Chapter 216 - Damn Reincarnation

Darkroom

Eugene calmed Carmen, whose eyes were sparkling with excitement. She thrust her face uncomfortably close and demanded to see his flames, so he showed them to her as she wished.

"Amazing!"

Carmen exclaimed in wonder as she stared at the purple flames. Noticing her inching closer and twitching her fingers, Eugene moved the flames for her.

These were not merely flames of a different color. The flames produced by the White Flame Formula were the essence of highly refined mana. The method of refining those flames was integral to the White Flame Formula, making substantial alterations difficult.

Yet even Eugene himself could feel that his flames were now different. His cores had been remade, and the White Flame Formula itself had changed. Even through the same process of refining mana, that mana now produced flames of an entirely different color and power.

"... Ahaha."

Carmen had reached the seventh star of the White Flame Formula, the highest level in the current Lionheart family. There was no way she could fail to recognize the change. Laughing brightly, she examined the flames resting on her hand from every angle. Because Eugene harbored not the slightest hostility, the flames did not hurt her.

Still, for some reason, she felt as though she were being devoured. In fact, Carmen was operating her own White Flame Formula, keeping a firm hold on her mana. Without doing so, she felt her mana would become fuel for these flames and burn away.

"This truly is remarkable. Several of our predecessors entered the Darkroom, but none of them experienced a change in the color of their White Flame Formula as you have."

Gilead spoke with admiration as well. A transformation this immense would certainly explain why Eugene had not emerged from the Darkroom for three days.

"What happened to you?"

Gion tilted his head, impressed but puzzled. He could understand the change in the flames, since he was looking right at them, but he sensed other changes in Eugene as well. Eugene's skin had always been clear and full of vitality, but now it seemed positively radiant.

The ones who felt that change most keenly were...

["Kristina, Kristina! Let me have your body for a moment."]

...the two saints.

'Y-yes... What?'

["Kristina! What on earth are you looking at? Lift your head right now and look straight at Hamel."]

She couldn't look. She really, really wanted to, but she simply could not raise her head to look at Eugene's face.

What on earth was this? It didn't seem as though much had changed—no, he had changed drastically. For some reason, his eyes seemed calm and deep, with a cool edge to them, while his skin was smooth and radiant, as though coated in honey. His normally tousled hair was still tousled, but its glossy sheen made it look sexy.

'S-s-sex... y.'

["You shameless woman!"]

Kristina's ears burned hot and red. Anise screamed inside her head as well.

["Kristinaaa! If you're too embarrassed to look properly at Hamel, hand your body over to me right now. I will look at Hamel's face up close for you, and stroke that glossy hair and radiant skin."]

'Wh-what on earth are you saying, Sister? Didn't you say you wouldn't cling to this world?'

["This is not attachment! As Hamel's companion and the priest who has tended his wounds, I have a duty to understand and prepare for this unknown development in his body."]

'That... I can do that for you.'

["Kristina! So in the end, you're blinded by your own filthy desires and refuse to let me go first?"]

'F-filthy desires! Absolutely not. I'm merely, merely worried that your lingering attachments will consume you, Sister....'

["If you truly worry about me, look straight at Hamel right now. Then go to him, take his face in both hands, and bring your face close enough for your lips to touch as you look into his eyes."]

'There's no need to go that far....'

["This is the greatest concession I can make! Come on, hurry!"]

Anise meant it.... She regretted not being able to feel that skin, run her fingers through that hair, and gaze into those eyes herself. However, she could link to Kristina's senses whenever she wished, so if Kristina did it for her, she could tolerate this much.

In the end, Kristina hesitantly approached Eugene as Anise instructed.

Carmen, Gion, and Gilead were watching him with curious expressions. Eugene briefly considered how to explain what he had experienced in the Darkroom. Naturally, he had no intention of telling them about Vermouth.

"Nothing unusual happened. A flame appeared, just as you told me it would, and entered my—what?"

Eugene broke off and turned toward Kristina, who had approached with hesitant steps. Even then, her head remained bowed low. Frustrated with her, Anise decided she would have to snap at her inside her head once more.

But before Anise could even call her name, Kristina abruptly lifted her head. Her face faintly flushed, she looked straight at Eugene.

"... Hah...."

She took a deep breath. Summoning her courage, she reached out and took Eugene's cheeks in her hands. Eugene had no idea what Kristina was doing—indeed, he wasn't even certain that Kristina was the one moving that body right now.

"... What are you doing?"

He couldn't very well call Anise's name. Eugene settled for that question, and Kristina mustered a little more courage and brought her face closer to his.

Against both palms... she could feel his soft skin. Seeing him this close made the changes in Eugene all the more apparent.

Kristina swallowed as she gazed into his eyes. Those luminous golden eyes looked as though they would sparkle even in darkness....

["His hair!"]

Anise shouted. There was no helping it. She was far too embarrassed to do this as well, but she couldn't disobey her Sister's 'order.' With that thought, Kristina cautiously moved her left hand to cradle Eugene's head. Then she stroked his hair, gently scratching his scalp with her fingers.

"..."

Her unexpected behavior left everyone speechless. Eugene was more bewildered than anyone. His skin crawled. Was this how prey felt when a predator caught sight of it? Eugene immediately backed away, escaping Kristina's hands.

"Wh-wh-what?"

"... Ahem...."

Kristina belatedly came to her senses. She cleared her throat several times and shook her head vigorously from side to side.

"What a relief."

Sweeping back the hair her head-shaking had disheveled, she offered a saintly smile.

"You went without food or water for three days in there. Something might have gone wrong with your body, mightn't it? But having just examined you, Sir Eugene, I can confirm that you are perfectly healthy."

She gave a reason anyone would have to accept. It was also true that she had checked by touching him herself. This was nothing to be ashamed of. Thinking that seemed to cool her burning face a little.

["We should have touched his lips, too...."]

Anise murmured. Hearing that murmur brought the close-up image of Eugene's lips floating back into Kristina's mind. More than half a year had already passed, but the sensation of the kiss etched deep into her memory returned, making her lips tingle....

"L-let us pray."

Kristina could no longer raise her head. Instead, she bowed it and knelt right where she stood.

"Let us pray to the Light for Sir Eugene's safe return... and for guiding him through th-the arduous trial of the Darkroom...."

No one knelt to join her abrupt prayer, but Kristina prayed alone until the heat faded from her face.

* * *

"Sir Eugene!"

As soon as they left the Lionheart Treasury and climbed from the basement to the ground floor, a cry almost like a scream rang out. In the main hall, where a huge portrait of Vermouth hung, Mer was running down the red-carpeted stairs.

"Sir Eugene, Sir Eugene, Sir Eugene!"

Mer looked ready to cry. There was no need to ask or wonder why. Since he hadn't emerged from the Darkroom for three whole days, she must have worried about every possible disaster. Striding forward, Eugene silently opened his arms wide.

Mer, who had been practically flailing her way down the stairs, leaped into the air. At that moment, she used no magic. Her clear eyes, brimming with tears, made a silent demand of Eugene. And Eugene knew exactly what she wanted.

A gentle breeze wrapped around Mer. Cradled by the wind, her tiny body flew toward Eugene. Before he could gather her into his arms, Mer nestled into his embrace herself.

"Don't I smell?"

"You smell like you, Sir Eugene."

"Not that. I mean a stink or something."

"You don't."

Mer mumbled with her face buried in Eugene's chest. He had washed his clothes with cleaning magic and washed his body, but he had worried that the stench of the impurity-laden sweat might linger. Her answer made him sigh in relief.

"... But, Sir Eugene, you've changed a little, haven't you? Your chest is softer than usual."

"What?"

"Your chest was always hard because of your muscles, but now it's soft instead of hard. Not terribly soft, but this is...."

Mer lifted her head slightly from his chest. She poked his chest muscles several times with her fingers, then buried her face in them again.

"... Not so much soft as springy... It's addictive...."

Eugene had noticed that himself to some extent. His bones and joints had grown far stronger, and the muscles surrounding them were supple and resilient. His previous bones and muscles had been excellent enough, but his current body was so perfect that it far surpassed anything he had imagined.

"..."

Mer wasn't the only one who had rushed out. This was the Lionheart main estate. Naturally, the members of the main family lived here.

Cyan stopped halfway down the stairs and began inching backward. Behind him hung a portrait of Vermouth, their great founder. Retreating in front of that portrait was surely shameful, but Cyan simply could not move forward.

A chilling aura emanated from the back of Ciel, who had gone down ahead of him. Cyan did not want to imagine his younger sister's expression.

'I want to touch him, too.'

The thought drifting through Ciel's mind was simple. The many thoughts branching off from it, however, were anything but.

Mer Merdein. That wretched familiar. Hadn't they gotten along wonderfully over the past half year? That was because they had a common enemy in Auxiliary Bishop Kristina.

Kristina could go all the way to the Darkroom's entrance simply because she was skilled in healing magic, while Ciel and Mer had been left out.

Mer needed someone to complain to about Eugene, who had left her behind to engross himself in training, and about that saint with a split personality who had dared snap at her to lower her eyes, despite her having been created by Senya the Wise herself.

Ciel needed information on exactly what Eugene had done in Yuras, and on the candidate for sainthood who fawned over him and smiled at him to a strange degree. Of course, while gathering that information, she could agree with Mer's complaints as much as necessary.

Ultimately, though, their relationship was shallow. The slightest addition of emotion could easily shatter it.

Just look at her. Mer Merdein. A two-hundred-year-old familiar who only looked like a child. Didn't that mean she was an old woman wearing a child's skin?

'That's why she's so devious.'

Mer had buried her face in Eugene's chest and was shaking her head from side to side. To Ciel, it looked like blatant flaunting, a deliberate attempt to provoke her. In her heart, Ciel wanted to try that herself.

'A springy chest? Addictive? What does that even mean?'

As a daughter of the prestigious Lionheart family, Ciel had been taught proper manners since childhood. It might have been different in her teens, when she pretended to be an ignorant, immature child. But could she, a twenty-year-old who had already undergone her coming-of-age ceremony, behave in such an improper, embarrassing way? Especially with her beloved father and uncle, and the esteemed Lady Carmen, right there?

"... Oh dear, Sir Eugene."

Kristina Rogeris looked at Ciel, who stood frozen halfway down the stairs. Once she looked, she did not turn away. Staring straight at Ciel's face, Kristina leaned slightly toward Eugene and wrapped her hands around his arm.

"You mustn't overexert yourself. You haven't eaten or drunk anything for three days, have you?"

Ordinary words of concern. A supporting hand in case he stumbled. Ordinary things, but they did not look that way to Ciel. It was as though time had slowed.... In Ciel's eyes, Kristina looked like a wicked woman, the very opposite of a saint. That wicked woman was kneading Eugene's arm to satisfy her desires....

'... Wait. He hasn't eaten or drunk anything for three days?'

Ciel's eyes flashed as her clenched fists trembled.

"Let's return to your room first. Then you can lie down comfortably. I'll prepare some soft food that won't strain your stomach...."

"Ahaha!"

Ciel burst into laughter. The slowed time began moving again. She descended the stairs with graceful steps and approached Eugene.

"... Lady Ciel, why are you laughing?"

Kristina looked at her with a slight frown.

"You don't know anything, do you? He's been starving for three days, and you're going to feed him soft food?"

"His stomach has been empty for a long time. Heavy food would be bad for him."

"For an ordinary person, perhaps. But not him."

Ciel gave a little chuckle and looked at Eugene.

'... Ugh....'

Anisilla, the lady of the Lionheart household, understood that her only daughter was a Black Lion knight, but she did not want the fresh youth of her newly adult daughter to be worn away by grueling training. She regularly sent Ciel expensive, hard-to-find cosmetics and the like, protecting her daughter's youthful beauty.

And so Ciel was radiant and beautiful. She knew that very well herself.

'... Was his skin always this clear?'

Ciel's own skin was so clear and firm that it was hard to believe she trained every day, but seeing Eugene's skin up close... left her feeling diminished. Still, she could not hesitate now. With her usual coy smile, she tugged on Eugene's wrist.

"M-meat... You like meat, don't you? A thick cut that's satisfying to slice. As it happens, your 'Big Sis' hasn't eaten yet, either."

"Why are you suddenly calling yourself my Big Sis again?"

"Why not? Doesn't it bring back nice memories of when we were children? Lady Carmen, Father, Uncle, you haven't eaten yet either, have you?"

"We ate a little while—"

Gion stopped mid-answer. He saw Cyan frantically mouthing something from the upper stairs, and he saw an ominous gleam in Ciel's eyes.

"... We ate a little while ago, but I'm getting hungry again unusually quickly today. This is all your fault."

Gion had taught Ciel and Sion when they were young. He therefore knew exactly what he needed to do now. Quickly changing his expression, he lightly patted Eugene's shoulder.

"Then shall we all go and eat? Brother... I mean, you wouldn't mind either, would you, Family Head?"

"Why would I have any reason to refuse?"

In the end, they decided to eat together in the dining room. At the Lionheart family table. Knowing she was an outsider, Kristina stayed where she was instead of following.

["You were complacent, Kristina."]

Anise clicked her tongue and murmured. An ordinary person? Both Anise and Kristina knew perfectly well that Eugene was anything but ordinary. They had simply let their small desire to return to his room alone with him and feed him take precedence.

'I won.'

Ciel led the way with a triumphant smile. Rather than follow her, Eugene turned to look at Kristina.

"Can't she just eat with us, too?"

"Whaaat?"

Ciel turned to Eugene, her eyes wide.

"Of course there's no reason she can't. I'm more concerned that the candidate for sainthood might feel uncomfortable."

Gilead was not so unreasonable that he would deny someone a place at the table merely because they were not family. As he had said, he was only concerned that Kristina might find dining with the main family burdensome or uncomfortable.

"Then let's ask her. What do you want to do?"

"Y-yes... What?"

She had never imagined receiving such an invitation. During the past half year at Lionheart, Kristina had always eaten in the dining room reserved for guests. But if she established a precedent today, she would be able to take her place naturally at the Lionheart table from now on.

["Kristina!"]

Anise cried.

"Thank you for inviting me."

Kristina bowed her head with a radiant smile.

Ciel's shoulders trembled.