WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 362: Episode 68: Words That Can’t Be Heard (1)

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As Jang Hayoung pushed through the jungle of the Small Island, she recalled what Kim Dokja had told her.

"You're this Scenario's hidden card."

Before the Scenario began, Dokja had called Hayoung aside and told her that. But hearing something like that out of nowhere only left her confused.

‘He never paid any attention to me before.’

She felt hurt. Even if Dokja had spent far longer with the other Allies, he had neglected her too much. Three years had passed since the Revolutionary Game Scenario and the Demon King Selection Scenario ended. Hayoung had felt left out the entire time.

How should she put it? It felt like she was constantly being excluded from the main Scenarios.

"Why haven't you asked me to join Kim Dokja Company?"

That was what hurt her most.

She wanted to ask why Dokja had never invited her to join his nebula.

Could he have forgotten...?

[The Unidentified Wall says, ‘Don't trust Kim Dokja too much.’]

"Shut up."

[The Unidentified Wall says, ‘That bastard is only using you.’]

Maybe that was true. Dokja was the most practical person Hayoung knew.

Even so, Hayoung replied, "Dokja isn't that kind of person. Why do you hate him so much?"

[The Unidentified Wall asks, ‘Do you want to become close to him?’]

"It would be nice if we did. We haven't talked much lately."

[The Unidentified Wall asks, ‘Why? Do you like him?’]

"Who said I like him?"

Hayoung replied bluntly, pouting.

"The one I like is the Demon King of Salvation."

[The Unidentified Wall glares at you. ‘They're the same person.’]

"They're different! Anyway, I just want to get along with everyone."

[The Unidentified Wall sighs. ‘Even if that bastard kills you someday?’]

"Why would you say something so ominous?"

Come to think of it, the Unidentified Wall had never liked Dokja. It had been that way from the moment they first met.

"Stop getting in my way. I was the only one who didn't get the Great Fable last time because of you."

The Great Fable that crowned Gigantomachia with victory, "Holy Flame That Devoured Myth."

Watching it unfold through the screen, Hayoung had been overwhelmed. She had been moved, and in the end, she'd felt sad all by herself.

She thought she should have been there too.

She should have thrown herself into those blazing flames. She should have become part of that Great Fable.

But she couldn't.

[The Unidentified Wall says, ‘Trusting people will only disappoint you again. You experienced enough of that in your past life.’]

She lacked confidence.

What if the holy flame went out when she jumped in?

What if her involvement ruined the Great Fable?

What if Kim Dokja didn't want her involved?

Hayoung was different from the other Allies. She was a resident of the Demon Realm who had come to Earth, not a Companion who had fought beside Dokja since the first Scenario.

That was why she couldn't say she wanted to go with them. There was a wall between them that she could never cross. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't draw any closer to them.

Hayoung didn't share their history.

"This way! Just a little farther!"

"Huiwon-ssi, give Gilyeong to me. I'll carry him."

"It's fine! I still have enough Constitution left!"

Voices came from the distant brush. Hayoung instinctively hid behind a tree.

A wounded man and woman were running with a child on each of their backs. Hayoung knew them.

Jeong Huiwon and Lee Hyeongseong.

They were being chased by monsters. Five or six Orcs ran after them, followed by two trolls.

Judging by their direction, they seemed to be crossing the plains toward the source of the smoke. It was the wrong choice. There were monsters more terrifying than Orcs or trolls in that direction. At this rate, the Allies would be wiped out.

Hayoung reflexively clenched her fist and rose to her feet.

[The Unidentified Wall says, ‘Don't save them.’]

"What? What kind of bullshit is that?"

[The Unidentified Wall says, ‘If they die here, you can become Kim Dokja's only Companion.’]

Almost at the same moment, Huiwon tripped over a stone and fell. Gilyeong and Huiwon rolled across the ground. The Orcs chasing them grinned and raised their glaives. It was too late to dodge.

Huiwon shouted, "Gilyeong! Run!"

Hayoung looked at the falling glaive and thought.

Maybe the Unidentified Wall was right. If they died here...

"Thank you."

What flashed through her mind then was the conversation she'd shared with Dokja just before coming here.

"For what?"

"What you told me then."

Dokja muttered, his face as pale as ever.

"You said it. Even if the person beyond the wall can't hear it... I should still leave something on the wall."

Hayoung was puzzled.

Had she ever said something like that? When?

...Had she been drunk?

Dokja continued.

"So that's what I'm doing. Someday, just like you said, someone might look at the traces on that wall."

Beneath the falling glaive, Huiwon squeezed her eyes shut. Hyeongseong shouted, while Gilyeong shielded Huiwon with his own body.

By the time Hayoung came to her senses, she was already running.

[Your new Attribute is preparing to blossom.]

Her fist shot out like lightning.

The Orc's glaive snapped like a straw before the fist of a Transcendent.

Huiwon stared up at her with wide eyes.

Looking down at her, Hayoung thought, ‘How foolish.’

Dokja would never understand her feelings.

The Demon King of Salvation was a demon king, not a god. He wouldn't care at all about what she did or how she acted.

But even if it couldn't be conveyed, that didn't mean those feelings had never existed.

Standing protectively before the Allies, Hayoung said, "Leave it to me from here."

It wasn't too late to begin building a shared history now. There was still plenty of time.

* * *

I opened my eyes and exhaled.

[Stage 3 of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint has ended.]

[third person observer's viewpoint has been terminated.]

Fortunately, Hayoung had met the Allies. I'd been worried things might be delayed, but everything had gone according to plan. Now that they'd met Hayoung, the Allies would be safe.

I raised my stiff body and checked the messages floating before me again.

[You have acquired the right to use the skill Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint as a reward for clearing the Hidden Scenario.]

Originally, skills couldn't be used on the Island of Reincarnators.

But things changed a little if you completed the Hidden Scenario, Survival Game.

[The level of the Exclusive Skill Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint has been fixed at its minimum.]

[A system error has occurred. This skill has no level.]

[This skill is unaffected by first-generation Plausibility.]

At first, I thought it might be better to get the right to use [Bookmark], but [Bookmark] was a skill that borrowed other people's skills in the first place.

In other words, even if I acquired the right to use it, [Bookmark] would be useless unless I also acquired the right to use someone else's skill.

This island had far too many restrictions, but it couldn't be helped. What I needed to obtain here was more important than skills.

Jihye's voice came from afar.

"Great-Grandmaster!"

It had already been two days. Jihye had been following One-Punch Invincible Yoo Hoseong everywhere.

"Great-Grandmaster! Please teach me that fable!"

Even when Hoseong was feeding the cattle.

"Just one phrase! I'm a really fast learner."

Jihye harassed Hoseong while he did laundry and chopped wood.

"How did you do that yesterday? You just threw out your fist, and all their heads exploded!"

Of course, Hoseong didn't say anything.

I had expected Fable Control wouldn't be easy to learn. It had taken Kyrios and the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint a long time to learn this technique from him too.

Fable Control.

It was the name of a pure technique, not a Skill or Stigma. There were several explanations in TWSA, but most of them were vague, so even I didn't know exactly what it was. Honestly, I was worried.

[The Great Fable Holy Flame That Devoured Myth growls.]

I needed to do something about this bastard quickly.

The first time Hoseong showed irritation was that evening.

"Stop following me around. Why am I your great-grandmaster?"

"Because you're my master's master's master!"

Listening to Jihye's bright reply, I thought she had a point. Jihye's master was Yu Junghyeok, Junghyeok's master was the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint, and the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's master was One-Punch Invincible Hoseong.

Hoseong glared at Jihye, then sighed.

"This isn't something you can learn just because someone teaches it to you. People like you, who've grown accustomed to the system, won't see results no matter how long you train."

"But you taught the grandmasters!"

"They were Transcendents without Patrons. They're different from you."

It was a cold refusal.

"But you never know! I'll do anything you tell me to do!"

"That attitude is wrong from the start. This isn't something you can master by doing as you're told. Have you felt nothing after following me around for two days?"

True to being Yu Junghyeok's grandmaster, Hoseong wore an irritating smile. Even their Korean surnames were pronounced the same.

Actually, I knew Hoseong had been testing us the whole time.

"Have you heard nothing in this place?"

At those words, Jihye and I looked around at the same time.

The strong man cleaning pig droppings glared back at me as if asking what I was looking at.

[The fable Master of Cleaning Up Animal Droppings resolves to enjoy another day.]

A woman harvesting crops hummed as she drank makgeolli.

[The fable Master of Work Songs hums as it helps its owner work.]

An old man chopping wood sighed deeply and sat on his wooden A-frame.

[The fable Woodcutter of a Thousand Years says that young people these days don't know how to respect their elders.]

They weren't particularly remarkable fables. They had been made by cleaning animal droppings, singing work songs, or chopping wood.

Yet those fables were different from every other fable I knew.

There was a strange power of creation to them.

They didn't feel like fables that only pursued power or tried to dominate their owners. It was an ensemble created by a being and a fable that had spent a long time together.

Hoseong said, "Something that takes ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years of training to earn even a single sentence. That is a real fable."

A real fable. It was an interesting expression.

"You have fables too, don't you? Refine those well. There's no use trying to learn other fables now."

"But... then I can't become as strong as you, Great-Grandmaster."

"That depends on what you do. The important thing is to look closely at your fable."

"Look closely at it?"

"A story that is too large makes it impossible to know where that story is headed."

Come to think of it, I had heard something so cryptic before. When was it? Was it when I was trying to learn [Way of the Wind] from Lycaon?

As I considered it, I suddenly started to worry.

Could I really master Fable Control when I couldn't even learn [Way of the Wind]? It would be a problem if I had to hear another lecture about talent.

Hoseong sighed and spoke again.

"Ugh, you damned brats. I'll teach you only once."

Jihye sat before him like a well-behaved student. I quietly moved closer and listened to what he had to say.

"What do you think a fable is?"

Jihye rolled her eyes before answering.

"Um... a story?"

"Pathetic."

"Don't just criticize me. Explain it properly!"

"I suppose I'll have to start with the basics."

Clicking his tongue, Hoseong raised his left hand.

"What is this called?"

"Your left hand?"

Hoseong raised his other hand.

"Then what is this?"

"Your right hand."

"Then what do you call these two together?"

After thinking for a while, Jihye answered, "Both hands?"

Then the fable answered in Hoseong's place.

[The fable Ambidextrous Boxer is delighted.]

"Right. These are connected by the term 'both hands.' It is a relationship that many beings call by that name, recognize in that way, and understand in a similar form."

Jihye looked blank. She seemed to understand, yet not understand.

As if he had expected that, Hoseong continued.

"Then what would you call this?"

Hoseong grabbed a branch lying on the ground with his left hand.

"One is a left hand, and one is a branch. What would you call these two together?"

"Um... a left hand holding a branch? Or... a left hand and a branch..."

Neither name felt quite right.

"It's not easy to name them, is it? Do you know why?"

Jihye shook her head.

"Because there is no proper relationship between them. Whether you call them a left hand and a branch or a left hand holding a branch, it doesn't feel quite complete. They're awkward together."

Hoseong held the branch like a dart and threw it at a distant tree. The branch flew swiftly and embedded itself in the trunk. It looked natural, as if it had always been a branch of that tree.

"Closing that awkward distance is what a fable does. It connects the things that are furthest apart in the world. If you want to control fables, first understand fables properly."

It was an explanation I seemed to understand, yet didn't.

Jihye stared blankly at the branch embedded in the tree and blinked.

I carefully picked up a stone rolling across the ground.

The power that connected the things furthest apart in the world... It was difficult.

Watching me, Hoseong clicked his tongue.

"Idiot. I was only giving an example. Picking up anything at random doesn't create a relationship and produce a fable! Only after you spend a long time narrowing the distance between yourself and the material...!"

Then something strange happened.

Tzztzztzzt!

[The abundant first-generation Plausibility responds to your action.]

[The fable's material feels an affinity for you.]

The stone in my hand looked up at me as if it were happy.

[The fable Stone and Me begins its story.]

Hoseong stared at me in disbelief, his lips trembling.

"What the hell are you?"

Footnotes:

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