WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 134: My Heart Is Racing

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'A... mate?'

There was no way Lamika had misheard that beautiful voice. She had listened to every word without missing a single one.

That was why her mind could only go blank. A mate? What in the world did that mean?

"What?"

Kyle was just as flustered. The feeling that made Helenas's heart race, an emotion she was not yet sure was love.

They had been talking about family and the future only moments ago, but that had been a conversation between the two of them. Helenas still was not sure of her feelings. Even if she became certain someday, Kyle would first have to resolve his guilt and reflect on his own feelings.

In other words, it was far too sudden to say something like that now.

'No... She didn't say it for certain...'

He was someone who might become her mate. She had not said he was her mate already. Kyle closed his gaping mouth and turned toward Lamika.

Unlike Kyle, who had barely managed to get a hold of himself, Lamika could not. Her mouth hung open and her eyes were wide as she stared at Kyle's face.

"Um... Hello."

They were meeting for the first time, so Kyle greeted her first. He gave a small bow, then looked at Lamika again.

Pale green hair. Faded blue eyes. Lamika shared the colors that stood out most in Helenas's appearance. Even the length of their hair was similar.

"My name is Kyle Alastor."

Lamika still could not collect herself. Questions tangled together endlessly in her mind.

"Ch-Church Master."

Clenching dirt in the fingers pressed to the ground, Lamika spoke in a trembling voice.

"W-what do you mean, that he might become your mate? I-I don't understand what you meant by saying that..."

Lamika regarded the Church Master's words as divine commands. Usually, someone who could resolve to die simply because the Church Master had called her name would never question those words aloud.

Yet she was shaken enough to do the unthinkable. Even the First Apostle, who had attended the Sword Church Master for forty-five years, would not be able to laugh as usual if he heard those words.

"It means exactly what it sounds like."

Helenas answered with her usual expressionless face, as if she did not feel the slightest embarrassment.

"Someone who might become my mate. Not yet, but it could happen someday."

"W-why?"

"Because my heart races when I'm with this child."

"What...?"

"I still don't know whether this feeling is love. But if it is love, it means I want to become family with this child."

Lamika's mouth fell open again. Her gaze moved between Kyle and Helenas before dropping to their left hands, tightly clasped together. Her shoulders trembled.

"Y-your heart races...? Could it be, Church Master... Is that why you came out to meet that boy?"

"I did not come because my heart was racing. I came because I was worried."

"Worried...? The Church Master was worried about that boy...?"

"Yes. He did not listen to my warning. I told him not to associate with the Crows, but he ignored me."

Helenas paused, then shot Kyle a narrow-eyed glare.

"I was not only worried. I was also a little annoyed. It displeased me. So I came to scold him, and now we are returning to the Sword Grove together."

"..."

"Lamika. Why did you come here?"

Lamika's shoulders jerked at the question. She had been so startled and flustered that she had delayed the words she should have spoken first. Immediately, she bowed her head.

"I-I heard that several days had passed since you left the Sword Grove, Church Master, and that you had not returned, so I came to... t-to attend you."

"There is no need. I am returning with this boy, Kyle."

"But Church Master, you cannot even bathe by yourself..."

"I did it with Kyle."

"Cough."

Kyle, who had been listening quietly, choked out a breath.

"I only helped her wash her hair with water while she was fully dressed."

"Ah... Aah..."

A groan escaped Lamika's mouth.

"Fully dressed... You only washed her hair with water?"

Lamika felt as if her heart had been ripped apart. Of the seven Apostles, only Lamika attended to the Church Master's baths and grooming. Before Lamika, her own teacher had done it, and before that, her teacher's teacher. Lamika was descended from Apostles who had attended to the Church Master's bathing needs for generations.

"That will not do... The Church Master must only cleanse herself with water from the Heavenly Eye Well, deep within the Sword Grove..."

Grief filled Lamika's voice. Her fingers trembled against the dirt as she raised her head.

"And not just any water from the Heavenly Eye Well. It must be clear water drawn before the first sunlight touches it at dawn. Seven stalks of Nojak scented herb must be steeped in it, then two Cheonsan Spirit crystals dissolved within. Only after it has been warmed for an hour without boiling does it become water fit for the Church Master to bathe in..."

Lamika's voice gradually turned into a sob.

"Lake water? Without even using tools? You washed the Church Master's precious body with lake water mixed with dirt, sand, insect remains, and animal waste..."

"Um... It was not that dirty of a lake."

The sorrow in Lamika's voice was so thick that Kyle felt a little sorry, despite having done nothing wrong.

"You only washed her with lake water...? The Church Master's hair must only be washed with a fragrant oil made from the juice of jade lotus, blended with ground agarwood and sandalwood. And her precious body must..."

With a grief-stricken expression, Lamika went on and on about bathing methods and tools Kyle could not understand. Partway through, he stopped listening and glanced at Helenas.

[Do you go through all that trouble to bathe every day?]

[I have never once thought about how I am washed, or what is used.]

Only the person herself had not known. The duty passed down from teacher to teacher and beyond was a sacred mission to Lamika. Kyle had not listened closely, but seeing Lamika speak with such sincerity made him like her quite a bit.

'These are the people who supported Helenas through five hundred years.'

From what she said, she seemed almost like an obsessive fan of Helenas. Still, the fact that people like Lamika sincerely cared for Helenas made Kyle grateful. He was the origin of the Sword Church, and the one who had given Helenas the fate of living for five hundred years.

"Church Master..."

After muttering for a long time about bathing and the care that followed, Lamika raised her head with tears streaming down her face.

"I-I will attend you to the Sword Grove. Let us return together, and you can bathe again..."

"No."

Helenas answered at once. Lamika's mouth fell open again at that firm reply.

"You... do not wish to?"

"Yes."

Had Lamika ever heard such a firm refusal from the Church Master? Helenas continued speaking to Lamika, whose body shook as though she had been struck by lightning.

"I am going back with Kyle."

"B-but you are not mates yet, are you? How can you..."

"We will probably become mates."

Helenas glanced at Kyle. This time, Kyle's body flinched under her cool gaze.

"Though it will probably happen after this child defeats me."

"D-defeats you? What do you mean by that?"

"It is a promise between Kyle and me. If this child defeats me someday, and I accept that defeat happily, then we will consider whether we can become family."

Lamika could not possibly understand those words without knowing the circumstances. Still, even she could sense the sincerity and anticipation behind them.

That only made her more shocked.

Lamika worshipped the Church Master like a god, but she knew the truth. The Church Master was not a god. She was an elf who had lived for five hundred years, and someone who had suffered many defeats in the past.

But that was only a story of the past.

More than a hundred years had passed since the Church Master had firmly established herself as the strongest swordsman. In this age, what swordsman could possibly defeat her? Even the Thunder Emperor of Alastor had lost to the Church Master. Could that boy, only fifteen years old, truly defeat her someday?

"If that boy... cannot defeat you, Church Master, then he cannot become your mate?"

"Yes."

How was she supposed to take that? Lamika knew the Church Master was not a god, and that she had been lonely for five hundred years. Throughout the Sword Church's history, many followers and Apostles had served her, yet none had left a deep memory in the long years the elf had lived.

Truthfully, Lamika wanted the Church Master to be happy as well. It saddened her that she, an Apostle, could not give her that happiness. But if the Church Master could live a life beyond the fate she had endured for five hundred years, Lamika wanted to support her.

"..."

After hesitating for a long time, Lamika pressed her forehead deeply to the dirt.

"Church Master. Please... Allow this Lamika to attend you on your journey home."

Before Helenas could answer that she did not want to.

[Let her come.]

[I told you I don't want our time together to be interrupted.]

[She would not be interrupting us. She can do the things I can't.]

Bathing under Helenas's water barrage like yesterday was frightening enough.

[From what she says, she seems like a good person who sincerely cares about you. It will be easier in many ways if she comes with us.]

[What kind of easier do you mean?]

[She can drive the carriage instead of me, for one. She'll probably be good at looking after you too. You said she was an Apostle who used to do that.]

Helenas narrowed her eyes at that answer. Tilting her head, she fell into thought. All the things Lamika had done for her whenever she stayed in the Sword Grove, things Helenas had taken for granted and never thought deeply about.

It was not as if Helenas felt inconvenienced or bothered without them. Still, having them was natural to her.

[Fine. I will take Lamika with us. I think she will be useful to you too.]

[To me?]

[Lamika is stronger than you. The difference between you and me is too great to cross swords, but the gap between you and Lamika is not that large.]

Well, look at that.

Kyle's lips twitched as he looked at Lamika. Isaac had said it before. The Fifth Apostle was a swordsman on the level of the Ten Peaks.

[I do not mind bringing Lamika, but it would be inconvenient if we have to be careful about what we say around her. Can I tell her you are Raikal's reincarnation?]

[What? No.]

[Why not? If I tell Lamika to keep it secret, she will not tell anyone.]

[I still don't want to.]

[Why?]

[A man who died five hundred years ago gets reincarnated as the descendant of the man who killed him, grows up pampered as the young master of that family, and learns the sword from the little elf girl he used to teach? It's embarrassing.]

Kyle was good at seeing himself objectively in that way.

[All right.]

Helenas did not understand what was embarrassing about it, but she respected Kyle's wishes. She straightened her tilted head and looked at Lamika.

"I will allow you to attend me."

"Th-thank you...!"

Lamika raised her head, overcome with emotion. Her tear-streaked face was smeared with dirt, but she did not think to wipe it away. Instead, she reached inside her left pauldron.

"First, Church Master, please change your clothes. I bought these while carrying out missionary work, and they will surely suit you."

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Large bags dropped out from inside the pauldron. They held new clothes purchased in other cities, along with the items Lamika usually used while attending to Helenas in the Sword Grove.

"But, Church Master, how should I... address that person?"

Lamika hesitantly glanced at Kyle. How was she supposed to address someone who might become the Church Master's mate? It was a concern Lamika had never had even once in her life.

"Just call him by name."

"I cannot do that. For now... I will call him Young Master."

Only then did Lamika wipe the dirt from her face and stare at Kyle. Her eyes held a complicated mixture of emotions.

"First, Young Master. We must go to a nearby Sword Church branch and obtain a pauldron for you."

"A pauldron? For me? Why?"

"What do you mean, why...? Are you not also a Sword Church member? Leaving aside your skill, it is not yet time for the advancement examination, so you should first wear a blue pauldron."

"I'm not a Sword Church member."

Come to think of it, Jade had mentioned it before. The Fifth Apostle forced people who did not hold swords to take one up, then wandered from battlefield to battlefield preaching the greatness of the sword.

[Yes, you could say she is like the Sword Demon from five hundred years ago.]

[Um... The Sword Demon did not preach about the greatness of the sword.]

[But he barged into every battlefield and caused trouble. The Fifth Apostle is that kind of person. I won, so my sword is more right than yours. Therefore, you will become a Sword Church member. That is how she forces them.]

"Not a Sword Church member... yet you might become the Church Master's mate...? What in the world..."

"Excuse me, Lamika-nim. You said you had gone on missionary work earlier. How exactly do you carry it out?"

"I heard that a territorial war had broken out in the Kingdom of Ransel, so I participated under the name of the Sword Church."

Pride filled Lamika's face.

"I defeated the Family Heads of the Lunel Family and the Kaor Family, then successfully converted every swordsman in those families to the Sword Church."

"..."

"Church Master, please be pleased. This Lamika brought sixty-seven swordsmen into the Sword Church during this missionary work."

"Yes."

Helenas answered with an indifferent expression. There was no pleasure on her face, but Lamika trembled all over and knelt again. Then, startled, she hurriedly reached inside her right pauldron.

"Church Master, please accept this."

What Lamika took out was a long sword. Swallowing hard, she drew it from its scabbard. The revealed blade was black, just like Fenris.

"This was the sword wielded by the Family Head of the Kaor Family. When he joined the Sword Church, he offered it joyfully."

She called it an offering, but Lamika had effectively taken the sword from him.

"It looks like Fenris."

"Just as Young Master said, this sword was forged by dwarves from Onyxia, the same material as Fenris."

"Fenris was made from Onyxia?"

Kyle did not even know what kind of metal Onyxia was. He looked back and forth between Fenris at his waist and the sword Lamika had presented. Fenris had a crude appearance, while that sword was suitably splendid for something a noble Family Head would wield.

"You were Fenris's owner, and you did not even know what metal it was made from...?"

"Um... I knew it was made by dwarves."

"It was not simply made by dwarves. Fenris was a treasured sword passed down through the Leberto Family, which existed in the Empire during the Dark Age five hundred years ago. It was forged with great care by a master craftsman from the dwarf tribe that family supported."

Lamika spoke while glancing at Fenris.

"Sword Demon Raikal supported the Valcain Family at a low price during the territorial war between the Leberto Family and the Valcain Family, in order to avenge his father. After completing that revenge, he left behind all the glory of being commander of the Crow Mercenary Band and lived as the Sword Demon, following only the sword..."

"You know a lot about the Sword Demon."

"Of course I do. The Church Master exists as she is today because of him. Thanks to that, five hundred years later, I am able to serve the Church Master. To me, the Sword Demon is a benefactor."

The reasoning that had made her see him as a benefactor was a little twisted.

"Thank you."

This time, Helenas also thanked Lamika as she accepted the sword.

"After my last one broke, I had not found a sword I liked yet. But this sword... It resembles Kyle's Fenris, so I like it fairly well."

Helenas had once used any sword without caring what it was, but after speaking with Kyle in the Blade Mountain Range, she had begun to seriously think about swords in her own way.

She still did not understand what it meant to love a sword.

Footnotes:

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