WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈

Chapter 219: Golden Rule (3)

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The surroundings fell silent.

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong's remarks had unsettled many nobles.

"Lovely...?"

Count Ah Ru-Ho's expression was uneasy, similar to most of the nobility present.

However, those personally taken in by Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong.

Only her lovers, who received her love and loved her in return, showed no change in their expressions. They were impassive. 'The necessary story is being told, and the needed words are being heard.' It seemed that's how the viscount's lovers perceived it.

"Yes."

Amidst the perplexed atmosphere, Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong spoke.

"Someone collapsing beneath the misery they caused themselves is always moving to behold. All the more so when a noble soul groans because they cannot bear the weight of their own existence. If I had to compare Marquis Baek Seol-To to something, she would be a honey-filled rice cake. One bite, and sweetness fills your mouth."

"......What in the world are you talking about?"

Count Ah Ru-Ho was flabbergasted.

"Sigh."

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong sighed and shrugged her shoulders, clearly belittling and looking down on Count Ah Ru-Ho.

"If you do not understand, never mind. When a treasure map falls right at their feet, some adventurers set out to find the treasure, while lowborn fools merely laugh at the adventurers. Is that the end of your story?"

"What?"

"I'm asking if you have nothing more to say, Count. [There is a poor citizen.] [Lost a granddaughter to a noble.] [That noble is under me.] That sums up the story so far. If there's nothing more to add, please step down. It's already late, and we can't afford to delay the meeting further."

"You, you..."

Count Ah Ru-Ho bellowed.

"This elder lost their only granddaughter!"

"That day was the grandmother's birthday. Did you know that? The granddaughter was running to give her grandmother a birthday present when Marquis Baek Seol-To beat her to death!"

"......."

The elder remained meekly prostrate beneath the throne. Without sparing them a glance, Count Ah Ru-Ho pulled something from her pocket.

A hairpin. An ornament typically worn by women in their hair.

"Look! This hairpin before you is the birthday present the granddaughter prepared. She was hurrying to give it to her grandmother when she happened to collide with Lady Baek Seol-To!"

Count Ah Ru-Ho pleaded her case with desperate fervor.

Whether the count truly empathized with the elder's plight, I was doubtful.

Yet, for whatever reason, a person's desperate state holds persuasive power. Gradually, the nobles shifted from dismissing Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong's remarks to pitying the elder with compassionate gazes.

"The granddaughter fell in the snow. With an innocent smile, she apologized to Lady Baek Seol-To: [I'm sorry], [I should have watched where I was going]. Had Lady Baek Seol-To forgiven her after that apology, it would have ended there as the sort of accident that could happen anywhere."

Count Ah Ru-Ho now fully regained her confidence.

The pathetic back of the elder, the sympathy pouring over them, and Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong's face, seemingly indifferent to everything.

All these elements gave Count Ah Ru-Ho the assurance of victory.

"But Lady Baek Seol-To grabbed the child. And then..."

"It's tedious."

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong muttered.

It was a fleeting voice, like the flutter of a dragonfly's wings, heard only momentarily.

No one but me heard the viscount's murmur.

Count Ah Ru-Ho continued her vigorous speech, capturing the attention of the audience. Therefore, when I looked at Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong, I could solely focus on her monologue.

"The person who prepared the gift that day wasn't just Ari."

I tilted my head in confusion.

"Ari... who is that?"

"The granddaughter. The child who was whipped to death by Lady Baek Seol-To."

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong casually replied.

"That day was also the birthday of the Lady’s grandfather. Coincidentally, both girls had prepared gifts. Lady Baek Seol-To made a brooch with the family crest but couldn't give it to her grandfather."

"......Why?"

I sensed something peculiar in the viscount's eyes.

It was as if she wasn't recounting a story heard from someone else.

But rather describing a scene she had witnessed firsthand.

"She had failed to solve the mathematics homework her grandfather gave her. He scolded her, and the young lady could not bring herself to hand him the brooch. What child could give a present to an adult whose face was twisted in displeasure?"

"......."

"When the noble girl and the common girl collided in the street, the brooch fell into the snow. Not just falling, but it happened to be stepped on by the common girl. It broke."

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong spoke with a face devoid of heat.

"It wasn't a particularly expensive-looking brooch. Hard to say it was well-made. Just a trinket that wouldn't matter much if broken. But the Lady picked up the broken brooch and thrust it at the common girl."

"And she said."

You broke it.

"The common girl was startled and bowed her head."

I'm sorry, miss.

I'm really sorry.

"But children know how to apologize, not how to accept an apology. And back then, Lady Baek Seol-To was a complete ruffian, known as the [Brain-dead Lady]. Her response was far from gracious."

It wasn't supposed to break, but you broke it!

"The young lady had a guard assigned to her. She was, after all, effectively the marquisate's sole heir. The guard accompanying her was deeply loyal, and the young lady held out her hand to the guard."

Guard!

The whip!

"Without hesitation, the guard handed their mistress the whip. The Lady grabbed it, struggling with its thickness compared to her small hands."

A child's whip struck another child's back.

"One exerted all her strength to strike, the other convulsed under the blows."

Just smash it all! Why! Why! Like this, why!

"It hurts, miss."

"......."

"It hurts. I'm sorry, Lady, it hurts."

You're all fools.

Just a bunch of idiots.

Grandfather is, grandfather is a fool!

"No one stopped the Lady."

They say the snow was stained with blood.

Lady Baek Seol-To's guard took back the whip. The servant attending the marquis picked up unguarded relics from the battered body. Not out of sympathy for the common girl, but a sudden thought to pass them on.

"Look!"

Now, that relic was in Count Ah Ru-Ho's hand.

"Can't you see the resentment bound in this relic! Viscount!"

The hairpin had decayed over the past six years. What was likely once polished to shine for a grandmother, now lost its luster, gathering dust on its surface. Worn and old, just a common trinket found anywhere.

"Is your blood that of a cold-hearted creature!"

"......."

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong only listened to Count Ah Ru-Ho's outcry, smiling strangely.

"Is your mind filled only with the wisdom of the sages and classical scriptures! Or else, how can you sit there so calmly upon seeing this relic, these traces of blood, these remnants of death!"

No, that's not it.

"Viscount, you truly lack human empathy!"

It wasn't that.

Count Ah Ru-Ho... and the people were misunderstanding something.

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong [could see everything].

She knew far more than what Count Ah Ru-Ho was aware of. Even more than the elder lying there, she had witnessed the granddaughter's death from much closer.

And it wasn't just that.

What the granddaughter thought at the moment of her death, her last words, what Lady Baek Seol-To screamed as she swung the whip.

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong knew much more than the others.

'Because.'

Amid my dizzy thoughts, I barely managed to articulate my conclusion.

"Viscount. You possess... [The Eyes of the Golden Dragon]."

"Hmm?"

Then Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong turned to look at me.

"What do you mean, advisor?"

I swallowed hard.

In the distance, Count Ah Ru-Ho was still shouting at the top of her lungs. The Count called Jaa Soo-Jeong a wretch ignorant of humanity and a rootless bastard, denounced her as a tyrant incapable of cherishing the people, and declared it outrageous to nominate such a person for a dukedom.

The surroundings were noisy, creating the perfect environment for our secret whispers.

"The Eyes of the Golden Dragon."

"Yes, the Eyes of the Golden Dragon. Is there a problem with it?"

"The Eyes of the Golden Dragon can see everything. From an omniscient perspective. I understand now how you can encompass the entire tower while being in one body. Viscount. You've been granted the ability to intuitively perceive the entirety of existence."

"Not a wrong statement. So what?"

"...And in addition to that, you possess [The Breath of the Glacier Dragon]."

My heart pounded.

"[The Breath of the Glacier Dragon] allows you to travel to any point in time you desire. [Eyes that can see anything]. [Breath that can go anywhere]. You possess both. If you wished..."

"If I wish?"

"You could have witnessed the very moment the granddaughter was whipped to death, right in front of you."

I said.

"That is your omniscience."

The reason why the tower's master had such an all-seeing ability.

"Using [The Eyes of the Golden Dragon] and [The Breath of the Glacier Dragon], you can witness every death and every moment of despair in this world from directly before it."

"......"

"Both powers allow you to oversee every event occurring in the tower."

At that moment:

[Correct.]

[Acknowledged as having passed the 2nd gateway.]

[The Eyes of the Golden Dragon and The Breath of the Glacier Dragon form the tower's observation apparatus.]

A brief silence followed.

Purple eyes studied my face as if savoring it.

"Correct."

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong slowly opened her lips.

A smile hung on the corner of her soft lips.

"Not bad. Given the limited information you had as an advisor, you've managed to piece together and guess the project I had planned."

"You..."

"Rewards are due for a hero who guessed correctly."

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong gently grasped my wrist.

"---I'll show you the death of that granddaughter."

A squishy sensation crawled up from my ankle. It was as cold as a snake's skin. Startled, I looked down to see a shadowy figure, like water's shadow, climbing up my skin from the surface.

"Follow me."

In the next moment, I was swallowed by the shadow.

4.

Slaaash!

Snow clinging to the lash sprayed into the air.

The snowflakes, heavy with blood, rose but didn't fly high. Clumped together, they plummeted back into the already crimson-stained pool.

"It's your fault!"

"Please... save... me..."

"You, you, you! It's your fault! You! It's all because of you! If it weren't for you!"

The whip struck through the air.

In the blood pool, the snowflakes melted away.

A small child convulsed.

The last bit of warmth in the child's body dripped into the snow, spreading a thin stream around.

"......"

"That's the child."

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong pointed. The two of us stood submerged in the darkness of an alley. There were passersby on the street, but the vicious air of the marquisate's guard frightened them into veering away through side alleys.

"Marquis Baek Seol-To. At this moment, she is still Lady Baek Seol-To. The child she whipped to death when she was ten is lying right there."

Instinctively, I tried to rush out.

But it was impossible.

A grip much stronger than mine held my wrist.

"No."

"Why, why not? We must go now. If we take her to a physician, maybe..."

"Perhaps she could be saved. Yes. Perhaps she would spend this winter gravely ill and suffering as though she might die, but recover as the seasons passed and return to an ordinary, happy life. The marquisate would surely pay generous compensation as well. She might even live more comfortably than before."

"Then, why are you holding my wrist right now?"

"Advisor."

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong smiled.

"Kim Gong-Ja."

The sound of whipping echoed in the winter sky.

"How many times do you think I have seen such scenes?"

The corpse of a child, virtually already dead, was being savagely whipped by a young lady. Someone's winter was dying there.

"I am eighteen. But I have lived countless, infinite lives that the number eighteen could never contain. As now, I watched one child die, then hundreds of children, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, trillions, and deaths as countless as the sands of the Ganges, all from directly before them."

"I have seen every infanticide, robbery-murder, victory, defeat, rout, and massacre from the winter when the kingdom was founded 2,001 years ago to the present, December 24 in the year 2001 of the kingdom's calendar. For now, my sight is limited to this kingdom's history. Someday I will witness every death in this world. No, in every world."

"And I won't do anything."

I felt hoarse.

"Yes...?"

"I could have stopped that child's death at any time. I could have reversed all those unjust deaths. Returning again and again, until all irrational deaths disappeared, and a single righteous world line was established."

But.

"I won't."

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong grinned.

"Never."

"......"

"Never interfere."

"Why not...?"

"It's because only then, every misfortune in this world is solely [my fault]."

The child died.

Lady Baek Seol-To, in her rage, kicked the body and walked away. The falling snowflakes covered the young lady's back.

"What was the reason for that child's death, advisor? What went wrong that led to her death?"

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong's voice was coated with falling snow.

"Was her mistake happening to meet Lady Baek Seol-To? Was that what she did wrong? Then what was Lady Baek Seol-To's fault? Happening to grow up beneath an overbearing grandfather? Failing to be born with a mind that satisfied him? Does that make Lady Baek Seol-To's very birth a mistake?"

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong released my wrist.

"No. All those are just coincidences. We can't blame coincidences. None of you were born wrong. There are no wrongly born lives in this world."

"......"

"The only one at fault is me alone."

She clasped her hands over her chest.

"I could have approached that granddaughter and said, 'This path is dangerous, go another way.' Then the little girl would have easily avoided her impending misfortune. I could have also become an unnamed friend to Lady Baek Seol-To, providing her with private tutoring every step of the way. Then she would have grown smarter every day and eventually gained her grandfather's recognition."

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong brought her hands together as if in prayer, then looked up at me.

"I have the ability to do so."

"......"

"But I won't."

"......"

"Never. No matter what."

The scenery around us changed.

The blood-soaked snowfield vanished, and the main council chamber with its flowing amniotic water unfolded around us once more.

Count Ah Ru-Ho was still pointing fingers at Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong, berating her. She lamented that she really lacked humanity, questioning how a human could not grieve over a child's death, not try to help...

"Advisor."

In the middle of the council chamber, where the blood-tinged clamor ran rampant, Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong whispered to me.

"There are no accidental deaths in this world. Not even accidental misfortunes. Every death and misfortune is intentionally overlooked by me."

"......"

"All the misfortunes you have experienced are my fault. Because I didn't move, because I didn't care, because I ignored, countless misfortunes and innumerable despairs have occurred. At least in this kingdom. And eventually, in all worlds."

"......"

"Do you understand what I mean, my advisor?"

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong smiled like a saint.

Then, the scenery shifted again.

This time, it was Viscount Chun Heuk-Shin eating human flesh.

"Come."

Viscount Jaa Soo-Jeong stroked the back of my hand.

"Now blame me."

My heart raced.

"Scream at me for not helping you. It will not be a meaningless scream. I possessed the power to help, and I truly stood at the very place where your misery occurred. Ask me why I did not save you. That will never be a meaningless question. I could have prevented it."

She gripped my hand tightly.

"Because of my existence."

I felt breathless.

"Now, all of you possess a [sinner] to point your fingers at without a shred of falsehood or doubt, unmistakably."

A god spoke.

"I am [The God Who Never Returns]. I do not return for anyone, I only watch over your misfortunes."

The god declared quietly.

"That is why I am a god you can condemn and tear apart."

The name of the god was Jaa Soo-Jeong, the Amethyst.

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