Chapter 177 - Damn Reincarnation

Ariartel

As though time itself had stopped, Ariartel froze with her mouth open. Only belatedly did she close it and resume thinking.

Hamel.

The name came out of nowhere, but Ariartel immediately knew whom it belonged to.

"... Hamel the Stupid?"

"Leave out the ‘Stupid.’"

"Eugene Lionheart, descendant of Vermouth Lionheart. You are that Hamel the Stupid?"

"I said, leave out the ‘Stupid.’"

"... Human. Are you trying to make a fool of me?"

Ariartel narrowed her eyes slightly as she stared at Eugene. She wasn't releasing that vicious Dragon Fear, but she didn't need to for him to recognize her displeasure.

As he considered how to convince her, a simple solution came to mind. He immediately reached into his cloak. Ariartel flinched slightly at the movement, then watched him with a calm gaze.

Eugene couldn't withdraw his hand right away. Mer, curled up and trembling inside, had grabbed it. Feeling her trembling through his hand, he frowned—not at Mer, but at Ariartel, whom he glared at for unleashing Dragon Fear without warning.

"You've frightened the kid."

"... What?"

Ariartel's reply was incredulous, but Eugene simply stroked Mer's head inside the cloak. Her trembling wouldn't stop. Dragon Fear scattered mana. As a familiar, Mer was more sensitive to it than a person, and she was particularly terrified of having her existence erased.

In the end, Eugene pulled her out of the cloak.

"... I'm perfectly fine."

Mer said this despite shaking all over.

"Sure, sure," Eugene assured her, holding her with one arm. Sniffling, she buried her face in his chest and handed him the Wynnyd she had brought out.

"... I'm not doing this because I'm scared. You were looking for Wynnyd, so I brought it out for you."

"Sure, sure."

"Being alone inside the cloak is boring, so I'd like to stay here with you for now."

"Sure, sure."

... What were they even doing? Ariartel narrowed her eyes and cast a sidelong look at Mer. She looked no different from a human, but she was a familiar constructed with advanced magic. Even Ariartel couldn't create a familiar of such perfection.

'... And he's cradling that familiar like his own child...'

"Could you try looking a little friendlier?"

"... I assume you're talking to me?"

Ariartel's cheek twitched. Without answering, Eugene drew Wynnyd.

Wind wrapped around the silver-blue blade. Soon, Tempest, the Wind Spirit King, answered the summons and descended. Perhaps he already understood the situation; he appeared before Eugene as a small whirlwind rather than his usual storm.

"... The Wind Spirit King..."

Ariartel recognized Tempest. Looking between him and Eugene, she tilted her head.

"... Surely you haven't summoned a Spirit King to fight me?"

"Tempest. Tell her I really am Hamel."

Eugene had no intention of fighting Ariartel, a dragon, head-on. He had only summoned Tempest because he needed someone to vouch for him.

["... Young dragon. He is indeed Hamel Dynas, who made his name three hundred years ago. In this age, he is known as Hamel the Stupid."]

"..."

["I understand your confusion, but I, Tempest, will vouch that Eugene Lionheart is Hamel reincarnated. As you know, a Spirit King does not tell such lies."]

"... Reincarnated?"

Ariartel murmured with a blank expression. Although a Spirit King had personally vouched for him, she found it impossible to believe and stared hard at Eugene's face.

A hero from three hundred years ago had been reincarnated in the present day? And as a descendant of the Hero who had been his companion? There was nothing unusual about souls passing through the cycle of rebirth. Every being eventually died and was reborn as something else.

But in Ariartel's view, being reincarnated with all one's memories intact could never happen by chance. Had someone deliberately arranged his reincarnation, then? Was that possible through magic?

"... I will believe you."

Ariartel nodded slowly. Alongside her understandable doubts about Eugene's reincarnation, she wondered why he had come here.

"... If you are Hamel, you naturally know that Dragonic's founder wasn't half-human and half-dragon. You would have lived in the same era as him."

"Why is a dragon watching the Dragonic family?"

Eugene turned to look behind him. He didn't know exactly where this place was, but it was clear that Ariartel had been watching the Dragonic family for quite some time.

"... Let's call it a form of amusement."

Ariartel waved her hand as she answered, and all the screens filling the wall went dark at once.

"The name their founder, Oryx Dragonic, gave as his ‘father.’ Palaskes is my father. ... Oryx took my father's dragon heart, then lied to the world that he was half-human and half-dragon, with Palaskes as his father."

"... If you considered that an insult to your father, couldn't you have wiped out the Dragonic family?"

"No. I don't consider it an insult. My father died while I was still an egg, and dragons don't feel much affection for their parents."

Young dragon.

That was what Tempest had called Ariartel. Eugene didn't know how long dragons lived, or what age qualified as ‘young.’

"... How old are you?"

So he asked her outright.

"... Over two hundred—"

"Younger than me, then."

"?"

Tempest turned to Eugene with a baffled expression, and Mer lifted her head from his chest to look at him too. Ariartel was equally bewildered. She stared at him with round eyes, then tilted her head.

"I don't know about the first time you hit me with Dragon Fear, but you did it earlier because you thought I was going to kill Riu, right? Doesn't seem like you're just watching for amusement."

"Wouldn't it be strange to let him die when I'm watching it happen?"

An evasive answer. Eugene snorted as he rubbed Mer's back.

"Honestly, I'm not all that curious about why. It doesn't really matter to me if I don't know."

He couldn't even begin to imagine what familial affection meant to dragons. Still, judging by the way she watched them, Ariartel clearly seemed to have an attachment of some kind to the Dragonic family.

But that wasn't Eugene's business. Learning Empty Sword had given him a sense of respect for Alchester, but Ariartel's connection to the Dragonic family was many times deeper and stronger than his own connection to Alchester.

What concerned him more was something she had said earlier.

"... You're the only dragon currently awake?"

Three hundred years ago, the dragons had fought the Demon King of Incarceration and the Demon King of Destruction. After killing five or six dragons, the Demon King of Incarceration withdrew from the front, while the Demon King of Destruction slaughtered half of all dragons.

During that battle, Raizakia betrayed his own kind. He ambushed and killed the Lord, who was leading the front, from behind, took the Lord's dragon heart, and deserted the battlefield.

"... Hamel the Stupid. You know what battle the dragons fought three hundred years ago. Half of them barely survived the battle against the Demon King of Destruction, but they were far from unharmed."

He had seen dragons on the verge of death in Helmuth.

"The dragons whose deaths were imminent considered how best to use what little life they had left."

"..."

"Dead dragons leave no trace in this world. Bones, scales, blood, hearts—everything returns to mana. Some dragons wanted to leave their hearts behind in the world, and my father, Palaskes, was one of them."

They built dungeons to test people's abilities and sealed their dragon hearts at the end. They hoped that exceptional adventurers who overcame the dungeons would take the dragon hearts and make their mark on that terrible world. ... Although he wasn't particularly skilled, Oryx Dragonic had also conquered such a dungeon and obtained a dragon heart.

In his previous life, Hamel and his companions had obtained a dragon heart in the same way.

"... The dragons who couldn't escape death vanished from the world in that fashion, while those who were better off devoted themselves to healing their wounds. But before they could recover and return to the front, the war ended."

The promise between Vermouth the Great and the Demon King of Incarceration.

"... I don't know the terms of that promise. But after it was made, all the dragons entered their sleep period together. I was a newly born hatchling at the time, and I was tasked with remaining alone in the world to tend the ‘Cradle.’"

A promise.

Eugene glanced at Tempest, but Tempest showed no reaction. He would have known that the dragons had entered their sleep period, but he wasn't in a position to speak freely about it.

"... Can't they heal their wounds without sleeping?"

"I don't know why all the other dragons entered their sleep period together either. ... That should sufficiently answer your question. So, Hamel the Stupid. What business brings you to a dragon?"

As she asked, Ariartel ostentatiously let her power loose. The fact that he was a hero from three hundred years ago reincarnated was interesting, but it was no reason for her to bow to him.

"I want to borrow your power."

Eugene answered without hesitation. Ariartel snorted and shook her head as though she had expected as much.

"My apologies, Hamel the Stupid. It seems you want my power to finish the subjugation of the Demon Kings you failed to accomplish three hundred years ago, but I'm not in a position to become deeply involved in the affairs of the world—"

"What are you talking about? How strong could a dragon barely over two hundred be that we'd join forces to kill the Demon Kings?"

"... Then why on earth have you come to me?"

"I need Word magic."

Ariartel tilted her head, frowning.

"... What exactly do you want?"

"Magic to search a dimensional rift."

Without asking permission, Eugene pulled over a nearby chair and sat in front of her.

"I don't know the exact coordinates. I don't even know which dimensional rift it's in. What I do know is that it isn't far from the dimension this world belongs to. I'm a mage myself, so from my own perspective, I'd guess it's somewhere in a rift overlapping our dimension."

"..."

"Forced banishment to another dimension was carried out incompletely, so it got caught in a rift in this dimension. But its connection to the world wasn't severed. It seems its contracts with its servants are still maintained to some extent—"

"Wait... Wait."

Unable to hide her confusion, Ariartel raised both hands.

"Forced banishment to another dimension? You're saying some being was banished to another dimension through magic?"

"Yeah."

"... Nonsense. No such magic exists in this world. Forcibly banishing a being is impossible even with Word magic. Who could possibly—"

"Senya Merdein."

Mer's ears perked up at the name Eugene uttered. She wanted to puff out her chest and swagger proudly, but she was afraid of the Dragon Fear Ariartel was releasing.

"... Senya the Wise..."

"I don't care whether that magic exists in the world or not. Senya did it, and it really happened."

"... This being drifting through a dimensional rift... Who is it?"

"The Black Dragon Raizakia."

At the name, Ariartel sprang to her feet. Her red hair rippled like flames, and tremendous killing intent filled her eyes.

The Dragon Fear she unleashed was just as vicious. Eugene held the shivering Mer tighter and glared at Ariartel.

"Fuck, I told you to stop doing that!"

"Raizakia...! That Black Dragon! You mean Raizakia of Dragon Demon Castle?! Hamel the Stupid! Are you trying to rescue Raizakia from wandering the dimensional rift?!"

Why did she keep calling him Hamel the Stupid when he had a perfectly good name...? Did she think calling him that somehow displayed a dragon's dignity...?

"Why would I rescue him? I'm trying to find that bastard and kill him, but finding him is beyond my abilities. So I need your help—"

"You intend to kill Raizakia yourself?! Hamel the Stupid, I know you were a hero of the past, but you cannot kill Raizakia with your power!"

"I'll handle that myself... Just calm down, stop the Dragon Fear, and sit down. And stop calling me stupid."

"I... I will help you. Raizakia is a traitor to the dragons. His wicked deeds must be ended by a dragon's own hands... No..."

Ariartel's eyes wavered violently. Clutching her head in both hands, she groaned, then gave a long sigh and sat down.

"... I... cannot. I have another duty..."

"I never even asked you to fight with me. Why do you keep getting worked up all on your own? All I need is for you to tell me how to find Raizakia somewhere in a dimensional rift."

"... No such magic exists."

Tapping her temple, Ariartel sank into thought.

"... A dimensional rift... If the master-servant contracts with his servants remain... His connection to the world hasn't been severed. But those contracts are governed by the master. Those bound to him can neither defy nor interfere with them... In that case..."

Ariartel muttered to herself for a long time. Leaving her to it, Eugene looked around the room.

He still didn't know where he was. When he approached the window and looked outside, he saw a quiet rural village.

'... It looks like Kiel... But where?'

For one thing, this house wasn't a noble's or a wealthy person's mansion. It was a small, ordinary house that could be found in any village. There didn't seem to be anyone living here other than Ariartel.

"... Maximize tracking magic... So it can detect beyond space and dimensions... No... Once it leaves the spatial scale and reaches the dimensional, areas and coordinates become meaningless... If it can just detect him... Yes."

After muttering for a long while, Ariartel lifted her head.

"... I will cooperate."

"How?"

"I will imbue an artifact with Word magic to track Raizakia. But it won't be possible to find him immediately with that alone. You need something connected to him."

"Connected?"

"An object Raizakia handled for a long time would be best. The older an object becomes, the more spiritual energy it acquires, and that energy bears the imprint of its owner's nature."

"... An object... What about blood?"

He asked with his eyes shining.

"Blood?" Ariartel echoed. Eugene explained the possibility that the Raizakia currently in Dragon Demon Castle wasn't Raizakia himself, but a hatchling.

"... Unlike contracts, blood ties work actively in both directions. If it really is Raizakia's hatchling, we may be able to find him through it."

Having heard that much, Eugene took Akasha from inside his cloak. Ariartel's eyes wavered at the red gem shining at its tip. A staff made with a dragon heart and a branch of the World Tree. Entranced by the powerful staff, she swallowed.

"... What is this?"

"Word magic should work well with Akasha, shouldn't it? It'll amplify the effect too."

"... It should, but inscribing Dragon Speech itself isn't something I can do right now."

"I'll leave it with you, then."

Eugene answered casually and put Akasha into her hands.

"Can I come pick it up in a week?"

"... That should... be enough time."

His attitude bewildered her. She was a dragon, yet this human showed none of the respect due to one. By now, he was treating her as casually as a blacksmith or tailor he was leaving something with...

"By the way, why did you make that... Heaven Genocide for Lady Carmen?"

"What is Heaven Genocide?"

Was she pretending not to know?

"... You know. It's usually a pocket watch, but when she shouts ‘Form Change,’ it transforms into something weird..."

"... Do you mean the Alchemical Glove?" Ariartel murmured.

"... It was a chance encounter."

Several decades ago.

As she did every day, Ariartel was enjoying her leisure with views of the Dragonic mansion displayed on her wall. A young lady of Lionheart had visited a few days earlier. Though her personality was somewhat bizarre, Ariartel privately liked her, both for her beauty and her outstanding martial skill.

Alchester had been five at the time. He was very young, but unlike his untalented father, he was extraordinarily bright. When that child became family head, the Dragonic family would enjoy greater power than ever before. And what if he became engaged to the young lady of Lionheart?

"... A dragon's daily life is dull. That is why dragons soothe their boredom with various amusements. It's also why I watch the Dragonic family. Watching humans live their short lives with such passion—an entire family, no less—is an amusement even a dragon can become quite absorbed in. You might compare it to humans watching works such as operas or plays."

Contrary to Ariartel's private hopes, Carmen felt no romantic affection for Alchester. Neither did Alchester for her. To begin with, Carmen had been seventeen at the time, and Alchester had been five.

Although their relationship made no progress, Ariartel didn't lose interest in Carmen Lionheart. She... Carmen was stranger than any other human Ariartel had ever seen.

"... Carmen Lionheart was an interesting human. When she was alone in her room, she would draw strange magic circles on the floor and chant incantations to herself. They were scribbles with no magical power whatsoever, and the incantations she chanted..."

"I don't particularly want to know—"

"Nor do I particularly want to tell you."

She had let her guard down.

There was no other way to think of it. Carmen had been so entertaining to watch that she'd watched too closely. No, more importantly, Ariartel had never imagined Carmen would do such a thing.

"... One day, Carmen Lionheart returned from training and, before washing herself, became enthralled by her reflection in the mirror."

"What?"

"Humans do that sometimes, don't they? Wet hair hanging down, moist eyes, ragged breathing. ... Carmen Lionheart apparently liked how she looked, and suddenly punched the mirror."

"... Wait... What?"

"... Through that mirror, Carmen Lionheart crossed over here."

Ariartel grimaced. That punch had struck her squarely in the eye socket, but she didn't particularly want to say that aloud.

"... The Alchemical Glove was in my mother's lair. It is a combat artifact that responds to its owner's blood and changes into whatever form they desire. I gave it to her on the condition that she keep our encounter secret, and as a mark of respect for a human with exceptional potential."

Privately, she had also hoped the gift would encourage Carmen to form a good relationship with Alchester. A dragon stood behind Dragonic. Although she had bound Carmen with a promise through Dragon Speech so that she couldn't tell anyone, there was no problem if Carmen herself knew. Ariartel considered a family watched over by a dragon such an extraordinary prospect that Carmen might consider an engagement to a boy twelve years her junior.

... Contrary to those hopes, Carmen did not become engaged to Alchester. Alchester himself felt no romantic affection for Carmen either. In the end, all that came of it was that the precious Alchemical Glove was reborn as Heaven Genocide at Carmen's hands.

"... Why did she punch the mirror?"

Plenty of people had probably stepped out of the bath, seen their reflection, and thought they looked sexy.

But why on earth had she punched the mirror?

More than anything else, that was what Eugene couldn't understand.