WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 1: An Opportunity Arises
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“Ha, fuck.”
Until moments ago, the building had been intact.
Now, it was nothing but a heap of rubble.
Standing amid the ruins, Rimon ran a bloodied hand through his hair.
Then, looking at the countless gun barrels aimed at him, he calmly considered the question.
What did I do wrong?
If they had been criminals, he would not have bothered to wonder.
Whether they were the boss of a vicious criminal syndicate.
A politician who controlled the government.
Or a general from a mighty superpower.
When facing those who corrupted their country and threatened humanity, he had never hesitated to draw his sword.
Yet there was one reason he was troubled now.
The people aiming guns at him were not criminals.
Many had even been his coworkers, sharing meals with him until yesterday.
“Guys, I've thought it over, but I still don't get it...”
That was why Rimon could not hold back the question.
“Why the hell are you doing this?”
He had fought for humanity his whole life.
He had no intention of claiming he had only ever done what was right.
But he had never committed evil for selfish gain.
Once, his devotion had been recognized, and he had been praised as a hero. He had even held a position below one person and above ten thousand.
That made it even harder to understand.
“Why are you trying to kill me by setting this kind of trap and pinning some absurd false charge on me, you bastards?”
It was not a lament.
It was not mockery.
It was neither rage nor a cry of despair.
There was only pure incomprehension.
Only the question of why they wanted to kill him.
A false charge alone had not been enough. They had even sacrificed his subordinates to get rid of him, and he could not understand why.
Those aiming their guns at him gave no answer.
Only a few stepped aside to the left and right, as though acting on someone's orders.
Then, one person appeared between them.
The instant Rimon saw the one who had orchestrated this, he finally understood.
“...Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped him.
“When the cunning rabbit dies, the good hound is boiled, huh.”
The reason was simple.
Once the hunt was over, it was only natural to want to dispose of an unnecessary hunting dog.
Especially a mad dog that ran wild as it pleased.
Even if that mad dog had been the greatest contributor to defending the country.
“So you don't need an old relic like me anymore?”
He had known plenty of people found him inconvenient.
Still, he had never cared.
He had spent his whole life being envied by small-minded people.
More than anything, no matter what anyone said, he had believed the country would never abandon him.
But that had been a misjudgment.
No, arrogance might be the better word.
The country Rimon had protected while repeatedly brushing against death no longer needed him.
Instead, claiming he stood in the way of national interests, it was trying to bury him under every crime imaginable and dispose of him.
Perhaps it was only natural.
The days when Rimon had been an absolute power were long gone.
The country needed different people now, and he was merely called an outdated relic.
Even though he still possessed the greatest strength, enough to fight the entire world.
“Yeah. I was wrong.”
Once he understood that much, Rimon finally realized it.
Why he had been driven into this situation.
What his fatal mistake had been.
“I'm the idiot for trying so hard to protect a world like this.”
He had neglected wealth and power.
He had lived by duty and responsibility.
He had shown kindness and yielded to the weak.
He had scoffed at the phrase patriotic loyalty, yet still risked his life to protect the world.
That had been Rimon's mistake.
If he had gathered wealth and power.
If he had seized rights and authority, then wielded them.
If he had ignored peace and lived selfishly.
And if, back then, he had accepted her proposal.
At least he would not have been discarded with such a filthy feeling.
If I were given another chance...
Rimon suddenly thought.
What if he had the power to turn back time?
What if he could live his life again?
At that very moment, three beams of light descended from the sky.
[The few Constellations who had been watching you respond to your wish.]
[The Trickster Who Mocks Fate proposes a contract. If you accept, you will gain the power to change fate.]
[The Merciful Guardian of Resurrection proposes a contract. If you accept, you will gain the power to turn back death.]
[The Raven Who Watches Glory proposes a contract. If you accept, you will gain the power to seek glory.]
[Which Constellation's contract will you accept?]
“...Huh?”
Three beams of light poured down from the stars.
As messages appeared one after another before his eyes, Rimon blinked.
His frozen mind could not immediately grasp what was happening.
The ones truly horrified were the others.
“What?! Why would Constellations...!”
“That radiance... D-don't tell me they're Monarch-class Constellations?”
“This is insane! Not one, but three Monarch-class Constellations have appeared and offered contracts!”
As if their silence had been a lie, they erupted into chaos.
Only then did Rimon understand what was happening.
And what he needed to do.
“Kill him! Stop him before he contracts with a Constellation!”
Apparently frightened by the changed situation, they hurried to attack Rimon at the mastermind's shout.
But they were far too late.
Before any of them could pull a trigger, Rimon had already moved.
Slaaash!
“...!”
The instant they saw what unfolded next, everyone present dropped their jaws.
It was not because a sword had somehow appeared in Rimon's hand.
The three beams of light, brilliant only moments ago, had all shattered into countless fragments and were crumbling apart.
“Fuck off, you scammer bastards!”
Amid the fragments of light he had cut apart, Rimon shouted fiercely.
Then, glaring at the stars in the sky, he held up his middle finger.
“My fate is mine! I'd rather die than hand it over to the likes of you for a bargain-bin price!”
That... lunatic...!
They were dumbfounded.
Most people would kill for the chance to form a contract with even an ordinary Constellation.
A contract with a Monarch-class Constellation, especially, required heaven-sent luck.
It was every Player's dream.
Yet he had not merely rejected such fortune. He had cut through the Constellations' blessings with his sword.
The fact that it was even possible was absurd enough.
Even seeing it for themselves, they could hardly believe someone had actually done it.
But beneath their shock, they understood at the same time.
This was Rimon Aspelder.
The hero of humanity and the worst mad dog, who had once stood at the summit of the world.
“What the fuck are you staring at, you bastards? Do you think I'll let you off if you start playing spectators now?”
Rumble.
“Huh? What kind of trick is this now?”
Just as the mad dog rolled his eyes and prepared to lunge at them, a storm of light tore through the night.
The fragments of the beams Rimon had cut apart surged as though they had gone berserk, swirling around him.
“What are you, door-to-door salesmen? Hey, I'm not making a contract, so get lost! Why do you keep sticking to me?!”
As the fragments of light crept closer, Rimon bellowed and swung his sword again.
But no matter how often he cut them apart, they only scattered.
The light did not disappear. It kept condensing around him.
Rimon and those surrounding him could not hide their confusion at this phenomenon, unlike anything they had ever seen.
But others were the ones most alarmed by it.
[System error, error code k94o0a4. A bug has occurred due to a forced system severance during contract processing.]
[Fragments of the damaged Constellations are absorbed by the subject.]
[The Trickster Who Mocks Fate, with one hand stolen, rolls about.]
[The Merciful Guardian of Resurrection, having lost one wing, is flustered.]
[The Raven Who Watches Glory, robbed of a pair of eyes, is enraged.]
Rrrrumble!
Like shoppers who had had their belongings snatched, the three stars flashed violently in the sky, stirring up gales and shaking the earth.
But no matter how wildly the stars thrashed, the flow of light did not stop.
“What? Hey, you bastards! Who said you could put things in my body? Get lost! Are you going to get lost or not?!”
While everyone else watched in a daze, dust-like motes of light that had fallen from the stars swirled into Rimon's thrashing body.
At last, the final ray of light seeped completely into him.
The world collapsed.
* * *
It was a strange sensation.
Fatigue as though he had not slept for a hundred years, and a haziness as though he had wandered through dreams for a hundred years.
It felt neither like a dream nor reality, which only made that boundary of consciousness harder to escape.
Rimon had been sinking endlessly within it, gradually forgetting himself.
Then a voice dragged him back to reality.
“Team Leader, Team Leader?”
Rimon wondered.
Who did that voice belong to?
And why did it sound so unfamiliar despite being clearly familiar?
“Stop sleeping and wake up already. This is why people call you a complete bastard, Team Leader...!”
Smack!
“Eek?!”
“Who are you calling a complete bastard, you little punk?”
Whether his mind had fully awakened or not, his body reacted immediately.
The moment he heard himself called a complete bastard, he flicked his finger and struck the forehead of the person shaking him.
“Ow! Why did you have to hit my face? If I can't get married because of this, are you going to take responsibility, Team Leader?!”
The place he had hit must have hurt badly.
She clutched her reddened forehead and groaned, then shrieked with tears welling in her eyes.
Rimon looked at her with a strange expression.
He had finally remembered who she was.
“Yoo Na-gyeong?”
“What?”
“Na-gyeong from my team?”
“I'm your only team member. Is there another Na-gyeong?”
Name: Yoo Na-gyeong.
Age: twenty-six.
Occupation: civil servant recruited through special appointment.
Status: member of his team.
Characteristic: subtly cocky.
Height: 158 centimeters. Weight... Never mind that for now.
For a moment, Rimon sorted through the memories of her flooding back at the mention of her name, as though something blocked had suddenly burst open.
Then he pushed all those memories aside.
And he asked her the thing he wanted to know most.
“Why are you alive?”
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