WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 487: A Stage for All (3)

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Here, there is a single stage.

How large is the stage?

It rivals an entire world. From the lowest depths to the highest peaks, from the heart of the Continent to far-off Camlann. The curtain God has drawn covers all the sky, and so everything beneath the heavens is nothing more than part of the stage.

Who are the characters in this play?

Everyone who sets foot on this earth and lives. From young children to the elderly. From the weak who cannot even lift a weapon to Transcendents who stand alone against entire nations. Every last soul, all ten thousand of them, is a character on this stage.

How long does the play continue?

Until every living thing meets death, and at last this world reaches its end.

Then, to summarize.

A play that uses the whole world as its stage, every living creature on earth as its cast, and runs until the moment the world ends. Najin knew what to call something like that. Not just Najin, everyone does.

It is the world itself.

The stage God has laid out is one world. And this stage has no need of a hero. Put another way: this world no longer needs a hero.

『A hero is a being born from necessity.』

『Judged by the masses.』

『Completed by the masses, and exalted by them.』

Heroes are born from the wishes of all people. Then if no one wishes for a hero, if the very existence of a hero is denied, a hero cannot exist.

『One who carries the wishes of all people is a hero.』

Someone who holds a great cause and moves forward bearing the hopes of everyone who lives in this world is called a hero. But if all of that is stripped away, if where the hero looks and where the world looks no longer align,

『If the world denies the hero's existence.』

Then.

『What remains?』

For the sake of achieving what only they believe to be right, they demand sacrifice from everyone. They stake every life on something that may succeed or fail. Even when no one wants it, because they believe it to be right.

The world has a name for something like that.

『Autocracy.』

An autocrat. A person who believes only they are right.

"......"

Najin, who had been a hero, had become an autocrat without realizing it. Everyone denied his existence. In this world, he had been thoroughly cast out. The Witch burst into laughter as she watched him drifting aimlessly in the distance.

"From long ago, you have all been this way."

She turned her mind to the past.

Far back in time, from the revolutionary who had first made her bleed, through Leviathan, all the way to Arthur. The Witch recalled every hero who had grabbed at her ankles across that vast stretch of ages.

"It was always the same."

Their words were always similar.

"For humanity. For a great cause. For humanity's tomorrow. For humanity's hope. For a better future, for a tomorrow greater than today. For all people..."

For the sake of the world. For the sake of humanity. For the future humanity desires. Adorning themselves in such words, they bound her feet. In every era, they were humanity's representatives, beings who spoke for the will of all.

That is why their lives are a threat.

So it was with the first revolutionary, so it was with Leviathan, so it was with Arthur. What made the Witch bleed was always beings like them. Gathering the will of countless others, pointing that blade forward as their representative, the edge was sharp enough.

A blade sharpened to face the Witch.

No matter how sharp a blade, if you are cut by the same kind of weapon again and again, you develop a feel for it. The Witch had learned to dull the blades aimed at her.

"Heroism and autocracy border on each other."

She would corrode that blade, let it rust, and finally break it. The Witch's eyes curved like a crescent moon.

"What will you do?"

An autocrat denied by all people.

On this stage that shakes the very foundation of your stars, what answer will you give?

The Witch watched Najin.

2.

Najin wandered.

With no clear destination in mind, he moved without direction. He took in the sight of a dying world, heard the screams and resentment of people facing their end.

"I have no intention of denying you."

Not everyone expressed only resentment.

"I know there are many who say that if you had not pulled out Excalibur, if you had not gained the stars, the world would have been fine for another hundred years. But would it really? I know the truth."

A few stars smiled bitterly and spoke to Najin.

"If you had never appeared, the world would have fallen into chaos long before now. The Outland would still be in turmoil under the Carnival King, and without you to unravel her schemes, the Continent would be caught in its own age of warfare."

Because of Najin, the world had changed for the better. No one could deny that fact. The stars who knew it did not deny his existence.

"But."

And yet.

"That is a story that ends at the Outland."

After crossing into Camlann, things were different. There, he could have simply stood still. Instead of challenging the Abyss, he could have spent long years guarding the Boundary Line of the Abyss, remaining in that place.

Najin had not done that.

He refused to remain stagnant. Rather than stretching yesterday into today and today into tomorrow without end, he had looked toward Tomorrow and pressed forward.

"You challenged the Abyss."

The result was that the Abyss began to stir.

A future that should have been a hundred years away had drawn closer.

"Did you have to challenge it?"

One star asked.

"Could you not have been satisfied there?"

Other stars asked the same.

"Why did it have to be you? Could you not have stopped there? It is a hundred years. Even for us Transcendents, a hundred years is not such a short time. And for the people of the Continent, it is a very long time."

"......"

"In those hundred years, another hero might have been born. Someone like you might have appeared again. With such a person at your side, the odds could have been far better."

The star said.

"I understand, of course. I know. The chance of someone as exceptional as you appearing again is slim."

"...That is..."

"But then, the chance of winning against the Witch right now is equally slim, isn't it. If both are slim, wasn't buying a hundred years the more rational choice?"

A star that had once encouraged Najin sighed, as if filled with regret.

"Did you think you could win?"

Someone else laughed.

"I suppose it makes sense. Until now you've grown at a breathtaking pace and broken through every obstacle. Yes, practically miraculously! You've been acting as though you're the hero of this world and therefore cannot fail."

A hollow laugh.

"Since you've succeeded every time until now, you must have thought this time would be the same. You figured it would work out somehow, didn't you? That if you kept challenging, kept clashing, kept getting knocked down and standing back up, you'd find a way to win in the end?"

Or a scornful snort.

"Then the only word for it is complacency."

And resentment.

"The whole world is sharing the cost of that. Why don't you say something? Did you really have to do it? Could you not have been a little more careful? Was standing still really so impossible?"

Najin walked on.

Time passed.

Even Najin's inner world, which had not wavered at first, began to change. Countless people had died or been broken because of his failures. If he could have witnessed those scenes and felt nothing at all, he would never have come this far to begin with.

Najin's heart wavered.

Actions he had once believed to be right began to put questions to him. Were they really right? Were they the best path? Was there no other way? Those questions slowly gnawed away at his Self-Confidence.

"There is one way."

Someone said.

"You sacrifice yourself."

Many called out.

"What King Arthur did a thousand years ago."

"Trade your life to seal the Witch."

"Then everything will be resolved."

"Everything will be resolved."

"Humanity will reclaim a bright tomorrow. And even if a crisis of annihilation comes again, it will be in a distant future. And if that is the case..."

"Who knows? In all those years, maybe someone like you will appear. Or someone even greater."

Groups gathered into crowds.

"Just as King Arthur sacrificed herself for the future."

"Just as those called heroes did."

"Can't you sacrifice yourself as well?"

"If you feel responsible for all of this."

"Sacrifice yourself."

The crowds swelled into greater crowds.

"The chance is slim! The chance of a hero like you being born again will be slim. But do you think King Arthur was stupid enough not to know that, and still left it to the future?"

"She was betting on the possibility."

"Because it was impossible for her alone, she placed her bet on the distant future. If King Arthur did that..."

"Then you, who came after her, can do the same, can't you? Why should you be different? Countless heroes before Arthur did the same. Why won't you?"

The crowd kept swelling.

"Are you alone special?"

"You still haven't found an answer, and while you're still turning it over, people are dying at every moment. Is your deliberation worth anything at all?"

"Is it that you're the one and only, that even looking to the far future, only you can stand against the Witch, and so only you can do it?"

"How arrogant."

"How autocratic."

"Why?"

"I hear the Witch said as much. That if you offer up all your stars, she will be satisfied and withdraw."

Soon they had become all people.

All people had a single wish.

For Najin to sacrifice himself and end this tragedy. For the return of their peaceful lives. Even if humanity were to perish in the future, they wanted a peaceful tomorrow right now.

And so.

All people wished for Najin's self-sacrifice, which meant his death.

"Sacrifice yourself."

"If only you would sacrifice yourself."

"Why can't you?"

"Why are you fine, but the future isn't?"

"Why did you make that choice."

"Couldn't you have stood still a little longer? Why did you move so fast. If this happened because you thought it would work out somehow, shouldn't you find a way to make it work out now?"

"That's exactly what I said."

The voices echoed.

"From what I hear, you killed several people in the Underground City. Well, I suppose you were never the right material for a hero to begin with. What good is exceptional talent if your character is rotten?"

"I knew it would come to this."

"I heard it from the residents who came out of Artman. He was a selfish person. Someone who killed children his own age just to survive and line his own pockets..."

"Horrifying."

"Hypocrisy! In the end, all he ever did was go around talking about Tomorrow, humanity's bright tomorrow, and so on."

Words tangled with words. The order shifted. Details were twisted, and the story slowly began to warp. And so, at some point, voices of condemnation started to echo.

"Look at that man's teacher. The knight called Ivan, he was nothing that great, they say. Sure, he was considered promising, but at the end of the day he was just a Sword Expert, wasn't he?"

"After falling into the Underground City, he built his own family and played at running an organization, didn't he? Threatening people, collecting protection money, extorting them! Being raised under a butcher like that, of course his character would be warped."

"Everyone talks up that man Ivan as the Dawn Horn's teacher, as Atanga's pride, but honestly... was Ivan really that remarkable? The knights who knew him at the time would know."

"Didn't I say it. He's overrated."

They tore Najin down. To avoid feeling the guilt they ought to feel when demanding sacrifice from a genuinely good person, they dragged him through the mud. They turned Najin into someone deserving of blame, bit into him, and whispered.

"Compared to King Arthur..."

"It makes me sigh."

"Even the name of heir to a great knight seems wasted on him."

The whole world condemned Najin.

They twisted his life and laughed at it.

Clench.

From Najin's silent mouth came the sound of teeth, the sound of them pressing together, or grinding. A hollow laugh slipped from the corner of his mouth as he stood there quietly listening.

"Ha."

His wavering heart began now to storm.

"Who do you think you are."

Najin's mouth slowly opened.

"Just who do you think you are?"

3.

He understood it in his head.

He understood the possibility that this was a stage the Witch had built, that these people were being manipulated by it. But reason and feeling are two different things. Najin's heart raged.

Dozens of days had passed since this stage was unveiled.

All that time, listening without complaint to the voices blaming him, enduring, wandering in search of a way to break this stage, Najin had been slowly pushed to his limit. No one to talk to. No one to unburden himself to. Not a single ally anywhere.

He had endured those conditions for dozens of days.

As time passed the condemnation only grew fiercer, and voices twisting his own life into something unrecognizable echoed around him.

Ripple...

A wave broke across a still surface. The anchor that had held him in place so he would not waver began to creak. Najin had always maintained his composure to stop the Witch from touching his emotions, and now that composure finally showed its limit.

And at that very moment.

With a light push.

The Witch's hand pressed gently against Najin's back. She could not yet fully interfere with him, but she could manage a small push now that he had already begun to sway.

And right now, that was enough.

"I know that man Ivan well. He was greedy, full of nothing but desire, a man who had deluded himself into thinking he alone was special! Raised under a fool like that, even our great Sir Najin..."

Najin walked toward the man who was insulting Ivan and laughing at him. The people around were too busy laughing and talking along to notice Najin drawing close.

They only noticed Najin's presence when he appeared without a sound and grabbed the man by the throat.

"Ugh, ngh, gaaah..."

The middle-aged man could offer no resistance as he was lifted into the air by the grip around his neck. Najin's fingers dug in, and blood seeped out.

The Witch's laughter echoed all around as Najin, who had been a spectator, stepped up onto the stage.

Exactly as the Witch had wanted.

Footnotes:

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