WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reincarnation of the Sword Demon

Chapter 27

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I'm Curious Too

'Am I losing my mind?'

He'd spent a past life mad about swords. Loved the blade so completely he'd died for it, came back, and still loved it. But dreaming of a world where every single thing was a sword? That was a bit much.

Rocks were swords. Fire was a sword. Raindrops were swords. Trees, swords. Ice, swords. Lightning, swords. And then sky and earth and sea all blurred together into one churning chaos.

'Was there a sword in that, too?'

He wasn't sure. The dream he'd just woken from wasn't an ordinary one, not the dissolving kind. It was an awakening vision, the kind that heralded a spirit root coming to life. Those didn't fade. Every detail stayed vivid and fixed no matter how much time passed.

So Kyle remembered the dream perfectly, except for the ending. Everything collapsing into chaos. He'd stared into it, reached out his hand, and...

Reached out. And then? He'd woken up.

'Did I catch it?'

No idea. Everything after his arm extended was simply gone, cut clean. Kyle sat on the edge of the bed and turned it over in his head.

He'd already heard descriptions of awakening visions from Arian, Erika, and Julius. Arian's had been a ship on a wind-sea. Erika's, a field of ice blossoms. Julius's, lightning falling like rain. Each of them had watched their vision passively and then woken. None of those visions had changed shape, either. A wind-ship from start to finish, an ice blossom field, lightning rain.

Kyle's vision had never stopped changing. And he'd been able to move his own arm inside it. That alone set it apart from everything he'd been told about, or anything he'd read about spirit root awakenings.

'What if it really was just some random dream?'

The concepts of spirit roots and awakening visions were foreign to him. He'd lived and died in a world where neither had existed. He couldn't be certain.

And if his spirit root didn't awaken? He figured he could work with mana the same way he had in his past life, one way or another. But failing to awaken something everyone else awakened would make Arian miserable. That much was obvious.

'Hm?'

Just as that worry started to settle over him, a faint tremor ran through his lower abdomen. He turned his attention to it and immediately felt a presence beyond the tremor.

Lower abdomen. What the people of this era called the lower dantian. Something was there. Kyle closed his eyes and reached inward with his senses. It sounded absurd, but between his past life's accumulated experience and the Elixirs that had sharpened his perception far beyond any normal limit, he could feel even the movement of his own organs if he focused hard enough.

'Spirit root...'

A sense that hadn't existed yesterday had opened. Through it, he could feel the lower dantian in his abdomen.

Less like a solid organ and more like a hole that had appeared inside him without warning. A hole that, being non-physical, placed no burden on the body whatsoever.

What was it a hole for? He already knew the answer. Mana. Those who awakened a spirit root could sense the mana drifting through the world. They drew it inward through breathing techniques, refined it, and stored it in the dantian. Filled the hole, in other words.

'Once the hole holds enough mana, it spreads through the connected channels and circulates through the body.'

In the Sword Demon's era, a core formed in your heart by crossing death's threshold again and again. But this was how mana worked in this era.

"Spirit root..."

Kyle murmured the words, then let the spirit root's awareness seep outward past his skin. His whole body tingled briefly, and then things he'd never felt before began to come through.

He opened his eyes.

Flows that had been invisible were visible now. Blue-gray particles threaded through the morning breeze drifting in past the window. He reached over and turned on the light. Subtle currents pulsed inside the glow itself. A low sound of wonder escaped him as he crossed to the window.

The Rose Mansion garden spread out below. He wasn't standing in it, but through the awakened spirit root's senses he could feel the enormous current of mana flowing through the earth. Not only the earth, either.

Everywhere. The whole world, filled with mana, running through it all.

And this was inside the Sword Tower, a gift from the Dragon King. Everything here was made of magic, and Kyle's spirit root felt and saw every current of it, sharp and clear.

"Huh."

A short, involuntary laugh.

'There's a whole view I didn't have before.'

He'd used mana in his past life, but he'd never felt its flow with this kind of clarity. He opened the window and breathed in deep, consciously trying to draw mana in with the air. Nothing came. The mana around him didn't attach itself just from breathing.

'So that's why the cultivation method is necessary.'

Kyle nodded to himself and shut the window. Then a question surfaced.

'So. What is my spirit root?'

Arian, who had seen the wind-ship, had a wind spirit root. Erika, who had seen the ice blossoms, had an ice spirit root. Julius, who had seen lightning rain, had a lightning spirit root.

But Kyle had seen all of it. Nothing he'd been told about described a case like this, and sitting here alone thinking about it wasn't going to give him any answers.

No need to figure it out alone. He turned and headed for the door.

"Kyle!"

Arian was right there when it opened. From the look of her, she hadn't slept at all, waiting outside his door through the entire night. She crossed to him in three quick steps and gripped his shoulders.

"You're awake? Are you all right? Does anything hurt? Do you have a fever? Any headaches?"

The questions came out in a rush. Kyle managed a wry smile.

"Mom. Calm down. I'm fine."
"Fine? Really? The dream, did you have the dream?"

More questions. Her eyes were full of worry, and beneath the worry, something brighter flickering.

"Yes. I did."
"What did you see? Lightning? It was lightning, right?"

She had been certain her son would awaken a lightning spirit root. Not just because of last night's table full of thunder-affinity foods, either. Over the years, Julius had sent Kyle several Elixirs connected to thunder energy. The hope that Kyle would awaken a lightning spirit root wasn't Arian's alone.

"No. It wasn't lightning."

Kyle shook his head. The certainty on her face cracked for a moment, but she smoothed her expression over right away and smiled.

"Then what did you see? Wind? Or maybe, like your father, you saw wind?"
"It's a bit complicated to explain."

He scratched the back of his head.

"I saw everything."
"Everything...?"
"Fire, water, lightning... ice, too. Just all of it."

Arian's eyes went blank. She had no idea what her son was talking about.

Neither did he, really. Kyle gave a slightly sheepish look and slipped out of her arms.

"Let's go. Grandfather will be waiting."

Arian watched his retreating back, still blinking, still turning over what he'd said.

The Central Hall on the first floor of the Sword Tower was packed with Alastor pure-bloods, even at this early hour.

The reason they had gathered was Kyle.

Five years ago, Arian had returned out of nowhere with this child in tow, and ever since, he'd been basking in the family head's favor without limit. For five years, the boy had wandered in and out of the Sword Hall as though it were his own bedroom, "playing" with Julius, and when he wasn't doing that, he sat in the middle of the Sword Garden communing with the Dokkaebi of Baal. Nothing ordinary about him, top to bottom. Until today, they could at least dismiss him as a runny-nosed kid who hadn't awakened his spirit root. Starting today, that wasn't an option.

"What kind of spirit root do you think it'll be?"

Barkas unfolded his arms and spoke, eyes fixed coldly on the elevator.

"Most likely lightning," said Jerard, the third son, twisting a long strand of his reddish-brown hair around a finger. His eyes were flat and reptilian. "The majority of the Elixirs the family head has sent the boy over the past five years were connected to thunder energy. After absorbing that much, failing to awaken a lightning spirit root would be... rather embarrassing."

"I'd love to see that embarrassment."

Barkas said it without inflection. He had never warmed to Kyle. His son's humiliation five years ago was part of it, but the bigger reason was simpler: Julius adored the boy. The nephew was already showered in favor for being bright. If he awakened the same lightning spirit root as Julius?

Julius would immediately set him on the cultivation method and sword techniques suited for lightning, and if the boy's progress satisfied him, Julius would push to have him inherit his own techniques outright. Among Julius's children, a lightning spirit root wasn't rare. Katarina, the eldest daughter, along with Dante, the fourth son, and Seros, the sixth son, all carried lightning spirit roots.

In Barkas's mind, those three were the likeliest candidates for the next family head. But today, a nephew he hadn't even considered might step into that race.

'And when Katarina, Dante, and Seros were his age, not one of them was this close to the family head...'

It was irritating, worrying about a child this much younger than his own. But Barkas had been watching Kyle carefully ever since his son came home beaten.

The boy's talent was real. Every one of Julius's children was said to carry sword talent, but none of them had ever been as absurd as Kyle. Word had it that more than a year ago, the nephew had already worked through every tier-five sword technique text in the Great Archive and was executing the forms without mana.

Was that even possible?

"Your expression is getting a bit frightening, Barkas."

Karthan, the eldest, spoke up. His steady eyes settled on Barkas.

"It's our young nephew's birthday. And perhaps the day a great blessing is born into the Alastor Family."
"Doesn't it concern you, brother?"

Barkas couldn't hold it back.

"You know this isn't an ordinary boy. If he awakens a lightning spirit root, a high-quality one at that, being the firstborn won't be enough to rest easy."
"A talented nephew growing more talented still. That makes him a blessing to Alastor."

Something cold moved behind Karthan's eyes.

"And I have never rested easy because I'm the eldest. Being firstborn doesn't guarantee the family head position. Not to mention there are plenty of younger siblings besides the nephew who want that seat."
"Ha. I wonder how much longer you'll keep up the good-natured act. Or are you just too above it all to see a ten-year-old as a rival?"
"You're simply narrow-minded, Barkas Alastor. Would you really dare put your own ambitions ahead of Alastor's pride?"
"Isn't my attitude exactly what Alastor demands? In this family, the strong are always right. And strength isn't only martial power. In the end, strength belongs to whoever wins and survives."

Barkas snorted.

"You don't have that kind of ruthlessness, which is why the family head finds you lacking. I'm different."
"Different how. Are you planning to cut the boy down before he gets any further?"
"Please. Even I have some sense."

But teaching the boy some manners was another matter entirely. And if, just hypothetically, it ever became necessary to do more than that. Barkas's lip twitched.

The elevator doors opened.

'What's this?'

Barkas had expected Kyle to have awakened a lightning root. And in that case, he'd assumed Arian would come rushing out with her son's hand in hers, barely containing her excitement.

But something was off. Arian wore a look of total bewilderment. And the nephew himself, whom Barkas had barely spoken to in five years, looked anything but excited. He was calm.

"Happy birthday, Kyle."

Karthan stepped forward first, looking at Kyle with warmth that had nothing in common with the look he'd just given Barkas.

"Thank you, Uncle Karthan."

Kyle smiled back. Five years in the Sword Tower. The place was vast and family ties ran cold here, so they hadn't crossed paths often, but Karthan was someone who'd always been the first to smile and say hello whenever they did meet.

What he actually thought behind those eyes, Kyle couldn't say. Still, he felt genuine goodwill toward him. Compared to Barkas, who radiated hostility and wariness without even offering congratulations, and the unsettling Jerard, and the taciturn Dante, Karthan was far easier to be around.

Even if Karthan's own children didn't exactly have warm feelings toward Kyle.

"What vision did you have?"
"I'm not really sure."
"Not sure?"
"Right. My spirit root awakened, but I don't really understand what kind it is. That's why I'm going to ask Grandfather."
"I see."

Karthan blinked, then nodded. Talented as the boy was, Kyle was only ten. A spirit root's awakening was disorienting enough on its own, and having the vision's contents come out muddled wasn't unheard of.

Though the boy's expression was far too calm for that to fully explain it. Karthan said nothing more and stepped aside.

"The family head is waiting in the Sword Hall with Elder Nelia. The two of them will interpret your vision and determine your spirit root."

Nelia, the Great Archive's head librarian, was Julius's younger sister. From a young age she had been drawn to magic rather than the sword, and recognizing her brother Julius's sword talent had made it easy to choose the mage's path. She was now Gladiheim's chief mage and commander of its magic corps.

"Understood."

Kyle answered and headed for the Sword Hall. Arian, still turning her son's words over in a daze, followed behind.

The doors to the Sword Hall opened on their own the moment they approached.

"You're here."

Julius rose from the throne. Beside him stood Nelia, a kind smile on her face. She moved first, walking toward Kyle at an unhurried pace.

"Happy birthday, dear."
"Thank you."
"Did you have a good dream..."

Her steps stopped short. The gentle smile left her face, and she tilted her head with a look of puzzlement.

"Dear. Your energy is... quite strange."

As an accomplished mage, she sensed the spirit root within Kyle's body with sharp precision. Julius stopped beside her, eyes narrowing.

"A lightning spirit root... no," Julius murmured.

"No... wait. I can feel a lightning spirit root...?"
"Be precise, Family Head."

Nelia steadied herself.

"You're feeling a lightning spirit root 'as well.' Aren't you?"
"..."

Julius's eyes shifted. What he felt from Kyle wasn't only a lightning spirit root. There were others alongside it.

What those others were, exactly, was hard to determine.

"Could he have awakened multiple spirit roots?" Julius murmured. It wasn't unheard of, awakening more than one. Rare, but it happened.

"That's my sense too, but there's no need to guess. I came here precisely to verify this clearly."

Nelia raised one hand. The air parted smoothly where her fingers passed, and a large crystal slid out from within and hovered in place.

"This is called a resonance crystal, dear."

Nelia touched it gently. A blue current spiraled through its interior.

"The resonance crystal responds to the spirit roots awakened within you and takes shape to show them. But before that, can you tell me what you dreamed?"

"I saw the world."

Kyle answered, voice steady.

"Wilderness and rocky mountains. Lava. Snow. Rain. The sea, the sky, the sun, a forest, and wind."
"..."
"All of it kept cycling, and at the very end it all tangled together and spiraled."
"That's... what do you mean?"
"Thinking back, I don't think what I saw was the world. I think it was swords."

Kyle walked toward the crystal.

"Everything I saw had a sword in it. That's the dream I had."

Nelia and Julius stood speechless. Before them both, Kyle reached out a hand toward the crystal.

"Honestly, I have no idea what kind of dream this even was. So I'm curious too."

His hand touched the crystal.

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