The Regressor and the Blind Saintess - Chapter 62

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Regressor and the Blind Saintess ◈

Chapter 62: Demon Sword

──────

The Demon Sword.

A name that always clung to Aisha Dragnov like a label.

The name that had raised Aisha Dragnov to the rank of hero at the age of eighteen.

The sword before Vera was the one that had spawned countless rumors. No one had ever discovered where it came from or how Aisha Dragnov had come to possess it.

As Vera stared blankly at the sword that had once been pointed at his throat, Dovan spoke.

“Even if you stare at it like that, I cannot make one to those specifications.”

Vera turned to Dovan.

Meeting Vera’s dazed gaze, Dovan grinned and continued.

“It is something I made by chance, without even knowing how I did it myself. I cannot improve upon it or analyze the process, so it remains unfinished. Naturally, I cannot make another one like it.”

Made something without knowing how.

At those words, Vera understood the nature of the Demon Sword, which had left behind so many questions in his previous life.

“...Are you making a masterpiece?”

A masterpiece.

A great work that a craftsman who had reached the pinnacle could create only once in their lifetime.

If the Demon Sword had been made by Dovan, it surely belonged in the realm of masterpieces.

Dovan nodded with an embarrassed expression.

“That is right. Is it not an achievement that will remain even after this old body dies? It is embarrassing to say, but that is what I am aiming for. I believe my skill is sufficient as well.”

Dovan’s gaze shifted to the unfinished Demon Sword. Bitterness crossed their face.

“...Well, I began with such confidence, but now that I have tried it, it is not so easy. I am learning firsthand that a masterpiece cannot simply be made because one wishes it to be.”

Vera understood Dovan’s words at once.

Considering the circumstances in which weapons known as masterpieces had been born, it made sense.

Pure Blood, the sword of Albrecht, the Knight of Devotion, had only been completed after the Empire’s first Emperor melted their own blood into it.

The White Mane worn by the Grand Duke’s Heir of the Deep Freeze was a cloak completed when the spirits of the snowfields threw themselves into it.

Remembering those, Vera made a further guess.

There would be an event of equal magnitude behind the birth of the sword called the Demon Sword. Only after such an event would that sword which devoured resentment finally be completed.

Vera began piecing together the information he possessed.

‘Dovan is making the Demon Sword.’

Aisha was Dovan’s apprentice. And most likely, Dovan would become one of the dead.

‘Perhaps...’

Could the event that completed Dovan’s masterpiece, that completed the Demon Sword, be what drove Dovan to death?

With that thought, Vera narrowed his eyes and watched Dovan’s back as they stored the Demon Sword away in a corner.

* * *

The following morning.

Rene was spending time seated in the backyard when she suddenly lifted her head at an approaching presence.

The footsteps were light. She could not hear them, and even the breathing was faint and intermittent, as though someone were trying to sneak up on her.

Rene immediately knew whose presence it was.

“Aisha?”

“Eek!”

Aisha’s cry filled the space.

Though she had crept over so carefully, Rene had recognized her immediately. Startled, Aisha asked,

“...How did you know?”

“The way you walk was unmistakably yours.”

It was an obvious answer to Rene. Looking flustered, Aisha asked again.

“You can do that?”

Even Aisha, whose hearing was far sharper than a human’s, found such a thing difficult. Rene gave a small laugh at the question.

“I’m blind. Since I can’t see, I trained myself to perceive my surroundings in other ways.”

Aisha parted her lips in an “oh,” then nodded in understanding. After that, she studied Rene’s expression.

She had remembered why she had come to find Rene.

‘I need to apologize...’

Aisha remembered Rene bursting into tears of hurt over Aisha’s words the previous day.

The sight had been so sorrowful that it had made Aisha forget her own anger. It had filled Aisha with guilt from the bottom of her heart, and stayed in Aisha’s mind all night, keeping her from sleep.

Carefully, Aisha spoke.

“...So, are you done crying now?”

She meant to ask whether Rene was all right today.

At once, Rene’s body trembled. Her face turned bright red.

Rene had lowered her head, so Aisha could not see her expression. Just as Aisha was about to apologize again,

“About yesterday, I’m sor...”

“Aaaaaah!”

Rene flailed her arms at Aisha and screamed.

“D-Don’t talk about that! Let’s pretend it never happened! Please!”

Rene pleaded desperately, feeling as though the mortifying memory she had finally started to erase was returning to her mind.

Aisha’s tail shot upright in surprise. Then, with an awkward expression, Aisha nodded.

“Well... all right.”

Aisha had answered with the thought that Rene must be fine now.

At that answer, Rene felt tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.

“Thank... thank you...”

Even as she spoke, resentment toward herself rose within her once more.

‘Why did I do that?!’

Why had she argued with a twelve-year-old child and caused such a mess? Why did she have to be this embarrassed?

Rene’s shoulders trembled.

Watching Rene go back and forth like this on her own, Aisha concluded inwardly, ‘She really is a woman with a troubled mind.’

Then, swishing the tip of her tail, Aisha sat beside Rene and asked,

“What were you doing here alone?”

“Hm? Ah... Hella went to cook, so I’m waiting for her.”

“Hmm...”

At Rene’s words, Aisha remembered the foolish-looking blonde woman from the previous day and nodded.

“You two must be close.”

“I... suppose so. She’s someone I’m grateful to. She always helps me.”

A small smile formed on Rene’s lips. The redness had not yet fully left her face.

Realizing this was the moment to change the subject, Rene quickly asked,

“What about you? Have you eaten?”

“Not yet.”

“Then would you like to eat with us? Hella is very good at cooking.”

An invitation to share a meal.

Aisha considered it for a moment, then thought there was no reason not to.

“Sure.”

* * *

The open space in the backyard.

After asking Dovan’s permission and beginning their meal there, Rene sensed Aisha beside her and recalled what she had heard the day before.

‘A war orphan...’

A child left orphaned by the conflict that arose when the beastfolk Empire had split into five factions.

Thinking of that, Rene suddenly felt as though her chest were tightening.

‘...Why?’

Why wage war? They had only just been liberated from Haman. They had only just reached a point where they no longer had to be hurt, so why were they tearing at their own flesh?

It was something Rene could not understand, something that only filled her with frustration.

Rene was someone who could not understand the irrational greed that drove people to wage war.

She valued those sacrificed by war more than the astronomical profits it could bring.

So as Rene looked at Aisha, who had lost her parents to a madness of war that she could never understand, sympathy arose within her.

Her words naturally grew gentler.

“Is it good?”

“It’s decent.”

Aisha tried to sound as though it were nothing, but Rene sensed the excitement in Aisha’s voice. She let out a small laugh and added,

“If you’re still hungry, have more. Hella always makes too much, so we end up with leftovers.”

“My apologies.”

“...I wasn’t insulting you.”

“That’s a relief.”

Rene let out another laugh.

Aisha looked back and forth between Rene and Hella, then suddenly asked,

“By the way.”

“Yes?”

“Are you a noble?”

It was a natural question for Aisha.

From the fabric of Rene’s clothes to the attitudes of the people around her, and even Rene’s own manner of taking it for granted, everything reminded Aisha of the nobles who occasionally came by.

Rene looked briefly flustered at Aisha’s question, but soon erased it and replied.

“No, I’m not a noble. My father is a merchant. He... runs a rather large business. That’s why we have people who help us like this.”

It was a false identity.

Rene could not openly reveal that she was the Saintess. Yet pretending to be a noble would bring severe consequences if she were discovered, so this identity had been created instead.

As Rene explained it, Aisha nodded slightly and answered in a much more relaxed voice.

“That’s good. I would’ve been annoyed if you were a noble.”

“Hm?”

“I don’t like nobles.”

Rene tilted her head.

Aisha swung her legs back and forth and continued.

“Those noble bastards harass Master. They’re always telling Master to come work for them. They make a nuisance of themselves, then show up all at once and fight in front of the house.”

“Ah...”

Rene nodded. Something came to mind.

‘So the troublesome customers were nobles.’

The people Dovan had called troublesome customers the previous day must have been nobles.

‘Vera said Dovan was remarkable.’

Rene recalled Vera saying with unusual excitement, “Dovan is a craftsman skilled enough to be welcomed anywhere on the continent.”

Smiling, Rene added,

“Dovan really is an amazing person, then?”

“Of course!”

It was nearly a shout. Aisha sprang to her feet and continued.

“Master is a craftsman who’ll make a masterpiece!”

Pride filled her voice.

Aisha believed that Dovan would surely complete a masterpiece.

That Dovan would create a magnificent work that would endure in the history of the continent.

Was Dovan not an admirable person, always full of passion and skill?

Had Dovan not cared for Aisha, who was always causing trouble, and taught Aisha countless things?

Aisha’s master was a great person worthy of respect. Since Dovan was such a person, Dovan would surely be able to complete a masterpiece.

“I hope so.”

“Not hope. It’ll definitely happen.”

Aisha answered in a tone full of certainty, then clenched her fist and added resolutely,

“So I need to help Master complete a masterpiece. That means stopping the bad people who harass Master.”

At Aisha’s passionate voice, and the affection contained within it, Rene found herself smiling again and again.

It was a lovely relationship.

Rene hoped that Dovan, who hid affection behind stern words, and Aisha, who showed affection only for Dovan despite her prickly manner, would be happy.

“I should pray for it, then.”

“Huh?”

“I should pray that Aisha drives away the nobles and that Dovan completes a masterpiece.”

“What, are you some kind of religion nut?”

Rene flinched.

“Um...”

How was she supposed to answer that?

As Rene merely let out an awkward laugh, unable to find a response to being called a religion nut, Aisha shook her head and continued.

“You carve out your own life. You should remember that too.”

“Y-Yes...”

Taking the advice of a twelve-year-old girl deeply to heart, Rene picked up her spoon again.

“Then you should eat plenty so you can work hard today too, right?”