Chapter 109: The Flame (1)
“...Ugh…,” Kristina came to her senses with a groan.
She immediately tried to get up, only to be stopped by a surprise. Instead of lying on the ground, Kristina was currently resting horizontally in midair.
“Slept well?” Eugene asked as he glanced back at her.
Without replying immediately, Kristina first took a look around at their surroundings. They had just been inside of the World Tree. After she had cast the revitalization spell… she seemed to have lost consciousness. Kristina didn’t know what had happened after that, but she knew one thing for sure.
This wasn’t the inside of the World Tree, nor was it anywhere within the elven domain.
“...Did I fail?” Kristina first decided to ask about the result of her attempt.
Kristina was afraid that she had failed. She suspected — no, she was sure of it. Even before she had lost consciousness, she had foreseen her own failure. Kristina’s divine power could neither heal Sienna’s wounds nor wake her up.
Even so, the reason why Kristina couldn’t help but feel the need to ask this question… was because of the strange state that her body was in. In order to cast a divine spell of that magnitude, she had had to squeeze her divine power to its very limits and pour everything that she had into the spell.
‘...But my body feels light.’
Her mind didn’t feel overdrawn either, and was actually pretty refreshed. Her divine power was also fully charged, as if she hadn’t even cast a spell.
“It was a failure,” Eugene responded as he lowered Kristina to the ground. “You made quite a flash of light, but in the end, it wasn’t enough to revive Lady Sienna.”
“...As I thought,” Kristina said with disappointment.
“It looks like you aren’t able to clearly remember what happened?” Eugene asked.
“Yes,” Kristina confirmed with a furrowing of her brow as her feet touched the ground. “I know that I failed, but what am I doing here?”
“You’re here because I brought you out with me,” Eugene explained.
“Of course I know that,” Kristina snapped. “What I’m asking is, why have we left the World Tree? Just because I failed once, are we really just giving up?”
Instead of replying immediately, Eugene stared at Kristina. Eugene didn’t have the capability of reading minds, but he could tell that Kristina was currently telling the truth. Though there wasn’t really any reason for her to lie. Kristina didn’t seem to know anything about Anise, who had become an angel.
‘Anise recognized me,’ Eugene recalled.
That was unquestionably the reason why she had appeared and performed such a miracle.
For now, Eugene decided not to look into the matter of Anise. It was a difficult issue that would only bring harm if he tried to dig into it prematurely; moreover, if he wanted to know the truth, instead of Kristina, he would need to investigate her superiors. This meant Cardinal Rogeris, who had adopted Kristina, and the Pope, who had assigned Kristina as a saint candidate.
“...We haven’t given up,” Eugene finally responded with a shrug. “The resuscitation failed, but a miracle did happen.”
“...Huh?” Kristina gasped, unable to immediately process what she had just been told.
“The moment that you lost consciousness, the light seemed to burst out. Then I… I received a revelation,” Eugene revealed.
There was no need to say anything about meeting with Anise and Sienna. This matter was so complicated that he wouldn’t know where to even start explaining. However, as long as he threw the word ‘revelation’ around, it was easy enough to convince Kristina.
“...Aaaah!” Kristina truly was convinced by his claim.
Letting out another gasp, she clasped her hands together in front of her chest.
Eugene felt a bit guilty for lying, but….
‘No, it’s not really a lie. Because Anise did appear, having transformed into an angel, and did perform a miracle. So if you look at it from a certain angle, you could call that a revelation.’
Eugene brazenly convinced himself that he was just telling the truth.
Still, it didn’t feel right to say that the god had spoken to him, so he further explained, “...I heard the voice of an angel.”
At the word ‘angel,’ Kristina’s eyes started sparkling.
“You said there was an angel—! Sir Eugene, did you really see an angel in person?” Kristina asked eagerly.
“...That’s, the light was too bright so I couldn’t really see her clearly, but I could make out the way she spread her wings,” Eugene replied.
“Her wings!” Kristina exclaimed. “Sir Eugene, for the angels of the God of Light, the number of wings is an indicator of their class. By any chance, were you able to tell how many wings the angel had?”
Eugene hesitantly revealed, “...It seemed like there might have been eight wings….”
“...But that can’t be!” Kristina’s voice rose in surprise. She immediately got down on the spot, fell to her knees, and began praying.
Taken aback, Eugene asked, “...Is there something wrong with having eight wings?”
“Sir Eugene…! According to the records in the scriptures, among all the angels sent by the God of Light to descend upon this world, the angel whom God valued the most only had six wings,” Kristina reported.
Eugene felt a belated sense of regret. It would have been better had he dropped the count a little.
“But if the angel that Sir Eugene saw really had eight wings, then it wasn’t just any ordinary angel, but an envoy personally sent by the God of Light!” Kristina continued excitedly.
“...Aaah… now that I think about it, I probably just didn’t see it too clearly because it was too bright? It might have just been six wings, instead of eight,” as Eugene groped around for an excuse, he recalled Anise’s appearance. The light that she gave off had indeed been bright, but he hadn’t made a mistake. Anise had definitely spread eight wings exactly.
‘An envoy of God?’
That Anise?
“No,” Kristina firmly denied. “At the moment of a miracle, there is no way that Sir Eugene could have been mistaken.”
Eugene grumbled, “I’m the one who feels like I might have made a mistake, so how can you be so sure of that when you fainted right away….”
“There can be no mistake about it,” Kristina insisted. “The God of Light must have sent an apostle to deliver a revelation to Sir Eugene, the Hero and master of the Holy Sword.
Eugene gave up. “Uh-huh. Well, think whatever you like.”
“So, Sir Eugene, what kind of revelation did you receive?” Kristina asked.
“...In order for Lady Sienna to be awakened, we need to kill the Black Dragon Raizakia.”
Once he had said this, Kristina could no longer muster up any desire to exclaim in excitement, and her thrilled expression also faded away quickly.
The Black Dragon Raizakia.
Kristina was also well aware of the terrible notoriety that the dragon had established. Also known as the Fallen Dragon and the Kin-Killer, Raizakia was one of the three Dukes of Helmuth, a monster that was capable of taking over one of the empty positions for a Demon King.
“...How difficult,” Kristina said faintly.
“Because of that, there’s something that I need to discuss with you,” Eugene kept walking as he continued to speak to her. “According to the angel’s revelation, the Raizakia in Helmuth isn’t the ‘real’ one.”
“...What does that mean?” Kristina asked.
“Raizakia invaded the elven territory two hundred years ago. It looks like he intended to kill Lady Sienna and all the elves there, but he wasn’t able to succeed in his plot. Lady Sienna managed to banish Raizakia into a dimensional rift, but Raizakia’s poison has forced Lady Sienna and the elves to hibernate in the World Tree.”
Kristina let out a short cry of surprise. To think that someone was actually able to face a monster that was said to be the strongest dragon of all time, and even banish him into a dimensional rift!
“...So something mysterious is going on,” Kristina reasoned after she got over her surprise.
Angels were not able to lie. Of course, Eugene didn’t believe in her God and had committed blasphemy by falsely claiming to have received a revelation several times before. However, there was no way that Eugene would lie about something like this. So Kristina held no doubt about Eugene’s words.
“If he was banished into a dimensional rift, that means he cannot be found in our world…. But I haven’t heard of any issues occuring in Helmuth,” Kristina contributed.
“The same goes for me,” Eugene said with a nod.
The Queen of the Night Demons, Noir Giabella.
The Blade of Incarceration, Gavid Lindman
The Black Dragon, Raizakia.
These three individuals were called the Three Princes of Helmuth and their positions in this triumvirate hadn’t changed in hundreds of years.
Eugene shared what he knew, “If one of the Three Princes, Raizakia, had disappeared hundreds of years ago, there is no way that the other demonfolk of Helmuth wouldn’t aim for his vacated spot. However, Raizakia’s territory, the Dragon Demon Castle, is still doing well, and someone with his name is still sitting in the seat of the Duke.”
“...Duke Noir Giabella is a representative of the moderate faction among the high-ranking demons,” Kristina followed Eugene’s example as she shared what she could recall. “Duke Gavid Lindman still claims to be the subordinate of the Demon King of Incarceration, and does not interact much with the outside world. Although I’m not sure what his exact opinions are, it seems that Duke Raizakia has always occupied the exact opposite political position to that of Duke Noir Giabella.”
Noir Giabella had never been against the infusion of humans into Helmuth. Eugene didn’t know what kind of festering hellpit that damned bitch was concealing within her chest, but in any case, that slut had been actively involving herself with the humans ever since Helmuth had opened its gates to their kind.
Raizakia had not followed suit. That guy was simply violent and insane. Although the dragon claimed to be an arbitrator of balance, he was just a bastard who had killed his own lord and devoured his heart. Even so, he was still shameless enough to display the arrogance that was so characteristic of dragons.
He considered all those weaker than him to be inferior bugs who didn't deserve to live.
Kristina continued. “Even in Helmuth, foreigners are strictly forbidden from entering Duke Raizakia’s Dragon Demon Castle. He is known to be a vicious hater of humans, so even though he hasn’t been seen out and about lately, rumors of his past infamy have still spread among them.”
At the very least, this meant that there hadn't been any incidents arising from when the false Raizikia would still wander around Helmuth. Sienna had hypothesized that it might be either a hatchling or a clone impersonating Raizakia.
‘That said, we can’t just attack the Dragon Demon Castle directly either.’
If it was really a hatchling or a clone, then it should be much weaker than the real Raizakia. But even so, it wouldn’t do to underestimate a dragon. At least for now, Eugene had managed to confirm that Sienna was still alive and he had even had a good conversation with her.
I will trust you, place my hopes in you, and wait for you.
Sienna had said these words to him before he left her.
‘I can’t be hasty,’ Eugene reminded himself, suppressing his surging emotions.
What he needed to do now was to return to the elven village. It was clear that leading all the elves who lived there outside of Samar would be a tiresome affair even just by itself. This wasn’t only one or two elves that they were talking about — he would need to lead more than a hundred elves across the hostile forest.
After escorting the elves back to the Lionheart clan’s main estate, he could then head back to Aroth and get his hands on Akasha.
Although he would probably be forced to deal with the wizards of Aroth regarding this matter, as long as he put forth evidence of Sienna’s recognition of him and his legitimate claim to the staff, they would have no choice but to keep their mouths shut.
“...Hm,” Eugene hummed to himself as he listed all the things that he would need to do in the future, then he slipped his hands inside his cloak.
“Sir Eugene, is that…?” Kristina trailed off as she approached him with a surprised expression on her face.
Her eyes widened into circles as she saw the long branch laden with leaves that Eugene was holding.
“I twisted one off,” Eugene casually remarked.
Kristina gasped. “Is that even allowed…?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Eugene shrugged. “You saw how large the World Tree is. Breaking off one of its branches makes no difference to it.”
Eugene didn’t feel any guilt about twisting off one of the World Tree’s branches. In fact, he felt that doing so was unavoidable. While he had kept hold of the leaf that had led him to the elven domain, a green branch and its many leaves seemed like they would be of more help than a single dried leaf.
They still needed to transplant the saplings of the World Tree to the forest at the Lionheart’s estate. Although Eugene had broken off the tree branch in order to help with that, he couldn’t deny that he hoped it might prove useful in other ways.
A leaf of the World Tree would usually allow you to warp to the elven territory no matter where in the world you were. He had tried out that function while Kristina was still unconscious, but it seemed that the warp function wasn’t enabled while the elven domain was still sealed away.
‘Come to think of it… I didn’t talk to Sienna about Signard.’ This thought belatedly crossed Eugene’s mind. ‘Oh well, it’s not like he even gave me any words to pass on to her.’
It wasn’t just Signard that they hadn’t managed to get around to talking about.
There were a lot more stories that Eugene had wanted to share with her. What about all the things that had happened to him since he had been reincarnated? That alone would have been enough for them to spend a few days talking about it.
‘We can just do that next time,’ Eugene reassured himself.
Because this wouldn’t be the last time they met.
Eugene could feel Sienna’s presence coming from the small branch that he held in his hand.
* * *
Eugene had memorized the way back to the elven village. Since it was protected by its barrier, he wouldn’t be able to enter it directly, but as long as he got close, Signard or one of the other elves should come out to meet him.
They didn’t get held up along the way, so they were able to reach the village within two days.
But none of the elves came out to meet them.
“...Something’s going on…,” Eugene muttered.
He had a bad feeling about this.
Eugene narrowed his eyes and set his senses on edge. The barrier that protected the village was of a high enough level that it didn’t give off a sense of incongruity even after knowing that a barrier did exist.
However, he was currently getting an uncomfortable feeling from it. The mana that formed the barrier seemed slightly distorted. This was quite different from how it had been just a few days ago.
Eugene stopped walking and closed his eyes.
It wasn’t just an illusion. The barrier’s mana had indeed been distorted. This distortion was proof that the barrier had recently been broken. But why?
Eugene reopened his eyes. This wasn’t the time to get lost in suspicion.
“I’ll head over first, so just follow after me,” Eugene ordered.
“...Yes,” Kristina replied after a pause.
Kristina didn’t feel the same discomfort as Eugene. However, she was able to predict a vague omen of danger from Eugene’s expression and voice.
Eugene immediately kicked off the ground and leapt forward. Kristina unfolded her wings of light and followed after Eugene. Although her flight was pretty fast, Eugene was even faster than her.
‘It’s only been two days,’ Eugene complained silently.
In just two days, someone had attacked the elven village. Was it hunters looking to take the elves as slaves? There was no way that they could be just any ordinary group of slavers. The barrier protecting the village was created by the saplings of the World Tree. It was impossible for the average wizard to even sense the barrier.
It had to be the dark elves. Those guys were notorious for recruiting elves in order to strengthen their position in Helmuth. However, wasn’t the timing of this too auspicious? Did they really just happen to find the village on Eugene’s arrival and attack it once he had left?’
‘The distortion in the mana, it doesn’t feel like they broke through the barrier with a spell. Instead… it seems to have been torn down through sheer brute force,’ Eugene observed.
Was this really the dark elves’ doing?
Amongst the many questions that were flowing through his head, Eugene recalled a scene from a few days before. When all of the elves had seen the two off, their eyes full of earnest prayer and hope.