WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 172: Episode 33: Re-reading (1)

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I remember the first time I read a novel. The soft texture of paper against my fingertips. Black letters blooming across a vast white plain. The feel of pages folding beneath my hands as I turned them.

“Reading the words isn't what's important. What's important lies in the spaces between them.”

My mother, who loved books, sometimes said things like that. At least for me as a child, it wasn't a metaphor.

The gaps made by the letters. My own small snowfield, left alone between them. It was far too narrow for anyone to enter and lie down in, but for a child who liked hiding, it was the perfect place.

Rustle, rustle.

Whenever I heard that pleasant sound, the letters piled up like snow. A sturdy igloo built from words. Inside it, I became the protagonist. I went on adventures, fell in love, and dreamed.

I read, and read, and read again.

Then came the first time I closed a book after a story that had seemed as though it would never end finally did.

I still remember the feeling. It was as if I had been deprived of the world.

The protagonist and supporting characters walked into the sentence, “And they lived happily ever after,” while I alone remained behind the story's final period. Overcome by emptiness and betrayal, I writhed because I couldn't bear the loneliness.

“Is this... the end?”

It was probably like learning about death. Realizing for the first time that something was finite. My mother said, “That's what an end is.”

“There's nothing after this?”

“There is nothing after this.”

She was cold, as if she were telling me a cruel truth about life.

“But seeing the end doesn't mean you've seen the whole story.”

And she was wise.

“What?”

“Read it again.”

Reading a finished story again. I was young then, and I didn't understand what that was supposed to mean.

“Why would I read a story I already know again?”

“If you read it again, it'll surely become a different story.”

“...I don't want to.”

I was afraid of feeling that loss again, so I stubbornly refused. Then my mother said, “Then shall we read it together?”

That was how I learned to reread.

The first time, I could only see things from the protagonist's perspective. The second time, I saw the perspective of the supporting characters. The third time, I saw the enemy's perspective.

A story that changed every time I read it.

The story had ended, yet it hadn't ended. As long as the reader didn't give up on it, the story never truly ended.

Even now, I sometimes wonder.

What if my mother had told me something else back then? That novels were all fake, and reading them would only be a waste. If she had, would I have made many friends? Would I have studied hard, avoided being bullied, and not run away from the reality I had been given?

Tzzzzt!

Sparks flew through the air, shattering the memories that had been flowing through my mind.

“Kim Dokja. You seem to have plenty of free time.”

When I turned my head, someone was standing in the pitch-black darkness.

A being that could easily enter another person's dream.

Unless they were a powerful godly being, only prophets could do such a thing.

But this wasn't Anna Croft.

“Can you endure Fate?”

I knew that face. A wanderer wearing old clothes and a worn-out crown. Come to think of it, there was also a Constellation with the Prophet attribute.

One Who Gouged Out His Own Eyes.

He was Oedipus King of Olympus, whom I had met at the banquet. Oedipus King spoke to me.

“Fate is approaching.”

‘Fate? Didn't that already come true? I died, just as you planned.’

“This isn't a fate you can avoid with a trifling fable. Soon, you must decide whose side you will stand on. I believe you will make the right choice.”

‘I won't stand on anyone's side.’

Oedipus King smiled.

“You will surely come to Olympus. Of all the Incarnations I have seen, no one has a story better suited to Olympus than you do.”

‘What bullshit...’

Before I could finish speaking, another memory crashed into me.

“Dokja.”

Damn it. This memory again.

The bloodstained living room. My mother stood before a dead man's body, holding a knife.

“From now on, you will ‘reread’ everything.”

She smiled at me as I trembled.

“So remember it well. Do you understand?”

The nightmare struck me head-on. I screamed soundlessly.

As if mocking that memory, Oedipus King's voice echoed through my mind.

“Inherit ‘Lightning Carnival.’ Otherwise, you will die for good in the next Scenario.”

* * *

[The privilege of the attribute Eight Lives has activated.]

[Your body has resurrected!]

A ragged breath burst from me, as though I were vomiting amniotic fluid.

[The snake's second head is being sacrificed.]

[That head's ability is Intelligence.]

Warmth returned to my cold skin, and strength flowed back into my limp muscles. This was already the fourth time I had experienced death.

Once while hunting the fire dragon race, once during the Catastrophe of Floods, and once while facing Nirvana...

At this point, I had to wonder whether Junghyeok was the sunfish, or whether I was.

“...Ugh, where am I now?”

I looked around, but I couldn't figure out where I was. All I could see was a fluffy floor like white clouds and an open sky.

Was there a place like this in Dark Castle?

[The privilege effect has accelerated your mental processing.]

Maybe it was because of the resurrection privilege, but my judgment was faster and clearer than before. I decided to trace everything back from the beginning, one piece at a time.

First, the biggest question.

‘Why did I die?’

I had definitely left my body with Suyeong and used Third-Person Perspective on the Allies in Paradise. Then my consciousness suddenly faded, and a death message appeared.

That left only one conclusion.

Someone had killed me while I slept.

...But who?

Suyeong?

[A new achievement has been recorded in your fifth fable.]

[People will remember you as the Messiah Who Knows Shame.]

Of all times to die, I had died at such an awkward moment that my fable had gained a strange achievement.

...Don't tell me I had literally died of embarrassment.

The prophecy said that Incarnation Kim Dokja would die at the hands of the being he loved, so at least whoever killed me had to be someone I loved.

“Hey, Kim Dokja! You're alive?”

Suyeong walked lightly toward me from the distance.

“What happened?”

“We got attacked.”

Suyeong grumbled as she looked over the empty field of clouds. There was nothing here except clouds floating in every direction. It was far too peaceful a view for the word attack.

“Right after you fell asleep, some guys suddenly showed up. I tried my best to stop them, but it didn't work. Somehow, you got critically wounded. I took you and ran away while crying my eyes out, then we suddenly entered a place like this. You get it, right? That's why I told you to come quickly.”

Her explanation was scattered and disconnected like floating clouds, but it wasn't hard to understand.

[The Exclusive Skill Lie Detection Lv.2 has activated!]

[You have confirmed that this statement is true.]

Suyeong clicked her tongue and frowned.

“Try believing people when they talk.”

“...Did you see the attackers' faces?”

“They were all wearing masks, so I couldn't see them properly. I checked a few with [ATTRIBUTE DETECTION], but they were people I didn't know.”

Suyeong had grown quite strong during our three-day journey for the Hidden Piece. At her current level, she would at least rank around twentieth in Dark Castle.

Yet there were people strong enough to break through her protection, kill me, and trap us here.

No matter how much I thought about it, no likely candidates came to mind.

“You didn't find out anything else?”

“By the way, you're being really arrogant. Someone has been suffering like hell for three days...”

“Three days?”

“You've been dead for three days. Didn't you know?”

Come to think of it, I had forgotten that the Eight Lives attribute needed a cooldown.

Three days...

Damn it. What had happened to the others? They hadn't already moved on to the next Scenario, had they? If they had, all my plans would be ruined.

Suyeong sighed. “No matter how much I searched, there are only clouds nearby. I've already given up.”

“So that's why you have your clones out there like that?”

Suyeong's clones were training skills all over the clouds.

One Suyeong practiced [Mnemonic Technique], another practiced [Footwork], and another trained [Hand-to-Hand Combat].

Every Suyeong was focused on improving a different skill.

“It's my own training method. Waiting for you felt like a waste of time... If I do this and retrieve the clones, my skill proficiency rises quite a bit.”

I felt like I understood, at least a little, how Suyeong had become so strong in such a short time.

“What are you, Na■to?”

“Naru■? Damn it... Even that gets filtered? Well, I did get the idea from there.”

As expected of a Plagiarist Author.

A question suddenly came to mind. Even TWSA didn't explain the Avatar skill in much detail. This was a good opportunity to learn more about it.

“Doesn't that skill have any restrictions? Can you increase the number of clones infinitely as long as you have Mana?”

“That would be broken. Of course there are restrictions. Every time I use the skill, I have to give the Avatar a portion of my memories.”

“...A portion of your memories? What if the Avatar dies?”

“Then I lose those memories too.”

I was a little taken aback as I looked at Suyeong, who answered so casually. Wasn't this a skill that could give her Alzheimer's if she made one mistake?

Suyeong seemed to read my thoughts and smirked.

“Don't worry. I usually make them with unnecessary memories. And if I retrieve them properly, the memories come back fine. Sometimes... there are ones that escape my control. That's the problem.”

“Escape your control?”

“There was a clone I made when I first used [Avatar]... I gave it too many memories, so it suddenly went out of control and I couldn't retrieve it.”

“...That's possible? Then what happened to the memories it had?”

Suyeong shrugged.

“Who knows? But seeing how I'm fine now, they must have been unimportant memories.”

“You think you're fine?”

“Shut up.”

For some reason, I felt that clone might have important memories. Was I worrying for nothing?

The thought that a clone identical to Suyeong might still be wandering somewhere in Seoul gave me chills.

One by one, the clones turned into smoke in the air and returned to Suyeong. She was probably recovering the proficiency they had gathered.

Suyeong exclaimed, “Ah! There's something I didn't tell you. I suddenly remembered. Constellations came by when you were lying there dead.”

Then don't give important memories like that to your clones.

“I forgot their modifiers, but they were Constellations from nebulae. Veda and... Tamra, maybe?”

They were dangerous nebulae. Whether she understood how I felt or not, Suyeong lazily muttered, “They said some vague things. Like how you should make the right choice...”

“Could you try remembering properly?”

“Sorry. I might remember after I retrieve all the Avatars... Oh, and some strange Goryeo warrior came too.”

“A Goryeo warrior?”

“He didn't say anything in particular and just left. He looked at your dead body for a while, then went right away.”

A Goryeo warrior was most likely Cheok Junkyung.

Olympus, Veda, and Tamra. Even Cheok Junkyung had moved. Something serious was definitely about to happen.

At that moment, an unpleasant sensation crossed my mind.

“Wait. The Constellations came in person? Not through their Incarnations?”

“Yeah. They came in symbolic form. Why?”

“...Don't you see what's wrong with that?”

“Huh?”

“Even in symbolic form, Constellations wouldn't appear in a Scenario area while spending that much Plausibility.”

Constellations, who feared Plausibility more than anything in the world, wouldn't personally appear after Descending in symbolic form.

I slowly looked around. “...I think I know where we are.”

Just as I thought. This place was inside a barrier.

But it wasn't an ordinary barrier. It was so dreamlike that Constellations could visit in symbolic form.

Suyeong, who had belatedly realized something as well, said, “Gimun Formation.”

Gimun Formation. It was a technique favored by Constellations who had mastered the principles of the Five Elements, Four Symbols, and Three Talents.

Few beings could casually use a Strange Gate Formation on this scale. Perhaps an Incarnation of the Crouching Dragon could, but this wasn't China. It was the Korean Peninsula.

That meant...

“Why don't you come out already?”

I looked up into the air as I spoke. Aside from the Crouching Dragon, only certain Constellations could handle a Strange Gate Formation this freely.

And I had already met one of them.

“...It seems deceiving a Constellation was too much after all.”

The clouds in the air gathered with the voice, soon taking the shape of a person. She was a woman in her mid-to-late thirties, wearing a sky-blue prison uniform.

“We've met before, haven't we?”

“It's hardly a welcome reunion.”

[The Constellation Joseon's Greatest Sorcerer smiles at you.]

Jeon Woochi's Incarnation.

She was the King of Wanderers' first right-hand.

“The King is waiting for you.”

I felt like I knew who had killed me. It seemed the situation was taking the worst possible turn.

Either way, I had no other choice now.

I nodded. “Lead the way.”

Footnotes:

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