WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 493: Interlude, One Step Forward (1)

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The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

There was a saying like that.

It was usually used when someone's intentions had been good, but the result had turned out terribly. For some reason, that sentence suddenly came to Najin's mind. Why? Because he had acted with good intentions and things had gone badly? No, that was not it.

It had only come to mind because he was standing on a road that led to hell.

‘The road to the Abyss.’

From ancient religions to modern times, the Abyss had always been depicted as hell. So this single path leading into the depths of the Abyss truly was a road to hell. Najin tilted his head as he walked.

"Hm."

"What's wrong?"

"Well, you know that saying about the road to hell being paved with good intentions?"

"I've heard it too. So? What about it?"

Najin folded his arms.

"It doesn't seem paved with good intentions at all. The road is uneven, and blades full of malice keep flying at us from every direction."

An unpaved road, with traps full of malice scattered across it. Najin kicked away the darkness that kept trying to grab his ankles and sighed.

"As if going to hell wasn't bad enough, it's full of malice instead of good intentions. The least they could do is pave it nicely, shouldn't they?"

"Pfft. In ancient times, this was probably the ritual road where they brought living sacrifices to offer to the Witch. I don't know about good intentions, but priests and warriors probably stood in rows along both sides."

Merlin laughed as if the thought was ridiculous.

Najin laughed with her.

Well, it was better than a ritual road. Holding Merlin's hand, Najin took one step after another. Nothing could be seen in the darkness around them, but unlike before, he did not lose his sense of direction.

Tap.

The direction he needed to go was clear. Najin's resolve no longer wavered. Therefore, neither did his steps. As he stepped forward with force, footprints appeared in the darkness. The platinum-colored footprints shone brightly, becoming signposts.

Even if he wandered through the dark, he could see how far he had come because the footprints were already there.

"Come to think of it."

Merlin spoke.

"The time we've spent adventuring together wasn't actually that long. Did you know? It's only been five years since you met me."

"I first met you when I was eighteen, and I'm about twenty-three now, so that sounds about right."

"Of course, if you include the time we spent in the sanctuaries and tombs of the Constellations, and in the Eternal City, it would be twice that. Still, that only makes twenty-five years."

Only twenty-five years?

Najin looked at Merlin as if she had said something absurd.

"I told you I'm twenty-three. Twenty-five years is longer than I've been alive. Calling that only a short time is a bit..."

"Is it?"

"Is that how it is when you're an elder? Your units of time are different."

"What did I say I'd do if you called me that one more time? Want to get hit with Silence?"

Merlin poked Najin's side repeatedly. There was real feeling behind it. If he kept teasing her like this, he might really get hit with Silence. He should restrain himself.

"Still, you're right."

Merlin let out a long breath.

"It isn't a time I can call short. Especially when I think about everything that happened in the past five years."

The thousand years Merlin had endured as a human.

The thousands of years the fairy Merlin had waited.

Compared to the long ages she had lived through, the few years she had spent with Najin were no more than an instant. Before thousands of years, five years or twenty-five years would both be a fleeting moment. Judging only by the sheer amount of time, the years she had spent with Najin would amount to little more than a passing breeze in her long life.

"Many things happened."

But the story changed when it came to the density of that time. Unlike her past self, who had simply let time pass for ages, she had cherished her time since meeting Najin. She had lived every moment to the fullest.

"When I first saw you, I was completely set on making your life difficult. I don't know how things turned out this way. But as I watched you, my thoughts began to change."

"I remember when I first showed you Sword Aura. You were startled and asked, 'What is that?'"

"Honestly, I was more startled in Cambria. You were going to dig through trash cans? Really?"

"It's all for the sake of making a living."

The two quietly talked as they walked down a road where they could not see even an inch ahead. They had a long way to go anyway. Was it not better to laugh and talk than to walk in silence the entire time, full of solemn resolve?

Using the starlight of jovial discourse as a lamp, they walked on.

They spoke of the adventures they had had in Cambria, of hunting the Demon Knight, and of the times they had become entangled with Dieta. As they talked about a past that had been only a few years ago but now felt so distant, the two laughed and chatted.

"The hardships began the moment we went to the Outland. I think I changed the most there."

"Everyone changes. The Outland is that kind of place."

"I met bonds I never could have imagined..."

"And went through events you never could have imagined."

Najin spoke of his first impression of the Helmeted Knight, the countless things that had happened after they became involved with one another, and what a dreadful being the Carnival King had been. He let out a breath.

"Then I met the Merlin from the past too."

"It was our first meeting. I still get confused about which one of us is really me, but now both of us feel like me."

From his first encounter with the fairy Merlin to reuniting with her in the Eternal City after crossing ages of time again.

"It was long."

Merlin grinned.

"It really was. It was a short time, but when I think of everything we went through, it doesn't feel short at all. I feel like I could talk forever."

Her smile looked happy.

"Who could have known? Who could have imagined you would come this far, or that I would become this way?"

No one could have imagined it.

No one could have expected it.

"That means..."

Tap.

"The ending should be like that too, shouldn't it? Endings matter in stories. No matter how good a story is, if the ending leaves a bad taste, you can't laugh and talk about it."

Merlin's footprints appeared beside Najin's.

"I hate endings where someone sacrifices themselves, where the hero fails in the end, where they lose their memories, or where everything is undone. They're predictable, and they're only sad! How many cases like that have there been over the past thousand years?"

"It has been an endless cliché since before you were born too. Countless heroes must have gone through that even before Arthur. It really has been repeated far too much, hasn't it?"

"Exactly."

Merlin nodded firmly.

"An age where a hero's tragedy has become a cliché? Does that make any sense? A hero who overcomes hardship and trials should be given a happy ending. That's only right."

Merlin and Najin walked. Their footprints, one after another, joined together and became a road. A clear path began to be carved into the Abyss, where not even an inch ahead could be seen.

"So, that Witch who doesn't understand what is right..."

"We should cut off her head. I'm good at that."

Najin grinned.

"What a coincidence. I have quite a reputation for killing witches too. Who do you think I am? I'm a Grand Mage who has awakened to the truth, with eleven Stars, no, twelve Stars now... the witch slayer who has killed more witches than anyone in the world."

"I thought you didn't like saying, 'Who do you think I am?'"

"I heard it so much because of a certain someone that I started liking it."

Merlin burst into laughter as well.

One step.

One step forward, toward the final chapter that would bring their long story to an end.

2.

The place Najin and Merlin had left behind.

Only two constellations shone over the frozen ground. Merlin's constellation and Najin's. As the two constellations that had driven back the darkness at last shone in their place, frozen supporting characters remained beneath their starlight.

They were supporting characters in the truest sense.

No, perhaps they could not even be called that.

Certainly, some of those gathered here could be called supporting characters. But most of those frozen in place were not even extras, let alone supporting characters. From the world's perspective, they were people not worth noticing.

They remained frozen and still.

But Merlin's magic was not eternal. It could have been eternal, but she had not gone that far. She only needed to avoid being disturbed until they left this place. Given enough time, the spell would come undone.

"......"

A place where only silence remained.

Crunch.

Footsteps echoed through the place filled with those who had stepped down from the stage themselves. Frost was pressed beneath someone's feet with a soft crunch. The one making that sound was a woman with snow-white hair falling down her back.

"Hah."

She breathed out white mist and grumbled.

"I can't quite say whether I arrived late or at just the right time."

"I believe you arrived at the proper time."

"Tsk. Still, it would have been nice to see their faces once before they left... No, forget it. I might have swung a sword at them instead of looking at their faces."

Talking to herself, though not truly talking to herself, she made her way toward the center of the frozen city.

Who else could it be but Yuel Razian?

She walked with her usual calm expression. How could she do that while the Blight Star was in the sky? The method itself was nothing special. She had a method only she could use. Yuel touched the scar remaining on her heart.

It was a scar left by Dissolution.

The moment the Witch of the Abyss tried to stir her emotions, Yuel immediately dissolved herself. She had suffered through that method enough at the hands of the Star of Omniscience. Yuel knew that dissolving herself was how she could respond to it.

As a result, the inside and outside of her personality had been reversed.

And she had passed out from the backlash.

Still, Yuel was satisfied that she had not held Najin back. He already seemed to have enough enemies, and it would have been troublesome if she had become one too. More than anything, Yuel was carrying something in her hand that could threaten Najin.

"It seems he managed it somehow again. He really is an incredible human. If it had been me, I would have killed one or two of them. How did he manage not to kill a single person?"

Yuel smiled as she said that. Yes, that was who he was. If he was the one who had dragged her out of the Sealed City, then he had to choose a path like this. Yuel let out a long breath and brushed back her hair.

"The main characters have set off on their journey."

Yuel exhaled.

"So the supporting characters must do what supporting characters do."

"What do supporting characters do?"

"They help the main characters. They add heat to the stage. And they make the stage grand."

She did what she had to do.

"Since the Blight Star appeared, no stars have risen in the sky. Without stars, the Constellations lost their guide. Having lost their guide, they were easily shaken."

Yuel herself had been no different. She had resisted by dissolving herself, but once her connection with her Star had been severed, had she not fallen into a deep sleep? Only after a Star rose in the sky had she barely been able to awaken.

Yes, only after a Star rose.

Yuel looked up at the sky. The Blight Star was no longer the only thing in the night sky. There was a constellation that had driven away the Blight Star's light and proudly taken its place in one corner of the sky.

"But now, a Star has risen."

A Star had risen again.

"Did you know? In the distant past, when there were not as many Stars as there are now, people found their way by using a single Star as their guide. King Arthur's constellation, which shone brightest of all, became a lighthouse for sailors and a lantern for adventurers lost in the forest."

That was what Stars were originally for. They might not be able to brighten the dark night sky, but they could at least show those living on this land a direction so they would not lose their way.

"It has been forgotten in this modern age, where there are far too many Stars."

Yuel smiled.

"But isn't it a fitting story for the sky as it is now?"

Dawning Star was shining.

A Star had shone in a sky that had known only darkness.

And change began.

The Blight Star still shone in the sky, but it was no longer the only light there.

3.

At the end of the Abyss, she watched Najin walk toward her.

Watching the human who meant to challenge the end of the Abyss no matter what, she rested her chin on her hand. To one who had lived for more than tens of thousands of years, memories were like a vast library. Some of those memories had burned away, but it was still a library lined with countless books.

The Witch searched through her memories.

At the deepest part of the library.

She took out the oldest and most worn volume, the first collection, half of which had burned away. The letters covered in soot could not be read, but she could at least make out one line.

「The end. An end to everything.」

As the Witch reflected on her origin, she smiled.

The end was approaching.

One step forward to the end of everything on this land.

Author's Note

I'm a little late!

Footnotes:

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