WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Dionysus

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Chapter 219: To Sever What Must Be Severed (2)

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Some time passed.

Airen's days were always the same. He closed his eyes, concentrated, and thought of various ways to cut water.

Then he swung his sword to make it a reality.

What if he failed?

He repeated the process.

Of course, he had not succeeded even once.

Still, that was fine.

He had never expected to reach enlightenment quickly, and this place felt fairly suitable for training.

'Of course it does. Half of this Sorcery World was created from my wish.'

In accordance with his desire to cut water, this place was filled entirely with it.

Water lay beneath his feet and filled the sky. Everything he could see was water.

The other half was filled with the demon's malice, so the unpleasant feeling was unavoidable...

But he could endure that much.

The conviction he had carried from his Past Life until now kept the demonic aura from invading him.

"All right. Let's keep at it."

Airen Farreira muttered. His belief that he could do it, his sheer persistence, gave him strength.

The Jester Demon did not move.

Submerged beneath the surface, it merely watched him in silence.

* * *

More time passed.

Airen Farreira continued swinging his sword. Yet he still could not cut the water.

It could not be helped. Hadn't Hall Master Ian said that comprehending it would never be easy?

To keep himself from growing impatient, Airen slowly drew in a breath, then let it out deeply.

The problem was...

He did not have much time left to keep doing this.

Ratatatat!

Rat-tat, rat-tat, ratatat!

At some point, the rain had begun pouring down even harder.

The rain obscuring his vision as if a typhoon had arrived was troublesome enough, but something else bothered him even more.

The water level was incomparably higher than before.

It had passed his calves, then his waist, and was now nearly reaching his chest.

Feeling increasingly uncomfortable, Airen swung his sword harder.

Swoosh!

Shwaaaaaa!

He failed again.

Feeling something knot inside his chest, Airen let out another deep sigh, as though trying to expel something.

"Hooooo..."

But only his breath came out.

That heavy, stifling feeling remained.

...After shaking his head once to fling away the water, he swung his sword again.

Naturally, it had no effect. The endless rain ran down his skin.

The Jester Demon still did not move.

Beneath the slowly rising surface, it continued watching.

* * *

Even more time passed.

Airen could no longer breathe. The water had risen over his head, taking away even his freedom to draw breath.

His life was not in danger.

He would only lose his life the moment he gave up everything and accepted the darkness.

There was no point applying common sense to a world made of Sorcery and demonic aura.

But being able to stay alive did not make this all right.

As emotions continued to surge within him, Airen swung his sword violently.

Whooom!

Whoooom!

The attacks were far more powerful than before!

Yet cutting the water remained impossible. Even when he drove it back with tremendous force, that was all he could do.

As the water rushed back in an instant, Airen felt like screaming.

But he could not.

The water filling his surroundings hindered him.

The emotions filling him tormented him.

At some point, Airen had become more focused on his feelings about failing to cut the water than on cutting it itself.

How long was he supposed to keep doing this?

If he tried and tried again, then made another effort, would he obtain what he wanted?

What if that still was not enough?

How was he supposed to release this irritation, these emotions, rising all the way to his chin?

A smothering rage, not like fire but water, exhausted his body and mind.

The greater problem was the anxiety filling his head.

'How much time have I spent here?'

Remembering the past, Airen bit his lower lip.

Inside the Sorcery Barrier he had created to overcome his weak and inadequate self, he had gained incomparable resolve, outstanding swordsmanship, and confidence.

But he had lost something as well. Five whole years had passed.

Even now, remembering his younger sister's face stained with tears made a part of his heart ache.

And now, the same thing was happening again.

No, it was even worse.

'...This time, there is no telling when it will end.'

Whoooom!

Kwarararang!

Airen ground his teeth. Drawing on a great deal of Aura, he unleashed the strongest strike he could muster.

But the result was the same.

The water had been driven back more violently and for longer than before, but it did not take long to return to its place.

Glub, glub...

Airen exhaled.

He could not breathe in. Negative emotions already filled him so completely that nothing else could enter.

Just like the lake water filling this place.

Watching him, the Jester Demon finally smiled.

'Just a little longer.'

The demon's hateful gaze examined Airen. It did not merely look at his exterior, but peered into every corner of his heart.

It was almost time. The negative emotions that had built up to the limit were making him more impatient and anxious.

They were dragging him deeper and deeper into the mire.

What would happen next?

There was no need to think about it.

The demon had seen countless times what became of humans consumed by their emotions.

The Jester Demon's smile deepened.

'Just a little longer. Just a little longer.'

The young hero swinging his sword without pause looked dangerously unstable.

Beneath the water that had risen as high as it could, the Jester Demon waited leisurely for its moment.

* * *

A long time passed.

The pounding rain no longer meant anything.

Beneath lake water that had risen dozens of meters above his head, Airen continued swinging his sword.

He did not know whether it meant anything.

His sword still passed uselessly through the current.

His heart was still filled with negative emotions.

The anxiety over the passage of time remained as well.

What he had thought was the perfect training ground inflicted suffering on him every minute and every second.

...Still, Airen did not give up because effort was all he had left.

Whoom!

There had been a time when he ran from pain.

To forget the trauma of his childhood, he had sunk into a deep sleep and tried never to escape it.

Whooom!

There had also been a time when he crumbled beneath despair again.

Inside the Sorcery Barrier, he had swung his sword millions of times without growing stronger. There had been days when he was disappointed in himself and let his doubts grow.

Whoooom!

But Airen overcame it.

He no longer ran away, and he no longer hid.

Rather than sink lower to escape fear and hardship, he raised his sword to move forward and climb higher.

And he swung it without end.

Not because that was the correct answer.

At some point, he had realized that not doing so was the wrong answer, that without effort, he would not even have a chance to grow.

The same was true now.

If he gave up because he could see no hope and no path forward, it would end there.

The thin thread of opportunity still connecting him to his goal would snap, and he would never escape this lake.

He would remain trapped beneath the surface and meet a miserable death.

He could not let that happen.

He must not.

The foundation that had sustained Airen Farreira until now kept him moving without stopping.

Whoom.

Whooom.

Whooom!

He continued swinging his sword.

He swung it so many times and for so long that he no longer knew how many strikes he had made, as though he would keep doing so forever.

All his focus went into moving the sword.

Impatience no longer washed over him.

Neither did anxiety or painful thoughts.

He could not rise above the surface, but neither did he sink any deeper.

At the center of the water-filled barrier, the young hero endlessly swung his sword.

That was when the Jester Demon appeared.

"...Why?"

"...?"

"Whywhywhywhyareyoubotheringwithsuchuselesseffort?"

The demon's voice rang out so quickly that it gave no room to breathe.

Airen did not answer.

It was not that the question was unworthy of an answer. Nothing in particular came to mind, and he could not open his mouth in all this water anyway.

But the Jester Demon seemed to take it as being ignored.

"You dogshit bastard, rk... I'll chew you up, ahwkfkfvlfaufwksutjrdl! How dare you dnfhdgkrhskdmlakfdmfantlgo! Answer me already, akfgkfksakfdldidj! Why are you still Tmfepdjqtsmsshfurdmfdldjrkrh doing this?!"

Airen frowned.

He could not understand it properly. Human and demonic languages were mixed together.

All he could tell was that the clown was furious and growing impatient.

'What's gotten into it?'

Airen shook his head and looked away.

Then, just as before, he swung his sword.

It was true that he was holding up fairly well.

But he was only holding up. He had still found no clue to cutting the water.

He could not give up, so he kept moving.

Yet for some reason, the clown continued hurling curses and venting its anger.

Of course, none of it could hurt him. Just as Airen could not harm the demon, the demon could not harm him either.

Still, it was annoying.

Airen exhaled as the voice pierced his ears despite the water.

Glub, glub. His breath became bubbles that rose toward the surface.

Seeing that, the Jester Demon shrieked again.

Was it a coincidence?

This time, Airen could clearly understand every word.

"You can't do it! You can't do it anyway! Cut water? Don't be ridiculous! You'll never be able to cut water here..."

Airen stopped.

As if time had frozen, he remained perfectly still before slowly turning his head toward the clown.

The demon frowned when their eyes met.

"W-what?"

Airen mouthed the words at it.

"You."

"You pulled a clever trick on me, didn't you?"

"...What the hell are you talking about?!"

The clown's words sped up again. More blood, pus, and malice flowed from beneath its mask.

The lake water stained dark crimson and clung thickly around Airen.

He did not care.

Remembering when he had first been dragged into the Wager Ground, Airen nodded.

'What you need to cut. What you must cut. Only after you become capable of cutting that will you be able to escape this place.'

It was clear.

The clown had said that he needed to cut what he had to cut. It had never once said he needed to cut water.

'Come to think of it, Hall Master Ian never told me to cut water either.'

Airen nodded.

He thought he understood.

Why he had not been able to leave this place.

Why the clown had been so confident.

He had misunderstood until now. His entire way of thinking had been wrong.

As his vision finally broadened, his eyes shone.

'What I need to cut is not water, but...'

Airen assumed a stance.

It was gentler and more relaxed than before.

As he raised his sword with a lighter heart than ever, a calm energy flowed from his body.

Vwoooom...

It did not possess the fierce force of flames.

It looked utterly ordinary. It even seemed pitiful, incapable of forming an Aura Sword, the symbol of a Master.

But that was fine.

The water filling his surroundings.

Not that, but the emotions filling his heart.

There could be no sword more fitting for cutting away his excessive attachment.

Swish.

Airen Farreira's sword passed through the lake water and fell.

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