WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 131: It's an Insult

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Helenas found no enjoyment in swinging a sword. To her, a sword only held meaning when it was swung.

She found no enjoyment in fighting either. Over her long life, she had fought on no small number of occasions, but aside from the few times she challenged Ruin Alastor, she had never swung her sword of her own will because she wanted to fight someone.

So what about now?

If every act of swinging a sword at another person counted as a fight, Helenas wanted to fight right now. Because she did not like her opponent. Because it irritated her that something stood in her way.

She wanted to cut it down and clear it away.

"You."

There was no sword in Helenas's hand at the moment, but that did not matter. Sword or no sword, she had been swinging one for five hundred years. To Helenas, a sword was simply something natural. She raised her empty hand as though gripping a sword and whispered.

"You are not here."

The black-armored knight blocking Helenas's path had been mercilessly butchered. Yet no matter how many times she cut it, the armor returned to its original form, creaking as it rose before her again.

"I have always found the executives of the Crows unsettling. You are not here, but the feeling you give off is similar to that unease."

The black-armored knight did not answer. It only silently raised its spear.

Helenas glanced down. In the dull darkness below, in that bottomless abyss, Kyle was still falling.

"That child seeks experience."

Helenas murmured softly.

"Things I cannot give him. Things he can only experience by stepping into the world and seeing it for himself."

The black-armored knight charged. Its spear arrived in an instant, trying to bring about its result, but that meant nothing before Helenas. Galea's strongest spear, as it had several times before, could not reach Helenas and was cut apart.

"It displeases me to have this time taken from me, but if the time you steal helps that child, I can yield it to you."

A sword that did not exist cut down without a sound. The black armor was butchered once more and scattered across the floor.

"I do not like anything happening right now. I still find no pleasure in swinging a sword. But... a sword does not have to be swung only for enjoyment."

She had understood that for a long time. Five hundred years was a long time. She had spent that much time swinging a sword, being called the Sword Church Master, until at some point people began to consider her the continent's strongest swordsman.

It was a heavy, cumbersome name. In every era, there had been many who wanted to prove their sword against hers, and many who coveted the title of strongest.

Helenas found neither swordplay nor fighting enjoyable. Yet after living so long, many had challenged her without caring whether she understood them.

"Today, I am learning something new as well."

A sword fell upon the black armor as it creaked to its feet. Shhk! The pieces of armor clinging together were shredded and split apart.

"Enduring. Waiting. Not doing something that would be easy to do."

She could take back this time and cut down the thing blocking her way. Yet Helenas waited without doing so. Just as she had decided not to force Kyle to come with her when she could have, she made the same choice now.

"Stay down."

Time fractured into tiny pieces, endless slashes pouring down with every instant. Within that hell of infinite slashes, fragments of black armor twisted.

Helenas did not allow the black armor to rise. Looking down at it with no small amount of irritation in her eyes, she only repeated the downward cuts she considered natural.

"I find none of this enjoyable, but that child will."

Helenas looked at Kyle moving beneath the bottomless darkness.

"So I will wait a little longer."

Time was precious, so she had no intention of waiting long.

* * *

A sword prepared to face the old Ten Peaks and her father's swordsmen.

That meant the swordsman before him was one Galea had trained in the remote South. Like the one Kyle had seen above, it wore black armor and a helmet pulled low, hiding its face.

"You talk about changing the world. Are you planning to kill all the established powers and rule over everything?"

Kyle snorted as he led Fenris forward.

"What? Do you want to become Emperor of the Empire and conquer the continent?"

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Fenris's black blade tore through the darkness. A chain of twisting slashes rushed at the swordsman. Without making even the sound of breathing, it swung its sword. Clang! The blades crashed against each other again and again.

"That would be nice too."

Galea, who had retreated far away, smiled and whispered. Though she was falling alongside Kyle, she sat comfortably atop the darkness.

"It would be an achievement no one has managed in the continent's long history. Grandika is an Empire with a thousand-year history, the continent's largest and oldest empire, yet it has never completely conquered the continent."

The world was too vast for only one empire to exist, and desire overflowed within it. In every age, heroes who refused to accept another's rule as natural continued to be born.

Power made people want something greater even after they had built a family into a force. Once their influence grew, they naturally wished to become kings themselves. Greed made them want to seize and enjoy what they did not possess.

"The continent's only empire may have the largest territory, but it holds only the center and the north."

Erebos beyond the northern sea. The severed East. The South that resisted outside powers. The dark frontier, where the end of expansion could not be seen.

"The best chance to conquer the continent was five hundred years ago. During the Dark Age your past life, Ruin Alastor, brought to an end. If you had wanted it then, perhaps the continent could have been conquered."

"Ah, so you want to try it together this time? Because you think I'm the Founding Ancestor's reincarnation?"

Whoosh!

The swordsman's thrust grazed Kyle's collar. Using the darkness as a foothold, Kyle leaped in and closed the distance.

::I Cut::

He swung his sword with intent.

Swinging a sword was not something Kyle would compromise on. To cut something, of course he had to swing a sword.

That was natural to Kyle. He liked the sound of a sharply honed blade cutting through the air in the instant it was swung. He liked the feel of the hilt in his hand.

He did what he liked because it was fun, so where was there room to mix in compromise? That was why Kyle's sword was fast and sharp.

Even if that sword could not reach the enemy and cut them down.

Swinging a sword was enjoyable.

"I am not the Founding Ancestor's reincarnation. But I think... the Founding Ancestor would not have even considered conquering the continent."

The swordsman bent its body with impossible flexibility and avoided the slash. Though it stood at an angle where it could not swing with sufficient physical force, its sword path was explosive and fast. At this level, one did not swing a sword using physical strength alone. Mana and intent, all of it could turn an incomplete posture into an explosive swing.

'That does not mean physical training is useless.'

If one could swing from any angle, then compromise had already entered the swing itself. Had Helenas not said it? Everyone in the Boundary Realm would swing their arms and swords to cut, if they could.

It was difficult to repeatedly deny the laws the world considered natural. The fewer compromises there were, the stronger one became. That attack from an incomplete posture looked unconventional and free, but it was not superior to the orthodox form.

When they clashed head-on, the honest attack with fewer compromises was stronger.

Boom!

With a thunderous crash, the swordsman's body tilted and shook. Kyle did not miss the opening and launched a fierce assault.

I Cut, I Cut, I Cut.

Thinking of nothing else. Even if the sword did not cut as he wished, his will did not waver. If it missed, he would hit next time. If it was blocked, he would cut through the defense itself.

"Even if the Founding Ancestor had wanted to conquer the continent, he could not have done it. The Founding Ancestor was weaker than Astaros, the Demon King of that era."

"Even if you have no memories of your past life, that humility is excessive. If you were weaker than Astaros until the end, you could not have succeeded in Ascension."

"Is that so?"

The momentum of the black armor, which had been receiving Kyle's fierce assault, abruptly changed. Until just now, it had gradually been pushed back by Kyle's attacks, but its sword path suddenly became different.

Sharper, more unpredictable, more delicate, heavier...

'What?'

Kyle's eyes narrowed. Clang! Fenris barely slipped in and collided with its blade, sending sparks flying.

'Its weaknesses are gone?'

Could it change this suddenly? It was as if the person swinging the sword had changed. Swallowing his doubts, Kyle drove the Primordial Chaos Sword Canon harder. Rumble! The nature of the mana racing through his Circuits changed sharply, and Kyle's sword changed with it.

"While swinging a sword like that."

Galea's breathing quickened as she sat in the darkness. Propping her chin up with both hands, she watched Kyle with curved eyes and whispered.

"You still deny you are Ruin Alastor's reincarnation? No matter how exceptional someone's natural talent is, there are limits. You are only fifteen years old. How can you swing a sword like that?"

When he thought about it, she was not entirely wrong. No matter how much he denied it, Galea would not accept it, so Kyle stopped denying it. He even felt like encouraging her misunderstanding further.

'Should I try it?'

It would not be perfect, but he could imitate it to some extent. Kyle had died at Ruin's hands in his previous life. He clearly remembered how beautiful and terrifying the sword that ended the life of Sword Demon Raikal had been, and through Fenris, he had seen the ultimate form of a sword that went even beyond it.

A sword that was utterly simple, and therefore absolute.

He had been cut by it himself and seen it with his own eyes several times. He guided his sword with will. This sword was absolute and complete. Even if Kyle's sword was not yet so, yearning to be absolute and complete brought him closer to reaching it.

"Ah..."

Excitement colored Galea's voice. Thinking about it, this was strange as well. Orban had said Galea was a mage. Then, after becoming head of the Southern Branch, she had likely joined hands with dark mages and learned dark magic.

Yet now, Galea watched and felt Kyle's sword as though she were a swordsman. Even a child could admire a sword like this, but noticing every change in the blade during such a rapid exchange should have been impossible for anyone but a swordsman.

"What you could not achieve five hundred years ago, you can achieve now."

Galea whispered, letting out an excited breath.

"The world has changed because of you, which means you can now achieve what could not be achieved in the past. I have the power to change the world anew with you."

She was not in her right mind, and she was arrogant too. Would conquering the continent somehow change the world? How, exactly? She said she wanted it, told him to join hands with her, told him to become one with her. Yet she had not said a single concrete word about how she planned to change anything.

'She is similar.'

The way she pestered him without reason resembled Duke Oun asking Kyle to come to the Dark Front and save him. Perhaps blood really did tell.

'And... she resembles the outer gods too.'

Smiling, beckoning, telling him to come closer.

"You are full of hot air. Does your father know you act like this?"

"Ahahaha! My father? I respect him, but to be frank, he is an outdated relic who has been left behind as well. He has built up that much power and influence, yet all he does is look for scraps to pick up from the battlefield. He truly suits the name Crow."

"You have no shortage of things you cannot say about your father. What an unfilial brat."

Kyle himself had sincerely swung his sword with the intent to kill Aslan when they first met. But that had been four years ago, so it had become a memory that barely existed in Kyle's mind.

'Still, I like this one thing.'

Her words were full of misunderstandings, and she was only rambling as she pleased. But Galea's desire to conquer the continent was, at least to Kyle's ears, remarkably pure. Was it not an easy ambition to understand?

'Her preparations are lacking, though.'

A sword prepared for the old Ten Peaks and Duke Oun's swordsmen. She had boasted that Kyle could not handle it unless he recovered the realm of his past life, so he had expected something more.

'It falls short of expectations.'

The Ten Peaks might be empty titles spread by imperial propaganda, but Kyle knew two of their swordsmen. Julius, the Thunder Emperor. And Helenas, the Sword Church Master.

The thing before him was unusual and strong. Its weaknesses might have disappeared after its momentum changed, but that was all. It could not compare to a swordsman among the Ten Peaks. Since Kyle began imitating Ruin's sword, it had been unable to put up a fight and was pushed back again and again.

'With only this much, she calls Helenas's sword nothing special and calls the Ten Peaks outdated relics?'

Had living shut away in the remote South narrowed her view? Or had she truly lost her mind after encountering dark magic and the power of the outer gods?

Either way, Galea's behavior made no sense. It went far beyond being merely arrogant. Even if the hand she had shown was not all she had, this level would struggle to handle not only Alastor but even Duke Oun's main headquarters, let alone contend for dominance over the continent.

'There is no need to bring Duke Oun into this.'

Kyle's gaze sank coldly.

'It cannot even handle my sword. Any more of this is a waste of time.'

He shifted Fenris, which he had held in both hands, into only his right hand. He performed the horizontal slash among Ruin's sword techniques that he had practiced most often, knocking away his opponent's blade.

At the same time, Kyle drew Baal with his left hand.

Thud!

He drove Baal into the opening laid completely bare. Baal pierced its chest, but the sensation in his palm was strange. He had clearly pierced it, yet it felt like stabbing an empty box.

[How dare you wield this one with your left hand!]

Baal shrieked.

[Master! Are you not right-handed? Holding this one in your left hand instead of your right is an insult!]

Ignoring Baal's cry, Kyle twisted the sword he had driven in.

Crack...!

The black armor collapsed. Kyle stepped on the scattering fragments and sprang upward.

Galea still rested her chin on both hands as she looked down at Kyle. Though the sword she had prepared had been destroyed, there was not a trace of regret on her face. Instead, she watched Kyle with a bright smile.

"I am certain now."

Galea whispered as she watched Kyle leap toward her.

"You are Ruin Alastor's reincarnation. I want to take you with me like this, but..."

Galea tilted her head upward. Rumble! The darkness that had stretched away as they fell endlessly scattered all at once, and Helenas arrived. The immense distance created by Galea's darkness meant nothing to Helenas. Galea's smile twisted when she saw it.

"My sword."

Helenas opened her mouth.

"You said it was nothing special."

Normally, that kind of provocation would not be worth reacting to for Helenas.

"But before that child, it is an insult."

Helenas's empty hand thrust a sword toward Galea. Churning darkness swallowed Galea's body, but the result of the sword piercing her came faster.

"Cough...!"

The darkness burst apart, and blood sprayed from Galea's mouth. It was a completely different reaction from when she had been shredded earlier. That was because Helenas's sword carried enough sincerity to draw out a different reaction.

"This certainly... hurts..."

Galea twisted as she clutched the chest pierced by the invisible sword.

Shhk!

The sword through her chest shot upward and split Galea's head in two.

* * *

"Ah..."

Pshhh!

A pitch-black box opened, releasing dark crimson smoke. Galea was thrown out from within, crawling across the floor and groaning without even being able to hold herself upright.

"Ah... ah, ah... ah, ah!"

Galea rolled across the floor and screamed. Connected boxes opened one after another, each releasing the same dark crimson smoke. The smoke gathered around Galea, clumping together until it formed two faint human figures.

"Do not... exaggerate... your pain."

A voice came from one of the staggering figures. It sounded like several voices blended together. The featureless figure bowed its head toward Galea and whispered.

"You... made contact... recklessly. It was... your decision."

"If I did not meet him, how could I know...?"

"Even provoking them?"

The staggering figure approached Galea and crouched before her. Dark crimson smoke dripped from its limp shoulders and head like drops of blood.

"They say you have to enter the tiger's den to catch a tiger."

Galea coughed up blood as she barely pushed herself upright.

"I admit it. All of them exceeded expectations by far. Especially... I never imagined the Sword Church Master's sword could be this full of desire."

She had kept her true body elsewhere and only sent part of her soul through a messenger. She had thought there would be no damage, but the Sword Church Master's final sword had been so emotional that it was hard to believe it had been swung by an elf.

"That is not what you said."

Galea wiped the blood streaming from the corner of her mouth and looked up.

"You said that even after devoting five hundred years of her life to the sword, she could not reach the heavens. That she did not have enough talent for the sword to reach the heavens."

"If one wishes to reach the heavens, one must burn with desire equal to that wish."

The man in the golden robe, who had been standing with his back against the wall, opened his mouth. Dark skin and long ears. The elf smiled faintly and shrugged.

"It seems desire has finally sprouted in my pitiful kin, who spent such a long time grinding away while swinging nothing but a sword. Should I bless my kin's change?"

"..."

"Do not look at me like that. You were the one who decided to make contact because you wanted to meet him in person."

The elf snorted and walked toward Galea. Extending a hand to Galea, who still could not stand, he whispered.

"So, how was it?"

"The Sword Church Master was a monster beyond expectations."

Galea spat out the blood pooled in her mouth and looked at the figure crouching beside her.

"Spear Shadow could not even stall for time. If the Sword Church Master had not given us time, we could not have exchanged even a word."

"Why did my kin give you time?"

"It was not for herself."

The mass of smoke called Spear Shadow answered. Its voice also sounded as though many beings had been mixed together.

"That child... for the reincarnated one, she yielded time. She said it displeased her, she did not like it, and it was not enjoyable, yet she was yielding it for the reincarnated one."

"How wonderful."

The elf smiled brightly.

"My kin is certainly changing. She can now do something elves would never do."

"Why?"

The other standing figure spoke.

"Why did... you not... send me... to the Sword Church Master?"

"A swordsman like you could never face the Sword Church Master."

Galea had arrogantly poured out challenge after challenge before Kyle and Helenas, but now she spoke calmly. Since they were not in front of her, there was no need to provoke them.

"If the incomplete you stood before the Sword Church Master, you would have been destroyed so thoroughly that you could never recover."

"..."

"So. How was he?"

Galea asked as she stroked her right eye. Squish. Her finger, which had been touching the socket, stabbed into her eyeball. Without showing the slightest sign of pain, Galea pulled the eye out and handed it to the figure standing blankly nearby.

"Sword Shadow."

The eye she had removed was sucked into Sword Shadow. Galea took the original eye she had kept in her clothes and set it into the empty socket.

"To me, it was absolutely not a sword a fifteen-year-old could wield. Especially that last one..."

"Certain."

Sword Shadow replied in a broken voice.

"That... boy is... Ruin Alastor's... reincarnation. He does not seem... to remember... completely, but it is... melted into... his sword."

"Are you sure?"

"Certain. I was... defeated... by that sword."

"By one of you, I suppose."

Galea snorted and roughly wiped the blood from her mouth.

The misunderstanding was growing deeper.

Footnotes:

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