Reincarnation of the Sword Demon - Chapter 125

WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Chapter 125: You're Starting to Scare Me

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Kyle had wanted to talk her into taking off that gaudy, irritating pauldron that caught his eye every time he saw it. Now that he knew there was a reason behind it, though, he could not exactly tell her to remove it.

'Even if things are different now, the Sword Church was originally a religion founded to mourn me.'

A religion needed an idol. The sword was something worthy of devoting one's entire life to, but it was a vague thing to make into an idol.

An elf who lived for centuries, especially one who had made the sword their destiny, had the power to become an idol.

Even if that elf wore a gaudy, irritating black pauldron.

"Isn't that uncomfortable?"

"It was at first, but I am used to it now. Five hundred years have passed."

"Do you wear it when you sleep too?"

"I do not wear the pauldron when I bathe or sleep."

That was only natural.

"It must be hard to move your shoulder beneath something that large."

"Not necessarily. It moves well enough that it does not interfere when I swing my arm."

Helenas raised her arm as if to show him. Sure enough, the pauldron shifted direction with the movement of her shoulder and arm.

"You don't like the pauldron?"

"I think it would be better without it."

"All right."

With a click, the pauldron came off Helenas's shoulder. She ignored it where it fell on the floor and sat down.

"Do you like it better now?"

"Won't the faithful be disappointed if you take it off so easily?"

"The Sword Church faithful revere me. They do not revere my pauldron."

That was only natural too.

Kyle gave a dry laugh and picked up the pauldron. Its smooth material did not merely resemble Fenris in color. It was made of the exact same material.

"Is this pauldron the same one from five hundred years ago?"

"Yes."

"Cyrus really went all out."

Kyle clicked his tongue and shook his head. He could not just leave it behind, so he put the pauldron into his Out-of-Place Artifact for now.

"I'll order the food."

The restaurant staff led them to a private room with no other guests. They had walked into a random restaurant, but Kyle and Helenas were too striking for anyone in Avens not to recognize them.

"After we eat, let's find a carriage."

They could reach Sword Grove quickly by Warp Gate, but Helenas had even laughed out loud and seemed eager to teach him. She had spent five hundred years in loneliness, so Kyle wanted to give her as much time as he could.

"By the way, are you confident you can teach me?"

"No."

He asked after placing their order, and Helenas answered with a blank expression.

"Did you think I would be good at teaching?"

Helenas stared at him with pale blue eyes. Kyle blinked several times at the question, then thought about it for a moment.

He did not need long.

"No."

Helenas had not even understood why one had to swing a sword that way.

The only reason the current Helenas had become the continent's greatest swordsman was simple.

While humans and other races lived for a hundred years and swung their swords, Helenas had lived for five hundred years and swung hers.

Other races tried Ascension at the end of their Lifespan and were devoured by outer gods. If they died without ascending, they were devoured by sky gods. Helenas, an elf, had no need for Ascension and did not die.

She had reached her current realm by mindlessly swinging a sword for all that time.

'Honestly, considering five hundred years, Helenas's level is... rather low.'

That was the cold truth.

If Kyle, no, if Raikal in his previous life had been given five hundred years, he would have surpassed Helenas long ago.

The same went for Julius, who had lost to Helenas not long ago. Unlike Helenas, who had not possessed even a shred of talent for the sword, Julius had genius-level talent that anyone would acknowledge.

What if Julius had spent five hundred years swinging a sword, unconstrained by Lifespan or Ascension?

"Have you ever taught the Sword Church faithful?"

"No. They watch my sword from afar and gain their own enlightenment."

"Then... what gives you the confidence to say you'll teach me?"

"Because I want to teach you."

A faint curve formed on Helenas's expressionless face.

"It is not because I am confident in teaching. I want to teach you. Do I need any other reason?"

"No, you don't."

Kyle snickered as he answered. Helenas watched him quietly before opening her mouth.

"Whenever I hear the way you speak now, it makes me feel strange."

"What kind of feeling?"

"I feel sad because you are different from the person I knew, but happy because you are still you in the end."

"You've lived a long time. You've seen plenty of people change."

"In my memories, you were unchanging."

"Because I was dead."

Kyle rested his chin on his hand and stared at Helenas.

"I told you this before, but don't get too caught up in the past. I understand wanting to remember the version of me who died, but I was reincarnated and I'm standing in front of you now."

"If I had truly been trapped in the past, I would have dragged you to Sword Grove long ago."

Helenas's faint smile deepened slightly.

"Regardless of what you wanted. I would have preserved you in the depths of Sword Grove exactly as I remembered you."

It did not sound like a joke at all.

A chill ran down Kyle's back, and he forced out a smile.

* * *

Perhaps because he had been unconscious for two days, the food tasted good.

"Is it good?"

"It is edible."

Helenas usually ate the pills offered to her, so Kyle had expected some pleasant reaction to food from the ordinary world after so long. Yet no matter what she ate, Helenas's expression did not change.

She did not even look at the food properly.

Throughout the meal, Helenas's eyes remained fixed on Kyle.

'I might not be able to leave Sword Grove once I get there.'

Should he change his mind and run away while he still could?

'Could I even run?'

Who would have thought he would be having thoughts like this about that little elf brat?

What would Helenas do if he tried to run? He was honestly curious.

"When you left Sword Grove, did the Apostles not try to stop you?"

"They assign their own meanings to my actions as they please."

Helenas answered while still staring at Kyle.

"They are impressive fanatics."

"Some of them may be glad that I am going outside. It is a change for me."

"Do they want to use your change?"

"I do not think that far. What matters to me is the sword and you. Only those two."

"Since I caused you to change, might one of the Apostles try to use me to control you?"

"If you are used by them, that only means your sword amounts to that much. In that case, I will have no choice but to confine you in Sword Grove."

"Why does this conversation keep ending up there?"

"If I confine you in Sword Grove, the Apostles cannot use you. You and I can live only for our promise."

"Was your personality always like this?"

"I changed because of you."

Helenas answered in an even voice.

"Wasn't it your wish for me to change?"

"I did not want you to change like this."

"Your sword only needs to reach a level where I no longer need to interfere. Until we return to Sword Grove, you will have to prove that."

"Hm. Then you had better teach me well."

They had finished eating. Kyle gave a small laugh and rose from his seat.

"You do not need to pay. The Central Branch has already paid for it."

When he called for a staff member to settle the bill, that was the answer he received. It worked out well, so Kyle sat back down.

"Then let us ask for one more thing. Please get us a sturdy, ordinary carriage. Nothing flashy. We will not need a driver."

"Yes, understood."

Not long after he made the request, a carriage was prepared. Drawn by two horses, it looked ordinary and sturdy, just as he had asked.

Only on the outside.

When he opened the door and looked inside, the interior was luxurious despite its plain exterior, and a large travel bag sat within.

[The items necessary for your journey have been packed inside.]

A note in Orban's handwriting lay on top of the bag.

'His work is satisfactory. He still has a long way to go before becoming the leader, though.'

Still, at this rate, he thought they could work together for a long time.

"I'll drive the carriage, so Church Master, you can sit inside..."

Helenas did not wait for him to finish. As though it were obvious, she took the seat beside the driver's bench. Kyle did not urge her further and sat in the driver's seat.

"Leave the city and stop the carriage somewhere quiet."

Helenas whispered.

"I will see how capable your sword is now. Then I will give you my teaching."

"I thought you said you were not confident in teaching."

"Watch my sword and gain your own enlightenment."

"Didn't you say you would also teach me how to use my Upper Dantian, not just the sword?"

"Try believing that the impossible is possible."

"What does that mean?"

"You will find out later. Hold my hand."

"What?"

"I said hold my hand."

Helenas grabbed Kyle's hand.

"Unless there is a special reason, always hold my hand."

"Uh... why?"

"Because I want to."

Her faded eyes stared straight at Kyle.

"You do not understand?"

"No, I understand."

He did not understand at all, but Kyle was not an elf. Even if he did not understand, he could pretend that he did.

* * *

The carriage passed through Avens's gates and traveled for quite a while longer. Kyle held the reins in one hand and Helenas's hand in the other. It was inconvenient, but there was nothing he could do.

'No one is watching us.'

He had felt glances inside Avens, but once they left the city, he no longer felt any eyes on them. The Central Branch, which had agreed to cooperate with Kyle, had no reason to monitor him outside Avens.

'The Central Branch, at least.'

Kyle slowly expanded his senses. His skin prickled, and every nerve in his body seemed to sharpen.

He changed the flow of the Primordial Chaos Sword Canon that had been circulating through his Lower Dantian and Middle Dantian, sending it upward.

Then, from his fully opened Upper Dantian, his intent flowed out in ripples.

"Higher."

Helenas whispered.

"Feel the heights of the sky."

Following her words, Kyle expanded the ripples of his intent. Something caught on the waves that stretched high into the sky. Kyle closed his eyes and focused.

Strangely, what his ripples had detected took shape in his mind.

An invisible bird, unseen by the naked eye, was flying high in the sky as it followed Kyle.

With his eyes still closed, Kyle spoke.

"I'm rather popular."

"I do not want anyone interrupting my time with you."

Helenas muttered. Kyle opened his eyes and looked at Helenas's face. She appeared expressionless, but if he looked closely, her brows were furrowed ever so slightly.

Then something stirred from Helenas.

Intent could not be seen with the eyes. To perceive it, one had to open the Upper Dantian or be born with a special Spirit Root and senses like Kyle's.

Now that Kyle's Upper Dantian was open, he could see Helenas's intent more clearly.

The moment he saw it, Kyle instinctively swallowed and leaned back.

'Good grief.'

Helenas's intent was so deep that he could not fathom its end, and so vast it could only be described as immeasurable.

Could a single being possess such intent?

In terms of sheer scale, Helenas could not be compared to any opponent Kyle had seen in his previous life. Even the demon in the Black Cube, with all its arrogance, felt insignificant beside her.

A single thread of that immeasurable intent flowed out and became a sharp sword.

Shwick!

The blade crossed space and cut down the bird in the sky.

"Cough."

He had not been struck directly. He had only witnessed it.

Yet Kyle's intent was still pushed back by Helenas's slash and its ripples. His head rang painfully, his chest churned, and he covered his mouth after letting out a breath.

He felt like he was going to vomit.

"Are you all right?"

Helenas turned to Kyle. Concern appeared in her faded eyes. She placed her other hand over the back of Kyle's hand, which held her wrist, and whispered.

"I am sorry. I did not intend to hurt you right now."

"This hurts my pride a little."

Kyle gave a bitter laugh and rubbed his mouth.

It was unpleasant. Now that he had opened his Upper Dantian and entered the realm of intent, merely witnessing Helenas's immense intent caused a backlash.

"Intent is different from sword talent."

Helenas spoke.

"You know this well. Intent is your own will and certainty sublimated into power. For five hundred years, I have never once doubted the destiny that held me."

Helenas might not have found joy in her destiny, but she had never neglected it for five hundred years.

"My sword may be poor for something that has had five hundred years devoted to it, but my intent is not."

It was only natural that the intent of an elf who had devoted five hundred years to her destiny would be strong.

"Do you know whose eye that was?"

"Probably one of the Crow's Eyes. It would not be the Central Branch."

Kyle's contact with Orban must have reached the other branches. It was likely the Southern Branch, the Northern Branch, or perhaps even the Western Branch headquarters.

"They will not send any more observers. They will not want to upset the Sword Church Master."

"No one is watching us anymore."

The hand Helenas had placed over the back of Kyle's hand slowly tightened.

"And there are no ears listening to our conversation."

"Honestly, you're starting to scare me."

"What is?"

"I'm worried you might suddenly... do something to me."

Helenas narrowed her eyes and stared at Kyle for a moment at his shuddering words.

"Not now."

"Not now...? Does that mean you plan to do something to me someday?"

"Let us go there."

Helenas lifted a finger and pointed ahead. A forest spread out where she pointed.

Cold sweat ran down Kyle's back again.

It was not a particularly dense forest, but there were no signs of habitation in the distance.

"You mean the forest, right?"

"Yes."

"Does it have to be a forest?"

"It does not matter much where. But it will be out of sight in there. You do not want to be interrupted by someone either."

"Uh... well... that is true, but you know I am fifteen, right?"

"Only your body is fifteen."

"In a situation like this, isn't my body's age more important...?"

"Your body has already grown enough. Fifteen is little more than a number."

"R-right. Sure."

As Helenas said, Kyle's body had only existed for fifteen years, but it had developed far beyond that of an ordinary fifteen-year-old boy. Kyle swallowed dryly and drove the carriage toward the forest as she instructed.

"Go inside. Deep inside."

"Yes..."

"Why are you speaking formally?"

"It just slipped out."

Is this really all right?

Kyle swallowed again as he drove the carriage deep into the forest. There was no sign of anyone in the quiet woods.

"Get down here."

"Get down...?"

How could she be this bold?

Kyle hesitated in confusion, so Helenas got down from the carriage first. Then a fallen tree branch flew into her hand.

"Draw your sword."

"Huh? What?"