WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 136: The Rogue Young Master

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One thing Kyle could not forget was that every piece of information he had just learned came from Crow Company headquarters. All of it had been investigated by Hidden Crow, headquarters' secret internal surveillance network, reported first to Duke Oun, then passed on to Kyle with Duke Oun's approval.

He could not simply believe that all of it was true.

The Crows' Southern and Northern Branches.

Athanatoi, the dark mage organization.

The Imperial family and the Moon Church's collusion.

He had to consider the possibility that Duke Oun's hand had touched every part of it.

'As Hidden Crow warned, digging into the Imperial family and the Moon Church could get us charged with treason against the Empire.'

Alastor was wary of that as well. Instead of directly investigating the Imperial family and the Moon Church, Julius, the Family Head himself, had joined the Moon Church to approach its inner circle.

'We were going to use Crow's Eyes to learn about the Imperial family and the Moon Church, but he is making it clear that he will not let us use him so easily.'

Duke Oun wanted a firm alliance. This was not something Kyle could decide alone. As Duke Oun had said in his message, it was something he needed to discuss thoroughly with Julius before deciding.

Kyle turned off the tablet's screen and looked out the window.

"My strength is lacking."

He knew exactly why his chest felt so stifled. The only reason he had to worry and deliberate was because he lacked strength.

In the end, everything came down to the sword.

If his sword was strong enough, he would not need to agonize over such frustrating matters.

If he had the power to cut down everything that irritated him, there would be no need to think like this. Kyle simply did not have that kind of strength yet.

"I'm strong."

Helenas, who had been idly playing with Kyle's hand, suddenly spoke.

"If you ask me, I can swing my sword for you."

Kyle let out a hollow laugh and turned to her.

"If I asked you to kill the Emperor of the Empire, would you do it?"

"Yes."

"Khk."

Lamika, sitting in the driver's seat, made a startled noise. She coughed violently, as if something had gone down the wrong way, but she made no sound other than her coughing.

Kill the Emperor of the Empire. It was something that should not even be mentioned. With the Sword Church Master's sword, such a thing might be possible, but possible or not, it should never be done.

Killing the Emperor would not end it all. Rebellion without cause would turn the Sword Church into the continent's target. Every kingdom on the continent would declare the Sword Church a public enemy, and countless people would bleed.

Lamika could easily imagine all that, yet she remained silent. If the Sword Church Master decided to do it, Lamika, the Sword Church Master's faithful Apostle, would simply follow.

"What if I asked you to kill the Moon Church Master?"

"I'll kill them."

"Do you know who that is?"

"I'll find out as I kill them."

Helenas answered without changing her expression. Of course, there was no empty bravado in her words. If Kyle sincerely asked her to do it, Helenas would swing her sword as he wished.

"You mustn't."

With a bitter smile, Kyle squeezed Helenas's hand tightly.

"You must not become a sword for my sake."

"Even if I want to do it for you?"

"Can you think about whether what I ask of you is right or wrong?"

"I don't feel the need to."

"Then you mustn't all the more. You are too sharp and too strong for me to wield."

Kyle was grateful for Helenas's goodwill, but if he used that goodwill simply because it was convenient, it would become another curse for her.

"I don't want you to be bound to me."

"..."

"Nor do I want to ask you to do what I cannot."

Kyle knew that Helenas was changing. The Helenas of today could do things she did not want to do, things she saw no reason to do. She was no longer living a life in which she swung nothing but a sword.

Yet every desire Helenas had, everything she wanted to do, was tied to Kyle. He was happy that she was changing, but it also worried him.

'What will happen to you if I die?'

Elves lived far longer than humans. Even when Kyle reached the end of his lifespan and died in the distant future, Helenas, an elf, would still have much time left to live.

People often said elves lived for a thousand years. Helenas had spent the five hundred years of her life so far pursuing the dull fate of the sword. If Kyle died, what would Helenas live for over the next five hundred years?

"I don't understand what you're saying."

Helenas narrowed her eyes and stared at Kyle.

"I can do what you cannot, and I want to do anything for you."

"You mean you will do it if I ask?"

"Yes."

"That is why you mustn't. I don't want you to be too bound to me."

"Then what do you want?"

"I want you to be free."

"..."

"Free from the sword, from fate, and from me. That is why I will not ask you to do what I cannot."

If he started asking her for such things, he felt that a vicious cycle would repeat itself. This was not only for Helenas's sake, but for his own as well.

"As I said earlier, the biggest problem is that I lack strength. The answer is simple, then. I just need to become stronger."

Kyle smiled brightly as he said it.

"It would hurt my pride to ask the Sword Church Master to cut down something I cannot."

[It wouldn't be like me.]

He whispered the last part so Lamika would not hear. Helenas blinked a few times, then murmured softly.

"What you say is difficult."

She lowered her gaze and looked at Kyle's hand.

"I want to do things for you, but you say I must not. I do not understand."

"Doing something for me is not always doing something for you."

"I'll try to understand."

Helenas muttered those words just as the carriage jolted. Lamika had yanked the reins hard. The carriage abruptly turned off the road and headed away from it.

"Lamika-nim?"

Kyle called toward the driver's seat, but there was no reply. Soon after, the carriage stopped. Lamika immediately jumped down from the driver's seat and flung open the carriage door.

"I apologize for my discourtesy."

Lamika's face was flushed red, and her eyes were wet. Her breathing was ragged as well.

"I unintentionally overheard the conversation between you and the Sword Church Master. Please forgive me."

"There is nothing to forgive. It was not as if we said anything you should not hear."

In truth, even speaking of killing the Emperor of the Empire was something nobody should hear. But from Kyle's perspective, the fact that he was the reincarnation of the Sword Demon from five hundred years ago was far more secret than any plot to kill the Emperor.

"I, Lamika, am sincerely moved, Young Master."

Lamika brought her faintly trembling hands together before her chest. Tears gathered in her damp eyes, then rolled down her cheeks.

"To be honest, I thought that Alastor's pretty-faced rogue young master had charmed our innocent Sword Church Master with that face of yours and your slick tongue."

"..."

Kyle blinked with a baffled expression. Saying he had a pretty face was an awkward way to put it, but it was still praise for being handsome, and Kyle knew well enough that he was handsome.

It was partly because Arian had constantly kissed his cheeks since he was young while going on and on about her handsome little prince. Once he left the Sword Tower and lived in Gladiheim's inner castle, praise for his appearance had also filled his ears whenever there was an opening. More than that, when Kyle looked in a mirror, he sometimes found himself thinking, 'That bastard is damn handsome,' with a touch of embarrassed self-satisfaction.

"Why am I a rogue?"

What he could not accept was the part about being a rogue young master. No matter how carefully he looked back, he had never done anything outside that deserved to be called the act of a rogue.

"Did you not pick a fight with Zenafelt of the Yellow-Pauldron Ten Swords, one of our Sword Church followers, then humiliate him before everyone?"

"Ah."

Right. That had happened too. Kyle could not help making an uncomfortable expression.

He had seated every young knight who came to the exchange tournament in the stands, then defeated Zenafelt barehanded. He had deliberately forced a rather extreme confrontation with Zenafelt because he needed an excuse to make Helenas come to him directly. Helenas had come in the end, so he had achieved what he wanted, but from Zenafelt and the Sword Church's perspective, Kyle must have seemed like a rogue.

"Is Zenafelt doing well?"

"His arm was cut off as punishment for trespassing in the Forbidden Ground, but the Sword Church Master's grace restored it. Zenafelt received a grace he could never earn even in a lifetime, so he is fortunate. He has joined my faction and now devotes himself to missionary work."

"Um... That is good, then."

At least Zenafelt had not been left with one arm.

"May I continue what I was saying?"

"What? Yes, go ahead."

"To be honest, I thought that Alastor's pretty-faced rogue young master had charmed our innocent Sword Church Master with that face of yours and your slick tongue."

She was continuing from there?

"But. Though it was irreverent of me to overhear your conversation with the Sword Church Master, I realized something. You truly care for our Sword Church Master."

Lamika clasped her hands tightly together before her chest, making them tremble.

"You do not intend to use the Sword Church Master one-sidedly. You wish for the Sword Church Master to make her own judgments and choices, and achieve true independence."

"Well... I did not mean anything that grand, but what you said is right."

"May I ask why you think that way?"

"You said you overheard us. I want the Sword Church Master to be free. Beyond whatever fate elves are supposed to have, I want her to become less bound by what it means to be an elf."

"Our Sword Church Master answered that she would even cut down the Emperor for you."

Lamika continued to weep as she stared directly at Kyle. Her face was still flushed, and her voice still trembled. Yet her tear-filled eyes were chillingly cold.

"If the Sword Church Master truly wished it, the Sword Church would follow. There would be no need for the Sword Church Master to step forward. I, Lamika, the Fifth Apostle, would lead the charge into the Imperial Palace and cut off the Emperor's head."

There was no lie in her words. Kyle could not be certain every Sword Church Apostle, each with their own intentions in their heart, would do the same. But Lamika would.

"Yet you refuse it. Because you sincerely care for the Sword Church Master."

"It is not only for the Sword Church Master. It is also for myself. Since I cannot cut someone down, it would not be very cool to ask someone stronger than me to do it in my place."

Kyle answered with a quiet laugh.

"If I truly wish to cut someone down, I should do it with my own strength. That is why I took up the sword. Is that not right?"

"I, Lamika, am moved by you once more, Young Master."

Lamika respectfully lowered her head.

"I now know for certain that you are not using our Sword Church Master. And though I do not know whether you may one day become the Sword Church Master's mate, I will consider you someone worthy of becoming her mate."

"Um... Thank you."

"But."

Lamika lifted her head. Her eyes, now a little drier, looked even more chilling.

"The Sword Church Master said that you must defeat her to become her mate. Your character alone is not what matters."

"Ah."

Kyle laughed as he let out a sound of understanding. He knew what Lamika was trying to say. With the corners of his lips curling upward, he looked around. The carriage had stopped in an open clearing that was well suited for swinging a sword.

"Do you want to test my sword?"

"The Sword Church Master has made her decision. How could I dare speak of testing you? I simply wish to help you become a sword worthy of the Sword Church Master."

"That works out well."

Kyle gripped Fenris's hilt and strode away from the carriage.

"I was curious about your sword as well, Lamika-nim. I heard you are a swordswoman on the level of the Ten Peaks."

"I dislike the name Ten Peaks."

Wiping the tear tracks from her cheeks, Lamika followed behind Kyle.

"The Ten Peaks are an empty name made so idle people have something to chatter about. Is there even anyone among the Ten Peaks who can truly be called equal to the Sword Church Master? Everyone, including me, is a weakling not worth the dirt beneath the Sword Church Master's claws."

Lamika naturally placed herself on the same level as the superhumans of the Ten Peaks. There was not a trace of arrogance on her face as she said it.

Then, the instant she finished speaking, she recoiled in alarm.

"N-no, I misspoke. There is no dirt beneath our Sword Church Master's claws. They are white and clean as jade."

After hurriedly correcting her slip of the tongue, Lamika composed herself and turned to Helenas.

"Sword Church Master. May Lamika, the Fifth Apostle, show you this humble sword before your eyes?"

"Yes."

Helenas slowly stepped down from the carriage and nodded.

"That is why I allowed you to come along. Until we return to Sword Grove, you and I will continue crossing swords with Kyle. For Kyle's sake."

"Continue...!"

Lamika's body trembled as if she had been struck by lightning. The Apostles, including Lamika, normally stayed in Sword Grove. Each day, they watched Helenas swing her sword and trained by swinging their own.

No matter how diligently or flamboyantly the Apostles wielded their swords, however, Helenas showed little interest in them. The Sword Church Master always focused only on her own sword.

"You mean you will personally watch me cross swords with the young master?"

"Yes."

Helenas nodded. Then, after spending a moment thinking something over, she spoke again.

"If Lamika does well, I'll cross swords with you too."

"Y-yes? C-cross swords with me... The Sword Church Master, personally, with me?"

"Yes."

This was an honor no Sword Church Apostle had ever enjoyed. Even the First Apostle, who had served the Sword Church Master for forty-five years, had never dared ask the Sword Church Master to cross swords with him. Nor had the Sword Church Master ever particularly wished to cross swords with the Apostles.

"Ah, ahhh..."

For Lamika, who worshipped the Sword Church Master with fanatic devotion, there could be no greater reward. They had not yet crossed swords, but the fact that the Sword Church Master had personally taken notice and said those words was enough for Lamika to die without regret. Her body trembled as she thrust her right hand into the inside of her left pauldron.

A sword soon emerged from Lamika's right hand. It was an ordinary longsword with nothing special about it.

"Yes. I, Lamika, will do my best to satisfy the Sword Church Master."

A chill ran through the air.

The moment Lamika gripped her sword, her entire bearing changed. The bizarre woman who had caught up to the carriage with nothing but her legs, who laughed and cried at every word Helenas spoke, became a swordswoman.

"Now I can finally breathe a little easier."

Kyle drew Fenris with a bright smile.

Too many distracting thoughts had been filling his head lately, and too many people had been giving him things to think about. It had left him feeling stifled.

Feeling the pure Killing Intent that Helenas did not possess made him feel refreshed, as though an old blockage in his chest had finally cleared.

Footnotes:

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