WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reincarnation of the Sword Demon

Chapter 13

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The Sword Tower

"..."

For all the pestering to see it, the reaction was underwhelming. Lucia swallowed and stared at Kyle.

Before manifesting the aura, his golden eyes had gleamed like hammered gold. Now they didn't gleam much at all. His expression was the same. Mouth hanging open, yes, but not in wonder. Not surprise. Something else entirely.

'What's going on...?'

The pride in Lucia's expression began to falter. She glanced up at her raised hand, watching the aura curl around it.

Red aura. Same as always, same as during practice.

"Wow."

At last, the exclamation she'd been waiting for. Lucia snapped her gaze back to Kyle. For someone who had just said that, his expression was peculiar.

Then Kyle's eyes lit up. The Sword Demon inside him was feeling a rush of genuine gratitude for being reborn, picturing battles against the powerful figures who surely filled this world. Thrumming with excitement. Lucia, of course, had no way to know any of that.

"Um, are you floating?"

Lucia ventured the question. Kyle blinked, snapped back to himself, and started clapping.

"Amazing, incredible! So that's aura! Wow!"

He said what a five-year-old boy seeing aura for the first time ought to say. Internally, though:

'Unstable.'

A fair read was a fair read. Lucia's aura, whatever you could really call it at this stage, felt unstable. Given she was eight, that was remarkable. But unstable.

"Thank you."

Lucia felt a swell of satisfaction and let the aura go. Half-demon blood or not, holding an aura for any stretch of time was exhausting. She wiped the sweat from her forehead.

"Since the Family Head has acknowledged you, you'll be able to start learning mana cultivation techniques whenever you like."

"Wow!"

Another exclamation from Kyle, this one not for Lucia's sake. This one was real.

'No need to grind through the same hell as last time.'

He had his past-life memories, so he probably wouldn't suffer as much regardless. But there was no reason to pass up the chance to learn properly.

Looking back, he'd never had any systematic training in his previous life, not in mana, not even in swordsmanship. As a child, while his father was still alive and before the mercenary band fell apart, the adults had taught him a little.

After that, the battlefield taught him everything else.

All he knew was fighting with a blade, and the only people around him were other fatherless children of mercenaries. He'd fit himself to the shape of the world, formed the Crow Mercenary Band, and wandered from battlefield to battlefield surviving and fighting and chasing revenge.

"The 3rd floor of the Sword Tower houses the Funeral Knights' quarters."

Gladiheim maintained several military forces. Among them, five were knight orders.

The Black Iron Knights. The White Night Knights. The Crimson Snow Knights. The Aurora Knights.

And the Funeral Knights.

"The Funeral Knights are the Family Head's own personal guard. Thirteen knights, Gladiheim's finest. They're always stationed near the Family Head and throughout the Sword Tower, protecting the pure-bloods."

"Protecting grandfather means they're stronger than him?"

"What? No, that's not right. The first rule of Alastor is 강자존, the strong are revered. That means the Family Head is the strongest."

Lucia spoke in a composed voice, working carefully to explain it in terms a child three years her junior could follow.

That was also, admittedly, the limit of her own understanding.

"The 4th floor is where the pure-bloods live. You'll be staying there from now on. And the 5th floor is where the Elders reside."

"Elders?"

"Those of higher generational standing than the Family Head."

"So they're above grandfather?"

"What? No, that's not it at all."

"But you said higher standing."

"That's... that's a conversation for another time. In Alastor, the Family Head stands above all."

Lucia's eyes wavered. Kyle, naturally, knew perfectly well what "elder" meant. He was asking because her reactions were entertaining.

"Are the Elders strong?"

"They are, but the Family Head is stronger."

There was a battlefield saying: beware the old soldier. An old soldier who survived the field was strong. One who hadn't left the field despite their age, well, that meant two things at once, they were strong, and they probably weren't quite right in the head.

"You said you learn from the Elders, right?"

"Yes. I'm grateful for it."

Pride crept back into Lucia's expression.

"Not only the Elders. Lady Katarina instructs me as well."

"Aunt Katarina?"

"Yes."

Kyle thought back to the tall woman he'd passed in the corridor. Red hair and gold eyes that stayed with you once you'd seen them. If Arian's crimson was the color of a rose and her eyes were amber, Katarina's red hair was the color of blood, and her eyes were a predator's gold.

Katarina was the child who most resembled Family Head Julius's crimson hair and gold eyes. From what Kyle could sense, she seemed stronger than Barkas, who was built like a bear.

"Floors six through nine are the cultivation floors."

"What's that?"

"The cultivation floors are places of trials. I don't know much about them, so you'd be better off asking someone else."

'What a place.'

The Dragon King had built it himself as a gift, they said. There really was something for everything here.

"The 10th floor is where the Family Head stays alone. And the 11th floor is the Ascension Platform. The holiest and highest place in the Sword Tower. In all of Vigrid."

"The Ascension Platform..."

Kyle's fist closed without him noticing.

'The place where Ruin Alastor ascended.'

He'd heard about ascension from Arian more than once, but the skepticism never left him.

What exactly was ascension? Was it different from dying? According to the records, Ruin Alastor ended the forty-year Dark Age, lived fifty more years, and then ascended from the tower's highest floor.

'Ascension...'

The Blade Mountains had shaken. Lightning surged from the uppermost level and pierced the sky. His descendants rushed up in alarm, and the ancestor's body lay there, but his soul had already departed to somewhere far away.

'The way they tell it, it just sounds like dying...'

Your body stays on earth and your soul takes off to some distant place. If that wasn't death, what was it? By that definition, the Sword Demon five hundred years ago had also ascended.

'But I came back.'

Kyle clicked his tongue and looked up at the ceiling of the Sword Tower for no real reason.

Even as a pure-blood, access to the tower wasn't unlimited.

The floors Kyle could visit freely were 1, 2, and 3. Floor 4 required an invitation from the Elder Council. The underground Sword Mound and the cultivation floors needed the Family Head's permission. The same went for the 10th floor.

The 11th floor could only be reached by the Family Head. Which meant Kyle had no way to even pay his respects to Ruin Alastor's remains.

'Being pure-blood comes with its own set of restrictions.'

Those restrictions only applied inside the tower, though. Out in Gladiheim proper, there was nowhere a pure-blood couldn't go.

"The only place I can guide you is the 1st floor. Let me show you around."

He'd figured the 1st floor alone couldn't be that large. He was wrong. From the outside, it hadn't looked this big at all. The sense of space just felt off, like someone had folded extra room into the walls.

"Isn't this much bigger on the inside than it looks from outside?"

"It really is. The Sword Tower is an artifact gifted by the Dragon King. Permanent spatial magic is woven through the whole interior."

Moving on from the central hall brought them to an enormous dining room.

"This is where the pure-bloods dine, though it's rarely used outside of when distinguished guests visit."

"Why?"

"Because everyone usually eats separately on the 4th floor."

"Then where do you eat?"

"I eat in the servants' dining hall on the 1st floor."

"Can't you eat with me?"

"What? That... won't work. From now on you'll be living on the 4th floor, and you'll eat there."

"Aren't there servants on the 4th floor?"

"The Sword Tower servants handle the 4th floor as well."

"Then you could come up and eat with me."

"I am not a servant. I'm going to be a knight."

There was an edge in Lucia's voice.

"I'm not asking you to come as a servant. If I invited you, couldn't you come?"

"..."

The edge faded into hesitation. Then she shook her head.

"I appreciate the thought, but I can't. Let me take you to the next place."

Her reaction made clear it wasn't worth pressing. The reason wasn't hard to guess.

'Because she's half-demon.'

People jealous enough over hair and eye color wouldn't be kind to a half-demon. Not every relative, of course. The Family Head and Karthan hadn't shown any sign of displeasure around Lucia. And Katarina and the Elders directly taught her.

After following Lucia through the vast 1st floor for some time, they opened a door connecting to the next area.

"Huh?"

Standing in the central hall they'd passed through earlier was Arian.

Lucia seemed briefly surprised, but she composed herself quickly, turned to Kyle, and gave a small bow.

"That concludes the tour. Kyle-nim, I'll see you next time."

She stepped aside from the doorway. Kyle was confused but waved at her and stepped through.

"See you next time!"

The door closed behind him. Curious, he turned back and opened it again, but Lucia was gone. Another trick of the Sword Tower's spatial magic.

"Mom, the door is strange."

Kyle trotted over to Arian.

"The Sword Tower is so vast that finding each place one by one would be exhausting, so different spells connect the paths. Just now, Mom opened a door to bring you back to the hall."

"Can I do it too?"

"Full control is only for adults, but once the tower recognizes you, you should be able to open doors to wherever you want to go."

That kind of control was only available in the shared 1st floor, but not having to track down every location individually was convenient enough.

'Not that there'll be many other chances to use it.'

As Lucia had said, pure-bloods spent the bulk of their time in the 4th floor residential area. Outside of meetings, the 1st floor saw almost no use.

"Did things go well with grandfather?"

"Of course. He's very taken with you."

"I thought so."

There was no reason not to be. Kyle grinned. Arian was alone in the hall. The other relatives were nowhere in sight.

"What about the uncles and aunts?"

"They're talking with father in the Sword Hall."

"About me?"

"Hmm? Yes, that's right."

"Grandfather likes me, but will my uncles and aunts dislike me?"

Sharp question for a child. Then again, children were often perceptive about these things. The feeling of not being welcome, they could sense it like a sixth sense.

"Some of them might."

Arian swallowed a quiet sigh, lowered herself, and pulled Kyle into a firm embrace.

"But you don't need to worry. You're..."

"I'm not worried. Grandfather likes me."

Kyle's answer was plain fact.

He hadn't spoken to all the relatives yet, so he didn't know who held goodwill and who held hostility.

No need to find out either. That Family Head Julius Alastor liked Kyle was a certainty, and Kyle was confident Julius would only grow to like him more as time went on.

"Ha... right, father does like you. And in the Sword Tower, that's what matters most."

Arian laughed and stroked Kyle's back.

"Kyle. We're going to be living in the Sword Tower from now on."

"What about the Rose Mansion?"

"We can't return there... hmm, how do I put this... the Rose Mansion is going to come into the Sword Tower. All of it."

What kind of tower is this thing, exactly. Kyle's curiosity about the 4th floor, still unseen, kept growing.

"Then will I not get to see Ceryl and the other maids?"

The maids who'd lived with him at the Rose Mansion for five years. Hearing him mention them, Arian smiled and shook her head.

"No. Ceryl and the maids were originally Sword Tower servants. Just think of it as everyone moving here together. Are you all right with that?"

"More than all right."

Why wouldn't he be?

The Sword Tower alone was already a marvel, but all of Gladiheim might as well have been a massive playground as far as Kyle was concerned.

The view from the carriage on the way over. The interior of the Sword Tower as Lucia had described it. He couldn't even decide where to start exploring.

'The 2nd floor first.'

The books collected by Alastor. He'd want to read up on mana cultivation techniques before anything else.

"Kyle, Mom wants to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"Do you want to learn swordsmanship or spirit arts?"

"Swordsmanship."

"What?"

Arian's voice went a note higher at the immediate answer.

"Swordsmanship? You don't want to learn spirit arts?"

"It's not that I don't want to, I just like swordsmanship more."

"But Kyle, your talent for spirit arts is extraordinary! You saw it just now, didn't you? The wolf in Fenris! That dokkaebi!"

"I saw it."

"Don't you want to become its master?"

"If I get good enough at swordsmanship, I'll be able to."

"That's... a bit different. You need to study spirit arts to form a contract with a spirit."

She said it, but Arian wasn't entirely certain herself. Her affinity lay with elemental spirits, not with dokkaebi.

Most spirit artists would be the same. Elemental spirits were born over vast stretches of time from nature, forming great collectives. Dokkaebi weren't made that way. They didn't share the purity of elemental spirits. They were independent, each one, and that independence made connecting with them far harder.

"..."

Arian had quietly hoped Kyle would learn both swords and spirit arts. She knew that wish came from her own perspective as a spirit artist, and nothing more.

It wasn't hers to demand. Hating herself a little for how she'd framed it, she pulled Kyle into another firm embrace.

"Sorry, did Mom say something strange? You don't have to learn spirit arts. Learn whatever you want to learn."

"I might want to learn spirit arts later."

Kyle felt the self-reproach woven through her voice.

"When that happens, I'll ask you to teach me."

Five hundred years had passed, after all. Even a half-demon child of eight could wield mana and produce aura.

'Maybe these days, swordsmen shoot flames and water from their blades alongside aura.'

If that too counted as swordsmanship, then mastering spirit arts could be another way to serve the sword.

Note 1: 승천 (ascension) carries strong Buddhist and Taoist overtones in Korean culture, implying a spiritual departure that transcends ordinary death, the soul voluntarily separating from the body to join a higher plane of existence. It is distinct from simply dying in the same way a saint's passing differs from an ordinary death in Catholic tradition. Kyle's internal skepticism ("it just sounds like dying") is the author's deliberate irony, played against the reverence surrounding the term.

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