WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈

Chapter 136: Surviving (1)

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The Black Dragon Master glared at me.

“You were the one who snickered and dubbed us ‘Shinseo Middle and High's two great outcasts,’ Kim Gong-Ja. Thanks to you, I knew perfectly well what was happening in our class...”

In Black Dragon Master's eyes was long-standing contempt.

But the contempt didn't last long. Black Dragon Master frowned, then returned to an expressionless face. A look of weariness from her own emotions. It seemed a sigh had been carved into an expressionless face.

"……Forget it. I don't even want to talk about this with you. Talking will only make me feel worse. Damn it! If I knew I'd still see bullying in high school, I should've gone to a different school."

"You are the class president. You have responsibility for what happens in the class."

"So what? Are you saying it's my responsibility?"

Black Dragon Master sneered.

"Amazing. So it's true. You've been going around with ■■, meeting every student one by one. [Gong-Ja has repented. Gong-Ja has changed his heart.] Even the teachers were praising you in the staff room. Good for you."

A cold sneer appeared at the corner of Black Dragon Master's mouth.

"People like you have it easy. Apologize after hurting someone else and that's it. Plead for forgiveness with such earnest apologies. All mistakes were just that, mistakes. All the hurt caused was just a joke."

"......."

“It would be one thing if it happened only two or three times. How can your entire lives be nothing but mistakes and jokes? Do you have some disease that will kill you if you go even an hour without making a mistake or playing a joke? Does the world look like a dump that will accept your mistakes, and do people look like trash cans that will accept your jokes? You plague-ridden bastards. You pieces of trash...”

Black Dragon Master abruptly clamped her mouth shut.

Again, she stopped just before her emotions got more intense. Black Dragon Master looked down at her indoor shoes, appearing anxious. Since coming to the rooftop, she hadn't looked at Constellation Killer even once.

"Class President."

"……Don't do this to me."

Black Dragon Master muttered.

"Don't bring ■■ here with me. You're just going to tell me to apologize or admit I was wrong, aren't you? I did nothing wrong. The wrongdoing was yours…."

"But you don't think so."

"......."

When Constellation Killer died by suicide in the previous trauma, the school desperately looked away. The classroom tried to forget and cover up the [incident] with various tactics.

『He sent a text like that. Isn't he completely insane?』

『Yeah. Looking back, he was always a bit strange.』

Constellation Killer was the crazy one. The weird person.

On the other hand, we are 'normal.'

Maybe we sent a bullying text as a joke. But it was just a joke. A momentary deviation. Since everyone jokes and deviates, we are still normal.

Maybe we laughed at the Constellation Killer. But that was a mistake. Not our true intention. Not a serious action, we just got carried away by the atmosphere. We did nothing wrong.

『Think carefully about what's important to you and get your act together.』

『Yes, teacher.』

That was how the classroom drove one of its classmates over the edge.

Even suicide, even death, could not awaken their guilt.

+

The one responsible for my death is you.

Don’t forget.

You killed me.

+

Except for one person.

The Black Dragon Master didn’t say 'Yes, teacher.' She didn’t speak.

She just silently lowered her head.

"Don't do this to me, really...."

When countless perpetrators were brazenly mad, only one bystander remained silent.

“I did my best. In the first year, I tried to stop it. Damn it.”

And there were hundreds of reasons why a person falls silent.

“I had to investigate all kinds of things because of you bastards... Did you know? This school belongs to the Serun Education Foundation. Its board has ten members. Your girlfriend's parents are among them, Kim Gong-Ja. You didn't know, did you? You didn't know any of this and simply treated ostracizing ■■ as the most natural thing in the world, didn't you? The board also includes the senior pastor of Serun Church in the Samwon Presbytery. That's the church my family attends! I see the pastor every weekend!”

Black Dragon Master covered her forehead.

“Why do I have to learn all this because of the shit you people created? Just... please. Enough. I'm already in my second year. I study while sleeping only four or five hours a day. I'm busy. I entered this school on a scholarship, just like ■■,.. Maybe you can simply laugh and enjoy school life, but I can't!”

Ill will is easy.

“I don’t know if you bully others without thinking!”

But good will is always impossible.

"I’m desperate here! This school has that damned Scholarship Selection Committee, and our great homeroom teacher is the second-year head there! You don’t know, do you? It doesn’t matter if you don’t. Damn, I even brought up ■■ to the homeroom teacher… Please, just stop it. I didn’t want to know all this! It’s all disgusting. You guys, the homeroom teacher, the school, just everything... I’m busy trying to survive, so just, deal with it amongst yourselves!”

“I’m sorry.”

Committing evil only needs one reason.

But to act with goodness, one must carry hundreds of reasons.

“Sorry? Ha, how sorry are you? No. Fuck it. Don’t apologize to me. Don’t apologize, Kim Gong-Ja. I don’t need an apology, nor do I have the right to receive one. And you don’t need to apologize or have the right to. Because you’re trash. Just die as trash. Live until you die as trash. I beg you, after we graduate from this school, let’s never see each other again.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize! You trash!”

Black Dragon Master kicked me in the shin. A jolt ran through it. The bone rang. Breathing hard with anger, Black Dragon Master slapped my cheek.

The violence, like a curse, continued.

I gave myself up to Black Dragon Master and said.

“This kid was going to die by suicide.”

Black Dragon Master’s hand stopped.

“He would have jumped to his death a month ago. From right here.”

Silence settled on the rooftop.

"......."

Black Dragon Master turned her head.

For the first time, she saw the Constellation Killer.

Black Dragon Master moved her lips several times.

“Really…?”

Awkwardly.

As if she found it difficult just to talk to the person in front of her.

“Were you going to die…?”

She asked cautiously.

Constellation Killer faced Black Dragon Master expressionlessly.

“Yeah."

"......."

“I don't know how Kim Gong-Ja found out, but yes. I was going to kill myself.”

"......."

“The Class President had such thoughts. I never knew.”

The rooftop became quiet.

Gradually.

Black Dragon Master covered her face with both hands.

“I’m not sorry…"

Whimpers seeped through her young fingers.

“I'm not sorry, ■■. I'm not sorry to you. I was gathering evidence of school violence in our first year when I happened to learn who sat on the school's board. I gave up because I thought exposing it would change nothing. In our second year, I brought it up with the homeroom teacher once and then stopped. That is simply the kind of person I am. Please remember me that way.”

"......."

“But don't die. Don't die... Why would you die? You can't die because of that trash. You mustn't. ■■, you have to live. All right? Stay alive, get into a good university, earn money somehow, and leave this godforsaken city...”

“I’ve thought about it too.”

Constellation Killer muttered.

“That would make those bastards forget.”

"......."

“They’d live as if nothing happened. No, they probably won’t even remember. I hate that the most. I wanted to fuck them up. They'll forget anyway…”

Constellation Killer looked down at Black Dragon Master.

“I’m sorry. Class President.”

"......."

“I didn’t mean to hurt someone like you.”

Black Dragon Master knelt on the ground, covering her face with her hands, suppressing her cries. She gritted her teeth, holding back the sounds. The contained cries electrified her body, making her shoulders tremble.

Constellation Killer opened his mouth.

"There was someone after all."

He bent his knees.

"I thought there was no one."

Lowering himself.

Until he was at the same height as Black Dragon Master.

"I'm glad I didn't die back then, a month ago."

Constellation Killer slowly put an arm around Black Dragon Master's shoulders. She flinched. Constellation Killer leaned closer and rested his head against her.

"I'm glad there’s at least one person I can forgive."

"......."

The Black Dragon Master's breath broke. Tears flowed. She couldn’t hug Constellation Killer back. She just bent her body, enduring the heart-wrenching sobs. Constellation Killer embraced her for a while.

"I'm sorry……"

Black Dragon Master's body crumbled.

"I'm sorry, ■■. So sorry. I'm sorry."

But only the outer shell melted away.

The person did not fall away into a shadow or a wraith.

Someone stripped of Black Dragon Master's face screamed.

"Don't die. Please. I beg you…. You have to live."

That was a face I recognized.

A voice I had heard somewhere.

“We can live. We can live a little better. We have to live, ■■. I'll try just a little harder, so together...”

[The implementation of the trauma is deteriorating.]

The rooftop's iron door was eaten away by Emptiness.

The black tentacles like mist crept through the gaps of the door. Silently. The black tentacles wrapped around the door.

Engulfing it.

The Emptiness that had submerged everything through the fifth floor climbed the school walls and spilled onto the rooftop fence.

“No one cares about you. No one. No one at all... You must not die because of beasts like them. You have to live. Your life must not be ruined because of those beastly bastards. Survive through sheer determination, study, yes, get into a university... and move to another city.”

I saw the person behind Black Dragon Master’s facade.

"For the unhappy children, let's live…."

That moment.

"Let's give our time to those more unfortunate than us. We can do it. We can really do it. I'll help you…. I've researched a lot. Studied. It's not a foolish delusion. We can really do it if we try---."

A chill ran down my spine.

"---Let’s start by getting into a social work department. We need certifications."

An electric current rattled my head.

“To live here, to survive in this world, we have to become strong, ■■. We need to surround ourselves with armor so other people cannot look down on us or stand in our way. Let's study. I'll help you... I can help you.”

Ah.

"Let's help the children together. I can't do it alone… It might be too hard alone. Yes. I might not endure it. I might hurt the children. But if we're two, three, four. With just four people, we can do anything. We can do anything."

Director.

“Try hard…”

My orphanage’s director.

“This world isn't everything. It can't be. ■■. We can create our world. Start small… with just two people, we can create a world. Don't die…. let’s live together in a different world, just the two of us…”

The face of the young director.

『Don’t do this, dear.』

『You did nothing wrong.』

The young face overlapped with the voice of the director, weary after all those years.

Looking back now.

It seemed like the director was worried and cautious about loving us too much.

『Don’t get twisted because of someone like me.』

The director always seemed afraid.

"......."

Constellation Killer stroked the young director's hair.

“It seems hard to make money.”

“We can't earn much…”

“It seems tough.”

“It's going to be really tough…”

“But it seems better than now.”

The Constellation Killer smiled.

“I gave up on studying since the second semester of the first year. It will be a bit hard."

“It's okay. It's not too late. Nothing is too late yet.”

“Yeah. Class President. In this world...”

[The implementation of the trauma is deteriorating.]

“Let's survive together.”

[Data restoration failed.]

The rooftop crumbles.

The school melts away.

The bell signaling the end of school rings.

[Trauma implementation complete.]

A possibility born of ‘if,’ a supposition born of ‘if only,’ a one-in-ten-thousand hypothesis, all are buried in the black emptiness. So is Constellation Killer's smile. So is the orphanage director's childhood appearance, which I never knew. So are the two classmates, one smiling while the other cries.

The past.

The failed time of the past. Regrets. Remorse.

[The target’s ego has remained intact.]

Everything disappears.

[Ending the penalty.]

The world is drowned in noise.

■.

■,

■,

■.

I opened my eyes.

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