(no subject)
Novel 14 Chapter 2 translation ^__^ ... finally done
~28
All my hopes to drink, eat and take a bath once we arrive to oasis were cruelly betrayed.
In front of us lies is a wide water basin that begins as a river on top of the hill of white sand. It is a truly magnificent sight to see this much water in the middle of the desert. It is big enough to be considered a lake and is filled with water deep blue in its center but so crystal clean near the shore that one can make out the shape of every little pebble...
That's what Captain Sizemore sitting behind me said, because I still could only see shadows and light and some colors. He did believe that my eyesight got bad because of all the sunlight.
"This water pool actually is a lake and it's on our country's official map, Your Majesty."
"Let's talk about maps later, Captain. I don't care if it's lake or river, as long as I can drink all I want and take a bath."
By the sound of leaves rustling in the wind and dancing shadows I knew there were a lot of trees around.
~29
"There are houses here too. Or rather, a whole town."
"Looks like it."
The only thing that bothers me, is that even though there are houses here I can't sense anyone's presence. Maybe we're still a little too far away, but I can't hear the sound of human voices or footsteps. Can it be a Ghost town? As though noticing my doubts Conrad said,
"It doesn't look like ruins to me and there are some new houses there as well."
"Everything looks whitish, what was the material they used to build this place? Stone?"
"Well, the bricks are actually a mixture of soil and animal's excrement dried in the sun. A very solid material by itself. And the lake... must be about the size of four Fenway parks with 25-30 buildings around it. It doesn't look like there are any churches or shops around, but if it is a town there should be an inn or some place we could stay at. Uh huh!" He laughs between breaths. "There is a huge amount of laundry left to dry. That's the real proof that they have a lot of water. But it is unusual that there is no one outside, even though there is still time before it gets dark."
"What' the chatter about? Ah... So you're explaining things to the blind king." Sara, who just barely woke up, said as though he's been listening to our conversation all along.
"Is there something wrong again?" Having just caught up with us Dakascos asked with a worry in his voice.
~30
Anyway, I am completely amazed at Sara's emotional strength. Despite the fact that he is tied up and has to wear a blindfold, he doesn't appear apprehensive or downcast at all. Instead he looks like he finds the current situation rather amusing. his His ephemeral looks totally contradict with such shameless audacity. And I was completely fooled by them. It's amazing how stupid I can actually be.
Small Shimaron's young king awkwardly curled up in front of Conrad. Maybe he removed the blindfold with his shoulders and elbows, because I can feel his eyes on me. Those golden pupils.
"Morning, King Saralegui. You seemed to sleep very well."
"Quite right, King Yuri. Lord Weller's chest is rather comfortable for that. I'm envious that Your Majesty has such nice subjects. But isn't he a Big Shimaron's emissary, and if so, why did he obey your orders underground? Hey Yuri, is there a secret agreement between you and Big Shimaron?"
"There is none."
"Really? Knowing how sagacious you are I suddenly want to believe you."
There was poison in his words, I could see it clearly. But I won't succumb to his provocation. Before I get influenced by these unpleasant thoughts I should try to think about happy things. Water, food, bath. There's literally so much water in here that I could bathe in it. I purposefully put on a happy face and turn towards Captain Sizemore.
"Well, Captain, if there seems to be no danger let's go to the town. I wonder where Wolfram and his group is. Hazel and Atilla-san must have already arrived. But it does seem odd to me that townspeople are missing... Wait a sec, don't tell me they!.."
~32
"Wha-what is it, Your Majesty?" I heard the shiny guy Dakascos ask with a frightened voice. It's very easy during the daytime, but at night I'm not sure if I'll be able to recognize him.
"They couldn't have possibly all been eaten by a dinosaur or giant monster squid, could they?"
"Wah! From this peaceful lake?!"
"Squid is a sea animal, Your Majesty. Besides, if it has really eaten all the townspeople it wouldn't bother to do all their laundry, would it?" /Conrart/
"Hm, I guess it wouldn't."
Clumsily I got off the horse and started walking towards the direction of the light blue color. I'm scared because I can't see anything, but if I stay that way I won't be able to move even a step forward. So, because I don't want to crash into something on my way and fall over I walk with my arms stretched out in front of me, which probably makes me look like a zombie. I'm positively disgusted with myself. This picture is definitely not something I'd like my beloved daughter to see.
I can feel cold breeze from the lake on my cheeks and neck. It makes my borrowed white clothes flutter. As I pass the houses and continue to go towards the lake I can feel the ground change underneath my feet. Up till now it was dry and solid but now it's different, it became soft like sand from the beach. Having heard the sound of firm footsteps on wet sand I realized that Conrad was now standing behind me.
~33
"It's water."
I am not thirsty anymore, but having been revived after what happened underground I kneel down on the beach sand. I bury my fingers in it and feel cold water flow between them.
"It's water, Conrad. Flowing just like that.."
"It is the greatest treasure in the desert."
Childishly I plunged my head into it. Close to my face it smelled like fresh water, different from the one from the sea. And there is so much of it that I can drink it till I get drunk. That was when I started to feel the presence of townspeople.
At the same time I heard the door being slammed open and a male voice shouting words of warning in a hurry.
"Don't, Yuri. That water is polluted!"
"Wolfram?"
Before I could raise my head he grasped my collar and puled me up. That was a close call.
"Polluted?"
That was a word I didn't expect to hear in this world.
~34
It seemed so fresh and smelled almost like mineral water, there was no indication of it being dirty.
Holding my arm Wolfram dragged me to one of the buildings. Hazel together with other members of resistance and four Shin Makoku soldiers accompanying Captain Sizemore all seemed to be there.
"What's happened? Everyone's faces are so serious."
Without answering Dakascos's carefree question Hazel called me,
"Your Majesty."
It's dim inside, so I can't see where everyone is standing. I have to listen to where the voices come from.
"I heard you, Hazel. What's going on here? What pollution are you talking about?"
"You didn't drink it, did you?"
"I was close. It smelled and felt normal. Was I being targeted by Shocker (a character from Japanese action show)?"
That one is Murata's favorite. Whenever he didn't feel like working he would put poison in Lake Tama or spray some poison gas over it. He's like earth's version of dokuonna. Without Shocker in Masked Rider Murata was sulking every week.
~35
"It was hodjutsu. A very troublesome one."
"The water was poisoned with hojutsu?"
At that moment the images of water pollution started to pop up in my brain. I imagined something like this: factories discharging toxic wastes in the lake, smoke coming out of chimneys, countless fish floating in waters that turned a weird color and poisonous monsters coming out to the slimy surface, because chemicals from the drains made all fish mutate!
"So where are the half-fish half-human guys?"
Conrad let out a meaningful cough.
"Your majesty, let me speak on their behalf, but noble mermen can only live in a very pure sea water."
"Ah, well, sorry, my bad. But you did say it was poisoned, so then even in this huge lake there's not a single drop of water that we could drink?"
"It's only good for laundry now."
Those desperate piles of washed clothes...
"Everyone left the town and went to other lands."
"No, half of former inhabitants remained here. It is hard to leave one's home town and someone had to stay and protect the lake inherited from generations and generations of ancestors. Look, they are still desperately trying to continue their work."
I heard a hinge creak. Someone must have opened the door to the next room. Of course it is dim inside there too so I can't see anything at all.
~36
"Inside the room there are two big water tanks, one on top of the other with a thin pipe that runs through the center of each one. The upper tank is half filled with water, sand, gravel and what seems to be dried tree leaves, while the bottom one is almost empty. And I think there's a mechanism that makes the water flow down that thin pipe. This is the country's water purification system. However, if it produces one drop at a time it probably takes a very long time to clean enough water. Even so, there are always 4 shinzoku watching the mechanism. Who are they, Hazel?"
Thanks for an educational TV show style explanation, Conrad. I'll be in your debt for the rest of my life. However, thanks to his explanation my inner mind theater is already occupied with scenes of factories that manufacture anti-aging cosmetics. Like that guy from a TV commercial who's very worried whether mom will buy their product or not.
"These four people use hojutsu to purify water and make once dirty water suitable for consumption again. All other citizens from every family who stayed continue their work. But even so it is barely enough to have enough drinking water for each family. With such slow speed it's no wonder that it's hard to collect enough."
"But all that thing is doing is just filtering water and not... oh, but they use hojutsu, that must be it. But still having to wait for each drop of clean water - not a very effective way to clean it."
"But that's the only way to make sure there is enough clean water, even for travelers who pass this place by like us."
"So they aren't doing it just for themselves. That's impressive."
~37
"We had to negotiate with them to use some clean water. It doesn't matter if we continue our travel or return - water is absolutely necessary. We can't proceed with our journey without making sure we have a sufficient supply of drinking water. But we don't know how many days it will take to collect enough."
"Yeah, one drop at a time is pretty slow."
I pressed my hand to my forehead and looked up at the sky. The wound underneath my bandages hurts badly. Is there really no better way to filter large amounts of water at the same time?
"Ah! I just thought of something I read in some suspicious journal - The pyramid power! If you make a frame shaped like a pyramid with four angles and put a glass of water inside it becomes tasty or so they said. And if you put a cup of milk that's gone bad it becomes natto!"
"Huh? Why would rotten milk of an animal turn into beans?!" /Sizemore/
"Ah, sorry, my bad! Cow's milk turns into yoghurt and soy beens into natto."
Captain Sizemore let out a sigh of relief. But wait a sec, if that theory is true, then the pyramid power only makes normal food rot... no, no, wait, that's not rotting, it's actually fermentation. However, what would happen if you attempt to ferment water? I've no idea. If only Murata was here he'd definitely have an answer.
"What if we put a pyramid over the entire lake? I wonder if it will recover from pollution at once. But where could we get the material to make it? Captain Sizemore, can you supply us with a super oversized bamboo pole?"
~38
"But, Your Maesty, even if the lake goes back to the way it was before, if the same hojutsu is used on it again it will be useless."
"Ah," I said but couldn't continue, because Hazel began to speak. As she said, even if we made the water in the lake go back to normal, that wouldn't change anything.
First of all we need to find what actually happened, for what reason someone cursed or used a water polluting hojutsu on it.
"Secondly, it seems that there is an ongoing dispute with equestrian tribes about who should be controlling the lake. Having that in mind, it looks like the objective of hojutsu user who casted polluting spell on the lake is to monopolize it."
"Equestrian tribes? You mean the guys who attacked you earlier?"
"That would be them."
"So these co-called equestrian tribes are shinzoku, aren't they? Then it must have been them who used hojutsu."
Come to think of it, I have been informed that there is a conflict between equestrian tribes fighting for dominance under the pretext of protecting the royal tombs in the northern regions of the desert. However, I wasn't told that they were fighting to take control over precious water.
"Yeah...So even if we surround, point crossbows at them and ask them to remove the curse it will hardly work." At times like this dokuonna would have been helpful. If Anisina-san was here she would invent eliminate-any-weird-curse-or-spell-never-fail-kun or clean-the-dirt-even-a-good-nose-have-missed-and-make-the-water-drinkable-version 3.0-kun and other convenient goods.
~39
Sadly, 欲しいときでないのがタイムリーヒットで、いらんときにいるのが毒女。
"Well, maybe for now we could at least try asking what kind of spell that was. And they might tell us if they are in a good mood!" /Dakascos/
"Ask?! Who'd we ask?"
Dakascos turned to look at me and fell silent.
He couldn't answer because he couldn't understand what I said. I wasn't paying attention and asked the question in English.
The situation with languages here is pretty bad. Me, Conrad and Hazel speak English, Hazel speaks Holy Sand's language to her companions, all mazoku and me use our own standard language. With words from three languages in the air poor Atilla-san translating Hazel's Holy sand/English and my and Conrad's mazoku/English was in the state of utter confusion.
While addressing Dakascos, I have to use standard language of Shin Makoku.
"Dakascos, who d'you think we should ask that?"
"That'll be the spell caster of course! If he's the one who used the spell he should know how to remove it."
"You expect such kindness from someone who polluted everyone's oasis for personal gain? And we don't know where the actual spell caster is anyway, there are lots of people in the tribe, how'd we know which one it is!"
~40
Atilla-san who understood our conversation interposed:
"The place, I know."
Hazel, who understood what Atilla-san wanted to say took it from there.
"We've found out where the tribes' lands are from the townspeople. There's one place to the northeast - a day ride, and the other one is south-southwest, half-a-day ride. There are also some smaller clans, but those are not as aggressive as the larger two."
"But if we do go there, we still won't know which person used the spell to pollute the water. And even if we ask them, 'Excuse me, do you happen to know who is responsible for the water pollution?' will they let us meet him that easily? He's their trump card, won't they try to hide him?"
"I'd just give up on this place and go get water from somewhere else. Is there anything further ahead?" /Wolf?/
"No on the map." /Atilla/
"Maybe there's something like a small water well somewhere around, but even so there's nothing certain enough to be put on the map anyway. And simply hoping that we would just run into one on our way is too risky."
"But Your Majesty..." Conrad spoke in standard language, so that Wolfram and Sizemore would be able to understand. "Even if there is a water reservoir somewhere ahead, won't equestrian tribes try to poison that lake too to have complete control over the entire water supplies?"
~41
"I guess they would... But this place is like an important strategic base or... !?"
"What is it, Yuri?"
"Wait!"
Thinking about what I've just said the little sign of "idea!" lit up in my head and I tried my best to put the pieces of it together. There is no water ahead, this town and lake are strategically important, even if we go there's no guarantee we'll be able to find...
"Hazel?" Just to make sure she understands I started to speak English. My ability to speak English is rather limited but it's enough for Conrad and Hazel to understand me.
"What is it?"
"Before we entered the town, every single family in here must have seen us, right?"
Her gray head shook. She said 'yes' keeping her voice low and nodded it seems.
"Have people from the tribe been here before? Maybe one or two of them? Did they have a drink at a local bar and maybe were rude and tried to harass local women?"
"No, at least from what I've seen."
"Then, if this is an important place for them, how come they haven't left even one person to keep an eye on it?" Hazel snorted and chuckled.
"Well, come to think of it, it does seem unusual. Except there might be someone hiding among the townspeople."
~42
"Ah, yeah they could be hiding among the townspeople. But even so we won't know who they are. Putting that aside, Conrad why did you say you think there is no big water reservoir up ahead?"
"That is just an amateur's guess."
Too modest as always. He, a hero who's served in a military for a long time, can't be a complete novice in anything that's related to battle formation and topography. On top of that he has experience traveling on Earth. He even joined the caravan traveling across Sahara and... Well, the point is, I'm not surprised about anything from now on.
"In that case even the tribes in question need the water from here. Where else would they go if they need some?"
"It seems the tribe from south-southwest comes here to collect water regularly. The spell caster must be one of them. That's right. Definitely, they must have someone who can change the quality of water."
"I knew it. But even if we go to their territories how will we find the spell caster? Doesn't look like we have a choice."
But in any kind of business there are such things as gathering the information about enemy's position and scouting. Once the report is made the guys with real power show up and finally get their lazy butts into action to stay ahead of the rivals.
I couldn't suppress a smile.
"Let's invite them!"
~43
I wonder how much so called war potential this town has in case the main bad guy shows up to interfere. To eventually clean the water for now we shouldn't let him take complete control over the lake. If south-sothwest tribe finds out about that they'll definitely be worried and come here. And there's no doubt that they'll send the spell caster who can control the water quality here once again to use his hojutsu on the lake one more time. Ok, let's make him hurry up and go into action to catch up with us.
"And for that we first should go to someone's house, and ask if they'll let us borrow a pigeon..."
"But Yuri, there is no Flapping Wings White Pigeon mail service in the country of Holy sand!" Wolfram, who must have been listening to me mumble to myself, said in astonishment.
That's true. There are no pigeons here.
Notes:
1) I renamed Achira to Atilla - I think that sounds better XD
2) Takabayashi-sensei didn't name Shin Makoku's language, she just calls it "common language/standard language" :/
I'm not good at translating different accents and dialects, sorry. Besides you probably know that Japanese language has all these levels of politeness that are just hard to express in English. But I think I should at least let you know some things. Dakascos' speech is very easy to recognize, he always sounds unsure about things and says 'su' instead of 'des' and 'ya' instead of 'wa'. It's pretty weird that Yuri says he can't recognize him without his head shining in the sun.. XD
Yuri's language is pretty simple too, he doesn't speak like a noble at all. Neither does Wolfram. His speech is simple and very self-asserting(?) like he always knows what he's talking about and is sure that he's right. XD and he always addresses Yuri by his first name. I think he's the only one in Shin Makoku who does that (except for Greta in anime and Sara, who's technically not from Shin Makoku). Conrad always uses polite Japanese forms, his tone is mellow and he sounds like he's always keeping a distance.
3) The next chapter has lots of Wolfram XDDD but I don't have much time to translate it this week and it's over 20 pages long, so I think I'll post it in two parts.
mata ne ^_^
~28
All my hopes to drink, eat and take a bath once we arrive to oasis were cruelly betrayed.
In front of us lies is a wide water basin that begins as a river on top of the hill of white sand. It is a truly magnificent sight to see this much water in the middle of the desert. It is big enough to be considered a lake and is filled with water deep blue in its center but so crystal clean near the shore that one can make out the shape of every little pebble...
That's what Captain Sizemore sitting behind me said, because I still could only see shadows and light and some colors. He did believe that my eyesight got bad because of all the sunlight.
"This water pool actually is a lake and it's on our country's official map, Your Majesty."
"Let's talk about maps later, Captain. I don't care if it's lake or river, as long as I can drink all I want and take a bath."
By the sound of leaves rustling in the wind and dancing shadows I knew there were a lot of trees around.
~29
"There are houses here too. Or rather, a whole town."
"Looks like it."
The only thing that bothers me, is that even though there are houses here I can't sense anyone's presence. Maybe we're still a little too far away, but I can't hear the sound of human voices or footsteps. Can it be a Ghost town? As though noticing my doubts Conrad said,
"It doesn't look like ruins to me and there are some new houses there as well."
"Everything looks whitish, what was the material they used to build this place? Stone?"
"Well, the bricks are actually a mixture of soil and animal's excrement dried in the sun. A very solid material by itself. And the lake... must be about the size of four Fenway parks with 25-30 buildings around it. It doesn't look like there are any churches or shops around, but if it is a town there should be an inn or some place we could stay at. Uh huh!" He laughs between breaths. "There is a huge amount of laundry left to dry. That's the real proof that they have a lot of water. But it is unusual that there is no one outside, even though there is still time before it gets dark."
"What' the chatter about? Ah... So you're explaining things to the blind king." Sara, who just barely woke up, said as though he's been listening to our conversation all along.
"Is there something wrong again?" Having just caught up with us Dakascos asked with a worry in his voice.
~30
Anyway, I am completely amazed at Sara's emotional strength. Despite the fact that he is tied up and has to wear a blindfold, he doesn't appear apprehensive or downcast at all. Instead he looks like he finds the current situation rather amusing. his His ephemeral looks totally contradict with such shameless audacity. And I was completely fooled by them. It's amazing how stupid I can actually be.
Small Shimaron's young king awkwardly curled up in front of Conrad. Maybe he removed the blindfold with his shoulders and elbows, because I can feel his eyes on me. Those golden pupils.
"Morning, King Saralegui. You seemed to sleep very well."
"Quite right, King Yuri. Lord Weller's chest is rather comfortable for that. I'm envious that Your Majesty has such nice subjects. But isn't he a Big Shimaron's emissary, and if so, why did he obey your orders underground? Hey Yuri, is there a secret agreement between you and Big Shimaron?"
"There is none."
"Really? Knowing how sagacious you are I suddenly want to believe you."
There was poison in his words, I could see it clearly. But I won't succumb to his provocation. Before I get influenced by these unpleasant thoughts I should try to think about happy things. Water, food, bath. There's literally so much water in here that I could bathe in it. I purposefully put on a happy face and turn towards Captain Sizemore.
"Well, Captain, if there seems to be no danger let's go to the town. I wonder where Wolfram and his group is. Hazel and Atilla-san must have already arrived. But it does seem odd to me that townspeople are missing... Wait a sec, don't tell me they!.."
~32
"Wha-what is it, Your Majesty?" I heard the shiny guy Dakascos ask with a frightened voice. It's very easy during the daytime, but at night I'm not sure if I'll be able to recognize him.
"They couldn't have possibly all been eaten by a dinosaur or giant monster squid, could they?"
"Wah! From this peaceful lake?!"
"Squid is a sea animal, Your Majesty. Besides, if it has really eaten all the townspeople it wouldn't bother to do all their laundry, would it?" /Conrart/
"Hm, I guess it wouldn't."
Clumsily I got off the horse and started walking towards the direction of the light blue color. I'm scared because I can't see anything, but if I stay that way I won't be able to move even a step forward. So, because I don't want to crash into something on my way and fall over I walk with my arms stretched out in front of me, which probably makes me look like a zombie. I'm positively disgusted with myself. This picture is definitely not something I'd like my beloved daughter to see.
I can feel cold breeze from the lake on my cheeks and neck. It makes my borrowed white clothes flutter. As I pass the houses and continue to go towards the lake I can feel the ground change underneath my feet. Up till now it was dry and solid but now it's different, it became soft like sand from the beach. Having heard the sound of firm footsteps on wet sand I realized that Conrad was now standing behind me.
~33
"It's water."
I am not thirsty anymore, but having been revived after what happened underground I kneel down on the beach sand. I bury my fingers in it and feel cold water flow between them.
"It's water, Conrad. Flowing just like that.."
"It is the greatest treasure in the desert."
Childishly I plunged my head into it. Close to my face it smelled like fresh water, different from the one from the sea. And there is so much of it that I can drink it till I get drunk. That was when I started to feel the presence of townspeople.
At the same time I heard the door being slammed open and a male voice shouting words of warning in a hurry.
"Don't, Yuri. That water is polluted!"
"Wolfram?"
Before I could raise my head he grasped my collar and puled me up. That was a close call.
"Polluted?"
That was a word I didn't expect to hear in this world.
~34
It seemed so fresh and smelled almost like mineral water, there was no indication of it being dirty.
Holding my arm Wolfram dragged me to one of the buildings. Hazel together with other members of resistance and four Shin Makoku soldiers accompanying Captain Sizemore all seemed to be there.
"What's happened? Everyone's faces are so serious."
Without answering Dakascos's carefree question Hazel called me,
"Your Majesty."
It's dim inside, so I can't see where everyone is standing. I have to listen to where the voices come from.
"I heard you, Hazel. What's going on here? What pollution are you talking about?"
"You didn't drink it, did you?"
"I was close. It smelled and felt normal. Was I being targeted by Shocker (a character from Japanese action show)?"
That one is Murata's favorite. Whenever he didn't feel like working he would put poison in Lake Tama or spray some poison gas over it. He's like earth's version of dokuonna. Without Shocker in Masked Rider Murata was sulking every week.
~35
"It was hodjutsu. A very troublesome one."
"The water was poisoned with hojutsu?"
At that moment the images of water pollution started to pop up in my brain. I imagined something like this: factories discharging toxic wastes in the lake, smoke coming out of chimneys, countless fish floating in waters that turned a weird color and poisonous monsters coming out to the slimy surface, because chemicals from the drains made all fish mutate!
"So where are the half-fish half-human guys?"
Conrad let out a meaningful cough.
"Your majesty, let me speak on their behalf, but noble mermen can only live in a very pure sea water."
"Ah, well, sorry, my bad. But you did say it was poisoned, so then even in this huge lake there's not a single drop of water that we could drink?"
"It's only good for laundry now."
Those desperate piles of washed clothes...
"Everyone left the town and went to other lands."
"No, half of former inhabitants remained here. It is hard to leave one's home town and someone had to stay and protect the lake inherited from generations and generations of ancestors. Look, they are still desperately trying to continue their work."
I heard a hinge creak. Someone must have opened the door to the next room. Of course it is dim inside there too so I can't see anything at all.
~36
"Inside the room there are two big water tanks, one on top of the other with a thin pipe that runs through the center of each one. The upper tank is half filled with water, sand, gravel and what seems to be dried tree leaves, while the bottom one is almost empty. And I think there's a mechanism that makes the water flow down that thin pipe. This is the country's water purification system. However, if it produces one drop at a time it probably takes a very long time to clean enough water. Even so, there are always 4 shinzoku watching the mechanism. Who are they, Hazel?"
Thanks for an educational TV show style explanation, Conrad. I'll be in your debt for the rest of my life. However, thanks to his explanation my inner mind theater is already occupied with scenes of factories that manufacture anti-aging cosmetics. Like that guy from a TV commercial who's very worried whether mom will buy their product or not.
"These four people use hojutsu to purify water and make once dirty water suitable for consumption again. All other citizens from every family who stayed continue their work. But even so it is barely enough to have enough drinking water for each family. With such slow speed it's no wonder that it's hard to collect enough."
"But all that thing is doing is just filtering water and not... oh, but they use hojutsu, that must be it. But still having to wait for each drop of clean water - not a very effective way to clean it."
"But that's the only way to make sure there is enough clean water, even for travelers who pass this place by like us."
"So they aren't doing it just for themselves. That's impressive."
~37
"We had to negotiate with them to use some clean water. It doesn't matter if we continue our travel or return - water is absolutely necessary. We can't proceed with our journey without making sure we have a sufficient supply of drinking water. But we don't know how many days it will take to collect enough."
"Yeah, one drop at a time is pretty slow."
I pressed my hand to my forehead and looked up at the sky. The wound underneath my bandages hurts badly. Is there really no better way to filter large amounts of water at the same time?
"Ah! I just thought of something I read in some suspicious journal - The pyramid power! If you make a frame shaped like a pyramid with four angles and put a glass of water inside it becomes tasty or so they said. And if you put a cup of milk that's gone bad it becomes natto!"
"Huh? Why would rotten milk of an animal turn into beans?!" /Sizemore/
"Ah, sorry, my bad! Cow's milk turns into yoghurt and soy beens into natto."
Captain Sizemore let out a sigh of relief. But wait a sec, if that theory is true, then the pyramid power only makes normal food rot... no, no, wait, that's not rotting, it's actually fermentation. However, what would happen if you attempt to ferment water? I've no idea. If only Murata was here he'd definitely have an answer.
"What if we put a pyramid over the entire lake? I wonder if it will recover from pollution at once. But where could we get the material to make it? Captain Sizemore, can you supply us with a super oversized bamboo pole?"
~38
"But, Your Maesty, even if the lake goes back to the way it was before, if the same hojutsu is used on it again it will be useless."
"Ah," I said but couldn't continue, because Hazel began to speak. As she said, even if we made the water in the lake go back to normal, that wouldn't change anything.
First of all we need to find what actually happened, for what reason someone cursed or used a water polluting hojutsu on it.
"Secondly, it seems that there is an ongoing dispute with equestrian tribes about who should be controlling the lake. Having that in mind, it looks like the objective of hojutsu user who casted polluting spell on the lake is to monopolize it."
"Equestrian tribes? You mean the guys who attacked you earlier?"
"That would be them."
"So these co-called equestrian tribes are shinzoku, aren't they? Then it must have been them who used hojutsu."
Come to think of it, I have been informed that there is a conflict between equestrian tribes fighting for dominance under the pretext of protecting the royal tombs in the northern regions of the desert. However, I wasn't told that they were fighting to take control over precious water.
"Yeah...So even if we surround, point crossbows at them and ask them to remove the curse it will hardly work." At times like this dokuonna would have been helpful. If Anisina-san was here she would invent eliminate-any-weird-curse-or-spell-never-fail-kun or clean-the-dirt-even-a-good-nose-have-missed-and-make-the-water-drinkable-version 3.0-kun and other convenient goods.
~39
Sadly, 欲しいときでないのがタイムリーヒットで、いらんときにいるのが毒女。
"Well, maybe for now we could at least try asking what kind of spell that was. And they might tell us if they are in a good mood!" /Dakascos/
"Ask?! Who'd we ask?"
Dakascos turned to look at me and fell silent.
He couldn't answer because he couldn't understand what I said. I wasn't paying attention and asked the question in English.
The situation with languages here is pretty bad. Me, Conrad and Hazel speak English, Hazel speaks Holy Sand's language to her companions, all mazoku and me use our own standard language. With words from three languages in the air poor Atilla-san translating Hazel's Holy sand/English and my and Conrad's mazoku/English was in the state of utter confusion.
While addressing Dakascos, I have to use standard language of Shin Makoku.
"Dakascos, who d'you think we should ask that?"
"That'll be the spell caster of course! If he's the one who used the spell he should know how to remove it."
"You expect such kindness from someone who polluted everyone's oasis for personal gain? And we don't know where the actual spell caster is anyway, there are lots of people in the tribe, how'd we know which one it is!"
~40
Atilla-san who understood our conversation interposed:
"The place, I know."
Hazel, who understood what Atilla-san wanted to say took it from there.
"We've found out where the tribes' lands are from the townspeople. There's one place to the northeast - a day ride, and the other one is south-southwest, half-a-day ride. There are also some smaller clans, but those are not as aggressive as the larger two."
"But if we do go there, we still won't know which person used the spell to pollute the water. And even if we ask them, 'Excuse me, do you happen to know who is responsible for the water pollution?' will they let us meet him that easily? He's their trump card, won't they try to hide him?"
"I'd just give up on this place and go get water from somewhere else. Is there anything further ahead?" /Wolf?/
"No on the map." /Atilla/
"Maybe there's something like a small water well somewhere around, but even so there's nothing certain enough to be put on the map anyway. And simply hoping that we would just run into one on our way is too risky."
"But Your Majesty..." Conrad spoke in standard language, so that Wolfram and Sizemore would be able to understand. "Even if there is a water reservoir somewhere ahead, won't equestrian tribes try to poison that lake too to have complete control over the entire water supplies?"
~41
"I guess they would... But this place is like an important strategic base or... !?"
"What is it, Yuri?"
"Wait!"
Thinking about what I've just said the little sign of "idea!" lit up in my head and I tried my best to put the pieces of it together. There is no water ahead, this town and lake are strategically important, even if we go there's no guarantee we'll be able to find...
"Hazel?" Just to make sure she understands I started to speak English. My ability to speak English is rather limited but it's enough for Conrad and Hazel to understand me.
"What is it?"
"Before we entered the town, every single family in here must have seen us, right?"
Her gray head shook. She said 'yes' keeping her voice low and nodded it seems.
"Have people from the tribe been here before? Maybe one or two of them? Did they have a drink at a local bar and maybe were rude and tried to harass local women?"
"No, at least from what I've seen."
"Then, if this is an important place for them, how come they haven't left even one person to keep an eye on it?" Hazel snorted and chuckled.
"Well, come to think of it, it does seem unusual. Except there might be someone hiding among the townspeople."
~42
"Ah, yeah they could be hiding among the townspeople. But even so we won't know who they are. Putting that aside, Conrad why did you say you think there is no big water reservoir up ahead?"
"That is just an amateur's guess."
Too modest as always. He, a hero who's served in a military for a long time, can't be a complete novice in anything that's related to battle formation and topography. On top of that he has experience traveling on Earth. He even joined the caravan traveling across Sahara and... Well, the point is, I'm not surprised about anything from now on.
"In that case even the tribes in question need the water from here. Where else would they go if they need some?"
"It seems the tribe from south-southwest comes here to collect water regularly. The spell caster must be one of them. That's right. Definitely, they must have someone who can change the quality of water."
"I knew it. But even if we go to their territories how will we find the spell caster? Doesn't look like we have a choice."
But in any kind of business there are such things as gathering the information about enemy's position and scouting. Once the report is made the guys with real power show up and finally get their lazy butts into action to stay ahead of the rivals.
I couldn't suppress a smile.
"Let's invite them!"
~43
I wonder how much so called war potential this town has in case the main bad guy shows up to interfere. To eventually clean the water for now we shouldn't let him take complete control over the lake. If south-sothwest tribe finds out about that they'll definitely be worried and come here. And there's no doubt that they'll send the spell caster who can control the water quality here once again to use his hojutsu on the lake one more time. Ok, let's make him hurry up and go into action to catch up with us.
"And for that we first should go to someone's house, and ask if they'll let us borrow a pigeon..."
"But Yuri, there is no Flapping Wings White Pigeon mail service in the country of Holy sand!" Wolfram, who must have been listening to me mumble to myself, said in astonishment.
That's true. There are no pigeons here.
Notes:
1) I renamed Achira to Atilla - I think that sounds better XD
2) Takabayashi-sensei didn't name Shin Makoku's language, she just calls it "common language/standard language" :/
I'm not good at translating different accents and dialects, sorry. Besides you probably know that Japanese language has all these levels of politeness that are just hard to express in English. But I think I should at least let you know some things. Dakascos' speech is very easy to recognize, he always sounds unsure about things and says 'su' instead of 'des' and 'ya' instead of 'wa'. It's pretty weird that Yuri says he can't recognize him without his head shining in the sun.. XD
Yuri's language is pretty simple too, he doesn't speak like a noble at all. Neither does Wolfram. His speech is simple and very self-asserting(?) like he always knows what he's talking about and is sure that he's right. XD and he always addresses Yuri by his first name. I think he's the only one in Shin Makoku who does that (except for Greta in anime and Sara, who's technically not from Shin Makoku). Conrad always uses polite Japanese forms, his tone is mellow and he sounds like he's always keeping a distance.
3) The next chapter has lots of Wolfram XDDD but I don't have much time to translate it this week and it's over 20 pages long, so I think I'll post it in two parts.
mata ne ^_^