We Will Not Achieve Anything if We Keep Escaping Part 9 NT: Ooooh… fuck… my head… this is… fuck… this isn’t… fuck…. aaaah… I DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE ANYMORE (those were my thoughts of the first time I translated this chapter)
「You… What have you done with the Demon King?」
『Don’t worry. I’ve been taking good care of him… inside of my spatial distortion. So, what do you think you’re doing? Didn’t you plan to face God? Why don’t you move on to the next Stage even though you know that by doing so you can be closer to your goal?』
When Estellar asked him that, Kagami let out a sigh with a disillusioned look on his face.
「Don’t think I’m so stupid. I mean, if I agreed to do that just to challenge God, then I would lose the things that are really important to me, wouldn’t I?」
『Ho ~ o…? Are you willing to say that even knowing that the Demons are beings destined to resets each time?』
「I don’t care if they were born for the sole purpose of be reseted or whatever. They have the will to live in this world and that is enough for me」
『You’re still an interesting man … You still care about the Demons, even after knowing the mechanism of this world』
Estellar told Kagami with a smile on his face. “You are also a Demon, aren’t you?” Kagami muttered to himself at the same time that he understood that Estellar was also some kind of special existence.
「Kagami-dono … You has touched me! Even though this Menou exists only for the sake of serving the Demon King-sama, I swear that whatever happens, I will even be willing to risk my own life for the sake of helping you, Kagami-dono!」
「Well, then keep helping me with the Casino」
「What sense did have that I offer my own life if you was going to say something like that!?」
The Dark Dragon could only observe perplexed the complete change in the atmosphere and the complete disappearance of the tension in front of the combat that had taken place moments before. However, as soon as he heard Kagami’s murmur, he began to rearrange the ideas he had in his head.
『What about you, Dark Dragon? Don’t you think he’s an interesting man? He will not back down, no matter how bad the situation is, and he’s even willing to fight to the death for the sake of accomplishing his goal. Just look at him, he din’t even worry about the state in which his own body could end if it continues. Have you ever seen a human like』
『I agree that he is someone interesting … But what is happening exactly? You two seem to have already known each other … Also, what do you mean with “he’s been telling lies” and “he was trying to protect the demons”?』
『Oh right, I still haven’t explained it to you … This guy hasn’t defeated the Demon King』
『Wh-What do you say? But I can’t feel signs of the Demon King…?』
『Explaining that would take some time … Well, to summarize things, since I didn’t see any progress on the human side, I decided to use the Mecea two months ago to launch a major attack on them and feed their sense of crisis and thus encourage their growth… But this man defeated it』
『Do he defeat it…!? A Villager defeated the Mecea!? 』
『You haven’t yet seen the true power of that guy. He still keeps an ace up his sleeve』
After saying that, Estellar turned his gaze to Kagami, to whom he smiled. In response to that look, Kagami said “Don’t say anymore” while letting out a sigh, at the same time, Kagami couldn’t avoid smile with irony after knowing the true intentions behind the attack of the Demonic Army on that time.
『Just let me let you know that, that man, despite having obtained so much power, never tried to defeat the Demon King, on the contrary, he tried to save him. So, I change the rules… I gave him the option of, instead of having to kill the Demon King, he would have to get 10,000 Golds within a year, and if he didn’t achieve that, I would use the Demon King to launch a new attack. In that way, this man, who fought so desperately to save the Demon King, would surely try to obtain that amount. He also had enough potential to achieve it』
「He~e, then? In the end, everything was nothing more than a lie that makes me come to this place?」
『It waan’t a lie, I really thought to wait for a year for you to come. Then, when that year would pass … If you couldn’t obtain that amount, I would use the Demon King to encourage the formation of new powerful individuals who would come here instead of you』
「Even so … Aren’t you a Demon too? Will not you be “Reseted” just like the others?」
「That could be true, however, I, just like the Dark Dragon, also have the duty to maintain the functions of this world… And for that it is necessary that I be”Reseted” like the others. Unlike the Dark Dragon, who must remain in this place and keep the mechanism working, I must “be reborn” during each “Restart” and take a position at the service of the Demon King, a position from which I can keep the Demons on the march. Well… What happened recently is an example of this. I mean, wouldn’t it be problematic if things stopped moving forward suddenly like then?」
After hearing that, Kagami’s gaze grew darker. The reason was that “task”. On the other hand, he also thought that this was one of those things that could only be revealed to “those who decided to move on to the next stage”. Kagami, who understood that it should be something like that, decided to remain silent.
『No … Wait, how do He manage to gather the 10,000 golds in such a short time?』
『Unfortunately, he hasn’t yet achieved it』
『Then how did he get to this place?』
『He just dig a hole until he reached this place』
The Dark Dragon can’t avoid let drop his jaw while showing a silly expression at the moment of hearing the words of Estellar. After giving himself a few seconds to process the words he had just heard, he managed to recompose himself, then, after letting out a snort, he said–
『Sorry. Could you repeat?』
–With a look that said he couldn’t believe what he had just heard.
『I didn’t believe that he would be able to reach this place in that way. He somehow managed to dig at a speed higher than the speed at which the soil regenerated』
『Impossible… That was one of the mechanisms that God had prepared! Not even a Hero of Level 500 should have been able to achieve something like that…!』
『This man is able to use, temporarily, a force equivalent to that of a Hero of Level 999, or perhaps even greater. I’m… sure that not even God thought that a Level 999 Hero would dare to dig the ground just to get to this place』
After hearing those words, the Dark Dragon shouted, “A hero of level 999”, as he turned his gaze to Kagami, whom he began to look at from every possible angle trying to figure out what he really was.
『You seem to be really good at finding gaps in everything. Seriously, now you even managed to acquire an skill capable of repelling the magical power itself… I can’t get bored of looking at you』
『That means that… This person hasn’t fulfilled any of the necessary conditions to move on to the next stage?』
『That’s right. But … As far as power is concerned… don’t you think it’s unnecessary to continue testing him? Or do you plan to wait until he fulfilled the conditions…?』
『… No, isn’t that. The issue is that God was the one who gave me these instructions. I can’t just go against his rules. Also, I wonder if he really is so strong as you say』
『But Dark Dragon, haven´t you seen him fight for yourself? His strength is superior to that of normal people』
When Estellar said that, the Dark Dragon keep silent while he was thinking. Seeing that, Kagami began to feel a strange incongruity.
It felt as if Estellar and the Dark Dragon were tied to the mechanism of this world, and were trying to seek help.
However, the words of the Dark Dragon continued making echo inside Kagami’s head. And Kagami had no choice but to worry about the existence of the next stage.
『We don’t know too much about the conditions necessary to acquire a skill. We can only be sure that these depend to a large extent on the Role of the people and his own luck… And I can say that acquiring a skill like that at a time like this can only be compared to a miracle. In addition… we also look for lucky individuals. And, even if he has been able to reverse this situation only thanks to his luck, he still has the determination to defend his beliefs, and, isn’t that what we are really looking for?』
『… Humm』
『In addition, the Demon King hasn’t been defeated. Therefore, there is no need to Reset the world… So that man has no reason to refuse either. In this way, we all win』
Then, while the tension between the Dark Dragon and Estellar, who exchanged those words with serious looks on their faces, increased, Menou tried to say something.
「Excuse me, can you stop for a moment?」
On the other hand, Kagami, in his usual tone of voice, said “Yes~, stop”, while raising his hands, intervening in the discussion that the Dark Dragon and Estellar were having, and saying–
「To be honest, I don’t feel like going to the next stage yet, could you bring me back to the surface?」
–Slightly embarrassed about having to cut directly the main topic of their discussion.
NT: As always, if you find something weird, whatever, just tell me in the comments