WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
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Chapter 33: And You Call Yourself Human?
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Rimon Aspelder.
A man thought to have fallen behind the times.
A hero once called the Guardian Deity of Humanity.
Watching the man who had achieved the superhuman feat of defeating a Monarch, yet called himself nothing more than human, Lee Cheon-gi finally understood.
A Sword Master.
A being who had reached the state of ageless immortality without borrowing the power of Constellations, or even any other mystical or supernatural force, through nothing but wielding a sword.
Superhumans among superhumans. True monsters feared even by dragons and Demon Gods.
Absolute beings who had once stood at the pinnacle of this world.
And the last survivor of their kind was the man before him.
“...For someone who says he doesn't want to show off his strength, you sure took the president hostage and caused quite a mess.”
Why was that?
He had already known the fact.
Yet unable to bear the tension suddenly rising within him, Lee Cheon-gi reflexively threw in a jab.
Rimon snorted at that.
“I said I don't want to become a monster. I never said I wanted to be a pushover.”
He could overlook ignorant children fooling around.
But when little bastards took advantage of lenient juvenile punishments to commit murder, rape, and looting, it was only right to beat them to death.
If he held back even in situations like that, wouldn't he just be playing at being some pathetic hidden powerhouse?
Rimon said it without the slightest hesitation.
Watching him, Lee Cheon-gi thought, This man doesn't even think like an ordinary person.
Lee Cheon-gi was not referring to the sort of medieval mindset that said children with bad roots should be killed.
Whether the target was a president, a Monarch, or even an entire nation.
He simply viewed them all as children.
Lee Cheon-gi could feel it.
It was not a perspective one could have merely from living long enough to witness the rise and fall of a nation.
It was the viewpoint of someone who had watched over a country with tens of millions of people as though it were a garden he had tended his entire life, treating every flower and tree within it as a child to be protected and raised.
The perspective of an absolute being...
Had he ever viewed the world that way, even once?
Lee Cheon-gi considered it without thinking, then let out a hollow laugh.
More than anyone, he knew the answer was no.
Before being an absolute being, he was a Monarch.
No matter how high his level was, he was ultimately a Player who had lived thinking only about how to use his own power, just as Rimon had said.
“May I ask one last question?”
“You ridiculous bastard. You've been asking questions all this time, and now you're asking permission?”
Rimon questioned him as though dumbfounded.
But Lee Cheon-gi did not stop.
Since Rimon had not refused, he took that as permission and quietly asked.
“If I understand the principles and meaning of the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword you mentioned, will I be able to wield such a sword as well?”
It was an abrupt question.
But Rimon was not flustered.
As though he had expected that question from the beginning.
Or as though he was impressed Lee Cheon-gi had endured this long without asking.
He chuckled, made a mischievous expression, and answered.
“No. You'll gain the minimum qualifications needed to learn it.”
“Is that so?”
“Disappointed?”
“Receiving that answer alone is enough for me.”
Lee Cheon-gi replied calmly.
It would be a lie to say he felt no regret.
The sword paths Rimon had displayed had been so dazzlingly beautiful that merely being unable to learn them was enough to make him feel grief.
But he was not disappointed.
Because Rimon's answer let him become certain of one thing.
He had acquired at least the shell of the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword and faced Rimon's ever-changing swordsmanship several times. That was why he had vaguely sensed it.
The leeway contained in that final strike.
...He truly is a monster.
He had pierced through a thousand Skills.
He had shattered the immortal sword in a single blow.
He had defeated Lee Cheon-gi, the Infinite Monarch.
Lee Cheon-gi could say with certainty that it had been an ultimate strike.
A sword no Monarch could possibly withstand.
Yet even that fantastical sword had merely been one of Rimon's best methods for subduing him.
It had not been his strongest move, wrung from every ounce of his strength like Lee Cheon-gi's 【Overlord】.
If even a sword that held something in reserve was this formidable, how extraordinary would one wielded in earnest be?
No, before that, did anyone even exist who could make Rimon exert his full strength?
If every other Monarch attacked him at once... could they truly draw out this man's full strength?
Lee Cheon-gi thought it without meaning to.
Surprisingly, Rimon's defeat was absent even from that hypothetical.
Even placing Monarchs, each possessing nearly invincible Skills, on the other side of the scales, he could not imagine Rimon losing.
That was how unfathomable Rimon had been to him.
So Lee Cheon-gi understood.
This was a true absolute being.
Unlike those who had played at being absolute through power built on cheat Skills, he was a being who had stood at the pinnacle of the world through his very existence.
“...How ridiculous.”
“What is? The state you're in?”
“Something like that.”
Lee Cheon-gi calmly answered Rimon's mockery.
He had said it because he found his own appearance ridiculous, struggling so desperately to surpass “that person” without even knowing a monster like this existed.
Perhaps because he had cast aside his pointless obsession.
Though covered in blood, Lee Cheon-gi wore a strangely peaceful expression. Rimon looked at him and snorted.
“Looks like you have no regrets left.”
“It would be a lie to say I have no lingering wishes, but I am prepared.”
Cough.
Lee Cheon-gi vomited another bowlful of blood.
Looking straight into Rimon's golden eyes, he spoke softly.
“Please finish this.”
His body had long surpassed its limit.
The only reason he was still alive was because Lee Cheon-gi possessed dozens of survival and healing Skills.
But even those could only barely keep him alive.
He no longer had the strength even to flee, let alone fight Rimon.
Having asked everything he wanted to know and accepted his end, Lee Cheon-gi heard Rimon speak with some surprise.
“You're not going to pathetically beg for your life.”
“Let us say that I have my pride as a Monarch.”
“Whether they're Monarchs or nobles, there aren't many people who keep their pride until the moment they die.”
No matter how proud they might be.
Rimon had killed countless people who, once a sword was held to their throats, offered up their money and daughters and begged only to be spared.
Lee Cheon-gi's rebuttal to that observation was simple.
“They are not me.”
“That is a foolish question with an excellent answer.”
Rimon chuckled as he rose to his feet.
Then he drew the sword he had sheathed and spoke in a languid voice.
“Anyway, since you're prepared, I'll grant you the ending you want.”
As though his laughter from moments ago had been an illusion, Rimon held out his sword with an expression as cold as ice.
Lee Cheon-gi did not avert his eyes.
He merely faced Rimon calmly.
It happened at that very moment.
Ssss.
Rimon's vision, as he held his sword to Lee Cheon-gi's throat, turned black. Things that had been invisible became visible.
It was a phenomenon he had experienced several times already.
Something he had become somewhat accustomed to.
But this time was different.
It was not merely because, unlike before when he could see the Constellations contracted to Players, even Lee Cheon-gi vanished completely from his vision.
Nor was it simply because something seemed to ripple where Lee Cheon-gi had been.
Gazes.
Gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes.
Thousands upon tens of thousands of gazes he had not sensed until moments ago, but could now distinctly feel from the instant his vision darkened.
As numerous as grains of sand upon a beach.
As clear as candles before his eyes.
Yet black and sticky as mud in a swamp.
Rimon slowly raised his head, following those gazes that seemed to rake his entire body with needles.
At the same time, he understood.
The countless stars shining in the night sky were the source and true nature of those innumerable gazes.
They were the gazes of Constellations.
At this very moment.
Tens of thousands, hundreds of millions, perhaps even trillions of Constellations were watching him.
It was terror itself.
An ordinary person would have gone mad simply trying to imagine it.
The gazes of Constellations, beings beyond comprehension, carried that much power and weight.
“...I see.”
But Rimon, the one receiving those gazes, was not shaken.
As though he wished to engrave every starlight into his eyes, he slowly surveyed the night sky and spoke quietly.
“Unlike those disposable pieces, a Monarch is too valuable for you to lose as well, is that it?”
More than several hundred Players had died by his hand over the past few days.
Yet Rimon had never once felt such dense gazes or the pressure contained within them. His lips twisted into a sneer.
“Or is watching the fight not enough for you? Do you want to make even an execution into entertainment?”
It was less a question than mockery.
A one-sided taunt at the vulgarity of those who made even another's death into a spectacle, without expecting an answer.
Then it happened.
As though answering Rimon's question.
Starlight fell from the night sky.
And from the shadow writhing where Lee Cheon-gi had been, a pale white hand burst forth.
Rimon understood.
It was a hand extending from a star.
It was directly extended by a Monarch-class Constellation that stood at the pinnacle among countless stars. He knew both that fact and the intention behind the outstretched hand.
Because he had experienced it once before.
So he acted without hesitation.
[The Constellation protecting the Infinite Monarch intervenes in reality.]
[‘Watcher of Reflected Myriad Phenomena’ ... to you...]
“Get out of my way.”
Shhk!
It happened in an instant.
Just as the Constellation's hand began writing a system message against the starlight, Rimon cut it down before he could even read it all.
Normally, it would have been a futile act.
Like cutting light with a blade, it should have ended with him merely swinging through empty air.
But the result produced by Rimon's sword was different.
Crack!
[System error, error code k51e0i
4. A bug has occurred due to the forced severance of the System while a contract is in progress.]
[A fragment of the damaged Constellation is absorbed by the target.]
[‘Watcher of Reflected Myriad Phenomena,’ whose finger was severed, is horrified.]
A sharp tearing sound rang out.
The system messages shattered into pieces.
And the hand, its finger severed, recoiled in shock and returned to the shadows.
All that remained were scattered fragments of light.
Proof that a mortal's sword had wounded a great Constellation.
Watching those fragments of light circle through the air before falling at his feet, Rimon spoke quietly.
“This is my karma. It is a debt of blood I must collect with my own sword, and only my will may decide it.”
This affair had begun when Yoo Na-gyeong was cut down.
Whom he collected that blood debt from and how he did so had to be decided solely by his own will, achieved with this sword stained by Yoo Na-gyeong's blood.
It was his duty, responsibility, and right as the one who had kept such a foolish subordinate.
“I warn you, Constellation or whatever else you are, do not interfere in my affairs.”
What the Constellation wanted to say.
He could roughly guess.
It would either ask him to spare Lee Cheon-gi, cherishing him as one would a pet.
Or order him to kill Lee Cheon-gi, like spectators watching the Colosseum.
It would be one of the two.
Promising a Constellation Contract with a Monarch-class Constellation if he complied, and retaliation if he refused. A convincing carrot and stick.
Wasn't he going to kill Lee Cheon-gi anyway?
Then why not receive a reward from the Constellation while he was at it?
What nonsense.
If a Constellation offered to make a contract if he spared Lee Cheon-gi, should he abandon his blood debt?
Conversely, if it offered a contract if he killed Lee Cheon-gi, should he happily collect his blood debt along with the extra reward?
Whether he accepted or rejected any offer.
The pure blood debt contained in his sword would vanish.
It would become nothing but murder carried out for profit, taking a life while watching the Constellations' reactions and calculating the price.
It did not matter even if he made every Constellation in the world his enemy.
While he held the sword that had pierced Yoo Na-gyeong, he could not accept wielding it with motives unrelated to that blood debt mixed in.
There was only one exception.
After it had been proven that the Constellations were not unrelated to this affair.
Only if he had to drag them down from the stars, hold a blade to their throats, and settle the blood debt with them.
“I seek neither help nor obstruction in this matter, and I will not permit even your watching.”
Perhaps it was a way of thinking that had fallen behind the times.
Perhaps it was foolish obstinacy.
It did not matter.
This was how Rimon Aspelder had lived.
“Anyone who intended to intervene, withdraw your hand. Anyone peering in, turn your eyes away now.”
So Rimon declared it.
Whether it was Skills, Constellations, fate, or anything else, he would not permit interference in what he was doing now.
It was a warning not to any particular individual, but to the world itself.
An arrogant statement that threatened even the Constellations.
“Otherwise...”
Clank.
As though sheathing his sword.
Rimon pulled it diagonally back.
Then, gripping the hilt with both hands, he looked up at the night sky with eyes that had gone cold.
“I will cut you down.”
At that moment.
The stars closed their eyes.
Stars were not living creatures to begin with, so closing their eyes was an expression that could not apply to them.
Yet Lee Cheon-gi could describe it no other way.
The stars that had densely filled the night sky vanished the moment Rimon finished speaking. It looked like nothing else.
After even the last star, flickering as though hesitant, lost its light.
In a world plunged into darkness except for the dim glow drifting in from the city.
Lee Cheon-gi stared at Rimon, standing alone and proud in the heart of that darkness, and asked blankly.
“...And you still call yourself human?”
“Unfortunately, your question time is already over. Now it is my turn to ask.”
Lee Cheon-gi had asked in earnest whether Rimon was truly human.
Rimon ignored that doubt completely.
Instead, he rested his sword on Lee Cheon-gi's shoulder and spoke in a cold voice.
“You would be wise to answer carefully.”
Golden eyes heavier and colder than when he had silenced the world itself.
Looking at Lee Cheon-gi with an unknowable black ripple held within them, Rimon twisted his lips into a frigid smile.
“Because your answer will determine how painfully you die.”
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