WeTried Translations
Translator: Nemui
Editor: Nemui
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Reincarnated as the Villain's Heir
Chapter 3: A Duel with My Garbage Brother
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The duel was set to take place in the training hall beneath the Balfont mansion.
The underground area was buried deep below the earth and built to withstand a fair amount of impact.
Which meant no one would come save me no matter how much I cried and screamed. Gillium's smug face as he gave that cheap threat was hilarious.
"Lord Alphys is dueling Lord Gillium..."
"Forgive me for saying so, but I cannot imagine Lord Alphys has any chance of winning."
"He never seemed to be training either."
The story had spread throughout the mansion, and not only my parents and siblings, but even the servants had come to watch.
They were saying whatever they wanted, but this was pretty much in line with the original story.
Alphys acted like a big shot in front of the protagonist's party, but in reality, he had submitted to his older brothers.
No matter how much he trained, he could not match them, and he was treated as a failure.
The reason was probably that he trained underground alongside his other siblings.
Getting beaten over and over by opponents whose strength was far beyond his own did not lead to any growth.
On top of that, Alphys lacked knowledge.
What did that mean? I needed to prove it now.
"Alphys, are you ready to embarrass yourself? Kekekeke!"
"Big Brother Gillium, did you prepare properly? A set of recovery items, I mean. This time, the monsters you command will not help you."
"Like I need that crap against you, you worthless trash!"
Gillium really had a low boiling point.
His pride was abnormally high, and he was always looking down on the weak.
Besides, that had not just been provocation. It was advice too.
Gillium's skills were all offense, with no defensive options at all.
He could not use recovery magic either, so he went down much more easily than my other siblings.
In short, Gillium's strength depended entirely on having his tamed monsters with him.
"Alphys, Gillium. You remember the terms exchanged for this duel, I trust."
"Yes, Father. If I win, Luchel will enter a contract with me. And Big Brother Gillium will wash the servant's clothes that he dirtied himself."
"Yeah, and when I win, Alphys becomes my slave. The result is already decided, so there is no need to check."
Despite his hands-off style, it looked like Leorg would properly oversee the duel.
Maybe, as the head of the family, he could not allow disputes to go unmanaged.
That said, if I tattled about Gillium harassing me, I would probably be the one who got scolded.
Leorg hated weak people like that most of all.
After all, he believed people like that could not even be used as his pawns.
"Then the weapons shall be wooden swords. The match ends when one side admits defeat. Both of you, fight with all your strength."
Once Leorg declared that, Gillium and I readied our weapons.
A seven-year-old me challenging ten-year-old Gillium was, by ordinary logic, nothing but reckless.
By ordinary logic.
"Kekeke, foolish little brother. Look at this. Do you know what this is?"
"Mana?"
"Huh? Y-yeah. That's right. You couldn't possibly imitate this, could you?"
"No, not really... Like this?"
Gillium was looking pleased with himself after pouring mana into his wooden sword, so I did the same.
His confident expression stiffened.
"Wha, y-you can use mana?!"
"Did you think I could not because I am seven? Do not underestimate me. In fact, I am ahead of you. Like this."
I converted my mana into the dark attribute.
What surged from the black wooden sword was dark mana.
Weapons and magic each had things certain characters were good at.
Finding those out was part of the fun in Princess Sword.
Though, of course, my strategy wiki had exposed all of it instantly.
If you used weapons or magic you were bad at, naturally, your growth rate dropped.
Worse, your ability would hit a ceiling and your build would fail.
Alphys's best magic attribute was dark, and his best weapon was the sword. I had known that since the day I was born.
Gillium, on the other hand, did not seem to have found his yet.
"D-dark?! Why the hell can you use something like that?!"
"Why? Because I was not doing nothing. I put in effort even while you were satisfied with surrounding yourself with monsters."
"Damn it! Dark or not, I should have more mana!"
Gillium flew into a rage and swung his wooden sword wildly.
Its power was probably impressive thanks to the mana reinforcement, but his movements were slow.
I blocked it with plenty of room to spare.
"Guh! I-it won't move!"
"Big Brother Gillium, did you train properly? Or are you still holding back?"
"Shut up!"
Gillium backed away once, then slashed at me again.
I gently separated a bit of the darkness wrapped around my sword.
The mist-like darkness covered Big Brother Gillium's face.
"I-I can't see anything! What the hell is happening?!"
"Dark magic can do things like this. Swinging around at random will not hit me. In fact..."
I drove a blow into Big Brother Gillium's stomach while he attacked completely the wrong direction with his wooden sword.
"Gahgh!"
"You become even more full of openings, and this happens."
Big Brother Gillium staggered on his feet while clutching his stomach.
The people around us stirred. No one had expected this.
"L-Lord Alphys used dark magic?"
"At that age, he can use mana... and even attribute magic..."
Gillium was not supposed to be very good at magic.
It looked like he could use simple mana reinforcement like just now, but he was basically all physical offense.
I would not say that was bad, but there was no denying his strength depended on the monsters he commanded.
"Y-you bastard!"
"Do you surrender?"
"Like hell I do!"
"Sigh... Then I will show you just one more thing to make you want to."
I drew out something from deep inside my body that was not mana.
What I poured over my wooden sword was pulse.
When I was born, my mother Lisania had sensed a powerful pulse from me.
This could be called the essential power hidden within humans.
Its nature differed from person to person, but my pulse was destruction.
I had only recently become able to draw it out, and with my current ability, I could maintain it for only a short time.
Even so, among House Balfont, the only people who could control pulse besides my parents were the eldest son and eldest daughter.
"W-what the hell is that...? There is dark on your wooden sword, and... something else mixed in..."
"I cannot keep this up very long right now, so I will end this for the moment."
"H-hee?!"
Gillium, completely frightened, tried to defend by using his wooden sword as a shield, knees bent and posture broken.
My wooden sword, clad in darkness and the pulse of destruction, slammed into it.
As a result, Gillium's wooden sword split with a sharp crack.
"Aah! Hiaaah! What, what is this?!"
"My pulse is destruction. This wooden sword has the power to destroy all things. Do you understand what that means?"
"S-stop! Damn it! Please stop!"
"No."
I struck Gillium with the wooden sword.
It sank into his stomach, and Gillium vomited a spectacular amount of blood as he was blown away.
When he hit the ground, he coughed up blood one more time and stopped moving.
"I was kidding. I released the pulse before I hit you, so relax... Hm? I did not hear you surrender. Then I suppose I have no choice but to finish you off?"
"That is enough. The match is decided."
Leorg looked down at me with a stern gaze. What is it, World King?
"Alphys, where did you learn such a thing?"
"On my own. I happened to discover it. More importantly, I want you to keep the promise."
"Yes, the angel girl. You there."
Called by Leorg, Luchel, the angel race girl who had been watching the fight, timidly approached me.
She was fidgeting for some reason. Did she need to use the bathroom?
"U-um, Lord Alphys... Th-thank you... very much..."
"You are strangely meek."
If I remembered right, she was a ridiculously cheeky character.
Well, if she was going to behave herself, that was all the better.
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