WeTried Translations

Translator: Abood

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◈ The Saviour Embarks on a Nameless Journey

Chapter 49: Sword Saint

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The blue-black monster had rounded, frog-like fingertips, bat wings, and a human face. Something like a cracked egg covered it up to its chest.

Though for an egg, it looked rough, and hard as stone.

“...That’s damn creepy. First time I’ve ever met a monster with a human face.”

“They say humans approached the form of the goddess. In the same way, monsters approach the form of the Demon King. In truth, humanoid monsters and winged monsters are strong.”

Marius picked up Tain’s mutter and said this with his usual suspicious smile.

Humans did not have wings like the goddess, but though monsters were not fully human in shape, many had wings like the Demon King.

The core-bearers granted power by the Demon King were strong no matter what form they took, thanks to his power. Even among them, however, the humanoid and winged ones were in a different class.

“Gegege...”

The monster made a sound as if something were caught in its throat, then used magic. Whether it was mocking us or threatening us, the ground just in front of our feet was gouged in a straight line.

“Disciple of the witch, Io, shall proceed.”

Io went first.

She set her staff straight before her body and chanted a spell. The magic gathered in the staff swelled, and something like lightning raced toward the monster, only to be swallowed straight into the crystal.

Then it reflected.

“Sister!”

“Alina!”

Alina stepped in front of Io, just about to receive the magic with her sword, when Io threw up a defense and diverted the reflected magic into the ground.

“If we are to use magic, that crystal seems troublesome.”

Marius said this in his usual calm voice.

Then he turned toward me, his smile deepening.

“The magic Io released was only a probe.”

“I know that!”

It was a level Alina could have deflected, and yet I had cried out without thinking. What is wrong with worrying?

“You were Spartan with children, regardless of sex.”

“Grandchildren are a class apart! Parents are strict, grandparents spoil them. Such is the way of the world!”

I had every intention of helping her grow stronger, but at least let me worry!

“You people...”

Tain seemed exasperated by the exchange.

“Well, it did loosen me up.”

He reset his grip on his sword and looked directly at the monster he had avoided meeting eyes with until now. A fine thing.

“Alina will go as well!”

At the same time as Tain, Alina stepped in.

Their two swords were repelled and sprang upward. Part of the shattered gray crystal-like stone egg scattered, then returned to its original shape as if time had reversed.

“Gegege.”

The monster was probably laughing. It sounded mocking and amused.

Its throat bulged.

“Dodge.”

At my word, several black fireball-like things shot from the monster’s mouth.

Alina, Tain, and Io did not try to receive the attack. They dodged obediently.

“Core-bearing monsters use attacks that corrode whatever they touch. If you block with a weapon or shield, that too will be corroded and eaten away by the Demon King’s aura. If you still refuse to let go, the wielder will be corroded as well.”

“If only the weapon had received a spirit’s blessing. Still, a core, is it? The crystal it is holding, or rather, the unpurified black crystal, is inside its body, yes?”

After having the three retreat behind Marius, I stepped forward.

“Gegege.”

“SuiEn.”

As I walked toward the monster and its nasty grin, I called my sword.

The moment I grasped SuiEn, familiar in my hand, I dashed.

“Ge...?”

The monster made a blank face, as if it had lost sight of me.

I swept sideways along the boundary between its body and the stone egg, then brought the sword back and cut diagonally through the egg. The monster’s face stayed blank. The egg shattered.

Up close, the stones scattering from the egg looked like gray crystals. Spindle-shaped crystals had stuck together irregularly into a warped lump.

Before they could return, I cut them down further into smaller pieces. The gray fragments scattered and tried to gather again. Smaller.

A great many shards tried to gather and flew toward me, standing where the egg had been. I struck every last one back and broke them finer.

“Ah, found it.”

Black mixed among the gray. A small spindle.

When I brought SuiEn down upon it, it shattered, the black color drained away, and a clear crystal fragment drifted in the air.

The gray fragments vanished, and the monster’s body collapsed.

“Core-bearers do not leave bodies behind. For all the effort they take, they do not become materials or money.”

Marius said this with a sigh.

“It is not as though we need worry about money anymore.”

I answered Marius as I returned SuiEn to my left hand, back into my body.

Leaving core-bearers aside, I had often been scolded in the old days for mincing the valuable parts of ordinary monsters that could have sold for a high price.

“Amazing...”

“Grandfather...”

Tain and Alina were looking at me. Had I shown them at least a little of my better side?

“Ah, the crystal is returning to its original shape.”

Io looked beside me and raised her voice.

The fine crystal fragments that had been drifting in the air surrounded the purified crystal the monster had held, then clicked and scraped as they reattached.

“Pya.”

Come to think of it, this fellow was on my back.

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