WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 119: Don Quixote’s Reverie (3)

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“Phew...”

I’d safely entered the dungeon.

Feeling the chill in the air, I looked around.

Beyond the ice-covered cave stood a massive temple, waiting for me.

Ding-!

[You have entered the nonexistent space, ‘Temple of Lumiera.’]

[Apostles, ‘Knights of Old Winter,’ have detected you.]

[Clear the field and obtain your reward.]

It looked like I’d made it in properly.

That bright-red magic circle had been swirling.

It had looked dangerous at first glance, but it was the dungeon’s entrance.

I got swept up in it at just the right moment and naturally made my way inside.

‘Just as planned.’

The operation had gone as smoothly as flowing water.

Thanks to that, I was able to slip away from the group without raising suspicion.

I rummaged through the inventory hidden beneath my robe and pulled out the pitch-black scythe I’d kept tucked away.

“Activate. Lua.”

A moment later, the vicious scythe returned to the form of my daughter.

Lua immediately hopped over and clung to me.

“Dad!”

“Miss Lua.”

When her blue eyes met mine, she smiled brightly.

Then, as if asking for praise, she pushed her little head toward me.

“Lua worked really hard! I did what Dad asked without getting caught!”

The girl held out something she’d been gripping tightly.

Several ancient characters were written across the black tablet.

Ding-!

[Plague Tablet]

-Category: ???

-Rank: ???

-Status: ???

-Description: ???

It was the item we’d obtained after summoning the White Knight during the last school trip.

As befitted an item left behind by an Apostle of the Evil God, thick demonic energy dripped from it.

Even now, I had no idea what it was for.

Still, the demonic energy pouring from it seemed like it could be put to special use.

‘It was a clever idea.’

The traces we’d found along the mountain path.

The demonic energy lingering over the snowy field had been staged with this Plague Tablet.

If they followed the residue, they’d reach the [entrance], and it would naturally make it look as though I’d been swept into the dungeon.

‘I’d asked Lua to handle it separately.’

Lua had taken on an important role this time.

She secretly slipped away from the group and used the Plague Tablet to leave traces behind.

I’d pretended to put her in my inventory after saying she’d fallen asleep for a nap.

‘Good thing everyone fell for it.’

In the meantime, Lua headed for the coordinates I’d told her in advance.

She waved the Plague Tablet around here and there along the way.

Once her mission was complete, she even returned to my arms.

Returning wasn’t particularly difficult.

As an ego weapon contracted to its user, she could be instantly summoned back to her user’s side no matter where she was.

‘As long as she isn’t too far away, anyway.’

In any case, Lua was unquestionably the greatest contributor to this plan.

I lavished the girl with pats.

Pat, pat, pat.

“You worked very hard.”

“Hehe...”

“Wasn’t it tiring?”

“It was fun! Because it was something Dad asked me to do!”

Lua giggled and clung to me.

What was I supposed to do with such an adorable daughter?

I lifted her up and put her on my shoulders.

Her short arms wrapped around my face, hugging me tightly.

‘Having a daughter was a great idea.’

Not that I was the one who gave birth to her.

I put the Plague Tablet away again and shook the demonic energy from my hand.

The plan had succeeded.

‘And the situation was staged well enough to make it look like I fell into a trap laid by the Cult...’

Some people might wonder.

If my goal was the dungeon in the first place, why did I need to put on such a show instead of quietly coming here alone?

It wasn’t something I’d done without thinking.

You could say I wanted to make the Kihano estate more vigilant.

I had no intention of revealing that this had only been a dungeon accident.

Instead, I’d testify that I’d fallen into a trap, just as the children had witnessed, and nearly died because of it.

‘And I’ll name the Cult as the ones behind it.’

Less than half a year from now, the Cult’s evil would begin to creep into the North as well.

The North was a land under winter’s protection, so wicked things had never been able to reach into it carelessly.

‘That was why the North had not been wary of the Cult for so long.’

The North was already busy enough holding back the magical beasts that surged in every winter.

With their attention focused elsewhere, they probably never considered enemies lurking behind them.

The Cult would exploit that opening.

They would ambush the North and massacre countless residents.

Count Kihano, Ranne’s father, would also be cursed and fall into a coma.

‘That cannot happen.’

The North had to prepare for this winter.

Hungry magical beasts would come flooding in from the front, while the Cult would ambush them from behind.

They had to request support from the Imperial Court, reinforce the front lines, and prepare to fight a war at any moment.

‘That was why I set this up.’

I would make them believe this accident was a trap laid by the Cult.

I intended to put the North on alert.

First, they needed to realize for themselves that the North was being targeted by the Cult.

If I claimed it on my own, it was obvious they’d dismiss it as nonsense.

‘What matters is that they feel it themselves.’

Those vicious bastards from the Cult!

They dared to set a trap in a place like that!

They must have been targeting Count Kihano’s daughter!

If Viktor hadn’t stepped in, Ranne would have suffered terrible harm!

This is an attack on the territory!

Public opinion would probably unfold like that.

The North would begin preparing as well.

An attack targeting the lord’s daughter was not something they could simply brush aside.

If they maintained a state of vigilance, the Cult wouldn’t be able to start a war so easily either.

‘Well... I’ve spoon-fed them this much. The Count’s side can handle the rest.’

I sorted through the mess in my head.

My breath scattered as white vapor.

‘I do feel a little bad for making the others worry...’

Still, this sort of stress was necessary.

The original story, especially its Impossible Mode storyline, wasn’t smooth sailing.

It was a world where it wouldn’t be strange for someone close to you or a companion to die at any time.

So far, I’d blocked most incidents, but by this point in the original story, several faculty members and students would already have been lost.

‘There were even some among my companions.’

So this was an indirect experience.

Mental growth was usually triggered by a loss that matched it.

But I had no intention of making these children suffer loss.

I’d save every last one of them, no matter what, and make this a flawless happy ending.

‘That doesn’t mean they can grow complacent.’

The children needed to grow.

Their awakening was also part of the plan I was building.

I couldn’t bring them real suffering, so I was giving them a chance to think for themselves in this way.

‘When loss comes crashing down on you, how will you act?’

It sounded awfully grand when I explained it, but it was nothing more than a little mental training.

Anyway, this performance had a few side purposes like that.

I scratched at the top of my mask for no reason.

‘...They’re all okay, right?’

I intended to return before it was too late anyway.

If I cleared the dungeon and picked up the necessary items, it would probably take about a day.

I felt like the princess would scold me if I took too long, so I decided to move as quickly as possible.

‘That said... I was seriously scared earlier.’

The moment Ranne stepped on the dungeon entrance, she’d nearly been dragged in here instead of me.

Fortunately, I barely managed to switch positions with her and keep the plan from falling apart.

‘I did tell her she’d be okay before I was teleported, though.’

This dungeon had a special nature.

The Temple of Lumiera.

It was an event stage that appeared like an Easter egg in the story.

‘A one-time dungeon.’

Only one person could enter it, and once the entrance disappeared afterward, it would never appear again.

That was true whether the attempt to clear the dungeon succeeded or failed.

Once the admission ticket was used, it couldn’t be used again.

I couldn’t let Ranne get swept into it.

Never mind the items, this was a highly dangerous dungeon.

‘Anyway, it worked out.’

As the old saying went, any road was fine as long as it got you to Seoul.

A familiar mechanical sound rang in my ears.

Ding-!

[Linked Quest]

-Title: To Live, Perhaps To Die.

-Details: O meaningless life. Prove the value of your death.

-Penalty upon Failure: None

-Reward upon Success: ???

[Time Limit: Until the trial ends]

Ding-!

[The dungeon’s owner has recognized your existence.]

[The Apostle, ‘Chief Justice of Old Winter,’ awaits your trial.]

Notifications appeared one after another.

I shoved the status window aside and looked up at Lua, who was sitting on my shoulders.

“Miss Lua. Shall we go on a date, just the two of us, for today?”

“Really...? I want to! A date with Dad!”

“Hehe, wonderful.”

Clank, clank.

I sensed presences approaching.

They were all knights clad in icy armor, with sharp, hostile auras.

“Then, shall we go...?”

Before I knew it, Lua had returned to the form of a scythe.

I slung the pitch-black weapon over my shoulder, then aimed it at the ice knights.

Frost glinted through the space.

“I’m in a hurry, you see.”

Well then.

Shall we begin?

“I’d appreciate it if you all broke quickly.”

It was time to farm some items.

* * *

Elsewhere, the children left behind on the snowy field searched for Viktor.

They were convinced Viktor had fallen victim to an attack by the Cult.

“Sir Viktor...!”

“Viktor! Where on earth did you go...!”

“Answer if you can hear us! Where did you fly off to?!”

Reinforcements sent by the Count’s household had joined them as well.

Everyone thoroughly searched the area, but they couldn’t find the boy.

Just in case, they investigated the place where the magic circle had vanished, but there were only rows upon rows of ancient formulas they couldn’t decipher.

“Fuck, he has to be nearby! There’s no way a sudden teleportation could have taken him completely out of the estate...!”

“I-I’ve deployed as many card soldiers as I can to search. But we still can’t find him...”

“Calm down. There’s no way Viktor could have been taken down.”

“A blizzard will begin at dawn. We have to find Sir Viktor before then...”

The search continued for hours.

The children couldn’t find Viktor, not even a scrap of his clothing.

Before long, dawn arrived, and a fierce blizzard began sweeping across the North.

The blizzard made the search difficult.

“This won’t work...”

In the end, the children resorted to their last option.

They decided to borrow Alice’s dream.

Alice herself had strongly insisted on it.

“I’ll try.”

One Dream, Another Form.

Using dreams as a window, it allowed its user to see another person’s world.

At the start of the semester, Alice had used that ability to spy on Viktor clearing the 70th floor of Purgatory.

They had put this method off because forcing its use could affect Alice’s nightmares.

“If I can just use Viktor’s vision to figure out where he is...!”

Alice closed her eyes.

Then she remained still for a long time, as if trying to fall asleep.

Before long, her breathing settled into soft, even breaths, and roughly two hours passed inside the tent.

“...”

Then, well into the early morning, Alice woke from her sleep.

Perhaps because of the nightmare’s influence, an unnatural blackness flickered in her pupils.

The girl took a few deep breaths as if she were nauseated, then gradually came to her senses as the children patted her back.

“What happened? Where’s that bastard?”

“Where is Sir Viktor...?!”

The children asked urgently.

They had hoped that, at the very least, they could learn what situation he was in.

Contrary to their expectations, Alice stared blankly, her eyes trembling.

“...I couldn’t see him.”

An unexpected answer.

The children froze at Alice’s words.

“I couldn’t see anything. It was like there was fog everywhere. It just kept being dark...”

“...What? What does that mean?”

“Could Sir Viktor be in poor condition...?”

“Answer me. What does it mean that you cannot see him through that ability?”

Alice didn’t answer.

Yet her helpless reaction made the children anxious.

After they comforted her a few times, the girl finally spoke through trembling lips.

Tears welled in her blue eyes.

“Not being able to see anything... that means...”

Her tears fell.

They ran down her pale cheeks, and her tear-choked throat kept catching.

In the end, Alice collapsed into Ranne’s arms and let out the rest of her sobs in despair.

“It means... he isn’t alive.”

““...””

The children stopped breathing.

===

This is Ranne.

Footnotes:

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