WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Reincarnation of the Sword Demon

Chapter 56

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A Fateful Event

"..."

Silence settled over the dining table. Founding a knight order was far too bold, too absurd, for a boy who had only just turned fifteen to say.

"Do you even understand what you're saying right now?"

Jerard let out a disbelieving laugh. Fingering the monocle over his left eye, he stared hard at Kyle.

"Founding a knight order isn't something you can do just because you're strong. You need reputation, funding, and family approval. And... if a fifteen-year-old brat becomes commander, who would want to serve under him?"
"That's a strange thing to say."

The atmosphere was heavy, and the stares aimed at him were sharp. But this was still a banquet hall, and food was laid out in front of him.

So Kyle did what someone seated at a table should do. He put a bite-sized piece of meat in his mouth and chewed. Speaking before swallowing would be bad manners, so he focused on chewing and swallowing first.

"Doesn't our family value skill above all else?"
"..."
"A swordsman's skill is how well he uses a sword. If I have that level of skill, reputation will follow on its own. Funding? If my skill is exceptional, the family will naturally invest in me, and approval will naturally follow too, won't it?"
"Don't play word games."
"I'm not playing. I'm serious."

Kyle's tone shifted slightly. A calm smile rested on the face of a boy shedding his childishness.

"Uncle Jerard, as I said earlier, I don't mind taking on outside work. I just don't want to join another knight order, and I don't want to become another knight's squire."
"Is it because the word squire sounds low and insulting to you? Polishing armor, sharpening blades, feeding horses, we were never going to treat you like an ordinary squire."
"I know. Squires in Gladiheim's knight orders are apprentice knights. Their role is to learn the order's duties and train in swordsmanship under their mentor."
"You know that well. Then why do you hate it? Kyle, don't you like the sword?"
"If I join the White Night Knights, whose squire would I become?"

Kyle asked with the same smile. Jerard answered without hesitation.

"If your side agrees, I was thinking you'd become Cassius's squire. You're cousins, after all."

Cassius looked at Jerard in surprise. Judging by his face, he hadn't been told a word beforehand. Even Cassius's father, Karthan, frowned at Jerard.

'So this was Jerard acting alone.'

Kyle read it easily from the exchanged glances. For Jerard, who handled Gladiheim's state affairs and prioritized hierarchy, Kyle was no longer someone he could overlook, a child favored by the Family Head since a young age. So he had likely planned to assign Kyle to the White Night Knights with Karthan and Cassius, then keep him under control so he couldn't roam freely anymore.

"If Cassius refuses, then we'll find you another mentor knight. The White Night Knights have many capable knights. What about Dante?"
"Hm? Me?"

The fifth son, Dante, who had been listening with interest, blinked. Then he grimaced and waved both hands.

"Hyung, don't drag me into this. I already have three squires."
"If you already have three, adding one more won't be a problem."

Jerard brushed off his younger brother's grumbling and stared at Kyle. He clearly had no intention of giving up on assigning Kyle to the White Night Knights.

"Have you seen Dante's sword? Dante was born with outstanding sword talent. The reason he became vice commander despite that personality is definitely not because he's pure-blood."
"Uncle Jerard."

Kyle kept smiling as he spoke.

"Five years ago, when I first awakened my spirit root, Grandfather offered me something. He asked if I would inherit his sword."

At those words, Jerard's eyes flew open, and the other cousins all turned at once toward Julius.

"H-hyung-nim, is that true? If it was when he first awakened his spirit root, he was only ten... You tried to pass down the Nine Heavens Thunderclap Sword?"

Isaac asked with a stammer. Julius, who had been quietly listening, shot Kyle a glance and slowly nodded.

"Yes."
"This is insane... no matter how much you adored your grandson, that's too much..."
"I didn't offer because he was adorable. I offered because I judged him to be that kind of vessel."

Julius spoke softly and propped his chin on his hand.

"Though that nasty little darling turned down my sincere offer without even thinking."
"Do you remember what I said when I refused?"
"Of course I remember. You said it would be a waste to learn only my sword. You said my sword was incredible, but it alone would not satisfy you."

After that answer, everyone's gaze turned to Kyle. They weren't kind gazes. Most considered what Kyle had said back then rude, and they were angry.

"Why are you all looking at me like that? A young grandson boldly declared his ambition to forge a sword greater than his grandfather's."

Kyle shrugged.

"I don't know Uncle Dante's sword. But I don't think Uncle Dante's sword surpasses Grandfather's. If it did, Uncle Dante would have pushed Grandfather into the Elder Council and become master of Sword Peak Hall."
"Hah... hahaha!"

Dante, who had been listening with his jaw hanging open, burst out laughing.

"That's true enough. If my sword were better than the Family Head's, I'd be the Family Head."

Dante laughed heartily and admitted it.

"So, nephew. You refused because even the Family Head's sword wasn't enough for you, so are you saying you wouldn't want to learn from me either?"
"Ah, I'm not that arrogant. If you teach me, I'll learn gratefully. As much as I learn, Uncle will learn too."
"Me? From you?"
"I can't say my sword is better than yours, Uncle Dante. But if we cross swords, both of us will gain something. And maybe one person's sword might devour the other's."
"Haha..."

Dante laughed again and shook his head.

"My, my, you're too scary to take as a squire. Jerard hyung, I will never make that beast-like brat my squire. But that bold talk does make me curious. Nephew, let's cross swords sometime later."
"Yes."

Dante chuckled, then pulled his chair back as if to withdraw from the conversation and sipped his drink.

"So."

Jerard's eyes on Kyle were ice-cold. No longer smiling, he stared at Kyle and asked,

"You have no intention of becoming anyone's squire? You will found a knight order yourself?"
"I heard this opening of Gladiheim's gates was to gather young outside knights and create a new order."
"..."
"I also heard Uncle Roel was to take command of that new order. Give me one post too. It doesn't need to be large in scale. Five people... yes, that should be enough for now."

Jerard didn't answer right away and simply folded his arms. The words could have sounded very rude, yet strangely, his gaze held no hostility or irritation.

Kyle didn't feel that gaze as a glare. At this moment, Jerard was coolly assessing Kyle's intentions and capacity. In that regard, Jerard was very Alastor-like.

It was true he had tried to put a leash on his young nephew so he wouldn't overstep. But if that nephew's will was clear, and if he had the skill and qualifications to back it up, Jerard didn't seem like the type to ignore him and force the leash anyway.

"I understand your intention."

After a brief silence, Jerard spoke.

"I focused too much on the fact that you're fifteen, and failed to properly judge your skill and vessel. If you truly want to found a knight order... that is not a decision I can make."

Jerard softened the sharpness in his eyes and looked at Julius.

"What is the Family Head's will?"
"Has there ever been someone who became commander of a knight order at fifteen?"
"Not in Gladiheim's history."
"But there was one in continental history. Strictly speaking, it wasn't a knight order, but a mercenary band."

Resting his chin on his hand, Julius smiled and stared at Fenris hanging from Kyle's waist.

"The owner of that Fenris, Sword Demon Raikal, whom our founding ancestor remembered so fondly, founded the Crow Mercenary Band at age fifteen."

Now that he heard it, that was true. In his previous life, before Sword Demon became Sword Demon, when the mercenary band his father belonged to collapsed, he gathered children from other shattered bands in the same situation and created the Crow Mercenary Band. He had been fifteen then.

"And now the new owner of Fenris says he will form a knight order at fifteen. Quite a fateful turn."

Julius chuckled, raised his gaze, and stared straight at Kyle's face.

"But I cannot allow it just because it feels fated. This is the founding of a new knight order in Gladiheim, not somewhere else. Kyle. If you truly want your own order, you must prove you deserve it."
"How should I do that?"
"As it happens, the commanders of three of Gladiheim's five knight orders are here."

Julius looked around at his children.

Karthan Alastor, eldest son, commander of the White Night Knights.
Katarina Alastor, eldest daughter, commander of the Aurora Knights.
Barkas Alastor, second son, commander of the Crimson Snow Knights.

"If they acknowledge you, I will permit you to form your own knight order. I will also provide the support needed for it."
"Family Head...!"

Roel jumped up from his seat.

"I, I'll test that child myself."

Roel glared at Kyle with wide yellow eyes. As Roel was about to say more, a stern voice cut him off.

"Roel. The Family Head did not call on you."

It was Karthan. The eldest son who usually wore a gentle smile and showed little spirit before Julius now stared at Roel with cold eyes.

"Through this exchange tournament, the decision to found a new knight order and appoint you as its commander was approved by majority vote among the existing commanders. But that order has not been founded yet, so you have no right to test Kyle."
"B-big brother..."
"Sit down. We are still in the middle of a meal."

Roel looked flustered, then hesitated and sat back down. When someone who almost never hardened his face suddenly did, it felt even more severe, and that was exactly how Karthan seemed now. After seeing Roel sit, Karthan bowed to Julius.

"I apologize for stepping forward so boldly."
"No need to apologize. Then Karthan, will you test Kyle yourself?"
"Yes. I will."

Karthan answered politely and raised his head with a small smile.

"But we are still in the middle of a banquet, so let us continue the meal first. Not everyone is here, but... it has been a very long time since this many family members gathered to eat together."
"Hm, that is true."

Julius smiled bitterly. Unless there was a special occasion like this, this family didn't even share one meal together. And even now, not everyone had gathered. Julius's wife was still in her long sleep.

"After the meal... I will cross swords with Kyle. Kyle, is that acceptable?"
"Yes."

Kyle hadn't expected Karthan to volunteer personally. Feeling like he had hooked a giant catch, he smiled brightly. Julius's eldest son. Commander of the White Night Knights. Ever since he first came to the Sword Tower ten years ago, he had wanted to see his big uncle's sword, that uncle who always wore only a kind smile.

'He isn't acknowledged just because he's the eldest son.'

This family put skill before birth order. If Karthan had been weaker than his younger siblings, he would never have become commander of the White Night Knights, and Barkas or the others would have looked down on him.

But from what Kyle had seen, not one relative looked down on Karthan. Even Barkas, who seemed least likely to give anyone elder-brother treatment, always called Karthan hyung-nim. Julius also always summoned Karthan whenever something important happened in the family. If you traced it back, even Jerard trying to leash Kyle today was likely for Karthan's sake.

That trust didn't come from Karthan being the eldest. It came from Karthan's skill.

Kyle felt that too. Karthan was strong. His easygoing personality came from confidence and composure rooted in skill.

'But he didn't seem greedy.'

That made it odd that Karthan had volunteered as examiner.

'Or did he dislike how much I was overstepping after all?'

That was a rash guess. Kyle gave up trying to read Karthan's true intent on his own and just kept eating.

They were going to cross swords after the meal anyway, and a swordsman's true intent always showed through crossed blades.

As soon as the meal ended, without even taking time to digest, Kyle and Karthan faced each other for a spar.

Karthan stood empty-handed at first, but when he gave a light flick of his hand, a longsword with a faint blue glow appeared. He lowered the blade in his right hand toward the ground and spoke.

"I have been thinking about how to test you, but nothing seems quite right. Is there a method you want?"
"We're both swordsmen, so crossing swords should be enough."

Kyle drew Fenris. That damned mutt had apparently already forgotten the warnings he'd barked at it several times, and the moment it was drawn, black mist rippled and it let out a wolf's cry.

'Didn't I tell you to shut up?'

Kyle also wanted to talk about the stories piled up over five hundred years, but not now. At Kyle's warning, Fenris stopped crying at once and fell silent like a proper sword.

"Even saying we'll cross swords feels difficult. I don't know your skill well, and you don't know mine well."
"Hold back enough mercy on the blade and feel my sword for yourself."
"I should. Kyle, can you handle Sword Force?"

Among those watching from across the table, several people's eyes widened as they looked at Kyle. Roel let out a hollow laugh. Sword Force at fifteen was impossible in his mind.

"Yes."

Kyle answered honestly. Roel's body swayed. The answer shattered common sense.

Even Karthan's eyes trembled faintly. He asked, admiration in his voice,

"Show me."
"Yes."

Kyle held Fenris to the side. Mana from the Primordial Chaos Sword Canon, running without pause even at this moment, flowed into Fenris. Violet Sword Qi covered the blade and swirled. It was an alien sight, like wrapping the starry night sky around steel, but the violence pouring from it was unmistakably Sword Force.

"Huh..."

Julius gave a sincere exclamation. This was the child who had opened his middle dantian at ten, when he first awakened his spirit root. But Sword Force... Julius shook his head in disbelief, and Kaya, sitting in his arms, burst into giggles.

"Waaa!"

To Kaya, that terrifying, destructive Sword Force looked like a pretty galaxy. She was the only one here gasping for that reason.

Karthan raised his sword. Clear blue aura rose. The Sword Force covering Karthan's blade looked like rippling water. It suited his water spirit root perfectly.

"Your Sword Force looks complete, so I feel there is no need to test you further... but we have both drawn swords, and sheathing them without crossing would be rude to our audience."
"I don't want that either. I want to cross swords with you, Uncle."

Karthan's Sword Force was excellent, just as Kyle had expected, but seeing it wasn't enough. He wanted to clash. His chest pounded with that desire.

"Let's not forget we are family."

Karthan whispered with a small smile. Right after, his whole body opened wide. It was an invitation, come in as much as you like.

Kyle didn't hesitate. A wide-open gap? Even if it was a trap, he didn't care. If it was a trap, he would simply break it.

Boom! Kyle's foot slammed off the ground. In less than a blink, he closed the distance and brought Fenris up in a vertical rising slash. Violet Sword Force surged upward in a ferocious spiral.

The open gap closed in an instant. Karthan's blade traced a smooth circle. Woooo! Kyle, driving Fenris forward, felt something strange. An unnatural resistance, as if swinging through water. The moment Sword Force met Sword Force, Karthan's Sword Force rippled.

The sword path Kyle drew slipped away. He had cut upward with full power, yet at contact that power scattered into empty air.

'Flowing it away.'

Kyle's eyes narrowed with a grin. Flow away a strike wrapped in Sword Force? It didn't startle him. It delighted him. Karthan's swordsmanship was as excellent as his Sword Force.

A blade moving fluidly like running water came for Kyle's flank. It was fast, yet it didn't feel sharp. Instead, pressure surged in so densely that the lack of sharpness barely registered. Kyle instantly reversed Fenris and blocked.

Thoom!

A heavy sound. There was no bone-rattling impact, but his body tried to get pushed back as if swept by violent current.

Tried to get pushed back, that was all. Kyle's center didn't shake even in that torrent. If the current was fierce, he only needed to become a heavier rock. He rooted his center and instead tried to push Karthan's blade back.

Tzzzzt! Fragments of aura scattered where the Sword Force locked.

"Hm...!"

Karthan's brow twitched. Logic said anyone taking this torrent head-on should be swept away, but his nephew wasn't drifting at all. He had planted himself like a stake in the middle of the flood.

No.

Kyle's Sword Force, facing the surging blue waves, sharpened itself and started tearing the waves apart instead. Feeling it, Karthan changed sword form at once. With one soft movement of his wrist, the pressure crushing Kyle vanished in an instant.

Fwack! The blade that seemed to bend gently snapped upward fast. The shift of force was as smooth as flowing water. Kyle didn't panic. He had felt the current change beforehand.

A twitching smile touched the corner of Kyle's mouth. Fenris drew a bizarre trajectory. If Karthan's sword was fluid like water, Kyle's sword was fluid in a way that felt uncanny.

Karthan felt a chill from that path. The elegant line of Karthan's blade and Kyle's line tangled together. Right now, Kyle was no longer a heavy rock resisting the current. He had put the exact opposite into his sword, a reverse current.

'He's disrupting the flow itself.'

It was brutally bold, yet impossible without equally precise judgment and conviction. Even if they tangled as they were, Karthan wouldn't be at a disadvantage. Of course not. Karthan had that level of confidence.

Did he really? A thought rose: he didn't want to tangle like this. Confidence that hadn't become certainty. Karthan almost wanted to laugh. He now understood why the Family Head cherished this grandson so much.

'Cassius. I hope this doesn't break you.'

Feeling pity for his eldest son watching this, Karthan changed sword form again. Careful by nature, he had no intention of forcing an exchange he wasn't certain about.

Their swords began to dance. From above, below, left, right. Fenris traced paths as savage and sharp as wolf fangs, but Karthan gave no ground at all. His sword form had changed, yet his blade remained fluid. No matter how hard Kyle pressed, Karthan's Sword Force no longer wavered.

Dozens of exchanges were traded in an instant. Kyle thrust, Karthan flowed it away. Karthan cut in, Kyle received and struck back. Sword Force of different natures tangled and held a tight balance.

"This can't be..."

Roel watched with his mouth open. He couldn't believe it. His big brother, commander of the White Night Knights, was one of the strongest in all Gladiheim. Karthan wasn't fighting at full power, yes, but a fifteen-year-old nephew crossing swords with him still felt impossible to believe, even seeing it with his own eyes.

Only then did Roel understand why his big brother had stopped him in that stern voice. If he had stepped up and said he would test his nephew in Karthan's place... he would have suffered utter humiliation before the Family Head.

'Four years ago, that brat already pressured me with force alone. And now... he has poured that force straight into his sword.'

Barkas frowned, but watched Kyle's sword with serious eyes. He knew Karthan's level well, so he couldn't help acknowledging the blade standing against it. That absurd brat was trading with Karthan purely through the sword.

"Hm."

The entangled blades broke apart. Karthan took a few steps back, exhaled something between admiration and a sigh, then lowered his sword.

"Any further is not a sword family should point at family."

Kyle steadied his slightly roughened breath.

'Even by sword alone, Uncle's sword stands higher than Father's. About two steps... no, if both sides go all out, around three.'

He thought.

'In form, my sword now isn't different from my past life. My body is actually better than before. Circuits, spirit root, cultivation methods, none of that is a drawback compared to my past life. If anything, now that I'm used to them, they're clearly superior.'

He kept thinking. He didn't bother comparing the modern sword, advanced over five hundred years, to the sword of his past life. What mattered was one thing: could the Sword Demon of his past life beat Karthan?

'I would have to test it to know for sure, but I don't sense defeat. Yes, I can win.'

So could he win now?

'No, not now. If Uncle had fully committed and poured everything into his Sword Force, I probably couldn't even have received it properly. If he'd used upper energy center techniques, Peak Realm martial arts, the fight itself wouldn't have been possible.'

In his previous life, there had been no terms like lower, middle, and upper dantian, but he had received the Blessing of Mana, formed a core in his heart, and gone beyond its limits.

A state reached by swinging and swinging the sword. Placing the sword in the head.

'I placed the sword in the head in my past life. I definitely have that experience. But now, I think of the sword with my head, yet I cannot place it in my head. Why?'

This wasn't the first time he had thought it. He had questioned it again and again. If he had opened the middle dantian by guiding mana according to his past-life experience, then he should have been able to open the upper energy center this time by that same experience.

'Past life is past life, and now is now. I already crossed that limit once before, so that state is no longer a limit to me now. If I want to place the sword in my head in this life... I have to surpass the experience I already had.'

This, too, was a conclusion he had reached before, but right now Kyle couldn't help sinking deeper into thought.

'I'm lacking.'

He was thirsty.

'What a cruel thing. To know it can be even more fun, yet still have to sheathe the sword.'

Put nicely, it was thirst. Put crudely, it felt like being cut off halfway through taking a dump.

He had just crossed swords with Aslan, then with Karthan.

But he had not drawn his power to the limit. He couldn't put in the will to surely win and surely kill. Because Aslan was his father, and Karthan was his uncle. Like Karthan said, beyond that was not a sword family should point at family.

Kyle felt thirsty for that.

He had never felt this thirst while in the Mudflat. Back then he swung without regret and had no need to hold back for an opponent. But now? He couldn't do that. If he swung like that at Aslan and Karthan, he would become a bastard.

"..."

Kyle endured the thirst. This couldn't be helped. At least here, he had to endure it. Family he had never had in his previous life. Emotions he had never felt before. He must not tear those apart with his own hands.

'To surpass every experience from my previous life, and every state I reached through them, I cannot break what I have now with my own hands.'

If he did, it would only be repeating the past of the man called Sword Demon. As he thought that and pressed the thirst down, strangely, a cool clarity rose from deep in his chest. Even his breathing completely settled. Kyle let out a clean breath and sheathed Fenris at his waist.

"What is the result of the test?"

He asked with a smile, and Karthan laughed openly.

"After showing a sword like that, how could I say you lack qualification? Katarina, Barkas, what do you think? Do you believe Kyle is unqualified?"
"Qualification..."

Katarina, who had watched Kyle with serious eyes, spoke.

"To be frank, this sword is too good to waste on giving him a new order right away. I'd rather recruit him into the Aurora Knights."
"I agree with Sister Katarina."

Barkas grumbled with a frown.

"That violent sword would fit the Crimson Snow Knights well. I'd keep him as an ordinary member for about three years, then make him vice commander."

In moments like this, Barkas kept public and private matters separate. He was a swordsman too, and there was no way he could belittle what Kyle had just shown.

"But that boy said he wants to build his own order."

Jerard spoke. As before, those cold eyes held no hostility toward Kyle.

"What does the Family Head think?"
"Name."

Julius, wearing a deep smile, spoke.

"The name of the knight order. Do you have one decided?"
"Hmm..."

To be honest, he hadn't decided one. In the first place, saying he would found a knight order had been to reject Jerard telling him to start as a squire in the White Night Knights.

'This part is always the hardest.'

Even in his previous life, when he decided to create a mercenary band, he hadn't agonized over naming it. Corpses were always strewn across battlefields, so crows were always there. And when he had to choose a name, crows had happened to be cawing so loudly that he made the name Crow.

[Grrrr...]

Fenris at his waist cried out again. It felt like it was advertising itself.

"I'll call it the Wolf Knights."

Kyle tapped Fenris with his palm as he spoke.

"The dokkaebi in this sword takes the form of a wolf, after all."
"Funeral, White Night, Aurora, Crimson Snow, Black Iron. And now Wolf?"

Erika muttered with a frown.

"Isn't Wolf way too different from the others?"
"So what? I'm the commander, and that's what I want."

Erika still looked unhappy, but her voice carried little weight here. Julius smiled with satisfaction and nodded. This was the grandson he had gifted a brooch, and who had shown him a sword this brilliant. If that grandson named the order not Wolf but Mutt, Julius would still approve.

'I already knew Karthan's sword was excellent, but he's grown even more than the last time I saw him.'

It wasn't only Kyle's sword that pleased Julius. He was happy to see his eldest son's sword too.

"Grandpa. Ish da sword fight over?"

Kaya, who had been twisting his beard around her fingers, blinked as she asked.

"Yes. It's over."
"Who won?"
"No one won today. If we have to choose a winner, then this grandpa won."

Kaya tilted her head, unable to understand what he meant. Julius smiled as he stroked her soft cheek, but in one corner of his heart he felt a deep sorrow.

He wanted to share this sight, and this feeling, with his wife.

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