WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈
Chapter 210: Cheat (3)
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“My name is Kim Gong-Ja.”
I spoke, suppressing the pounding of my heart.
“And, I am the one who received the alias King of Death from you.”
“Let me say this again. I'm pleased to meet you formally, Tower Master.”
The purple eyes pierced through me as they stared.
“Hmm.”
The Tower Master held my chin. Our faces were close enough for our breaths to mingle. The breaths she exhaled were so faint they were almost inaudible.
“Since you have introduced yourself, it would be rude not to introduce myself in return.”
The Tower Master clicked her tongue lightly.
“Fine. As you said, I am the Tower Master. I hold the alias of The Master of All Lives, my first name is Jaa Soo-Jeong, and my second name is Kaleidoscope. I have many other nicknames, but there’s no need to tell you all of them.”
“Still, I would appreciate it if you did.”
“You really are shameless.”
“I went to such lengths to meet you, to learn about you. Isn’t that commendable?”
The Tower Master snorted.
“Just as I heard, you are a smooth-tongued flatterer. I know perfectly well that Hamusutra fell completely for your honeyed words. But if you intend to badger me with words, give up. That is my specialty.”
“...You specialize in seducing people, Tower Master?”
“Yes. Be thankful I don’t have a hobby of messing with married men, King of Death. Married women, maybe.”
Thud.
The Tower Master released my chin.
[The Master of All Lives withdraws the Dragon Pressure.]
Only then did I regain the contours of my body. Until now, in this darkness, I could only feel my face, mouth, and heart. But after the Tower Master let go of my chin, I felt my arms and legs more distinctly.
My mind cleared.
Hmm.
It’s okay.
My heart is still pounding, but it’s not uncontrollable.
“Tower Master. You know why I summoned you. I intend to peek into your past, based on my skill.”
"......."
“You may be an omnipotent being in this tower. But at the same time, you are an operator who tries your best to be fair and strict. I have justly used my skill, so you have no choice but to comply with my request.”
“Damn it.”
The Tower Master narrowed her eyebrows.
Looking back now, she was really different from Jaa Soo-Jeong in the [Side Story].
The Jaa Soo-Jeong living in the side story had no expressions. Her speech was monotonous. But the Tower Master frowning in front of me now, despite having the same beautiful appearance, frowned, clicked her tongue, and sighed.
She was a living person.
“King of Death.”
“Yes."
“I sincerely advise against experiencing my past, especially cherry-picking just the traumas. It’s dangerous. It would be slightly safer to dive into an exploding volcano with dynamite strapped around your waist.”
The Tower Master shook her head.
“Please give up if you don’t want to be shattered to pieces.”
“I want to know about you.”
“Do you know who is the saddest being in the myth of Icarus? Is it the Minotaur, who was trapped in an eternal labyrinth the moment it was born? Is it Icarus, who just wanted to fly a bit more? Is it Daedalus, who made wings for his son? No. It's the sun, which had no choice but to burn those approaching it and drop them into the blue sea. Please don't make me sad.”
"......."
“Your access authority is B-rank.”
The Tower Master snapped her fingers.
Then, purple letters were engraved in the darkness.
+
Hell Realm.
Hungry Ghost Realm.
Animal Realm.
Asura Realm.
Human Realm.
Heaven Realm.
+
“The depth of All Lives that you will experience is the Animal Realm. As you know from going through the Constellation Killer’s trauma, beginning with the Animal Realm, trauma is no longer merely [seen], but [lived]. If your rank were C or lower, I might have considered it, but...”
The Tower Master looked straight at me.
“No.”
"......."
“Give up if you don’t want to die without leaving even bone broth behind.”
Surprisingly, the Tower Master was quite vulgar.
“…You seem to know a lot about my skill. What comes after the Animal Realm, I didn’t even know.”
“Of course.”
The Tower Master retorted.
“That’s originally my ability.”
“What?"
I hadn't imagined such a statement.
The Tower Master sighed and brushed her blonde hair with her right hand.
“Every skill has an original. It is much easier to develop one by referring to something that already exists than to create something from nothing. Your [penalty of viewing trauma] was originally an ability possessed by a certain Dragon Emperor... In any case, someone who was a sort of ancestor to me. I call that ability ‘All Lives.’”
Whoa.
“Perhaps the alias [The Master of All Lives] is...?"
“That’s right. It was derived from there.”
Good heavens.
Does that mean I share a similar ability with the Tower Master?
“It’s an unexpected honor. No, how did such a coincidence happen..."
“Honor? Because of this fucking ability, my life went to hell.”
Correction.
The Tower Master was far more vulgar than I expected.
“And it’s not even a coincidence. It’s attached to the penalty of [Returner’s Winding Clock]. You already heard who created the skill?”
“Yes, [The Princess Who Strolls Through Mirages] created it..."
“That girl is my daughter.”
My mouth dropped open.
“Wh-what?”
“She’s my daughter.”
The Tower Master sighed and extended her left hand.
“Here.”
“What… what is this?”
“Smell it.”
It was a seriously awkward request.
“Uh. Um. Tower Master. I, uh, already belong to someone else...”
“Are you insane? Do you want to die? Did I not just say I have no interest in men? I have something to explain, so plant your nose against the back of my hand and smell it. I might just turn your nostrils inside out and swap your nose hairs with the hair on your head.”
"......."
Faced with a curse I had never heard in my life, I obediently pressed my nose to the back of her hand and sniffed.
"Ugh."
At that moment, a dizzying fragrance surged into my skull.
My vision spun.
I reflexively lifted my head and created some distance.
“...Peach scent?”
“Yes. That’s my body scent.”
“Crazy.”
“I think it’s crazy too.”
The Tower Master made a face as if chewing on something.
“Now, remember the pillow that my daughter always carries around."
I recalled [The Princess Who Strolls Through Mirages] in my head.
True to the Tower Master's words, the Princess always hugged a pillow.
And the pattern drawn on the pillow was.
“Peach…”
“That girl. She’s severely a mama's girl. No matter her age, she still can't sleep without my scent beside her. She doesn’t just have trouble sleeping, she refuses to sleep. That’s the real problem.”
My mind went numb.
“I was hoping to hear various secrets when meeting the Tower Master, but…”
“You never imagined you’d learn such a secret, right? I know. I understand. Originally, there are no secrets in the world, and once you forcibly uncover them, all that awaits you is infinite responsibility. Damn it.”
The Tower Master's favorite phrase was ‘damn it.’
“I’m the same. Don’t try to know my secrets. Don’t dig them up. If you manage to handle what you discover and dig up, good for you, but all you’ll find at the bottom of my depths are rotting screams.”
“…But if I still wish to see it, what will you do?”
“I can offer you a different compensation.”
The Tower Master looked at me.
Her face was expressionless as she watched me.
At this moment, she looked exactly like Jaa Soo-Jeong in the [Side Story].
“Name any skill you want. I’ll be lenient. Speak of any power you desire. I’ll consider it. In exchange, tear up [Returner’s Winding Clock]. So that the trauma penalty does not occur.”
"......."
“If you’re worried about losing your ability to return, don’t be. I’ll delete only the trauma penalty and gift you a skill, the same, no, even better than that.”
“I see.”
I nodded.
“You can’t forcibly stop me, can you?”
The Tower Master sighed.
“…Yes.”
“All you can do is persuade me. You’ve appeared now to persuade me. Stopping the penalty activation according to the skill would be [abuse of authority]. You have the power to stop me, even change the world so this situation never happens, but you don’t.”
Because you are a person bound by your own rules.
“No matter how much you want to stop me, if I insist on proceeding, you have no choice but to let it happen. Am I correct?”
“King of Death.”
“I have no intention of tearing up [Returner’s Winding Clock].”
“Please, I beg you. You're going to get torn apart.”
“If I back down here, even if I climb to the 99th floor and ascend to the 100th, I will forever remain ignorant of you. I don’t want that. I want to live even a single day of life with you.”
"......."
Suddenly, the Tower Master’s eyes softened.
“I see.”
The Tower Master lamented.
“I had braced myself that this day might come. The one who wields the sword must know they will eventually be torn by the sword. I knew that someday, someone who speaks like me, reasons like me, believes like me, would appear, even if it took an eternity.”
The Tower Master reached out her hands and held my head.
“Please be strong.”
Then she pressed her forehead against mine.
[The Master of All Lives blesses you.]
The purple eyes reflected in mine.
“I am always beside you all.”
The moment her voice whispered.
[Your current rank is B-rank.]
[Warning.]
[Re-enacting the trauma of your killer.]
The stopped clock hands began to move.
[The level of penalty is High.]
[Animal Realm.]
Eyes.
At the center of a world dyed purple, my eyes took shape.
Within the eyes caught, again the purple eyes.
In the purple eyes, again my eyes...
My consciousness fell into a labyrinth of mirrors.
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That year, the rumors were endless.
In the Sinwolseok Barony, stones rolled on their own without anyone touching them. The people whispered that stones wandering at will through a domain of bedrock were an ill omen.
Every night, the Great River boiled for no reason. Frogs leaped from every waterway, smashed their heads against the ground, and died.
In the capital, lightning struck twenty-six times in one day, and the fortune-teller at the North Gate blabbered, “The number thirteen is overlapped above and below to make twenty-six, it’s a bad omen.”
It was a grave sin to randomly predict the fortune of the country. The capital guards dragged out the fortune-teller and beheaded them. That day, even though the rainy season had not yet arrived, the river flooded severely, blocking all roads to the capital from all directions.
“The kingdom is a hopeless fucking invalid.”
The nobles openly sighed.
Famine continued. Epidemics were successive. Time was like a rotten spine, pus accumulating at every continuous and successive segment. The corpses of the people flowed down the overflowing river.
The time of destruction.
In the heart of the crumbling kingdom, one December, a girl was born.
The Crystal Barony.
**Jaa Soo-Jeong’s name has the hanja for ‘Amethyst’ and Soo-Jeong means crystal in Korean.
Because she was born with unusual eyes, she became known as Lady Amethyst.
As though she had blossomed after absorbing every last nutrient from the rotting kingdom, the young lady was beautiful.
“Purple eyes.”
Some nobles praised her eyes as [hard to forget once seen]. Others criticized harshly, saying there was [almost nothing notable about her other than her unusual eye color].
Her delicately brushed hair flowed down slightly whenever she turned her head.
“Her hair is platinum, almost divine. It captivates at first glance. But that too is a luxury allowed only from afar.”
There were those who excessively praised her.
“Getting closer, the hands are captivated before the eyes, and I unwittingly reach out. In the brief moment I extend my hand, time willingly stops. She turns to look at me. Clearly. Very clearly. And then I realize. I have grasped her wrist.”
Lady Amethyst was expressionless.
“She never speaks, so at first glance she seems an idiot.”
Was she expressionless since birth?
Her long eyebrows were smooth, as if they had never once been furrowed.
“A mere attention-seeker.”
“Doesn’t know how to be nervous.”
“A natural on stage.”
The year Lady Amethyst turned seventeen.
That year, the rumors were incessant. Stones rolled on their own, the river water boiled for no reason, and dry thunder struck the capital twenty-six times. There was a drought in spring and a rebellion in autumn.
There was also a rumor about the young Lady.
“The socialites are already all but conspiring to hush it up...”
That year, the Lady took over the position of the family head, succeeding her dead father.
“It’s no secret that Lady Amethyst killed her own father.”
Before the nobles spreading those rumors, Lady Amethyst broke into a radiant smile. Because she was ordinarily so expressionless, it was like watching a brilliant flower bloom, and the socialites could not contain their admiration. A voice that nearly became melody flowed from her angelic lips.
“You are all making complete fools of yourselves. Fucking hell.”
Baron Amethyst.
The girl was the craziest in the two-thousand-year history of the kingdom.
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