WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: ChaoticRain

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 167: Episode 32: Kim Dokja's Love (4)

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Lee Jihye beamed when she spotted Yu Junghyeok and waved.

"Master!"

"I asked where Kim Dokja was."

"Why are you looking for Dokja?"

Just as Junghyeok was about to answer, Yu Sangah descended from the ceiling like a fairy, Yu Mia on her back. The Allies called her name, but instead of greeting them happily, Sangah hurriedly said,

"Dokja is in danger."

"What?"

"Where is Dokja right now?"

Like Junghyeok before her, Sangah anxiously scanned the area. Dokja was nowhere to be seen. Lee Hyeongseong quickly answered,

"Dokja left three days ago."

"What do you mean Dokja is in danger?"

Jeong Huiwon pressed her too, but unfortunately, there was no time to explain everything. Jihye added in frustration,

"Didn't you get something wrong? We're the ones in danger, not Dokja!"

Sangah hadn't realized the situation was this bad.

"I'll explain after we escape from here."

Monsters were pouring out of the tunnels connected to the central clearing because of the commotion in the cavern. Jihye muttered through gritted teeth.

"Damn it, if only Pildu were here..."

Things certainly would have been very different if Pildu Gong had been there. Pildu Gong's [Armament Fortress] was a Stigma suited to slaughtering large numbers of monsters. But they had already parted ways with Pildu Gong when they entered the Dark Castle 1st Floor, and it was unclear whether he was even alive.

The Allies' only comfort was that Junghyeok was with them.

In terms of sheer combat strength, his presence was even more reassuring than having Pildu or Dokja with them.

Booom!

Junghyeok sent every approaching monster flying with [hundred-step godly fists], then said,

"We're at a disadvantage if we fight here. We're getting out through the ceiling."

Junghyeok opened a path through the monsters. He broke through with Hand-to-Hand Combat alone without losing much Mana. He was practically a human tank.

No, even a real tank probably couldn't have produced that kind of power.

Sangah said,

"It's too high for the children to climb."

"I'll make footholds in the wall. Step on them and climb."

With those words, Junghyeok stepped on empty air and soared upward.

It was [Air Walking], a skill said to be usable only by the strongest martial arts world Returnees. First, Junghyeok piled dead monsters on the cavern floor so the Allies could climb to a certain height. From the top of that pile, he punched holes into the wall and made handholds like climbing grips, creating a path all the way to the ceiling.

"...What a nuisance."

The Junghyeok of the past would never have done this much for them. But this round's Junghyeok was different. Even Junghyeok himself didn't know what had changed him so much.

That was when a voice rang through the cavern.

[This is truly an unexpected situation. Are you the incarnation Yu Junghyeok?]

It was Reinheit's voice. Jihye, who was climbing the wall along Junghyeok's path, asked in surprise,

"What, you're not dead?"

Of course he wasn't. Someone ranked second in Dark Castle wouldn't die just because a pile of rocks had fallen on him.

Instead of answering Reinheit, Junghyeok stopped midway along the path he had made and waited for the Allies. Jihye, Hyeongseong, Sangah, and the others at the front climbed first. Lee Gilyeong and Shin Yuseong followed at the rear.

As Yuseong passed him, Junghyeok grabbed her shoulder.

"You can't come with us."

"What?"

Before Yuseong could answer, Junghyeok shoved the girl down beneath the ceiling. Monsters waited for Yuseong below with their mouths open. Gilyeong cried out in shock.

"Shin Yuseong! ...What? What are you doing?!"

Enraged, Gilyeong swung a fist at Junghyeok. Junghyeok easily avoided it, caught Gilyeong's fist, and said,

"You should go with her too."

A moment later, Gilyeong fell after Yuseong with a scream.

* * *

After Dionysus's incarnation said what he wanted and vanished, Han Suyeong asked me with a grave expression,

"What the hell did that guy mean just now?"

"I don't really know either."

"You don't know? You couldn't hear the filtered part either?"

I hadn't heard it. Still, I could vaguely guess what it meant.

It was probably related to the "end" of all these Scenarios. Naturally, it had been filtered. I had only just begun challenging the tenth Scenario, and even though I had become a Constellation, that didn't mean I could freely obtain all information.

Suyeong looked at me with dissatisfaction and let out a quiet sigh.

"...Fine, put that aside. What are you going to do about this 'Fate'? If a Constellation from Olympus came personally to warn you, it sounds seriously dangerous."

"It does."

"Is there really no way to avoid it?"

"It's not completely unavoidable. If the fulfillment of Fate becomes an 'absolutely impossible situation,' Fate can be withdrawn. Even Fate follows Plausibility."

But that also meant the opposite was true. If there was even the slightest possibility it could happen, I would never be able to escape Fate.

Suyeong thought for a moment, then asked,

"Was there no specific message? Did it just say you'd die?"

"Well..."

Dionysus had secretly told me the prophecy, accepting a major loss of Plausibility.

「The incarnation Kim Dokja will die at the hands of the being he loves most.」

Honestly, it was an utterly bewildering statement.

The being I love most? That being would kill me?

After I hesitated before telling her the prophecy, Suyeong stared blankly with her mouth open. As if she didn't know what to say, her face turned pale, then red, again and again. Finally, her expression vanished as she asked,

"The being you love most?"

"Yeah."

"You have someone like that?"

For some reason, that annoyed me. But it was also what I wanted to ask.

If it was someone I loved, it would naturally mean a person.

I thought of each face in turn. There were people I liked as human beings, but there was no one I "loved." More precisely, "love" was the word farthest from my life.

"Honestly, it's probably right to say I don't."

A faint light returned to Suyeong's face.

"Then shouldn't that 'Fate' be withdrawn?"

"It seems that way at first, but..."

"Or are you going to start liking someone now? Are you the type to fall in love at first sight?"

"That's never happened, but I can't say it's impossible."

This was a "powerful Fate," powerful enough for the message to repeat three times.

It was confusing. I was going to fall in love with someone?

I looked at Suyeong's complicated expression and opened my mouth.

"There's another possibility."

"What is it?"

"Fate isn't meant to be interpreted so literally. You know that if you've seen Greek mythology. Prophecies aren't delivered in a way people can understand right away. They're full of metaphors and symbols."

Suyeong tilted her head.

"The incarnation Kim Dokja will die at the hands of the being he loves most. What symbolism or metaphor is there in that obvious sentence?"

"I'm saying we need to consider that the 'obvious sentence' might have an unexpected meaning."

"Hmm..."

Still, Suyeong was a writer. She might be helpful with this kind of interpretation. In fact, Suyeong began offering plausible hypotheses.

"Thinking about it that way, there are about three things that bother me."

"What are they? Tell me."

"First, I think there's a reason it specifically says 'incarnation' at the beginning."

"...Incarnation?"

That was a part I had overlooked too.

"You've become a Constellation now, haven't you? Then isn't it fair to say that you, as an 'incarnation,' are already dead?"

It was a plausible hypothesis.

But if it were right, Fate should have been fulfilled the moment I became a Constellation, even if only halfway. There would be no reason for the Fate message to keep returning.

Perhaps Suyeong also felt something was missing, because she offered a second hypothesis.

"Second, the words 'being you love' themselves might be a metaphor."

"Hmm... It could mean something else. It might not necessarily be a person."

We put our heads together and thought, but we couldn't find a particularly plausible interpretation for that part.

Still, seeing Suyeong being serious for once made me think she wasn't such a bad person. I was pretty grateful that she was thinking through all this for my sake.

I quietly looked at Suyeong.

Maybe it was because of the twilight, but her eyelashes looked unusually long. It was only because her features were so rarely still, but she had a pretty face too. Especially when an unreadable smile appeared between her expressions, or when she occasionally showed imagination I never expected...

...Wait. What was I thinking right now?

Suyeong spoke again.

"The last thing we need to consider is the word 'death.' Maybe 'death' here doesn't mean literal death."

"Then what does it mean?"

"When do you think a person dies?"

"Well... when their life ends. When their heart stops and they stop breathing."

Suyeong clicked her tongue as if disappointed by my answer.

"I guess that's why you kept reading a novel like TWSA. You're only capable of thinking at that level."

"Don't pick a fight for no reason. Then when is it?"

"Don't you read comics? You know what people usually say at times like this. When does a person die? When people forget them!"

"That's from a comic. So what, are people going to forget me?"

"It was an example, idiot. In the Star Stream, a Constellation dies when every being forgets them. I'm saying we can consider similar possibilities."

When she put it that way, it didn't sound completely impossible. The Star Stream was the flow of an enormous story, and beings cast out of "relationships" naturally perished within that story.

"Why would people forget me? Are they all going to get amnesia together?"

"Forgetting might not mean that."

For some reason, Suyeong looked lonely as she said that. Come to think of it, I didn't know what kind of life Suyeong had lived. Other than the fact that she had written a novel plagiarizing TWSA, there was nothing I knew about her.

...Even the part about that "plagiarism" wasn't certain.

[lie detection] had shown that it was true that Han Suyeong hadn't plagiarized it. After a brief pause, I asked,

"Then what does it mean?"

Suyeong seemed to choose her words for a moment. Then she spoke with a dark expression.

"Kim Dokja, dead people can't remember anything."

Only then did I understand what she meant and opened my mouth. We instinctively turned back toward Paradise.

...No way?

Suyeong spoke first.

"Should we go back?"

"...It's too late if we leave now. It's already three days away. Even if we rushed at full speed, we couldn't get there within a day."

"Then what?"

"It's fine. The strongest reinforcement should have arrived by now."

"The strongest reinforcement?"

"He won't know I sent him, though..."

Before she could ask another question, a message appeared in the air.

[Someone in Dark Castle has attained Transcendent for the first time in the Scenario!]

Just as I thought, he should have reached that level by now.

I thought of Junghyeok causing a catastrophe somewhere far away and said,

"Now the protagonist needs to start pulling his weight."

Footnotes:

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