Chapter 224 - Damn Reincarnation

Scalia

The nameless merchant in Rosruc had advised them not to get involved if they saw a black-dog flag.

Perhaps the merchant had meant it as a warning, but a mercenary company known only around Ruhar’s frontier, rather than throughout the continent, was not something Eugene needed to be wary of.

What if he spotted their flag in the distance during their journey? He had no intention of going out of his way to avoid it. That would mean ignoring the advice, but why avoid someone he had nothing to fear from?

“Hmm.”

The Black Dogs.

They did encounter that flag. However, the company’s black-dog banner was not fluttering in the wind. It was embedded in the snow. And it wasn’t just the flag. Carts and sleds that must have belonged to them had been smashed to pieces, and frozen corpses lay buried in the snow here and there.

They examined the bodies: snowfield wolves, reindeer, horses, and domesticated monsters that would have pulled the carts and sleds, as well as the mercenaries themselves.

“This wasn’t a monster attack.”

Cyan spoke as he examined the bodies beside Eugene. More than a week had passed since they left Rosruc, and he stood barefoot on the snow as though it were nothing.

That wasn’t all. A snowstorm was raging even now, but the snow never came close to his body. He was precisely controlling mana too faint to be visible, pushing the snow away so that it wouldn’t cling to him.

“They killed them like it was a game.”

Ciel was more accustomed to examining traces like these than Cyan was. The Black Lion Knights undertook all manner of work for the Lionhearts. Not all of it was done in the shadows, but knowing how to examine and handle corpses was a fundamental skill for a Black Lion.

“One person... I think. There might have been more, but only one person killed the mercenaries here.”

After a moment’s consideration, Ciel reached her conclusion. Her expression was not entirely composed, but she carefully moved the bodies about and examined their wounds.

Eugene agreed with her. As she had said, a single unidentified person had killed the mercenaries here.

But that person hadn’t been alone. Snow had erased most of the evidence, yet the fallen bodies and smashed carts and carriages still allowed him to roughly reconstruct their initial formation and how the fight had unfolded.

“There was at least one person supervising.”

Eugene flipped over the corpse in front of him with his foot. They had killed them like it was a game. That was exactly right. The sword hadn’t been swung to kill.

It had simply indulged a desire to swing a blade and cut people. Not killing for the desire to kill, but cutting for the desire to cut. Such sword strokes were generally messy and shallow. Hurt them, let them run, leave them to it... then cut them down from behind. On this wide-open snowfield, someone determined to flee could run in any direction.

Yet the mercenaries who died here had tried to escape in only a very limited number of directions. That meant someone besides the sword-wielder had been blocking their escape. Whoever that was had focused solely on cutting off their retreat and had never swung a sword.

“Who could it be?” Cyan muttered.

At first, he had thought it was infighting within the company. They were supposedly a nasty bunch, so it wouldn’t have been strange for an internal dispute to immediately turn into bloodshed.

But judging from the evidence, what had happened here was neither a battle born of infighting nor mercenaries executing their own. It had been a game of slaughter and execution, carried out for amusement.

“I get that they must have made enemies everywhere, but this wasn’t done out of a grudge.”

The Black Dogs had been on their way to Lehein to participate in the Knight March. Along the way, they had run into some unidentified thrill killer and been butchered.

What was more, the bodies weren’t very old. They were already frozen solid, making the time of death difficult to determine, but snow fell on these plains every day. It was snowing now, and it had snowed earlier, in the morning, before dawn, and at night.

Despite that, the bodies and debris had not been completely buried.

“What will you do?”

Kristina rose after finishing her prayers for the dead. She turned concerned eyes toward Eugene and continued.

“We don’t know who the attacker is, but if they are targeting people attending the Knight March... might they attack us as well?”

“Then we’ll just ask them ourselves.”

With that reply, Eugene beckoned to Evil. Mer, sitting on the wolf’s back, had scrunched up her nose. She pouted as she looked back and forth between the candy in her hand and the corpses.

“The candy is red, and the blood is red. Now I don’t want to eat it.”

“Then don’t. You’ll rot your teeth.”

“My teeth won’t rot no matter how much candy I eat. And now that you’ve told me not to, I want to eat it again.”

Mer stuck out her tongue, stained red by the candy. Eugene gave her a glare, then stroked Evil’s forehead as the wolf approached.

“Follow the scent and find them.”

“Do we have to?”

“It’s better to find them first than keep watching out for some unknown maniac of a murderer.”

“What if they’re incredibly strong?”

“Judging by the sword work, they’re not that strong. The one supervising might be, but that’s all the more reason to figure them out first.”

Snowfield wolves had an extraordinary sense of smell. Once these wolf-like monsters marked their prey, they could always find it, even in a fierce blizzard. And Evil was every bit as intelligent as the Beast King had promised, understanding Eugene’s meaning perfectly despite his vague instructions.

GRRR...

Walking among the bodies and sniffing, Evil let out a low growl. Then the wolf turned its head slightly to check Mer’s reaction. Having fully bonded with Evil over the past week, Mer smiled brightly and patted the wolf’s rump.

Evil bounded forward. Ciel and Cyan, already used to this, followed, while Kristina spread her Wings of Light and took to the sky.

Eugene brought up the rear as a precaution. He spread his senses wide to survey their surroundings and readied himself to intervene immediately if anything happened up ahead.

Before long, they came across more bodies. They were Black Dogs mercenaries.

Bodies of those who had fled... no, those who had been allowed to flee. People pursued and killed as though this were a game of tag. There weren’t just one or two. They had seen dozens of corpses at the first site, and each new group contained another five or six.

With every group of bodies, the scent Evil followed grew stronger. The gaps between them grew wider, but Evil’s steps became more certain, and the wolf ran faster.

A snowfield wolf charging after a target was fast enough that most knights would struggle to keep up. Yet Ciel and Cyan kept pace with Evil while faithfully following the instructions Eugene had given them on the first day.

Eugene felt proud of their progress. In his past life, Hamel had never taken a successor. Strictly speaking, Ciel and Cyan had not inherited Hamel’s true teachings either, but it was a pleasure to see them follow his instruction and grow. The habit of controlling mana that way would not immediately bring them to the White Flame Formula’s fifth star, but it would undoubtedly lay the foundation for reaching it someday.

The twins weren’t the only ones Eugene had given an opportunity to grow. After being put through their paces by Eugene during his trips in and out of the Darkroom, Gilead and Gion had reached the very edge of the White Flame Formula’s sixth star. Carmen hadn’t advanced beyond the seventh star either, but she had seemed pleased, saying she had made ample progress.

[“Blood Lion, thanks to you, I have created a new secret art besides Destiny Breaker. I call it Gungnir. I believe it would make a worthy match for your secret art, Eclipse... Shall we put them to the test?”]

[“Lady Carmen, how do you know about Eclipse?”]

[“Mer told me. Eclipse... A splendid name. Blood Lion, how do you stain the sun black to create an eclipse?”]

That adorable little familiar had secretly resonated with his mental image while he was developing Eclipse, concealing the fact that she had learned about it. Then she had gone and blabbed to Carmen about that secret name he never wanted anyone to know....

Eugene shuddered as he recalled the anger, shame, and self-loathing he had felt during that conversation. He had given Mer plenty of knocks on the head at the time, but remembering it made him want to rush forward and give her another one right now.

As he glared at the back of Mer’s head, he spoke.

“Wait.”

His quiet voice reached the front of the group, and Evil stopped without waiting for Mer’s command. Despite the abrupt halt, Ciel and Cyan stopped cleanly without dragging their feet through the snow, so unnaturally still that it looked as though someone had grabbed them from behind.

“What is it?”

Kristina approached Eugene first as he inwardly savored his satisfaction. Rather than answering, he raised his right hand.

A one-handed seal. Kristina’s eyes gleamed at the sight. Mer, still on Evil’s back, gave a small cry of admiration as well.

FWOOSH.

A tiny flame appeared before Eugene’s right hand as it held the seal—a purple flame created through his White Flame Formula. He flicked a finger, and the flame moved on its own, flying up into the sky.

“... What did you just do?”

Cyan tilted his head. Mer chuckled as though she had been waiting for the question.

“You see, that’s part of the signature Eugene worked so hard on in Aroth—”

“Mer-Mer, be quiet.”

Eugene glared at her with wide eyes. Mer pouted and grumbled.

“You’re not even adding ‘Merdein’ anymore?”

He ignored her. There was no need to close his eyes. Just as he intended, the flame flying far away linked itself to his sight.

There was a limit to the area a person could sense with mana. But if they used mana to cast magic, the range of detection could increase dramatically depending on the mage’s abilities.

This flame itself was not Eugene’s signature. Just as the Green Tower Master, Generic Osman, had gone through several stages, including Divine Tree, to create his signature, Yggdrasil, this flame was a spell that formed one step toward Eugene’s signature.

The thing that had troubled his senses.

Through the flame, he saw it clearly. Far ahead, there were people. Two were standing. Three lay sprawled on the ground, already corpses. One who was not yet a corpse knelt in the snow while a sword sawed through his neck.

“That’s insane.”

Eugene muttered as he extinguished the flame. He hadn’t given much thought to who the attacker might be, but the person he had just seen was someone he had never considered. Honestly, he didn’t want to go any farther and meet them. No matter how he looked at it, they didn’t seem sane.

But before he extinguished the flame, their eyes had met. He still didn’t know whether the attacker would detect his location and approach.

As far as Eugene could sense, they remained where they were. If they hadn’t detected him, there was no need to encounter them. But if they had, and were staying on guard, ready to continue their madness with a new target, he judged it necessary to meet them before a rash sword stroke came flying his way.

Their status warranted that much.

He no longer hurried onward. He also moved Mer and Evil to the rear. Regardless of their relative strength, he didn’t want to provoke the other party.

Would they approach first? Or leave without taking an interest? The latter seemed unlikely, and judging by what they had done, he expected the former... but the attackers didn’t move.

Both remained exactly where Eugene had seen them.

“... Ugh...”

Ciel grimaced.

Almost no snow was falling here, leaving the ground covered in vivid red stains. The heat of freshly spilled blood had already faded, but the reek peculiar to newly dead bodies and the stench of spilled filth were overpowering. There was more blood and a worse smell than ordinary corpses would produce because they had been killed to make it so.

Eugene silently opened his cloak. Mer found the scene horrifying, but she felt no fear. Still, she offered no resistance and slipped into the opening he made for her. Kristina gave a quiet sigh and murmured a prayer for the dead.

“... It can’t be.”

Cyan, his hand resting warily on the sword at his waist, spoke hesitantly.

“... Princess Scalia Animus?”

The two people standing before them wore armor tinged with pale violet. Neither had any separate winter clothing suited to this bitterly cold land. Though the armor looked metallic, it did not freeze against their skin. Mithril was famous as a metal that held mana in its own right, but these suits had been made entirely from the even rarer orichalcum. Even without enchantments inscribed on them, they perfectly protected their wearers from all manner of harm.

This Shimuin armor was called Exceed. Exceed made entirely of orichalcum was the symbol of the Raging Wave Knights, who served directly under the royal family.

The knight holding the blood-drenched sword raised their head. This was the knight who had been sawing through the neck of the body sprawled directly in front of them. Exceed concealed the contours of their chest, but they were too short and slender to look like a man.

Then there was the crest on the breastplate. The design of waves and swirling currents symbolized the Raging Wave Knights, while the eagle soaring above them was the royal family’s emblem.

CLICK.

The helmet enclosing the knight’s head opened. It folded back like a hood, and the red hair compressed inside spilled free.

“Such insolence.”

Scalia, the princess of Shimuin known as the Princess Knight and deputy commander of the Raging Wave Knights, spoke.

“You know who I am, yet you do not lower your heads, bow your backs, or bend your knees?”

Orange eyes flashed between her disheveled bangs. Eugene had no idea what had happened to her, but her gaze was unfocused, and dark shadows lay heavily beneath her eyes.

“Your rudeness is an affront to me. Are you companions or relatives of the scoundrels I have just punished? I thought I had punished them all, yet more clinging filth remains?”

“What?”

“Silence, you lowborn wretch. I have not given you filth permission to speak.”

Cyan’s bewildered response earned a wide-eyed glare and a sharp rebuke from Scalia. Then she swung the sword still in her hand in a broad arc, shaking off the blood.

“I thought I had killed enough, yet this pure white land is still full of filth. Very well. In place of Ruhar’s barbarian king, I shall personally carve into your flesh the truth that the immoral have no destination but a painful hell.”

“Wait, Princess Scalia...!”

“Do not speak my name with that foul, lowborn mouth, you filth! The stench pouring from your maw makes me sick!”

Scalia shouted, and Cyan clapped a hand over his mouth in alarm.

A stench? That couldn’t be.... While Cyan’s eyes wavered, Scalia strode toward them, breathing hard.

“H-hey... what do we do?”

Ciel turned to Eugene, equally flustered.

They were dealing with a princess of Shimuin. However harshly she spoke, they couldn’t simply respond in kind.

And no matter how they looked at it, Scalia’s current behavior was exceedingly strange. Eugene, Ciel, and Cyan were all wearing uniforms bearing the Lionheart crest. Yet rather than recognizing it, Princess Scalia was displaying anger and disgust, asking whether they were companions or relatives of the dead mercenaries.

“... Your Highness.”

The other knight spoke as he watched Scalia stride forward. He too wore Exceed, his face hidden behind a helmet. His was a young man’s voice, heavy with a sigh.

“They are neither companions nor relatives of the mercenaries you punished.”

“Then why do they act so rudely toward me? Why have they still not shown me respect?”

“This is not Shimuin, and their standing is not so low that they must kneel in unconditional reverence before you.”

“Dior! I find your words difficult to understand. I... I am dizzy. I cannot see clearly. Who on earth are they?”

“They are descendants of Vermouth the Great, the young lions of Lionheart.”

“What?”

Startled, Scalia stopped walking. She looked between the sword in her hand and the people before her, then shook her head hard.

“... Impossible. I... they do not look like the lions of Lionheart to me....”

“You are far too exhausted. Your Highness, please listen to—”

“Enough! I will not hear it. How...! How could I, Scalia Animus, fail to attend a gathering of the finest knights from every nation!”

With that cry, Scalia dropped into a sitting position.

“If fatigue is the cause, I need only rest now. Dior, prepare for a rest at once.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The man, Dior, bowed in response without removing his helmet. When he raised his head again, his gaze lingered briefly on Eugene from behind the visor.

“You are to come here and sit,” Scalia declared.

“Come and speak. Why are you wandering the snowfields? And why have you barred my path?”

“We were on our way to attend the Knight March as members of Lionheart.”

Cyan answered with his mouth covered. Scalia snorted and shook her head.

“Do not lie, lowborn wretch. If you truly are members of Lionheart, why do you look so shabby? Where are those supposedly valiant Lionheart knights?”

“Well...”

“Your lie is exposed! You dare try to deceive and mock me? I shall have your head at—”

“Then why are you wandering the snowfields with only one knight, Your Highness?”

Eugene, who had been listening in silence, spoke.

“We saw the people you killed. The Black Dogs. I heard they were a nasty bunch, but the way you executed them was excessive compared with their crimes—”

“You dare presume to judge their crimes? You have no right!”

“Then what right do you have, Your Highness?”

“I answered the common people’s cries to punish them. You ask why I am wandering the snowfields with only one knight? It was a week ago. While crossing the snowfields, the Raging Wave Knights and I stopped at a native village to rest. But the village had been plundered so thoroughly that its people could barely endure the immediate cold!”

Scalia shouted furiously.

“Those mercenaries, worse than garbage, had looted it before the White Wolf Knights visited. I pitied the villagers! I opened the Raging Wave Knights’ stores and distributed supplies among them. I intended to punish the culprits with my own hands, because that was right. But taking the entire Raging Wave Knights to punish a single mercenary company would have been excessive.”

While Scalia talked, Dior finished preparing their resting place. He erected a tent to block the wind and snow and spread a broad sheet of canvas over the ground. Then he rolled a small sphere onto it. The sphere swelled, giving off bright light and heat.

“So when I said I would pursue and punish them alone, the commander of the Raging Wave Knights, loyal to the royal family, gladly approved my righteous intention. Thus I was roaming the snowfields with my squire, Dior, to execute that trash. You said my method of execution was excessive? They were criminals who deserved painful deaths! Had I not cared for the villagers they plundered, those people might have suffered hunger in this bitter cold until they froze to death. Is it not only right that the criminals responsible should suffer and die as well?”

Still talking, Scalia moved onto the canvas Dior had spread and sat down. Without removing her Exceed, she picked up the sphere in both hands and hugged it.

“That is why I... them...”

“Your Highness.”

“No, no. Dior. I am fine.... I do not need to rest.”

Her exhausted eyes threatened to close. She remained that way for a moment, then ground her teeth and hurled the sphere she was hugging out of the tent.

“I do not need it. I do not need anything like this. My sword... no... no, that is not right. I must rest a little....”

After announcing that she would rest, she had said she didn’t need to, only to insist again that she must. Scalia’s condition was bizarre beyond understanding.

“... Please come and sit here,” Dior said.

Scalia spoke no more. Biting at her lip, she curled up and hugged her knees.