WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈

Chapter 733: Episode 28: Home (11)

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Ye Hyunwoo, Cha Yerim, and Uncle Dansu, who had been supplying Mana, all turned to Yu Junghyeok at once.

Their expressions asked whether he was really in his right mind.

Uncle Dansu, who seemed to be suffering from cognitive dissonance, asked, "What did you just say...?"

Ye Hyunwoo muttered quietly, "Ha, so there was a setting like that."

Killer King, tied to a chair, nodded in admiration.

"So he really was the Supreme King."

Supreme King or not, all the fables were about to collapse at this rate. The Brick House was thinning in real time.

[Stage Transformation is weakening!]

If Stage Transformation collapsed, the fable would stop its story.

Then the Constellations who had been forcibly bound to this stage would be able to leave without suffering much damage.

[Some Constellations of the nebula Twelve Zodiacs sneer at you.]

[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon looks intrigued.]

[The Constellation Reclining Dragon wonders about your plan.]

At this rate, my plan and everything else would crumble along with the Brick House.

Loose dirt and sand fell onto my face. I stared blankly at the dirt on the floor before asking, "You just can't eat food someone else made, right?"

Junghyeok looked at me.

"What?"

Wouldn't anything do as long as it filled his stomach?

"You, don't tell me..."

For the first time, fear appeared in little Junghyeok's eyes. I ignored it and brought the powder clenched in my hand to his mouth.

"Eat it, you bastard!"

Little Junghyeok stubbornly shook his head in resistance.

My companions all looked at me.

"Are you feeding him dirt right now?"

"No, even so, you can't do that to a child..."

"As expected of Dokja."

I ignored them, forced little Junghyeok's mouth open, and poured in what I held. Junghyeok's trembling throat moved.

I finally let out a breath. "I wasn't really going to feed him dirt."

Maybe I could have done it with the [Incitement] skill, but I didn't want to go that far here.

"Ah."

Cha Yerim let out a quiet gasp upon noticing the crumbs on my hand. She seemed to have finally realized what they were.

What I had fed him was a Fable Fragment.

More precisely, it was part of the Fable Fragment swallowed by "Heir to an Eternal Name."

[The fable Heir to an Eternal Name looks displeased.]

[Your lifespan has decreased.]

A single grain of fable I had barely obtained through earnest pleading.

"If it's a Fable Fragment, this guy should be able to eat it."

Junghyeok, whose personality had been twisted from birth, had a setting that meant he wouldn't eat food unless he made it himself.

There was the exception of Murim Dumplings, but I didn't know how to make those.

That was why I had chosen a Fable Fragment as the next best option.

"Junghyeok. Get a hold of yourself."

Junghyeok wouldn't eat food made by others, but he had received someone else's fable before.

The problem was that Junghyeok's eyes looked a little off after receiving it.

"Junghyeok?"

If possible, I didn't want to do this.

In TWSA, Junghyeok had apparently gone temporarily insane after Lee Hyeongseong accidentally transfused him with a military fable.

But there was no other way now. I had to feed him something to fill his stomach.

[The fable Heir to an Eternal Name grins.]

Wait. What fable had Junghyeok just swallowed?

Junghyeok trembled as his eyes rolled back. He looked up at me, then slammed his face into the floor.

Then.

"No, wait."

Gulp, gulp. Gulp, gulp.

"Hey! Spit it out! Don't pick things up and eat them!"

Ignoring me, he began shoveling dirt into his mouth. Junghyeok's eyes slowly regained their clarity. Dirt clung to the corner of his mouth as he glared at me with fierce eyes.

"You. What did you feed me?"

Killer King, who was never at a loss for words, answered for me.

"Dirt."

"I don't eat dirt."

"No, you eat dirt. That is Yu Junghyeok."

Killer King pointed at the window with his chin. Little Junghyeok stared blankly at the dirt around his mouth reflected in the window.

I deliberately looked away from those eyes.

[The Fable Fragment Man Who Eats Eight Meals a Day is satisfied.]

[The conditions for Stage Transformation have been met.]

[The Constellation First Pig to Die screams.]

The fable swelled once more. As the crumbling Stage Transformation regained its strength, the pig Constellations who had been preparing to slip away rushed in again.

[The Constellation Pig Who Builds a House of Wood groans.]

Hang in there, pigs. Unless you want the wolf to steal your fable.

[Some Constellations of the nebula Twelve Zodiacs reveal hostility toward you.]

The storm began raging again.

* * *

I didn't know how much time had passed. Had I ever been this exhausted since being trapped in the stomach of the ichthyosaur?

[The Recycling Center Director admires your will.]

The companions supplying Mana had also become exhausted one by one. Some leaned against the wall and gasped for breath, while others had passed out entirely.

I was close to losing consciousness myself. What kept me going was the story being written beyond the wall.

「The wolf howled in the storm.」

The storm raged, and the Brick House endured the wind. Each time the wind left a scar on the wall, a fable was created.

「The lonely wolf who had lost its home asked.」

It was the wolf's new fable.

「“Is that your home?”」

The lonely wolf asked.

「“Then where is my home?”」

The Brick House didn't answer.

「“If I can't have a home.”」

Then the wolf said,

「“I won't stop the storm until every home in the world has been destroyed.”」

All fables are written on "the wall."

Because there is a wall, an event finally becomes a fable, and the stars can safely revel in stories.

[The Constellation Reclining Dragon admires your Borrowing a Knife to Kill a Person.]

[Animal-type Constellations not belonging to the Twelve Zodiacs admire your fable.]

Yes, watch all you want.

[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon likes the wolf's sensibility.]

[Some Constellations from the Twelve Zodiacs are enraged by your fable.]

Using the [Circulating Body] Attribute, I gathered as much Mana as possible and strengthened the Brick House.

I wanted this fable to continue for even a little longer.

[The Constellation First Pig to Die screams!]

[The Constellation Pig Who Builds a House of Wood desperately cries out for help!]

Snap.

Something snapped.

My insides twisted, and a handful of blood spilled onto the floor. The world spun around me.

The moment I raised my head, wondering what had happened.

[The fable The Three Little Pigs has been destroyed.]

[Some Constellations corresponding to the Pig of the Twelve Zodiacs have suffered massive damage to their true bodies!]

[The Constellation First Pig to Die has left the Scenario.]

[The Constellation Pig Who Builds a House of Wood has left the Scenario.]

Only then did I understand what had happened.

[Stage Transformation has ended.]

The Constellations had lost.

[The Outer God roars!]

[Some Constellations of the nebula Twelve Zodiacs fear the Outer God.]

Maybe it was only natural.

No matter how low an Outer God's grade might be, two or three Historical Constellations couldn't possibly suppress its divine authority.

[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon mocks them for being scared over so little.]

From now on, it was a complete gamble.

"Don't open the door."

Little Junghyeok spoke quietly, as if he knew what I was about to do.

"If you go out, you'll die."

"If we stay here, we'll all die anyway."

"But..."

"Don't worry."

I lightly patted little Junghyeok's shoulder.

"No one will die."

When I opened the door, the street of Area 13 appeared, wrapped in silence.

It was strange. A storm was raging, yet it was this quiet.

Even so, the pressure weighing down on my entire body was several times stronger than when I had faced the wolf Constellation earlier.

It didn't take long to understand what was happening.

「The eye of the storm.」

Our Brick House was right at the center of the storm.

Now that Stage Transformation could no longer protect us, if the storm twisted in any direction, the Brick House would be pulverized.

"Great Outer God."

I slowly took a deep breath.

"Stop the storm. Haven't you savored enough fables?"

A new fable sprouted where the fable of "The Three Little Pigs" had been destroyed.

[Your new fable has begun budding.]

This fable would now become the wolf's fable and ours.

And perhaps the Outer God that had led this storm could receive a share as well.

"Every fable's ending is important."

Outer Gods had different grades according to their Status.

Ancient species that had once shaken entire Scenarios could rise as Old Ones, while ruling species that had filled the universe with fear could ascend as Great Old Ones.

Yet no matter their original grade, they all had one thing in common.

"You can return home now."

Deities excluded from Scenarios, who had lost the star where they belonged.

They wandered worldlines endlessly, searching for a place to belong. After a long journey, some became Calamities in other worldlines, while others joined hands with dokkaebis.

"You have to stop the storm here for the fable to be complete."

And some formed an Otherworld Covenant.

[The Outer God looks at you.]

All Outer Gods were terribly lonely.

"It means you'll have a star where you can stay."

My body trembled as if in convulsions from merely receiving its gaze. If I had been an ordinary Incarnation, it wouldn't have been strange for blood to pour from all seven orifices.

Even so, I could endure it.

[The fable Heir to an Eternal Name yawns lightly.]

"Heir to an Eternal Name" was a fable I had acquired after defeating the Founder of the Absolute Throne.

In other words, I had more resistance to Outer Gods than anyone else in this worldline.

The Outer God seemed flustered as it looked at me.

But only for a moment.

【My home disappeared long ago.】

The terrible storm began moving again. It seemed ready to tear me apart at any moment.

"When four winds meet, they form the directions, and when another four winds join them, they create the mystery of the Eight Trigrams."

I slowly closed my eyes and felt the wind blowing against me.

As if I had become a wall.

As if the wind's story would be inscribed upon my body.

As if I were pressing down each letter as I wrote, I spoke the sentence with all my strength.

"Thus, the wind exists everywhere and nowhere."

In an instant, the raging storm stopped as if by magic.

【How do you know that insight?】

The Outer God's form appeared through the gradually clearing storm.

Looking at its shadow, I smiled faintly.

"How would I know?"

The wolf Constellation seemed to have safely summoned the Outer God I mentioned.

Still, I wasn't sure this Outer God was the wolf from the worldline I knew.

But just as Asmodeus had come to the forty-first round, just as Kim Dokja Company had appeared here, if that wolf had also endured the long years and finally become an Outer God.

The wolf's eyes slowly widened as he approached me.

【Don't tell me.】

This gamble would have been impossible if I had been Hakhyeon.

But I was now acting in Kim Dokja's name.

That meant there was a chance.

[Your synchronization rate with your Patron has increased!]

Thud. Thud.

The wolf walked toward me. Seeing that he stood at least three meters tall, I remembered his first description.

「They are at least three meters tall. They are Fighters of the Wind, possessing monstrous Constitution and strength like giants.」

The wolf slowly lowered himself to my eye level. Then he stared at me for a long time, as if reading the fable dwelling in my eyes.

【H-Hogu? Is that really you?】

He was the guide of the ruined planet Chronos.

The prince of the imyuntar who had taught Dokja the [Way of the Wind].

"It's Hoju, Lycaon Isparang."

Dokja once said that those who formed an Otherworld Covenant could no longer see the proper ■■.

Yet he too had eventually formed an Otherworld Covenant. He must not have found an answer either. This damned world had been designed so that no matter what anyone did, they could never reach the correct ■■.

I was no different.

"Let's form an Otherworld Covenant."

No matter how I thought about it, this was the only way to oppose the Twelve Zodiacs.

* * *

[Some Constellations of the nebula Twelve Zodiacs request a Plausibility Compatibility Assessment regarding the Area 13 incident.]

[Some Constellations of the nebula Olympus ask you for permission to enter the Recycling Center.]

[Some Constellations of the nebula Veda ask you for permission to enter the Recycling Center.]

[Some Constellations of the nebula Tamra...]

Indirect Messages from Constellations poured in without end.

The Recycling Center Director waved a hand through the air as if annoyed, and the messages scattered like a swarm of insects.

A screen appeared where the messages had dispersed.

It showed Area 13.

[As you know, I like old fables.]

The Recycling Center Director smiled as he watched the Incarnation and wolf facing each other on the screen.

[Seeing how that story moves my heart, it seems your story has already become an old fable too.]

As he spoke, he looked at the flask behind him.

Inside the enormous flask, as tall as a person, a man wearing a white coat rested with his eyes closed.

The Recycling Center Director slowly placed a hand against the flask's wall and asked,

[How many points would you give that story, Demon King of Salvation?]

Footnotes:

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