WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 296: Episode 55: Happy Memories (4)
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It had been two days since I started staying at Suyeong's headquarters.
During that time, I had been preoccupied with a few things.
One was figuring out exactly what Suyeong meant by "Yu Junghyeok's death."
The other was finding out what she ultimately wanted to gain through it.
Neither would be easy to learn. Besides, that wasn't my only troublesome issue.
[Our Eden was really destroyed?]
I looked at Gabriel, who was radiating a grim aura, and asked in return,
"That's right. Didn't Metatron in the third round tell you anything?"
[The Scribe knew about Eden's destruction?]
I nodded.
"Ask him yourself when you go back. That is, if you can make it back safely."
At those words, Gabriel and Jophiel's tendrils began to tremble. I thought they were about to get angry at me, but it looked like they were talking among themselves instead.
I took Uriel's doll out of my pocket. Uriel's Incarnation body, bound by [Shackles of Good and Evil], wouldn't be able to use her power for the next five days.
[The Fourth Wall looks into you.]
Maybe I could borrow [The Fourth Wall]'s power and pass along the memories of the third round. But if I expected Uriel to see those memories, be moved, and take my side, that really would be something that could only happen in fantasy.
After seeing all those memories, Uriel would probably say this.
「■■, so what?」
The memories of the third round that I possessed would sound like nothing more than a story from a novel to Uriel, who had lived through the horrific 1,863rd round.
"Dokja-ssi, weren't we supposed to go hunting together?"
When I looked up, Lee Hyeongseong was standing there in steel gauntlets.
"Would it be all right if I came along too?"
"Yes, well... A bullet picked up on a battlefield doesn't really distinguish friend from foe."
Hyeongseong smiled awkwardly as he said it. Whether it was the third round or the 1,863rd round, that weird metaphor of his hadn't changed. I found myself calculating how many times Hyeongseong must have been sent to the brig by now.
[Your understanding of the character Lee Hyeongseong has increased.]
[The character Lee Hyeongseong reveals faint goodwill toward you.]
Now that it had come to this, it even reminded me of the first Scenario, and I felt a little strange.
I added a needless comment just to ease Hyeongseong's wariness.
"Aren't you being a little too unguarded? I'm Yu Junghyeok's Companion, you know."
"Mm... The Captain didn't say anything in particular, and, well, how should I put it? I have a feeling Dokja-ssi isn't a bad person. Maybe it's intuition I picked up while going through ninety-four Scenarios."
Throughout the original work, Hyeongseong's intuition was wrong most of the time. Whenever he said things like that, I used to think Junghyeok was about to get stabbed in the back and die.
"Hey, you're here? Let's see what you've got."
The others going on the hunt with me were Kim Namwoon and Lee Jihye. Jihye, wearing a large gray hood, gave me a displeased glance.
"Hurry up. We're leaving."
I followed the group out of headquarters.
The purpose of this hunt was to clear out the Nameless Ones lingering around the base and collect items. Officially, anyway. I knew why Suyeong had ordered this hunt.
―Two are coming from the front. One's a tentacle species, and the other's a composite species.
Along with Han Donghoon's message echoing through the air, Jihye drew her sword. The activated [Instant Kill] cut through every tentacle, and Namwoon rushed in right after her, using [Black Flame] to burn the tentacle species' main body.
I'd felt this even while reading the original work, but those two really worked well together. The monster burned away with a hideous scream, and Namwoon sauntered up to Jihye with a smug grin.
"Nice attack."
Namwoon raised his right hand toward Jihye with a deliberately cool expression. With a cold stare, Jihye thrust out her sword. The blade brushed past Namwoon's cheek and pierced the main body of the Nameless Ones, which had been regenerating tentacles inside the [Black Flame].
Jihye moved on toward the next prey. Namwoon chased after her.
"Hey, wait up!"
If Gilyeong and Yuseong grew up, would they become a duo like that? If I made it back, maybe I'd get to see a sight like that too.
"Dokja-ssi?"
"Ah, yes. I'll take that side."
I hurriedly drew Unbreakable Faith and activated [Way of the Wind]. The tentacles whistling toward me drove into the gaps in my defense. Since I was deliberately not using [Electrification], dealing with the Nameless Ones was a little tricky.
"Heh heh, you're weak."
Grinning unpleasantly, Namwoon started beating down the Nameless Ones with [Black Flame] gathered in both hands.
"Watch and learn!"
His combat ability really was impressive. If it was Namwoon as he was now, he might be able to draw on about half of the Abyssal Black Flame Dragon's power. I quietly cheered him on.
"You're doing well. Another one's coming."
"Hahahah! Leave it to me!"
Kwoooaaah!
"Hm, even so, that one over there is probably too much for you, right?"
"What are you talking about! Hahahah! Die!"
"Wow, then that one over there too..."
Namwoon's eyebrows twitched as he belatedly realized something was off. Beside him, Hyeongseong's lips were twitching. Jihye, who was killing monsters in the distance, clicked her tongue like she found him pathetic. The moment Namwoon, face twisted, raised a fist at me, I informed him,
"Jihye doesn't like people who show off."
Namwoon's face turned as white as his hair. His pupils were shaking like there'd been an earthquake. Honestly, the most spectacular sight was Hyeongseong beside him with his eyes wide open.
This man's lack of tact was the same in every round.
Namwoon rolled his eyes between Jihye in the distance and me, then stammered,
"How do you know that?"
"It'd be stranger not to know. Dye your hair back first and take those bandages off. If you're going to wear fingerless gloves, wear them on both hands. And don't say stuff like 'Nice attack' after a hunt either."
[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon dislikes you.]
"It'd be more helpful if you acted more like that guy behind you."
Face bright red, Namwoon looked toward the man behind me. Junghyeok was standing there with a blank look on his face. His coat was filthy and he hadn't even washed, but none of that could hide how handsome he was.
"That guy is 'evil.' He does look cool, though," said Kim Namwoon, the "Delusional Demon."
I snorted and replied,
"Don't make him out to be that bad. He's got some good points too."
"Ha, figures. You're on the same side, after all. But how'd you end up traveling around with Junghyeok?"
When Namwoon gave me a suspicious look, Hyeongseong spoke up.
"I heard Dokja-ssi came from another worldline."
It seemed Suyeong had told them about me. Startled, Namwoon pointed at me and asked,
"Another worldliiine? That's... a parallel universe...?"
"Something like that."
I was impressed that Namwoon, who didn't even have basic knowledge of biology, knew about parallel universes. This round definitely had differences from the one I remembered.
"So that's why you never showed up before. Then why'd you come here?"
"You're excited, huh. Too bad I can't tell you."
"Tch. Then what am I doing over there? Am I a leader or something?"
"You're dead."
Namwoon's complexion instantly bleached white again.
"I'm kidding. You're building Gunpla over there. You looked really happy."
"Gunpla? Ooh..."
At some point, Jihye had come over and smacked the back of Namwoon's head.
"What are you grinning for? Pick up the items."
"Y-yeah."
Watching Namwoon scramble after Jihye and gather items, I thought maybe I shouldn't have killed him in the first Scenario.
As Namwoon trailed after Jihye picking up items, he carefully watched her mood, then whispered to me,
"Hey. I've got a favor to ask."
"What."
"Later, could you lend me your coat for a bit?"
So that's what this was about.
"Depends how you behave."
Namwoon grumbled and went back to picking up items. Jihye kept scolding him, and Hyeongseong laughed heartily. It was a peaceful sight.
But in the middle of that peace, all I felt was a sharper reminder that this wasn't my world.
Jeong Huiwon wasn't here. Neither were Yu Sangah or Lee Gilyeong.
...Right. Han Myeongoh wasn't here either.
So I had to go back no matter what.
Before long, we had gathered all the items around us. As I looked through the collected loot, I smiled.
As expected, it was here.
To clear the ninety-fifth Scenario, the key item needed was the Five Famous Swords. And Suyeong had probably known there was one of those swords somewhere nearby.
But the moment I drew the sword, I flinched.
"Excuse me, Hyeongseong-ssi."
"Yes?"
"Was Han Suyeong the one who told you to retrieve this sword?"
At my words, Hyeongseong looked down at the blade and answered,
"Ah, yes. This is the sword we were looking for."
I'll say it again, the ninety-fifth Scenario was one where the Five Famous Swords were the key. More precisely, it was the Scenario where the five swords were used to release the sealed Apocalypse Dragon.
But this sword...
A chilling premonition passed through my mind.
* * *
Suyeong came to my bedroom that night.
"Kim Dokja."
I nearly reflexively drew my sword and glared toward the doorway. In the faint light, Suyeong shrugged and jerked her chin toward the outside.
"If you're awake, come talk for a minute."
"There should still be five more days left. I have no intention of being persuaded, so it's a waste of effort."
"We're just talking, so what's the problem? Who said anything about persuading you?"
Showing up in the middle of the night without any warning. Whether it was the third round or the 1,863rd round, she was just as impossibly self-centered.
After making some quick preparations, I followed Suyeong out. The two of us took the elevator. Past the suite floor where Suyeong lived, then higher, and higher. After we reached the top floor and climbed the stairs, the rooftop finally came into view. The building was protected by a self-designed Mana barrier. Beyond the translucent barrier, the scenery of Seoul spread out before us.
In the distance, I could see shooting stars falling. The fifth Scenario had passed a long time ago already, so those were probably the remains of battles between nebulae and the Nameless Ones, dropping from beyond the Star Stream.
At some point, I had looked down at a sight like this with my Companions too. Back then, I made a wish together with them.
―I wished to see the epilogue of a certain novel.
If so, what wish should I make now, in a world standing right before its ending?
"What do you think?"
Her tone was vague enough that I couldn't tell whether she was talking to herself or asking me. I silently looked down below the building.
Seoul in the ninety-fifth Scenario was the very picture of ruin.
Collapsed Gwanghwamun. Barely any buildings that could be called cultural properties remained, and even the high-rises that hadn't been half-destroyed could be counted on one hand. Even so, I could still see living Incarnations scattered here and there. Incarnations fighting the Nameless Ones, supporting each other, and struggling however they could to reach the next Scenario.
Those Incarnations were smiling.
"I'm asking you."
"You raised them well."
"Do you really think that?"
I wanted to tell her no. What she'd done was wrong. She had taken what belonged to the protagonist. The position she held had originally belonged to someone else. The person who should be standing in her place right now wasn't her, but...
"Yeah."
Yu Junghyeok.
I wanted to say it. But I couldn't.
Looking at those smiling faces, looking at the Companions who had survived in greater numbers than in the ninety-fifth Scenario of any other round, I couldn't bring myself to say it.
This world was the very scene Junghyeok had wanted to create more than anyone.
The regressor who had wanted to protect everything in the world even at the cost of sacrificing himself in the end. The scene that regressor had wanted to see after thousands of regressions.
When I looked down from the rooftop, a man in a familiar black coat was standing there blankly, staring up at the sky. His empty eyes were counting the stars. I was sure I'd told him to sleep earlier, but sometimes orders just didn't get through to him.
"What the hell did you do to make him end up like that?"
"I just told him a few old stories."
"He's the type who hates old stories."
Suyeong spoke as if she knew Junghyeok well. I bit my lip, paused for a moment, and said,
"If it's someone like you, you could've brought Junghyeok in as a Companion. Why did you leave him alone?"
It was the question I hadn't been able to ask in the Sacred Three Questions. But at the same time, it was also the question I had wanted to ask the most.
Suyeong didn't answer right away. She put a hand into her pocket, took out a cigarette, and placed it between her lips. It lit with a soft click. After taking a long drag, Suyeong exhaled smoke and said,
"It was the path he chose for himself."
"What do you mean?"
Suyeong didn't explain any further. As if telling me I should be able to read at least that much on my own.
In the meantime, I could see Namwoon and Jihye stepping outside the building. Namwoon cleared his throat and kept saying something to Jihye. Since it was obviously nonsense, a moment later he started getting smacked on the head with the sheath of the Twin Dragon Swords.
Suyeong snickered.
"Still, he's getting hit less than usual."
"I taught him how to get popular with girls. Doesn't seem to be doing much good, though."
"You don't look like the popular type either."
"You don't have to be popular to know how to become popular."
It was humiliating to hear myself say it, but unexpectedly, Suyeong accepted it without much pushback.
"Yeah, maybe that's true."
"It feels bad when you agree that easily too."
"I agreed because I really agreed. You don't have to go through something yourself to understand it well."
Tick.
She flicked the ash off her cigarette. The ash fell below the rooftop, then scattered through the air like a shattered star.
"Just like it's not only people who've experienced an ending who can create a good ending."
...Did Suyeong really copy TWSA?
When I used [lie detection] on Suyeong in the third round, [lie detection] told me that Suyeong hadn't copied TWSA. If so, how would the Suyeong standing here answer that question now?
"I know what you're thinking."
"No, you don't."
There was no [lie detection] and no [Poker Face] in this conversation. Even so, for some reason, I felt like I might understand Suyeong in that moment. The sensation was uncomfortable, but at the same time, it gave me a kind of comfort that felt almost immoral.
The fact that someone besides me had dreamed of this story's ending.
I could see Lee Seolhwa opening the first-floor door just a crack and coming out with a thermometer and a fable meter to examine Junghyeok. Even though they'd definitely been enemies until recently, Seolhwa still seemed worried about him. Namwoon had already taken out his phone again and was taking pictures with an arm around Junghyeok's shoulders. Excited, Namwoon waved toward us.
"Captain, come down and take a picture with us! If we get one while this bastard's like this... Ah, quit hitting me, Jihye!"
That was roughly what he seemed to be saying. Instead of answering, Suyeong just gave a small wave.
Hyeongseong and Seolhwa, Namwoon and Jihye. Soon Donghoon and Min Jiwon came out too, forming a noisy crowd around Junghyeok. The repeated clicking of shutters rang out one after another.
Just as I was about to head downstairs, worried Junghyeok might get agitated for no reason, Suyeong opened her mouth.
"This is the first time I've shown this sight to someone."
Only then did I realize it. Looking at the Companions laughing and chatting below, I stepped back. Maybe Suyeong understood them... no, maybe she understood this story better than I did.
I had no right to go down there right now.
Because I wasn't a "character" equal to them.
"You said Kim Namwoon died in the third round."
"I killed him. Back then, I thought that was the best choice."
Suyeong was asking me:
"Do you still think that now?"
Do you really have the right to decide something that important?
Looking at Namwoon smiling so brightly, I thought of the Namwoon of the third round in hell. I thought of the people who had died because of me and the people who had survived because of me.
Just because a single reader had read that story. Just because I wanted to see a certain "ending." I thought of the massive Fate that had changed because of that.
"I don't know."
I answered honestly. Maybe because it wasn't the answer she expected, Suyeong looked at me with her mouth slightly open and a blank expression in her eyes. A cigarette, burned all the way down, dropped to the floor with a soft thud. I handed Suyeong the cigarette pack resting on the railing and pulled one out for myself.
"You smoke?"
"I don't, but I thought I'd learn once in this round."
Suyeong lit it for me. Watching me cough out the smoke, she let out a snort of laughter. I asked her,
"What about you?"
I didn't ask what exactly I meant by that. Suyeong simply kept looking down at Junghyeok.
"Same here."
In silence, we smoked and watched the characters beyond the railing, laughing like they were happy. Suyeong must have watched over them from this place for a very long time.
Like an omniscient yet powerless god who could only keep reading the same single page over and over.
I understood why Suyeong had shown me this sight. Maybe this was a sensation only she in this world had ever known, and one only I could understand.
I stubbed out my cigarette and said,
"If you'd been in the third round, a lot of things might've changed."
"If you'd come to the 1,863rd round earlier, even more might've changed."
"That's a pretty meaningless thing to say."
"Right. We're not Junghyeok."
Once time had passed, it didn't come back. Because this world was no longer a novel, there was no way to turn back to a page that had already been read. There was no way to erase a sentence that had already been written.
"You're going back to your own round, right?"
"I have to. That's my world."
"Then you can't keep opposing my plan."
Before I could even ask what she meant, Suyeong put her cigarette back into her pocket and turned away.
"Let's go back inside."
Light sparks were jumping from her fingertips as she walked off.
* * *
After that day, Suyeong called for me from time to time and asked my opinion on the Scenarios she had already cleared or the ones still ahead.
"If it were me, I would've handled that Scenario like this."
"Then you'd have to fight every nebula out there."
"No, you should choose this side there."
"How much of TWSA did you even read?"
"One thing's for sure. More than 100 chapters."
I often provoked Suyeong, and Suyeong often mocked me in return. Even so, we never stopped talking. As if we were people whose Star Stream would be destroyed when this story ended, we talked and talked.
Once, I even asked her. She'd been so confident, so why did she keep asking me about even these tiny details?
"Because sometimes one reader notices something more important than ten thousand writers."
Maybe word had spread that we were meeting so often, because the people around us gradually started asking me about Suyeong too.
"This is the first time I've ever seen the Captain talk with someone this much."
"To tell the truth, she threatens to kill me every day. Could you help spread that rumor instead?"
Whenever Suyeong and I talked, we always ended up arguing over whose method of clearing a Scenario was right and whose was wrong. Especially when the story of this round came up, Suyeong became unusually sensitive.
"The Captain probably wants to be acknowledged."
"Acknowledged?"
"I wish she'd open up to us too, the way she does to Dokja-ssi."
As I watched Hyeongseong confess his feelings to me with a look of envy, I remembered that in TWSA, he never really had a proper match.
"It's not like I say anything special. I just..."
I searched for the right words several times before I finally managed to continue. Because I wasn't even a resident of this world, I wasn't sure whether I had any right to give advice like that.
"I just listen. She's the type who likes talking."
"Listening well is also a very difficult thing. Everyone who's survived until now has grown tired of stories."
Hyeongseong looked at me with a complicated expression mixed with disappointment and awe. And the moment I saw that expression on his face, my own feelings became just as complicated.
―This is the first time I've shown this sight to someone.
Maybe that "sight" Suyeong had spoken of hadn't even begun yet.
In other words.
"Maybe Dokja-ssi coming to us now is also part of a huge story."
The moment I heard those words, I reflexively looked up at the sky. The massive Apocalypse Dragon's Sealing Sphere was gazing down this way from above.
Sleeping inside that pitch-black sphere was the greatest, worst dragon of destruction in TWSA.
Originally, Junghyeok was supposed to release that dragon, obtain the Great Fable "Liberator of the Apocalypse Dragon," and advance to the final Scenario.
「At that moment, Kim Dokja realized how to kill Yu Junghyeok.」
The tightly gripped sword hilt trembled.
「And that Han Suyeong was thinking the exact same thing as Kim Dokja.」
* * *
Kim Dokja spent that entire day reading TWSA over and over. He read pages he had already read, then read them again, checking whether there was any subtext he had missed.
Dokja seemed to be searching for something. Or maybe it was that he couldn't find it. He looked down at his smartphone, grabbed his head several times, and let out sighs.
"You're noisy. Stop talking."
And sometimes, he even got angry at [The Fourth Wall].
Anyway, Dokja tried. It was an effort to change something, and perhaps an effort no one would ever recognize.
Before long, a small resolve appeared in Dokja's eyes. It wasn't a resolve that had built up over a mere day or two. It was the kind of resolve only someone who had read a single story thoroughly for a very long time could possess. With that resolve, Dokja continued reading TWSA.
Reading, and reading, and reading again.
How much longer did he keep reading? The eyes that had once shone like stars gradually grew dim. Dokja drifted into a shallow sleep.
And Yu Junghyeok was watching that sight with empty eyes.
Dokja's exhausted back. The steady sound of his snoring.
With a tiny crackle of sparks, light was returning to Junghyeok's eyes. Fierce killing intent settled into the pupils that had been empty, and that killing intent was aimed at exactly one person. With a clear sword cry, Junghyeok drew the Splitting the Sky Sword from his back. He approached Dokja with silent footsteps and leveled the sword at Dokja's neck.
Tzzzzt.
「Ha ha, that sort of thing is troub ling.」
Junghyeok frowned. As if it might wake Dokja at any moment, [The Fourth Wall] was giving off uneasy sparks. Junghyeok used [Telepathy] to send a message toward the illusory Wall.
―Don't wake him. If you do that, I'll cut his head off immediately.
「Hm m.」
The intensity of the sparks [The Fourth Wall] had been producing rapidly diminished. Junghyeok didn't lower his sword, and [The Fourth Wall] faced him while spilling letters into the air.
「Wh at do y ou want?」
Junghyeok said nothing. It was as if he were searching for words, or perhaps as if he didn't know what those words even were.
Then, [The Fourth Wall] let out a bizarre laugh.
「Ah h, I se e.」
"......"
「You're curi ous, aren't yo u?」
Junghyeok still didn't answer, but [The Fourth Wall] laughed as if it already knew everything.
The number of letters [The Fourth Wall] produced began to increase. Golden letters embroidered the air, and before long, they filled the whole room. Junghyeok stared for a moment at the letters drifting around him, then reached out toward one of them. At once, as if responding to his hand, the letters began telling a story.
「"I am a reader."」
「In truth, I often introduce myself to people that way, and when I do, I usually end up being misunderstood like this.」
It was the story of a world he had never experienced before.
[The Fourth Wall] giggled.
「It wi ll be very inter esting.」
Junghyeok listened to that story in silence.
Until the night grew deep, and the deep night faded away again, and a faint dawn arrived.
......
When Dokja finally woke up, Junghyeok was leaning against the wall with empty eyes, as if nothing had happened.
"I fell asleep, damn it."
Dokja ruffled his hair, got up unsteadily, and gathered his smartphone and sword.
When he looked out the window, the troops at the headquarters had already finished lining up. The Companions gathered to clear the ninety-fifth Scenario. At the center of them stood Suyeong in a white coat, looking this way.
Today was the day the Incarnation Yu Junghyeok would die.
Footnotes:
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