WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reincarnation of the Sword Demon

Chapter 94

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Purity

Purity, huh.

Holding Baal in his hand, Kyle took a moment to trace back through his memories. What had been in his mind five hundred years ago when he went to find Ruin, and what he had felt as they fought?

Nothing grand, really. He had simply been curious who it was that had ended the imperial succession struggle, the root cause of the Dark Age, by cheerfully lopping off the heads of six out of seven royals.

Breaking through that ironclad security alone and taking six royal heads was the kind of madness even the Sword Demon would never have dared attempt, something he could only think of as impossible.

He simply could not stand that the person behind such madness was apparently inside the imperial palace. He wanted to see that face, and it happened that the man was a swordsman, so he ran there without a second thought.

And during the fight, what had he been thinking?

'This bastard is insanely strong.'

Probably something like that. If this keeps up, I'm going to die. I'm actually going to die. Now's the time to run. No, just a little longer. Just a little more, just a little more.

He kept swinging his sword like that, and in the end, he died. That was all there was to it. It was, without question, the most enjoyable fight of his entire life, but the Sword Demon had not been the winner.

'Purity...'

Looking back further, the Sword Demon had not been a particularly pure person. He had ambition for strength, and he had pride. There were plenty of things he had wanted.

Still, at the very beginning, his reason for picking up the sword had been simple. He just liked swords. Could that be called purity? The things the thought remnant had said left Kyle feeling strangely unsettled in more ways than one.

'He regretted killing me... that's flattering, but it also kind of pisses me off.'

He had died, after all. Wasn't that too condescending a way to frame it?

'Or am I twisting it too much?'

Either way, it did not sit right with him. To put it plainly, his pride was a little scraped.

[Wooooooaaaaah!]

That tangled feeling shattered against a loud, ringing cry.

[Freedom! I am free!]

Baal was screaming.

But the cry did not come from the blade. Kyle tilted his head and looked in the direction of the voice.

A girl with curved horns and gray hair tied into two braids was jumping up and down.

[At last, this one has obtained her freedom!]

The girl threw both arms high into the air and howled. Kyle glanced back and forth between her and Baal for a moment, then on a hunch, rapped his knuckles against the blade.

[Hmm?!]

The girl's head snapped around. Wide, square pupils glared at Kyle.

[You, brat! Handle this one with more care!]
"What are you?"

He asked, too baffled to say anything else. The girl blinked at him a few times, then startled and looked down at herself.

[Hmm? Hmmm...? Hmmmm?!]

She examined herself carefully, then lifted her head and stared at Baal in Kyle's hand. She stood there in blank silence for a moment before shaking her head with an expression of sheer disbelief.

[Five hundred years have passed, and it seems this one's rank has risen at last. Mm, mm! Naturally. Even that common blade Fenris was granted a form, so there is no way this one, who has served three Demon Kings, would remain confined to a mere sword!]

The girl wore a satisfied expression as she strode toward Kyle.

[Look upon this, brat. This is the form of this one, freed from her seal. Is it not truly dignified and...]

Kyle did not wait for her to finish. He dropped Baal into the dimensional pouch on his bracelet, and the girl vanished instantly.

"My, my."

Akarion walked over with a dry laugh.

"To think the Dokkaebi of that Baal manifested as such a tiny little girl. Quite the mismatch."

The form that had been a massive cleaver-like blade with an eyeball set in its center had become a small girl. Kyle was staring with a blank expression, and Akarion tilted his head.

"You look unhappy. Does the change in Baal's form bother you?"
"Not exactly. If she's too loud, I can shut her up, and if she won't listen, I can do what I just did and put her away."
"Then why the face?"
"Hm, thinking about it again, yes, actually, the form change does bother me. I liked having the eyeball in the middle of the blade."

He could hardly go around explaining the conversation he had just held inside his head with the thought remnant, so he settled on blaming it on Baal.

"Hm. I never expected the Demon King's will to linger even as a thought remnant. In the end, all I actually did was undo the sealing magic."
"I'll keep the promise I made. I'm curious what kind of cooperation the Tower Master and the Association will be asking of me, anyway."

Things had turned out this way, but if Akarion had not broken the seal, Kyle would never have met the Demon King's thought remnant at all.

"Ha ha... I'm grateful. Though, Kyle-ssi, requests from my end will probably be rare. Most will come from the Association itself, and even those won't be purely the Association's business."
"What do you mean?"
"The Mage Association covers the entire continent except for the isolated east. It's connected not just to the Empire but to many kingdoms and noble houses as well. They will use the promise regarding Baal as leverage to borrow your strength."

Akarion added that with a wry smile.

"Of course, you're free to refuse."
"I'll hear them out first."

Anything routed all the way through the Mage Association would not be a trivial matter. Since reincarnating, Kyle had spent his first five years at the Rose Mansion, and most of the time after that inside the Sword Tower.

'Setting aside the time I spent on the Capital Floor... I've left the Sword Tower only twice.'

The first time was to bring Aslan home. The second was to go to Beltua Island.

'I went to all the trouble of reincarnating, and my feet still haven't gone very far.'

He did not particularly regret it. There was plenty of time ahead to wander.

Cooperation requests through the Mage Association would give him reasons to visit places he had never been, places he had no pressing reason to go on his own.

The infirmary in Blade, the upper district of Gladiheim. Lucia had been lying in bed wrapped in bandages, and she sat up the moment she heard a knock at the door.

"Please, come in."

The door opened and Kyle stepped inside. The sight of his face brightened Lucia's expression immediately, but the smile fell short when Akarion and Erdera followed in behind him.

"Kyle-nim. Those people are...?"
"This is Akarion Lastea. And this is Erdera, the President of the Mage Association. They came to examine you."
"Ah... it is nice to meet you. I am Lucia."

Lucia tried to climb out of bed in a hurry, but Kyle stopped her and dropped into the chair beside the bed.

"How are you feeling?"
"My right arm is broken and I have some internal injuries, but I'm recovering quickly. All of this is thanks to the Family Head's generosity."

Lucia bowed her head. Not just Lucia, but all the injured members of the Sword Wolf Knights were receiving top-tier treatment in the infirmary.

"Association President Erdera is a master of healing magic, I'm told. Tower Master Akarion is simply a remarkably powerful mage. Both of them are going to look you over."
"It is an honor."
"They'll heal any injuries that haven't recovered yet while they examine you, so don't worry too much. Just close your eyes."
"Yes, understood."

Lucia had always trusted Kyle completely, but that trust had grown even deeper since Beltua Island. By now, if Kyle drew stripes on a gourd and called it a watermelon, Lucia would agree without hesitation.

"A Demon Tribe Half-blood... I have heard much about them, but this is my first time seeing one in person."
"It isn't only the Demon Tribe. All Half-bloods are rare."

Akarion's violet eyes gleamed as he studied Lucia intently.

"In most cases a Half-blood's drawbacks tend to be heavily pronounced, but Lucia-ssi... you show no apparent drawbacks on the surface at all. It looks almost as though you carry only the advantages. Ah, pardon me. I was staring rather rudely."

Akarion smiled gently and dipped his head toward Lucia. Lucia's face went pale at the sight of a man said to be the greatest mage on the continent bowing to her.

"I, I don't mind at all."
"Then may I ask a few more questions? Lucia-ssi, have you ever experienced Mana Addiction or Madness Erosion in your life?"
"No... I haven't."
"Have you ever lost control of your emotions?"
"No."
"Do you have a Spirit Root?"
"No, I do not."
"When did you first sense and use mana?"
"I have no memories from before I was five... but I did begin sensing mana around that age."
"My. She carries none of the Demon Tribe's weaknesses and all of their strengths. Staggeringly ideal. It almost makes one wonder whether such a Half-blood can even exist."

Akarion murmured in quiet admiration, and Erdera stepped toward Lucia with a serious expression.

"I will examine the Demon King's brand."

The brand had been carved in the center of her chest. Kyle spun his chair around and sat facing away. Erdera looked at him with an expression of mild disbelief.

"Should you step outside?"
"I have no particular objection, but..."

Erdera glanced at Lucia. Lucia had been blinking absently, then startled and turned red.

"Ka- Kyle-nim, please, please wait outside."
"Ah, if you put it that way."

With even Lucia saying it, there was no arguing. Kyle had been thoughtless and inconsiderate here. He clicked his tongue, stood from the chair, and took Lucia's hand briefly in his.

"If anything goes wrong, shout. That is to say, if the Association President or the Tower Master tries to dissect you alive."
"Kyle-ssi. What exactly are you saying?"
"Just covering all possibilities."

Lucia broke into a smile at his teasing. She wiggled the fingers held in his hand and nodded.

"Yes, if anything goes wrong, I'll make sure to shout loudly enough for Kyle-nim to hear. And... Jade is in room 307."
"Our vice commander really does know my mind."

Kyle grinned, gave her hand a firm squeeze, and left the room.

Room 307 he opened without knocking. Jade, who had been sitting on the edge of his bed reading, flinched and looked up.

"Oh, oh oh, Commander. You came? You could at least knock..."
"Knock knock, you bastard."
"Ahem, Commander. Calm down for a second. I'm a patient, can't you see the bandages?"

Jade lifted his patient gown to show his bandaged torso.

"You remember I charged at Lizet Beliar to buy time for you to escape, right? I got punched, cracked some bones, messed up my insides. Man, Lizet is no joke. The Fist Demon title isn't just for show. My ribs were slashed, my chest was slashed, and she still hit like that..."

Jade spoke quickly and pointed a thumb at Kyle.

"And our Commander, who fought that Fist Demon on even terms, is amazing. Outstanding. His swordsmanship and his character are both amazing and outstanding. Deep filial devotion toward his elders, boundless mercy toward his members. Isn't that right?"
"Jade."
"Yeah, Commander."
"Because of you, I ended up with a wonderful epithet."
"Black Sword... Black Sword, I seriously almost cried when I heard that. It was so cool that the tears just started..."
"What am I going to do with you."
"Commander... Commander, hear me out for a second. I did tell you to prepare an epithet. But I never told you to announce it in that situation."

Jade straightened his expression and made a perfectly reasonable point.

"Later, when there was some appropriate occasion to announce an epithet..."
"Isn't a debriefing in front of the Family Head exactly an appropriate occasion to announce one?"
"Uh, is it? Is it, really?"
"Why are you breaking out in a cold sweat? You seem to be misunderstanding something. I'm not angry."
"If you're not angry, why the cursing?"
"I'm just happy to see your face, so the cursing comes out naturally."
"Commander, I'm a patient."
"How long are you going to be a patient?"
"Uh... well... maybe about a year?"

Kyle fixed Jade with a bright, serene smile. Jade, squirming under that gaze, let out a long exhale.

"Fine, I'll be honest. The epithet thing, I was trying to mess with you a little. I didn't think you'd actually say it in that situation."
"So you were trying to mess with me?"
"Not only that. It was obvious the Empire would come up with some ridiculously grandiose propaganda title for you, so telling you to prepare a proper one in advance was genuine advice. I just didn't expect you to use it there."
"Be honest. Black Sword. What do you think?"
"I swear on the name of my house, Krase, Black Sword is a perfect epithet. The Black Sword, Kyle Alastor. I can't imagine a more fitting ring to it."
"Once you've healed up, let's spar a lot."

Kyle came over smiling and clapped Jade on the shoulder. Jade swallowed the groan rising in his chest and nodded.

"Easy, easy."
"Have you decided on an Elixir?"
"I was originally going to take one for mana enhancement, but thinking about how much you're going to run me into the ground, I kind of want to go with physical reinforcement."
"Take both. You're more physically frail than you look."
"Are you being serious?"
"Yes. Your mana is shallower than I expected, too. You know you have the weakest mana of anyone in the unit?"

It was not said to mock. Jade settled his expression and nodded.

"I know."

It made sense that his mana ran shallower than Bruno, a pureblood Alastor, or Lucia, who had grown up in Gladiheim from childhood. But Jade's mana ran shallower even than Narua's.

"My Spirit Root isn't exactly outstanding. My Circuits are a bit lacking too. Because of that, my mana just hasn't been growing much."

Jade's family, the Krases, were supposedly one of the Round Table houses that founded Ransel.

A Martial family, in other words. Even as a bastard, if one had exceptional talent, the family would raise that child within its fold and grant the Krase name.

[I'm the current Krase Family Head's illegitimate son. Even within Krase, very few people know I exist, and the Family Head treats me as if I was never born. I left the family at ten and made my living by the sword.]

Jade had said those words himself. Ten years old, the age at which the Spirit Root awakens. The Krase Family Head had kept Jade within the family until then, but after Jade awakened his Spirit Root, the Family Head had not stopped him from leaving. He simply stopped acknowledging him.

The reason was simple. Jade had not awakened talent worth the Krase Family Head's attention.

"Fill your dantian as much as you can with Elixirs. Reinforce that weak body of yours too. After that, come with me into the Sword Tower's Great Archive. I'll pick out a cultivation technique and sword art that suits you."
"Can anyone just walk into the Great Archive whenever they feel like it?"
"Already forgotten what you heard yesterday? The merit from this mission means you can make a direct request of the Alastor Family Head. And since I've contributed merit as well, getting into the Sword Tower's Great Archive should be easy enough."
"Hm."

Jade laughed.

"Thought I'd live my whole life without a shred of luck, but ever since I met you, Commander, it feels like things are finally starting to fall into place."
"No. This isn't luck."

Kyle shook his head firmly.

"The reason you caught my eye was because you stepped onto the training ground at the exchange meet and asked to fight me. You swung your sword in front of me."
"..."
"And you charged at Lizet alongside Bruno. Even though you could have run and left me behind."
"Ha ha... that was, you know, I didn't have much of a choice. Even if I had run, what would it have gotten me? If you'd died to the Fist Demon right there, Alastor would have caught me and had me executed. And if you hadn't died, you would have killed me yourself."
"Either way, you tried to get me and Lucia out of there."

Kyle grinned and jabbed Jade in the side. The broken ribs were no lie, and Jade let out a yelp and doubled over.

"Take care of yourself. We've got sparring to do, and Elixirs and cultivation techniques to pick out."
"Pretty sure that just broke the ribs again...?"
"Stop whining. I'm going to check on the others."
"Commander."

Jade stopped Kyle as he headed for the door.

"Watching you, something keeps striking me as strange. You're that strong on your own, so why go to the trouble of building a knight order and raising us up?"
"Because I thought you were worth raising."
"What?"
"The raising is fun, too. To be honest, I want to see the day when you, Narua, Bruno, and Lucia have grown strong enough to send a chill down my spine."
"Hm. Lucia's a real possibility, I'd say..."

Jade chuckled and shook his head.

"Well... I'd better work hard to live up to that faith."

To be precise, that was not the only reason. Kyle had done too much in his previous life, had been too satisfied, and had died. He had built a mercenary company, wandered the continent alone, thrown himself into any battle that caught his interest and swung his sword as he pleased, killed many men, and tasted defeat many times over.

All of that experience had carried over intact, and the heights he had reached back then had become a towering wall inside him. To clear that wall, he had to surpass everything from his past life, in both experience and cultivation.

He had built a mercenary company, but never a knight order. Back in that era, there were battlefields everywhere and mercenaries to spare, so Kyle had never really taught his subordinates much of anything. A mercenary company grew on its own so long as the leader was strong and the jobs kept succeeding.

'I wasn't a good son in my past life either. My father died before I had the chance to be one.'

The only regret in a life lived without restraint had been the sword. So in this reincarnated life, he was still obsessed with the sword.

He just intended to be obsessed with it in a different way than before.

After finishing his visits to Bruno and Narua, Kyle found Akarion standing in the hallway outside Lucia's room.

"The examination appears to be finished?"
"Kyle-ssi."

Akarion had been leaning against the wall, and he beckoned Kyle over with a complicated look on his face. Kyle stepped closer wondering what was going on, and Akarion's voice rang out inside his head.

[Does Alastor have any separate information about Lucia-ssi's past?]
'Not that I know of. I was told she was simply found wandering a coastal shore at the foot of the Blade Mountain Range when she was five.'
[Hm...]
'What is this about?'
[I'm not sure how to phrase this carefully. Let me lead with the other conclusion first. Extraction of the brand was impossible. It has already taken root too deeply in her body. Pulling it out would kill Lucia-ssi.]
'Can't it be sealed?'
[I tried that as well, but it was not possible. What even a sky god's agent declared impossible, how could I hope to interfere with that?]
'If that's the conclusion, then there's nothing to be done. So, what's the other issue with Lucia?'
[Whether to call it an issue... hm, yes, it is one.]

Akarion tried to find a different way to put it, then gave up.

[Lucia-ssi is not a Half-blood of the Demon Tribe and human.]
'Pardon? Then what is she?'
[To be precise... Half-blood is correct. The fact that blood has mixed is true. But she does not appear to be a being born through ordinary means. The inside of her body is too... refined and ideal.]
'Isn't that a good thing?'
[Good... yes, it is good. But... hm, that is to say.]

Kyle was wondering why Akarion kept circling around whatever it was he wanted to say, and then the voice came.

[Lucia-ssi is a chimera.]
"Pardon?"

The word slipped out loud.

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