WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 626: Episode 14: Master of the Throne (1)

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rlaehrwk37: Isn't he passing out way too often?

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When I opened my eyes again, it was late at night. I blinked blankly through some hunger and thirst, then abruptly sat up.

How many times had I passed out already?

At this point, I wasn't in any position to tease Kim Dokja for being the guy who passed out at every opportunity.

Kim Dokja.

I hadn't met Dokja this time. Usually, whenever I passed out, I met him in Snowfield.

In the dim darkness, I saw an old table and a counter. I wondered why I was in a kitchen, but it seemed to be a nearby restaurant.

"You're awake?"

Jeong Huiwon's pale face emerged from the darkness.

"Ah, yes."

With her hair neatly tied back, Huiwon was sharpening a knife beneath the moonlight. Just as I began to feel an odd chill, she suddenly held out an iron pot from beside her.

"Want some?"

Inside were a few emergency crops and grilled Ground Rat forelegs.

"I'm not very good at cooking, so I just seasoned it roughly. There were still some seasonings left in the restaurant."

"Ah, thank you."

Come to think of it, I hadn't eaten anything all day. As I ate food generously seasoned for the first time in a while, my taste buds practically melted.

Once my hunger and thirst subsided, I finally felt like I could live again. Then the events before I passed out came back to me one by one.

I had been talking to Yu Junghyeok. Huiwon had briefly left to catch the sniper.

Junghyeok had asked me who Dokja was, and as I thought about it...

Had I passed out?

As I choked on my food, Huiwon handed me some water.

"Thank you."

Even thinking back on it, I couldn't understand what had happened. Why had I passed out while thinking about Dokja?

Wait, more importantly.

"Where is Junghyeok?"

"He left alone."

Huiwon answered nonchalantly as she continued sharpening her knife.

"He left us behind?"

Huiwon only nodded. Why was she still sharpening that knife?

With a soft clink, Huiwon set down the knife she had wiped clean.

I had a bad feeling about this.

It felt like I was about to be scolded.

"I told you not to die."

There was a strange spark in her voice.

"Do you have any idea how scared I was?"

Huiwon narrowed her eyes and glared at me. I hurriedly lowered my gaze and apologized.

"I-I'm sorry. I don't know why it happened either. I suddenly passed out."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

"That can't be true. That man threatened you, didn't he?"

"What?"

"Did he beat you up or do something bad to you? Take off your shirt."

"N-no, that really isn't it."

I cautiously avoided Huiwon's reaching hand.

"He really didn't do anything. We were just talking, then I suddenly passed out... I think I must've been tired."

Huiwon blinked as though she couldn't believe me, then sighed.

"My god. It really was true."

Seeing Huiwon's expression, I finally understood what must have happened.

Huiwon had left at Junghyeok's request to take care of the sniper. When she returned, I was lying unconscious. It was obvious what she must have assumed.

"Did you fight?"

"We almost did."

Huiwon's lips twitched.

"But he seemed pretty aggrieved. He said he hadn't done anything, and Inho-ssi had collapsed on his own."

"And?"

"Of course I didn't believe him. Does that make any sense?"

It didn't, really.

"That was close."

"I was almost at the point of drawing my sword, but then I remembered what Uncle Dansu said."

Uncle Dansu?

"Before we split up, he told me that if I traveled with that man, there would be times when anger suddenly surged up inside me. He told me to try holding it back at least once when that happened."

"Ah."

Was Uncle Dansu actually a sage?

"He said there was a chance it was all a misunderstanding."

Even before, when everyone else thought badly of Junghyeok, Uncle Dansu alone had said it might be a misunderstanding.

His insight was truly incredible.

"It was a misunderstanding. I really did collapse by myself."

"Then that's a relief."

Still, had that bastard Junghyeok really become an Ally only to throw us aside and leave like this?

"Where did Yu Junghyeok go?"

"North."

If he had gone north, he was probably going to rescue his younger sister, Yu Mia. This was exactly the right time.

"Did he leave any message?"

"He said he wasn't going to travel with us anymore."

"What?"

"He said he had no need for a weak guy who passed out at every opportunity..."

It was frustrating, but he was right.

"He told me to pass along that the current Inho-ssi can't properly fulfill Inho Cheon's role."

Junghyeok had said that if I could fulfill the role of Inho Cheon, he would believe I was Inho Cheon.

In other words, I had been disqualified.

Damn it.

Of all times, I had lost Junghyeok at such an important moment.

My thoughts were a mess.

Capture the Flag would end soon, and the King's Path Scenario would begin. Then we'd reach the Absolute Throne in no time.

"But Inho-ssi, why are you trying to travel with that person?"

Huiwon asked as if she couldn't understand.

"You haven't forgotten what kind of person he is, have you? You and I almost died because of him."

Only then did I remember that I had given Huiwon no explanation at all.

It was only natural that she couldn't understand this situation. That Junghyeok was the person who had thrown Huiwon and me out to be food for an ichthyosaur.

"Do you really need to go this far to stay with him?"

"Yes. I do."

In the end, Junghyeok held the key to this world. He was the regressor of the forty-first round and the strongest Incarnation.

But he would ultimately meet a tragic end at the conclusion of the forty-first round.

To prevent that ending, I had no choice but to correct his dangerous actions one by one.

After a long pause, Huiwon spoke.

"I heard that Inho-ssi is an Apostle, too. Is this related to that?"

I unconsciously stopped breathing.

When I raised my head, Huiwon was looking at me with a dark expression.

How long had she thought about asking that question?

"...That's right."

Guilt came rushing in, one step too late.

Just as Junghyeok had said, if I truly was Inho Cheon now, then Huiwon was the one who had protected me.

At Geumho Station, and at Chungmuro.

Without Huiwon's help, I couldn't have survived.

I had spent all this time without giving her an important explanation.

「Huiwon must have been confused throughout the Scenario.」

For someone who had been an ordinary person, the upheaval of the world, the Scenarios, and the Constellations must all have been difficult to understand.

Then Apostles who claimed to know the future had appeared, and they were even her Companions.

"I'm sorry. I've gone too long without telling you anything. I won't make excuses. Where did you hear that I'm an Apostle?"

"Here and there. I heard people talking."

She had acted as though she couldn't hear or see anything, but she must have been listening all along. Even so, Huiwon had waited for me to tell her.

"Inho-ssi, do you know this world's future, too?"

"Yes, I do."

It was time to tell Huiwon, too. Just as Dokja had done in the main story, I had to face this head-on.

I slowly rose from my seat and bowed deeply to Huiwon.

"I'm sorry for hiding it for so long. I won't make excuses. I know this world's future, and I knew about Huiwon-ssi beforehand."

"Ah."

Startled by my sudden apology, Huiwon awkwardly got to her feet.

"To stop this world's destruction, I absolutely needed Huiwon-ssi's help. The reason I tried to get close to Huiwon-ssi was because of that."

Now that Huiwon knew this much, I couldn't hide it any longer. That would be deceiving her.

"So you tried to get close to me because of that?"

"Yes."

I thought there was nothing I could do if she got angry. Still, some relationships couldn't move forward unless you laid everything bare.

Biting my lip, I cautiously raised my head. I expected to see Huiwon's disappointed face.

Instead, she looked puzzled.

"But... I never got that feeling. I was the one who came over and spoke to you first when you were alone."

I thought about it carefully.

"That... I think I was lucky."

"If I wasn't Jeong Huiwon, would you not have gotten close to me?"

I thought for a moment.

If Huiwon hadn't been Jeong Huiwon, would I not have gotten close to her?

"Yes. I think that would've been the case."

The person I liked was Jeong Huiwon, and the person I needed was Jeong Huiwon. She might get angry, but it had been a meaningless hypothetical from the start.

"Inho-ssi really is honest."

"I'm sorry."

"What is there to be sorry about? I'm glad. That I'm Jeong Huiwon."

"What?"

"Because I'm Jeong Huiwon, you risked your life for me. On that bridge, and in the Theater Dungeon, too. If it weren't for Inho-ssi, I would've died that day."

How could this person...

At that moment, a sentence surfaced in my mind with a painful ache.

「"Then I was able to make it this far thanks to Dokja-ssi."」

I unconsciously bit down hard on my lip. Why did that sentence have to come to mind now?

「"Thank you for finding me. I'm not being sarcastic, I mean it."」

How could this person remain so unchanged, even across different rounds?

"I feel the same way. I'm alive because of Huiwon-ssi."

I knew that the sentence from my memories didn't explain the Huiwon standing before me, but I couldn't hide how moved I was.

Huiwon smiled.

"Actually, I was going to keep myself from asking until the end. I thought you'd tell me someday. But I had a strange experience on the Theater Dungeon rooftop. I've been confused since then."

The Theater Dungeon rooftop.

Only then did I remember what had happened with Han Suyeong.

「"This world is, th at world, i sn't, i t."」

There, Suyeong had shown Huiwon the fable of 『Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint』.

"What was that story?"

How was I supposed to explain it?

"It was a story from a world different from this one."

No matter how I thought about it, the best answer was to return Huiwon's own answer to her.

"Then everything in the story that woman showed me really happened."

"Yes, it did."

For a moment, I thought about that world's story.

The world where Dokja and Kim Dokja Company existed. The world where Huiwon became the Judge of Evil, and Inho Cheon died by her hand.

"In that world, Inho-ssi was a complete bastard."

At some point, Huiwon had taken hold of the finely honed Mikazuki Munechika.

I remembered Inho Cheon dying by her sword.

The villain of Geumho Station, Inho Cheon, who incited people, killed them, and extorted their Coins.

Suyeong might have been the first to write 『Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint』, but I, too, had sincerely written sentences about him.

I had written, one character at a time with fierce conviction, the sentences in which he tormented people, killed them, and made them suffer.

Because that was what a villain should be like.

Because it was more violent, more cruel, and more Plausible.

If so, perhaps this moment was when the Plausibility I had used back then was being returned to me.

"Is the Inho-ssi in front of me the same person as the Inho-ssi from there?"

Footnotes:

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