Chapter 140. < Latecomer. (2) >
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Translator: thursdays Editor: Yahiko PR: LightBrin
It was silent.
“Wh-what…”
There was n.o.body around. This place was near the forbidden books that the Librarian had pointed out. Only three people, excluding the Librarian, were here, and no eyes were watching us. So, the Librarian’s stammering sounded even louder.
“What a cruel thing to do.”
The Librarian covered his mouth with his sleeve.
“Death King. Do you recognize what you’re saying? The Constellation Killer died in that school’s world. No, these words aren’t enough. That world made the Constellation Killer die. It forsook him! But you want him to enter that world again to regain [Kim Yul]’s memories. That’s so…”
The reason the Librarian couldn’t finish his words was not because he was grumbling. It was because I had let go of the director’s hand to hold the Librarian’s wrist. His sleeve slid down, revealing his bare face.
“Such a…”
The Librarian was grinning.
“Cruel thing to do…?”
“That’s right. It is cruel.”
I bluntly stared at the Librarian. He already seemed to be imagining the stage I proposed as his cheeks burned red.
“But you’re biased. Do you know what’s really cruel? The people who lived in [The Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon]. The common people. The humans who turned into corpses, not knowing why, because a Constellation died at the hands of the Constellation Killer. What they suffered through is true cruelty.”
“Ahem. Mm. Hmm. Well, that is a fair point…”
The Librarian’s eyes were half-closed.
“So, in the end, you plan to return all of the Constellation Killer’s memories?”
“If I can do such a thing, of course I will.”
“Will you make him apologize to the numerous victims in [The Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon]? Do you know how many Constellations the Constellation Killer has slaughtered so far? Will you make him apologize to everyone who lived in that world and everyone who died?”
“Yes. At least for the people of the world I’ve become responsible for.”
“Death King…”
The Librarian gasped.
“You speak so prettily of the road to h.e.l.l…”
The Constellation spoke as if I was a devil tempting him to ruin.
“It’s only natural that I have favorites. Ahh. I know how the path ended for a human who chose a path like yours. This knowledge is infinitely regrettable. That person… No. It is against my agreement to reveal this information.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt this enjoyable conversation, but…”
I let go of the Librarian’s wrist and uttered softly, “Open the book.”
The Librarian giggled.
“Happily.”
The Librarian opened [The Tale of the Ascending City].
“The trauma you dreamed of is nothing more than a fantasy. It’s an artificial, temporary world. Even if you fix the ending, it cannot be incorporated into the true history. To put it bluntly, it is a side story. Honestly, I have never enjoyed such a delicacy, so I am uncertain how the stage will be handled.”
Black smoke billowed out of the book.
Yes, black smoke.
Up till now, white light was exuded whenever an Apocalypse was opened. This time was different. The ominous, writhing smoke was as black as the tentacles of the Void that had swallowed the nightmare.
“Huh? Hmm?”
Seeing it, the librarian was a little surprised. He seemed to have noticed something.
“This is the shade of Zrakua’s Asin… Ah, of course. Of course! I thought that even a golden contract would not have enough power to materialize a world through trauma. Indeed! Someone very important must have intervened. To favor Death King to this extent—many people will be overcome with jealousy…”
Someone favored me?
Who?
[The Corner Librarian is trying to negotiate.]
While I was questioning things, the Librarian was muttering like he was speaking with someone.
“Mhm. If so, the viewers for this stage will… That will be difficult. That world has already become the master’s domain. Huh, true. Then, please leave a record in the Apocalypse after the challenge is over, at least.”
The black smoke writhed.
“Good! As expected, you are a gentleman who understands reason. Our lovable clown…”
The Librarian smiled.
He stroked the black smoke like it was a cute pet.
“Death King. Constellation Killer. Death King’s fosterer. I designate these three people as new characters in [The Tale of the Ascending City – Side Story]. When you guys open your eyes, the world of the [Side Story] will not have come to its unfortunate discontinuation yet. But beware. Especially you, Death King.”
The Librarian twined a black tentacle around his long finger.
“You have the attention of a higher-up.”
“…What do you mean?”
“The Tower remembers everything. While I gain a glimpse into your past by reading this book, the Tower remembers you in the truest sense. Of course, the Tower remembers that you used a [shortcut] to get up to the 50th floor.”
“Because you broke the strict rules of the Tower, you must receive a penalty. The Tower asks you, do you really, truly trust your fosterer and the Constellation Killer?”
The black smoke on the Librarian’s fingers twitched.
“Do you believe that the one who raised you will not crumble with guilt? The Constellation Killer may be vengeful, and he may not even forgive your fosterer. It is possible that no one can apologize or forgive. Those two. Do you really—”
The Librarian glanced at the Constellation Killer and the director.
“—believe you can reach a different ending than in the past?”
“……”
It was a foreboding question.
However, it was also a question with an answer.
『I’m sorry, Cla.s.s President.』
I had memories of Kim Yul and the cla.s.s president.
『I wasn’t trying to hurt someone like you.』
The Kim Yul I saw was a very strong person.
He was someone who took care of the animals even in the h.e.l.l that was his life.
“There was someone. I didn’t think there’d be anyone.”
Much more than the Constellation Killer, who had killed countless Constellations…
『I’m glad there was even a single person who was worth my forgiveness.』
…the Kim Yul who met the director was stronger, as a human being.
He was unbelievably strong.
The director, too. The director survived in a world without Kim Yul.
“Yes.”
The two of them lost hope only because they met each other too late.
I believed in the breath and voices the two shared on the roof that day.
That was the truth.
Not all fantasies are illusions.
I opened my mouth.
“I believe in these two.”
The Librarian smiled.
“The poor beasts.”
The smoke wrapped around his fingers melted away. Swoos.h.!.+ In an instant, the black fog spread, devouring the bodies of the Constellation Killer, the director, and myself.
“Prove it, if it’s possible.”
Just before my sight went dark, I saw the Librarian’s grinning face before me.
“Though, you won’t be the one to prove it.”
The world turned black.
[You will receive a severe penalty.]
[You are being deployed to the world one year before the other challengers.]
[You are immersed deeply in character from the start.]
I heard a voice.
[Currently, your immersion rate is 95%.]
The nightmare began.
3.
‘Penalty.’
As soon as I opened my eyes.
‘The immersion rate is at 95%.’
I started to move.
‘I don’t have time to hesitate. There’s no time. The immersion rate will rise to 100% soon. I have to finish all of the preparations before then.’
It would be easy to begrudge the cruel penalty.
It would be easy to get angry, asking why I was the only one who entered a year earlier.
But how would that change anything?
I couldn’t waste my precious time with resentment and fury.
‘In the end, it’s about forcibly grasping the past that the Constellation Killer discarded. ‘
So I must also be ready to receive unwanted memories.
Even if they are the nauseating memories of the perpetrator of the bullying.
‘It isn’t enough to return Kim Yul’s past to the Constellation Killer. Kim Yul has to feel that he [wants to live again]. The director will do whatever he can for it, but—”
I made a harsh judgment.
‘The director alone isn’t enough. Yeah, unlike the future, the director of this time is just a normal high school student. The actions of a single high schooler are too limited.’
Before I get completely engulfed in the perpetrator’s ego.
‘Revenge.’
I was doing what I could.
‘So that the director and Kim Yul can take revenge on this sc.u.mmy beast.’
I moved.
[Currently, your immersion rate is 95%.]
Last time, when I saw the end of the trauma,
I belatedly felt regret.
I grieved.
I could have done even a bit better, but I hadn’t.
Maybe I was too disconcerted. Though I was possessing the bully, I didn’t take advantage of what I could do in the position as the perpetrator, what I could do because I was the perpetrator.
‘I can get evidence of the violence.’
That was [something only I can do].
Collecting proof.
“Everyone, stand up.”
In the cla.s.sroom.
“Bow to our teacher!”
The director seemed to have been the cla.s.s president in his first year, too. Does the student who gets the responsibility keep it over the years? His face was not that of the Black Dragon Master but the young face of my orphanage director.
‘There’s only one year left now.’
Unlike me, the director has not possessed his old self.
‘Neither has Kim Yul.’
Kim Yul too was in the same cla.s.s in his first year. Just like the last nightmare, Kim Yul was exiled to the back row’s window seat. That spot should have been the best place to sit, but it became a sort of forbidden zone because it was easy to be bullied there in secret.
Plop.
Plop.
When the teacher turned his back to the blackboard, students lumped the eraser crumbs into a dense ball. They cut off the sharp mechanical pencil lead into bits and put it on that eraser ball. It looked like a porcupine curling in on itself. Covertly, the other students threw the sharp rounds at Kim Yul.
“Pft!”
“Keke…”
Each time Kim Yul was. .h.i.t by the eraser rounds, he flinched a little. He tried to ignore it, but the pointy mechanical lead made his neck turn red. Young beasts enjoyed acting on their malice in various ways.
‘One year.’
I held myself back.
‘This is something that happened decades ago.’
Society had been worse back then than when I was young. Much worse.
‘If we want to prove that there was bullying, we need physical evidence. If it was just a single incidence of bullying, the punishment won’t be much. We have to prove that it was done maliciously and deliberately over a long time.’
That was the only way to screw these beasts over.
You had to be as vicious as they were.
“Hey, guys. Look here.”
“Huh?”
Ka-click!
I took pictures of their violence. Cell phone photos in this time were blurry. I bought a digital camera to take photos and a camcorder to shoot videos.
“Uh. Sunbae-nim.”
One of my undercla.s.smen from middle school was worried.
In the previous trauma, he had looked like Demon Lord Wolyeong of the Four Demon Lords.
“Is it okay to take pictures of this?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m just gonna show a few people and delete it. Hey, I’m bored, so introduce yourself.”
“What? Uh, my name is…”
I recorded every single day without skipping.
There was no end to the wrongdoings that I and the people around me did. Smoking was just a cute prank. I not only hara.s.sed Kim Yul but also other students often, including a middle school student.
‘f.u.c.ker.’
Was this normal?
Did it happen in other schools too?
If so, if this happened in every elementary, middle, and high school, every school in this land, why was n.o.body stopping it? Why was everyone silent?
How could they remain silent?
“……”
Kim Yul looked up at me from the ground, having been pushed. We were behind the school. My gang and I attacked Kim Yul while he was taking care of the rabbits and chickens. We made fun of him for taking care of the animals, calling him a b.u.mpkin.
“I was wondering what you smelled like! So it was s.h.i.+t.”
“Why are you raising chickens? To eat their eggs? Should I buy you an egg?”
“……”
Kim Yul didn’t say a word.
He just stared at me while I recorded with my camcorder.
His black eyes shone in the small screen of the camcorder.
[Currently, your immersion rate is 95%.]
One day.
[Currently, your immersion rate is 96%.]
Another.
[Currently, your immersion rate is 97%.]
The h.e.l.lish records piled up.
‘It’s dangerous now.’
It was when 11 months had pa.s.sed that I felt my limit.
‘I don’t know when my immersion rate will surpa.s.s 99%.’
My mind had already turned into sludge.
At some point, I stopped feeling anger even when I filmed Kim Yul being bullied. I felt no guilt.
Only a subtle sense of ridicule and impulsive pleasure.
‘My part ends here.’
I picked up a cardboard box.
103 tapes.
311 videos.
30,790 photos.
My and Kim Yul’s cell phones, filled with text messages: 2.
All the evidence was stamped with the exact date and location. It was a record of time that n.o.body could deny. There were no loopholes for lies such as [I feel sorry for my past mistakes] or [I didn’t mean it like that].
‘Director.’
I put the box down in front of the house where the director’s family lived. When he was young, the director lived in a townhouse. I rang the doorbell and hid.
The director came out.
“…Huh?”
The director, who hadn’t been possessed yet, looked around and tilted his head.
“h.e.l.lo? Who…”
The director looked at the box and stopped.
On top of the box was a sheet of paper I had printed something on.
+
I’m sending you all of the evidence.
Please decide how to use it.
If you decide to take action, please do so after 30 days.
+
“……”
The director had been a cautious person since he was young. Instead of taking the box inside right away, he brought out a knife to unseal the box. Then, he slowly checked the contents.
“……”
The director’s face hardened.
He looked around once more.
And, remaining vigilant to the end, he quietly and carefully took the box inside.
Thud.
The door closed.
‘Ahh.’
I finally felt relieved.
‘I endured it.’
I could finally breathe for the first time since I fell into this world.
‘It’s done. I did it. I held on, and now, it’s done. I did it.’
On the way home.
I looked up at the dark night sky.
‘I finished everything I could do. Could I have done something else? Was there a slightly better way? Will the days ahead really be worth more than the violence I could have prevented in the past 11 months?’
[Currently, your immersion rate is 98%.]
‘I don’t know.’
I lay in bed.
‘I don’t know, but I didn’t give up because I didn’t know. That’s right. This must be the correct way. If anybody can change the end of this world, it’s Kim Yul. It’s the director. I’ll leave everything to those two. It isn’t my role…’
I.
[Currently, your immersion rate is 99%.]
I put my hands together.
‘The villain just has to disappear.’
Like I was praying.
‘The role given to me in this world is to just wait.’
I closed my eyes.
‘I’ll wait. Kim Yul. Director. Please.’
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[Currently, your immersion rate is 100%.]