WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

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◈ Spring Never Comes to Stolen Fields ◈

Chapter 3: Luna

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From that day on, Master Amelia ordered Luna and me to attend every lesson together.

Luna clearly wasn't happy about it, but I didn't have the luxury of being displeased.

Still, there was no denying that Luna's attitude got under my skin.

Master Amelia rarely taught us herself. Most of the time, Yan took her place.

Honestly, I'd expected to be taught by the second-in-command of the Demon World, but Luna and I were reminded once again that we still had an impossibly long way to go before we could surpass even Yan.

"Lord Sirius. You died a total of nine times in the last minute. If this had been a real battle, that is."

I know. I know I'm weak.

"Wow. Don't go around saying you studied under Master Amelia with me, okay?"

Luna twisted her silver hair around her fingers as she watched the lesson and sneered at me.

She was obnoxious, and everything out of her mouth was rude, but she was ridiculously beautiful.

For all her talk, though, Luna was no exception when Yan tore her apart in training.

"Oh? So the person who got slammed into a wall during training earlier and begged him to stop was someone else, huh?"

Before Yan could crush me, Luna had already trained against him over and over until she collapsed from exhaustion.

We were always bickering, though she was usually the one who started it.

"Sirius, why are you getting more and more arrogant by the day?"

She made fun of me, but the moment I said one thing back, she started going on about how I dared speak to her that way.

Honestly, she wasn't wrong about our statuses. She was the Demon King's daughter, while I was just a human.

Still, Master Amelia had made it clear that we were equals for as long as we trained together.

She said that if either Luna or I failed to act accordingly, our lessons would be suspended.

I cheered inwardly at that. Even now, Luna's expression that day was worth remembering.

Watching her delicate features twist into a scowl had been a rare experience.

Our lessons consisted of two days of theory and three days of practical training each week.

I studied demons, monsters, their history, and their social order. I also learned the basic theory behind martial arts, swordsmanship, and magic.

Luna already knew far more than I did, yet for some reason, Master Amelia made her attend every lesson with me.

Like it or not, we ended up stuck together nearly all week.

"What kind of girl is the Hero, Sirius?"

It was break time. Luna asked me while I sat there absentmindedly.

It had already been quite a while since I'd last seen Celia.

Was she eating properly? What was she doing?

With training taking up every day, I rarely had time to remind myself why I was here.

"Celia is... um... cute and kind? She's pretty good at cooking, too..."

I slowly called up her image in my mind.

Then I noticed Luna's expression souring.

"No. Who asked you to describe me? Describe the Hero! The Hero!"

Huh. This girl had clearly gotten the wrong idea about something.

"Since when were you cute and kind? I've never even seen you cook."

Both of them were beautiful enough to draw attention anywhere, but maybe it was the first-love filter. I found myself lost in wistfulness.

Then our final kiss suddenly came to mind.

She had kissed me with tears in her eyes, asking me to wait for her.

How could I ever forget her?

"Sirius. What's with that expression?"

Normally, Luna would have snapped at me playfully, but this felt different.

"Hm?"

Caught off guard, I asked awkwardly.

"That expression. What is it?"

I had no idea what sort of face I was making, so I didn't know how to answer.

"...What were you thinking about?"

I had a feeling something terrible would happen if I told her the truth.

"Just my old village. The place where I used to live... a village called Homeron."

She looked at me coldly.

After staring at me for a long moment, she spoke.

"Do you know why I put myself through all this under Master? Why I, the Demon King's daughter, who lacks for nothing, am doing this?"

I had wondered about it before.

She had been born with the ultimate silver spoon, so why did she let Master beat her down day after day?

"So I can crush them. I will never let the Hero reach my father."

Determination burned in her red eyes.

"Just as you can't forgive those who destroyed your everyday life, I'll crush the bastards trying to destroy mine."

It was only natural.

If I'd had power, I wouldn't have let Celia go like that, and I wouldn't have let everyone die.

Naturally, the Hero was an enormous threat to the Demon World.

Throughout the history that repeated every thousand years, the Demon Kings had always driven humanity to the brink.

Yet somehow, no matter what it took, the Heroes always claimed the Demon King's head.

That was why the demons constantly worked to change this history of repeated defeat.

They trained without rest, trying to escape that endless cycle.

Having watched them for months, I knew how desperately they struggled to break free of their fate.

So I stayed silent.

"Sirius. In all this tiresome repetition of history, there has never been a record like this. The Hero's family becoming part of the demons."

That was something I'd heard repeatedly in class as well. Records of how they had fought for thousands of years.

In one way, it made perfect sense. In another, it was utterly bizarre.

The families of past Heroes were all said to have been killed by demons, yet the demons had never laid a hand on them.

The humans had fixed a certain pattern in place to awaken the Hero as quickly as possible, then repeated it generation after generation.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized there was no trash worse than them.

At times like this, I even thought the demons might be less cruel.

"You have to be on my side. That's why I, Master, everyone, we're all doing this together."

She took my hand.

Her skin was pale white. Her hand was far too small and delicate for the Demon King's daughter.

It was even a little cold. I would've believed it belonged to a sickly, fragile beauty.

And I already knew my answer to her.

I knelt before her and kissed her hand.

"Luna. I swear it. Now, in the future, forever, I will be on your side."

* * *

It had been one year since I was named the Hero.

Even thinking back on it now, it had been one unbelievable event after another.

Yuwol and I had gone out to look at clothes as usual when we ran into the Empire's knights. I was brought to the capital that very day.

I was granted an audience with the Emperor, and after that, relentless days of training awaited me.

I'd never held a sword other than a kitchen knife, yet Duke Aiern, the Empire's greatest swordmaster, taught me personally.

And, surprisingly, I had talent.

My progress surpassed that of anyone training with a sword in the duke's household. By now, everyone except the duke himself struggled to even serve as my sparring partner.

Of course, even if I had talent, this wasn't power handed to me for free.

Every day, I woke at four in the morning and began basic physical training. I had to keep training until every part of my body ached in the evening.

There were many times when I desperately begged them to let me go a little slower, to ease up just a little.

My body was exhausted, but my mind had been pushed even further.

For some reason, they thoroughly prevented me from contacting my parents or Yuwol.

Their explanation was difficult to accept. They said keeping in touch with them would only weaken my resolve.

Instead, they gave me one condition. One year.

If I followed their instruction without complaint for one year, they would give me one week to visit my hometown.

That was all I had focused on.

On the nights I fell asleep screaming from muscle pain, and on the nights I collapsed in tears from aching loneliness, I endured it all for the day of our reunion.

And the promised year had passed.

Duke Aiern recognized all my hard work and made sure I could return home as comfortably as possible.

He provided a carriage and guards. To show them how wonderful I looked now, I even picked out a dress myself from the capital's finest clothing store.

I couldn't wait to see Yuwol's reaction.

Yuwol... you're doing well, right?

I miss you...

The way he whined about not wanting to go out, the way he stood in front of me to protect me even though he was scared himself, the way his eyes went wide at my brief kiss.

Every one of those moments was unbearably precious.

When I saw him this time, I would definitely tell him how I felt.

And from that vacation onward, I never once said I wanted to take a break from training again.

Footnotes:

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