WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 724: Episode 28: Home (2)

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* * *

To get straight to the point, my Allies recognized me.

Who were these people, after all?

They were monsters who had read the main story at least once, some as many as a hundred times. Other people might not recognize me, but there was no way they wouldn't recognize me just because I wore a mask.

Even Gyeong Se-in, who usually had no sense for these things, whispered this to me.

"There's a reason you have to call yourself 'Kim Dokja,' right?"

Seventh Apostle Ye Hyunwoo rolled his eyes, wondering why I had said that. Literary Girl 64 Cha Yerin stared at me in bewilderment. Mr. Dansu looked like he was finally worried that I had lost my mind, and lastly, Killer King...

"Yes, Kim Dokja. Have you come to see me?"

Come to think of it, that man had always called me Kim Dokja.

I deliberately ignored him and continued speaking.

"The Event Scenario is about to start, so let's prepare for it first."

"Ah, you don't need to worry too much about that."

"Why not?"

"You're safe as long as you stay inside the house during this Scenario."

Safe as long as we stayed in the house?

"This same event has happened several times before. We were fine as long as we stayed indoors."

[The Event Scenario will begin shortly.]

[This Event Scenario is The Three Little Pigs.]

I stared closely at the Scenario messages floating before my eyes.

Something was wrong.

If that Three Little Pigs was the story I knew, this house was absolutely not safe.

"By the way, Inho... no, Dokja-ssi. How did you end up here?"

"Much the same way you did."

"Ah, so Dokja-ssi too..."

"It sounds like you've been through a lot."

"Don't even get me started."

Gyeong Se-in briefly told me what had happened to them.

After taking the Star Ladder from Washington, my Allies had been thrown into the Recycling Center's Scenario early on. Apparently, Killer King, Ye Hyunwoo, and Yerin had each placed highly in the Twelve Zodiac Race and selected District 13.

I expected nothing less from them. If the Incarnation rankings of the Korean Peninsula were lined up, every one of them would be in the top ten.

Mr. Dansu and Gyeong Se-in hadn't come in first, but they had drawn District 13 from the selection choices.

"When we first came to District 13, we thought we'd made it. Wow, so this is the Hidden Piece everyone talks about. This is the protagonist's path!"

It was the protagonist's path, all right.

Dokja and Junghyeok would have made the same choice.

Mr. Dansu slowly shook his head.

"This place is hell."

My Allies really didn't look well.

Gyeong Se-in's dirty clothes and Mr. Dansu's soot-covered face were one thing, but even Yerin, whose face used to gleam, looked like a beggar. Ye Hyunwoo, usually so sharp, lay sprawled on the floor like a patient suffering from lethargy.

Gyeong Se-in shook his head.

"He's like that because he's hungry. We haven't eaten anything for days."

"Can't you buy food?"

"We don't have money."

"Can't you earn some?"

"You know the currency here is Recycle Coins, right?"

I nodded.

"Then you already know. The Coins we collected are useless here."

"That's true, but..."

"Ah, you just got here, so you don't understand yet. Well, this place doesn't even appear in the main story of TWSA."

That was true. This place didn't appear in TWSA.

Still... did these people not know that Recycle Coins were bottle caps?

There was no way little Junghyeok knew something they didn't.

"We've already been here for a month. We're your seniors here, so feel free to ask us anything."

"You've been here for a month already?"

"More precisely, it's been a month and a week!"

A month.

That meant time inside the Recycling Center flowed at a different speed from the Scenarios on Earth.

It was good news for me.

The enemies I would face from now on were the great nebulae targeting the Demon King of Salvation. To fight them, I needed to build up my strength for as long as possible.

"Then how are things outside? What about Junghyeok?"

Everyone here had entered Washington with Junghyeok. They must have been curious about what had happened since then.

"Junghyeok is safe."

"Did he defeat the demon marquis? I heard it was an enemy even Junghyeok would have trouble defeating..."

A demon marquis.

It seemed my Allies didn't know what had happened in the Washington Dome. They must have taken the Star Ladder before Junghyeok turned into the Black Beast.

They'd faint from shock if they learned what had happened since then.

...Come to think of it, these people didn't even know that I had made a contract with the Demon King of Salvation.

Honestly, I had no idea where to begin.

"No, doesn't that make no sense? Does it make sense for a demon marquis to appear in the seventh Scenario?"

No, it didn't.

"Who could possibly clear a Scenario like that?"

Someone had.

"Unless the Demon King of Salvation was there..."

The Demon King of Salvation had cleared it.

"If things keep going like this, the great nebulae will swarm in and ruin all the Scenarios!"

What was this? Did they actually know everything that had happened?

"Anyway, Yu Junghyeok has to come. There is no way to solve this Scenario without the Supreme King."

I couldn't bring myself to tell Gyeong Se-in, who was brimming with expectation, that the child beside me was Junghyeok.

"Um."

That distinctive flat voice.

Yerin had spoken.

"That."

"Yes?"

"Child."

"The child?"

"Who."

Why was Yerin speaking like that all of a sudden? Her manner of speaking had always been strange, but it hadn't been this bad.

Killer King, leaning against the window, interpreted her words.

"My little sister asks who that child is."

Everyone turned their attention to little Junghyeok.

"Ah, this guy is..."

I considered saying I had just picked him up on the way here, but little Junghyeok opened his mouth as if he had been waiting.

"I am..."

He looked around at my Allies, then up at me. Frowning, he answered.

"According to what this bastard says, I am 'Yu Junghyeok.'"

It was a strange introduction, but it was the best answer for the current Junghyeok.

My Allies looked at me as if they couldn't understand what kind of joke that was.

I let out a quiet sigh and began explaining.

* * *

I briefly explained everything that had happened.

Starting with the fact that I had made a contract with the Demon King of Salvation.

"No, you made a contract with who?"

"The Demon King of Salvation."

"Who?"

"The Demon King of Salvation."

"Th-th-the real... he existed?"

Looking at Gyeong Se-in's face, which looked close to fainting, I thought that if he was going to be this happy, I should have told him sooner.

"Yes."

The house nearly turned into a festival after my answer.

Gyeong Se-in and Mr. Dansu, who had been leaning against the table, embraced each other. Ye Hyunwoo, who had been lying down, sprang to his feet. Yerin, sitting at the table, had tears in her eyes.

Everyone was happy except Killer King, who muttered, "Then which one is the real Kim Dokja?"

To those happy people...

"Th-then the Demon King of Salvation is..."

I couldn't bring myself to tell them, "He's dead."

Strictly speaking, it was a little ambiguous to say he was dead.

"We can't contact him at the moment."

"But he's definitely the Demon King of Salvation, right? The Demon King of Salvation we know, right?"

"That..."

My Allies held their breaths as they looked at me.

"His personality seems subtly unpleasant, but yes, he is the Demon King of Salvation."

My Allies cheered again.

"You're sure?"

"Yes, but..."

I began laying the groundwork to calm them down.

"He may be out of contact for quite a while, so I don't think you should get your hopes up too much..."

"What do you mean?"

How was I supposed to say this?

They all possessed fragments of Dokja. More than anyone else in this world, they were the people who had waited for Dokja.

How could I tell them the truth?

"Did he... save someone and die again?"

I hesitated for a moment before answering.

"Well..."

When I didn't answer for a long time, Gyeong Se-in and Mr. Dansu let go of each other. Tears welled in Yerin's eyes for an entirely different reason, while Ye Hyunwoo lay back down.

Only Killer King muttered, "Kim Dokja is one again."

"What do we do? What do we do? What do we do!"

"Um, calm down."

"It's all over now!"

Gyeong Se-in screamed.

"We can't use skills or Stigmas! We can't receive support from our Patrons here! We don't even have any fables, and now Dokja too..."

Gyeong Se-in staggered, his mind collapsing at the news of the Demon King of Salvation.

I quickly covered little Junghyeok's ears with both hands and added.

"It's fine. I'll figure something out."

"O-of course, it's good that In... Dokja-ssi has come, but..."

Gyeong Se-in looked like he had no idea what was going on.

Still, there was no helping it. The Demon King of Salvation wasn't with us right now.

But the Demon King of Salvation had acknowledged me as the youngest, so in his absence, I had to take Dokja's place.

"Junghyeok came too, even if he became a child."

"Right, why did Junghyeok become a child?"

"That takes some explaining too..."

As my Allies fell further into confusion, Killer King crossed his arms and spoke to little Junghyeok.

"A brat like you isn't Yu Junghyeok."

Little Junghyeok looked up at me, confused.

"I wasn't Yu Junghyeok?"

"You can just ignore what that person says."

I seriously wanted to quit being Dokja.

[The Event Scenario is currently in progress.]

With the Scenario message ringing out again, a distant explosion echoed through the air.

I took a quick look around the house. The window frames looked like they would crumble if touched, and the pillars had been put up carelessly. No matter how I looked at it, it was a roughly built wooden structure.

"Let's talk about the details later. Are you really sure it's okay to stay here?"

"Hey, it's fine. I told you, this is a sturdy house."

"It's all right. We've already gone through the same Scenario several times."

Gyeong Se-in and Mr. Dansu answered optimistically.

I stared at them for a moment, then asked.

"What's that behind you?"

"Ah, this? Cute, right?"

A squirrel tail had grown behind Gyeong Se-in.

He wasn't the only one.

Looking closer, I saw a thick shell like a turtle's growing from Mr. Dansu's back. Panda ears stuck out from Ye Hyunwoo's head, and Yerin... honestly, I couldn't tell. Judging by her speech and movements, it seemed something had changed.

Killer King was the only one who hadn't changed at all.

Then Killer King's [Telepathy] rang in my ears.

【These bastards are already beyond saving.】

Killer King was the only one among them who was an Incarnation wearing a mask.

A mask.

Speaking of masks, TWSA contained the following sentence about them.

「Only humans wear the masks of 'other creatures.'」

Only humans.

My back turned cold.

Footnotes:

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