WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 89: Long Time No See

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"My name is Kyle Alastor. I'm fifteen. My mother is Arian Alastor, and my father is Aslan Antares."

Kyle settled into the chair beside the bed as he spoke. Lavian, propped up against the headboard, studied his face quietly.

"Red hair and gold eyes. Just as Arian takes after Julius, you take after Arian."

Lavian smiled, though there was little strength in it.

"Would you come a little closer? My eyes aren't quite focusing yet."

A body that had slept for nineteen years could hardly be expected to be in good shape. Her vision was blurred, her limbs refused to obey, and even her voice was something she had to coax out.

"Please don't push yourself. We can talk later."

"No. I want to talk now."

The voice was weak, but the stubbornness behind it had teeth. Exactly as Julius had said.

"You asked what kind of child I am."

"I did."

"Well..."

Kyle thought for a moment, then shrugged.

"I like swords."

It was the first thing that came to mind.

"Is that so. Are you good with one?"

"I am."

"Honest, aren't you."

Lavian laughed softly and glanced toward Julius. He was standing at Kyle's side, smiling with quiet warmth.

"It's the truth. You're welcome to ask him yourself."

"No need. Julius and Arian said quite a lot of good things about you while I was sleeping."

The Julius she remembered was not a generous man with praise, least of all toward his own children. Yet he had spoken of this boy's exceptional ability often and without reservation.

"Julius has never been one to be honest about his feelings with his children, so the fact that he praised your sword means you must be extraordinary enough to force the words out of him."

"I'm fairly unprecedented in a few ways. I even command a knight order."

"A knight order at fifteen? Ha... that is bold. When I was fifteen, I was still rolling around the training grounds with Julius."

Lavian laughed and reached out to pat Kyle's head, but her arm wouldn't quite rise. Kyle naturally dipped his head so her hand could reach.

Thin, dry fingers traced through his hair.

"So soft. It feels more like a girl's hair than a boy's."

"Mother combed it a lot when I was small."

"Arian... ha, Arian got married and had a child... what is your father like?"

"Mm..."

Kyle paused. Aslan, who had been in Closed-Door Training for twelve years, could not honestly be called a good husband or a good father, even charitably.

"He's not a bad person, exactly, but he's racked up quite a few sins. Mother will tell you the details later."

"I see... I'll be able to hear it from her directly. There's so much I want to say to everyone, and so much I want to hear."

"Your mother will cry a lot. Your uncles and aunts will too."

"Julius cried, after all."

Lavian smiled warmly and looked at him. The skin around his eyes and the bridge of his nose were still swollen.

"To think that you, who cared so much about authority and dignity, would weep like that. It's a shame the children weren't here to see it. What a rare sight, and only Kyle and I got to witness it."

"Do you enjoy watching me be embarrassed that much?"

Julius let out a long sigh.

"If you truly want them to see, I can cry in front of the children too. Lavian, you opening your eyes is reason enough to set aside dignity for a little while."

"Julius, you seem more honest than before. I suppose a great deal of time has passed."

"Arian had two children. Erika became an adult."

"I wish I could have seen it all with my own eyes."

"Don't regret what you missed. What has already passed, you couldn't see, but what is still to come, you will."

Julius sat on the edge of the bed and gently covered her hand with his. His eyes, already swollen, began filling again.

"Kyle."

Lavian, feeling his touch, looked at Kyle.

"Was it you... who woke me?"

Julius looked at him too. Under both their gazes, Kyle slowly nodded.

"Yes."

"How did you manage it?"

Julius asked.

"The finest physicians and healers on the continent, mages, priests, none of them could wake Lavian. How did you...?"

"Well, I actually received something in the Secret Realm."

Kyle held up the necklace and explained what had happened there.

"An angel...?"

Lavian tilted her head, but Julius's expression went rigid. He seemed to know what the being that had called itself an angel actually was.

"An Apostle of a sky god."

"You know of them?"

"I do. I've even met one. But I didn't know conversation was possible."

Julius exhaled briefly. Seeing his expression, Kyle asked, half out of caution.

"You're not angry that I acted on my own without telling you, are you?"

"If something had gone wrong with Lavian, I would be. But she's opened her eyes. Why would I be angry?"

Julius took Kyle's hand in his own, which was faintly trembling.

"Right now, the only thought in me is how grateful I am to you. The Apostle of a sky god offered to grant you a request, and you named one for Lavian. You could have asked for anything for yourself."

"I've already received far too much from this family and from you, Grandfather. And there was nothing grand enough that I needed to spend a request from a sky god's Apostle on."

"Part of me wants to hand you the position of Family Head this very moment."

Julius smiled.

"If Alastor were an ordinary noble house, I would. But Alastor is a Martial family, and only the strongest who bears that name becomes Family Head. Even if I stepped aside, you couldn't hold that position yet."

"I have no desire to be Family Head right now. If I ever do, I'll take it myself."

"Then tell me something else you want."

"You don't have to do that. I wanted to meet Grandmother too."

"No. I don't think I'll feel right unless I do something for you."

"I don't have to answer right away, do I? I'll take my time thinking about it."

If he wanted something, he would say so, but right now, he genuinely had nothing.

"Earlier, just before Grandmother woke, I heard a voice from the rift. Did you hear it as well, Grandfather?"

"No. Nothing reached my ears."

"It said it would give because it had received."

Kyle paused, then continued.

"As much as was received. I'm not sure what that means."

"I think I might."

Lavian, who had been listening to the two of them, spoke up.

"My left arm and legs won't move."

"What...?"

Kyle turned to her in surprise.

"I have feeling in them, but I can't put any strength into them."

"You slept for nineteen years. It may be a temporary condition. With treatment and rehabilitation..."

"Everything except my legs and left arm is working. My eyes are blurred but they see, and I can speak. I know my own body. My legs and left arm, I simply haven't gotten them back yet."

Lavian shook her head.

"The nineteen years I slept aren't clear to me. I mentioned it before, Julius, but what I felt when I fell asleep was pure black darkness. I was... trapped inside it."

She couldn't go on. The more she tried to recall it, the more her head throbbed and her body shook. Julius quickly wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Don't say any more."

She had woken after nineteen years. Her mind was no more intact than her body. The truth of what had happened that day, and the way to reclaim what had not yet been returned, those things could be uncovered gradually.

"Kyle. You're injured, and you must be tired. You can go now. But before you rest, please let Karthan know that Lavian has woken."

Once Karthan heard, he would gather his siblings and bring them up to the tenth floor on his own.

"Yes, understood."

Kyle nodded and rose from the chair. Since he had come straight here just to pay his respects, he was still in his uniform, now in tatters and soaked with blood.

He was hiding it, but the injuries were serious. His chest was still slightly caved in, and cracks ran through his ribs and arm bones.

'A few days without swinging a sword. I need to rest.'

He bowed to Julius and Lavian, then left the room. Walking out, he opened the pendant on the necklace. As expected, it was empty inside, but the necklace still wouldn't come off.

'Am I supposed to wear this thing my whole life?'

Pulling at the cord did nothing. It wouldn't break. Maybe there was still some other use left in it. Thinking that, he made his way down to the fourth floor, where the pureblood residential quarters were.

"Kyle!"

The moment he stepped off the elevator, he heard the cry. Arian came flying in on the wind, and the instant her feet touched the floor she grabbed his shoulders.

"You-your clothes, what happened?! Are you hurt?!"

Tears were welling in Arian's gold eyes. Knight order commander or not, to Arian, Kyle was nothing more than her fifteen-year-old son.

"I'm a little hurt, but I'm fine."

"That's not a little! Even just the blood on your clothes..."

"Not all of it is mine."

Some of it was his, but much of it belonged to the Demon Tribe members he had cut down. At those words, Arian's eyes flinched. She understood that her son had returned from killing something this time.

"You're all right... really?"

"I told you I'm fine. Nothing's wrong with me."

Kyle felt her unease. He gave her a reassuring smile, then waved toward the back. Aslan was hurrying toward them with Kaya in his arms.

"Good timing, actually. I had something to tell you."

"Me?"

"Grandmother woke up."

Arian's gold eyes went wide.

"I just came from visiting her. Paid my respects."

"Ky, Kyle. What are you saying? Grandmother... my, Mother woke up?"

Arian's voice stumbled. Kyle smiled and stepped aside.

"Don't hear it from me. Go hear it from her directly. She wants to see you, Aslan, and Kaya."

"What do you mean, is it, is it really true? Mother really woke up?"

Arian looked back and forth between Kyle and the elevator, confused. Her worry for her son returning with injuries, and her mother waking after nineteen years, all of it was shaking her at once. Kyle gently pressed a hand to her back.

"I really am fine, so go. Take Father and Kaya up to the tenth floor. Grandfather and Grandmother are waiting."

Only then did Arian move, stepping unsteadily toward the elevator. Kyle explained the situation to Aslan, who had just reached them, then pressed a finger into Kaya's soft cheek.

"Kaya. Go say hello to Grandmother."

"Big Brother, why are your clothes red?"

"Mm... Big Brother likes red. So I was doing a bit of painting."

"Weally? Will you paint with Kaya later too?"

"Sure, sure."

Leaving Kaya's pealing laughter behind, Kyle headed for Karthan's residence. He had never come here in person before, but since he was here for a happy reason, his steps felt light.

He knocked on the door of the residence, and it swung open not long after.

"Kyle?"

It was Karthan himself who answered, not a servant. He looked puzzled.

"You've never come to my home before. What brings you here?"

"Grandmother woke up."

Karthan's eyes went wide.

"My... Mother woke up?"

"Yes. Grandfather asked me to bring you the news, Uncle Karthan."

Karthan's mouth fell open and he couldn't find words. He took a moment to collect himself, then reached out with a trembling hand and grabbed Kyle's shoulder.

"Y-you, Kyle. Was it you who woke Mother?"

"Yes."

The tears Karthan had held back in the Sword Hall finally brimmed in his gold eyes. He swallowed the sob rising in his throat, let the tears fall quietly, and bowed his head low toward Kyle.

"Thank... you."

"You don't have to say that. You did what you had to do for me as family, and I only did what I had to do."

He hadn't woken Lavian hoping for any reward. He had simply woken her because she needed to be woken. Whether Karthan felt that sincerity or not, the hand gripping Kyle's shoulder trembled harder.

"The Family Head said it, that you are a treasure of this family. He was right. Kyle, you are our family's treasure."

Karthan said it without wiping his tears.

That day, the tenth floor of the Sword Tower became a flood of tears. Even Barkas, who had seemed the last person likely to cry, clutched Lavian's hand and wept openly.

Unlike Julius, who had always been strict with the children out of regard for the dignity of the Family Head, Lavian had been a warm and tender mother. The children feared Julius as much as they had indulged themselves in Lavian's embrace.

Nineteen years had passed. The children had grown. Some had children of their own now, had become fathers and mothers themselves. With strength and position came authority, and with authority came the ability to keep their feelings in check.

But not today. Today, every one of them cried the way they had as children, with no restraint, exactly as they felt. Their mother Lavian, who had seemed like she might never open her eyes, had opened them. There was no way not to become a child again.

While the tenth floor became a flood of tears.

Kyle was lying in a bed in the first-floor infirmary of the Sword Tower. He had planned to get some bandages and medicine and head back to the Rose Mansion, but the physician had been horrified and blocked his way.

"There are cracks in bones throughout your body. Your muscles are riddled with tears, and your internal injuries are severe. How on earth have you been moving around like this?!"

The physician fixed him with a sharp look.

"Your Circuits in particular are a complete wreck, twisted and torn everywhere. In all my years, I've never seen Circuits this damaged..."

"My Circuits aren't twisted. They're just naturally like that."

"Pardon?"

"My body is just, my Circuits are a bit unusual."

His Circuits had been extraordinary from the start, and had changed dramatically after passing through the Cultivation Floors and learning the Primordial Chaos Sword Canon. To a physician's examination they would look like a tangled, torn mess, but in truth they were connected with a precision that allowed mana to flow anywhere at all.

"The Circuits, I'll examine again. But your external and internal injuries are more serious than they appear. For the time being, please stay here and focus on treatment."

"Injuries like these just need some medicine and a bit of sleep..."

"As a patient, even a pureblood must listen to me while under this roof."

The physician said it with a firm face.

After some negotiation, they settled on a single day's admission for observation, after which he could return to the mansion to recover.

Kyle lay in the bed with a blank expression and stared at the ceiling, feeling the expensive spirit fluid and potions seep into him through the catheter connected to his body.

He thought of Lizet.

'She was strong.'

Ever since reincarnating into this body he had carried something like a chronic hunger, but the fight with Lizet had been intense enough to clear it all out in one go. In that fight Kyle had truly felt the line between life and death, and he had survived it. The Inscription it left was still there, buried beneath the bandages wrapped tight around his chest.

'I'm not the only one who came away with an Inscription. Lucia got one too.'

The Demon King's brand. The burden of it would be Lucia's to carry, but Kyle intended to help where he could. Looked at honestly, it wasn't entirely unrelated to him. He had taken her into his order, which was why she went to Beltua Island, why she entered the Secret Realm, and why she ended up receiving the brand.

'The Demon King's brand, then...'

He had said he would consult the Mage Association about it, so there was no way to start searching for answers right away.

Or was there? Something flickered in the back of Kyle's mind.

'Baal.'

The sword of the Demon King. The one that made the Sword Garden. Kyle thought of that ferocious, ominous shape and smiled slowly.

The next day, after enduring the physician's parting warnings, Kyle left the infirmary and went straight to the Sword Garden.

[Grrrr...]

The moment he drew near, Fenris hummed and vibrated against his hip. Every weapon planted in the Sword Garden was old and storied, a famous blade that had been cherished and loved. Not all of them housed a Dokkaebi, but plenty did.

And among those, the most ferocious one, the one that kept the other Dokkaebi in the Sword Garden from approaching Kyle, throwing its weight around and staking its territory.

[You little brat...!]

He stepped boldly into the Sword Garden, and at once a deep crimson fog came surging in around him.

[How dare you, how dare you-you of all people, make Baal wait?!]

Baal, which had been hidden until now, revealed itself. A single eye appeared at the center of a massive cleaver-like blade and fixed its gaze on Kyle.

Baal had every right to be furious. After Kyle awakened his Spirit Root at ten and got his own private Cultivation Chamber with free rein to swing a sword as much as he liked, he had stopped coming to the Sword Garden. Every time he passed through, Baal would breathe out fog and try to snare him, and every single time, Kyle ignored the call.

It had been the same even after he came out from the Cultivation Floors. Baal had been overjoyed to see Kyle reappear after years of absence and had tried to grab him then too, but Kyle ignored the call that time as well.

"Hey. Long time no see."

Stepping into the field of consciousness woven from red fog, Kyle grinned and waved. It was infuriating enough to make Baal want to kill him, but Baal decided to forgive it. Five hundred years since it had been planted in the Sword Garden. Kyle was the first human it had ever been able to talk to like this.

[Don't act like we're friends, brat. This one's call, ignored for years...]

Baal's voice cut off. The eye on the blade found Fenris hanging at Kyle's hip.

[You... you...]

Baal's voice began to shake.

[Did you... get a sword?]

"Yeah."

[Without me?!]

Baal screamed.

Footnotes:

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