WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Got a Gallery in the Wild ◈
Chapter 66: The Dead (3)
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Someone once said that sports were unscripted dramas.
This was especially true of sports with clear winners and losers.
The kind of drama where a team seems destined to lose, only to turn things around. Or seems certain to win, only to have the tables turned on them.
That was why fans screamed themselves hoarse even when there was an obvious gap in skill.
They might beat a stronger team, and even if they lost, they could still look forward to the future.
Even if the odds were only 0.1%, we would not give up.
The moment you give up, the game is over.
Why do we love sports? Because we never know who will win.
Just as those sayings suggested, sports were something whose outcome could never be decided in advance.
There was already so little entertainment in this world, so it was only natural for people to become completely absorbed in sports.
Even nobles born of noble blood were no exception.
“Will it go in? Will it go in?! Shooooot! Goooooal! Chames United! They score a go-ahead goal near the end of the match!”
“Th-that was an incredible combination! The Leor players have lowered their heads!”
A private training ground reserved exclusively for Mephisto royalty.
A broadcast using Broadcasting Magic was playing through the Crystal Ball at its center.
Chames United and Leor were bitter rivals who could not stand each other.
Chames United, or Chaeyu for short, had originally been at a disadvantage, but they had pulled off a comeback.
Even the commentators were so worked up that they were stammering.
“……”
One person had watched it all.
Kaelin, the princess of Mephisto and the registered user known as PrincessChaenggu in the gallery.
She barely managed to calm her trembling lips before making a post in the gallery.
Once she finally uploaded it by pressing the “Post” button, she unleashed every emotion she had kept bottled up inside.
“Gyaaaaaargh!!!”
Kaelin ran around the entire training ground like a madwoman, screaming in celebration.
No, it was closer to a beast’s roar than a cheer.
It was a raw, unfiltered reaction that threw away every bit of the dignity, grace, and etiquette expected of a princess!
She was so happy that mana burst out of her without her realizing it, causing damage both large and small throughout the training ground.
If someone unfamiliar with her had seen her expression, they would have thought this.
Not even someone high out of their mind could make a face like that.
“Is this real? Is it really real?! It is, right?!”
Kaelin, who had been tearing through the training ground like a rabid dog, returned to her seat.
She was so excited that her breathing had grown ragged, and even her blue skin had turned red.
“That was an outstanding attacking sequence. Even the defenders joined the attack.”
“That’s right. Partially giving up on defense was actually……”
The Crystal Ball made exclusively for Broadcasting Magic had been linked to Orichalcum, improving its image quality, sound quality, and connection.
The hologram being broadcast by the Crystal Ball showed Kaelin the sight she had wanted so badly to see.
“Leor doesn’t have much time left…… Huh?”
“Marta intercepts it! They go straight on the attack!”
“To Kone on the left. Kone breaks through. Leor needs to stop Kone!”
“Kone passes inside…… Ah! The defender clears it away.”
“Ahhh!”
Kaelin groaned in disappointment. Her chance to properly sink Leor had slipped away.
But the chance to attack remained. Watching the thrilling match with sweaty palms, she even held her breath.
“The match is over! What a nail-biting comeback victory!”
“The Chaeyu players are dropping to the ground in joy. They overcame the pressure brilliantly.”
Clap clap clap clap!
The moment the match ended, Kaelin applauded with all her heart.
The fans in the stadium answered with a standing ovation for the players who had achieved such a thrilling comeback.
“Seriously. How did they even win?”
Kaelin sank heavily back into her seat as exhaustion washed over her.
She rubbed her face as if she could not believe it, then looked back at the broadcast.
The camera showed each player’s face one by one. They all looked completely exhilarated.
“Yeah. It’s so nice to see them smiling. They always looked miserable after losing.”
That loss to a weak team that had been on the rise last time? Forgotten.
They had beaten that irritating rival! It felt as though a decade of pent-up frustration had finally lifted.
In its place came an enormous wave of positive energy, otherwise known as dopamine.
There was a reason sports were called more dangerous than drugs.
‘It turned out just like Grylls said.’
Kaelin quietly logged onto the gallery.
Just as Grylls had said, they conceded three goals but scored four. Such a rare event had everyone losing their minds.
One thing in particular caught Kaelin’s attention.
└ [Wild Grylls]: If our defense concedes three goals, then our forwards just need to score four.
└ It sounds fucking stupid, but it makes sense...!
└ What a perfect answer lol.
└ Sounds like something a person who found the truth would say lol.
└ I’ve come on a prophecy pilgrimage. Please get Chaeyu into the Champions League.
└ I’ve come on a prophecy pilgrimage. Please let me get together with the girl I like.
└ Please let the stocks I bought go up!
└ Please let me do well on my exams!
└ I’m a commoner, but a noble...
So-called “prophecy pilgrimages” began to appear.
It was a kind of folk belief where people made wishes on posts that seemed to have predicted the future.
But pilgrimages to Grylls’s post were something else entirely.
Nobody had thought his words would actually come true.
The sheer impact of seeing it happen against impossibly long odds.
‘I should give him another jersey.’
Thanks to Orichalcum, she had been able to witness that exhilarating comeback with her own eyes.
Normally, the broadcast would start cutting out here and there from the eightieth minute onward, but this one had been crystal clear.
Kaelin hummed happily as she watched the broadcast.
The match might be over, but the best part was still left: the manager’s interview.
“You finally defeated Leor. How do you feel?”
“It goes without saying that I feel great. This victory feels even more valuable because our players refused to give up.”
Chaeyu’s manager was completely bald.
Bald managers were common in the league, so it was nothing special.
It was only because the baldness was so striking that people called the manager Baldy.
Regardless of race, baldness, especially hair loss, was a shared pain.
Of course, mocking someone for that pain in real life was not something a decent person should do.
The gallery was different. If someone wanted to make fun of it, they could go all out.
That was why people often mocked bald people in the gallery.
“What do you think was the key to victory?”
“I think our players’ fighting spirit was the greatest factor. And……”
After the standard manager interview came the MVP interview.
The MVP was, naturally, the player who had completed a hat trick with three goals.
Scoring three goals alone in soccer, where every goal was precious, was incredibly difficult.
Since the player had done something that difficult, it was only natural to receive the award for best player.
“You looked especially light on your feet today. The comeback victory speaks for itself, of course. Did something happen in the locker room?”
“The manager told us this. If we concede two goals, score three. If we concede three, score four.”
“Huh?”
Kaelin’s eyes widened as she listened to the interview.
The words felt strangely familiar. Quietly, she recorded the interview.
“At first, I thought it was crazy. But once we scored the equalizer, I started to feel that way.”
“What way?”
“If we concede three goals, we score four. That’s the answer.”
‘……Could the manager be using the gallery too?’
The interview was too much of a coincidence not to make her suspicious.
Still, it was not entirely a bad thing. They would play even more aggressively from now on.
Until now, Chaeyu had focused only on defense and lost even matches they had practically won.
They had been forcing themselves into clothes that did not fit, so they could not show their true skill.
“Heheh~”
Feeling happiness she had not experienced in a long time, Kaelin hummed as she began tidying up.
The thrill of the comeback still seemed to linger throughout her body.
‘People say baseball starts in the bottom of the ninth. This must feel similar, right?’
Thinking of it that way, she felt like she understood why people watched baseball too.
You could never know who would win until the third out.
With that new realization, Kaelin headed out of the training ground.
Before leaving, she did not forget to change from her Chaeyu jersey into a dress.
“Good work, Princess.”
An elderly butler was waiting outside.
Kaelin nodded at the greeting. A faint smile curled her lips.
Perhaps noticing something in that smile, the butler cautiously spoke.
“It seems your training has made progress.”
“Yes. I made tremendous progress for once.”
While speaking, Kaelin suddenly thought of her father, Asmode.
He had begun training around the same time as her.
Perhaps the butler knew how Asmode’s training was going.
“What about Father?”
“Well……”
The butler could not easily answer Kaelin’s question. The hesitation made it clear that the butler did not want to say it.
Kaelin raised one eyebrow.
“His Majesty…… did not make much progress in his training. Instead, it seemed he failed to maintain control.”
“Hm?”
Kaelin’s eyes widened. Asmode had failed to maintain control?
Demonkind had a tendency to release mana when their emotions became intense.
Had Kaelin not released mana when she ran around like a mad dog?
The emotion she had felt then had been extreme joy, so it had not been too bad. If it had been anger rather than joy, it would have caused tremendous destruction.
The butler’s cautious manner made it easy to infer that Asmode had erupted in anger.
“I thought he had been calm for the last ten years. Did something happen?”
“I do not know the details either. But I am certain something unpleasant has happened.”
“Hm. All right. I’ll be careful.”
Kaelin nodded and started walking. The butler gave a deep bow and left.
On her way back to her private room, she thought about Asmode’s anger.
‘I thought he had mellowed out a lot. Was I wrong?’
Asmode was an object of fear. He possessed overwhelming strength and impossible-to-hide charisma.
Kaelin could feel warmth from him because she was family, but to everyone else, he was the Demon King himself.
‘Well, he has moments like that sometimes.’
Kaelin did not think much of it. At the very least, Asmode did not harm people.
He might destroy everything around him, but he had never laid a hand on Kaelin in his life.
After entering her private room, she threw herself onto her soft bed.
“Hehehe.”
She let out another perverted little laugh.
Her cold, aloof image was nowhere to be found beneath that goofy grin.
‘When was the last time I felt like this?’
It was a thrill so rare that even the memory of it had become hazy.
Demonkind, who craved pleasure, found it difficult to feel satisfied even with drugs.
Yet Kaelin was experiencing pleasure unlike anything she had felt before.
‘This isn’t the time for this. I need to log onto the gallery.’
She planned to spend the rest of her time diligently hanging around the gallery.
The gallery had already been taken over by Chaeyu fans resurrected from the dead.
From now on, this was the Chames United Gallery.
A post like that had reached the featured posts with an enormous number of upvotes.
Of course, given the number of people who frequented the gallery, the ratio of upvotes to downvotes was not overwhelmingly one-sided.
It was about two to one. Even that was incredible.
[Post title] ???: You suck.
[Author] PrincessChaenggu
[Post] (A picture of an emblem featuring a hawk)
[Post] You suck lol.
└ She goes straight for the T-bagging lol.
└ Ah lol, nobody can resist a comeback lol.
└ How are you supposed to resist this lol?
└ [KingLeor]: You only won once lol.
└ [PrincessChaenggu]: Yep~ Came back from three goals down~ You suuuuck lol.
└ [KingLeor]: It was only one match, and you’re trying so hard tsk tsk.
└ [PrincessChaenggu]: So what was the score? Four to three!
└ [KingLeor]: lol, so are you making the Champions League?
└ [PrincessChaenggu]: Beating a scrub team was enough for me~
└ Lol, she’s really getting under their skin.
└ ???: Do you know why you lost? Because you went up against our Chaenggu!
└ Those Chaenggu bastards acting all cocky is pissing me off lol.
└ Then win if it bothers you~
“Hehehehehehe.”
Kaelin could feel happiness for once.
* * *
While all the Chaeyu fans were experiencing happiness at its peak...
└ [Allfather]: I have good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first?
└ [Wild Grylls]: Um... The bad news first?
└ [Allfather]: The heart burst.
└ [Wild Grylls]: Sir?
Grylls received all kinds of news from Allfather.
Footnotes:
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