WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 38: Clown

──────

‘Why did this appear?’

The question crossed my mind, but my hands didn’t stop. I slotted every Tier 2 Shard I was holding into my Core.

My Unique Ability only activated during boss battles.

In other words, this message meant I was about to face a boss.

Judging by when it appeared, the moment I turned this corner, I would surely come face-to-face with something worthy of being called a boss.

‘What kind of boss could show up in a place like this...?’

Most bosses in the original game stayed holed up in boss rooms.

Even Tartarus, the Evil God of the final dungeon, did the same.

So it probably wasn’t a monster.

Then was it an assassin sent by the nobles?

No, not them either.

It was still too early for the conflict between the imperial family and the noble faction to escalate. Even if it had, they wouldn’t go so far as to target a young lady of the Ren House in the middle of the night.

Besides, considering my current relationship with Viktor Grace, the chances of me being targeted were slim as well.

That left only one answer.

‘...A Bishop?’

The cult of the Evil God, also known as the Tartarus Cult, was a villainous group that actively obstructed humanity from clearing the Dungeons of the Evil God.

Every member wielded demonic energy, a product of the Evil God, rather than mana. And whenever things didn’t go their way, they transformed into monsters and went berserk.

Among them, the boss-level enemies were called the Seven Bishops.

I was probably right. Other than monsters, nobles, and a few special events, they were the only bosses in the original game.

The problem was when they appeared.

According to the original story, Bishops didn’t appear until at least the second year, so I hadn’t been worried about them yet.

Where did the snowball start rolling this time?

“Why are you suddenly acting like that? Is something wrong?”

But the real problem wasn’t the Bishop’s appearance. It was the Bishop’s stats.

Even the weakest Bishop required a full set of at least Tier 3 Shards to defeat.

And considering the second phase, where they transformed into monsters, there was no hope without proper equipment.

‘If only I had gotten the Shattering Sword first...’

I instinctively turned around.

I hadn’t encountered the boss yet.

Could I still run away?

“Wait. Follow me.”

“Huh? Why, why?”

“I left something at the restaurant.”

I grabbed Cecilia’s hand and retraced the path we had come from.

But the moment we turned the corner...

‘...Fuck.’

The alley in front of us was the very one we had just been standing in.

“What... what happened? Why are we back here again?”

A sense of déjà vu washed over me.

‘This is exactly like Varhatan.’

The door to the waiting room had vanished.

The way back had vanished too.

I had experienced it once already, so even if I didn’t want to, I had no choice but to recognize it.

In a situation like this, moving forward was the only option.

I immediately handed Cecilia White Shards and Black Shards.

“Take out all your Blue Shards and replace them with these.”

“Why all of a sudden? And what was that just now?! If you know something, explain it!”

“I can feel killing intent from beyond that alley. I think we walked into a trap.”

Of course, I couldn’t feel any killing intent at all. And rather than walking into a trap, it felt more like I had gotten myself caught in one.

Still, this was the only way to explain the situation neatly without giving her a long, pointless lecture.

Thankfully, Cecilia didn’t take my words lightly.

Her expression immediately hardened, and she swapped out her Shards without another word.

Then she stopped and spoke.

“...You seem more nervous than usual.”

“...”

“Do you know who it is? Are they strong?”

Strong?

Sure, I had charged into Varhatan without a plan too.

But at least then, I had some chance of winning.

There had been even the slightest bit of optimism that I might pull it off.

But a Bishop-level enemy was different.

Zero percent chance of victory.

Even if I abused Rewind Action as much as I could, even if I twisted myself inside out, there was no way I could win.

While I was tearing my hair out, Cecilia asked, “Can we... run away?”

I shook my head, and she continued.

“Then we have no choice but to fight, right?”

“...Yeah.”

“Then let’s go.”

When I looked up, Cecilia was already loosening up and preparing for battle.

“If we have to do it anyway, we do it. Right?”

Her eyes were fixed on me.

Something about the expectation in her expression made a dry laugh escape me.

No, Cecilia, you haven’t played the original game.

I have. We can’t win this.

I couldn’t say that.

Then a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

Wasn’t that supposed to be my line?

Why was she saying it for me?

I took a deep breath.

Then I slowly let it out and steadied myself.

‘If I use the Bishop who appears a year from now as the benchmark, then of course we can’t win right now.’

But if it was one year before the Bishop appeared, then the Bishop couldn’t possibly be at full strength yet.

There was no reason to scare myself prematurely.

And even if I was scared, that wouldn’t change anything.

So what else could I do?

I had to move.

“Yeah. Let’s just bang.”

As I stepped forward, Cecilia nodded and followed.

This time, not behind me.

At my side.

“...W-wait?! What did you just say?!”

Ah, did I say that out loud?

⁎⁎⁎

When we turned the corner, a gruesome sight spread out before us.

A figure shrouded in darkness.

And a man dangling from its hand.

“Sa... save...”

With that brief final cry, the man’s body went limp.

The moment his breath stopped, the vitality drained from his body and was absorbed into the shadowy figure.

The prediction I hadn’t wanted to be right came true.

Bishops could convert other people’s vitality into demonic energy and use it as their own strength.

“Oh?”

A frivolous voice came from the darkness.

It was unfamiliar, but not one I had never heard before.

“Isn’t this Sir Halibal?! Ha ha, what a surprise. To meet again like this after only a few hours. Should I call this fate?”

It was the man I had encountered earlier at the doll workshop.

No wonder he had seemed strangely familiar.

“...”

But when I saw him, my brow furrowed without me realizing it.

‘That bastard was a Bishop? Then I was an idiot for letting him go.’

There had been no face like that among the Bishops I remembered.

Then his hair slowly began to lose its color, soon turning white as snow. At the same time, flesh filled out his gaunt cheeks, revealing a familiar appearance.

Only then did I remember clearly.

‘So that bastard was the Clown.’

The Seven Bishops each represented one of the seven dungeons.

His true identity was the weakest among them.

The Clown, Maliaas Geren.

He was called the Clown because in the original story, he infiltrated the Academy as an instructor during the second year, sowing discord among the students and stirring up trouble.

Even the protagonist’s party began to doubt each other and point their swords at one another because of him.

In the end, his identity was exposed and he met his death, but he left a strong impression as the character who first brought the Bishops into the open.

So why hadn’t I recognized him?

The reason was simple. The Maliaas from the original story had white hair, a sturdy build, and didn’t wear a monocle.

He looked nothing like the blond, skinny man standing before me now. There was no way I could have recognized him.

He was probably changing into his original appearance as he absorbed vitality, just like he had moments ago.

Running into a Bishop at a time like this.

It was obviously a hopeless situation, yet somehow, that fact gave me hope instead.

‘Just as I thought, he hasn’t gathered all his strength yet.’

The Bishops in the original story began operating in secret around the first semester of my first year at Ruidel.

They spent a year traveling across the Empire, draining innocent people of their vitality and building up their power before finally revealing themselves.

But what about Maliaas now?

His hair wasn’t completely white yet, and his body was still thin.

More than anything, I couldn’t feel anything like the indescribable demonic energy described in the original story.

‘I think we might be able to do this.’

The Maliaas from the original story had caused massive damage to the Academy, true to his status as a first-rate troublemaker.

Three instructors had actually fallen victim to him.

Then if I could take him down now, while I had the chance, that was obviously the better choice.

If it was possible.

“By the way, Sir Halibal, did you come here to give me an autograph?”

Cecilia’s face darkened with anger at his calm attitude after he had just sucked a person dry.

She had seen with her own eyes that this man was no ordinary human.

“You... are you a follower of the Evil God?”

“Oh! Now that I think about it, the young lady of the Ren House is here too! I’m sorry I didn’t properly greet you earlier!”

“Shut up! I don’t want to hear anything from the likes of you!”

The only thing bothering me was why nothing had happened when we met at the workshop earlier.

Then, as if answering my question, he spoke.

“If you do give me an autograph, would it be all right if I asked for some for my acquaintances too? When I told them I had met Sir Halibal, they all went wild!”

By acquaintances, he surely meant the other Bishops.

In other words, he had only run into me by chance earlier. As a member of the cult, he probably couldn’t move on his own.

But in the meantime, he had contacted the cult, and they had decided what to do with me. Was that it?

‘So if I hadn’t stopped by the workshop today, we wouldn’t have met like this.’

And if that was true, I should have prepared in advance for Maliaas appearing next year.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“S-Sir Halibal! Are you upset?! Surely I wasn’t talking too much, was I?!”

His mouth kept running even now.

He seemed to be playing up his Clown persona, but I had no intention of entertaining him.

When I drew my sword, Cecilia followed suit.

Once he saw that I wasn’t responding, the corners of his mouth curved into crescents.

“H-ha ha! How strange! This is only our second meeting, isn’t it? Yet you’re already looking at me with such cold eyes! It’s as though you see me as a monster!”

“Are you not one?”

“No, it doesn’t matter! I’m simply happy! The Funeral Sword who wounded our great wish is pointing his blade at a fan like me! Would you perhaps grant me a verse of a funeral song as fan service?!”

“I’ll think about it when you’re dead.”

“Ah...! That would be a problem!”

A dark crimson aura spread from him.

Overflowing demonic energy.

“I haven’t gathered all my strength yet... but I’m not weak enough to lose to the two of you.”

With an exaggerated gesture, he rose into the air.

“Then it’s unfortunate, but we’ll have to postpone the song until next time! Today’s stage is this alley, and aren’t the three of us enough for the cast?”

“...”

“Of course, that’s if there is a next time!”

Cecilia and I exchanged a look.

There was no need for pointless words.

“Maliaas Geren, Seventh Bishop of the Tartarus Cult, will now answer Sir Halibal’s stage in kind!”

A wave of demonic energy burst out from him.

It covered the entire alley and began shaping it into a new space.

Then the wave collided with my sword and shattered like glass.

And the battle began.

‘That must have been Clown’s Domain.’

As soon as the battle began, Maliaas released a force centered on himself that slowed his opponents’ movements.

Clown’s Domain.

Its effect was a kind of area-wide slow.

The top-ranked among the Seven Bishops were monsters we could never defeat, even accounting for the one-year gap.

That narrowed the enemies I needed to prepare for to around three, and Maliaas was naturally one of them.

So I had already prepared a countermeasure for Clown’s Domain.

I had increased the proportion of Black Shards in Cecilia’s and my Cores so that even if we were slowed, we wouldn’t lose the first turn.

And that meant ten Black Shards.

I had even slotted in Black Cloud.

Yet something unexpected happened.

A red gem appeared above Maliaas’s head.

‘Even ten aren’t enough to beat his speed?’

But I soon realized that wasn’t it.

A small blue gem hovered over Cecilia’s head, while an even smaller, fainter blue gem floated above mine.

If we had simply been slowed, the turn after Maliaas should have been mine.

But the current turn order was Maliaas, then Cecilia, then me.

What that meant was obvious.

‘Our speed didn’t get slower.’

“Ha ha ha! The stage feels dull without an audience. Then I should call some in!”

When Maliaas waved a hand, four dolls fell from thin air.

They soon absorbed demonic energy and transformed into grotesque monsters.

Four red gems appeared, wedging themselves between Cecilia and Maliaas.

“Of course, Sir Halibal is our first target! Tear him apart!”

At Maliaas’s shout, all four monsters slowly rushed toward me at once.

In the original story, Clown’s Domain was an ability that slowed every being except Maliaas himself.

Then there was no reason those sluggish monsters should move before Cecilia.

That meant Clown’s Domain had a different effect from the original story.

“Halibal!”

Before Cecilia could move, sharp teeth sank into my arm.

Only through the pain did I finally understand what this phenomenon was.

‘...This is Trick Room.’

My speed hadn’t decreased.

The slower side got the first turn.

Trick Room.

That was the new effect of Clown’s Domain.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried