If he was just going to ask them that, why didn’t he try talking to them first? What kind of thug would just assault them out of nowhere to get his questions answered? These questions ran through Laman’s mind as he glared at Eugene.
Although Laman was listening to these questions, he still didn’t lower his guard. Laman wasn’t able to spot any openings on Eugene as he stood there in a slightly crooked stance.
Eugene had also been able to cross that long distance in an instant and had been able to knock back Laman’s sword-force with just a swing of his own sword from an unstable position. To top it off, Eugene had shown his skillful use of magic without any incantations.
Taken together, it was unbelievable.
Laman gulped nervously. Objectively speaking, Laman was an exceptional warrior. At least in this region, there was no warrior better than Laman. But it was exactly because of this that Laman couldn’t help but be wary.
Laman shuffled backward in order to widen his field of view. This allowed him to observe the state of his defeated subordinates. Although no one had died, they weren’t in good condition either. His men had gotten their bones broken by the magic missiles, and his lieutenant had a crossbow bolt stuck in one shoulder while being bound by tentacles of sand.
“Aren’t you going to answer me?”
Even as Eugene impatiently asked such a question, the tentacles of sand didn’t disappear. Dozens of magic missiles were also still hovering above Laman’s fallen subordinates. How was Eugene able to wield a sword even as he maintained multiple spells? And all while showing not a single opening?
Laman may not have learned any magic, but even he knew that what Eugene was doing currently required an impossible level of skill for a nineteen-year-old.
“...We’re thieves,” Laman eventually confessed.
“It seems that Nahama is quite the powerful country,” Eugene scoffed as the corners of his mouth twisted up in a wry grin. “After all, the leader of a group of measly bandits, with less than ten members, is actually able to give off sword-force from his blade. If a bandit group of this size is at that level, that must mean a gang of bandits with more than a hundred people will have at least ten men who can exert sword-force.”
“...,” Laman stayed silent.
Eugene continued, “And how strong must the soldiers be to be able to suppress such bandits? That’s quite amazing. If they have that kind of military power, won’t Nahama be able to unify the continent?”
Laman tried to come up with an excuse, “As thieves, we’re just… a little special….”
“Hey, old man. I’m telling you, stop with your bullshit and just speak honestly,” Eugene said with a snicker.
Having said this, Eugene confidently strode forward, but Laman couldn’t retreat any further.
“Truth is, I don’t really need you to answer me. You can keep silent if you like. Because I have my own ways of making you talk,” Eugene menaced.
Was this really a young master of the prestigious Lionheart clan? Although his face was that of a youth’s, the words spilling from his mouth sounded like they could have come from the type of mercenary one would find at a pub. On top of that, there was Eugene’s gaze. It was blatantly exuding killing intent. How was it possible for a flower grown in a greenhouse to give off a killing intent like that?
“...Just who the hell are you?”
Although Laman knew this was a strange question, he couldn’t help but feel the need to ask it.
“I don’t know what you mean by that,” Eugene responded. “You should have known who I was before you started following me. Isn’t that right?”
“...You’re Eugene Lionheart,” Laman finally admitted.
Eugene confirmed, “That’s right, it seems you’re well aware of my identity.”
“But are you really… Eugene Lionheart?”
“If not, then who else could I be?”
As Eugene spat out these words, he kicked off the ground. The sand from the dune burst up and exploded in all directions. But there was no way that Laman could lose sight of Eugene’s figure even in the countless grains of sand.
Or at least that was what he thought.
Eugene’s figure disappeared in an instant. Such a movement was impossible with just speed alone. Laman’s senses didn’t miss the fact that the mana in the air had fluctuated. He quickly turned and swung his kukri to the side.
‘Even Blink?’ Laman exclaimed as he moved instinctively.
Tching!
His kukri clashed against Wynnyd. Although Wynnyd’s blade was thin, it was covered in a dense layer of mana. This was sword-force.
Laman couldn’t be sure of it from only their first clash, but now he was certain of his suspicion. For Eugene’s mana to not be scattered when his sword collided with Laman’s own blade of sword-force could only mean that Eugene was using sword-force as well.
There was no time for Laman to be astonished by this fact. He still needed to pay attention to other things, even with Eugene right in front of him. Laman felt a chill running down his back as a magic missile that had been hidden in the cloud of sand flew towards his blindspot.
Magic Missile was only a First Circle spell. It was a spell that just about anyone who called themselves a wizard could use, but even when their Circles increased, most still favored Magic Missile as an attack spell due to its ease of use. Magic missiles could be cast with just a small amount of mana, and their trajectory could be changed at will depending on their caster’s mana control.
And mana control was something that Eugene had been skilled in ever since his previous life. Eugene’s mind was capable of guiding each projectile individually, and the Ring Flame Formula amplified the power of every projectile. Laman couldn’t afford to ignore such an attack.
Mana burst out from Laman’s core. Grayish-white mana wrapped around his body. This was a Mana Shield. Since it was just a technique meant to coat someone’s body with the mana that they possessed, the use of this defensive technique wasn’t differentiated between a wizard and a warrior. But its defensive power varied greatly depending on the user’s level of strength.
Usually, a mana shield constructed by a warrior of Laman’s level should be able to laugh off a blow from a First Circle offensive spell. However, Laman’s body shook as he felt a heavy shockwave coming from behind him. As Laman was forced to stagger forwards, Eugene’s sword pierced through the opening this had created.
“Ugh!”
At first, Laman thought that he’d been cut. But he wasn’t. Eugene’s sword just lightly grazed the surface of the mana shield that Lamana had erected.
It had to have been deliberate. Eugene had purposely held back.
Laman’s eyes widened in anger.
“How dare you insult me!” Laman roared and violently swung his kukri.
Each time his kukri, which was curved in the shape of a crescent moon, sliced through the air, it created a distinctive whooshing noise.
Although Laman swung his kukri like this dozens of times, he wasn’t able to make any contact with Eugene. Just by shuffling his feet slightly, Eugene could easily evade Laman’s blade.
Usually, there was no way that Laman would grow tired just from swinging his sword like this. However, Laman’s breathing was gradually getting heavier and heavier.
It was because of the mounting pressure. Even when he swung his sword with all his might, Laman still couldn’t hit Eugene, and the youth from the Lionheart clan was no longer smiling like he was before. His calm eyes weren’t showing any traces of agitation. Even in the face of slashes that could cost him his life with just a touch, Eugene was still able to stay so calm.
All of this was putting pressure on Laman. On top of that, it wasn’t just Eugene that he needed to pay attention to. Laman didn’t know when another spell might come flying at his back. He could also be sucked into the ground like his lieutenant. Or something might even fall on his head from above.
The range of Laman’s guard needed to be increased for each variety of attacks that Eugene had shown. This limited what actions Laman was capable of. He couldn’t afford to take risks.
Just as Laman was on the verge of panting for breath, Eugene jokingly offered, “How about I don’t use magic?”
These words caused the hair on Laman’s head to stand up in rage. This was the first time he had ever been so insulted.
“Kaaaaaah!” Laman burst out in a shrill cry.
The sword-force wrapped around his kukri intensified in strength. He was going to kill Eugene. Although Laman’s master hadn’t ordered him to do so, his warrior’s pride that had been insulted was more important than his master’s orders.
‘Now things are looking up,’ Eugene smirked to himself.
Not only had it been a few years since he’d used his body like this, but this was also the first time for Eugene’s reincarnated body to face an opponent who could output his sword-force like this. Whenever he sparred with Gilead, Gion, and the other knights of the main estate, they didn’t use sword-light or sword-force for fear of possible injuries.
As such, Eugene wanted to see what this man could do. This old guy facing him had been too cautious in his attacks after claiming he was a thief. With toothless blows like those, no matter how much Laman swung his sword, Eugene would suffer flesh wounds at most.
Now though, there was some weight to Laman’s blows. Smirking, Eugene swung his shoulders, and his arms shook as he sprang into action.
Bambambam!
Grains of sand were sent flying with each step Laman was forced to take back, and drops of blood dripping from his cuts mixed in with the sand. Even though he was seeing it personally, Laman still couldn’t believe what was happening to his body.
‘These cuts,’ Laman winced.
How many times has it been? Laman’s whole body was stinging in pain. The cuts weren’t deep, only skin deep at most. Neither his bones nor his muscles had been broken by these blows. Was it a miracle that they were all shallow? No, the truth was, Eugene was holding back on him. Laman’s beard trembled in agitation.
“Kiaaah!” Laman roared once more and charged at Eugene.
However, the results of this attempt weren’t much different from those that had come before.
By the time Laman had finished taking a step forward, Wynnyd had already made dozens of slashes. Eugene’s sword was unbelievably quick. But the even more alarming thing was that none of the cuts made by his sword overlapped. This meant that the youth wasn’t just swinging his sword haphazardly; he knew exactly where his sword was going and where each of his blows would land.
‘The intensity of his mana. His magic. And even… his swordsmanship…. How on earth does someone like this exist?’ Laman thought resentfully, cursing the heavens for their unfairness.
As blood poured down his body, Laman rushed at Eugene once more. Eugene just snorted at Laman’s show of bravery.
Kwaaah!
A cloud of sand was sent flying with a boom, and Laman was left panting in the middle of the aftermath. He had squeezed out the last of his sword-force in a single instant, erupting into a large explosion. However, even with this, he hadn’t been able to touch Eugene.
“Don’t you need to take care of your subordinates,” Eugene chided him.
The voice was coming from behind him. As Laman felt a chill run down his spine, he spun around to look back.
Laman saw his lieutenant and the other soldiers under his command floating in the air. Eugene casually threw them aside and tucked Wynnyd into his cloak.
“What… do you think… you’re doing?” Laman gasped out.
“Can’t you tell just by looking at it? I’m putting away my sword,” Eugene stated the obvious.
“I still haven’t been defeated!” Laman insisted.
Eugene shrugged, “I know.”
Pop pop pop.
Eugene cracked his knuckles as he walked over to Laman.
“So I’m going to defeat you now,” Eugene declared.
“Kaaaah!” Laman rushed at him with another scream.
Eugene ducked under the slash that flew at him and clenched his fist.
Pow!
A fist covered in mana crashed through Laman’s mana shield and drove into his side.
“Kagh!”
Laman’s breath was driven out of him, but the assault didn’t stop there. Eugene skillfully swayed his body backward and then, for the sake of fairness, slammed his fist into Laman’s other side as well. A blow to Laman’s stomach came after that one.
When Laman staggered, unable to endure the pain, Eugene immediately swung his leg and kicked the outside of Laman’s thigh. Eugene wouldn’t allow Laman to fall with just that. He grabbed Laman by the collar and held him up. Then he swung his fist up into Laman’s jaw twice. When Laman was about to vomit, Eugene slammed his chin upwards, preventing Laman from opening his mouth.
Laman choked, “Gah….”
Laman felt himself losing consciousness, but he was still holding on to his kukri. He tried to swing his kukri to somehow change this situation, but it didn’t work out.
Eugene just grabbed Laman’s wrist and twisted it. Then, with his other hand, he grabbed Laman’s head.
Using his sword first and then putting it away—this wasn’t because Eugene had the intention of sparing Laman. It was all to show off a blatant disregard for Laman as a threat and thus break his will. Eugene was demonstrating that he could crush someone like Laman with just his bare hands.
Having seen the truth of this, Laman’s will was immediately broken. Compared to being sliced dozens of times with the sword, being beaten up by the fists of a nineteen-year-old youth was much more painful and depressing.
“Hold—” on is what Laman wanted to say.
But Eugene didn’t bother to allow Laman to finish.
Bang!
Laman’s head was spiked into the sand. Since the ground wasn’t that hard, Eugene didn’t have to worry about cracking Laman’s head in two.
‘I still don’t know who’s behind these guys,’ Eugene reminded himself.
The situation was different from when Eugene had dealt with the black wizard in Aroth. This was a foreign country—a place where Eugene didn’t even have Lovellian to look out for him. If the one behind this old guy was at the very least a noble of Nahama, this might turn into a political fiasco.
He didn’t want to put any more wrinkles onto Gilead’s already troubled and worn-out face.
That said, Eugene wasn’t going to be excessively merciful either.
Bang, bang, bang!
Eugene slammed Laman’s head into the sand a few more times. Laman’s already broken will was utterly crushed. With the bitter taste of the sand entering his eyes, nose, and lips, Laman’s tears and blood turned the sand into mud.
Laman stammered, “S-stop….”
Laman knew that he was really going to die. And he wasn’t going to die fighting with honor but instead be left dead in a barren patch of the desert while pretending to be a thief. The realization of this was terrible, and so was the pain he was in. In a shaking voice, Laman could barely spit out this plea for mercy, and only then did Eugene’s hands pause in their place.
“Who are you?” Eugene asked once more.
Laman tried to speak, “I am….”
The moment Laman hesitated while replying, Eugene slammed Laman’s head into the ground once more.
“Your response was late,” Eugene explained. “If I ask you something, answer me right away. It’s also fine if you answer me before I even ask.”
What did Eugene even mean by saying it was okay for Laman to answer before being asked the question? Although this thought went through Laman’s head, he didn’t voice his protest.
Instead, he confessed, “M-my name is Laman Schulhov.”
“Hah? What’s with your tone, you motherfucker,” Eugene cursed.
Bang!
Laman’s head crashed into the ground once more.
He repeated, “M-my name is Laman Schulhov, Sir!”
Bang!
Laman pleaded, “J-just what is it you want to hear from me…?”
Eugene raised an eyebrow, “Forgetting the Sir again? This motherfucker.”
Bang!
A cry came from elsewhere, “Please stop!”
Having seen his superior thrown around like this several times, the lieutenant, who was still suspended in the air, twisted his body to face them and pleaded with Eugene. As blood trickled down from his nose and mouth, Laman looked up at his lieutenant.
The lieutenant stammered, “O-our master is Tairi Al-Madani….”
Bang!
Even though the lieutenant was the one who answered the question, Laman’s head was still smashed into the ground once more. In that brief moment, Eugene had understood the relationship between Laman and his lieutenant. He realized that this upright old man would really refuse to tell him anything, no matter how many times he was hit.
Bang!
“And who is that?” Eugene asked even as he slammed Laman into the ground once more.
Eugene’s gaze wasn’t aimed at Laman but instead at the lieutenant.
But Laman was the one to respond to his question in a dizzied voice, “Don’t… don’t tell him anything….”
Not listening to Laman’s order, the lieutenant revealed, “Our master…. Tairi Al-Madani is the Emir of Kajitan!”
Rather than his master, who was far away, the lieutenant was more afraid of the one who kept slamming Laman’s head into the dirt right in front of him — Eugene.
Eugene recalled that Kajitan was the city right on the western border of Nahama, which Eugene had just left. This meant that Laman was a subordinate of the lord of Kajitan.
Bang!
The lieutenant continued stammering, “O-our master… he… he wanted us to—”
“To? Hurry up, you motherfucker,” Eugene urged.
Bang!
“He-he wanted us to… secretly follow you… Sir Eugene—”
Bang!
“I-I’m not sure of his reasons… but—”
Bang!
“Please just let go of the captain’s head! I… I can’t give you a detailed reason. B-but—”
Bang!
“He told us… not to allow you to enter the Kazani desert…!”
Only then did Eugene stop pounding Laman’s head into the ground.
“Why?” he asked simply.
“That’s… I’m not really sure—”!
Bang!
“No, really—”
Bang!
“It’s the truth! Really, I swear that I’ve told you everything that I know. I truly don’t know his reasons for this. Truly,” the lieutenant pleaded as tears poured down his cheeks.
After eyeing him for a few moments, Eugene snorted and released Laman’s head.
That said, he wasn’t just going to allow Laman to go free. Eugene plopped his butt down on Laman’s back as he sat and stroked his chin. Kazani. That was the name of the desert that Eugene would enter if he kept going in this direction.
It was also the location of Eugene’s hometown. Three hundred years ago, the frontier of Turas had been in the middle of what was now the Kazani desert.
“Why doesn’t he want me to enter?” Eugene pondered.
The lieutenant answered, “He-he didn’t say anything about that.”
“There usually isn’t anything to see in a desert.”
“Kazani… no beast or monster even lives there. There aren’t any oases either.”
This was only natural. The Kazani desert had only been created recently as the epicenter of the sandstorm that was gnawing at Turas’s territory. It didn’t have an oasis, and rain only fell rarely. Kazani was a harsh land that no one could live off.
It wasn’t like there hadn’t been any attempts to make this wide desert livable. Just a few decades ago, an artificial oasis was created in Kazani with a village surrounding it.
However… a sandstorm had suddenly engulfed the oasis and the village, and after this had happened several times, Kazani had been abandoned as an uninhabitable wasteland.
‘Could it be the headquarters of the Sand Shamans?’
That was Eugene’s first thought. But although it was obvious that Nahama was using the desertification to gnaw away at Turas, that didn’t explain why they would want to keep the young master from the prestigious Lionheart clan from entering Kazani.
‘Or could Amelia Merwin be…?’
In Nahama, the one that Eugene was the wariest of was Amelia Merwin. The black wizard who had signed a contract with the Demon King of Incarceration and who was being supported by Nahama.
Not only did she have a bad personality, but Amelia Meriwn also had as much power as a natural disaster, so even Nahama treated her with caution. It was strictly forbidden for tourists, as well as the citizens of Nahama, to enter the Ashur Desert, which was where her dungeon was located.
The Ashur desert was a long way from here, and there was no reason for Eugene to go there. It was also far away from where Anise had last been sighted.
“...Hm,” Eugene organized his thoughts.
Raising his head, he looked around at Laman’s subordinates, who were sunken into the sand. They hadn’t just stayed still while Laman was getting thrashed. They had tried to attack Eugene several times, so Eugene had used magic to bury them in the sand until only their heads were sticking out.
“You all can go back,” Eugene said with a wave of his hand, then he tapped the top of Laman’s head, “But you’ll be coming with me.”
“...Hah?” Laman grunted.
Eugene pointed out, “No matter what, you can’t allow me to enter the Kazani desert, right? I don’t really care about that, but it would be annoying if I get into a pointless argument by going there.”
“What does that… have to do with me going with you…?” Laman groaned.
“If someone does make a fuss about it, I’ll just blame you,” Eugene explained.
Laman was struck dumb, “....”
“You get what I’m saying, right? I’ll use you, and thus your own master, as a shield. You said that your master is the Emir of Kajitan, right? Doesn’t that mean I can silence any annoying protests by using his name?”
“...Th-that’s….”
“Or would you rather die to me here? Of course, your subordinates will be dying along with you.”
“....”
“Or else you could just return to your master, tell him that you failed to follow me and that you were beaten to the brink of death? Of course, I have no reason to keep quiet about this. Didn’t you call yourself thieves when we first met? I’ll tell everyone that the Emir of Kajitan disguised his subordinates as thieves to steal the Lionheart’s treasures… how about that?”
“Th-that’s…! We never intended to do something like—”
“Who do you think they’ll believe, your words or mine? For now, what’s certain is this: the Lionheart clan will definitely believe my side of the story. After all, I do have things that are valuable enough to tempt you to steal them.”
With a grin, Eugene pulled out Wynnyd’s hilt from inside his cloak and showed it to them.
“You know what this is, right?” Eugene asked. “It’s Wynnyd, the Storm Sword used by the Great Vermouth, the ancestor of our Lionheart clan. It’s an item that just about anybody would covet. Or at least that’s what most people would think, no? So they’re sure to believe that the Emir of Kajitan pulled something so devious because he lusted for Wynnyd.”
Unable to say anything, Laman could only purse his lips. Although the length of time that Laman had suffered under Eugene was brief, he couldn’t treat Eugene’s words as a mere threat.
What if Eugene really went around saying something like that? Laman’s head would be sent flying, and perhaps so would his subordinates’. Even his master, Tairi Al-Madani, might lose his head if things went wrong.
“U-understood,” Laman had no choice but to concede.
