WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Pushover Young Lord in a Romance Fantasy Won't Take It Anymore ◈

Chapter 70: What It Means to Qualify

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"How about you?"

Selena rose to her feet, brushing dust from herself, then walked over to me.

Her steps were heavier than usual. Considering the desperate battle and the exhaustion that followed, it was only natural.

"I'm fine too. Haah, I'm glad you came when you did, Sister. Otherwise, I really might have died."

Selena nodded silently.

Any further conversation was a luxury. The ground could collapse again at any moment.

We began making our way toward the steep slope above the passage, where the dust had yet to settle.

Even then, Selena insisted on taking the lead. She seemed unusually worried about her younger brother.

With no choice, I silently followed behind her.

The darkness was pitch-black, and the air felt stifling. The climb over the debris of collapsed rock was arduous.

In the silence, only our breathing and the rustling of our footsteps echoed irregularly.

How long had we walked through that suffocating stillness?

A faint orange glow flickered beyond the darkness. It was the flame of a lantern.

"Young Lord!"

"Commander!"

Urgent footsteps approached alongside familiar voices. Lucia and Ariel.

The two of them were covered in dirt as well.

When she saw me, Lucia looked over my tattered clothes from every angle.

"What happened? There was suddenly an explosion, then the ground caved in..."

"The Demon King's remains revived as undead after absorbing the life force of nearly ten thousand soldiers."

Lucia's expression visibly hardened at my explanation.

Shock, anger, and helplessness crossed her face. She muttered as if sick of it all.

"Young Lord... why do you always have to suffer like this?"

"Maybe hardship follows those who are ring knights. Still, I'm glad it wasn't hardship enough to kill me. Thanks to Sister Selena saving me in time, that is."

I gave a short laugh and pointed at Selena. She silently turned her head away.

"Still, I'm glad. Both of you are safe."

After looking at Lucia, I turned my gaze toward Ariel beside her.

All the soldiers who had been beside us moments ago must have fallen underground.

When I asked about them, Ariel answered immediately.

"We've confirmed about eighty people. They're all injured, so we've moved them somewhere safe for now."

"Good. We need to get every last one of them back to the surface. Then bury the Demon King... No, the Demon King will not die just from being buried."

Originally, I planned to return to the surface and bury the Demon King alive.

But now, I had changed my mind.

If we covered the ground with hundreds of tons of earth, the stranded soldiers would be buried along with the Demon King.

Besides, there was no guarantee the Demon King would suffocate to death from being buried.

There was only one conclusion.

"First, let's return to the surface and join the main force. After regrouping, the best option is to break through underground again and defeat the Demon King."

"All right. If Sir Hendrickson and the Holy Sword Keeper join us, it shouldn't be difficult."

I shook my head at Lucia's words.

"The Holy Sword Keeper won't be able to use her power this time either. Because of the Commandment."

"What? Even though the Demon King has appeared?"

I fully understood Lucia's incredulous reaction.

"The Demon King has revived, but has not yet threatened humanity's survival."

The Holy Sword Keeper was bound by that damned Commandment.

And unless the situation was truly dire, the Commandment was nothing but frustrating.

That was why I would not take the Holy Sword even if someone handed it to me.

"We should exclude the Holy Sword Keeper from the battle and have her focus on rescuing the stranded soldiers."

"All right."

Lucia was understandably displeased. I felt the same way.

After deciding on our course of action, we turned back toward the surface.

For now, joining up with the Swordmaster Hendrickson was our top priority.

Thud!

Something heavy fell. My head turned before I could even process it.

A silhouette lay sprawled on the dirt floor. Selena was lying there, gasping for breath.

"...Sister?"

I dropped to my knees beside Selena.

It was strange. I checked her condition, but there were no visible external injuries.

Even so, Selena was gasping as though her breathing would stop at any moment. Cold sweat poured down her pale forehead.

Had her stamina run dry from fighting the Demon King? Or had the exhaustion hit now that the tension was gone?

She had been fine just moments ago. I immediately grabbed her shoulders.

"Sister! Get a hold of yourself!"

There was no answer. Selena's lips trembled, having turned pale blue.

Even the focus in her eyes was gradually fading.

Thump.

The shoulder beneath my hand pulsed.

A terrible premonition washed over me.

Riiip!

I tore open the leather straps on her damaged left pauldron.

I removed the dented mass of metal and exposed her bare skin.

Her left shoulder had blackened like charcoal. At its center, a red spot pulsed.

"What is this...?"

Lucia voiced the question.

Her shoulder was not the only place that had turned pitch-black. Selena's chest, nape, and even beneath her arms had darkened.

I looked down at Selena's wrist. The wrist that had held her sword was dark red.

I knew these symptoms.

"Commander..."

Ariel, who had been examining Selena, parted her lips.

"This is the Curse of Death Erosion. The Demon King's unique curse..."

The Curse of Death Erosion. A curse that inevitably killed its target after a certain amount of time.

It happened when Selena took the Demon King's attack in my place.

I had thought her armor had blocked it. But it had not been a mere spike of dark mana.

Grit.

I clenched my teeth.

Formless anger rose from deep in my chest. This was clearly my carelessness.

The sight of Selena gasping, drenched in cold sweat, stabbed painfully into my eyes.

Hoo.

I let out a short breath and forced my emotions down.

I couldn't know yet. I could still save her.

My role was not to grieve over the death approaching her. It was to find a way to save her.

"Ariel. Can you lift the curse?"

As the Priestess, Ariel might be able to lift even the Demon King's curse.

But Ariel avoided my gaze. She bit her lip.

"I'm sorry. I'm not confident... No. Even I can't lift the Demon King's curse."

"Haah... haah..."

Selena's heartbeat gradually slowed. Her once-ragged breathing was growing quieter.

Her lips, which had been letting out shallow breaths, opened slightly.

"I knew."

Selena struggled to raise a hand. Her callused skin brushed against my cheek.

"I saved you, so that's enough. It's right that I die..."

The hand against my cheek trembled faintly. I could feel her life force slipping away through her fingertips.

"The House doesn't need me. But it can't do without you."

Had she intended this from the moment we came to the Ashen Forest?

That if a crisis came, she would save me even if she had to die herself.

"Astin, my little brother. I should have been a little more honest with you."

She forced the corners of her lips upward. A smile devoid of all vitality rested there.

In my memories of the first life, she had never smiled at me like that even once.

"I never hated you. I wanted to be close to you. When we go back..."

She was imagining a happy future. Perhaps it was the future she had told me about honestly that day.

"You, Celine, and me... the three of us..."

A simple wish to go see the flowers together.

"Without me..."

Her silver eyes, slowly losing their light, filled with tears.

The hand stroking my cheek lowered and tightly gripped mine.

"Even without me, you'll..."

Selena could not continue. Only her precarious, wheezing breaths echoed through the darkness.

Drip. Drip.

Lucia and Ariel shed heavy tears.

I remained silent. Sister was not dead yet. There was still a chance to save her. I had no time to grieve.

I tore Selena's clothes apart. The curse's blackness had not yet reached her heart.

I followed the curse's spread with my eyes and used it to estimate how long she had left.

"...Five minutes."

I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them.

"Sister will die within five minutes. We have to save her within five minutes. No matter what."

Lucia, who had been sobbing, wiped away her tears. There was no clear hope in Ariel's eyes either.

"I know how to lift the curse. Sister absolutely will not die. We have to save her."

Ariel and Lucia jerked their heads up.

"Really!?"

A faint hope appeared in their eyes, which had been dyed with despair.

There was one most straightforward way to lift any curse.

"Kill the source of the curse. Kill the Demon King."

Kill the caster.

Both their faces went pale at those words. We had to defeat the Demon King in only five minutes.

This was completely different from when we faced the leader. It was insane, something beyond imagining.

Grrr...

As if things could not get worse, the situation deteriorated further.

Undead hands suddenly reached out from the darkness on all sides. Twisted corpses surrounded us once more.

Fwoosh!

Lucia urgently cast a spell and burned them away. But they kept pouring in endlessly, filling the spaces left by the ashes.

We did not have much time.

Time would not slow down or speed up.

Any further attempts would only waste what little we had.

The three of us could not go to defeat the Demon King like this.

If we left Selena behind, she would die. If we brought her with us, she would die at the Demon King's hands.

There was no way around it. Someone had to stay here and protect Sister.

"Please. Protect my sister."

"Young Lord, don't tell me...!"

Lucia cried out in alarm.

"No! What are you going to do alone?"

A greenhorn with only three Sun Rings. Taking the Demon King down alone was obviously impossible.

But even as I hesitated, time continued to pass mercilessly.

Five minutes.

I had to kill the Demon King in less than five minutes.

Considering the time it would take to reach him, I had close to three minutes.

"If I don't go, Sister will die. So please, I'm begging you."

I remembered Selena from the first life, torn apart in a gruesome state.

I could not forget how I held her cold body and wept.

I could not let that scene happen again.

Lucia bit her lip and fell silent. Then she nodded fiercely.

"Leave her to us and go! Hurry!"

Bang!

I kicked off the ground with my back to them. Without hesitation, I raced toward where the Demon King would be.

Within three minutes.

I had to kill the Demon King alone.

I had to save Selena.

* * *

Astin's back disappeared completely into the deep darkness.

"Young Lord..."

Lucia bit down hard on her trembling lip, but she was not given even a moment to sink into grief.

A horde of undead began rushing in from every direction like starving beasts.

Grrr!

A massive skeletal magical beast raised its forepaw.

KABOOM!

With a thunderous roar that shook the space around them, a heavy iron shield knocked the magical beast away.

A figure covered in dirt stood tall in the gap.

"You're here!"

Lucia cried out as if she had met a savior.

The Holy Sword Keeper landed, drawing back her shield, and swept the area with a sharp gaze.

Selena was gasping for breath, with the two of them guarding her.

But the most important person was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is Commander Astin?"

"Young Lord Astin went to face the Demon King alone...!"

The Holy Sword Keeper's eyes trembled slightly as she heard the explanation.

A ring knight with only three Sun Rings. A solo assault on the Demon King.

It was not courage. It was clearly suicide.

Her gaze fell upon Selena, collapsed on the ground. Selena was dying from the Curse of Death Erosion.

'He threw himself into danger to save one person.'

The thousand-year Commandment binding her would only free her in a crisis that threatened humanity's survival.

The requirement to wield the Holy Sword was the same.

The Holy Sword was not meant to act for the safety of a single individual.

But if it were the man who had rushed into certain death.

If it were that man, who reminded her of the heroes who had once saved humanity.

"...Foolish and stubborn."

The Holy Sword Keeper murmured quietly.

Her hands were already roughly unwrapping the bandages tightly binding the Holy Sword.

She gripped the hilt and turned.

The Holy Sword Keeper was bound by the Commandment. She could not physically face the Demon King herself.

She only intended to deliver the Holy Sword to Astin.

She had believed qualification was something granted.

But if it was someone willing to cast away their life and cut through fate.

Could it not answer that desperate desire, if only once?

"I will go there. Tell me where Astin is."

"That way!"

Bang!

The Holy Sword Keeper fiercely kicked off the ground.

Leaving behind a trail of brilliant light, she threw herself into the darkness.

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