WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 139: Greedily

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When Kyle opened his eyes with a start.

Helenas's face was there, as if that was only natural. She had been gently stroking Kyle's hair with her blue eyes narrowed, and immediately lowered her head to bring her face close to his.

"Uh... mm."

Kyle blinked and made a sound. His throat was dry and his voice barely came out. His head throbbed, and his whole body felt heavy and sore.

"You pushed yourself too hard."

It was because he had wielded a power unfamiliar to him too recklessly. Kyle quickly assessed the situation and accepted it. In that brief moment, he had swung his sword thousands, perhaps far more than thousands, of times. No matter how exceptional Kyle's body was, he was bound to be sore after swinging a sword that much.

'It's a miracle it stopped at muscle pain.'

It would not have been strange if his arms had failed, torn apart, and snapped. Was it because he had not swung solely with the strength of his arms? Kyle frowned as the thought crossed his mind.

'No wonder my head hurts so much.'

Intent was not an endless source of power. Just as physical strength had its limits, mental strength had limits too. If he drained it completely, both body and mind would suddenly shut down as if the power had gone out. Kyle swallowed a sigh and tried to rise.

Thump.

Helenas bumped her forehead against his and pushed him back down. The hand that had been stroking his hair gripped his head tightly.

"Owowow..."

"Don't exaggerate."

"It really hurts."

"I said don't exaggerate."

He really was in pain, yet she called it exaggerating.

"Are you angry?"

"No."

"You're lying."

Helenas did not answer. After glaring at Kyle for a moment, she clicked her tongue and pulled back.

"Did you just click your tongue at me?"

"I'm not angry at you."

"You said you weren't angry."

Tsk.

Helenas clicked her tongue again and shot Kyle another look.

"I'm angry at Lamika."

"What? Why?"

Kyle could not understand that. She said she was angry at Lamika, but what had Lamika done wrong? Helenas was not good at teaching matters of the sword, and the sword she wielded was too natural and too difficult to teach. Was that not why she had allowed Lamika to come along?

"I wanted to be the first one to show you Sublimation."

Helenas turned her head and muttered.

"Did you already forget what I told you yesterday?"

[After that, I'll teach you about Sublimation.]

[I'll show you later. We still have a long way to go before Sword Grove.]

"Well... I didn't forget..."

He simply had not expected Helenas to get angry because Lamika showed him Sublimation first.

"Where is Lady Lamika?"

"Over there."

Helenas raised a finger. Kyle cautiously lifted his head and looked that way. Beside the carriage, Lamika was kneeling with her head bowed low, her face filled with grief.

"Well... Lady Lamika didn't know the circumstances, so you don't need to scold her that badly..."

"No, Young Master! This is entirely my fault!"

Lamika shouted without raising her head. Her tightly clenched fists and shoulders trembled. Tears she had already shed several times filled her eyes once more.

"I, Lamika, dared to take what the Church Master should have done...! Even my death would not be enough to repay this sin."

"It's not a sin worth dying for."

Helenas spoke with a sullen expression. If she had not said that, Lamika would likely have cut her own throat long ago.

"I also failed to tell you first, and I was the one who did not stop you. So it isn't your fault. I'm just a little upset on my own."

"Ah... ahh, someone as lowly as me dared to disturb the Church Master's peace of mind..."

Lamika clutched her head with both trembling hands. She was the one who had wielded such vicious, threatening swordsmanship, a sword like a serpent. Yet now Lamika was no different from an obedient lamb.

"I didn't stop you."

Helenas stroked Kyle's hair and stared at Lamika.

"Because I thought your sword could give this child a lesson my sword could not."

"It did."

Kyle answered as he felt her touch. Lamika's sword was not stronger than Helenas's. That was why it was easier to understand than Helenas's sword, and why he could understand how to deal with it.

That was not true only of her sword. Her explanations were easier to understand as well. A sword refined over five hundred years until it became natural was too vague to comprehend, and Helenas herself could not explain why she had to wield a sword that way. Lamika, on the other hand, had explained intent, spiritual energy, and even Sublimation in ways Kyle could understand.

"By sparring with Lady Lamika and experiencing Sublimation, I found a clue. It definitely helped."

"More than me?"

"Pardon?"

"Did it help you more than sparring with me?"

"Well... honestly, for now, it did."

Helenas's eyes narrowed. Kyle sensed the hand stroking his hair beginning to tighten again, so he hurriedly added.

"For now. Just for now. If I learn through Lady Lamika's sword, I'll have even more to learn from you too, Church Master."

"Ah... aaah..."

Lamika let out a trembling sound.

"That through me, the Young Master might draw closer to the Church Master... What could be more glorious than that?"

Every feeling Lamika held toward Helenas was sincere.

"The Sword Church exists for the Church Master. For my sword to serve the Church Master in this way, I, Lamika, could die without regrets..."

"I forgive you. Lamika, you may stand."

How long had she been kneeling there? Kyle glanced at Lamika's dirt-covered knees and looked to the sky. The sun had been high overhead only a little while ago, but the sky was now turning red with sunset. It seemed half a day had passed since he collapsed from exhaustion.

"How did I end up fainting?"

"Young Master greedily devoured my sword."

Lamika rose and stared straight at Kyle. She knew her gaze was far too aggressive and emotional for someone who might become the Church Master's mate, but she could not suppress her feelings.

"I, Lamika, have brought countless swordsmen into the Sword Church, but... I have never met a swordsman like you. We met for the first time only now, and crossed swords for the first time, yet... Young Master devoured my sword far too quickly."

Devoured.

Been devoured.

She could not find a more fitting comparison.

"What is even harder to believe is that Young Master devoured my world from within my world."

It was not simply a matter of reading sword forms and sword paths, then imitating them. Lamika's Sublimation, Myriad Serpents Sink into the Abyss, was an image born from her heart. It was the world of a swordsman she had held in her chest through a lifetime of swinging her sword.

That world had been devoured. Though its nature differed, the sword Kyle wielded at the heart of Myriad Serpents Sink into the Abyss closely resembled the sword that defined Lamika's world.

'If the Young Master's intent had continued, it might have been completely devoured.'

Lamika could not help feeling chilled by that thought. Only his intent was lacking. Kyle's skill as a swordsman was enough to devour and reproduce Lamika's sword.

What would have happened if it had been completely devoured? Lamika swallowed hard and glared at Kyle.

'Right now, I am vastly stronger than the Young Master. If this were a fight to the death, I am confident I could kill him before he devoured me.'

Kyle had only been able to swing his sword within Myriad Serpents Sink into the Abyss because Lamika had allowed it. Without Lamika's permission, Kyle would have died the instant Myriad Serpents Sink into the Abyss unfolded.

No, she would not even need to use Myriad Serpents Sink into the Abyss. His skill was sufficient, but Kyle's intent could not yet fully bring out that skill. Even without reaching Sublimation, Lamika was confident she could kill him.

'For now... that is.'

The boy before her was still fifteen years old. He was still too young for the talent he was born with to have fully bloomed. That was why Lamika felt killing intent.

It was not something she should say of a boy who might become the Church Master's mate, but he was a monster. That monster would greedily devour every sword it encountered, digest everything it devoured, and place it within the world inside him.

What would happen when that monster someday completed his world? Lamika felt a chilling thrill. If he were an enemy, she would have to kill him right now. That young monster was a mass of absurdity no swordsman who had devoted a lifetime to the sword could accept.

"I am grateful that Young Master is someone who may become the Church Master's mate."

Lamika spoke in a trembling voice and brought both hands before her chest.

"At the same time, Young Master is the Sword Church's revival. I, Lamika, am completely certain. Young Master, one day, one day you truly will become the Church Master's mate. And you will change the Church Master."

If she had only been a swordsman, Lamika would have wanted to kill Kyle.

But Lamika was not only a swordsman. She was an Apostle of the Sword Church, and she worshipped the Sword Church Master with fanatical devotion. So Lamika neatly folded away her killing intent toward Kyle. Instead, she felt joy at the thought that she could be devoured by that monster and become nourishment for its growth.

She hoped that monster would grow strong, someday become the Church Master's mate, and change the Church Master. Lamika's sword would exist within the monster that accomplished it, so would that not mean Lamika herself had changed the Church Master and become her mate? It was madness, but Lamika sincerely believed it.

"Young Master, you can make the Church Master happy. So I, Lamika, will do my utmost to be devoured by you."

She would not hesitate to have her sword taken and devoured. Rather, she would do everything she could to show him her sword. Lamika's eyes burned with the resolve she had made.

"Please take care of me."

It was an incredibly burdensome gaze, but Kyle could feel Lamika's sincerity.

As he answered, he thought about Lamika's sword. Because he had swung his sword instead of letting the clue that came to him pass by, the sword he saw earlier remained clearly engraved deep within his chest.

He felt as if, if he closed his eyes, he could reproduce the sword Lamika had wielded.

'But it cannot end with reproduction.'

If it did, he would only be following Lamika's sword. It was the same thought he had felt when Fenris showed him Ruin's sword.

Every sword only had meaning if Kyle himself could wield it better.

"But Young Master, I won this spar."

Lamika abruptly said.

"Young Master, do you accept the result?"

It was a comment that pricked at his pride, but Kyle nodded. He had to acknowledge what needed acknowledging. Kyle had not used Ruin's sword, Baal, or Jor either. But even if he had used all of them, he would have died if Lamika truly meant to kill him.

"Yes, I lost."

"Then Young Master must become a Sword Church member."

Lamika said it with her eyes gleaming.

"With Young Master's current ability, you are worthy of a purple pauldron."

The purple pauldron ranked directly beneath an Apostle. Most who held that rank were direct disciples of Apostles.

"You will soon have the ability worthy of a silver pauldron, but please be satisfied with a purple pauldron for now."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I don't intend to become a Sword Church member."

Kyle hurriedly spoke and sent Helenas a pleading look.

"I think it would be all right if you became a Sword Church member."

A terrible answer came back.

"You have family, but I do not. But perhaps the Sword Church may be something like family to me."

She did not yet truly understand it that way, but when she thought carefully about it, perhaps she could think of it that way. The Sword Church had remained by Helenas's side for five hundred years and existed for her. Helenas had not married or had children during all that long time, but the Sword Church had followed Helenas, served her, and carried on its lineage. They had different races and surnames and did not share a drop of blood, but the Sword Church could be called Helenas's family.

"Only something like family. You and I cannot be family yet. But you could have one foot in the door."

"Ah, ahh, aaah!"

Lamika's body shook with grateful ecstasy.

"F-family! I, Lamika, am becoming the Church Master's family! Ahhh!"

Helenas had not declared that they were family. She had only said they were something like family.

That did not matter to Lamika. Simply being regarded as family by the Church Master made thick streams of tears flow from Lamika's eyes. She cried out through her sobs.

"Yes, I, Lamika, am the Church Master's family. And Young Master is now our family too!"

Kyle's face twisted horribly at the dreadful exchange. It was touching that Helenas called the Sword Church family, but becoming part of a ridiculous group that wore bizarre pauldrons on their shoulders sounded terrible.

"..."

His heart did not feel comfortable denying Helenas's request that he put one foot into the Sword Church as family. Looking at it broadly, forming an alliance with the Sword Church this way was not a bad thing.

Using Helenas's goodwill to ask her to cut down what Kyle himself could not cut down wounded his pride, and he did not like it. But what if he formed a firm alliance with the Sword Church and could keep unknown outside forces in check?

'At least Helenas will not betray me. Forming an alliance with Helenas and the Sword Church is better than allying with that raccoon-like Duke Oun.'

Even if he formed an alliance with Duke Oun, a firm alliance between Alastor and the Sword Church would keep Duke Oun from daring to stab them in the back.

'And... it is true that I lost to Lamika.'

Putting politics aside, since he had lost, he had to respect the winner's demand. He intended to suck every last bit of swordsmanship he could out of Helenas and Lamika from now on, and it would feel wrong to gain everything without giving anything in return.

It was not as if they were enemies who wanted each other dead. Kyle swallowed the sigh rising in his chest and nodded.

"Well, what was it? Sword Church... purple pauldron... yes, I'll do it if you insist. But I won't wear the pauldron around."

"Promise that you will wear it at Sword Church events."

"What? I have to attend events too?"

"We are traveling with the Church Master back to Sword Grove, are we not? Did you intend to leave without greeting anyone there?"

Lamika asked as if it were obvious, and Kyle's face could only twist further.

'Not the other Apostles, but... the First Apostle... Helenas said he sometimes acts like her parent.'

Helenas had said it herself. If an elf like her had said so, there was a high chance the First Apostle truly felt that way toward Helenas.

'And I am curious about the other Apostles too...'

Every Apostle of the Sword Church was a swordsman on the level of the Ten Peaks. The desire to meet such swordsmen stirred in his chest. All of that forced Kyle into the compromise of wearing a pauldron.

"Yes... all right..."

Hatred for Cyrus, who had chosen the monstrous pauldron as a symbol, stirred in his chest. Helenas stroked Kyle's cheek as he wore a miserable expression and whispered.

"If you see the Apostles' swords, your sword will grow stronger."

Helenas could now understand why Kyle said he had to see and experience the world. Despite it being only a brief spar, Kyle had devoured Lamika's Snake Sword.

The more swordsmen Kyle met and the more battles he fought, the stronger he would become. Until now, Helenas had not imagined even a trace of herself losing to Kyle, but the possibility Kyle had just shown made Helenas think, however vaguely, a little about defeat.

"Well done, Lamika."

Helenas turned to Lamika with a faint smile. She gently grasped Kyle's shoulder, where he lay across her thigh, and helped him sit up.

"I'll spar with you as a reward."

At those whispered words, Lamika shed streams of tears as a shiver ran through her.

Footnotes:

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