WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: ChaoticRain

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 164: Episode 32: Kim Dokja's Love (1)

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Four days had passed since Dokja left.

Castle Road was unchanged, with no sign of ruin anywhere.

Paradise's sky was more peaceful than ever, almost languid. Lee Gilyeong looked up at it before speaking in a dark voice.

"We've been abandoned."

"That brat's starting again."

"Big bro Dokja abandoned us."

Looking tearful, Gilyeong had repeated those words whenever he had the chance for the past two days. Lee Jihye, who was sharpening her blade nearby, frowned.

"We finally get some peace and quiet, so why are you making a fuss?"

"Do you know when a protagonist leaves their companions behind?"

"When?"

"When their companions get in the way."

"......"

"We've been judged useless."

"......What protagonist? If anyone's the protagonist, master fits the role better. And this isn't a novel, brat."

Jihye grumbled under her breath, but she didn't look very cheerful either. Nothing had happened to the group over the past four days. It was peace as addictive as a drug. Peaceful enough to make them wonder whether it was all right for things to be this calm. No one threatened them, and there was nothing in the world they had to worry about.

All they did each day was train their skills now and then and reflect on the advice Dokja had left each of them.

「Gilyeong, your skills don't last long enough. If you have coins left over, try getting Patience or Indomitable Tenacity. You can use the auction house, or ask your Patron.」

「Jihye, your stats lean too heavily toward Agility. If you have coins to spare, invest them in Strength or Mana. Your combat style will change depending on what you invest in.」

「Yuseong, focus on raising taming and Advanced Inter-Species Communication to their maximum levels first. If you need other taming-related skills, tell me anytime.」

Perhaps because of Gilyeong's words, Jihye felt uneasy and glanced at Shin Yuseong, who was sitting beside her. Following Dokja's advice, Yuseong had been training [Advanced Inter-Species Communication] for quite some time.

Jihye poked Yuseong's side with her toe.

"Hey, animal brat."

"......What?"

"Don't glare at me like that. I have something to ask."

"What is it?"

"Do you know what Mr. Dokja used to do?"

Yuseong narrowed her eyes.

"Why are you asking?"

"Just because. You're his Incarnation, so I thought you might know something. Incarnations get information about their Patrons whenever their synchronization rate rises, don't they?"

In fact, whenever Jihye used her Stigma, she received memories of the Naval Warfare God from when he was alive. A Stigma was, after all, the core of a fable. Whenever they used its power, they were bound to learn more of their Constellation's story.

Gilyeong, who had been lying down, abruptly sat up and listened closely to Yuseong. When their eyes met, Yuseong puffed out her chest proudly. She rubbed her lower lip and thought hard before speaking.

"Mr. Dokja is......"

"He is?"

"He's a lonely person."

"Hey, anyone could say that."

Yuseong bit her lip at Gilyeong's interruption, then continued.

"And he really likes books......"

"Books?"

"Yes. When I think of Mr. Dokja, countless pages come to mind. I don't know what they are, though...... I can't see what's written on the pages, either."

After saying that much, Yuseong lowered her head in frustration.

"That's all I know for now. I haven't even received a Stigma yet."

"......I wasn't trying to make you feel bad."

Jihye patted Yuseong's small shoulder. Gilyeong, whose eyes had been shining, returned to staring blankly into the air.

Sometimes, someone's absence suddenly became real. Just one person was gone, yet the atmosphere had changed this much. Jihye was struck once again by the fact that this group had somehow survived until now.

Looking closely, every one of them was unstable.

Two brats who depended only on Dokja. A soldier who knew nothing beyond the manual. A pretty swordswoman unable to use her strength properly because she had met the wrong Patron......

[The constellation Naval Warfare God criticizes the patriotism of the incarnation Lee Jihye.]

Jihye snorted, covered her ears, and went, "Ababababa!"

"Anyway, that soldier guy is at it again."

Lee Hyeongseong had been blankly staring somewhere in a daze since the day before yesterday. Jihye knew what he was looking at and smirked. Maybe having time to rest wasn't entirely bad.

At last, Hyeongseong clenched his fist as if he had made up his mind and stood. Jihye poked the children and said,

"Hey, brats. Want to see something fun?"

* * *

For the past four days, Jeong Huiwon had been having nightmares. She dreamed that Paradise was destroyed as monstrous beasts ran wild.

Whenever she woke up, the Sword of Judgement Dokja had given her was wailing.

Uuuuuung.

Reinheit came to see her several times and asked her to become the captain of the castle guard. Huiwon turned him down.

The Sword of Judgement only wailed when evil was nearby.

Huiwon sat on a low slate roof and looked over Paradise. Yet nowhere in this city could she see anything that looked like evil.

"Huiwon, is something troubling you?"

When had he come over? Hyeongseong stood beside her, his face flushed red.

"Ah, it's nothing. Things are so peaceful that I've been thinking too much."

"I feel the same."

When neither of them spoke for a while, the atmosphere quickly turned awkward. Huiwon wondered if she should ask how he was doing and glanced at Hyeongseong, but he was only looking blankly at the distant view.

[The constellation Demonic Judge of Fire disapproves of the actions of the incarnation Lee Hyeongseong.]

[The constellation Demonic Judge of Fire warns Master of Steel.]

[The constellation Master of Steel says this isn't a matter for him to interfere with.]

Anyway. Huiwon sighed and looked beneath the roof. Beyond the fruit crates piled below, several familiar figures were huddled together in hiding.

'......What are those kids doing over there?'

As Huiwon was about to call them over, Hyeongseong spoke first.

"I don't think this is peace without a reason."

She wondered what he was talking about, but apparently he had still been continuing their earlier conversation. Did time pass as slowly for Hyeongseong as his heartbeat? Huiwon smiled bitterly.

"It sounds like you believe Dokja didn't just leave us here for no reason."

"He's that kind of person. Finding the reason is probably up to us."

Huiwon thought about Dokja for a moment.

He was someone who seemed to live in a different time from them. Someone who guided them as though he lived one step ahead in the future. If someone like that had left the group in Paradise, there had to be a reason. The problem was that she couldn't figure out what it was, no matter how much she thought about it.

"Give back the Scenarios!"

"We want to go to the next floor!"

Paradise's protesters were moving beneath the roof. They were the only people dissatisfied in peaceful Paradise. They didn't even have a slogan to represent them yet, but they appeared sporadically throughout Paradise.

Huiwon couldn't understand them. Why did they want to return to the Scenarios?

"It looks like there's going to be a fight."

At Huiwon's words, Hyeongseong nodded. The two exchanged glances and jumped down from the roof as if they had agreed beforehand.

Blood had already been spilled below. It was hard to call it a fight. It was one-sided violence. The ones beating people up weren't the protesters, of course. They were the guards.

Angered by the obvious excessive force, Huiwon stopped the guards.

"Wait. Calm down! This is too much!"

"We are carrying out our duties. Don't interfere."

The guard captain shook off Huiwon's hand and directed the guards to gather the fallen protesters in one place. Soon, the protesters were loaded onto small carts that appeared and taken somewhere in orderly rows.

"Catch all the ones who ran away. Arrest the people who were with them too!"

"What should we do with that woman?"

The guard captain shot Huiwon a glance and replied brusquely.

"Leave her alone. Those are the lord's orders."

Before long, the protesters who had fled were caught and brought back. An unexpected person was among them.

"I-I'm not a protester! I was just passing by! Dayeong! Dayeong!"

It was the mother and daughter from Geumho Station. Huiwon cried out.

"Wait! That person isn't a protester!"

A guard replied.

"She is a protester. When we chased her, she fled in terror. Why would she run if she were innocent?"

"No, anyone would run if you suddenly chased them!"

"We can sort out the charges later. We don't have time, so take her away!"

"I said wait!"

"Lord's orders or not, if you interfere one more time, we'll arrest you for real."

Strangely enough, the word arrest made Huiwon hesitate. She didn't know why. Had she been thrown into the wild for too long, only to suddenly return to a society ruled by law and order?

Perhaps realizing she couldn't stop them, the woman cried out.

"My child did nothing wrong. At least let my child go!"

The guard captain paused at the woman's scream.

"......Fine. Leave the child."

The guards nodded and took only the woman away. The child began to cry as she watched her mother grow distant.

"Mom......"

"Dayeong, listen to me. Mommy will be back soon. All right? Wait right there! Right there......!"

Her mother's voice gradually faded away. When Huiwon finally came to her senses and tried to chase after them, several watching merchants stepped in.

"Miss, don't do anything pointless. It's no use. That's Paradise's law."

"Where are they taking her?"

"To the Underground Prison, probably."

"Underground Prison?"

"Only guards are allowed in there. No one who enters ever comes back, no matter what they did. Tsk. I feel bad for the child, but her mother should've followed the law."

The merchants dispersed with indifferent reactions, as though it were nothing important. Huiwon walked over to the crying child. Hesitating over what to do, she slowly knelt and carefully took the child's hand.

When the child recognized Huiwon's face, she buried her face against Huiwon's chest. A small, anxious warmth nestled into her embrace, and something suddenly surged up inside Huiwon.

......Paradise?

"I think we know what we have to do."

When she turned around, her allies, including Jihye, were waiting. They all looked as if they had found their own Scenarios.

Hyeongseong said, "It looks like this will be quite a large matter. I don't know if we'll be enough on our own."

"Mr. Dokja must've left because he trusted us. He's probably handling something even bigger himself. That's how it's always been."

"That's right. Big bro is probably fighting monsters by himself again with that serious look on his face."

Dokja couldn't have suddenly left for no reason.

Whether it was to protect his allies from the threat approaching them or to clear this Scenario, whatever the reason, Dokja must have been clashing desperately against the world somewhere out of sight, carrying out a hellish Scenario.

They couldn't always rely on Dokja. Huiwon opened her mouth.

"This time, let's do it ourselves."

* * *

"Wow, this is fucking sweet. Kim Dokja, why didn't you start living like this sooner?"

A sports car roared across the vast Abyss Plains.

"......You're right."

Over the past four days, we had cleared three Hidden Scenarios concealed in the Abyss Plains. The clears themselves weren't difficult. Unlike before, I had been freely using the future knowledge I possessed.

"That thing's weakness appears in the 34th round. So, if you press the three small spots on its back......"

"That thing's area attack is dangerous. But after it uses it, there's an opening......"

"That boss's weakness is its anus......"

Having Han Suyeong with me made it easier in other ways, too.

"Okay, the anus. Got it."

I didn't have to explain why I knew those things, and Suyeong never doubted any information I gave her. As a result, we obtained two constellation artifacts.

We also got an SSS-grade item. While we were on these plains, it was as useful as any constellation artifact.

An SSS-grade Ferrari.

This car was one of the SSS-grade series made by Mass Production Maker.

Vrooooom!

It could race as quickly as if it had used [Way of the Wind] without consuming Mana. It was also useful for wiping out crowds of enemies with the SSS-grade Mana turrets mounted in the front and rear. Thanks to that, we tore across the plains, enjoying the feeling of a drive for the first time in a while.

What should I call this?

The deluxe regressor course?

I resented that bastard Yu Junghyeok again. He must have been enjoying luxuries like this while I was working myself to death clearing Scenarios.

Suyeong was even more excited than I was. She had been popping up from the passenger seat, throwing both arms into the air, and shouting.

"I'll never live as an idiot again! I'll live selfishly, only for myself!"

I wanted to point out that she had always lived only for herself, seeing how faithfully she had embraced the regressor mindset.

[A considerable number of constellations are satisfied with the bold declaration of the incarnation Han Suyeong.]

[A considerable number of constellations agree with your way of doing things.]

[You have acquired 20,000 coins.]

Dududududud!

The monsters that approached from afar burst apart under the Ferrari's Mana rounds. Suyeong thrust out her chest toward the sky and shouted amid the thrill of raking in coins.

"Kim Dokja! You say something too! When will you ever feel like this again?"

I hesitated. It felt embarrassing, but I agreed with Suyeong inwardly. Thinking about it, my life had never gone this well.

A life spent suffering through overtime. I couldn't even afford a used car, let alone an imported one, so I took public transportation everywhere.

So...... couldn't I enjoy myself a little?

After hesitating, I squeezed my eyes shut and shouted in a timid voice.

"I-I'm the protagonist!"

[The constellation Demonic Judge of Fire covers her eyes in embarrassment.]

[The constellation Prisoner of the Golden Headband considers changing channels.]

[The constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon is intoxicated by your chuunibyou energy.]

I shouldn't have done that.

Still...... trouble must have started in Paradise by now. The original story was following its course, and my allies would probably handle it well. I couldn't remember the last time things had gone this smoothly. At this rate, clearing the Scenario would take no time at all......

[A great Fate wants you dead.]

......What?

Footnotes:

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