WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reincarnation of the Sword Demon

Chapter 39

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A Family Matter

Whether the stranger before him was even human was an open question.

Actually, was he even a man? Kyle studied the stranger with questions stacking up in his mind.

Crimson hair and golden eyes. The ancestral colors that symbolized Alastor, but none of the Sword Tower relatives Kyle had ever seen had a face like this.

Then perhaps the two uncles who had been away from the Sword Tower for years, searching for a cure for their mother. Roel and Seros? Impossible. Two uncles who were barely in their twenties couldn't possibly radiate a mystery like this.

'Right. Mysterious.'

Kyle's eyes gleamed. This stranger, this presence, gave off something he couldn't put into words. More fundamental than mere presence or atmosphere. Like watching a completely different species wearing human skin.

'When have I ever felt this before?'

Strangely, it wasn't unfamiliar. At some point in his past, he'd felt something like it. Recalling it took no effort at all.

'Ruin Alastor.'

The man who had ended the Dark Age five hundred years ago, and Sword Demon Raikal's life along with it. The man who had wielded the most perfect sword in all of Kyle's memory. That man had radiated something close to this.

Thinking about it, the crimson hair and golden eyes were somehow familiar too. The colors were familiar enough that Kyle only had to glance in a mirror to see them, but this presence's hair and eyes weren't merely Alastor-familiar. They were Ruin-familiar.

"And who are you?"

The presence stared down at him, brow furrowed, and spoke. Its voice was as androgynous as its ambiguous face. It flicked a finger. Kyle's body lifted off the ground. He didn't resist, he let the force carry him.

He rose until the presence no longer had to tilt its head down, stopping at a height where a slight drop of the eyes was enough.

"I know you are no ordinary human. You see, feel, and speak with the Dokkaebis of the Sword Garden, including Fenris and Baal."
"..."
"I know you were born laden with bizarre talent. I know the heavens sometimes bestow absurd favor without warning. But what exactly are you? Born with talent like that, why are you doing something so reckless?"
"Ah."

Listening to the presence's rebuke, watching the space behind it shimmer, Kyle opened his mouth.

"You're the Dokkaebi of the Sword Tower."

Not only because of the otherworldly feeling that made this presence seem like a different species, but because the rippling, wavering scenery of the Cultivation Chamber felt similar to when Kyle had communed with the Dokkaebis of Fenris or Baal.

The difference was that this communion had come without Kyle approaching or wanting it. Another first.

"..."

The presence fell silent, brows drawn together. Kyle's eyes sparkled with curiosity.

A Dokkaebi was a Spirit born from objects long loved, worshipped, or steeped in deep emotion. Not just weapons.

The Sword Tower was an artifact crafted by the Dragon King himself five hundred years ago and gifted to Ruin Alastor. The difference between a magic tool and an artifact was only a matter of who made it, so the Sword Tower was ultimately still a tool.

The peculiarity of being made by the Dragon King. Five hundred years of history. The symbol and living record of Alastor, the place where pure-bloods dwelled. And the tower where the Founding Ancestor Ruin Alastor had ascended.

A Dokkaebi had taken root in Fenris. There was no reason one couldn't have taken root in the Sword Tower. Heart fluttering, Kyle waited for the presence to nod. It furrowed its brow for a long moment, then spoke.

"Do not reduce me to a mere Dokkaebi."
"You're not?"
"Strictly speaking, one could say I'm different."
"Then what are you?"
"I am a Fragment."

Cold voice.

"Born similarly to a Dokkaebi, but fundamentally different in standing."
"How exactly?"
"Your manner of speech is intolerably rude. I directly intervened to save your life, and not a word of thanks?"
"Thank you."

Kyle lowered his head. Truthfully, even without the Fragment's intervention, Kyle wouldn't have been in danger. In that moment, he had been in perfect control of himself and his mana.

Regardless, the Fragment's intervention hadn't been an obstacle. It hadn't reached out intending any harm. A word of thanks was easy enough.

"Surprisingly, you do listen. I thought you'd be stubborn, given the recklessness you've been carrying on with."
"What exactly do you consider reckless about what I'm doing?"
"Are you asking because you genuinely don't know? What you just did. No, everything you've done in this tower over the past year is nothing but recklessness."

"Having awakened a bizarre spirit root, you've been pursuing an equally bizarre cultivation method. Wanting to make full use of every vessel you possess is excessive greed. What you're attempting is impossible for a human."
"Is there anyone else who's awakened a spirit root like mine?"

The Fragment's brow furrowed.

"Someone else like you? How could there be. The natural order wasn't even revised to allow all humans to awaken spirit roots until around three hundred years ago..."
"Then why do you say it's impossible?"

Kyle asked with a crooked smile.

"If no one else has ever awakened a spirit root like mine, how can you be certain that what I'm doing is absolutely impossible?"
"That's..."

The Fragment didn't answer. It could only frown. It had known from the start that this monstrous child was far too sharp for eleven years old, but it hadn't expected to be left speechless like this.

"No precedent doesn't prove that it's possible. The spirit root you were born with is so absurd that no human could fully handle it. You ought to humbly accept that and take on only what you can manage."
"I can manage it."
"I thought you could listen, but you're stubborn and foolish in equal measure. How did someone so arrogant end up with talent like this?"

A scoff. A shake of the head.

"Look at how little progress you've made in the past year. Didn't you push yourself too hard today precisely because the slow progress left you restless? If I hadn't intervened..."
"Since you intervened anyway, why not go all the way and actually help me?"

Kyle recalled the Fragment's touch from earlier. Its mana had been delicate, stable, utterly natural. The torrent raging through his Circuits had gone still the instant the Fragment's power touched it, calm as water set in a dish.

"As you said, this past year I've been struggling alone. I've tried all kinds of approaches and it's been frustrating, seeing so little progress."
"Then just give up on your own..."
"If I were going to give up, I wouldn't have started in the first place. You've been watching me this whole time because you're interested, haven't you? Didn't you intervene because you couldn't stand the thought of something going wrong with me?"

Audacious as the question was. The Fragment didn't reply immediately. It stared at Kyle for a long beat, then abruptly reached out and took hold of both his cheeks.

"Who are you?"

The Fragment's eyes wavered. Golden eyes that were the spitting image of Ruin Alastor's. It pressed its face close, and yet those eyes held no reflection of Kyle within them. That brilliant gold only deepened the longer you looked into it, as if it could swallow your soul whole.

"You're beyond anything in my history. You don't look like an eleven-year-old human child to me at all. So who are you? Did the ascended Ruin fail to let go of his attachments and return to this earth?"
"..."
"If not him, is the obsession of my true self striving to defy fate at last? That feels more plausible to me. Ruin had no talent outside of swordsmanship."

Quieter now. Closer.

"If not that either... is the Demon King trying to toy with fate? Baal showed interest in you, so it's not impossible. But all of it is futile. Fate is called fate because it has already been decided. And if not even that... then in the end it would have to be some..."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Ruin who had ascended, the Dragon King, the Demon King. Grandiose figures, all of them. But Kyle cared far less about their affairs than about completing the Primordial Chaos Art.

"If you don't want to help, leave me alone. And how rude, honestly. Why are you trying to see someone else in a perfectly ordinary person?"

I'm actually Sword Demon Raikal, killed by Ruin five hundred years ago. He'd started to say it, then stopped. His gut told him that confessing his reincarnation to someone who kept rambling about fate might trigger something he couldn't predict.

"You have no intention of abandoning that reckless approach?"
"If anything, I want to pursue it more. I think I understood something from how you helped me just now."
"Even if it kills you?"
"Dying would be a shame."

Not a trace of hesitation. The Fragment went quiet. Then it released Kyle's cheeks and drifted in several slow loops around the shimmering consciousness realm, turning something over.

"Let's do it this way."

After several circles, it spoke.

"I'll help you complete the cultivation method you're so fixated on. In return, you will do me a favor."
"What kind of favor?"
"Help me find someone. Or something. I won't tell you what until later, when I judge you're ready."
"Can't you ask someone else?"
"No one else in this tower has been able to commune with me. Nor am I desperate enough to ask just anyone."
"Then why me?"
"There is no way a being like you was born by pure coincidence. An existence as absurd as yours must have had a reason behind its birth."

The Fragment began to say something more, then furrowed its brows and shook its head.

"Don't try to learn too much. So. What will it be?"
"I'll do it. Can you complete the cultivation method right now?"
"Does this look simple to you?"

A shrug of disbelief.

"This is something with no precedent. Honestly, even I'm not certain. And even if I complete the cultivation method, your body won't adapt to it right away. So..."

The Fragment swept its arm. The consciousness realm split open with a crack, a wide passage forming.

"I will guide you to the Cultivation Floors. You will pass the tower's trials there and build a body capable of mastering the completed method."
"The Cultivation Floors?"

Kyle's eyes went wide. The sixth through ninth floors of the Sword Tower were a special space that even pure-bloods couldn't freely enter.

Harsh and dangerous. Just a year ago, Erika had earned top marks as an Apprentice Knight and asked for Cultivation Floor access as her reward, she'd given up and come back out within a month.

"Hmm... even if I said I wanted to enter the Cultivation Floors, permission wouldn't come easily."
"I am the Sword Tower itself. If I give you permission to enter, what problem is there?"
"Does that mean you'll protect me?"
"Don't say something foolish. What meaning is there in ascending the Cultivation Floors under someone's protection? If your ability falls short, I'll impose harsher trials, not lighter ones."

That was exactly what Kyle wanted, but he couldn't accept the offer right away.

Honestly, it was because of Arian. That bastard of a husband had been in Closed-Door Training for eleven years. Twelve, when you factored in that Arian had already been pregnant when he entered it. With him gone all that time, wasn't it too cruel for her only son to now lock himself away on the Cultivation Floors in the same manner?

'I can't believe I'm thinking like this.'

The love Arian had given him over eleven years ran that deep. Kyle thought it over briefly, then asked.

"How long would it take?"
"I don't know. It's something I've never done before. Years, most likely."
"Can I bring someone else in with me?"
"You know nothing about the Cultivation Floors. No matter how many people enter, no one crosses paths with anyone else inside."

The interior was impossibly complex. Kyle considered it a moment, then spoke.

"I don't need to give you an answer right now, do I?"
"You longed so badly for the completion of your cultivation method, and now you hesitate?"
"There's a problem I need to resolve first."
"Unbelievable."

The Fragment muttered and closed the passage that had connected to the Cultivation Floors.

"I'll resolve it and come back. How do I call for you?"
"Resonate with me from within the Sword Tower. I'll find you on my own."

The Fragment kept its frown and stared at Kyle.

"One thing. What kind of problem is it you're going to resolve?"
"A family matter."

Kyle added one more word.

"My dad's kind of a piece of shit."

Kyle left the Great Archive without heading back to the Rose Mansion.

"Grandfather."

He rushed to the Sword Hall the moment he stepped off the elevator, but the doors wouldn't open. Julius hadn't come down to the first floor today.

'What to do?'

Julius lived on the tenth floor. Kyle had never been there. Among Julius's own children, only the eldest, Karthan, could knock on that door.

"What is it?"

He was still working it out when Julius's voice came from behind him. Kyle turned, face brightening.

"There's something I'd like your permission for."
"Without even a greeting?"

Julius's eyebrows rose, but there was no real displeasure behind them. Julius valued those who proved their worth. And in recent years, the one he valued most of all was Kyle.

What he especially liked about the boy was that Kyle didn't train in isolation. The brazen kid never neglected his own practice, yet he looked after his relatives too. Take Erika, Julius's youngest daughter, Kyle had done her a service six years ago. And last year, his grandson Bruno had benefited from Kyle as well.

So Julius was indulgent with him. Even when the boy marched up to the Sword Hall unannounced and pounded on the door like this, Julius didn't scold him. He came down himself to see what was the matter.

"I'll hear what you want."

Julius opened the Sword Hall doors and stepped inside. Kyle followed, talking as he went.

"I'd like to go outside the Sword Tower, no, outside Gladiheim entirely. Please give me your permission."
"Suddenly?"

Julius stopped and turned. Pure-blood Alastor could go anywhere in Gladiheim. Outside too. There was no special need for the Family Head's permission to leave.

But Kyle was very young. No matter how exceptional the boy was, sending an eleven-year-old out into the world was dangerous. Julius looked down at him quietly and asked.

"Where exactly are you trying to go that you'd come to me for permission? If you came to me rather than Arian, you must be planning to slip out without her knowing... Don't tell me you're planning to run away with her?"
"If I were going to run away, I wouldn't have come to you for permission."

Bright, and without the slightest hesitation.

"I'm going to bring Aslan Antares back."
"...?"

Julius didn't catch the name at first. More precisely, he recognized it, but he couldn't understand Kyle saying it so casually.

"Aslan... Antares. Your father, you mean? Why are you calling him by name?"
"Should I call him father when he hasn't acted like one?"

Equally unflinching. Julius stood there with his mouth slightly open, then composed himself and nodded.

"Fair enough."

To Julius's mind as well, Aslan Antares was a worthless bastard.

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