WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 588: Episode 7: Trauma (1)

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Would the ‘Illusory Prison’ work properly even on someone without trauma?

[The Constellation Sinister Strategist wonders about your trauma.]

[A Constellation who has yet to reveal their modifier is watching you.]

Even after time passed, nothing appeared before me.

Did I really have no trauma?

I was born into an ordinary family and had an ordinary childhood, growing up without any notable incidents.

My long years as an unknown writer had been difficult, but not difficult enough to be traumatic.

I somehow earned enough to scrape by doing odd jobs for professors, and even when I ate triangle rice balls, I never skipped a meal.

If I called that difficult, there wouldn't be anyone in the world who wasn't struggling.

So even if I saw nothing here, it wouldn't be all that strange.

That was when a voice came from the hazy fog.

「“There is no person without trauma.”」

The fog split apart, revealing a lecture hall.

Fresh-faced first-year students sat in an oval. Some were people whose names I could barely remember now, while others I still kept in touch with.

Among them was me, staring blankly at the professor.

「“All right, then. Let's each share one.”」

After saying that, the professor sat down and pointed at a student.

The student stood up and immediately began talking about their trauma.

「“When I was young, my homeroom teacher said my diary was excellent and read it aloud to my friends.”」

Their tone sounded oddly proud.

As I listened to that voice, I slowly remembered what kind of class this had been.

The Creative Writing Department I attended had a famous initiation ritual for new students.

They gathered all the freshmen in one place and forced them to confess their trauma.

Looking back, it was an absurdly violent event, but there were people back then who believed that kind of raw exposure was the path to true literature.

Clap, clap, clap, clap.

When one person finished presenting, another began.

「“My trauma is...”」

Every misfortune in the world had gathered there. You could've called it a competition of misery.

Divorced parents, a grandmother with dementia going missing, a family going bankrupt and having foreclosure notices slapped on the house, stealing a motorcycle and ending up at a police station, a burglar breaking into the house while they slept...

How had people in their early twenties experienced all that?

It was a mystery to me.

Even more mysterious was the professor, jotting something in a notebook as though assigning scores to their trauma.

Then, at last, it was my turn.

「“I...”」

I thought about it.

What was the greatest misfortune that had happened to me? The most shocking event?

Getting chased by a dog as a child?

That was too weak.

Getting placed in remedial math because my grades were low?

They'd only laugh at me.

No matter how hard I thought, no convincing experience came to mind. Compared to classmates with more life experience, I had no story at all.

A story.

At that moment, a thought came to mind. Drawing in a deep breath, I spoke my first sentence as though opening a universe.

「“I stabbed my father to death.”」

Once I started, the story began making more stories.

I spoke of my mother, who loved books, and my father, who turned violent whenever he drank.

I spoke of my mother protecting me from my father, the shattered bottle rolling across the floor, the sensation of gripping that bottle for the first time, and the moment a hard shard of glass sank into my father's soft back.

Once I told it, the story was so vivid that I suddenly wondered whether it had really happened.

Even if not here, hadn't some version of me lived that life somewhere beyond that distant universe?

I had clearly been the one to start the story.

Yet when it ended, I had become part of it instead.

「“That's all.”」

The room had gone silent before I knew it.

The students stared at me with blank eyes, and the professor sat with their mouth open, having forgotten to assign a score.

Only then did I realize I had made a huge mistake. Flustered, I blurted out something unnecessary.

「“Ah, it's a lie.”」

Perhaps that was my trauma.

「Not having trauma.」

After the false-trauma incident, my classmates gave the same critique whenever they read my novels.

「“Another implausible story.”」

「“It lacks sincerity.”」

What is sincerity?

A long time has passed since then, but I still don't know what it is.

If I had to put it into words, sincerity to me was that ghost-like thing before my eyes.

I smiled faintly and approached the specter.

[The Tier-8 ghost species Specter is looking at you.]

I swung the thorn with all my strength.

It was incorporeal, so the damage multiplier was low, but the specter's face was slowly twisting.

As it died, the specter spoke to me.

「“I can't feel you in your novels.”」

Why did people want to talk about their own stories so badly? Those stories weren't interesting at all.

「“A writer should have their own individuality.”」

Puhwak!

A hole opened in the specter's face. Beyond that empty hole, pitch-black darkness stared back at me.

「“There's nothing inside you.”」

I quietly peered into the specter's empty hole.

[The Constellation Sinister Strategist looks at you with pity.]

There was no need to pity me. No reason to be pitied.

[A Constellation who has yet to reveal their modifier wears a sad expression.]

In a world where nothing happens, there is neither sorrow nor joy.

Puhwak!

The thorn struck the specter again.

Kieee!

It collapsed to the ground.

Grabbing the specter by the scruff of its neck, I said, “Don't die yet. There's someone I need to meet.”

Then I called out someone's name toward the specter's hole.

I didn't know whether this would work.

But if my prediction was right...

―Who is it?

A moment later, someone's voice came from the fog.

―Yu Junghyeok? Is that you?

It wasn't a voice I had heard before.

―Who are you...?

Yet it was definitely a familiar voice.

[Exclusive Skill Incitement Lv. 4 has been activated!]

‘I am Inho Cheon.’

I released the specter's neck and stood up.

Golden hair fluttered through the pale smoke. A foreign girl stared at me with wide, disbelieving eyes.

―You must be the ‘Star Deceiver.’

I nodded and spoke to her.

“Nice to meet you, Anna Croft.”

* * *

rlaehrwk61 : Whoa, so this is how the two of them meet?

rlaehrwk99 : Come to think of it, he could see her through that.

* * *

Junghyeok said,

「“It seems you met Anna Croft in the Chungmuro Tunnel. Did you remember the previous round...?”」

That gave me two hints.

First, there was a way to meet Anna Croft in the Chungmuro Tunnel.

Second, I could receive memories of the previous round from Anna Croft.

Aside from Junghyeok, Anna Croft, who possessed [past vision], was the only person who could learn information from the previous round.

Now that I had drawn Junghyeok's unnecessary suspicion, there was nothing better than hearing about the previous round from Anna Croft.

I had deliberately faced the specter without anti-demon equipment or skills for this moment.

Just as Kim Dokja had, I intended to use the mechanism of the Illusory Prison to summon Anna Croft.

―How do you know my name? There's no way you should know it at this point.

“Junghyeok told me about you.”

―You've already met Junghyeok?

“It just happened. Judging by your reaction, though, it seems the order is a little wrong.”

Anna Croft's eyes trembled faintly.

―He's as self-willed as ever.

From the way she spoke, Anna Croft and Junghyeok were clearly connected.

I didn't know how two people who had originally been enemies came to cooperate, but now was the time to use what I had learned.

“Junghyeok has always been like that. More importantly, I'd like to hear it already. What exactly happened in the previous round? He said I could hear it from you.”

I thought I had asked naturally enough, but Anna Croft's eyes sharpened.

―The previous round? What did Junghyeok tell you? How much do you know?

“Is that important?”

―Answer me.

[The character Anna Croft is activating Lie Detection Lv. 6.]

I let out a small sigh.

This damned Lie Detection.

“Have you forgotten that I can fool Lie Detection?”

[Lie Detection has confirmed that your words are true.]

Confusion spread across Anna Croft's face.

―You, how...?

“Let's stop feeling each other out and get this over with. It doesn't matter who told me what. If you keep stalling, I might change my mind. I came here intending to help you, but ten seconds from now, that might not be the case.”

―You'll help us? Are you serious?

I wondered if I had said something wrong, but after a brief silence, Anna Croft continued.

―Just before the previous round ended, Junghyeok told me that if I met you in the forty-first round, I should show you the memories of the previous round.

Just as I thought.

I thought that might be the case.

―I had no intention of listening to him, honestly. I don't trust you.

“A villain is trying to reform for once. Help me out.”

―Inho Cheon. Do you know what you did in the previous round?

“I don't. I have no memories of it.”

―I don't know what Junghyeok is thinking. Why someone as evil as you...

Anna Croft let out a quiet sigh.

The smoke in the Illusory Prison seemed thinner than before. There wasn't much time left.

“I'll ask one last time. What happened in the previous round? I need to know that much before I decide whether I'll help you.”

Anna Croft hesitated for a moment, then opened her mouth as if she had made up her mind.

―Fine. If you want it that badly, I'll tell you.

“You could've said that from the start.”

―I hope you still have a handful of conscience left. I hope that after seeing this story, you'll feel at least part of the hellish suffering.

For a woman who had made Junghyeok her slave in the second round, that was rich.

As I thought that, Anna Croft slowly closed one eye.

[The character Anna Croft has activated past vision.]

Past vision.

The unparalleled, unfair skill of a Prophet that allowed its user to glimpse their own memories carried over from a previous worldline.

Tzzzt.

Along with faint sparks, images and sensations flooded into my mind.

My eyes stung from acrid smoke, and somewhere nearby was a stench of blood so thick it gave me a headache.

It wasn't the smell of blood shed by one or two people. It was the smell that filled the air after at least several thousand people had died, turning the entire area into a sea of blood.

「“Are you satisfied now?”」

A man stood at the center of that sea of blood.

A black coat and a sword stained crimson.

Though his entire body was filthy with blood and dust, the radiance in his eyes had not dimmed in the slightest.

He looked up at the sky dyed by the polar night.

Whatever had happened, almost no stars remained in the sky.

Somewhere, something like a dragon's cry could be heard.

「“You will never know what you've done.”」

The man spoke in a quiet voice, as though counting the few remaining stars.

「“You will never know what you have ruined, what destruction you have brought about.”」

Anger that had reached its peak and burned to ash.

The futility and grief in his voice.

Just hearing it made my chest ache.

「A man who had always staked everything in his life.」

For a moment, the clouds parted, and faint starlight illuminated his face.

「The Supreme King of the fortieth round, Yu Junghyeok, was there.」

Junghyeok lowered his gaze and looked at someone.

A man stood opposite him, completely unbowed by the overwhelming presence of the Supreme King.

A dark crimson coat fluttered among the ruins.

Black wings extended through the coat.

My heart pounded.

For a moment, I thought it might be Kim Dokja.

「“What an interesting expression, Yu Junghyeok. Is that the face you make when you think this round has already failed and you need to start over?”」

But the owner of that voice wasn't Kim Dokja.

「“That must be convenient. You can press the reset button whenever you want and start everything from the beginning.”」

The owner of the voice smiled.

「“But remember this. Even the greatest craftsman cannot make the exact same doll twice. The moment you press the reset button, this world will not disappear. It will become eternal.”」

The man continued, as though mocking everything in the world.

「“This world will remain destroyed forever. I will remain in the deepest place in your memories and become an immortal nightmare.”」

He wore a pure white half-mask, but it wasn't difficult to recognize his face.

Because it was the face I had encountered the moment I first set foot in this world.

「“So hurry and reset everything. Struggle in your eternal nightmare and slowly die, you goddamn regressor.”」

The Inho Cheon of the fortieth round was there.

Footnotes:

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