WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 808: Episode 39: Rumors (7)
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Anxiety swept over me. If the “comments” I had just seen were true, something terrible was about to happen to Yu Junghyeok.
Perhaps startled by Junghyeok's disappearance, even the martial artists escorting us hurriedly began sending people to search the area.
"Yu Junghyeok!"
I called his name again and again.
Junghyeok could die. No, perhaps he was already dead. If that happened...
"Yu Junghyeok?"
Then, a moment later, his head emerged from the crowd.
Junghyeok appeared with one of the escorting martial artists, glaring at me with his usual surly eyes.
"What."
"No, how can you suddenly disappear like that?"
"There were Murim Dumplings nearby."
Looking closely, I saw a small dumpling clenched between his teeth.
Seriously, that was why?
"This place has preserved part of the authentic Murim Dumpling recipe. I like it here."
Come to think of it, Junghyeok had disappeared over dumplings in the main story, too.
Every time Junghyeok visited the First Martial World, he ate Murim Dumplings. It was probably because of his memories with the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint.
Whenever he swallowed one of those dumplings, he was likely reliving the memories of those days over and over.
In short, this food ritual was necessary for Junghyeok to go on living while remembering his past rounds.
"Staring like that won't make me give you any."
"I'm not eating them."
I didn't know. Maybe he really was just eating because he had to cram down eight meals a day.
The escorting martial artists also looked somewhat surprised by little Junghyeok's appetite. It was understandable, considering he was stuffing two dumplings into his mouth at a time.
"Young Hero Yu, you cannot disappear so suddenly."
I could tell what the guards were thinking just by the looks they exchanged.
「Is that really the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's disciple?」
A little later, we arrived at Blue Dragon Castle's plaza. At its center, a huge banner bearing the words "191st Fear Realm Expedition" fluttered in the wind.
[The Main Scenario region is nearby.]
The Namgung Clan martial artists pointed toward the entrance to the event venue.
"The Clan Head is waiting inside."
The venue was already packed with people. There were participants here for the Fear Realm Expedition, as well as Incarnations who had come to see them off or watch.
"I heard the expedition leader is coming from the Namgung Clan?"
"Then will it be Namgung Myeong, the Young Clan Head?"
"That's the rumor, but surely not. They wouldn't send the clan's greatest prospect into a Scenario where people go to die..."
I heard something ominous, but forced myself to ignore it. Entering the Main Scenario was the priority right now.
We stepped into the venue without hesitation.
Or rather, we tried to.
[You cannot enter this event venue.]
What?
[You are an Exile.]
[You cannot access this event venue without proof of identity.]
It was an unexpected message.
Proof of identity for the Fear Realm Expedition, of all Scenarios?
Had they noticed the sparks flowing through my body? The gatekeepers guarding the venue were rushing toward us.
Fortunately, the Namgung Clan's escorting martial artists stepped forward.
"Stand back. He is an honored guest of the Namgung Clan. The Clan Head ordered that he be allowed to participate in the event!"
Despite the escorting martial artists' threats, the gatekeepers did not back down easily.
"Even if he is a guest of the Namgung Clan, we cannot admit an Exile. Those are the venue's rules."
I was reminded once again of how Exiles were treated in Scenario Areas.
"Can the Namgung Clan guarantee that this man is not a heinous criminal?"
"Even a criminal may participate in the Fear Realm Expedition with the Five Great Families' permission. You know that."
"The matter is a little different when the person is an Exile. If an Exile has drifted all the way here, he cannot be ordinary. What if he is some Great Evil despised by the Constellations?"
The gatekeepers glared at me with blazing eyes, showing no sign of yielding.
Then a shout came from inside the venue.
"The departure address has begun!"
At this rate, we would miss every part of the Scenario participation ceremony.
I quickly signaled to Junghyeok.
―Go in first.
―What about you?
―I'll find a way in somehow. You need to go ahead and get a sense of the atmosphere inside.
After thinking for a moment, Junghyeok nodded.
―Don't be late.
The Namgung Clan martial artists bowed to me in silence before disappearing into the venue with Junghyeok.
One of them said to me before leaving.
"I will inform the Clan Head of the situation. Please wait a little."
I nodded, but something felt strange.
Could the Emperor Sword, Namgung Jincheon, really not have anticipated this?
The Fear Realm Expedition was an event he and the Five Great Families had planned together.
He knew I was an Exile, so had he really failed to prevent my entry from being restricted?
A bad feeling suddenly came over me.
What if the Emperor Sword's purpose was to separate Junghyeok and me?
[You are an Exile.]
[You cannot access this event venue without proof of identity.]
I shook my head.
Even if this was a trap, there was nothing I could do. The Incarnation body repaired by the Divine Doctor would not last much longer. At this point, searching for another Main Scenario would only waste time.
I had to find some way inside that venue.
"Is there no way for an Exile to enter?"
The gatekeepers looked at one another uneasily at my question, then answered in somewhat sharp voices.
"It is possible if there is a Constellation who can vouch for your identity."
A Constellation?
Judging by their expressions, the gatekeepers seemed sure there could not possibly be a Constellation willing to vouch for an Exile like me.
A Constellation's guarantee.
I looked up at the pale sky and thought of the Constellations who might help me. Several modifiers came to mind, but I could not be sure whether they were still watching me after I had been expelled from the Scenario.
Besides, most of the stars in that sky were hostile toward me. If they learned I was here, more of them would descend to kill me by any means necessary than offer proof of my identity.
But I could not delay any longer.
Whether I used [Incitement] or some other trick, I had to enter the venue.
Just as I made up my mind and was about to activate [Incitement]...
"Those people..."
A stir rose at the venue entrance. It was a crowd of martial artists who had just begun to enter. They seemed to be martial artists from the Nine Sects and One Gang.
"This expedition looks promising."
"Could he be setting out as well?"
"Oh, revenge for his past defeat? It would be a chance to restore the status of his fallen sect."
I watched the martial artists entering in splendid robes. Judging by their clothing, they appeared to be masters from the orthodox factions.
"It's Shaolin!"
"Wudang is here too!"
Shaolin, Mount Hua, Wudang... Masters from the sects I had only heard rumors about were entering the venue one after another.
Then, at the end of the procession, there was a man dressed in somewhat familiar clothing.
At first, I did not recognize him. But after looking once, twice, then three times, I began to realize who he was.
His face was different, but there was no doubt.
More than anything, the fable within me was bearing witness to him.
At that moment, the middle-aged man who noticed me opened his eyes wide.
"You are..."
There he was.
The one star in this desolate First Martial World who could vouch for my identity.
* * *
[You have entered a new Main Scenario region.]
[Exile Penalty has been lifted.]
[A new Main Scenario has arrived!]
At last, the air of a Scenario had returned.
Feeling the fresh breath of that story, I was overwhelmed anew. This was what it felt like to be alive, the clear sensation of standing firmly within a story and living on.
I wanted to check the Scenario details immediately, but I needed to offer my thanks first.
"Thank you so much."
The tall middle-aged man waved both hands dismissively with a kindly smile. The fable within me reacted again.
[Fable Persistent Martial Arts Master trembles with delight.]
Sensing the fable, the middle-aged man nodded as if he found it commendable.
"It seems to listen to you well now."
"It has helped me a great deal."
"Persistent Martial Arts Master" had once been this middle-aged man's fable.
"It has been a long time since Seoul Station."
He was Seoul Station's former Representative, a Constellation known as the Last Ark of the Beggars’ Sect.
Cheon Gae of the Dragon Head Ark.
[The constellation Last Ark expresses delight at seeing you.]
The events at Seoul Station passed through my mind like a panorama.
This was the star who had wanted to relinquish his place as a Constellation and begin the Scenario anew from the start.
Now, that star stood before me with his Incarnation body.
"You look well."
"I have you to thank for that."
He said that, but Cheon Gae's Status was not what it had once been.
It was only natural. Back then, Cheon Gae had been caught up in a Plausibility Backlash involving an Outer God and paid an enormous price.
"It seems much has happened to you since I last saw you."
I answered with a bitter smile.
Perhaps Cheon Gae and I were now in a position to understand one another better than anyone. In a sense, we were both fallen stars.
"Have you come to participate in this Scenario too, Sect Leader?"
"Did you not tell me to uphold the Beggars’ Sect's duty? I have returned to the place where there is a duty for me to uphold."
Cheon Gae, once one of the First Martial World's greatest masters, had been driven from the martial world after consecutive defeats to Paradoxical White Purity and the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint.
"I have decided to rewrite the history of my sky from here. In the world where I fell and fled."
"That is a significant resolution."
It was a decision only a star who had acknowledged his own failure could make. Even so, his expression was brighter than ever.
"I thought that, to understand my rivals, I first had to learn about the trials they overcame."
"Is that why you joined the Fear Realm Expedition?"
After hearing his explanation, I understood why he had no choice but to participate in this expedition.
「Fear Realm is both the cradle and the grave of Transcendents.」
Fear Realm was the only entrance in this martial world that led to the Dark Dimension.
And most of the Transcendents known in the martial world came from that Dark Dimension.
Paradoxical White Purity Kyrios Lordgrime and Sky-Splitting Sword Saint Namgung Minyeong were no exception.
"That is right. Still, seeing that you have come all this way, it seems you are in quite a plight as well."
Cheon Gae seemed to have guessed why I was participating in the Fear Realm Expedition.
"There are many Constellations, myself included, who are rooting for you."
"I appreciate that."
"Though there are even more Constellations who want to kill you."
I responded with a bitter smile.
"I have heard the rumors, more or less. They say you defeated all the Twelve Zodiacs at the Recycling Center."
"I think that one is a little exaggerated."
"I also heard that, with nothing but your tongue, you called in Outer Gods and set them against the Constellations in a huge fight."
That Outer God story was probably about Kim Dokja Company.
But those people had not come because I called them. They had simply shown up.
"I heard you put holes clean through the bellies of the Constellations obsessed with you."
That was not me either. It was Jaehwan, the Stabbing Monster...
"I heard you joined forces with a naked man crying out for destruction..."
Well, I had traveled with him.
"When I heard you had called in Archangels and Demon Kings, reenacted the Great war of Angels and Demons, and tried to destroy the Star Stream... I was truly shocked."
Something was wrong with the rumors.
Footnotes:
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