WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Ryuu

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SSS-CLASS HUNTER WHO DIES TO LIVE

Chapter 249: Reversal (1)

It was raining that day.

"Ha. How on earth does it rain inside the tower?"

Viper grumbled as he walked through the dimly lit street. A few streetlamps were erected haphazardly, resembling a row of bean sprouts carelessly abandoned by a primary school student. Some of them were even broken.

"Damn it."

Glancing at a shattered streetlamp, Viper narrowed his one eye.

"The state of this tower is really going downhill."

The early days of the tower.

A time when infrastructure was still unestablished.

Buildings frequently experienced blackouts, and with no traffic lights or crosswalks, various crimes were rampant on the streets.

Fed up with this, Sword Saint declared he would create a [Vigilante Corps]... But well, could it really be successful? Viper was skeptical.

This place was a gathering spot for trash and madmen.

"Ah! The Celestial Martial Guild Master!"

Then, the voice of a representative among these madmen reached him from behind.

Reluctantly turning around, considering the social status of this madman, Viper had little choice.

"...What?"

"Ah. It is indeed the Celestial Martial Guild Master!"

A smile that seemed to scatter gold dust.

Turning around, a child resembling an angel stood amidst the trash-filled street. The child, who appeared never to have faced any hardship, smiled radiantly, enhancing his fresh golden hair that seemed just washed.

"Heretic Inquisitor."

Viper knew the name of this precarious being.

"What brings you out in the rain to call for me?"

"Ahaha, so stern! I've come because of advice from the Black Dragon Witch. She told me to talk to you in a public place!"

Viper frowned.

"What do you mean? Like having a chat with you in the middle of this rain, letting people around us overhear, to give them the impression that [relations between Celestial Martial Clan and the Temple of All Gods are cordial]?"

"Oho, indeed! That must be the reason!"

"You came without knowing? And followed her orders so obediently."

"I'm still learning. And I didn’t have many other options! Hmm, to be faithful to that purpose, it would be more effective to go to a café and shelter from the rain together!"

Viper felt a twitch in his nose.

'Sure enough, we're incompatible.'

Something, instinctively, was [incompatible] between him and this creature.

They exchanged words, leading the other to a further refined conclusion. Yet, Viper never felt like they had [exchanged words]. On the contrary, it was the opposite. It felt like they had selectively communicated in alien languages, understanding nothing of each other.

"Hmm. A café."

"Yes, it's a nice café!"

Again.

Even when simply mentioning a [café], a sense of alienation was felt.

Was this being really using the word café in the same sense as him? Understanding it? Could a parrot, memorizing patterns of conversation and responding to humans, truly be considered communicating?

"......."

Viper glanced at the Heretic Inquisitor's eyes with his remaining one.

In the Inquisitor's blue eyes, he was not reflected at all. Those blue eyes seemed only made to reflect the sky.

Then, speaking to [this guy] and [talking to the sky] were hardly different. In either case, the conversation wouldn't get through.

If the desire to converse with gods, with whom communication is impossible, gave birth to religion, then this guy being the head of a religion would be the height of irony.

"Hey, religious nut."

"Yes, swordsman!"

"Master of the Temple."

"Yes, Celestial Martial Guild Master!"

"Heretic Inquisitor."

"Yes, Viper!"

"Right."

Viper spoke to the rain-soaked sky.

"Right. Let's go to a café."

It was raining that day.

The rain was falling.

"King of Death—-!"

A drenched roar echoed. The Celestial Martial Guild Master, known as Viper, using the body of a one-horned noble warrior, spread his red eyes wide.

The color red was not just in his eyes. Disheveled hair. The broken horn. Muscles on his chest and elongated nails. Every part of him was soaked in red rain. As red dyed his body, Viper's possessed forms twisted in agony.

“Kaaaah!”

It was the aura from the Demonic Formations Art that Ester and I had unfolded.

Graceful Rain of Lamenting Heavens.

The autumn rain scattered by Ester when she was the Demon King. Her resentment and hostility turned into countless raindrops. Viper, who fought in multiple bodies, was struck by the red downpour.

"Ha, hooo... Haha... Ahahaha!"

One by one, the possessed bodies fell, and the one-horned warrior laughed. He stood up from a heap of his kin's corpses. He stepped on, kicked, and trampled them, carving a path for himself to move.

That figure was indeed a venomous snake.

The warrior, no, Viper, chuckled softly. Redder than the rain, his eyes were filled with intense bloodlust. A clear sign of disharmony. Coated in a veil of blood, Viper licked the rainwater dripping down his face as if it were refreshing water.

"Will you try to stop me, King of Death?"

"Yes."

I replied.

"I intend to stop you, Celestial Martial Guild Master."

"Why!"

"I was told this by one of the kids I look after."

I briefly glanced at the leader of the Earth Spirit Tribe.

"If Uburka blows you away, that's Uburka's victory, not theirs."

"Oh."

"In the same way, if you win this situation by throwing a tantrum, that would be your victory, not your tribe's."

"Uwahaha."

The madman engulfed in disharmony roared in the rain.

"Indeed, just like the tribe you lead. I have no words against such correct and upright logic."

"......."

"Ah, it's infuriating... Yes. That's right. I'm such a damn person."

"Celestial Martial Guild Master,"

"How did you manage to raise those kids so well and upright, damn it!"

Crackle-

Electricity sparked beneath Viper's feet. In response, lightning struck down from the rainy sky. Kwaah! The earth shook with the turmoil of aura. Raindrops on the ground splashed, and those adorning the sky evaporated in the lightning.

"Damn it!"

Electricity flowed in the puddles on the ground. Electrified raindrops twisted in all directions. Viper stood firmly in the middle of the electrified pool.

"My kids!"

Mysteriously, the color of the electricity and lightning was purple.

"Why do they have to suffer because of someone like me!"

"......."

"Eh? King of Death!!"

Viper yelled, pulling down the lightning from the sky.

It was raining that day.

"There’s no need to kill."

In front of a cooling corpse in a dark alley, Viper muttered.

"Why do you kill? Is it necessary? Heretic Inquisitor, you're really something. But why do you always have to..."

"Um, well."

With his hands stained in blood, the Heretic Inquisitor tilted his head.

Whether the raining sky or the Inquisitor answered, Viper couldn't tell.

"It's efficient!"

"......."

"Corpses don't talk. They don't act. Hence, they neither break promises nor become future threats! Therefore, it's best to kill those who show enmity when you can!"

As the days of rain increased, time seemed to flow twice as fast.

In the now better-lit streets with more streetlamps, the broken deity's child, who had repeatedly turned people into part of the street, eventually spoke with a chin propped in boredom.

"Celestial Martial Guild Master."

"......."

"I know you're trying to 'fix' me."

The Heretic Inquisitor smiled brightly.

"Thanks to your efforts, the two of us have become close enough to order coffee for each other, beyond just showing off the friendship between our two guilds."

"......."

"But, that's as far as it goes."

The Heretic Inquisitor looked at Viper.

In his sky-like eyes, neither the corpse he had just created nor Viper himself seemed to be reflected.

"You, like everyone else, can only make use of me. You cannot change my fundamental principles."

Old cars raced down the street.

These cars, belonging in an antique shop, still roamed actively in Babylon. Beep! Beep! A sound like a breathless lung echoed from somewhere.

"Why?"

"Because you can't take responsibility for me."

The words aimed in the rain were cruelly pure.

"I was born this way. I have lived like this. There is no other life possible for me, and your attempts to instill a different way of life in me are doomed to fail, despite all your good intentions."

A broken streetlamp fell under the pressure of the rain.

Even amidst this, the Heretic Inquisitor, with arms spread wide, laughed brightly.

"But, Celestial Martial Guild Master. Is that really such a bad thing?"

"I categorize anyone who tries to kill me for not being able to take responsibility for me as an enemy. Unfortunately, 99 percent of this world is made up of enemies! In that regard, you're a rare case, Celestial Martial Guild Master. Even if you had the chance, you probably wouldn't kill me!"

Lightning struck.

Amidst the fierce rain, the lightning appeared purple. Startled by the lightning, a car nearby sped through a large puddle. Like a giant splash created by an invisible hand, water sprayed up, drenching them both.

"In a way, the two of us are friends and colleagues."

"Isn't that enough?"

It wasn't enough.

But if that was the best they could achieve, they had to be content.

That's what he thought.

He had thought.

Lightning struck on a rainy day.

Every aura has a different color. But it's not just the color that's different. Even the same red aura could mean [blood] or [roses]. The image harbored in the aura user's heart, the deep-seated imagery, defines the aura.

My aura resembled blood or flames.

And the sixth-ranked Hunter, Viper, seemed to have harbored [rotten purple lightning] in his heart.

“…How could I know that?”

I picked up a sword from a nearby corpse.

“Why wouldn't I know, you brat!”

Viper charged.

As fast as lightning, with his aura charged with disharmony, Viper was incredibly fast. It was almost impossible to track his movements with eyes. In just a moment, Viper's figure flashed past me.

Swoosh!

“Damn it,”

Blood spurted from my shoulder. An odd fast sword strike. If it had gone a bit deeper, I might have lost my left arm, but I was angry for a different reason.

“Why the hell are you acting like a brat!? Aren't you ashamed before a much younger junior!?”

Before I regressed, Celestial Martial Guild Master was a big shot, too high for me to even look up to.

Even after discovering he was the emperor of light novels with a silly temperament, fundamentally, I respected this man.

Even considering he was in disharmony and unable to think clearly, I couldn't stand to see such a man behaving so disgracefully.

“Junior? Ha. Where would you find a junior like you!”

Viper's voice came from all directions. He was moving ceaselessly.

In a fraction of a second, he was already in front of me. I used aura to extend my sense of time as much as possible. In the endlessly stretched time, Viper moved to strike my abdomen, chin, and head.

Fatal blows.

Each strike was imbued with the intent to kill me.

I dodged his strikes by moving my feet, pushing with my hands, and twisting my waist.

“Why!”

Viper didn't stop.

Before the sound of his footsteps faded, he appeared on the other side. He swung his sword. I barely avoided his strike by pushing my aura to its limit.

“King of Death! Why you!”

In the moment I avoided the strike.

Our eyes met. His were ablaze with venom. It made me wonder if this is how a jar of venomous snakes would look, writhing within.

His eyes shimmered in a dark red color, like a jar of poison.

“Why is only you, making others happy!”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden,”

“You inherited the Martial Arts of Demonic Heaven!”

That was unexpected for me.

Frozen for a moment, Viper shouted as if coughing up blood.

“You provided the Heavenly Demon with her greatest moments! You gave her gifts. Despite being devoured by the pain of death, the Heavenly Demon could genuinely smile because of the gifts you gave!”

He was a comrade who had entered the [Veritable Records of the Heavenly Demon] with me.

I fought on the side of the Demonic Cult, and Viper on the orthodox side.

I revered the Heavenly Demon as my master, and Viper had the Head of the Martial Alliance as his master.

“Why!”

The comrade who shared winter with me yelled.

“Why couldn't the Head of the Alliance do the same!”

"......."

His cry had the power to momentarily stop me in my tracks.

Blood splattered from my cheek as I was struck by Viper's aura, but I couldn't help but stand still.

“Namgung Woon, my gramps, also fought desperately! To become a human who could rival the Heavenly Demon... he dedicated his life to training! To me, the Head of the Martial Alliance seems more noble! But why... why did he have to find his late happiness in taking care of clueless fools rather than meeting such an end..."

Viper's aura darkened further.

The purple aura rose from his shoulders, slowly rippling, and eventually stretched into the air.

“Is it my fault?”

"......."

“Is that also my fault? Did I fail to understand the Head of the Martial Alliance deeper, just like I couldn't properly take care of these guys... Why do I…"

Viper was still looking down.

But as quiet as his voice became, the amount of aura emanating from his whole body was massive. Now, Viper's aura hung on his back, moving like wriggling tentacles.

Silence.

The fight between the Celestial Martial and the King of Death Family was reaching a conclusion.

Every time Kim Yul swung his sword, a couple of possessed bodies died. Each time Uburka chopped with his axe, half a dozen bodies were severed. When Ester swung her red greatsword, a line of possessed bodies attempting a counterattack evaporated in an instant.

"......."

Only Viper's own screams were heard.

The deeper the defeat, the deeper the silence grew.

“King of Death..."

“Yes, Celestial Martial Guild Master.”

“Why me...”

And then.

Viper slowly raised his head.

Our eyes met.

His eyes were writhing in pure darkness, and I realized.

‘Ah.’

Only after locking eyes with him did I fully understand. I grasped the meaning behind Viper's eyes and the vibration in his voice. Maybe it was because I, more than anyone, could deeply understand it.

Because it was the same look and voice I had once harbored.

My first wish. The resentment I couldn't fulfill until my first death. My desire and essence to swing my sword as I pleased, walking only the paths I wanted, breathing clean air on high mountains, living as I wanted.

The first skill I acquired.

[I Want to Become Just Like You].

The moment I looked into Viper's eyes, I acutely understood the name of the venom within them.

“Me too.”

Viper gritted his teeth.

If there was a soul, it would be tearing out from his molars right now.

“I, too, wanted to be someone like you.”

Indeed.

At some point, I had already become that kind of existence to others.

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