WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 675: Episode 21: Kim Dokja (11)
──────
Sparks flew as the screen tore open vertically.
[A fatal error has occurred in the Theater of the Beginning!]
The darkness of space rippled beyond the torn screen.
A portal leading somewhere unknown.
I looked back at the audience one last time. I saw rlaehrwk37 standing from their seat and watching me.
Kim Dokja, who had been the first to cheer me on.
Mister Dansu's daughter.
No Jiyoon.
"I'll definitely come back for you."
Leaving Asmodeus's roar behind, I jumped into the torn screen alongside Yu Junghyeok.
[An error has temporarily occurred in the Scenario!]
Space and time twisted, and it felt as if my body were being broken down cell by cell. Even so, I didn't let go of Junghyeok's collar.
It was absurd.
The Yu Junghyeok of the forty-first round and the 49% Kim Dokja. Could there be a worse pair than us?
"Don't die, you bastard."
My vision shook again, and I felt my body being slammed somewhere.
The dimensional transfer was over. Swallowing the pain that felt as if every bone in my body had shattered, I braced myself against the floor.
"Junghyeok."
Junghyeok still said nothing.
What the hell had been done to this guy that he still couldn't wake up?
"Haven't you been unconscious long enough?"
I barely caught my breath and looked around. Escaping the theater safely was all well and good. But...
Of all places, we had to land here.
Cold gradually seeped through my whole body. Even my breath seemed ready to freeze. No matter where I looked, there was nothing but pitch-black emptiness.
[This area is not a Scenario area.]
A world where no star shone upon us. Through the darkness of space swallowed by the distant void, I sensed mysterious rulers looking down on us.
Someone was calling to me from within the boundless emptiness.
[You have been expelled from the Scenario.]
That was right.
We had fallen into the Great Hole.
[The Scenario Departure Penalty has begun.]
* * *
Han Suyeong inspected her body as she struggled to breathe. It felt as though her lungs were full of hot water. Blood continuously leaked from the hole in her abdomen, her damaged left optic nerve limited her vision, her right shoulder was completely shattered and unusable, and her kneecap had sunk deeply.
It was a wonder her heart was still beating.
It was the first time she had suffered injuries this severe since hunting the Iron-Blood Dragon with Junghyeok in the 1,865th round.
「"This feels a little unfair."」
For a moment, she could almost see that night's sky again. Lying side by side atop the dead Iron-Blood Dragon's tail, Junghyeok had spoken in his usual irritating voice.
「"I told you I'd give you the item."」
「"That's not what I mean."」
Suyeong let out a light sigh before adding,
「"I was just wondering who would ever know we fought like this here."」
The moment she said it, Suyeong regretted it. It was a complaint unlike her. She quickly shook her head and opened her mouth.
「"Forget it. What's the point of telling you something like this..."」
「"Isn't that why you write novels?"」
Suyeong was startled by Junghyeok's casual question.
Other than Dokja, she had never told anyone that she was secretly leaving records behind.
But Junghyeok seemed to have already known.
「"It's a novel. I can't write down everything."」
The record of the 1,865th round was incomplete.
She was losing memories as she used [Avatar] in real time, and her Companions were no different.
To clear the Scenario with the fewest sacrifices possible, the Allies fought with everything they had. In return, each of them lost their fables.
An endless repetition of recording and loss.
To reclaim Dokja, they kept becoming someone else.
「"You don't need to record everything."」
Words from a man who remembered more and forgot more than anyone else. Suyeong spoke as if resisting him.
「"Still, the truly important things..."」
「"As I repeated regressions, there were many times when I forgot things too."」
Junghyeok rarely spoke of himself. Suyeong found herself listening intently.
「"But memories from previous rounds weren't always helpful."」
Suyeong understood what he meant.
Junghyeok, who had repeated regressions through countless ages, surely had many memories he wanted to forget.
Some memories would have tormented him, while others would have hindered his objective judgment.
「"There were times when not having a certain memory helped me find a better way in the next round."」
One day, Junghyeok might have decided to forget memories that got in his way.
Only to clear the Scenario. Without even knowing how precious those memories had been to him.
「"Don't you want to get back the memories that disappeared?"」
Junghyeok thought for a moment before answering Suyeong's question.
「"Just because a memory disappeared doesn't mean the place it occupied has disappeared as well. And there is someone with a better memory than mine."」
There was no need to ask who that was.
「"Isn't that why you're writing a story for him?"」
「"...That's right."」
「"Do you think he'd blame you for not writing everything?"」
Suyeong couldn't answer then. The answer she hadn't given then now passed to the Suyeong of the present.
"If it were Kim Dokja..."
Suyeong thought of Dokja.
Dokja, who loved stories more than anyone else in the world.
He would probably guess at the developments she hadn't written, one way or another.
He would piece together what happened between events on his own, connecting their web of meaning.
One day, he might even take her to task, asking why she had written this part that way and whether this was plagiarized from TWSA.
After grumbling for a long time, Dokja would surely read even the story she hadn't written.
He would finally fill it with his own sentences, creating a better story than the words she should have written.
[The Constellation Lotus Blooming under the Moon says it would be best for you to return now.]
[The Constellation Sinister Strategist is worried about you.]
Suyeong slowly rose to her feet.
She couldn't fight anymore in this condition.
The damage to her fables was too serious. Not only was it impossible to continue the Scenario normally, but she would have difficulty recovering completely unless she rested for quite some time.
So it was right for her to leave this world here. She had to stop clinging foolishly and head back the way she had come with her Companions.
It might not be a bad idea to find a way back to the first portal Dokja had prepared.
Then she could trust Dokja and wait. If she did...
Tstst.
A faint spark flew when she put her hand in her pocket. When she pulled it out, she found the Lemon Candy Dokja had given her in her hand.
Suyeong looked down at the candy, unwrapped it, and put it in her mouth. The moment the sweet scent of lemon spread through her mouth, she suddenly understood why Dokja had come to this world.
She understood why this world had to exist and what it existed for.
「"There were times when not having a certain memory helped me find a better way in the next round."」
At the same time, she realized why she herself had to come to this world.
Suyeong looked up at the night sky.
The swirling Great Hole.
The stars were hardly visible, as if they had disappeared somewhere, but she could imagine her own star.
「She was a writer for one person.」
Feeling that star's gaze.
「A prisoner who must serve a life sentence on blank spaces.」
Suyeong thought of the last sentence she would write.
* * *
How could I return to the original Scenario?
No matter how hard I thought, no method came to mind.
My fall here with Junghyeok was probably Asmodeus's petty revenge.
The problem was that his pettiness might get us both killed.
Cold assailed my entire body. Cold sweat kept running down my spine as chills swept through me. My heart pounded as if it would burst.
Tststst.
The fear that my existence would disappear at any moment. All I could do was press my lips shut and hold my breath.
[You are currently in an area outside the Scenario's jurisdiction.]
[Your main body is currently in an extremely critical condition.]
I knew very well what this sign meant.
It had been the same when Dokja was first thrown into the Demon Realm.
"Damn it. Hold on for ten minutes, no, fifteen. Got it?"
Was it a miracle?
Bihyeong's voice echoed faintly from somewhere.
"I'll reconnect the channel somehow and summon you again, so just hang on a little longer..."
But the voice soon cut off, and the cold rushed in again.
Through my intermittently flickering consciousness, I looked back at Junghyeok.
I was this bad. What about Junghyeok?
[The Otherworld Fable is protecting that Incarnation.]
Was it a blessing in disguise?
Junghyeok, who was about to undergo the coronation of the Absolute Throne, was temporarily connected to an Outer God.
In other words, the Outer God connected to him was sharing the Scenario Departure Penalty.
How many minutes passed like that?
[A temporary channel has opened.]
A short message rang out in my head.
Had Bihyeong returned?
Hope began racing through my mind.
It would be enough if I received even a Sub Scenario. As long as I received a Scenario, I could prevent my existence from collapsing, just as Dokja had maintained his fables in the Demon Realm.
[Constellations of the nebula Asgard are watching you.]
...Asgard?
[The nebula Asgard says it will provide a Sub Scenario if you become an Incarnation under Asgard.]
I blinked at the sudden stroke of luck.
[If you accept this offer, you will be unable to refuse Asgard's orders for the next 200 years.]
I blankly opened my mouth, forgetting even the cold that was rotting me to the bone.
And that wasn't the only offer.
[Constellations of the nebula Olympus are watching you.]
[The nebula Olympus says it will provide a Sub Scenario if you become an Incarnation body under Olympus.]
[If you accept this offer, you must serve as a slave Incarnation body of Olympus for the next 50 years.]
A hollow laugh escaped me.
Only now did I feel as though I understood Dokja's anger toward the nebulae.
"I refuse."
In my arrogance that I had read all of this story, I had briefly forgotten what Constellations were.
This was what Constellations were.
The kind who exploited Incarnations' lives without caring about means or ends, all for their own amusement.
[Constellations of the nebula Asgard consider your refusal insolent.]
[Constellations of the nebula Olympus lament your foolishness.]
Was this the penalty for refusing their offers?
The cold enveloping my body intensified.
Clutching my violently shivering shoulders, I activated [Incitement]. I only had to endure somehow until Bihyeong returned.
"I am Kim Dokja..."
Was it because of the violently leaping sparks? [Incitement] didn't activate properly.
Instead, Dokja's memories surfaced in the darkness behind my closed eyes.
「"Two years is longer than I expected."」
I didn't know when that memory was from.
Memories that didn't exist in Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.
Someone spoke within the memory.
「"Before long, I'll have spent more time with you than with the Kim Dokja I know."」
I nibbled away at that memory and endured the cold.
「"When the real 'me' comes back, what will happen to 'me' then?"」
In those memories, I was happy, and I was unhappy.
「"The existence of another 'me' doesn't mean I disappear."」
「"You can trust him on that. That bastard has 1,864 more of himself."」
The reason I was happy was Dokja, and the reason I was unhappy was Dokja.
I reached toward the memories growing hazy and murmured,
"I am..."
That was when someone shook my shoulder.
Warmth gradually spread through my body, and the cold surrounding me slowly faded. The memories that had raged like a fierce blizzard settled down.
When I opened my eyes, someone was looking at me.
"Are you okay?"
I blankly looked up at that person.
Was this a dream? I shook my head several times, but it wasn't a dream.
Fables flowed through the small hand gripping my shoulder. Warm, gentle sentences. Sentences written by someone who loved this world flowed into me whole.
"Han Suyeong."
Suyeong stared at me.
"You..."
Just as I had read her fables, she had read mine.
She hesitated for a long time before opening her mouth.
"...Kim Dokja?"
I understood the faint hope and despair contained in that question. That was why my answer was already decided.
"It's been a while, Han Suyeong."
Footnotes:
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