WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 376: Episode 71: In fifty years' time (3)

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All the way to the audience chamber, I spoke to Billston.

“Sir Billston. Do you often lose things? For example, shell casings...”

“Pardon?”

[Because you used language that doesn't suit this world's setting...]

“I mean, perhaps you've lost a portable magic bomb...”

“Do I look like such a hopeless fool to you?”

I had no idea what I was supposed to say.

That stiff gait, solid chest, and vacant expression were unmistakably Lee Hyeongseong. Even so, according to [Character Profile], this man wasn't Hyeongseong but Billston Framer, a person from this world.

I reread the Overall Evaluation category of [Character Profile].

―Two souls once lived within this body. He was a knight of the kingdom and, at the same time, someone's shield.

The knight of the kingdom must have referred to the original owner of this body, Billston Framer, while the shield clearly referred to Hyeongseong.

―The shield waited a long time for its master. It waited and waited. After many years had passed, the shield's master finally appeared. But now, the shield could no longer fulfill its role.

That was the important part.

I understood that Hyeongseong had waited for the other companions.

The question was how long. Just how much time did “a long time” in the Overall Evaluation mean?

“Your Highness?”

I looked at the man watching me with dull eyes, complicated emotions rising within me.

There were only two things I could be certain of right now.

First, Hyeongseong had been put into this Scenario before me.

Second, Hyeongseong had been devoured by this world's Great Fable and lost his sense of self.

[The Great Fable Kaizenix Archipelago licks its lips at you.]

[The Fourth Wall glares at the Kaizenix Archipelago.]

If so, had everyone else without [The Fourth Wall] ended up like Hyeongseong?

“Your Highness, is something wrong?”

I quietly studied Billston's large eyes.

This person was definitely Hyeongseong. But could I still call him Hyeongseong now?

“I'm sorry, Sir Billston.”

“Pardon? What is this all of a sudden...?”

“I think I've only made you suffer all this time. I know protecting me has been difficult for you.”

I wasn't saying this to Billston Framer.

“I always used being busy as an excuse and never looked after you. You've saved my life so many times.”

Throughout our journey up to this Scenario, Hyeongseong had constantly helped me. There had been chances for us to have heartfelt conversations, too. Yet I always put them off because I was busy preparing for the Scenarios.

I believed we understood each other without having to say anything. I thought the fables we'd fought through together proved it for us.

This was the result.

Whatever Billston thought after hearing my words, he wiped his nose and looked out at the scenery beyond the corridor.

“Your Highness is truly warmhearted.”

[The character Billston Framer is moved by you.]

The person I wanted to move wasn't him.

We walked through the corridor in silence.

Portraits of past kings hung one after another along its walls. One in particular caught my eye, depicting a man raising a broken sword amid a storm.

―First head of the house, Storm King Ulysses Kaizenix I.

I stopped for a moment to examine the painting.

“It was an honor to serve Your Highness for my entire life as well.”

When I turned around, Billston was beginning to speak with tears welling in his eyes. He stared at the distant battlements of the castle as he continued.

“Do you remember? When Your Highness was still seven, I almost lost you.”

“Hmm?”

“Even now, my heart still lurches when I think of Your Highness hanging precariously from the battlements. And that wasn't all. When Your Highness turned thirteen, you went to the privy and...”

No, this man was way too similar to Hyeongseong.

“Yet until the very end, Your Highness worries only about someone as lowly as me...”

“What do you mean, until the end?”

Billston looked at me with sorrowful eyes before avoiding my gaze.

“We've arrived. Please go in.”

The doors to the audience chamber stood before us. When they opened, members of the Royal Guard lined up around a red carpet to greet us.

At their center stood the captain of the Royal Guard, wearing a silver crest.

“Sir Billston, why are you so late?”

“I was bidding the prince one final farewell.”

There were plenty of things I wanted to object to in that conversation, but I couldn't bring myself to speak because of the atmosphere.

Billston, whose eyes had been red moments ago, now wore the solemn expression of a knight. The two men glared at each other, their gazes colliding in midair.

The captain said, “A farewell, is it? A criminal guilty of high treason enjoys such luxuries.”

“Watch your words.”

They both took fighting stances at once.

Billston drew his bastard sword, while the captain of the Royal Guard...

Wait.

Why did that person have that sword?

The sword in the captain's hand was one I knew all too well. I had personally gathered its materials and had it made for someone.

The Sword of Judgement.

“Sir Billston. Do you wish to die on the execution block alongside the prince?”

Beyond the helmet, the captain's red eyes flickered.

「“My king... If that is what you wish, then do it...”」

「“Dokja-ssi, you're trying to do it all alone again... I told you not to.”」

I knew that person.

“Stop!”

Billston, who had been gathering his momentum, stepped back at my cry. The captain glared at me with murderous eyes before removing the helmet.

The captain of the Royal Guard had Huiwon's face.

[The Exclusive Skill Character Profile has activated!]

+

Name: Erich Stryker (???)

Age: 37

Patron: None

Exclusive Attributes: Loyal Subject (Rare), Swordmaster (Rare)

Exclusive Skills: [Ghost Slaying Lv. 10], [Archipelago Royal Swordsmanship Lv. 10]...

Stigma: None

Overall Stats: [Constitution Lv. 75], [Strength Lv. 80], [Agility Lv. 90], [Mana Lv. 70]

Overall Evaluation: Two souls once lived within this body. He was the captain of the kingdom's Royal Guard and, at the same time, someone's sword. The sword waited many years for someone alongside the shield. The sword waited and waited. After many years had passed, the sword finally met the person it had waited for. But now, the sword could no longer remember him.

+

Damn it, even Huiwon was in this state.

The captain of the Royal Guard watched me with calm eyes. “The prince understands his situation well. Guards, bind the criminal.”

Bind me?

The guards seized me before I had a chance to resist. There was no way I could resist them with a body whose average stats were 10.

Beyond the lined-up guards, I saw a guillotine. Only then did I realize why I had been brought here.

It seemed this Scenario would begin with my execution.

* * *

There was once a genre in the novels I read called a Scoundrel story.

They were stories in which a scoundrel born as the youngest child of a royal or noble family came across all kinds of fortuitous encounters and turned over a new leaf.

Those stories usually began in similar ways.

「The Kaizenix Royal Family had fallen.」

The family had fallen from the outset.

「The king of the archipelago was stabbed to death by the sword of a minister he cherished.」

Or the protagonist's parents and relatives died, plunging them into danger.

「The second prince, skilled with the sword, and the third prince, skilled in magic, were killed by usurpers. And now it was the youngest prince's turn.」

How could such an important memory only come back to me now?

“Bring forth the criminal.”

Thanks to that, I'd walked to the execution ground on my own two feet like an idiot.

All kinds of thoughts ran through my head.

I'd wondered why this wastrel had attempted suicide. Was it because he didn't want to be executed?

Billston, held back by the Royal Guard, desperately called out to me.

“Your Highness! Prince Ricardo!”

I was dragged toward the execution platform by the captain of the Royal Guard, who gripped my hair.

If Huiwon had been conscious, this would've been quite an amusing sight.

A neck rest designed to fit my neck perfectly came into view. Soon, I would mount that platform and have my head cut off.

And if I died, this Scenario would fail.

[The Exclusive Skill The Fourth Wall has activated forcefully!]

I looked up at the captain of the Royal Guard and asked, “Will you really do this?”

The captain smirked.

“Seems you've finally become afraid of dying.”

“It's not that.”

“Then?”

“You said you'd become my sword.”

A faint look of confusion crossed the captain's face.

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

“Have you already forgotten your oath? Were all your words about seeing the end of all Scenarios with me lies?”

[The character Erich Stryker is slightly confused by you.]

“You're babbling nonsense at death's door.”

Like Hyeongseong, Huiwon's sense of self didn't return easily.

The cold wooden neck rest closed around my Adam's apple. Then someone shouted.

“Their Majesty is entering!”

The sound of curtains parting. Someone walked into the silent audience chamber. Noble, light, yet weighty footsteps. With those steps as accompaniment, Ricardo's memories flowed through my mind like a song.

「The enemy of my father and brothers.」

「The black mage of the Kaizenix Archipelago.」

「The King Slayer.」

「And...」

My heart beat loudly.

「The woman I loved.」

“Criminal, raise your head.”

When I slowly lifted my head, a short king stood there.

The king wore a black medieval cloak embroidered with silver and sleek tights.

“Do you have any final words?”

I stared blankly at the king before muttering under my breath.

Han Suyeong, wearing a crown, looks down at Kim Dokja

[The Exclusive Skill Character Profile has activated!]

[For unknown reasons, only part of this character's information is displayed.]

+

Name: ???

Age: 50

Overall Evaluation: The Overall Evaluation? for this character? is currently? being prepared.

+

The king's information didn't display properly.

The king looked to be in his early twenties.

I stared at the king's face for a long time, unable to believe the age shown in the Character Information.

Hyeongseong and Huiwon had originally been characters in TWSA.

But what if it was someone who wasn't a character? Someone who, like me, hadn't been a character in the novel.

For a moment, I'd hoped for that.

“I asked whether you have any final words.”

If it was her, wouldn't she remember me?

「When Kim Dokja met her again, fifty years had already passed.」

The line from the Final Version that had appeared before my eyes just before entering the Scenario.

Was that what it meant?

“I do.”

“Then speak, criminal.”

“I...”

I forced a smile and continued.

“I'm sorry I'm so late, Suyeong.”

Violent sparks wrapped around my entire body at words that didn't fit this world's Plausibility. Even so, they were words I had to say.

Whatever she made of my words, Suyeong looked down at me without moving. Then she slowly bent down until our eyes met.

Eyes whose emotions I couldn't read. The tear mole beneath them. The lips that always teased me as if it were a joke finally formed a gentle curve.

“Carry out the execution.”

The guillotine blade fell.

I didn't dodge. Of course, I had a reason.

「All Scenarios on the Main Island were created based on the third-generation fable.」

If I was right, Ricardo von Kaizenix would never die like this.

Kwoooong!

The palace wall exploded at almost the same time as the descending guillotine blade was smashed apart.

The broken blade of the guillotine was visible through the hazy dust.

“It’s the Revolutionary Group!”

“Everyone, protect Her Majesty!”

The Royal Guard shouted amid the uproar. The audience chamber became a bedlam of groans and screams in an instant.

“Damn it! It's the first prince!”

“Stop him! Stop him!”

The first prince of the Kaizenix Archipelago.

Ricardo's older brother, a man skilled in swordsmanship, magic, and knowledge alike.

“I came to save my younger brother.”

Exhilaration surged through me.

Sword strikes so beautiful they were almost dazzling filled the audience chamber, and the charging Royal Guard fell like broken sorghum stalks.

Some characters never changed, even when the setting and Scenario did.

There was probably only one person like that in this entire worldline.

I closed my mouth, which had begun to open. I didn't know why.

[The Great Fable Kaizenix Archipelago enjoys the blood-stirring battle.]

All my companions had forgotten me. He was probably the same.

Maybe that was better for him.

[The fable Companions in Life and Death begins its story.]

At that moment, the first prince glared at me.

Then I heard a message.

―You bastard, you're Kim Dokja.

Footnotes:

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