WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Reincarnation of the Sword Demon

Chapter 74

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Take Care

Their hooked pinkies came apart.

Before they fully loosened and drifted away, Helenas’s finger trembled, as if she didn’t want to let go, as if she didn’t want to part.

She was still full of things Kyle couldn’t understand. If she didn’t want to let go, if she didn’t want to part, then she could simply do as she wished. The Helenas of now had the power to do that.

But Helenas withdrew her hand and took a few steps back. She was no longer crying, but tear tracks still streaked her cheeks.

With that face, Helenas gave a faint smile.

“I’ll return to Sword Forest.”

Her smiling lips parted, and her voice slipped out with a small sigh.

“I can’t stay by your side. I’ll return to Sword Forest.”
“...”
“The man I knew perfected his sword while wandering battlefields.”

Helenas looked beyond the ridgeline of the Blade Mountain Range. Opposite Gladiheim, toward Sword Forest.

“You’ll do the same. Not by my side, but wherever your feet take you, you’ll complete your sword there.”

Kyle watched Helenas with a soft smile. That gaze shook her heart. His face was completely different, but the smile the boy wore now was the same smile she remembered, the smile of someone looking fondly at a child.

“I’ll wait in Sword Forest.”

As in the distant past, when she had been bound by fate. A powerful emotion, rare for an elf, rose inside her, but Helenas pressed it down and whispered,

“Until you come find me.”

She would wait.

And then wait again. This elf had spent her whole life waiting. She had waited 500 years, swinging a sword until she could finally feel what fun was. But this waiting was different from all the waiting before.

Because this waiting was promised.

She had lived a long life, but for the first time, she felt excited for time to pass. She had never felt that way before.

“So if you’ll be waiting in Sword Forest.”

Kyle spoke.

“That means even if something happens in between, you won’t interfere, right?”
“Yes.”
“Even if a Sword Church Disciple threatens me?”
“If you feel threatened by their swords and die, then your promise will never be kept.”

There was coldness in those words. Kyle gave a short laugh and said, almost jokingly,

“That’s harsh.”
“It isn’t harsh.”

Helenas shook her head.

“I leave the Sword Church as it is, with only a tiny bit of lingering attachment and expectation. They worship me, someone who simply exists and swings a sword, so they will obey my words.”
“That’s true.”

Kyle didn’t know everything about the Sword Church, but he knew that group existed because of Helenas and her sword. Even if the Seven Apostles handled the church’s practical operations, their authority could never surpass Helenas.

From the start, the Sword Church was an organization that moved according to Helenas’s will. She had simply chosen not to do that until now.

“Five hundred years ago, I couldn’t do anything for him. When he died, I wasn’t there. Even if I had been there, I still wouldn’t have been able to do anything. I was weak.”
“Right.”
“It’s different now. I can protect you from most threats. But I won’t. Because you wouldn’t want that.”

Kyle looked at Helenas with slight admiration. Five hundred years was truly a long time. Amazingly, Helenas was reading his intent and understanding it.

“The Sword Church will not be a threat to you. It must not become one. There are swordsmen in the church stronger than the current you, but if you break to a sword at that level, you can’t give me any fun.”

Helenas whispered.

“But... this world has many other threats now. So I’ll warn you. Kyle, be careful of the East.”

At that, Kyle’s eyes narrowed slightly.

The East.

Kyle also knew about that place. He had gone there more than once 500 years ago. The turmoil of the age called the Dark Age had reached all the way to the East.

‘No, saying it reached there isn’t quite right. That side was already full of war to begin with.’

Five hundred years ago, the emperor died suddenly, and a struggle for the imperial throne began among the imperial family.

The imperial kin gathered forces to claim the empire. In that chaos, other kingdoms started wars to become empires themselves, and nobles in each nation raised rebellions to become kings. That was the continent’s Dark Age.

The East was different. Like the South, it had never been deeply under the influence of empires or kingdoms in the first place. Many local lords held private armies there, and warlords carved out their own domains.

What made it different from the South was that it wasn’t completely closed off. During the Dark Age, seeing people from the East was common.

Now it was different. When people spoke of the continent’s history, there were always five events mentioned.

The Dark Age of 500 years ago.
The appearance of Ruin Alastor.
Peace with the Demon Tribe.
Spirit Roots, which all humans came to possess starting 300 years ago.

And the severance from the East.

‘They said the break with the East also happened 300 years ago.’

The word severance was no exaggeration. Three hundred years ago, suddenly, without any sign.

The continent split.

It was a great disaster recorded in continental history. A massive earthquake struck the East, and an opaque wall shot up from the ground. In that way, the East was cut off, and no one could learn what happened on the other side.

“Strange things are moving in the East. I don’t know exactly what they are, but they aren’t good.”
“...”
“And be careful of the Crows. The Black Feathers...”
“Sword Church Master.”

Kyle spoke.

“Thank you for your concern, but I won’t listen.”

His voice was gentle, but firm. Helenas tilted her head, puzzled.

“Why?”
“I’m the one who decides whether to be careful or not.”

Kyle lightly tapped the hilt of Fenris as he spoke.

“If I follow your warning, then I’d be seeing the world through your eyes, Sword Church Master. I want to see it with my own.”
“...”
“You said it yourself a moment ago. I said I’d beat you. If that’s my claim, isn’t it ridiculous to walk the road you show me?”

Helenas stared at Kyle for a moment.

“What if you die?”
“Then I won’t keep the promise. You don’t need to regret it. It would just mean I was only that much of a man, and even if I had lived, I still wouldn’t have kept my promise with you.”
“That is irresponsible.”
“You’re saying that now? I’ve always been this kind of person.”
“I don’t think that’s something to be proud of.”

Helenas’s smile faded.

“It does sound like you. You were the same 500 years ago. No matter what anyone said, you never listened.”
“I did listen. I just heard it and judged things my own way.”
“And that’s why you died.”

Kyle had nothing to say to that. It was exactly right. Raikal had lived as he pleased and died as he pleased. He wandered battlefields as his heart led him and fought whoever he wanted to fight. It was the same when he went to find Ruin Alastor. Many followers tried to stop him, but Raikal crossed the imperial palace wall anyway and died to Ruin.

“You listened to no one, and in the end you died. If my warning is interference, then fine, I’ll interfere. I don’t want the same thing repeated.”

Helenas lifted her head and looked at the sky for a moment. A lonely haze drifted through those eyes, pale as a faded sky.

“Talking with you today, I felt it. And I understood a little. Waiting without a promised day feels lonely to me. But you gave me a promise. You have to take responsibility for those words.”

Wind blew. It was a cold wind.

Kyle stayed silent for a long time. He couldn’t refute her. Raikal had lived as he pleased and died, and that death had trapped Helenas for 500 years. He had thought saying he wouldn’t hear warnings and would live his own way sounded cool, but after hearing her, he thought again, and it felt ugly.

“Why are the Crows dangerous?”
“...?”
“I asked why they’re dangerous.”
“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t listen?”
“I changed my mind. I’ll hear it first, then decide whether to be careful.”

Kyle decided to give a step. He even put on a sly smile that matched this body’s age and face. Helenas quietly looked at him, then let out a short breath. It wasn’t lonely, and it wasn’t mournful. She just sighed at Kyle.

For an elf, sighing like this was extremely rare.

“I understand that strange energy is moving in the East. That alone doesn’t make me very curious. If I get curious later, I’ll go see it myself.”
“...”
“Why are you looking at me like that? I said I’d decide after hearing.”
“Haa.”

Helenas sighed again.

“The Crows are the Sword Church’s biggest sponsor. Cyrus Rubalt. You know the name.”
“I do.”

Cyrus had been a founding member of the Crow Mercenary Band and Raikal’s oldest friend. When Raikal decided to step down as mercenary commander, Cyrus was the strongest, so he naturally handed him the position.

While Raikal wandered battlefields alone and became the Sword Demon, Cyrus’s Crow Mercenary Band grew to a massive scale through war business and established bases in cities across many nations. In the process, an orphan with no parents received a title and surname, and became Cyrus Rubalt.

‘He helped me in many ways in my previous life too.’

Raikal had many enemies. Whenever he was defeated and forced to run, or badly wounded, the place he always went was the Crows’ nest.

“Cyrus Rubalt died hundreds of years ago, but his descendants are still the rulers of the Crows.”

By the current age, the Crow Mercenary Band had become a giant private military company. Their main area of operation was the West. To keep the autonomous territory of the demihuman alliance formed 500 years ago in check, the western kingdoms were borrowing the Crows’ power.

“Every ten years, a Crow executive visits Sword Forest and greets me. The person who comes changes sometimes, but the power in them is similar. They use a strange power, neither sword nor magic. It isn’t dangerous to me, but it feels ominous. It will be dangerous to you.”

Helenas was not the only one interested in Fenris. Helenas merely asked after Fenris’s well-being, but the Crows regularly sent letters offering huge sums to buy Fenris.

“It doesn’t seem like you’ll listen even if I say it, but don’t get involved with the Crows. Especially avoid those who wear Black Feathers. They are direct subordinates of the Duke of Dark Clouds.”

The current representative and commander of the Crows, Duke of Dark Clouds Garcia Rubalt. He was a superhuman among the Ten Peaks, alongside Julius and the Sword Church Master.

“Lastly, be careful of the Sword Tower.”
“...”
“I feel uneasy about that place. It may be precious to you, though.”
“It’s home.”
“This is not a warning.”

Helenas sighed once more.

“I’m only saying what I feel. What you do with it is your own decision.”
“Thank you.”

Kyle gave a short laugh. Even 500 years ago, Helenas did this sometimes. Whenever she truly couldn’t understand him, not even a little, she would just return his own words to him.

“It’s not something to thank me for.”
“I’m saying thank you for a different reason.”

Kyle bent at the waist in a deep bow.

“Thank you for not forgetting, even for 500 years.”

Helenas froze for a moment. Kyle raised his head and looked at her. Her eyes were shaking.

“That was... my choice.”

Because it was fate.

Helenas didn’t bother saying those words aloud. To her, it was obvious, and the boy in front of her likely knew it too.

“Besides saying thank you, I also want to tell you that you did well, and that I’m proud of you.”

Kyle slipped back into Raikal for a moment and gave a bitter smile.

“I’ll say that later. Words like that only sound right after I win.”

Helenas’s body trembled faintly. She stared blankly at Kyle, then slowly breathed out. It was not a sigh, and not a lament. It was heat leaking out as she steadied herself, suppressing un-elf-like emotions surging from deep inside. She fixed her expression and nodded.

“Don’t forget the promise.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll wait.”

Helenas turned around. For her, those words were a farewell. She usually didn’t say farewells. Especially not “take care.”

An elf’s time flowed completely differently from a human’s. To an elf, a brief moment could become decades to a human. In the past, when she gave those kinds of farewells, “Take care, see you next time,” there were many times she never met that person again.

[Go and return safely, Raikal.]

As Helenas walked slowly, an old memory rose in her mind. It was the last thing she had said to Raikal. The moment she thought of him, huge fear seized her. What if this was the last time? What if they could never meet again? Gripped by that fear, Helenas turned around.

She did not do what she could not understand. She had tried to follow because she was told not to understand, but she couldn’t do it after all. Helenas wanted Kyle by her side.

“Take care.”

The moment Helenas turned, Kyle’s voice reached her.

“See you next time.”

Ah.

Helenas stood there blankly, looking at Kyle. In the middle of the barren winter mountain, the boy raising his hand and waving had a clear, vivid color in that white, hazy world. It was as if he were wrapped in a halo. For most of the last 500 years, the world had felt colorless to her, yet that boy’s existence felt unbearably vivid.

“...”

Helenas understood, just a little.

“Yes.”

Those faded sky-blue eyes grew wet. The moisture made her eyes look even clearer. A single tear ran down her face, and, as the boy did, she raised her hand and waved before turning away.

“Take care, and next time... let us meet again.”

Humans suffered because they did not have enough time, but elves suffered because they had too much.

After 100 years, all the humans they lived with died.

After 200 years, their descendants died too.

After 300 years, even the descendants of descendants died, and the names of the once-living remained only on gravestones.

After 400 years, moss covered the gravestones.

After 500 years, even the fact that those gravestones once existed was forgotten.

Through all that time, elves did not change. Immutability was not a blessing. If everything around you changed and only you did not, then it became a loneliness cut off from the world. It was like a rock fixed in place while the river flowed by. The river kept flowing past the rock, and the rock could not hold the river.

Helenas had lived that way for 500 years.

The people who stood beside Raikal died. The people who remembered Raikal died. The people who remembered those people died too.

The name Sword Demon remained, but Helenas was the only one left who could recall the face behind that name. Raikal had not even left a portrait.

As time passed, Helenas became alone.

Countless Sword Church Disciples revered her, and the Apostles and their disciples were in Sword Forest. Yet even there, Helenas was alone. They were by her side, but they could not exist in her time.

Human time was fast, elf time was slow. Even if they lived through the same year, they were not moving through the same time.

That was why elves clung to fate. Only fate gave them a reason to endure time. Fate was the only antidote that let one keep standing while drinking the poison called time.

For Helenas, Raikal’s sword was exactly that. The one fate that let her endure 500 years.

But it had not become an antidote to that poison.

Because that fate was not fulfilled. Because swinging her sword was not fun. So this fate stopped being an antidote and became another poison that ate away at her. Helenas had lived for 500 years drinking two poisons.

But now, Helenas felt time moving.

She was curious about tomorrow. She was curious about one year from now. She was curious how Kyle’s sword would change as time passed. That feeling of curiosity stirred inside her for the first time in a very long while.

The promised span of time no longer felt like poison. It felt like the distance of a promise. The time until Kyle came to find her. No matter how long that was, she felt she could bear it.

No, bear was the wrong word. She was not enduring it, she was waiting. She was not drinking poison, she was watching a promise ripen.

‘Someday, will I lose to your sword? And when that defeat comes, will I find joy in it?’

She still didn’t know. But even not knowing made her heart pound. She had always had many things she didn’t know, since she had no Sword Talent, but it had been a very long time since she felt this kind of pounding.

Before Raikal died.
When she took up her sword and went to his quarters, her heart had always pounded.

‘It’s been a long time.’

Helenas did not stop walking. She did not look back. The ridges of the Blade Mountain Range were sinking into darkness. Stars were rising one by one.

“I’ll wait.”

Helenas murmured in a small voice.

“This time, I might... find joy in waiting.”

Kyle stood still and stared in the direction she had left. She seemed to be walking at an easy pace, but with each step she slipped farther and farther away, until he could no longer see her.

“...”

Kyle turned and looked toward Gladiheim. It was too far. He didn’t even know how far she had flown them out.

“Could’ve at least dropped me off before leaving.”

Grumbling, Kyle turned and started walking.

‘Ah, right.’

As he started walking toward Gladiheim, something suddenly came to mind.

“I should’ve asked if she cried when I died too.”

She probably had.

Today, Helenas had cried twice.

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