He and It Chapter 71: Dark Sky Sanctuary (6)

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Chapter 71: Dark Sky Sanctuary (6)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

When there was silence outside the cave, Falchion nodded at Yu Mengzhou, “I’m sorry to surprise you.”

Yu Mengzhou held his glass of wine and said honestly, “They’re…Quite cute. You take good care of your herd.”

“Because I’m the oldest,” Falchion said quietly. “And off of the battlefield, their intelligence disappears, so I have to take care of them.”

A disgruntled grunt sounded outside. The horses were still eavesdropping on their conversation.

“So,” Yu Mengzhou asked since he had taken the initiative to mention the battlefield. “What’s going on with you guys? Can you tell me about it?”

Falchion hung his head. His horns emitted an on-and-off red light. “First of all, on behalf of my herd, I would like to apologize to you, Farrier, for proving that what I said was not true with your actual actions.”

“You have asked for answers to your confusion, as you should. But I do not know, exactly, where to begin.” Yu Mengzhou touched the fine decoration on his wine glass. It was out of place in that humble cave, but he didn’t speak, just listened quietly.

“I was the first demon horse born in the Demon Realm. The magma at the center of the earth was the amniotic fluid that gave birth to me, but from the moment of my birth I was saddled, wrapped in reins, and forced to bow to my rider,” Falchion whispered. “The demon that bound me was my first rider, and the most powerful ruler in the realm, Prince Angola, who paralyzed me with pain, hatred, mania and bloodlust, weakening me in my struggle and moving me further and further away from my freedom until the second demonic horse, once again bathed in streaming fire, surfaced from the depths of the Earth’s core, uninitiated.”

“In this way, he enslaved twelve demon horses, including me, one after another, and although his power and strength increased dramatically, we also became more and more violent and difficult to control. It wasn’t until a thirteenth demon horse also joined the pack that things finally got out of hand,” Falchion’s narration was unhurried. “I started a rebellion, destroyed the path he used to get to the center of the earth, and hit him hard.”

Yu Mengzhou was a bit puzzled, “But when I first met you, you were still fighting the riders on your backs…”

“Counting that rebellion, it has already been a thousand years since then,” Falchion said calmly. “Angola was seriously injured and was so disgusted by the betrayal of the horse herd that, in order to protect himself and to bring the scourge to the east, he spread the news throughout the entire Demon Realm. He told all the Demons that survived in this place–whoever gained the allegiance of the horse herd would be able to replace his position and become the new Demon Prince, reigning over the Demon Realm.”

Falchion said coldly, “This was the beginning of strife and war.”

Yu Mengzhou understood a little bit, “That means the news he put out made you guys exhausted from dealing with too many enemies.”

“Not bad,” Falchion said. “Not being able to kill him has always been my most regrettable heartache…He summoned demons from all over the realm, like ravenous buzzards circling over piles of corpses, and a steady stream of them came towards us, and that simultaneously led to a stalemate.”

Yu Mengzhou asked, “What situation?”

“The spell nails are blocking our power. In order to remove the spell nails, we have to annihilate Angola,” the leader of the herd of horses replied. “But in order to get close to Angola’s royal palace, we have to run halfway across the Demon Realm, then kill our way through the armies of demonic creatures that have gathered in large numbers in front of the palace gates, waiting for a chance to capture us there –They think that we are bound to avenge ourselves on Angola, and are therefore all gathered there in one body, waiting for us to strike. To crush those armies requires lifting the spell-nails which hold us down, and which, as you see, have so weakened us, that even the meanest of the devilish horsemen can briefly subdue the horse herd and realize some of their arrogant dreams.”

Yu Mengzhou understood. This was a “want to get rid of the spell nail, then kill Angola, ah. His palace doors have too many enemies, then kill all the enemies, ah. The nail is still there, you have to kill Angola first, ah…But there are too many enemies in front of his palace” endless loop.

That’s why they were so angry and thought that he lied to them when he said “I can help you remove the things from your hooves.”

“Yes,” Falchion seemed to see right through his thoughts. “Even a true archdemon of Angola’s level, not to mention a human, might not be able to undo the spell nails that the Prince himself drove in and that’s why we suspected you…I’m sorry.” 

“It’s nothing,” Yu Mengzhou scratched his hair, and couldn’t help but spit on the good speech in his heart, alas. What could he do, though? This was a group of talking horses. “Maybe it’s because I’m not a person from this world, so that Prince’s ghostly idea doesn’t work on me. It doesn’t work…Right?”

He laughed a bit and asked Falchion, “So what are you guys gonna do next so I can remove all those nails?”

Falchion looked at him deeply. Yu Mengzhou was oddly embarrassed by it, but out of social etiquette, he managed to a long confused stare into Falchion’s eyes.

Hmm…Was it his illusion? With the killing intent faded, why did it feel like the demon horse in front of him had dull eyes…?

“Would you like to be the rider of the herd?” Falchion asked suddenly. “No need to conquer, no need to pray. Each demon horse will volunteer to serve as your footing, the blade of conquest, everything. In return, we only need freedom.”

“Ah, this?” Yu Mengzhou was startled, his first reaction was to refuse. “Although I’ve seen many horses and engaged in related professions, I’m not an equestrian, I’m just a farrier. I don’t know how to ride a horse at all, so forget about it.”

Of course, there was another reason, but he didn’t have the heart to say it out loud, those demon horses were all as big as anything. If he wanted to ride them, he would have to do the splits on the horse’s back, and his own hardware conditions wouldn’t be able to keep up with them…

Falchion froze, and the demon horses listening outside also froze.

Refused? The human actually refused?

“How!” Sevenfold Eyes was so anxious that he almost jumped up. “How could any human refuse such a temptation? It must be because the chief didn’t carefully spell out the benefits…”

“Authority? Might? Wealth? Thoughts of life and death?” Blasphe fretted, as she gave examples. “Humans can’t imagine what it would be like to be a Prince. Give him a hint!”

Bloody Butcher, on the other hand, stood in the corner facing the wall in silence. He didn’t dare to venture a squeak in the midst of a crowd of terrified brothers. He was really worried that if he was the first and last demonic warhorse to lift the spell nails, he would be rounded up and torn apart by his jealous, maddened companions…

“You will have many things at your fingertips,” Falchion said with all the composure he could muster. “And the Demon Realm submitting at your feet. Endless riches, endless power and glory. You could even be youthful for eternity, and be granted a life in sync with ours…”

“I…I just want to go home,” Yu Mengzhou said blankly. “Go back to my past life. Even though there are you guys here…I still miss the other world, the one I’m more familiar with.”

Falchion slowly closed his mouth.

He gazed at the human’s face. In fact, he could still bully him, either through torture, intimidating kills, or simply hanging him in a cage as he had done before, denied food and drink, denied freedom, and left to dry out in the hot winds of the Demon Realm…What a fragile creature the human was. He’d give in, he’d surely give in.

But for some reason, even though Falchion puffed his demonic lips and tongue hard, he couldn’t even spit out a word. He thought of the human’s complimentary words, his pursed lips as he pulled out the spell nails, the sad look in his eyes, the shiny sweat on his face… He smelled salty and soft, but he lost his fear of the magical horse herd, like a cloud that could be held to the tip of his nose without the smell of sulfur.

Falchion lowered his head, mute for a moment, as he struggled without hope, “If we help you find your way home…”

The atmosphere was very heavy. As he looked at Falchion’s downcast appearance, Yu Mengzhou felt that they seemed to have misunderstood something, and hastily relieved them with a strong voice, “Of course! As long as you help me find my way home, I’ll fix your hooves. No problem!”

Falchion hung his head and widened his eyes slightly. He felt nothing but disbelief.

That’s all there was to it? Just help the human find his way home, and he’ll help pull the demon prince’s seal off?

There could never be such a simple and cozy, low investment, high reward deal. It was so absurd it seemed like a lie. However, the human had proven himself, and so far he hadn’t said a single hypocritical word.

What on earth could have caused such generous terms?

“Understood,” Falchion looked up, a dark light trickling through his eyes. “Then the contract stands. My herd helps you find a passage back to earth, and you help us regain our freedom.”

“Very well! Very well!” Striker huffed and puffed, as he wagged his head and tail in excitement. “I can carry the human and run to my heart’s content!”

The other demon horses glanced at the fool who couldn’t hide his words with stealthy glances from the shadows.

“By the way, my name is Yu Mengzhou,” Yu Mengzhou said, “After the one who said, ‘The south wind knows what I want and blows my dreams to the western continent…’ Uh, never mind. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand, just know what my name is. Haha.”

What a tongue-twisting name. Falchion recited it a few times in his mind, then gave Yu Mengzhou a nod, as he acted very reliable.

No problem, he thought, we’ll still call you human from now on.

.

The second demonic warhorse Yu Mengzhou repaired was Gao’er, a demonic horse born from the dark side of the magma in the center of the earth, and thus he had the ability to walk through the shadows at the same time.

“He has the ability to help the herd spy out a lot of important information,” Falchion said in a hushed voice. “Deal with his spell spikes before this hiding spot is discovered.”

“What about you?” Yu Mengzhou asked.

“I am older than all of them,” Falchion replied. “And have more than they can bear. I can afford to wait and have you deal with theirs first.”

Since the leader of the herd had said so…Yu Mengzhou approached Gao’er, who was so nervous that he couldn’t stop pawing at the dirt, and gave him a soothing pat on the neck before stroking along his mane.

For Yu Mengzhou, the demon horses consciously put away their burning flames, which was pretty much a privilege geared for him alone.

“Relax, it’s fine.” If it was before, Yu Mengzhou could still pull out some fruits, carrot sticks or something from his pocket to reward the horses. Now that he didn’t have these options, he had no choice but to give up on it. “It’ll be fine soon. Bear the pain.”

Gao’er’s gray-black fur couldn’t help but glow with a faint red light, and he wanted to angrily scold the Farrier and tell him that he wasn’t a little colt that needed to be breastfed! However, somehow, the words that came out of the human’s mouth were so smooth and soothing that it made his body itchy, and he couldn’t help but want to arch his head over something.

The demon horse grunted stoically as Yu Mengzhou lifted his front hof and guided him onto the bone bench.

Gao’er’s condition was as bad as Bloody Butcher’s. The tailor-made torture stuck precisely to every body part of the horse, presenting a staggeringly torturous creativity. His hooves were parasitized with densely packed copper tubes, like swarms of living creatures, that sucked up the blood from the horse’s legs in drum after drum, and then transferred it to the heavy harness carried on the back of his spine.

On to the hoof-cutting pliers.

Yu Mengzhou carefully chose his tool. As soon as the teeth of the hoof-cutting pliers pressed against the hollow copper tubes, the supposedly inorganic dead thing immediately emitted a frightening and treacherous hissing sound, which sent chills down one’s spine.

Yu Mengzhou didn’t care about that, his hand rose and fell, only to hear a “clang” sound. The copper pipe was like a thin crisp paper. It was quickly clamped flat and broken under the pliers.

Horse blood spilled. Yu Mengzhou then clamped the end, twisted out the draw, and saw that the end of the copper tube was like a sharp long screw, deeply drilled into the hoof cuticle, all the way to the tip of the horse’s leg bone.

Like a locust.

Yu Mengzhou’s face showed uncontrollable disgust as he clamped off his targets one by one, then unceremoniously plucked out the wailing tubes and threw them to the ground to stomp them flat.

If I were to meet those so-called tormentors, I wouldn’t be done with them until I took my pincers and swung them around.

With the parasitic impediment removed, the horse’s hoof rested there, dripping with blood. With his experience from the first time, Yu Mengzhou’s process of pulling out the spell nail seemed more skillful and smooth. He copied his moves with a single-sided knife, first cut a circle around the copper wedge, and then, through the gloves, pinch the nail and wiggle it to see if there was any looseness.

“Bear with it,” he admonished. “You can yell if it hurts, but don’t move, okay?”

Gao’er was momentarily lost in thought, and didn’t hold back, but still obediently said, “Yes.” 

Not waiting for it to return to its shameful strength, Yu Mengzhou had already twisted the spell nail and pushed it outward with all his might.

Gao’er whinnied, his body almost turning into shadows and rolling into a ball on the ground. Yu Mengzhou made a split second decision. He instantly turned with such force that there was an ear-splitting scuffing sound from the inside of the hoof, and the first spike was no longer able to hold on to its prey and fell heavily to the ground.

After he removed the first one, the link between the seals was no longer perfect, and the remaining four were much easier to take out. Yu Mengzhou frowned and slammed them down onto the ground one by one, then proceeded to take care of the broken hoof.

The hoof couldn’t be repaired ruthlessly. It could only be corrected first, and then when it was fully grown, the hoof surface could be shoveled properly.

He wiped the blood off the hoof, smeared on some antiseptic, and wrapped it in a bandage.

“Change the hoof.” He patted Gao’er on the back. “Next up.”

Despite his breezy demeanor, in his mind, Yu Mengzhou couldn’t help but sigh over his toolbox.

His spare medicines and bandages were running low…where to get supplies in this unfamiliar place? It was really worrying.

 

Author’s Note: 

Falchion: hangs head If you don’t want to help us, that’s fine… holds back a choked sob

Yu Mengzhou: begins to panic No, not at all, I’ll definitely help you guys, don’t worry!

Falchion: pause and chokes louder We’re so lonely, so alone, no one loves us… closely observes Yu Mengzhou’s reaction

Yu Mengzhou: gets more flustered and hugs the horses I’m here, I’m coming!

Falchion: nods triumphantly Well, good, the human’s heart is mine, it was worth a try.