WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 51: Rose and Lillian (3)

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“Isn't it obvious? If it were your problem, you'd be moving instead of spending all this time worrying about it. So doesn't that make this my problem, one you can't solve just by taking action?”

She was right.

Cecilia was a variable I couldn't control.

Then she added,

“When we first entered a dungeon together, I decided I'd find out what you liked.”

“What I like?”

“I found it.”

She smiled.

“What you like is making plans. And having everything go perfectly according to those plans.”

Memories of wandering around Nevil with Cecilia suddenly crossed my mind.

Whenever I planned out our entire route and showed it to her, she would ignore it on a whim.

“But do you know what's strange? That doesn't mean you hate it when your plans go wrong.”

“...”

“What you really hate is when a plan goes wrong... and other people get hurt because of it. That's why you always struggle to adapt to every variable.”

Mischief glimmered in her eyes.

“But you know, you're really clumsy at it.”

“Clumsy?”

“Yeah. Trying so hard to deal with every single variable is foolish and clumsy.”

My expression twisted. This woman had no idea how hard I worked.

Then she brought up something completely unexpected.

“Café de Amande. The cake we had there was good, wasn't it?”

“...What's with that all of a sudden?”

The heart of Nevil. A café she had stubbornly insisted on visiting even though it hadn't been part of the original plan.

It was called Café de Amande.

The cheesecake I had there was the best thing I had ever tasted in my life, before or after entering this world.

It had been good enough to make me curse without thinking.

“I'm trying to tell you that variables haven't always put you at a disadvantage.”

I had nothing to say.

Variables didn't always bring disadvantages. She was right about that.

But this time was different.

“This situation is different. It's a problem that can't be solved.”

“Then we'll leave it to luck.”

“...What?”

“You said it yourself, didn't you? That I'm a luck totem.”

‘No, that was a joke.’

But Cecilia was serious.

My reflection showed in her blue eyes.

“So tell me. Don't keep agonizing over it by yourself. Tell me every variable you've thought of. Don't leave out a single one.”

Her words felt like my reflection in a mirror speaking to me.

The thoughts clouding my mind came to a stop as if by magic.

Two failures.

Two deaths.

And Cecilia's cold body, charred black beyond them.

Maybe that had become some kind of trauma for me.

‘Was I the one trying to avoid it?’

Cecilia had clearly lost to Lilian once.

So I had arbitrarily concluded that she couldn't defeat Lilian.

I had considered her an uncontrollable variable and sealed her away.

But before that, had I ever properly told her about this?

‘...No.’

Right. I hadn't.

Looking straight into her eyes, I said,

“Lilian uses Black Flame.”

The color drained from Cecilia's face, and her whole body trembled faintly.

After a long silence, her voice came out slightly hoarse.

“...Yeah. I get it now.”

“That's right. So you can't face Lilian.”

“No. That's not what I meant.”

Her gaze darkened.

She was angry with me.

“I mean I understand that you weren't trusting me.”

This wasn't a matter of trust.

I had seen her lose to Lilian helplessly with my own eyes.

When I couldn't say anything, Cecilia closed her eyes.

“Right. It's my fault. My fault for not giving you enough reason to trust me.”

“That isn't what I meant.”

“Let's go with the original plan.”

“Cecilia.”

“I'll take Lilian. Using the strategy you told me, the most efficient method with the highest chance of winning.”

She gripped her sword hilt with trembling hands.

“...Did you know?”

Then she smiled with determination.

“It's the other way around. I wasn't your luck totem. You were my luck. Every moment since I met you has felt like good fortune to me. And I want that to continue from now on.”

As soon as she finished speaking, she grabbed the bolt.

“I'll prove it.”

Before I could stop her, she held out her palm.

“So hand over every Purple Cloud Herb you have.”

“Purple Cloud Herb has side effects. If you take several at once, it could cause hallucinations.”

“...Enough, just hurry up. I'm not planning to rely on willpower alone, either.”

She practically snatched the five roots of Purple Cloud Herb from my pocket and immediately stuffed them into her mouth.

After sticking out her tongue several times and dry-heaving, the focus gradually left her eyes.

“This should... do it.”

Do what?

Was she becoming a drug addict?

Her reckless behavior made me sigh.

At the same time, I saw my past self throwing myself at Varhatan without a second thought.

I had found my own answer back then. If even an extra like me could do it, why couldn't she, the heroine?

This was a gamble.

The most reckless and clumsy gamble of all, betting everything on whether her determination could overcome her trauma.

‘Clumsy, huh...’

But when had I ever pursued perfection?

It would work out somehow.

Like it always did.

At last, I nodded.

“Fine. Do whatever you want. But...”

I placed my hand over hers on the bolt.

“...Win for me.”

Cecilia answered by blushing.

The last chance we had been given.

With grim expressions, we released the bolt and threw open the creaking wooden door.

⁎⁎⁎

As a child, Cecilia had lived apart from the Ren House's main family under its rules.

To her, her mother was not Seidin Ren, the woman who had given birth to her.

The only person she could call her mother was her nursemaid, Renee.

A plain woman with brown hair and a warm face, the kind one could find anywhere.

She loved Cecilia devotedly.

But around seven, Cecilia, perceptive as she was, began to question her appearance for the first time.

Silver hair and blue eyes. Even Cecilia thought her appearance was far too different from the other children in the village.

More than anything, she didn't resemble Renee, her mother, in the slightest.

‘Mom... am I not really your daughter?’

She pressed Renee for an answer, but Renee only pulled her into an embrace.

‘Cecilia. That doesn't matter.’

‘What doesn't matter?! What are you talking about?!’

‘What matters is that you're the most precious person in my life.’

Renee placed her Abyss Core in Cecilia's hand and said,

‘So someday, someone like that will appear for you too. When the day comes, give this to the person you consider most precious.’

She couldn't understand. The person most precious to her was Renee, standing right in front of her.

Cecilia shook off Renee's hand and ran out of the house.

When she returned home after night had fallen and hunger had set in, the area around the house was a scene of chaos, filled with the bodies of dozens of knights and Evil God cultists wearing black robes.

What caught her eye was the home she had shared with Renee, engulfed in black flames.

Cecilia rushed recklessly into the burning house without sparing a glance for the middle-aged man with silver hair and blue eyes.

Inside, she saw the blackened corpse of the person she had cherished most.

And the Abyss Core lying quietly beside her.

‘Mom... Mom...?’

That memory remained like a nightmare even after her biological father, Duke Ren, brought her to the main house and she met Senia.

It had stayed with her until now.

That was right.

Cecilia's greatest regret in life was that her final interaction with the person she treasured most had ended in an argument.

‘What happened...?’

When Cecilia came to her senses and raised her head, Lilian stood before her with a cold smile.

‘Ah, right. I... passed out.’

The area around her was filled with black embers that had yet to die out.

Cecilia had charged at Lilian as planned, but the moment she saw the Black Flame, trauma had consumed her and she had been defeated helplessly.

[How dull. Is this the end?]

She desperately tried to rise, but every muscle in her body was screaming.

[Then it's time to see what your regret is.]

Lilian gathered Black Flame again. This time, it was different from the flames before.

One of Lilian's patterns Halibal had warned her about.

Embers of Regret.

The black flame soon took on a human form.

Instinctively, Cecilia understood what it was.

‘...Mom.’

The person she had treasured most.

Renee appeared before her, born from a mixture of trauma and the Purple Cloud Herb's hallucinations.

[You pitiful thing. So that is your greatest regret. Don't worry. I'll soon send you peacefully to your precious one.]

The Renee made of Black Flame stretched out an arm toward Cecilia.

Not with the warm touch she had known in life, but as a flame that seemed ready to burn everything to ashes, it flew at her.

Cecilia's body froze.

The burning house and her mother's cold corpse, found amid the ashes, flashed through her mind.

Then she remembered the firm hand that had covered hers just before they opened the door.

‘...Win for me.’

Along with Halibal's voice.

“...Okay. I'll win.”

The person Renee had said would someday appear, the person Cecilia would cherish most. She already had someone like that.

One person who believed in her, guided her, and protected her at the risk of his life.

She didn't want to lose him.

She didn't want to end their future, or all the good fortune he had brought her, here.

KRAAASH!!

Cecilia threw herself into the pouring Black Flame.

Lilian's eyes filled with panic.

[...?]

Instead of dodging, fleeing, or freezing in place, she was facing it head-on?

But the result would be the same. She would be engulfed in Black Flame and die in agony.

“It hurts...”

Cecilia's low voice echoed from within the Black Flame.

“It hurts... but... it's still... not enough!”

Unlike ordinary flames, Black Flame did not go out easily.

The black fire wrapped around her arm, burning her skin away bit by bit.

Yet the light in Cecilia's eyes showed no sign of fading.

“Halibal. The pain you gave me when we first met was worse than this.”

Her hand brushed over her side, solar plexus, and face in turn.

A new illusion appeared before her.

The image of an ash-haired boy boldly throwing a punch at her.

The Purple Cloud Herb's hallucinations erased her deepest trauma and brought back the memory of their most intense first meeting.

[Cecilia Ren’s Affection Level has increased.]

[Affection Level: 5 (Max)]

Cecilia's longsword took on a pitch-black gleam.

[Unique Ability unlock condition achieved.]

[The party member bonus with Cecilia Ren is now officially activated.]

It wasn't demonic energy.

[Party Member Bonus: Goddess of Fortune]

[When the user forms a party with Cecilia Ren, all probability-based factors receive a powerful positive modifier.]

Magic power, blacker and purer than any darkness in the world, painted a new color across Lumen's surface.

[Abyss Core - Lumen is growing.]

Cecilia's longsword stretched out strangely, its blade splitting apart at every joint and beginning to move limply as if it were alive.

“So now I'll show you what real pain is.”

Shwaaaak!

The moment she finished speaking, a black flash exploded and split the Black Flame cleanly in two.

It was Shattering Light.

Then Cecilia emerged from the Black Flame, wielding her long, slender segmented sword like a whip.

Black Flame still burned on her arm, yet a bright, refreshed smile rested on her lips.

[Abyss Core - Lumen & Caligo]

Black magic power dripped like blood from the Shattering Sword, now transformed into a segmented sword.

Lilian cried out in shock.

[What... What happened...? How could you dare... split the flames of a god?]

“Ah.”

Cecilia casually placed a finger against her cheek.

Then she gave a smile that was almost a sneer.

“I guess I got lucky.”

[...This is...?!]

At some point, the elongated segmented sword in Cecilia's right hand had coiled around Lilian's entire body like a snake.

“Black Elegance Dance.”

KRRRUNCH!

Every blade segment constricting Lilian's body rotated at once, shredding her flesh to pieces.

[Kyahhhhh!]

Lilian's miserable scream rang beneath the moonlight.

Cecilia's eyes gleamed fiercely as she smiled with savage beauty.

“...Does it hurt?”

She tilted her head as if she truly wanted to know.

“...Is that all?”

Having completely forgotten the pain of Black Flame burning her arm, she focused only on the pain her enemy was feeling.

“...How strange. For the screams of a true servant of god, they're awfully pathetic.”

The smile on Cecilia's lips deepened.

Her voice contained pure disappointment, as if the reaction of a toy she had been looking forward to was dull.

Crunch...!

When she flicked her wrist, the segmented sword wrapped around Lilian dug even deeper.

“Come on, let me hear more of your pain.”

⁎⁎⁎

‘For now, things are better than before.’

I looked at Rose, engulfed in an ash-gray storm.

Unlike the first attempt, I didn't have a single wound on my arm. Naturally, there were no blood spheres either.

It was the result of completely erasing the pattern from my mind and focusing only on Rose's movements as a living creature.

Even without the turn-based system, I was a passable swordsman now.

The problem was Cecilia's side.

‘Please. I'm begging you.’

The barrier began to fall, and a red gem came into view first in the distance.

Lilian.

I prayed inwardly.

Please, let there be a blue gem.

Had my prayer been answered? Beyond the barrier, I saw a blue gem very close to Lilian.

‘Yes!’

At least she was definitely alive.

I cheered inwardly, but an ominous thought soon reared its head.

‘...They're too close.’

What if, like the first attempt, Lilian was dragging Cecilia along? What if she was barely clinging to life?

There was no going back now.

The instant I confirmed the barrier had completely fallen, I shouted,

“Cecili...!!”

But my cry never finished.

‘...?’

What I saw was Cecilia sitting elegantly with her legs crossed atop the broken rubble.

And at her feet lay Lilian, collapsed and tightly bound by the segmented sword.

Cecilia had been lightly kicking Lilian when she saw me. She approached with a delighted wave.

“How was that? Did I do well? Will you praise me if I did?”

With an innocent face, she took my hand, placed it against her cheek, and lightly licked it with the tip of her tongue.

‘What? Her character changed.’

At that moment, messages appeared one after another.

Affection Level MAX, and Lumen's awakening.

Even a party member bonus I had never seen before.

“Uh... um... You did well?”

“Hehe, I'm so happy.”

Once I praised her as she wanted, her expression looked as though she had fallen into ecstasy.

Hm.

Well, she had won, so that was fine.

Was it? Probably.

As the wind died down and the segmented sword released its restraints, Lilian hurriedly ran into Rose's arms.

[Li, Lilian...?!]

[Ro... Rose...!! H-help me...!! That woman is strange...!!]

[You...!! How dare you do this to my younger sister...!!]

Rose's face twisted like a demon's.

Then the space that had been divided into sun and moon collapsed in an instant, revealing a new area.

A lavish ballroom.

Rose and Lilian were now standing at its center, supporting each other as they glared at us.

Two red gems appeared above their heads.

I brought Cecilia, who was still lost in ecstasy, back to her senses and readied my stance.

Once Cecilia was ready as well, two blue gems appeared above our heads.

[I will never forgive you!]

[I will grant you absolute death...!!]

Same to you.

The long-awaited second phase had begun.

Footnotes:

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