I Became the Academy's Turn-Based Swordsman - Chapter 50

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

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Chapter 50: Rose and Lillian (2)

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Rose spun her spear once in midair.

The two Carving Sword weak points I had marked on her during my turn glimmered across her body.

[Did you know? Alain and the two of us are special.]

‘What do I care?’

Her blood-red dress spread through the air, and crimson flowers bloomed along the path of her spear.

One of Rose’s patterns, Crimson Meteor.

The fully bloomed flowers became a single meteor and plunged straight toward me.

I immediately raised my sword along its trajectory, intending to meet it with a Just Guard.

Yet Rose smiled and altered the spear’s trajectory in midair.

Slash!

Instead of striking my sword, the spearhead grazed my forearm at an angle. Blood spurted out, followed by searing pain.

‘An injury... This is bad.’

That attack made me certain that this boss battle would be tougher than any I had faced so far.

The previous bosses had all been mindless monsters.

They mechanically repeated fixed patterns, so my knowledge of the original game made them easy to deal with.

This opponent, however, possessed both will and intelligence. She could alter her patterns on the fly, just as she had now.

Rose landed lightly on the ground and spoke again.

[The bodies of the three of us are the only wax dolls our own hands never touched.]

That made sense. Since the two of them had made dolls for a living, they could not have made dolls of themselves after their deaths.

This was probably the work of those bastards from the Church of the Main Gods.

Rose brushed a hand over her joints, her eyes dark as she spoke.

[That’s why I don’t like it. I need to fix it, even now.]

The moment she finished speaking, blood began flowing from my wounded arm of its own accord and was sucked into the air.

I immediately gripped my arm to stop the bleeding, but a predetermined amount of blood continued to flow out.

“Phew...”

The blood loss made my head spin.

My blood had already formed a crimson sphere floating behind Rose’s back.

The most important thing to watch out for in a fight with Rose was taking damage itself.

The moment I took damage, part of my Health turned into a blood sphere like that and formed behind her.

Those spheres could serve as Rose’s means of attack, and I could recover the Health that had been drained if I destroyed them.

But attacking one would likely consume a turn as well.

It did not seem as though Carving Sword’s weak-point marks would work on them either.

In the end, the best option was not getting hit.

That was why I had been so cautious.

When I looked up, I saw that the jewel above her head, which signaled her turn, had not disappeared.

Weak! had not appeared, but that meant her attack was not over yet.

Normally, the Crimson Meteor pattern included a follow-up attack using that blood sphere.

I would probably get my turn once I blocked that too.

I tightened my grip on my sword, but Rose did something unexpected.

She brought the blood sphere to her hand and spread it over the cracks in her joints like makeup.

Where my blood touched, the gaps filled with natural-looking wax and disappeared.

[If I do this a few more times, I’ll return to how I originally looked.]

Only when Rose smiled in satisfaction did the jewel appear over my head, passing the turn to me.

...She could use blood spheres for skincare instead of attacking.

It was absurd for her to be so relaxed in a life-or-death battle, but another thought crossed my mind.

She had given up an attack to repair her body instead.

That meant she had prioritized desire over rational judgment.

‘There may be a clue here.’

At that moment, a scorching gust swept over Rose and me.

The Sun Domain was draining my Health.

Of course, it did not affect Rose.

I swallowed against my dry throat and tightened my grip on my sword.

My turn.

When I marked two more Carving Sword weak points on her, Rose frowned.

[Your sword is strange, Big Brother. I thought I could definitely dodge it, but I couldn’t.]

The turn passed to her, and she added,

[But I think I understand what you’re trying to do. You’re planning to do what you did when you fought Alain, right?]

‘She saw that too?’

She must have watched us stack up weak points while fighting Alain, then detonate them all at once.

Well, she was the final boss. It was possible she had been watching.

But so what if she had? What could she do about it?

‘Four should be enough.’

Considering my stats, the damage from four Carving Sword weak points should be enough to push her into Phase 2.

Rose herself was not the important part. Phase 2 was.

Rose’s turn.

Rather than rushing at me, she remained where she was and whispered softly.

[That wound looks quite painful. Shall I heal it for you?]

Slash!

Before she had even finished speaking, another stream of blood flowed from my wound of its own accord and flew toward her.

[Of course, I’m lying.]

What an absolute bitch.

More blood than before.

As my head spun, a second blood sphere formed behind Rose’s back.

Once again, she ended her turn by absorbing my Health to tend to her body instead of attacking.

‘Just as I thought. That comes first.’

Even though she had seen through my strategy, her priorities had not changed.

Even better.

My turn.

I used Gale’s Path to strike the area marked with four weak points.

The instant my sword touched Rose’s body, all the weak points shone and exploded at once.

[Weak!]

Kwooooong!!

[Kyahhh!]

Rose’s body was engulfed by an ashen wind as she screamed.

That was what she got for being so relaxed.

With this much damage, it was only natural that we would enter Phase 2.

Just as expected, the wall of demonic energy that had separated Cecilia and me slowly began to fade.

Beyond the wall, a red jewel was approaching us.

It was probably Lilian.

‘Good. We successfully entered Phase 2.’

Then Rose’s voice came from within the storm.

[Did you know?]

‘What now?’

When the wind cleared, her body was covered in sword wounds, yet the corners of her lips were still curled upward.

Her smile carried a chilling sense of unease.

[I wasn’t focused on attacking you because I could deal with you whenever I wanted.]

“...What do you mean?”

[We aren’t one, but two. Even if I took my time, Lilian was sure to come help me.]

I already knew that.

But so what? I had Cecilia too.

The moment I turned toward where the wall had stood, though, something felt wrong.

Lilian’s red jewel was visible, but Cecilia’s blue jewel was nowhere to be seen.

Then Lilian appeared from beyond the vanished wall.

She was dragging a blackened object by what looked like its hair.

I did not want to recognize it, but I had no choice.

A familiar brooch, melted black, was lodged near the head of that black lump of flesh.

[I’m back, Rose.]

[Welcome back, Lilian.]

Without paying any attention to my stunned state, the two embraced.

Rose kicked the lump of flesh aside like trash and giggled.

[But... you’re alone now, Big Brother, aren’t you?]

Rose’s turn began, and Calros, brimming with demonic energy, shot toward me.

Even as Calros carved dozens of holes into my body, I could not take my eyes off what had once been Cecilia.

[Unique Ability - Rewind Action 2 / 3]

⁎⁎⁎

“...I’ll face Lilian, and you’ll face Rose.”

“Huh? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”

“You’re strong in close combat.”

“You are too. By your logic, isn’t Moon Domain a bad matchup for you? Wouldn’t it be better for me to quickly defeat Lilian and help you?”

That was true. I thought so too.

But there was something I had overlooked. Lilian’s minor attack pattern was Black Flame fired from a distance.

I had not seen how Cecilia’s battle had gone.

Still, I had fought alongside her for a long time. I knew her well enough to know that she would never normally have been beaten so miserably by Lilian.

So I did not need to see it to know.

‘She probably couldn’t even fight properly.’

It had to be because of her past.

When Senia told me about it, I had wondered what it had to do with me.

‘Fuck. It did have something to do with me.’

This was my fault.

I had planned our strategy with nothing but efficiency in mind, without properly considering her past or her life.

So this time, I had to bear the burden.

“Rose’s side will be the same. I’ll hold out as long as I can.”

“...All right. If you say so, I guess that’s how it is.”

Fortunately, Lilian did not use Black Flame once Phase 2 began.

Unless she discovered that Black Flame was Cecilia’s weakness, there was no way Cecilia’s weakness would be exposed while she fought Rose.

‘Yeah. This is the right answer.’

Probably.

With that resolve, we opened the door again and faced Rose and Lilian.

[You’re the ones who defeated Klaus and Alain, right?]

The moment the conversation began, I immediately kicked off the ground and charged at Lilian.

[W-Wait! You’re going to fight without even introducing yourselves?!]

[These intruders are quite impatient...]

I had no intention of introducing myself or anything else.

The image of the two smiling without a care after reducing Cecilia to that state remained vivid in my memory.

I guess that’s why I’m angry now.

Kwoooosh!

The barrier split the rooftop in two once more.

[A servant of the true god. Lilian Ilias, priest of the Tartarus Cult, shall grant you rest.]

Lilian formed Black Flame.

‘Just as I thought.’

Black Flame had triggered Cecilia’s trauma. To me, though, it was only a somewhat troublesome magic attack.

The effect of Moon Domain seeped into my body, and I felt my muscles grow sluggish.

‘All I need to do is hold out until Cecilia wears down Rose’s Health.’

I could not.

No, I did hold out. I had equipped myself mostly with Yellow Shards precisely so I could.

But that also weakened my attacks. Time passed as I took a one-sided beating without dealing any significant damage to Lilian.

Black Flame flew at me without pause, burning my entire body.

It had been a while since I had felt blazing fireballs gnawing away at my whole body.

Was it time to become Ashen Halibal again?

By the time Cecilia had worn down Rose’s Health and the wall vanished, I had burns all over my body and was barely clinging to life.

“Ah... Ahh... H-Halibal...?”

Cecilia trembled as she approached after seeing me.

Rose and Lilian, on the other hand, remained standing.

Cecilia’s expression as she looked at me was even more desperate than it had been when Maliaas attacked.

Her eyes were completely empty. Unable to come any closer, she simply froze in place.

Naturally, she was unable to fight.

‘Damn it.’

Even if the heavens helped us and Cecilia survived, I would only have given her another trauma.

...I had not wanted to show her something like this.

‘Sorry.’

I struggled to mouth an apology, then closed my eyes.

[Unique Ability - Rewind Action 3 / 3]

I clutched my head.

‘...We’re fucked.’

Tactically, it was still right for me to face Rose and for Cecilia to face Lilian.

But Cecilia could not face Lilian because she had not overcome her past.

In the original game, she needed Aren’s help to overcome it.

Things would be different if she had memories from before my regression, but Lilian’s Black Flame would always be a nightmare Cecilia was encountering for the first time.

Telling her to overcome it all at once without any trigger was absurd.

Even if Cecilia somehow miraculously overcame her trauma, nothing would change.

Even if Cecilia overcame it, nothing would change.

Most of all, the problem was that we only had one chance left.

We had already used up two chances, yet we had not even properly cleared Phase 1.

So we were fucked.

Without a doubt, completely fucked.

“Halibal. So what’s the plan?”

“...”

The regression had reset us, of all times, right after I had finished explaining all of Rose and Lilian’s patterns.

I had to say something, but the words would not come out.

‘If you fight Lilian, you’ll die because of your trauma. If I fight Lilian, I’ll die because of the matchup.’