Chapter 36 - Damn Reincarnation

Bolero Street

Eward had gone off with people who looked suspicious at a glance and entered a building without a sign. That alone was suspicious enough, but then a bunch of big, menacing brutes had started barking threats.

This place stank.

Eugene grabbed the doorknob. He tried turning it several times, but the locked door would not open. A physical lock, reinforced with magic. Could he break it? Eugene did not bother asking himself that.

The stars in his heart shone. He examined the flow of mana he could feel through the doorknob.

Learning magic was already proving worthwhile. In the past, he would simply have forced his way through, but now he could perceive the shape of the mana that composed the spell.

That did not mean his method would change. He merely needed less force than before. Ultimately, he was still breaking it with brute strength. Things might have been different had his mastery of magic been greater, but as he was now, he could not undo the locking spell with magic.

Materialized mana covered Eugene’s hand. He rammed it into the locking spell. Having examined the shape of its mana, he found it easy to drive his power into it.

Of course, breaking a spell this way required control over mana more precise than control over one’s own limbs. Even most accomplished fighters could not manage it, but Eugene did so with ease.

CRUNCH!

His method was less crude, but the result was just as brutal. The doorknob shattered completely under his forceful twist. After confirming that the locking spell was broken, Eugene raised his foot.

BANG!

A kick destroyed the physical lock. The door swung open, and Eugene entered without hesitation. He was not entirely unguarded: he rested a hand on Wynnyd at his waist.

That was more than enough precaution—excessive, even. With his weapon within reach, he could draw and swing it in any situation. Eugene was certain of that.

“... Huh.”

He could barely see ahead.

Hazy smoke filled the air. It clung stickily to the back of his throat, tasting sweet and nutty. His senses tingled, and his vision swam. Mana from the White Flame Formula spread throughout his body, immediately dispelling the mild dizziness.

“So it’s a smoke den.”

Eugene muttered with a disbelieving laugh. Suggestive sounds seeped out of the closed rooms. It was the sort of place one might expect on this street, but coming here immediately after indulging in a succubus’s dreams? His eyes turned cold.

“Everyone needs somewhere to catch their breath, but not this.”

You could not even breathe properly in a place like this. A succubus’s dreams alone would rot the mind; smoking drugs in this smoke den on top of that would literally leave holes in your brain. Eugene advanced, sweeping aside the smoke in his way.

“Who are you? How did you get in?”

“Block the door!”

Men who had been smoking drugs in the corners rose to their feet. Humans, beastfolk, demons. This smoke den was a gathering place for perfect racial harmony. Eugene gave the men staggering toward him a sincere round of applause.

“If you’d been born three hundred years ago, the whole world could have joined hands in love and peace.”

“What the fuck is this bastard talking about?”

“Just what I said, you sons of bitches.”

Eugene did not draw Wynnyd. Nor did he charge them himself. The stars in his heart moved.

PAP-PAP-PAP!

Magic Missiles formed in an instant and pierced the smoke.

Although they were high, the men who had stepped up to repel the intruder were fairly confident in their abilities.

Magic Missile was a first-circle attack spell. It was neither fast nor powerful. They could scoff at such a spell and dodge it.

Or they should have been able to. They reacted immediately and tried to evade, but the missiles’ bewildering trajectories made escape impossible.

‘Predictable.’

There was no way Eugene could fail to read the evasive movements of trash like this. Honestly, he was confident he could hit every last one of them with his eyes closed.

“Where’s Eward?”

“Uuugh...”

“You don’t have to tell me. I can find him myself.”

Muttering those words, Eugene gripped Wynnyd. Its silver-blue blade emerged with an eerie sound. The sprawled men gasped at the sight.

They were going to die. Eugene was not openly radiating killing intent, but the instincts of the weak sensed an inescapable future. They abandoned all resistance, curled up, and covered their heads.

But Eugene did not swing the sword. He raised it toward the ceiling instead.

WHOOSH!

A fierce wind coiled around Wynnyd. Sylphs—lesser wind spirits. Yet the wind summoned by Eugene’s sylphs was so savage that it was hard to believe they were lesser spirits.

Three stars in the White Flame Formula. His current mana was enough to summon an intermediate spirit, but he deliberately chose not to.

Rather than drain his mana summoning a single intermediate spirit, he judged it far better to summon more mana-efficient sylphs and exert firmer control over them. Eugene was far too skilled to rely unconditionally on a spirit’s power.

“Aaaah...”

The sprawled men watched Eugene with terrified eyes. He stood at the center of an enormous wind, Wynnyd held high.

ROOOAR!

The wind moved. Blasting outward in every direction, it dispersed the smoke and smashed the tightly closed doors and walls.

“Wh-what the hell?!”

The drug addicts inside the closed rooms screamed. Eugene swept his gaze over them. Disheveled, sordid scenes he had no desire to look at. Eward was not among them.

There was no need to go looking himself. The sylphs that had scattered with the wind roamed the entire building. Upstairs. Eugene acted on his seething irritation.

BOOM!

Magic Missiles merged into one and blasted through the ceiling, while the wind lifted his body.

The third floor.

Eugene arrived in a corridor hazy with smoke and dust. The sylphs following him hummed as they stirred up wind. Once they had dispersed the smoke, he strode down the corridor.

There was only one room here, at the end. Eward was inside. Eugene advanced with his eyes fixed on the closed door, then slid a step sideways.

SWISH!

An ominous sound brushed past his head. Without panicking, Eugene moved the wind.

BOOM!

Wind compressed into a single point burst like a cannonball. The man who had dropped from the ceiling to ambush him slammed into a wall and vomited blood. He was one of the two men who had been waiting for Eward in the restaurant.

“If you’re going to ambush me, at least get properly behind me, you arrogant little shit.”

Eugene clicked his tongue at the man and slipped his left hand inside his clothes.

The attacks did not end there. The door remained closed, but a pitch-black attack spell passed through it and rushed toward Eugene. He snorted and pulled out the hand he had tucked inside his clothes.

What he casually tossed forward was the Moonlight Sword fragment he had won at the auction, kept in its luxurious wooden box.

KRAAAASH!

The spell split into dozens of streams and swept over the walls. That fragment could neither be broken nor accept mana.

“Works like a charm.”

Eugene spoke as he picked up the fragment that had dropped to the floor. It no longer bore any resemblance to a sword, but the Moonlight Sword’s properties remained intact in this tiny piece.

“That would have killed me if it hit.”

Eugene glanced ahead as he continued speaking. A man in black robes stood beyond the shattered door. His attire was blatant enough, but the spell he had fired was unmistakably black magic.

“Who are you?”

The black mage who had cast the spell steadied his pounding heart. He had fired it with serious intent, only for it to be blocked by some unknown method. Had that been magic just now? He had never heard of or seen a defensive spell like that.

“Why are you causing this disturbance?”

Eugene was, admittedly, the one who had attacked without provocation. He had beaten up the doormen, smashed his way inside, and broken through the ceilings all the way from the first floor to the third. They had some grounds to feel wronged.

But that was none of Eugene’s concern. He neither explained himself nor gave his name. Escaping reality through a succubus’s dreams was pathetic, but he could understand it. Drugs, however, were going too far. And on top of that, Eward was associating with fucking bastards who fired black magic.

[“Do not become involved with black magic.”]

Gilead had given him a stern warning about that. Yet here was his own flesh-and-blood son. A direct descendant of Vermouth.

“Move.”

Eugene spat the word as he tucked the Moonlight Sword fragment into his clothes.

“Run now, and I won’t stop you.”

“You insolent brat...!”

“Do you know where you are, and whose presence you’re rampaging in?”

“I’m rampaging in front of Eward Lionheart.”

What made it even more pathetic, and even more infuriating, was that Eward had not so much as lifted his head through all this commotion, let alone spoken. Drunk and high, he lay buried in a large bed, grinning vacantly.

“Not that your precious young master has any idea what’s going on.”

“Kill him!”

The black mage roared. The demons near Eward moved—the ones who had supported him on his way from the restaurant. Three daemons lunged at Eugene.

‘Everyone’s here.’

The five who had accompanied Eward to this smoke den. Eugene had slammed one into the wall, and another was chanting spells in front of him.

FWOOSH!

The stars in his heart resonated. Pure white flames wrapped around Eugene’s entire body, trailing behind him as he moved forward. He lowered his upper body and drew Wynnyd back.

The white-maned lion concealed its claws. There was no need to pounce first. When the daemons entered his reach, Wynnyd moved.

SHLASH!

The lion’s claws tore through everything before it.

“Aaaaargh!”

Blood spurted from the chest of the daemon who had rushed in first. Only then did Eugene take a step forward. The wind coiled around the blade burst outward. The daemon who had slowed in terror was slashed all over by the wind.

“Ah!”

The daemon immediately behind recoiled in horror at the sight. But Eugene closed in far faster than the daemon could retreat. The daemon turned its fingernails into blades and hastily swung, only to have its wrist sliced clean through before it could finish.

It did not even have time to scream in pain. Eugene’s hand shot forward and clamped around its face.

CRUNCH!

He slammed the daemon straight into the floor.

“Th-this is insane.”

The black mage’s face went deathly pale. Eugene’s skill was alarming enough, but the white flames covering his body horrified him. Those scattering embers, that lion’s mane. In the whole wide world, only one mana-training method produced a phenomenon that distinctive.

The Lionheart main family’s White Flame Formula.

“A-are you... Lord Eugene Lionheart?”

The black mage could no longer continue his incantation. Drenched in cold sweat, he backed away and even lowered his staff. Eugene rose, flicking the blood off his hand.

“Move.”

At that moment, the black mage wondered whether he should resist or submit quietly.

Neither choice could change this disastrous situation. Better to... Murderous intent filled his eyes. He subtly moved the staff he had lowered.

“... W-wait... Let me explain...”

He tried to buy time with his words, however little. But Eugene had no intention of listening. He had told the mage to move, and the mage had not moved. That settled what Eugene would do.

Eugene closed the distance in an instant and reached toward the black mage. There was too little time to cast a proper spell. The mage released a reckless burst of mana. It lacked both the mystique and power of true magic, but the uncontrolled eruption of mana blocked Eugene’s path.

Eugene did not consider it an obstacle. Wind enveloped his blade, and he added sword aura to it. Unshaped mana could not stop his slash.

‘This is fucking insane...!’

Who could have imagined it would be cut through so easily? He could not believe this was a mere seventeen-year-old brat.

‘I’m going to die...’

That was what his instincts told him.

But Eugene’s sword stopped just in front of his throat. The black mage trembled, unable even to swallow for fear of cutting his own neck.

“Stay still.”

With that, Eugene walked past the black mage. Eward was still drunk and high. But instead of approaching him, Eugene slowly turned his head toward the side of the bed.

A grotesquely writhing lump of flesh.

“If what’s inside that...”

Eugene pointed at the flesh. It was no mere lump of meat. It was a “chalice” used in a ritual.

“...is a human heart, know that I’ll skin you alive and start cutting you apart at the toes.”

“I-it isn’t.”

The black mage immediately dropped to his knees.

“What’s inside is not a human heart. It’s a m-monster’s heart.”

“What monster?”

“A unicorn...”

Without listening further, Eugene inspected the vessel himself. Sure enough, the heart he saw was too large to be human and had a faint bluish hue. Unicorns possessed powerful mana and divine power, befitting creatures called divine beasts.

As a “sacrifice,” a unicorn’s heart was far more valuable than a human’s.

“... A Demon King?”

“How could I dare... How could s-someone like me arrange a contract with the great Demon Kings?”

“Who, then?”

“... Baron Olpher... of Helmuth...”

The black mage answered with his head bowed low. Eugene did not recognize the name. Frowning, he turned back to the mage.

“Who the fuck is that?”

“An incubus serving Duchess Giabella.”

“Duchess Giabella? You mean Noir Giabella?”

“Yes...”

Noir Giabella. The queen of the dream demons. Eugene gave a hollow laugh and shook his head. It was hardly surprising that the damned succubus had survived for three hundred years. Long ago, Helmuth had not even been a country, merely a hell ruled by five Demon Kings. Now it was a nation jointly ruled by Incarceration and Destruction.

She could not stand as an equal to a Demon King, but a queen at the pinnacle of the dream demons was certainly worthy of being called a duchess.

“So... this fucking bastard... was trying to make a contract with an incubus serving Noir Giabella, who’s only a baron... Is that what you’re saying?”

“L-Lord Eugene.”

“Offering up a unicorn’s heart, out of his mind on drugs and booze, for a mere incubus baron. Have I understood correctly?”

“It was Lord Eward’s wish...!”

The black mage pressed his head to the floor and spoke hurriedly.

“I merely fulfilled Lord Eward’s request. He also provided the money to purchase the unicorn’s heart. I-I could not refuse his request... his o-order.”

“Of course you couldn’t refuse. You must have been thrilled. That moron, the eldest son of the Lionheart main family, gave you money and asked you to arrange a contract with your master. If it had gone through, that fucking Olpher bastard would have showered you with power.”

“...”

“No, it wouldn’t have stopped at power. If the contract had gone through, that fucking bitch Noir would have made a contract with you herself.”

It would have meant securing a contract with a direct descendant of that Lionheart family—of Vermouth.

“You arranged the contract out of your own greed, too. So stop blaming other people and shut your mouth if you don’t want to fucking die.”

The black mage could offer no more excuses. The killing intent pouring from Eugene was too savage and terrifying for him to risk opening his mouth. Eugene took his glare off the mage and looked at Eward. Unfocused eyes. A slack maw dribbling saliva.

First, calm down.

Eugene drew a deep breath and looked at Eward’s face again.

“You son of a bitch.”

He could not calm down.

Spitting the vicious curse, Eugene struck Eward across the face.