WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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Chapter 166: Bellatus

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The Fragment Jor had spat out. Kyle was not the only one who could hear the voice flowing from that light. Julius was deeply shaken, yet somehow managed to compose his expression.

"Dragon Queen Velatus. Are you truly that being?"

He asked in a trembling voice, but the voice did not answer Julius's question, nor did it even spare him a glance. No shadow could be seen beyond the light, but the Dragon Queen's gaze was fixed solely on Kyle.

"Are you truly that being?"

Kyle repeated Julius's question, and only then did the light respond.

[Yes. I am Velatus, queen of all dragons and the most exalted among the world's mortals.]

This was Kyle's first time speaking to a dragon, but that answer made Velatus's personality perfectly clear.

'Fucking arrogant.'

He could roughly understand why Velatus had not even looked at Julius. Velatus had appeared like this because Ruin had "answered" Kyle's sword. Therefore, Velatus only had business with Kyle.

"There are many things I want to ask..."

[Your questions are not permitted. All you must hear and obey is my will. You, human, come meet me. At once.]

"Why?"

Kyle frowned as he asked.

"I'm not someone who comes when you tell me to come and leaves when you tell me to leave."

Courtesy had to go both ways. No matter how exalted the Dragon Queen Velatus might be, Velatus showed no respect to Kyle, so Kyle had no desire to show any in return.

[If I tell you to come, you must come.]

The light rippled. The whispering voice carried the certainty of someone stating an obvious truth.

[Because it is destiny that you and I meet.]

"Destiny."

Kyle's eyes narrowed. It was not a word he liked. He knew an elf bound by fate, and he knew how sickening that fate could be. More than anything, the beings that called Kyle the Turning Point and tried to use him always spouted the same nonsense.

"I decide my own destiny."

[No. It has already been decided.]

The certainty in the voice grew stronger. Before Kyle could reply, Velatus continued.

[Your reincarnation itself was part of a planned arrangement.]

Kyle's body froze. Reincarnation. The word echoed through the white space. Julius, who had quietly listened to their conversation, slowly turned his head.

"...Reincarnation?"

Julius's voice sank low, thick with shock and confusion. Kyle's face twisted fiercely.

"You fucking bastard!"

Having been a mercenary in his previous life, Raikal knew countless curses and never hesitated to use them. But that had been in his previous life. Reborn into a great noble house, loved and taught proper manners from an early age, Kyle did not curse as much as he once had.

But he could not hold it in now. If he had been alone, perhaps. Julius was here with him. Kyle had no choice but to explode.

[Why do you insult me?]

Velatus asked as if genuinely puzzled. That damned lizard did not seem to understand that Kyle's reincarnation was a secret.

[You died once and were born again. That is neither shameful nor something to hide. It was a planned arrangement, and Ruin and I paid a great price to reincarnate you.]

Velatus's voice was agitated.

[Do you know how long I waited for you to be reborn and reach this place? Everything about you was planned, part of an inevitable course. I am one pillar of that inevitability, so it is only natural that you obey what I say.]

"Natural, my ass, you crazy bastard...!"

Kyle grabbed his face with both hands. He had met and spoken with many arrogant beings, but Velatus was the first to make his insides churn like this. The excitement in Velatus's voice suggested that Velatus had put in a great deal of effort, but that was none of Kyle's concern.

Kyle had never asked Velatus to reincarnate him like this.

[That is why I must meet you. You, human once called the Sword Demon. You, the human Ruin missed more than anyone. You, the human preserved in Ruin's memories, whom even I did not dare touch.]

Fuck.

The hands covering Kyle's face rose to clutch at his hair. That insane lizard had driven the point home. Velatus had not only mentioned reincarnation, but outright declared whose reincarnation Kyle was.

He felt a gaze beside him. Kyle swallowed hard and slowly turned his head.

Julius was looking at him. Those golden eyes trembled with immense shock. Julius opened his mouth to say something, but in the end closed it without speaking. He only stared at Kyle with unsteady eyes.

"Later..."

Kyle forced himself to speak.

"No, in a little while. After I'm done talking to this dogshit lizard. I'll explain."

Julius gave a brief nod and stepped back. Kyle felt his insides boiling as he turned back toward the light.

"I'm not going, you son of a bitch."

Lowering the hand that had clutched his hair, Kyle gave the light the finger.

"I'm absolutely not going. Why should I do anything that makes you happy?"

[I told you that it was inevitability, that it was destiny.]

"Whose inevitability and destiny? When did I ever ask you or Ruin to reincarnate me?"

To be honest, he had not completely rejected the idea of reincarnation. As he had been dying beneath Ruin's sword, he had held too many regrets about life, about the sword.

Why did humans die so easily? Why did death make the joys of the present end so pointlessly? He wanted to swing his sword more, much more. If there was a next life...

'Yeah. I did think that.'

When he was reincarnated into a world centuries later, he had honestly been overjoyed that his memories of his previous life remained intact. Being reborn into Ruin's descendants had left him with complicated feelings in many ways, but he had not died holding any resentment toward Ruin, so he soon stopped making much of it.

As an infant, there had also been far too many things to despair over besides being born as Ruin's descendant. The crying and babbling that burst out against his will, the body that would not move as he wanted, and so on.

In any case, the important thing was that Raikal had never clung to Ruin's ankle as he died and begged to be reincarnated. Dragons? A Dragon Queen? Velatus? He knew such beings existed, but he had never seen even a shadow of one in his previous life.

"I never asked for it, but you reincarnated me on your own and now you're telling me everything was planned, inevitable, destined, so I should come meet you? Go fuck yourself. Why the hell should I?"

[This is not for my sake. It is for Ruin's.]

Despite Kyle's stream of harsh curses, Velatus did not show anger. The Dragon Queen beyond the light was simply immersed in Velatus's own feelings.

[Did you not see Ruin's form as well? That back, moving down a distant and endless road where no end could be seen, where one could not even be sure an end existed. Did it not pain you to see?]

"..."

[I know how to help Ruin. I can aid Ruin and aid the world. But I cannot do it alone, which is why I reincarnated you. And even then, do you intend to refuse my summons?]

"Ha."

Kyle let out a long breath and covered his face again. Since Velatus was openly using Ruin as leverage, he could not refuse the summons simply because Velatus had treated him like dirt.

He had seen that road just moments ago. Ruin could not die and find rest like everyone else, instead swinging a sword beyond Ascension and moving forward as slowly as a grub. Kyle never doubted that he would one day walk that path and follow Ruin, but he did wonder why Velatus was saying all this.

"Fine. Tell me the basics. Why do you want me to come?"

[To entrust my heart to you.]

"Your heart?"

It was an unexpected answer. Velatus continued after Kyle's question.

[The heart of one who has lived for thousands of years. It is something that must be handed over directly, and I cannot leave the land where I now remain. Therefore, you must come find me and receive the heart.]

"As far as I know, you crossed into the East centuries ago."

Four hundred years ago, when Ruin ascended, Velatus crossed the Wisdom Mountain Range into the East with the dragons who followed her. Later, around the time all humans came to possess Spirit Roots, the Wall of Severance rose in the Wisdom Mountain Range, making it impossible to cross any longer.

"I don't know how to get past that wall."

[I will guide you. When you approach the wall, the path will open on its own.]

Kyle's eyes narrowed at that answer. He had suspected as much, but Velatus was apparently involved with the Wall of Severance after all.

"Fine."

Kyle slowly nodded.

"I'll come meet you before long."

As he spoke, Kyle glanced at Jor. She lay sprawled on the floor, unconscious.

"But tell me this. Since when have you been inside her? What is the Fragment Jor spat out?"

There was no keeping the edge from Kyle's voice. Arrogant Dragon Queen or not, whatever the matter with Ruin, Jor was Kyle's Spirit. He needed answers about someone planting something inside another person's Spirit and making her spit it out whenever they pleased.

[Inside her? What a ridiculous thing to say.]

Velatus laughed quietly.

[Was that Spirit not born inside the Sword Tower? And I created the Sword Tower myself, and I was involved in every ecosystem within it. All the magic within the Sword Tower, and that which keeps the magic operating eternally, are also my authority.]

"..."

[That Spirit was born in a world I made, so it is my creation. Though it formed a contract with you and took on your influence, I am no different from its parent.]

"Are you saying Jor contracting with me was part of your arrangement too?"

[That was not my arrangement. But since it became connected to you, this too is inevitable. Human, there is no need for you to be displeased. Ordinarily, I would have had to go through much trouble to contact you, but because you are connected to that Spirit, I can contact you like this without great effort.]

Was that true? Kyle did not answer and simply stared at the light.

"Why didn't you say any of this before?"

Kyle spoke. The laboratory of the Crows' Central Branch. When the demon descended through the Black Cube, Jor had briefly not been Jor. Another being had used Jor's mouth to speak the demon's name and whisper, Annihilate him.

"You knew who I was then too, didn't you? So why only now..."

[Human, I do not know what you are talking about.]

Velatus answered.

[I can only observe this space, and I could only use that one within this space.]

"...?"

Kyle could not help pausing at the answer.

'It wasn't Velatus?'

The demon had called someone a Forgotten Dragon, so Kyle had wondered if it was the Dragon Queen. He briefly wondered if Velatus was lying, but there was no reason for that.

[This space is dangerous to me.]

The light began to fade.

[Human. There is much we must discuss, but I do not have much time. You must come meet me as soon as possible.]

Velatus, who had dropped a bombshell at will, was about to leave. Kyle clenched his fists and glared at the fading light.

Soon, the light went out completely, and the Fragment tried to return to Jor. Kyle quickly snatched it up and examined it.

He had caught it in his hand, but could not feel any texture. It was only a mana crystal. Kyle looked it over from every angle, but found nothing unusual.

'Jor.'

Jor did not answer his call in his mind. She remained sprawled limply on the ground.

'You really have it rough too.'

Spirits were born from mana, and Jor was a young Spirit born inside the Sword Tower. If the mana here had been born from an ecosystem created by Velatus, it was not illogical for Jor, a Spirit born here, to be connected to Velatus.

Kyle swallowed a sigh and released the crystal. The crystal slipped into Jor's mouth, but she did not wake at once.

"..."

Silence hung in the white space after Velatus departed and all the power Ruin had returned vanished. Kyle hesitated for a moment before turning his head. Julius was still quietly looking at him as before, but much of the shock had faded from his gaze.

"Now..."

As Kyle struggled with what to say, Julius spoke.

"Many things make sense now."

"Um... like what?"

"Since the first time I met you."

Julius's eyes narrowed.

"I thought it was impossible. A five-year-old child... a child who had supposedly held a wooden sword for the first time, overwhelming Lucia, who had learned the sword directly from the Elders."

"Um... that did happen."

"You were far too skilled with a sword for someone who had supposedly held one for the first time. Your body belonged to a small child, but your sword did not."

"..."

"After that, you surprised me over and over. The things I had taken for granted my whole life were overturned by you. You... devoted yourself to the sword as if you had been born for it. And after awakening your Spirit Root, you handled mana as though you had always known how."

"Well, that part is a little different."

Kyle gave a bitter smile and shook his head.

"In the age I lived in, there were no Spirit Roots. Swords were very different too."

"Hah..."

Julius shook his head.

"Are you... admitting that you are the Sword Demon's reincarnation?"

"That dogshit lizard blabbed about it on its own. And Grandfather, you'd already reached an answer in your heart, hadn't you?"

"Grandfather... Grandfather, is it?"

A hollow laugh escaped Julius.

"Do you still call me Grandfather, and think of me that way?"

"There has never been a time when I did not think of you as my grandfather."

Kyle composed his expression and answered seriously.

"Nor has there ever been a time when I did not think of Mother as my mother, or Father as my father. It is true that I was reincarnated, but every bond connected to me belongs to Kyle Alastor."

"..."

"It is true that I am the reincarnation of the Sword Demon from five hundred years ago, but at the same time, I am Kyle, your grandson and the son of Arian and Aslan."

He meant every word. Kyle looked directly at Julius and asked.

"What about you, Grandfather? Do you see the Sword Demon in me now, or your grandson?"

"Heh heh..."

Julius laughed again.

"I see a grandson who is far too much... infuriating... admirable... and strange."

That, too, was Julius's honest feeling.

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