SSS-Class Revival Hunter - Chapter 337

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈

Chapter 337: Blood and Wine (1)

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"So, what will you do?"

I flicked my holy sword. The Crocodile Gentleman, already sobbing miserably, swallowed a scream upon seeing the tip of my blade.

"What do you mean, what will I do? What are you talking about?"

"Regardless of the circumstances, you placed a bid, and you won. So, whatever comes of it, we have to determine who is qualified to become humanity's Constellation. Isn't that why you appeared before me? Because you do not want to lose that faith."

"......."

"A duel? One-on-one? A fair fight?"

The Crocodile Gentleman stared at my blade. Gulp. The massive throat of the Crocodile, covered in scaly leather, trembled.

"Deal?"

"Wait, hold on a moment! I didn't come here to fight you one-on-one. Despite my appearance, I am a Gentleman."

"Then why are you here?"

"Even if I do end up surrendering, my good man, we should at least talk first, should we not? We ought to learn who the other is before deciding what comes of this. That is what I am saying."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Hmm."

"You must not know since you've stormed through from the 50th floor to here in no time, huh? Among the Constellations residing in the upper floors, there are connections, networks. It's somewhat similar to the world of humans. See, even ‘The Ruin-Harvesting Cow' collaborated with 'The Eyes Dwelling in the Labyrinth' to attack you!"

The Crocodile Gentleman pulled out a handkerchief from his suit pocket and kept wiping his forehead. Not that a crocodile could sweat.

"In short, you're saying you're afraid to fight me?"

"That's not it... Yes, damn it. I am scared! Ah! So frightening! Happy now? Where did such a creature come from all of a sudden!"

Why are you angry with me?

"Let us settle this with words if we can. With words. Do you know how many kinds of authority you have consumed by now? Keep eating like that and you will get indigestion, young man. Mutia's regression, Hisimet Cretsu's information, and even Constellations whose identities I cannot begin to make sense of..."

"Eating one more of you won't make my already upset stomach any worse."

"Of course, that's a damn fact..."

The Crocodile shed tears.

He was an honest Gentleman.

"However, looking at you, young man, you seem quite transparent. Or at least trying to be. You are. Then, shouldn't we first try to resolve this through dialogue, as is the proper way?"

Just as I adopted a contemplative pose:

[The Eyes Dwelling in the Labyrinth cautiously speaks to you.]

I looked down at my wrist.

There, coiled like a wristwatch, was a tiny snake.

"Kiiii."

Raising its tiny head, the snake seemed anxious, as if worried I might strike it. It was quite cute, despite being the notorious villain who turned countless humans into mannequins for display.

[The Eyes Dwelling in the Labyrinth speaks. This may be needless meddling, but...]

What? What is it?

[The Eyes Dwelling in the Labyrinth secretly informs you that everything the Crocodile Gentleman has said so far, without exception, has been a lie.]

"......."

I slowly shifted my gaze.

In front of me, the Crocodile was still dabbing at his non-sweaty leather with a handkerchief.

Both my eyes and the snake's pupils were fixed on him.

[The Eyes Dwelling in the Labyrinth makes a judgment.]

"Of course, we don't expect to understand each other right from the start through dialogue. Dialogue, communication, is not achieved merely by exchanging words. It's a kind of grand achievement, isn't it?"

[False.]

"Perhaps the essence of dialogue is sharing time with each other. Time. Giving time to each other. A 30-minute conversation won't mean much to someone who has lived 30 years without the other. But what about after a year?"

[False.]

"If we speak again a year after our first conversation, then ten years later and twenty years later, our lives will have overlapped for a full twenty years. We will have continued a new life together, one comparable to those previous thirty years!"

[False.]

"I don't think I can earn your trust right from the start. But... I hope to be a Constellation worth your time, worth getting to know slowly. How about it, King of Death."

The Crocodile blinked.

"Would you grant me the opportunity to have a dialogue with you?"

And the snake also blinked.

[False.]

I slowly smiled.

'Interesting.'

I gently stroked the head of the still trembling snake with my finger. The snake let out a faint kii, as though it might sink into the ground at any moment.

'Everything up to his last words was a lie. Even the question [Would you grant me the opportunity to have a dialogue with you?] contains a lie... There's no need to think about it. The very word [dialogue] is a lie, isn't it?'

[That's correct.]

'He's not asking for a chance to talk to me but for a chance to finish me off. That’s his true intention.'

[It seems so.]

So these were crocodile tears in the most literal sense.

I smiled at the Crocodile Gentleman.

"Alright."

The Crocodile Gentleman's eyes lit up.

"Go ahead and arrange one. A place for dialogue."

It was soon revealed that the 'dialogue' the Crocodile Gentleman spoke of wasn't a one-on-one conversation.

It was a meeting also attended by Constellations whose divine powers were threatened by me, Constellations whose territories overlapped with the domain I would govern. In other words, Constellations facing an immediate crisis.

[The Reddest Sommelier has won the bidding for the 67th floor's management rights.]

[The Eternal Dance of the Twins has won the bidding for the 68th floor's management rights.]

[The Noble of Dry Fingerprints has won the bidding for the 69th floor's management rights.]

Several Constellations sat around a long table, waiting for me.

Not just a long table, but an excessively long one.

The table stretched endlessly, converging towards a vanishing point on both sides. The space arranged for this meeting of dialogue extended lengthwise along the table. Although we could sit facing each other, that was all; to cross to the other side, one would have to use their body, not just words.

"Come, take a seat! King of Death, welcome!"

The Crocodile Gentleman greeted me warmly.

"All of us here wish to speak with you. Despite appearances, everyone is terribly shy, and they only came out because I took the lead in organizing this gathering. Heh heh. Everyone, great or small, is shy around strangers."

[False.]

I already knew.

Without losing my smile, I surveyed the faces introduced by the Crocodile Gentleman.

"First, it's an honor to introduce you to the 'Eternal Dance of the Twins.' It's a very rare case of twin Constellations among the stars."

The twins seated at the far end of the table nodded simultaneously, in perfectly the same moment and angle.

"Nice to meet you." "We have not met before."

Even their timing of speaking overlapped.

One had a higher pitch, and the other lower, but they harmoniously created a chord. It was just ordinary speech, yet a harmony emerged. The twins, expressionless, were interlocking their fingers tightly.

"Interesting, isn't it?"

The Crocodile Gentleman chuckled.

"Neither one is a Constellation alone; only together do they become a Constellation. Maybe they're actually one person but appear to be two. Who knows? Next is......"

"I am the [Noble of Dry Fingerprints], child."

A gorgeously dressed Constellation spoke bluntly.

The Constellation looked at me with eyes full of hatred.

The eyebrows were furrowed, the forehead wrinkled, and the corners of the mouth twisted grotesquely.

"I expect nothing from you."

Perhaps this hatred wasn't specifically directed at 'me.'

That expression was aimed at an unspecified many. At some point, that anger must have hardened and become their very skin.

It was less the face of someone who hated a person than of someone who hated something, and if asked what that something was, they could only answer: their own life.

"Only one thing."

The [Noble] glared at me.

"I wish you could understand my situation."

"Alright! Alright! Let's save those stories for later!"

The Crocodile clapped his hands hurriedly, his short arms making the applause seem comical.

"First, to commemorate the successful convening of this meeting! Let's raise a toast!"

As he clapped, bang! The doors of the meeting room flew open. From there, butlers dressed in tailcoats entered in a line.

The butlers carried liquor bottles that looked like wine bottles.

"Very, very precious wine."

The Crocodile licked his lips.

"True to the epithet 'The Reddest Sommelier,' I am quite picky about alcohol. Brewing human emotions into alcohol. This is my blessed divine power."

The butlers seemed perfect in every way, except for one glaring absence.

Their chests were empty.

It reminded me of a famous mouse cartoon featuring Swiss cheese. The butlers had holes right through the middle of their chests.

"The more desperate the heart, the more life seeps into the emotion, the fresher the aroma and the richer the taste when brewed into alcohol."

There was no blood dripping or intestines visible from the butlers' hollowed-out spots. It was as if they were cleanly cut out like in cartoons. One of the butlers approached me and tilted the bottle.

"I always wander in search of humans' concentrated emotions, their true hearts. So, you may call me the Constellation of sincerity. What do you think, King of Death?"

Drip, drip.

Red liquid filled my cup.

"Aren't we similar in some ways?"

"......."

"Cheers!"

The Crocodile Gentleman opened his jaws wide. With his short arms, he couldn't hold the cup and drink on his own. He just opened his mouth, and a butler poured the wine directly into it.

Gulp.

The thick Crocodile skin quivered as he swallowed. Gulp. Red wine leaked through his teeth, staining the Gentleman's neck and white shirt.

"Delicious!"

That one word must have been the truth among all the lies.

"Disgusting smell."

The [Noble], still wearing that twisted expression, elegantly tilted their glass.

"......." "......."

The [Twins] didn't use a butler to drink nor did they lift their cups. They sipped the wine through each other's lips, fingers still interlocked.

Not a single drop of the red liquid spilled. The timing of their swallowing and the movements of their throats were identical.

Perhaps even the rhythm of their breathing was the same? The [Twins] weren't drinking wine; they were simply ensuring they didn't lose each other.

"......." "......."

Not just now, but in everything they do. To them, all events that pass by are merely a white backdrop, and the only fact they always prove, the only truth they seek to confirm, is that they haven't lost each other.

So…

"Indeed."

I put down the glass.

The level of the red liquid in the cup hadn't changed at all.

Leisurely, I looked over at the Constellations seated across the table.

"You are indeed similar to me."

The Crocodile Gentleman dressed in a suit.

[The Reddest Sommelier].

He, who takes the hearts of others and revels in emotions.

"It's clear that the more established I become as a Constellation, the more troubled you become."

The noble dressed in splendid attire.

[The Noble of Dry Fingerprints].

One who uses hatred as blood and anger as bone.

"That's why I'm glad."

The two, fingers interlocked.

[The Eternal Dance of the Twins].

They, who need nothing but the acknowledgment of the other.

"I'm glad that it's me, not someone else, who will bring about your downfall."

"......."

The Constellations stopped moving.

The [Noble] stared at me with their cup still at their lips. The [Twins], still with their lips pressed together, rolled their eyes simultaneously to look at me.

"Hmm."

The Crocodile Gentleman slowly closed his jaws and wiped the wine from between his teeth with his handkerchief. He carried it to wipe away not sweat but wine, not his own body heat but another person's blood.

"Why, I wonder?"

The Crocodile looked at me with eyes filled with cracks.

"If you meant to be hostile to us from the start, there was no need to talk. Nor was there any reason to accept an invitation to where we had gathered, come all this way, and take on the misfortune of facing three Constellations at once."

The butlers moved away from the table. More precisely, they moved well away from my seat. They drew knives and other weapons from inside their clothes and began to surround me.

"Why bare your fangs at us here, at this particular moment?"

"This was never meant to be a place for conversation."

I flung the wine from my glass. Red embroidered the air beneath the chandelier. But the wine never crossed the table to drench the crocodile's head.

Splash!

It struck an invisible rampart and ran down. Some kind of barrier had been drawn over the table between where I sat and where they sat.

"You intended to fight from the beginning. That must be why [The Staff of Time Immemorial] allowed you to bid. And if you were going to fight, you lured me here so the three of you could do it together."

"Hmm."

The Crocodile Gentleman blinked.

"How troublesome. This is merely a precaution against the slightest possibility... King of Death, you misunderstand."

[False.]

It did not even need to tell me.

"Still, if that is what you think, I am even more curious. Why did you accept my invitation and come here despite knowing it was bait and a trap?"

"To see."

I shrugged.

"What methods you might use, what schemes you might devise. More than anything, what you all looked like, and what you would say if we talked. I wanted to take my time and see for myself."

"So you have. What is your impression?"

I gripped my sword.

"Now I see why the Sword Emperor treats Constellations like choice restaurants."

"......"

"Come at me all at once."

The Crocodile Gentleman's gaze hardened.

"You underestimate us."

His slit, catlike pupils locked me in.

"Mutia merely formed an alliance with Hisimet Cretsu. The two did not attack you at the same time. You are acting this way because you do not understand what it means to take on three Constellations at once. You will pay the price."

"Regrettably."

I gripped the hilt of my sword.

"That statement will soon become a lie as well."

The Constellations leaped at me all at once.

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