WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

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◈ Black Badger ◈

Chapter 76: The Inherited Sword (3)

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A short run from the cabin stood a huge training hall.

We went there and warmed up. My seniors handed me a smooth sword. Its shape was almost identical to my own.

We barely spoke. Once we were ready to spar, Ye-hyeon stood opposite me with his sword in hand.

Yoon attended as an observer.

The morning air cast a white glow across the gym floor. The spacious hall smelled of fresh morning air.

Ye-hyeon lowered his blade toward the floor.

“I’ll only use a sword.”

He meant that he would not use the silver, form-changing weapon in his ear.

“You said your skills haven’t fully returned yet.”

“Yes.”

Still, I should be more presentable than when I had butchered mushrooms.

I nodded, sword in hand. Ye-hyeon stared straight at me with his pitch-black eyes.

The air changed at once, tightening with tension in an instant.

My opponent rushed forward without a sound.

Clang!

The colliding swords flashed.

Our blades locked in an X.

I felt the force behind Ye-hyeon’s sword.

Our blades trembled slightly. When an opponent pushed this hard, it was better not to push back. I needed to draw my sword upward, then aim for their throat.

I ran my blade up along his and lowered my tip.

Then I aimed for the opening at his throat...

Clang!

Ye-hyeon had rolled his sword upward in the same way.

An X made with both our tips lowered. We slid our swords aside almost simultaneously and widened the distance between us.

...No.

I was one second slower.

When Ye-hyeon pushed aside the sword he had rolled upward, there had been a brief opening for him to target my throat. If he had meant it, he would have pierced my neck with the tip of his blade during that second.

“I lost.”

As I muttered that, Ye-hyeon let out a small laugh.

“It’s not over yet, Hilde.”

“Yes.”

As our swords met, I drank in the memories of swordsmanship that came flooding back like a tide.

The sword was unfamiliar, but it did not feel uncomfortable. Holding it, I smiled faintly.

“Please continue.”

Rather than answering, Ye-hyeon gripped his sword and charged.

The sound of the blade cutting through the air struck my ears.

* * *

Several dozen minutes later.

I lay sprawled on the floor, consumed by self-loathing.

“You really are recovering slowly.... We shouldn’t have used real blades. Yoon, get the first-aid kit.”

“You’ve improved a lot, though.”

Yoon remarked casually beside Ye-hyeon, who was looking down at me in distress.

The sparring was over. It had ended in a fairly short time, leaving me with nothing but tremendous self-loathing.

I had not expected to win, but seeing reality firsthand still hit hard.

How had I ended up like this?

My two seniors gathered beside me where I lay sprawled out.

When I shifted my eyes, I saw my senior partner stroking his chin as he looked down at me.

“Your skills have improved by leaps and bounds since I last saw you. Rolling around in the subway must have helped.”

“Yoon, I said get the first-aid kit... No, I’ll get it.”

“I’ll get it.”

At my superior’s words, I reflexively sprang upright.

But Ye-hyeon’s palm immediately stopped me. After his firm, “Stay still,” my body would not move. My superior rose and disappeared from view. He went through a door at the end of the gym.

I had not managed to leave even a single wound on that pale, slender man.

Sparring with Ye-hyeon felt eerily like facing my past self. It was quite a strange feeling. He used swordsmanship astonishingly identical to mine. I knew every technique he used.

I was simply one second slower than him each time.

That was even more terrible. Familiar swordsmanship poured down on me as though I were fighting a mirror, but my body was too sluggish to receive any of it. I knew in my head how to counter efficiently, but my body would not keep up.

It shocked me more than when Richard had called me a useless rookie who did not even know the basics of shooting.

Reality was too cruel.

As I sat there, unable to overcome my self-loathing, Yoon bent his knees and met my eyes.

“I don’t think I need to teach you swordsmanship anymore.”

“What? You saw how thoroughly I got beaten.”

“That’s a matter of speed. Time is the only answer for something like that.”

My senior partner fell into thought.

I waited gloomily for Yoon to reach a conclusion. Even when Ye-hyeon returned and gave the same assessment as Yoon, that I would recover my skills over time, I did not feel any better.

Ye-hyeon treated my cuts with a troubled expression.

“I didn’t know your recovery was this slow. You must have had a hard time all this while.”

“Not at all.”

The people around me were the ones who had suffered.

All I had to do was let my mind go blank. When I woke up, an exceptionally skilled doctor treated me at the company’s expense, and I got to take legitimate time off work. So what hardship had I endured? I was simply grateful every time my seniors carried me to the hospital room.

When I said that, Ye-hyeon sighed.

“So the stories about you not taking care of yourself are true.”

“I love myself. I don’t know why everyone says that.”

“Don’t ignore Yoon’s coaching and push yourself too hard because you want to regain your skills. Time is the only thing that can solve this.”

My superior lightly dismissed my objection.

I could only nod bitterly. I knew well that they were right.

Accepting it still left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Yoon, who had been silent in thought, raised his head.

“Shouldn’t we start rotating through missions around the outskirts inside the Core soon?”

“Yeah.”

Ye-hyeon readily nodded.

“Do that.”

There was progress, at least.

I should take comfort in the fact that I had improved.

We gathered our things and left the training hall. Ye-hyeon said he had taken leave today. Since he had been hospitalized, he could not take much time off, but he planned to take care of personal matters before returning to work tomorrow.

As we walked down an autumn path that had grown slightly warmer, I thanked him for giving me his morning off. Considering his position, even taking a day off could not have been easy.

Yoon told me the schedule going forward.

Physical training would continue as before, shooting practice would begin, and Ricardo would serve as my senior partner for the next mission in Yoon’s place.

We would be heading to the outskirts, the first course inside the Core. He told me to hear the details from Ricardo.

By the time we finished talking, we had reached the cabin.

The morning’s work was pleasantly over. My seniors turned away after telling me to rest.

I watched their backs as they headed home and hesitated.

Then I gathered my courage.

“Ye-hyeon.”

Yoon and Ye-hyeon whipped their heads around at incredible speed.

They both seemed surprised. It was funny how they stood frozen in place, staring at me with wide eyes.

Not that I felt at ease enough to smile.

I stood blankly before the people waiting for my answer. Honestly, I was still not sure whether saying this was the right thing.

After hesitating for a long time, I opened my mouth.

“I may be overstepping by saying this....”

“What is it? Go ahead.”

Ye-hyeon’s eyes widened as he leaned toward me.

“What’s wrong?”

Those large, kind eyes.

My chest ached. Memories worked in such mysterious ways. Once their door opened, all kinds of memories came pouring out without mercy. Just seeing those worried eyes waiting for my answer nearly left me breathless beneath the flood of memories.

The answer did not come easily.

“I met Lee Seung-hyeon’s wife. Your mother.”

Ye-hyeon looked as though he had been struck on the head.

“I hesitate to bring this up, but I thought you might want to know.... It was a brief meeting, and I do not have any photographs. Still, if you wish, I will tell you everything I know as best I can.”

Lee Seung-hyeon probably would not have allowed it.

I quietly finished speaking and waited for his reaction. Ye-hyeon remained frozen for a long time.

Uneasily, I waited for him to recover from the shock.

He stood under the clear sunlight that warmed his body.

I did not know whether I had done the right thing.

Perhaps I had needlessly stirred up someone who had been living peacefully. Simply hearing this might become a deep wound for him.

I had said it because I hoped it might comfort him, but that judgment could be my own arrogance.

Yoon and I waited in silence.

Only after a long time did Ye-hyeon haltingly break the silence.

“...Can I ask her name?”

“What? I didn’t hear you.”

“Her name.”

His answer came thick with emotion.

“My mother’s name.”

He had not even told him that.

What sin had the child committed?

I barely managed to compose my expression before it twisted.

The war had broken out after Ye-hyeon was fully grown. I had passed my sword on to a human during the war. So while Ye-hyeon had gone through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, I must have been spending that time on Earth too.

Why had I not known that Lee Seung-hyeon treated his own child this way?

If I had known, I would have slapped him across the face and told him to get a grip. If that had not worked, I would have gone and given the child affection myself. I could have done that. If only I had paid a little more attention to Lee Seung-hyeon.

I swallowed the rising guilt down the back of my throat.

Then I answered.

“Sasha.”

She had been an orphan, just like Lee Seung-hyeon.

“She had no surname.”

“Sasha.”

Ye-hyeon repeated the name blankly.

“Sasha....”

My past self had committed too many wrongs.

I had not even recovered all my memories, yet every place I stepped was filled with my mistakes.

I remembered Ray. A comrade who had lost his life to my sword because of his affection for me. I remembered Kyle. A comrade who had pointed a blade at me with eyes full of betrayal and hostility.

And Lee Seung-hyeon and Lee Ye-hyeon.

My God. I might not have known that Sasha died in childbirth. Lee Seung-hyeon had not told me, and I had not even asked whether the child was a son or a daughter.

At some point, I had noticed Lee Seung-hyeon becoming even darker, but I thought it was simply because he could smell the approaching war.

How stupid....

“Thank you.”

Ye-hyeon’s choked murmur brought me back to reality.

“Truly.”

I was not sure I deserved his thanks.

I nodded with a complicated expression. Ye-hyeon remained half-dazed, only fully returning to himself after quite some time. After thanking me again, he asked whether he could ask more once he had sorted out his thoughts. I could feel him barely holding back his emotions.

Of course I could tell him everything.

Ye-hyeon smiled and thanked me.

I pretended not to see the tears welling in his eyes.

* * *

There was a reply from Shu.

[I’ll buy you a meal sometime. When are you free?]

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