WETRIED TRANSLATIONS
Is It Bad That the Main Character’s a Roleplayer?
[Translator – Aren]
◈Chapter 289 Something Convincing (5)
『Anyway. You heard that, didn’t you, Number 73? Congratulations. You may be a failure, but at least you’ve escaped disposal and further experimentation.』
『…….』
『Why don’t you look happy?』
『I am not a failure.』
『Aha. Did that wound your pride?』
『I am……!』
『You are a failure, Number 73. Despite receiving the blood of the being known as the origin of magic, your talent for magic is abysmal. Though the Demonic Energy was removed, the maximum output you can produce barely reaches the limits of a human. And to top it all off, your constitution causes even other Demons to attack you… Ah, I suppose that can’t be helped since you aren’t a Demon to begin with. Not that you’re human either.』
『……!』
『You would do well to learn your place. The one you were copied from may indeed be a rebel against the heavens, but that does not make you one as well.』
『I-I am……』
『If you wish to set your sights upon the heavens, first return once you possess the stature befitting such an ambition. Though, of course, that will never happen.』
『…….』
* * *
Emerald, Morning Star¹, silently raised her sword.
Rebellion. The word she had uttered with her own lips, only to mock it herself, was immediately severed by the blade. Even if the entire world ridiculed that goal, she alone could not allow herself to do the same.
A single act of compliance was not defeat, but a single moment of resignation was the opening shot of submission. And she would never submit to the one from whom she originated.
“…Huh, I see.”
Looking at her opponent’s uncomfortable expression, she gathered strength in the tips of her feet. The leather shoes, thick enough to protect the soles of her feet yet thin enough not to hinder the flexibility that was her greatest strength, creased into countless wrinkles.
Boom!
With a single leap, the surrounding air shattered and scattered its fragments.
Clang! The moment sword met sword, the debris that sprayed outward was shaved-off Arcane Power.
It was a phenomenon that could occur only when people capable of condensing Arcane Power until it became visible and maintaining it for long periods gathered and crossed blades.
Green and black motes of light scattered brilliantly like the remains of shattered gemstones.
Swoosh!
But she was not satisfied with merely that.
Morning Star made full use of everything at her disposal.
The whip. The roughly 1.5-meter section that remained burst apart, and the bodies of the insects just began to rise around them, using their remains to obstruct her opponent’s vision.
Her white clothes were dirtied in exchange, but she accepted it. She was far too weak to preserve the lofty dignity of one standing above the clouds until the very end. She would rather die than admit it, but that was reality. The mere fact that she had been forced to hear, “So why did you side with the Demons, even when they treat you like this?” was proof enough of her position. Had she been stronger, those words would never have been spoken to her.
She was not currently in a position to be particular about her means or methods.
“Kgh……!”
The sole saving grace was that her opponent’s learning was shallow and his sword, ignorant. It may have been sufficient against fools or those of middling skill, but not against Morning Star.
Taking advantage of his obstructed vision, she thrust directly toward his upper body. Her opponent hurriedly blocked the rapier’s point with the flat of his blade, but rather than withdraw, she applied even more force.
After all, her rapier, Forbidden, would not break.
For that was the sword forged from scales provided by Cain, who crawled beneath the lake, cast in cold flame by Eve, the featherless bird, quenched by Adam, who breathed white breath, and completed with Abel’s offering.
Thus, trusting that her blade would not buckle, Morning Star pushed her opponent back. The slick footing of the mud began sending sword and wielder sliding together.
Eyes of a similar color widened in apparent surprise.
Kiiing!
Amid that sight, Morning Star put strength into her foot. Crunch. Her foot smashed through a Ghoul’s skull, dug into the mud, and planted itself firmly against the earth. There was no sliding from recoil.
She watched her opponent get pushed farther back than she had and saw their two blades separate as a result.
Boom!
Once again, her entire body sprang forward. Swoosh! In that brief instant, the whip she swung kept the vermin around her in check and burst them apart.
Beneath the scattering flesh and blood, Morning Star struck her opponent’s sword once more.
Her target was the weakest point of the blade. Clang! Her rapier collided with her opponent’s sword yet again. She could clearly see his eyes darting about, wary that she might slide her blade along his and stab him.
But why would she take such a dangerous gamble? A thrust was precisely the sort of attack that left one open to a counterattack unless it killed in a single blow or if the angle was even slightly off.
A Knight’s battle was not about killing the enemy in one strike. That tendency became even more pronounced in a chaotic melee where enemies surrounded one on every side.
A Knight must always fight while protecting themselves. Survival was what allowed one to kill even more enemies.
“You.”
Moreover, time was on her side. Though her opponent did not seem to realize it in the slightest.
“Is it not becoming difficult to breathe?”
“……?”
“Has somewhere in your abdomen not begun to ache?”
This environment was equally hostile to both her and her opponent. But if asked which of them was in greater danger, Morning Star would have chosen her opponent without hesitation.
“So long as you harbor Wrath, the curse of starvation and thirst will likely not descend upon you. Plague and insects, however, are another matter.”
After all, this place was positively teeming with insects, and her opponent had far too many wounds for them to burrow into. More precisely, she had made sure of that.
“I wonder which will come first, the disease spreading through your body or the insects laying their eggs and hatching.”
His back, shoulders, sides, stomach, thighs, and forearms. Even counting only the places cut or stabbed deeply enough to expose muscle, there were already that many. Considering that contaminated soil and insects had entered those wounds, how much longer could his life possibly last?
By now, a few of them were likely gnawing away at parts of his lungs or other organs.
“Cough.”
“As expected.”
Her prediction immediately proved correct. Before long, her opponent began coughing up blood. Kiing! Even then, there was something rather admirable about the way he blocked her sword and kicked at her with his leg.
She deflected the attack coming toward her with her blade and swung her whip. With a deft snap of her wrist, the whip cut through the air and sought to burst open her opponent’s side.
Bang! Demonic Energy erupted from his body and forcibly repelled her whip.
“Blegh.”
Afterward, her opponent spat out blood once more.
However, his expression was markedly different from when he had first coughed it up. Perhaps because he housed an entire Demon within himself, Demonic Energy as vast as a mountain could be seen surging through his body.
“Whew, thanks.”
“……?”
“That could’ve been bad if I hadn’t figured out the cause.”
And that surge proceeded to crush the tiny living creatures roaming around inside his body. Without harming his body in the slightest, it burst and killed only those miniscule insects.
His control was chilling.
“This is why not having a sense of pain is such a problem……”
“…How?”
However, she had never seen a human control energy so naturally. The same held true even when she searched not only her own memories but also those of the being she originated from, the memories of the source they shared.
“…Did Wrath help you?”
Only Pride and Wrath possessed such control over Demonic Energy or Arcane Power. Morning Star’s lips pressed tightly together for a moment.
“What?”
“I already found it suspicious that there was no visible effect when you reinforced your body with Arcane Power…Hah, so that was it.”
“What??”
When one infused Arcane Power into the body, a portion of the energy used for reinforcement would inevitably leak outward. The more Arcane Power one used, the more that uncontrolled energy would rise from the body like a heat haze.
That was true of her, just as it had apparently been true of the former Knight Commander she had only ever heard about.
Yet perhaps even that did not occur before such astonishing control. Morning Star let out a hollow laugh at the realization.
“How utterly miserable.”
There was no possibility that a human had reached such a realm, so Wrath must surely have aided him. And that made her feel even more wretched.
The goal she had only vaguely estimated before had suddenly become real, confronting her with painful clarity.
“Am I truly incapable of reaching the heavens……?!”
She wanted to reach the heavens. Following the yearning cried out by her very foundation, she had wanted to somehow break the source from which she came and stand in that place herself.
Could she ever reach those supreme heights when she could not even imitate that? Could she stand in the heavens?
“I……!!”
Rising envy and jealousy made her grip her sword even tighter.
『I keep sensing Wrath’s presence nearby… Perhaps it has sensed the plan is coming to ruin it.』
She knew that this envy and competitive resentment only widened the distance between her and her source, yet she could not suppress them.
『All the better. Even if I keep you as a card in reserve, there will not be many chances to use you to inflict damage upon the city. It may be best to expend you here. This scheme will fail regardless if Wrath interferes, so if you can cause even a little more destruction, there will be no loss on my end.』
She hated, and envied, the existence whose mere presence caused her original to treat her as a disposable pawn. She needed power like that. Power that would allow her to stand wholly on her own, power that would satisfy the yearning stirred by her source!
“Why are you suddenly freaking out—!”
Boom!
She rapidly drove back her bewildered opponent.
It was not particularly easy.
The sword energy that wiped out all the surrounding Demons yet remained difficult to deal with and the Demons that instantly filled any opening whenever she blocked that sword energy and constantly sought a chance to attack her back were both quite threatening if she let her guard down.
Claaang, clang!
However, she was ultimately someone who had once claimed the position of First Knight, while her opponent was someone who had not.
She raised her arm toward the incoming attack.
Clamp!
Her opponent’s sword pierced through the empty space between her side and arm. However, as her opponent stepped forward and she did the same, what became trapped between her side and arm was not the blade but the arm holding it.
She restrained her opponent’s arm by pressing her forearm against her side. Of course, the restraint would come loose if he focused his strength and tried to wrench his arm free, but that was no great concern.
By then, her rapier would have pierced him first.
Swish!
However, just as her sword was about to move, a new blade, judging by its shape and length, likely a zweihänder, was summoned into her opponent’s empty hand.
It was not entirely unexpected, since he had already summoned and stored swords from thin air earlier.
However, that would ultimately prove to be his mistake.
She struck the flat of the blade with the pommel of her rapier. Forced downward by the pommel, the sword tilted and struck her opponent’s head. There may have been a blade between them, but it was still essentially a piece of metal smashing into his skull.
“Kgh.”
Her opponent reflexively squeezed his eyes shut and pulled his arm free. Thud! Before a longsword could reappear in that arm, her foot kicked into his abdomen as though shoving him away.
“Hup.”
Her rapier shot forward at high speed toward her retreating opponent. He barely managed to summon his longsword and hurriedly wedged it into the rapier’s path.
Clang!
At that moment, a shrill metallic sound rang out, and the longsword pierced at a single point by the rapier snapped cleanly in two. The recoil pushed Morning Star back and left her wrist aching, but she had suffered no real loss.
There was no prey better than a Knight who had lost his weapon.
“Now—”
Of course, judging from what her opponent had shown, he should still have the zweihänder. But could someone who had not even mastered the longsword, the most basic of swords, truly wield a zweihänder well? If he had been proficient with the zweihänder in the first place, would he have tried to face her with a longsword from the beginning?
"─This is the end.”
Of course not. Since that could not possibly be the case, her judgment was correct.
Whether his final struggle lasted a little longer or not, she would be the one to win.
Her sword thrust toward her opponent’s heart.
‘Ah, but you should hear the truth before you go. Don’t you think?’
Suddenly, her opponent’s eyes turned as red as rubies.
“Atya!!”
At that exact moment, what came flying toward them from far beyond the city walls was a vermillion sword gleaming beautifully like flame. The Demonic Energy drifting through the air caught it like a fishing line snagging its prey.
‘Congratulations. There are very few who have received my help without paying a price.’
At the same time, the tremendous Demonic Energy pouring from her opponent seized her feet. Burning. A momentary illusion shook her instincts and created a 1-second opening.
‘I’ve done everything I’m going to do for you, okay?’
At last, the vermilion sword settled into her opponent’s grasp. I’m going to lose. Through that realization, Morning Star attained an enlightenment befitting her name.
“You.”
She would die without devouring Wrath’s vessel and inheriting its power, without using him to attempt her rebellion.
“May you perish alongside Wrath.”
How utterly miserable.
Without closing her eyes, Morning Star welcomed the black-and-yellow flames.
The blade plunged into her heart.
* * *
『Just you wait! I will become the heavens and return!』
They turned the glass cylinder containing the emerald this way and that as they reflected on the past. The gem, cracking further and further, was now on the verge of losing its shape completely.
“I wanted to see how powerful a homunculus created by mixing a Great Demon’s blood with a human would be……”
This emerald revealed only the homuculus’ condition. It showed neither its location nor the situation it was in. That was truly regrettable. Since it was dying anyway, they at least wanted to know how it died and what kind of reaction it showed in its final moments.
“Are you saying with that arrogant look in your eyes? Or are you thrashing desperately until the end?”
After all, perhaps its death would resemble that of the one who had provided the blood.
Crack!
The gem shattered completely.
_________________________________________________________________________
¹ So, Emerald’s 계명(啓明) is the Sino-Korean literary term for Venus/Morning Star, while Pride uses 샛별, which is the native Korean term for Venus/Morning Star. We can infer that Emerald named herself after Pride in her way to show that she is not inferior, etc., as an act of rebellion. The name can also be read as enlightenment.
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