Chapter 210. Cheat(3)

====================

Translator: Seven ED: Sasha

3.

“My name is Kim Gong-ja.”

Suppressing my pounding heart, I said.

“And, I’m the one you gave the name Death King.”

“I’ll say it once again. It’s nice to officially meet you, Tower Master.”

Purple eyes stared intently at me.

“Hum.”

The Tower Master was still holding my chin. Our faces were so close we could hear each other breathe. The sound of the Tower Master’s breaths was low, but I could still barely hear it.

“You introduced yourself, so it would be rude for This One to not respond with an introduction.”

The Tower Master clicked her tongue.

“Fine. As you said, This One is the Tower Master. I was given the title Lord of Manseng, my first name is Ja Soo-jung(紫水晶)(Amethyst), and Man Hwa-gyeong(萬華鏡)(Kaleidoscope*). I have many nicknames, but there’s no need to tell you all of them.”(*: Or Ten Thousand Reflecting Mirrors)

“I would appreciate it if you could tell me some of them.”

“You really are shameless.”

“I wanted to know more about the Tower Master, so even if it had to be a method like this, I wanted to meet you. Isn’t that commendable?”

The Tower Master snorted.

“As I heard, you speak in a wise tone. I know all about how Hamustra was swayed by your tongue. However, if you planned on doing the same to This One, give up. That is This one’s specialty.”

“…so your specialty is swaying people with your mouth?”

“Yep. You’re lucky I don’t have a habit of going after married men, Death King. If it was a married woman, then I don’t know.”

Tuk.

The Tower Master let go of my chin.

[The Lord of Manseng has removed Dragon Pressure.]

It was only then that I regained feeling in my body. Until now, I could only feel my face, mouth, and heart in this dark space. However, after the Tower Master let go of my chin, the feeling of my limbs became clear again.

“Mm.”

It was fine.

My heart was still pounding, but at least it was in my control.

“Tower Master. You know why you were called. Using my skill, I would like to take a peek at your past.”

“…”

“You may be the most powerful being in this Tower. However, at the same time, you are an administrator who tries to be strict and impartial. Since I’ve used my skill in a legitimate manner, you have no choice but to comply with my request.”

“Shit.”

The Tower Master furrowed her eyebrows.

Now that I was looking at her properly, she was really different from [Side Story]’s Ja Soo-jung.

Ja Soo-jung, who lived in the side story, usually had no expression on her face. She didn’t speak much either. But the Tower Master, who had the same beautiful appearance, was now furrowing her eyebrows, clicking her tongue, and sighing right in front of me.

Like a living person.

“Death King.”

“Yes.”

“I sincerely recommend you don’t look at This One’s past, especially when it comes to trauma. It is dangerous. It would be safer to explore a volcano that was about to erupt with dynamite strapped to your waist.”

The Tower Master shook her head.

“If you don’t want to break, please give up.”

“I want to know more about you.”

“Death King. Do you know who the saddest being in the myth of Icarus was? Was it the Minotaur who was trapped in the labyrinth from birth? Was it Icarus, who just wanted to fly a bit more/ Was it Daedalus, who gave the wings to his son? No. It was the Sun, who could not help but to burn the one who got close to it and make them fall into the blue sea. Please don’t make me sad.”(1)

“…”

“Your access authority right now is B rank.”

The Tower Master snapped her fingers.

Purple letters appeared in the darkness.

Hell Road(地獄道).

Hungry Ghost Road(餓鬼道).

Animal Road(畜生道).

Sura* Road(修羅道). (TL: An abbreviation for ‘Asura’, one of the eight Buddhist gods.)

Human Road(人間道).

Heaven Road(天上道).

“With Animal Road, you would experience the full depth of Manseng. As you said the last time in the Constellation Killer’s trauma, with the Animal Road, you don’t just [see] the trauma, you [relive] it. If your rank was C or lower, This One might consider it…”

The Tower Master looked me in the eyes.

“I can’t.”

“…”

“If you don’t want to lose your mind, give up.”

The Tower Master spoke in a surprisingly rough voice.

“…You know a lot about my skill. Even I didn’t know what the next step was after the Animal Road.”

“That’s natural.”

The Tower Master spoke briefly.

“That… was originally This One’s skill.”

“Huh?”

It was a statement I never expected to hear.

The Tower Master sighed and ran a hand through her blonde hair.

“Every skill has an origin. It is much easier to develop something based on what already exists rather than to create something that had never existed before. The [penalty of seeing trauma] was something that the Dragon Emperor… Anyway, it was one of the abilities of This One’s ancestor. This one calls it Manseng(萬生) .”

Uhh.

“Then the name [Lord of Manseng]…?”

“That’s right. It comes from that.”

Oh my God.

Then did that mean that I shared an ability with the Tower Master?

“What an unexpected honor. No, what a coincidence…”

“What honor? It’s because of this fucking ability that This One’s life became like hell.”

I’ll correct myself.

The Tower Master was much rougher than I expected.

“It’s not even a coincidence. It’s a penalty that’s attached to [Returner’s Clockwork Watch]. Don’t you know who made that skill?”

“Ah, yes. [The Lady Who Walks Through the Mirage] made it…”

“That child is This One’s daughter.”

My mouth fell open.

“Huh?”

“She’s This One’s daughter.”

The Tower Master sighed and raised her left hand.

“Here.”

“Wh-, what do you mean?”

“Smell it.”

It was a very difficult request.

“Uh. That. Miss Tower Master. I… my body already has an owner….”

“Are you crazy? Do you want to die? Didn’t I say earlier that I’m not interested in husbands? I have something to explain, so just put your nose on the back of my hand and smell it. Otherwise, I’ll turn your nostrils inside out and exchange your nose hairs with the hairs on your head.”

“…”

After hearing a threat like that for the first time in my life, I lowered my head to the back of her hand and took a gentle sniff.

“Ugh.”

In an instant, a dizzying smell filled my skull.

My vision swayed.

Raising my head reflexively, I quickly retreated.

“…Peach scent?”

“Yes, that is This One’s natural scent.”

“Crazy.”

“That’s something that even This One thinks is crazy.”

The Tower Master made an exasperated expression.

“Now think about the pillow that This One’s daughter always carries around.”

I pictured the [The Lady Who Walks Through the Mirage] in my head.

As the Tower Master said, the Lady always walked around with a pillow in her arms.

And the pattern on the pillow.

“Peach…”

“That child. Is a serious mama’s girl. No matter how old she gets, she won’t sleep if she can’t smell This One’s scent. It’s not that she can’t sleep, but that she won’t sleep.”

My mind went blank.

“I was hoping to hear many secrets when meeting the Tower Master, but…”

“You never thought you’d learn a secret like this, did you? I know. I understand. There were originally no secrets in the world, but if you force yourself to find things out, you will end up with unlimited responsibility. Shit.”

The Tower Master had a habit of saying ‘shit’.

“It’s the same for This One. I won’t tell you This One’s secrets. And you should also not try to uncover them. If you manage to uncover them, it’d be nice if you could recover, but the only things you will find at This One’s bottom are depraved screams.”

“…what would you do if I still wanted to look?”

“This One can give you another reward instead.”

The Tower Master looked at me.

While looking at me, the Tower Master’s face was expressionless.

This was the first time she looked like the Ja Soo-jun from the [side story].

“Tell me what skill you want. I will take care of it. Tell me what authority you want. I will consider it. In return, destroy [Returner’s Clockwork Watch]. To avoid the trauma penalty.”

“…”

“If you’re worried about losing your ability to regress, then you don’t have to worry. I will only get rid of the trauma penalty, and I will give you the same, or better, skill.”

“Indeed.”

I nodded my head.

“So you won’t forcibly stop me?”

The Tower Master sighed.

“…right.”

“The only thing you can do is persuade me. Even here, you only came to persuade me. If you stop the skill penalty from triggering then it’s an [abuse of authority]. You have the power to stop me, in fact, you could even change the world and make it so that none of this ever happened, but you won’t.”

Because you are bound by your own rules.

“No matter how much you want to stop me, if I decide to go ahead with it, you would have no choice but to accept it. Am I right?”

“Death King.”

“I have no intention of destroying [Returner’s Clockwork Watch].”

“Please. You will break.”

“If I step back here then I will reach the 99th floor, or maybe even the 100th floor without ever knowing anything about you. I don’t want that. I want to live with you, even if it’s only for one day.”

“…”

Suddenly, the Tower Master’s eyes fell.

“Right.”

The Tower Master lamented.

“I knew that this day would come. Someone who wields a sword will eventually be cut down by a sword someday. There’s no way that a child who speaks in a similar manner to This One, has the same sense of logic as This One, and the same beliefs as This One wouldn’t eventually appear after such a long time.”

The Tower Master reached out with both hands and grabbed my head.

“Please be strong.”

Then she put her forehead against my own.

[The Lord of Manseng blesses you.]

Purple eyes shined into my own.

“This One will always be by your side.”

The moment her whisper voice entered my ears.

[Your Hunter Rank is now B rank.]

[Warning.]

[The trauma of the enemy who killed you is being materialized.]

The hand of time, which had been stopped, began to turn once again.

[The penalty’s depth has risen.]

[This is the Animal Road.]

Eyes.

My eyes looked into the middle of a purple world.

Again and again, my eyes looked into purple eyes.

And in the purple eyes, my eyes were reflected…

My consciousness gradually faded in the maze of mirrors

ㆍ

ㆍ

ㆍ

ㆍ

ㆍ

ㆍ

The rumors were even more plentiful that year.

An untouched stone in the territory of a Baron rolled by itself. The people murmured, saying that it was a bad sign when the rocks in the territory began to wander on their own.

Every night, the water in the great river boiled for no reason. Frogs jumped out from the waterways, buried their heads in the ground and died.

In the Royal Capital, lightning struck 26 times in a single day. The fortune teller at the north gate said, “It’s a bad omen because 26 is the number 13 doubled”.

It was a great crime because he recklessly foretold the fortune of the nation. The Royal Guards pulled the fortune teller aside and beat him up. On the same day, the rainy season had not yet arrived, but the river overflowed, blocking all of the roads leading to the Royal Capital.

“The Kingdom is a sick patient that cannot be saved.”

The nobles lamented openly.

The bad harvests continued. The epidemics never stopped. Time was like a rotten spine, with pus accumulated in every vertebrae. The bodies of the dead floated endlessly in the overflowing river.

A time of destruction.

And in the center of this crumbling Kingdom, in the twelfth month, a girl was born.

Baron Ja Soo-jung. (TL: I’m not sure whether to use the name Amethyst or Ja Soo-jung here to be honest. But for the sake of simplicity, I will stick to Ja Soo-jung even if it sometimes feels wrong.)

Because of her unique eyes, the young daughter of the Baron was given the name Ja Soo-jung.

The Baron’s daughter was extremely beautiful, as if she’d absorbed all of the remaining nutrients of the dying kingdom.

“Purple eyes.”

A certain noble once praised those eyes, saying, [once you see them, you could never forget them], while another criticized, saying, [there is nothing special about her apart from her rare eye color].

Her delicately combed hair flowed gently every time she turned her head.

“Her hair is platinum, truly sacred. With one look in her eyes, one will be lost. Even looking at her from afar is a luxury.”

There were also those who overpraised her.

“When I got close to her, I suddenly had the urge to touch the scene before my eyes, and I unintentionally stretched out my hand. Time felt like it had stopped for a moment after I stretched out my hand. She’d turned back to look at me. Slowly, carefully. And I then realized. The fact that I’d grabbed her wrist.”

Ja Soo-jung was expressionless.

“She does not speak, so at first glance, she seems mute.”

She had been expressionless from birth.

Her long eyebrows were straight, as though she’d never frowned.

“She never shows interest.”

“She never gets nervous.”

“An inborn constitution.”

The year the young lady turned 17 years old.

That year, the rumors continued. Untouched stones rolling on their own, rivers boiling for no reason, lightning striking the Royal Capital 26 times. There was a drought in the spring, and a revolt in the fall.

There were also rumors about the young lady.

“All of the people in high society are keeping quiet.”

That year, the young lady took the position as Family Head in place of her deceased father.

“It’s nothing short of an open secret that the Baron’s daughter killed her father.”

And young lady Ja Soo-jung smiled in front of the nobles who spread those rumors. The expressionless flower seemed to bloom, and all of the socialites were stunned into silence. Then, an almost melodious voice flowed from her angelic lips.

“—you’re trembling so much. You infectious diseases.”

Baron Ja Soo-jung.

That girl was the greatest nutjob in the Kingdom’s 2,000 year history.

(Note:

1.For those interested – The Myth of Daedalus and Icarus)

(TL: This chapter really made me question how well I know the language lol.)