‘What are they doing in there without coming out all day?’ Ciel pouted her lips as she glared at the keep.
Since they had finally reunited after years apart, she had wanted to share a meal with Eugene, then take him on a tour of the castle, or maybe even go with him on a long walk through the mountains. However, after Eugene had immediately passed the test and entered the fortress, he hadn’t even taken a single step out of his room.
Usually, Eugene wasn’t someone who would have stayed locked up in his room, and he would have at least come on down to the gymnasium to do some training. But perhaps his habits had changed during their time apart, as Eugene hadn’t visited the gymnasium even once.
That said, the idea of personally going to visit him somehow pricked at her self-esteem. Ciel glared at the castle while kicking holes in the innocent ground.
‘...They did say that Lord Genos went in there with him…,’ Ciel recalled.
Could it be that they were really trying to persuade Eugene to join the Knights of the Black Lion? This sudden thought caused Ciel to unconsciously grin.
Genos Lionheart was the Captain of the Second Division. Although Ciel might have been able to charm most of the adults she had met, Genos was a difficult opponent to overcome, even for her.
Ciel wasn’t the only one who found Genos difficult to confront. Among the knights of the Black Lion, Genos could count himself alongside the likes of Carmen and Dominic as one of the most skilled warriors in the entire knightly order.
That was why Ciel had made several attempts to build up rapport with Genos, but no matter how much work she put into it, she never seemed to be able to make any progress. Genos had a strict personality, and perhaps taking after their captain, even the knights of the Second Division that was led by Genos didn’t really interact with the other units.
‘....If possible, it would be a lot better if Eugene joined the Third Division instead of the Second Division,’ Ciel yearned wistfully.
From the first time that Carmen had met Eugene, she had intended to offer him the position of squire to the Captain of the Second Division. Even in Ciel’s view, this was quite the attractive proposition. It was an offer to become the squire of not just any Captain, but Captain Genos, who was known to have outstanding skill even compared to the other Knights of the Black Lion.
Ciel continued her train of thought, ‘After all, the Second Division rarely stays for long at the Black Lion Castle….’
Although the contents of their training were different for each Division, the training of the Second Division seemed especially harsh when compared to the other units and emphasized actual combat. Although they were currently staying in the castle in order to take part in the Coming-of-Age Ceremony, the Second Division’s usual routine was to wander the most uncivilized regions of the continent.
So, if it was at all possible, Ciel hoped that Eugene would enter the Third Division instead of the Second Division. After all, it wasn’t like there were any disadvantages to doing so, right? If they could belong to the same unit, then they could stay together no matter where the unit went. They could share meals together every day, wear the same uniform, and even receive the same training….
Ciel just stood there absentmindedly as she imagined what Eugene would look like wearing the uniform of the Knights of the Black Lion. After giggling to herself like this, Ciel turned around and left without any regrets.
‘Seeing as they’ve been talking so long, it looks like Lord Genos’s persuasion seems to be working.’
Since that was the case, she shouldn’t interfere. If it was the strict Lord Genos who was talking to Eugene, there was no way that he would be swayed by Eugene’s silver tongue; and even Eugene wouldn’t be able to disregard Lord Genos, who was both skillful and shared a similar attitude to Eugene when it came to training.
But what if it was Carmen trying to convince him?
‘...Lady Carmen is… of course she’s a good person, but…,’ Ciel trailed off without finishing her thought.
In any case, Ciel was having fun imagining that Eugene might come to think positively about joining the Knights of the Black Lion. As long as he became Genos’s squire to start with, wouldn’t she eventually be able to coax him to transfer over to her Division?
Ciel felt like she was overflowing with confidence as she thought of this. With a wicked smile on her face, she walked away from the part of the castle where Eugene was staying.
Not a single thought in this wicked girl’s head was given to her poor twin brother. What reasons were there for her to care about that brother of hers, who had been beside her ever since they were born and whom she had spent eighteen years of her life living with? In any case, it wasn’t like he had any truly deplorable sides to him like Eward had, so Cyan was sure to arrive at the castle after overcoming the various difficulties lying in wait for him.
On the next day, after finishing her breakfast in a hurry, Ciel headed straight to the front of the castle.
Normally, she would have been training under Carmen’s watchful eye, but since the day before, Carmen had been occupied with the Council meeting.
‘What’s so important that they have to discuss it for more than a day?’ Ciel idly thought to herself.
As far as Ciel knew, the current state of the Lionheart clan was pretty peaceful. Among the many collateral branches, there were no misbehaving families, and even the barbarians beyond the southern border of the empire had been keeping to themselves for the past several years.
Under these circumstances, Eward was the only thing consistently occupying the attention of the Knights of the Black Lion. Even now, the Lieutenant of the Sixth Division was away from the Black Lion Castle, having been assigned to keep an eye on Eward in the Bossar Fief.
Ciel shrugged, ‘Although I don’t know what’s going on….’
For now, it didn’t have anything to do with Ciel.
Could today be the day that Eugene finally came out of his room? Carrying these high expectations, Ciel arrived at the guest quarters in the castle.
Ciel’s eyes blinked in surprise as she took in the scene that greeted her.
In the center of a broad gymnasium, Genos was swinging his sword. Eugene was standing at a slight distance, observing Genos’s movements.
From her first glance at this scene, Ciel could only think of one explanation for this. Ciel immediately pasted on a bright smile and walked over to Genos and Eugene. Noticing her arrival, Genos stopped swinging his sword, and preemptively shot a glance at Eugene.
“What are you doing here?” Eugene asked in place of a greeting.
This would’ve been enough to offend almost anyone else, but Ciel didn’t seem to take any offense and instead just smiled cheerfully.
“So you’ve decided to become Lord Genos’s squire, right?” Ciel asked confidently.
This had to be the case. If not for that, then there was no reason for the two of them to have been out here in the gymnasium so early in the morning. On top of that, Genos seemed to be showing Eugene a demonstration of his sword techniques for teaching purposes.
“You’ve made a good choice. Lord Genos is the most skilled warrior, even amongst the Knights of the Black Lion,” Cyan flattered Genos to further ensnare Eugene.
Ciel wasn’t actually spouting nonsense either. Dominic, for instance, had the Annihilation Hammer Jigollath, while Carmen had been taught the White Flame Formula. Since Genos was just as strong as either of them despite not having any kind of special advantage, it was safe to say that he was the most skilled amongst all the Knights of the Black Lion.
“...Um… Ciel.” Genos spoke up as he hesitantly shot a glance at Eugene. Since they were both members of the Knights of the Black Lion, Genos felt no need to address Ciel as ‘Young Lady’. “It seems like you’re misunderstanding something.”
“Huh?” Ciel looked at him questioningly.
“I haven’t taken Young Master Eugene as my squire,” Genos explained.
Ciel’s eyes widened at these words.
Barely managing to hold on to the smile that threatened to slip from her face, Ciel tilted her head to the side and asked, “What exactly do you mean by that? Didn’t you spend a long time talking to Eugene about it yesterday?”
Genos hesitated, “That’s….”
Ciel kept speaking, “And aren’t you teaching Eugene your sword techniques right now? Why would you be guiding him in your sword techniques if you haven’t even taken him as your squire?”
The one who was receiving guidance was actually Genos himself, but it was impossible for him to admit to such a thing. Although he hadn’t drawn on his mana when he was performing the technique, the move that Genos had been demonstrating was the Dead End recorded among the Hamel Style techniques.
Dead End! This was a skill that worked in conjunction with Asura Rampage to drive one’s opponent into inevitable doom. By spraying out a dense net of sword-force like a spider’s web with the Asura Rampage, this brilliant sword technique could restrict an opponent’s movements before finishing them off….
“Although I haven’t become his squire, I can still receive some instruction on swordsmanship, can’t I?” Eugene responded to Ciel’s questions with an apathetic expression.
This was of course just an excuse. There was not a single thing that he could learn from the Dead End that Genos had just performed. Inside Eugene’s head, there were countless techniques that were cleaner and far more deadly than that.
Of course, there was no reason to disparage Genos’s skill because of this. Even when looking at him from the perspective of Eugene’s previous life, Genos was an extremely skillful warrior. However, since Genos’s abilities were rooted in the Hamel Style, Eugene couldn’t help but have an overwhelming advantage over him if it came to a battle.
“Why?” Ciel whined, her cheeks puffing up as she pouted.
“What do you mean, why?” Eugene changed the subject. “Have you eaten before coming here?”
“...I have,” Ciel sulkily admitted.
“But I haven’t eaten anything yet,” Eugene informed her.
Successfully distracted, Ciel asked, “What have you been up to that’s so important that you still haven’t eaten?”
“I was just planning on getting something to eat when I had the time,” Eugene replied. “Sir Genos, why don’t we head on inside now and get something to eat? Or would you prefer to return to your own quarters first?”
“...I’ll get something to eat once I’ve returned to my quarters,” Genos replied with a cough as he sheathed his sword.
Judging from the situation, it seemed that Ciel would also be taking part in the meal, and Genos was afraid that he might make a mistake and reveal something that he shouldn’t if put on the spot.
What if he accidently let slip the words ‘Senior Brother’ while Ciel was in hearing range? Genos was well aware of how wicked and manipulative Ciel Lionheart could be. Although it had been less than two years since she had joined the Knights of the Black Lion, she had been able to firmly establish her footing with a smile that allowed her to get out of any trouble, as well as her own cunning manipulations.
If he spilled the words ‘Senior Brother’ in front of Ciel, she would definitely not allow the slightest mistake to slip past her. Genos had no desire to have his weakness seized by this young lady and used to play with him….
“If that’s the case, it looks like I’ll be eating alone,” said Eugene.
“I’ll eat with you,” Ciel insisted.
“Didn’t you say that you just ate before coming here?”
“I only ate a little bit, so it’s fine.”
“You’ll get fat if you eat too much,” Eugene warned her.
“Do I look like I’ve gotten fat?” Ciel coldly asked with narrowed eyes.
While this conversation was taking place, Genos had quickly left the room with a cautious, stealthy stride.
Eugene eyed Ciel uncertainly, “I think you have a little?”
“I just grew a bit taller and put on some muscle,” Ciel retorted as she stormed off ahead of Eugene.
However, it seemed like Eugene’s accusation continued to bother her. Although she did accompany Eugene to the dining room so that they could eat together, Ciel barely touched her food and just rested her chin on a cradle formed from her hands.
Despite Ciel’s blatant and heavy gaze resting squarely on him, Eugene just continued to eat without any distractions.
“...Does it taste good?” Ciel eventually asked.
Eugene gave his compliments, “It looks like they’ve got some good chefs here.”
“If you join the Knights of the Black Lion, you can eat delicious food like this every day,” tempted Ciel.
“You really are persistent,” Eugene merely replied.
“After I’ve worked so hard to try and persuade you, can’t you just pretend not to notice and let me win?” Ciel whined.
Eugene denied her the satisfaction. “I prefer winning over losing.”
“Who in the world doesn’t want to win when they can?” Ciel muttered as she pouted her lips.
Even so, she decided to give up and stop bothering Eugene any further. Ciel’s stubbornness was strong enough that it wouldn’t lose to anyone, but Eugene’s stubbornness was just as strong.
Changing the subject, Ciel asked, “...So what did you do in Aroth?”
“How quick of you to ask,” Eugene noted sarcastically.
“Yesterday wasn’t the right time to ask you about it,” Ciel excused herself.
Instead of answering her question, Eugene had one of his own. “So what do you expect me to say to you?”
“You’ll probably say that you were busy studying magic.”
“See, looks like you’re already well aware of what I was up to.”
“But apart from that, wasn’t there anything else that you were busy with? I’ve heard that you also got close to Aroth’s Crown Prince during your time there.”
“What does that have to do with me being busy?”
“Weren’t you invited to any of the parties or social events hosted by the Royal Family? Or else… did Sir Lovellian ever introduce you to the promising young wizards of Aroth?” Ciel asked tentatively.
Eugene stopped eating, only to burst out into laughter, “Do you really think that I would enjoy that kind of thing?”
“No, you wouldn’t.” Reassured by Eugene’s answer, Ciel smiled bashfully. “Still, don’t you think that you should slowly accumulate some experience with those sorts of things?”
“Why should I?” Eugene raised an eyebrow.
“You and I will both soon become adults. That means we’ll be old enough to attend parties and be expected to socialize.”
“Hey now, someone take a look at what this girl is saying. So, since you’ve been quiet up until now, you’ve decided that once you become an adult, it’s okay for you to party hard, right?”
“No, it’s not like that, but…. if it’s partying around with you, I think it’ll be a lot of fun,” Ciel admitted.
“Why are you just leaving your brother out of the equation?” Eugene asked with amusement.
“My brother has a lot of people looking to drag him out for some fun apart from me and you. Besides, I think that my brother will be extremely busy starting from next year. Many noble families, and maybe even the royal families of other nations, will be trying to introduce their eligible maidens to him,” as she said this, Ciel leaned her body closer to Eugene. “He might even be the earliest of all of us to get married.
“This is supposed to be a secret, but there just so happens to be a young princess from the Sea Kingdom Shimuin. She might be a long way away from succeeding the throne, but she’s still a member of the royal family.”
“So what about her?” Eugen prompted.
“There’s a possibility that she might be engaged to Cyan. Nothing has been finalized yet, but the Elders of the Council are pushing forward the proposal,” Cyan lowered her voice as she continued. “And it’s not just Shimuin either. You know about the Ruhr Kingdom, right? The princess of that country is also one of Cyan’s prospective spouses.”
The Ruhr Kingdom…. The moment that he heard that the princess was from there, Eugene couldn’t help but imagine something that was, by all rights, an unimaginable sight.
The princess was a descendant of Molon, so if the princess just so happened to resemble Molon…. Eugene suddenly pictured in his head a Molon who had grown his hair out and was wearing a poofy dress. At the same time, he also recalled the sight of Gargith wearing his formal garment laced with ruffled fills.
Eugene gagged, “Disgusting….”
“What’s so disgusting?” Ciel asked in surprise.
“No, it’s nothing. Anyway, so how old are the princesses in question?”
“The princess of Shimuin is the same age as us, but… the princess of Ruhr should currently be nine years old?”
“Are you really saying that Cyan could be getting married to a young girl who’s currently just nine years old?”
“What does it matter that she’s currently nine years old? It’s not like she’s going to be staying nine forever.”
“I just can’t see it that way. Cyan getting married to someone who’s ten, or moreyears younger? That would be a crime not even the heavens can forgive.”
“So you’re saying that you're not interested in anyone who is younger than you?” Ciel asked, her eyes sparkling with interest.
“...I would just prefer it if any romantic partner I had was around the same age…” As he said this, Eugene couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of disassociation.
Although he had been reincarnated, if you based his age on when he had been first born, Eugene was over three hundred years old.
Eugene realized something, ‘The only ones whose ages are close to mine are… the elves or maybe… the dragons….’
No, just because someone had been around three hundred years ago, that didn’t mean that they were necessarily three hundred years old. In his past life as Hamel, he had died at the age of thirty-eight, and with his twenty years as Eugene, he could technically be considered to be in his fifties. As such, if he was looking for someone in her fifties, that would be someone like… Carmen, Tanis, Ancilla, or Melkith.
Eugene decided to stop thinking about this.
“...Anyway, I don’t think that age is really that important,” Eugene confidently stated.
“Why are you going back on your words?” Ciel asked in disappointment.
“The human heart has always been like a leaf in the wind[1],” Eugene insisted.
“Still, if we go by what you said earlier, you would prefer someone who is of a similar age to you over someone who is younger than you, right?” Ciel persisted in asking.
“Why are you treating this like such an important issue?”
“Just when do you plan on getting married?”
“I don’t have any plans to do so, though?”
Ciel’s expression immediately froze stiff.
“Why not?” she immediately demanded. “Don’t you realize that marriage is a blessing?”
“...Aren’t we a bit too young to have to start talking about marriage already?” Eugene pointed out.
“If Cyan gets married before you do, that means you’ll have lost to Cyan.”
“Why would me getting married later than Cyan count as losing to him?”
“Who exactly is getting married?” a voice demanded as the door to the dining room was slammed open.
Without any surprise, Eugene calmly turned his head to face the new arrival. This was because he had detected signs of Cyan’s presence before the latter had even opened the door. However, since Ciel wasn’t able to do this, she couldn’t help but stare at Cyan with a surprised expression on her face.
“Why have you arrived so early?” she asked.
“Are you disappointed by my premature arrival?” a shabby-looking Cyan spat out as he panted harshly.
He had wandered through the forest for an entire day, fighting ghosts, monsters, and knights. He hadn’t been able to even eat or drink anything, let alone get some sleep.
“...I thought you would be lost for a few days at least,” Ciel muttered in disappointment.
“Who the hell do you think I am?!” Cyan roared angrily as he staggered over to them.
After having gone through all kinds of hardship and finally arriving at the Black Lion Castle, he hadn’t even been properly greeted with a single word of congratulations. This was because the Patriarch and all the Elders of the Council were still gathered around the round table, having their discussions.
If it was just that, then Cyan could have endured it. However, the news that Eugene had arrived at the castle a day earlier than him had made Cyan’s heart boil over with frustration. Even though he had been well aware that Eugene wouldn’t find things as challenging as he had, he had still expected Eugene to have arrived earlier that morning.
Instead… Eugene had made it to the castle less than an hour after they had both fallen into the forest!
“Did you get to see a lot of ghosts?” Ciel asked him teasingly.
“...Don’t say anything about ghosts,” Cyan threatened her.
Ciel ignored his warning, “If you’re here, does that mean you were able to defeat the ghosts?”
Cyan defended himself. “...Well, you can slice a person, a monster, or a demonic beast to death with a sword, but there’s no way to slice a ghost to death.”
“Strictly speaking, ghosts are just a type of undead. They’re still just monsters, so why can’t you kill them? The reason why you weren’t able to kill them is just that you’re too weak, isn’t it?” Ciel taunte.
“...The undead and ghosts are different. The ones I’m afraid—no, I mean, the ghosts that I hate are different from the ghosts that are considered part of the undead.” As he declared this with a scowl, Cyan sat down next to Eugene.
Eugene pinched his nose to block off the complex and noxious stench, seemingly a mixture of various different scents, that was wafting over from Cyan.
“Your body is giving off a rotten odor,” Eugene accused him.
“I’m already aware of that, so just be quiet. After I get something to eat, I’ll wash up and go to sleep,” muttering this, Cyan grabbed some cutlery for himself.
However, Cyan wasn’t able to wash up and get some sleep as he had planned. This was because, as soon as their meal was over, the butler arrived bearing a message.
“An important guest will be arriving soon, so please make your preparations and head over to the warp gate,” the butler relayed.
“...Is the guest really so important that we all need to go out to meet them?” Cyan asked with a look of despair on his face.
“But I didn’t hear anything about a guest arriving?” Ciel inquired with a puzzled expression.
These words caused the butler’s expression to stiffen slightly as he bowed his head and explained, “We also haven’t received any word to be prepared for a guest. It is likely… that they have been specially invited to join in the meeting held at the round table.”
“So, who are they?” Ciel asked, as he got up from his seat.
The butler announced, “The guest soon to be arriving is Auxiliary Bishop Kristina, from the Holy Empire.”
1. The original Korean text compares the heart to a riverbank reed. ☜
