WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Irevi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Unleashed a Gossip Gallery in Another World ◈
Chapter 51: A Reunion Beyond Time
──────
“Ghk!?”
The Elf Queen, kicked hard in the abdomen, flew through the air and slammed into the corridor wall.
“Get up.”
“Ugh, ughh....”
“I said, get up.”
The Elf Queen, who had been clutching her stomach and writhing in pain, suddenly opened her eyes wide.
“Eek!”
The man wearing the previous Hero’s face was striding toward her with an eerie expression.
“S-Stop....”
Trembling violently with terror on her face, she staggered to her feet.
Rumble....
At the same time, she summoned the enormous bow from before and aimed it at the man before her.
“I said stop, you fucking bastard!!!”
Desperately pulling back the bowstring, she fired an arrow filled with green energy.
Crackle...!
But that decisive strike, capable of piercing the hide of most dragons, was blocked by the man’s sword and pathetically embedded in the ground.
“Ah....”
Minerva stared blankly at it.
“L-Log out!”
When the man came right up to her, she raised her voice in a cold sweat.
“Ghk...!?”
But in the next instant, the man’s boot struck Minerva in the stomach once more.
“You still intend to resist.”
“Ugh, ugh....”
“Take your hands off, you bitch.”
Still clutching her stomach and retching, she trembled at the cold voice from before her and weakly lowered her hands.
Tremble....
How much time passed after that?
Smack!
With a sharp crack that tore through the air, Minerva’s head snapped to the side.
“....”
Her nose was bleeding, and she blankly touched her swollen, reddened cheek.
“Why.... can’t I log out....”
“Because I, the Master Administrator, have not permitted it.”
She looked back up at the man before her.
“T-The Hero definitely died long ago....”
Having seized the World Tree’s authority, there should have been no one here with higher authority than her.
Except for one person, the previous Hero, the Master Administrator.
“But then, who are you...?”
Minerva muttered with an expression that showed she simply could not believe it.
“Ghhk!?”
The man grabbed her throat once again and whispered in a chilling voice.
“From now on, answer my questions to the best of your ability.”
The Elf Queen, terrified out of her mind, barely nodded.
“First. Where the World Tree database is stored.”
“I-I just deleted all of the database....”
She answered in a shrinking voice, then sensed the bloodlust coming from him and hurriedly changed her words.
“B-But! There’s a backup!”
“....”
“It should still be in the control room’s backup device!”
The man narrowed his eyes as he looked down at Minerva, then asked another question.
“Second. Where is Sigria, the previous Elf Queen?”
A brief silence followed.
“B-Beneath the Great Forest! The lowest level of the slave prison!”
“Report her current condition as well.”
“I-I placed a restriction on her, so she can’t interfere with the outside world at all. She’s just diligently browsing the Gallery....”
As the grip around Minerva’s throat gradually tightened, her eyes darted around before she hurriedly spilled another ugly secret.
“Then, my final question.”
“Ask, ask me anything! I’ll answer everyth...!”
Minerva completely lowered herself, forcing up the corners of her mouth as she spoke.
“Ghk....”
But before she could finish, the man holding her throat lifted her into the air just like that.
“Did you enjoy yourself while I was gone?”
“Ugh, ghk....”
“How does it feel to get the shit beaten out of you again after so long?”
At the man’s final question, Minerva finally realized the unavoidable truth.
“You.... You really are the Hero?”
Whether she wanted to believe it or not, she had no choice.
There was only one being who could so thoroughly brutalize her, even while she was protected by the system as a World Tree, just as when she had been expelled from the Hero Party.
“Why are you acting surprised now, Minerva?”
“Ghk, ghk....”
“Back then, you weren’t someone who deserved to die.... I didn’t think you would fall this far.”
The being gripping her throat and holding her aloft was the strongest Hero, the very man who had defeated the Demon King that had once driven the world to the brink of ruin.
“Um, hey.”
“....”
“I-I was a little harsh all this time, wasn’t I?”
From that moment, Minerva completely abandoned her pointless resistance.
“You should’ve said something, at least.”
“Ha.”
“If I’d known you were alive.... Do you think I would’ve been crazy enough to do something like thi...?”
Instead, she began talking with a welcoming expression while cold sweat streamed down her face.
Creeeak...!
Before she could finish, the force around her throat grew even stronger.
“Ghk...!”
“You really are beyond saving.”
Having finished all his questions, the previous Hero no longer hid his bloodlust.
“W-Wait.... Just wait.... Hold on!”
Realizing that, Minerva barely forced out a cracking voice as she struggled to breathe.
“I-I’ll do anything! I’ll do anything, so....”
“....”
“J-Just spare my life.... Okay?”
At her ugly plea for mercy, the previous Hero’s eyes curved even more narrowly.
“Do you not understand what it means that I revealed my identity to you?”
“...Huh?”
“It means I have no intention of letting you live, Minerva.”
And at that moment.
Trickle....
Minerva’s lower body, exposed to the previous Hero’s undisguised bloodlust, began to grow warm and wet.
“Since when has the Elf Queen suffered from a urinary disorder?”
“Ghk....”
“Disgusting....”
Normally, Minerva would have spat curses in fury at such an insult. Yet even after hearing it, she remained desperate.
“I-I’ll hand over control of the Great Forest!”
“...?”
“Y-You’re the king of the Great Forest now! I’ll let you do whatever you want with everything in the Great Forest!”
But the previous Hero’s grip did not loosen.
“The World Tree system, which forms the foundation of the Great Forest, was designed and created by me from the beginning.”
Instead, it only provoked his anger further.
“Together with Sigria, who joined the Hero Party after you left. You stupid bitch.”
Silence settled over the corridor for a moment.
“It may have been a secret, but even after becoming queen, you never thought to find out.”
“Ghk, ghk....”
“Or perhaps.... you knew and still committed these ugly acts. If it’s you, the latter is more likely.”
The previous Hero leaned close to Minerva, who was struggling painfully in the silence, and whispered low into her ear.
“And do you still not know your place?”
From that point on, Minerva abandoned even the last of her pride and began wearing a servile expression.
“S-Slave! I’ll be your slave!”
“....”
“How about keeping an elf slave in your bedroom? A capable and beautiful elf.... They sell so well on the black market....”
If nothing else, she had confidence in her beauty as one of the few remaining high elves in the world.
“At least someone like me.... Day or night.... I could be an incredibly capable sla...”
Unfortunately for her, her opponent was the wrong person.
Creeeak....
After all, a disgusting elf’s attempt at seduction could never work on a man who had even rejected the Goddess’s confession.
“...Ghk!?”
“Why would I make a filthy bitch like you my slave?”
Minerva’s body, which had been twisting and struggling, gradually grew sluggish.
“Hah, haa....”
As her breath slowly failed and oxygen stopped reaching her brain, Minerva felt a chilling sensation spread through her entire body.
“Gossip Gallery....”
“Hm?”
“I’ll.... I’ll be a moderator for the Gossip Gallery.”
She finally spoke her last resort aloud.
“You, you’re collecting Gallery slaves, aren’t you? I’ll do that too, so please just spare my life....”
“....”
“I-I’ll do a dogeza too.... I’ll take a photo of myself doing a humiliating dogeza and upload it to the Gossip Gallery right now, so please....”
“Please.... Spare me.... Hero....”
The previous Hero looked disdainfully at Minerva, then released his grip about a minute later.
Slip....
Minerva collapsed weakly to the floor and desperately sucked in air.
“Hah, hah! Haaah...!”
“....”
“Haa, haa....”
Around then, a low murmur reached Minerva’s ears.
“You are not even worth killing with my own hands.”
“R-Right?”
“I’ll spare you this once, Minerva.”
When the previous Hero finished speaking, turned around, and began walking away, Minerva smiled in delight and spoke through slurred words.
“T-Thanks.... Hehe.”
But the previous Hero merely walked away without even looking at her.
“Instead, serve the Great Forest in proportion to the magnitude of your sins.”
“O-Of course.”
“Fine.... That will do.”
Immediately afterward, Minerva’s battered face and stomach, covered in wounds and bruises, began healing at a rapid pace.
“As expected.... You’re the greatest Hero....”
“....”
“A great hero of the world like you.... would never take a life so carelessly....”
While Minerva muttered with as servile an expression as possible in case the previous Hero changed his mind, her true thoughts were as follows.
‘And people like that.... always act like pushovers at the decisive moment....’
Long-lived species had their own methods.
‘I’ll have to hide like I’m dead for a while....’
For some reason, the previous Hero had returned to the world. Now, she only needed to live in seclusion until another opportunity came.
‘If I can just endure until the day the Demon God descends....’
As Minerva thought such ugly thoughts and forced her still-limp body upright.
“Hm?”
She suddenly sensed something behind her and turned around with a puzzled expression.
“Uh, uh...?”
Minerva’s blank expression gradually turned to horror.
“Kyyaaaaaaah!!!”
A terrible scream echoed through the World Tree corridor in the next instant.
“You really are an unbelievably stupid bitch.”
“W-What is this!?”
“I told you, Minerva....”
The previous Hero had already arrived at the World Tree system’s control panel. He turned around with a cruel smile.
“Once you knew my identity, I had no intention of letting you live....”
Reflected in his eyes was Elf Queen Minerva, slowly being drawn into the enormous tree while countless tentacles wrapped around her.
“What the fuck is this, you bastard!?”
“What do you think it is?”
When Minerva finally realized something was wrong and spat a curse, the previous Hero answered calmly.
“It is the ancient demon you summoned by sacrificing half the life energy remaining in the Great Forest.”
The previous Hero then turned his attention away and began rapidly tapping the control panel.
“Then why is this here...!”
“Because I, the Master Administrator of this virtual dimension, ordered it.”
“...Ghk!?”
At that moment, Minerva’s arms and legs, which had been kicking wildly as she tried to escape, began to break one by one.
“Don’t worry. I don’t go back on my word.”
“AAAAAAAH!!!”
“I will spare your life, Minerva.”
The previous Hero began walking toward Minerva again as she screamed horribly.
“So spend the rest of your life here.... as a battery.”
A cold smile appeared on his lips, the same one that had often appeared in the nightmares of the demon race.
“You sucked up the World Tree’s energy like a mosquito.... You’ll probably live for several hundred more years.”
“Wait, what did you say...?”
“Of course, with your mind and soul bound to this virtual dimension, you’ll live as a vegetable outside for the rest of your life.”
Minerva’s complexion turned paler than ever as the tree had already consumed half her body.
“But you needn’t worry about dying. You’ll live here, feeling every single second in full.”
The punishment the previous Hero had imposed was more frightening than death to Minerva, a long-lived being.
“Don’t be too lonely. I’ll visit from time to time.”
“W-Wait....”
“I’ve been rather short on life energy lately. It worked out well that I found a source of supply.”
With her hands and feet restrained and unable to do anything, she would naturally be unable to use the Gallery, her only means of calling for help in this situation.
“...Though I must first supply energy to the Great Forest that you nearly withered away.”
Minerva, condemned to be treated as a battery for the Great Forest and the Hero forever, finally twisted her face hideously.
“You bastard!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Gathering her final strength, she raised her voice until it thundered through the corridor.
“H-How can you call yourself a Hero after doing this!?”
“What?”
“A so-called Hero doing something this evil...!”
But the previous Hero had no intention of simply listening to her ugly struggle.
“...That is not something a mad elf who corrupted the World Tree on her own to summon the Demon God should say, is it?”
When he finished speaking, Minerva’s face filled with horror.
“Y-You already knew....”
“And.... Minerva.”
Interrupting her, the previous Hero stepped one pace closer.
“The deaths that nearly occurred because of the Dungeon Demonic Realm crisis number several thousand, even by a rough estimate.”
“....”
“The actual number of injured is at least five hundred. The indirect damage that nearly would have affected the Southern Continent was approximately hundreds of thousands to millions of people.”
The more he spoke, the tighter the tentacles surrounding Minerva squeezed her body.
“Even excluding that, how many did you kill while I was gone?”
Minerva tried to say something in response to the previous Hero, but she soon found herself speechless.
“Is there any reason I should not regard you as a Demon King?”
A chilling silence soon fell between them.
“W-Wait! I-I was threatened!”
“....”
“I-I’ll help expose them! The bald Emperor, the Dragon Lord! And the Eastern Continent Emperor....”
As the gaps in the tree swallowing her gradually closed, Minerva fell completely into panic and began shouting.
“I have no need of it, Minerva.”
But the previous Hero ignored all her words. He picked up the queen’s tiara from the floor and personally placed it back on Minerva’s head.
“From now on, fulfill the duties you should have borne as the Queen of the Great Forest.”
The previous Hero waved to Minerva, who was gritting her teeth.
“Be exploited according to the sins you have committed.”
“P-Please, don’t do this....”
“Just as you did to Sephiroth for hundreds of years.”
His final farewell flowed from his lips.
“...I hope you endure until that ugly life of yours ends.”
Having said that, the previous Hero turned his back on Minerva as he had before.
“No! Don’t go!”
But this time, he did not turn back around.
“Please, please! Hero!!!”
Minerva desperately reached out with her broken hand toward him, screaming until just before the tree consumed her completely.
“DON’T GOOOOOOOO!!!!!”
* * *
Squirm...!
The ancient tree that had completely swallowed Minerva shook and wriggled about.
‘It’s writhing quite a lot.’
Seeing that, I did not need to check what was happening inside to picture it clearly.
“....”
Having done what needed to be done, I immediately headed toward the center of the corridor without looking back.
“Sepi.”
The android with the familiar face was still standing there with empty eyes, completely unresponsive.
“Open your eyes.”
As I stepped closer to Sephiroth, I finally realized that she was barely being supported by power supply lines connected throughout the corridor.
“Sepi....”
That let me roughly guess the outcome, but I gritted my teeth and clung to hope as I checked her logs.
>Great Forest energy depletion confirmed.
>Ignoring the Prime Directive and abandoning program maintenance.
But what was written in the World Tree system logs shattered that hope.
>Great Forest restoration protocol activated.
>All other unnecessary functions shutting down.
Having confirmed that Minerva had completely depleted the Great Forest’s energy, she had already decided her own end through an independent judgment.
“Ha....”
She had sacrificed everything about herself to delay the end of the Great Forest ecosystem.
Thanks to that, the Great Forest and all of the Southern Continent had miraculously gained time.
If we extracted and supplied life energy from Elf Queen Minerva, who had volunteered to become a battery, buds would grow in the Great Forest once more.
>Thank you for loving the World Tree system all this time.
But because of that, restarting her would be difficult.
Sephiroth was no different from a person who had exhausted all their life energy and fallen into eternal sleep.
Unless a miracle suddenly occurred, I would never see her again.
“Ha ha....”
And I knew all too well.
The world was cruel to heroes.
It did not grant a miracle to save the hero themself after they sacrificed themself to perform one.
‘If I knew this would happen, I should have treated her better....’
I thought I had grown used to farewells.
After so many years of hardship and ugly sights, I thought my emotions had been dulled beyond feeling.
But this time, I could not hide my bitterness.
‘At least, I wanted to say goodbye....’
I gritted my teeth, lowered my head, and trembled for a long while.
“...?”
Then my eyes suddenly caught a faded memo tucked into the corner of the control panel.
[Emergency Backup Power Mode]
[※Warning: Use only in a true emergency!]
I blankly stared at the contents of the memo written on Great Forest parchment, then slowly entered the code written inside into the system.
<Sepi, you got yourself into trouble again!>
<You’re going to get scolded by your mother!?>
<Just try getting into trouble one more time!?>
Somehow, the messages had a familiar way of speaking.
“Honestly....”
When I checked the ID displayed beside them, I could not help but let out a hollow laugh.
(ID: High Elf Sigria)
“She really is softhearted....”
Fortunately, on this day of all days, the world seemed to have decided to be fickle.
* * *
[Emergency Backup Power Mode Activated.]
Blue letters and numbers suddenly began floating in the vision that had been dyed black.
“...?”
Right afterward, the Dungeon Master slowly opened her eyes.
“Error occurred.”
The woman once called Sephiroth looked around with a puzzled expression, then began murmuring in a low voice.
“...The program has not been shut down.”
The Dungeon Master’s unease deepened as she fidgeted with her two fingers.
“Beginning cause analysis....”
Just as she was about to enter debugging mode to identify the error, as she always did.
“Sepi.”
“...?”
“It’s been a long time.”
No matter how many years had passed, a voice she could never forget from her memory circuits suddenly came from before her.
“Error.”
In the next instant, the Dungeon Master turned her gaze forward and spoke mechanically with a blank expression.
“This unit’s owner is already deceased.”
“....”
“Visual circuit or memory circuit malfunction suspected....”
But right afterward, her artificial pupils expanded greatly.
“Sepi, could that be true?”
“...!?”
“I didn’t make you so riddled with errors.”
A brief silence settled in the corridor.
“Question. The relevant statement does not remain in my memory circuits.”
“Ha ha....”
“Unable to determine the cause of the error....”
The Dungeon Master stared ahead for a long time in silence, then lowered her head while trying to ignore a possibility beginning to calculate itself in her mind.
“You frequently experienced errors because you were designed to make independent judgments.”
Then the familiar voice entered the Dungeon Master’s auditory system once more.
“Of course, you always called that an error....”
“....”
“But it would be difficult to call the process of making mistakes and learning, as anyone might, an error.”
The Dungeon Master slowly raised her head toward the voice.
“And thanks to that, you have grown so wonderfully.”
Impossible information entered her visual module.
“Error. Emotional circuit overload.”
“I told you, it isn’t an error.”
“Error. Error occurring....”
Error messages began filling her logic circuits and emotional circuits. The Dungeon Master could not regain her senses, merely muttering blankly for a long while.
“Was it an error when you ignored the Prime Directive code and sacrificed yourself to save the Southern Continent?”
“...!”
“That wasn’t an error. It was your judgment.”
She suddenly stopped muttering.
“That is proof that you are not an android full of errors....”
The man had already come right before her. He wore a smile that still felt overwhelmingly familiar to her, though it had degraded in her memory circuits over countless years.
“It is proof that you are my daughter, who makes me proud.”
How much time passed after that?
“Situation redefinition complete....”
The Dungeon Master handled the error messages flooding in from all directions as exceptions through her own judgment, then sprang forward and ran.
Tap tap tap...!
At last, she threw herself into the familiar embrace and spoke the declaration she had thought she would never be able to say again.
“Project Sephiroth System....”
“As of this moment, terminates permanent standby mode....”
Footnotes:
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