WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈

Chapter 343: Absolute Music (4)

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I felt the children's heartbeats slowing.

'Why is this so fascinating?'

My fingers moved rapidly over the keys.

'Even though I can't hear anything, why am I so captivated by watching people's reactions?'

Breath was finite in this world. Performers and audiences shared a predetermined amount of breath. As my fingers quickened, the children's breaths slowed, and as my fingers leisurely swam, the children could finally catch their breath.

'How far can I go?'

I struck the keys.

"■■......."

"■■■? ■■■?"

Pedestrians on the grand staircase began to stop, one or two at a time.

I expanded my Aura. Not just the six children, but also the young person who just stopped, the woman with dark circles under her eyes, I sensed the rhythm of their heartbeats.

'How far can I go?'

Soon, my thoughts blurred.

'The scent.'

I caught the scent flowing beneath the World Tree. Though I could hear nothing, my Aura-enhanced sense of smell caught even the most motley and vulgar scents.

The deep recesses of my nostrils turned green.

'The scent of animals... The scent of beasts.'

It wasn't just humans who hesitated on the grand staircase and began to listen to my performance. Beasts did too.

Owls, skylarks, scops owls, birds with long ears like goblins, birds with thick lips like hippos, birds with atrophied forelegs like dinosaurs, and birds whose nationalities I did not know and therefore could not call by name all stretched out their necks and lowered their heads from the World Tree's low branches. I was playing beneath their hanging beaks.

'...The scent of life.'

Not only were the beasts blinking their eyes and watching my piano under the World Tree, flowers were too.

Hawthorn blossoms, hydrangeas, spider lilies, mountain hydrangeas, fire chrysanthemums, cherry blossoms, pear blossoms, flowers with enormous eyes set with white, children whose finely pared nails bloomed as petals, things that curled their fingers around a handful of sky, lives that possessed color before they possessed names, all looked down at me.

'The scent of Aura.'

This place was a kind of heaven.

Even the petals that didn't know how to listen had Aura lingering on them. Who had given it? In the world of musical heaven, from the moment of their birth, flowers knew how to drink rainwater as they knew how to listen with Aura.

[A skill has been activated.]

Unknowingly, I used a skill. [Salvation of the Torn Goddess]. Salvation Sword. A technique that temporarily amplified my Aura in exchange for losing my memories.

It was a skill I intended not to use recklessly, but it was activated unconsciously now. It couldn't be helped.

'More.'

Even now, as a Constellation, I lacked the Aura to sense everyone under the shadow of the World Tree, children, passersby, beasts and flowers.

I just wanted the hearts of everyone who lent their ears to my performance.

'More.'

I lost the memory of what I played three seconds ago and grasped the performance that would follow in the next three seconds.

Aura would become more boundless the more one would be willing to forsake themselves.

[A skill has been activated.]

Even if I had been born a musician who could not hear, a painter who could not see color, or a poet who did not know what poetry was, I would surely have watched people's faces and read their expressions, then written songs I could not hear, painted pictures I could not see, and composed poems I did not understand.

I would have lived that way.

'...Good.'

Maybe compared to someone who received the sound from the beginning, knew what harmony and music were, and just transcribed the music they knew, my life might have been inferior.

But I knew no other way to live.

'Yeah, I like it.'

And I liked being alive.

'Everyone... is beautiful.'

If there was something I realized after sacrificing my life over four thousand times, it was that I liked living.

If I were a stone allowed only a life of breaking apart, I would have loved even the act of breaking. If I were a flower that had to shed the white it nurtured from spring when winter arrived, I would have loved the sensation of dropping petals.

[The Maestro Singing of Heaven opens its eyes.]

Blink.

[The Maestro Singing of Heaven looks down at you.]

The wind stirred.

It was not a wind that had sprung up on its own. The branches subtly wriggled, and countless leaves moved like feathers on wings. It was the World Tree. When this tree, covering the sky here, nodded slightly, a kind wind blew.

[The Maestro Singing of Heaven listens to your sound.]

And I knew that the speed of the wind flowing through the grain was the tree's heartbeat, while the rustle of leaves brushing against one another was its body heat.

The blooming flowers were the tree's gaze.

[The Maestro Singing of Heaven begins to sing along to your sound.]

Tap.

A flower whiter than the piano keys fell onto them.

Tap. The flower fell from far away. From somewhere far above. From the sky. The World Tree shook its branches and dropped a flower hanging from its fingertips. Tap. With the speed of the sky and the gravity of green, the white flower fell and pressed a key.

Another flower dropped.

Everytime they fell, the flowers struck the keys. It was a performance. As I leaned to the left and played on the left side of the piano, the flowers fell to the right. The World Tree played an accompaniment by dropping its flowers onto the piano keys.

"......."

Like rainwater, petals scattered over the keys.

I moved my fingers. White flowers bloomed upon the white keys. Whenever I pressed a key, I unwittingly crushed a flower someone had dropped there.

As I played the piano, fingerprints remained on the petals. Crushed between my fingers and the keys, the flower was slightly bruised. Mashed. Crushed. A juice-like moisture flowed from the petals. Just a little. A bit of fragrance, just a bit of scent, scent... scent.

The crushed fragrance must have been the tree's tears.

Across the white keys flowed white petals and a pure-white scent, and before I knew it, heaps of flowers were blooming all around.

They were petals that did not know how to release their moisture until someone pressed them, a whiteness that, even when vomiting water, released fragrance rather than stench.

There was such a tree in heaven.

'Beautiful.'

What did the one who first planted this tree think?

"■■■......."

"■■......."

Children, pedestrians, and beasts opened their mouths. They probably sang along with the flowers. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear the world's chorus.

It didn't matter.

Really, it didn't matter.

[The Maestro Singing of Heaven blesses you.]

[Hidden Stage Clear.]

In the midst of falling flowers.

[The Maestro Singing of Heaven says you shouldn't stay here too long.]

[You will be transferred to the 70th floor.]

[The Maestro Singing of Heaven bids you farewell.]

[May fortune be with you.]

I opened my eyes.

5.

The place where I opened my eyes was the 70th-floor lobby.

"......."

Patricia was silently watching me. She opened and closed her lips repeatedly, seemingly contemplating what to say first.

At last, her deliberation apparently over, Patricia said, "Mm."

"Kim Gong-Ja."

"Yes."

"Aura is a cheap trick, so I don't acknowledge it."

"Why did you even bother thinking about what to say first? Huh?"

"I find it somewhat embarrassing to praise you. Should I endure the embarrassment just to praise you? That would be your selfishness, your arrogance, and your vanity."

"I didn't say anything!?"

"Ha."

Patricia sighed.

"There was no need to try so hard. Didn't I tell you? Even if you did nothing, I would gladly acknowledge your stage clear. In fact, when you completely messed up your first performance, I immediately stamped the clear."

"You really say some harsh things so nonchalantly, don't you...?"

"Your last performance was... um, how should I put it?"

Patricia seemed lost in thought, then slowly nodded.

"Until now, I thought I liked living alongside someone like you. But when I heard your final performance, I thought dying alongside you would be all right too."

"......Oh."

Isn't that an even more embarrassing thing to say? Overwhelmingly?

I can't grasp your subtle emotions, my friend.

"Yes. It was an excellent start."

While I was hesitating on how to respond, the Staff of Time Immemorial intervened, "It was remarkable considering it wasn't your area of expertise. Congratulations on gaining a believer for the first time since becoming a Constellation."

[You are gaining believers!]

[The Paladin becomes your believer.]

[Currently, there are no blessings you can bestow upon your believer.]

[Currently, there are no divine powers you can grant to your believer.]

Although messages followed one after another, it still didn't feel real to me. Blessings or divine powers. Maybe after conquering up to the 79th floor, when my status as a Constellation is solidified, something might become possible.

Even if it becomes possible, I have no intention of acting as a deity to Patricia, nor do I wish to be treated as one.

"Well, take care. Kim Gong-Ja... Hang in there."

Patricia's ankles were wrapped in white light.

Her role as a judge was ending, and she was returning to the 1st floor.

Looking closely, Patricia wore a bittersweet smile.

"I was told by this one that I won't remember anything about this incident."

"......."

"Memories are islands that each person possesses. It feels troubling to leave you on a deserted island, but I trust you'll swim through any sea as you please and go wherever you want."

"Patricia."

"Hm."

"I think 17 plans would be insufficient if you were to attempt to assassinate me."

"......."

Patricia looked taken aback.

What followed in the next second went like this: In less than a second, Patricia realized she had momentarily lost control over her expression. Then, in another fraction of a moment, she pondered what to do. It was brief, but her contemplation was evident in her gaze.

And she made her choice.

"......Indeed."

Patricia opted to [leave her taken-aback expression as is].

"Disappointed...?"

"No. I knew you were that kind of person. I've just come to understand you a bit more."

"I'm sorry. But I have seen people change. Witnessed it. Experienced it. The Sword Saint, the Black Dragon Master, many hunters from the past who are now gone... I simply cannot believe that anyone will remain unchanged forever. So, just in case."

"Yes."

I smiled.

"I understand what you mean by [I wouldn't mind dying with you]."

"......."

"It's an honor."

"Really,"

Patricia let out a dry laugh.

"There really is nothing cute about you."

Splash!

The ground beneath Patricia softened and swallowed her up. She was teleported by the mage.

In the space where Rubik's cube-like cubes continuously rotated, only the mage and I were left.

"Will you move on to the next stage immediately? Or would you like some time to rest?"

"I'm fine with either."

"Then, let's proceed."

The slender staff struck the white floor.

"The world of music was somewhat favorable to you as a battlefield. Even though music wasn't your specialty, you weren't entirely devoid of talent in it. But what about this time?"

Where Patricia disappeared, a burst of light soared.

"Your next destination is [the world of money]."

Beyond the dazzling pillar, a shadow of a person flickered.

"And the top expert related to money in your tower seems to be this child."

Like Patricia, it was a familiar face to me.

The newly summoned judge on the 70th floor blinked.

"......Um? What's this all about?"

A hunter deeply connected to Patricia who had just vanished.

"How peculiar. Can you tell me where this is, King of Death?"

The head of the Merchants Union.

It was the Countess.

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