WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 380: Episode 72: Three Ways (3)
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“...Han Suyeong?”
It almost sounded as if I'd heard Suyeong's voice, so I muttered into the empty air. But I didn't hear it again.
[The Great Fable Kaizenix Archipelago cannot accept your choice!]
[The world setting is reacting abnormally.]
Yuri di Aristel had grabbed Unbreakable Faith without thinking. She trembled as she shouted.
“How dare you! How dare you do something like this...!”
[You are the legitimate heir to the Kaizenix Archipelago throne.]
[Your throne is being transferred to the character Han Suyeong.]
[The world setting cannot understand your choice.]
A bright light leaked from Yuri di Aristel's body.
It was a fable that didn't belong to her. It was Suyeong's fable, one I knew well.
“Han Suyeong! Don't move! I told you I'd take responsibility for everything!”
Yuri clutched her shoulders as if she couldn't bear to let go of even a single fragment of that fable.
“This isn't the development I wanted! I... I just wanted you to stay on this Island...!”
I thought I understood who Yuri was talking to, and what they were talking about.
[The Exclusive Skill Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint is activating.]
The time Yuri and Suyeong had spent together flowed past like fragments.
「“You said you'd stay with me! You said you'd become my guardian spirit! I like the Scenario you showed me. I can't let you go like this! I...!”」
「“I'm sorry, Yuri.”」
Yuri staggered and collapsed, bloody foam bubbling from her mouth. I hurriedly gathered her into my arms. By now, a war between Suyeong and Yuri was probably taking place inside her.
[The Great Fable Kaizenix Archipelago...!]
[The Great Fable Holy Flame That Devoured Myth...!]
The Great Fables were fighting to take over her body.
The Royal Guard knights, thrown into sudden confusion, muttered among themselves.
“Did the ruler really change?”
“But not like this...”
“So does that mean the legitimate ruler has appeared now?”
Members of the Royal Guard whispered as they looked at each other with complicated expressions.
“Then what will happen to our world's genre...?”
“Shh, have you forgotten that such remarks are forbidden? Stay true to your role!”
“I can't feel the power of the fable at all. It's as if my role has disappeared.”
The confused characters blurted out disjointed remarks to each other.
Well, if I were them, I'd be confused too. An error had appeared for the first time in lives that had repeated hundreds of times.
Beside me, Junghyeok said,
“Kim Dokja, you moved too quickly.”
“I know.”
“This archipelago isn't ready to accept a new story yet.”
The Kaizenix Archipelago had probably never escaped the confines of a traditional ending. The Kaizenix Archipelago wanted it that way.
And we had just rebelled against that long-standing tradition.
“I thought it would work because Suyeong had laid the groundwork so well. She'd been the ruler until recently, too.”
“She wasn't the legitimate ruler. The Revolutionary Group exists because there are forces that don't recognize her.”
A forced change of government was bound to cause upheaval.
On top of that, Yuri di Aristel's “usurpation of the throne” in this Scenario had never existed in the original Kaizenix Archipelago Scenario.
Yuri's sudden action, followed by our own, was unfamiliar to the Kaizenix Archipelago's Reincarnators, who had repeated the same Scenario countless times.
[Genre Selection has been completed.]
[It has not been confirmed whether the Clear Conditions for this genre have been met.]
Junghyeok was right.
This world wasn't ready to accept the new genre we had created.
* * *
[The Star Stream is discussing whether this Scenario has been cleared.]
“There was no need to rush like this.”
Junghyeok and I stood over Suyeong, who was asleep on a luxurious bed.
Explosions had been ringing out continuously from outside the royal castle for some time. The forces supporting the new ruler and the people rejecting her were fighting a bloody battle.
“Yuri di Aristel's royal authority was going to collapse anyway.”
Junghyeok's voice was reproachful.
“You should have first gathered the royal standard-bearers scattered among the influential families across the archipelago. Then you could have gradually undermined the royal authority and revealed Unbreakable Faith at the end. The archipelago wouldn't be in this much chaos now.”
“Of course, that would've been best.”
“You know that well, yet-”
“But if we'd followed that plan...”
I paused and looked down at Suyeong's face.
“Her fifty years would have lasted even longer.”
“...”
“I didn't want to prolong her fifty years by even a minute.”
I meant it.
From the moment I entered this world through Possession and learned about Suyeong's fifty years, I hadn't been able to escape one feeling.
Again, someone had been sacrificed because of me.
Could Suyeong, who had endured fifty years, really remain sane?
Was she truly still the Suyeong I knew?
“It was all because I made a deal with the King of Reincarnators.”
「It wo uld have been bet ter if I had sacri ficed my self.」
When I turned my head, Junghyeok was glaring at me with an exasperated look. He tried several times to say something to me before walking over to the sofa in the corner as if holding back his anger. Then he shut his eyes tightly and leaned all the way back.
“I'd like to say something, but it seems someone else will say it for me.”
“What?”
The next moment, a burning pain burst across the back of my head.
“Hey, Kim Dokja.”
I turned around to find a familiar smile waiting for me.
“Everything's ruined because of you!”
Suyeong rose, shaking out her messy hair, then smacked me on the head again.
* * *
After Suyeong woke up, we immediately held an emergency meeting.
Aside from her pale complexion, Suyeong was as fiery as ever.
“There were methods I wrote down for you to use. What's wrong with you people? You can't even follow a manual? You're dumber than Lee Hyeongseong! Got it?”
I saw Hyeongseong, who had been guarding the sickroom with Huiwon, poke his head through the doorway.
“Kim Dokja. Recite the three methods I wrote down.”
“First method, the ‘Fusion Fantasy’ route.”
“What does it involve?”
“Borrowing the power of an Outer God to clear the Scenario... Hey, this doesn't make any sense to begin with.”
“Then what's the second?”
Feeling wronged for reasons I couldn't understand, I read Suyeong's book as if I were reading a textbook.
“Second method, ‘Fantasy.’”
“What does it involve?”
“Launch a Dynastic Revolution and kill the ruler. No, why am I the one reading this...?”
Suyeong's palm struck the back of my head again.
Damn it, this brat.
“Third method, ‘Romance.’”
“What does it involve?”
“Marry Yuri di Aristel.”
“So what did you choose?”
“The fourth method.”
“I wrote that there were three methods, didn't I?”
I nodded. Suyeong said,
“The first and second aside, the third was possible.”
I thought about it for a moment.
“Was it?”
“Why didn't you marry me?”
“No, that's...”
“Why!”
Dodging Suyeong's incoming palm, I shouted,
“There was no way something like this could be the real method. Did you actually write this expecting me to do it?”
“Then did you think I wrote it for you to admire?”
Suyeong pointed at me, fuming.
“If you'd accepted the marriage, everything would have been solved! If your legitimacy and Yuri di Aristel's military strength had joined through marriage, the archipelago wouldn't have split apart like it has now!”
“But if I did that, you'd stay here-”
“I could have persuaded Yuri! My plan was for all of us to escape this world after we got married!”
“...Didn't you praise me earlier for somehow finding a method?”
“I was impressed by your damned misreading.”
Damn, was that what it was?
Suyeong sighed.
“What are we going to do now?”
Outside, the Revolutionary Army and the Royal Guard were fighting it out. No matter which side we supported, the situation would spiral into the worst possible outcome.
[An error has occurred in the Scenario.]
[The world setting cannot accept the ending of this Scenario.]
[The world setting doubts whether the character Han Suyeong is qualified to rule.]
[The Star Stream is discussing whether this Scenario has been cleared.]
I looked at Suyeong.
“I'm sorry I was too late again.”
Suyeong shrugged.
“You were too late. But honestly, I don't remember much.”
“That can't be true.”
“Do you think I really lived all fifty years?”
“Then what?”
“I forgot most of it. More accurately, I erased it on purpose. If I'd remembered all of it, I would've gone insane too.”
Only then did I understand what had happened.
She had the skill [Avatar]. Depending on how it was used, [Avatar] was useful for erasing one's own memories.
“I left the book behind to record the things I'd forgotten.”
“That was a wise choice.”
“It was a cowardly method. It's not something worthy of praise.”
Suyeong glanced toward one corner of the room.
“There is a monster in this world who has lived far longer than I did and doesn't forget anything.”
I knew who she meant without her having to say it.
To ease the awkward mood, I made an exaggerated gesture and spoke.
“Now then, let's think of a solution. Speaking from a reader's perspective, the next development-”
Suyeong, who had caught on to my intention, cut in.
“No, judging from a writer's perspective, what we need to do from here is-”
Suyeong and I started rambling about whatever came to mind. Calling a dokkaebi and lodging a complaint, summoning a weak Outer God with low Status, smashing the whole Scenario to pieces and escaping this place...
“All of you, shut up.”
At Junghyeok's words, we fell silent.
Suyeong watched him carefully, then quietly moved closer to me and muttered,
“Sometimes, it's okay to trust the protagonist's instincts.”
I nodded. Junghyeok opened his mouth.
“This afternoon, the archipelago's standard-bearers will gather at the royal castle. We'll settle this then.”
“A straightforward approach.”
“It's the only way.”
Junghyeok was right.
Sometimes, a straightforward approach was the best solution.
* * *
Night came quickly. The nobles of all the influential families gathered in the audience chamber, and we hurried there as well.
The entire archipelago seethed with an unknown hostility.
Forces that wanted to choose the legitimate ruler. Forces that sided with the black mage.
And even forces hostile to everyone in our group.
As we made our way through a corridor thick with ominous energy, Huiwon muttered,
“It would have been nice if the kids were here. It's a shame.”
If Shin Yuseong and Gilyeong, who had taming skills, or Jihye, who had the ability to fight large armies, had been here, we wouldn't have felt this much pressure.
“They have things they need to do separately. They're probably progressing through another Scenario by now.”
“What happened to Hayoung-ssi?”
“Strictly speaking, Hayoung isn't a member of Kim Dokja Company, so she probably wasn't summoned into the same Scenario.”
According to TWSA, Jang Hayoung would have found her own role by now as well.
With Huiwon and Hyeongseong escorting me, I hurried down the corridor.
Ahead of me, Suyeong and Junghyeok kept overtaking each other as if they were racewalking. It felt like watching a stork and a crow-tit compete.
Huiwon, who had been watching the same scene, quietly whispered to me.
“Dokja-ssi.”
“Yes?”
“This might be unnecessary meddling, but I feel like Dokja-ssi should know.”
“Know what?”
Huiwon looked at the backs of Junghyeok and Suyeong ahead of us and lowered her voice even further.
“About the relationship between those two.”
Footnotes:
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