WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 22: They Made Me Do It All

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As the dungeon collapsed, a new passage opened beside the bonfire where I had been standing.

After squeezing through the narrow passage, I found Viktor waiting for me.

“You really defeated every single applicant.”

“I was just lucky.”

I really had been lucky.

More than anything, Luna had gone easy on me at the end.

Yet Viktor said nothing about that.

“Come with me. You need to greet the applicants.”

He led me to the rear of the waiting room for those eliminated from Ruidel Academy’s entrance exam.

It was a space large enough to hold around a thousand people, with blackout curtains covering every wall.

“Number 201 has poor balance. We should deduct points for that.”

“What about Number 121? They seem talented.”

“Number 44 is hopeless. Shouldn’t they have learned the basics before coming here?”

Dozens of examiners from Ruidel’s faculty were evaluating the applicants beyond the curtains.

Then Alicia walked out from among them.

“You worked hard, Duke Grace.”

“Haha. It was all thanks to this young man.”

As Ruidel’s current student council president, she naturally had the right to observe the entrance exam.

“I don’t know who you are, but you worked very hard today. Your battle against Lady Ren was especially impressive.”

“...”

“I’d like to see the face beneath that helmet. Is your identity something you can’t even share with me?”

“Please be patient a little longer. The final applicant will be eliminated shortly.”

At that moment, one of the examiners called out.

“The final eliminated applicant, Luna Grace, has arrived in the waiting room!”

“Oh dear. What a shame.”

Having heard the declaration that the exam was over, Alicia immediately turned around and returned to her seat.

The faculty members who had been laughing and chatting also cleared their throats one by one, putting on solemn expressions.

In the original story, when the final eliminated applicant entered the waiting room, the blackout curtains descended to reveal the faculty members who had been judging the students all along.

“We’d been watching all of you!” That was the message, along with a display of Ruidel’s authority.

It had felt quite intimidating from the protagonist’s perspective. I never expected to see the scene from backstage.

“Have you memorized the speech?”

I only nodded at Viktor’s question. He had instructed me not to speak until I revealed my identity.

In my hand was the speech Viktor had given me. Once I revealed myself and recited it, my mission would be complete.

The heart of the speech was to lay out Ruidel’s aspirations and encourage the applicants. He said I could work in some of my own story with appropriate ad-libs.

Just as I was reviewing it one last time, the blackout curtains fell to the sound of grand drums, revealing the applicants.

When dozens of examiners appeared all at once, the scattered noise gradually died down as the applicants sensed that something was off.

Once the room had quieted, Viktor stepped forward. I followed him onto the stage.

The moment I appeared in Valhilar’s form, whispers began spreading through the once-silent waiting room again.

“Valhilar!? Why is that thing there?”

“The Blade of Ruidel!”

“What the hell is that?! Why are you guys talking like you’re the only ones who know?”

Not many of the applicants had reached the boss room.

As the person involved, it was quite interesting to see the difference in reactions between those who had faced Valhilar and those who had not.

“To all those who participated in Ruidel Academy’s entrance exam, I have an announcement. The test you underwent today was meant to see whether you possessed the courage to face yourselves before the wall known as your limits. The person who served as both that wall and your special examiner was...”

Was this the moment?

“Sir Halibal Velder.”

The moment he finished speaking, I removed my helmet and revealed myself. The applicants, who had quieted down, erupted into noise once more.

“Valhilar was the Funeral Sword?”

“I thought he hadn’t appeared in the exam!”

“Was the test site a Beast Dungeon because of him too?”

More people knew my face than I expected. It was funny even to me, but my reputation was already fairly high at this point.

I swept my gaze over the familiar faces.

The first person I noticed was Aren.

I had made that meaningful comment as though I knew about the Celestial Extremity God, so Aren’s complicated expression made sense.

‘It’ll take quite a while to explain that later.’

Maybe because I had already told Mine about my identity, she looked fairly calm. She gave me a small bow, then smiled with her eyes as usual.

Eugene and Ran, on the other hand, glared at me as if I were some final boss they absolutely had to defeat.

Eugene’s eyes were literally on fire. I wished he’d direct that heated gaze at Aren instead.

Cecilia had grabbed Senia by the neck as she vented her anger. Senia simply swayed back and forth like a paper doll while trying not to laugh.

Luna... where’d she go?

Finally, when I turned my head, Alicia was staring blankly at me with coffee dribbling from her mouth.

‘Why are you worse at controlling your expression than I am?’

Then voices of complaint erupted from among the applicants.

“Funeral Sword! How are you going to take responsibility if we failed the exam because of you?”

“Shouldn’t you have at least given us a chance to cross swords with you?”

“No matter who you are, isn’t this far too arrogant?”

This was a scene that had appeared in the original story too.

I had prepared myself for it, but it wasn’t easy to keep my expression under control. Pure hatred would have been one thing, but this was almost the first time I had received resentful looks.

Still, I was the one who had eliminated them all, so I had brought it on myself. That made my heart feel even heavier.

Viktor continued speaking as though their complaints meant nothing.

“As a senior dungeon raider and a special examiner, why don’t you say a few words to the applicants?”

His words reminded me of the speech.

Its contents weren’t much different from the lines I normally threw out while pretending to be a knight.

It was filled with about five lines of grand, stereotypical knight-like phrases.

In truth, everything up to this point had been the same as it was with Adeline. The only difference was that I stood in her place.

What had Adeline said back then?

The sights of the dungeons on the front lines, the number and strength of the monsters, the fear and helplessness she had felt before them, and the sorrow of losing her comrades.

She had brought out those memories one by one and set the applicants’ hearts ablaze.

Could I do something like that too?

...That was when I heard a quiet voice from one of the applicants.

“...That’s amazing. He’s the same age as us.”

Those words echoed through my mind.

I closed my eyes and focused on the voices reaching me.

“...The Funeral Sword was Valhilar?”

“I couldn’t even properly keep up with him.”

“Could I become like that too?”

Only then did I realize it.

Until now, I had been chasing only playable characters.

I opened my eyes.

This time, I looked not at them, but at the applicants.

Those called NPCs.

People like the original Halibal.

<Academy of the End> had been a fairly bright story. Its academy setting was part of that.

But maybe the developers had been on drugs, because after Chapter 4, students began dying one after another as the story progressed.

Even playable characters could die without exception if the player made the wrong choices.

That was why many players called the developers cruel. They made you grow attached to people, then killed them without a second thought.

Looking back, maybe I had treated everyone who wasn’t playable as an NPC after coming to this world.

They would die later anyway, and their lives would ultimately depend on the protagonist’s party.

I probably had.

Maybe that was why I hadn’t been deeply saddened when my comrades died, and why I could go on about Shards while their bereaved families prayed.

It had been fun playing the boss and eliminating the applicants. I could approach it lightly, thinking, ‘That’s what Adeline did in the original story.’

But looking at these applicants now, I could see that I had been wrong.

Some complained.

Some were angry.

Some cursed.

Some gave up.

Their reactions were no different from those of the playable characters.

That unnamed applicant’s expression resembled Cecilia’s.

That unnamed applicant’s eyes resembled Eugene’s.

Surviving.

That was my goal.

But was surviving alone enough?

Once again, I looked at the applicants.

This time, without distinguishing between playable characters and NPCs.

Seeing every single one of them as a person.

I treasured my own life while treating theirs like trivial background details. I was a complete hypocrite.

I immediately erased the speech I had prepared from my mind.

How strong Varhatan was, how dangerous the Human-Faced Spider was. Those were things someone else should talk about.

Maybe that was why the words that came out of my mouth were so ordinary.

“You’ve worked hard.”

This exam ending did not mean everything was over.

It was only the beginning. The real scenario began after enrollment.

“And let’s continue working hard together.”

How many applicants here would pass? How many of those accepted would survive until the day Aren defeated the Evil God?

I set those thoughts aside for the moment.

I had already decided to stop living an easy life. Throwing myself onto a difficult path had been my choice.

So that I could face the Evil God myself if necessary. Or at least so that more people could survive.

“I’ll keep trying too.”

With those words, I bowed my head.

It was not a speech, just a simple request. The reactions around the room varied, but the strongest one was still confusion.

Valhilar’s identity was one thing, but anyone would be baffled if the person who had eliminated them suddenly said something like that.

Even so, faint applause began to rise.

When I raised my head, I saw Senia clapping for me.

Cecilia looked displeased as she watched her, but after glancing at me once, she sighed and joined in.

Starting with the two of them, the applause gradually grew louder until it filled the entire room.

“Was that swift sword technique Halibal Style?!”

“How should we respond if we encounter a boss like that in real life?”

“How could anyone have blocked that charge?”

It was a little embarrassing, but looking around, the reaction wasn’t entirely bad.

Some people disliked Valhilar, but others must have been strongly impressed.

“Still, wasn’t it too much to charge at us without warning the moment we entered?”

...Maybe not?

Beside me, Viktor’s gently curved eyes twitched slightly as if he were displeased.

The original speech had included a part that subtly mentioned his name.

It wasn’t blatant, but there was a line about receiving this opportunity thanks to Duke Grace’s help.

Reciting that as written would have made it easier to get into his good graces. If I made it clear I was on Viktor’s side, he would have less reason to be wary of me.

But I had erased all of it on my own without discussing it with him, so that reaction was only natural.

Still, I didn’t want to get involved with him any more than necessary.

At this point, he was already preparing to make an enemy of the imperial family, gathering various pieces within the academy for that purpose.

There was nothing to gain from getting into his good graces in a situation like this. He’d probably just tell me to help him overthrow the imperial family.

A scenario where I became the protagonist’s party’s enemy in any way would be the worst. Avoiding that was the reason I had gone through all this trouble in the first place.

Even if the scenario was already falling apart in places, its basic framework needed to remain intact.

Then how could I avoid gaining Viktor’s favor while also escaping his suspicion?

That was when I noticed Alicia staring blankly at me.

Right. That would work.

“To conclude, this entire matter was planned by Her Highness the Princess.”

“...?”

I felt Viktor’s gaze shift toward Alicia at my words.

Of course, Alicia’s gaze did not leave me for even a moment.

“Her Highness the Princess?”

“Then was it Her Highness who ordered the Funeral Sword to act as the boss monster this time?”

“As expected of the Red Scales!”

From the player’s perspective, Alicia was a rather clumsy person, but noble society considered her far more capable than that.

She was the kind of person who would use any means necessary if she could tip the scales of profit and loss in her favor.

The problem was that those means often took the form of something as sloppy as hiding her identity and coming to find me.

That was why her epithet in the story was Red Scales.

And surprisingly, Viktor thought she was capable as well.

‘She made me do it all.’

In other words, if I could pass Viktor’s aggro onto her with just that one sentence, I could ask for nothing more.

“Please give a warm round of applause to Her Highness the Princess, who worked harder than anyone here.”

I pointed at Alicia with my chin and started clapping without hesitation.

Clap, clap, clap.

The applause, carried along by the mood, naturally shifted toward Alicia.

Even those who had been looking at me with displeasure nodded at the claim that the princess had ordered it and continued applauding.

“...?”

Alicia seemed to be the only one here who had no idea what was going on.

Still, it probably wouldn’t be a bad thing for her, right?

⁎⁎⁎

[Top: Eugene Reygal]

[Runner-up: Ran Pen]

Unlike the original story, Cecilia had been eliminated early and failed to take the top spot.

Eugene took it instead.

According to what I heard, he had formed a group with three applicants who lacked ability and supported them as much as possible, reaching the area just before the boss room.

Of course, all three were instantly eliminated by the Chimera in the end.

Senia, who had driven me into a corner, did not even place second because of her record of personally defeating every applicant.

Since Ruidel’s purpose was dungeon raiding, the exam valued camaraderie over individual martial strength.

With an announcement that the results for applicants other than the top and runner-up would be released within three days, this year’s Ruidel Academy entrance exam came to an end.

That evening, I...

“Explain in detail what happened during today’s exam.”

...was meeting Viktor alone in his estate.

“Why did you do that?”

Of course, he wasn’t going to let it go that easily.

Footnotes:

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