WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈
Chapter 248: The Celestial Martial Clan Master (3)
──────
5.
What is a house?
To me, a house is something that is not yet a family.
That is why it stands upon the road toward becoming a family.
Those who are not yet family gather, somehow form connections, desperately struggle to keep these connections from breaking, and each one of them takes on their [role].
As long as I remain the [Head Steward], no one will abandon me. As long as I continue fulfilling my duties as the [Family Shadow], no one will abandon me. As long as, as long as, as long as.......
It's this desperation that drives us.
Someday, when I become someone's father, and someday, when that child becomes my child, we will desperately strive until then, which is why we are here today.
“Uburka.”
As the one who watches over every child's efforts, I am called the head of the house.
“Ugor.”
After unleashing a mighty roar across the plains, Uburka, somewhat satisfied, turned to look at me. Hot breath escaped through the gaps in Uburka's fangs.
“The enemy is a top warrior from the tower, possessing cheat-like items. Therefore,”
“So he is an enemy I do not even need to hold back against.”
“That’s right. Fight to your heart’s content, in any way you wish, until you are fully satisfied.”
Uburka grinned.
“That’s the order I wanted! Family head! The daddy I love!”
Kwoong!
Uburka left the ground shaking as he surged towards the enemy, Kwoong, Kwoong. If the Ghost Tribe was born as iron horses and spears, Uburka was a tank and a battleship in himself.
Uburka alone achieved the charge that 9,000 Ghost Tribe soldiers had accomplished.
“Is there a warrior who dares to face me, Uburka?!”
Uburka bellowed. The surviving Ghost Tribe warriors gasped, dropping their spears and slipping.
“No one! Among the Ghost Tribe, there are no warriors! Ah, it makes sense! Those brats only have horns sticking out of their heads! Krahahaha!”
Laughing uproariously, Uburka looked like a giant from myths, and the Ghost Tribe was not ready to face such a myth today.
And so, the one who stood upon the road toward the Ghost Tribe faced Uburka.
“Ghost Tribe's 12 Winged Generals! Assemble!”
Twelve warriors, Viper's possessed bodies, charged at the giant while brandishing twin swords. Because they had already died once in the Wandering Mansion of Flames, their bodies were badly damaged. Yet killing intent, rather than blood, erupted from every wound.
“We will stop you, giant!”
“We will kill you!”
“The Ghost Tribe has not lost yet! It's just a shitty crisis on the path to victory! Nothing has changed!”
Listening to the chatter of the 12 Winged Generals, Uburka snorted lightly. The snort, filled with Aura, was enough to fill the entire area.
“-----Weaklings------."
Uburka smirked, revealing his fangs.
As the giant grinned, his fangs looked so enormous that it resembled a scene of a demon smiling in myths. Even the Earth Spirit Tribe soldiers shivered.
“I am the Chief Warrior of the King of Death family!”
Uburka laughed.
“The King of Death family, the collectors of death laid before them! Where is death without despair, and where is death without resentment! Our family bears all that despair and resentment, hence we are the King of Death family! And only my family head is worthy to lead this family.”
Uburka slowly raised his axe.
“Those lesser than our despair, do not block us, just run away. Those who still stand against us despite being lesser than our resentment, be prepared. I am Uburka, the son and Chief Warrior of the King of Death family.”
Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiik!!
“This axe will be your despair!”
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!!
Uburka's mighty axe struck where the 12 Winged Generals stood. Wujijik! The axe blade that buried into the ground caused cracks and collapse.
Jjejejejeje, jjejejejejejejejejejejeje!!
Like a warrior staggered by a powerful blow, the formation of the dead instantly scattered.
Kwagaragararara…!
The place where the 12 Winged Generals stood firm like a fortress, caved in, quaked, and shattered like dry cookies. It was a monstrous feat achieved by a single swing of Uburka's axe.
The 12 Winged Generals tried to dodge but were blocked by Uburka's palm, only to be smashed into the ground. Those who attempted to flee crashed to the ground and then twitched, twitched, and finally lay still. Dead.
“Ugor.”
One shot. One kill.
Uburka had lightly crushed the formation created by Viper's cunning and schemes, as if it were children's toys.
But Viper did not give up.
“Gather!”
Viper was possessing the bodies of thousands of Ghost Tribe soldiers who had died in the Wandering Mansion of Flames.
And the benefit of a single person forming an army was that the scattered formation could be quickly reorganized.
“Raise them!”
All incarnations of Viper raised their swords.
“Strike!”
Thousands of Vipers simultaneously swung their swords. Uburka snorted and lifted his huge axe to block it.
It was like a horde of locusts clashing with a single rhinoceros.
“Huhu.”
Ester laughed.
We watched Uburka's unrivaled performance from afar. Every time the Vipers hit the ground, the sound of Papak, Papak, echoed as if hailstones were carving the earth, and every time Uburka moved, Kung, Kwoong, the petals of early summer flowers shook and flowed towards the plains.
“At this rate, the Chief Warrior will monopolize all the merit.”
“Jealous?”
“No. Why would I be, when the family head himself advised me to fulfill my role as the elder sister?”
Ester made a sly expression.
Then, she snapped her fingers and called up the [Civilization Store].
+
[Divine Descent]
Rank: A
Effect: The player personally obtains a physical body and descends.
Cost: 10,000 race points
*However, the effect only lasts for 5 minutes.
+
“I think I should at least maintain my dignity as the elder sister."
"......."
Indeed. She plans to descend directly, not just obtain an incarnation.
I did say to use all the race points as needed, but she instantly picked an item with terrible cost-effectiveness, which even Yoo Soo-Ha rarely used in the old times.
Slightly impressed, I said, “You really do read my mind.”
Ester laughed again.
“What use would an advisor be if they can’t read the family head’s mind?”
I also smiled.
“Alright. If my daughter and son want to compete over who is better, I have no reason to refuse. Okay. I grant permission. Go and enjoy to your heart's content.”
“Thank you, family head!”
Ester suddenly hugged my right arm, then, apparently embarrassed by what she had done, sped away using a lightness technique.
“Huhu.”
I chuckled a bit at the childish antics of my eldest daughter and younger son.
“Funny, isn’t it?”
Silvia Evanair, who had been standing silently behind, spoke with an incredulous tone.
“Really now. Cheating mixed with more cheating, dancing together. Well, it was a bit funny when the advisor was ranting about cheating earlier. Aren’t you the original king of exploiting loopholes in the rules?”
"I can't argue with that."
"Congratulations, truly. A spectacular debut. The King of Death family is now undoubtedly the strongest guild in the tower. The King of Death will practically rule this tower. But..."
"But all that is unimportant."
"......."
"That’s what you want to say, isn’t it, Silvia Evanair?"
I wrapped my arms around Silvia. The Lady was so small that she fit entirely in one arm.
Usually, Silvia would have been loud with remarks like, [What are you doing!] or [I’ll tell Lady Raviel on you!], but now, she was silent.
“…Family head.”
Held in my embrace, Silvia Evanair asked in a fearful voice.
“What do you wish for in this war…?”
“There is only one thing I can show people, always and everywhere.”
I grabbed my sword.
“That there are higher places in this world.”
"......."
“Silvia, use Divine Descent.”
“What?”
“Use it.”
Hesitantly following my words, Silvia activated the skill.
10,000 race points were spent, and Silvia descended in a physical body.
For the next 5 minutes.
“Hold on tight.”
“Eh? Wa-Wait. Kim Gong-Ja, no, family head. I’m feeling really uneasy right now. We're about to do something ridiculously reckless, aren't we? Like, we’re at the peak of a mountaintop with its summit sheared off. What if some madman decides to jump? Wouldn’t that be a brilliant suicide attempt, plummeting from the sky to the ground? Tell me that’s not what you're planning, family head, Kim Gong-Ja, please say it isn’t so, you son of a b----.”
And I.
Holding tightly onto Silvia Evanair, my Head Steward wrapped in my cloak.
Leaped from the mountaintop and flew.
We flew.
Soaring like a bird with giant wings towards the sheer cliff that was once a mountaintop.
“Aaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
Silvia, entangled in my cloak, screamed in terror. Despite her desperate squirming and resistance, it was in vain.
“You're in the sky now. Even if you run, you’re just falling from the sky, right?”
“Aaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
“Just do as I say. If you fall while in Divine Descent, there go 10,000 points.”
“Demon! You’re not just a family head; I have served a devil! Oh, my life! My poor Silvia! Serving Satan himself would have been better than this!"
“You’re skilled in Aura, Head Steward.”
“Yes, yes! Of course, I am, but what does Aura matter in this situation!”
“Release your Aura. Do not overthink it. Just as you are now, flying and feeling the wind, scatter your Aura.”
"What the......."
“Hurry. I’ll take care of the rest.”
"......."
A small head moved inside my cloak.
Though hidden by the cloak, I felt the unmistakable sensation of Silvia nodding.
"Hm."
And that was enough consent for me.
“Silvia, my Head Steward.”
“Yes, family head.”
“Remember the first ball you saw in your childhood?”
“How could I forget that damned place?”
“Then, recall it.”
I prepared my Aura.
“While recalling, just spread your Aura in all directions."
At that moment.
“Ah......."
A sigh of admiration escaped from beneath the thick cloak.
Goldencup’s Aura was golden.
It was radiant beyond measure, a color that seemed to promise some childhood glory. When Silvia Evanair released her aura while being half-forced to swim through the sky, it became tens of millions, hundreds of millions, of golden petals scattering across the plain.
Slowly.
Golden maple leaves glided down over the plain. Plop, golden ginkgo leaves tumbled across the ground. Golden hydrangeas and flower buds, lilacs, butterfly orchids, roses, lilies, and peonies, every petal ladies loved and cherished, shone brightly as they streamed toward the earth.
Demonic Formation Art.
Special Method.
Chaotic Golden Flower Garden.
"......."
This was the yearning Silvia Evanair held in her childhood.
Stunned, Silvia Evanair gazed down at the garden her Aura had created. She had forgotten she was still leisurely flying in the sky, simply looking down at the landscape formed by her life.
“Family head, you…”
“I think it's beautiful.”
I said.
“We can all fail. We sometimes make mistakes that should never be made. But even so, when we return and look back, your starting point was that beautiful.”
“.......”
“Look.”
I pointed below.
A Ghost Tribe warrior who had survived the Wandering Mansion of Flames and was not possessed by Viper carefully picked a golden flower. Treating it as a precious treasure, they hurriedly turned to flee before anyone else could see them.
There were not many who did this. The meaning of this battle, the history of this war, the revived corpses, and the descended myths, all the absurdity and irrationality aside, captivated by the unexpected beauty, lives chose to abandon everything they had and simply run away.
“You are not a nobody, Silvia Evanair.”
"......."
"You are my Head Steward."
Thump.
Our long flight ended, and we landed on the ground.
It was the mountaintop that Uburka had split and turned into a battlefield, where the forces of Viper and the Ghost Tribe had passed through.
Standing on each peak of the beautifully split mountaintop, we looked around.
“You asked what I want, Head Steward.”
“……Yes.”
“I want to show how much a person can accomplish simply by being human.”
The plains were a sea of golden petals, carved by Aura.
There, the Ghost Tribe soldiers possessed by Viper fought valiantly. But they were shattered by Uburka’s axe and cut down by Ester’s swordplay.
As the already dead soldiers faced death once more, blood splattered, and lovely golden roses were stained.
“Right here…”
Kim Yul slowly spoke.
“This has become another world.”
Indeed.
The purpose of the Demonic Formation Art was never to annihilate the enemy.
It was the most trivial of all goals, hardly worth mentioning.
“Is this the scene you wish for, family head?”
“Yes.”
Showing people a different world.
A different scenery, a different spectacle, thus different dreams.
“The struggle for supremacy between the Earth Spirit Tribe and Ghost Tribe. The pride of the race. The wounds. All that weighs heavily on your heart. The grudges. The grief. I understand all of it.”
But.
“Nevertheless, there is so much more in the world.”
I looked at a Ghost Tribe warrior embracing a golden rose and fleeing into the distance.
“I don’t know that Ghost Tribe warrior, but still, I imagine a life for them.”
Here, someone became a soldier because it felt natural.
No one allowed questioning, no one prepared them for questioning. They accepted it as their path, like a fish blending into the flow of a great river.
But one day, on a brilliant day, if a golden rose, seemingly otherworldly, gently falls in front of that someone.
“That would be just a coincidence, but the moment they decide to flee with the petal, it becomes fate. Now, that person is no longer a soldier. No longer a despondent Ghost Tribe warrior stained black by repeated defeats. They’re simply an artist who was captivated by a golden rose, now ready to wield a carving knife or brush. They have finally found their destiny.”
I turned back.
Silvia looked dazed, gazing at the golden plains and the deserter fleeing from them, and finally, at my face.
Kim Yul had been watching me all along.
“There is no such thing as a predetermined destiny.”
"......."
“Just a bit of coincidence, a moment of miracle, and temptation enough for a person to live as a person is created. We don't long for life when it feels like destiny, but when life tempts us. Do you understand, Shadow? We will throw the temptation of [wanting to live a little longer] to everyone who climbs this tower.”
“……Yes.”
Kim Yul nodded.
“There is no hypocrisy or falsehood in the family head's words. At least, I know that.”
I extended my hand towards Kim Yul, who smoothly took it as if expecting it.
“Already, family head, you have made me want to live a little more.”
Kim Yul used Divine Descent.
Our Auras, mingling from my hand and Kim Yul’s, flowed out.
Demonic Formation Art.
Special Method.
False Desert Beneath the Roof.
The wind blew.
Kim Yul's aura was wind. It was the wind brushing over a school rooftop and the grains of sand on the athletic field. When I looked down, the plain's grass had already become old grains of sand. The wind merely blew in loneliness, carrying the smell of dying sand.
“Yes.”
Kim Yul nodded.
Just as when Kim Yul had once gone up to the rooftop and looked down over the school athletic field, Kim Yul now stood atop the torn mountain peak in exactly the same way, gazing down over the sandy plain.
“I wanted to bury my head in that fake desert and die.”
"......."
“When I looked down from the rooftop, everything beneath my feet seemed like a desert. Somewhere there might have been a spring to wet a person's parched throat. There might have been an oasis. But what little spring water existed was certain to evaporate soon, and I did not want to endure the sight of millions of hungry ghosts clinging together and fighting to steal the few remaining drops.”
Kim Yul smiled.
“So, I gave up.”
"......."
“But even a rotten desert can be beautiful with rolling petals.”
Amidst the landscape of the Demonic Formation created by me and Kim Yul, Silvia Evanair's golden petals were still tumbling in the wind.
It was a breathtakingly stunning sight.
Wind blew endlessly across the sandy desert, and golden roses, golden lilies, golden hydrangeas, golden chrysanthemums, and golden tulips rolled in a thousand directions or drifted slowly through the air.
"......."
Kim Yul kept smiling.
He whispered softly.
“If my life was like a dry fake desert, then all I needed to do was wait for a few petals to enter my desert. I didn’t realize this in my youth. That a vast desert can entice a single flower, and a single flower can entice a vast desert, I didn’t know back then.”
Kim Yul turned to me with a smile.
“Thank you, family head.”
"......."
“Your language of flowers and the class president's petals have already entered my desert. It is beautiful, and I am happy.”
At that moment.
Boom!
Where Uburka and Ester fought, where the battleground was covered in Goldencup’s golden petals and Kim Yul’s wilderness.
On the battlefield, the possessed bodies of Viper one by one scattered their glowing Auras.
“Why……"
Among them, one with a particularly intense Aura stood out.
Their hair was disheveled. Their horn had snapped partway down, proving that this Ghost Tribe warrior had already been defeated once. Their body was small and skeletal, making it easy to see that they had come to this battlefield sustained by nothing but venom and tenacity.
"Why......!"
Viper, like a haunting guardian spirit, loomed behind the warrior.
In fury.
“Why, the children under my care…!”
Viper’s possessed bodies all stomped their feet at once. Boom! The corpses, already dead twice and no longer fit for possession, were hurled away.
“Then and now, King of Death…! Why! Why can't my children be like those under your care...”
Viper’s eyes blazed with fire. A wrath beyond venom, his Aura took on a fierce form, and his eyes glowed with a deep purple light.
Somewhere in a snowy field, I had seen this scene before.
‘Qi deviation.’
The same look my master, who wasn’t yet my master at that time, had shown.
It wasn’t difficult to guess why. The very act of [Multiple Possession] must be a tremendous drain on mental strength. Splitting oneself into hundreds, thousands, and embedding into possessed bodies to control them. It was never a sane thing to do.
If it weren’t for someone of Viper's martial caliber, they would have gone mad long ago.
“Then too! Even then, King of Death! Back then as well…”
What time period was Viper referring to?
I wanted to ask, but it seemed the chance to get a coherent answer had long vanished. The Aura raged, beginning to envelop Viper and his group.
“Worry not.”
Suddenly, someone took my hand.
“All will be well.”
It was Ester.
When had she returned to my side?
Ester, with a gentle smile as if saying not to worry, firmly gripped my hand.
“A comrade of family head’s, isn’t he?”
"......."
“Hit him once and tell him to hurry back to his senses, Family Head. Just as you always have.”
Yes.
“That’s what I should do.”
I nodded.
Our palms touched, and the Aura began to resonate. Ester had watched me learn the Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven from start to finish, closer than anyone. In terms of understanding the Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven, few among my followers could match Ester.
Was that why?
Drip,
Drip-drop, drip… drip…
Drip-drop, drip-drip-drip, drop…
Rain.
Rain. On the battlefield, rain. On the plain, rain. On the scattering golden rose petals, rain. On the wind rolling the sand, rain. Upon the false desert where tens of thousands of blossoms flowed, red rain.
Autumn rain.
Demonic Formation Art.
Special Method.
Graceful Rain of Lamenting Heavens.
It rained.
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