WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reincarnation of the Sword Demon

Chapter 98

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Necessities

Well, to be fair.

Baal's view wasn't wrong. Astaros, Baal's previous master, had supposedly fought Ruin to a draw,and on top of that, the two of them had clashed more than ten years after the Sword Demon's death.

Ruin was the one who ended the Dark Age and opened a new era. The imperial succession war ended when Ruin severed six of the seven imperial heirs' heads, but that didn't mean the Dark Age itself was over.

The continent, which had been slowly stabilizing after the long war, was thrown into upheaval again by the emperor's enthronement, and countless blades turned toward what was obviously a weakened imperial border.

The one who stepped forward and swept those blades aside was Ruin Alastor. That the fractured Empire rose to greatness again and endured for another five hundred years was because Ruin's sword never stopped moving in that age.

'Ruin would have grown stronger than when he killed me. And even he couldn't kill the Demon King.'

The vision of Ruin's sword Kyle had seen through Fenris sat in a realm the Sword Demon had never reached.

[This one cannot fathom why the master cherishes that common blade, nor why you would dare say you intend to use it more often than this one. Was it not the Sword Demon who truly wielded that sword as a sword?]
"Well, that's true enough."
[The Demon King's sword and the Sword Demon's sword. Even comparing just the two, the difference in rank is extreme!]
"You've never even seen the Sword Demon's sword. My Founding Ancestor said it was worth remembering and kept it in the Sword Tower."
[That... that is a different matter. The older a memory is, the more one longs for it and aches.]

Kyle couldn't deny that last part entirely. That Ruin had felt something pure in that fight made sense when you thought about his life, but some of it was surely the warm tint memory puts on things.

Even after ending the succession war, the continent wasn't peaceful, and Ruin had to keep swinging his sword to achieve anything resembling peace. Within the continent, there were those who wanted to carve out empires of their own. Along the borders, Demihumans pressed in.

He cut them all down and made the Empire great again,and then had to go and Ascend on top of it all, taking on the weight of the power he'd been born with.

'If you're born strong, you ought to be able to live however you want.'

Ruin hadn't. Thinking about it, his life had truly been like a sword. A life of only swinging, thrusting, and cutting things down. What had wielded Ruin like a sword wasn't his own will. It was the world. It was fate.

'The worse a life gets, the more you miss the past,and the more you dress it up.'

Kyle smiled bitterly to himself and ran a hand over Fenris.

Maybe,just maybe,Ruin had been happier not when the world knew him as the hero who ended the Dark Age, the great man recorded in continental history, the one awarded the epithet Sword Saint and the title of Grand Duke.

Maybe he had been happier when no one knew him at all, tucked away in some remote mountain valley swinging his sword, when the Sword Demon showed up out of nowhere and fought him.

[There is no way the Sword Demon's sword was anything impressive. If the Sword Demon had ever fought Lord Astaros, I guarantee he would not have lasted five exchanges.]
"..."
[The Sword Demon died losing to Ruin, after all, so he was a defeated loser! How could that Sword Demon's beloved sword possibly be superior to this one, who was Lord Astaros's beloved sword?]

Kyle felt no particular resentment at how this era judged the Sword Demon. Even Arian had once said that the Sword Demon was a loser who lived however he pleased and died a hollow death.

At the time, Kyle had laughed more than he'd felt annoyed. Because every word was right. The Sword Demon had dreamed of becoming the continent's greatest swordsman, but he hadn't actually wanted to be the continent's greatest swordsman in any real sense.

To claim that title, you had to defeat countless powerful people of that era. What the Sword Demon had wanted was the fighting along the way. He'd simply wanted to swing his sword,a lot, as much as he could.

So there'd been no great regret when he died. He'd swung his sword to his heart's content, exactly as he'd wished, and he died fighting who he thought was the strongest opponent around.

[The master has no need to be attached to that common blade. After all, you can now hold this Baal, who is far superior!]
"Hey."

It wasn't resentment.

It was a fact that the Sword Demon had lost, and a fact that he'd lived as he liked and died as he liked. But Baal talking carelessly about the Sword Demon's sword without having ever seen it,that scratched at something. Just a little. Just the tiniest bit.

"Is Astaros's sword really that impressive?"
[Hmm? Heh heh heh! Master, you ask if Lord Astaros's sword was impressive? Of course it was! Lord Astaros was the strongest Demon King in history!]
"That was five hundred years ago. Since Astaros died and entered the Throne of the Demon King, the Demon King has changed four times. Each succession through the Inscription makes the Demon King stronger, doesn't it?"
[Master! That is not correct. Inheriting the Inscription does not automatically make one stronger than the previous Demon King. The cultivation needed to fully draw out the inherited memories must be done without end.]

That he liked hearing. If Lucia could become strong enough that the inherited memories were unnecessary, there was a good chance she wouldn't be swept away by them. It matched what Lizet had said, too.

'So it comes down to Lucia getting stronger.'

Learn Astaros's cultivation technique, accumulate far more experience than she had now, grow stronger. Develop her own sword that wouldn't be pushed around by the power flowing in from the Inscription.

That would be enough. Lucia had already resisted the chimera's instincts. Lucia, who hadn't loved herself, now liked herself a little. The sword she'd swung while craving Gladiheim's recognition, she could now swing by her own will.

"Anyway. If you want to boast about how impressive the sword you know is, and claim you're a better sword than Fenris..."

Kyle smiled and drew Fenris.

",let's see just how impressive. If you really are that impressive, then fine. I'll use you even when I don't strictly need to. If that's how I end up feeling."

At those words, Baal shivered. What Kyle was saying sounded enormously arrogant to her. A fifteen-year-old brat of an inferior race was saying he would "evaluate" Baal,who had existed for hundreds of years in service of three Demon Kings,and the swords Baal remembered.

[Hmm... heh heh, master.]

But Baal didn't burst into a rage. She understood her situation, whatever else. She was a sword, and the brat in front of her was her master. If Kyle stuffed her back into the Out-of-Place Artifact's space, there was nothing Baal could do.

[Then keep both eyes wide open. And see just how impressive this Baal's sword is...!]

Whoosh! A single-edged blade appeared in Baal's hand.

"Isn't that sword too big for your body? Can't you make yourself bigger?"
[I cannot! Nor is there any reason I should! My build is not a problem at all...!]

What she meant by that was: before Kyle's eyes, the girl's form dissolved into mist and only the sword remained. This wasn't reality but a space created by the resonance of Baal's and Kyle's consciousnesses. The real Baal floated alone out there, and Kyle's body sat motionless back in the real world.

[Do not fear, master. This sword carries none of the power of annihilation...!]

Eyes opened on the floating Baal. Kyle felt a flutter of excitement and extended Fenris forward. Swinging a sword in the consciousness space was something he'd done continuously since before he awakened his Spirit Root, but past age ten he'd stopped bothering.

"It's been a while."
[Heh heh...]

Murderous intent poured off Baal in waves.

[Every time the master swung a sword in this space, how it made this one burn with anticipation... and now that day has finally come!]

The killing intent launched. Baal appeared above Kyle's head in an instant and came crashing down. Claaang! He caught it by raising Fenris at an angle, but his arms went numb.

'Heavy.'

The weight behind it was beyond anything he'd imagined. The impact traveling through Fenris rang through his shoulder and all the way down his spine. One exchange was enough to know. Baal's sword was heavy and strong.

[Ahahahaha!]

Baal didn't stop. She swung down again and again with full force, like splitting firewood. After catching several blows, Kyle guided Fenris into position. Clang! The downward force slid cleanly to the side.

If there were a living person swinging that blade, they might see this as an opening and aim for a counterattack. But there was no one swinging it right now. Just the sword alone, drifting and attacking on its own.

'That's a bit cheap.'

How was he supposed to determine a winner here?

'Oh. This wasn't about winning or losing to begin with.'

What Kyle had wanted was to see just how impressive Baal's sword was. In short, as Baal ran wild against him, all Kyle had to do was not get cut.

With that settled in his mind, he shifted his approach. Focus on defense over offense. Not blocking,redirecting.

Whoosh! The deflected Baal reversed the blade back toward Kyle and shot upward. Kyle likewise guided Fenris and caught her.

'Cleave through everything.'

He kept thinking as their swords clashed. The preference Baal had boasted about was the way she'd been used throughout her existence. Like her large, vicious form that resembled a cleaver, the Demon King's swordsmanship was specialized in slicing things apart.

But there was no unnecessary waste. The arcs looked wide, but they aimed precisely at their mark. The instant a blow was deflected, the blade twisted and came slicing back. Each individual motion was a slashing strike. No openings, no feints.

'Different from Ruin.'

Ruin's sword as Fenris had shown it was a textbook,a truth of what a sword ought to aspire to. There was beauty in it. Refined arcs. Every cut, every thrust, flawless.

The Demon King's sword had no beauty. Only certainty. The certainty that this single stroke could kill the opponent. That certainty made the sword heavy, made it fast, made it relentless.

A downward cut blocked, so push through. The push blocked, so swing around and slice. The circular cut blocked, so come up from below. Every slash was not an end but a beginning. Block one and the next comes. Block that and the one after comes.

There was no breathing room. Baal never lost her rhythm from a single stop or deflection. If anything, she pressed harder. It was like a sword swung on a battlefield. This sword grew stronger the more the attacks repeated. It looked like wild, indiscriminate swinging, but every blow aimed to kill.

Kyle laughed while catching Baal's strikes. The memories he'd seen when he'd tried to grip Baal,the memories of slaughtering Demon Tribe and humans alike. This sword really did suit a slaughterer. Fighting with this sword wasn't suited to dueling. It was suited to massacre and butchery.

'You might think it monotonous at a glance, but facing it is something else entirely.'

The killing intent Baal was pouring out. The grotesque form. The swordsmanship growing faster and stronger by the moment. This sword's purpose was only to kill the opponent. Quickly, certainly, terribly,and as many as possible. Baal's sword existed for that alone.

'Now I understand why Ruin and Astaros stopped fighting.'

Astaros couldn't break Ruin's sword. And Ruin couldn't surpass Astaros's power and take his head. The fact that even days of fighting produced no conclusion was because their swords were so completely different, and neither had enough of an edge to simply overwhelm the other.

[Hmm...!]

Baal, who had started attacking while laughing, was no longer laughing. She was swinging freely and still couldn't cut Kyle.

She'd understood from the time he was still a little kid who hadn't even awakened his Spirit Root that Kyle's sword talent was absurd,she'd watched him swing swords in the consciousness space back then. But how was this possible? Even if Baal couldn't use mana or similar power right now, it was unbelievable that she couldn't dominate him with pure swordsmanship alone.

The certainty was in the sword. The sword path itself had no problem. The certainty she carried before each swing simply vanished the instant the sword was actually swung. That infuriating common blade kept intruding and scattering the trajectory.

If she could make an expression, Baal would have grimaced. Watching Kyle smirk at her only made that feeling worse. Eventually Baal stopped pressing and pulled back. The sword disappeared, and the frowning girl appeared.

[Master. Why are you smiling?]
"Because it's fun."
[This one's sword...! Is it something to laugh at?!]
"No, I genuinely laughed because it's fun."

Kyle set Fenris down and said,

"It's a sword worth being proud of. This kind of sword is tricky to deal with,because it looks like wild swinging when it isn't."
[...]
"Which makes it all the more unfortunate."
[Unfort... unfortunate? Master...! How dare you call Lord Astaros's sword unfortunate?!]
"I'm not evaluating Astaros. I'm evaluating you."

Kyle sheathed Fenris and walked toward Baal. She flinched, but he walked past the girl and picked up the blade lying on the ground.

"You're still a sword, in the end, so you can't carry a swordsman's true intent. What you do is just a repetition of memories of how you've been used."
[That's...]
"Like this?"

Kyle gripped Baal with both hands, raised her high, and brought her crashing down. Boom! The force shook the mist in a way that was incomparable to when Baal had moved on her own.

After that downward strike, Kyle pulled Baal free from where she'd sunk into the ground and pushed one foot back. Stepping back naturally a few paces, he swung Baal in a horizontal arc. Whoosh! A ferocious pressure cut through the mist and sent Baal's hair billowing.

[Mas... ter. Have you ever swung a greatsword?]
"Not my preferred weapon, but I've done it. Watched plenty of them, too."

Fenris had been his weapon of choice since his past life, but he'd used other swords as well. He hadn't properly studied greatsword techniques, but he'd traded blows with enough greatsword users to know what he needed to know.

"The feel is definitely different. Kind of fun."

There were swords only Fenris could swing, and swords only Baal could swing. The size, the shape, the weight,all of it different.

[Hm hm...]

The tension in Baal's expression eased. It had sat poorly with her that she hadn't been able to dominate Kyle, as though it reflected badly on Astaros's sword. But hearing that, wasn't he saying there was nothing wrong with Astaros's sword?

Accepting that, though, meant Baal had to accept something else. That she was a sword. Baal, who had existed for hundreds of years serving three Demon Kings, had to accept that she was simply a sword.

[The... the arc was a little off. Master, when handling this one, you must pour out more killing intent. The certainty that you will kill your opponent no matter what...]
"I always swing my sword with certainty behind it."
[More, more of it is needed. The resolve that if you don't kill with one stroke, you die...]
"That changes with the situation. Your masters didn't always kill their opponents with a single stroke either, did they?"
[...]
"Well. I'll figure out how to use you as we go."

Kyle swung Baal a few more times before planting her in the ground.

"Using you is more enjoyable than I expected. Once I've grown enough, there's room to build on it."
[This... this one is to be built upon? Am I not enough as I am?!]
"Of course you're not enough."

The sword Kyle had used since his past life was fast, sharp, and unpredictable. He could put force into it, but didn't rely on force alone. The Sword Demon's sword, put simply, was adaptation to whatever the situation called for.

"I want my sword to be capable of anything, and to cut anything."

The same as the dream he'd seen on the day he awakened his Spirit Root,the same as the nature of his Spirit Root itself. Kyle wished for his sword to be complete and free, capable of cutting anything. A realm he had never reached in his past life.

"I'll admit you have points that Fenris doesn't. Points the Sword Demon's sword didn't."

He was willing to admit what deserved to be admitted. Kyle, now as in his past life, had never swung a sword the way Baal did, the way Astaros had.

"So I'll bring you out sometimes and let you do some cutting."
[Ohhh...]

It wasn't a satisfying answer. Baal had hoped to become his one and only beloved sword. But the promise that he wouldn't stuff her away in the Out-of-Place Artifact,that he'd bring her out not just when necessary but "sometimes",was enough to stir her.

[Once the master uses this one for a while, you will become addicted to the exhilarating feeling that is nothing like that common blade.]

Baal cackled and crossed her arms.

[But for now, this one will be satisfied with that answer. Master, now that you have taken a liking to this one, why not bring an offering?]
"An offering?"
[Bring this one something to cut down and kill! The master seems to be deeply favored in this household, so surely killing one person won't be held against you? Humans are so very numerous,one fewer would not matter!]
"Talking nonsense like that, I'd better just put you away."

Did she think he was some kind of mass murderer? Kyle raised his hand in disbelief. At the sight, Baal shrieked and came running, clutching at his arm.

[A, a person isn't necessary! An animal, yes, an animal! Don't you need to eat meat? To eat meat, something must be killed! If you let this one cut a pig or a cow, this one will be satisfied with that!]
"Pigs and cows get slaughtered at the butcher, and there's already plenty of butchered meat around. I'm not going to cut up an animal just to satisfy you,one I won't even eat."
[Then... then, a dead hunk of meat is fine. Something soaked with blood, that kind of meat... no, no! This one will be fine cutting anything at all! Five hundred years have piled up inside this one!]
"Hmm. I've eaten already, but..."

Jor still hadn't been fed. Jor had taken Lizet's attacks in Kyle's place, shed her Husk, and shrunk down in size.

He'd fed her plenty of mana, but Jor also liked swallowing actual meat. If he went to the dining hall, got a large cut of meat, and used Baal to slice it up, that would be a conclusion that left everyone happy.

The next day. Kyle left the Sword Tower and went to the infirmary to see Lucia. He wanted to pass on what Baal had told him about how to handle the Inscription.

"I'll learn it."

Lucia answered without a moment's hesitation.

"I don't want to put down my sword. I've only just started to like it a little. And if I put it down, I won't be able to stay in the knight order."
"Learning the Demon King's cultivation technique isn't necessarily the right answer."
"I know. It might even make me seem better suited to the Inscription. But... I don't want to put down my sword just because I'm afraid of it, and I don't want to run from it that way."

Lucia's eyes as she answered were clear and steady, just like the day before.

"Even if this is a fate I didn't choose, I don't want to simply submit to it."

Those were words worth hearing. Words an elf couldn't have spoken. An elf would submit to a fate they'd been caught in and spend their whole life living for that fate. But Lucia had chosen to resist hers.

"In this respect, you're better than the Sword Church Master."
"Pardon...?"
"Never mind, something happened. I'll teach you the cultivation technique by guiding your mana directly. You can't hear Baal's voice."

With the truly ferocious-looking Baal at his side, Kyle took hold of Lucia's wrist.

"Her voice... what does it feel like, hearing a dokkaebi's voice?"
"Like a loud voice you can hear even when you cover your ears. Won't shut up no matter how many times you tell it to."
"Is Baal talkative?"
"Stuffed away for five hundred years, so, well, it makes sense. Says a lot has built up, in her words."
"What does she look like?"
"A small girl. Horns on her head,looks something like a demon."
"A girl...?"
"She talks a lot but she's fairly useful. The power of annihilation is bound to Baal itself, apparently. She can pass on cultivation techniques like this, and her swordsmanship is excellent too. I think if I refine it a bit and teach it to Bruno, it should work well for him."

Baal's destructive swordsmanship resembled Bruno's.

"Oh, and,in a month, we'll be going to the Imperial Palace."
"Pardon?"

Lucia, who had closed her eyes and been moving her mana, snapped them open in surprise.

"The Imperial Palace sent an invitation to the Sword Wolf Knights following this incident. They're holding a party to honor the meritorious service."
"I... I can go to an Imperial Palace party?"
"Why couldn't you? But you'll need something first."
"What kind of...?"
"An epithet."

Kyle smiled with a touch of mischief.

"At an Imperial Palace party, the imperial family will be there, of course, along with the Vandemion family and notable figures from other nations. If you're going to introduce yourself to people like that, you need a respectable epithet."
"..."
"Like my Black Sword."

Lucia's eyes moved quickly.

Of course, she had never once in her life thought about what her epithet would be.

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