I Became the Academy's Turn-Based Swordsman - Chapter 53

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Chapter 53: Rattle Rattle

──────

Two swords performed their final dance beneath the dawn.

A death dance so graceful and beautiful that it would cut short their own lives.

As stardust poured down around them, their consciousnesses gradually faded.

The rage that had coiled around their bodies and the voice of ‘that person’ echoing in their heads drifted away as if they had never existed. In their place, memories from long ago surfaced.

An afternoon in the temple garden, when they carved wax dolls with Alain in the sunlight.

‘That’s amazing! You two really are the best!’

‘Praise us all you want, but nothing’s going to come of it.’

‘Thank you so much for thinking so highly of us.’

Where had those warm, peaceful days, those days filled with sunlight, gone wrong?

The two monsters. No, the two people struggled to reach for each other again.

Yet there was still a small gap between them, and their hands never met.

‘In the end... this time too...’

‘Even though... we were given another chance...’

Then, through their fading vision, they saw a familiar figure reaching out to them.

Alain, their precious friend whom they had failed to protect. His rough hand was joining theirs together.

But it wasn’t Alain.

[Big brother... why?]

[Why are you helping us...?]

It was the gray-haired boy who had defeated them.

“Just because.”

Covered in wounds, he joined their hands in Alain’s place.

“I just felt like I had to.”

As his calm voice lingered in their ears, the red gems embedded in their chests shattered.

The red glow burning in their eyes faded, replaced by the clear green of fresh leaves.

“Big brother, what’s your name?”

“Halibal Velder.”

“And yours?”

“......Cecilia Ren.”

The two soon smiled kindly.

“Halibal Velder.”

“Cecilia Ren.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you so much.”

Not as dolls, but as humans, they embraced one another.

They felt a comforting warmth.

While countless motes of stardust fell like rain, the two sang their final song.

The sun rises.

The moon rises.

When dawn passes,

the sun will rise again.

A hymn of reunion rang across the entire rooftop.

“Rose... I’m so tired...”

“Mm... me too...”

“...Good night, Rose.”

“...See you tomorrow, Lilian.”

When the song ended, the two returned to the forms they had first been born in. Holding each other as one, they scattered like dust across the field of purple flowers.

This was the Temple of Rest.

A place that granted eternal rest to all.

⁎⁎⁎

Once Rose and Lilian had been defeated, the demonic energy dispersed, and the temple that had become a dungeon began returning to its original form.

The item we had come for lay amid the flowers.

[Abyss Core - Sun Shine]

Unfortunately, there were no other rare items.

Well, it felt like we had used up every bit of luck we had in that battle. Asking for more would be greedy.

Something else had remained, though.

[Alain’s Letter]

It was a secret mission document sent directly by the Pope, ordering Alain to dispose of Rose and Lilian.

It even bore the Pope’s clearly stamped seal, making it irrefutable evidence.

The fact that it had dropped from the two meant they must have known about the Church of the Main Gods’ betrayal in advance.

Even so, they had remained in the temple and shared the fate of those sacrificed before them.

It seemed Alain had defied the order because he could not betray the childhood friends he loved.

With this letter, we could at least expose the Church of the Main Gods’ disgrace.

At that moment, a loud roar shook the temple.

Rumble...!

‘What...? Isn’t it over?’

Soon, transparent souls began floating into the sky from the lower floors, one after another.

There were easily hundreds of souls flowing out from the wax dolls.

“Could they be the souls that had been dwelling inside the dolls?”

Once Rose and Lilian were purified, the souls bound by their power finally seemed to be moving on.

That was a relief.

But that thought lasted only a moment. The souls did not simply pass on.

Boom!!

“?”

Hundreds of souls gathered together, split into seven rays of light, and destroyed all seven watchtowers around the lake in an instant.

At the same time, the souls’ final memories began to rise above the surface of White Spirit Lake.

Memories of countless believers being led away by priests of the Church of the Main Gods to be sacrificed.

Cecilia and I stood at the rooftop railing and watched it all from beginning to end.

Evidence and witnesses. Combined with the journal and letter we had obtained earlier, even the Church of the Main Gods would not be able to touch us.

Of course, that was only if we could safely escape Erandar.

In the temple garden, Holy Knights were visibly confused by what had just happened.

Among them was a pig-like bastard who seemed to be shouting at the top of his lungs.

‘A priest I’ve never seen before. Is that guy the boss?’

The boss did not look like much, but the Holy Knights were the problem.

Their numbers had doubled in the meantime.

“......What should we do?”

Anxiety seeped into Cecilia’s voice.

Yeah, what were we supposed to do?

We had all the evidence, and only we had witnessed what had just happened. That was not good news at all.

If those bastards killed us here, the truth would be buried in darkness.

Cecilia and I were in such terrible shape that even battered and bruised did not begin to describe it. There was no way we could escape that encirclement, even if we died and came back to life.

Then it happened.

A brilliant sun rose beyond the horizon.

Yet for some reason, it felt as if the sun was drawing closer to us.

‘What is that? It’s way too bright.’

A sun that dazzling...

“Ah.”

There was one.

“Looks like we can head down now.”

“...What?! Will we be okay?”

“We’ll be fine.”

Probably.

As long as I ignored the part where I was about to get chewed out.

⁎⁎⁎

‘Damn it...! Did that brat, the Funeral Sword, really clear the dungeon?!’

The moment Romus confirmed that the temple’s demonic energy had vanished, he hurried over with the Holy Knights.

Before him lay a completely purified temple, destroyed watchtowers, and strange scenes floating above the lake.

At that very moment, the images showed a large priest offering believers as living sacrifices.

Romus immediately recognized the priest as his ancestor.

It was clearly human sacrifice, and likely a disgrace the Church of the Main Gods had been hiding.

If this were exposed to the entire world, Romus could lose not only his current position, but his life as well.

But there was still a chance.

He could insist that the images were fabricated by the Evil God, or were lies spread by the Funeral Sword’s group to frame the Church of the Main Gods.

With his standing, that much was entirely possible.

Romus took the idea one step further.

‘If I dispose of those two bastards here... I might even claim the credit for clearing the dungeon.’

It was an opportunity to become a hero.

Romus made his decision at once.

“Enter the temple! Go in and dispose of everyone inside!”

“B-but, Your Eminence. The people inside are the ones who cleared this dungeon...”

“Silence! They are nothing but villains trying to disrupt Erandar’s balance! Are you saying you intend to defy the will of the Main Gods?”

Under Romus’s fierce glare, the Holy Knight could only nod stiffly.

The Holy Knights raised their weapons one by one and began gathering holy power to destroy the temple doors when all their heads turned toward the bridge at once.

“What are you all doing? Why haven’t you entered yet?!”

Unlike the Holy Knights who had trained in martial arts, Romus could not sense the presence of a warrior at all.

So he had no way of knowing that a brilliant sun capable of blinding everyone had risen over the bridge.

“Quite a crowd you’ve got here this early in the morning. Holding a mass or something?”

When a lazy voice came from the bridge, Romus finally turned his head.

“With so many of you packed together, I could cut one of you down and no one would notice.”

Romus recognized the person standing there at once.

There was only one woman in the Empire with that appearance.

“The Empire’s Greatest Sword...?! Why are you here at this hour?!”

“Me? I came to supervise some delinquent students.”

Adeline Windsor.

With both hands in her pockets and a calm expression, she leisurely approached Romus and his group.

Everyone present swallowed hard.

This was bad.

If she was here now, it meant she had seen the tragedy floating over the lake as well.

The instant Romus realized that, his eyes grew cold enough that no one would mistake him for a priest.

‘In that case, I’ll have no choice but to deal with her here too.’

Fortunately, he knew about Adeline’s history.

She was said to be an eccentric who did not normally use an Abyss Core.

No matter how great the Empire’s Greatest Sword was, she should not have been able to defeat this many trained Holy Knights without a Core and Shards.

“That woman is also allied with those villains! She has clearly been seduced by the dungeon’s demonic energy and lost her senses!”

“Huh?”

Romus raised his voice even further.

“If we do not dispose of these villains here, the lies they spread will cover the entire Empire! Do not hesitate! In the name of the Main Gods, annihilate them all!”

The moment the Holy Knights raised their spears and swords, a clear, bright sword cry rang out.

Clang!!

A golden trail descended over the garden.

Where the blinding flash passed, dozens of Holy Knights collapsed like dolls with their strings cut.

New Bellhart Style, Third Form, Golden Slash.

It was Adeline’s signature technique.

“......Huh?”

A dazed sound escaped Romus’s lips.

“You knew who I was. What gave you the nerve to try that?”

Her voice came from behind him.

Romus turned his head, and Adeline stood there with the same expression as before.

At some point, she had returned her sword to its sheath.

“Th-this can’t be...! Your Abyss Core...!”

“The Core? This one?”

Adeline casually took a Core from her clothes and showed it to him.

[Abyss Core - Rising Sun]

“I have a Core too, you know.”

Those innocent words were the last thing Romus heard before he lost consciousness and collapsed.

Then the temple doors opened, and Halibal and Cecilia emerged, both in terrible condition.

“Ah...! Instructor Adeline!”

“Cecilia. And... Halibaaaal.”

Adeline’s brow furrowed.

Both of them were seriously injured. It was obvious they had fought fiercely inside the dungeon.

Even so, Halibal shamelessly opened his mouth.

“Big sis. Thank you so much. Thanks to you, we surviv-”

Thud!

“What bullshit.”

He had clearly remembered that Adeline had told him to call her big sis, but she had no intention of forgiving this brazen student who had tried to throw away his life without even informing her.

As Adeline’s knife-hand strike came down on Halibal’s crown, he immediately passed out.

When Adeline slung Halibal over her shoulder, Cecilia cautiously edged away from her.

“Cecilia.”

Cecilia flinched.

‘Is it my turn next?’

“You’ve worked hard taking care of this troublemaker.”

“Y-yes?”

But instead of a knife-hand strike, she received words of recognition.

It was the first time she had felt that someone acknowledged her not as the daughter of the Ren House, but solely as Cecilia Ren. Her face reddened.

“You won’t have to suffer because of that guy anymore. I’ll make sure to hammer it into his head properly.”

For some reason, the words that followed bothered her.

‘You won’t have to do that anymore.’

So she murmured very quietly.

“I wouldn’t mind... taking care of him a little longer...”

“What did you say?”

Adeline asked as she organized the belongings Halibal had been carrying.

“Ah, it was nothing!”

It seemed she had not heard.

“Anyway, a second Evil God Abyss. You two are going to be incredibly busy from now on, so you’d better prepare yourselves.”

“Yes. I’m prepared.”

“Good enough.”

Adeline patted Cecilia’s head once, then walked ahead.

Cecilia called out to her.

“But Instructor, how were you able to come here?”

She had never expected Adeline to appear at exactly the right moment during such a desperate crisis.

“Was it my sister? Or Mine...?”

The only person who could have told Adeline that the two had gone to the Doll Dungeon was Senia.

If not her, then Mine was the only other possibility Cecilia could think of, given Mine’s close ties to Erandar.

“Oh, that.”

But an unexpected name came from Adeline’s lips.

“Luna Grace told me.”

⁎⁎⁎

Inside the Christoph Cross-Country Train returning from Erandar to Nevil, Halibal and Cecilia were sleeping soundly.

Spending the entire night in the Doll Dungeon was bad enough, and they had also fought for their lives. Of course they were exhausted.

At this point, they probably would not notice even if someone carried them away.

Perhaps that was why Halibal had not woken up since being struck by Adeline’s knife-hand strike, while Cecilia had fallen asleep the instant she boarded the Christoph Cross-Country Train.

Adeline snorted as she looked at the two sleeping with their heads resting against each other.

“These kids are heroes? Even a passing dog would laugh.”

She covered them with blankets.

‘“I wouldn’t mind... taking care of him a little longer...”’

Who was Adeline Windsor?

Her senses were unmatched.

Naturally, she had heard every word Cecilia had murmured earlier.

‘They must have grown close quickly through the Follower classes and this dungeon raid.’

Cecilia shifted with a quiet groan in her sleep, and her head burrowed further toward Halibal’s shoulder.

Adeline’s gaze darkened slightly.

‘Seriously. Improper relationships between students on campus.’

As an instructor, she could not tolerate it.