WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reincarnation of the Sword Demon

Chapter 29

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I'll Master Just One Thing

"Family Head-nim."

Nelia had been quiet, lost in thought. Then she spoke.

"We won't be able to hide the child's spirit root, but it would be best to keep the middle energy center a secret."

"That would be wiser."

Julius nodded.

An unprecedented thing. A talent that broke every rule of common sense. For the Alastor Family, which held martial arts sacred, it was an immense blessing. To those who stood against Alastor, it would be a thorn they could not ignore.

And perhaps, no, certainly. Even within Alastor, there would be those who ground their teeth at the unreasonable talent Kyle had shown. Julius's own children were proof enough of that. Among those who burned to claim the Family Head's seat, who fixed their gaze on the throne with fire in their eyes, was there truly not a single one who wouldn't envy a young nephew's gifts?

"And regarding the child's future training..."

"Kyle."

Before Nelia could finish, Julius fixed his gaze on Kyle.

"Your spirit root is special. What kind of sword... do you want to master?"

Kyle didn't answer right away. He simply watched Julius. It wasn't the silence of someone deliberating, but Julius didn't wait and continued on.

"I carry the lightning spirit root, and I have brought lightning into my sword."

Julius raised his hand to the side with deliberate flair. Crack! Purple lightning coiled around his hand, then stretched long and taut until it took the shape of a sword. A divine technique he had never once shown Kyle.

"The cultivation method is the Celestial Thunder Formless Art. The sword art is the Nine Heavens Thunderclap Sword. Both are martial arts of the highest order, and you won't be able to learn them right away, but if you wish... I will pass down everything I know and guide you."

Arian's eyes went wide. Not one of her brothers or sisters had ever heard those words from their father.

At most, they were occasionally called to the Sword Peak Hall to show Julius their swordwork and collect a word of advice. And now the Thunder Emperor, Family Head of Alastor and a member of the Ten Peaks, was telling a ten-year-old child he would pass down everything to him.

"Grandfather."

Kyle had been staring quietly at the lightning in Julius's hand. He spoke.

"Is that lightning also a sword?"

"It is."

"Is Grandfather's sword all lightning like that?"

"It is."

"Grandfather."

Kyle grinned.

"Do you want me to wield only lightning as my sword?"

Julius's eyes shifted. He stayed silent, so Kyle continued with a smile.

"Earlier, you and Nelia-nim said it. That my spirit root is the world itself. That it contains everything, that it can become anything. Wouldn't it be a waste, then, to use only a single bolt of lightning as my sword?"

Just a single bolt of lightning.

It could sound arrogant. It was. Julius was holding that "single bolt of lightning" right now.

But Julius couldn't bring himself to scold his grandson. Kyle's golden eyes, shining like true gold, were not dazzled by the lightning in his hand. The Thunder Sword that anyone else would stare at in awe was, to this young boy, simply a sword.

"...We also said it wasn't harmonious," Julius said, breaking the silence.

Kyle nodded with a chuckle. "So isn't that interesting? If it's not harmonious, I'll just make it harmonious."

"Mastering even one thing is difficult."

"I'll master just one."

Kyle held up a single finger, deliberate about it.

"The sword."

The chaos spirit root, whatever that meant, he didn't particularly care. What mattered was that this body held a talent beyond compare, a talent that made no sense by any ordinary measure. And it wasn't just the spirit root and the mana circuits that were extraordinary. Kyle also had his affinity for Spirits and Dokkaebi.

All of it, he intended to use as a foundation. For the sword.

"Is my sword unsatisfying to you?"

The corner of Julius's mouth curved upward. Not to scold his arrogant grandson. Something closer to a pout, really, at a grandson who wasn't enchanted by the sword he'd taken the trouble to show him.

"No. Grandfather's sword is extraordinary."

He meant it. He'd known for a long time that Julius was a swordsman who had reached a remarkable level, but today was the first time he'd seen his real sword, not the kind shown in play.

Sword Qi, Aura refined to a cutting edge. Sword Force, a stage far beyond that. Julius Alastor was a man truly worthy of being called the superhuman of this age.

'Different from the Sword Force I reached in my past life, but...'

He didn't know Julius's full strength, so a proper comparison was hard. From what he could sense right now, though, Julius's Sword Force, the Sword Force of this era, seemed more versatile, more multifaceted. A glint of hunger crept into Kyle's eyes as he watched the Thunder Sword.

"Extraordinary, yes. But that alone isn't enough for me. And there's another reason I won't inherit Grandfather's sword."

"What reason?"

"Is there anyone among my uncles and aunts who inherited Grandfather's sword?"

"No." Julius shook his head. "To begin with, only Katarina, Dante, and Seros awakened the lightning spirit root."

"Why didn't you pass your sword on to them?"

"Because they weren't good enough."

"Hmm."

Kyle chuckled and crossed his arms. "If I fought Aunt Katarina, Uncle Dante, or Uncle Seros right now, do you think I could win?"

Seros had been away from the Sword Tower for five years, so Kyle had never even seen the man. Still, he asked. Julius gave him an incredulous look.

"Obviously you'd lose."

"Then why are you offering to pass your sword down to me?"

"Because your gifts are special."

"Grandfather, it's been five years since I came to the Sword Tower. By now I know the creed, the rules of the Sword Tower. Of Alastor."

Kyle straightened up and continued in a grave tone.

"Strength is everything here. My current gifts, my future potential, none of that matters much right now. Because that's a story about the distant future."

"..."

"Bluntly speaking, I could fall down the stairs at the mansion and die today. Come down with a serious illness a year from now. Make enemies by flaunting my gifts and end up dead. Push myself too hard in training and break my body."

"Ha, ha..."

Julius laughed softly and shook his head. "You, a mere ten years old, lecturing the Family Head of Alastor on the family's creed."

"I'm a pure-blood of Alastor too. Anyway, what I want to say is this: I haven't proven anything yet."

"And that is your reason for refusing to inherit my sword?"

"It's one of them. There's one more."

"Go on, then."

"If I inherit Grandfather's sword, I'll come to know it well."

"Obviously."

"So when I face Grandfather in a duel later, wouldn't that be too unfair to you?"

Arian and Nelia's mouths fell open.

Julius didn't open his. He stared at Kyle with blank, wide eyes. In the midst of everyone's shock, Kyle shrugged.

"So for now, I'll decline. It wouldn't be fair when we face off later. I still haven't proven I'm better than my uncles and aunts. And I want to wield swords other than lightning."

"You could wield both alongside each other."

"If I focus more on other swords than the one I learned from you, could Grandfather tolerate that?"

"I couldn't."

"See?"

At Kyle's cheerful grin, Julius couldn't help but laugh.

Still laughing.

"Do you want to become Family Head?"

A heavy question, and it had no business being asked with a smile.

"You don't want to be at an advantage when facing me. That means... you truly intend to beat me."

"Saying 'beat' sounds a bit fierce between family. Let's say 'surpass.'"

"That sounds even fiercer to me. Do you know what surpassing me would mean?"

"I know. It means surpassing the Family Head."

"That means becoming Family Head."

"I'll think about that when the time comes."

Honestly, becoming Family Head of this vast, formidable house didn't particularly appeal to him. It was a nature carried over from his past life.

Kyle, the Sword Demon, loved freedom. Living as he pleased, swinging his sword to his heart's content, fighting the strong, that was the Sword Demon's life. That was why he'd given up the captaincy of the Crow Mercenary Band, why he'd always shaken off his followers the moment he got the chance.

But that nature never ran all the way through. Food eaten alone tasted good, but sometimes a meal shared with others tasted better. Drinking alone had its own romance, but the noise and laughter of drinking with a crowd was its own kind of joy.

So later, maybe. If the thought ever crossed his mind that being Family Head might not be so bad.

"I don't need to give a definite answer right now. I haven't proven anything yet."

Kyle right now was just ten years old. Today was his birthday, and today he had awakened his spirit root. Even if his talent went beyond the word "potential" and could be called a certainty, he had yet to prove anything at all.

So he would fill himself up one thing at a time, build one step at a time, and prove himself as he went.

"..."

Julius studied Kyle with calm, settled eyes.

A monster like a treasure.
A treasure like a monster.

"Monster" was a bit strong, but he had no intention of changing his mind. Talking with his grandson just now had only deepened the impression.

A strange child. He had always been on the precocious side even at five, but now, having reached ten, it was simply impossible to think of him as a child his age.

Any ordinary child would have been dazzled by Julius's sword. They would not have spoken of qualifications, of proof. They would not have said, with that easy audacity, that they intended to surpass the Family Head of Alastor.

Coming from a ten-year-old, every word was not maturity or audacity but reckless presumption. Insolence. Disrespect.

But Julius couldn't feel any of that toward his grandson. Was it those golden eyes, too sincere for deception? The confidence backed by a talent so brilliant it could justify every word? No. His grandson's words carried something else. Something almost transcendent.

Could "transcendent" and "ten years old" even exist in the same sentence?

"Kyle."

Julius smiled and spoke.

"I thought I might raise you like a flower in a greenhouse. I believed you could prove your talent even inside one, and that you wouldn't become fragile either way. But a greenhouse doesn't suit you."

Instead of answering, Kyle waited with a grin.

"I will grant you the privileges your gifts deserve. But I won't protect you unconditionally. You said you want to prove yourself."

"What do you mean by not protecting me unconditionally?"

"I mean I won't exclude you from danger. I won't shield you from those who treat you as a rival, who compete with you and seek to crush you."

"That works for me."

No hesitation.

"I'd rather be a weed that grows anywhere than a flower kept in a greenhouse."

Competing, crushing.

Words about the competition for the throne. Julius saying he wouldn't unconditionally protect him from that was exactly what Kyle wanted. He had no intention of sheltering under his grandfather's protection forever.

"From today, you may access all books up to tier three in the Great Archive."

"What about the tiers above?"

"At your current level, reading them would mean nothing. The fact that your middle energy center is already open is remarkable, but... as I said, keep that secret for now."

"Understood."

So tier two and above required the middle energy center. Kyle nodded. His mana reserves were still thin right now. He needed to fill the vessel first, one step at a time.

"If there's a middle energy center, does that mean there's an upper one too?"

"There is."

"Is it perhaps... here?"

Kyle smiled and tapped his head with one finger. Julius looked briefly surprised, then nodded.

"How did you know?"

"What's higher than the chest, besides the head?"

Just as I thought. Kyle turned the thought over with quiet satisfaction.

The world had changed greatly, but the place you reached by swinging your sword, in the end, was the same.

Even if, in his day, swords hadn't summoned flames and lightning the way they did now.

He could cut through flames and lightning.

"Has Grandfather placed a sword in his head?"

A childlike, innocent question. Or something more. Rather than deliberating over it, Julius simply answered.

"I have."

Toward his grandson's satisfied smile, Julius added one more thing.

"Opening the upper energy center is the threshold of transcendence."

At those words, Kyle's smile deepened.

Leaving the Sword Peak Hall, they ran into relatives in the corridor, but none of them stopped Kyle. They chose to enter the Sword Peak Hall themselves rather than holding Kyle and Arian back with questions.

Mana Cultivation Technique.

Kyle rode the elevator with Arian.

He'd been granted access to martial arts up to tier three in the Great Archive, but he wasn't planning to go there right away. Nelia the librarian was still in the Sword Peak Hall anyway. First, he wanted a clearer read on his body's condition.

Arian glanced at her son, deep in thought, his expression grave.

Her son's spirit root was special. This was not simply something to celebrate.

Today, her son had officially entered the succession competition of Alastor. Nothing she could do would change that. His gifts were beyond reason, and he had the Family Head's favor. On top of all that, her son himself was actively choosing to "prove himself" in the succession competition.

A quiet exhale.

What could she do for him? What should she do? Arian bit her lip. He wanted to prove himself and stand on his own, but she was his mother. She would support him in every way she could.

She would have to resume her own training first.

It had fallen away after she got married. But to be of any use to her son, she had to start again. Her useless husband hadn't come out of Closed-Door Training even after ten years.

"I'm going to think in my room for a bit."

Back at the Rose Mansion, Kyle said those words and sprinted up the stairs.

The moment he entered his room, he opened the desk drawer. Inside was the bundle of mana stones he'd been using to feed the Spirit.

Crackle!

A current sparked from the thunderstone, and the purple snake eased its head out. It fixed its small, bright eyes on Kyle, but Kyle pressed one finger gently down on its head.

"Later."

Checking his body came before a Spirit contract. Kyle dropped to the floor and poured the mana stones within arm's reach.

Let's see just how strange this body is now.

He swallowed, and reached for the mana stones.

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