Chapter 148 - Damn Reincarnation

Remnants

If it hurt this much, wouldn't he be better off dead?

Lying in bed, Eugene seriously considered the question. The smell of medicine cleared his sinuses. His entire body felt stifled beneath its thick wrappings of bandages, and moving so much as a finger brought pain that forced him to clench his teeth.

The backlash from Ignition. He had experienced that pain several times, including in his previous life, but he could say with certainty that this was the worst. No, even counting his previous life, he had never once hurt more than he did now.

“Uuugh... Ugh...”

Eugene groaned, then gritted his teeth. Just a tiny twitch of his finger sent pain surging through him, as though every bone in his body were being slowly crushed apart.

The reason it hurt so much?

That damned lightning flame. It had made Ignition more powerful, but the backlash had grown just as vicious. In other words, his current pain was something like muscle soreness taken to its absolute limit. Even his thoroughly conditioned body couldn't withstand Ignition combined with the lightning flame.

“If you mix Ignition with lightning flame, does that make it Thunder Ignition?”

Mer had brought a rocking chair beside his bed and was sitting in it. She lowered the book she had been reading and fixed Eugene with sparkling eyes.

“Or Lightning Ignition?”

“Keep that up, and I really will kill you.”

“I think Ignition is a cool name for a technique. But the Ignition you'll be using from now on is different from the original. It's advanced to a whole new level. Shouldn't it have a different name?”

“Mermermerdein, I really will kill you.”

“My name isn't Mermermermerdein.”

“For fuck's sake, it's my technique. Why do you keep sticking your nose in and making fun of me?”

“I think it's advice you need to hear.”

Mer pouted and climbed down from her chair.

“... If you give it a really embarrassing name, maybe you'll be too embarrassed to use that idiotic technique again.”

“Even telling me not to use it. You're just like Senya.”

Eugene grumbled, his brows knitting.

“I had to use it. It hurts like hell now, but I don't regret it. And I won't in the future, either. When I need it, I'll use it. That's how I keep from regretting things later.”

“... I don't really know what pain feels like. But if you know something will hurt, you can't help hesitating.”

“I don't hesitate. If I'm going to do something, I do it, no questions asked. And it won't hurt this much next time. As my body adapts to Lightning Flash, the backlash will go back to normal—”

“So it's Lightning Flash Ignition?”

“I'm in too much pain to move. Could you hit yourself over the head for me?”

“Unlike you, I don't have a perverted hobby of abusing my body and putting myself through pain.”

Mer puffed out her cheeks and perched on the bed. For a while, she simply gazed at Eugene with pity.

His injuries wouldn't leave lasting damage. Black Lion Castle had plenty of expensive, effective potions, even if they weren't elixirs. Thanks to Eugene's exceptional healing ability and the proper first aid he had received, even his crushed left arm would be back to normal in about a week. This pain that made death seem preferable would disappear completely after a few days of groaning in bed.

Mer knew that, too, but she still couldn't take his injuries in stride. What if Eugene never left his bed again? What if he pushed himself too far in another fight like this one and suffered an irreversible injury—or even died?

“Stop thinking such morbid thoughts.”

“... Huh... How did you know? Are you reading my mind?”

“It's written all over your face.”

“... I'm worried because there's reason to worry. I hate seeing you hurt, and I'd hate it even more if you died.”

“You're making me sound like a lunatic. You think I enjoy it? Stop chattering and come over here. Peel one of those apples and feed it to me.”

“... I don't know how to peel an apple.”

“So you're never going to do it for the rest of your life? Even if you don't know how or aren't any good at something, you have to try and work at it to get better.”

“You sound like such an old fogey.”

Mer pouted and looked at the fruit basket. Genos and Gion had brought it while Eugene was unconscious.

An old fogey? Eugene couldn't bring himself to argue with that. Still, he felt a peculiar sense of incongruity.

Counting his previous life, he was well over sixty. His body had changed, but his mind was the same, so what was strange about being an old fogey? Besides, the teenage girl calling him that only looked like one. Wasn't she actually a two-hundred-year-old familiar?

“My mind belongs to a fresh young maiden, I do declare.”

“What's with that way of talking...?”

Eugene muttered in disgust, and Mer deliberately stuck her tongue out at him. Then she picked up a large apple and began laboriously peeling it with a paring knife as big as her palm.

KNOCK, KNOCK.

As Mer struggled to peel a single apple, someone knocked at the door.

“Come in.”

It was Genos. Entering at Eugene's reply, he looked from Mer's grave expression as she held the paring knife to the hacked-off pieces of apple peel below her, thick chunks of flesh still attached.

“... Allow me.”

“Knowing how to peel an apple neatly is a completely useless life skill. Because I don't need to eat apples. And when you're making apple pie or apple juice, it doesn't matter if you leave the peel on.”

It was hard to tell whether Mer was making excuses or spouting nonsense. Genos took the knife and began peeling the apple with practiced hands as he spoke.

“... The head of the Council... No, Sir Doynes has regained consciousness.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“... The Black Lions and the Council of Elders may think differently, but Sir Doynes doesn't consider it fortunate. The first thing he said when he opened his eyes was, ‘Why did you save me?’”

Genos gave a bitter smile and set down the knife. Mer promptly snatched up a rabbit-shaped apple slice and stuffed it into her mouth.

“He can't recover anyway, can he?”

“... No. Not when Sir Doynes himself doesn't wish to. However... he said he wanted to hear the full story from you directly, Senior, and apologize.”

Apologize? Eugene looked uncomfortable.

It was the Council head's grandson, Dominic, who had brought Barang into this, not the Council head himself. But that didn't make the old man blameless. He had told his grandson far too much.

Of course, this would have happened even if the Council head had kept his mouth shut. Dominic, Hector, and Eward's conspiracy was separate from Barang's attempt to assassinate Eugene.

“... When?”

“If you're willing, Senior, I'll bring him here right away.”

“I don't mind, but wouldn't it be better for me to go to him than make an old man with a hole in his chest who's about to die come here?”

“Your injuries are serious as well, Senior. And the Council head insisted that he must come to you.”

“Why insist?”

Genos hesitated in silence. He checked that the door was closed and made sure no one was listening outside.

“... I don't know his exact reasons, but I have a suspicion.”

“A suspicion?”

“... You were the first to tell us the full story of this incident, Senior.”

Before the backlash had rendered him unconscious.

Eugene had desperately held on long enough to tell Genos everything. The spirit of darkness harboring the remnants of Demon Kings. Eward's rampage. Dominic and Hector's betrayal.

“... I know you're strong, Senior. But... no matter how strong you are, for someone still so young to... defeat Dominic and Hector, as well as Eward, who harbored Demon King remnants... It's impossible.”

“But I did defeat them.”

“Yes, you did. Against enemies wielding even the Crushing Hammer and the Demonic Spear, the only injury you sustained was a broken left arm. You're bedridden now because of Ignition's backlash, not the injuries you suffered in battle.”

Genos paused. He swallowed hard and stared at Eugene.

“... Who... are you, Senior?”

“... Hmm...”

“You found Lord Hamel's tomb when no one else could. You said you acquired his secret manual there... but that alone doesn't explain your strength. I... I know this sounds absurd, but I've fought you myself. Your mastery of those Hamel Style techniques you used, Asura's Frenzied Slaughter and Lightning Counter...”

“Enough.”

Eugene sighed heavily and raised a hand. More than anything, hearing Genos say things like Asura's Frenzied Slaughter and Lightning Counter was painful. It was also irritating to see Mer, who had eaten over half the apple by herself, covering her mouth to stifle her laughter.

“... I see what you're thinking, Junior. Yes, I can see why the Council head would think so, too.”

He could make excuses and deny it. But Eugene didn't particularly want to. He tried to straighten himself up as best he could, but his aching body wouldn't cooperate. In the end, he remained lying in bed, looking at Genos with his head raised as far as it would go.

It was hardly a dignified sight.

“I am Hamel.”

If he was going to reveal it, shouldn't he set the mood a little, with circumstances and a posture befitting a hero from three hundred years ago? So Eugene thought, but putting it off just so he could dress properly and strike the most impressive pose possible before telling him would be pathetic, too.

“... I knew it...!”

Genos, who had been peeling another apple at Mer's silent urging, sprang to his feet. He immediately set down the knife and apple, then knelt before Eugene.

He had no doubts. If anything, Eugene's words brought a refreshing sense of release, as though a weight had lifted from his chest. A twenty-year-old youth, that absurdly powerful? The idea that his strength came from innate talent alone was harder to believe than this declaration.

And if Eugene was the reincarnation of a hero from three hundred years ago, or possessed by one, Genos could serve and respect him as his Senior without the slightest embarrassment or resentment. Of course, he hadn't particularly resented calling Eugene his Senior before, either, but he had privately found it embarrassing.

'If Senior is Lord Hamel, then it's only natural to serve and respect him.'

Even for Genos, feeling reverence toward a young man younger than his daughter had been difficult.

'... No... If Senior is Lord Hamel, isn't it wrong to call him Senior at all?'

As the thought flashed through his mind, Genos trembled with overwhelming emotion.

“Master...!”

Tears welled in his eyes. As an inheritor of the Hamel Style, being able to address that great hero himself as “Master” was an honor that could only bring tears of joy.

“How am I your master?”

“Everyone in my family considers Lord Hamel our master...!”

“No... Well... Strictly speaking, I never accepted any of you as disciples, so why are you deciding on your own that I'm your master...?”

“You taught me the Hamel Style anew, Master...! You accepted me as your Junior and told me to call you Senior, but now you refuse to let me call you Master?”

“All right, just don't get angry...”

Eugene let out a deep sigh.

“... Go tell the Council head to come here. Or should I go to him?”

“No. Please remain here.”

Genos wiped away his tears and rose. Once he had left the room, Mer quietly got up and lifted the Cloak of Darkness.

“I'll be inside.”

“If you were going to go inside, you should've gone earlier. Why wait until you've gobbled up all the apples?”

“I ate them because you weren't eating them. Did you know? Once you peel an apple, its flesh turns brown after a while and looks ugly. That's called browning.”

“Uh... Sure.”

“Apparently, you have to put apples in salt water or sugar water to stop that browning. Isn't that interesting? Lady Anisilla told me. I think sugar water would be better than salt water, though. Salt water is salty.”

“Aren't you going inside?”

Mer smiled brightly and wriggled into the cloak.

Until the next knock came, Eugene sat in bed and sorted through his thoughts.

Two days had passed since Eward's rampage.

The others who had been taken as sacrifices were bedridden like Eugene, but according to Gion, they would be back to normal by tomorrow at the latest.

... Eward, Dominic, and Hector's bodies hadn't been recovered. There wasn't so much as a fragment left. The only body recovered from that forest was Decon Lionheart's. Carmen's younger brother, Klein Lionheart, had taken the coffin containing his body to Decon's family.

Word had been sent to Gilead at the imperial palace. He would want to return immediately, but he was still there.

The Black Lion dispatched to Count Bosar's household had been found dead in a storeroom at the count's mansion.

That wasn't the only corpse. Inside the mansion, the bodies of Theonis, Count Bosar, and roughly a hundred other members of the household were rotting.

A search of the mansion had uncovered a diary in Eward's room. Its contents hadn't been examined yet. Carmen, who had been dispatched to protect the main family, had sternly insisted that Gilead, as Eward's father and the family head, must be the first to read it.

'... What a fucking mess.'

His head throbbed.

'The Council head can't recover. He's probably already given the elders his last wishes... He'll die after I offer an apology.'

Eward and Dominic were both dead. Whether Hector was alive remained unconfirmed. The cleanup was ongoing. The Black Lions had already taken Dominic and Hector's families into custody. Eugene didn't know what more questioning them might turn up, but this incident had dragged Lionheart's standing through the gutter. The Black Lions' reputation had been plunged into an even deeper cesspit. They had been utterly helpless throughout the incident.

'... The next head of the Council of Elders will probably be... Carmen Lionheart. I think it'll be her.'

After Doynes Lionheart's death, Carmen Lionheart would be the elder with the highest generational seniority.

'... But with her personality, I can't see her ever agreeing to head the Council. She's a fighter who still wants to stay on active duty... So will her younger brother Klein Lionheart be the next Council head?'

He lacked gravitas, but he hadn't seemed like a bad person.

'What happens to the main family? The family head will probably step down to take responsibility for raising his son into such a fucking idiot... Does that mean Cyan becomes the family head right away? Or Gion? They wouldn't appoint the second brother when he's already left to establish a collateral branch.'

Gion wouldn't try to become the family head, either. Eugene sighed repeatedly, his face creasing.

The problem was that this incident had drawn far too much attention to him. Genos had already questioned his identity, and the Council head was probably thinking the same thing.

'... I'll tell the family head it was thanks to the Holy Sword's power.'

While he was thinking that, a knock sounded.

“Yes?”

The door opened as soon as he answered. Eugene had expected him to arrive in a wheelchair, or at least supported by someone else. But Doynes walked in on his own two feet. Death hovered in eyes that seemed to be forcing themselves to stay open, and his cheeks were sunken in a bloodlessly white face.

The reported hole in his chest was hidden beneath his uniform.

“... Should you be walking like that?”

His steps were unsteady, but Doynes walked unaided. He closed the door and gazed at Eugene for a moment. Then he bowed his head deeply.

“... It is an honor to meet you, Great Hero, Lord Hamel.”

He wasn't even going to ask whether he was Hamel.

Looking uncomfortable, Eugene nodded.

“... Hmm... I, too... am... uh... pleased to meet... my friend's descendant.”