WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 141: Episode 27 — Something That Cannot Be Read (3)

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A new layer of steel had sprouted over him. As if he were being reborn as a different species, Lee Hyeongseong's body was being remade.

Steel Transformation.

Though only the first stage, 'armor,' had activated, it was no ordinary power. Once Hyeongseong completely mastered the first stage, he would be tougher than Pildu Gong's Armament Fortress, and even Yu Junghyeok's Splitting the Sky Sword would not be able to cut him.

"I-I survived......?"

The problem was that the first stage still hadn't fully activated yet.

―That is the real Stigma you need to master, Hyeongseong-ssi.

Realizing the situation at once, Hyeongseong quickly set his stance and retreated.

[Steel Transformation is not yet complete.]

[This Stigma can only be used by those who have achieved a fable.]

Every Patron provides a Stigma to their Incarnation. Some Stigmas are passed down as gifts, while others can only be used after meeting difficult conditions. [Steel Transformation], possessed by the Master of Steel, was one of those difficult Stigmas.

[First Proof of Steel has begun.]

This was because this Stigma required an indirect experience of the history the Constellation had once gone through.

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1. "True steel is born through tens of thousands of temperings."

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Unlike a Scenario, it was an unfriendly sentence tossed out without explanation.

Hyeongseong asked in confusion.

"What does this mean?"

―The basis of tempering is high-temperature treatment followed by cooling.

"Don't tell me......"

―That's probably exactly it. Get ahold of yourself.

In a way, it might have been fortunate that Huiwon was Hyeongseong's opponent.

Hyeongseong's face turned pale.

[The Constellation Prisoner of the Golden Headband is interested in this otherworldly fable.]

[The Constellation Defence Master wonders if Hyeongseong is truly tougher than he is.]

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire clasps both hands together anxiously.]

Together with the Constellations' messages, blazing hellfire surged in like a wave. Perhaps Huiwon's [hellfire inferno] had leveled up in the meantime, because the tidal wave of flames had grown deeper and fiercer.

The white flames melted the asphalt into a clinging mass and mixed it with impurities, and the clumps churned together by the intense heat were swept up in the wave and turned into deadly weapons.

Shooosh!

The silver armor began to scorch and melt, and the fragments of flame that flew up pierced through it like bullets, melting Hyeongseong from the inside. New steel grew each time the armor melted, filling the ruined spots, but that didn't mean he was unharmed.

"Kh......!"

Blood trickled from Hyeongseong's lips. If [Steel Transformation] had been complete, even [hellfire inferno] wouldn't have shaken him, but not yet. [hellfire inferno] was among the highest-grade flame-attribute Stigmas. The fact that he wasn't collapsing already was astonishing enough.

Hyeongseong screamed as he retreated one step at a time.

It was painful for me to watch too, but it still wasn't time.

Hyeongseong's steel was turning red-hot.

A little more, just a little more......

[The temperature has exceeded the threshold!]

Good.

[Tempering has begun.]

The foundation of steel was tempering. Enduring heat above the threshold until a perfect body of steel was formed was the core of this fable.

―Endure it! You can do this!

Fortunately, the one consolation was that Hyeongseong wasn't an evildoer.

[hellfire inferno] was a Stigma with both flame and Divinity attributes.

If he had been branded as an evildoer and exposed directly to the heat of [hellfire inferno], Hyeongseong would already have been reduced to a handful of ash. While he struggled and screamed, I quickly checked Huiwon's information.

[The character Jeong Huiwon is currently afflicted with thought infection.]

[The character Jeong Huiwon has lost her reason.]

[The character Jeong Huiwon's trauma has been completely exposed.]

...That bastard had torn her mind to shreds.

「I can't forgive.......」

Nirvana's [thought infection] anchored a person's time in the 'present' by dragging the darkest parts of their mind to the surface.

「They have to die.」

People who lost their future and were forced to face a cliff-like reality usually lost hope. That was even more true when reality itself was horrifying. In that process, some collapsed in despair, while some unleashed indiscriminate desires and turned beastlike.

Others lost their reason and were consumed by rage, and when that process repeated enough times, they eventually became followers of the Salvation Sect themselves. Those who became followers of the Salvation Sect like that turned into loyal martyrs who worshiped what Nirvana called the 'Great Present.'

「Humans, people like me, everyone has to die.」

I thought I knew what her trauma was. Considering what had happened in the first Scenario and at Geumho Station, it was remarkable that she had held on this long.

Huiwon's initial attribute, 'Crouching Figure,' was something created from a severe mental shock. Thinking back to the moment I first saved her, it wasn't strange at all that she harbored intense hostility toward other people. She had survived this far while being disappointed in people, and disappointed again.

"Is this...... perhaps Huiwon-ssi's heart?"

Hyeongseong asked from within the burning flames.

―Can you hear it?

"A little......"

It hadn't occurred to me that Hyeongseong might be able to hear the messages from [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint] too.

Was it because I had immersed myself in a first-person state? Could he feel my emotions to the same extent that I understood Hyeongseong?

Hyeongseong fumbled over his words, looking as though he had forgotten even the heat.

"Is this one of Dokja-ssi's abilities too?"

―Yes. It is a skill I have.

There was nothing to gain from lying here, so I confessed honestly.

―I'm sorry for hiding it until now.

But Hyeongseong didn't look especially displeased.

"This is a little embarrassing. Then does that mean my heart too......"

Before he could finish, the second wave crashed over us. The now fiercer flames melted the surrounding Incarnations whole and surged in like lava. Under the tremendous heat, the entire ground itself began to cook and melt. Buildings were sinking into the earth. It was time to make a decision.

―We'll have to subdue her for now.

"Won't Huiwon-ssi get hurt?"

Even though we were the ones at a disadvantage, he was worrying about her first. That really was like Hyeongseong.

But he wasn't wrong, either.

―Her heart will.

The surest solution was to kill Nirvana or resolve Huiwon's trauma. The former was impossible right now, and the latter was at least worth thinking about, but......

If Huiwon had been a significant character in the original work, I wouldn't have had to struggle over this.

But Huiwon was someone I had newly discovered, and I didn't know her well.

So all I could do now was treat the symptom rather than the cause.

"Dokja-ssi."

―Let's do it.

We nodded at the same time, sharing one body. Because we had gradually retreated, the distance between us and Huiwon had become considerable. If we wanted to try anything at all, we first had to get right in front of her.

Craaack!

The steel hide that sprang up in an instant covered Hyeongseong's face. Explosive muscles writhed all over his body. The shape of steel fitted to his frame made him look like a silver knight. That silver figure began to run straight through the flames.

The wall of fire flared up more violently in response. As if telling us not to come any closer. As if declaring that we had not been permitted into this place.

"Uoooooooh!"

Perhaps he was thinking of it as some kind of training, because Hyeongseong roared and forced his way through the flames. One step, then another. Chunks of steel melted like solder and dropped to the floor. His eyes were being cooked by the heat, and his vision was turning blurry.

"Huiwon-ssi! We'll save you!"

One more step.

"We will...... I will......!"

Then another.

"Huiwon-ssi......!"

Watching Hyeongseong blurt things out clumsily without any gift for words, I thought to myself. For a while, I had forgotten, distracted by another person's heart that had reached me unbidden, that approaching a single person's heart was originally this difficult and painful.

Hyeongseong and I were clearly inside the same body, looking at the world through the same eyes, but we were not seeing the same sight.

Hyeongseong's heart, pounding as if it would burst, was proof enough.

It was a strange feeling. People who could not originally have connected were forming ties with one another. Because of me, the story was changing.

"Ugh...... Ngh......!"

With ten steps left, Hyeongseong's knees buckled.

[The character Lee Hyeongseong's mental energy has reached its limit.]

Looking through that wavering vision, I realized it again. Even if the story had changed, this was still TWSA in the end.

[The Constellation Master of Steel looks at his Incarnation with sorrowful eyes.]

That same TWSA, where every character had to struggle in despair.

―Hyeongseong-ssi.

But because I was someone who had read TWSA all this time, I sometimes wondered. Had the author of TWSA really never regretted the conclusion they created?

―For a moment, leave it to me.

[The Exclusive Skill The Fourth Wall is wavering.]

[First-Person Supporting Character's Viewpoint has been activated to an extreme degree.]

My consciousness stepped into the space Hyeongseong's slackening consciousness had left behind. As control of the body transferred, every sensation in my body sharpened violently.

So this was the pain Hyeongseong had been enduring. It was heat enough to drive someone mad.

My skin was burning in real time, and every place where bone joints and nerve clusters melted hurt as if my limbs were being severed and reattached over and over again.

Using Hyeongseong's voice, I shouted at Huiwon.

"Jeong Huiwon-ssi! At this rate, we're all going to die!"

Huiwon didn't respond. She simply kept spewing hellish heat.

"Lee Hyeongseong-ssi is going to die! Are you going to kill Lee Hyeongseong-ssi like this?"

Using every ounce of strength I had, I forced Hyeongseong's legs to move, inching forward.

Three steps now, then two, and......

Damn it, it's too hot.

Right as my knees buckled from the pain, I heard a voice.

'Dokja-ssi. I'll do it.'

It was Hyeongseong's voice.

'I have to do it.'

[The will of steel is reacting to you!]

I nodded.

In the end, I was a reader. I must never forget the duty of a reader.

As my consciousness withdrew, Hyeongseong reclaimed his body. His brilliantly gleaming form was recovering the complete shape of steel.

"Huiwon-ssi."

The blazing [hellfire inferno] was turning her pale face blue.

In the end, this fire would devour her too. Tears that dried as soon as they fell. Faced with her like that, Hyeongseong did something unexpected.

"Excuse me for a moment."

Hyeongseong took the final step and pulled Huiwon into his arms.

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire is flustered by this unexpected camaraderie.]

Huiwon's small body fell into Hyeongseong's broad embrace. He was so broad that he could hold her without even his fingertips touching.

Instead of recoiling, Huiwon raised the flames even higher. As if those flames alone were all the emotions she could express.

Craaack!

Centered on Hyeongseong's embrace, a wall of steel began to form.

A wall that would separate one person from the world.

To extinguish a flame, you had to cut its ignition point off from oxygen.

Knowing that, Hyeongseong was sacrificing himself and becoming a wall for her. As if he meant to bear her rage in place of the world, for as long as it took. All I could do was watch the two of them.

I could only hope that Hyeongseong's cold metal would reach Huiwon's heart, where words could not. And how much time passed like that?

[The fable First Proof of Steel has been completed.]

At last, Huiwon's flames subsided.

* * *

What woke Hyeongseong's consciousness was a familiar woman's voice.

"I can't breathe......"

Startled, he looked down and saw Huiwon's face. Then he looked around and saw a scene beyond anything he had imagined. The steel that had grown from his own arms had covered Huiwon's body and sealed off the surrounding area.

"U-uh! I-I'm sorry! I'll let you out right away!"

But whether it was because the melted steel had hardened in place, or because all his strength had been drained from him, the steel wall wouldn't break easily.

As Hyeongseong stood there flustered over what in the world had happened, Huiwon's forehead touched the center of his chest.

"......Thank you."

Feeling that sad touch against the steel, Hyeongseong shook his head.

"No."

It was a tiny gesture, but it was enough.

The feeling had clearly been conveyed.

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire dislikes this camaraderie.]

"By the way, Hyeongseong-ssi, was someone else here too?"

"Huh? Well, that......"

Watching Hyeongseong stammer, Huiwon grumbled.

"Forget it. It's not important. More importantly, hurry up and break this apart. We don't have time!"

"......What? What's happened?"

Huiwon bit her lip, looked at Hyeongseong once, then shouted loudly at the sky.

"Kim Dokja-ssi, you're listening right now, aren't you? Yu Sangah-ssi is in danger!"

Footnotes:

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