WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 309: Episode 58: Nexus of the Constellations (3)

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It had been a while since I'd been turned away so bluntly.

I kept gripping and releasing the doorknob, then glanced back. Huiwon watched me as if waiting to see what I would do. Suyeong's gaze was strangely wary, while Hyeongseong looked as if he might melt away from worry at any moment.

Carefully, I sat with my back against the door.

"I won't come in. Could we talk here for a little while instead?"

This was Yu Sangah, not just anyone else. If she refused to see me, she had to have a good reason.

Her reply came after a long pause.

―Go ahead.

For some reason, her voice sounded weak.

In the deep silence, quiet enough to hear breathing, I thought of Yu Sangah. Sangah from when she still worked at Mino Soft.

If someone asked whether Sangah and I had been close, I couldn't confidently say we were. Still, if they asked what kind of person she was... I might have had something to say.

"I'm very late, aren't I?"

I spoke carefully.

"I'm sorry. I was late for the job interview too, and Sangah-ssi helped me then... Do you remember?"

Sangah was silent for a moment before answering.

―I was late too back then.

"Do you remember looking for the interview room together?"

―I remember.

Mino Soft's new employee interviews were fairly famous in the industry.

Every year, the interviews featured a different kind of "quest." The most common were "raise the interviewer's favorability" and "find the hidden interview hint."

The quest in the year Sangah and I took the interview had been "find the interview room."

―I got more help from Dokja-ssi that time.

"I only found the quest items. Sangah-ssi was the one who figured out how to use them to find the way."

At the time, Sangah and I had formed a team to find the interview room.

―Dokja-ssi pointed out the inefficient quest route.

"Sangah-ssi pointed out the quest advancement system with its unclear causal relationships."

The point of a quest wasn't simply clearing it. Identifying its flaws and finding the most efficient way to complete it, that was the heart of Mino Soft's new employee interview.

Sangah and I both passed with the highest scores.

"I was disappointed when we ended up in different departments after joining. Well... it was only natural, though."

I was on the QA team, while Sangah was in Human Resources.

After we joined the company, we barely became more than acquaintances who exchanged greetings in passing.

"I'm glad to be on the same team as Sangah-ssi again."

I heard a tiny intake of breath.

"Like back then, I need someone who'll find a path with me."

Hyeongseong looked at me with tearful eyes. Huiwon let out a soft sigh, and Suyeong clicked her tongue before turning away.

Then Sangah spoke.

―Dokja-ssi.

"Yes."

―Do you remember the pantry incident?

I answered without thinking.

"I remember."

Someone had poured a whole container of pepper into the coffee beans in the company pantry. The office had been in an uproar for a while because of it. The managers drank pepper-flavored coffee and flew into rages, while the innocent new employees took all the blame.

―I did that.

"Did you?"

―You don't seem very surprised.

"Thanks to you, the new employees were spared coffee errands for a while."

The truth was, I had known Sangah was the culprit. The QA team had been forced to stand night watch to catch whoever was responsible for the pantry incident. Since I was the youngest on the team, I handled most of that duty.

I hid in the pantry's cleaning supply cabinet, reading TWSA on my smartphone, and saw Sangah enter the pantry alone in the middle of the night.

―It wasn't just that.

Sangah continued.

Most were insignificant incidents. Yet despite being insignificant, they were moments when something changed little by little. Someone suffered harm, someone recovered rights they had lost, and someone else felt satisfied.

"Sangah-ssi."

She wasn't a "character." Still, before TWSA arrived, she had been more like a character to me than anyone else. I hadn't thought someone like her could exist in reality.

「"She'll get herself killed at this rate."」

Sangah had been that way since the First Scenario began.

She was the only person who tried to uphold the "ethics" that didn't exist in TWSA.

「"I'll do it, Gilyeong. ...I'll still do it."」

If Sangah hadn't been there, the group would surely have fallen apart.

「"Dokja-ssi, you always say such nice things."」

If Sangah hadn't smiled and accepted whatever nonsense I said.

「"Then I have Sangah's life."」

If she hadn't held on to what needed protecting, no matter what story I made...

「"I've never hated you as much as I do today, Dokja-ssi. Come back. You have to."」

I wouldn't have been able to make the Otherworld Covenant with peace of mind.

―I... I really couldn't stand it anymore...

Sangah's disjointed words continued.

Slowly, I got to my feet.

"Sangah-ssi."

Sangah kept talking, as if she couldn't hear me.

I silently listened to her, then grabbed the doorknob again. Forcing help on someone who didn't want it could be a nuisance.

Yet some people needed help and still couldn't bring themselves to ask others for it. Because they had never asked for such a thing before.

Just like I had on the day I first went to that interview room.

"Wait, Dokja-ssi―!"

Ignoring Huiwon, I forcibly turned the locked doorknob. The door creaked as though it might break, then the scene inside the room was revealed.

I met the eyes of three people with dark expressions. Seolhwa, Aileen, and... my mother.

My mother's eyes spoke.

You've come.

The three of them stood near the bed. Sangah, who had been speaking to me until now, lay on it.

Her face was deathly pale. Sangah's bloodless lips were tightly shut.

Others were speaking in her place.

「So...」

Broken fables flowed endlessly from within Sangah.

* * *

A little later, I sat with the others in Sangah's hospital room.

"Since when has she been like this?"

"Not long."

Huiwon answered quickly. Seolhwa provided the detailed explanation.

"The side effects of excessive Stigma use are severe."

I looked down at Sangah's pale face.

If Sangah had an ordinary Patron, she wouldn't have ended up like this. Right now, she had the Olympus nebula itself as her Patron. An abnormal Behind-the-Scenes Contract shortened an Incarnation's lifespan. Here, "lifespan" didn't simply mean the lifespan of her body.

It was the lifespan of her story.

"Her soul has sunk deep beneath her consciousness. All that remains is the 「flow of consciousness」."

By repeatedly using Stigmas she couldn't bear, absurdities had gradually built up in Sangah's soul. Plausibility created cracks in her body and mind, and fables eventually began leaking through those cracks.

Aileen added, "We've continuously transfused her with Fable Packs. We also gathered the broken fragments and administered them to her again. But she isn't getting better."

I watched Sangah's words floating in the air and couldn't think of anything to say.

It was all because of me. Because I had come too late.

"I told you not to go in because I knew you'd make that face."

Suyeong grumbled.

Biting my lip, I looked at Seolhwa.

"How much time does she have?"

"About three months..."

"Is there no way?"

"For now... there's nothing we can do here."

"Then it might be possible somewhere else."

[The Constellation Divine Doctor Guam nods.]

The one who responded in Seolhwa's place was her Patron.

[The Constellation Divine Doctor Guam says that the illness of the Incarnation Yu Sangah is not a human illness.]

Human illnesses could be treated with human power.

But what if the illness belonged to a god?

[The Demon King Demon King of Salvation looks up at the night sky.]

Small stars glittered throughout the dark Star Stream.

[The Constellation Abandoned Lover of the Labyrinth looks at you.]

[The Constellation God of Wine and Ecstasy looks at you.]

They were all stars of Olympus connected to Yu Sangah.

Anger suddenly surged within me.

Sangah might have been the one who used that power. Still, Olympus had been the one to induce such an unreasonable contract in the first place.

[Olympus, bear your own Plausibility.]

I sent a quiet constellation's declaration through the night sky.

Several stars glittered again at my words.

[The Constellation Abandoned Lover of the Labyrinth...]

Tzzzt!

The next moment, an unknown spark flashed, and the Indirect Message in the air was cut off. The shining stars disappeared from sight. Someone had interfered with their Indirect Messages.

I spoke through gritted teeth.

"Those bastards might know a way."

No one here failed to understand who "those bastards" were.

Huiwon's expression darkened.

"But we have no way to ask them for help. We've tried something similar several times..."

Constellations were selfish and only did what they wanted. They watched only the stories they wanted to see and listened only to the stories they wanted to hear. The fact that Sangah was still like this meant the high-ranking Constellations didn't want her miracle.

Suyeong asked, "What about going to the underworld like last time? You're close with the Queen of the Underworld."

"That situation was unusual. Sangah-ssi isn't dead yet, and there's no guarantee it'll turn out like it did with Biyoo."

I'd been trying to contact Persephone for a while now, but she hadn't answered. Even if she did, it would be difficult. When Catastrophe Shin Yuseong reincarnated as Biyoo, it had been pure luck.

Most deaths in this world were literal deaths. Reincarnation and Regression were stories as miraculous as the Star Stream itself.

"Jang Hayoung went to undertake another Scenario, right?"

"I heard she went pretty far away."

If Jang Hayoung were here, we could have sent a direct message to the Constellations...

I looked at Sangah's sleeping face and thought again and again.

「A way to save Sangah.」

In the end, there was only one way.

Slowly drawing a breath, I said, "There is still a way. It's a little earlier than I expected, though."

"We have to break through the 46th Scenario."

A man's low, cold voice cut me off.

Frowning, I turned toward him.

Just in time, like you'd been waiting.

The group that had been dispatched to deal with the Gyeonggi Alliance stood at the door. Yuseong, Gilyeong, Jihye, and... Junghyeok.

The children ran over and threw themselves into my arms. I stroked Yuseong's head, glanced once at Junghyeok, who glared at me with a menacing expression, then looked back at the rest of the group.

"It seems it's time to meet the Constellations."

"The Constellations?"

A breeze drifted in through the slightly open window.

Dokkaebis appeared one by one in the distant sky. They had probably come to prepare the next Scenario.

Beyond them, the shadows of countless stars watching the Scenario wavered once more. Pointing at those stars, I said, "Those Constellations are in the 47th Scenario area."

The 47th Scenario area. The Constellations' interstellar city, the Nexus of the Constellations, was there.

"Let's go destroy Olympus."

Footnotes:

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