Chapter 109 - Damn Reincarnation

Flames

"... Ugh..."

Kristina regained consciousness with a groan. She started to sit up, then froze in alarm. She was lying not on the ground, but in midair.

"Sleep well?"

Eugene glanced back as he asked. Instead of answering immediately, Kristina first looked around. Inside the World Tree. While casting restoration magic... she had lost consciousness. She had no idea what had happened afterward, but one thing was clear.

This was neither inside the World Tree nor in the elves' domain.

"... Did I fail?"

That was the first thing Kristina asked about. She had failed. Probably—no, she was certain of it. Even before losing consciousness, she had sensed that she would fail. Her divine power could neither heal Senya's wound nor make her open her eyes.

Yet she had to ask... because something was strange about her condition. Not only had she cast divine magic on that enormous scale, she had wrung her divine power out to its very limits and poured it all into the spell.

'... My body feels light.'

Her mind felt clear and refreshed, without a trace of fatigue. Her divine power was full, as though she had never cast any magic.

"You did."

Eugene answered as he lowered Kristina to the ground.

"There was a whole lot of flashing light, but in the end, you couldn't revive Lady Senya."

"... I thought so."

"Can't remember much, huh?"

"No."

Kristina stood on her own two feet and narrowed her eyes.

"I understand that I failed, but why am I here?"

"Because I brought you here."

"I know that much. What I am asking is why you left the World Tree. Are you giving up after a single failure?"

Rather than answer immediately, Eugene stared at Kristina. He had no talent for reading minds, but he could tell that she was not lying.

She had no reason to lie. Kristina seemed to have no idea about Anise having become an angel.

'Anise recognized me.'

That must have been why she had worked the miracle for him. Eugene decided not to dwell on his questions about Anise for now. It was a difficult matter to investigate rashly, and uncovering the truth would require looking into Kristina's superiors, not Kristina herself.

Cardinal Rogeris, who had adopted her. And the Pope, who had made her a candidate for sainthood.

"... I'm not giving up."

Eugene shrugged as he answered.

"The revival failed, but a miracle did happen."

"... What?"

Kristina asked, not immediately understanding.

"The moment you lost consciousness, the light burst out. And I... received a revelation."

There was no need to tell her about Anise and Senya. It would be complicated to explain, too. But passing it off as a 'revelation' would easily convince Kristina.

"... Ah!"

And indeed, Kristina was convinced. She exclaimed and clasped her hands before her chest.

Guilt over lying.

'No, it isn't a lie. Anise appeared as an angel and worked a miracle for me. When you think about it, you could call this a revelation, too.'

Eugene decided to be shameless.

"... I heard an angel's voice."

Even so, he couldn't bring himself to say it had been God. At the word 'angel,' Kristina's eyes sparkled.

"An angel...! Sir Eugene, did you see the angel yourself?"

"... Well, the light was too bright to see clearly. But I saw its wings spread wide."

"Wings! Sir Eugene, an angel of Light's wings are also a symbol of its rank. Did you happen to see how many wings it had?"

"... I think there were eight..."

"... Incredible!"

Kristina's voice rose. She immediately dropped to her knees and offered a prayer.

"... Is eight a problem?"

"Sir Eugene...! According to scripture, of the angels the God of Light commanded when He descended to this world, His most favored angel had six wings."

He should have shaved a few off the number. Eugene felt a belated pang of regret.

"But if the angel you saw truly had eight wings, it must have been no ordinary angel, but a messenger sent directly by the God of Light!"

"... Uh... I told you it was too bright to see clearly, didn't I? Maybe there were six, not eight."

As he made that excuse, Eugene pictured Anise. The light had been bright, but he hadn't seen incorrectly. The wings Anise had spread numbered exactly eight.

'God's messenger?'

That Anise?

"No. You could not possibly have been mistaken in that miraculous moment."

"I'm telling you I think I saw it wrong. Why are you insisting that's impossible when you were unconscious...?"

"There can be no doubt. The God of Light sent His own apostle to deliver a revelation to you, Sir Eugene, the Hero and master of the Holy Sword."

"Sure. Think whatever you want."

"Then, Sir Eugene, what revelation did you receive?"

"... I was told that to make Lady Senya open her eyes, I have to kill the Black Dragon, Raizakia."

Kristina could no longer exclaim in wonder or let excitement show on her face.

The Black Dragon, Raizakia. Kristina knew all too well the terrible infamy attached to that name. A fallen dragon. A devourer of his own kind. Raizakia was one of Helmuth's three dukes, a monster capable of aspiring to the throne of a Demon King.

"... That will be difficult."

"There's something I want to discuss with you about that."

Eugene continued speaking as he walked.

"According to the angel's revelation, the Raizakia currently in Helmuth isn't the 'real' one."

"... What do you mean?"

"Raizakia attacked the elves' domain two hundred years ago. Apparently, he meant to kill Lady Senya and every last elf, but he failed. Lady Senya banished Raizakia into a dimensional rift, and I was told his miasma left her and the elves with no choice but to sleep inside the World Tree."

Kristina let out a brief exclamation of wonder. Senya had faced a monster called the strongest of dragons alone and banished him into a dimensional rift.

"... How strange."

An angel could not have lied. Of course, Eugene did not believe in God, and had committed blasphemy several times before under the pretext of revelations. But surely he would not lie about something like this. So Kristina did not doubt his words.

"If he was banished beyond this world into a dimensional rift, then he no longer exists in this world... Yet I have heard nothing about anything happening to Raizakia."

"Neither have I."

The queen of the dream demons, Noir Giabella.

Incarceration's Sword, Gavid Lindman.

The Black Dragon, Raizakia.

Those three were called Helmuth's Three Dukes, and their roster had remained unchanged for centuries.

"If Raizakia, one of the Three Dukes, had disappeared—and centuries ago, at that—there's no way the other demons in Helmuth wouldn't have tried to take his place. But his domain, Dragon Demon Castle, is still standing, and his name is still on the list of dukes."

"... Duchess Noir Giabella is a prominent moderate even among the high-ranking demons."

Kristina searched her memory as she followed Eugene.

"Duke Gavid Lindman professes to be the Demon King of Incarceration's trusted retainer and has no dealings with the outside world. I do not know what views he holds, but Duke Raizakia's views are the exact opposite of Duchess Noir Giabella's."

Noir Giabella was not hostile toward humans. Who knew what black hell that damned bitch harbored in her heart, but in any case, the whore had actively engaged with humans ever since Helmuth opened its borders.

Raizakia had not. He was violent and insane. Despite being a dragon, one of those self-proclaimed arbiters of balance, the bastard had murdered the Lord and devoured his heart. And he still possessed the arrogance characteristic of dragons.

He considered anyone weaker than himself an inferior insect unworthy of living.

"Even within Helmuth, Duke Raizakia's Dragon Demon Castle strictly forbids entry to foreigners. He loathes humans, and apart from his old infamy, no rumors about him circulate in the world."

At least, no word of any trouble involving Raizakia had ever circulated publicly. A hatchling or an avatar. Those were Senya's guesses.

'That doesn't mean I can just storm Dragon Demon Castle.'

A hatchling or an avatar would be far weaker than Raizakia himself. Even so, he couldn't underestimate a dragon. For now, he had confirmed that Senya was alive, and they had talked at length.

She would trust him, look forward to it, and wait.

That was what Senya had said.

'Don't rush.'

Eugene held his emotions in check. What he needed to do right now was return to the elves' village. Just getting those elves out of Samar would clearly be a troublesome task. It wasn't one or two elves; he would have to cross the forest with more than a hundred of them.

After bringing the elves to the Lionheart main family estate, he would have to return to Aroth and obtain Akasha.

He would probably have to tussle with Aroth's mages over that, too, but with Senya's approval and his rightful claim behind him, they would ultimately have no choice but to shut their mouths.

"... Hmm."

Organizing the tasks ahead in his mind, Eugene reached inside his cloak.

"Sir Eugene, is that...?"

Kristina approached with a startled expression. Her eyes widened at the long branch in Eugene's hand and the leaves hanging from it.

"I broke one off and brought it along."

"Are you allowed to do that...?"

"Why wouldn't I be? You saw how huge the World Tree is. Breaking off one little branch won't even show."

He felt little guilt over breaking a branch off the World Tree without permission. In truth, it had been unavoidable. He had kept the leaf that guided them to the domain, but fresh green leaves and a branch seemed likely to be more useful than a single dry, shriveled leaf.

He needed to move the World Tree saplings into the forest at the Lionheart main estate. That was why he had brought the branch, though he also had some hope that he might find other uses for it.

A leaf of the World Tree allowed its user to warp to the elves' domain from anywhere in the world. He had tried that while Kristina was unconscious, but the warp had failed, perhaps because the elves' domain was sealed.

'Come to think of it... I didn't get to tell Senya about Siknard.'

The thought occurred to him belatedly.

'Well, he didn't ask me to pass along his regards, either.'

It wasn't just Siknard.

He had wanted to talk about more, so much more. Everything he had experienced in his reincarnated life. That alone would give him enough to talk about for days.

'I can tell her next time.'

This hadn't been the last time.

Eugene felt Senya in the little branch clutched in his hand.

* * *

He remembered the way back to the elves' village. Its protective barrier would keep him from entering directly, but once he got close, Siknard or another elf would come out to meet him.

Without getting lost along the way, they reached the vicinity of the village in two days.

No elves came to greet them.

"... Something..."

Was bothering him.

Eugene narrowed his eyes and sharpened his senses. The barrier protecting the village was so sophisticated that even knowing it existed did not give him any sense of something being out of place.

But now, something felt wrong. The mana forming the barrier was slightly distorted. It was distinctly different from a few days ago. Eugene stopped walking and closed his eyes.

He wasn't imagining it. The barrier's mana was distorted. That distortion was also proof that the barrier had been damaged. Why? Eugene opened his eyes. This wasn't the time to dwell on questions.

"I'll go ahead. Follow me."

"... Yes."

Kristina couldn't sense anything amiss the way Eugene could. But the chill in his expression and voice gave her a vague sense of foreboding.

Eugene immediately kicked off the ground and raced forward. Kristina spread her Wings of Light and followed him. She could fly quickly, but Eugene was faster still.

'It's only been two days.'

Someone had attacked the elves' village within those two days. Hunters after elves? They couldn't be ordinary hunters. The barrier protecting the village was created by the World Tree saplings. Most mages couldn't even sense it.

Dark elves. It was well known that they were recruiting elves to bolster their position. But wasn't the timing too perfect? They had attacked precisely after Eugene visited the village and left?

'The distortion in the mana. They didn't break through the barrier with magic. It looks like... they just tore it apart with brute force.'

Was it really dark elves?

Amid the many questions drifting through his mind, he recalled the elves who had seen him off when he left the village a few days ago.

Their gazes, filled with fervent prayers.

FWHOOSH.

Pure white flames engulfed Eugene's body.