Chapter 139: The Hunt (2)
Akasha strengthened Eugene’s barriers. In addition, Mer didn’t need to sleep and was connected directly to Eugene. If somebody tried to interfere with or infiltrate through the barrier, Mer would instantly notice it and notify Eugene. This fact alone eliminated the need to keep a night watch, but Eugene went strictly by the book in matters like this.
He hadn’t started a fire. Thick darkness covered the forest, but it wasn’t a problem for Eugene. He had chosen a terrain that was not suited for an ambush and hadn’t spread any rugs over the ground.
Wrapping himself with the big cloak, Eugene sat on the ground. If he had to sleep, he would sleep light and short. He could spend the night sleeping like that. Of course, he had set several spells nearby, but he had no plans to have a deep sleep and sweet dreams.
Genia, who had chased him from afar, quietly gave him a passing mark when she saw what he did. Of course, there was no judge in this hunt, and even if there were one, it wouldn’t be Genia.
In any case, she made some amendments to her assessment of Eugene. His talent had already been recognized by other people anyway… If she saw a sign of naiveness that suited his age, she was going to criticize him right away, but Eugene stayed on guard even in a situation like this. He was worthy of a passing mark.
“I can see you are having fun,” Genia snapped, regardless. Brushing off dirt from the edible roots in her hand, she glared at Eugene.
Unlike Genia, who had foraged uncontaminated plants, Eugene was unsparingly spreading fruit jam on a piece of bread. He had more of them in his cloak.
“I would prefer the term ‘well-prepared,’” Eugene calmly answered.
“I could also do your preparation. I didn’t do so on purpose. Why, you ask? This hunt is about testing our ability to survive as a hunter—”
“Since when was this a test?”
“Ever since the bracelets that record the head count were wrapped around your wrist and mine, this hunt was no longer an ordinary one. It also became a test, Sir Eugene.”
“I’m not going to care even if you are correct. It’s not like I am going to receive a reward for winning, and I believe someone other than me will be coming last. Even if I come in last by any chance, I will only be embarrassed. That’s all.”
“Sir Eugene… Do you not have any ambition to prove yourself to everyone?”
“I have always been proving myself until now, haven't I?” Eugene bit the bread, chuckling.
Genia looked back and forth between the slice of bread with a thick layer of jam and the dirty roots in her hand. She tightly shut her lips and brushed off the rest of the dirt on the roots.
“Would you like one?” Eugene offered.
“No, thank you. I am going to have this root I found.”
“Caliz’s root. Isn’t that very bitter if you eat it raw?”
“Do you know about this?”
“Of course I do. The plants are resistant to demonic energy. If you blanche and dry it, it’s pretty sweet.”
“And I can chew it for a long time.”
“Well, one slice of bread with jam is better than ten of those roots though,” Eugene quietly spoke, but it was loud enough for Genia to hear him.
She pouted. “…This is also pretty good in a situation like this.”
She dramatically opened her mouth and took a big bite of Caliz’s roots. When the piece of the root touched her tongue, its bitterness, which resembled an electric shock, filled her mouth. However, Genia’s expression showed nothing of what she was feeling.
“Why don’t you get some jam on that, at least?” Eugene offered.
“It’s fine.”
She wanted to spit it out. If it wasn’t for Eugene, she would have spat it out. No, if she had a fire, she would have been able to roast it at least. Stopping the corners of her lips being contorted with difficulty, she forced herself to swallow the root.
“Are you going to follow me during the entire hunt?”
“I told you I’m not following—” Genia answered, but Eugene didn’t listen. He just stood up, so she cleared her throat and nodded.
“I am going to leave after I finish eating.” Straightening her face, she continued. “Although I only saw fragments…I have witnessed…your capability…Sir Eugene. I can indeed understand why my father favors you. Since I have witnessed your ability with my own eyes, I have no choice but to recognize your ability. ”
“Have you been following me because you couldn’t recognize my ability?”
“I only wanted to see it for myself,” she snapped, then stood up. “And I have seen enough. Even if I catch more monsters than you in this hunt…you won’t think you lost, will you?”
“Nope.”
“Still, I will catch more monsters than you.”
“Do your best,” Eugene answered relaxedly.
She had said such things to make him competitive, but it didn’t affect Eugene one bit. Feeling annoyed by his nonchalant face, she scowled at Eugene for a moment.
“…Please don’t hate my daughter too much,” Genos said as he approached after Genia had left.
Watching him standing a distance away, Eugene grinned.
“Are you sticking to the rule in your own way by not coming close to me, Junior Brother?”
“I am only here as a guardian.”
“It seems your daughter is very discontent with you staying near me like this.”
“I have no other choice. If you hadn’t told me about the possible assassination attempt, I wouldn’t have stayed near you, Senior Brother.”
“What is the Council Head doing?”
“He is staying at the Red Boulder,” Genos continued, being conscious of the communication device on his ear. “…I haven’t got a specific order yet, and no accidents have occurred yet.”
“What about Cyan and Ciel?”
“It seems Master Cyan is aiming to get to the center of the demonic cave, and Lady Ciel…” Feeling it difficult to continue, he hesitated for a moment. “…Is tailing Master Eward.”
“Brother Eward?”
“Yes, I don’t think she planned this from the start…”
She had either run into Eward or seen him from a distance. Regardless of which of these was the case, she was shadowing Eward now.
‘No way. Is Ciel planning to kill Brother Eward using this hunt as an opportunity?’
The thought entered Eugene’s mind for a moment, but it didn’t make sense when he thought about it again. He knew Ciel hated Eward, but she didn’t hate Eward enough to really kill him.
‘Besides, Ciel…isn’t the type to get her hands dirty. If she was really going to kill him, she would have hired an assassin or poisoned him.’
She was probably just keeping watch in order to prevent Eward from pulling a stunt, since he had a history of doing that kind of thing. Of course, Eugene also kept an eye on Eward.
The forest was full of demonic energy, and a black magic circle was in the center of the demonic cave. Oddstones, which held demonic energy, and high-class cursed relics were also prepared. With this kind of environment, there was no need to make a contract with whatever demonfolk to become a black wizard.
—Your punch…haha…it hurt, but it was a valuable lesson to me.
—Thanks to you, I am working hard now. It’s all thanks to you.
Eward’s smiling face came to Eugene’s mind.
“If he is a human,” he said in a flat tone as he sat down, “he won’t do it again.”
This forest was the perfect environment to become a black wizard. However, the state of the forest was just too unfortunate. It was easy to become a black wizard, but exiting the forest alive afterward was impossible. Dozens of Black Lion Knights were at the center of the forest. The moment Eward turned to the demonic ways, the teeth and claws of the Black Lions would rip him apart. The captains wouldn’t even have to step up.
‘Eward is at the Fourth Circle. It’s not bad, but not enough to get out of this alive. ’ Eugene analyzed.
No sane person would even think of attempting such fuckery.
‘ He tried to learn black magic because he wasn’t sane…but he isn’t that stupid, right?’
With the thought in mind, Eugene scowled into the darkness. After watching him for a while, Genos slowly stepped back, distancing himself from his protegee.
Eugene was left alone. Mer didn’t say anything and just curled up inside the cloak. It was because she understood the meaning of Eugene’s silence and the feelings he was sinking into.
‘It ’s too serious, ’ Mer thought.
Eugene spoke lightly, and the conversation between him and Genia had also been light.
No…it only seemed that way. Mer once again realized Eugene wasn’t an ordinary twenty-year-old, but a member of the same team that had wandered around Hell three hundred years ago.
The Stupid Hamel. The moment he had stepped foot in this forest, he had been suppressing his boiling rage. He was furious at the demonic energy that clung to his airways with every breath he took, and at the monsters that pounced at him without knowing their places. For him, everything in this place was intolerable evil. He ought to slaughter them at this instant.
There was only one reason why he didn’t do so.
‘ …He is holding back, ’ Mer thought, closing her eyes.
Inside the cloak of darkness, she crouched in the middle of the darkness that filled the cloak.
There was no tremor in the darkness, but there was a sound — the sound of a beating heart… Sometimes, Eugene’s thoughts became voices and echoed inside the cloak. The control formula of the familiar engraved inside Eugene’s mind made Mer’s own mind resonate with Eugene’s strong emotions.
‘ Three hundred years have passed in this world, ’ Eugene reminisced.
He considered every Demon King, demonic beast, and demonfolk evil. He had seen a world where his belief was right, survived in that world, and wandered to finish that world.
Three hundred years was a long time. Eugene’s common sense was not common in the current world. Everyone lived in various ways now. People had signed a peace treaty with the demon king. Black wizards, who were supposed to be absolute evil, were just ‘pragmatists.’ Demons were treated as movable and efficient puppets that enabled people to train. People could use demonfolk as slaves or hire them from an illegal shop.
Since the world changed, Eugene had concluded that he couldn’t stick with his common sense from three hundred years ago, so he tried to accept the new one.
Despite all his effort, an uncontrollable rage rose within him while breathing this fucking air that he had missed as he saw these bullshit demons squirming and pouncing at him as they mistook him for prey.
That was why he killed every demon that came across his path as he marched forward, but it didn’t help his rage one bit. He was so furious that if Genia wasn’t Genos’ daughter, he would have taught her a lesson to make her stop following him.
‘Will assassins come?’
The badge that fastened the cloak on Eugene’s shoulders was engraved with the Lionheart Clan’s symbol.
Creak.
Glaring into the darkness, Eugene scratched the symbol with his fingernail.
‘ Assassins won ’t come, at least today, ’ He concluded.
He wasn’t that deep in the forest, so it would be too premature to attempt an assassination and cover it up as an accident.
‘I got four days left so I won’t rush. Assassination? I’m used to it, it’s just a hunt that requires a certain set of skills.’
If the Council Head was really the mastermind behind all this, would he really order it? Killing a son of the Patriarch, adopted though he was, in the vicinity of the Black Lion Castle, was something else entirely than hiring a mercenary to do it someplace else. Why would he go to the length of committing such an act?
The Chief’s intention was none of Eugene’s business. When he had met the Chief face to face, he hadn’t sensed any desire to kill him from the old man.
‘The old man has lived for over a hundred years. He wouldn’t make the rookie mistake of revealing his desire to kill me.’
For now, he believed that the Chief had ordered his assassination.
‘Shall I move recklessly then?’
The Chief was staying at Red Boulder. Would he order Dominic Lionheart, his grandson, or one of the Black Lions to assassinate Eugene? He was looking forward to meeting one of them but…he thought that they weren’t going to be that clumsy while trying to assassinate him.
‘I am going to try luring him, but I can’t devote all my attention to this matter.’
He had other matters to attend to, since the Rakshasha Princess was going to come. He also had to find Raizakia, who was stuck in a dimensional rift.
‘If the hunt ends without incident, shall I take the bull by the horns?’
Eugene clicked his tongue and clenched his fists, making a mental note to ask ‘Are you the one who tried to screw me by sending that animal bastard?’
* * *
Ciel hadn’t directly run into Eward.
She had noticed him from afar as he was walking through the forest.
The night in the forest started early. The sun only descended slightly, but the forest was already dark. However, he didn’t carry a torch or conjure light by using magic.
Without any source of light, he crossed the dark forest.
The sight of Eward bothered Ciel and also made her curious.
In her eyes, he was still the fifteen-year-old boy who she had seen seven years ago.
When she had heard he had tried to learn black magic in Aroth, she hadn’t been all that surprised. She had thought ‘Eldest Brother Eward, of all people, is fully capable of doing something like that.’
In the main house, he had been so depressed that it wasn’t so strange for him to commit such a thing. Of course, he hadn’t been born depressed. Until he was ten years old, Eward had been pretty normal.
He had been just like an ordinary child of that age, playful and all. Ciel and Cyan sometimes hung out with him, since he didn’t avoid them for being his half-siblings.
However, they had stopped hanging out after Eward became ten years old. She was just seven years old at the time, but she nevertheless knew why her eldest brother had begun to change. When a child turned ten in the Lionheart clan, they could participate in the Bloodline Continuation Ceremony, the traditional ceremony of the clan.
Since then, Eward had kept a distance from the twins. Instead of playing childish games, he had started to wield a sword under Tanis’ strict observation. Listening to his mother’s browbeating, he cultivated his mana as he sat upright. After sunset, he cooped himself up in the library and read about the theories of sword arts and various combat tactics.
At some point, magic texts were added to Eward’s reading list. Tanis wasn’t pleased with his son’s choice, but she didn’t oppose him reading magic texts. It was because she also had to admit it at that point.
Eward Lionheart didn’t have a talent for martial arts. That was why he had decided to pursue a different path—magic. It was what Eward wanted to do. He had fun reading magic texts, imagining his ‘talent’ in magic that was yet to be confirmed. It was much more fun than devoting himself to practicing sword arts, which he was bad at, as he got scolded by his mother...
Ciel remembered Eward from that time.
With twinkling eyes, he would shut himself inside the library and flip over the pages of magic texts. It hadn’t been long since he had started to learn magic, and he wasn’t even good, but he stirred up his mana and mimicked magic.
Yes, that was mimicry after all. It wasn’t real magic. Although he indulged himself in magic texts, he was unable to cast magic. Shutting himself in a room where thick curtains blocked all lights, he did so many things—read magic texts, swung a sword, mimicked magic, and imagined his bright future in magic with sparkling eyes.
‘ This is …’ Ciel thought as she came to a halt.
Something was weird.
She crouched down and glared at a corpse. It seemed to be a demon corpse…was it a corpse?
Frowning, Ciel pulled out a dagger. When she shoved the dagger into the body, the corpse bled. There was no sign of spasm in the body. It wasn’t breathing either. She was certain: the demon before her was dead. However… it looked so peaceful that she wasn’t able to think of it as a corpse. Instead, it seemed to be fast asleep.
‘…What in the world happened?’
Tilting her head in confusion, Ciel stood up.
She was a member of the Third Division of the Black Lion Knights. Her captain, Carmen, was considered one of the best Black Lions. The Third Division Knights, which she led, went through various kinds of training so they could live up to their captain’s name.
She had trained in the forest multiple times, killed countless monsters, and fought numerous demons. The demons in the center of the demonic cave were dangerous, but the demons in the forest weren’t really dangerous, not for Ciel.
‘…How did this get killed?’
Ciel hadn’t learned magic, but she knew enough about it. There was even a wizard in her Third Division.
Feeling leery, she stood up.
The path in front of her was all but paved with demons sleeping in eternal peace. Was it magic…or poison? No, there were no traces of poison on their bodies. Not to mention, an ordinary wizard could never continuously kill this many demons so fast that they never had the chance to counterattack.
“Did…Eward…do this?” Ciel spoke in disbelief.
“It’s amazing, right?”
She heard a voice behind her back.
Surprised, she instantly moved. With a short leap, she got away from the demon's corpse and then drew out her sword.
“…Eward?”
‘It doesn’t make any sense.’
Thoughts jumbled up in her head. Eward had been ahead of her. How could he jump out behind her? Had he used Blink? Yeah, he could have used that.
However, she would have seen signs if Eward had really used Blink. When a low-circle wizard used Blink, they ended up distorting the mana in the air. There was no way Ciel would have failed to notice a Blink used by a Fourth Circle wizard.
‘…It’s weird.’
Shifting her foot backward, Ciel firmly grabbed onto the hilt of her sword.
‘He is right in front of me… I can’t feel anything, it’s like he doesn’t exist.’
“I know that sword.”
With a faint smile, Eward pointed to Ciel’s sword.
“It’s Phantom Rain Sword Javel.”
“…”
“Cyan received Gedon's Shield.”
He spoke in a flat tone.
“Eugene…got…Storm Sword Wynnyd…and many other things.”
“…Eward.”
“I have received nothing.”
He quietly chuckled and shook his head.
“Ah…don’t get me wrong. I’m not blaming the Patriarch…Father.”
“How did you get behind me?” Ciel asked as she swallowed dryly.
To her question, Eward simply tilted his head. “I just walked behind you.”
“That’s…impossible. You were in front of me. I went after you.” Ciel refuted.
“Why did you come after me?”
“…”
“I know. You have followed me because you were worried I might do something bad…something that would disgrace the Lionheart name.”
— You are a disgrace to the family.
— Because of you, I had to…
“Ciel, I know you.”
— Why are you…my son?
—How can an idiot like you be my grandson?
“You…must have expected me to do something wrong.”
—I wanted to raise you into a talented person like that adopted son, no, like the twins, at least.
“You were always like that. When I made a mistake…or did something that my mother hated…or got laughed at. You tattled on me to your mother and spread rumors to the servants. Why did you do it? I did what you asked me to do, so why? I became a mess because of you. I spent my entire life in humiliation, I can’t even hold my head up as I walk. Whenever you ran your mouth…haha…my mother summoned me to her room and whipped me. Father was not at home…and the servants didn’t stop my mother’s ‘education’. As she sneered at me, she said, ‘what use does your grandfather have, with his title of Count, when his one and only grandson is a mess?!’ Well, it didn’t really hurt when she whipped me…Uhm… Have you ever been whipped? I have seen Cyan getting whipped a couple of times… I guess the answer is no. Ever since you were little, you were very good at not getting whipped. Haha… I also learned it recently. I have to change myself in order not to get whipped. If I change, I can make my mother smile.”
“Eward…” Ciel cautiously called him.
Crack —
She tightened her grip on the sword. Tiny cracks began to spread across Javel’s blade.
“…You sound really weird right now.”
“Weird?” Eward shook his head as he smiled. “I’m not weird.”
Ciel didn’t know why, but she felt a shiver running down her spine. It…it wasn’t magic. Then, what was she sensing?
‘He ’s going to do it. ’ she bitterly thought.
Although she had a hard time believing it.
‘He’s going to attack me.’
Eward was going to do something really stupid.
“…Eward. Stop.” Ciel called him again with a trembling voice.
“You have been looking forward to seeing me doing something like this,” Eward answered in a pleased tone. “And, by the way, Ciel.”
The darkness in the forest undulated.
“I have decided to not listen to other people from now on.”