WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 140: The Hardest Thing

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The Sword Church's seven Apostles did not cross swords with the Church Master directly. Every one of them might have longed to, but the Church Master stood too high for them to dare ask.

All an Apostle was permitted was to remain in the Sword Grove and watch the Church Master's sword from nearby.

In truth, this tradition had not been established by Helenas herself. It had only been an unspoken rule among the Apostles for a very long time. Still, when an unspoken agreement lasted for centuries, it became a tradition no one could defy.

Helenas, the Church Master herself, did not particularly wish to cross swords with the Apostles either. She had always been consumed by wielding a sword alone, not by sparring or winning and losing.

That was why Lamika could not help feeling that this moment was special. She was receiving a privilege none of the other Apostles had ever been granted. If she could receive such a privilege, Lamika would gladly surrender everything, even if it meant letting Kyle take the sword she had spent her entire life honing.

"Y-you're going to cross swords with someone like me...!"

Lamika murmured in a trembling voice. Her shoulders hunched as if she did not know what to do with such undeserved grace, and tears streamed from her eyes.

Yet clear fighting spirit burned in those wet eyes. At some point, her hunched shoulders and quivering fingers had settled into a stance, one hand gripping the hilt of her sword.

For seventeen years after joining the Sword Church, she had admired and revered that sword. Even after becoming an Apostle and gaining the chance to see it up close whenever she wished, she had never dared ask to cross blades with it.

For the first time, she could spar with the sword she admired. Lamika burned with fighting spirit as happiness great enough to kill her filled her heart.

Helenas stepped down from the carriage and drew the sword Lamika had offered her. It was a pitch-black blade made from the same material as Fenris. The thought that her offering would be used made Lamika tremble all over again.

"C-can I draw my sword?"

"Yes."

The instant she received permission, Lamika drew her blade. She took a deep breath, then another, repeating the motion as she tried to calm herself. The trembling would not stop easily, but then Helenas took one long step forward.

An overwhelming pressure swept over Lamika, chilling her to the bone, and her trembling ceased.

Happiness great enough to kill her. A privilege so wonderful she could die without regrets. That did not mean she could make a fool of herself. Lamika composed her expression and stance, then looked straight at Helenas.

"May I... begin?"

"Yes."

Helenas nodded again, her face expressionless. Lamika kicked off the ground without a moment's delay.

Her movements could not be compared to when she had sparred with Kyle earlier. Back then, Lamika had not gone all out because she wanted to teach Kyle. Her opponent now was Helenas, the Sword Church Master. Even if she gave everything she had, victory was impossible.

Kyle sat on the driver's seat and watched the two spar.

Seeing something from up close was different from seeing it at a distance. From here, he could observe Lamika's snake-like swordsmanship much more clearly.

Her twisting sword paths writhed like serpents, then suddenly shot forward to pierce. Lamika's sword was endlessly changing and swift, while Helenas's was still. Even against that bewildering sword, Helenas drew only the most basic sword paths.

She cut, cut, and cut again.

With those simple movements, the sword paths Lamika drew were severed one after another. At a glance, Lamika's blade seemed to be sweeping forward in an overwhelming assault, but every attack she unleashed was useless.

Lamika felt it too. Simple but one-sided responses. The hopelessness of finding no opening no matter how much she swung. Something was not automatically superior just because it was flashy. Sword paths repeated countless times over five hundred years could be called absolute through that fact alone.

'It's a self-righteous sword.'

He had felt it when he sparred with Helenas before, but watching her now made him understand the essence of that sword even more clearly. To Helenas, a sword was simply meant to swing and thrust that way, and that certainty could not be obstructed by any other sword.

'To break Helenas's sword, I would have to deny every sword she considers natural.'

Kyle slowly clenched and opened his hand as he watched the spar with full attention. He did not watch only Helenas. He watched Lamika as well.

Devour it.

That was what Lamika had said. Kyle understood exactly what she meant. Five hundred years had passed since the Sword Demon lived. The world had changed drastically, humanity had changed, and swords had changed as well.

In that distant past, there had been no realms such as the Boundary Realm. There had been superhumans who opened their Upper Dantian, but they were nowhere near as numerous as they were now, and the system had not been developed in such detail.

Manifesting one's mindscape through intent and forcing it upon reality. Could that even be called martial arts? As far as Kyle was concerned, the peak of the Boundary Realm Lamika had displayed, Sublimation, Myriad Serpents Sink into the Abyss, and things like that barely seemed fit to be called swordsmanship at all.

Still, he felt no resistance.

Kyle's nature was too flexible and forward-looking to refuse to adapt simply because he could not understand something.

If anything, the fact that these were martial arts that had not existed in his previous life, arts born only in a world five hundred years later, made his heart resonate deeply.

It was the impression he had felt from Erika's sword, the first sword he had seen after reincarnating as Kyle Alastor. The sword that had felt like magic now went far beyond even magic, able to knead the world as it pleased. That delighted him.

He remembered the past.

The swords he had seen, experienced, and learned to wield since he was Raikal. Swords that had threatened his life and, at times, defeated him.

Raikal had suffered many defeats in his previous life, but Ruin Alastor was the only opponent he had never repaid.

What did one have to do to defeat someone who had beaten them once? One had to endlessly consider why they had lost. He had reviewed battles too many times to count, learning every detail of his opponent's sword.

Once he understood it and thought about how to deal with it, that sword naturally remained in his chest and mind. That was why Raikal's sword had never settled into a single fixed style. The more he fought, the more his sword continued to change.

'Even after reincarnating, ever since I was young.'

Before awakening his Spirit Root, he had spent his days buried in the Great Archive of the Sword Tower. He had devoured every cultivation technique and sword art from the bookshelves Julius permitted him to access.

'Even now.'

His thoughts wandered through the past before returning to the present. Helenas and Lamika were crossing swords before him. He did not need to wield a sword himself or fight them to have their swords engraved in his eyes and added to his own.

'Inside me...'

Kyle slowly clenched his hand. His right hand was not holding Fenris now, but he could feel the touch of a sword that did not exist through his empty hand.

'There are countless swords.'

Sword techniques too vast for one person to wield. Yet Kyle was not satisfied. He had never been capable of being satisfied where swords were concerned. Even after swinging a sword to his heart's content and eventually dying by the sword, he had felt lacking until the moment he died.

'Not enough.'

He had done enough. He had gone as far as he needed to. He had avenged his father's death, so he could have lived comfortably and enjoyed himself from then on. Countless places had called for him, and he could have enjoyed all the wealth and honor he wanted.

Even then, he had felt lacking. Raikal had known what he lacked back then, and Kyle knew it now.

The Sword Demon still craved swords.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The pounding of his heart rang loudly in his ears. His head began to ache, then his vision tightened as if someone were pulling hard at the skin around his eyes. Power overflowing in his mind poured into his chest, leaving him short of breath.

Helenas and Lamika's swords entered him with perfect clarity, yet slowly. Even now, Kyle was greedily devouring their swords.

'There are too many to devour all at once.'

Drip.

Blood ran from his nose. Kyle let out a faint laugh and wiped it away. His body, already strained beyond its limits, could not withstand his wholehearted absorption in swords.

'I understand what my mindscape is. I understand what kind of world I need to force upon reality.'

He had to shape the world with every sword he had carried since his previous life.

Declaring a True Declaration was Initiation itself.

"..."

He wiped away the blood and swallowed a sigh.

'Don't tell me I have to come up with that True Declaration myself too...?'

Giving anything a name that sounded fitting was the hardest thing of all.

* * *

"Haa... haaah..."

She had almost died from happiness.

She had truly come right to the edge of it. Lamika lay on the ground, drenched in sweat, staring blankly at the sky.

'It's a shame I couldn't use Sublimation...'

She had said she had not gone all out against Kyle earlier, but that only meant she had not aimed for certain death within Myriad Serpents Sink into the Abyss.

For a single human to declare the world they held within them and force it upon this vast world consumed an enormous amount of spiritual energy. Even a superhuman like Lamika needed time for her spiritual energy to recover after using Sublimation once.

'No... Maybe it's better that I couldn't use it.'

Simply being able to cross swords with the Church Master she admired for the first time had nearly made her die from happiness. If she had even seen Sublimation during that historic first spar?

To face Sublimation, one had to answer it with Sublimation. Sublimation was one's mindscape, the world one had carefully built and cherished in the deepest part of one's heart over an entire lifetime. In other words, it could be called the very existence of a person.

It was like a form purer than a completely naked body. Lamika had attended to the Church Master's baths countless times and seen her naked body often enough, but forcing their mindscapes, purer than their bodies, upon one another and becoming entangled that way...

"Aaah..."

Lamika's face turned bright red as she writhed. If that had happened, she might truly have died from sheer bliss. It was far too intense for a first experience.

"C-Church Master..."

Lamika panted as she pushed herself upright. Unlike Lamika, whose entire body was soaked in sweat, Helenas had not shed a single drop. Lamika held herself together so she would not be captivated by that perfect, noble beauty.

"Th-thank you for granting Lamika the greatest happiness. I learned so... so much from the Church Master's sword."

"Yes."

Helenas nodded and looked down at her sword.

"I'll spar with you again next time."

She had thought she might have changed a little. A small possibility had crossed her mind.

Yet Helenas felt nothing at all from crossing swords with Lamika. It was neither enjoyable nor boring. Everything was simply tasteless, no different from the daily life Helenas had always lived.

'I suppose I can only feel it with you.'

Kyle's sword was not stronger than Lamika's. But unlike when she sparred with Lamika, Kyle made her heart race.

"..."

Lamika could not know what Helenas was thinking. Still, she could sense that none of the immense happiness, excitement, or joy that had nearly made Lamika die was present in Helenas, not even a little.

'In the end, it's impossible for me.'

Lamika could only smile bitterly.

"Thank you for this sword insight."

She bowed deeply. She had already been happier than she deserved to be, so she decided not to want more. Greedily and forcibly wishing for what was impossible for her would never be for the Church Master's sake.

'The one who can change the Church Master... isn't me. It's the Young Master.'

She heard footsteps approaching. Lamika raised her head slightly and looked toward the sound. Kyle, who had watched the spar from the driver's seat with a serious expression, was walking toward her with a face full of tangled thoughts.

'Even while watching the spar, the Young Master was greedily devouring their swords.'

How much had he taken from that spar just now? Had he grasped another clue? If so, what an absurd talent that was.

"Lady Lamika."

Kyle stopped walking. Just like his expression, his voice was filled with tangled thoughts. Even someone blessed with such brilliant talent seemed to be facing something that left him at a loss.

As a fellow swordsman. As a member of the Sword Church. As an Apostle who served the Church Master and helped prepare her future mate.

Lamika resolved to answer whatever Kyle asked with complete honesty.

"Yes, Young Master. Please speak."

"Did you devise the True Declaration for Sublimation yourself, Lady Lamika?"

"Excuse me?"

"I'm talking about the name Myriad Serpents Sink into the Abyss."

Kyle continued, his expression seriously troubled.

"After your Upper Dantian opens, you shape it and temper it. Once you create a world within your mindscape, it's not as though a name suddenly comes down to you like some divine revelation, right?"

Lamika blinked as she listened to him.

"In the end, a True Declaration means giving your own world a name. So you chose Myriad Serpents Sink into the Abyss yourself, Lady Lamika?"

"Y-yes. That's right. I chose it myself."

"How did you choose it?"

Kyle asked urgently.

"Did you see it in a book somewhere? Or did you take it from the name of a sword art or a technique you learned?"

"Please... please calm down, Young Master."

She had swung a sword for decades, but this was the first time anyone had asked her questions like these.

"Is a True Declaration absolutely necessary?"

Kyle took a step back and asked again.

"Can't you simply... wield your sword and use Sublimation?"

"That's impossible."

Lamika blinked a few times, then answered firmly.

"A True Declaration holds power in itself. Its true purpose is to declare it so the world can hear it and know it."

"The world hears and knows it? What does that mean? Who exactly hears and knows?"

"It means exactly what it says. Young Master, this world is made of mana so abundant it may as well be infinite. Declaring a True Declaration introduces our world to the mana that makes up this world."

Just as saying a person's name allowed one to know them for the first time, declaring the True Declaration of one's mindscape made the world aware of it.

"After that, our own spiritual energy forces our mindscape upon reality and paints over the world, allowing Sublimation to unfold. That is why a True Declaration is essential, Young Master."

"..."

"Are you worried about naming your True Declaration?"

Lamika immediately saw what Kyle was troubled by. He did not answer right away and gave a low cough.

"It's less that I'm worried, and more that nothing comes to mind yet."

"It's probably because you haven't yet given your mindscape a definite form."

Lamika smiled and placed a hand over her chest.

"Once a clear form takes shape in here, you won't need to agonize over naming your True Declaration. You'll naturally decide on its name."

Kyle glanced back at Helenas. Helenas had been standing there with an expressionless face, but she opened her mouth.

"My True Declaration is Sword's Command."

It was a True Declaration that suited Helenas perfectly.

Footnotes:

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