WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 292: Episode 54: Demon King Slayer (6)

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"Hey, Lee Jihye."

A man waved in our direction, speaking in the typical tone of a thug. The white coat swaying from his shoulders was unmistakably the Infinite Dimensional Void Coat.

In other words, it was the same coat as mine.

[The Constellation Lily Blooming in Aquarius frowns.]

[The Constellation Commander of the Red Cosmos reveals its displeasure.]

The flowers in the coat's inner pocket were trembling.

Could that bastard be the leader?

The shock that washed over me made my head spin. I reflexively turned toward Junghyeok, but there was no way the addled Junghyeok could share my feelings.

I looked back at the man. One hand was wrapped in bandages, and he leaned halfway against the door as he pushed back his white hair and snickered.

「Kim Dok ja is an id iot.」

No matter how I thought about it, that bastard couldn't be the leader. Besides, by around the 95th Scenario, getting hold of that coat wasn't impossible.

Jihye frowned.

"Kim Namwoon."

"Yeah, that's right."

"I told you not to act like you know me. Get lost."

"Uh, right..."

Namwoon awkwardly stepped back at Jihye's words. Jihye glanced at him as if he were pathetic, then said,

"And stop stealing master's coat and wearing it. I'll seriously kill you."

"...Do you want to try it on too?"

Jihye kicked the door open and entered the building. Namwoon, seemingly overwhelmed by her, followed after her with unfocused eyes.

Come to think of it, that was how their relationship had been in the original. All sorts of things came back to me. Jihye, Hyeongseong, and even Kim Namwoon...

Curiosity and an inexplicable fear coiled deep in my chest.

What on earth had happened in this round?

While I was distracted, Namwoon looked at me and said,

"Who are you? Isn't that coat the same as mine?"

[The character Kim Namwoon reveals his wariness toward you!]

I remembered when I had first met him. Namwoon, whose head had exploded on the subway.

If the Kim Namwoon from back then had survived, would he have been like this?

"Hey, soldier, who the hell is this gu... Holy shit! It's Yu Junghyeok!"

Namwoon spotted Junghyeok behind me and quickly took a step back.

[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon bares its teeth!]

Kim Namwoon, the Delusional Demon.

In this round, the Abyssal Black Flame Dragon had found his original Incarnation.

When Junghyeok raised his head at the hostility directed toward him, Namwoon flinched.

"You're still fucking cool. Did you come here to fight, Yu Junghyeok?"

Namwoon's hidden hand trembled. I couldn't tell whether he was excited or afraid.

Maybe it was both.

Hyeongseong was the one who stopped the atmosphere from turning violent.

"Namwoon, these people didn't come here to fight."

"What? Then why did they come?"

"That's..."

I stopped listening to them and strode into the building.

"Wait! Kim Dokja-ssi!"

Hyeongseong called out behind me, but my urge to check the building's interior was stronger.

If I was right...

This building was the very one Junghyeok had envisioned in the early rounds.

When I kicked the door open, I saw a vast interior. It was as large as a materials warehouse owned by a major corporation.

Hospital beds carrying patients came rushing out from the large door beside me. Every one of them carried emergency patients.

"Don't stand around! Move the patients over here!"

I found myself pushing one of the beds with the others. Doctors in white coats gathered around us.

"Fable Packs! Bring Fable Packs!"

"This patient has allergies, so no fables related to animals!"

They all possessed trained medical skills.

A woman in small rimless glasses led them. As she checked the condition of a patient whose abdomen and thigh had been pierced, she asked me,

"Where was this patient injured?"

I quietly studied her face.

A woman called the Poison Beauty or the Medicine Sage depending on the round. In some rounds, she was one of the Ten Evils. In others, she had been Junghyeok's lover.

She seemed to have mistaken me for another doctor because of my white coat.

I looked over the patient's condition and answered,

"It seems they were attacked by the Nameless Ones. Judging by the contamination around the wounds, it was probably a tentacle species."

"Certainly... Hm?"

Seolhwa, who had been looking at me, slowly blinked.

[The character Lee Seolhwa senses something strange from you.]

"...Who are you?"

Who should I say I was? No, who could I say I was for her to understand?

"Hey, mister, what are you doing? Hurry up and follow me! Bring Yu Junghyeok along too!"

Leaving the stunned Seolhwa behind, I climbed the stairs with Junghyeok toward Jihye. The building's inner walls were made of transparent material, so I could grasp its entire layout just by climbing.

Patients poured endlessly through the emergency room entrance on the first floor. Incarnations severely wounded while fighting Outer Gods or other Constellations.

There was nothing strange about it. By the 95th Scenario, tragedies like that had become routine.

I remembered the 95th Scenario of the 1,863rd round.

When I looked through the building's single-pane windows, I saw the ruined landscape of Seoul. Fable Weapons from nebulae belching smoke, sleeping Outer Gods, and above them all, a black crystal sphere covering the sky.

[Apocalypse Dragon's Sealing Sphere]

That Sealing Sphere was the core and objective of the 95th Scenario.

The goal was to acquire the five scattered keys and release the Apocalypse Dragon.

Once the Apocalypse Dragon was released, Earth would be destroyed, and those who completed the Scenario would automatically advance to the next one.

Yet this 1,863rd round was far too different from the 1,863rd round I knew.

─A Grade 1 beast species has appeared near Gangseo!

A broadcast blared through the building. As I climbed the stairs, I caught sight of the situation room glowing with bright panels.

─All personnel deployed to Seocho, withdraw immediately! The Archangel of Flame has appeared!

─The holy sword Ascalon has been discovered near Nowon! Combat is currently underway with over ten Nameless Ones! Requesting support!

Countless messages flew back and forth, and one person managed all of it.

Messy permed hair.

A boy with deep dark circles under his eyes, wearing a headset.

No, he wasn't a boy anymore.

I looked at him with a strange ache in my chest.

Han Donghoon, the King of the Hidden Shadows.

In the round I had lived through, he had never become a king. Now, he sat in the place where his talent could shine brightest.

White light flowed from Donghoon's fingertips as he quickly finished calculating their combat strength.

─I would like Min Jiwon's Hwarang Corps and Cha Sanggyeon's Maitreya Buddha to handle the Nowon area.

─We need to strike first before the Incarnations from Olympus claim it.

─We must secure the holy sword Ascalon. Hurry!

Familiar names passed through the messages.

Jiwon and Cha Sanggyeon. Both of them, whose Patron Constellations were the Lady of the Sleeping Brocade and the One-Eyed Maitreya, had survived safely to the 95th Scenario.

"What are you staring at?"

Jihye, who had been watching me from beside me, jabbed at me with her words. I hesitated over how to answer, then gave her my honest impression.

"It's more amazing than I expected."

Perhaps she hadn't expected that answer. Jihye paused for a moment, then rubbed her nose.

"Well, master is pretty amazing. It's all thanks to master. That person did it all alone."

Jihye, Hyeongseong, Seolhwa, Jiwon, Cha Sanggyeon, Donghoon... and even Namwoon. Everyone who should have died in the original's 1,863rd round was alive.

Not only that, their equipment was of a high standard, and their group was considerable in size. In some ways, they were at a higher level than the third round I had lived through...

No, they had reached the level I had always hoped for.

My head throbbed.

Someone I didn't know had changed the history of the 1,863rd round. The tragedies that should have happened hadn't, and humanity was fighting.

Junghyeok still hadn't lost a single Companion.

Maybe I could see a proper conclusion here without returning to the third round.

Jihye said,

"We'll go all the way to the end of the Scenario with master."

The moment I heard those words, a cold, chilling sensation passed through my chest.

Everything was there in that scene, except for one thing.

When I turned around, Junghyeok stood there with a blank expression. I couldn't tell whether he was looking at that sight or not. I couldn't tell whether he was sad or happy.

The only thing I could understand was myself.

"Why do you hate Yu Junghyeok?"

"Because he's a bad guy."

"Why is he bad?"

"Are you seriously asking because you don't know?"

"I don't."

"He kills people without hesitation, and he'll do anything to achieve his goal."

Everything she said was right.

I asked, "Is that all?"

"Do you need another reason?"

She was right. Maybe that alone was enough reason.

But...

「Kim Dokja thought, 'You don't know why Yu Junghyeok had to be that way.'」

I slowly took a deep breath.

This wasn't Jihye's fault. No one had done anything wrong. Everyone was doing far too well, and perhaps that was why I was angry.

"Who exactly is this master you keep talking about?"

"At the very top of the building. Take that elevator over there."

I nodded and headed toward the elevator. When Junghyeok followed me, Jihye drew her sword.

"Leave Yu Junghyeok here."

I had expected it. I looked back and forth between Junghyeok's vacant expression and Jihye. The elevator arrived with a chime.

Before getting on, I approached Junghyeok and said,

"Junghyeok, wait here while thinking happy thoughts."

Junghyeok gave a small nod.

"But if someone harms you... remember the unhappiest time of your life."

"What are you doing?"

Jihye cut in, as if she had caught something strange in my words.

I ignored her and stepped into the elevator.

"Hey! I said answer me! What did you mean by what you just told Yu Junghyeok?"

I knew how precious this place was to Jihye.

And naturally, something precious to someone was also their weakness.

"If you're curious, try touching him. I wouldn't, if I were you."

The elevator doors closed.

Three, four, five...

The floors changed as gravity grew slightly heavier. As the numbers rose, my thoughts moved faster than ever.

Who could it be?

There were a few possible candidates. People who could read future information and change the future.

Anna Croft, or a few Constellations from a particular nebula.

But none of them seemed capable of doing this. No matter how exceptional they were, they still belonged to the original. They couldn't create this kind of change in the original through their own power alone.

Nine, ten, eleven...

Then there was only one answer.

Besides me, there was another being outside the original.

Even so, something was still strange. Even if a being from outside the original had arrived, there was no way they could have guided things so perfectly to the 95th Scenario.

And in a way so similar to mine.

A chill crawled up from my feet.

...Could it be?

Junghyeok existed in other rounds.

Then what about "me"?

Ding.

With the elevator's chime, I shook my head.

According to the revised version of TWSA, I didn't exist in Junghyeok's other rounds. I still didn't exist after several more rounds. If I had, the revised version's story itself would have changed.

So the being beyond here was likely not me.

Still, there was one thing that bothered me. The words Secretive Plotter had left behind.

【There was someone who made a covenant like yours.】

─The doors are opening.

When the doors opened, a room resembling a hotel suite appeared before me. It was dim because the lights were off. Soft carpet covered the floor, and a figure sat in a black chair.

"You're the person Lee Hyeongseong told me about."

With a click, gentle lights came on in the room. The first thing I saw in the hazy view was a sword lying on the table.

A sword that gleamed pure white.

I knew that sword well.

Because it was the Unbreakable Faith I possessed.

As I stared at it, the figure in the chair spoke.

"It's a good sword. Just like its name says, it really doesn't break."

"I know. I use one too."

"Really?"

The person in the chair wore a black half-mask. I stared into the eyes visible beyond it.

They had changed slightly after weathering the Scenarios, but there was no doubt.

[You have activated the Exclusive Skill Character Profile!]

Normally, the skill shouldn't have worked. I knew that well because I had used it on this person several times before.

Then why had I used it again?

[There is too much relevant information about this individual. Character Profile has been converted to Summary Profile.]

Maybe I had hoped it wouldn't activate.

As I looked at the endless stream of information floating before me, my heart felt heavy.

She probably had no idea what this terrible loneliness I felt was like.

"All right, who are you, and where did you come from? I've never heard the name Kim Dokja."

I should have noticed from the start.

Other than me, she was the only woman who knew of TWSA. There had only ever been one person capable of doing something like this.

But how?

There was no point asking. That was something I would have to learn from now on.

Still, there was one thing I could tell.

This woman wasn't the Han Suyeong from the third round I knew.

Looking at her short hair trembling faintly, I asked,

"Are you Han Suyeong's Avatar?"

Footnotes:

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