Chapter 241 - Damn Reincarnation

Moron the Brave

Another four days passed, but Ortus never came to see Eugene again.

'Guess they're not desperate yet.'

Wasn't cutting fifty years down to twenty-five an extraordinary offer?

Eugene did intend to hunt down Iris in the southern seas and beat the shit out of her someday. In all honesty, though, she was fairly low on his list of priorities.

His first task was to visit Dragon Demon Castle in Helmuth. He would find Raizakia's hatchling there and kill it, if possible. Before that, of course, he would also have to use the hatchling to locate Raizakia beyond the dimensions.

Iris and his other scores to settle came afterward. Judging by what Ortus had said in his so-called request, Shimuin considered Iris a nuisance, but apparently wasn't yet determined to eliminate her as quickly as possible.

And the greatest obstacle to eliminating Iris was, as ever, the sheer size of the sea. Her Demonic Eyes of Darkness were powerful offensive weapons, but their abilities were particularly suited to escape.

What if Iris used them to flee in the middle of that vast sea? Not just Eugene, but no mage in the world would be able to stop her.

'Compared to Noir Giabella, Iris is the harmless kind of crazy.'

Thinking that, Eugene brushed the snow from his cheek.

Two days earlier, Moron had left the fortress. The idiot had merely scrawled “I'll be back” in enormous letters on a corridor wall without saying a word to Eugene or Anise. Just like that, he had vanished late in the night.

They could guess why. What reason would Moron have to disappear so suddenly? It was obvious. A Nur had appeared beyond Great Hammer Canyon in Leheinyar.

“Idiot,” Eugene grumbled at the thought of Moron.

Moron had been incredibly busy since coming to the fortress. On his first night, he had drunk and talked with Eugene and Anise until dawn. After the Demon King of Incarceration's visit, he had held discussions with the various nations' knightly orders, starting with Lionheart, and attended the kings' council.

He had even briefly observed the knights' training and offered something resembling advice, and held a small feast with the Bayar tribespeople living in the fortress. He had spent time with Aman Ruhar and the White Fangs as well. Despite having already held a discussion with them, he had visited the Lionheart mansion to meet those bearing the Lionheart name and tell them all sorts of stories.

He had been especially fond of Gilead and the twins. Though their faces hardly resembled each other, Gilead's long hair seemed to remind him of Vermouth. The twins had been awkward and intimidated around Moron, but, quite out of character, he had behaved like a kindly elderly relative and helped Cyan and Ciel with their swordsmanship.

Yet Moron had not slept for a single moment at the fortress. Because of the Nur. Throughout those two busy days, he had remained constantly aware of Leheinyar. There was no telling when another Nur might appear.

Apparently, one had finally appeared two days ago. That, at least, was beyond Eugene and Anise's control. Had Moron returned that very morning, Eugene would have gone to give him an earful. But two full days had passed, and the bastard still hadn't returned to the fortress.

So Eugene and Anise had climbed Leheinyar in search of him. To avoid causing unnecessary worry, they had given Gilead, the family head, a rough explanation: Moron the Brave was going to test them in Leheinyar. It was a hastily improvised excuse, but a Great Hero's test carried enough weight to convince the others.

“Actually, it's because Moron's an idiot.”

Eugene spat out the words as he glared at the light flickering above his palm.

“The bastard gathered the knights for those so-called discussions and acted like an idiot. That's why everyone thinks this is the sort of thing he'd do.”

“You're being far too harsh on Moron.”

Anise narrowed her eyes at Eugene.

“He was still an idiot around us, certainly, but he didn't act like one around his descendants or the people of this era.”

“He did look unnecessarily dignified. They say a position makes the man. I guess it's true.”

“Hamel, you wouldn't know, since you were already dead by then, but Moron was quite remarkable three hundred years ago. He was the man who pioneered this undeveloped, bitterly cold land at the northernmost edge of the world with nothing but brute strength. The people of the continent called him the Pioneer King of the North, the King of Miracles.”

“Honestly, I heard he didn't do it all alone. Didn't you pressure the Pope of Yuras into helping found Ruhar?”

“Senya helped as well. Lord Vermouth also provided a considerable portion of the funds for the settlement. Nevertheless, this land was developed and a kingdom founded because Moron's strength and resolve never wavered.”

That was simply the truth, not excessive praise. Eugene smacked his lips as he glared at the flickering flame.

“Anyway, they accepted the two of us going to find Moron because they figured he was the sort to spring some random test on us, right?”

“It is a fairly convincing pretext. Ruhar's founder, returned after a hundred years. A Great Hero from three hundred years ago. A living legend testing the Hero and saint of this era... Doesn't it sound like something out of legend or myth?”

“When we're actually just looking for Moron because he disappeared without asking.”

They didn't need Evil to guide them this time. When leaving Great Hammer Canyon on their last visit, Eugene had left magical markers so he could find Moron again. The ember hovering over his palm was locating those markers and guiding them.

That had greatly increased their speed. Last time, they had needed to match Evil's pace, but that was no longer necessary. Eugene extinguished the flame above his palm and lifted his head.

Great Hammer Canyon shimmered at the edge of his vision. It was still quite far away, but at their current pace, they would reach it in half a day.

“The problem is the barrier. What will you do about it?”

“If we worried about that, we wouldn't have come this far. Right? For all we know, we passed Moron in this blizzard and he's already back at the fortress.”

“If that's the case, I'm going to punch him in the jaw.”

“You hit his jaw. I'll smack him in the back of the head.”

“Very well. Hamel, I'll retreat inside for a while. Please look after Kristina and keep her safe.”

Anise and Kristina switched consciousnesses. Kristina stood blinking a few times, then shivered in the cold and sharply furrowed her brows.

“Don't you think she's being too much?”

“Who?”

“Sis—Lady Anise!”

In their private conversations, she faithfully called Anise “Sister,” but for some reason, using it in front of others embarrassed her.

[“What difference does it make? As I've told you before, ‘Sister’ is hardly an unusual form of address among nuns.”]

That was true, but Anise took it upon herself to interpret “Sister” as “big sister.” Knowing that all too well, Kristina was embarrassed to say it in front of others...

“I can understand her only asking to switch when she has a lot she wants to say. I can even understand her leaving most of the walking through this cold, uncomfortable land to me. But she's so terribly spiteful that the moment we switch, she withdraws every miracle keeping out the cold.”

[“I enjoy watching you shiver in surprise at the cold. Besides, Kristina, this is for your benefit as well.”]

“How on earth is that for my...”

[“If the sudden cold made you throw your arms around Hamel for warmth, wouldn't that be wonderful?”]

Kristina's lips, which had been voicing her complaints aloud, opened and closed soundlessly.

[“I'd hoped you would do it without thinking, but now that I've said it, that won't happen. Since it's come to this, next time, try embracing Hamel deliberately. If you hold him because you're cold, he may be flustered, but he won't refuse.”]

“What's wrong all of a sudden? Why'd you stop talking?”

“Ah... a devil. A devil is whispering inside my head.”

Kristina stammered, her face flushed red.

* * *

The sun should have set long ago, but there was no night in Leheinyar. Eugene stared at the sky, white with the blizzard, the distant sun, and the hammer-shaped cliff towering beneath it.

Last time, they had pitched a tent and camped nearby. There was no need now. Neither Eugene nor Kristina felt any need to rest.

From here, Great Hammer Canyon felt quite different from their previous visit. No, this was how it had always been. The atmosphere had changed so abruptly back then because a Nur had appeared.

None of that presence lingered now. There was no sign of the hideous monster, nor any of that ominous feeling resembling the Demon King of Destruction. Clicking his tongue, Eugene resumed walking.

“Should I carry you up?”

At the foot of the cliff, Eugene turned to ask Kristina. She hesitated rather than answering immediately, then met Mer's glaring eyes through a gap in the cloak. That look was so sly and irritating that she briefly considered letting him carry her...

“Ahem... No, thank you.”

But she didn't think she could endure the embarrassment afterward. In particular, Anise would surely tease her inside her head until she wanted to kill herself, and Kristina wasn't confident she could take that teasing and remain composed.

[“Why must you be so shy? Keep dithering like that, and I'll steal all sorts of things from you.”]

'... S-steal what?'

[“I can think of dozens of things to steal from you, but listing them aloud would be utterly indecent.”]

More teasing. Yet that sort of teasing stirred up scandalous imaginings in Kristina's mind. Snow kept falling and the wind blew fiercely, but despite the cold, her face burned. She cleared her throat to steady her breathing, then spread her Wings of Light.

The top of the cliff was just as it had been last time. There was nothing but heaps of snow, with no other traces.

Eugene, who had secretly hoped to find at least some bloodstains, made no attempt to hide his disappointment. What if they really had passed Moron along the way? Annoyance aside, in that case, Moron would come back and find Eugene and Anise.

'The idiot said he could see Leheinyar even from far away.'

Eugene wandered around the clifftop for a while, concentrating.

This place, Great Hammer Canyon, was a “boundary.” The front line where the Nur appeared in the world. The reverse side of Leheinyar, where Moron piled up their corpses, also began here.

'It's hidden too well.'

Akasha, which understood all magic, was already in Eugene's hand. Even so, finding the magic hidden in the cliff was no easy task.

... He thought of the Darkroom. Understanding its magic had been impossible, but he remembered some of the spell formulas that composed it.

“Mer.”

[“I'm concentrating.”]

Mer answered at once from inside the cloak.

Her consciousness was linked to Akasha as she analyzed the space itself. Analyzing an entire space without a single clue would take an enormous amount of time, but they weren't entirely without a lead, having obtained fragments in the Darkroom that could serve as clues.

“They really buried it deep.”

[“Of course they did. I don't really know what the Nur are, but remember what Sir Moron said?”]

The Nur spewed ominousness like poison. Even killing them didn't make it disappear. Ordinary corpses released poisonous miasma when they rotted. If the corpses of Nur, masses of sinister poison, rotted... If those corpses had accumulated for a hundred years, Leheinyar could never have remained as it was.

[“Severing space. Or isolating it... You know what magic of that kind has to prioritize, don't you?”]

'Secrecy.'

[“Yes, and it has to be solid. Absolutely undetectable from outside, and absolutely impossible to break into from outside. We have clues, you have me, and we have Akasha... I think we can find it. But I don't know whether we'll be able to get through.”]

'It's not as if we're completely out of options.'

[“... Are you going to use that absurd sword?”]

The Moonlight Sword.

[“That sword might be able to open a gap in this strange... magical barrier that doesn't feel like magic. But what will you do afterward, Eugene? Sir Moron isn't a mage. If this barrier is a power Lord Vermouth entrusted to him, there's a chance, however small, that breaking it with the Moonlight Sword will leave a gap he can't repair.”]

'I'm not planning to break it.'

Eugene answered as he gripped the Moonlight Sword inside his cloak.

'I'm just going to knock. Let Moron inside notice something happening outside the barrier. If he doesn't notice, then either he isn't in there, or he's a thickheaded idiot.'

Or else...

Eugene didn't want to think about that.

“We've come all this way, but honestly, I'm hesitant.”

Kristina had been following Eugene around the cliff. Though the voice came without warning, he realized Anise had taken control of the body again. They had switched so many times that he had learned the subtle differences in their intonation.

“Hesitant about what?”

“Moron didn't want to show us the reverse side. The miasma is too thick. It might drive us mad. It might make us ill. Those were his excuses.”

Moron, of all people, had made excuses. Something he wasn't even good at.

“There's something on the reverse side that he doesn't want us to see.”

“So what?”

“Hamel, I knew you'd say that. You're still just as inconsiderate as you were three hundred years ago.”

“Anise. You saw Moron's eyes too. When we first met him here. Have you already forgotten what he was like?”

“He wasn't himself then.”

“Right. He wasn't himself. He swung his axe at us like a madman and drove us away. And then, just a few days later, he was grinning like an idiot, hugging us and bawling.”

He didn't want to accept it.

But it was a fact he had no choice but to accept.

“It isn't that Moron hasn't changed in three hundred years. He has changed. He just hasn't changed in front of us. Maybe he's hiding how he's changed. If the reason is somewhere I don't know about, and he doesn't want to tell me, then I'm a son of a bitch, so I'm not going to respect his wishes. I need to see for myself and find out why he's like this.”

“Don't call yourself a son of a bitch.”

“You called me one the other day.”

“I said you were no different from a son of a bitch. I didn't call you one. Besides, Hamel, if what you're doing now reduces you to a son of a bitch, doesn't agreeing with you make me one as well?”

Eugene chuckled at that answer. For all her words, Anise wasn't refusing to cross to the reverse side out of consideration for Moron. Hadn't she said so herself a few days ago?

[“What you don't want us to see there isn't something as trivial as monster corpses.”]

[“And if it's something you don't want to show us, I want to see it, whatever it takes.”]

Anise Slywood. She could be that relentless. And it wasn't just her. Eugene was the same, and had Senya been here, she would have acted no differently.

They had been through everything together. They had nearly died over and over again. They had wandered together for well over a decade. Their journey through Helmuth had changed them all in many ways.

But some things hadn't changed. If Moron had changed, if three hundred long years had left him no choice but to change, if a century spent holding back the Nur had changed him...

Hamel and Anise needed to know why it had to happen.

“Here.”

Eugene stopped walking. Inside his cloak, Mer panted for breath. It was only natural after analyzing the space to the point of overloading herself. Eugene reached into the cloak and stroked her head a few times.

[“Don't think this settles it. Next time, you have to give me a ride on your shoulders.”]

“A shoulder ride...?”

[“You always react strangely when I mention shoulder rides. Are you embarrassed to let me ride on your shoulders?”]

“Not embarrassed... It just feels a little...”

Muttering, Eugene took his hand off Mer's head and drew out the Moonlight Sword.

“... The Moonlight Sword...”

Anise's expression stiffened slightly. Just as it had three hundred years ago, the mere sight of that sword made her stomach churn. It had been shattered, leaving only its hilt and a single fragment, but the strange ominousness it radiated remained unchanged.

Outwardly, it was an utterly ordinary sword, the sort any smithy might sell. Eugene gripped its scabbard and slowly drew it.

Pale moonlight flared out, forming a blade. It was still a light she could never grow accustomed to.

Eugene was no more accustomed to the Moonlight Sword's light. An ominousness different from the Demon King of Destruction's... Refined, yet savage. Ruin in the shape of a sword. That light writhed in his grasp.

He wasn't going to break the barrier. Just give it a gentle knock. He could control its power well enough for that.

With that thought, he raised the Moonlight Sword.

But there was no need to knock. The moment the Moonlight Sword shone and moved, the barrier opened wide, as if responding. It wasn't that the reverse side actually opened like a door.

There wasn't even a floating sensation.

As though the world had changed of its own accord, Eugene and Anise were standing somewhere else.

“... What... did you do?”

“No. I didn't do anything. The barrier just...”

Had Moron sensed them first? Or had Vermouth's barrier reacted to the Moonlight Sword and opened the way? There was no way to know yet.

“Urk...”

Anise clamped a hand over her mouth without thinking. She had seen more horrors than she could stomach three hundred years ago. But however experienced she was, Kristina's body had no resistance to such things, and it recoiled first.

Eugene was no different. Overcome by dizzying vertigo, he forced his legs not to buckle.

This was Leheinyar, the reverse side of Great Hammer Canyon.

Yet nothing resembled the “outside.” No snow lay on the ground. No snow fell. The earth beneath their feet. The landscape before their eyes. Everything was grotesquely distorted.

The sight reminded them of Helmuth three hundred years ago. The demon lands, where nothing that happened would have been surprising. That hideous, bizarre land that had been hell itself for humans.

THUD. THUD.

They could see mountain peaks twisted into winding shapes. The uneven ground, like lava that had hardened while boiling, was covered in spreading stains that might have been blood or something else.

THUD. THUD.

A corpse lay sprawled not far away. One Eugene recognized. The corpse of the ape-like Nur he had seen a few days earlier. It was in a horrific state. ... It had been killed with a clean cut through the neck, yet now its entire body had been torn to shreds.

THUD. THUD.

And those loud, heavy impacts kept sounding.

From somewhere far away and high above.