Chapter 77: The Black Lion Castle (2)
Although Eugene hadn’t known that he’d be fighting Ciel all of a sudden, he had no intention of going easy on her.
It wasn’t because Ciel hadn’t been amused by the joke he had thrown out. Definitely not. Ignoring the way his flushed ears were burning with embarrassment, Eugene stretched his hand out towards Ciel.
The mana in the air fluctuated. Spotting the magic missiles that had instantly appeared to surround her, Ciel sent a signal to her wyvern with a click of her tongue.
“Kyaaaak!” As the wyvern let out a high-pitched cry, it flapped its wings.
These winged lizards, which looked ever so similar to dragons, might not be able to cast spells on their own, but they could do something similar. With their strong resistance to magic, wyverns could disrupt spells with a flap of their wings.
The trajectories of the magic missiles shooting towards Ciel were instantly diverted in all directions. Without resisting the force of the wind, Ciel held her body like an arrow and converted the wind into her support. Having accelerated herself even further by doing this, Ciel thrust forth her rapier.
“Well now,” Eugene hummed in amusement.
It seemed this wouldn’t be just a savage battle where they each planted their feet onto the ground and swung their swords at each other. As he felt a small sense of excitement from this realization, Eugene tightened his grip on Wynnyd.
Clang!
A sword strike that rose from below deflected Ciel’s rapier. At the same time, the whip that Eugene was holding in his left hand snapped forward.
Ciel couldn’t help but be flustered for a moment by the whip’s strange movement. This was because it hadn’t been swung forward, but instead, it had shot straight ahead like an arrow.
“Ugh!” Ciel grunted in exertion.
The whip looked as if it was about to pierce her shoulder, but Ciel hastily twisted her body mid-air. Right at that moment, Eugene’s wrist, which was still guiding the whip, bent to the side. This twist changed the whip’s trajectory.
The whip curved around and wrapped around Ciel’s waist. Then, Eugene pulled on it, dragging Ciel down to the ground.
Recovering from the fall, Ciel raised her head, an extremely twisted look on her face.
Eugene was still floating in mid-air. With a smirk, Eugene pulled on the whip once more. The force on the whip wrapped around Ciel’s hips wasn’t that strong. If Eugene was determined to tighten the whip’s grip on her, he could have crushed Ciel’s back, but Eugene had no desire to cripple Ciel.
“Caught you,” he taunted.
“Not yet,” Ciel spat out.
Kyaaaak!
The giant wyvern charged over. Its wide-open maw showed intimidating fangs.
Just as Eugene was about to slice the wyvern into pieces with a swing of Wynnyd, Ciel suddenly screamed loudly, “You can’t kill Draggy!”[1]
“Draggy… who?” Eugene asked in confusion.
Ciel shouted once more, “I said you can’t kill my wyvern!”
What a shameless girl. She was the one who’d launched a surprise attack on him in the first place, and now she was making all sorts of demands.
While grumbling to himself, Eugene sheathed Wynnyd. Although he wanted to ignore Ciel’s cries and slice the wyvern in half, he knew that if he did so, Ciel might burst into tears and resent him for this for the rest of their lives.
“You should know that you got lucky today, you lizard bastard,” Eugene said threateningly.
He might have sheathed Wynnyd, but the wind spirits he had summoned didn’t disappear. Eugene twisted his body mid-air and swung his foot.
Crack!
Eugene’s kick smashed up into the wyvern’s jaw. The wyvern’s wide-open jaws were smashed shut, and its flight faltered. Eugene immediately charged at the wyvern and slammed his fist into its snout.
Bam!
The wyvern’s body slammed into the ground, shaking the whole field. Meanwhile, Ciel had cut herself free of the whip wrapped around her, and she attempted to attack Eugene once more.
“You evil brute!” Ciel accused him.
Eugene felt perplexed by this criticism. He was the one who had been surprise-attacked. He had also spared the wyvern’s life after Ciel had told him not to kill it. Instead, Eugene had just shattered its jaws, making it unable to chew its meat for a while. By keeping it to this level, wasn’t he showing more than enough consideration as her sibling?
“Are you really going to attack me again?” Eugene asked in exasperation.
Even so, Eugene admired her persistence. Cyan was also the same way. Was this proof that Ancilla’s parenting methods were pretty impressive?
‘They’re much better than Tanis’ methods, of course.’
Eugene threw away the shortened whip and boldly reached his hand out towards the thrusting rapier. Ciel couldn’t help but be terrified at the sight of Eugene reaching out to stop her sword-force with his bare hands.
‘Has he gone insane?’ Ciel asked herself.
Just like how Eugene had no desire to cripple Ciel, she also didn’t want to permanently injure Eugene. In the first place, the battle taking place in this forest was just intended to be a test for the heirs of the direct line. It wasn’t meant to turn them into vegetables with no hope of recovery.
Because of this, Ciel hastily changed her rapier’s trajectory. Eugene smirked at this sight and rose to meet the blade.
“Like I thought, you’re just a softie at heart,” Eugene commented.
Though she had desperately attempted to alter the trajectory of her rapier, right now, Ciel had no choice but to regret that decision. How could she have expected this unbelievable bastard to risk his own flesh for a thrill?
However, it was too late for regrets. Eugene’s hand grabbed Ciel’s wrist and twisted it.
“Ugh!” Ciel let out a short scream as she was forced to let go of the rapier.
Still keeping a firm grasp of her wrist, Eugene twisted Ciel’s arm behind her back and pinned her down with one knee.
“Can’t you be a little gentler?” Ciel complained as she was pressed down to the ground, completely prone.
Eugene smirked and shook his head.
He said, “I can, as long as you promise not to attack me anymore.”
“...The result of the fight has already been decided. And in the first place, the exam is meant to pit you against a group. I know that I’m not able to test your limits by myself,” having spat out these words, Ciel chewed her lips for a few moments. Then she asked, “...Did you expect me to twist my rapier to the side?”
“I gave it fifty-fifty odds,” Eugene judged.
Ciel cautioned, “If I hadn’t twisted it, your hand could have been sent flying.”
“I was able to reach out with my hand because I was confident that it wouldn’t get cut off,” Eugene stated confidently.
“You son of a bitch.”
She knew that he would say something annoying like that. But had the gap between them really grown even further?
Eugene snickered as he let go of Ciel’s arm.
“Ever since I arrived here, it’s been one surprise after another. Now that I’ve caught you like this, how about giving me an explanation?” Eugene requested.
Ciel reluctantly complied, “...You just need to make your way to the Black Lion Castle.”
Eugene snorted, “I’m aware of that much. What I want to know is, how troublesome are they planning to make the journey there?”
“...There’ll be sixty Knights of the Black Lion,” Ciel finally admitted before turning to him with a pout. “That includes captains as well. All of them will be scattered around the mountain, and they’ll attack both you and my brother on sight.”
“Isn’t that going too far for a Coming-of-Age Ceremony?” Eugene asked in surprise.
“It’s because the Elders of the Council have high expectations of you. It looks like they also might be a bit suspicious of you. My poor brother is just getting caught up in your mess.”
“It’s only natural for them to hold me in high regard, but why are they suspicious?”
“Are you seriously asking such an obvious question? Isn’t it because you went around to Nahama after you left Aroth?”
“It’s my freedom to go wherever I want.”
“But it looks like the Council Elders might not see it that way. Recently, Nahama’s position has been a bit suspicious. Then, in the midst of this current tension, you went to Nahama on your own accord.”
“If that’s the case, they could have just told me to not go to Nahama in the first place,” Eugene grumbled as he patted Ciel’s back in gratitude. “So? You’re warning me that they’re concerned I might have gotten into some kind of problem that may bring trouble to the clan while I was away from the main family?”
“...It’s also for the sake of testing you,” Ciel reminded him before turning to look at Eugene. “How long are you going to keep humiliating me?”
“Hey now, watch your words. Since when have I humiliated you?” Eugene protested.
“You’re doing it right now,” Cile pointed out.
“This isn’t humiliating you. I’m just subduing you,” Eugene grumbled as he got off her back.
Ciel immediately pushed herself up, so she was now sitting up straight, and then brushed off the dirt staining her uniform.
“You almost broke a bone,” Ciel complained.
Eugene dismissed her anger, “If nothing is broken, that means you’ll be just fine.”
The wyvern that had been slammed into the ground raised its head with a whimper. At this, Ciel quickly got up and went over to the wyvern, stroking its scales as if she was brushing a pet’s fur.
“Sixty knights, you say…,” Eugene muttered as he stood there, lost in thought for a few moments. “That’s way too many for attacking just the two of us.”
“...That’s because the mountain is so large,” Ciel chimed in. “Also, they’re not just here to attack you. They’re also here to keep you and my brother from entering any hazardous locations.”
“Hazardous locations?” Eugene’s eyes lit up as he looked at Ciel. “Where?”
Taken aback, Ciel reminded him, “...I did say that those places are dangerous. You should have encountered monsters on your way here, right? There are a lot of monsters on this mountain.”
“So what you’re saying is that they’re here to prevent us from entering the territory of dangerous monsters? Is that all there is to it?” Eugene asked skeptically.
Vermouth’s grave might be located somewhere on this mountain. Eugene hoped that she might mention something about this as he turned to look at Ciel.
“Although you can only find ogres in this area, if you head in a bit deeper, you might just meet some dangerous things that hunt ogres for fun,” Ciel warned.
“Things?”
“Demonic beasts,” Ciel’s expression twisted as she said this.
Eugene’s eyes chilled as he demanded, “Demonic beasts? What are demonic beasts doing here?”
“...They’re being bred here to serve as combat experience for the Knights of the Black Lion,” Ciel hesitantly admitted.
“Humans are breeding demonic beasts?” Eugene asked before bursting into disbelieving laughter.
A while ago, back on Bolero Street, Eugene had heard the stories about humans secretly purchasing demonfolk as slaves. At that time, he had also been incredulous, but this idea of breeding demonic beasts was even more ridiculous than that.
Demonic beasts were neither livestock nor monsters. It was impossible to breed them. Although they called it ‘breeding’, they had probably just released the demonic beasts deep in the mountains.
Compared to how dangerous demonic beasts were, summoning them wasn’t that difficult. A wizard skilled in summoning magic could summon demonic beasts without any special offerings.
That was why, three hundred years ago, the world had become infested with demonic beasts. By meddling with the summoning magic circles that were being cast all over the place, those fucking Demon Kings had tricked the wizards using them into summoning demonic beasts instead of what they had been planning to summon. The demonic beasts that had been spread across the world as a result of this had reproduced among themselves, birthing offspring, forming groups, and then attacking people.
“It’s not that dangerous,” Ciel quickly added as she saw Eugene’s face harden. “Every week, we inspect the demonic beasts’ territories and cull them. Through this process, the knights can accumulate practical experience and—”
“Do you think it’s okay just because they’re demonic beasts?” Eugene asked as he narrowed his eyes and glared at Ciel. “Our ancestor’s tomb should be somewhere on this mountain. So I really can’t understand this. How could you let demonic beasts, of all things, roam freely on our ancestor’s gravesite?”
“Why are you getting angry at me?” Ciel protested.
“As a member of the main family, this isn’t something I can help but get angry about,” Eugene argued back.
“Since when were you so passionate about the clan?” Ciel pouted as she climbed onto the wyvern’s back. “As far as I know, our ancestor’s tomb is nowhere near the demonic beast’s territory. It’s not like the Council of Elders is crazy, so how could they release demonic beasts near our ancestor’s tomb?”
Eugene asked, “Then where is it?”
“How am I supposed to know? What’s clear is that it isn’t anywhere near the demonic beasts' habitat. I’ve gone out culling demonic beasts several times, but I’ve never picked up anything about our ancestor’s tomb,” Ciel offered up this information.
Eugene’s brow furrowed as he got lost in thought, ‘If that’s the case… somewhere where the demonic beasts aren’t around. Where could it be? This mountain is way too large….’
She had told him that the Elders on the Council were suspicious of him. That was an annoyance. He’d been planning on scouring the mountain while pretending to be heading towards the Black Lion Castle.
‘I already have too much attention on me, so it’s obvious that I’ll be in for it if I do anything needlessly suspicious.’
Now that things had turned out like this, Eugene had no choice but to use the other method he had thought of. Although he didn’t feel too satisfied with this situation, for now, Eugene had decided to just quietly head towards Black Lion Castle. He would have to explain why he stopped by Nahama in any case. He might have given Lovellian the excuse that he was going there to try the cactus scorpions, but that excuse wouldn’t work on the old fogies of the Council.
Eugene finished his calculations and looked up at Ciel, “...Where do you think you’re going?”
Ciel had gotten onto her wyvern and was stroking its neck as it kept whimpering and moaning in pain.
“Why would you ask something so obvious? I’ll be heading back,” Ciel answered impatiently.
“Who decided that?”
“I did. You got a problem with that?”
“I’m thinking of taking you as my hostage and riding your wyvern back to the castle,” Eugene confessed.
“Don’t say something so ridiculous,” Ciel grumbled as she tugged on the reins. “Before I go, let me give you some advice. It would be best for you to get out of here as soon as possible.”
“Why exactly is that?” Eugene inquired.
Ciel explained, “Since I targeted you from the start, I’m just the one who got to you the fastest. The other knights will also be on their way soon.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. But the captains should arrive a little later than them. They were all over by the castle wall the—”
Before she had finished speaking, Eugene rushed over and attacked Ciel. Startled by the sudden assault, Ciel released the reins and leaped backward.
Fwooosh!
The wind blowing from Eugene pushed Ciel’s body back even further. At the same time, Eugene grabbed onto the wyvern’s reins.
“Kyaaaak!”
The wyvern let out a loud scream and attempted to buck off Eugene. In response to this, Eugene let go of the reins and placed his hand on the nape of its neck.
“You wanna die?” he asked.
As a wyvern, it wasn’t able to understand human language. But why should that matter? It had been bred and raised by human hands to fly with people on its back, and it had even been outfitted with a saddle and reins. The wyvern might not be able to understand Eugene’s words, but it could feel the power and killing intent coming from the hand on its neck. What’s more, it had already been beaten up by him once.
The wyvern no longer screeched in protest and immediately spread its wings. Sometimes, physical communication was an even faster method than verbal communication. Eugene smirked and grabbed the wyvern’s reins.
“This will be my first time riding a wyvern,” Eugene muttered.
Even so, thanks to him beating it up in advance, the wyvern was extremely obedient. It flapped its wings and rose into the air.
“You son of a bitch!” Ciel screamed, having landed on the ground. “Draggy! Come back here!”
“If you go back, I’ll kill you,” Eugene growled in a low voice as he shook its reins.
Kyaaaak!
The wyvern ignored Ciel’s cry and ascended into the air.
After it had risen quite a bit higher into the sky, Eugene was able to look down and survey the whole forest. After scanning the forest for a few moments, Eugene lifted his head and looked ahead. In the distance, he spotted the Black Lion Castle.
“Whoa now,” Eugene exclaimed to himself.
He didn’t just see the castle. He also spotted the dozens of wyverns flying his way. Narrowing his eyes, Eugene checked the identities of the wyvern riders. He couldn’t see Carmen. Although he didn’t know the other captains’ appearances, he didn’t see anyone who seemed strong enough to be a captain.
In that case, there was no reason for him to hesitate.
“Hyah!” Eugene shouted as he shook the reins.
The wyvern flapped its wings and flew straight ahead. As Eugene felt the wind in his face, he changed the shape of his cloak. The wildly flapping cloak turned thin and clung to Eugene’s body.
“What a brazen child…!”
The knight riding the lead wyvern couldn’t stop himself from clicking his tongue in surprise. Had Eugene really dared to steal a wyvern and soar up into the sky? Although that might be the best option if you wanted to get to the castle quickly, wouldn’t that only be the case if there wasn’t anyone looking to obstruct him?
By soaring into the sky like this, Eugene was bound to attract everyone’s attention. And as a matter of fact, all of the knights who had been hovering over the forest were now flocking to Eugene.
“Be careful,” one of the knights reminded the others.
“We know,” the other knights replied with a nod.
Since the purpose of this trial was ultimately just a test, they couldn’t take their attacks too far. That said, they couldn’t be too merciful either. As they kept these requirements in mind, the knights pulled out their weapons.
Eugene couldn’t feel any hostility or killing intent from them. He grinned and stood up on the wyvern's back. From what he could see, the Knights of the Black Lion were quite impressively skilled. Even in his previous life, he had never seen a knightly order made up of such outstanding talents.
However, no matter how exceptionally skilled they might be, it didn’t seem like they were meeting him with their full resolve. If they didn’t hold any hostility or killing intent, then they wouldn’t be much of a test for Eugene.
‘Shall I take a look?’
Instead, Eugene felt like he should be the one testing the Knights of the Black Lion. Eugene jumped off of the wyvern’s back without any hesitation. The wind following behind him blew Eugene’s body forward.
The knights couldn’t help but be surprised at this sudden action. Although they had already known that Eugene could fly through the air, the knights were astonished, because they didn’t expect that he would really charge at them instead of changing direction.
The cry rang out, “Block him!”
The knights scattered to form a wall. Those among the knights who were carrying bows nocked their arrows.
Then, they loosed their arrows all at once. The arrows they shot didn’t lose their power even when going against the wind. Instead of intercepting the airs that were flashing towards him, Eugene twisted his body in mid-air.
In an instant, his cloak unfurled and swallowed all the arrows. Then it immediately released the arrows in the same direction they had come from.
‘Even the arrowheads are blunt,’ Eugene noted. ‘This is quite the gentle ambush.’
That being said, if Eugene was hit by an arrow going that fast, it might not pierce his skin, but it would still break his bones. With a mischievous smile, he infused his wind into the returning arrows. With this, the arrows accelerated as if they were being pulled forwards by the wind, though their trajectories went all over the place.
However, not a single one of the knights was struck by the arrows. They skillfully swung their weapons to clear away the arrows, then checked back on Eugene’s movements.
He wasn’t there.
‘It’s Blink!’ they instantly realized.
Then one of them felt something coming from the side. Without any hesitation, the knight stabbed his sword sideways. Eugene, who had just appeared in that spot, twisted his body and waved his hand.
Clang!
A short dagger collided with the knight’s sword.
Chiiiing!
Eugene’s body rotated like a top. He climbed up on top of the knight’s sword and then instantly plunged down to a distance within arm’s reach.
“Bang,” Eugene uttered.
A ball of wind exploded in the space between Eugene and the knight. The knight had hurriedly raised his Mana Shield, but the wind still sent the knight’s body flying backward. Eugene used the wyvern’s back as a stepping stone and leaped into the air once more.
“Haha!” a nearby knight burst into laughter as he thrust with his spear.
Eugene recognized the knight’s face. It was Naishon Lionheart, the commander of the Third Division that he had met back in Aroth.
Naishon asked, “So, where have you dropped off Lady Ciel?!”
“Back down there,” Eugene replied to his shout as he drew a spear from his cloak.
Clack clack clack!
Their two spears intertwined, collided, and were pulled back, all within that short engagement.
Naishon was no longer laughing as he thought with amazement, ‘I was actually pushed back?’
Even with Eugene in such an unstable position, Naishon hadn’t been able to pin him with his spear thrust. Instead, it was Naishon who had been pushed back. Even though he hadn’t made serious use of his mana, Naison still couldn’t believe this fact.
“Hmph…!” Naishon grunted as he hardened his expression and swung his spear again.
Instead of meeting him in combat, Eugene was carried away by the wind and soared higher into the air. There was no real need for Eugene to face his opponents with just his weapons. Eugene confirmed the positions of the surrounding wyverns and then infused the wind with his mana.
With this, he transformed the wind into a storm of magical blades. The blades rushed out in all directions to attack the wyverns. The wyverns might have a strong resistance to magic, but they wouldn’t be able to disrupt the density of Eugene’s spells with just that.
It was obvious that their bodies would be turned into pincushions if they just stayed where they were, so the wyverns had no choice but to retreat. The impatient knights let go of their wyverns’ reins and stood up in their saddles. They were preparing to jump into the air and catch Eugene themselves. They might not have expected the situation to turn out like this, but the knights were also well-trained for aerial battles.
But before the knights could leap off—
Boooom!
Something shot up from the ground like a cannonball. Eugene immediately twisted his body and spread his cloak wide open. However, the Cloak of Darkness wasn’t able to swallow the attack like it had done last time. As the back of the cloak bulged hugely, Eugene spun his whole body around.
The unswallowed cannonball was instead released into the sky. Eugene glanced at the tail of the receding cannonball.
‘It’s a rock?’
It wasn’t some kind of spell. It was just a rock that had been picked up and thrown with all of someone’s strength. Eugene snorted in amusement and looked down.
But soon, he couldn’t help but raise his gaze once more.
“Hey,” came a greeting.
It was Carmen Lionheart.
Having rocketed up right in front of him before he had even realized she was coming, she raised her heel high and then slammed it down onto Eugene.