WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 371: Episode 70: A Story That Can’t Be Told (2)

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「“I will kill you, Yu Junghyeok.”」

Everyone in the Library was watching that sentence.

「(If things go wrong, we could all die.)」

[The Fourth Wall trembles violently!]

The entire Library was shaking. Books that had been neatly arranged spilled everywhere, throwing the place into chaos. Yet not a single librarian moved to put them away.

「(This is frustrating. Why won't they talk to each other? They really are fools who lack the desire to become one.)」

「(What did our Suyeong ever do wrong...?)」

The squid poked at its round eyes with its tentacles.

The sentence continued.

Whenever Yu Junghyeok and Kim Dokja's swords clashed, Nirvana's teeth clicked together.

「(Hey, newbie. What do you think?)」

At those words, Yu Sangah, who had been catching the books flying over her head one by one, turned to the librarians. Her hands were full of Kim Dokja's memories, the books she had been reading until just moments ago.

「(Hmm, I have two thoughts.)」

「(Two?)」

「(Firstly, Suyeong-ssi isn't dead. I know her well. She's not the kind of person to risk her life over something like this.)」

The squid, which had been squeezing out tears, widened its eyes.

「(What? But you saw it too.)」

「(You still don't get it. The heroine drops her hand and loses consciousness, then the male lead awakens! In every movie I've seen-)」

No matter what the squid and Simulacrum chattered about, Sangah quietly continued.

「(Secondly, those two are talking.)」

Sangah looked at the growing sentences.

「(Though nobody in the world would call that a conversation.)」

* * *

Fable Fragments poured from my split arm.

They were the fables we had built.

[The Great Fable Spring of the Demon Realm spills forth its story!]

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

Fable clashed against fable like a dragon wrestling a tiger.

Junghyeok, who possessed the same Great Fables as me, countered me with the same strength.

[Your share in this fable is higher!]

Even with my higher share, the fable shares held by Junghyeok didn't obey my will. Maybe it was because of the years he had built up. More fiercely than anyone else in the Star Stream, he had continued his story.

Tssssss!

Second-generation Plausibility was suppressing us.

But there was something it couldn't suppress.

[The fable One Who Opposes the Extraordinary cries out!]

[The fable One Who Opposes the Extraordinary lets out a roar!]

The same fables, created by building the same history, collided.

[The Island's Owner is watching you.]

[Many Constellations are watching your battle.]

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire...]

The voices of the Constellations faded from my ears.

[The Exclusive Skill The Fourth Wall has activated!]

We swung our swords with the resolve to kill each other. My desperate strike grazed Junghyeok's waist, and Junghyeok's counterattack sent his sword stabbing toward my shoulder.

His combat sense was superior. But my Status was greater.

[The Great Fable Spring of the Demon Realm protects you!]

A Transcendent's sharp sword aura pierced through my thick Status. From that sword aura, I read his sincerity, how desperately he was standing there.

He didn't ask, and I didn't answer. We just kept swinging our swords.

Then the fables continued the story in our place.

[The fable Paradise of Despair charges like a wild beast!]

Memories of Paradise.

[The fable One Who Hunted the King of Catastrophes roars!]

Traces of peace land.

[The fable Liberator of the Industrial Complex grieves.]

The days of revolution.

「Those were sentences that existed nowhere in TWSA.」

The time we had lived through was unlike any page I had read.

[You have activated Angel Transformation!]

Wings burst through my shoulder blades.

My momentarily amplified Status flowed into Unbreakable Faith. With a thunderous crash, Junghyeok's figure was hurled into the air, unable to withstand the impact.

"Fight me for real, Yu Junghyeok. I'll do the same."

Junghyeok's eyes changed. The shape of the Status rising around him began to warp.

Status powerful enough to distort space. The true power of a high-level Transcendent was being unleashed.

Junghyeok's figure, wrapped in golden radiance, disappeared.

[Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint Stage 2 is activating.]

Junghyeok's sword moved too fast for my eyes to follow. One strike, then another. Each sharp crack made my wrist grow heavier. Fables poured from my thigh, while fables flowed down Junghyeok's shoulder.

Naturally, I could hear his voice too.

[The Fourth Wall has activated strongly as if resisting!]

Junghyeok was beginning his story.

「You...」

I imagined the sentence that would follow.

You would surely blame me. As Suyeong had said, you were that kind of person.

「Why did you choose to remain in that round?」

Memories of the 1,863rd round flashed through my mind.

「“I won't return to the third round. I'll stay here and see the conclusion with the people of this place.”」

The choice I had made was returning to me.

Unbreakable Faith groaned as it grated.

At that time, it was the best choice.

After seeing the conclusion in the 1,863rd round, I thought I could return to the third round.

So I tried to find a story where everyone could be happy.

But...

What if Junghyeok of the 1,863rd round hadn't helped me?

What if Suyeong of the 1,863rd round had wanted to kill me?

Would I have been able to return safely to this world?

I had thought I knew the Scenarios better than anyone, but had I really survived only because I was lucky?

「Your companions were here.」

Junghyeok's first strike tore through my shoulder.

「Your worldline was here.」

His second strike split my elbow.

「You told people to live in this world.」

His third strike pierced the base of my wing.

It hurt.

But more painful than that pain was the anger and disappointment in Junghyeok's words.

「The Incarnation Yu Junghyeok refuses Regression.」

Junghyeok, who had given up on Regression because of me and decided to live in the third round, was looking at me.

The being who loved this world more than anyone, and therefore wanted to protect it, was looking at me.

「And yet you...」

Some anger, some sense of betrayal, couldn't be described in words.

Not even an omniscient reader could read it.

Yoo Hoseong said, "A fable may seem unremarkable at a glance, but to someone who tries to look inside it, it reveals a maze-like abyss. No matter how small a fable is, it's the same."

What I was seeing now wasn't all there was to Junghyeok.

I would never know why Junghyeok was angry, because everything could have been the reason, and nothing could have been the reason.

One thing was certain. Junghyeok had decided not to be swayed any longer.

Not by me. Not by himself.

Perhaps not even by those damned Constellations, who might be watching us even now.

「Answer me, Kim Dokja.」

I staggered under the barrage of sword strikes.

Junghyeok probably knew that even now, I was reading him.

Knowing that, he continued thinking without pause.

「Answer me.」

Just as I had watched him from beyond this wall, he had been endlessly writing something beyond this wall, hoping that someday someone would see that wall.

But I couldn't answer him. Because if I answered now...

[The Fourth Wall grows thicker.]

You would become a character.

[The Fourth Wall grows even thicker.]

Because you must not become a character.

Rumbblee!

Junghyeok glared at me with his distinctive blazing eyes.

Junghyeok existed there.

He was trying to destroy me to prove that he wasn't a character.

「Is that so?」

Junghyeok's words appeared on the wall.

「That is your choice, then.」

[The Fourth Wall grows even thicker.]

「There were no companions in this round either.」

If I gave any answer at all, Junghyeok might forgive me. A miracle might happen, and he might come to understand me. But even then, Han Suyeong wouldn't return.

The wounds we had inflicted on each other wouldn't disappear.

We could no longer be companions.

Both Junghyeok and I knew that well.

[The Fourth Wall grows even thicker.]

That was why we charged at each other with swords in hand.

[The Fourth Wall grows even thicker.]

Our full strength collided with a thunderous crash. Pale dust rose into the air, and Junghyeok and I were thrown to the ground by the impact.

I was the first to rise.

I staggered toward Junghyeok, whose whole body was battered, and pointed my sword at him.

Junghyeok looked at me without resisting.

"I've stayed in this round too long. End it."

Junghyeok had killed Suyeong. He had already crossed a line he could never uncross.

The tip of Unbreakable Faith trembled.

The moment I raised my sword, I remembered what Suyeong of the 1,863rd round had said.

"If my novel is a rip-off of TWSA, then what are you a rip-off of?"

The answer to that question was before my eyes.

「Kim Dokja learned how to live from this man.」

This man was my father.

My older brother.

My old friend.

[The Fourth Wall grows thicker.]

I had watched him for a long time from beyond this thick wall.

He had saved me so many times.

I had survived by watching his story.

Unbreakable Faith slowly fell to the ground.

I could neither kill him nor beg forgiveness for my wrongs. I had never learned how to become that much of a coward.

What I had learned was to pay the price for what I had done.

Junghyeok looked up at me.

「I am here.」

I know.

「And yet you only read.」

Because this is our way.

You act, and I read you.

「If you won't do it, I will.」

Junghyeok slowly rose and gripped his sword.

I heard the sound of a story ending.

Mass Production Maker had said that some fables ended without ever coming close to ■■.

But if this was the end of every story...

If I was going to die here anyway, then maybe it was all right to say at least one thing.

"Yu Junghyeok."

Junghyeok stopped moving at my words.

"You know this already, but I'm no prophet. If anything, I'm very far from being one."

Since the day we first fought on Dongho Bridge, I had never properly introduced myself.

To Junghyeok, I had been a prophet, some unknown bastard.

"I'm not the Demon King of Salvation."

[The fable Demon King of Salvation has stopped its story.]

"I'm not the King of a Kingless World either."

[The fable King of a Kingless World has stopped its story.]

One by one, the fables stopped telling their stories. Everything except my story became quiet.

"My name is Kim Dokja."

The wings sprouting from my back vanished, and my enlarged muscles shrank.

"I'm twenty-eight. No, I was twenty-eight, and I worked at a game company. My hobby was reading web novels..."

As if I were meeting someone for the first time, I continued my story.

"Isn't it dull? That's just who I am."

Junghyeok was someone I had known for a long time.

More accurately, he was someone I had been reading alone.

That was why I had never actually heard his story.

"Yu Junghyeok, who are you?"

Yu Junghyeok opened his mouth.

"I am Yu Junghyeok."

Junghyeok's slowly moving blade cut me.

"I am Yu Junghyeok, who was a regressor."

Footnotes:

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