Chapter 11 - Damn Reincarnation

Bloodline Succession Ceremony

"Is it true?"

The moment they left the main house and reached the annex, Gargis, who had kept silent the whole way, turned toward Eugene. Dezra looked at him too, as though she had been waiting for this.

"Is what true?"

"You... really beat that Cyan Lionheart in a duel?"

"Yeah."

Gargis's eyes wavered at the blunt answer. He looked Eugene up and down in disbelief.

Gargis Lionheart was fourteen, a year older than Eugene. His family had branched off from the family head two generations before the current one. As a relatively recent offshoot, they held considerable standing among the many collateral branches.

Moreover, there was a monster-infested forest near their estate. From an early age, Gargis had roamed that forest for fun, smashing in the heads of small monsters like goblins.

In short, his was considered one of the foremost martial families among the collateral branches. The same was true of Dezra's family. Though they had been pushed out of the main family several generations ago, they were a prestigious martial family whose members had entered military service since her grandfather's time.

As a result, the two had crossed paths often since childhood. They shared a surname, but their blood relationship was distant, and they were close in age. Their families were on such friendly terms that they even joked about arranging a marriage between them someday.

Naturally, their families had also exchanged plenty of opinions about this Bloodline Succession Ceremony. The other collateral branches were not worth considering. Their real competition would be the main family's children, so rather than compete needlessly with each other, they should join forces to keep those children in check.

They had come to the main family bearing those instructions from their parents. Yet some country bumpkin from a collateral branch they could not even place on a map had apparently dueled Cyan Lionheart of the main family. He had even defeated Cyan in a single blow and was monopolizing the family head's attention.

'Who is Gerhard?'

Neither of them even knew who Eugene's father was. There were countless collateral branches bearing the Lionheart surname. Only the main family's bloodline and a tiny handful of collateral branches had made names for themselves.

'He wasn't at the birthday party three years ago, either.'

Gargis and Dezra exchanged a flurry of looks.

"Done asking questions?"

"Uh... huh?"

"Then I can go, right?"

Eugene did not wait for an answer. The two turned to watch him pass, looking distinctly uncomfortable. They wondered where he was going, but instead of entering the annex, he headed straight for the training ground.

"You're back?"

Nina was the first of the annex's servants to come running out. As though she had been waiting, she handed Eugene a thick towel.

"What's this for?"

"You're going to train, aren't you?"

"I like that."

Eugene grinned and nodded. Only a day had passed, but Nina had already figured out quite a lot about him. The thirteen-year-old young master seemed possessed by the ghost of someone who had died without getting enough training. Before meals, he trained to work up an appetite; afterward, he trained to help his digestion.

"When would you like your bath?"

"In a couple of hours."

"Cold water will do, won't it?"

"Of course."

Nina trotted after him. She had only just finished her apprenticeship, so ordinarily all the annex's chores would have fallen to her. But the other servants were too wary of Eugene to send her on even a minor errand. Thanks to that, she could devote all her attention to his activities.

'What are those two doing?'

He had already done his conditioning earlier. With the night air pleasantly cool, he had thought he might swing a wooden sword for a while... but Gargis and Dezra were watching him from a distance. Then, for reasons unknown, Gargis strode forward.

"..."

Without hesitation, Gargis stripped off his shirt and tossed it aside. His muscles were so developed that it was hard to believe he was fourteen. His body was also covered in small scars.

"..."

Eugene stared at him without a word. Gargis drew in a breath and thrust out his chest. His broad chest muscles spread, and his abs rippled beneath them. With a swaggering air, he patted his chest.

"Want to touch them?"

What the fuck was this bastard doing? That was all Eugene had been thinking as he stared, but Gargis seemed to have gotten some idiotic idea into his head.

"No."

Eugene answered without hesitation. Looking disappointed, Gargis relaxed his flexed chest. Then he walked past Eugene toward the storeroom in the corner of the training ground.

A little later, Gargis emerged with a wooden sword. Wearing a thoroughly dissatisfied expression, he addressed Eugene.

"The weapons in that storeroom are pathetic. I doubt there's even a quarter of what we have back home."

"Right."

"Me, I outgrew ordinary wooden swords like this when I was about six. Back home, I've got a huge greatsword I personally commissioned. It's for training, of course, so it isn't sharpened. But it has a solid iron core, so it's incredibly heavy."

"Impressive."

"You seem to have done quite a bit of training yourself..."

Gargis studied Eugene's forearms as he held his wooden sword. They were no match for his own thick forearms, of course, but he could tell they had been trained for a long time.

"What kind of training do you usually do?"

"Why do you ask?"

"You beat Cyan, didn't you? What kind of training could possibly let you beat that Cyan Lionheart, a child of the main family?"

"Hard training."

Dealing with him was a nuisance. Eugene gave a perfunctory answer and resumed swinging his wooden sword. It was a basic downward strike. As he silently repeated the movement, Gargis, who had been standing there blankly, raised his own sword overhead.

WHOOSH!

The sound was far too loud to have come from an ordinary wooden sword. It was produced by sheer muscle power, without any help from mana.

Gargis shot Eugene a proud glance, but Eugene did not so much as look at him.

"... How many hours a day do you train?"

"All the time I'm not eating, going to the bathroom, or sleeping."

"How much do you sleep?"

"At least six hours."

"I sleep five."

"Impressive."

"Actually, I wanted to sleep even less. But Father said sleep is the best medicine. He said you need sleep for your muscles to grow..."

"Right."

"The difference in the size of our muscles isn't because of how much we sleep. My family has a secret muscle-growth formula."

"Wonderful."

"It's a medicine developed with the help of a famous alchemist in Aroth... It accelerates muscle growth as you train without accumulating mana in your body. Interested?"

"No."

"There's a limit to how much your muscles can grow through training alone. Mercenaries often use muscle-growth drugs, but those cheap concoctions are nothing like my family's secret formula. Ours has no side effects."

"Yeah."

"Look at me. Sleeping an hour less than you probably helps, but my muscles are incomparably bigger than yours. And what about my height?"

He had reason to boast. Gargis was only a year older than Eugene, but he stood a full head taller. Even with the lingering boyishness of his face, he did not look fourteen.

"No side effects, my ass. Who are you trying to fool?"

The sharp voice belonged to Dezra, who had returned after changing. Her long hair was tied up, and she wore loose training clothes.

"That medicine makes you grow a beard."

"What's wrong with that? Men are supposed to grow beards. I like having one. It makes me feel grown-up."

"It makes women grow them too, you idiot!"

Dezra snapped at him with narrowed eyes. She was twelve, but perhaps because they had been close since childhood, she had no reservations about swearing at him.

"You. I heard you used a spear in your duel with Cyan. Why are you using a wooden sword now?"

"I use both spears and swords."

"Oh, do you now... A little of everything? And all self-taught?"

Had it been anyone else, Dezra would have given them a scornful look. But she did not dare do that to Eugene and merely stared at him. Hadn't he defeated Cyan in a single blow?

"... I specialize in the spear."

"It suits you."

He was not lying. Dezra was tall for her age, with particularly long arms and legs.

"Just swinging a wooden sword is boring, isn't it? Spar with me."

"Sure."

Eugene nodded. He preferred Dezra's straightforward challenge to Gargis's blathering about muscles. Besides, he was curious about the abilities of the children from the higher-ranking collateral branches.

"You use a spear too. Since I'm using one."

"Do I have to?"

"I want to see your spearmanship, not your swordsmanship."

Without waiting for an answer, Dezra hurried into the storeroom. She soon returned with two long spears tucked under her arm.

"Here."

The two children faced each other with spears in hand. Still shirtless, Gargis stood between them.

"What are you doing?"

"I'll referee."

"Who the hell needs a referee for sparring?"

"Even sparring should be fair."

With that, Gargis raised an arm high. Eugene had no desire to see the bastard's fully exposed armpit...

'Bastard. The way he acts reminds me of a certain moron.'

His build did too. If his surname had not been Lionheart, Eugene would have seriously suspected him of being Moron's descendant.

"When I say start, you start."

"Then hurry up and say it, idiot!"

Dezra shouted. Gargis flinched back a little and lowered his raised arm.

"Start!"

Eugene had ended his duel with Cyan in a single blow, but he had no intention of doing that this time. He wanted to see what Dezra could do. Rather than charge straight in, she shifted cautiously a few steps at a time, searching for an opening.

Eugene remained where he was, holding his spear in both hands. He merely adjusted its tip slightly to follow her movements.

'... Ugh...'

Dezra's eyes twitched. She had been quite confident in her spearmanship, but now she wondered whether the weapon in her hands was really a spear.

'There's no opening...'

She moved this way and that, but could find no gap to exploit. Spears weren't supposed to work like this... Dezra chewed her lower lip. She would accomplish nothing if she kept waiting for an opening. Certain of that, she boldly stepped forward.

The distance between them closed in an instant. A fraction behind her leading foot, her spear shot forward.

CLACK!

With a slight movement of his spearhead, Eugene knocked her weapon aside.

At that instant, Dezra spun with her spear. Its tip swept around and came at Eugene again, but the result was the same.

CLACK!

Her eyes wavered as her attack was deflected.

"Ngh...!"

Biting her lip, she worked her arms. Thrust, withdraw, thrust. Dull knocks punctuated the movements. Every thrust she committed to was swept aside by Eugene.

'She knows how to use rotation. And recoil and spring, too.'

Considering she was not using mana, she was quite good. Moreover, she was still young, with limitless potential for growth.

But that was all in the future. She was no match for Eugene now. The shaft slid through Dezra's hands. Gripping it near the bottom, she extended her reach in one swift movement.

WHOOSH!

She brought the spear down from overhead. Eugene grinned and bent to the side.

It was the first time he had dodged instead of simply parrying. That gave Dezra confidence. Now she could change the distance again and attack... That was her plan, but reality did not follow it.

The instant her spear neared the ground, Eugene stamped on it. Then he thrust his own spear at her in a single motion. As it rushed toward her nose, Dezra recoiled in alarm.

The spear stopped just in front of her nose. Her lips opened and closed as she stared past its tip at Eugene's face.

'... It's so heavy...!'

Dezra strained to pull her pinned spear free, but no matter how hard she tried, it would not move. He was only holding it down with one foot... Looking close to tears, she let go.

More than her inability to pull the spear free, it was the fact that Eugene's body did not budge despite all her effort that drove home her defeat.

"Eugene Lionheart wins."

Gargis, who had been standing there calling himself a referee, made the announcement with a solemn expression. Already feeling miserable, Dezra sharply furrowed her brows and glared at him.

"Shut up, you fucking pig!"

"I'm not a pig. A pig is someone like Hansen."

"I said shut up!"

"Dezra. You learned nothing from the family head's fine words earlier. You shouldn't be ashamed of defeat. You need to respect your opponent's honor."

"Ugh..."

Unable to argue, Dezra stepped back a few paces. After a few angry breaths, she bowed her head to Eugene.

"... I concede."

"All right."

Eugene answered with a pleased smile.

"You're good with a spear."

"Are you making fun of me?"

He had meant it sincerely, but Dezra snapped at him. Only then did Eugene remember once more that he was a child about her age.

"I'm better, though."

"You son of a bitch...!"

"That's why I won. If you don't like it, beat me."

"Shut up!"