WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reincarnation of the Sword Demon

Chapter 35

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You're Lucky

For a week, Bruno had been staying in the Sword Tower's residential quarters instead of the knight candidate barracks in Hilt, Gladiheim's lower district.

Normally that wasn't allowed. But Barkas had the kind of pull that made impossible things happen. When a distinguished pure-blood of Alastor announced he'd be personally overseeing his son's training, the candidate instructors had no choice but to step aside.

So Bruno returned to the Sword Tower and got his father's version of "guidance." Your fundamentals are weak. Your grit is lacking. Your skills are pathetic. What the hell have you been learning all this time?

He'd been at it for three hours already. Running laps across the wide-open fourth floor residential area, on his father's orders.

Not just running, either. The bracelets clasped around both his arms interfered with his mana flow. On top of that, a heavy vest weighed down his torso, and even heavier pouches hung from both legs. The goal was to hold his focus on his mana through all of it, running until it was completely spent.

"Hff, hff... haah..."

Breath clawed up to the back of his throat. His heart pounded like something had come loose inside his chest, and his lungs burned as if they were splitting open. His legs felt like dead weight. They had lead attached to them, so that was more or less literally true, but either way, they were unbearable.

Stopping wasn't an option. Stop, and his father's roar would follow.

Worse than the roar was that cold stare. The one his father wore when looking at something worthless. The look of a man disappointed in his own son.

Damn it... damn it all...!

Bruno ran with foam at the corners of his mouth.

The memory of his crushing defeat at Kyle's hands a week ago clung to him like a nightmare. He'd only feel better after paying that back, but right now he had no confidence that day would ever come.

"Working hard, I see."

He'd been pushing his thoughts aside by focusing on the churn of his legs when a voice cut in. Infuriating. Frightening in the exact same way his father's stare was frightening. Bruno's legs tangled and he pitched forward.

"Whoa."

His body lurched to a stop at an awkward angle.

"You're absolutely soaking..."

Kyle's expression curdled and he released Bruno's sweat-drenched wrist. Bruno barely found his balance, breathing hard, and tried to glare.

"You... you..."

He'd meant to glare. His eyes wouldn't cooperate. What he ended up with was neither a proper glare nor a normal look, just eyes hanging open somewhere between the two. His twisted eyebrows made him look like he was about to cry.

"Why... haah... hff..."

He wanted to say, why are you talking to me, but his ragged breathing wouldn't settle. Kyle crunched a thunderclap fruit and looked Bruno over.

"Hey, Pig. Trying to lose weight?"

The jab crumpled Bruno's face. That nickname sat badly with him, for obvious reasons. He was big, yes, but not fat. Every inch of him was packed with muscle, not flab.

"You..."

He wanted to shout. Couldn't. Kyle's easy smile dredged up the fear from a week ago, fresh as the day it happened. Nothing ever went as intended in front of this kid.

"Shut... up. If you came to mock me, get lost."

The words came out smaller than he meant them to.

"Mock you? I saw a friend working hard and came to cheer him on."

"If you really want to cheer me on, keep walking and leave me alone."

His breathing had finally started to settle. Bruno wiped the sweat from his face.

"You think running yourself ragged makes your sword any better?"

"What would you know?! Showing off because you're a genius? Stop irritating me and get..."

"Yes, I'm a genius. Yes, I show off. But I'm not making things up just to get under your skin."

Tap. Kyle's foot nudged the pouch strapped to Bruno's leg.

"A solid core makes the sword solid. More muscle means more power behind the blade. Though honestly, your body doesn't need to get any bigger."

"..."

"What are those bracelets?"

"They... interfere with the Circuits and disrupt the mana flow."

"Ah. To improve mana control?"

Kyle's eyes lit up. The idea struck him as genuinely interesting. Sword arts in this era demanded mana control as much as technique, so it made sense there'd be methods like this.

"It's not really getting at the root of the problem, though."

"This is a training method my father suggested! What do you know about anything?"

"Not every sword is the same. Every person wields differently. Just because you're Barkas-samchon's son doesn't mean you have to train the sword the exact way he does."

"Are you saying my father is wrong?"

"Not wrong, exactly. Just not tailored for you."

Barkas was a fine swordsman, no question, but being skilled didn't guarantee being good at teaching. And honestly, Barkas wasn't obsessed enough with the sword to craft anything truly custom for his son. Parents projected themselves onto their children and wanted their lineage carried forward. But Kyle wasn't Bruno's father. He had no reason to get caught up in Barkas's warped brand of paternal ambition.

"Come with me."

"What?"

"Come with me, Pig. Are you deaf?"

"Wh, what are you saying? I'm in the middle of the training my father assigned me..."

"Barkas-samchon made me a promise. Said I could be friends with you. Said I could call you over to hang out."

"..."

"If I'm calling a friend over, is he really going to say no? After making that promise? Not a chance."

"But... but..."

"You're built like a mountain and you're this scared? That's exactly what's wrong with you. Come on. Would your uncle actually kill you for following me? He'll glare a bit, say a few words, that'll be the end of it."

The whole point was that the stare and those few words were exactly what Bruno couldn't stand. Kyle wasn't backing down.

"If you don't come with me now, you'll regret it for the rest of your life."

"Re, regret?"

Bruno looked at Kyle, something shifting in his eyes.

"Yeah. You want to get good with a sword, don't you?"

Crunch. Kyle took another bite of the thunderclap fruit.

"I'm good with a sword."

Bruno hesitated, then asked.

"Where are we going?"

"My Cultivation Chamber at home."

Kyle turned and headed toward the Rose Mansion.

"Just finished building it a few days ago. Really good space."

The Rose Mansion's Cultivation Chamber. Bruno looked around, expression uneasy.

Built just for Kyle, though the scale of it wasn't particularly surprising. Bruno had been enjoying the Alastor family's overflowing wealth since childhood.

Only wooden swords...

He'd formally entered martial training now, so a sword fitted to him would have been reasonable, but all that sat in the corner were wooden swords.

Strange thing was, each one had a slightly different shape. They all seemed familiar somehow. Bruno blinked at them for a moment before it clicked.

Most resembled Fenris, the sword that had been planted in the floor of the Sword Hall for five years now. The others were modeled after the blades in the Sword Garden.

Scaled down to fit Kyle's frame, naturally. Not exact replicas, but close. Bruno had no idea what Kyle was thinking. Fenris made sense, that was the sword promised to him by the Family Head. But why fill the room with wooden copies of the Sword Garden blades?

Where the hell did he go after dragging me all the way here?

Bruno glanced at the firmly shut door. Kyle had hauled him away from his run, parked him in here, then stepped out without a word.

Had his father come looking for him?

Sitting still like this, the unease crept up on him. Then the door swung open.

Bruno startled and scrambled to his feet. He'd been half-expecting his father. It wasn't his father.

It was Kyle.

"...?"

Not alone. Lucia followed him in, expression distinctly uncomfortable. She saw Bruno and gave a small bow.

"Good afternoon, Bruno-nim."

"Lu, Lucia? Why are you here?"

This was the hour for knight candidates to be in morning training. True, Bruno himself wasn't following the barracks schedule, but that was because he was pure-blood Alastor.

"I called her."

Kyle said it plainly. "More precisely, I asked my mom to call her."

Even with Julius's favor behind him, Kyle was young enough that he couldn't simply pull Lucia out of training on his own authority.

"This isn't your first time coming here. How long are you going to keep acting uncomfortable?"

"I've been awkward every single time you've invited me," Lucia said, hesitant.

She'd shared meals at the Rose Mansion a handful of times at his invitation, but stepping into the pure-bloods' residential floors still didn't sit right with her.

"And this is your personal space, Kyle-nim. For someone like me to be in a place like this..."

"Starting today it's communal. And another thing, I told you I hate when you talk about yourself like that."

Kyle had been walking toward Bruno when he stopped and shot Lucia a look.

"'Someone like me'? What exactly is wrong with you?"

"I'll be careful."

A pause, then a faint smile. Bruno's mouth fell open. He'd never seen Lucia smile like that before.

"Hey." Kyle came close and tapped Bruno's knee with his foot. Back-alley manners for someone who was supposed to be the youngest grandson of the great Alastor house. "You have your sword on you?"

"Sword?"

"Yeah, sword. Lucia told me you have your own. Take it out."

"Why do you need my sword..."

"If I say take it out, take it out, Pig."

Kyle's brow furrowed. Bruno swallowed and got up awkwardly. Fwip. The space near Bruno's right hand rippled, and a large greatsword appeared.

These days they carry their swords around like it's nothing.

Kyle swallowed a laugh. The greatsword was normally stored in the dimensional pouch created by Bruno's necklace, summoned in an instant when needed.

"Lucia, draw yours too."

"Yes."

Lucia gave a calm nod and drew the blade at her hip. Smooth and plain, nothing distinctive about it at all.

"Alright. Face each other."

"For, for what?"

Bruno asked, confused, but Lucia's face was composed. Kyle had already filled her in.

"What do you do when two people are holding swords? Fight."

"What?"

"Not confident?"

Bruno couldn't answer right away. He looked at Lucia, then back at Kyle.

"Look at me right now. I can barely swing a sword."

He still had the mana-disrupting bracelets on, and the heavy pouches strapped to his torso and legs.

"Take off the heavy gear. Leave the bracelets."

"But my father..."

"Did you come here with your uncle's permission? No. You already broke his rules once. You think breaking one more is going to get you killed?"

Bruno hesitated, then did as Kyle said and stripped off the vest and pouches.

"Why do I have to keep the bracelets on?"

"I'll tell you later."

"Sparring with real swords is... dangerous. Better to use wooden..."

"You couldn't put Lucia in any real danger even at full strength, so drop it."

Bruno's eyebrow twitched.

"What did you just say..."

"What. You think that's wrong? Do you genuinely believe otherwise?"

Not mocking. Kyle's eyes held the same cold weight from a week ago, the kind that settled on Bruno's chest and pressed down. He opened his mouth to argue and closed it without a word.

Galling, but true. Lucia was thirteen and had only become a Knight Candidate that year, yet in the entire training hall, the only candidates who could be called clearly stronger were those right on the edge of full knighthood, and even they couldn't match her in pure swordsmanship.

"You, go all out. Lucia, hold back, adjust your strength accordingly. Too much to ask?"

"That's fine," Lucia said, face calm.

Bruno's blood rose at the simple answer. He accepted, more or less, that Lucia was stronger than him. What stung was a half-blood Demon Tribe mongrel looking at him without a flicker of concern.

"Begin."

Kyle clasped his hands behind his back and stepped away.

True to the forms he'd trained in, Bruno didn't rush. He read Lucia. No gaps. None he could see. Same as when he'd faced Kyle a week ago, but Lucia's stance didn't carry that same ease. She had her blade tip pointed steadily at him.

What he felt facing her was different, too. No openings, yes, but none of that bone-deep dread from facing Kyle.

She didn't look like she'd move first. Then he'd go to her. Overwhelm with force.

"Hraaah!"

He raised the greatsword and charged. The bracelets made mana sluggish, but without the heavy vest and pouches, his body felt light.

Bruno launched off the ground. A simple, crushing overhead came down, but Lucia didn't dodge. Her blade traced a smooth arc and deflected the greatsword cleanly aside.

Clang!

His balance broke. He'd put everything behind that swing and hit nothing. He was pitching forward.

"Ngh...!"

Lucia didn't miss it. Her blade tip stopped just in front of Bruno's throat.

"It's over," she said.

Flat and dry. Bruno's face went red and he hung his head. One exchange. He'd lost in one. No humiliation ran deeper than this.

"Pig."

Kyle clicked his tongue and walked over.

"Why did you stop?"

"What?"

"If your blade gets deflected, reset and swing again. Why were you just standing there handing her your throat?"

"My balance was gone..."

"Then get it back. What do you think all that muscle is for? What were all those elixirs for?"

He clicked his tongue again and nudged Bruno's foot.

"Grew up ordinary, sure, you fall flat when your balance goes. But you didn't grow up ordinary. When your balance broke, you felt it, didn't you? You knew you were pitching forward. So why didn't you hold?"

Bruno bit his lip.

"It's not like I didn't know. I just..."

"Figured it was too late to swing again?"

"What...?"

"Thought it wouldn't matter, that you'd lose anyway? Now that's something. You work yourself half to death doing whatever your uncle tells you, but the moment you've got a sword in your hand, you give up that fast?"

Bruno stared at Kyle, nothing coming out.

"Why did you go at Lucia?"

"You... you told me to fight..."

"That's not what I'm asking. When you were facing her, you knew. No openings. So why did you charge?"

"If there are no openings, you make one."

"Then why didn't you do the same with me last time?"

"I did charge!"

"You charged because your uncle pushed you into it. Let's be honest, Pig. If he hadn't kicked up a fuss, you'd have stood there frozen forever. Am I wrong?"

"..."

"You didn't charge Lucia because you were confident your size and strength could force an opening. You did it because you heard what she and I said and got angry. Wrong?"

The accuracy of it left Bruno's mouth hanging open. It felt like his mind had been cracked open.

"If you're angry, stay angry. You get blocked once and immediately give up. What is that? What are you even holding a sword for?"

"..."

"Are you going to spar your whole life? Only fight people you can beat? Sure, you could do that. Nobody likes losing."

Kyle snorted and tapped Bruno's greatsword.

"But pick fights only with people you can beat, and your sword won't grow. Going at someone you can't beat, losing, gritting your teeth and swearing you'll win next time, going at them again. That's how the sword grows."

"But if you don't think you can win, you train until you can, then you go at them!"

"That's also right," Kyle said, nodding at the outburst.

"But if you haven't fought, how do you know whether you'll win or lose? Can you trust your own judgment that completely?"

"But if I lose..."

"Losing feels like shit. So you say you lost, and inside you swear you'll win next time. If it's a real fight and not a spar, you read the situation and you run."

"Run?"

"What. Quick surrender's fine but running is shameful? Isn't it better than dying?"

Though sometimes there were fights you couldn't run from. Fights you didn't want to run from. Fights you shouldn't.

"It's... easier said than done..."

"I know. It's not easy to actually do. It takes time and real effort to pull it apart and put it back together properly. If you don't want to bother, just spend the rest of your life swaggering around against people weaker than you. Is that what you want?"

Bruno hesitated, then shook his head.

Only then did the hardness leave Kyle's eyes.

"Thank me, Pig."

"What?"

"You're lucky, you know that."

Tap, tap.

Kyle knocked on Bruno's shoulder and grinned.

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