WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 140: Episode 27 — Something That Cannot Be Read (2)

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Everyone has a few words that stay with them like lifelong homework.

Lee Hyeongseong had words like that too. For instance, back when he had just become a college student, the words he heard most often in his general education classes were these:

"Everyone, you must become creative people!"

"Think thoughts no one else thinks!"

"You must be able to kick away the place you're sitting right now and stand up! Go out and find what you want to do!"

As he listened to the philosophy professor speaking from the podium, Hyeongseong thought,

So... how exactly am I supposed to do that?

For Hyeongseong, who had lived his life going to school, eating, and sleeping on a regular schedule since childhood, the professor's demands were far too sudden. Until now, people had told him to move only as directed, so why were they suddenly forcing him to do something he had never once done before?

What was creativity, anyway, and what did it mean to think thoughts no one else thought? Why had the world suddenly become a place where you had to do that just to survive? Then what had everything he had done until now been?

Hyeongseong drifted through all of college, and then he ended up in the army.

"From what I can tell, you're a natural fit for military life. Why don't you apply for officer candidate school?"

If he hadn't heard those words from the administrative officer back then, what would his life have become now? There was no way to know. There was nothing he could possibly know about a future he had never chosen.

In any case, he became a soldier as if it were inevitable, and he had lived without regretting that choice. For a man who found society difficult and people hard to understand, the army had been a comfortable place. After he received his commission as a second lieutenant, the administrative officer who met Lee Hyeongseong again congratulated him and said this:

"Second Lieutenant Lee, when you don't know what to do, just follow the manual no matter what. Then no one will hold you responsible."

Was that what he had heard instead of a toast? The memory was hazy, like the lunch menu from a week ago. Still, if he could meet that officer again right now, there was something he desperately wanted to ask.

Sir, then what am I supposed to do at a time like this?

Watching the approaching flames of [hellfire inferno], Hyeongseong bit his lip.

I don't have a manual for a situation like this.

Thinking that things had been easier when all he had to do was recite the service creed, Hyeongseong shouted until his throat felt ready to burst.

"Jeong Huiwon-ssi! Please, snap out of it!"

Just as the service creed couldn't move the hearts of soldiers, his voice couldn't reach Jeong Huiwon either. He barely managed to duck behind a building, and the flames of hell swept over the ground, setting the nearby Incarnations ablaze in agony.

"Kyaaaaah!"

"Save me!"

Hyeongseong couldn't save a single one of them. Countless articles from countless manuals flashed through his mind, but none of them contained a way to stop the deaths in front of him. Beyond his futilely outstretched arm, another Incarnation crumbled away into ash.

As if it were mocking the justice he had never been able to turn into action.

In the heat of the inferno, Huiwon's figure wavered like a mirage.

[The constellation Master of Steel is quietly watching you.]

Under his Patron's gaze, Hyeongseong bit his lip.

Dokja-ssi. What on earth am I supposed to do at a time like this?

Should he fight? Could he stop her?

As he watched Huiwon approach, Hyeongseong's tightly clenched fists trembled. He couldn't understand what that trembling meant, where this heart that kept hesitating was coming from, or why he couldn't leave this place.

Maybe it wasn't the world that was difficult. Maybe what was difficult was Lee Hyeongseong himself.

Dokja-ssi, please tell me the answer!

Hyeongseong prayed and prayed, like a reservist hoping training would be canceled due to bad weather. And then, unbelievably, a reply came back to that prayer, which should never have been answered.

—Lee Hyeongseong-ssi.

He thought it was a hallucination.

—Can you hear me?

But it wasn't a hallucination. He looked around, but there was nowhere the voice could be coming from. In other words, he was hearing it inside his own head.

"Dokja-ssi!"

Was this some kind of enemy trap too? Even if it was, he wanted to believe it.

—For now, let's think while running. There are two methods.

Hyeongseong sprang to his feet and started running. It wasn't a trap. There was only one person in the world who would open like that.

Huiwon was chasing him from behind, but he wasn't afraid anymore. His breathing quickly steadied, and his mind was ready to receive a new order. The muscles that had tensed for the mission began to tighten with purpose.

—One is to kill Jeong Huiwon-ssi.

"...A familiar choice."

Kim Dokja had always been like this. He had been that way from the moment they first met. He always presented the safest and cruelest solution first. Then he made the Allies reject it on their own.

"Then the second is running away like this after all?"

—That's right.

"Then, like always, I'll go with the third method."

With Kim Dokja, the right answer was always the third one. He was the kind of person who came up with a third method no matter the situation. That was Kim Dokja.

So Hyeongseong believed again this time. But—

—Lee Hyeongseong-ssi. This time, there is no third method.

* * *

Of course there was a third method. It simply had to wait for its moment.

[Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint Stage 3 is activating.]

[First-Person supporting character Viewpoint is currently in an incomplete state.]

Of all people, the opponent had to be Jeong Huiwon using [hellfire inferno]. The matchup couldn't have been worse. Then again, it's not as if anyone else would have been any better.

"...Why is it always like this with you?!"

Hyeongseong shouted between ragged breaths. Through the first-person viewpoint, I could feel the heat of hellfire inferno as vividly as if it were my own. Huiwon was swinging her sword like she meant to turn all of Seoul into a sea of flames. In truth, the first and second methods I had suggested would both lead to the same result.

Whether Hyeongseong killed Huiwon, or ran away like this.

If left alone, Huiwon would die when her Mana ran wild.

In the end, Jeong Huiwon would die.

That was Nirvana's damned Scenario.

"Telling me to kill Jeong Huiwon-ssi... is that really all you came here to tell me?"

Huiwon was drawing closer. When she had been on our side, I'd been a little unsure. Now that she was an enemy, I could see it clearly.

The Evil-Destroying Judge, Jeong Huiwon, was strong.

Even without using [Hour of Judgement], she possessed [Demon Slaying]. On top of that, she could unleash Uriel's Stigma, [hellfire inferno], without mercy. She was undeniably the strongest force among the Companions I had gathered.

Subduing Huiwon in that berserk state without killing her would have been nearly impossible even for the current Yu Junghyeok.

"I can't accept that kind of method."

What kind of courage was this? Hyeongseong started moving toward Huiwon.

—Wait, Lee Hyeongseong-ssi!

"Jeong Huiwon-ssi! Please, snap out of it!"

Hyeongseong ran at Huiwon. As if he were enraged at me, or at himself for trusting me, or at himself for trusting the "manual" that was me.

Kwaaaang!

Hyeongseong's [Mountain Push] collided with Huiwon's [hellfire inferno]. But even his palm, which could push away mountains, couldn't break through an archangel's flames. Soon, his right arm began to melt away in dripping streams of pure white light.

"Jeong Huiwon-ssi!"

Hyeongseong's cry was desperate and agonized. Leaving his lost right arm behind, he thrust out his left arm again. I shouted urgently.

—Lee Hyeongseong-ssi, if you run, one of you can live.

"I refuse."

—Even if you run, no one will hold you responsible.

"I refuse!"

—Didn't you think of me as a manual? Then listen to me!

"That isn't the kind of manual I was hoping for!"

Hyeongseong's answer was unexpected. At the same time, it was an answer that could not have been more like Lee Hyeongseong.

Everyone is full of contradictions. The people who follow manuals best are, in truth, the ones who hate manuals most. Just as the people called creative are often the ones who most want to be subordinate to a system.

And when that contradiction is broken through, a fable begins.

"I can't give up like that! Even if the result is bad. Even if I die here!"

No matter how sturdy Hyeongseong was, there was no way he could resist [hellfire inferno], which had melted even Shin Yuseong. Soon his left arm melted away, and even his right foot began to melt. Even so, Hyeongseong resisted. Like a moth throwing itself into the light, he tried somehow to reach Huiwon.

As he staggered when everything below his right knee disappeared, I said to him,

—I see. You did well.

Hyeongseong didn't answer. I smiled bitterly and continued,

—Because that is the third method.

The third method wasn't something he could use just because I told him about it. It was something Lee Hyeongseong had to decide for himself.

To be honest, even I wasn't sure whether it would work.

And yet I chose this path because, the moment he looked at Huiwon, I sensed a faint, aching emotion stirring in Hyeongseong's heart.

—A method you found for yourself, without a manual.

As he collapsed inside the flames, Hyeongseong smiled.

"Dokja-ssi, thank you for everything."

In that moment, I could feel the joy rising inside Hyeongseong's body along with him. An emotion only a human who had broken through his own contradiction and found an answer in the face of death could ever reach.

Perhaps this feeling was the very state of existence Nirvana had wanted so desperately to attain.

If Nirvana had seen it, he would have been speechless. The one he had infected was Jeong Huiwon, but the one who was living in the present more than anyone else was Lee Hyeongseong.

—No need for thanks. This is where it begins.

With that, the conditions for the start of the fable had been fulfilled. Now it was up to the audience to decide whether this story would continue. The one and only star who had been reading Lee Hyeongseong with greater delicacy than anyone else.

—Master of Steel. Most steadfast being in the sublime Star Stream.

I continued slowly.

—Isn't it about time you answered?

[The constellation Master of Steel is listening to your words.]

The Constellation Master of Steel. The ruler of the hardest metal in the universe, and the Patron of Lee Hyeongseong, the Steel Sword Emperor. I got straight to the point.

—Give your Incarnation a chance.

[The constellation Master of Steel groans.]

—I know. You're afraid of taking on Plausibility too rashly.

[The constellation Master of Steel closes his eyes.]

—But how long are you going to keep watching the surrounding nebulae? Are you going to stay like this and blankly watch until the Scenario reaches its end?

Hyeongseong had done all he could. Now the choice belonged to his Patron.

[The constellation Master of Steel acknowledges the courage of the Incarnation Lee Hyeongseong.]

[The constellation Master of Steel says that the time has not yet come.]

I had expected that. Hyeongseong was still too weak to meet the time of awakening.

[The constellation Master of Steel thinks the Incarnation Lee Hyeongseong will not be able to bear the constellation's fable.]

A fable of steel was hard and heavy. Just as he said, Hyeongseong would not be able to endure it.

If he were alone.

—I'll bear it with him.

[The constellation Master of Steel is looking at you.]

Master of Steel remained silent, as if pondering something.

Then, a moment later, a message rang out.

[The constellation Master of Steel nods.]

Crackling sparks began to leap around us.

[The character Lee Hyeongseong is preparing for attribute evolution.]

[A fable is required to evolve this attribute.]

[The constellation Master of Steel bestows a trial of fable.]

[The fable Proof of Steel has begun!]

A silver torrent was surging up from Hyeongseong's body. Watching that dazzling light, I remembered a scene from TWSA that I had once read. Who had it been? One of the characters had once asked Yu Junghyeok a question like this.

"Why is Lee Hyeongseong-ajussi called the Steel Sword Emperor? He doesn't use a sword."

In the original TWSA, Lee Hyeongseong had never once used a sword.

And yet his nickname was Steel Sword Emperor.

"Lee Hyeongseong doesn't need a sword."

Craaack.

Pure white steel began to grow from Hyeongseong's melted arms and legs. Then, as though scales were layering over him, the steel spread across his entire body. Lee Hyeongseong's body was turning into a single steel sword.

[The character Lee Hyeongseong has activated the Stigma Steel Transformation!]

The one sword that would never break no matter what trial it struck against. If Yu Junghyeok had been here, he surely would have said this:

"Because that guy is the sword."

* * *

Footnotes:

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