WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 538: Epilogue 4: Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint (3)
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Sentences appeared in midair. Listening to the voice that came through without regard for spelling or spacing, Han Suyeong couldn't hide her bewilderment.
"You are...?"
Dokja had told her about this voice before.
"Yeah, that guy can talk, too."
"A skill can talk?"
"Well, it talks kind of strangely, but you can understand it."
She had never imagined she would hear that voice herself.
"The Fourth Wall?"
The swirling circle chuckled.
「You all can not pa ss th rough he re be cause th at per son do es not wa nt it.」
That person? She had heard that form of address somewhere before.
Sparks of Plausibility flew, and the Allies screamed.
The fierce backlash even flung the Hounds Chasing the Abyss out of the subway.
[The Final Wall does not permit your entry.]
[You are not qualified to meet the Oldest Dream.]
Pain surged through her body as though it were being torn into tiny pieces.
It was trying to force the Allies out of the subway.
「Th is is the ter mi nal st op.」
One of Suyeong's knees bent grotesquely. Yet without letting out a single scream, she glared at the black circle before her.
"I decide where I get off."
「Han Suyeong of the 1,865th round did not choose the Abyssal Black Flame Dragon.」
A terrifying wave of energy surged from Suyeong's entire body.
「Han Suyeong became a Constellation herself.」
[The Constellation Designer of the False Ending reveals her Status!]
It was a modifier similar to the one Suyeong of the 1,863rd round had obtained.
Suyeong released every fable she had cherished. Vivid blue radiance swirled through one of her pupils.
[The Exclusive Skill Eye of Truth has activated!]
In the 1,863rd round, this skill had failed to break through that wall.
But Suyeong of this round was different from the Suyeong of that time.
[The fable Revision Expert begins its story!]
More diligently than ever, she had accumulated fables related to Writer.
Just as sentences were the origin of every character, [The Fourth Wall] must have been the same. As long as this world was a novel, that wall must have been made from certain words and sentences, too.
Even if she couldn't know its origin, somewhere there had to be sentences that could let her infer it.
Having noticed Suyeong's intentions, [The Fourth Wall] swelled in size.
「It is no u se.」
[The Fourth Wall has further increased its thickness!]
The rotating black circle became even sturdier.
The Fourth Wall. A mental defense skill that nothing in TWSA could penetrate.
Suyeong didn't try to force her way through it. Instead, she quietly studied the wall.
[The fable Guide to the Spaces Between the Lines begins its story!]
「The more one tries to hide something, the clearer it becomes.」
Suyeong examined the wall's exterior. Scratches and cracks remained all over it.
The wall bore the history of never sparing itself to protect Dokja.
「I have to protect him.」
Why had this wall hidden this sentence in its deepest place?
「That was the final request I received from my god.」
Suyeong's lips trembled.
Along with a throbbing headache, the sentences upon the wall ran through her mind.
「"Hey."
"Yes."
"If something happens to me, then..."
"Please don't say such things."
"If you truly think of me as a god..."」
A middle-aged man in a fedora looked up at her with loyal eyes.
「"Please protect that guy."」
A being who knew TWSA as well as she, its original author, did.
A being even more indifferent than her to this world's tragedy.
A being who had lived for nothing but the completion of the story.
「The being who opened the Scenarios in this world and connected two worldlines.」
The Fourth Wall spoke in place of Suyeong's trembling lips.
「No ne ed to be sur prised. I, too, on ly fo und out ju st no w.」
"What?"
「I di d not kn ow who I wa s ei ther.」
There were beings who had simply existed without a past, only to gather that past long afterward.
Beings who had not existed before an author granted them a narrative.
「I wa s com pleted be cause of yo u.」
The scene from the moment paid content began flashed through her mind. Reality and fiction. At the moment those two worldlines became one, the Dokkaebi King of the 1,863rd round had been between them.
「Why I be came a wa ll th at di vides wor lds.」
The Dokkaebi King had become a wall that divided worlds.
「Why I ha ve to pro tect Kim Dok ja.」
And the Dokkaebi King had upheld the final request left by its god.
「You di d not re member me, a nd」
A being who had spent a long time repeating one story, indulging in it and yearning for it. Before her stood the one who had read TWSA before even Dokja had. This world's oldest reader.
「I di d not re member yo u ei ther.」
The Dokkaebi King had filled the vacancy Suyeong left behind and become the Recorder of the World.
「Th is sto ry is no w mi ne.」
And in the end, it had completed the story.
"It was I who asked you. Stop doing this now."
The being who had lived with that command for so long had finally become the command itself.
「You a re no lon ger a go d.」
Having been stripped of her place as the original author, she was no longer the creator.
Suyeong looked at her fingertips. The TWSA written by another version of herself had become a novel of 3,149 installments. That novel had left her hands and gone to its reader.
"That's right. The god of this world isn't me anymore. It's the reader."
Beyond this circle was Dokja, dreaming of Eternity.
"Let's ask that god whether he truly wants to remain here, or..."
Suyeong ate a Life-and-Death Pill and forced her broken knee back into place. Then she stepped forward, one step at a time, and reached out.
"Whether he wants to go outside with us."
A dazzling flame burst from her fingertips.
As though rejecting her touch, the rotating circle spun faster and faster.
Blood sprayed from both her hands. Even her fables couldn't protect her. Through the agonizing pain of her hands being shredded apart, Suyeong didn't stop.
"Dokja! Say something!"
There were people who wanted to be rescued but could never bring themselves to ask for help.
Suyeong had always wanted to write sentences for people like that. She wanted to write in place of those who couldn't speak, those who couldn't write sentences.
As always, all she could write were sentences.
If only they could carry her beyond this circle.
If only she could erase this period.
「The guy who accepted and ate the Lemon Candy I offered as a joke without batting an eye.」
"Dokja!"
It wasn't enough.
The sentences she possessed couldn't reach beyond this wall.
Then another hand rested atop one of Suyeong's.
It was Yu Sangah.
With Mandalas spread out on either side of her, she poured her fables into them. Wiping away the blood running from her nose, she smiled with difficulty.
"Dokja-ssi."
「The person who hid in a cabinet and read TWSA alone.」
Sangah's sentences called for Dokja.
As though grasping a doorknob, the two women seized the circle. Yet the circle's acceleration didn't slow in the slightest. They were still short of sentences.
Then two more pairs of hands covered theirs.
"I'll hold the inside!"
"I've got the left!"
Lee Hyeongseong and Jeong Huiwon shouted as they clung to the circle.
「The person who quietly listened to boring stories about the military.」
Hyeongseong let out a fierce cry and unleashed his fable, while Huiwon matched his rhythm beside him.
「That damn stubborn troublemaker.」
"Dokja-ssi! Answer us! You're listening, aren't you?"
Lee Seolhwa and Pildu Gong added their hands as well.
「The person who would obtain the herbs the Allies needed, even if it meant staying up all night.」
「The bastard who took all my land.」
"Mister!"
"Hyung!"
The children ran over as well. Shin Yuseong and Lee Gilyeong each placed a small hand over one of Suyeong's hands.
「The person who always lies to reassure someone.」
「But the person who isn't very good at lying.」
Behind them, Jihye, sword at the ready, struck the circle with her fist. Again and again, she struck it.
"I can't say cheesy stuff! Get out here already!"
「Squid Uncle.」
Different times, different memories. All the sentences from those moments gathered, yearning for one Dokja. Yet even at the Allies' calls, the period didn't budge. Only their hands became drenched in blood.
The Allies' fables were disappearing. Sentences rose above the period.
「Could our desire to save him simply be greed?」
"Shut up!"
「Could he be someone who doesn't need salvation?」
The Allies knew, too. This might have been a meaningless act.
That was why they wanted to know.
To ask.
To reach out and make sure.
"Dokja! I know you're in there!"
Jang Hayoung shouted.
"We talked about it together. Even if we can't reach each other, even if we can't meet, we'd keep knocking on the wall until the end. Even if that wall never opens, we'd keep writing something on it!"
Even if they couldn't reach each other, even if they couldn't meet, they would knock on each other's walls.
Even if the wall never opened, they would keep writing something on it.
"Then someday, someone might see that sentence..."
Then at last, you might want to come out of there.
"Please! Say something. Just one word! Please..."
Jang Hayoung's palm struck the period. And the next moment.
[The Wall of Impossible Communication reveals its power!]
The period began to shake, little by little. For the first time, the Fourth Wall's momentum changed.
「How da re you.」
Sangah seized the opening and shouted.
"Dokja-ssi! You said we'd meet again in the next life!"
[The Wall That Determines Reincarnation reveals its power!]
Gilyeong shouted as though refusing to be outdone.
"Hyung always thinks everything is his own fault!"
Huiwon took up his words.
"I don't care whether you're good or evil, Dokja-ssi. I have no intention of judging you by the world's standards. So..."
[The Wall that Divides Good and Evil reveals its theme!]
"Please, open this door!"
The next instant, a powerful recoil burst from the door and flung the Allies away. A deafening roar flooded their ears. When the ringing faded, only cold silence remained.
The wounded Allies rose one by one. As Hyeongseong opened his mouth to say something, Suyeong raised a finger to her lips.
Like a faint drizzle soaking parched ground, a quiet sound reached them.
Tap.
The sound came from beyond the period.
Beyond the story's ending.
Suyeong heard it first.
Tap, tap...
It was a very faint, weak sound, but it clearly declared that someone was there.
「There was.」
Yuseong burst into tears.
「Someone beyond there was knocking on the door.」
Suyeong ran forward, with Sangah behind her. Hyeongseong and Huiwon piled their hands over hers. Seolhwa healed the Allies' hands, while Pildu threw his weight behind them. To stop the recoil, Jihye drove her sword into the floor, and Hayoung supported Suyeong's body. Yuseong and Gilyeong's fables protected Suyeong's hands.
"Focus all your strength in one place!"
Screeech!
The Allies' hands were shredded.
The period's rotation slowed. Little by little, cracks began to form across its worn face.
「The fables weren't enough.」
The period was shrinking. As though it refused to allow their intrusion, it continued to grow smaller.
Then someone burst into the subway.
[The Constellation Queen of the Darkest Spring has manifested!]
Two members of Kim Dokja Company who had not shown themselves until now.
[Sorry I'm late.]
Persephone, the queen of the underworld. And...
"Dokja."
Instead of looking at the period, Lee Sukyeong looked at the other Dokja sitting on the floor. Dokja stared blankly at her, bit his lip, and took her hand.
Fables began to flow from Sukyeong and Persephone.
To them, there were two Dokjas.
「Dokja from before the Scenario began, and Dokja after it began.」
The two beings who had watched Dokja longer than anyone supported Dokja's Avatar and approached the period.
Suyeong nodded.
「Dokja was the one who had locked himself inside the wall.」
"Dokja."
Looking into Dokja's trembling eyes, Suyeong understood it, too. No matter how greatly her novel had influenced him, Dokja wasn't TWSA. No matter how well she understood TWSA, it didn't mean she understood Dokja.
She could write sentences for someone, but she couldn't read them in that person's place. It was the task of the reader, the new world's god, to read them.
"Help me."
Dokja's hand touched the period.
[The Fourth Wall has further increased its thickness!]
Hands piled on top of his. The Fourth Wall cried out.
「You a ll mu st fa il he re.」
「Th is sto ry is al ready com pleted li ke th is.」
Was it wrong to change a story that had already been completed?
Did the fact that every universe had been completed in misery mean that not even one universe could dare to be saved?
Holding Dokja's hand, Suyeong wept. The memories of the 1,863rd round churned within her.
「This story will cycle.」
Another Suyeong would repeat the 1,863rd round within that cycle.
Dokja and Suyeong would fail to recognize each other, and they would fight.
Yu Junghyeok would repeat his Regression.
Dokja would become the Oldest Dream over and over to save them.
After circling through that distant time again and again, they would touch each other several times, only to part once more.
They would endure countless years, meet and meet again, and make stories.
Perhaps that would make this story complete.
But when would they finally be able to be happy?
「It doesn't have to be a complete story.」
Suyeong tightly gripped the crack in the circle.
The surface of the circle she held began to tear apart.
「If it is a story in which someone can be happy.」
Along with a terrible storm, the Allies' fables crumbled. Dokja's coat tore, and their weapons broke apart. A brilliant radiance, bright enough to blind them, flooded their vision.
Within that terrifying light, Suyeong thought that the Fourth Wall had been right. TWSA was over now. She had brought it to an end with her own hands.
But that didn't mean Dokja's story had ended.
Rummmble...
When the storm finally settled, the Allies' ruined hands came into view. Hands piled together as though they were one. Those hands destroyed the completed period. A crack ran down it, as if tearing open the edge of a circle.
「It looked like a comma.」
The door opened.
Footnotes:
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