Chapter 558: Civilization x Barbarism
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 558: Civilization x Barbarism
Life is work. Therefore, to live is to work, no matter what one does. It was a simple truth that whether you defeated a vile black magician or saved over three hundred lives, if you were still breathing, you had to work.
“Ugh, what a life. I can't even catch a break.”
I sighed, looking out at the three hundred refugees.
The Regressor had created a temporary shelter by turning the earth upside down. For food, we combined what was left in Piu Village with a small contribution from her.
However, in a land where people prayed to a bowl of water when they got sick, there was no one to treat the mentally and physically exhausted refugees. Callis, being from the Military State, considered psychological injuries to be mere whining, as was typical of her people. The Regressor, on the other hand, only knew peculiar healing methods like moxibustion and purification.
But the position makes the person, and work makes the position. If you remove all the worker ants from an anthill, the lazy ants will start working.
So, I became a doctor and began diagnosing the injured refugees.
“Uuugh. My head feels like it’s going to split open… I’d rather you just kill me.”
“Really? Is that what you truly wish for?”
“…Ugh, no. Please make it hurt less…”
“I can’t do anything about that. The only way to lessen the pain is with an anesthetic.”
“Then give me that…!”
“That anesthetic is the very thing you were fed in the black magician’s prison. It’s a similar substance. The pain will be worse when you wake up from it. Just endure it.”
I shooed the patient away with a wave of my hand. The barbarian, clutching his head and groaning, shot me a resentful glare before leaving the tent.
“Quack…”
Hmph. I don’t care. I am a quack. My job was to read their minds and let them endure any pain they could handle.
Besides, the fact that he could walk out on his own two feet meant he didn’t really need treatment.
I glanced at a tent I had set up far in the distance. Lying there were those who had been the black magician’s sacrifices, now barely clinging to life. They were conscious, but their thoughts were unnaturally fragmented, a sign that their time was short.
The cleanup is more troublesome than the rescue. In a way, it’s a good thing the Regressor hasn’t prevented the apocalypse yet. Cleaning up the world after saving it would be far more difficult than the saving part itself.
I had just finished my rounds, prescribed medicine to those who needed it, and finally found a moment to myself when Rasch burst into the tent.
“Teacher, are you in! Ah. Should I have knocked first!”
“There’s no door, so what’s the point of knocking? Anyway, what brings a healthy man like you here, Mr. Rasch?”
“It’s not about that, I have a favor to ask!”
“Ah, I’ve developed an allergy to favors recently.”
Rasch ignored my blatant display of annoyance and got straight to the point.
“Well, they say that over there, when you get married, you need something called an officiant? Someone respected and trustworthy, like a priestess, to watch over the ceremony. So, I want to ask you to be my officiant, Teacher!”
I never thought I’d live to see the day someone asked me to officiate their wedding. The best I’d ever been asked to do was deal cards at a gambling table.
“That’s a fabrication. I’ve never been a teacher, and I got into Tantalus through fraud.”
“It’s fine! My people don’t know whether you’re a teacher or a con artist anyway!”
“I don’t mind doing it, but we’ll have to schedule it. I won’t be staying here for long.”
“Is that so? Then I’ll hold the wedding right away! Callis! Come here for a moment!”
Wait, you mean right now? How is this wedding happening faster than a gambling den opens for business?
“Is it really okay to be so casual about your wedding?”
“Casual? I’ve already told the whole village about it several times and received the Sacrificial Vessel’s blessing through the priestess. The only reason we’ve been putting it off is because of a problem with the ceremony itself.”
He was talking about the Undying wedding ceremony, where the bride and groom are buried together and left there for nearly a month, right? The other Undying might not think much of it, but Rasch, having studied abroad, secretly understood just how barbaric the custom was.
In effect, it was a custom that said you couldn’t marry anyone who wasn’t also one of the Undying. That’s why he wanted a different kind of ceremony.
“But we have the wedding gifts now, and your party is here, Teacher! Who needs an auspicious day? The best time is when you have good guests!”
“Hmm. In other words, you want us to lend you some support, is that it?”
“Hahaha! That’s right! It would be awkward if only Callis and I knew the foreign customs. We need guests from the same place to save face!”
He spoke boisterously, but his mind was racing. I guess being simple doesn’t necessarily mean you’re stupid.
He had a point. The biology of the Undying and ordinary humans was just too different. The Undying could afford to be rough with their bodies, but a normal human would quickly develop an infection and die. The premises were fundamentally different.
“Rasch? Did you call me?”
As I was listening to Rasch’s wedding plans, Callis pushed aside the tent flap and appeared.
“Oh, Callis!”
The moment they saw each other, they shared a deep kiss, seemingly oblivious to my presence. Only after they were done nibbling and sucking on each other did they pay me any attention.
“So, why did you call for me?”
“Ah. I was just asking the Teacher here to be our officiant.”
“What? Not a priest, but a criminal?”
“What does it matter? No one will know anyway. And the Teacher has the power of a druid. Druids are the sages of the forest. You might not care, but in our village, they’re more respected than most priests.”
“A druid…? I don’t recall that being on his list of special skills.”
People evolve, you know. How long are you going to keep thinking of me as that same old Abyss vermin?
Callis retracted her suspicious gaze and said, “Rasch. I have a proposal.”
“Don’t tell me you don’t like the officiant? He’s the only suitable person right now, can’t you just put up with it?”
Is my officiating something you have to put up with? You’re the one who suggested it, have some decency!
That didn’t seem to be her intention. Callis shook her head and replied, “No, it’s not about the officiant. If we have a Military State-style wedding, both you and I will become outsiders in this land. Our suggestions will be more easily ignored, and Piu Village will stagnate without any real improvement.”
One might think she was making a big deal out of a wedding, but a ceremony carries that much meaning. A marriage is fundamentally a union of different bloodlines. Unless they planned to become completely independent, one side would naturally be absorbed into the other.
The ceremony is an event that shows ‘which side one will belong to.’ No matter if Rasch was the right arm or whatever, if he insisted on a wedding with customs from beyond the plains, he would be treated like a foreigner.
“Then what do you suggest we do?”
Rasch knew this. But he had no choice. If they held the wedding in the Undying fashion, Callis would no longer be of this world.
The whole reason he’d brought the King of Sheep’s fleece was for this wedding—to make up for his lack of authority with a valuable offering.
But Callis approached it from a different perspective.
“I will go through with the Undying wedding ceremony.”
If she could endure the trial of the Undying wedding, she could have both. It was an extremely high-stakes way of thinking.
Naturally, Rasch flared up in anger.
“It’s dangerous! A month, and a month with earth piled on top of you! You have to endure that weight without any outside help!”
“I’ll take food with me, and I’ll protect myself with magic. I believe if I prepare properly, there’s a high chance I can survive the month.”
“High, but not absolute!”
“Rasch. With you by my side, I can overcome it.”
“That’s the problem!”
Rasch clenched his fists so tightly the veins bulged.
“I…! I don’t have the confidence to watch you grow weaker right before my eyes…!”
I was starting to understand the Regressor’s feelings a little. It was fine that they were lost in their own world, but using me as a backdrop was starting to get on my nerves.
Well, that aside, I understood both of their arguments. Whichever choice they made, not much would change.
If I had to pick a side, though, I’d obviously go with the one that embraces risk.
“Rasch, I have a question. Can’t you just sneak out in the middle of it?”
“…That would be difficult. The couple to be wed is placed in a wicker basket, their skin touching. That basket is then buried deep in the ground under the priestess’s supervision. They leave an air hole, but it’s hard to dig your way out from the inside. My strength to dig through the earth would also tear through Callis’s body.”
“What if you dig a tunnel beforehand or create some extra space? Just because you’re buried doesn’t mean you have to stay there uncomfortably, right?”
It didn’t have to be this exact method. Buried in the ground? Just escape. They could fool around for a month, then sneak back and pretend it was tough.
“Are you suggesting we cheat?”
“Cheat? Let’s call it being flexible. No matter how traditional it is, burying people in the ground for a month is absurd. In times like these, it’s wise to cut a few corners.”
“I see…! You truly are the Teacher! To think of cheating the ritual! An ordinary person would never have come up with such an idea!”
Why on earth had no one else thought of this? Am I the weird one? Am I?
Callis was also impressed by my suggestion.
“As long as we don’t get caught, it’s an excellent method. However, it seems difficult to create such a passage without the buriers noticing. We would need a tight-lipped accomplice…”
“I’ll ask Shei-ssi. With Jizan’s power, she should be able to dig a secret passage without anyone knowing.”
“Thank you!”
I’ll do it, but seriously, why are you acting so high and mighty? You, who were part of a private organization within the Military State, are worse than a petty criminal like me.
“Just a moment. I’ll go stand watch.”
In any case, we were in the middle of plotting a scam we were calling ‘flexibility.’ It wouldn’t do for anyone to overhear. I stepped out of the tent and looked around.
That’s when my eyes caught a very peculiar person walking this way.
The barbarian tribes usually had barbaric clothing to match. The Undying were either completely topless or wore just enough to barely cover themselves.
But the Undying person approaching me was completely covered, from their head down to their face, as if they couldn’t let an inch of skin show.
And yet, amidst all that, only one area was unnaturally exposed: the area around their mouth. Through that empty hole, I saw it clearly.
A mouth with stitches around it, as if it had been cut from somewhere else and sewn on.
“Teacher? Why are you standing out there so blankly… ‘Mouth’?”
The priestesses of the Sacrificial Vessel. Among the Undying who offered parts of their bodies to gain immortality, they were the chosen ones who had sacrificed their eyes, ears, and mouths.
A priestess who could actually communicate with their god had come in person to deliver its will.
‘Mouth’ walked straight toward us and spoke in a bizarrely echoing voice.
““In place of the mouth of the Sacrificial Vessel, I have come to deliver its will.””