WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈
Chapter 273: Epilogue (3)
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“Y-You're going to be my bodyguard? ……You, Elder?”
"Hmm."
The Sword Saint nodded vehemently.
“Don’t think for a second that because of my age I’m incapable of being a bodyguard.”
“No, it’s not about age. That’s absurd......"
Well, just the act of nodding reveals the beautifully contoured trapezius muscles peeking out from under his shirt collar, making me doubt if physical age really applies to him.
“Don’t be so surprised. Didn’t you say so yourself? As long as you remain alive, the Black Dragon Master and the others will not revert to their former scumbag selves.”
“Disastrous? Who might that be, this disastrous one? Ah, perhaps you’re referring to a certain old man who goes around slashing and killing murderers every ten days? Kim Gong-Ja. Gathering information on people is a specialty of the leader of the Black Dragons. Oh my. Interestingly, the list and details of those the old man has killed are securely stored in a vault only I can access. How about we take a look together later?”
“Thankfully, my list is still too short to be included in that vault, Black Dragon Master. Your list is so long, you’d probably need to rent out an entire building to store it.”
“It's recorded on USBs, not paper! You really are an old geezer!”
Your relationships are really terrible….
“Oh ho!”
Perhaps their argument had carried farther than I thought. Before I knew it, the Heretic Inquisitor had appeared behind me and was exclaiming in admiration. Well, the Inquisitor had probably used [Holy Technique - Teleportation] to teleport straight over.
“The unshakable top-ranked Sword Saint and the rapidly rising second-ranked King of Death. It appears they maintain a peaceful relationship, but the tower's residents are interested to see how it will end. A bodyguard! Now that’s news.”
The Heretic Inquisitor nodded, grinning from ear to ear.
As always, he had an angelic face, but just moments ago, he was being tossed around by the Mountain Snail Tribe kids. Tossed around by tentacles. Following the laws of physics, the slime from the tribe had transferred to him, and now as he nodded, slime dripped from his face.
Drip, drip, drip, drip.
“Uh, Bambolina, sorry but could you step back a bit......"
“Ahaha! If the Sword Saint becomes the King of Death's bodyguard, everyone will know! It’ll reveal who has the upper hand between the two!”
Thump!
The Heretic Inquisitor spread both arms wide and laughed brightly. The children's bodily fluid, namely the aloe-like slime characteristic of the Mountain Snail Tribe, shot out all at once like bullets. Naturally, I was the one hit, since I was standing directly in front of the Inquisitor.
"......."
This attack feels like it might be good for the skin.
“It is about time for the King of Death's faction to step fully into the spotlight. Let us use [the No. 1 ranker being recruited as a bodyguard] as the symbolic event and announce it now!”
“What? Make what public?”
I slowly evaporated the slime off my body with my aura and asked.
“Why, the fact that the King of Death now wields unprecedented authority in this tower!”
"......."
“The King of Death is already a hero of the tower, but the image of a warrior is strong. Thanks to the Black Dragon Master's image-making! But now it's time to also adopt the image of a ruler or leader. Haha. Perhaps, the King of the Tower.”
“No, I don’t see why I need to...”
“Because it's the truth, master.”
The Heretic Inquisitor smiled brightly.
"......."
I looked around with a strange sensation.
At some point, both the Black Dragon Master and the Sword Saint had stopped arguing and were looking this way.
Silently.
Looking around again, not only Ester and the retainers of our family but also the Countess having tea with the fairies and the Paladin swimming with the mermaids were all gazing in my direction.
"......."
Uh.
What’s this atmosphere?
“Gong-Ja, that rogue old man mentioned it to you earlier.”
In the midst of the unfamiliar silence around me, Anastasia opened her lips.
“That he was testing you.”
"......."
“I hate to make you feel bad, but it wasn't just the old man testing you. Me. And all of us. We have been continuously observing you.”
I recalled hearing something similar before.
That they were watching to see if I was worthy of being their [comrade].
But I thought that test had already been passed. Why...
“To see if you truly deserve to be our [leader].”
"......."
“Having you as a friend, becoming comrades with you, I’m happy. It’s fortunate. But we cannot merely accept misfortune as an accident or fortune as mere joy.”
“Because we are responsible for leading people.”
Splash.
The sound of wet footsteps resounded.
“The Black Dragon. Pantheon. Sang-Ryun. Celestial Martial Clan. Vigilante Corps.”
It was the Paladin.
She had climbed up onto the broad rock. She was soaking wet from swimming with the Gill-Fin Tribe. The Paladin squeezed the water out of her hair once, and droplets of water fell onto the rock where we were gathered.
“Beneath us are thirteen mid-tier guilds, including the Alchemy Castle. Another four have never been officially declared as such but are effectively our direct subordinates. Hundreds of guilds work as our subcontractors, and if you trace the subcontractors of those subcontractors, our reach easily covers all of Babylon.”
"......."
“It’s easy to become our business partner. To become our comrade, that’s hard. To become our friend, even harder. And you’ve managed that difficult task.”
“So.”
The Black Dragon Master continued.
Accordingly, my gaze shifted to her.
“Maybe we thought that you could handle [something a bit more difficult].”
“We had hopes.”
The Paladin took over.
“We maintain the 5 great guilds system, not for any other reason but to keep checks and balances. Almost everyone living in the tower belongs to a guild, that is, they are [members].”
“The idea was for the 5 equally powerful and specialized guilds to cooperate while competing. Furthermore, to protect the personal and property rights and safety of the members.”
“Which guild to join, leave, or rejoin, it all depends on the residents’ freedom. Guilds that can't make money will naturally decline, and those that don’t share the wealth will naturally disappear.”
“That’s the system we created for the tower.”
“In other words.”
“None of us trusted ourselves to stand alone.”
The Paladin spoke softly.
“We were not confident that we would not become corrupt.”
"......."
“If I had possessed enough power to crush the Black Dragon, I would gladly have thrown them in prison. I would have declared every shop, business, and information broker they operate along the boundary between legality and legal evasion a cancer upon the tower, then punished them all. I could not be certain that I would remain myself while carrying that out.”
“I have scenarios ready to assassinate all hunters from rank 1 to rank 10.”
The Black Dragon Master said.
“Haven’t used them since the mass purge though.”
"......."
“If the Black Dragon were the only guild instead of one of the 5, would I really have carried it out? Even if I think of myself as a person with strong self-control, that self-control comes from the presence of others.”
Meow.
A cat meowed from beneath my feet.
The tricolor cat had the body and eyes of a cat, but its gaze belonged to no beast. It spoke.
“As you know, we never trusted one another very much. Even so, we never sank so low as to wage civil war because we did not place much trust in ourselves either.”
“That’s right.”
The Sword Saint spoke.
“In the end, we only look human because each of us wears a mask.”
"......."
“King of Death. We were testing to see how you would be.”
Testing.
What test are they talking about?
When did it start?
“There have been quite a few times when we gathered without you and discussed you.”
“When exactly......"
“After clearing the Great Library of Myriad Thoughts and before entering the 30th floor. We conducted various background checks on you, your spending habits, the people you meet, how you behave when you meet strangers. Almost everything was investigated and shared.”
Gathering information is my forte.
That’s what the Black Dragon Master said calmly.
“That’s… a violation of privacy, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Sorry. Really sorry for the intrusion. Ah, how awful of me to dig into a comrade’s past. Vice-Captain of the Vigilante Corps? Could you arrest me for the crime of snooping around people’s backgrounds?”
“Hmm. I declare you not guilty.”
“See? Kim Gong-Ja. Not guilty. Let’s just say I’m sorry and move on.”
"......."
Gosh, my comrades and friends here are indeed wielding unparalleled power in the tower....
“Don’t worry. We only confirmed that your private life is disgustingly clean.”
“I feel like you just put together two contradictory words…”
“We also confirmed that you write a diary every night to show the Duchess of Ivansia. Be thankful that I didn’t get my hands on the contents of your diary. I really debated whether to order my subordinates to find out what’s in it or not…”
“Hello? Anastasia? Have you lost your mind?”
“Oh, but the first sentence is always the same, so I got to know it. Dear…”
“Let’s break off our friendship!! Bring back the friendship contract! Right now!”
“……Anyway, the conclusion is that you are a person with integrity.”
The Paladin smirked.
“But having the same face inside and out is not enough. If we are to make you our leader, you must possess the qualities a leader needs. Moving us on a personal level is only a secondary matter.”
“Nor are we trying to evaluate your political ability.”
The tricolor cat clung comfortably to the Paladin's calf.
Then, the Paladin picked up the cat, and in her arms, the Countess in her cat form said,
“Politics is best left to specialists. The Paladin can handle public security, the Black Dragon Master domestic affairs, and yours truly the economy. If we occasionally need more muscle, we can simply rely on Viper. The Sword Saint can be brought in and put to work on diplomacy with the outside world. The old man never listens to a damn thing, but perhaps he would lend an ear to a request from you, King of Death.”
"......."
“So, the last thing we need to test is only one thing.”
The cat opened its eyes narrowly. It was the Countess's playful smile.
“If you were to become a leader, we were interested to see how you would rule the people.”
A real example.
“When I first received the quest from [The Princess Who Strolls Through Mirages], I thought, Aha.”
From the 31st to around the 40th floor.
“Could this be useful?”
Stages where one becomes a god and leads a race.
“I did not write the test immediately. Temple Master, that child ran wild for more than two hundred years entirely of his own accord.”
"Ahaha.”
The Heretic Inquisitor laughed innocently.
“Right! This is the first time I’m hearing this!”
“Well, the Master of the Celestial Martial Clan did not go along with my plan either.”
The Countess said.
“But eventually, the spontaneous actions of the Temple Master gave me a lot of inspiration. To be able to watch from up close as you rallied us all together in a time of dire crisis, where every race was enslaved, and led a rebellion.”
The cat gently stroked the Paladin's cheek with its paw.
“In short, you had the makings of a revolutionary. A revolutionary! Not bad, I don’t dislike it. But the leader I need isn't a revolutionary but a ruler of the tower. Countless refugees who fled from various countries, these tower residents who are busy hating, despising, belittling, and mocking each other, need a leader who can gently stabilize them. I needed a bit more information. For example…"
The Countess spoke.
“How would you treat [different races] under your rule?”
“…Different races?”
I briefly thought of the Earth Spirit Tribe, but changed my mind seeing the Countess's eye smile.
“Don’t tell me, the Fairy Tribe……?”
“Correct. King of Death. I like how quick-witted you are."
"......."
I opened my eyes wide.
The Countess looked at me and purred.
“The Heretic Inquisitor was the first to drop out. Then it was me. When [The Princess Who Strolls Through Mirages] announced my elimination, I remember your dumbfounded face.”
"......."
That time.
『Wait a minute! That’s absurd! Why am I being eliminated!?』
『Erm, the Fairy Tribe gave up their dominance.』
Certainly.
In the video shown by the Princess, the elder fairies whispered,
『Let's surrender. We can't win in a fight, and there’s nothing to gain by winning. No point in investing money or gaining anything. It's a losing deal no matter what we do.』
『Let us offer our country to the Earth Spirit Tribe and become their vassal state. In exchange, we will ask for their protection.』
『Yes. Let’s surrender.』
『It only means becoming a vassal state.』
『Thank you. Great Cat.』
That’s how it was.
I thought it was just a trivial incident that the Countess played off as a joke.
"......."
I spoke up.
“……Did you deliberately get eliminated?”
“More accurately, I induced my own elimination.”
“But the Fairy Tribe children surrendered to the Earth Spirit Tribe of their own accord, didn't they?”
“Right, but who nurtured those kids? Who was revered as a god by them?"
"......."
“With just a little prophecy, suggestion, and command in their dreams, the kids easily followed. King of Death. It wasn’t much different from how you conquered the stages.”
Thinking about it.
The Fairy Tribe was the financial backer behind the multi-racial alliance.
Before I met Uburka, I had a discussion with the Countess. She advised me to [negotiate in a way beneficial to all races], and following her advice, I entered Uburka's dream.
From beginning to end?
If the Countess's grand plan was for the Fairy Tribe to surrender bloodlessly to the Earth Spirit Tribe without any battle or war.
“Why would you do such a thing......"
“Didn’t I say it? To test you.”
The Countess said.
“Rule makes it easy to persecute people merely because they come from another country. And now a different race has come under your command. Goodness, they look different, their customs differ, and they even serve a different god. How could the Earth Spirit Tribe possibly refrain from discriminating against the Fairy Tribe?”
"......."
“I was curious. Leading the Earth Spirit Tribe well was something you could handle yourself. Beyond that, would you be able to govern without difficulty the races who, like us, left their homelands behind? That is the quality our leader needs.”
I fell silent.
I slightly raised my gaze to look at the Paladin's face.
Holding the tricolor cat, the Paladin’s expression was calm.
“Patricia.”
The next person to be eliminated after the Countess.
A comrade who [voluntarily] abstained from the stage.
The Fairy Tribe controlled financial capital, while the Gill-Fin Tribe controlled logistics. The race under the Paladin's care, together with the race ruled by the Countess, had therefore been incorporated naturally beneath the Earth Spirit Tribe.
"Hmm."
The Paladin nodded.
“Yes, Kim Gong-Ja. I abstained on purpose.”
"......."
“To understand the person you are.”
I realized.
Why the Earth Spirit Tribe was able to conquer the continent with so little bloodshed.
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