Reincarnation of the Sword Demon - Chapter 121

WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Chapter 121: Take Responsibility

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[O, oooh... Ooooooh...]

Baal, who had been silent all this time, made a sound as her blade trembled.

[I, I cut him. I cut him! So wonderfully, wonderfully! One huge diagonal slash through the body! Then another, clean across the neck!]

Baal's voice was filled with excitement. Kyle, who had been hopping along on his right foot without using his throbbing, blood-soaked left one, stopped for a moment at her voice.

‘Yeah, you did. How did it feel?’

[Exquisite! Exquisite! I, I have cut down countless enemies in the hands of my former masters, but! I have never felt such a blade's thrill before!]

‘Sounds like all your previous masters fought weaklings.’

[You fool! That isn't what I mean! Their rank of existence... their nature, perhaps! I have never cut anything like that before!]

Baal hurriedly corrected herself. Judging by how appalled she was at the thought of disparaging the three Demon Kings she had served, she was a remarkably loyal sword.

[Ahem... well... anyway, this day's blade's thrill was deeply satisfying. Master, only now do I believe I can truly recognize you as my master.]

‘So you didn't recognize me until now?’

[The truth is, the master until now had many shortcomings when it came to becoming Baal's true master. You were young, your realm was low, and you never fed this Baal to fullness...]

When Kyle tried to put Baal into the Out-of-Place Artifact, she panicked and changed her tone.

[That was until now, until now! But things are different from this moment on! Master has surpassed your previous realm, and you have cut down an opponent who satisfied this one! Therefore, this Baal shall serve you with all sincerity as her master!]

‘All right, so get inside.’

[Wh, why must I go inside? This one performed magnificently in the battle just now! Without this one's authority, you could not have cut down that arrogant Easterner who called himself a demon!]

The girl-shaped dokkaebi that emerged from Baal glared at Fenris. Crunch, crunch! Baal ground her sharp teeth and clenched both fists at Fenris.

[A sword as useless as it is famous! It has no authority over annihilation and holds no value beyond following in Ruin Alastor's footsteps! This Baal performed far better than that dull sword!]

Baal was not entirely wrong. Without her in the battle against the demon, killing it would have been much more troublesome.

‘I'd have killed it somehow even without you.’

It would have been troublesome, nothing more. Intent was not limitless. If he kept killing it, even the demon would eventually die.

‘And without Fenris, I wouldn't have reached a distance where I could kill the demon for certain.’

[Even so, this one was the more useful one today! Then why leave that useless sword alone and put this one away?!]

‘Because you're much bigger. Carrying you around is difficult.’

At that, Baal blinked at Kyle. Fenris was an ordinary-sized sword that could hang from his waist, but Baal was a greatsword as tall as a person. Kyle could barely use his left foot, his entire body was covered in wounds, and he had internal injuries as well. Honestly, even carrying Baal was difficult.

‘And I need to bring Orban along too.’

Orban was still lying covered in the Holy Shroud and feathers. Baal looked back and forth between Kyle's ragged, bloodied left foot and her own enormous true form, then bit her lip and nodded.

[I, if that is the case, it cannot be helped. But Master! Now that you know this one's usefulness, you must draw me and wield me whenever the chance arises!]

‘Sure, sure.’

[Promise! It is a promise!]

‘Sure, sure.’

Kyle's answer was half-hearted, but he too had enjoyed the exhilarating feeling of Baal's blade. He put Baal and the Black Cube, which had turned a cloudy white, into the Out-of-Place Artifact's dimensional pouch, then slung Orban over his shoulder.

‘What should we do, Fenris? She keeps trying to take your place.’

Kyle hopped on one foot toward the laboratory stairs. With the mana gone, the flesh had vanished as well, and the Central Laboratory had returned to normal. To leave this place, he needed to climb the stairs and pass through the control room.

‘Using you to connect with Ruin and open the Gate of Ascension... I have no interest in that right now. That isn't a sword's role.’

Darkness flowed from Fenris and took the form of a black wolf. With its ears drooping and a dejected expression, Fenris walked alongside Kyle.

‘Don't be too down. I like you. You swing exactly as I want, and when I want to cut, you cut. That's the best kind of sword.’

In that sense, Baal was not a sword Kyle liked all that much. Her extreme size and excessive sharpness could not be controlled as he wished.

If Kyle's reincarnation had been intended for someone to use Kyle as a “sword,” then like Baal, Kyle was not a particularly good sword either.

[M, Master...]

A timid voice came from his Middle Dantian. Jor, who had been limp since discharging her power in battle, seemed to have recovered some energy.

[If moving is difficult for you... I, I can carry you.]

‘Jor.’

During the battle, things had been too urgent for him to question her. That urgent battle was over now. Kyle stroked his chest and asked.

‘What exactly are you?’

[I, I am Jor. Jormungandr. A young lightning spirit, and I first contracted with Master... Because of Master, I escaped the mold of a lightning spirit...]

‘Yes, that's right.’

Kyle had first met Jor when he was five years old. He had not called her himself. At the time, she was a young spirit with little intelligence, drawn to the Thunder Energy in the Thunderstone Julius had gifted Kyle in hopes that his grandson would awaken a lightning Spirit Root.

Afterward, Jor lived in the Thunderstone and grew by eating the mana stones Kyle gave her. When Kyle awakened his Spirit Root at age ten, they formed a formal contract, and he first heard the name Jormungandr.

Around then, Jor shed her young spirit form and became a low-ranking lightning spirit. At Kyle's command, she moved her home from the Thunderstone to his chest, the Middle Dantian.

Spirits that had grown in size normally lived in the spirit realm or in special environments rich with mana. Kyle had designated the Middle Dantian as Jor's home out of necessity. With his unusual Chaos Spirit Root, he intended to use Jor as a filter to rapidly accumulate mana.

The plan worked well. Influenced by the Chaos Spirit Root, Jor escaped the mold of a lightning spirit and achieved an independent growth. It was also thanks to the immature Chaos Origin cultivation technique Kyle had created at the time and fed her. Once they entered the Cultivation Floors, she gained even a body capable of manifestation after absorbing the remnants and byproducts Kyle consumed.

Jor had been born a lightning spirit, but she had become something more than a lightning spirit. Just as Kyle intended, she had become a spirit of chaos.

‘Yes, that was because I... wanted it that way.’

But the “voice” from earlier had unquestionably come from Jor. Spirits were fundamentally lifeforms made of mana. The spirits influenced by the breath of the Secret Realm on Beltua Island had forgotten their nature and changed. In other words, spirits were affected by the Secret Realm's energy.

‘Jor is still a spirit in the end. Even if I changed her as intended, if she receives a will far beyond mine...’

Intent.

‘Intent...’

Had its source truly been Kyle's will?

Just as reincarnation had not been Kyle's wish, awakening the Chaos Spirit Root had not been Kyle's wish either.

He had decided to place Jor in his Middle Dantian because he had awakened the Chaos Spirit Root. No, even before that, because Kyle had possessed the aptitude for spirits.

‘Duke Oun said he had been trapped at the dark frontier for fifteen years.’

The Black Cube had run wild on the day Kyle entered the Secret Realm.

‘The demon called me a Turning Point. The world changes because of me. In what way? Because of something I do? Or because I simply exist?’

What would have happened if Kyle had never been born into this world?

Arian might not have run away from home, and might have waited for Aslan to finish his Closed-Door Training. Or perhaps she would have been unable to bear the loneliness and stormed into Aslan's Cultivation Chamber long ago.

If that had happened, Arian might never have returned to the Sword Tower.

Kyle remembered the first day he had gone to the Sword Tower. That bleak atmosphere. Rather than family, they had regarded each other as rivals, and their wary gazes had fixed on the young nephew with red hair and golden eyes who had suddenly returned.

Then there was Julius, the Family Head, sitting alone on the throne in the Sword Hall. At the time, his relatives respected Julius, yet found him difficult to approach.

Julius himself wanted to be seen that way. After Lavian Alastor, the family matriarch, fell into her long sleep, Julius had clearly faltered. He had not chosen to reveal his weakness and receive comfort from his children. Instead, he hid that weakness and chose to establish the dignity expected of a Family Head.

He looked sternly upon his children but did not approach them himself. His children did the same. Julius had never been the type to show affection in the first place. That role had belonged to Lavian, not Julius, and he did not try to take her place.

Not a father, but a Family Head. Julius acknowledged that himself. He chose to become a great Family Head rather than a good father.

Kyle was the one who changed Julius. While every relative treated Julius with caution, Kyle visited him every day without concern for formalities. Even Karthan, Julius's eldest son, could not call him Father, but Kyle always called Julius Grandfather.

Erika, who had never heard warm words from her father since childhood, swung her sword before Julius and received praise because Kyle called her over. From then on, the atmosphere in the Sword Tower and the family slowly began to change.

‘If I had never been born, Grandmother would not have awakened either.’

He had awakened Lavian, who could have been used as a bomb to drive a wedge between the Empire and Alastor.

‘The Angel's gift let me wake Grandmother. Because I asked it, the Angel gave it to me.’

Was that too great a leap? Since he was already thinking about it, he let his thoughts go farther, broader. If Kyle had never been born, Lucia would not have gone to Beltua Island and awakened the Demon King's brand.

‘Perhaps Duke Oun would not have been trapped at the dark frontier either.’

Kyle let out a hollow laugh. Looking back, he had affected so many things in so many places.

Then should he lock himself inside the Sword Tower out of fear of affecting anything else? Naturally, Kyle had no intention of doing that. Even if he recognized that he was a “Turning Point” who changed the world, it was neither his intention nor his concern.

Kyle had lived as he pleased since his previous life. This life would be no different. If that freedom changed the world...

‘I'll think about it when the time comes.’

What mattered was not losing himself. Even if he was reincarnated according to someone's intent and came to change the world, he could not lose his certainty within it. He could not become a sword wielded according to someone else's will.

[Master...?]

In the control room, Kyle stopped with a hand on the wall, lost in thought. Jor spoke anxiously.

[You are not thinking of breaking our contract, are you? Y, you cannot do that. I would be in trouble. I have lived in Master's chest this whole time, and I became something other than a lightning spirit because Master told me to...]

Kyle had never had a deep conversation with another spirit, but Jor clearly understood that she was not an ordinary spirit.

[I do not know whether someone like me could live in a place called the spirit realm... No, I do not even know whether I could go there. M, Master made me this way! You have to take responsibility for that.]

“That is exactly it.”

The tightness in Kyle's chest vanished at Jor's words. He chuckled and tapped his chest.

“Responsibility. Yes, I should take responsibility.”

It was not Kyle who had made Helenas live for five hundred years, but Sword Demon Raikal. A person did not have to be special to affect someone and change them.

“It doesn't have to be so complicated. Responsibility isn't always a positive thing.”

Kyle muttered with a smile as he pulled Jor from his chest. Drawn out by Kyle's will, Jor manifested in the world.

“Jor. If you turn strange, I'll take responsibility and kill...”

Kyle's voice, spoken with a grin, abruptly stopped.

Jor was originally a huge snake with purple scales. She could change her size as she wished and even make her face cute enough for Kaya to like.

But now, without anyone telling her to, she looked a little different than usual. Her purple scales bore patterns like lightning etched into them, and a pair of black horns like tree branches had grown from her snake's head.

“...”

Kyle stared at the altered Jor, then quietly placed a hand on Fenris. Jor jumped in alarm and cried out.

[Master?! Why are you trying to draw your sword?]

“Why do you look like that?”

[What do you mean?]

“You have horns on your head.”

At that, Jor moved her tail to feel her head. Once she noticed the horns, her mouth fell open.

[W, what is this?]

“It's not just the horns... Doesn't your snout seem a little longer too?”

Kyle tilted his head from side to side as he examined Jor's face. It was not his imagination. Jor's snout had grown slightly longer. She had once been a snake that was simply large, but now her head looked closer to a lizard's than a snake's.

[N, no! Master! I, I look a little different, but I am Jor. Master's loyal spirit!]

“Hmm...”

Kyle looked at Jor for a moment, then quietly lowered the hand he had placed on Fenris.

“You do look like yourself for now. All right.”

[M... Master. Then why did you grab Fenris just now? And earlier... You said you would take responsibility and kill, what were you going to say after that?]

“I was going to say I'd take responsibility and kill you.”

Kyle answered boldly without avoiding the question, then hopped onto Jor's back with only his right foot. Her tail slid forward and wrapped around Orban.

“It would be for me and for you. You wouldn't want to become something that isn't you... or have someone else wield you however they please, would you?”

[Ugh...]

“Of course, I'm an exception. I'm your master. Isn't that right?”

[That... is right.]

Jor's body trembled, but she soon nodded and began crawling across the floor.

[But before you kill me, please make sure to ask my opinion first.]

“What if you can't answer?”

[Then... I probably won't be myself anymore, so you should kill me.]

“I'll try to wake you first.”

So this was why Kaya rode Jor at every opportunity. Riding on Jor's back was more comfortable than Kyle expected.

“If that doesn't work, it can't be helped.”

The corridor connected to the control room had also returned to normal, but the mutant corpses remained. Kyle checked them as he spoke.

“Let's go underground first.”

They had recovered the Black Cube. Now they needed to take the survivors outside. Kyle decided to rescue the Head of the Armaments Bureau, who was trapped in the underground air-raid shelter, first.

Not because the Head of the Armaments Bureau's life was worth the most, but because he wanted to see whether the mutants said to be swarming there could still move. With the Black Cube recovered and the research wing restored to normal, there was no longer any reason to avoid fighting the mutants.

“Huh.”

According to Gordon, the research wing staff who failed to enter the air-raid shelter during the incident had mutated and turned the area outside it into a complete mess.

The scene outside the air-raid shelter truly was a mess. Dozens of mutants stood blankly before the heavy iron door.

They stood there without moving. When Kyle had Jor nudge them, they all appeared to have died standing up.

‘Because the mana is gone?’

He pushed the mutants aside and approached the air-raid shelter. The camera above the iron door silently moved and turned toward Kyle.

“My name is Kyle Alastor. I came to rescue you, so please open the door and come out.”

[K, Kyle Alastor? The Alastor Family?]

“Yes. That Alastor from the Empire's north.”

For forty-three days, the people inside had heard countless voices asking them to open the door. But they were experts on mutants. They knew for certain that the Kyle speaking to them was not a mutant, so they opened the door immediately.

“Ahh...”

Inside the air-raid shelter were Aia Vernes, the Head of the Armaments Bureau, and two members of her special research unit. For people trapped inside for forty-three days, the two who came out first looked fairly well.

A glance inside revealed why. The air-raid shelter was equipped with most of what they needed.

“Is the incident over?”

Aia Vernes, the Head of the Armaments Bureau, came out last and looked up at Kyle with hollow eyes.

“Yes.”

“Hmm...”

Aia looked around, and her expression stiffened. She stared at the dead mutants still standing, then observed a moment of silence with a sigh.

“First, thank you for coming to rescue us. But... are we the only survivors?”

“There should be twenty more survivors upstairs. Unless they died in the time since I last heard.”

“You came to rescue us... alone?”

“No. The Central Branch head is alive too.”

Kyle pointed to Orban, wrapped in Jor's tail.

“The Central Branch head... came in person to rescue us?”