Reincarnation of the Sword Demon - Chapter 157

WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Chapter 157: Small Happiness

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"..."

What was this?

Kyle's eyes blinked rapidly. The living room was softly lit by candles. The smell was different from usual. He sniffed, wondering what it was, and realized it came from the candles lighting the room.

'Scented candles?'

It was not an unpleasant fragrance. There was something strangely calming about it. Yet Kyle's blinking only became faster. Swallowing dryly, he looked at the table.

Several bottles of liquor sat there, along with snacks that would go well with them.

Helenas was seated across from them.

She looked much the same as always, expressionless, with pale green hair and faded blue eyes. Her hair lay neatly against her head as if she had just finished bathing, and her skin was moist.

"Why are you standing there?"

She was the same as usual, except for what she was wearing. Instead of the pajamas Helenas normally wore, she had on a slip that bared her collarbones and shoulders. It was the sort of nightwear that, given Helenas's personality, she would not have worn even once in five hundred years, let alone owned.

Kyle unconsciously backed out the door. He closed it again, took a light breath, and stared at the house.

It was definitely Helenas's house. Was this a dream? Had Tebar ambushed him unexpectedly on the way back from Agur's, knocking him unconscious? It was an absurd thought, but no more absurd than what he had just seen.

Smack!

Kyle slapped both cheeks at once. Pain stung through his face.

At least it was not a dream.

Then why?

After taking another breath, Kyle opened the door.

Helenas was seated at the table exactly as before. Tilting her head with a puzzled look, she spoke.

"What were you doing?"

"Wait. I got confused about whether this was reality or a dream."

"Stop saying strange things and come in."

Isn't your outfit the strange part? What is with this house?

Those questions rose to his throat. Kyle shut the door, cautiously stepped inside, and asked them one at a time.

"What's with the house? And what are those candles and all that liquor?"

"Obion and Theodic brought them."

Helenas glanced at the scented candles lighting the living room.

"They said the scent calms the mind. This is my first time using them, but I like them quite a bit."

"The scent is nice. But the light is too dim. Wouldn't it be better to let the candles burn and turn on the lights as well?"

"I like this soft light too. Long ago, you and I used to light candles like this in this house."

That was because they had not had magical lighting back then. Things were different now. Kyle glanced at the ceiling. The magical lights Agur had installed sat there in pitiful silence.

"Strictly speaking, this isn't that house. The old one was torn down, and this one was built from scratch."

"Both that house and this house are our home."

"That... yes. You're right."

Kyle swallowed and approached the table.

"And what about the liquor? Did the First Apostle and Third Apostle bring this too?"

"Yes. They came earlier and asked if I had ever tried drinking. When I said I hadn't, they left these bottles behind."

"Why...?"

"Because I said I wanted to try it. You liked drinking in your previous life."

There was no arguing with that.

"I have never drunk alcohol before. When I lived with you, I said a few times that I wanted to try it, but you never shared any with me."

"It wasn't because I didn't want to waste it on you. You were too young."

"I'm not young anymore, so I can drink with you now."

"I'm the young one..."

"You drank with Obion and Theodic the other day. You can drink with them, but you don't want to drink with me?"

There was no arguing with that either.

In the end, Kyle shut his mouth and sat across from Helenas.

"And the clothes... what are those? You don't normally wear things like that. Did you even have anything like that?"

"These are Ronia's clothes."

"Why are you wearing Ronia's clothes...?"

"When I said I was going to drink, Theodic borrowed them. He said it was best to wear something comfortable and well-ventilated when drinking at home."

What had Ronia felt when a stern Elder Apostle suddenly came to demand sleepwear? If Ronia abruptly announced tomorrow that she was quitting as an Apostle, it would all be Theodic's fault.

"This is my first time wearing pajamas like this, but I think they're rather nice. They're soft, and easy to move in. Would you like to touch them?"

Helenas lifted one of the thin shoulder straps as she made the offer.

"No, that's all right."

Polite speech slipped out before he knew it. Kyle refused firmly and respectfully as he sat across from her.

What were Obion and Theodic, the oldest of the Sword Church's Apostles, thinking when they arranged this and even put Helenas in a slip?

"..."

He could guess the reason.

His body might only be sixteen, but his mind was not. Kyle had plenty of experience in this sort of thing. A house softly lit by candles, a fragrance that relaxed the mind and body, two bottles of expensive-looking liquor, and a man and a woman.

'Those old men are serious. They want to make this a done deal that badly?'

Theodic had likely led it, but Obion had joined in too. This was something the people involved should handle themselves. The old men were meddling far too much. Maybe their minds had gone bad with age. If so, perhaps putting them out of their misery would be doing them a favor.

Even while entertaining such thoughts, Kyle swallowed a sigh.

"It sounds ridiculous coming from someone who has been drinking since his previous life, but alcohol isn't a very good beverage. It doesn't even taste good, and it turns people into dogs."

"I'm not human. I'm an elf."

"Elves will probably turn into dogs if they drink too much too. ...Will they? Honestly, now I'm curious."

What happened when an elf, with faint emotions and few likes or dislikes, got drunk? When people got drunk, they became excited or angered by trivial things. Would elves laugh loudly or get angry too?

'To begin with, elves don't seem like the type to drink...'

Yet here was Helenas, an elf, sitting down because she wanted to drink. That alone showed how much she had changed.

Which made Kyle even more afraid.

Helenas sometimes showed unsettling obsession even without drinking. What would happen if she got drunk? Would the obsession she harbored grow stronger with alcohol?

Lately, Helenas had already been a little different. As the day Kyle had to leave drew closer, she looked at him more often and more deeply. At her request, Agur had made a bed broad enough for ten people to lie in comfortably, and Kyle had originally slept at the very edge.

But as his departure approached, the distance between them in bed had steadily shrunk.

Maybe, just maybe, tonight.

Kyle's body might lose the one precious, irreplaceable thing it could only have once in a lifetime.

'No.'

There was a saying that even if you were dragged into a tiger's den, you could live if you kept your wits about you. The point was that he simply could not get drunk. Helenas was the strongest swordsman on the continent. There was no way she would lose herself to alcohol.

Thinking that, Kyle glanced at the bottle.

He did not know what it was, but even the material of the bottle and its label looked remarkably expensive.

"What is a religious person doing with liquor this expensive?"

"The Sword Church's doctrine does not forbid drinking."

"You don't need alcohol to swing a sword."

"You drank plenty too."

The Sword Demon from the past kept disproving everything Kyle said in the present.

"I'm really looking forward to it."

Helenas touched her hair as she spoke.

"Eating and drinking. They were all things I never enjoyed, things I considered unnecessary. But they were enjoyable when I did them with you. I looked forward to every meal."

"..."

"It's the same now. I've never had alcohol before. This is the first time I'm drinking it with you. You just said alcohol doesn't taste good, but I don't mind. It'll be enjoyable if I drink it with you."

"You're so fucking unfair."

Kyle let out a long sigh and opened the bottle.

"Whenever anything happens, you bring up the past or the present. You say things in a way no one could ever refuse. You're just like the sword you wield."

"I didn't intend to."

"I know. You don't have any ill intent. You just genuinely want to drink with me. That's why you make it impossible for me to refuse."

Those crazy old men had arranged this setting because they wanted to push them into sleeping together tonight, but Kyle and Helenas had no intention of doing that right now. The meaning lay only in their first drinking session together.

"Do you know how to drink it?"

"I've watched you drink many times. You gulp it down all at once."

"No... Drinking like that is uncultured. This looks like expensive, good liquor, so you should drink it slowly."

"That's different from what Theodic told me."

"What did that crazy old man say?"

"He said to gulp it down all at once. He said that was the only way to taste the alcohol properly. And he said not to erase the toxins that enter the body. He said those toxins were the reason people drank."

"What a mess. That damned old man."

Kyle could only sigh again. That old man always looked so serious whenever Kyle saw him, yet he had pulled a trick like this.

"When he drank with me, he only touched it to his lips. Anyway... yes, the toxins are part of why people drink. But you shouldn't leave them entirely alone. Then you really will become a dog."

"Ah."

Helenas paused to think about something, then let out a quiet sound and nodded.

"I was wondering what the saying about becoming a dog meant, but I remembered. On days when you drank too much long ago, you said going to the toilet was bothersome and urinated outside the house. Like a dog."

"..."

"Your face would turn red, and you would shout things no one could understand. I see. That was similar to the sound of a dog barking."

"Stop... please, stop."

He wanted to kill his past self.

"I'm human, and you're an elf. We aren't dogs. So let's drink like a human and an elf."

"Why are you saying something so obvious?"

"This is my resolve going into this."

Speaking solemnly, Kyle poured alcohol into their glasses. The label had looked expensive, and the fragrance was excellent as well. He raised his glass toward Helenas, who was only blinking blankly.

"Let's make a toast."

"A toast?"

"You clink glasses. Like this."

When Kyle extended his glass slightly, Helenas awkwardly raised hers too.

Clink.

A clear sound rang out as their glasses touched.

"That's a toast. You do it when starting a drinking session, and when something good happens."

"Something good?"

"Hmm... We haven't celebrated your new house yet."

"There are many other good things too."

"There is plenty of liquor, so we can celebrate all of them. For this glass, we'll celebrate getting a new house. The next will be the good changes happening to you. Then, our reunion. After that, my reincarnation? What else is there to celebrate?"

"Do you toast sad things too, not only happy things?"

"Hmm... Depending on what it is?"

Helenas's eyes darkened as she watched Kyle tilt his head. Under the orange light cast by the flickering candles, her faded blue eyes shimmered differently.

"You're leaving the Sword Grove in a week. That makes me sad."

"..."

"Is that something to celebrate for you? Or is it something sad?"

"Both."

"Not one or the other?"

Helenas's brows rose.

Naturally, she had wanted it to remain only something sad. Hearing that it was also something to celebrate could only leave her displeased.

"When we part, we can look forward to what comes next. I'll look forward to how much you change while I'm gone, and you can look forward to how much stronger I'll be when we meet again."

"..."

"In a sense, it is a new beginning for both of us. So it is something to celebrate."

"And the sadness?"

"Being apart from you."

"That is the same as me."

Helenas nodded slightly. She looked awkwardly at the glass in her hand and murmured.

"I have changed a great deal, but your words are still... sometimes difficult to understand. But I will try to understand them."

"Good. Then let's wash this sadness down with alcohol."

"You are saying something difficult to understand again. What does it mean to wash sadness down with alcohol?"

"Just what it sounds like. You drink the sad feelings down along with the alcohol."

Kyle demonstratively raised his glass to his lips. Watching him, Helenas tilted her own glass as well.

The dark red liquor ran down Kyle's throat. He raised his brows slightly at the taste. It was smooth and deep. It seemed even finer than what he had drunk with Obion and Theodic the other day.

'That old man. He hid liquor this good away, then didn't bring it out when he was testing me?'

If Theodic was still an Apostle after Kyle became the new Church Master, he would make sure to purge him.

"How is it?"

As Kyle had told her, Helenas did not empty her glass. She frowned as she looked at the considerable amount left inside.

"Don't you like it?"

"I can't say it tastes good."

"It isn't a straightforward taste. It's a little bitter too."

"Yes. If I were not with you, it would not be a taste I would drink."

"Drinking alone is pathetic."

"You often drank alone."

"That's because I was pathetic. You aren't. In the future, drink with me, or with the Apostles. The Apostles will be thrilled if you ask them to drink."

"Why do people drink something like this?"

"It makes people honest in many ways."

"Honest?"

"Your mind gets a little hazy, and you feel good. You get so honest that you say things you normally wouldn't."

At those words, the frown disappeared from Helenas's face. She lifted her glass again and drank the rest in one swallow.

"I told you, that's not how you drink it...?"

"A hazy mind, becoming honest, saying things I normally would not. All of those are unfamiliar to me."

After saying that, Helenas held her empty glass out to Kyle.

"Make a toast. I have many things to celebrate and mourn besides the house."

"Do you understand what it means to wash sadness down with alcohol now?"

"I think I will if I keep drinking."

This did not look good.

Feeling a faint unease, Kyle emptied his own glass first.

"Why are you drinking without making a toast?"

"You drank all of yours. I can't be the only one not drinking."

There was no law saying it had to be that way, but Kyle had first learned to drink among a mercenary group in his previous life. That was simply how they drank there.

They filled each other's glasses again.

"One happy thing, one sad thing."

Helenas murmured.

"The sadness of you leaving the Sword Grove is still here. I think I need to drink more."

"Drink."

"You said you were happy that I was changing, but I don't know. This is my first time going through changes like this."

"Then let's celebrate something else. Happiness can be something small. How was the weather today? It wasn't too cold, and the sunlight was clear. The weather was good, so let's toast to that."

"You make a toast for something like that?"

"It can be anything."

Their glasses touched again, and they emptied them.

"A day like any other. No trouble happened, and no one left."

Helenas murmured.

"The sunlight was warm, and the sound of birds chirping was pleasant. The bathwater Lamika prepared was warm too."

The liquor was quite strong, and this was Helenas's first time drinking. Since she was not deliberately removing the effects of intoxication, warmth spread from her stomach through her body.

"Yes, this is something to celebrate. I like today. I am drinking with you for the first time too... though it does not taste good."

For five hundred years, Helenas's life had been a repetition of the same daily routine. She had never found that repetition boring. She had considered it natural. Yet lately, she felt differently.

The repetition of daily life brought peace to her heart. A day and a year had once made little difference to Helenas, but her days lately had a fullness unlike anything before.

"Only one week of days like that remains."

This time, Helenas took hold of the bottle. Unlike Kyle, she poured until the liquor nearly overflowed from the glasses. Kyle glanced at the sight uneasily.

"The days I will live after you leave will not be the same as the days when you were here."

Helenas lifted her brimming glass. Kyle lifted his as well. Though they made a toast, these swordsmen of great skill did not spill a single drop. Kyle watched Helenas just in case, but she drained the filled glass in one gulp.

"I know what that is like. Long ago. When you ran out of this forest to fight Ruin Alastor. Until then, I lived with you. But you did not return, and I was alone."

"..."

"The days when you were here and the days when you were not were different. It hurt. Will it be like that again this time?"

"I couldn't return then because I died."

"You were alive until you left me. I did not know you would die. I am afraid it will happen again."

"You never know what will happen to a person, so I can't swear I won't die after I leave. Life and death aren't something I can control."

He could make the promise even if it were a lie, but he did not want to. Resting his chin on his hand, Kyle looked steadily at Helenas. Her eyes churned with anxiety after what he had said. If he said much more, it felt as though she might preserve him so he could never leave her side.

"If I die, you die too."

Kyle took the bottle from Helenas and poured her another glass.

Her eyes widened at his words.

"Say you're so sad because I died that you can't enjoy anything in the world. What would be the point of living any longer? Throw away all that destiny about swords and whatever else, and just follow me into death."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, I am. You have hundreds more years to live. Instead of spending that long life in ruin, just die cleanly."

"And after that?"

"Why think about after death? If you die, you die. Ah, maybe we will meet again after we die. Whether we meet in the afterlife or are reincarnated like this and meet again."

He did not fill the glass all the way. This liquor was too strong to drink in one shot.

"Anyway, we can meet again after death. What do you think? If you think of it that way, would you be less sad if I died?"

"I do not understand at all."

"Of course you don't. I'm not dead right now, I'm alive in front of you. I died once and still met you again. This must be what they call a bond."

"..."

"You remembered me, and I remembered you. I remembered you even after death, and even after reincarnation. But none of this has happened yet. Hey, there are so many fun things in the world. Why don't you think about the fun things instead of only the damned boring and sad ones?"

"It is difficult to understand."

"If you're depressed after I leave, look at other things. There are more people around you who like you than you think. And you said it yourself, today. The sunlight, the birds chirping, the bathwater. You said all of it was good."

Kyle extended his glass.

"Look for small happiness. Swinging a sword is the most fun thing in the world to me, but that does not mean I cannot enjoy anything else."

"I don't find swords fun either."

"That has only been true until now. You are already remembering the small things in a day and taking joy in them. Who knows what will happen from now on? The Apostles have been asking you to spar with them lately too. Try to find enjoyment in that as well."

Helenas blinked with an expression that said she did not know, then belatedly lifted her glass.

"For the happiness in your days."

Kyle said that and emptied his glass.

"I think... I can understand a little of what you mean."

Helenas murmured in a dazed voice.

"And... I understand this too. The haziness, becoming honest. Feeling good. Why is my face hot?"

"Because you're drunk. You've been drinking this strong liquor almost without stopping."

"Ah, ahh."

Helenas gave a small, breathy laugh, her face flushed red.

"So this is being drunk."

Hearing those words, Kyle strictly controlled himself.

'Keep it together.'