WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 158: How Cowardly

──────

Did elves get drunk too? And if they did, what happened to them?

A curiosity Kyle had quietly carried was answered. He did not know if every elf was like this, but Helenas became dazed when drunk. Even now, she had been sitting there in silence for nearly ten minutes, staring into space with unfocused eyes.

"If you're sleepy, go to sleep."

Seeing Helenas so loose and unguarded, Kyle kept himself under strict control. Whatever he felt for her, he had no intention of making a mistake because his judgment was clouded or he was swept up in the mood.

"..."

Helenas, who had been blankly staring into space, lowered her gaze. She watched Kyle drink alone for a while, then suddenly reached out. Her hand failed to grasp the glass as she intended and instead clutched empty air several times.

"Your sense of distance is a mess. If we fought right now, I'd win."

Kyle chuckled and rested his chin in his hand. Of course, that was all he meant to do. He had no intention of attacking Helenas right now. Against anyone else, he would take advantage of this chance and win, but he could not do that to her.

"I feel... strange."

"That's what being drunk feels like. How is it?"

"It feels good... but bad too."

"Anything else?"

"There are questions I want to ask you, circling around in my head. I don't know if I should ask them."

"Ask. If it's something I can answer, I will."

"Do you think I'm beautiful?"

"That's not a difficult question to answer... but why are you asking that all of a sudden?"

"Because everyone says I'm beautiful."

Her unfocused eyes turned to Kyle. Helenas, disheveled from drink, was beautiful in a way unlike her usual self. Kyle shrugged and answered.

"You're beautiful."

Helenas blinked blankly at that answer, then smiled softly. The smile made his heart lurch. Kyle thought of all the swords packed inside his heart and firmed his resolve.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"How beautiful?"

"As beautiful as a sword."

"More beautiful than Ruin's sword?"

"Not quite that much... but almost."

From Kyle's perspective, that was enormous praise. Helenas, though, lost her smile and glared at him with chilly eyes.

"Then marry Ruin's sword."

"How can a person marry a sword?"

"You said it's more beautiful than me."

"Just because something is beautiful doesn't mean I want to marry it."

"Then do you want to marry me?"

"No."

The moment he felt a chilling presence, Kyle quickly added,

"Not yet."

Helenas was far from satisfied with that answer, but she did not press him for a reason. Even through her drunken haze, she understood the nature of her relationship with Kyle. Still, she was not happy about it, so she stuck out her lips.

"Why are you weaker than me?"

Everything would be resolved if Kyle became stronger than Helenas, so all she could do was complain quietly.

"If you become stronger than me... and defeat me..."

Helenas muttered in a dazed voice, then her head began to sway up and down. The intoxication she had not deliberately suppressed was dragging her mind down like a swamp.

Soon, Helenas's head drooped forward. The Sword Church Master, called the strongest swordsman on the continent, had fallen asleep after losing to the liquor. Watching that historic sight, Kyle let out an exclamation without realizing it.

"Elves fall asleep when they're drunk too."

He could not leave her like that. Kyle quietly rose and approached Helenas. There was no reason to let her sleep in a chair when there was a perfectly good bed nearby.

The moment he took hold of Helenas's shoulder, her bowed head snapped up. A hand shot out and seized Kyle's wrist. Then, at a speed impossible to believe from someone completely drunk, Helenas thrust a knifehand toward his neck.

Even Kyle could not help panicking at that. Did the continent's strongest swordsman instinctively protect herself even while dead drunk? Feeling the pleasant haze of alcohol vanish at once, Kyle reacted.

Crack!

His hastily extended hand blocked Helenas's knifehand.

The reason not a drop of blood was spilled in that urgent exchange was because Helenas had held no killing intent. Her hazy eyes regained their focus the instant she struck.

"Rai... Kyle?"

Helenas called his name haltingly. It was a blend of Raikal and Kyle. As she tilted her head, her body tipped forward, and the two of them rolled onto the floor.

"Mmm..."

Helenas blinked several times as she looked up at Kyle. Their bodies were pressed together, but Kyle could not feel the slightest excitement. His heart was pounding only because Helenas's knifehand had almost killed him moments ago. If she had been the sort to kill without hesitation during an unexpected attack, if she had not regained her senses and recognized Kyle the moment her strike reached him...

'My wrist probably would've gone flying, even if I didn't die.'

Kyle steadied his startled breathing and looked down at Helenas. With her head resting against his chest, she lay there blinking blankly. Judging by what she had just done, she had regained some of her senses, yet she did not get up.

"Didn't you sober up?"

"I sobered up partway."

"Why?"

"I want to sleep."

Helenas whispered softly and closed her eyes. She seemed to mean it when she said she had sobered up only partway. Before long, her breathing settled. Kyle lay there for a moment in disbelief, then let out a deep sigh and lifted Helenas in his arms.

'Has my patience ever been tested this much?'

Not even in his previous life. Kyle sighed again and carried Helenas to the bed. After carefully laying her on a massive bed large enough for ten people, Kyle took a step back.

There was still liquor left, and his mind was unsettled. He wanted to drink a little more alone.

At that moment, Helenas shot out a hand and pulled Kyle in by the wrist.

"..."

There was an irresistible principle behind that technique. Dragged onto the bed, Kyle froze like a stone in Helenas's embrace.

"You sleep too."

Helenas whispered in a hazy voice. A glance showed that her eyes were still closed. Kyle swallowed the sigh rising in his throat and answered.

"All right, let's sleep."

Kyle squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself to try to sleep.

* * *

There was no way he could sleep in this situation. He spent the entire night with his eyes closed.

Unlike usual, Helenas tossed and turned several times, yet she never let Kyle go. She slept while holding him like a pillow, and Kyle became a pillow for her.

Dawn passed, and the morning sun rose. The scented candles had long since burned out, and sunlight streaming through the window brightened the room.

Helenas's eyes opened wide. She did not get up right away, instead taking a moment to assess the situation.

She realized that her arms and legs were tightly wrapped around Kyle, considered why she was in this position, then finally let out a low groan and released him.

"Did you sleep well?"

Finally free, Kyle asked with a sigh. Helenas staggered to her feet, pressing a hand to her throbbing head as she spoke.

"I think... I made a fool of myself."

"That wasn't enough to call making a fool of yourself."

"It feels like the me from yesterday wasn't me."

"That's what getting drunk is like."

"You were the same as usual."

"If I'd gotten drunk too, it would've been a disaster."

Kyle sat up from where he had been lying. He felt proud of himself for not giving in to temptation and impulse.

"Why didn't you do anything?"

Helenas suddenly blurted out the question while pressing her temples. Kyle flinched and had no choice but to turn toward her.

"W-what? Do what?"

"You didn't hold me."

"I mean... you were holding me."

"That's not what I mean."

Brushing back her messy hair, Helenas stared at Kyle.

"I studied too. What men and women do when they sleep in the same house, in the same bed."

"What did you study that from...?"

"Books."

Helenas extended a hand toward the pauldron hanging on the wall. Several books fell from a gap in the pauldron. Kyle looked over, wondering what they were, and found that every one was a romance novel.

"Those books explain in detail what men and women do. Especially when a man and woman drink together, it usually leads to that sort of thing."

"N-not all the knowledge in the world is in books. And those are novels."

"I asked why you didn't do anything."

It seemed Helenas had not been drinking yesterday with nothing but innocent intentions. In her own way, she had apparently steeled herself to make history.

"I didn't want to use drunkenness as an excuse."

Kyle answered honestly.

"If you do it just because you feel the urge, are you a person? You're an animal."

"You swung a sword because you wanted to, and you died."

"I took you more seriously than a sword."

He meant it sincerely. Kyle was a man, and his body was that of a vigorous young boy in the prime of adolescence. If a beauty like Helenas tempted him, naturally his brain would move somewhere other than his head.

Still, he held back. He did not want to use drunkenness as an excuse.

After hearing that, Helenas blinked at Kyle for a moment, then gave a small laugh.

"So you did want to. Then I'll forgive you."

Hearing that made Kyle's face burn. He cleared his throat several times and avoided Helenas's gaze. If he stayed here, the awkward embarrassment would make it hard to breathe, so Kyle sprang up from the bed.

"Those... novels. Where did you get them?"

"I borrowed them from Ronia."

Even the slip Helenas was wearing had belonged to Ronia, the Sixth Apostle, and now these books belonged to her too. Ronia was the youngest of the female Apostles, so perhaps that made sense...

[The Rogue Northern Grand Duke Is Obsessed With Me.]

[The Northern Grand Duke Kidnapped Me.]

[My Unrelated Older Brother Is the Northern Grand Duke.]

[Why I Had to Go to the Northern Grand Duke's House.]

[From Being Cast Aside by My Fiancé to Becoming the Northern Grand Duke's Wife.]

"You have a remarkably biased view of Northern Grand Dukes..."

Kyle could not help feeling uneasy as he looked over the titles of the romance novels. The only family on the continent currently called the northern Grand Ducal house was Alastor. Of course, these were novels, not history books, so the continent and northern Grand Ducal house in them would have different names. Still, the obvious inspiration was the Alastor Family.

As proof, every Northern Grand Duke on the covers had red hair and golden eyes.

'Didn't they model them after Grandfather?'

Looking at the publication pages, Kyle found that the books had all been released within the last ten years. In other words, the northern Grand Ducal house these authors had in mind was probably modeled after Alastor, and the Northern Grand Duke was likely modeled after Julius.

"..."

Kyle's expression became even more uneasy as he read the descriptions on the backs of the books. Not all of them followed this plot, but several told of a Northern Grand Duke who lost his beloved wife and became cold or turned into a rogue, only to meet the novel's heroine, overcome his past, and fall in love again.

'It seems Grandfather's devoted love inspired a lot of writers in this era...'

Now that Lavian had awakened, it would be harder to profit from that material.

"Don't learn from books like these. Just learn through practice later."

"Later? When?"

"I don't know. The time will come someday."

If he kept talking, he felt like he would end up promising an exact date. Kyle said nothing more and hurried away. Helenas had woken later than usual after drinking too much the day before, which had also delayed Kyle's morning training.

Even if it was late, he had to swing a sword. After spending the night with his urges pent up, he desperately wanted to work up a sweat by swinging one.

Kyle strode to the door and flung it open.

"..."

Every Apostle of the Sword Church was gathered outside.

Serga at least wore his usual expression, but Lamika's nose was red as tears streamed down her face. The moment the door opened, Tebar clapped his huge hands together. Evan, the youngest, held a large cake that no one knew where he had found, while Ronia stood with a bouquet of flowers, wearing a complicated expression.

The people who had arranged this entire scheme, Theodic and Obion, stood in the center of the Apostles. Unlike Theodic, who wore a pleased smile, Obion's expression was grave.

"Congratulations."

Theodic spoke first. Naturally, every Apostle had misunderstood and assumed Kyle and Helenas had made history overnight. The two of them, who always left the house at the same unchanging time to swing swords, had come out together at an unusual hour. It was an understandable misunderstanding.

"There's nothing to congratulate us for."

"Pardon?"

"I said there's nothing to congratulate us for. Nothing happened overnight. We just drank and had an honest conversation."

Hearing Kyle's sharp reply, Theodic wore a dumbfounded look. Tebar, who had been clapping continuously, opened his mouth stupidly and looked Kyle up and down.

"Um, could it be that our young master is impotent?"

"Everything works perfectly fine, so shut up."

"Have you ever used it?"

"I said shut up."

"No, I just don't understand. We shameless old folks worked this hard to arrange a setting for you, and you're saying there's nothing to celebrate?"

"If you do it because other people pressure you, what kind of connection is that? We'll figure things out on our own, so stop meddling and mind your own business."

Kyle glared at Theodic and Obion, his eyes wide. Theodic looked deeply dissatisfied, while Obion seemed slightly relieved. Though their age difference was several centuries, Obion had said he thought of Helenas as a daughter, so that was probably why.

"Is there something to see? Why are you all standing around? Go back and do your jobs."

"There may be nothing to congratulate, but it isn't as though this is the first time we've come here."

Tebar answered with a grin. He was not wrong. Whenever Kyle swung Ruin's sword in the morning, all the Apostles would gather to watch.

Kyle had never considered it a waste to show them his sword, but he did not want to show it now. He glared at Tebar and said,

"Why would I show you something so precious?"

"Young master, you've been enjoying our swords so eagerly all this time. Wasn't showing us the Sword Saint's sword what you gave in return?"

"There's nothing left for me to take in."

"What a shameless thing to say. Is it enough that only you are full? And what do you mean there's nothing left? I still have plenty of swordsmanship left to feed you. You're the one who can't eat anymore because you're too full."

That was not wrong either. Whenever they had arguments like this, Kyle was usually the one in control, but today he had been put on the defensive from the start. If he argued any longer, he felt he would only get cornered further, so Kyle said nothing and brushed past Tebar.

"Young master, where are you going?"

"To take a bath."

"You have a bathroom at home, yet you're going all the way to the public bath? Want to wash together? Let's see if our young master really isn't impotent."

"Don't say creepy things."

Kyle snapped at him with a straight face.

* * *

For one week, Kyle sparred with each Apostle one final time.

The First Apostle Obion's sword deceived the eye. His dazzlingly moving blade and Aura made it difficult to distinguish truth from falsehood, and what seemed like an afterimage would suddenly become a real sword aimed at the nape of the neck.

The Second Apostle Serga's sword was unreasonable. When facing the answer he had decided upon, one unknowingly began to wield a sword that could not escape the boundaries of his answer sheet.

The Third Apostle Theodic's sword was oppressive. Simply facing it made it hard to breathe, and if one tried to force their way through the pressure, they would exhaust themselves and lose strength in their sword.

The Fourth Apostle Tebar's sword was explosive. Treating attack as the best defense, his sword became uncontrollable once it began to build momentum.

The Fifth Apostle Lamika's sword was chilling. It clung persistently like a swamp, taking away the opponent's freedom the more they tried to shake it off.

The Sixth Apostle Ronia's sword was fast. No matter how hard one concentrated, that swift sword could not be seen with the eyes. To respond, one had to discern the signs that came before the sword was drawn, yet it was not simply fast. It changed several times in the instant it rushed forward.

The Seventh Apostle Evan's sword was flexible. It was neither flashy nor intense. Unlike the other Apostles' swords, each of which had its own extreme, Evan's sword had no protruding peak, but it did not break.

Every sword of the Apostles, learned over the course of a month, was engraved into Kyle's inner image.

Kyle felt that his Sword Realm, which had not yet achieved Sublimation, had grown broader.

"Aren't you going to fight me?"

On the final day, Helenas spoke as she watched Kyle finish a long meditation.

"I'm not."

"Why?"

"I think I'd lose if we fought now, but I think I'd win if we fight next time."

A battle he was certain to lose would not be uninteresting, but since he was certain he would win next time, he had no desire to taste defeat now.

"How cowardly."

Helenas murmured with a smile.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried