WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Asakusa
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Knight Commander of the Doomed Heroes ◈
Chapter 18: Peaceful Days (13)
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Honestly, I was shocked.
We'd passed five seconds?
That wasn't a number I'd chosen at random.
Ignition.
The moment a hero became a god.
How much effort had I put into controlling that immense power for even five seconds?
Yet now, we'd easily passed that limit.
Unhindered Harmony was still so stable that I'd only just noticed.
Six seconds.
Seven seconds.
How was this possible?
Was it because two people were performing Unhindered Harmony together?
Then where was the limit?
Ten seconds, since there were two of us?
It was an important subject for research.
But I had no intention of finding out now. I couldn't allow that.
“Enough. Let's stop here, Sir Soyeon.”
“No. I can do more. I have to.”
Vwooom!
Her magic power swirled fiercely.
No.
I couldn't let this continue.
Even if it was stable now, there was no telling what might happen.
I couldn't accept any risk when a hero's life was at stake.
“Stop. That's enough.”
If she wouldn't listen, I'd have to force her to stop.
Just like last time, I would paralyze her with a powerful electric shock.
That was the plan.
Tick.
Only a spark flew. There was no electric shock.
“Hmm...?”
Tick.
“What?”
“Commander. Did you think I'd fall for the same trick twice?”
“But this is an advanced spell intricately woven into Unhindered Harmony...”
“Hmph. So what? Stop talking and follow me.”
Baaang!
She kicked off the air.
The acceleration nearly made me black out.
Forget forcing her to stop. Just keeping up with her was more than I could manage.
She left the Great Wall behind and charged north, then farther north, without hesitation.
“S-Sir Soyeon!”
This was a disaster.
We'd left our allies so far behind in an instant that the spells for the Three Spirits, Eight Bodies Formation of Severance and Linkage, Linked Rings, and Swarm Rising all broke.
The magic power filling my body drained away at once.
“W-Wait...!”
Now I wouldn't have enough power to keep up with Sir Soyeon...!
“Connect that Linked Rings thing or whatever it's called to Unhindered Harmony. Draw power from it and keep up. Don't lose me.”
Sir Soyeon! If it were that easy...!
“I knew you could do it.”
Somehow, I'd forced it to work.
I'd completely dismantled the spells for Linked Rings and Unhindered Harmony, then rebuilt them to connect the two.
Power filled me again.
But the thought that I could have failed made my hair stand on end.
If I'd failed, I wouldn't have been the only one to die. Unhindered Harmony would have become unstable, killing Sir Soyeon along with me.
“Sir Soyeon! Stop! Don't you realize we both nearly died just now?”
“Then let's die.”
“What?”
“Let's die. If we're going to die, let's just die together!”
What? Why was she suddenly acting like this?
Bang!
She kicked off the air again.
The scenery rushed past, and a new landscape came into view beyond the horizon.
Below it, I saw countless more monsters gathered together.
“Those monster bastards.”
Grrrk!
The sound of Sir Soyeon grinding her teeth rang out, sending a chill through me.
The magic power flowing through Unhindered Harmony grew rough.
This wasn't good.
It had already been over ten seconds since I'd activated Unhindered Harmony.
We were in unknown territory. Adding anger to the mix made me uneasy.
“Sir Soyeon. You need to calm down a little.”
“It's because of them.”
“Sir Soyeon.”
“Because of them. Me. You.”
“Please, calm down...”
“I need to see where this fight ends.”
Where this fight ended?
For some reason, I couldn't speak.
Flash!
White light bleached the world.
A harmony of flesh and bone. The sound of everything beneath the sky spilling its insides.
Sir Soyeon kicked off the air and raced across the world.
Beneath her, angels and monsters fell in pieces.
Flesh, bone, and blood poured down, surging across the land.
“Urgh!”
Her magic power grew rougher. It surged as if it would fly off the rails I'd laid with Unhindered Harmony.
Vwooom!
I clenched my teeth until my lip bled and caught the recoil. The magic power passing between us barely managed to form a circle.
Flash! Flash!
She raced onward, and I kept pace beside her, holding her magic power within that circle.
It returned to the flow, then burst free. I caught it and drew it back, only for it to burst free again.
Each time, the world flashed, and monsters and angels fell.
A sea of blood surged beneath our feet.
“Commander, do you see it?”
At last, she stopped racing through the air.
“Haah... Haah...”
Cold sweat dripped from me as I caught my breath. The thought that a single mistake could kill her had left me unable to think of anything else.
But when I saw the view below, I couldn't help flinching in surprise.
“The Great Wall of Faith...”
An enormous wall stretched across the horizon from left to right. Parts of it had collapsed, but its shape was still clearly recognizable.
It was the second Great Wall built by the old Empire.
The Great Wall of Faith had fallen three years before I was born, thirty years ago.
Before the front had been pushed back to the final wall, the Great Wall of Existence, this wall had protected humanity for a full sixty years.
“So this is the Great Wall of Faith. It's in better shape than I expected. We might even be able to repair it and use it again.”
Sir Soyeon spoke calmly.
But her magic power was still running wild under ignition.
I pushed Unhindered Harmony to its limit, gradually slowing her magic power.
“Sir Soyeon. This is enough. You've pushed the enemy back to the Great Wall of Faith, which we lost long ago. That's already an incredible achievement. Now, please stop.”
“No. I'm going to find out today.”
“Find out? What?”
“Whether this fight ever ends. I need to know.”
“What exactly do you mean...?”
“If this world ends, what's the point of any of it?”
Baek Soyeon turned to me.
“I'm going to find out. What's beyond there. Where the monsters and angels come from. Whether this fight ever ends. Whether there's any hope if we fight desperately to stay alive.”
“Sir Soyeon. I understand how you feel, but this is dangerous now. Unhindered Harmony has become unstable.”
Twenty seconds had already passed since I'd activated Unhindered Harmony. I could barely stay calm, terrified that she might explode with a Boom! at any moment.
But Sir Soyeon asked me a question.
“Are you scared?”
Was I scared?
“Of course I am.”
My only goal in life was to keep heroes alive. Why was Baek Soyeon acting as if she was ready to throw her life away?
“I'm scared to death. I'm terrified that something will happen to you here. So, Sir Soyeon. Let's stop.”
“What about me, then?”
“Hmm?”
“If you go and die like that, what about me? Do you think I'm not scared? If you're gone, who's going to remember me?”
“What are you saying? There are so many people who'll remember you...”
“Who'll remember the look on my face when I ate that strawberry yogurt ice cream?”
“That's...”
“Who'll remember what we talked about the day we defeated our first apostle?”
“...”
“I thought that was enough. Even if I couldn't live long, I thought leaving behind memories like that would make it a pretty good life. But... you're going to die too? What about me, then? What am I supposed to do?”
“Sir Soyeon.”
Vwooom!
Her magic power, which I'd barely managed to slow, began surging fiercely again.
Rrrrrumble!
Unhindered Harmony shook. The whole world trembled with her magic power.
“It's all because of those bastards. Somewhere beyond there. That Outer God or whatever. That fucking bastard whose origins we don't know. We don't even know if it really exists.”
“Please, calm down...”
“I need to see it. What kind of bastard is making us live like this? Making us die like this? I need to see it. Then maybe I can think about what comes next.”
Only then did I realize.
When I'd met her at the Great Wall, I'd thought she was calmer than I'd expected.
I'd been terribly wrong. She had already exploded.
I simply hadn't noticed the ruins that explosion had left inside her.
She was only a teenage girl.
“Sir Soyeon.”
“So. I'm going to see it for myself, no matter what. You can do whatever you want, Commander. I don't care anymore. If we're going to die anyway, dying together like this wouldn't be so bad.”
“Baek Soyeon!”
“What? Did you think I'd be happy if you sacrificed everything alone, even risking death, to protect my everyday life?”
“I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So please...”
“But I am happy. I'm so happy I could die. You're the only one. The only person in this world who'd even risk their life for me. I'm happy, but I'm furious. I'm furious, but I'm happy. I feel like I'm going crazy. What the hell am I supposed to do?”
I couldn't get through to her.
I ground my teeth.
This was all that damned bastard Eihen's fault.
What? He was a teacher? He was only teaching her the truth?
How could he say that while leaving a teenage girl to deal with this absurd emotional storm?
That cowardly, irresponsible bastard.
“Sir Soyeon. Please, just listen to me for a moment...”
“Let's go and see. Why the hell we have to go through this.”
Baaang!
I had no chance to say anything else. She kicked off the air and raced onward again.
“Urgh...!”
Once again, the horizon rushed toward us.
Flash! Flash!
The world lost its color, regained it, then lost and regained it again.
“That's the Great Wall of Ideals. The Empire's front line, and the first to fall after the apocalypse began.”
Before I knew it, the Great Wall of Ideals lay beneath us. It had fallen ninety years ago.
By now, there were hardly any monsters or angels in sight. Proof that we'd traveled far north, well beyond the front.
But I couldn't open my mouth.
Vwoooom!
Unhindered Harmony, which was holding her ignited magic power in check, was shaking violently.
The magic power was spinning too fast. One tiny mistake, and it would explode. Her furious power surged wildly, racing back and forth between Baek Soyeon and me without pause.
Please.
Let's stop here.
I could still slow it down gently if we stopped now...
“Found it.”
Keeeeen!
Instead, Baek Soyeon accelerated her magic power once more.
She spoke.
“Can you feel it? Beyond there.”
Feel what? Just maintaining Unhindered Harmony was already...
“Ah.”
“You feel it, right?”
Amazingly, I did.
Such powerful magic power was stirring beyond the horizon that I couldn't possibly miss it.
“An apostle is being created.”
She was right.
Until a moment ago, I'd felt nothing at all over there... Then ultra-dense magic power had suddenly appeared and begun to writhe and grow.
Only a third-year hero or an apostle could possess magic power that dense.
“We finally found it. Where these fuckers come from. That's their main base, right? It has to be. They're actually making an apostle there.”
We'd found the apocalypse's main base. A hundred years after the apocalypse began.
But should I call that good fortune? Or a disaster?
I hurriedly opened my mouth.
“Sir Soyeon. That's enough. We stop here.”
“Yes. Once I kill that bastard.”
Ah.
Keeeeeeen!
Her magic power accelerated sharply.
My mind reeled.
Could I control this?
“Baek Soyeon!”
I had to.
What else could I do?
I had to save her.
Somehow.
Crrraaack!
Baek Soyeon swung her sword.
My eyes couldn't possibly follow it. It was so fast that time itself seemed to have rewound.
Concentrated magic power shattered the world.
I couldn't tell whether the blade of magic power had stretched beyond the horizon, or whether the world had torn itself apart starting from beyond it.
All I heard was the sky splitting.
Whoooosh!
Wind tore at my ears.
At some point, we'd begun to fall.
The rampaging magic power had finally grown beyond our control.
“Aaaargh!”
I seized the exploding magic power.
Forced its flow into line.
Forced it to turn.
I caught the power bursting free.
It was leaving the path?
Then I'd make a new, wider path.
It was leaving that one too?
Then I'd make another.
Vwoooom!
My own magic power wasn't enough.
Fortunately, I had another source of power.
The angelic magic power I'd absorbed while slaughtering seventeen angels in extremely close combat. By now, I had no small amount of it.
“Please!”
I poured out the angelic magic power and compressed my original magic power around it. As the angelic magic power ran out, the compressed power pushed into the gaps, turning into more angelic magic power.
There was a limit to how much power I could release at once, but the flow never stopped.
The angelic magic power, several times stronger than ordinary magical power, forcefully combed through Baek Soyeon's rampaging power.
Bzzzzzt!
As the dense magic power resisted, lightning leaped between Baek Soyeon and me.
Don't explode. Don't explode.
Blood surged up through my teeth, again and again.
I held on.
Even if I died here, I had to save Sir Soyeon somehow.
“Commander. You're doing it alone again.”
Vwoooom!
Suddenly, Baek Soyeon drew the rampaging magic power into herself.
Boom! Boom!
The force of the magic power we hadn't managed to disperse exploded inside her.
“Cough. Let's do it together. Together.”
She smiled as thick blood poured down from her lips.
Magic power circled between us.
I held one end. She held the other.
Together, we slowly decelerated the magic power threatening to explode.
She absorbed every shock we couldn't soften along the way.
Boom!
Boom!
The magic power gradually slowed, setting off small explosions inside her.
“Sir Soyeon...”
We'd made it through the deadly crisis. The moment our eyes met, she pulled my head into her arms.
Crash!
A violent impact swept through my whole body.
After our long fall, we'd hit the ground.
Thud! Th-thud!
We bounced and rolled across the ground again and again. Through it all, Sir Soyeon kept her arms around my head, protecting me to the very end.
Of course, a hero's body was far tougher than mine.
“Baek Soyeon!”
But seeing her torn to shreds was more than I could bear.
And yet Baek Soyeon just kept saying idiotic things.
“Haah... We actually survived that.”
Thump.
She flopped onto her back, arms and legs spread, and grinned.
“We took out an apostle. Found the enemy's main base. And we didn't even die. Your determination is seriously insane, Commander. You actually kept us alive.”
What?
I actually kept us alive?
I clenched my teeth, pushed my upper body off the ground, and looked at her.
I sucked in a sharp breath, ready to shout at her. But Baek Soyeon looked straight up at me and spoke first.
“Now do you get it?”
“...Get what?”
“If you try to carry everything alone again, I really won't hold back next time. We'll all die.”
What?
You hadn't held back this time either.
And next time, you really wouldn't?
“I've made up my mind. I won't give up anymore. Fine. Let's live. Together. Let's save this world and live for a long, long time. But not just me. With you, Commander. Do you understand? To. Gether.”
And if I didn't, she wouldn't hold back?
I met Baek Soyeon's eyes.
Her voice was back to normal, but her eyes were still wild.
She looked ready to do something just as insane as this at any moment.
...She was scaring me to death.
“Answer me.”
“...Understood.”
“That's a promise.”
Tap.
Sir Soyeon pulled me into her arms and laid me down, then rested her head on my shoulder. My shoulder grew wet and warm with blood.
Apparently, she'd worked through her feelings all on her own. Her voice sounded much lighter as she went on.
“Whew... I really thought we were going to die at the end. That was scary.”
I nearly exploded at that.
But I barely held it in.
“...Yes. Thank you. For staying alive.”
“Me too. Thank you. For saving me.”
A breeze blew over us. Even its touch on my skin burned and stung like fire. Every part of me hurt.
Then a good idea came to me.
Yes.
I'd make her a snack to celebrate surviving.
Maybe a hundred bowls of ice cream.
What if I didn't let her go until she'd eaten them all?
I'd make it very, very cold. So she'd be so happy she'd claw at her temples.
...No.
Even so, that would be too much.
Making a hero suffer was unthinkable.
I'd prepare a nice snack, and we'd work things out with a serious conversation...
“Commander. What are you thinking about?”
“What snack I should make you when we get back.”
“Hehe? That sounds great. A make-up snack. Give me lots. Lots and lots. I can eat it all. Hehehe.”
...You're laughing?
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