Chapter 106 - Damn Reincarnation

Senya

Was this a dream too?

Eugene stared blankly at Senya.

Several memories mingled in her appearance. The Senya of three hundred years ago whom Eugene—whom Hamel—remembered. The portrait left in her mansion in Aroth. The statue in Merdein Square. The past the Holy Sword had shown him.

They were all her. Senya Merdein. The thick, pale violet hair. The large green eyes. Every bit of her was the Senya Eugene—Hamel—remembered.

"How long are you going to keep crying?"

Senya rose from where she had been sitting, giggling.

"I never knew the great Hamel was such a crybaby. You never used to cry."

"..."

"Well, three hundred years have passed... No, has it not been three hundred years for you? I'm not really sure how you experience time. I've never been reincarnated myself. Not that it matters. I'm rather enjoying seeing this other side of you."

Senya shrugged and smiled.

"So? Are you just going to keep crying? You weren't crying like this when you flipped me—"

"What are you?"

Eugene spat out the words, his face twisting. Why were these fucking tears flowing on their own again? This useless fucking body. He had no intention of crying, so why was it shedding tears all by itself?

"Fuck, what are you? What the hell are you doing? Huh? What kind of trick is this now? Why am I here, why are you here, and what the hell happened to you—no, not just you."

He couldn't get the words out properly. His mind and emotions were a mess. Even so, he strode toward Senya.

"What the hell happened to Anise? Why the fuck is Anise an angel, and why does she have eight wings? Moron. What about Moron? What's that bastard doing?"

"Hamel."

"... Vermouth. That bastard... what happened to him? What happened in my tomb? And me. What about me? Why was I reincarnated, knowing nothing, while you fuckers—not one of you explained a damn thing to me."

"Hamel."

Eugene didn't answer the name calling him. His tears had stopped. His chest felt so constricted that he wondered whether sobbing at the top of his lungs might be better. His emotions still wouldn't settle. His head was spinning.

Panting, he looked ahead. Senya was right before him. Yet he couldn't sense any presence from her. She was plainly standing before his eyes, but it didn't feel as though she existed.

Just like what he had seen in Aroth.

The Senya before him felt no different from a ghost.

"... What the hell are you?"

Eugene forced the words out in a broken voice. He reached a trembling hand toward Senya. Would it touch her? He hadn't been able to in Aroth. He hadn't been able to say anything to her then. He had only flipped her off, thinking she would recognize him.

In truth, he had wanted to do something other than give her the finger. He had wanted to catch the shoulder of the ghostlike, wandering Senya and pull her toward him, or block her path and embrace her. Had he done so, Senya—that infuriating, nasty woman—would have snapped,

["Have you lost your mind?"]

Then kicked him in the shin. No, considering her godawful temper, she might have slapped him across the face instead.

He wouldn't have cared. He wanted anything that would make Senya feel real. In Aroth, he hadn't been able to have that. No matter how often he called, she couldn't hear him. Even when he reached out to catch her, he couldn't.

But now.

"Hamel."

He touched her. His outstretched fingertips rested against her cheek. He felt no warmth. Yet even so, he felt the softness of her skin. In that skin devoid of warmth, he felt Senya's existence.

"I'm here."

Senya spoke with a faint smile. It resembled the benevolent smile in her portrait. A smile that didn't suit her. But it was unmistakably Senya's smile.

"... Fuck."

Eugene lowered his head with a curse.

"That smile doesn't fucking suit you."

"You son of a bitch."

The curse came back immediately. Senya grabbed his hair and shook it. There was no strength in her touch.

"Neither does yours, Hamel. What the hell is that face? If you hadn't recognized me and flipped me off, I'd never have realized you were Hamel."

"You think I was born this way because I wanted to be?"

"Hmm. You say that, but aren't you rather pleased with your new face? You've always quietly cared about that sort of thing, Hamel."

"... Cared about what?"

"Don't play dumb. Don't you remember the first party the five of us attended? You said you'd never been to a party like that, bought some idiotic formal outfit, and even got your hair cut."

"... How far back are you going—"

"Well, no matter how much you dressed up that face in your previous life, you looked rough and vicious. Now... well... you look all right. Even dressed like a beggar, I think you'd look far better than you did back then."

As she spoke, Senya raised both hands and cupped Eugene's cheeks. She kneaded them, giggling to herself.

"It isn't the face I remember, but you're Hamel. That... is certain. Hamel. You've... come back. Truly. You've come back."

"..."

"It's a strange feeling. Your face and body are different. But because I know you're Hamel, this completely different appearance feels like Hamel to me."

Senya's fingers moved across the middle of his face. He wondered what she was doing, then realized she was tracing scars over his smooth skin. The scars that had covered Hamel's face in his previous life. Eugene gave a disbelieving laugh and pulled his head back.

"What are you doing? That's creepy."

"... What was that? Creepy?"

"Yeah, it is, you idiot. Why are you drawing scars on a perfectly good face?"

"Just because. I'm trying to see how different it is from your old one."

Senya pouted and pressed a finger firmly into his cheek.

"... Your cheeks are softer than they used to be."

"Guess I haven't lost all my baby fat yet."

"Baby fat... baby fat? Ahaha! That's cute, Hamel. How old is that body? Yes, you certainly still look young."

"Nineteen."

"Wow... Really? Seriously? You're only nineteen? Hmm, when we first met... you were twenty-two, weren't you, Hamel? Back then you looked several years older than your age..."

He remembered. Back when he had made quite a name for himself as a mercenary. While he was staying at a port to cross over to Helmuth, Vermouth's party had suddenly come looking for him.

["He's just some mercenary bastard you could find anywhere. Is there any reason we absolutely have to bring him?"]

Senya had glared at Hamel, snapping those words. Already renowned as an archmage, she had shown little interest in a lowly mercenary like him.

Hamel had felt the same. Why bother taking an interest in someone who was obnoxiously complaining from their very first meeting? Neither had made a good first impression on the other.

Vermouth had practically dragged him into the party. For some time afterward, Senya ignored Hamel, and Hamel ignored Senya. Anise was the one who looked after him despite her grumbling, while Moron... well, Moron had been friendly from the start.

"I remember."

Chuckling, Senya took her hands away from his cheeks.

"We left the port together on a ship. A big merchant vessel. The sea route to Helmuth was full of monsters and demonic beasts, and insane black mages would turn up on ghost ships crewed by the undead."

"... Yeah."

"We were young then... and inexperienced. Vermouth was already a monster, but you, me, Anise, Moron—none of us were as fully developed as he was. I overestimated my abilities and did whatever I pleased, and then..."

"You nearly died."

He remembered. The undead ghost fleet. While Vermouth and Anise fought the undead, Moron, Hamel, and Senya dealt with the monsters and demonic beasts rampaging in the sea.

Intoxicated with her own brilliance, Senya had flown through the sky raining down magic. She had let her guard down too far. Black mages hiding on the seabed attacked her, and the sudden assault sent her mana flowing backward.

Hamel had saved her as she fell toward the swirling sea. From that moment on, Senya no longer ignored him.

["Thank you."]

That was what Senya had said, blood streaming from both nostrils.

["Forget that. Wipe your nose."]

["... Okay."]

["And stop showing off. Just because you can fly a little, you were darting here and there, making a whole fucking spectacle of yourself. On a battlefield like this, the show-off who stands out is the first to get killed. Got it?"]

["I'm grateful, but you're kind of an asshole."]

"Senya."

He shook off the memories spreading through his mind.

That very Senya was right before his eyes.

"What happened?"

Eugene spoke, staring into her eyes.

It was the question he had been asking from the start.

"What the hell happened in the Demon King of Incarceration's castle? What promise did Vermouth make?"

"..."

"Answer me."

"Hamel."

Senya gave a weak smile and gently pushed his shoulder.

"Do you believe in miracles?"

"... Where the hell did that come from?"

"You being here now. Meeting me and talking to me. All of it is a miracle."

BZZT

Space rippled. Startled, Eugene took a step back. The enormous World Tree overlapped the small tree behind Senya. Reality overlaid her weakly smiling figure as well.

"... Are you dead?"

"No."

Senya smiled and shook her head.

BZZT

Beyond her smiling figure, he could see reality. A bloodless face. Eyes peacefully closed. A hole in her chest. Tangled vines.

"Hamel."

Senya spoke.

"Don't resent Vermouth."

"... What?"

"Vermouth... bore more than we did. No, more than anyone in the world. If that bastard hadn't made the promise..."

"Was Vermouth the one who did that to you?"

"Hamel."

"I asked if it was Vermouth. I'm not an idiot either, Senya. I went to my tomb. There..."

"I know. I left the World Tree's leaf somewhere no soul but yours could enter."

Senya gazed at Eugene with a bitter smile.

"... We couldn't understand each other."

"What?"

"You're wearing the necklace."

With a playful smile, she pointed at his chest.

"We went through a lot in all sorts of ways. Hamel, did you know? Your body and soul should have been annihilated, or become the Demon King of Incarceration's toys. But... they came back."

"..."

"I don't know exactly what promise Vermouth made there. But... the promise he made included the safe return of me, Anise, and Moron, who were there with him. And the return of your body and soul."

He had thought as much. He had died to the magic of none other than Belial, known as Incarceration's Staff. If he was lucky, he would simply have been obliterated. At worst, he would have been offered to Belial's master, the Demon King of Incarceration.

But Eugene's—Hamel's—soul had not been obliterated. His body had remained too, laid inside a coffin.

"I put your soul in that necklace."

["Senya. That necklace..."]

["In the coffin... No... I'll take it with me."]

["... It goes against the natural order."]

["We all agreed to this."]

The past the Holy Sword had shown him.

"What happens when a person dies? Anise said they go to heaven, but I... don't believe in God the way she does. I'm a mage, Hamel. I can't believe something unless I've seen it myself or understood it. No, in the end, that was just an excuse."

Chuckling softly, Senya sat down.

"I didn't want to let you go before us, Hamel. I just... just... couldn't. Were you satisfied with your death? If you were, you're a son of a bitch. Who gave you the right to die satisfied? Me, Anise, Moron... Vermouth, too. Not one of us wanted you to die. We didn't want to accept your death, and we didn't want to send you on ahead of us."

We all agreed to this.

"So I held on to your soul. So you wouldn't leave before us. So that one day, we could meet again. The world you wanted—the world all of us wanted. Once we'd killed every Demon King, then... then I meant to let you go."

The Senya saying those words was exactly the Senya Eugene remembered. Willful stubbornness. Even if it defied reason, she put her own understanding and acceptance first. The natural order meant nothing before such stubbornness. Mages were a mentally sick breed, and Senya was no exception.

"Vermouth..."

Senya raised her head to look at Eugene.

"Seems to have thought a little differently from us. I don't know why he did what he did. I'm not Vermouth, and I never understood that bastard, even at the end."

"... Senya."

"The necklace holding your soul... I kept it all that time. All that time. But it was taken from me in your tomb."

Those words made Eugene's hair stand on end.

"That bastard didn't say a word to me. He killed my familiar in your tomb to make me come. He lured me there and attacked me out of nowhere."

Senya murmured, touching her chest.

"... Was that really Vermouth? Honestly, I don't know. Vermouth was dead. He was dead... he should have been. But there he was, alive and well, saying nothing, attacking me, taking the necklace from me after I'd fallen. Me..."

"Senya."

"Hamel, don't resent Vermouth."

Eugene gritted his teeth. He couldn't understand it at all. Don't resent him?

"Don't be ridiculous."

"... The fact that you're here must mean Vermouth brought your soul back to life."

"That son of a bitch didn't leave a single word. He even tried to kill you...!"

"I did the same."

Smiling, Senya raised her fist.

"Just as he tried to kill me, I tried to kill him. Hamel, I felt betrayed just as you do. As much as you do—no, perhaps even more."

"..."

"That's why I can't trust myself all the more. Was it really Vermouth who lured me there and tried to kill me? Was the person I fought and tried to kill there truly Vermouth?"

"Who else could it have been...!"

"You weren't there, dumbass."

Her middle finger rose from her outstretched fist.

Eugene laughed before he knew it.

"I'm the one who nearly fucking died, so why are you getting more pissed off than me? I'm telling you this as the person who fought there and got a fucking hole punched through her chest! You'd already been dead for ages, with nothing but your soul left in a necklace! Why do you have to fucking argue with every word I say?"

"... Hah."

"You need to learn to listen when someone talks. How is your personality still this shitty after dying and coming back to life? If you died once because you refused to fucking listen to anyone like an idiot, huh? You ought to learn to listen!"

"You're definitely Senya."

"We haven't seen each other in so long, and I got a lot older while you were dead. I tried to hold back because I'd become a little more dignified...! But you're the same fucking loser you were in your last life."

With that, Senya sprang to her feet. She strode over and seized Eugene by the collar.

"Hey! Hamel, listen carefully. I think the one who tried to kill me was Vermouth, but I don't think it was Vermouth. Get it?"

"Do you think what you're saying makes any sense?"

"Oh, I don't know! If I say I don't think it was him, just accept that...! Anyway, I don't know much about the promise. Vermouth must have been the one who reincarnated you, but that... I think that's a good thing. I thought we'd meet again in heaven, but now we can meet while we're alive."

As she spoke, Senya shook him by the collar.

"But what's your name?"

"Hamel."

"Not that! What's your name in this life?"

"... Eugene."

"... Your hair color, your eyes... your mana. Something's coming to mind, and I'm a little scared it might be true."

"It probably is."

"Really? You really reincarnated as Vermouth's descendant?"

"Yeah."

"So your name is Eugene Lionheart?"

"... Yeah."

"Has that bastard Vermouth gone senile?"

Muttering, Senya released his collar.

"Why would he reincarnate you as his own descendant... Hmm... Hmm. I see. When he took more than ten wives and had a whole brood of children, I thought he just wanted to live well after all the hardship in Helmuth... Did he increase his descendants for your reincarnation...?"

"I don't really know, but I'm the one who felt like shit being born as Vermouth's descendant."

"I'm sure it felt shitty, but there seem to be more benefits than drawbacks. For one, your face is much better than before, and isn't your body better than when you were Hamel?"

"... That's true."

"Your memories intact... a body vastly superior to your old one... Does he want you to fuck up the remaining Demon Kings?"

"If that's what he wants, he could just reincarnate himself. No, he wouldn't even need to reincarnate..."

"Are you sure you're not actually Moron rather than Hamel?"

Senya stared at him as she spoke. Even in this situation, Eugene couldn't help grimacing at that.

"Apologize."

"Yes. Sorry. That was a little harsh."

"Watch yourself."

"Hmm. You're so obnoxious, you must be Hamel. No doubt about it. Anyway, there must be a reason Vermouth isn't reincarnating himself or taking out the Demon Kings himself."

Senya stepped back a few paces and rubbed her chin.

"... And you're the right person for it."

"What?"

"You were that strong even in that pathetic body. If you reincarnate with all your old memories and a vastly superior body... I think you could be better than Vermouth."

"Don't be ridiculous."

"You're the one being ridiculous, dumbass. I understand that Vermouth beat your ass every time. But look at it another way: you came closer to him than any of us. Vermouth was special, but you were just as special as he was. Vermouth ultimately failed, but you, Hamel... you might be able to do it."

The corners of Eugene's mouth twitched.

Senya didn't miss it. Laughing loudly, she slapped his shoulder.

"Look at that grin. Happy?"

"... Ahem."

"Anyway, Hamel. Don't resent Vermouth too much. I won't either."

"... You just don't want to accept reality."

"Shut up. I'm a mage. Even if I see something with my own eyes, I won't believe it unless I understand and accept it myself."

"That's a little different from what you said earlier, isn't it?"

"Honestly, Hamel, what reason do you have to resent Vermouth? He brought your dead ass back to life. In a far better body, too! He didn't explain? So what? You should be grateful just to be alive again. Who are you to resent Vermouth?"

Senya pointed at her chest as she spoke.

"Even I don't resent him, and I have a hole in my chest. Understand? I trust Vermouth. So you should trust him too. We... owe Vermouth a debt."

"... Fuck, I don't know."

"Even after dying and coming back, you're still a little brat sometimes."

"I asked what happened to Anise and Moron."

"I don't know. Why did Anise become an angel? You're not the only one who's surprised, so don't ask me. Moron? That idiot founded a kingdom... Oh! Did you know? Moron, that idiot, actually became a king!"

"You think I don't know that?"

"Hmm, who could have imagined Moron really becoming a king? You should have been at the celebration of Ruhar's founding... That idiot Moron came to the party wearing nothing but underwear and a cloak!"

"... Why?"

"I gave him a present. A pair of underwear I told him was formal attire only visible to good, brave people. And that bastard really came out wearing nothing else. When his subjects freaked out, he told them they couldn't see his clothes because they weren't good and brave..."

Senya broke off and clutched her stomach, laughing.

"Still, we should thank Anise."

"..."

"It's thanks to the miracle Anise worked that I can talk to you now."

"... Before I came here, I saw the past."

"Raizakia."

Senya's face twisted.

"When you get down to it, that fucking lizard is more responsible for my condition than Vermouth. I don't know how he found out where I was, but while I was wasting away, he suddenly smashed the barrier and barged in!"

"... What exactly happened?"

"You saw it, didn't you? He fired his breath, and I stopped it. I wasn't in good shape myself, so I couldn't block it perfectly. You remember Raizakia's breath, right? It's a mass of demonic energy. No, Raizakia himself is a mass of demonic energy. A bundle of germs, like a sewer rat."

Senya shuddered and clenched her fists.

"All the elves were contaminated, and demonic energy seeped into my wound too. That's how his curse took hold. On the verge of death, I barely managed to connect to the World Tree and seal my body and the elves inside it."

Senya sank back down.

"... I feel bad for the elves outside, but I had no choice then. One wrong move, and I and hundreds of elves would have died together. I sealed the domain itself and altered the elves' memories so no one could enter... Oh. That's ancient magic left in the World Tree. This tree is connected to the elves' souls."

"So?"

"What do you mean, 'so'? You saw it yourself. The elves and I are sealed inside the World Tree—"

"Not that. What do I have to do to make you open your eyes?"

Eugene sat facing Senya. She fell silent and gazed at him, so close to her.

"Hamel. I failed at two things."

Senya let out a short sigh and crossed her arms.

"First, I tried to kill Raizakia, but couldn't. If I'd killed him, I could have purified the curse that seeped into my wound."

"And the other?"

"I went too far trying to drive him away and banished him outside the dimension."

Senya's brows furrowed.

"Well, if I'd banished him properly, the curse wouldn't have persisted. Since it's still here, the banishment clearly didn't work properly either. But since it hasn't gotten any worse... he's probably isolated in a dimensional rift. He's impressive in his own way. Doesn't that mean he's been alive, stuck in a dimensional rift for hundreds of years?"

"So."

Eugene smiled.

"If I kill Raizakia in that dimensional rift, will you get better too?"

"... Probably."

"How do I find him?"

"It's beyond you as you are now."

"I know. Tell me anyway. When I'm strong enough, I'll go and kill him for you."

Senya watched him without immediately replying.

"... You really are Hamel."

"Where did that come from?"

"No, it's nothing."

Senya gave a soft laugh.