Chapter 108 - Damn Reincarnation

Senya

“So who was it?”

“... I don’t know.”

“Aren’t you ashamed of shamelessly blabbering ‘I don’t know’ over and over?”

“... Shut up.”

“If Anise wrote it, are you denying you know to protect her honor? You realize that only makes you the suspect?”

Eugene began working through his deductions with a serious expression.

“Would you really put Anise’s honor first, even at the cost of suffering that insult? I don’t think so. You’re not so rigidly principled that you’d take the blame for something you didn’t do.”

“... Wh... what do you know?”

“Not as much as you, but I’d say I’m a close second.”

Those words turned Senya red all the way to her earlobes. Unable to look Eugene in the eye, she stared pointlessly at the floor and fidgeted with her fingers.

“... I... it really wasn’t me.”

“Look me in the eye and say that.”

“It was three hundred years ago... and... it’s not that important, is it? M-Moron loved that storybook. He loved it so much he tried to make memorizing its contents the very first law of his kingdom.”

“... Was that bastard really a wise and benevolent king? Wasn’t he just a deranged dictator and tyrant?”

Eugene muttered in disbelief. Then his expression changed completely, turning serious.

“No. It makes sense that Moron would like it. After being called an idiot every day, he finally got a cool nickname like Moron the Brave.”

“... You think that’s cool?”

This time, Senya looked incredulous.

“He’s only called Moron the Brave. Everything he does in the book is still idiotic. It was a storybook for children, so I couldn’t exactly write ‘idiot’—”

“Did you write it?”

“... Is probably what happened.”

“Funny, considering it called me every insult imaginable, from a fucking idiot to a son of a bitch.”

“... Think about it, Hamel.”

Senya composed her expression.

“When that storybook came out, Moron was uniting the northern tribes and gathering refugees to lay the foundations for his kingdom. Imagine if it had called him an idiot.”

“So what?”

“Are you serious? Don’t you feel sorry for the people who trusted and followed Moron, and the descendants they would have? What sins could they possibly have committed in their past lives to deserve hearing everyone mock their king as an idiot?”

“...”

“If that storybook had called Moron an idiot, everyone in the Kingdom of Ruhar would have been ridiculed as the subjects of an idiot. And what would happen then? All the kingdom’s people would stop following their king, and there would be a rebellion. Maybe fanatical extremists would start murdering people indiscriminately, vowing to hunt down and kill the author...”

“Why don’t you write a whole damn novel?”

Eugene’s face crumpled as he snapped at her.

“Right. It’s all my fault for croaking early without leaving any descendants. Huh? If I hadn’t died so soon, they wouldn’t have called me Hamel the Stupid either.”

“... Well, probably not.”

“So why did you do that to me?”

“... I told you I didn’t write it.”

“And what was that at the end, when I died? ‘Senya, I loved you.’”

Senya covered her face with both hands. She trembled, then turned all the way around, unable to keep sitting face-to-face with Eugene.

“I... it wasn’t me.”

“Then was it Anise?”

“I don’t know!”

Senya shrieked and sprang to her feet.

“I said I don’t know! Why do you keep asking me? I don’t know! M-Maybe some other bastard wrote it!”

“So you are embarrassed.”

“It’s... it’s your fault, Hamel. Who told you to die first? Who... who told you to reincarnate? If you hadn’t reincarnated, you would never have read that storybook yourself!”

“Yeah. Sorry for reincarnating. I should have stayed flat on my back and dead. Apparently reincarnating was a mistake.”

Senya’s shoulders flinched at those words. She turned back toward Eugene. Looking utterly at a loss, she worked her lips soundlessly. Tears welled in her trembling green eyes.

“... I’m sorry. That was an insane thing to say.”

“No... hey. I was just joking. Why are you taking it seriously?”

“Because I’m not okay with it... It’s something I shouldn’t say... something I should never, ever say. I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Hamel.”

Senya bowed her head as tears dripped down her face. Eugene watched her awkwardly, then let out a deep sigh.

“It’s fine. I really am sorry I died first.”

“... Sob.”

“I don’t know whether you or Anise wrote that bit about Hamel the Stupid, but I’ll forgive that too.”

“... Sniff.”

“Thanks for the memorial stone.”

Senya stopped sniffling. Her face, bright red only a moment ago, turned deathly pale.

‘Right, the memorial stone...!’

She had written those things. Weeping her heart out, she had inscribed several messages on Hamel’s memorial stone. And not just the stone. She had written on his coffin too. When Vermouth, Moron, and Anise weren’t looking, she had secretly written a message on the lid.

May we meet again someday, in the world you wished for.

Her bloodless face flushed once more. She had written all of that believing she would never see Hamel again.

“And on the coffin...”

“I-I’ll kill you.”

“You cried so much when you put up my statue.”

“When did I cry? Don’t just make things up...!”

“Moron was catching your tears in his mouth, wasn’t he?”

“Impossible... How do you know that? Your soul was inside the necklace... D-don’t tell me. Were you conscious inside the necklace, with nothing left but your soul?”

Senya’s voice shook. Surely that couldn’t be true, but she imagined the worst—something that could not and must not have happened.

“How could I have been? I just saw it in a dream.”

“A dream?”

“The Holy Sword, you see.”

Perhaps.

Eugene trailed off, his expression troubled. The revelation in his dream. Had the Holy Sword really shown him that? He thought of the angel who had unfurled eight wings—Anise.

She had shown him the past, when Raizakia attacked.

And it was also Anise’s miracle that allowed him to be here with Senya now.

He didn’t want to let it sink in. Not because he didn’t believe in God. Regardless of faith, all of this was undeniably a miracle.

And yet he didn’t want to let it sink in.

Because it wasn’t reality. Here, Senya could move freely, talk, laugh, and cry. But he felt no warmth from her and heard no heartbeat. The real Senya had a hole in her chest and was barely being kept alive by the World Tree’s power.

That reality soured Eugene’s mood.

“... Can’t you come with me?”

He still couldn’t quite let go.

“You came to find me in Aroth.”

“... I only sent a thought-form outside for a brief moment. Even that was only possible because I squeezed out what little mana I had left.”

“... How did you find me?”

“The necklace.”

Senya lowered her head with a quiet chuckle.

“The security spells I installed long ago are still in my mansion. They aren’t active, but a spell connected to me detected the necklace you were carrying.”

It was the necklace she had kept with her all those years. Naturally the magic had reacted when it returned to the mansion after hundreds of years.

“So I squeezed out my mana and went to see what was happening. With my body in this state, all I could create was an incomplete thought-form, but still... I found you.”

Eugene said nothing more and sat beside Senya. She didn’t speak to him either. Sitting quietly with her knees hugged to her chest, she stared blankly ahead... and occasionally—no, quite often—glanced at Eugene.

“... You should get going.”

After they had sat in silence for a while, Senya spoke first. She stopped stealing glances and looked straight at him.

“... There’s nothing to gain by staying here any longer.”

Eugene knew that too.

That was why he loathed dream demons, which enthralled people with dreams rather than reality. Dreams that weren’t real, yet came extremely close. Mix in just a little of an ideal that differed from reality, and the human mind could be seduced and broken with astonishing ease.

“... I suppose so.”

He knew that all too well.

But accepting it wasn’t easy. Only now could he understand a little of how Eward had felt. If you didn’t want to face reality and turned away from it... you became addicted to sweet dreams.

Even so, he had to face reality. Losing himself in dreams would change nothing in the real world.

Eugene rose.

“The next time we meet...”

Senya smiled up at him as he stood.

“... I’ll call you by your current name, not Hamel. Even if your name has changed, you’re still Hamel.”

“Just as you’re Senya.”

“Yes.”

Senya was trying not to cry. Her effort was painfully obvious.

“Senya.”

Eugene held out his hand to her.

“Don’t cry. Be good and wait for me.”

“... Fool. Moron. Idiot. Son of a bitch.”

And she was trying so hard.

Senya rubbed fiercely at her eyes and took Eugene’s hand.

“... You said all that on your own and gave me hope.”

“I know.”

“So... so I’ll wait. I’ll trust you, put my hopes in you, and wait.”

“Of course you should.”

“... Don’t come to get me.”

Senya stood, sniffling. After a moment’s hesitation, she suddenly tugged his hand toward her and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

“... I’ll come to you. You... you wait for me.”

He patted Senya’s back. At his touch, she bit her lip hard and buried her face in his shoulder. He felt no warmth from Senya in his arms. He heard no heartbeat.

Even so, Eugene could feel her. She hadn’t died. She was alive, here with him now.

“... All right.”

Eugene answered with a small smile. Senya looked up at that smile and smiled too.

‘This is a miracle.’

She had been reunited like this with him, who had died and left before her.

‘So much about you has changed, but...’

She didn’t want to let go. She didn’t want to send him away.

Just a little longer.

Thinking that, Senya let Eugene go.

‘... No, you haven’t changed. You’re... Hamel.’

Senya didn’t cry.

With the brightest smile she could manage, she sent Eugene off.

“... I’m glad we could meet like this.”

The miracle was ending.

His consciousness drifted farther and farther away. She could no longer see Eugene. Senya slowly sat down. The small tree behind her vanished. Bright light covered everything that had disappeared. Sitting in its midst, Senya gazed ahead.

“... Thank you.”

Anise stood a short distance away with her eight wings spread. Without a word, she watched Senya with a faint smile.

“May you find salvation too.”

Senya gazed at Anise, then closed her eyes.

Anise’s wings slowly folded, and darkness filled the space where the light had vanished.

* * *

He opened his eyes.

Eugene sat up from where he had been lying. Reality remained unchanged. Senya’s eyes were closed inside the crystal, a hole pierced the center of her chest, and the World Tree’s vines were connected to her.

He gazed at her for a while. His memories remained vivid: his conversation with Senya, and the formula for unsealing Akasha back in Akron.

[“Don’t resent Vermouth.”]

Those words remained too. Eugene smiled bitterly and rubbed his face.

“... I’ll try.”

No one had understood Vermouth.

Nor had Vermouth wanted anyone else to understand him.

He had shouldered so much, and had made no attempt to share it with anyone else.

No.

He had tried. He had confronted the Demon Kings alongside Senya, Anise, Moron, and Hamel. Of all the beings living in the world, only those four had stood with Vermouth.

But.

Vermouth hadn’t sought understanding even from his companions. Ever since Hamel died in the Demon King of Incarceration’s castle, Vermouth had taken charge of everything alone.

The promise.

The reincarnation too.

[“We never understood each other.”]

[“I don’t know why Vermouth did that. I’m not Vermouth, and I never understood that bastard, right to the very end.”]

[“You’re the right person for this.”]

[“Vermouth failed in the end, but you might be able to do it, Hamel.”]

“It’s heavy.”

Grumbling, Eugene kneaded his shoulders.

“This is why I hate being a Hero.”

He spotted Kristina lying collapsed on the ground.

Anise was nowhere to be seen. But the wand that had resonated with the light was touching Kristina’s fingers. Eugene watched her for a moment, then helped lift her up.

Kristina was still unconscious. How much time had passed since they were caught up in the ‘miracle’? It didn’t seem to have been very long. Fortunately, she had merely lost consciousness; there appeared to be nothing wrong with her body.

‘... What are you?’

It couldn’t be Anise herself.

The ‘angel’ had been half joined to Kristina.

“... Well, then.”

Eugene let out a deep sigh and turned his head.

He saw Senya’s face, her eyes peacefully closed.

“Wait for me.”

With that farewell, Eugene took Kristina with him and headed out of the World Tree.

[“... Hamel?”]

Tempest’s cry thundered through his head.

[“What in the world happened? What was that light...?”]

“You won’t even let me savor the moment.”