WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Asakusa
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Knight Commander of the Doomed Heroes ◈
Chapter 16: Peaceful Days (11)
──────
“Answer me, Revel. How many more years can you live?”
“...I have no idea what nonsense you’re talking about.”
“Don’t deny it. Not when it’s this obvious.”
Eihen swept back bleached blond hair, deep red eyes fixed on me in a burning, unrelenting stare.
“If you won’t tell me, this is my ultimatum. Revel, you’re forbidden from fighting for the next three months. And come to the Academy for a thorough physical examination. Those are my conditions.”
“Why would you think I’d accept them?”
“Because if you don’t, I’ll use every means available to me. I’ll bring your health and safety before the Round Table Council, and I’ll tell Sir Baek Soyeon about your condition.”
“The Round Table Council? Bring it up or don’t. Do whatever you like. But...”
I drew up my magical power.
I hadn’t wanted to waste it on something like this, but this seemed to call for a clear warning.
“Leave Sir Soyeon out of this. Have you no respect or gratitude for the heroes?”
“It seems we have different ideas of respect and gratitude.”
“...Do you know how much Sir Soyeon suffers in battle? And you’re going to tell her? You’re going to drag her back into that endless mire of fighting?”
“That’s her choice.”
“Choice? You mean using her kindness to make her feel guilty, then taking advantage of her however you please?”
“...Watch your mouth, Revel. That’s no way for the commander of the Order of Eternity to speak.”
“Then report me to the Chief Justiciar.”
“Revel!”
“Do as you like, Eihen. I can’t stop you from taking action anyway. But you can’t stop me either.”
Eihen’s teeth clenched.
“Revel, don’t get the wrong idea. You’re not expendable. While everyone else is stumbling around on the ground, you alone can look to the sky. You’re an irreplaceable hero. Why do you keep wearing yourself down like this? You... need to live much longer. You could save countless people if you lived longer. It’s good that you care about the heroes. But all I’m asking is that you let go a little and pace yourself. That’s... reasonable, isn’t it? Surely you can work that much out.”
Reasonable?
Work it out?
I couldn’t help laughing.
“We send girls who aren’t even adults into battle in our place. Girls who aren’t even from our world. We force them to sacrifice themselves. And we’re supposed to stay safely behind them, being calculating and reasonable?”
“Revel! That’s not what I...!”
“Headmaster. If we want to tell the heroes to risk their lives for us, we have to risk our lives for them too. That’s the bare minimum of decency.”
“...”
“Leave. I don’t want to fight today.”
“...”
A gust of wind blew. When I looked up, Eihen was gone.
Damn that fool.
Eihen hadn’t seemed convinced, even at the end.
Sir Soyeon would probably find out.
“...Tch.”
She probably didn’t remember, but I was the one who had found Sir Soyeon after she fell into this world.
She had been dying.
In the middle of a village burned down by monsters.
Among the ruins of the village that had taken her in and protected her for two months after she arrived in this world.
She had instinctively released her magical power to form a barrier, then crouched among the ruins and cried.
Listening to the monsters clawing at the barrier. Scritch. Scritch.
I had detected a hero’s magical power, led the order there, and rescued her.
Sir Soyeon didn’t remember me, but I remembered every word she had said.
“They’re dead. They’re really dead... Everyone’s dead. What is this? What is this? Where am I? Why is this happening? Why? Why?!”
Was it a scream? A sob? A cry of despair?
The manual passed down through the order contained the following passage.
[Heroes from Earth, especially those from certain countries such as South Korea and Japan, must be treated with extreme care. Their world is believed to have been a peaceful and ethical society beyond our imagination.]
It was hard to believe, but most heroes from Earth saw a corpse for the first time only after coming here.
Heroes from the Land of Splendor, a world where martial arts existed, took up weapons and fought from their very first day.
Heroes from Arnacain, the world Sir Soyeon called cyberpunk, merely frowned at the sight of a corpse.
Even heroes from the peaceful world called Blueworld, though distressed and saddened, calmly brought their magical power under control.
But heroes from Earth always panicked at the sight of the dead.
Even after a year or two as heroes, they never grew used to it.
“There are no graves for the dead? What kind of world is this? Why do so many people die? Why don’t we even get a chance to mourn them...?”
“If I don’t fight, someone else will die. But when I fight... it hurts so much...”
They grieved more deeply. They suffered more deeply. They always had nightmares.
And yet they forced themselves to go out and fight.
That was what heroes from Earth were like.
Sir Soyeon was like that.
So were the other heroes from South Korea I had met.
According to old records, they had always been that way.
Harin noona, too.
She had been the same.
Even though she had acted so tough in front of me.
And so I kept remembering my old vow.
“I’ll help. I’ll fight. In their place.”
I attached no excuses or conditions to it.
* * *
How could I save Sir Soyeon?
How could I keep the heroes from dying?
# Solution (157-1)
⇒ It may be possible to reduce the pressure of magical power by using it up regularly.
⇒ Test this with angelic magical power. Angelic magical power is two-layer magical power that begins at the interface of principle and extends to the layer beneath it. Try emptying all the magical power within it without replenishing it.
⇒ Failure. Just as water is sucked down through a hole in the bottom of a pond, magical power is naturally drawn into the “wound” that pierces the interface of principle and reaches the next layer. The flow can be slowed, but not stopped completely. In fact, attempts to block it increase the pressure of the incoming flow, causing the wound to widen slightly. This method may be useful for training angelic magical power.
Another failure.
Even with my new knowledge, it felt as though a high, thick wall stood in my way.
“...I can do it. I can.”
I still had three chances left today.
I had decided to form four hypotheses and carry out eight rounds of verification every day. I also had all six experiments ready.
# Solution (157-3)
⇒ If high density is the problem, restore it to normal density. Artificially lower the order of magical power.
⇒ But how?
⇒ No method found. Learning something is easy compared to forgetting something one already knows. How can someone forget the depth of the world they have already perceived?
“Then what do I do...?”
Nothing came to mind.
My head felt empty.
Even when I forced myself to think, my thoughts tore apart like damp paper.
“No. No... Explosion. Explosion...”
I focused on the word explosion. Suddenly, I remembered the vast, sorrowful flashes of light I had seen in the past.
Lee Jina.
Mary.
Kirian.
Namgung Hui.
Pariiririan.
...
The heroes I had failed to save.
Those who had saved this world and vanished in flashes of pure white light.
Memories of the days when they had still been alive.
I picked up my pen again.
“I can do it.”
I could.
Four hypotheses every day, then verification, then experiments...
I could do it. Properly.
# Solution (158-1)
⇒ If I can keep the magical power under control even as it eats into the interface of reality... In other words, if I can maintain Unhindered Harmony forever...
Drip.
Driip.
Cold sweat kept falling onto the paper. It was unbearably annoying.
* * *
Round and round.
Round and round.
The world rolled on.
Time passed.
I fought and researched.
I fought and talked.
I fought and gave Sir Soyeon delicious things to eat.
I fought and went through paperwork.
Everything spun around and around, leaving me dizzy.
But even if I was dizzy, things were still moving, so it was fine. It was still fine.
“Mm...”
I woke at my desk. White sunlight came through the window and spread softly through the room.
“...When did I fall asleep?”
I rubbed my throbbing temples and raised my head. Something hurried backward with a scuffling sound.
“Who’s there?”
I looked up and blinked until my eyes focused. It was Sir Soyeon.
It took superhuman patience not to show my surprise.
I lowered my head slightly, trying to make it look natural as I checked my appearance.
Sleeves covering the backs of my hands.
A collar covering my neck.
Fortunately, none of my aching wounds were visible.
...She didn’t know, did she?
Or did she already know? Had Eihen told her?
I carefully studied Sir Soyeon without letting it show.
“Ahem!”
She cleared her throat, trying to hide her embarrassment.
“Y-you were sleeping, so I was wondering whether I should wake you.”
“Wake me right away from now on. What brings you here?”
“Um...”
Sir Soyeon’s eyes darted around. I carefully analyzed even the angle of her gaze.
Had she found out?
Had Eihen told her something?
But I couldn’t tell.
There was no sign of worry or anger on her face.
Instead...
“Commander.”
“Go ahead, Sir Soyeon.”
“You’ll always protect me, won’t you? You’ll take my side?”
“...? Of course.”
“No matter what happens.”
“Certainly.”
“But don’t you ever get tired of it? You’re already so busy and exhausted, and then you have to look after me too.”
I had no idea what kind of question this was.
My brows drew together on their own.
“Sir Soyeon, do you consciously think about breathing?”
“Ah.”
“Do you count in your head to make your heart beat?”
“No. That’s getting a little cheesy...”
“Thinking about it would only make me feel awkward and uncomfortable. Don’t ask such strange questions.”
Sir Soyeon stared at me.
What on earth was going on inside that little head?
“Hehe.” She laughed aloud.
“Right? I knew it. I’ll get going! Have a nice day!”
...What was that? Why had she come?
I had been tense, wondering what she knew. Now, with an uneasy feeling, I quietly stared at the door she had closed behind her.
That was when a communication spell sounded in my ear.
It was Deputy Commander Keron.
- Commander. Preparations to move out are complete.
“...Move out?”
What was this about?
- Huh? Commander, I reported the request for support ten minutes ago...
Ah.
Apparently, the report had come in while I was dozing.
There were times when I didn’t answer because I was busy with research. Keron must have assumed I had received the report even without a reply.
After all, I had never dozed off during working hours before. Even when I didn’t answer, I had never missed a single detail of a report I had heard in passing.
“...I’ll be right there.”
- Commander, are you really all right?
“I’ll be right there.”
I gathered my weapons and went outside. Keron stood in front of a blue gate. Once we passed through it, the knights who had gathered ahead of us would be there to greet us.
“Let’s go.”
I strode into the gate.
A wave of dizzying vertigo swept through my whole body.
“Mm.”
I blinked and looked around.
This was the Great Wall in the north.
The Great Wall of Ideals and the Great Wall of Faith had both fallen long ago. This was humanity’s last remaining line of defense.
The Great Wall of Existence, as it was known. I was in its northern sector.
The front line, swarming with monsters and twisted angels.
The attacks by angels and monsters appearing in the rear were terrifying too. But compared to the fighting at a Great Wall like this, they were merely small, local clashes.
This was where humanity fought an all-out war against the apocalypse.
“Knights...?”
I called to the knights who had been waiting for me here, but not one of them turned.
They were all staring blankly up at the sky.
What was wrong with them?
I followed their gazes, and my body went rigid.
“Sir... Soyeon?”
A girl stood in the night wind, her short black hair fluttering. She stood alone before the advancing angels and monsters, her slender body giving off a presence that filled the sky.
“Damn it.”
This was what I had been afraid of.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
