WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Returned as a God ◈
Chapter 97: And Yet, Onward (2)
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Kale was my own personal matter to deal with.
Lee Eunyheui, who already knew about the favor Ludie had asked of me, stepped back without complaint.
"Don't die!"
"Worry about yourself."
"Is that really the only way you know how to respond when someone shows concern? Forget it! Just go die, then!"
Somewhat relieved of the tension, Lee Eunyheui climbed over the railing and dropped down below.
"M... my lady?"
"What's going on... My lady, are you all right? This way..."
"Don't go near her!"
"What are you talking... you're... h, how are you still alive... kuh, cough..."
The guard, run through by Kale's sword, collapsed to the floor.
Kale swung his sword through the air, and blood sprayed in every direction.
"Let me ask you one thing. Is that thing your puppet?"
"Yeah. Unfortunately, that's what it is."
"Unfortunately?"
"He said there was already someone back home. A lover."
"Jealous?"
"It's strange, really. No matter what you compare, I'm better in every way. So why does everyone always leave?"
Ifeseph approached Rizu's side and knelt down.
He glanced briefly at the dead servants, then turned his gaze toward Rizu and Kale.
The fact that he didn't look surprised at the sight of Kale meant he clearly already knew about Rizu's condition.
"Why aren't you dead?"
Ifeseph was different from Kale, and different from the Faillia Duke too.
He really was just an ordinary steward working for House Faillia.
"I have no reason to tell you that."
"Ah, forget it. Don't bother telling me."
I waved a hand through the air.
Loyalty, by nature, wasn't something that only applied to people.
"I think I've got a rough idea what it is anyway."
What Ifeseph served wasn't the Faillia Duke, and it wasn't Lady Rizu either.
It was the Faillia name itself.
As long as the Faillia name kept standing, he'd do whatever it took.
Whoever ended up as the master along the way was a trivial detail in that process.
"Loyalty that's nothing but an empty shell."
"How dare you..."
"Ifeseph. Leave this to me and go after the woman."
At Rizu's order, Ifeseph swallowed his anger and turned around.
I swung my sword toward his back.
Kale sprinted forward and blocked my blade.
"Attacking from behind, really? That's low."
"What are you talking about? Letting him go would've made me the idiot!"
Kale swung his sword with everything he had.
Even while being controlled, managing this much clearly meant he'd had decent skill to begin with, just like Ludie said. But it wasn't nearly enough to match me.
I knocked the incoming blade aside in a smooth arc.
A strike from my light-wreathed sword shot toward Ifeseph as he retreated.
Ifeseph twisted his body sharply in midair.
His severed arm dropped to the floor as he chased after Lee Eunyheui through the broken window.
I'd meant to take off a leg.
Well, one arm's gone, so he should manage somehow.
Even if she wasn't on Yu Jihan's level, Lee Eunyheui had still made it up to Floor 11 as a challenger.
She could handle protecting herself.
"You're really merciless, huh."
"That's not exactly something you get to say."
Rizu was killing every servant who stepped out of a room or crossed the hallway.
Blood the same color as her dress pooled thick beneath her feet.
Rizu smiled, running her tongue lightly over the blood on her hand.
"It's fine. You'll be with me either way."
"Sure you will."
Rizu's form vanished and reappeared before my eyes like an afterimage.
I swung my sword, and her body floated up into the air.
The instant her hand touched the blade's edge, I felt no weight at all.
It was like fighting a living ghost.
Something like will-o'-the-wisps flickered above her head.
Threads spun from souls wound tight around my body.
"No, no, no."
"Why? Why? Are you abandoning me?"
"I don't want to, save me, don't let me die!"
"Aaaaaah!"
"This is a lie, this has to be a lie."
Screams, cries, people writhing in agony, all of it surfaced in my mind at once.
The hand holding my sword dropped, drained of strength.
Splash, splash.
With every step Rizu took, the pooled blood squelched and stuck.
These were memories.
The voices of the souls Rizu carried inside her, the ones she'd killed.
Luria, whom I'd seen recently, was among them too.
"W, why are you doing this to me?"
"Hnngh... please, save me. My lady. Aaaaaah!"
Rizu stood less than five steps away.
The threads binding my body sharpened into points and began digging into flesh.
Good thing I sent Lee Eunyheui out of here.
She's softer inside than she looks, that one.
Anyone normal would have to go a little insane seeing something like this.
Rizu closed the distance before I noticed and wrapped both arms around me.
Her lovely voice rang through my skull.
"It's all right now."
"I'll take it all in for you. So..."
A faint tremor ran through the fingertip Rizu had pressed to my lips.
Startled, Rizu shoved my shoulder away and stumbled back.
Held up by Kale, her eyes shook rapidly.
"Wh, what are you?"
For the first time, Rizu's voice, always so soft and gentle, came out loud.
I poured mana into Haejoo's Ring, the one Park Siyu had given me.
The ring lit up, a faint glow rising around it.
At the wave of Rizu's hand, the threads of souls flying at me vanished.
Whatever the voices of the dead were, in the end they all traced back to Rizu's own mana.
Haejoo's Ring was an item that could activate a skill to negate magical attacks.
The downside was the mana drain was no joke.
Way worse than I thought.
I couldn't keep the ring active forever.
Rizu staggered to her feet and coughed up blood.
"Nothing. There was nothing there at all. Right, an empty shell, hollow inside. But then... what is that thing inside it? How are you even still alive!!"
"Whatever you saw has nothing to do with you."
Kale's sword clashed against mine.
The speed of the blades kept climbing.
At first it left just a faint afterimage, but soon it looked like a storm of swords pouring down all at once.
Small cuts opened up across my body wherever I failed to block.
Flesh split open, but no blood came out. It felt like cutting into a puppet.
Ignoring the pain, Kale lunged again.
I swung hard, and his sword flew up into the air.
My blade's point drove into his chest.
Kale's body pitched forward, trembling, and let out a hot exhale.
"I have someone I love."
"Maria... she went to become the Marquis Loylen's mistress?"
"Oh, all I did was mention there was a decent woman in the village."
Kale's body crumbled apart, and the accumulated memories of the souls inside it poured out.
"Ah, aaaaaah!"
There was Kale, sobbing over a letter alone in a room.
The letter he'd received announced Maria's death.
I pulled the sword free, and Kale's body split apart like a collapsing statue.
"Who... are you...?"
"Doesn't matter who I am."
"Thank... you."
"I'll pass your regards along to that Ludie guy."
He probably never heard that last part, but it didn't matter either way.
Rizu bit down on her nails.
One long nail snapped off with a small crack.
"You poor thing."
"Stop, stop it!! Why do you have that look in your eyes! Why! Why!!"
Rizu's lips trembled.
I shut off the anti-magic field radiating from Haejoo's Ring.
If I kept it running any longer, I'd run completely dry on mana.
"Damn it, damn it!! Don't, don't look at me like that!!"
Rizu's mana erupted.
A wave of mana like a storm shook the entire mansion.
I barely made it outside before the mana went off.
I brushed the dust off my clothes and loosened up my body.
"Whew, that was close. Huh?"
In the middle of the wrecked garden stood Ifeseph, one arm severed, still on his feet.
I turned slightly to look at Lee Eunyheui.
"You still haven't killed that thing?"
"Sh, shut up!! He's stronger than he looks, okay!"
"Or maybe you're just weak?"
"Die!!"
Lee Eunyheui's words dripped with malice, and I couldn't help grinning.
"Sorry to say, but I think I'm stronger than you."
"Argh! This is so annoying!! You're the one who told me not to cause any more explosions!!"
"Honestly, it's kind of impressive you've been fighting with explosions this whole time."
I meant that.
Is she even really an archer?
I knocked away a thrown dagger and sheathed my sword.
I held out a hand toward Lee Eunyheui.
"Give me the bow."
I half-forced the bow out of Lee Eunyheui's hands.
It looked way too fine a bow for a Floor 11 challenger to be carrying around.
"Uh, wait a second? Hey? That's not something you can just handle roughly like that!"
Lee Eunyheui reached up, trying to snatch back the bow I'd raised high.
The instant I poured mana into the bow, I felt my fingertips start to burn.
"Yeah, that tracks."
"You, your hand! I knew this would happen!! It does this every time someone else touches it!"
Lee Eunyheui quickly poured some kind of red healing potion over my hand.
It didn't do much, but the pain eased off.
Taking the bow back, Lee Eunyheui settled into her stance and let out a sigh.
"You're a monster."
"Can you not call somebody's bow a monster like that?"
At her curt response, I scratched my head.
I'd really only meant to show her one demonstration and step back, but judging by my hand, it didn't look like the bow was going to let that slide either.
"Guess there's no helping it. Hold the bow."
"You, what are you doing again..."
I stood behind Lee Eunyheui and gripped her arm.
Flustered, she kept glancing back at me.
"Too close."
"Whoever said something about never giving body or heart to anyone, remind me which house that was from?"
"Trust me."
"I won't ask you to trust me twice, so just trust me this once."
At the voice behind her, Lee Eunyheui nodded.
She drew the bowstring, and an arrow wreathed in dark crimson light appeared.
I channeled mana through her arm, still gripped in my hand.
Lee Eunyheui's bow pushed back against my mana, like it was rejecting it.
"Being this loyal is admirable and all, but do you really want to spend your days hearing your master called a serial bomber?"
"Who's a serial bomber! And more importantly, who are you even talking to?"
"Just focus."
Lee Eunyheui pouted and drew her mana up.
[That child cannot hear my voice yet.]
[Who dares speak to me so carelessly?]
[Do you even know who I am?]
[Shut up and cooperate while I'm being nice about it. Should I flip you over, snap you in half, and toss you in a forge to reforge you into a sword?]
[No fire in existence could possibly melt me...]
[Want to test that? Should we try it?]
[Even if I do cooperate, this child still...]
[That part's on me to handle.]
I cut the voice off unilaterally.
Not exactly the time to be chatting, with an enemy standing right in front of us.
And it was half true, anyway, that I had zero interest in the bow's owner.
This bow might genuinely be too much for Lee Eunyheui's current ability to handle. But there was no guarantee it would still be too much for the Lee Eunyheui of the future.
Her mana and mine mixed together, and an arrow formed, laced through with blue light.
"I'll only show you once, so watch closely. This is how you shoot a bow."
"Now!"
At my signal, Lee Eunyheui drew the bowstring.
Footnotes:
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