WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 471

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Flip Suicide and You Get "Live"

How do you answer a question like, do you want to destroy the world? The obvious move is to deny it. Any sane person has no desire to shatter a perfectly good world.

And if they're not sane? If they genuinely want to bring it down? Even then, thinking rationally, the first move is to deny it. Blurt out the truth and you'll catch a war hammer from whatever hero is sworn to protect the world.

What if someone's so completely unhinged that they just come right out and confess they want to destroy everything? Anyone that far gone is already dead. It can't happen.

So the answer I need to give is already settled.

Which is exactly why I shouldn't give it right away.

"Mr. Shei. Before that, let me ask you one thing."

"I asked first. If you're trying to dodge the question again..."

"Hear me out. You're not the only one with questions."

I snapped back irritably and looked up at the regressor.

"What's your relationship with the Sanctum?"

"What? What do you mean?"

"You're hunting for the King of Sin. Warning about the end of the world. Knowing the future wasn't enough, so you're walking around with Skywarbler and every other treasure imaginable stuffed in your pockets? It's obvious, isn't it? The fact that Mr. Shei has a close relationship with the Sanctum is something even a passing dog would know."

"Woof!"

Azzy nodded along as if she understood the point, though she clearly didn't. Let me correct that. The passing dog apparently doesn't know.

Put differently, only the dog is clueless. Everyone else knows. Jiseon, Tyr, even Hilde figured it out the moment they laid eyes on the regressor and started suspecting a connection to the Sanctum. They just never said it out loud, but that was the only thing missing.

"So there's really only one question that follows. Just how close that relationship is. What the Sanctum had to gain from handing over treasures they wouldn't even give the Holy Maiden."

The question hit like a needle. The regressor flinched as though she'd been pricked.

"I knew I'd be found out eventually, but... so you've finally pieced it together."

Right. Well, the admission's a little lat, wait. Eventually? Finally?

I'd been trying my best to keep this conversation civil, but I couldn't hold back anymore. I turned and yelled at her.

"What do you mean eventually?! I knew from the very start!"

"What? How?"

"I told you! Look at yourself! Skywarbler, the pocket, those eyes shining in seven colors! You're covered head to toe in Demon Gods tied to the sky, space, and light, and you expected to go unnoticed?! What are you, a pheasant? If you can't see it yourself, you think it doesn't exist?"

I chose not to pick apart every excuse up until now, but nobody actually believed any of it! That goes for Tyr too!

'I mean, if you look at each thing one by one, I suppose it does seem suspicious. But to know right away? Is the King of Humanity some kind of genius?'

Genius, please. Did "a passing dog would know" sound like a figure of speech to you? Look at each thing one by one? Any single one of them would've raised a red flag!

The regressor, who had no idea just how suspicious she looked, tried her best to sound unbothered.

"You know about all of that? Most people just think they're rare treasures. I suppose the King of Humanity really is different."

"There you go again with 'the King of Humanity.' I knew from the beginning. From the very first time we crossed paths, I found you suspicious. Head to toe, a walking pile of red flags."

Granted, I figured out most of it through mind reading. But the regressor had no way of knowing that, and she looked genuinely thrown.

'You'd noticed from the very beginning? All that time in the Abyss? I had no idea you were onto me...!'

That's because you, actually, never mind. Back then she had been shut away doing solo training, and I had been laying down a smokescreen, so fair enough.

I pressed her with a sharp question.

"Answer me straight, and I'll answer you straight. Who are you, really?"

It wasn't exactly an unfamiliar question for the regressor.

Young age, stacked against power grotesquely beyond her years. Abilities that read as natural talent or something stranger. She had always lived under that kind of suspicion. The history behind how she had built that power reset with every new life, so it couldn't be helped.

I knew through mind reading how she'd come to have that strength, but I still needed to ask.

Otherwise she's just going to keep being a headache.

The regressor bit her lip and thought for a moment. But she's not me, and with that mind of hers there's no spinning a perfect lie to untangle a situation this complicated. She gave up quickly and answered honestly.

"No relationship."

"And you expect me to believe that?"

"I mean it. Right now there's no debt between them and me, no grudge either. This was given to me. I don't consider myself to owe them anything, and I'm not going to give anything back."

'I'm grateful, but that's all. It's a relationship of mutual use.'

Without laying out the premise of regression, she couldn't give a proper answer. But given what she could say, it was the most honest answer she had.

Normally it'd be stupid to take that sort of answer at face value. But I'd already read it through mind reading, so I softened a little.

"So you're not hostile to the Sanctum."

"Right. I'll join hands with anyone who can save the world. The Sanctum has always worked to set things right. If anything, they're the most trustworthy option I have."

"Except that same Sanctum rejects the King of Humanity. From where I'm standing, neither the Sanctum nor you exactly inspires confidence, and you know that, right?"

"That's exactly it. That's why I'm asking you!"

The regressor grabbed Skywarbler. The blade lodged in my right shoulder shuddered. She had no intention of pulling it down just yet, but I couldn't be certain. The regressor was someone who could act when she had to.

"The King of Sin who will destroy the world, it's a corrupted King of Humanity! And you're also the King of Humanity! So tell me the truth. What do you plan to do with the world?!"

Now she's ready to actually hear me. The buildup was done. I took my time choosing my words.

How do you answer a question when the answer is already decided? Simple.

It's not really a question aimed at me. She wants to believe. She's asking me to give her that belief.

"Same as Mr. Shei."

"Same as me?"

Then give it to her.

"Same as me. Whatever side you're on, whatever you actually are, I honestly don't care much. Just like I stayed out of it when you and Jiseon fought, I have no desire to hurt or destroy someone in advance just because they seem suspicious or problematic. And I don't have the power to do that anyway."

The regressor is a creature of mood. She can throw this life away on a whim because it doesn't matter. Since she can afford mistakes, she actually has more give than the fastidious Sanctum.

The flip side of that is that no matter how well I play this, one bad mood and my head could roll. That thought sent a cold sweat down my back.

So I threw the question back at her. To draw out a sense of shared footing, that we were both equally suspect.

'Doesn't matter... that's fair. What matters isn't who I am but what I'll do. And I don't think Hughes is scheming toward the end of the world. He's definitely as weak as a bug compared to the King of Sin.'

Right, right. Good, you understand.

If you want to persuade someone, you can't start by fighting from opposite positions. That's just a fight. Real persuasion means starting from the same place and walking toward each other, one concession at a time. Show the common ground, and sure enough she's looking at me and thinking bug-like...

Bug? Hey, the King of Sin is the weird one here. I am perfectly ordinary. A perfectly ordinary King of Humanity, thank you very much!

'But he's still the King of Humanity. The King of Humanity is dangerous. Even if he hasn't gained power yet, the power humans have is the power the King of Humanity will come to hold. If they pour out the malice honed by turning swords and spears on each other, then someday the King of Humanity will converge on the King of Sin.'

I was fuming to myself when the thought I'd just read gave me pause.

Wait. She knows how the King of Sin comes to be? I don't even know the details of that myself.

The regressor's thoughts can't be taken entirely at face value. Her knowledge is built on past lives I can't read, and on top of that, she most likely heard it from someone else. If the Sanctum carved knowledge into that blank-white mind of hers, she'd take it as truth. I shouldn't jump to conclusions.

But that's not the main point.

Even knowing all that, how has she been hiding it this whole time?

Was she just genuinely forgetting? Or was she unconsciously avoiding any thought of the King of Sin?

Either way, remarkable. While I was quietly impressed, the regressor forced out one last question with some difficulty.

"What if... humans want to bring about their own destruction? What if ordinary people truly believe they'd be better off dead?"

Humans want to bring about their own destruction? What a foolish thing to say. The question was so plainly foolish I answered immediately.

"I'm not sure, given that I've lost all the representative standing that comes with being the King of Humanity right now, but... by the time that happens, it won't really be a problem of the King of Humanity anymore, will it?"

"...Tch."

It was too perfectly true. The regressor had nothing to say. She pulled Skywarbler back. The blade that had been a hair away from tearing into my right arm quietly tucked its teeth away.

The regressor retreated with a sullen look and asked me a question.

"The reason the King of Humanity came to the Abyss, was it to find the Earth Mother?"

"Can't exactly hide it at this point. Yes. That's right."

'I was right. Hughes also had a hidden agenda when he infiltrated Tantalus! Well... I'm not one to talk, coming down here to look for Jizan. But my suspicion was justified!'

Right. But I don't regret the lie. If I'd freely revealed who I was back then, I might have started the whole thing with my right arm cut off.

"What's your reason for seeking out Demon Gods?"

"I'm not obligated to answer, but I'll be honest."

Let me score a small point of goodwill and add a little credibility to the whole thing while I'm at it. I laid out my true purpose.

"To catch up to humanity."

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