WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reincarnation of the Sword Demon

Chapter 18

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The Elixir Kicks In

Freshly washed and changed into clean clothes.

"..."

With a special gift tucked away, Kyle stepped out of the Rose Mansion. The fourth floor stretched impossibly wide for the interior of any tower, but when he fixed the elevator in his mind and opened the mansion door, the path connected straight to it.

'Handy little trick.'

He had been told the Sword Tower was a gift from the Dragon King, woven through with every kind of magic, but its structure and mysteries still made no real sense to him. There was no need to understand it. This place was just the kind of place it was.

Convenient, at least. Since Kyle had been registered as a pure-blood in the Sword Tower yesterday, there was no need to cross the sprawling meadow on foot. The doors simply knew where to take him.

That said, it didn't extend to other mansions on the fourth floor. Those were private spaces, and visiting them still required knocking and asking permission.

Not that he had any business there at the moment. He hadn't exchanged more than a few words with any of his relatives yet, outside of Erika. So Kyle followed his original plan, stepped into the elevator, and rode it down to the first floor. He was going to thank his grandfather Julius for all the wonderful gifts.

'And play again, like yesterday.'

The three body-enhancing elixirs had done their work. His stamina was incomparably better than the day before, and with the extra strength packed into this small frame, he figured he could swing a sword reasonably well, despite his size.

'A shame I can't hold a real blade yet.'

Five years old was simply too young, talent or not. Frustrating, but it also meant a long road of growth still ahead. Kyle wasn't in a hurry.

The Central Hall of the Sword Tower's first floor. The moment he stepped out of the elevator, the first thing he saw was..."Lucia, you really lost to that little brat?"
"Be honest. You didn't actually try, did you?"

A handful of children had cornered another child and were letting her have it.

"I did. I fought seriously."
"Liar! You fought seriously and still lost to him? That doesn't make any sense!"
"It's the truth. The Family Head told me to fight at full strength without using mana."
"If you're not using mana, how is that full strength? Stop lying!"
"I'm not lying."
"She's not."

Kyle said it walking toward them. Bruno and Bequius spun around in alarm, they'd been too busy tormenting Lucia to notice the elevator slide open.

"Lucia didn't talk behind your backs, and she didn't throw the fight."
"Y-you..."
"Hey."

Kyle smiled at them. Pure childish nonsense, all stubbornness and volume. He'd grown up fighting this exact kind of battle in the Crow Mercenary Band, bickering with kids his own age, and it showed.

"Why are you pulling this crap on Lucia?"
"...Crap?"

Foul language wasn't exactly unheard-of in a martial household, but hearing it from a five-year-old cousin he'd met only yesterday left Bruno's mouth hanging open.

"Do you even know who we are?"

Bequius narrowed his eyes from beside the huffing Bruno and asked. Unlike Bruno, who was built like a bear, Bequius was lean. He twisted a lock of his golden hair between his fingers and fixed Kyle with a sharp stare.

"I know. You're Bequius. He's Bruno."
"Do you know how old we are?"
"Ten."
"And you still speak to us informally?"

Bequius's eyebrow shot up.

"Because I feel like it."
"W-what?"
"I said, because I feel like it."

Kyle wasn't trying to win with logic. Why speak informally? Just because. A children's quarrel didn't need clear reasoning. You dig in and you get louder.

"I'm five years older than you! And my father is your mother's older brother!"
"I know."
"Then call me hyung!"
"No."
"Why not!"
"Because I feel like it."

Bequius thumped his own chest in frustration at the same answer repeated back at him. Bruno, who had been standing there open-mouthed, started grinding his teeth. Where Bequius had tried to win with words, Bruno curled his big hand into a fist and walked straight at Kyle.

"B-Bruno oppa!"

Vivian lunged to stop him, but Bruno swung his arm and shook her off. She stumbled, nearly falling, before Lucia darted in and caught her.

"Bruno-nim...!"

Emotion cracked through Lucia's voice. Bequius rounded on her immediately.

"Lucia, are you seriously trying to get angry at Bruno?"

Her brow tightened at that. Whatever talent she had been acknowledged for, whatever right it gave her to live in the Sword Tower, Lucia didn't carry the Alastor name. Just an outsider. A half-blood of the demon tribe, a people still considered enemies just a few centuries ago.

"Go ahead and get angry."

The words landed in Lucia's ear just as she dropped her gaze and pressed her lips together. She looked up, startled. Kyle was standing there grinning while Bruno closed in with heavy strides.

"You're stronger than him, aren't you? So you've got the right. Don't you?"
"W-what are you even saying?"
"Just hit him."

Bequius stared at Kyle, eyes wide. Absolutely certain the five-year-old had lost his mind. Get angry? Hit him? Lucia was an outsider without the Alastor name. Abandoned on a shore somewhere, parents unknown.

"Do you actually understand the blood flowing in our veins? Someone like Lucia, a mongrel, can never..."
"You shouldn't call people mongrels."
"What's wrong with calling a mongrel a mongrel!"
"That mongrel is stronger than you. Isn't being strong the most important thing here?"

The grin on Kyle's face didn't budge, but something shifted behind his eyes. Whether Lucia or Bequius would win in a real fight, Kyle could already tell without needing to watch them spar. Lucia had the edge from the way she stood alone. There was always the chance Bequius had something hidden, that the sloppy posture was an act ,

No. There wasn't. A two-year gap meant very little to someone with demon blood.

Lucia was looked down on for her mixed heritage, and she had still earned her place in the Sword Tower on talent alone. Kyle had only beaten her by running ahead on experience and reading her movements, and even that had taken everything he had. Against anyone less than exceptional, Lucia was a wall at that age.

"..."

She hadn't expected to be shoved in this direction. Get angry? Hit him? Of course she couldn't just do that. But Kyle's words, the idea that being stronger was what mattered most, planted something small in her chest.

"Hey."

Bruno stopped in front of Kyle. He stared down at him with his whole face, eyes narrowed to slits. Bear-like Barkas had clearly passed something on, at ten years old, Bruno was big-boned and broad in a way that had no business belonging to a child.

"What exactly are you so full of yourself about?"

Low and pressed-down. Kyle had plenty of answers. The simplest was "grandfather," and that alone would have shut Bruno down cold.

But that was boring, and it wasn't what Kyle wanted. He could use Julius as a shield against the adults who might cause problems later. Bruno, though, was just another kid.

Young children feared adults. Dropping an adult's name could stop a fight cold. It just wasn't a real fix. They were going to be living in the same place, running into each other constantly, so getting the first impression right mattered more than a quick way out.

"I trust myself."

Adults were far away. Fists were right here. Kyle said it with a grin.

"What do you think you are?"
"Yeah."
"No, what are you?"
"Kyle."
"I know your name! I'm asking what makes you think you're so special!"
"A lot, actually."
"More than me?"
"Yeah. Way more."

Bright, breezy, and completely sincere. That was the last straw. Bruno raised one big hand to shove Kyle's chest, but Kyle moved first, sidestepping cleanly. The momentum sent Bruno stumbling forward.

"You ,!"

Hotter than before, Bruno swung a yell along with his fist. The punch caught nothing.

Kyle took quiet, genuine pleasure in what the elixirs had done for him. Bruno's heavy, telegraphed swings had been easy to dodge even before. Now everything felt so effortless it was almost dull.

'The Funeral Knights have to be watching this floor. So why isn't anyone stepping in?'

They had to be watching. Nobody was intervening. Because it was just children scrapping? Or did this fall under the creed of the strong? Either way, it worked in Kyle's favor.

"Just. Stay. Still!"

Bruno barked through his teeth. Every swing landed on nothing. The kid kept slipping away, never quite hit and never quite missing, and the helplessness of it was maddening.

"If I stay still I'll get hit."

Kyle sidestepped again, still smiling. The elixirs really were something. His body moved exactly as he wanted it to, quick and sharp and without any cost.

"Grrk ,!"

Past all reason now, Bruno spread both arms wide and rushed in, trying to grab Kyle and drag him down. Kyle didn't dodge.

He stepped in.

Thud.

Kyle's small fist drove cleanly into Bruno's solar plexus.

"Ugh ,!"

A strangled sound tore out of Bruno's mouth. For a five-year-old's punch, the impact was absurd. The air left him at once and his legs buckled.

Iron-clad dragon marrow had hardened his bones. The fruit of the blood ghost tree had given his muscles a taut, coiled strength. He had pulled the punch on purpose, worried about doing real damage, though apparently not enough.

'Maybe a little too tough after all.'

Then again, Bruno would have had elixirs of his own. Looking at him, the kid was built solid, and he would have trained in mana cultivation already. A bit of extra durability made sense.

"Urgh...!"

Bruno clutched his stomach and swayed, barely keeping himself from going down. Pain hit alongside a wave of humiliation so intense it nearly blinded him. Ten years old, hit by a five-year-old, and almost knocked to his knees.

"B-Bruno?!"

Bequius looked like his eyes might fall out. Vivian and Lucia stood with their mouths open.

"Want more?"

Kyle asked it plainly, and that one question snapped the last thread holding Bruno together.

"I'll kill you ,!"

Bruno's head came up. Bloodshot eyes, something lethal moving behind them. Whoosh. A faint red glow began to pulse around his clenched fist.

By anything Kyle had seen in his past life, it was nothing. But aura was aura, and this was no place for it. In a scrap between children, pulling aura crossed every line. If that fist connected, even a body strengthened by elixirs would walk away with serious injuries at the very least.

"Bruno-nim!"

Lucia screamed. Kyle's eyes stayed calm. No matter how dangerous the hit, all he had to do was not get hit.

'Pulling aura means he's drawing on mana cultivation. How much will it change his movement?'

He was genuinely curious. He wanted to see what the method did to the young bear when he really meant it.

"Die!"

Bruno surged forward. Lucia ran at the same moment, moving to get between them.

As it turned out, Kyle never got his answer.

A dark figure cut in and caught Bruno's fist.

"That is enough, young master."

Low and calm. A different Funeral Knight from the one who had visited the Rose Mansion that morning looked down at Bruno without expression.

"L-let go! He started it ,!"

Bruno thrashed, but the knight's hand didn't move. The aura wreathing his fist died without a sound.

"Sparring between family members is encouraged. Killing moves are not. Using aura, especially, crosses the line."

The cold eyes holding Bruno in place did the rest. The anger drained out of him, and what flooded in was fear.

"Let him go."

An authoritative voice filled the hall. Every head turned.

The door connecting the corridor to the Sword Peak Hall had opened without anyone noticing.

"F-Family Head ,!"

Bequius and Vivian flinched and bowed their heads. Lucia dropped to one knee. The color left Bruno's face entirely.

Julius looked from Bruno to Kyle, who stood there perfectly composed.

"A ten-year-old using aura against a five-year-old cousin. Were you trying to kill him?"
"I... I wasn't..."
"I heard you say kill, and I heard it clearly. Answer me, Bruno Alastor. Did you try to kill your cousin?"
"N-no. I was just... so angry, I didn't mean to, I didn't..."
"Angry enough to lose yourself and pull aura. You can't control your own emotions. Shallow and careless. You carry more power than your character deserves."

Tears gathered in Bruno's eyes.

"I'm sorry. Please forgive me..."
"Go."
"Yes...!"

Bruno backed away, practically fleeing. Bequius hesitated, then went after him.

The Funeral Knight withdrew as well. Left in the hall were Julius, Kyle, Vivian, and Lucia.

"Grandfather!"

Kyle walked over to Julius beaming, as if none of it had happened.

"I did well, didn't I? Not one hit. I even landed one myself."

Julius let out a short, helpless laugh. Not an apology, not a word of remorse for the commotion. Straight to the boasting, announced with complete sincerity.

"Yes, you did well. The elixirs kicked in, I see."

He could tell it wasn't simply the elixirs. The body had been strengthened considerably, but instead of being thrown off by it, Kyle had moved in perfect command of every last bit of it. He had read all of Bruno's attacks and answered each one precisely. The same thing Julius had felt during their play yesterday, only sharper now, more apparent. His grandson's talent, especially his instinct for combat, was not something a single word like "genius" could hold.

"What brought you down to the first floor?"
"I wanted to play with you again, Grandfather. And I wanted to say thank you."
"Ha. Wanted to play again, did you."

Julius smiled and held out his hand. Kyle took it without hesitation.

"Aren't you two coming?"

He looked back at Lucia and Vivian. Vivian, still in a daze, shook her head quickly. Lucia composed herself and dipped her head.

"I'm all right."
"Let's play next time, then."

He left it at that and let Julius lead him by the hand toward the Sword Peak Hall.

"Thank you for the gifts."

Walking down the corridor, Kyle looked up at Julius.

"Did you enjoy them?"
"Yes. They tasted awful, though."
"Good medicine always does."
"My whole body ached too."
"A little pain for what you gained. A fair trade."
"It wasn't a little pain. I thought I might actually die."

Julius paused.

"Don't tell me you took all of them."
"Hm? Yes. All of them."
"All three...?"

Grown adults couldn't manage a second dose after the first had floored them, he had sent those expecting they'd be taken over several days. That all three had gone down at once left Julius without words.

"Were you not in agony?"
"I was. But the worse it felt, the stronger my body seemed to get. So I just kept going."
"Ha."

Remarkable tolerance. Julius shook his head quietly.

"This is my gift to you, Grandfather."

Kyle reached into his clothes and pulled out the "gift."

"A gift...?"

Julius looked at what Kyle was holding, surprise plain on his face.

A letter.

"Read it later."

Written by Kyle himself, of course.

With all the gratitude and affection a five-year-old grandson could put into words.

'...'

Not as Sword Demon Raikal. Written from inside the feelings of a five-year-old boy.

'The past life is the past life. Now is now.'

He refused to think of it as an affront to his dignity.

End
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