WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 310: Episode 58: Nexus of the Constellations (4)
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A little later, the Allies waited for Kim Dokja while tending to their equipment.
Jihye, who had been sharpening her blade, asked Huiwon, “Do you think Dokja ajusshi means it? Is he really going to destroy Olympus...?”
“He must be joking. Dokja-ssi isn't that stupid.”
“But we don't know where he was for three years. Does he even know three years passed here?”
“Of course he knows. I told you, he isn't that stupid.”
“But he could've gone crazy during those three years we know nothing about. Just look at my master...”
Jihye trailed off, then quickly shut her mouth when she felt Junghyeok's gaze from afar. Huiwon watched her, let out a deep sigh, and glanced toward the reception room Dokja had entered.
* * *
Two people sat in a stark white private room that resembled a detention center's visitation room.
“It's been three years.”
“It took longer than I expected.”
Looking at Lee Sukyeong, Dokja parted his lips several times. There was much he needed to say, but some words had been buried beneath the layers of Scenarios that had piled up, while others had missed their time to be spoken.
“Um.”
And so, a single sentence was barely excavated from the grave of past stories.
“I'm sorry.”
Sukyeong smiled faintly.
“Are you planning to leave for the next Scenario?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“This evening.”
Dokja fell silent for a moment before asking, “Will you come with us?”
“I still have much to do here.”
Sukyeong looked out the reception room window at the industrial complex. Dokja followed her gaze outside. Women who had once been prisoners of this society were there. Jo Yeongran, whose Patron was Jeon Woochi. Lee Boksun, who had fought alongside Dokja in peace land.
“More people than you'd think make wrong choices because they're driven by forces greater than their own will.”
Those who had once been criminals had left prison and were now fighting for others.
“What matters is that people can change. And perhaps now, they've been given that chance.”
There was something self-mocking in Sukyeong's voice. She turned to look into her son's eyes.
“You know, don't you? A ‘large story’ erases the individual.”
“I know.”
Dokja's pupils wavered faintly. Tiny sparks seemed to fly from his eyes.
Perhaps it was a subject she should never have brought up. A person erased by a ‘large story.’ Her son likely knew such a person better than anyone else in the world.
After hesitating for a long time, Sukyeong spoke.
“Back then, there was something I wanted to say.”
“I know. I read that book too.”
The book Sukyeong had written, “Memoirs of an Underground Murderer.”
Once it became a bestseller, society began seriously discussing domestic violence, and bills to strengthen the relevant punishments were introduced. Looking at the larger picture, perhaps it had been the right thing.
But within that story, the human beings Lee Sukyeong and Kim Dokja had been completely dissected.
Kim Dokja became the son of a tragedy born from this society's domestic violence, while Sukyeong became a criminal who killed her husband and made it into a story. People called them by different names. The murderer's son, or the cruel mother... That was the price of changing the world, if only a little.
“Even before that book was published, we were always being erased. And perhaps we always will be...”
Dokja's words broke off before he could finish.
Instead of looking at each other, the two looked out the window.
The world was there. No one was unhurt. Above the heads of Incarnations exhausted by the Scenarios, Constellations who wanted even more terrible stories shone brightly.
Dokja said, “A large story erases the individual. I'm going to change that.”
“I'm here to change that too.”
“Then we'll part ways here again.”
Dokja said as he rose from his seat, “Take care of yourself.”
With the sound of the door closing, Dokja disappeared from view. Sukyeong silently watched the door he had gone through.
A little later, a shadow rippled behind the reception room curtain, and Suyeong popped out.
Staring blankly at the seat he had occupied, Suyeong said, “That kid really is heartless.”
“I raised him that way.”
Suyeong narrowed her eyes at Sukyeong's words.
“Ma'am. Why didn't you tell him?”
“Tell him what?”
“About the book.”
“...”
“I heard it all from your fellow inmates. You sent the royalties from that book to his relatives, didn't you? To help with his living expenses.”
“None of it actually reached him, so it might as well have never been sent.”
“Where are those bastard relatives now?”
“They're probably all dead.”
Suyeong's half-open mouth closed. Most grudges from before the apocalypse had become meaningless now. The people who should have paid for their sins had all gone and died without a care, while those left behind had to eke out their lives to face an even more terrible world.
Suyeong asked, “But are you really not coming with us?”
“I think I've raised my child for long enough. It's time I lived my own life.”
More wrinkles had formed on Sukyeong's faintly smiling face.
Suyeong knew this industrial complex could run safely because Sukyeong was here.
The Demon Realm and Earth. Those two different ecosystems had been able to coexist safely thanks to Sukyeong and Sangah's impartial rule.
Sukyeong was absolutely necessary to this industrial complex.
Knowing that, Suyeong silently turned away. She strode over and opened the door he had gone out through.
“Suyeong.”
Suyeong raised a hand without turning around.
“Don't worry. Leave your son to me, and you just...”
“Be careful.”
At those words, Suyeong turned around. Sukyeong was smiling. Her eyes were the same color as Dokja's. Suyeong's lips moved before she spoke with a sigh.
“Seriously... you're obnoxious to the very end.”
* * *
A little girl sucking on candy suddenly pointed at me and declared, “Squid.”
The sudden mental attack left me stunned for a moment.
[Some Constellations are curious about the girl's identity.]
As for this girl, well...
Sighing, I said her name. “Mia, have you been well?”
“Who are you, ajusshi?”
It seemed she'd forgotten me again after not seeing me for so long.
As I tried to explain, Yu Mia clapped her hands.
“Ah, my elder brother's friend.”
“Not a friend, and... your manner of speaking has changed since I last saw you.”
“You've gotten even uglier since I last saw you, ajusshi.”
“Hey, Yu Junghyeok. You're not taking your sister with us too, are you?”
At my words, Junghyeok, whose hand rested on Mia's head, glared at me.
I looked at him for a moment before awkwardly asking, “Anyway, have you been well? I've been so busy that I forgot even to ask.”
“There is no time to leisurely discuss such things.”
Hearing that stiff voice, I felt a strange sense of familiarity rather than annoyance.
Right. This was the Yu Junghyeok I knew.
The Junghyeok I knew continued, “The 46th Scenario is dangerous. Naturally, Mia will stay behind.”
“Who are we leaving here? Sangah-ssi obviously has to stay, along with my mother and the Wanderer faction...”
“I will leave Flying Fox behind.”
“You've already spoken with Flying Fox?”
“I made a contract with the Returnee group.”
The Returnees freed from their Calamity status needed time to adjust to their home world. Junghyeok had already contacted them and returned after making an agreement concerning the industrial complex's protection.
As expected of the protagonist, his initiative was exceptional.
Still, I shook my head.
“They can't protect this place by themselves.”
“Master will return here soon as well.”
“That isn't the problem. Besides, it's more dangerous if Transcendents remain here. You know that, don't you?”
Junghyeok surely understood what I meant. He had already lost the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint in the previous round.
Junghyeok nodded.
“I know. We only need to return before 'that event' happens. You should focus on the 46th Scenario.”
“I am.”
“It won't be easy. You might fail.”
It wasn't strange for him to say that.
“You can't clear the 46th Scenario alone. You know that, don't you?”
On the day I first met Junghyeok, I had said that to persuade him.
At last, the day to make those words a reality had come.
“There are several ways to clear the 46th Scenario.”
“No, there is only one.”
“It won't go the way you think.”
“Did you talk much with the Allies while I was gone?”
Junghyeok didn't answer. Beside him, Mia gently took his hand. I pressed on.
“You know what's beyond the 46th Scenario, don't you? From now on, if we don't cooperate with others...”
“The true Calamity doesn't reveal itself on the surface.”
I closed my mouth at Junghyeok's words.
The 45th Scenario, Glorious Return, had been a Scenario where we fought Calamities. Their outer forms were monsters, but beneath them were humans.
I read the messages saved in the system log.
[You have cleared the 45th Scenario.]
[None of your group members have died during the Scenario.]
[Your group members have not killed a single Incarnation during the Scenario.]
[Your group has shown a new possibility between Incarnations and Returnees!]
[The Calamity status has been lifted from you and your group members.]
A new possibility. It was proof that trust and faith were possible even between races with different appearances.
As though he had read my thoughts, Junghyeok said, “After the Scenarios began, many people fell victim to the Scenarios. And even more were killed by other humans.”
Junghyeok suddenly seemed distant, his cold eyes gleaming.
“You will lose your Allies in this Scenario.”
“You say that as if it has nothing to do with you...”
“I have already lost many people. But you're different.”
“...”
“You should prepare yourself.”
I frowned.
I knew what the 46th Scenario was. That was why I couldn't easily accept Junghyeok's words. The Allies I knew would never do such a thing. Though they were the kind of people who imprisoned me and fed me sleeping pills after not seeing me for three years, they would never fight among themselves or quarrel...
“Are you going too?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Nothing. I was just asking.”
Along with the bickering voices, sparks flashed in the air.
The Allies were approaching from afar. Gilyeong and Yuseong led the way. Jihye, Hyeongseong, and Seolhwa followed behind them. The problem was Huiwon and Suyeong between them.
Come to think of it, those two were the problem. Damn it.
[The Main Scenario has arrived.]
[Main Scenario #46, Proof of Stars, has begun!]
The 46th Main Scenario, Proof of Stars.
To meet those Constellation bastards, including those from Olympus, we had to break through this Scenario.
Before long, the dokkaebis who would run the Scenario appeared in the air.
[We will begin the Main Scenario.]
Footnotes:
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