The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman 1062

 Chapter 1062

 

I was born from blood.

A red liquid created by inscribing sorcery into the blood of the wicked woman called the White Blood Religion’s leader. That was my soul, and my body.

While humans were sucking their fingers in the warmth of their mothers’ wombs, I was trapped in a freezing glass bottle, subjected to experiments I did not even know the reason for.

Beside me were countless siblings. They too were trapped in glass bottles like me, crushed under sorcery, drinking human blood, burned in flames, or frozen in ice.

When my siblings could not endure the experiments, they fell with their bottles to the floor. Every time I heard the sound of the glass shattering, it felt as if my soul were being cut away in pain.

Hundreds in a single day. No, hundreds of siblings disappeared, and in the end only exactly one hundred bottles remained.

By luck, I managed to survive through countless experiments and keep the glass bottle that had become like my home.

The humans did not continue the experiments further, and left us confined for a long while.

It was a tedious and endless time. There was too much I didn’t know, I wondered who I was, and why I had to live such a life.

After a span of time too immeasurable to even count in units, the door of the room where we were confined opened once more.

Humans dressed in pure white dragged in humans who bled red like my own body, by the hair, into the room.

“Begin.”

A man with a pale face shoved my sibling in the first bottle into the mouth of a human missing one arm.

“Arghhhhhhhhhh!”

The one-armed human let out a scream loud enough to shake the entire room, clawing at his own throat with his fingernails until he collapsed.

I felt his life slowly fade away. My sibling, too, vanished without a trace, as though dissolved inside the human’s body.

“He’s dead. Throw him out.”

The pale-faced man waved his hand as if he had expected it, and the humans in white threw the lifeless one-armed man outside.

‘Dead.’ It was through that word that I came to understand what death was.

“Next.”

When the pale-faced man jerked his chin, the second sibling was thrust into the body of a human with snow-white hair.

Exactly like the first, the white-haired human vomited blood, collapsed, and stopped breathing.

I realized then that the experiments had begun anew, and my body trembled inside the glass bottle.

Now that I knew what death was, I did not want to die.

The first sibling disappeared, and the first human died.

The second sibling disappeared, and the second human died.

Thus ninety-nine experiments continued, and at the last, only I remained.

“Inject it.”

The pale-faced man frowned wearily, as if having given up, and weakly lowered his hand.

I was taken up by the hand of a white-robed man and thrust into the body of the smallest human.

As I passed through the warm throat, my body spread through the human’s body, beyond my own will.

My body of blood absorbed all of the human’s blood and even devoured the soul that human possessed.

It was not my will. It was the instinct I had borne since birth, consuming everything of the human.

The life the small human had lived flickered through my mind.

Most of it was fragmented, rising like bubbles only to vanish again, but through it I could come to know, even if just a little, what a human life was.

“All failures.”

The pale-faced man sighed, as if he thought I had died like the other siblings.

What is this?

I felt the human’s words resound not through my soul, but through my body. A sensation I had never experienced before.

“Tsk, what should I report to her?”

As he clicked his tongue in frustration, I opened my eyes.

Using the memories of the small human, I moved my arms and legs naturally and raised my body.

I was inside a human’s body, and I was controlling it.

“What…?”

The pale-faced man widened his eyes at me.

“Wh-what is this!”

His jaw trembled as if in disbelief.

“Heh…”

“Has it… succeeded?”

“Unbelievable… that this was possible….”

“Then who is that?”

Not only the pale-faced man, but the other white-robed humans in the room let out shocked murmurs at the sight of me.

“Who are you?”

The pale man asked who I was.

From the fragments of human memory I had gained, I knew that this was asking for a person’s name.

This young human’s name was Raywen, but that was not a name that referred to me.

“Number Four Thousand Four Hundred and Four….”

I spoke the number of the glass bottle that had confined me.

“Number Four Thousand Four Hundred and Four? Khahahahaha!”

The pale-faced man checked the number of the glass bottle I had been in and burst into laughter so loud it felt like my ears would burst.

“Bring her here! Right now!”

*   *   *

I stood face to face with a woman of blonde hair and blue eyes.

Ziiiiiing!

I felt my soul crying out violently that it had to return to this woman. I could instinctively know, I had been born from this blonde-haired woman.

Using the word that existed in human memories, she was clearly the being called mother.

“Did it truly succeed?”

Mother narrowed her eyes, as if she could not believe the pale-faced man’s words.

“Yes. It called itself Number Four Thousand Four Hundred and Four.”

The pale-faced man shook the glass bottle I had been in.

“Who are you?”

Mother looked up at me with eyes of curiosity.

“Mother.”

I did not resist the violent resonance of my soul, and spoke the word mother.

“Have you gone mad!”

The pale-faced man glared at me with his brows knotted. The moment I met his gaze, my whole body shook and I could not breathe.

“Leave it.”

At Mother’s gesture that it was fine, the pale-faced man bowed his head and stepped back.

“It is not wrong. This child was born from my blood, after all.”

She nodded, as if it were fine to call her so.

“Ah…”

I was overjoyed. My existence. That my existence, which had been withering away trapped inside a glass bottle, was acknowledged by mother made me so happy. This must be the feeling called being moved.

“M-my name…”

It was when I asked mother to give me a name. The human body would no longer obey my control, and collapsed where it was.

“Huh?”

I could not move a single finger, nor breathe. A pain that twisted my soul filled my mind.

“Hah! Th-this…!”

The pale-faced man’s hand trembled, as if he had not expected this to suddenly happen.

“……”

Mother did not say anything, only watched with cold eyes as I died.

I must live! I have only just been acknowledged—there is no way I can die!

I had lived as an existence not even knowing what I was, and now I had finally met mother who recognized me. I could never die.

Zzzzzzt!

I forcibly tore myself free from the human body that refused to let go of my soul, crawled up the throat the opposite way I had entered, and escaped out.

Sseuuuuh.

Like when I was first born, I became red blood and flowed down onto the floor filled with glass.

“That body does not resonate with your flow.”

Mother reached down with her own hand, gathered me up, and placed me into the only unbroken glass bottle, Number Four Thousand Four Hundred and Four.

“Soon, we will find the body that suits you.”

She looked at me, swaying within the glass bottle, and drew a red smile.

“I shall give you the name Thirteenth.”

*   *   *

From that day on, I entered the body of a different human every day, took control of the body, and gained memories and knowledge.

Whether long or short, human bodies could not withstand me and shattered apart like the glass bottles of my siblings.

Each time, a pain came that made me wish I could rather die, but I endured, thinking of mother.

After a span so long that I could not even remember, a man radiating nobility was dragged before me.

A man with red eyes, like my own soul, whose will and spirit seemed firmer than any human I had ever seen.

“This is your last chance. Denier Zieghart.”

Mother, who had newly taken the body of a black-haired, black-eyed woman, placed her finger upon the forehead of the man called Denier.

“Answer my question. Zieghart is….”

“Kill me.”

Denier Zieghart shook his head calmly, as though telling her truly to kill him.

“I am the Wise Martial Palace master of Zieghart. Rather than do something that would harm the house, I will end my own life in this spot.”

He lifted eyes that shone as if they were glowing, saying that death itself was not something to fear.

He says he’ll die?

I was shocked. All the humans dragged to this place had, without exception, clung to the hem of our clothes, crying out to be spared.

I had thought that was the rule of this world, so it never occurred to me there could be someone like him.

“I suppose it can’t be helped.”

Mother clicked her tongue briefly and picked up the bottle I was in.

“You shall enter this man’s body, read his memories, and return.”

She told me to grasp everything related to Zieghart, even the smallest detail, and pushed me into the mouth of the man called Denier.

Zzzzzzt!

The moment I slid down Denier’s throat and entered his body, I felt it.

That my soul and this man’s body meshed together like perfectly interlocking gears.

I realized this was the body mother had spoken of, one whose flow matched mine—Denier’s body.

“Khrrrk!”

Denier resisted, as though he would never hand over his body. His soul was larger and harder than any human’s I had encountered, showing no openings.

But I was born from mother to devour human souls and seize their bodies.

I chewed and swallowed the life Denier Zieghart had lived, one piece at a time, making his memories and strength mine.

Aaaaaahhhhhh!

Even as his soul was cut apart and devoured in fragments, Denier did not give up, resisting until the end.

It must have been pain that could scarcely be borne even in death, yet I did not know how he endured it. I had never seen a human like this.

Wooooong.

Perhaps because our flows matched, the human memories I could once only glimpse in fragments now came vividly, as though I myself had lived them.

I could hold all of Denier’s memories in my mind as if I had lived them alongside him.

The body was the same. Unlike other human bodies that carried a rough sense of rejection, here I could feel even the tips of the fingers, no, even the sensation at the ends of hairs, in fine detail. I felt as if I had become a true human.

So I was born in the White Blood Religion.

Zieghart of the Six Kings, and the White Blood Religion of the Five Demons.

Through the memories I gained from Denier, I came to know where I was, and who this human called Denier was.

Though born a direct line in the prestigious house of swords, Denier Zieghart was gentle and kind by nature.

He held the goal not of becoming strong with the sword first, but of creating a good family and household.

As the head of house and his father, Glenn became obsessed with the sword and abandoned his humanity, the elder sister, saying she hated the ruthless household, left on a long journey, and the elder brother, as if following the father, cast away his own children.

The youngest sister, saying she would marry, left the house only to return as if she were being chased, and the only younger brother was a fool.

A broken family. The very image of a ruined household that existed only in stories. I could understand why Denier dreamed of a good family.

However, because Denier was lacking in ability compared to his other siblings from the beginning, there were few who listened to his voice.

On the contrary, he only heard himself branded an incompetent who had run away from the competition for the head of house.

Still, Denier did not give up. Wishing somehow to save Zieghart from its collapse, he carried out many missions alone, until misfortune had him captured by mother and dragged to this place.

Strangely, my chest ached. I had not only taken Denier Zieghart’s memories, but seemed to have accepted his emotions as well.

So different.

Is this the true life of a human?

 

Because I was born from mother, I had thought of myself as human as I lived. But reading Denier’s memories, I felt that something was twisted. That I was not human, but a monster.

“Mother. I….”

“As I thought—you seized it!”

Mother, as if she had believed in me, smiled brightly at me.

“How much of Denier’s memories have you read? Tell me!”

She nodded, eyes filled with anticipation.

“…Strangely, I have obtained all of his memories.”

Wanting to see her smile more, wanting her praise, I cast aside my doubt and told her I had obtained all of Denier’s memories.

“Truly?”

Mother exclaimed that it was remarkable, and grasped my shoulder. My soul quivered greatly with emotion.

“Then tell me everything!”

“Yes. First, at present, Zieghart is….”

Because I had not only Denier’s memories but also his emotions, I knew that speaking these words would cause something terrible to erupt in this world.

But to help mother even in the smallest way, I spoke all the information I had learned.

Strangely, the thoughts Denier had kept to himself never even occurred to me to reveal.

“Well done! You have done so very well!”

Mother wrapped her two arms around me. Just from that, all the feelings that I had done something wrong were swept away as if washed clean.

“Maintain that body for a while. If you can do that, we will be able to make new plans.”

Mother said it as a request and left the room.

To fulfill mother’s request, I burrowed ever deeper into Denier’s body over a long span of time.

I could feel my body and soul of blood merging as one with the blood flowing through Denier’s body.

Now, I do not even know how to leave this body. Perhaps if Denier dies, I will die as well, but I did not regret it.

“Good.”

Even after a month had passed, when I still maintained the body, Mother looked upon me and smiled in satisfaction.

“You can imitate Denier’s swordsmanship, way of speaking, and actions, right?”

“Yes.”

Because I had absorbed all of Denier’s memories and emotions, I could imitate even his swordsmanship, his words, and his actions.

I showed mother the things I had practiced until now.

“Perfect.”

Mother clapped her hands in joy as she watched me act as Denier.

“From this moment, your name is Denier Zieghart. Until I call for you otherwise, you shall live with that name.”

She nodded, saying my name was from now on Denier.

“Yes!”

I was glad. That I had received a name from mother, that mother was pleased, both filled me with happiness.

Unaware of the ominous emotion writhing beneath my soul, I only smiled.

“And then….”

When mother flicked her fingertip, the Tenth Apostle brought forth a young girl who looked less than ten years old.

She was a child who looked very similar to the body mother was currently in.

“She is the one I have marked for my next body. Since she comes from a village destroyed by us, if you say you found and saved her yourself, you can use that as the reason why there has been no contact until now.”

Mother nodded, saying to take this child into Zieghart and make her my adopted daughter.

“She was originally dragged here with her mother, but I altered her memories so she would be remembered as the sole survivor of the village.”

She laughed, saying that because it was not memory manipulation wrought by sorcery, even Glenn would not be able to notice.

“You said… memory manipulation?”

“Yes. I implanted into her the memory of surviving alone after her village was attacked by us, and seeking revenge, only to be rescued by you. As long as you perform your role as Denier properly, she will be easy to handle.”

Mother, saying it would be simple, handed me the girl named Martha. That was my first meeting with Martha.

 

 

 

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