WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Reincarnation of the Sword Demon

Chapter 76

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No Wonder

Long ago, the Demon Tribe lived in Erebos, the land beyond the North Sea. It was too small to be called a continent, yet too large to be called an island.

Back then, the Demon Tribe did not try to leave Erebos and expand onto the continent, so they were a mysterious and rare race, almost like elves.

Then, 500 years ago, during the continent's Dark Age, the Demon King ruling Erebos tried to advance onto the continent. From the Demon Tribe's perspective it was expansion, but from the continent's perspective it was no different from invasion.

As a result, that era fell into chaos. Wars within the continent were already brutal enough, and then a race from beyond the North Sea began invading too.

On top of that, the Demon Tribe could use mana from birth like elves, but unlike elves, they were not mild in temperament. In fact, that was why humans already had a poor image of them even before the invasion.

The Demon Tribe called humans an inferior race, and humans called the Demon Tribe savages. That was the relationship between them.

After many twists and turns, the Demon Tribe's invasion ended in a treaty after the duel between the Demon King and Ruin Alastor. Erebos, once far away, was allowed to move closer to the continent, and some North Sea islands were handed over to the Demon Tribe as proof of the friendship treaty.

"But it doesn't feel harsh like a frontline."

Isaac smacked his lips and spoke.

"If anything, the northern islands feel different from imperial territory, so they're fresh and interesting. Kind of like what people call neutral ground."

Of course, "neutral ground" did not mean islands the Demon Tribe could freely come and go from. Most North Sea islands were imperial territory. Still, compared to the continent, entry screening was simpler and long-term stays were less strict, so many Demon Tribe members lived there.

"Well, that changes a lot depending on the Island Lord's disposition... but compared to imperial territory on the continent, the atmosphere is looser."
"I don't get it," Narua said. "Either way, it's enemy meeting enemy, right? Why isn't it tense? What if they try to take land?"
"That hasn't happened... for 500 years. The Demon King has changed several times, but out of all of them, only the one from 500 years ago wanted to advance onto the continent."

Isaac shook his head as he spoke, but Narua still looked unconvinced. But since she was not an elf, she did not keep pressing what she could not understand.

"Gladiheim's White Night Knights guard the north in case the Demon Tribe invades, but in the last 500 years, the White Night Knights were only used for that purpose during Founding Ancestor Alastor's era. Never after that."

Even if they were never used for that purpose, the White Night Knights still had the second-largest concentration of powerhouses in Gladiheim after the Funeral Knights.

"Beltua Island is a rural island with a small population. Most islanders work in fishing, and the Island Lord is just a country noble without excessive ambition."

Kyle scanned the orders again as he spoke.

"Normally, problems on the island are handled by the Island Lord's own forces, but the Secret Realm discovered this time is beyond his ability. That's why he asked Alastor for help."

Alastor had overseen the empire's north for 500 years. As time passed, the Island Lords of the larger islands gradually moved out from under Alastor's shadow, but small islands like Beltua were still protected by it.

"Ordinarily, this kind of mission belongs to the Aurora Knights and the White Night Knights, but your captain is in the Family Head's favor, so you got this sweet Secret Realm subjugation mission as your first assignment."

Clap, clap, clap.

Lucia jumped to her feet and began applauding. Jade and Narua followed and clapped as well, while Bruno only looked dumbfounded. Isaac clicked his tongue and looked back and forth between Lucia and Kyle.

"That's some loyalty. What, did he save your life when you were little?"
"Not my life, but he did save my sword."

Kyle raised a hand slightly, and Lucia stopped clapping.

"The Family Head said all spoils from the Secret Realm are ours to divide however we want. That's thanks to me, too."

Clap, clap, clap. Lucia started applauding again. After listening long enough, Kyle raised his hand once more. The clapping stopped.

"But our knight order's purpose isn't only to explore the Secret Realm."
"What?"
"As written in the orders each of you received, Beltua is not one of the islands handed over to the Demon Tribe. And as Isaac-nim just said, the North Sea islands are fairly lenient with the Demon Tribe. It's possible Demon Tribe forces greedy for the Secret Realm are already sniffing around."
"No... kid, when did I ever say that?"

He had said things were loose, but he had never said Demon Tribe intruders might already be lurking.

"Grandfather warned me about that exact risk."

If Julius had said that, Isaac could not argue further. He rubbed his chin, thought for a while, then muttered to himself.

"Hmm... that could... be true. A succession struggle in Erebos... there's no precedent for that..."

Ignoring Isaac's muttering, Kyle looked over his members.

"Mission objective one: subjugate and close the Secret Realm. Objective two: eliminate any possible Demon Tribe infiltrators. Understood?"
"Yes, understood."

Lucia answered sharply, and the others nodded as well. The briefing ended there. Kyle sprang up from his chair.

"Then there's nothing else to say. Let's move out."

Tap. Kyle patted Fenris at his waist and smiled. Just yesterday, Gallen had brought him a new scabbard for Fenris. To Kyle, it looked like nothing more than a well-made scabbard, but Fenris seemed to think otherwise. The wheezing laughter from inside the scabbard proved it.

"Kid, while you're out on this mission, I'll be leaving Gladiheim too. It's the last time, and you're not giving me a proper farewell?"
"Elder, see you next time."

Kyle grabbed Isaac's hand at once.

"Uh... uh, right. Next time... let's meet next time."

The farewell was so clean and cheerful that Isaac could not hold him back any further.

It took half a day by ship from the coast below the Blade Mountain Range to reach Beltua Island. The flying horses that pulled the sky carriage hated flying over the sea as much as death, so a ship was the only option.

Bruno took the helm. Apparently, Lucia could steer too. Ship handling was part of Gladiheim trainee instruction.

Kyle had never gone through the trainee course, so he could not pilot a ship. In the first place, he had never come out to sea like this, not even in his previous life. Sword Demon Raikal had crossed rivers, but never the sea.

The small vessel quickly left the harbor.

"I thought it'd be like a river, but it's totally different."

Jade voiced exactly what Kyle had been thinking. Ransel was inland too. Leaning over the railing, Jade stared at the sea with curious eyes.

Kyle also looked out at the sea for a while. He had seen enough "sea" in the Cultivation Floors to get sick of it, but the North Sea they were crossing now felt brutal in a different way. He watched drifting icebergs in the distance with fascination.

When he turned his gaze, he saw Lucia. She sat near the bow, looking out beyond the sea. Beyond that were Demon Tribe islands, and far to the north was Erebos.

Lucia had no memories from before age five. The only things she knew about herself were that she was a Demon Tribe Half-blood and that her name was Lucia. How a five-year-old girl had reached the coast below the Blade Mountain Range, Lucia did not know.

Her expression as she looked over the open sea was no different from usual, but Kyle noticed her hand gripping her sword hilt. He did not ask why.

Kyle looked back outside, then shifted his gaze inward. Narua sat in the middle of the boat, hugging her knees. Her brown face had gone pale. For a native of the southern Avara Plateau, even the concept of the sea was unfamiliar.

"Narua, are you okay?"
"I-I'm... okay."

Neither her face nor her voice looked okay at all, but she wanted to be okay, so he nodded.

After half a day, the boat reached Beltua Island. News must have been sent ahead, because the Island Lord and his knights were waiting at the harbor.

'I've been seeing only exceptional people until now.'

Stepping off the boat, Kyle sized up the island knights. Maybe because they were from a rural island, their skill was nothing special. The strongest among them was around the level of a Gladiheim apprentice knight. Even that level would be a disaster for ordinary civilians, but it was nowhere near enough to close a Secret Realm that had appeared on the island.

"Please guide us to the Secret Realm."

Making sure his indifference to the Island Lord's welcome did not show too clearly, Kyle went straight to the point. He had mentioned possible Demon Tribe infiltrators, but the priority was still the island's Secret Realm.

A Secret Realm's appearance could be sudden, but once formed, it was rarely subtle. A Secret Realm consumed non-attributed mana, corrupted it, and spat it back out. Secret Realm detectors picked up that tangled mana.

The island's detector was outdated, but the Secret Realm had existed for at least four days, so they had already fixed the location accurately.

"It's already quite late. Why not rest for one night and depart tomorrow? A banquet has been prepared at the manor."

The old Island Lord bowed and scraped as he spoke. Even though it was a newly formed knight order with only five members, rumors about who its captain was had spread even to this rural island.

"We'll enjoy the banquet after the mission is done. Even now, the Secret Realm is still breathing mana."

Kyle declined politely. In only four days, a rank-four Secret Realm's breathing would not fatally alter the island's environment, but he did not want to listen to the old lord's fawning. In the end, the Island Lord looked disappointed and ordered an escort knight to guide the Sword Wolf Knights.

"Has anyone entered the Secret Realm?"
"Not as far as we've confirmed. The island population count is unchanged."

The middle-aged knight guiding them into the inner forest answered in a stiff voice.

Three hundred years ago, every human on the continent awakened a Spirit Root and gained the ability to use mana, but that awakening was never equal. The quality of Spirit Roots differed, the number of Circuits differed, and beyond that, Martial Talent differed too.

If anything, talent had become brutally obvious and easy to judge, and that closed possibilities early. People gave up because of what they were born with before trying harder or trying anything else. The knight guiding Kyle was exactly that kind of person. He had served as a knight for decades, but as Kyle had already judged, his level was around that of a Gladiheim trainee.

'From the opposite angle, though, if someone knows early that their Spirit Root and Circuits are good, they have no reason not to work hard.'

Even if they lacked Martial Talent and felt frustrated, they could still rise in realm through Spirit Root and Circuit advantage alone. It was a perspective Kyle had never considered back when he saw only outstanding talent in Gladiheim.

'Is the world better now, or worse...'

Was it good that people could know their limits before swinging a sword like fools? Or was it bad? Kyle could not choose one side.

What was clear was this: Kyle had been born holding benefits, no, privileges.

"We'll proceed on our own from here."

From midway through the forest, they no longer needed a guide. Kyle's sensitive Spirit Root and senses detected mana flow twisted into something bizarre. Jor, curled in his middle dantian, slowly lifted his head and whispered.

[Master, this is...]
'I know.'

Kyle nodded and strode forward. As his steps quickened, Lucia's expression changed. Even after refusing multiple times, she had eventually become vice-captain of the Sword Wolf Knights. The pauldron on her uniform was now red, marking that position.

"Everyone, draw your swords and form up."

Lucia drew Blood Fang as she spoke. The order was carried out at once. Bruno drew his greatsword, Jade drew his sword breaker, and Narua drew her twin swords. Bruno took the rear, Lucia moved right behind Kyle, and Narua and Jade guarded left and right.

'Strange.'

Kyle advanced toward the center of the tangled mana flow. To him, it felt deeply unpleasant, but those following him showed no sign of sensing anything odd.

He listened closely. Kyle had been born with powerful Spirit Affinity. When he focused and listened, he could sometimes hear the voices of spirits he had never contracted.

Now, he heard nothing at all. Not wind, not forest, not earth, not stone, everything was silent. It was not that spirits did not exist. Mana resembling each nature always housed spirits.

He focused on his Spirit Root and senses. He could feel mana of many attributes, but it had warped grotesquely, likely under the Secret Realm's breath. The moment Kyle tilted his head.

[D-d-d-don't s-s-sense!]

A shriek that only Kyle could hear rang out. At the same time, wind flowing between the trees compressed to a single point and shot at him. Kyle did not need to react. Jor, sharing the same senses, burst out from the middle dantian at once, opened his huge mouth wide, and swallowed the wind whole.

[Ughghghghk...!]

The wind spirits swallowed by Jor let out twisted groans, then were gulped down in the end. Lucia, who had been about to move a beat late, looked at Kyle in confusion.

"Kyle-nim...?"

Kyle did not answer. He looked at Jor instead. After swallowing the wind spirits, Jor closed his eyes for a moment, then spoke.

[It's wind, but it's becoming not-wind.]
"Like your old self?"
[It's different. I changed inside you, Master, through the meals you gave me... but these spirits are being transformed against their will.]
"Interesting."

Kyle grinned and muttered, then turned to his members.

"Any of you have Secret Realm experience?"

Everyone except Narua raised a hand. Kyle pointed around at the surrounding scenery and asked.

"Compared to other Secret Realms, does this place feel different?"
"No, it doesn't."

Lucia straightened her expression and answered.

"I experienced rank-four Secret Realms during trainee days under instructors' supervision, but this place is no different."
"If anything, this place is calm for an area affected by Secret Realm breathing. The scale is small too, and it's only been at least four days since it appeared."

Bruno picked up the point. As both of them said, the scenery showed no unusual change. It was just an ordinary winter forest. Only Kyle and Jor could feel the forest's mana and spirits being transformed.

"Hearing that makes it even stranger."

Kyle scratched his chin and patted Jor's head. Jor, who had only his head out from Kyle's chest, slipped back inside.

"Let's go."
"Kyle-nim, what was that just now?"
"I don't really know. I think we need to see it directly first."

Kyle now moved past walking and started running. He shut down his sensitivity to spirits. If they were screaming at him not to sense and attacking him over it, there had to be a reason.

Not long after, the entrance to the Secret Realm came into view.

It looked like a crack in space. A long vertical tear. Blue light leaked from within.

Beltua Island sat in the middle of the North Sea. Other large islands supposedly adjusted the weather with mages and magical tools, but poor, rural Beltua could not. In this season, the trees in the forest should have been dry and bare, and the soil should have been frozen.

But the area around the crack was different. Plants there had grown abnormally. On soil that should have been frozen, all kinds of flowers were blooming, and even the trees were thick with leaves. Even the wind was warm instead of cold. It felt like multiple seasons had been mixed into one landscape.

Mana sucked in and spat back out by the Secret Realm had affected the environment. That much change had happened in only at least four days. That alone would have shocked someone seeing a Secret Realm for the first time, but Kyle was shocked for a different reason.

'It matches.'

It was exactly what he had sensed before arriving. The mana affected by the Secret Realm's breath was, strangely enough, sensorially similar to the mana he had felt in the Mudflat and sea of the Cultivation Floors.

That made it even stranger. The mana he had felt there was very thin, but here mana was abundant. Even the attributes were different. The mana in the Cultivation Floors had been non-attributed, but most mana here had attributes.

And those attributes were excessive. It felt swollen to the brink of bursting past the vessel's limit. If he had to compare it, mana influenced by the crack's breath was obese from overnutrition.

"I'll ask again. Compared to other Secret Realms, is there anything special about the scenery or mana around that one?"
"There isn't."

Lucia answered immediately. It seemed only Kyle and Jor could feel this sensation. Kyle tilted his head, but there was no point dwelling on it. He had been born with a Spirit Root unlike anyone else's, so his senses were unlike anyone else's too.

"Really? Then let's go in."

Kyle took the lead and entered the crack. Before he could even step in fully, he felt something grab him.

Like an invisible hand seized his existence and pulled him inside.

'Whoa...'

Entering a Secret Realm through a crack felt similar at first to using a Warp Gate. The body floated for a moment, as if being swept somewhere.

Only at first. The instant of entry, which should have passed in a blink, felt endlessly long to Kyle. As if time had been seized by someone and forcibly stretched out. The instant was no longer an instant, and a chill spread over his entire body.

Kyle knew this sensation. The first time he truly saw the sky in the Mudflat. The first time he saw the "hand" sending high tide from beyond the sea. The first time he glanced at the eye floating in the deep sea.

It felt similar to that. Most people would never feel this sensation, but Kyle's Chaos Spirit Root felt it too well. He had thought he had grown fairly used to it in the Mudflat and sea, but this was different again. Simply put, what he felt now was closer than what he felt in the Cultivation Floors.

Because it was closer. Kyle slowly turned his gaze. Or tried to. His physical body was still bound in that instant of entry into the Secret Realm. Even so, if he tried to see, then he was seeing with something other than fleshly eyes.

Something appeared beyond the rushing flow. At first, he recognized it as a pure white clump of fur. The moment he recognized it and looked, the clump changed.

It was not fur. It was a giant eyeball covered in pure white wings. He could not even tell how many wings there were. The moment he saw that vivid blue eye, Kyle's thoughts stopped and the Spirit Root inside him screamed.

The eye looking at Kyle seemed surprised for a moment, then revealed a "smile."

::Do not fear::

That was the last thing.

"Kyle-nim!"

His mouth tasted like dirt.

What exactly had happened? Kyle thought it through, one step at a time. He deliberately avoided thinking about that "clump of fur" he had seen while entering the Secret Realm. Still, the voice that said ::Do not fear::, if it could even be called a voice, he could feel that will imprinted in his mind.

'What was that?'

How had he gotten from that moment to now? He entered the Secret Realm. He failed to stay standing and collapsed face down. Some time passed, then his members entered. During all that time, Kyle's mouth had stayed pressed against dirt. That was why he could taste it now.

"Kyle-nim! Please get ahold of yourself!"

More time seemed to have passed after that too. At least now, Kyle was no longer sprawled on the ground; he was being supported. He could smell Lucia. And then...

"Lu, cia."

Kyle barely forced his lips open.

"Report, situation."

Lucia was briefly flustered by his halting voice, then quickly steadied herself and answered.

"The Demon Tribe."

At that reply, Kyle forced a smile with lips that still would not move properly.

"No wonder."

So that was the sound of fighting.

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