Eugene failed to recognize Hemoria for a moment. Her face was covered with an iron mask, just as before, but the covering wasn’t as clean or neat as before. Rather, the iron plate appeared as if it had been forcibly bent into shape, then fixed in place with a piece of torn cloth.
“Uh…”
However, the iron mask wasn’t the only reason Eugene failed to recognize her. Rather, it was because it had never occurred to him that she might be alive. He had cut off all her limbs at the Fount of Light when she had charged at him despite his warning. The wounds he had inflicted at the time were undoubtedly fatal. Eugene had then kicked her limbless stump of a body into the depths of the pit.
There were a few who survived the incident at the Fount of Light, but none had come back alive from the pit. Even Raphael had not mentioned anything about anyone surviving from the pit after checking out the aftermath.
“You’re still alive?” asked Eugene with a stupefied expression, belatedly realizing who she was.
He was quite surprised that Hemoria was alive, but that was all he felt. He just assumed that she had been lucky.
After a moment of thought, however, he realized that something was off. No matter how lucky you were, it was impossible to grow new limbs.
He stared at Hemoria’s arms and legs. Those were definitely limbs where he had only left stumps. They didn’t look quite normal, and all four were tightly wrapped in dark bandages, but they were arms and legs alright.
“…Fwoo.”
The sound of her labored breathing reached his ears. There was no other emotion than surprise in Eugene’s eyes, but the same couldn’t be said for Hemoria’s eyes. Her eyes had always been red, but now, they were dyed a deeper, bloodshot shade of crimson. The veins on her neck bulged and her chest heaved as her breathing intensified.
“Hwuah… Fwoo.”
In the past, she would have gnashed her teeth or even growled, but she was incapable of doing so anymore. The only way she could express herself was through a series of labored breaths.
Eugene took on a curious expression in response. “What do you want?”
Eugene had pushed Hemoria to the brink of death at the Fount of Light, and he didn’t know how she felt about it. As far as he was concerned, their interaction had been neither a fight, nor a battle. It had been nothing more than… removing an annoying obstacle, a pebble or an insect, out of his way. Perhaps he had been more forceful than he could have been, but in the end, he thought little of it.
Did he hold a grudge? No, not against Hemoria as a person. Eugene had been extremely furious at the Fount of Light, and he had been determined to obliterate anyone and anything that blocked his path. True, there might have been some personal feelings involved when he had cut off all her limbs, but he had not directed his blade at Hemoria because he hated her.
It was the same now. His anger had been resolved at the Fount of Light. As for now…. As long as Hemoria didn’t suddenly attack him with the same resolve to kill as before, Eugene had no intention of killing her either.
‘It’s not like I can do that here and now, can I?’
Killing her would put him in a rather difficult situation. If he had met her somewhere else, at another time, he could have exterminated her without any hesitation. However, this was neither the time nor the place, not during the Knight March.
“Aren’t you going to grind your teeth?” asked Eugene with a tilt of his head.
…Craaack!
The sound of something grinding inside the iron covering could be heard, but it wasn’t the sound of her grinding her teeth.
“Ugh…” Someone moaned from inside the alley. The Inquisitor from earlier was unconscious in Hemoria’s grasp, so it was clear that someone else had suffered at her hands. Eugene calmly took a few steps closer so that he could see deep inside the alley, but there was no need for him to go farther than that. A stench of blood suddenly attacked his sense of smell.
‘She must have been hiding it with magic….’
Earlier, when Eugene had first encountered the glaring Inquisitors, there had been nothing inside the alley. It was only possible for him to see inside the alley and smell the blood now because the Inquisitor responsible for performing the magic had been beaten to a pulp.
It wasn’t just one or two of them either. Almost a dozen Inquisitors were lying on the floor covered in blood inside the alley, and it was obvious who was the one responsible. Eugene grinned, staring at Hemoria’s bloody hands.
“Is it alright for you to do that kind of stuff?” he asked.
Hemoria’s eyebrows wriggled in irritation. Throwing the man in her grasp against the floor, she raised her index finger toward Eugene, glaring at him with bloodshot eyes. Eugene thought that she would attack him right away, but instead… Hemoria wiggled her finger, gesturing for him to come at her.
Eugene burst into laughter in response. Where was this confidence coming from? Was it the strange new limbs she had attached? Well, he couldn’t just ignore her when she was pleading for him to come to her, could he? With a wide grin, Eugene obliged and took a few steps into the alley, toward Hemoria.
As Eugene moved forward, Hemoria stepped back. It was clear that she cared for the gazes of passers-by, which Eugene found hilarious.
“Why do you care about what other people think? What can you even do? Wouldn’t it be better for you if we stepped out of the alley?” asked Eugene with a smile. “In fact, maybe someone will be there to stop me if I start beating you up in the middle of the street.”
Hemoria immediately fell for the obvious provocation.
“Uwwwooo!” As soon as Eugene entered the alley, she howled and rushed at him with intense hatred and obvious intent to kill.
She was faster than she had been at the Fount of Light, but that was all. Even before Hemoria could do anything, Eugene had already reached out and taken a firm hold of her throat. She wasn’t even allowed the time to groan before Eugene threw her straight down to the ground. The power she had mustered had been nullified all too easily.
“Uwoooo!” Hemoria struggled on the ground.
Eugene snatched her flailing arm, then wondered if he should pull it out or twist it off. In the end, he decided to postpone his decision until after he broke it first. However, the moment he twisted it, he frowned.
“What’s this?”
Even though he had forced her arm into an abnormal position, what he felt wasn’t the cracking of a bone. He soon came to realize the reason for the abnormal texture — what was covered in the dark bandage wasn’t an arm made of flesh and bones, but rather darkness in the shape of an arm.
“….Fucking hell,” cursed Eugene as darkness freely flowed out from under the bandages.
He immediately decided to crush Hemoria’s head, but a moment later, he froze. The sudden appearance of a ferocious presence made him shivered involuntarily, but he continued to analyze the situation.
‘It’s worth a try.’
There were numerous variables in every fight, so it was impossible to predict how he would fare if one did break out. Even so, he was a completely different man compared to two years ago. At that time, he didn’t think he had a chance even if he used everything in his arsenal. But now, after only two years, he felt that he had a decent chance.
A woman stepped out of the alley’s shadow, as if she had been there from the very beginning. Her mouth was covered with a cotton veil, and she adorned a bright red robe. She looked exactly like she had two years before.
Amelia Merwin.
“Has my pet…been disrespectful toward you?”
Amelia’s lips twisted into a smile as she pulled back her hood. However, her lips were the only thing smiling. Her purple eyes were incredibly calm, hiding a terrible hostility deep, deep down in her gaze. Staring into her eyes felt like staring into the abyss — a terrible chasm that threatened to rob people of their sanity.
“You still have a thing for messy pets, do you… Originally, you had a different pet, didn’t you?” asked Eugene.
“You mean… the pet you broke? That child is doing well, though I didn’t bring him here,” answered Amelia.
Eugene didn’t quite understand how Hemoria had become Amelia’s underling. He glanced down at Hemoria, who was still squirming on the ground.
“Since when was an Inquisitor of Yuras a pet of yours?”
“And what does that matter to you?” responded Amelia.
“I’m just curious,” explained Eugene.
“Well, it’s quite simple, really. You threw the girl into the hole after you cut off her arms and legs, and I picked her up,” answered Amelia. She then pulled out a staff topped by the head of a mountain goat from inside her robe. She lightly waved the staff, and darkness spread under Eugene’s feet.
Eugene stared at the darkness without moving. He thought about making a move, but he held off for now.
Amelia was his enemy, and Eugene had every reason to kill her, even if he hadn’t been hostile to black wizards. Thus, he judged that there was no reason to show his cards just yet.
“Krrr…!”
Hemoria squirmed under Eugene’s foot as if she were having a seizure. It was only for a moment, but Eugene saw a glimpse of desperation in her eyes. Naturally, Eugene did not respond to her plea.
The darkness consumed Hemoria, and a moment later, she emerged from Amelia’s shadow. Amelia smiled, looking back at Hemoria.
“…So, who was being disrespectful here?”
“What do you think?” said Eugene.
“I have no intention of fooling around with you. I still remember it very clearly. You killed my pet in the desert. You didn’t forget, did you? At that time… I would have killed you had the Demon King not shown you mercy,” responded Amelia.
“I know that very well. It was quite unfortunate that you weren’t able to kill me then,” said Eugene.
“Damned burglar.” Amelia snarled with a deep frown.
Eugene responded to her anger with a smile. “Who is calling whom a thief?”
“You robbed a grave that was in my territory,” spat out Amelia.
“The statue of Hamel? The tombstone? I guess you considered those valuable treasures, didn’t you?” said Eugene.
“It was a piece of history that had not been revealed to the world, something that was only known to me and only belonged to me,” retorted Amelia.
“Don’t fuck with me. You had absolutely no rights to own those,” said Eugene.
“And you’re entitled to them? Ah, well, I guess you do, since you are a descendant of Vermouth and Sienna’s heir,” responded Amelia.
Woooooo…!
An ominous sound echoed from Amelia’s staff, and her charcoal hair began to reverberate with the darkness.
“But so what? The tomb had been abandoned for three hundred years, and no one managed to find it. Except for me! I was the one who found it. So everything in that tomb belonged to me, including the statue, the tombstone, and the body!” shouted Amelia.
“Let’s not play dirty here,” responded Eugene. He did not back down even when Amelia put on a display of her strength. Instead, mana drawn in by the White Flame Formula formed into a purple flame and wrapped around Eugene. Amelia flinched at the enormous power.
‘…Is that really possible?’
It had only been two years since they had last met. At that time, Eugene had been no more than an insignificant insect Amelia could squash with her foot. He had only been allowed to continue his miserable life because of the damned Balzac Ludbeth’s letter, and he had been allowed escape because of the Demon King of Incarceration’s show of mercy.
‘…With what I have prepared right now… there’s no guarantee I can kill him.’
Amelia carefully considered Eugene’s strength and her own preparations. She didn’t think she was underprepared, but she lacked confidence to kill him. And even if she did manage to kill him, what came afterward would trouble her a great deal.
In the end, Amelia judged that she wasn’t prepared to make a clean escape after killing him, if she did manage to kill him in the first place.
“Fine.” The seething darkness quickly subsided. Although Amelia wanted to tear Eugene to pieces, she had to suppress her desire. There would definitely be more opportunities in the future. She could feel Eugene’s murderous intent and hatred on her skin. She couldn’t understand why he felt such pure hatred, but she understood that his feelings toward her would not change in the future.
One day, without fail, Eugene Lionheart would come to kill Amelia Merwin.
‘I’ll kill him then.’
Amelia placed her staff back into her cloak, and she shuddered with joy while imaging the future. Eugene Lionheart would definitely make a wonderful pet as a corpse… Amelia licked her lips with a smile. “There are many things I want to say to you, and many things I would like to do to you. However, I will hold myself back here.”
“I’m fine with you not holding back,” retorted Eugene.
“Do not provoke me. Isn’t it the same for you? Fighting with me here will only be troublesome for you. Don’t tell me, you think Lionheart will protect you? If that’s the case, then… Haha, let me just tell you this. No matter how strong you are, if I try to kill you, then no one here will be able to interfere. Either I will die or you will die. If the Lionhearts finally manage to reach this place, it will only be to recover a body that belongs to one of us," said Amelia.
Was she hinting at erecting a barrier? Eugene remembered the warning of Balzac Ludbeth. According to him, Amelia Merwin was the strongest of the Three Mages of Incarceration. In other words, Amelia Merwin was the strongest black wizard in the present era. It was hard enough to imagine how sturdy and powerful a barrier erected by an archwizard would be, so if the strongest black wizard alive placed a barrier, no one would be able to interfere before one of them ended up as a corpse.
“Fine. I will put up with it for now,” said Eugene after glaring at Amelia for a moment. “So, Amelia Merwin, what are you doing here?”
“You’re asking such an obvious question. I am supporting the Sultan of Nahama. I do not take orders from him, but I am advising him,” answered Amelia.
“Are you saying you’re a part of Nahama’s forces?” asked Eugene.
“I’m not a fan of the phrase ‘part of’, but I will let it slide for now. What, is it so incredible that I, who has signed a contract with the Demon King of Incarceration, am supporting Nahama rather than Helmuth?” asked Amelia.
“It’s nothing new that the Demon King of Incarceration is allowing his black wizards to roam as freely as they want,” said Eugene.
“Still arrogant, I see. It was the same back then. At the tomb, you were arrogant even in the face of clear death. I enjoy that about you, though I don’t like it at the same time,” said Amelia.
“You enjoy it?” asked Eugene.
“Yes.” Amelia leaned her head to the side and smiled. “One day, when you are truly on the verge of death, if I have the pleasure of being the executioner, I… I wonder what kind of face you will make. I wonder what you will say, and I wonder what kind of expression you will have as life fades away. Will you be as arrogant then as you are now? Will you show me that same hatred and killing intent even as I caress your soul? It gives me chills just imagining it.”
“Crazy wench.” Eugene scoffed and gave her the finger. “Stop daydreaming impossible situations and keep your new pet in check.”
“That’s a good, helpful piece of advice. She seemed to want to go for a walk, so I let her leash loose for a while… I didn’t expect her to do something like this,” said Amelia before turning her gaze. Looking around at the bloody rags that were once Inquisitors, she clicked her tongue. “I thought I had hammered it out of you already, but did you still have lingering feelings about that religion? Did you think your fellow Inquisitors would save you? They didn’t, did they? They called you dirty, fallen, and tried to arrest you, didn’t they? That’s why you had to put them down.”
Amelia was no longer looking at Eugene. Instead, she directed her eyes, which were curved like crescent moons, toward Hemoria. Hemoria shuddered in the darkness when she felt Amelia’s gaze, but she did not avoid her eyes. Instead, she glared back at Amelia.
“Why are you wearing something like that on your mouth?” whispered Amelia. She stretched out one of her long fingers and caressed the iron plate covering Hemoria’s face.
Slap!
Her gentle touch immediately transformed into a fierce slap. Hemoria shuddered, and her head was jolted to the side. As a result, the iron plate covering her mouth fell to the ground as well.
What was revealed was a bit in Hemoria’s mouth. It wasn’t a normal mouthpiece — rather, what she held tight in her mouth was a bone, very much like one that a dog would chew.
Blood dribbled down Hemoria’s chin as she glared at Amelia.
“Ah… Excuse me. I should have waited until it was just the two of us before I disciplined my pet,” said Amelia, lowering her hand to Hemoria’s neck. She looked back at Eugene and smiled eerily. “Let’s get along while we are here. I will greet you with a smile when I see you, and I hope you will do the same.”
Those were Amelia’s departing words. She grabbed a handful of Hemoria’s hair, then dragged her along deeper into the alley as if she were pulling a dog’s leash. Hemoria only managed to breath out forcefully through her mouthpiece, and soon, the two of them disappeared into the darkness.
“Crazy bitch,” muttered Eugene, shaking his head.
Amelia had said she picked up Hemoria at the Fount of Light. He didn’t understand exactly what she meant, but he wasn’t curious enough to look into it either. Thus, he left the alley without giving it any more thought.
The Knight March was bringing him so many unexpected encounters. He had met Noir Giabella in the snowfield, Molon in Lehainjar, Amelia Merwin in Lehain….
‘It’s giving me bad vibes from the beginning.’
He was in a dirty mood, perhaps because he had met with someone he wanted to kill. Eugene turned his head back toward the alley and spat on the ground. He was no longer in any mood to continue strolling around, but he had already achieved his goal of cooling his head. As such, Eugene returned back to the mansion with a frown.
“Where have you been?” asked Ciel as she approached him. She looked crummy and disheveled. It seemed she had arrived with the others during the little while he had strolled around Lehain.
“Well… Uh… Just a walk,” said Eugene.
“Why is your expression so rotten if you only went for a walk?” asked Ciel.
Eugene stuttered, but Ciel looked extremely calm. In spite of her temper, however, her face was rather messy and her clothes were dirty, perhaps because she had not washed for the last few days.
It was inevitable. When they traveled with Eugene, they could wash up even without hot water, thanks to Eugene’s magic. Yet, Cyan and Ciel had decided to travel separately from Eugene in the middle of the snowfield. Thinking back on it, it had been a sudden, reckless decision. Most of the amenities they had brought for the journey had been with Eugene, inside the Cloak of Darkness. Although Cyan and Ciel possessed backpacks with magically amplified storage, all they had brought were a few days’ worth of emergency rations.
Moreover, even knights capable of handling mana weren’t immune to the cold. It would have been horrible if they happened to catch a bad cold because they had washed themselves in the snowfield, and therefore… they had not washed up for over ten days. They had wandered through the snowfield searching for food, and melted the snow to quench their thirst.
Even after having experienced such a rough journey, Ciel looked calm. Not that she was actually calm at all, by any means, but she was doing a good job holding it in. It wasn’t as if they had been separated for a long time, but she still wanted to show Eugene how mature she was.
“…Are you all right?” asked Eugene after a moment.
“What? I’m fine. I’m completely fine,” said Ciel.
“No… You don’t look all right. I think you’ve lost some more weight…” said Eugene.
“Don’t say something so rude. I never had any weight to lose from the beginning,” retorted Ciel.
“Well, I’m not saying you were fat. I’m just saying that you’ve lost some weight compared to the last time I saw you,” said Eugene. And he wasn’t just saying it for the sake of it. Ciel’s cheeks were definitely sunken.
“It’s because I had a bit of a rough time,” admitted Ciel, but in spite of her words, she maintained her nonchalant look.
“See? So you did have a rough time. What’s all right about that?” asked Eugene.
“Youth is the time to experience hardships,” said Ciel.
“Uh…what? Anyway, where’s Cyan?” asked Eugene.
“He went to take a bath as soon as we arrived. And I’m telling you this in advance… don’t say anything unnecessary to my brother,” said Ciel.
“Why?”
“We came the entire way with Princess Scalia, right? Well, she put him through the wringer the entire way. Speaking of which, Princess Scalia is a total punk. Her personality’s just… Well… turns out it wasn’t the insomnia that was making her weird. That’s just who she is, she has a really weird personality,” said Ciel. Her eyebrows crumpled into a frown as she recalled Scalia’s rampages during their journey. “To be honest, even I wanted to just, oomph, her a few times on our way. Since even I felt that way, I’m sure Cyan felt it ten times more.”
“But Cyan was so happy when he heard he might become engaged to the Princess of Shimuin…” muttered Eugene.
“He liked it because he didn’t know what was in store for him. Cyan won’t get engaged to Princess Scalia unless he’s completely out of his mind,” responded Ciel.
“By the way, aren’t you going to take a bath?” asked Eugene.
Ciel’s expression stiffened at his question. “Why are you asking me that? Are you saying I smell?”
“No, no. I don’t smell anything. I was just wondering why you weren’t washing up, since Cyan is,” said Eugene.
“I’m going to wash up. I was going to anyway. I was just… waiting to see where you went. Don’t you have anything you want to say to me?” asked Ciel.
“Anything… to say?” Eugene hesitated for a moment. He contemplated. He could feel Ciel’s fiery gaze, which was only intensifying as time passed. He felt pressured to… give a good answer.
“…Um… Good work,” stuttered Eugene.
“Don’t say the obvious,” answered Ciel.
“Well done,” said Eugene.
“That’s exactly the same,” responded Ciel.
“I’m glad you got here safe,” said Eugene one last time.
“That’s it.” Ciel finally smiled after hearing his last answer. It wasn’t anything special, but it kindled a fire inside her. Ciel stood up from her seat and looked up at Eugene. “Did you worry about me?”
“Yes.”
“But you shouldn’t have been worried about only me. Weren’t you worried about my brother?” she asked.
“Naturally, I was worried about both of you,” said Eugene.
“But if you’re being honest, you were a little bit more worried about me, right? You can be honest with me. I’ll keep it a secret from Cyan,” whispered Ciel.
“I was equally worried about the two of you,” said Eugene.
“At times like this, you should say that you were more worried about me, even if they’re only empty words.” In spite of her words, however, Ciel was satisfied with Eugene’s answer. If anything, it was a very Eugene-like attitude.
Ciel giggled and put her hand inside her cloak. “I brought you a present on the way here. Give me your hand.”
“What is it?” asked Eugene, stretching out his hand without much thought.
Ciel brought out a snowball and placed it on his palm.
“…”
“It’s cold, right?” she asked. Eugene looked alternatingly at Ciel’s playful smile and the cold, wet snowball on his palm. “If we were a little younger, we would have gone outside and had a snowball fight. Did you know? When we were young, my brother and I would put rocks inside our snowballs when we played with you.”
“Did you think I wouldn’t know?”
“Well, you never got hit by any of the snowballs we threw, so how was I to know?”
“I avoided all of them because I knew there were rocks in them... If you want, we can have a snowball fight. Of course, I’ll win just like when we were kids,” said Eugene.
“Nope. I don’t want to. None of us are children anymore,” responded Ciel.
“Hey, snowball fights are still fun even when you’re older,” said Eugene.
“I’m sure, but I still don’t want to,” said Ciel. She stuck out her tongue at Eugene, then turned around and left.
Eugene shrugged as he watched her go. The snowball on his palm was already melting. Suddenly, Eugene chucked it backward without even looking.
“Kyaaahk!” The scream came from Mer, who had been creeping up to surprise Eugene.
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