Chapter 74

Chapter 74

Chapter 74: The Return (3)

The spar was one-sided.

Cyan’s sword-force might be unbelievably refined for his age, but it was impossible for him to push back against Eugene. Although Cyan refused to back down and swung his sword fiercely, he couldn’t even force Eugene to take a step back.

It felt like Cyan was swinging his sword into nothingness.

Or at least, that was what he thought at first, but gradually the feeling began to change. Cyan started feeling like he was battling sticky mud and an endlessly deep swamp. Even though it felt like Eugene’s sword was just diverting his attacks, at the same time it was also sticking to Cyan’s blows like mud, and then, as if his attack were being sucked into a swamp, it dragged his blade over to where Cyan didn’t want it to go.

And after that, the mud and the swamp became the sea, as a huge wave of mana shook Cyan’s sword-force, guiding his attacks away and making them sputter off into thin air.

There should be no reason for him to have gotten tired so quickly, but… Cyan felt his breathing become rough, and he could hear his heart pounding away rapidly.𝘪𝘳.𝒸𝑜𝑚

As he had worked towards the Third Star of the White Flame Formula, Cyan’s mana control had improved greatly.

In the past, even emitting sword-light had required great concentration, but now it was possible for him to draw out his sword-force naturally, without even needing to focus on it.

It also wasn’t difficult for him to maintain the sword-force that he had drawn out like this for a long time. This was Cyan Lionheart, after all. As a member of the prestigious Lionheart family, he had been trained in using mana since a young age and had received all sorts of support. At their age, it would be extremely rare for anyone in the entire continent to have as much mana as Cyan.

Cyan was aware of this fact and had felt pride in this. However, this pride was currently crumbling apart like a sandcastle.

“Fuck….”

He could no longer maintain his sword force. As Cyan panted for breath, he spat out this curse and collapsed on the spot.

The sand and dust that had been floating around the gymnasium gradually settled down. Thanks to Cyan’s non-stop flow of attacks, the floor of the gymnasium had been deeply scarred, cracked, and turned over by his sword-force.

However, Eugene’s surroundings were in perfect condition. There weren’t even any footprints left behind. From the very start right until the very end, Eugene had remained standing in one spot and hadn’t moved away by even a single step.

‘…Incredible…,’ was the thought of everyone watching this one-on-one spar.

At first, there had only been Eugene and Cyan here, but from the moment the match started, the knights of the main estate had gathered to watch. Since they hadn’t declared it a private spar, the knights were free to stand at a distance and observe Cyan and Eugene’s sparring.

Thanks to that, the knights of the main estate were able to realize once again what an incredible warrior the adopted child, Eugene Lionheart, was.

Two years ago, when Eugene was only seventeen, Eugene had already been notorious among the knights of the main estate. In fact, he was so notorious that there was actually an unwritten rule concerning him floating around among the knights.

The rule was that if you were arranged to spar with young master Eugene, you could never allow things to get too serious.

This wasn’t for the sake of their still-immature young master. On the contrary, this unwritten rule was meant to preserve the pride of the knights.

The knights here all took great pride in their skills.

If they were still overwhelmed… even after they got serious… moreover when their opponent was much younger than they were…. No matter the fact that their opponent was the young master of the Lionheart clan’s main line, the knights were bound to feel frustrated.

‘He was already so strong two years ago… but now….’

‘If it were me up there, would I be able to win?’

The eyes of the knights flickered as these thoughts ran through their heads. In spars that were only meant as a form of training, sword-force was rarely ever used. So what if they did use sword-force and fought with Eugene seriously? Would they still be able to win?

They couldn’t be sure. Most of the young knights got the sense that they would be defeated. Even the knights who were older than them couldn’t feel certain of their chances for victory.

Hazard felt the same way.

He was a member of the Knights of the White Lion, who had sworn loyalty to the Lionheart clan’s direct line, and was one of the youngest amongst these knights. However, age did not necessarily equate to skill. Hazard had beaten out several other knights to rise to his position as a commander in the Second Squad of the Knights of the White Lion.

He had never once felt that his innate talents were lacking. In just a few years, Hazard was sure to become the Captain of the Second Squad. If even more time passed, he might even be able to aim for the position of the Leader of the Knights of the White Lion.

Even such a man like Hazard had no choice but to feel his own inadequacy when compared to Eugene. Among the knights here, was there anyone arrogant enough to claim that when they were nineteen, they were as strong as Eugene was now?

Hazard looked at the other knights.

There were more than a hundred sixty knights who belonged to the main estate’s Knights of the White Lion. Among all these knights, the ten strongest made up the First Squad. The remaining hundred fifty men were divided into groups of thirty to form five squads.

Hazard looked at the five squad captains. Just like Hazard, their faces had stiffened. They were all skillful warriors who were sure to receive respect no matter where in the continent they went, but they couldn’t hide the astonishment they felt in response to this adopted son from a collateral bloodline.

‘Even the knights of the First Squad… wouldn’t feel anything different. I’ve never felt that same overwhelming sense of power from them that I have from Sir Eugene,’ Hazard speculated.

The First Squad of the Knights of the White Lion, along with their leader, the Knight Commander, had accompanied Gilead to the Black Lion Castle. Hazard gulped in amazement as he recalled those currently absent elites.

Sprawled out on the ground, after he finally caught his breath, Cyan raised his head and asked, “…What was that?”

Eugene, who had been shaking loose his wrists, turned to look at Cyan and grinned.

“What was what?” he asked facetiously.

“The thing you did just now. Where you sent my attacks flying all over the place,” Cyan clarified.

Eugene claimed, “That was just parrying. Can’t you tell just by looking?”

Who wouldn’t be able to tell that much? All the knights spectating the spar had also realized that Eugene had been simply parrying Cyan’s attacks. Parrying was a technique that could be used with all weapons, not just swords. The technique could even be used with one’s bare hands, though one needed a lot of practice in order to do so.

However, among these knights, not a single one of them had the confidence to say that they would be able to show parrying on the same level as Eugene. His was no ordinary style of parrying.

He wasn’t just obstructing the sword-force; he was diverting it. That alone would have been enough to classify it as an advanced technique, but instead of only diverting the sword-force outward, Eugene could divert it back inward, breaking the opponent’s stance.

By mixing in both inward and outward flows, Eugene had been able to nullify all of Cyan’s attacks and had also made him overuse his mana. And that was all without him taking a single step away from his spot.

“…Tell me how you did that,” Cyan reluctantly requested.

“Whaaaat did you say?” Eugene reacted with feigned surprise.

Cyan gritted out, “I said, tell me how you did that… you son of a bitch.”

“Reeeeally? You want to learn from me?” Eugene snickered and stretched his hand out to the collapsed Cyan.

His shoulders trembling with rage, Cyan grabbed Eugene’s hand as he imagined planting his other fist into Eugene’s face. No, that wasn’t nearly enough.

Cyan considered, ‘I’m still holding a sword in my other hand…. I could just thrust it up into his guts….’

“Aren’t you going to relax your grip? I won’t be able to teach you like this, you know?” Eugene reminded him.

“Huh? Aaaaah… what? You’re… you’re going to teach me?” Cyan snapped out of his confusion as he relaxed the hand that was holding the sword.

“Didn’t you ask me to teach you?” Eugene asked.

“…Um, yes,” Cyan hesitantly confirmed.

“Then, I might as well teach you,” Eugene said, his expression looking like this wasn’t a big deal.

It wouldn’t be too difficult to teach Cyan this. In the first place, learning Eugene’s style of parrying was something that depended on the learner’s ability and perception rather than the teacher.

“For now, just follow me,” Eugene said as he pulled Cyan up and turned around.

After staring blankly at Eugene, who seemed to be returning to the annex, Cyan quickly followed behind him.

After exiting the gymnasium, Eugene headed to the forest on the other side of the mansion. Cyan was panting for breath as he continued to trail behind Eugene, unable to close the distance between them.

Like this, the two ventured deep into the deserted forest.

After making sure that no one else was around, Eugene looked back at Cyan and asked, “If you’re strong enough, there’s no need for me to become the Patriarch, right?”

Cyan grunted in confusion, “Huh…?”

“Then it’s fine. Although you won’t be able to become stronger than me, as long as you’re strong enough to become the undisputed Patriarch of the Lionheart clan, there’s no problem, right?” Eugene confirmed once more.

Cyan hesitated, “…That’s….”

Eugene pressed forward, “You just need to be good at talking. The things you understand and have confidence in are the things that I hate, and that won’t change, got it? No matter how much you try to push me into it, how can I become the Patriarch when I say that I don’t want to do it?”

Cyan protested, “But with your skills—”

“What about my skills? As the Patriarch, you need to follow the Lionheart clan’s traditions, and you also need to have an appropriate sense of dignity. Hypothetically speaking, what would you do if I went out into the middle of the capital city, pulled off all my clothes, and took a shit right there? No matter how strong I am, do you really think that a naked public shitter would deserve to be the Patriarch of the Lionheart Clan?”

Eugene was actually threatening to poop naked in the middle of the capital city? Such a thought was unimaginable for Cyan, who had been born and raised in the main estate. Cyan swallowed a gulp and stared at Eugene.

He recalled what happened five years ago when Eugene had first arrived at the main estate. Although Eugene may have dismissed it as the barking of a mad dog, at that time, Cyan really had gotten a whiff of cow dung from Eugene. No, perhaps it wasn’t truly the smell of cow dung. But it was definitely the smell of the countryside. Did Gidol, a rural area on the outskirts of the Kiehl Empire, even have toilets?

Cyan seemed to seriously consider this question. He asked in a shocked tone, “…You… are you really going to defecate in public…?”

Eugene tried to explain, “No, I wasn’t really saying that I was going to do that… I was just bringing it up as a possibility. Like, I’d rather shit in public than become the Patriarch.”

“That… would be unacceptable. How could the Patriarch of this prestigious Lionheart clan do such an obscene thing…?” Cyan trailed off in horror.

Eugene nodded agreeably, “Right? It’s an unspeakable thought, isn’t it? That’s why, for the sake of the Lionheart clan, you have to become the Patriarch. You don’t need to worry about anything because I’ll make sure to teach you well so that you don’t get beaten up if you end up going somewhere.”

After hesitating for a moment, Cyan nodded his head.

Under normal circumstances, Cyan would have had to compete with Eward, who was the eldest son, for the seat of the Patriarch, but Eward had taken care of that issue through his own actions.

If he just stayed still, Cyan would definitely become the Patriarch. However, it was just that, because of the gap between him and Eugene, Cyan couldn’t accept his own suitability for the position. That was why Cyan had tried to concede it to Eugene—but, in the end, he truly did wish to become the Patriarch.

With a shrug, Cyan coughed, “…Ahem. If you truly don’t want to become the Patriarch, then it can’t be helped.”

How many times had Cyan offered the position to Eugene? At least three times, as far as he could remember. In any case, since Eugene said that he didn’t want it, then it couldn’t be helped.

“Well… you might have amazing skills, but it’s true that you don’t have any of the dignity that a Patriarch should have. You also haven’t received any training to become a proper heir, right? That means you aren’t prepared for it. As someone who lived half of his life in a rural area, you might find it difficult to become accustomed to the culture of the high society that a Lionheart Patriarch needs to familiarize themselves wi—”

After quietly listening to Cyan speak, Eugene suddenly kicked him in the shin. Letting out a single scream, Cyan clutched his leg and rolled around on the ground.

“Why-why did you hit me?” Cyan demanded.

“Because you were being ill-mannered,” Eugene explained.

Cyan accused, “The words you’ve spouted are far more ill-mannered…!”

“I know. But if it offends you, then you can try and kick me too,” Eugene offered.

“…Siblings shouldn’t fight with each other,” Cyan eventually said as he got up, rubbing his stinging shin. “By the way… how are you going to teach me that? Are we starting right now?”

“Your big brother is a very busy person,” Eugene informed him.

“…Why are you calling yourself big brother?” Cyan protested. “We’re the same age, and if we go by our birthdays, I was actually born a few months earlier than you. That means I’m the older brother.”

The twins really were twins in every way. The words Cyan was using to argue were exactly the same as Ciel’s. Eugene wanted to refute him somehow, but he couldn’t find anything to refute him with and ended up just twisting his lips.

“…In any case,” Eugene changed the subject, “Because I happen to be a bit busy, I’ll write down what I’m going to teach you and give it to you later.”

Cyan questioned him, “You’re going to write it down for me? It feels like it would be a lot faster if you taught me persona—”

Eugene impatiently interrupted him, “No, as I said, that’s not going to work for me. You don’t even have the basics down, so how do you expect me to teach you personally? And do you really think that you’re a genius like me? Can you even imitate what I showed you earlier?”

“…I can’t,” Cyan reluctantly admitted.

“That’s why I’m going to write it down for you. If you accept that for now and study it diligently, you’ll be able to use it on your own,” Eugene persuaded him.

But would that really be the case?

Although Eugene had claimed this for now, even he couldn’t be sure that he was telling the truth. In the first place, even in his previous life, he had never actually taught anyone. As a mercenary, there had been no reason for him to teach someone, and after becoming Vermouth’s companion, there had been no need to teach anyone. Sienna, Anise, and Molon were all so skilled that Eugene didn’t need to teach them anything.

As Eugene wanted to peacefully and leisurely enjoy his reincarnation, he felt like he could try and teach his techniques for fun, but he currently didn’t want to devote any of his precious time to Cyan.

“…You aren’t lying to me just because you don’t want to become the Patriarch, are you?” Cyan asked suspiciously.

“You’re right that I don’t want to be the Patriarch, but it’s not a lie,” Eugene reassured him.

Although he had said this to Ciel as well, Eugene actually liked Cyan. It was because whenever he saw Cyan continue to compete with him without giving up, Eugene was reminded of his past life as Hamel. Eugene was very familiar with the feelings of frustration, resentment, and determination that Cyan must be feeling.

‘We’re also siblings,’ Eugene reflected.

Yes, even though they didn’t share any actual blood ties. Nodding his head, Eugene walked past Cyan. As Cyan followed behind Eugene, who was heading off first, he snickered to himself.

‘Fine. If he says that he doesn’t want it, what else can I do? Mother wants this as well, so I’ll definitely be the one to become the Patriarch.’

This alone would be a happy event, but what was currently making Cyan’s heart flutter in happiness was the fact that he would be able to learn Eugene’s technique.

Right now, he might be learning from that guy, but perhaps someday he could use this as a basis to surpass Eugene.

While holding such high expectations, Cyan rubbed his still tingling shin.

* * *

Southern Kiehl, Uklas Mountain.

This broad and rugged mountain had been designated as part of the Lionheart estate ever since the events three hundred years ago.

In that distant past, the last Grand Duke of the Kiehl Empire, the Great Vermouth himself, had developed this area into his territory and had stayed in a castle deep in the mountains. Vermouth had eventually relinquished his title and moved to the Capital estate, but even three hundred years later, Mount Uklas remained part of the Lionheart estate.

The Black Lion Castle had been built deep within the mountains.

This was the place where the Great Vermouth had spent the longest amount of time, and it was also the place where the body of the great hero was enshrined.

On the top floor of the Black Lion Caste, in the center of a large room, dozens of people were sitting around a black, round table.

“…So, Eugene… it seems that child has returned to the main estate,” Gilead said as he lowered the letter he had been reading.

With narrowed eyes, he stared in front of him.

Someone expressed their opinion, “I actually thought that he would be returning a little later.”

Another replied, “Instead, it seems that he came at just the right time.”

The man sitting across from Gilead spoke up as he stroked his short beard and stared at Gilead, “There are only two months left in this year, no?”

“…There’s no real need to call them here, is there?” Gilead argued. After all, there’s never been a situation quite like this.”

“The one responsible for this unprecedented situation is you, Patriarch,” the man said with a smile.

Gilead might be the Lionheart clan’s Patriarch, but his words didn’t carry any more weight than those of the others sitting around the table.

This was something that couldn’t be helped. Except for Gilead, every one of the ten people sitting at the table was a member of the Lionheart clan’s Council of Elders.

Regardless of whether they were from the direct line or the collateral lines, they were giants who had left their name in the history of the Lionheart clan.

“After all, this is the first time ever that a child from a collateral branch has been adopted into the main family,” the man continued speaking. “Of course, the Patriarch has guaranteed this child’s value, but unfortunately… the latest batch of children from the main line has caused quite some fuss. As such, we have to inspect them more thoroughly.”

“It’s not just the Patriarch,” Carmen suddenly spoke up.

Unusually, even though she was a member of the Council of Elders, she hadn’t retreated from active duty, and she still served as the captain of the Third Division of the Knights of the Black Lion.

“Because I’ve also seen that kid, Eugene Lionheart, for myself, and I can guarantee it. Why should the fact that he’s from a collateral bloodline be such an important issue? What’s really important is that kid’s potential,” Carmen argued.

“It’s not like I’m looking down on him just because he’s from a collateral bloodline,” the man said with a smile.

This man made Gilead feel awkward. It had been that way ever since he was a child.

This was the Immortal White Lion, Doynes Lionheart.

Doynes was the eldest of all the Lionheart clan’s numerous family members, and he was also the brother of Gilead’s grandfather. He was a monster who had lived for well over a hundred years. Nevertheless, he hadn’t become unsightly with age and was instead an important figure who reigned over the Black Lion Castle while also leading the Council of Elders.

“Carmen, your eyes shouldn’t be mistaken, but… your perspective cannot represent the view of the Black Lions,” Doynes warned.

“…Hmph,” Carmen just grunted.

Carmen also felt awkward around Doynes. As Gilead’s aunt, she also boasted a formidable age, but Doynes’s seniority was still higher than Carmen’s.

In the Lionheart clan — no, in the entirety of the continent, the only ones who could be said to hold equal seniority to Doynes were those demonfolk in Helmuth who were free of the limits of a lifespan.

“Therefore, we need to see them for ourselves. This is also for the sake of the Coming-of-Age ceremony,” as he said this, Doynes turned to look at everyone here.

But there was no one who questioned Doynes’s words.

Gilead let out a long sigh. When he had first received the Council’s summons, he had expected something like this to happen, but having heard it said out loud, his heart couldn’t be at ease.

The Council of Elders was a group that strongly valued the traditions of the Lionheart Clan. They may have accepted Gilead adopting Eugene as a foster-child, but that was because Gilead had made an impassioned speech, guaranteeing Eugene’s potential.

Now, Eugene was no longer a child. As Doynes had said, two months from now, Eugene would become an adult. From that point onwards, the next Patriarch would need to be selected in earnest.

“You said that the boy has just returned from Nahama?” Doynes inquired.

“…Yes,” Gilead reluctantly confirmed.

Doynes continued, “Before that, he was learning magic in Aroth. From what I’ve heard, he really does have amazing talent for magic. Enough to make the Red Tower Master take him as his direct disciple and to entice the Crown Prince of Aroth into interacting with him.”

“…,” Gilead remained silent.

“Patriarch, we who bear the name Lionheart are a pride of great lions. Although it’s fine for the Patriarch to raise his children freely, it would be difficult if you allow a lion that you’ve worked so hard to raise to leave the pride at will,” Doynes said with a warning tone.

“…That choice is up to the child,” Gilead insisted.

“Of course it is,” Doynes agreed. “I have every intention of showing him sufficient respect. However, the choice should still be narrowed down somewhat. Are you sure that you intend to put that child up to become the Patriarch?”

“…If that is what Eugene desires, I want to keep the possibility open for him,” Gilead confessed.

“He won’t want it,” Carmen replied. As she flipped open and closed her unused pocket watch, she continued speaking, “I’ve heard this from Ciel. That boy, Eugene, has been earnestly refusing to become the Patriarch as if it were some kind of terrible punishment.”

“Then it should be fine, as long as he doesn’t change his mind,” Doynes nodded his head with a smile.

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