Chapter 14 - Damn Reincarnation

Bloodline Succession Ceremony

A troll? Wasn't that a bit much for ten-year-old children?

That was what Eugene had thought when he first encountered it. But it wasn't a real troll, only an illusion created by magic. They wouldn't actually be attacked. They might feel pain, but that, too, was a magical deception.

As long as they could overcome their fear, defeating it wasn't impossible. Endure the pain, close in, and land an attack, and they could kill it.

'It does look real.'

Eugene looked the troll up and down in admiration. Even knowing it was an illusion, he couldn't help thinking it was real. Not only its movements, but even the foul body odor unique to trolls had been recreated.

'At least he has a conscience.'

Judging by its size, it wasn't a fully grown troll. It was still young, inexperienced in hunting and fighting, and unable to fend for itself. It didn't even carry the usual club.

Even so, it was far larger than thirteen-year-old Eugene. He quietly raised his shield and approached it.

'I've beaten orcs and goblins to death, but this is my first time fighting a medium-to-large monster in this body.'

He had no intention of fighting halfheartedly just because it was an illusion without substance. He had been itching for some action anyway. Quite some time had passed since he entered the labyrinth, and he thought he had made considerable progress... Yet nothing along the way had presented much of a threat.

So he would get a little exercise. Eugene slowly, openly closed the distance. The troll ahead merely blinked its large eyes rather than immediately lunging at him.

That was nothing to be startled by. He had already experienced it several times. The monsters in this labyrinth wouldn't attack first unless someone came within a certain distance. Presumably, that was a concession to the participants' ages.

'Any moment now.'

As Eugene slid his foot farther forward, the troll's movements changed. It suddenly twisted around, contorting its face at him. Saliva dripped between its enormous teeth. Its face was frightening enough to scare children—no, far more frightening than necessary.

But Eugene felt amusement rather than fear.

'It really does look like Moron.'

Actually, plenty of monsters resembled Moron. Trolls, ogres, cyclopes... In other words, ugly humanoid monsters that walked on two legs. Eugene thought they all looked like him.

Moron had never entirely denied it, either. He knew he was ugly.

Recalling his old companion's ugly face, Eugene kicked off the ground. As the distance vanished in an instant, the troll reacted. Clumsily. Sluggishly.

That made it easy.

SHRAK!

Eugene's sword sliced through the troll's calf. Darting between its legs, he swiftly spun around to get behind it. Then, without hesitation, he swung at the back of its knee.

Cutting into it felt too easy for a troll. It wasn't quite the same as the real thing after all. Besides, the sword Eugene held wasn't even a proper sharpened blade.

Nevertheless, it flashed again and again. Several successive slashes severed the tendons behind the troll's knee.

Dark green blood spurted out. Rather than let it splash over him, Eugene covered his face with his shield. His fully heightened senses missed none of the troll's reactions. It struggled to steady its staggering body and roared. An enormous hand descended toward his head.

The shield covering his face rose.

THUD-DRRRK!

For something so easy to cut, it hit surprisingly hard. His was a thirteen-year-old body. He had trained almost to excess, but blocking a troll's attack head-on was impossible.

So he deflected it. He used his entire shoulder and arm along with the angle of his tilted shield. The descending fist scraped across the shield's sloping surface and slid off. Had his timing been even slightly wrong, his whole arm would have been crushed, but Eugene never entertained the slightest thought of failure.

Indeed, the parry was perfect. The tendons behind one knee were already severed. With its fist driven into the ground as well, the troll's massive body lost its balance.

It swung its other arm wildly. Eugene deftly slashed with his one-handed sword.

SHRAK-SHRAK-SHRAK!

The skin of the troll's arm was shredded, spraying blood. Ducking underneath it, Eugene twirled the sword in his grip.

CRUNCH!

The sword plunged into the kneeling troll's heel. Even an illusion reacted to pain. Its mouth opened wide in a scream. Pain coursing through its entire body paralyzed it.

'There was no need to recreate its bad breath, too.'

With that complaint in mind, Eugene swung his shield.

THWACK!

It smashed into the troll's lower jaw as its mouth hung open. At the same time, he pulled his sword out of its heel and drove it between its ribs.

"Gurrrgh!"

He had pierced its lung. Perhaps because it was so large, the sword hadn't gone all the way through its back. He hadn't intended it to, either. Eugene pushed the sword along the line of its ribs, slicing the lung apart completely, then withdrew it as soon as it touched the breastbone. The troll could no longer even flail its arms. It choked and coughed, bloody foam bubbling from its mouth.

With an ordinary monster, there would have been no need to keep fighting. But trolls were famous for their powerful regeneration. Eugene wondered whether an illusory troll would share that trait, but he had no intention of leaving an unnecessary opening.

So he disabled it thoroughly. Though he had already driven it beyond the point of resistance, he took the extra trouble to tear its body apart. He stabbed its heart another five or six times and thrust his sword into its neck as well. Throughout all those strikes, his blade never once caught on a bone.

"Whew."

After taking such pains to kill the troll, Eugene walked past it with a satisfied expression.

Lovellian and Gilead had watched the entire spectacle from beginning to end. Lovellian, who had been staring with his mouth hanging open, wondered what he ought to say. An illusion or not... it was still a troll. A thirteen-year-old child who wasn't even from the main family... Far from crying out in surprise at the sight of it, he had utterly overwhelmed it and torn it apart.

"... Goodness... How brutal. There was no need to go that far..."

That was what Lovellian muttered for now, to test Gilead's reaction. Gilead, who had been staring at the image with equally blank eyes, soon shook his head and burst into a hearty laugh.

"It's an illusion so well made that one could mistake it for a real battle."

"That is true, but..."

"Remarkable. Truly remarkable... He can't have fought a troll before... Yet instead of freezing in fear, he disabled it boldly and cleanly..."

Gilead could find no fault with Eugene's swordsmanship. If he had to criticize anything, it looked more like slaughtering and butchering than swordsmanship. But what did that matter? Whatever the case, Eugene's sword had killed the troll splendidly.

"His progress through the labyrinth has been flawless, too."

Lovellian clicked his tongue in amazement as he watched Eugene.

"Except for that first time, he hasn't fallen into a single trap."

"Judging by his actions, he seems familiar with labyrinths."

"Where is that child from?"

"Gidol."

"There shouldn't be any labyrinths there. Goodness..."

Most labyrinths served as hideouts for mages. Occasionally, after the mage who owned one died or left, adventurers would discover it.

With luck, they might find treasure inside. Once everything worth taking had been collected, a labyrinth without treasure was transformed into a reasonably attractive tourist destination.

"... Well, he needn't have visited labyrinths often. He might have learned it from books or the like."

"An ordinary thirteen-year-old wouldn't immerse himself in books about labyrinths."

"That child hardly looks ordinary, does he? And he might be relying on his senses rather than knowledge..."

"... Hmm... I did design this labyrinth with children in mind... But I didn't make it so easy that someone could get through it that effortlessly... on senses alone..."

"However young he may be, couldn't he do that if his natural gifts were extraordinary enough?"

Lovellian knew perfectly well what such children were called.

'A genius.'

Gilead was no longer watching Cyan, Ciel, or Lloyd.

With delighted eyes, he watched Eugene make his way toward the center of the labyrinth.

* * *

When encountering a monster, fighting it, defeating it, and moving on wasn't always the right answer. The troll was one such monster in this labyrinth. Its enormous bulk made it awkward for it to rampage freely. Its reactions were slow... It was a "trap" placed there so the children would look for an opening and slip past rather than blindly fight.

Only Gargis and Eugene had gone out of their way to fight their trolls.

"Rooooar!"

Gargis let out an impassioned roar. Not a part of his body was unhurt, but brave Gargis had finally defeated the wicked troll. He pulled his greatsword from its chest and shouted again.

As he celebrated his victory with roaring, all his strength suddenly drained away, and he sank to the ground.

'... I took too many hits...'

Proud as he was of his muscles, the troll's attacks had been powerful. He had no idea how many bones were broken.

"It hurts...!"

Gargis spat the words through gritted teeth. It hurt more than being struck by an arrow, more than colliding with an iron ball hurtling toward him. He knew all this pain was a magical trick, but pain was pain... Holding back the tears that threatened to escape, he climbed down from the troll's body. Then he staggered onward, bracing himself against the wall.

'If I got beaten up this badly... the others must have, too...'

He knew Dezra was strong. Eugene was stronger than her. But he didn't think Eugene was stronger than a troll. How could that scrawny body stand up to an enormous troll...?

Contrary to his worries, Dezra was fine. Rather than fight the troll head-on, she had seized an opening and successfully slipped past. The same was true of Cyan and Ciel.

Cyan and Ciel had met up along the way. From then on, instead of taking the lead, Ciel subtly coaxed Cyan into clearing the path. That was extremely easy for her.

"Cyan, which way should we go?"

"You don't even know that?"

"I'm not sure."

"You idiot. We read the books together, so how can you not know? Watch what I do."

Cyan had never once felt inferior to the sister born a few seconds after him. On the contrary, he believed he was better than her and always wanted to show off his superiority in front of her.

That was true now as well. The instant his sister said, "I'm not sure," he saw an opportunity to impress her. Having made a complete fool of himself in front of her just a few days earlier, he thought now was the time to restore his tarnished honor.

"Don't fall behind. Stay close. The Red Tower Master made this labyrinth."

"So?"

"So we don't know what might happen. A monster could suddenly appear in front of us. Something strange might fall from the ceiling, too."

"Like a ghost?"

"Idiot, in a situation like this, you call them undead, not ghosts. Do you know what undead are?"

"Things like zombies and ghouls."

"Right. They were in the books we read. Labyrinths built by wicked black mages. Graves for foolish adventurers blinded by treasure! They say black mages in the old days made undead and chimeras from adventurers who died in their labyrinths."

"But the Red Tower Master isn't a black mage."

"True, but they might still appear as illusions."

"I don't like ghosts. They're scary."

"I'm not scared at all."

In truth, Cyan was afraid of ghosts, too.

When they were very young and shared a room, the twins would pester their nanny every night to tell them all kinds of stories. Whenever she occasionally told them a scary one, Cyan would lie awake all night, unable to stop worrying about what lay beneath the bed or inside the wardrobe.

But he couldn't let his sister see that embarrassing fear.

'Why is she suddenly going on about ghosts?'

Suppressing his trembling, Cyan kept glancing at the ceiling. The "something strange" he had imagined falling from it had been no more than a spider or a similar monster. He hadn't even considered ghosts.

Of course, Ciel had brought up ghosts on purpose. She knew very well that her brother had been afraid of them since childhood, and she wanted to tease him as he strutted along in the lead.

'I hope something comes out and scares him.'

Entertaining that mischievous thought, Ciel trailed after Cyan. At some point, forks stopped appearing. That didn't mean the path went straight ahead; it twisted this way and that. At every turn, Cyan was excessively wary of something jumping out from around the corner.

When her brother failed to scream, Ciel began to grow bored. Maybe she should poke him in the back. That would probably make him yelp. When should she do it? He was on guard right now, so she should wait until he relaxed a little.

"Cyan. Eugene is probably still in the labyrinth, right?"

"... That son of a bitch beat me. There's no way monsters or traps got him."

"But he might have fallen into a trap. One of the traps I saw was a really deep pit. If he fell into it, wouldn't he be unable to get out?"

"That's possible."

Cyan nodded with a solemn expression.

"Thanks to Mother, we learned about labyrinths before coming in. The others didn't. Especially Eugene. He's a country bumpkin, so he probably doesn't even know what a labyrinth is."

"It would've been fun to meet him along the way."

"Hey, what's fun about that? He's our competitor."

"But Father said we didn't have to fight and compete all the time."

Cyan worked his lips at that.

"... True, but he didn't say we couldn't fight, either. So if I meet him, I'm going to fight him."

"Can you win?"

"I only lost because I let my guard down. Of course I'll win if we fight again!"

"Really?"

"Of... course!"

Despite his words, Cyan wasn't certain he could win. He recalled the pain of Eugene's blow and the fierce look in his eyes. His body began trembling on its own. Since he had already been hearing about ghosts, the shaking bothered him all the more.

"Stop distracting me, Ciel."

Cyan snapped as he turned to look at her. Ciel stuck out her tongue and smiled.

"I need to concentraaaaaaagh!"

After giving his sister a glare, Cyan looked ahead again. ... A woman covered in blood stepped out from farther down the passage! His eyes rolled back, and he shrieked.

"Eeeek!"

Dezra had heard their conversation from beyond the corner. Cyan and Ciel! The Bloodline Succession Ceremony was a competition. She had intended to launch a surprise attack when they let their guard down... But Cyan's loud scream startled her into screaming as well.

"Aaaaaagh!"

"Aaaagh!"

Their screams mingled. Ciel clutched her stomach and laughed at the sight. After screaming for quite some time, Cyan came to his senses and drew his sword.

"Dezra! How dare you scare me?!"

"I-I was even more startled!"

Dezra was younger than Cyan. As a member of a collateral branch as well, she didn't dare speak casually to him. She leaped backward. Her surprise attack had failed.

"Why would you be startled?! Y-you, why do you look like that? You came out looking like that to scare me!"

"I'm hurt!"

"Don't lie!"

Dezra felt so wronged she could die. She had made it past all kinds of traps and monsters, and an enormous troll, to get here. However exceptional she was for her age, she couldn't avoid every little injury. Her face was smeared with blood because she had scraped her forehead.

"I won't forgive you...! How dare you scare me?! D-do you think I don't know what you're plotting? You meant to scare me and then ambush me!"

"No!"

That part was true, but she hadn't even gotten to try. Crying out in indignation, Dezra turned around and took off running.

"Cyan, she's running away!"

"How dare she!"

Cyan was genuinely furious. She had made him let out that disgraceful scream in front of his sister! Dezra, dressing up like a ghost and jumping out at him, was truly despicable. More despicable than Eugene, who had attacked without warning. He couldn't forgive her. Cyan ran after her.

Ciel followed him, laughing merrily. However long-limbed and fast Dezra might be, she couldn't outrun twins who had trained in mana. The gap steadily narrowed.

'Gargis, where did that son of a bitch go?'

"Gargis!"

Dezra screamed. But at that moment, Gargis was too busy roaring atop the troll to hear her.

"Don't run away!"

"I haven't done anything wrong!"

"Then why are you running?!"

"Because you're going to bully me, Master Cyan!"

"That's right!"

Cyan shouted. At that answer, Dezra squeezed out every last ounce of strength. Should she just turn and fight? If it were Cyan alone, maybe, but Ciel was there, too. Besides, with her body covered in injuries, she had no chance of winning.

'Eugene.'

Where was that bastard? As she ran, Dezra stepped on a trap's pressure plate.

RUMBLE!

The floor dropped away. Screaming, Dezra sprang off the ground.

THUMP!

Having barely cleared the pit, she landed on her backside. She clutched her aching bottom, looking ready to cry.

"I told you not to run!"

Cyan stopped at the sudden trap and shouted. Dezra gasped for breath, then started running forward again.

"Cyan!"

Cyan looked down into the trap for a moment. It was so deep he couldn't see the bottom. The opposite edge was quite far away, too. Should he find another way around? He hesitated, considering it.

Then he saw the expectation in his sister's eyes. Cyan bit his lip hard. He couldn't suffer any more humiliation.

"Hyaaa!"

Cyan shouted as he leaped across the trap. The mana coursing through his body let him cover that great distance.

"Ciel! Come on! I'll catch you!"

"Okay!"

With determination in his eyes, Cyan spread his arms wide. But Ciel jumped across without his help. They were twins who had received identical training since childhood. If Cyan could do it, naturally Ciel could, too.

"... That's my sister."

Cyan awkwardly lowered his outstretched arms and resumed chasing Dezra.

The two stopped before they had gone much farther.

So did Dezra.

"... It's the boss monster."

After their frantic run, the three had reached the center of the labyrinth. Beyond the path lay a vast chamber enclosed by walls on every side. At its center sat a monster far larger than the troll.

"Why are you three coming together?"

Sitting with his back against the wall, Eugene tilted his head as he asked.

"... What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like? I'm sitting."

"Why?"

"I was curious who would get here first."

Eugene grinned as he answered.

His curved eyes were brimming with impish mischief.