WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈
Chapter 397: My World and Yours (2)
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2.
[Key manifestation complete.]
[The 99th floor stage has been cleared.]
The flower garden split wide open.
[You are entering the 100th floor.]
Something surged up from the depths of the split garden.
It was a colossal mirror.
It was too large to merely reflect a person. It was of a mythic size that could reflect an entire legion in formation. The edges were jagged with crystal growths, and its surface bore a sinisterly dim purple hue on both sides.
Like a barrier from hell, the mirror stood between me and the Sword Emperor, featuring nine keyholes.
[Please insert the keys.]
I lifted my head and slowly approached the keyholes.
Although mirrors, unlike glass, couldn’t show what's beyond them, somehow I knew that the Sword Emperor was mirroring my actions on the other side.
[The first key by those who breathe within the shadows you cast.]
I peered into the first keyhole.
+
What kind of person were you?
Were you strong? Were you lovable? Were you beautiful? Were you someone others pitied?
+
I took out the key and inserted it into the first hole.
“I was someone people could rely on.”
From the other side, the Sword Emperor's voice echoed.
“I was someone who wanted to wait.”
The clanking sound resonated in unison.
The brightness and saturation of the mirror increased by a notch.
The now-vivid purple mirror displayed the next question.
+
[The second key by those who chose to follow you.]
What were the apostles to you?
Were they tools? Were they lovers? Were they family?
+
I inserted the second key.
“My apostles were peers, equals to me.”
Similarly, the Sword Emperor's response came from the other side.
“My apostles were like younger siblings to me.”
The brightness of the mirror surged once again.
+
[The third key by the gods you faced.]
What were gods to you?
+
“Beings capable of carelessness and mistakes, thus, naturally, capable of growth.”
“Had I not met my master, I might have ended up like them.”
I sequentially inserted the fourth and fifth keys.
“Honestly, I did have some regrets. It was sorrowful. If only I had been there, if only I had stayed till the end, at least till the conclusion with the Grey Spider. Maybe then, I could have done something more.”
“Well, I don't see it that way. Just as you said about the First Wave, Grey lived the way she wanted. The person who was my key on the 94th floor was the same in that respect. Those who do not blame others walk entirely on their own feet, so naturally they do not borrow another person's shoulder.”
“I was glad that stories about me had spread far and wide. And I was frightened. There were people assigning meanings I had never recognized to every facet of my life. I am not talking about malicious distortions or misunderstandings. I realized that the self I had believed completely under my control was never truly under my control at all.”
“Becoming a myth goes far beyond merely becoming the subject of a story. People do not fight over whether some neighbor nobody cares about has hemorrhoids or athlete's foot. But if that man is bald, and the people telling the story like bald men, then things start getting complicated. People fight for those they like and respect just as much as they fight to exclude those they dislike and despise. And becoming the cause of a war is a really shitty thing.”
Clank, clank.
The emerging phrases and the act of inserting the matching keys turned into a dialogue between me and the Sword Emperor, with the mirror between us.
“I realized I had not been alone. The Tower Master had probably been with me all along, from the moment I entered the Tower until then.”
“Yeah. And she’s probably watching us right now. Hey~ Lady~ Watching us~? We'll be there soon~”
“…Oh come on. Um. Anyway, if you were watching, you could've helped out sooner. Like when I first met the Tower Master and heard about her ideals. But then again, thinking about it, about the alternate timelines Mutia showed me. When someone gains an opportunity, it means depriving another of the chance they could have had.”
“Hmm.”
“Even if that someone didn't know they could have had that chance, the one who reversed time would feel it, even if vaguely. Even if they don't feel it, they'd have doubts. Is this really the best? Is this truly the best path for everyone, in the grand scheme of things?”
“Zombie, can you hear? The screams of countless victims created every time you reversed time. The footsteps of doom from an avenger who lost everything due to the butterfly effect of your actions that day are steadily approaching you.”
“Doing everything is the same as doing nothing. The Tower Master chose to bear everything by doing nothing. On the other hand, I chose to bear all the consequences of the altered causality caused by my actions by doing something. If anyone blames me for that, it's a burden I must carry.”
“That's too arrogant. I understand what you're trying to say, but…”
“Then what about you, Sword Emperor? If you could turn back time, would you?”
“Would turning back time prevent regrets?”
Clank.
“No. Usually, it causes even bigger regrets. You might resolve those regrets, but then you're immediately blocked by even bigger regrets. It's a continuous cycle.”
“Conversely, does living without turning back time prevent such issues?”
Clank.
“Indeed. Definitely.”
“That's it. Whether you turn back time or not, it ends up the same.”
Clank.
“It's a bit much to say it's all the same.”
“To someone who can't run, a sprinter seems like a person with special powers. To those who can't traverse time, a regressor seems like a monster, but in the end, they're all just people.”
“That reminds me of what the Apothecary said, but isn't that too arrogant? The Apothecary was also someone who wouldn't lose to anyone in arrogance.”
“Being able to do something means you can also die because of that something. People who can do things others can't often suffer in ways ordinary people don't. In that sense, the world is fair.”
Clank.
“Sword Emperor.”
“Say you could still save your master, what then?”
.......
“Even if you say, [The first wave went where it wanted], even if you're completely convinced, don't you have to persuade yourself again every morning when you wake up? Don't say no. I've watched you fall asleep and wake up.”
“You're right.”
I sighed.
The mirror was almost transparent by then. Even a transparent mirror couldn’t show what's beyond, so I couldn't see the Sword Emperor. I just saw myself reflected in it.
“Every morning when I wake up, I ponder.”
“Hmm.”
“Whenever I feel that the wind is a little cold, or whenever Bambolina, Viper, and I are walking down the street eating ice cream and I see peonies at a flower shop, I think how wonderful it would be if Master were still alive, and whether I might actually be able to bring Master back right now.”
“I know.”
“In the end, I decide not to. I think that's truly honoring the Master. But then I wake up the next day and think again, [But the dead can't wish for anything. But is leaving them dead really for their sake? Isn't that just my own satisfaction?]”
“I know.”
“[If I revive Master, of course Master will not forgive me. But would that not simply be a problem that ends with my own suffering? Am I not merely frightened of that?]”
If alive, if still present, wouldn't the master eventually find happiness again?
“In front of the master's grave… in front of those red peonies, I pondered with the nine worlds in my mind as I bowed.”
"......."
“I'm being two-faced. Contradictory. Truly unsightly and pathetic. This conflict will probably never disappear for as long as I live.”
“Rather, it will probably intensify as time goes by. You also mentioned earlier, now every morning you'll think about the Grey Spider once more, won't you?”
“Yeah.”
“Brat.”
I looked into the keyhole that remained in the mirror.
Only one was left… I gazed quietly into that last keyhole… That's when it happened.
With a bang, a blade tip shot out from the keyhole.
"......."
I recognized that blade. It was far too massive to merely be called a sword, it was the Sword Emperor's weapon.
The enormous blade, reminiscent of an ocean sunfish, twisted at an angle. The thinned mirror, as though it had read the mood, split with a crack and crumbled like sugar.
The Sword Emperor stood amid the falling purple glass snow.
He pointed the tip of his sword at me and said,
“Trust a demonic cultist to sit there nursing an inner demon like that.”
“You're the one being indifferent like a true orthodox.”
“I've always been quite cool, you know. So cool that seeing a whiner makes me want to crack their skull.”
“Think you can?”
“Now it's finally possible.”
Despite the mirror's collapse, the ninth keyhole remained in its place, with the Sword Emperor's sword still inserted.
The Sword Emperor, as radiant as the unfolded flower garden, was smiling brilliantly.
“Let's have a match.”
"......."
I said,
“Is there a need?”
“I don't need it. You do."
.......
“I've been impressed by you since quite early on.”
“Well, I do have some exceptional talent.”
“Yeah. So exceptional that not even bleach could straighten out those wrinkles. But despite being all wrinkled up, there was something about you that truly amazed me.”
The Sword Emperor continued with a smile.
“You performed rites for those kids.”
The 10th floor.
His words and my actions flashed before my eyes.
“It was a perspective I hadn't considered. And if you hadn't shown me, I would never have thought of it. Do you know what I felt when I saw it?”
“What did you feel?”
“[Ah. Is this how my master saw me?]”
I tilted my head, not understanding, but after a moment, I was taken aback and lifted my head.
A familiar expression floated on the Sword Emperor's face, one I could never have imagined.
“It was frustrating.”
It was the first time I realized this man could wear such an expression.
The Sword Emperor smiled broadly again, but a lingering trace of frustration still pooled in that smile.
“But if you can do it, then I should be able to do something similar.”
“Sword Emperor.”
“I'm best with a sword, so if I were to do it, it should be with a sword, shouldn't it?”
The Sword Emperor flicked the tip of his sword.
“Come. I will lay your ghosts to rest.”
At a loss for words, I simply said,
“You were the ghost.”
“Not anymore. And it'd be cheesy to say I'm offering consolation.”
“What's wrong with a little cheesiness…”
“Gong-Ja, from now on, I'll console you…”
“Eeeek! Total goosebumps!!”
“I warned you.”
“Damn…”
The wind blew.
Unknown flower petals scattered wildly.
There, beyond the shattered mirror, across from the ninth keyhole, the Sword Emperor spoke.
“My title is the Sword Emperor, a blade honed at the bottom of the Dark Moon Cave, a disciple of the Sun Sage, and inheritor of the righteous spirit of the orthodox sects. In the world known as the Ten Thousand Sword World, I was acknowledged as the greatest under heaven.”
Sword Emperor.
Origin, Ten Thousand Sword World.
Supreme Being.
Orthodox Sect.
“Let me request a bout.”
I.
I remembered the expression I wore reflected in the mirror before it shattered. It was an expression that the Sword Emperor would want to smack for being so pitiful.
Now, it might not be the same. Or perhaps, it's even more so. Honestly, I'm not sure. I tried to smile.
It didn't go well.
Not only when sad, but also when happy, people wish to cry.
“My epithet is the Heaven that Gathers Wails. As the one who will one day govern this Tower's netherworld, I am also called Wailing Heaven, the Moon of Ivansia, the White Lion of the World of Lions, the guardian deity of the Asuras, and the legitimate Vice-Lord of the Demonic Cult, who inherited the Heavenly Demon's lineage...”
No, that's not right.
I corrected myself.
“I am the Lord of the Demonic Cult.”
The Wailing Heavenly Demon.
Origin, World of Lions.
Supreme Being Above All.
Demonic Cult.
“Let's have a bout.”
Duel.
Begin.
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