The Man Who Knows the Sun Never c2

Who knows if anyone's going to read this. Still, I'm having way more fun translating it, now that the Vocaloid content has gone up 200%.

Chapter 2

“So? Are the storage facilities extensive enough?”

 “Yes. A section is devoted to cellular-level preservation, as you know.”

 “Where’s the catalogue?”

 “Here.”

 “…Hm? Is “that” not included on this catalogue?”

“That’s correct. Since this “that” is special, I thought that it would be better not to mix it with the other things in this catalogue.”

 “Well, I guess that’s the right call.”

 “The report concerning “that” is over here.”

“Hum…It’s named the twelve disciples of Jesus?”

“It’s not really connected to that. It’s just the names of the twelve men and women a.s.sembled for the project. It seems the team leader of the research group killed some time reading sacred texts, and when it was time to a.s.sign a code name, he took it from those same texts. Even so, you seem well informed. Are you a Christian?”

“I was just a casual one. Besides, I stopped praying to G.o.d a long time ago. If there really was a G.o.d, this world wouldn’t have turned the way it is, would it?”

“On the other hand, perhaps G.o.d wants the world to end.”

“Oh? How about you then, are you a Christian?”

“The leader of the research team was really moved by the sacred texts. When I went to receive the report, I had to hear about it until my ears bled.”

“Thanks for your hard work then.”

“We had a pretty interesting talk.”

“Hum… After all, it’s unmistakably part of religion to have well-crafted stories.”

“That’s true. That’s why people look for salvation in it.”

“Salvation…Then, where are you looking for salvation right now?”

“Right, let me see…In the future that will awake after this, perhaps?”

“…I hope that it is a bright future.”

It was the east limit of the world.

A woman stood in front a door stood thickly covered by ivy, surrounded by low trees that had given birth to moss. Many plausible lies floated around the huge door, such as it was the gate to destruction, or the gate to Heaven.

As it was the fashion with the people of this country, she wore a long robe, with a hood pulled low over her eyes. Her barely visible eyes were turquoise, and the strands of the hair peeking out from the confines of her hood lacked color, as it was characteristic of the people of that place. Her skin was too, so white as to be transparent.

That place was the sole city of the people of the sea, Aquajail. Though, instead of calling it a city of the people of the sea, perhaps it was more accurate to say it was the only city where the people of this planet lived.

Over a thousand years had pa.s.sed since people came to live in the cities at the bottom of the seas, safe guarded by thick walls of gla.s.s. The humans that ended up living in this world, in a place where the light of the sun couldn’t reach, had gradually lost their pigmentation.

Additionally, after relocating to the underwater cities, many people were unable to get used to their life in the depths and developed new physical and mental diseases. Due to these problems, the population numbers decreased, causing the distinctions previously held by humanity since ancient times to vanish, and the various outward appearances that once differed according to the country of origin became one single uniformed look.

At that point in time, the Central a.s.sembly, an organization that had its roots on the WEMC, served as representative body of Aquajail and had the sole control of its government. Because the expansion of the underwater city was a complicated issue, the Central a.s.sembly had restricted births in order to stop the population growth.

In such a world, the woman looking upwards at the door had a look that was average for this country, without a single thing strange about her. She just stood there, looking at the door covered in ivy, in all appearances normal, yet it wasn’t possible to say for certain that there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary about her…

Perhaps becoming tired of holding her head up for such a long time looking at the door, the woman let out a sigh and returned her gaze to the normal spot in front of her. Then she placed a white hand on the door and pushed gently.

“What are you doing there?”

 The woman had just begun to apply pressure to the door, when a voice rang from behind her. Surprised, she turned to look back, and there stood a man, tall and handsome.

“I asked you, what are you doing there?”

“…I thought I’d try to open the door. “ Being questioned for a second time, the woman replied tersely.

“That door shall not open.”

“Since it is a door, doesn’t that mean it was constructed with the purpose to be opened?”

“That might be so for the doors of a residence. But this door shall not open.”

“How come you know that?”

“…It is not for me to answer your questions.”

The woman stared at the man, who spoke in very formal terms. He was very tall, and like the woman, he wore a long robe and covered his head and half of his face with a hood.

(Such beautiful blue eyes…)

Strangely, the man had dark blue eyes, in comparison to the overall lack of color of the people of Aquajail, the Aquarius. In Aquajail, there were only a few things with color. At the bottom of the seas, there were few natural resources, and they were difficult to find and extract. Hence, dye-stuffs and things like that were highly valuable. According to the old stories she knew, the only places one could see for certain such a color was in someone’s eyes, or in the world that existed beyond the gla.s.s. However…

When the woman gazed at the strands peeking out from inside the man’s hood, her gaze lingered there.

 Aquarius had white hair. In very infrequent occasions, children were born possessing some faint pigmentation, but by the time they could count to ten, their hair had already turned white. She had never met someone who had actual colors on them, like this man.

“…Aren’t you an Aquarius?”

The man didn’t reply to her question. Instead, he just stared at the woman in silence.

“Your…violet hair, I didn’t think that color was possible for an Aquarius.”

“I am not an Aquarius.”

“Then what are you?”

“Even though you know that I am not an Aquarius, you have no fear of me?”

The woman shook her head at his quiet question. “Do I need to be afraid? If you wanted to attack me, you wouldn’t have called out to me first. After all, I didn’t sense your presence at all. And yet you are talking to me. So that means you don’t think of me as an enemy.”

“You are not mistaken. Right now I bear no ill will towards you. But that may change according to the circ.u.mstances.”

“That may be so. But that has nothing to do with you not being an Aquarius. From what you saying, I don’t have anything to fear.”

“I see. That is a very rational way of thinking.”

“It’s an honor to be praised by you. So? Are you going to answer my question?”

“I am not an Aquarius. But I am myself. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“You know that it’s not what I wanted to hear, right?”

“It may not be what you wanted to hear in response, but I have answered your question. That is all there is to say.”

“Fine then. I’ve seen what I wanted to see, I can take my leave for today.”

“For today...?”

“Yes, for now. I’ll come again.” After saying that, the woman turned away from him.

“What about you? Who are you?” The man called after her.

“I’m Luka. And if you allow me to borrow your words, nothing more and nothing less.” the woman said, flashing a captivating smile and left.

The following day, just as the woman…as Luka said, she appeared again. That day, the man was waiting for her already standing in front of the door. He stood there with eyes closed without doing anything, guarding the vicinity of the tightly closed door. Perhaps because of the fact that it was clear from the day before that he wasn’t an Aquarius, he wasn’t wearing his hood. Instead, his abundant violet hair fell from the ponytail on the top of his head.

“h.e.l.lo.” when Luka greeted him, he opened his eyes and focused his gaze on her.

“You actually came.”

“Oh, I did say that I will come again.”

“Indeed.” The man answered with a slightly vexed expression to Luka’s smiling reply. And after moving away from his place by the door, he sat down.

After watching him move away, Luka approached the door and just as she had done the previous day, she placed her hand on the door and pushed, applying a bit more force than the previous time.

“It is futile. Even if you persist on such exertions, the door shall not open.” The man said, watching Luka’s efforts.

“How can I open this thing?”

“Even if I knew, I am not under the obligation of imparting that knowledge to you.”

“You are a cold one…What would you call someone like this…? Ah, oh yes. You’d call him stingy.” Luka said, apparently amused by the man’s unchanged, cold demeanor.

In response, the laconic man’s expression also softened a little. “You are a strange woman.”

“Oh, that’s not something I want to hear from you. You’re pretty weird yourself.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes…Now that I think about it, you haven’t told me yet. What’s your name?” Luka asked the man, and looked closely at his face. “Oh, you have such a pretty face for a man. Your name must be equally pretty.”

“Name…my name? Well…I wonder what it was.”

“Oh, you won’t tell me your name either? You’re an absurdly stingy man aren’t you?”

“Do not be mistaken, it is solely that I had not needed to identify myself for a long while. The few people than knew of me, call me Gatekeeper after my function.”

“Gatekeeper? But that’s a lie actually.”

“A lie?”

“Yes. A lie such as…At the east end of our world, there is a door that leads to the surface, and there’s a gatekeeper guarding it.”

“Is it your hobby to investigate those so-called lies?” The man asked in a teasing tone, since Luka’s eyes gleamed, as if happy.

“Oh, not at all. But isn’t it fun to find out if the tales that one hears are truth or not?”

“Is that so? I cannot say I interact with people all too often, so false rumors do not reach my ears.”

“My, is that the case? But if you don’t interact with other people, isn’t that boring? I bet that you are so unfriendly because you don’t have someone to talk to.”

“Do not say such rude things so lightly.”

“Oh, sorry. It’s not like I had any bad intentions you know? But if you act so unfriendly, people won’t come near you. And since you have such a pretty face, isn’t that a waste?”

“That is none of your concern. Besides, it is better if people do not come here. You should stop coming already. No matter how many times you come, the door will not open, and there no such thing as the surface.” In comparison to the way Luka smiled as she talked, the man kept an unexpressive face as he gave a laconic reply.

“I don’t want to.” Instead of being cowed by his words, she denied them with a laugh.

“Is that all have to say?”

“I don’t want to.” Repeating the same words, Luka stood up. “I’ll come again. I’ll open that door for sure, you’ll see.”

“I am telling you, it will not open.”

“A door has to open at some point. After all, this isn’t a wall. Well then, see you…” Luka turned her back to the man, still smiling and waving her right hand. As the previous day, she then left.

The man said nothing, but kept watching the path Luka took until she was out of sight.