SSS-Class Revival Hunter - Chapter 362

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈

Chapter 362: The Heaven that Gathers Wails (4)

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"The last wave?"

"Yes."

"What does the last wave mean?"

She looked at me. Her eyes were bright blue, more akin to those of a beast than a human. They did not distinguish much between humans and animals, and they made no distinction between humans and the sea.

I said,

"I can understand all your sounds."

"......"

"From the second wave to the five hundred and eighty-first wave, all of them. The sounds you make, I can hear them."

It meant 'I can interpret all the languages of the warriors you command.' Yes, I could have said that. But I spoke in her words. I wanted to speak that way.

With pronunciations and words that left no trace, like a village that had been obliterated by a tsunami long ago, leaving not even ruins behind. I spoke in sounds that only two people in the world could exchange now, reminiscing about destruction.

"You don't need to wander from village to village. You don't have to go to a large village. I am your last wave, and this is the last village in the world."

"......"

She looked at me. Her bright blue eyes did not hold even the faintest ripple. Suspicion, doubt, bewilderment, confusion: as people live, their emotions invariably leave fingerprints upon their eyes. There were no fingerprints in hers.

"Are you a god?"

"I wish to be your god."

From a distance, the Staff of Time Immemorial could be heard taking a breath. However, she did not turn her gaze. Nor did I avert my eyes from hers.

"Tell me your wish."

"Wish?"

"Yes. You can go anywhere. Which village would you like to visit? This is a very large village. Every village is here. I will take you to wherever you wish to go."

"......"

She blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice. Like waves that rush to the gentle shore only to recede again, her eyelids fluttered.

"Teach me the spell to trap sounds."

"Okay."

I turned my head.

"Could you bring me some ink?"

"......"

The Staff of Time Immemorial bit her lip. The greatest mage in the tower, versed in all spells; her eyebrows were trembling. Instead of her, the Princess Who Strolls Through Mirages brought the ink bottle.

"Here."

"Thank you."

"But why ink, King of Death?"

The princess looked up at my face attentively.

"Wouldn't it be easier with paper and a pen?"

"Pens would be unfamiliar to her. Someone who has never held a pencil before would find it hard to write. However, if you write with your hands, you'll get used to it quickly. So it's easier to just dip your fingertips in ink and write on the ground."

The princess listened to all I said. Slowly, after listening, she nodded once.

"That makes sense."

Once more.

"It does."

Her voice echoed softly.

[The current status of the majority vote is being announced.]

[King of Death: 2 votes, Abstentions: 0 votes, Staff of Time Immemorial: 3 votes.]

I think I heard the sound of waves from somewhere.

"What's this?"

"Ink. It's black water."

"Does it hurt?"

"It doesn't hurt. I'll teach you the spell with this."

I crouched down on the floor. She hunched her body too. The pillars surrounded us silently, watching. We ignored them, turning the white stone floor into our canvas.

ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅔ, ㅜ, ㅡ, ㅣ.

"This way, you can trap sounds."

I wrote on the floor. My fingertips turned black. Black strokes were drawn on the floor. She watched clearly as black waves were drawn across the white sea.

"Try it too."

"Okay."

Her fingertips turned black.

Half a day passed.

Another half day passed.

A day went by.

Her fingernails turned black, her fingers turned black, her palms turned black. Strokes were drawn and redrawn on the floor, endlessly bringing black waves to the white sea. The pillars watched us without moving.

The conference hall was vast. The canvas was almost infinite. In a crouched position, we slowly shifted spots, spreading the black waves inch by inch.

Every wave she drew was distinctly marked with fingerprints.

Three days passed, or maybe four. In the timeless depths of the underground, only the expanding sea marks around us testified to time.

Seen closely, ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅔ, ㅜ, ㅡ, and ㅣ were all wooden planks. Pieces of wrecked boats swayed this way and that upon the sea. She was writing letters. Splash. She was a boatwoman who knew the channels of the pitch-black sea, and she rowed with her fingers. Splash, splash.

"Do you understand now?"

"Yes."

So, I am listening to the sound of waves.

"I understand."

I asked the princess for a clay tablet. It had not hardened yet, and its surface was soft.

"......"

Looking at the clay tablet before her, she blinked. It was her tension. This was her 'somewhere.' After her hometown was submerged and many villages drowned, this was the island she had searched for.

Facing the small island.

She rowed.

『I love the sea.』

The waves crashed.

『We love the sea.』

The ripples surged.

『The waves shed tears.』

Fingerprints.

『We also shed tears.』

Gradually.

『Still, I love the sea.』

Blue eyes looked up at me.

"Did I die?"

I nodded, letting her know she had reached the island village.

"Yes. Do you want to live?"

"People."

She said,

"I killed many people."

"I can't live anymore. Too many people have died. I'm sorry. I can't live anymore."

She looked at me.

Waves surged in her sea-like eyes.

"Thank you."

I think I heard the sound of waves from somewhere.

"Thank you."

[You have acquired a follower.]

[The First Wave becomes your follower.]

And then…

The wave subsided.

"......"

Only black writing remained on the floor. The First Wave subsided among the pieces of wrecked boats. Just as with the home she had left behind, a person who sank into the sea disappeared from sight. For the first time, she was able to stop breathing in the sea she loved.

"......"

The pillars remained silent.

“……Why.”

Only after a while, or perhaps just for a moment, the Staff of Time Immemorial opened her lips, her voice squeezed through clenched teeth.

"Why didn't you assign her to a heaven?"

"I don't assign heavens. I only listen to where they want to go. Heaven is a place people want to go. The wave went to the island it wished for."

I lifted the clay tablet with both hands.

Holding the place that had become someone's small island tightly to my chest.

And I wrapped it in aura, before my water could overflow and wet the fine beaches of the island village.

Hoping that people would not burn people.

If I were to be a flame, let it be one that only burns the voices of people.

"So, it's done."

"......"

The Staff of Time Immemorial bit her lip.

[The current status of the majority vote is being announced.]

[King of Death: 2 votes, Abstentions: 1 vote, Staff of Time Immemorial: 2 votes.]

Many people still remained as noise.

Hundreds.

The noise entities summoned by the mage filled the vast conference hall.

I gave my body to every one of those people who still remained as noise.

The noise entities tore at my life.

[The current status of the majority vote is announced.]

[King of Death: 2 votes, Abstentions: 2 votes, Staff of Time Immemorial: 1 vote.]

They gnawed at my life, and I cut theirs, calling their lives here just as I did for the first wave.

And I said,

"Where, where is this? Where am I?"

Someone was confused.

A merchant who had lived selling furs all their life.

They were attacked by a nomadic tribe on their trade route and killed. The merchant felt it was unfair. They were willing to pay the price for their life. Taking their life would not have helped the nomadic tribe much. But the foolish people did not understand even this simple principle.

Why a blade instead of money? Why not trade with them?

Why is the world so cruel?

"……Who are you?"

Someone was wary.

A paladin who had been on battlefields all their life.

They died hoping for the appearance of a god until the very end. The knight screamed. If there was a god in this world, it would descend in the most horrific and miserable places. The knight had only traversed the most horrific and miserable battlefields. If the god did not appear, they moved to a more horrific place, and if still not, to an even more horrific place, believing that one day it would appear, into the hell of hells.

Is it still not enough? Is it still not miserable enough for a god to extend a hand?

Why can't the world be saved?

"I don't want to die! Please…… Save me. I can't die yet!"

Someone pleaded.

Many did.

So did the person who starved to death in a drought; the person who suffocated in a fire; the person who, when famine followed famine, joined the villagers in exchanging children so they could eat human flesh, then burned the village that day and was struck down by a villager's axe; and the person whose sight went dark and, when it returned, found an adult from the neighboring house looking down at them and was suddenly strangled.

Why,

the people's voices died away.

Why is the world so.

"It's okay."

I said that to those who had an island they wanted to go to.

"You can abandon the world if you want. It's okay."

It really was okay.

"You can go to another world that you do not have to abandon."

I asked them directly.

"Where do you want to go?"

The merchant wanted to go to the Heaven of Gold. They wished to breathe in a world known for its golden radiance. The merchant did not want a life where rationality was stifled under foolish blades.

The paladin wanted to go to the Heaven of Sound. They believed that if everything, from an armful of grains of wheat to a single leaf, sang, then a god would exist in everything. They wept as they said they wanted to laugh in a world where they did not have to search for a god.

[The current status of the majority vote is being announced.]

[King of Death: 3 votes, Abstentions: 1 vote, Staff of Time Immemorial: 1 vote.]

As the final procedure.

[Activating Skill.]

I shared my gold with them.

[Earth Bone Dragon's Skull]

Rank: SSS+

Effect: Stores the memories of the living. Stored memories are kept in a 'box.' This box can only be destroyed by the owner of this skill.

As long as the box remains intact, you can repeatedly produce bodies of individuals inheriting the same memories. The bodies can roam the world, accumulating new experiences, which can then be 'updated' into the box. Of course, only if you permit it!

Even if the body of the individual is destroyed, the box remains unharmed. Bestow the privilege of immortality on those around you.

That was how I resurrected ghouls.

Like when I breathed life into Silvia Evanair and Ester, the Four Demon Lords, the children of Demonic Heaven, and Yoo Soo-Ha.

[The box of the Earth Bone Dragon has been activated.]

[The box of the Earth Bone Dragon has been completed.]

I provided bodies for the people who had been noise and had now become my ghouls.

"You have now chosen the world you will live in."

Returner's Winding Clock.

I lived through their traumas and gathered their memories.

Ghoul Reincarnation.

I gathered their memories and called them forth.

Earth Bone Dragon's Skull.

If they wished, I gave them memories and bodies.

"You came to live in a world because you wanted to live."

The conference hall was silent.

There was no more growling noise.

Hundreds of gazes, hundreds of breaths watched me.

Looking around at the people watching me, and watching them in return, I said,

"Please live in a world you can love."

"......"

"If you want to abandon it, tell me. I will listen. If you want to leave for somewhere else, tell me. I will listen. But from now on, every choice you make, every word, every contempt, and every love is yours. Take possession of your lives, and take responsibility for what you have loved. Then I will take responsibility for the deaths you could not prevent."

I said,

"May fortune be with you all."

White light enveloped them.

Everyone left for the island they wished to go to.

[The current status of the majority vote is being announced.]

[King of Death: 4 votes, Abstentions: 1 vote, Staff of Time Immemorial: 0 votes.]

The conference hall fell silent.

"......"

The Staff of Time Immemorial hung her head. She did not lift her bowed head. The pillars simply turned their gaze quietly, without a word, to their master.

Tap.

The Tower Master stood up and walked towards me.

"Kim Gong-Ja."

The tower master took my left hand and caressed the back of it.

"King of Death."

"Yes."

"You will gain authority. You will be able to bestow blessings. Irrefutably, you will become a complete Constellation."

Her amethyst eyes looked up at me.

"From this moment on, you will be known only as 'The Heaven that Gathers Wails.'"

A voice was heard.

[The current status of the majority vote is being announced.]

[King of Death: 5 votes, Abstentions: 0 votes, Staff of Time Immemorial: 0 votes.]