Four days had passed since their meeting, but Orthrus still had yet to revisit Eugene.
‘It seems that they aren’t in any hurry yet,’ Eugene mused.
Perhaps it would be less of a shocking offer to shorten the fifty years to just twenty-five?
Eugene also had the intention of one day finding Iris, who was sailing around the southern seas, and killing her. However, honestly speaking, that was far down on his list of priorities.
The very first thing that Eugene needed to do was to visit Helmuth’s Dragon Demon Castle. He would find Raizakia’s hatching there and, if it was possible, he would kill it. Of course, before that, he would use the hatchling to find Raizakia in the gap between dimensions.
Iris and any other unfinished business would come after that. Judging from how Orthrus had phrased his request it seemed that the Shimuin side still thought of Iris as just a nuisance, and hadn’t yet decided to take care of her as soon as possible.
Also, the biggest problem with capturing Iris was that the seas were just too wide. In addition to that, Iris’ Demon Eye of Darkness was formidable not only in combat, but also when it came to fleeing.
In the middle of those wide open seas, what were they supposed to do if Iris used the Demoneye of Darkness to escape? Not only Eugene, but any other wizard in the world wouldn't be able to stop Iris from leaving.
‘Well, compared to Noir Giabella, Iris is pretty crazy,’ Eugene thought idly as he brushed the snow off his cheek.
Two days before, Molon had suddenly left the fort.
Leaving behind the words ‘I’ll be back’ on the wall of a hallway, the idiot had left without saying anything to Eugene or Anise. Out of the blue, he had just suddenly disappeared in the middle of the night.
They could guess the reason for this. What other reason could Molon have for suddenly disappearing? Wasn’t it obvious? In Lehainjar, beyond the Great Hammer Canyon, the Nur had probably reappeared.
“Idiot,” Eugene grumbled as he thought of Molon.
After arriving at the fort, Molon had been extremely busy.
On that first night, he, Eugene, and Anise drank and chatted away until dawn. After the Demon King of Incarceration left, Molon spoke with knights from all around the world, starting with the Lionhearts, and attended several meetings with the other kings.
He briefly observed the knights during their training and gave them similar sorts of advice, and he held a small banquet with the other Bayar tribesmen living in the fort. He also spent some time with Aman Ruhr and the White Fangs. Then, even though he had already talked to most of them, he still came to visit the Lionhearts in their mansion so that he could personally meet all those who bore the last name Lionheart and tell them various stories.
Molon was especially fond of Gilead and his twins. Although there wasn’t much of a facial resemblance, Gilead’s long hair seemed to remind Molon of Vermouth. The twins found it difficult to get over their jitters when they first met Molon, but even though it didn’t really suit him, Molon acted like a kind grandfather to them and even gave them tips as the twins sparred.
While at the fort, Molon hadn’t gotten an ounce of sleep. It was all because of the Nur. Even though the two days he had spent at the fort had been so busy, Molon had continuously kept an eye on Lehainjar. No one knew when the Nur might reappear.
Two days before, it had seemed that the Nur had finally reappeared. But if that was all there was to it, then Eugene and Anise would have just accepted it as something that couldn’t be helped. If Molon had come back that very morning, they would have just found him and cursed at him a few times. However, it had been two full days and Molon had yet to return to the fort.
So in order to find Molon, Eugene and Anise had left to climb Lehainjar. In order to prevent anyone from worrying needlessly, Eugene had given some vague explanation to the Patriarch — he told Gilead that they were going to receive a test from the Brave Molon at Lehainjar. It was a hastily made-up excuse, but being given a test by the great hero had held enough weight to convince the others.
“In fact, it’s all because Molon is such an idiot,” Eugene spat out as he glared down at the light flickering in the palm of his hand. “Because that bastard put up such a tough act when all the knights were gathered together, everyone thinks that doing stuff like this is just Molon being Molon.”
“You’re being too harsh on Molon,” Anise’s eyes widened as she stared at Eugene. “Molon definitely acts like a fool when he’s together with us, but in front of his descendants and the people from this era, he got his act together pretty fine, no?”
“Yeah, and he looked way too serious. They say that ‘the position makes the person,’ and it seems like that really is the case,” Eugene sighed.
“Hamel, you were already dead at the time, so you might not be clear about this, but three hundred years ago, Molon really was quite amazing,” Anise lectured him. “Molon was the one who first settled in this unexplored, frozen land at the northern end of the continent with just his own personal strength. At that time, the people of the continent were calling him the Pioneering King of the North.”
“But factually speaking, it’s not like Molon did it all on his own, right?” Eugene argued. “I’ve heard that you also helped the founding of Ruhr by placing pressure on the Pope of Yuras, no?”
Anise acknowledged his point. “Sienna helped as well, and Sir Vermouth also provided a significant portion of Molon’s pioneering funds. However, it was still all because of Molon’s personal strength and firm will that he was able to settle in this land and establish a kingdom.”
This was just plain fact, without any exaggeration. Eugene clicked his tongue as he glared at the flickering flames.
“In any case, they only allowed the two of us to come here and look for Molon without protesting because they thought that it was very much like Molon to give people this kind of task,” Eugene insisted.
“It’s a pretty reasonable pretext,” Anise reminded him. “The founder of Ruhr, the great hero from three hundred years ago, has reappeared for the first time in a hundred years; the living legend decides to test the Hero and the Saint of the present era… doesn’t it sound like something from a myth or a legend?”
“And yet, here we are, actually looking for Molon after he disappeared on his own,” Eugene grumbled.
Unlike last time, they didn’t require Abel’s guidance. As they were leaving the Great Hammer Canyon last time, Eugene had left behind a magical beacon for the next time they came looking for Molon. The flame that Eugene was holding in the palm of his hand was leading the way as they searched for the magical beacon.
Thanks to all of this, their movement speed had increased significantly. This was because last time they had come here, they had been forced to keep pace with Abel’s speed, but now there wasn’t any need for that. Eugene held his head high as he extinguished the flame held in his palm.
At the very limits of his field of vision, the Great Hammer Canyon was wavering in the distance. There was still quite a distance before they could reach it, but if they kept up their current pace, they would probably get there in half a day.
“The problem will be the barrier, what are we going to do about it?” Anise asked.
“If I had taken the time to think about that, we wouldn’t have gotten here this fast, no?” Eugene pointed out. “In that case, while we were making our way through that blizzard, we might have even crossed paths and not noticed as Molon returned to the fort ahead of us.”
“If that really happened, then I’m going to sock Molon right in the kisser when I see him,” Anise threatened.
Eugene agreed. “You go ahead and smash the front of his head, I’ll take care of the back.”
“Sounds good. Hamel, I’m going to head in for a bit, so take good care of Kristina and keep her out of danger,” Anise requested as she swapped places with Kristina.
Now standing in herspot, Kristina blinked in surprise a few times before her brows furrowed and she shivered in the cold.
“Don’t you think that you’re going too far?” Kristina complained.
“What is it?” Eugene asked.
Kristina clarified, “I’m talking about Sis—I mean, Lady Anise!”
When it was just the two of them talking, Kristina would always address Anise as ‘Sister,’but using that form of address in front of other people was somehow embarrassing.
[What’s the difference? I’ve already said this before, but between nuns, there’s nothing special about calling each other ‘sister,’ is there?]
There was certainly nothing unusual about nuns calling each other ‘sister’, but when Kristina used that word, Anise always interpreted it as Kristina calling her ‘big sis.’ Kristina was well aware of this, so it made her embarrassed to call Anise ‘sister’ in front of others.
Kristina aired her grievances. “I can understand why she would ask to swap places with me when she has a lot that she wants to say. I can also understand why she left most of the walk through this cold and inhospitable land to me. But Lady Anise is being quite ill-mannered by removing all the miracles that prevent the cold from affecting us the moment that she swaps places with me.”
Anise admitted, [It’s fun for me to see you shivering in the cold. Also, this is all for your sake, Kristina]
Krisitna muttered, “Just how in the world could this be for my sake….”
[When you suddenly noticed how cold it was, wouldn’t it have been nice if you had thrown yourself into Hamel’s arms to escape the cold?]
Kristina’s lips, which had just been about to vent her overflowing displeasure, were left flapping soundlessly.
[That’s what I was expecting you to do without even thinking about it, but now that we’ve said all this, you’ve missed the chance to do so. While this opportunity has turned out to be a failure, next time, you should focus on embracing Hamel. If you’re hugging him because you’re cold, then even if he’s embarrassed, Hamel won’t reject it.]
“Why have you suddenly stopped talking when you were just about to say something?” Eugene asked in concern.
Kristina’s whole face blushed red as she stammered, “A-a-a devil, a devil is whispering to me inside of my head.”
* * *
Though it had already passed the time when the sun would normally set, there was no night in Lehainjar. Eugene glared at the blizzard-strewn sky and the distant sunlight, as well as the towering, hammer-shaped cliffs below.
The last time they came here, they pitched a tent nearby and camped here. However, there was no need to do so now. Neither Eugene nor Kristina felt any need to rest.
Seeing the Great Hammer Canyon from here, it gave off a completely different atmosphere from what they had felt the last time they were here. No…rather, it was better said that the Great Hammer Canyon had been like this from the very beginning. The atmosphere at that time had been unusual—it had undergone a sudden transformation due to the appearance of the Nur.
Currently, there was no feeling in the air like what they had felt the last time the Nur had appeared. They couldn’t see any signs of that hideous monster, nor did they feel the ominous aura that so resembled the Demon King of Destruction. Eugene clicked his tongue and carried on walking from where he had paused.
Already down by the cliffs, Eugene turned back to Kristina and asked, “Do you need me to carry you down?”
Kristina hesitated for a moment, unable to give an immediate answer. During that pause, her eyes met the glowering stare of Mer through an opening in Eugene’s cloak. Mer’s gaze was so scornful and suspicious that, for a few moments, Kristina seriously considered accepting the offer to be carried, but….
Eventually, she rejected the offer. “Ahem… I’ll be fine.”
It was not that she wasn’t fond of the idea, but she felt like she wouldn’t be able to bear the embarrassment of being carried by Eugene. Especially since it was clear that the voice of Anise in her head would tease her enough to make her want to die, so Krisitina didn’t have the confidence that she would be able to handle the teasing while keeping her composure.
[What would be so embarrassing about that?] Anise complained. [If you keep hesitating like this, you’ll end up having a lot of things stolen from you.]
‘...St-stolen from me?’ Kristina repeated questioningly.
[I can think of dozens of things that might be stolen away from you, but it would be far too embarrassing for me to have to say them with my own lips, one by one.]
Anise was teasing Kristina again. However, this kind of teasing was causing Kristina’s imagination to run wild. As the snow continued to fall, the wind was freezing cold, but in spite of the chill breeze blowing into her face, Kristina’s face was burning hot.
After she calmed her racing breath with a cough, she spread her wings of light.
The top of the cliffs looked the same as last time. The only thing that could be seen was a lot of snow, there were no other traces.
Eugene, who had been expecting at least a few bloodstains, was unable to hide his disappointment. What if they really had crossed paths with Molon without even noticing it? Apart from being pissed off, in that case, Eugene and Anise would be forced to wait until Molon returned to come find them.
‘He did say that he would be able to see Lehainjar even from a distance,’ Eugene recalled.
For a few moments, Eugene was lost in thought as he paced the top of the cliffs.
This place, the Great Hammer Canyon, acted as a kind of border — the frontier zone to which the Nur was limited when making its appearance into this world. The other side of the Lehainjar, where Molon had piled the corpses of the Nur, was also accessible from this point.
‘This is too well hidden,’ Eugene judged.
Akasha, which granted its wielder comprehension of all magic, was already in Eugene’s hands. However, it still wasn’t easy for him to find the spells that had been hidden within this cliff.
It reminded him of the Darkroom. The spells there had been impossible for him to understand, but Eugene still remembered some of the magic formulas that had been used to create the Darkroom.
“Mer,” Eugene called out.
[I’m concentrating,] came Mer’s immediate reply from inside of the cloak.
By linking her consciousness with Akasha, Mer was trying to interpret what spells there were in this location. Without any clues, it would have taken her a tremendous amount of time to interpret the spells in this whole area, but thankfully, she wasn’t completely clueless, as she had obtained some information from their time in the Darkroom.
“He really did hide it very deeply,” Eugene muttered.
Mer agreed. [Yep, that’s right. I don’t really know what the Nur is, but you remember what Sir Molon said, right?]
The Nur emitted an ominous aura, like a kind of poison. Even if it died, that ominous aura wouldn’t disappear. Even an ordinary corpse could become the source of infectious diseases when it rotted, but if a mass of ominous miasma like the Nur’s corpse were to rot… and if those corpses had been piled up for a hundred years, then Lehainjar would definitely have been unable to maintain its current appearance.
[The space here has been severed. Or perhaps ‘quarantined’ is a better word…. You also know what these spells are mostly used for, right?] Mer reminded him.
‘They’re meant to keep things secret,’ Eugene silently replied.
[Yes, and it also has to be completely secure. It must be completely unnoticeable and impenetrable from both within and without. Thanks to the clues that we found, between me and Akasha… I think we can find it. However, I’m not sure if it's even possible for us to break into it,] Mer said doubtfully.
Eugene disagreed. ‘It’s not like we don’t have any methods at all.’
[...Do you want to try and use that absurd sword?] Mer asked in concern.
They were talking about the Moonlight Sword.
[Well, if you use that thing, then I’m not really sure… it really might be possible to create an opening in this magical barrier that doesn’t quite feel like ordinary magic,] Mer mused. [However, Sir Eugene, what are you going to do after that? Sir Molon isn’t a wizard. If this barrier is the result of the power that was granted to him by Sir Vermouth, that means it's one-of-a-kind. Once the barrier is broken by the Moonlight Sword, it might be impossible to repair the opening.]
‘I have no intention of actually breaking it,’ Eugene responded as laid his hands on the Moonlight Sword inside of his cloak. ‘I’m just going to knock on the door a bit. If he’s still on the inside, he’ll see that there’s something going on outside the barrier. If nothing happens and nobody reacts, that means Molon is not inside. Or perhaps that idiot is just too dense to notice.’
Of course, there was also another possibility…but Eugene didn’t really want to follow that train of thought.
“We’ve already come this far, but to be honest, I’m not sure about this,” Kristina suddenly confessed as she followed behind Eugene, who was still circling the tops of the tops of the cliffs.
The sound of her voice came as a surprise, but Eugene immediately noticed that Anise had once again resumed control of their shared body. Because the two had swapped places in front of him so many times, Eugene had learned how to tell the subtle difference in accent between Anise and Kristina.
“What are you so caught up on?” Eugene questioned.
Anise reminded him, “Molon said that he didn’t want to show us what was on the other side, because the poisonous aura there is so thick and because it might make your head strange. Then he said that it might even make us sick. He kept making up more excuses like that to keep us from looking.”
Molon, that Molon, had kept trying to make up excuses despite absolutely sucking at it.
“That means there is something Molon doesn’t want us to see on the other side,” Anise concluded.
“So what about it?” Eugene snorted dismissively.
Anise glared at him. “Hamel, I knew that you would say something like that. You’re really just as inconsiderate as you were three hundred years ago.”
Eugene repolied, “Anise, you also saw that look in Molon’s eyes. Right here, when we first met Molon, did you really forget what Molon looked like at that moment?”
“Molon at that time really wasn’t like the usual Molon,” Anise recalled.
“That’s right, Molon wasn’t like himself,” Eugene agreed. “He drove us away with a ferocious swing of his ax. But after all that debacle, only a few days later, he shows up smiling like a fool, dragging us into hugs, and sobbing like a baby.”
Eugene didn’t want to accept that the situation was suspicious, but at this point, he had no other choice but to acknowledge it. He thus voiced his fears.
“It isn’t that Molon couldn’t have changed over the past three hundred years. He has definitely changed, but when he’s in front of us, he seems as if he hasn’t changed at all. Perhaps he’s hiding those changes for some reason. I don’t know the reason, and it seems that Molon doesn’t want to talk about it, but since I’m a son of a bitch, I don’t need to be considerate of Molon. I need to see why Molon is doing this with my own two eyes.”
“Please don’t call yourself a son of a bitch,” Anise protested.
“But you called me a son of a bitch earlier,” Eugene argued back.
“I said that you’re no different from a son of a bitch, I didn’t say that you were a son of a bitch,” Anise corrected him. “Also Hamel, if even you think that what you’re currently trying to do makes you into a son of a bitch, even if it’s just for your own sake, shouldn't you try not to be a son of a bitch?”
Eugene just smirked in response to this. In the end, Anise was spouting all these words and arguing that they should be considerate of Molon’s feelings, but she was still standing here and she hadn’t actually refused to go over to the other side. After all, wasn’t it Anise who had first pointed out the incongruity in Molon’s words a few days ago?
—The thing that you don't want us to see over there isn’t just random stuff like some monster corpses.
—Also, I am still the same old me. The more you don’t want to show me something, the more I want to see it, regardless of the cost.
Anise Slywood really was this kind of terrible person. In fact, Anise wasn’t the only one. Eugene was the same type of person, and if Sienna had been here as well, Sienna would have also behaved in the same fashion.
The party had gone through all sorts of things together. They had almost died over and over again. They had spent dozens of years wandering around together like that. Their journey through Helmuth had changed each of them in various ways.
However, there were some things that hadn’t changed. If Molon really had changed, if he had been left with no choice but to change during these long three hundred years, and if Molon had been forced to change during the hundred years he had spent blocking the Nur’s escape, then….
Hamel and Anise needed to find out the reason for this.
“It’s here,” Eugene called out as his steps halted.
Within the cloak, Mer was gasping for breath. It was only natural for her to do so, as she almost had to overload herself in order to interpret the spells layered over this space. Eugene stuck his hand into his cloak and patted Mer on the head a few times.
[Don’t think that you can end things with just that,] Mer warned him. [Next time, you need to take me to ride on the merry-go-round.]
“Merry-go-round…?” Eugene repeated in confusion.
Mer pouted. [Sir Eugene, you often show a strange reaction to the words merry-go-round. Could it be that you’re embarrassed of riding on a merry-go-round with me?]
“It’s not embarrassing, but… something is a bit off…,” Eugene muttered awkwardly as he removed his hand from Mer’s head and pulled out the Moonlight Sword.
“...The Moonlight Sword…” Anise’s expression stiffened slightly as she said its name.
The sword had kept the same appearance as it had three hundred years ago, but just by looking at it, Anise could feel her heart begin to pound. Even though it had been shattered, leaving behind only the hilt and fragments of the blade, the strangely ominous aura that the sword emitted still remained.
At first glance, it seemed to be just a part of an ordinary sword, something that could have been sold by just about any blacksmith’s workshop.
Eugene held the sword by its scabbard and slowly pulled the hilt as if drawing the blade out.
Fwooosh…!
Pale moonlight flickered, forming the blade. As ever, Anise just couldn’t get used to the sight of that light.
Eugene was similarly unable to get used to the light of the Moonlight Sword. Its ominous aura was different from that of the Demon King of Destruction… it was refined, yet somehow still turbulent.
Destruction in the form of a sword.
The blade of light flickered within Eugene’s grasp. He had no intention of breaking the barrier; all he wanted to do was knock on it slightly. It was possible for him to adjust the power of the sword to that extent.
With that thought in mind, Eugene lifted the Moonlight Sword.
However, it turned out that there was no need for him to knock. The moment that the Moonlight Sword fell toward the barrier, as if responding to its light, the barrier opened up wide. Though opening up the way to the dimension on the other side wasn’t like opening an actual physical door.
There wasn’t any floating feeling either.
As if the world around them had just decided to change on its own, Eugene and Anise were suddenly standing in a different location.
“...What… what did you do?” Anise asked hesitantly.
Eugene denied his involvement. “No, I didn’t do anything. The barrier just opened up on its own….”
Could it be that Molon had felt something in advance? Or perhaps Vermouth’s barrier had responded to the Moonlight Sword and opened up the door? Right now, Eugene didn’t know the answer to these questions.
“Ugh…” Anise suddenly gagged and clasped her hand across her mouth.
Three hundred years ago, they had seen so many terrible sights that they had almost gotten bored of them. However, no matter how experienced Anise herself was, in Kristina’s body, which had no tolerance for such things, her first reaction to the sight in front of them was a violent rejection.
The same went for Eugene as well. He felt dizzy and had to grab hold of his own knees to stop himself from falling over.
This place was still in Lehainjar, the other side of the Great Hammer Canyon.
However, there were no similarities to the world beyond . There wasn’t even any snow on the ground and no snow was falling from the sky either. Whether it was the ground beneath their feet or the eye-stinging landscape around them, everything seemed bizarrely distorted.
This scenery reminded Eugene of Helmuth from three hundred years ago. In the Devildom, it was nothing strange for just about anything to occur. It was a hideous and grotesque land that, to any of the humans caught there, was no different from hell.
Boom, boom.
They could see the winding and twisting peaks of the mountains above. The churned-up ground, that seemed to have been created as lava boiled up from below the surface and then cooled down, was covered in blood and bits of flesh.
Boom, boom.
A corpse was on the ground not far from where they stood. The body was familiar to Eugene — just like the one he had seen a few days ago, it was a corpse of the monkey-like the Nur. But this corpse was a far more ghastly sight.
At that time, the corpse of the Nur that they found had been killed cleanly and lay on the ground with its throat slit. By contrast, this corpse was not lying on the ground, but rather strewn across the ground, ripped into pieces.
Boom! Boom!
From somewhere in the distance and far above, loud and heavy crashing sounds echoed.