tilted her head. It was only natural. The Earth Sage and the Exalted Sage. Like every other human—and even myself, proficient in mind reading—I could only recall those two sages. Hilde, who had once led a nation's intelligence division, was no different.
Besides, a Doctor Sage? A sage who heals people when Saintesses and Holy Power already exist? Something wasn't right.
“How strange~? There's no Doctor Sage among the sages I know of. And it's not like there are so many that I'd get them confused.”
“I suppose not.”
‘She's only called the Doctor Sage in a future that has yet to come. Without the Seven Day War that brought her fame, she would never be called that. But I know. I know what kind of person she is. If someone is hurt, she'll heal them, no matter who or what they are.’
Come to think of it, I think she mentioned the Doctor Sage back in the Abyss when she was making some kind of medicine. A sage who didn't exist yet. Meaning only the Regressor knew about her. Regression really was something else, huh? Knowing things no one else did.
Unlike me, who went around reading minds, Hilde was skeptical of the Regressor's information. As if complaining, but inwardly analyzing the Regressor with a sharp eye, Hilde asked.
“How on earth do you know things that even I, a former director of a national intelligence agency, don't know~? It's so suspicious. Shei, what in the world are you?”
“Think what you will.”
“Yes~. I'll do that. I'll think whatever I want~.”
Ignoring Hilde, who was pouting like a child, the Regressor glanced at Tyr.
‘…The only potential problem is Tyrkanzyaka… but, well, it probably won't be an issue. The Doctor Sage is a vampire, but unlike Tyrkanzyaka, she acts alone.’
What? The Doctor Sage was a vampire? No, a bloodsucking vampire went around healing people? Did that even make sense?
…I guess it wasn't impossible. Humans ate animals, but the veterinary profession still existed. Though that wasn't quite on the same grand scale as being called a Doctor Sage.
Azzy, who had been yawning languidly, whined as she slapped the floor with her tail.
“Woof woof. I'm bored. Woof woof.”
“Go play by bothering the horse like you usually do.”
“Woof. I have tact. I'm not bothering it.”
“Says the one complaining about being bored right now?”
Where did you sell off that tact of yours? This is why I can't with animals.
Still, a journey where people were dying left and right was a bit harsh for Azzy. A change of pace was probably needed. We wouldn't have many more chances to relax like this, anyway.
When the next full moon came… Azzy would have to fight the Wolf King, whether she liked it or not. Well, with our current strength, even the Wolf King shouldn't be a problem. If things got dicey, we could get help from other countries, and if it came to that, we even had a vampire.
“Let's go out on the deck for a bit. I could use some fresh air, too.”
“Woof!”
Excited, Azzy shot up from her spot. I opened the door leading outside and stepped onto the deck.
The wind swept past fiercely. The Golden Ark moved just as it had before, disassembling everything it touched beneath it. Because it was disassembly, not pulverization, the Ark's movement was perfectly silent.
Could this ship travel on the sea…? No, that was probably impossible.
The sea? What sea? Ships were for lakes and rivers.
“Woof…”
Azzy already had her paws up on the railing, staring blankly at the scenery outside. If she was just going to stare into space, I didn't know why she dragged me out here.
No, more than that, whenever she got on any kind of vehicle, she always put her front paws on the window and stuck her head out. Was it a habit?
As I was grumbling to myself, Azzy spoke, her gaze still distant.
“Humans, they fight each other.”
“That's because they have no one else to fight but other humans.”
“Woof, right. Animals, few. So humans, fight each other.”
Right after the Military State organized its military, it launched an operation to exterminate harmful beasts. Many died in the process, but it was remarkably successful, to the point that there were almost no dangerous animals left in the inhabited regions of the State.
The Fallen Dominion was a strange land where the Golden Lord, the Divine, roamed, so the beasts had lost their place to live. Other than a few animals useful for livestock, like horses and sheep, they had all left the land.
Azzy spoke, her voice lacking energy.
“…So, woof. I can't help. Because they're human.”
But that was only part of the story. In vast lands like the southern Military State, or here in the Mistveil Range, beasts still lived. And more importantly…
“That's not entirely true. There are wolves, you know.”
“Woof…”
Whether she was comforted or not, Azzy turned her head again to gaze into the distance. I wondered what was so interesting that she kept staring. I decided to look too.
Placing my hands on the edge of the deck, I sent my gaze far off and finally understood what Azzy had been looking at.
“It's Claudia, isn't it? We're almost there.”
Indeed, a view like that would be hard to look away from.
Clouds were pouring from the sky like a waterfall. The clouds, falling from high above, broke apart and scattered as they neared the ground, spreading out wide like the hem of a country girl's skirt.
Clouds are water, but they also block the sun. Thanks to this ambiguous blessing, only low grasses grew thick on the mountain ridges touched by the Cloud Waterfall. Such grass becomes a feast for sheep and goats. The white flocks drifting over the green tabletop were hard to distinguish from the broken fragments of cloud.
It was a scene that inspired awe just by looking at it, as if a god truly existed.
The people of old looked upon that sight and named it the Sky Road or the Stairway to Heaven, but the Cloud Waterfall was born purely from geographical conditions.
Beyond the Mistveil Range lies the Sea of Leviathan. That is where the Leviathans live.
A primordial sea that humans cannot even approach. In its deep, distant abyss, unfathomable to humans who can only see the single layer of its surface, monsters swim.
The Leviathan. The reason why humans, the self-proclaimed rulers of the land, could never advance into the sea.
In the sea, the Beast Kings did not take human form. Humans are the dominant species of the land, but they hold no sway over the distant abyss. The Leviathans, those great beasts that roam the far-off sea, live their aloof lives in those depths.
However, in the relatively shallow Sea of Leviathan, the creatures show themselves more often. Tidal waves created by them frequently roll in, and their shadows flicker in the distance. With them treating such a vast sea as their bathtub and splashing about, the sea mist never has a chance to settle.
The rising mist has two possible futures: to sink back down and become part of the sea, or to keep rising and become a cloud. Most take the former path, but the remainder is more than enough to form clouds.
Those low clouds, which never reach the heavens but darken the sky overhead, ride the wind toward the continent. The cloud-laden wind hits the curtain of the earth and stalls for a moment, before finally pouring down through a gap in its center.
That place is the Village of Clouds. Claudia.
A village of humans, hidden within the pouring clouds… or so it should be.
“But, Azzy. What is that?”
“Woof?”
“There's something attached to the waterfall. What is that?”
There was something in the Cloud Waterfall. I narrowed my eyes and examined the massive, moving structure again.
“…A water mill?”
It looked like a giant water mill. It seemed someone had acted on the reckless idea of installing a water mill not in a flowing river, but in a waterfall. If it had been water, the mill would have been crushed by the sheer weight, but fortunately, the waterfall's 'water' was in the form of clouds. The mill was intact.
In other words, there wasn't enough force to turn it. Clouds aren't weightless, but they can't compare to water. There was no way a water mill that large could be turning.
And yet, the water mill was turning.
Lightning struck from the clouds. Crackling sparks of electricity erupted where the mill met the waterfall. These weren't even storm clouds, yet an ominous energy surged threateningly before subsiding.
It was like static electricity, but on that scale, it was no different from thunder. Every time the light flashed, something other than clouds flowed along the mill. The wheel was surely being turned not by the clouds, but by the lightning hiding within them.
It was the first time I had seen such a thing… but because I had read the memories of Maximilien and Peru, I had little trouble guessing its identity.
“So that's the Thundermill.”
The Thundergear that Maximilien introduced to the Fallen Dominion. This was its original model, the great power source that moved Claudia.
Long ago, the Village of Clouds, which had simply hidden in the mists and raised sheep… seems to have acquired an immense power after some kind of challenge.
As I admired the sight for a moment, I spotted a group approaching. They were closer to us than to Claudia, and at their speed, it looked like they would arrive within minutes.
“No time to stand here gawking. Looks like we have a welcoming party.”
“Woof! Over here, over here!”
“They could be enemies. Why are you so excited?”
Then again, to Azzy, all humans were probably friends, so I guess it didn't matter.