Chapter 5 (2/2)

“Who … who are … you?”

It can talk?

Julian is increasingly unsure about his present circ.u.mstances, but he ponders a few seconds before deciding to answer the other side’s question.

“h.e.l.lo, my name is Julian; Julian Felix.”

His mind made up, Julian retracts his longsword, allowing a graceful, pleasant smile to appear on his face. Since his counterpart can speak, why not communicate? Though the arcane revenants he had met before now had all been unable to speak, there are exceptions to everything, no?

“You … you … you …”

The shadow seems vexed by Julian’s actions, bellowing in a deep voice, seemingly caught in contemplation or remembrance.

“You … are … person …?”

“Of course I’m a person.”

Julian shrugs nonchalantly before looking back at the shadow.

“Who are you?”

“I … I …”

Hearing Julian’s query, the shadow is excited once more, waving its elongated arms up and down; it alternates between clutching at its head, then dropping its arms, then clutching again, almost as if the problem Julian posed was insoluble - even for itself. [2]

“My … my …”

The shadow’s movements grow more rapid; it seems to be looking for something that cannot be found. It desperately tries to recall, to answer Julian’s question, but to no avail.

Quietly gazing at the shadow, Julian says nothing further, though he keeps a hand prudently placed on his sword-hilt. Though the confused revenant poses a threat to him no longer, and may even be pretty easy to eliminate, Julian does not take advantage; it’s rare to find one of these that can both think and talk, so let’s see how things turn out before the beating resumes – he has both the confidence and the strength to utterly destroy it pending rejoined battle.

“My na … my na … name … is …”

The shadow quivers, and the surrounding voice energies contract and congeal with its movements. Following this, the shadow seems to remember something; raising its head, it stares directly at Julian with its crimson eyes.

“My name is, Auvalire West.” [3]

An elegant, melodious voice resounds; accompanying the declaration, the pitch-black mist that had surrounded and composed the shadow flares forthwith.

The figure of a girl appears within. She looks serenely towards Julian, her eyes flas.h.i.+ng with a strange brilliance.

“That is … my name.”

[1] A long run-on sentence, but I’m too lazy to splice it. Tough.

[2] There is a spot of wordplay here. “Problem” and “question” are both the same word, 问题 in this context. Hard to render completely, though I could have tried harder.

[3] It could have been a better name. Yes, it’s definitely not Ophelia, although it could have been if I wanted to force the matter. I wanted to have a novel with only French names, dammit! How about that Julien Félix, hmm? Culturally challenged indeed.

TN: I'll try to get a few more out today. I'm planning 2 more but I could be off. As much as this is a ”fun” project for now, I'd like to get a reasonable volume out, huh?

TN2: As a rule, I do not try to shoot for accuracy over smoothness and comprehension, though preserving most of both is my goal. I hope my work is agreeable to read and does not sound too unnatural. If the peanut gallery has any comments on my work, let me know on Discord or Plebbit; you can find my translator page (?) on NovelUpdates, with contact details.

TN3: Also I'm upsizing font to 12. I hope that's okay but you guys don't get a say anyway.

<script>