Chapter 112: The Flame (4)
There was no way that Barang didn’t know his name.
But even though he had just received confirmation from the man himself, Barang simply couldn’t believe it.
After all, how could he? The one standing up there, right in front of him, was a terrifying existence that seemed impossible to even touch. How could this person truly be a human brat who had yet to even become a full adult?
“...There’s… no way,” Barang denied the possibility through clenched teeth. “You, you aren’t Eugene Lionheart. Who in the world… are you? Could you really be a dragon?”
This was the first time that Eugene had been subjected to such a misunderstanding. Eugene snorted and shook his head.
“Do I really look like a dragon in your eyes?” he asked.
Barang didn’t reply.
Both his arms had been cut off. His internal organs were also spilling out of his torn-up torso.
However, Barang wasn’t dead yet. Although his wounds were so serious that he wouldn’t last long without treatment, Barang was still alive, refusing to die.
But he was barely clinging on to his last breath. In such a state, was it even possible for him to overturn this situation? Was this all because he had been too careless? No… while that could have been held up as an excuse at first, now that things had turned out like this, carelessness alone couldn’t excuse this result.
Barang had done his best, but his best effort alone wasn’t enough to narrow the gap between him and Eugene. Or rather, this mysterious opponent who had hidden his true identity behind the mask of the nineteen-year-old Eugene Lionheart.
‘Big brother…’ Barang thought regretfully.
He swallowed the blood that had surged up his throat.
The long distance between the two opponents slowly decreased as Eugene calmly walked over to Barang. His pace wasn’t fast, allowing each of his steps to ring clearly.
Barang began to tremble slightly. Although he wholeheartedly denied that the person in front of him was truly Eugene Lionheart, he couldn’t deny the terror that he was feeling. With each step that narrowed the distance between them, Barang’s terror rose even higher. His instincts were telling him to somehow force himself onto his feet and get away from Eugene.
“Who gave you your orders?” Eugene demanded.
The effects of Ignition weren’t over quite yet. Though there was a limit on the skill’s duration, Eugene still had enough time to take things leisurely.
‘Big brother…’ Barang thought once more.
Barang’s trembling body hunched inward. While it was true that they did have a sibling relationship, Barang was afraid of Jagon. He wasn’t alone in his fear of Jagon, either. All the beastfolk who followed Jagon were afraid of him as well.
Jagon was the very incarnation of fear for all of the beastfolk. That was just the type of person Barang’s sworn brother was.
His relationship with Jagon really wasn’t all that impressive. As someone who had even personally killed his own biological father, how much value and sentiment would a man like Jagon place in a brother whom he didn’t even share a drop of blood with?
Barang was also well aware of this. No matter what happened to him, Jagon would feel no sympathy for him. He might even mock Barang for being weak. A brotherhood that they had sworn when they were both young and dreaming of a distant future together… such a relationship wasn’t of the slightest significance to Jagon as he was now.
“...This has nothing to do with Jagon,” Barang spat out with a scowl. “This task wasn’t done on Jagon’s order. He is too busy to give the orders for such a trivial task.”
“A trivial task you say…. Well, whatever,” Eugene shrugged. “So anyways, what were you planning to do once you followed me into the elven territory?”
Barang revealed, “My mission was just to confirm the existence and location of the elven territory.”
Just a bit more.
“After I had confirmed that, I intended on returning after I killed you and the Saint.”
If he could come just a bit closer…
“Even though you said that you weren’t going to kill us? So in the end, it was just a lie,” Eugene scoffed.
Barang kept his silence.
“In any case, who did you get those orders from? If it wasn’t Jagon, was it one of the demonfolk? Could it be the dark elves?” Eugene speculated.
Right when Eugene had taken another step closer, the color of Barang’s blood that had stained the ground around them changed. The blood turned a dark color and sprayed up at Eugene. Without even waiting to confirm the result of this surprise attack, Barang clenched his teeth. The spilled blood and guts — no, Barang’s entire body was consumed in a dark explosion.
Both of his arms had already been cut off. Barang still had his teeth left, but he didn’t see any chance of success in trying to charge at Eugene and sink his fangs into him. The best that Barang could do at this point was force his own body to explode and die together with his enemy.
“Sir Eugene!!!”
Kristina’s scream was swallowed up by a loud boom.
The black explosion engulfed Eugene. With the distance between the two of them being so close, it was impossible for him to evade it.
Though… there wasn’t any need to avoid it.
Gwaaaaah!
The explosion wasn’t able to surge past the point where Eugene had been standing.
The moment that he died, Barang’s eyes witnessed flames surge to life — flames burning blue and flames burning white. The mixture of these two types of flames formed a huge barrier, blocking off the blast. In the end, the explosion that Barang had created by sacrificing his own life wasn’t even able to leave a mark on Eugene.
“Damn it,” Eugene cursed as he shook his raised hand.
Not a single trace remained of Barang’s corpse. Eugene stared at the charred patch of ground that had been left as he placed Wynnyd, which he had still been holding in his hand, back inside his cloak.
Kristina called out to him once more. “Sir Eugene…!”
Rushing over to him, Kristina quickly grabbed Eugene’s wrist. Then, she placed her other hand on top of Eugene’s racing chest as her brows furrowed.
“I shouldn’t have let him die,” Eugene grumbled. “I had a lot of ways to make that bastard open his mouth.”
There were a lot of things that Eugene had wanted to ask Barang. The only method of interrogation that Eugene had learned in the past was torture, but now he had Kristina with him. No matter how tightly Barang tried to keep his lips shut, Kristina’s holy magic would have been able to easily pull open his lips…
“...No, that would have been impossible,” Kristina corrected him as she straightened her expression. “That beastman was incomparably stronger and much more corrupt than the dark elf we interrogated previously. Had I tried to use an interrogation spell on him, he would have dissipated his own soul before we could even start listening to his confession.”
“Even so, I shouldn’t have let him die like that. Even if we weren’t able to get him to open up, we might have gotten him to spill something once we started beating him up,” Eugene said regretfully.
“...Is your body alright?” Kristina asked, changing the subject.
“It’s alright for now, but soon it won’t be,” Eugene replied.
“...Huh?” Kristina asked, not sure what he meant.
Eugene didn’t feel the need to explain.
Kughk….
His fingers dug into his own chest and used mana to gently stroke his heart. The overloaded Cores’ heat slowly dissipated and his heart rate slowed down.
Then came the recoil.
Eugene’s body shook violently. When it looked like he was about to collapse on the spot, Kristina quickly supported him.
“S-sir Eugene?! Why are you acting like this so suddenly?” Kristina burst out in alarm.
Eugene wasn’t able to hear her voice clearly. His head was feeling dizzy and all the muscles in his body felt like they were being torn apart. His bones — no, even the very blood in his veins felt as if they were weighing him down. His Cores, which had been exhausted by the overload, had now fallen silent. By this point, Eugene couldn’t even draw out the strength needed to stay in control of his own body.
‘...Still, this is better than what I expected,’ Eugene thought to himself.
In his previous life, he had always lost consciousness after using Ignition. Whenever he had opened his eyes after collapsing like this, he had heard all sorts of harsh criticism from Sienna and Anise.[1]
‘Is it thanks to the fact that this body is stronger than my old one?’
The burden on his heart wasn’t that heavy either. Even so, Ignition still wasn’t a skill that he could abuse. Eugene first needed to have the certainty that he would be able to kill his opponent no matter what. This skill also couldn’t be used without having a companion nearby who could take care of his tattered body after Eugene was done killing the enemy.
Kristina quickly assured him, “I’ll cast a healing spell right—”
“It’s useless,” Eugene cut her short.
Although he said this, Kristina still laid Eugene down on the ground and cast a holy spell over him. A warm light wrapped around Eugene’s body. However, the aftereffects from using Ignition couldn’t be shaken off even with healing spells. There was no way to recover from an overworked Core other than just getting enough rest.
‘...Isn’t Anise going to show up?’ Eugene thought as he looked at Kristina’s back.
But even with all the intense light pouring forth from Kristina, Anise’s figure couldn’t be seen.
“...About that fucking bestial bastard,” Eugene said as he lay on the ground, clenching and unclenching his tingling fingers. “He knew about you and me.”
“...Does that mean someone let slip the news about us?” Kristina asked, her face stiffening as she worked through the implications. After hesitating for a few moments, she continued speaking. “...The only ones who knew that I’d be coming to Samar… are the Pope and Cardinal Rogeris.”
“Are you sure?”
“...Although I’m not sure if they have told someone else, those two are the only ones that I sent my report to,” Kristina confirmed with a nod.
“Do you trust those two?” Eugene asked as he looked straight at Kristina.
Truthfully speaking, Eugene was even prepared to get slapped in the face for asking such a rude question. On the one hand, there was the Pope, the supreme leader of the Church of Light. On the other hand, there was a Cardinal, who was just one step below the pope, and Kristina’s adoptive father. It would only be natural for Kristina to be furious at having these two be addressed with such suspicions.
However, Kristina didn’t show any signs of being enraged. Instead of replying immediately, she only stared at Eugene for a few moments. Eugene couldn’t clearly read the emotions that were buried in those eyes.
However, he still got the feeling that the emotions were something other than anger.
“...What about you, Sir Eugene? If news about us has been leaked, then it isn’t just the Holy Empire, but also the Lionheart clan that needs to be suspected, right?” Kristina asked without answering his question.
“There’s no way that the Patriarch would do this,” Eugene stated confidently. “He has no reason for doing so. However, if it’s the Head of the Council, then I think he might be capable of doing something like this.”
Eugene was an adopted child who had proven himself superior to the direct descendants of the main line. No matter how much Eugene denied having any desire for the seat of the Patriarch, the Council of Elders would have no choice but to be wary of Eugene’s ambitions.
In fact, that wasn’t the only reason why Doynes might have betrayed them.
Eugene and Kristina knew that there wasn’t any corpse resting inside of Vermouth’s tomb. The Lionheart clan’s honor was something that had been passed down onto them from their ancestor, the Great Vermouth. If it was for the sake of protecting the clan’s honor… then this could also be a convenient way of burying this shameful truth so that it would never be revealed.
“How about you?” Eugene asked again. “Do you trust the Pope and the Cardinal?”
After a short silence, Kristina spoke up, “No, I don’t.”
She continued in a subdued voice, “I can’t trust those two. I can’t figure out what reason they might have for doing this, but if they felt it was needed, they would even be willing to cooperate with the demonfolk.”
“...,” Eugene was struck silent.
“However, Sir Eugene. I also heard what that beastman said. He claimed that after we guided him to the elven territory, he had intended to kill both of us. Although I can’t really tell at this point if he was telling the truth or not, if that was the truth, then….” Kristina hesitated before finishing confidently, “then neither the Pope nor Cardinal Rogeris should have made a deal with the beastfolk.”
“Is it because I’ve received the Holy Sword’s recognition?” Eugene asked.
“That might also be a factor, but the two of them also wouldn’t want me to die like this,” Kristina said with a faint smile on her face.
This wasn’t a topic of conversation that would cause any amusement, so it was obvious that the smile was artificial. It was the same type of smile that Anise used to show whenever she talked about the Holy Empire so long ago.
Anise had been strangely reluctant to speak of the Holy Empire. Even when everyone else was chatting about their past, Anise had just remained silent. There had also been a twisted smile on her face that was different from the one she usually wore.
Right now, Kristina looked exactly the same.
After some hesitation, Eugene decided to ask. “...Why not?”
Kristina refused to answer. “I feel like the relationship between you and me isn’t deep enough yet for me to be willing to share such a story.”
“Fine then,” Eugene mumbled as he stood up.
Or at least he tried to stand up. He couldn’t properly muster up the strength in his body, and even after gritting his teeth in effort, he wasn’t able to bend his waist past a certain angle.
At this sight, Kristina’s smile changed back once more to her usual one. She chuckled and then reached a hand out towards Eugene’s armpit.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Eugene cursed in surprise as he tried to twist his body out of the way.
With amusement in her eyes, Kristina asked, “What’s with that tone, Sir Eugene? I’m just trying to support you.”
“Don’t lie to me. You weren’t trying to support me, you were trying to tickle me in the armpit!” Eugene accused her.
“...Where in the world did you get such an idea? It’s not like I’m insane, so why would you accuse me of trying to tickle you in the armpit, Sir Eugene?” Kristina asked with a frown.
Although her argument was reasonable, Eugene had clearly felt that Kristina’s fingers had been wriggling slightly as they tried to reach below his arm.
“...That’s… there’s no need to support me.” Eugene finally gave in. “Just give me a hand so that I can pull myself up.”
“Would it really be all that shameful for you to place yourself safely in my hands without putting up such resistance?” Kristina inquired.
Eugene maintained a stubborn silence.
“So you actually do have a cute side to you. It feels I haven’t really realized it until now because of your usual words and actions, but looking at you now, you truly are younger than I am,” Kristina observed with a soft smile as both her hands reached out towards Eugene. “Now then. Try not to feel ashamed and raise both your hands so that this big sister can pick you up. If you need an example, raise your hands like you’re cheering.”
“...You’re mad because I accused the Pope and the Cardinal, aren’t you?” Eugene insisted.
“Not at all,” Kristina replied with a shake of her head. “I don’t feel any anger at being asked such a question. Because there is no reason for me to feel angry.”
“Then why are you doing this to me? Why exactly are you harassing me like this?” Eugene asked dramatically.
“Sir Eugene, do you know what the word ‘karma’ means?”
Eugene played dumb.
“Sir Eugene, you have also harassed me on several occasions since we’ve entered this forest, and your harsh words have left their marks on my heart. Of course, I have never harbored any hatred towards you because of those actions, but if not at a time like now, when else will I get the chance to do whatever I want with you, Sir Eugene?” Kristina asked rhetorically.
Eugene tightly squeezed his lips shut and stubbornly stuck his arms to his waist. In response to this, Kristina directly grabbed Eugene’s hands and spread them wide open. Eugene resisted with all his strength, but the way he was now, he simply couldn’t overcome Kristina’s strength….
“You really are very stubborn, Sir Eugene,” Kristina commented. “Judging from the condition of your body, even if I supported you, it would be difficult for you to walk.”
“...At least get a stretcher…,” Eugene murmured in embarrassment.
Kristina decisively rejected his request. “No. There’s no need for that. I can piggyback you myself, Sir Eugene.”
“You’re going to piggyback me…?” Eugene asked in disbelief.
“Yep. And just so that you won’t fall or feel uncomfortable, I’ll make sure to securely support your bum as well,” Kristina reassured him.
Eugene’s eyes were shaking in embarrassment. Was he really about to be piggy-backed, at his age? His rough past, from when he had made a living as a hard-bitten mercenary in his previous life, flashed through his head. Eugene decided that he thoroughly hated the thought of getting piggy-backed by Kristina.
Yet, no matter how much he hated the idea of it, the state of his body made it impossible for Eugene to resist.
“Are you ready?” Kristina asked, not waiting for a response before swinging him onto her back. “A bit higher… there we go. Now, please hold on tightly to my neck.”
Eugene groaned. “You… don’t you feel any shame?”
“Why would I feel shame when all I’m doing is taking care of a wounded patient?” Kristina asked innocently. “But does that mean that you’re feeling ashamed right now, Sir Eugene?”
Eugene desperately kept his silence.
“Please don’t forget this feeling. I hope that Sir Eugene will hold on to the experience of this day and use it to become a better person from now on,” Kristina cheerfully requested.
Eugene clenched his trembling lips and bowed his head.
The feeling of Kristina’s hand supporting his bum from below was truly hateful.