WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 279: Episode 52: ■■ (2)
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“Are you curious?”
[Is there anyone here who isn't curious?]
Mass Production Maker smiled faintly, and a few Constellations cleared their throats. As the atmosphere took an unusual turn, the other Allies who still hadn't grasped the situation began focusing on me as well.
“Why is everyone suddenly...?”
“Shh.”
Huiwon stopped Hyeongseong before he could thoughtlessly cut in.
I slowly looked around at everyone in the hall. Before I knew it, every being in the hall was looking at me.
■■.
In TWSA, it was called by many different names.
For example, the Dokkaebi King had said this.
「The end and beginning of every story.」
But Junghyeok would say this.
「That fucking Star Stream.」
Hyeongseong would call it “discharge,” while Sangah might call it “retirement planning.” For Jihye, it would be “graduation.” And surprisingly, none of those interpretations of ■■ were wrong.
Mass Production Maker asked,
[All who obtain the “qualification for the end” gain a different name for their “end.” Do you know?]
“Since the fables they possess are all different, that only makes sense.”
To begin with, ■■ was never a proper noun whose precise meaning could be communicated. The fact that the filter had been lifted here only meant that I had become able to “read” it. The Constellations who had received Hidden Scenarios like me were probably all in similar circumstances.
+
<Hidden Scenario - A Single Fable>
Category: Hidden
Difficulty: ???
Clear Conditions: Complete A Single Fable that will reach ■■.
Time Limit: ―
Reward: ???
Failure: ???
You have currently completed the beginning.*
* Refer to the additional Scenario description for further details.
+
The Hidden Scenario, “A Single Fable.”
This Scenario was granted to every being who obtained the qualification for the end.
In the distant galaxies of the Star Stream, one had to search through a sea of countless fables and complete a single “complete story.” Legendary-grade fables, Mythical fables, even the Great Fable I had obtained, all of them were ultimately no more than steps on the journey toward that “A Single Fable.”
Mass Production Maker before me and Persephone over there must have obtained this Scenario as well. Of course, the places they would ultimately reach would be different from mine.
[Baat!]
Before I could give the order, Biyoo blocked the hall's channel.
She must have instinctively realized that what I was about to say was important. As the Constellations' protesting messages streamed through the air, Mass Production Maker spoke in a grave voice.
[My ■■ was “depletion.”]
I was a little surprised that he had so readily shown his hand. Then Persephone, who had been dancing on the stage, said,
[Mine was “death.”]
Depletion and death.
Both were words that could symbolize the “end” of something.
They were also supremely ironic ends for Mass Production Maker, who always loved making things, and Persephone, who ruled the underworld of the dead.
They had shown their cards, so I no longer had any room to retreat.
“Please swear on your modifiers that you won't reveal to anyone what you hear from me here.”
At my words, the Constellations looked at one another.
[Of course we will...]
[Hmph, why go that far? It's not like we'd run around telling people...]
[Just how incredible is this ■■ that you're dragging it out so much?]
I didn't answer right away. I simply smiled.
Then a quiet ripple began to spread through the Constellations.
[Don't tell me...?]
It felt as though I could see the thoughts flashing through their minds.
Yes, think.
Agonize and doubt.
Only then will you arrive at the picture I want.
At last, when the Constellations' murmuring had reached its peak, I slowly opened my mouth.
* * *
Suyeong was walking down a street.
It was the scenery of ruined Seoul. She was walking alone through streets where not a single surviving person remained.
All kinds of wild ideas flashed through her mind.
Why am I here right now? I was clearly fighting the Constellations by borrowing Black Flame Dragon's power. No, more importantly, Seoul was supposed to be sealed off, so why...?
“Black Flame Dragon?”
Abyssal Black Flame Dragon didn't answer.
“Hey, is anyone there?”
Suyeong shouted as she walked between collapsed mixed-use buildings. The corpses of monsters were strewn through the familiar ruins of Gwanghwamun. Each time she passed those foul-smelling corpses, goosebumps ran over her skin. Every last one of them was a monster beyond what she could handle in her current state.
What the hell happened here?
No matter how many questions she asked, there was no one to answer them. No, perhaps it would be better if, even if someone were here, they didn't answer. If there were a living “being” here, it would be the terrifying monster that had turned those creatures into bloody lumps.
...If this was a dream, she only wished she would wake up.
That was when she saw something like a person's shadow in the distance.
A familiar human figure in a white coat.
Her heart surged.
“Kim Dokja!”
The moment the man turned toward her, a blade suddenly burst through his coat with the sound of flesh being pierced. The white coat was stained red.
Crying out, Suyeong woke from her sleep.
“Haah, haah...”
Only after blinking several times did her sense of reality slowly return.
“What the hell...?”
She had even spoken to herself, which wasn't like her at all.
Her back was soaked with cold sweat.
[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon is satisfied with your muttering.]
[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon, now that you have become his true successor...]
“Shut up.”
Judging by the nonsense Black Flame Dragon was spouting, this definitely seemed to be reality. Suyeong pressed one hand to her temple.
...Why had that bastard appeared in her dream?
Normally, Suyeong would have brushed it off as a stupid dream, but this was a world where superstition became reality, so she couldn't dismiss even a dream like this carelessly. It was only then that she realized the arm pressed to her temple was wrapped in bandages.
“Damn it. I still haven't taken it off.”
“Don't take it off. It's wrapped because you're hurt.”
Startled, she turned around and saw a familiar face.
“...Kim Dokja's mom?”
“You're still the only one who calls me that.”
Sukyeong wiped Suyeong's back and forehead with a towel. Suyeong asked,
“Why didn't you go to the Demon Realm?”
“How could I show my face there?”
“Kim Dokja would've liked it.”
“He would've liked it more if you went.”
“...Auntie, you really don't know your own son.”
Suyeong muttered with a slight pout. Sukyeong smiled faintly, then changed the damp pillowcase for a new one. Suyeong buried her nose in the fragrant new pillow and sniffed before saying,
“Still, it looks like things got resolved okay.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The 'Kim Dokja Great Misfortune Incident.'”
Seeing how excited Black Flame Dragon was, it seemed things on the Demon Realm side had gone well too. The damage to the Korean Peninsula wasn't as bad as expected either. The Gyeonggi region had taken a hit, but the citizens had been evacuated safely, anyway...
The unsettling dream did bother her a little, but a dream was only a dream.
“It isn't all over.”
“...What?”
Without a word, Sukyeong brought over a plate and began displaying the omen of [Fortune and Misfortune] above it. Suyeong silently read the trail of letters rising over the water's surface. She couldn't believe it. So she asked Sukyeong to cast the omen again several times.
The omen was the same. Looking down at her arm wrapped in bandages, Suyeong said,
“Contact Kim Dokja.”
* * *
The night the banquet ended, I was sitting alone in my office.
Normally, this would've been the perfect time to leisurely make myself a cup of hot chocolate and read TWSA, but I couldn't afford that kind of leisure right now.
I was looking at the massive fragment placed on the table. It was a piece that had fallen off the last car of the train Surya and I had fought on.
With my eyes closed, I tried reconstructing my memories from back then.
Surya's train had been far shorter than the one mentioned in the original story.
And the rear of its last car had been completely open, as if the cars behind it had been torn away midway through the journey.
In other words, that car hadn't been the “original final car.”
I opened my eyes and examined the scars on the fragment again. It would take monstrous strength to tear away the whole of Surya's train, a train that even Cheok Junkyung or my masters would have to exert all their strength to destroy.
...So it really is that.
Knock, knock, knock.
I raised my head at the sound of knocking, and Yu Sangah was looking at me through the gap in the door.
“I'm sorry, Dokja-ssi. Did I interrupt you?”
“No. I was the one who called you.”
I hurriedly cleared the table and welcomed Sangah in.
Sangah looked around with a slightly awkward expression, then carefully sat down across from me at the table.
“Would you like some tea?”
“No, it's fine.”
“Then at least some water?”
“Okay.”
We sat across the small table in silence for a moment. I was the one who had called her here, but I couldn't easily bring up the subject. Sangah surely had many things she was curious about too. I let out a light sigh and broke the silence first.
“Go ahead and ask.”
“I've spent quite a long time thinking about you, Dokja-ssi.”
Her tone was as if she had been waiting for this.
“How can you know what will happen when no one else does? How can you stay calm even in situations like this, and always find answers other people can't think of?”
“So, did you figure anything out?”
“I feel like I understood some things, and for others, I couldn't even begin to get a sense of them.”
Sangah had probably studied me. The way she studied Spanish through an app whenever she had spare time. And as always, she had reached a meaningful result before anyone else.
“Is this world something like a ‘novel’ to you, Dokja-ssi?”
“Why did you think that?”
“Because of what you said at the banquet today.”
...As expected of Sangah. There was really no other way to say it.
“I am a being headed toward the ‘Final Chapter.’”
That was my answer to the question of what ■■ was. Final Chapter. The end of all pages, which one had to reach by turning page after page.
Sangah continued,
“The Constellations were very shocked. Some were horrified, and some were in awe.”
The Constellations couldn't help but be shocked.
That was the point of saying it in the first place.
“After you left, I asked the Queen of the underworld why they were so surprised.”
“What did she say?”
“She said you're an incredibly special being, Dokja-ssi.”
Sangah moistened her lips with water and continued,
“I heard that ■■ is given to every being in a ‘different form.’ And I also heard that most beings receive an extremely personal word. There are countless forms of ■■ in the world, but words that clearly imply an ‘end’ are extremely rare among them.”
Something that obviously meant an “end,” no matter who heard it.
A word with exceptional universality for every being.
“And I heard that the beings who have been given such an obvious implication of an ‘end’ are all great Constellations. The highest-ranking divinities of enormous nebulae like Olympus, Veda, and Papyrus...”
“...”
“And now... she said Dokja-ssi has become one of them too.”
Sangah was looking at me with a conflicted gaze. Her wavering eyes held emotions that even she didn't seem able to gauge.
“That's a good thing.”
“A good thing?”
“Because only now can I finally start doing something.”
I smiled. But Sangah didn't smile.
“After the world was destroyed, I thought you looked happier, Dokja-ssi. You smiled more often than before, and you seemed more lively... So I thought that was good. But...”
Sangah trailed off and lowered her head.
“Why do you think this world is ‘fiction,’ Dokja-ssi?”
Sangah didn't know me. She didn't know what a “novel” was to me. Or what kind of place this world exactly was to me. I couldn't explain it, and for now, I shouldn't explain it either.
“I'm sorry, Dokja-ssi. I said something presumptuous...”
Even so, Sangah was the only person who could say something like this to me. The person who alone noticed something no one else cared about.
[The Exclusive Skill Character Profile has activated!]
She was the first companion I met.
Maybe it had been that way even before this world began.
[Information on the relevant individual cannot be viewed through Character Profile.]
An inexplicable sense of relief came over me at the message that still appeared.
[The relevant individual is currently collecting information.]
The first time I used [Character Profile] on Sangah, I had been terribly anxious because I couldn't read her information. But for some reason, now it was the opposite.
I took a light breath and looked out the window.
A clear sky. A world where nothing had happened yet was there.
“I have something I'd like to ask of you, Yu Sangah-ssi.”
That was why now was the only time to prepare.
Footnotes:
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