SSS-Class Revival Hunter - Chapter 237

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈

Chapter 237: King of Death’s Family (1) (Revised)

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Silvia clenched her fist tightly.

"What do you mean, 'a way to deal with it'?"

"Let's summarize the issues at hand," my lover continued calmly.

"I hurt you. I apologized in an attempt to soothe that wound, but a wound is not easily healed by a few words. In fact, your wound has likely not healed completely even now."

"Well, saying it like that makes me sound petty but... then what...?"

"There are three options available."

Raviel extended three fingers and then folded one.

"First, I endure ruin until you feel satisfied."

Hearing this, I clenched my fist.

Raviel glanced at me and then turned back to Goldencup.

"However, this is not feasible. Just like in the past, my ruin would bring too many things with it. It used to be the empire's safety, and now it includes the happiness of my lover, so I simply cannot grant such a request."

"More importantly, your butler has already proven, by sacrificing everything he had, that this cannot make you happy."

Silvia slumped her head.

The story of the butler remains an indelible debt in her heart.

Raviel folded another finger.

"Second is to physically exclude and annihilate you."

"...!"

Silvia jerked her head up.

The Silver Tyrant gazed down at Silvia with eyes burning through the darkness.

"Under normal circumstances, it would be my immediate choice."

"...."

"My partner once relayed a god's words to me: murder is the ultimate incompetence. I agree completely. Murder is not evidence of competence. It is merely the course one has no choice but to take when every other option is gone."

But, Raviel added.

"However, I am not an omnipotent god. I am not an omniscient transcendent being. I am a person with limits, someone who lives with her feet planted on the ground and cannot survive without bread and water, nothing more than a 'slightly clever beast.' Within those constraints, I must protect all that I bear. That is why I have no choice but to physically eliminate everything that threatens, or might threaten, their safety."

Her voice willingly affirmed her own limits, and in that very affirmation was the dignity of being human.

"So…"

Silvia gritted her teeth.

"You're going to eliminate me...? Or are you saying a creature like me cannot be allowed a physical body, so you'll keep me trapped in the shackles of a ghoul forever...?"

"Both are possibilities, but right now, I won't choose either," Raviel stated and folded her last finger.

"Third is to accept your heart."

"...?"

"Meaning, to welcome you as my concubine."

Silence descended.

"......."

Jaa Soo-Jeong sipped barley tea with a gulp, the sound clearly audible.

Besides that, no other sound was heard, and even the believers of the Demonic Cult hiding in the shadows held their breath.

-Wow.

The first voice I heard was the Guardian Spirit's admiration.

The legend among legends who conquered up to the 99th floor of the tower looked at the courtyard with a profound expression.

-Zombie, some popcorn, please. Ah, not just any popcorn, make sure it's caramel. To me, popcorn coated in a moderate brown is the tastiest. You know, it's like biting into a cavity, making it more special. Anyway, that's how it is.

His expression was profound, but the dialogue, not so much.

Honestly, I wanted to tell him to shut up for a moment.

At last, after a long while, a human voice emerged from the courtyard. It belonged to Silvia Evanair, the young lady of Baron Goldencup.

"Wh-"

Silvia's lips trembled violently.

"What nonsense are you spouting!?"

Hidden in the darkness, her eyes trembled as much as her lips.

"A concubine? A, a concubine, you say? To me, Silvia Evanair, who was promised by the Crown Prince himself to be his Crown Princess, to suggest that I... become your concubine!?"

"Yes."

"Bullshit! Bullshitbullshitbullshit! How can you spout that kind of bullshit, as if it could possibly make sense? What in the world are you thinking...?"

"Hm. It certainly is bullshit," Raviel agreed.

“There are two reasons why.”

Raviel raised two fingers again as she spoke.

“One. This is not something I can decide immediately by myself. Reputation. Status. Disapproving eyes. I can deal with all such practical conditions, but Gong-Ja and I must first reach an agreement. The fact that no such agreement has preceded this proposal is the first reason I consider this solution bullshit.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. As the heart that had crawled back up my spine sat cross-legged in its proper place, Silvia shrieked.

"No, that's not it! What about considering my opinion! That should be the precondition..."

"Two."

Raviel folded her fingers.

"Did you truly love me?"

Silvia, who was shouting, fell silent.

"Was it not mere admiration for an idol?"

"A desire for something unattainable, assumed unattainable, was it not?"

A long silence followed.

"I…"

Thud.

Raviel placed her teacup down.

Jaa Soo-Jeong collected the teacup on her tray and drifted lightly away toward the main wooden hall.

"I love Kim Gong-Ja."

"I love everything about Kim Gong-Ja. I never thought such love was possible, and it must have been impossible for the countless people who lived and died before me, but a miracle was granted to me, and I met him."

Raviel.

She recited it calmly, as if stating a fact.

"Everything is perfect. His breath, the empty spot on the bed when he leaves at dawn... the warmth... I find happiness in every trace my love leaves behind. I understand him, and he understands me. We live in the same timeline. Therefore..."

Raviel turned to Silvia.

"I cannot recognize anything as love other than [this kind of love]."

"......."

"Did you love me that way?"

Silvia slumped her head.

It was the gesture of someone who could neither answer nor refuse to answer and therefore wanted only to escape this place.

"By now, you must know. You did not love me. That's why I can't love you."

Indeed.

That's how it is.

How much coincidence and bloodshed were necessary for me to love Raviel and for Raviel to love me? The reason we love each other so fiercely is precisely because we didn't fall in love easily.

Our love is difficult.

It's a love that only Raviel and I can have.

"…Then,"

Then, Silvia spoke.

Shadows gathered behind her drooping head and fallen bangs.

"So, what now... what are you proposing?"

Her teeth chattered as she spoke, blood from her gums tinging them red.

"You won't let yourself be ruined for me, you won't eliminate me, and you won't love me... Then what are you trying to do? You just toss me an apology you admit is incomplete, and then... what am I supposed to do? What are you trying to do...?"

"I leave that to you," Raviel said.

Then she turned to me.

"Gong-Ja."

Hmm.

"Yes, Raviel."

"If you use the skill [Earth Bone Dragon's Box] to give Silvia a physical body, will she be much freer than she was as a ghoul?"

I understood the intent behind her question and nodded in affirmation.

"Yes, she will be freer."

"Is that freedom equivalent to what she enjoyed in life?"

"Yes, it is."

"Enough to pursue what she desires?"

"Enough to pursue what she desires."

Raviel nodded and then turned to Silvia.

"Pursue what you desire, Silvia Evanair."

"Do you want to ruin me? You almost succeeded once. Try again. But to do that, you must be stronger than me and my lover, and be able to completely ignore the sacrifices made by your butler for your sake."

Goldencup's breathing halted.

Raviel continued speaking.

"Do you want to die and disappear? Or do you want to kill me? Try it. But I won't just stand by and let it happen. I will resist with everything I have against any threat to me and I will win. Just as when you wanted to ruin me earlier, you will have to do better."

"Or do you want to be loved by me? Or do you want to become someone I worship and cannot help but admire, just as I once was to you? That too depends on your efforts. You can work toward it."

Maybe you can achieve it, Raviel muttered.

Throughout her speech, she looked straight at Goldencup.

"Whichever it may be, Silvia Evanair."

The eyes of one person met the eyes of another.

"I recognize you as my equal, an entity capable of standing opposite me, a worthy adversary."

From the very beginning.

From the very start, all that was needed in every world was just that.

"So I ask you, Silvia Evanair."

Raviel Ivansia asked quietly.

"Do you recognize me as a person?"

And then, silence ensued.

Silvia gazed up at Raviel, stupefied.

Beyond the darkened sky, the white moon was floating.

Raviel's face, backlit by the moonlight, was resolute.

How much time passed?

"......."

Goldencup opened her mouth.

As if there was so much steam in her heart, when she opened her mouth, no words came out.

Just hot breath, malice, rage, self-loathing, guilt, resentment, vengeance, blood clots, breath, endlessly leaking out.

"I…."

I, she said.

Silvia was quite literally vomiting herself out.

"It's difficult for me. You, you all…"

Gritting her teeth hard enough to draw blood.

Glaring so fiercely that it hurt.

"To neither look up to you nor look down on you... to accept you as individual human beings... to do for others the very thing I have always wanted for myself, I..."

Above all, with a dragging voice.

"...Even now. You apologized to me, but in the end, I... I can't apologize to you. I can't forgive you... I..."

Silvia covered her face with both hands.

"I know… Saying this is shameless. I know I did much worse to you, really, incomparably worse. I know, but still, that… that thing."

Regardless of the presence or strength of power, the one who forgives is always stronger than the one being forgiven.

Silvia wasn't strong enough, and therefore couldn't forgive Raviel.

"So for now…"

Silvia trembled, took a deep breath, and only then managed to chew out the words and spit them forth.

"For now, I want to… I want to try that…."

Silvia vowed.

"To forgive you… you all, to accept you all as people, no matter how long it takes, how it's possible with my petty mind, I will make it happen."

"Because that’s…"