WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 304: Episode 57: Glorious Return (3)

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Lee Jihye held Admiral Yi Sun-sin's sword in her hand. It wasn't the Twin Dragon Swords carried by the Lee Jihye of the 1,863rd round, but it was still a fairly decent weapon.

She must've taken it from some museum somewhere...

"Let's see how much dried squid I can make."

I pushed the flustered Returnees behind me.

"Jihye, stop! It's me!"

I shouted desperately, but there was no way she could understand me. From Jihye's side, I probably looked like some creature shrieking and swaying its tentacles around.

"Ugh, you disgusting squid bastard. Die!"

Jihye charged at me, her eerie blade flashing.

...This was somehow starting to look a lot like the 1,863rd round.

Slash!

Jihye's blade barely brushed over my head. As the severed strands of hair scattered, Gilyeong chimed in.

"Do better, noona! Cut the big tentacles, not the little ones!"

"Shut up!"

Apparently, my hair looked like tentacles to them. I knew she was only acting like that because she didn't recognize me, but it still hurt.

I warned the tense Returnees again.

"Nobody attack! I'll take care of this myself!"

If there was any consolation, it was that the Returnees were listening to me.

Flying Fox added in a complicated voice, "Just say the word if you need help, brother."

Flying Fox was a Returnee who'd been active as a formidable master in the Second Martial World. If things truly became unavoidable, I might be able to borrow his help.

I thought about how I could make Jihye realize I was here.

"Squid Slash!"

In this Scenario, my spoken language couldn't reach Jihye. But human communication wasn't made up of spoken language alone.

"What? Stop moving weirdly, asshole!"

I activated [Way of the Wind] and started writing on the ground with dazzling steps. Lines carved across the floor as I dodged Jihye's sword path. The Returnees behind me seemed to realize what I was doing too, and gasps broke out among them.

Honestly, I had no idea whether this would work. The original story had never gone into detail about whether this kind of communication was possible.

The question was how long it would take Jihye to catch on to what I meant.

"What's with that? He's writing on the ground."

Fortunately, quick-witted Gilyeong grasped my intention first. Jihye, who had been hacking away at me nonstop, faltered and looked down. Words written by my dazzling footsteps remained on the ground. My handwriting was awful, but not so awful it was unreadable.

I'm Kim Dokja.

That was what I'd written, but then...

[The letters you have written are distorted due to a Scenario penalty.]

...There's a penalty on this too?

It was [The Fourth Wall] that read the distorted sentence aloud in Jihye's place.

「I am a sty lish squ id.」

[The character Lee Jihye has activated Ghost Slaying Lv.10!]

Red ghostly flames flickered in Jihye's eyes as she accelerated toward me.

Slash, slash!

The sword strikes were much faster than before, and little by little, it was getting harder to dodge them. I even took off my coat and waved it like a sign of surrender, but every effort I made was rendered useless by the Scenario penalty.

[Ugly Squid provokes the Incarnation Lee Jihye.]

"Die!"

My head was starting to ache. If this kind of illusion kept going, then no matter what I did, I wouldn't be able to get my intentions across to them.

In the end, subduing her really was the best option.

But for some reason, I didn't want to do that. Maybe something inside me had changed too after going to the 1,863rd round.

「At that moment, something came to Stylish Squid's mind.」

Ah, wait. If it was that, then maybe?

I hesitated for a moment, then decided to just do it. No matter how much the Scenario distorted my language, it wouldn't be able to distort that.

[The Demon King Demon King of Salvation has sponsored the Incarnation Lee Jihye with 91 coins.]

Something that couldn't be distorted by anything.

[Your Indirect Message is distorted due to a Scenario penalty.]

[Ugly Squid has offered 91 coins to the Incarnation Lee Jihye.]

That was the number of coins I sponsored.

Jihye frowned at the squid's sudden sponsorship.

"...What?"

Please understand, Jihye.

[Ugly Squid has offered 91 coins to the Incarnation Lee Jihye.]

"You think I won't attack just because you gave me something like this?"

[Ugly Squid has offered 91 coins to the Incarnation Lee Jihye.]

"Ah, stop pissing me off! I hate it most when my coins don't end in hundreds!"

...Really? Then how about this?

[Ugly Squid has offered 9,158 coins to the Incarnation Lee Jihye.]

And for the first time, Jihye's attack stopped. It didn't seem like she'd understood anything. It looked more like she'd stopped because the amount of sponsored coins had suddenly jumped.

Gilyeong asked, "Why'd you stop all of a sudden, noona?"

"No, that thing keeps giving me coins."

"Coins?"

Startled, Gilyeong looked at me.

"Could it be a Constellation?"

"What kind of Constellation has a modifier like Ugly Squid?"

There was one. No, there had been. It wasn't a squid, but there had been someone with a modifier kind of like that. My modifier had changed now, but... Damn it, why was I even explaining this?

After springing back, Jihye glared at me suspiciously and asked, "Why does it keep giving me 91 coins?"

"91 coins?"

"Yeah. Then at the end, it gave me 9,158 coins."

"9,158 coins is a lot. Is it some kind of Hidden Scenario? Or maybe it means something...."

I felt like this was my only chance.

[Ugly Squid has offered 7,942 coins to the Incarnation Lee Gilyeong.]

Gilyeong jerked his head toward me at my shower of coins.

"7942? Wait, could this be...?"

The children's eyes were wavering. Looking at those clear eyes, my heart swelled too.

Yeah, that's it, kids. It's me. Kim Dokja.

[The Constellation Naval Warfare God doubts your identity.]

[The Constellations of the Korean Peninsula are curious about your identity.]

That was when an unexpected Constellation entered the channel.

[The Constellation God of Wine and Ecstasy has entered the channel.]

[The Constellation God of Wine and Ecstasy has noticed your identity!]

The God of Wine and Ecstasy, Dionysus. Come to think of it, the one who'd told me about this "7942" had been Dionysus. I had a feeling things might go better than expected. If it was that Constellation, maybe he'd decipher the message I'd sent on the children's behalf.

[The Constellation God of Wine and Ecstasy claims that 91 is a kind of number wordplay!]

My heart pounded hard. Dionysus's guess was right. Read normally, that number was just ninety-one, but to me, it was a code meant to convey my intention to the children.

9 (gu), 1 (one).

Salvation.

Thankfully, Dionysus seemed to understand what I was trying to say. Now, if Dionysus would just tell them I was the Demon King of Salvation...

[The Constellation God of Wine and Ecstasy says that squid must be an exceptionally intelligent squid.]

I stared blankly up at the sky. Gilyeong shouted happily.

"What, so it really was a Hidden Piece. Does it give us coins every time we cut off a tentacle?"

[The Constellation God of Wine and Ecstasy nods.]

Once this Scenario was over, I was going to crush Olympus.

Jihye, excited now, shouted too.

"We hit the jackpot. Hey, Gilyeong, you take half!"

The tentacle Jihye charged at was my arm.

"That one's really quick. Noona, cut the big tentacle over there first!"

That was my leg.

"Ah, that's seriously annoying. Should I just cut it off in the middle?"

Anything but that. Just as I finally lost patience and was about to release my Status, a dragon's roar rang out from the sky.

Grooooaaar!

It was forceful enough to make even the Returnees flinch for a moment. As black dragon scales covered the air, I looked up at the sky.

There was a face I'd missed.

Like Jihye and Gilyeong, the child had grown a lot.

"You're always late, Shin Yuseong! And you don't even walk on your own two feet!"

Only the baby fat on her plump cheeks proved that she was still the girl I remembered. Shin Yuseong, who'd appeared riding a Chimera Dragon, landed on the ground.

Yuseong glanced this way, then asked Jihye, "You still haven't dealt with it? You said it'd be quick."

"I was about to. But there's something weird mixed in with the Calamities."

"Something weird?"

"That squid over there."

Yuseong looked at me.

"It keeps giving me coins. Creepy as hell."

Yuseong kept staring at me.

[The Demon King Demon King of Salvation looks at his Incarnation.]

I slowly stepped forward.

"What the fuck! Don't suddenly come closer!"

Despite Jihye's threat, I kept moving forward. I couldn't help it.

"The Beast Master is here!"

"Good, now we can finish them off!"

With Yuseong's arrival, the Incarnations who'd fled to the outskirts of the coast came running across the white sand. The sound of weapons crashing together echoed everywhere. Emboldened, the Incarnations aimed their blades at me and the Returnees.

The truth was, this 45th Main Scenario had a real Hidden Piece concealed inside it. If our group could clear the Scenario without producing a single casualty...

Flying Fox, who'd been shoved back together with the Returnees, shouted, "Brother! We can't hold out much longer either! I don't know what you're trying to do, but hurry!"

Humans were a species that didn't even trust other humans of their own kind. So how could they ever become friends with a Calamity?

"Die, you tentacle monster bastards!"

A species that tried to dominate whatever was similar to itself and exclude whatever was different. My image was reflected in their retinas. In their eyes, I was nothing more than a tentacle monster.

Or rather, I had to be a tentacle monster.

「Maybe there might have been another path.」

Even the Yu Junghyeok of the original story had gone down this kind of Returnee route a few times. But Junghyeok had never properly completed this Hidden Piece even once.

More precisely, he hadn't been able to.

「Even if it was a little difficult and arduous, if he'd walked a different path.」

Every Junghyeok who took the Returnee route walked the path of regret. That was why I knew his failures. Every path where I could fail was a path he'd already walked.

And Junghyeok had now departed toward a path that didn't exist in the original story. Into a world where countless possibilities for failure had opened up once more.

[The Fourth Wall trembles faintly.]

So I couldn't lose either.

[The Constellation Naval Warfare God watches you closely.]

[The Constellation Bald Army General watches you closely.]

[The Constellation God of Wine and Ecstasy watches you closely.]

"What the hell, why's everyone suddenly acting like this?"

"Jihye noona, be careful!"

Jihye's blade flew at me as I approached.

This time, I didn't dodge.

Blood splashed from the skin my coat hadn't protected. Jihye's eyes went round in shock, as if she hadn't expected me not to dodge. The other Incarnations rushed at me through that opening. In an instant, my surroundings filled with the weapons of the Incarnations stabbing toward me. Faint scars began to multiply across the outer layer of my coat.

I endured some attacks, blocked others, and kept walking forward.

At the end of that path stood a girl.

The child I'd made my first Incarnation. Shin Yuseong, who'd been destined to become a Calamity just like me, was standing there.

The child was looking at me.

I pushed through the path and approached her.

One step, then two.

I kept walking at a speed that wouldn't frighten or scare her. Blood sprayed and flesh tore, but I paid it no mind. I didn't release my Status so I wouldn't put her on guard, and I didn't draw a weapon so I wouldn't threaten her.

Her face was right in front of me.

If destruction hadn't come, she'd have been old enough to start middle school by now. I'd stayed away from her side for far too long while she grew up like this. A sharp sensation stabbed deep into my chest, and I lowered my head.

[Ugly Squid looks at the Incarnation Shin Yuseong.]

A strange thought suddenly came to me. Maybe it would be better if I stayed Ugly Squid forever.

Secretive Plotter's words passed through my head.

【If the ending they wanted was to die there with you, would you still insist on saving them?】

【That isn't salvation. It's a curse.】

I'd been arrogant. My longing was only mine. There was no guarantee anywhere that my companions shared those feelings too.

The Dokja in their memories was probably just a selfish Constellation. One who forced goals on them, forced life on them, forced wounds on them. The kind of companion who wasn't there when he was needed most.

「Then why is this child crying?」

Jihye and Gilyeong lowered their weapons, and the Incarnations stopped attacking.

With everyone watching us, I slowly knelt before my Incarnation, as if showing respect to my child, who had grown up so admirably on her own, or as if begging forgiveness for all the time I hadn't been able to spend with her.

"I'm back, Yuseong."

My words wouldn't reach her.

[Your Incarnation looks at you.]

My Incarnation slowly reached out and placed her small hand on top of my head.

Footnotes:

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