Chapter 139 - Damn Reincarnation

Hunting

Akasha strengthened the barriers Eugene could cast. As a familiar, Mer needed no sleep, and she was connected to him. If anyone tried to interfere with or breach the barrier, she could notice immediately and alert him.

That alone should have made keeping watch unnecessary, but Eugene was stubbornly meticulous about such matters, almost to excess.

He did not light a campfire. The forest's darkness was thick, but his eyes could easily see through darkness of this degree. He chose terrain that would hamper an attacker and did not even make himself a comfortable bed.

Wrapping himself in his large cloak, Eugene sat on the ground. He could sleep lightly, in brief intervals. Naturally, he had prepared various spells around him, but he had no intention of sleeping comfortably.

Genia, who had followed him all this way, privately gave him a passing grade for that. There were no examiners on this hunt. Even if there had been, she was not one of them.

Nevertheless, she revised her assessment of Eugene. His talent was acknowledged everywhere... She had intended to point out any youthful naivety the moment he showed it, but his refusal to lower his guard even in these circumstances more than deserved a passing grade.

"... You certainly have it easy."

Still, Genia could not resist a jab. She glared at Eugene as she shook the dirt from the roots filling both her hands. Unlike Genia, who had personally dug up uncontaminated roots, Eugene was slathering fruit jam onto bread from the ample supply inside his cloak.

"Call it being well prepared."

"... I could have prepared supplies too. I deliberately chose not to. Why? Because this hunt tests a hunter's survival skills..."

"Since when was this a test?"

"... From the moment we were told to wear bracelets that record our kills, this became more than a simple hunt. It became a test as well."

"Even if it is, I'm not going to worry about it. It's not like a high score earns you a reward... And someone else will finish last, won't they? Even if I somehow come in last, all it'll cost me is a little embarrassment."

"... Do you... have no ambition to prove your abilities to everyone?"

"I've been proving them all this time, haven't I?"

Eugene chuckled and bit into his bread. Genia looked back and forth between the generously jam-covered bread and the roots in her hands. ... Pressing her lips together, she shook off the remaining dirt.

"Would you like some?"

"No, thank you. I'll eat these roots I dug up myself."

"Those are kaliz roots. They're very bitter raw, you know."

"... You know them?"

"Of course. They're resistant to demonic contamination, and if you blanch and dry them, they're surprisingly sweet."

"... And you can chew them for a long time."

"Well, one slice of bread with jam is a lot sweeter and tastier than chewing ten of those."

At Eugene's muttered remark, Genia's lips protruded even farther.

"... Under these circumstances, these are perfectly edible."

Making a show of it, Genia opened her mouth and took a large bite of kaliz root. ... The moment her teeth severed it and it touched her tongue, a bitterness like an electric shock flooded her mouth. But she did not let it show.

"... Why not at least put some jam on it?"

"I'm fine."

She wanted to spit it out. She would have, if Eugene had not been watching. No, if they had at least lit a fire, she could have roasted it. Fighting to keep the corners of her mouth from twisting, Genia forced herself to chew and swallow the root.

"Are you going to follow me around for all four days?"

"... I told you I'm not following—"

Eugene stood without waiting for the rest of her answer. Genia cleared her throat and nodded.

"... I'll leave once I've finished eating."

Regaining control of her expression, she continued.

"... I've seen your abilities... if only a little of them. I can see why Father favors you. Now that I've seen them with my own eyes rather than merely hearing rumors, I have no choice but to acknowledge you."

"Were you following me because you couldn't accept that?"

"I simply wanted to see for myself."

With that sharp reply, Genia rose.

"... And I've seen enough. Even if I kill more demonic beasts than you on this hunt... you won't consider it a defeat, will you?"

"That's right."

"Even so, I'll kill more demonic beasts than you."

"Do your best."

She had probably meant to stir his competitive spirit, but Eugene brushed it off. Finding his unruffled expression infuriating, Genia glared at him for a while.

"... Please don't think too harshly of my daughter."

After Genia left, Genos approached. Eugene grinned at him as he stopped some distance away.

"Is refusing to come any closer your own particular form of stubbornness, Junior?"

"... I'm only here as your protector, after all."

"Your daughter seems very unhappy that you only hover around me."

"What choice do I have? If you hadn't mentioned an assassination, Senior, I wouldn't have stayed solely in your vicinity."

"And the head of the Council of Elders?"

"He's still at Red Rock."

Conscious of the communication device hanging at his ear, Genos continued.

"... I haven't received any particular orders. Nor have there been any incidents."

"What about Cyan and Ciel?"

"The young master appears to be aiming for the heart of the demonic lair. The young lady..."

Genos hesitated before continuing.

"... She's following Young Master Eward."

"... My elder brother?"

"Yes. That doesn't seem to have been her intention from the beginning, but..."

She must have run into him or spotted him in the forest. In any case, she was following Eward now.

'... Surely Ciel isn't using this hunt as a chance to kill him?'

The thought briefly crossed his mind, but on reconsideration it was absurd. He knew Ciel disliked Eward, but surely not enough to actually kill him.

'... Besides, Ciel... isn't the type to dirty her own hands. If she really wanted him dead, she'd hire an assassin, or use poison rather than a blade.'

Given his history, she was probably just keeping watch in case Eward pulled some more bullshit. Naturally, Eugene was wary of that as well.

A forest filled with demonic energy. At the heart of the demonic lair lay a black-magic circle, along with demonic stones containing demonic energy and high-grade cursed objects. In an environment like this, someone could become a black mage without even needing a contract with a demon.

["Your fists... Haha... They certainly hurt, but they taught me a lesson I felt to my bones."]

["Thanks to you, I've spent my time working hard. It's all thanks to you."]

He remembered Eward's strained smile.

"... If he has any humanity..."

Murmuring softly, Eugene sat on the ground.

"He won't do it again."

This forest was the ideal environment for embracing black magic. But the circumstances were terrible. Becoming a black mage might be easy, but getting out alive afterward would be impossible. Dozens of Black Lion Knights lay in wait at the forest's heart. The captains would not even need to intervene. The moment Eward became a black mage, the Black Lions' teeth and claws would tear him to shreds.

'Eward's magic is only at the Fourth Circle. That's not a bad level, but he couldn't make it out alive.'

Anyone with their head screwed on straight would never try something like that here.

'... His head wasn't screwed on straight, which is why he tried to learn black magic in the first place... But surely he isn't that much of a fucking idiot.'

Thinking this, Eugene glared into the darkness. Genos watched him for a while, then slowly backed away.

Genos drew farther off, leaving Eugene alone. Inside the cloak, Mer curled up without a word. She read his silence and the surface of his sinking emotions.

'... So heavy.'

His words and behavior had been light. His conversation with Genia had been anything but heavy.

But that was only what he showed on the surface. Mer was reminded that Eugene was not a twenty-year-old young man, but a member of the suicide squad that had wandered through hell three hundred years ago.

Hamel the Stupid.

From the moment he entered this forest, he had been suppressing a seething impulse. He was furious at the demonic energy clinging to his airways with every breath, at the demonic beasts that dared attack him without knowing their place. To him, everything in this place was an intolerable evil that deserved to be slaughtered immediately.

The reason he did not...

'... He's holding himself back.'

Inside the Cloak of Darkness, Mer curled up in the dark. The darkness was still, but not silent. The pounding of a heart... Sometimes thoughts became voices and echoed there. The formula sustaining her existence as a familiar, inscribed upon Eugene, resonated within her mind whenever his emotions intensified.

'... Because this is the world three hundred years later.'

Eugene considered all Demon Kings, demonic beasts, and demons evil. He had seen a world in which that judgment was justified, survived in it, and traveled to bring that world to an end.

Three hundred years was a long time. What Eugene considered obvious common sense was no longer obvious in this world. Peace treaties had been signed with Demon Kings. Black mages, who should have been unequivocally evil, were merely "pragmatists." Demonic beasts were treated as moving scarecrows, conveniently providing simulated combat training, and demons now had uses as varied as serving as slaves or being hired as guards at seedy establishments...

With the world changed like this, he could not cling forever to the common sense of three hundred years ago. Eugene had reached that conclusion and worked to adjust.

But when he breathed this familiar, fucking awful air, when he saw worthless fucking demonic beasts squirming toward him as though he were prey...

He could not help feeling rage rise within him. So he had advanced while killing every demonic beast in his path. Yet the seething inside him would not settle. Even Genia—had she not been Genos's daughter, he would not have stopped at an electric shock. He would have beaten her so she would stop pestering him.

'Will they come?'

The clasp securing his cloak at his shoulder bore the Lionheart crest.

SCRAPE.

Eugene scraped the crest with his fingernail, glaring into the darkness.

'Not today, surely.'

He had not come that deep into the forest. If they wanted to disguise an assassination as an accident, this was too early.

'Four days ahead. No rush. Assassination? It's just skillful hunting. I'm used to it.'

If the head of the Council of Elders was behind it, would he really do it? This was different from using a mercenary. Here at Black Lion Castle, he would be killing a child of the main family, adopted or not. For what possible purpose?

His intentions were irrelevant.

When Eugene had met him face-to-face, he had sensed no killing intent.

'An old man who's lived more than a hundred years. Even if he had killing intent, he wouldn't carelessly let it leak.'

For now, Eugene was working under the assumption that the head of the Council of Elders had ordered the assassination. Would he make a rash move?

'I'll try to lure him out, at least.'

The head of the Council of Elders remained at Red Rock. ... Dominic Lionheart. Would he use his grandson? Or one of the Black Lions? Eugene hoped so... But honestly, he doubted the man would attempt an assassination so clumsily.

'... I can't keep worrying about this forever.'

The Rakshasa Princess was coming.

'If the hunt ends without incident...'

He also had to find Raizakia, who was said to be trapped in a dimensional rift.

'Should I just confront him outright?'

Did you hire that beast bastard to fuck me over?

Eugene clicked his tongue and clenched his fist.

* * *

She had not encountered him face-to-face. From a distance, she had seen Eward walking through the forest.

Night came early in the forest. Even a slight dip of the sun made it as dark as night. Yet Eward carried no torch and conjured no magical light.

Alone, he crossed the darkness.

It bothered her. She was curious, too.

The Eward Ciel remembered was still the fifteen-year-old from seven years ago.

When she heard that he had tried to learn black magic in Aroth, she had not been particularly surprised. Perhaps she would have been if it were someone else, but with her brother Eward, she could imagine it.

At the main estate, Eward had possessed a gloominess that made such behavior unsurprising. Of course, he had not been that way from the start. As Ciel remembered it, he had been fairly ordinary until at least the age of ten.

He had acted his age. Playful like any child... He had sometimes joined Ciel and Cyan, without shunning them for being his half-siblings.

But that changed when he turned ten. Ciel had been seven then, but she could still understand why her eldest brother had begun to change.

Ten years old.

The age at which a Lionheart could participate in the family's traditional Bloodline Succession Ceremony.

From then on, Eward distanced himself from the twins. Instead of playing silly games with them, he began swinging a sword under Theonis's wide-eyed scrutiny. Amid scolding, he sat formally upright to train his mana, and when the sun set, he shut himself in the study to read swordsmanship theory and books on various tactics.

At some point, magic tomes joined the books Eward read. This was not what Theonis had wanted, but she did not oppose her son's reading them. By then, even she had been forced to admit it.

Eward Lionheart had no talent for martial arts.

That was why they turned to magic. Eward himself wanted it as well. Rather than devote himself to swordsmanship he could not master while enduring his mother's scolding, he enjoyed reading magic tomes and imagining his as-yet-unconfirmed "talent" for magic...

Ciel remembered Eward in those days. His eyes shining as he shut himself in the study and turned the pages of magic tomes. Raising what little mana he had, which he could barely control, to "imitate" magic.

Yes. In the end, it had only been imitation. Not real magic. He devoured magic tomes, but could not cast proper spells. And so he yearned for magic. Shutting himself in a room with the curtains drawn against the light, reading magic tomes, swinging a sword he could barely handle, imitating magic, his eyes lighting up at magic.

'... This...'

Something was wrong.

Ciel crouched and stared at the corpse. A demonic beast's corpse. ... Was it really a corpse? Frowning, she extended her dagger. Blood flowed when she stabbed it. No twitching. She could detect no breathing either.

There was no doubt. The demonic beast before her was dead. And yet... it looked too peaceful to be a dead body. As though it were deep asleep.

'... What on earth is this?'

Tilting her head, Ciel stood.

She belonged to the Third Division of the Black Lion Knights. Its captain, Carmen, was considered the finest fighter among the Black Lions, and the division she led had trained to live up to her formidable reputation.

Training in the forest. Ciel had killed countless monsters and had plenty of experience fighting demonic beasts. Those at the heart of the lair were dangerous, but the beasts here were no threat provided she remained sufficiently vigilant.

Not to someone of Ciel's ability.

'... How did he do it?'

She had not learned magic. But she knew enough about it. There was a mage in her own Third Division, for one.

Looking uneasy, Ciel rose.

Demonic beasts, dead as though asleep, formed a trail. A magical attack... Poison? No, there were no signs of death by poison. Besides, killing this many demonic beasts in succession, without even giving them a chance to resist, would be impossible for any ordinary mage.

"... Eward... did this?"

"Amazing, isn't it?"

A voice.

Startled, Ciel moved. She sprang away in a short leap, drawing her sword the moment she left the ground.

"... Eward?"

Impossible.

Thoughts whirled through her mind. Eward should have been up ahead. How could he appear behind her? Blink? Yes, he could probably use that.

But Blink would have given a warning. At lower circles, Blink distorted the mana in the air. There was no way Ciel would have failed to notice a Fourth Circle Blink.

'... Something's wrong.'

Ciel slid a foot back, gripping her sword's hilt.

'... He's right in front of me... but I can't sense any presence from him.'

"That sword."

With a faint smile, Eward pointed to the sword in Ciel's hand.

"It's Javel, the Flying Sword."

"..."

"Cyan received Gedon's Shield."

His voice was low.

"Eugene... got Wynnyd, the Storm Sword. And besides that... he received all sorts of things."

"... Eward."

"But I received nothing."

Eward laughed softly and shook his head.

"Ah... Don't misunderstand. I don't resent the family head... Father."

"... How did you get behind me?"

Ciel swallowed as she asked. Eward tilted his head slightly.

"I simply walked up behind you."

"... That's... impossible. You were up ahead. I was following you."

"Why were you following me?"

"..."

"I know. You wondered if I might do something bad... something that would disgrace the family's name. That's why you followed me."

You're a disgrace to the family.

Because of you, I...

"Ciel. I know you."

Why are you... my son?

Someone like you is my grandson?

"You... were hoping I'd do something 'wrong,' weren't you?"

I wanted to raise you well.

Like that adopted boy.

Or at least like the twins.

"You've been like that since you were little. Whenever I made a mistake... did something my mother wouldn't like... or something people would laugh at, you told your mother and spread rumors among the servants, all for your own amusement."

Why on earth did you do it? I gave you what you wanted. So why?

You've ruined me. For the rest of my life, I'll be too ashamed to hold my head up.

"Every time you ran your mouth like that... Haha... my mother called me into her room and took up a switch. Father wasn't home... and no one in the household stopped her from disciplining me."

They mocked me, asking what use my title of Count was when my only grandson was such a disgrace!

"Mother's switch didn't hurt all that much, of course... Hmm... Have you ever been beaten? I've seen Cyan get beaten a few times... but you probably haven't. Ever since you were little, you knew exactly how to avoid a beating. Haha... I figured it out myself not long ago. To avoid being beaten, all I have to do is change myself. If I change that way, I can make Mother smile."

"... Eward."

CREAK.

She tightened her fingers. Fine fissures began spreading across Javel's blade.

"... What you're saying sounds very strange."

"Strange?"

Smiling, Eward shook his head.

"There's nothing strange about me."

Ciel felt an inexplicable chill. It was not... magic. Then what was it? This feeling.

'He's going to do it.'

Incredible as it was...

'He's going to attack me.'

Her brother Eward was about to do something utterly idiotic.