When Eugene woke back up, it was in the bed he had been using for the past few days. Nina, who had been waiting at his bedside, let out a startled gasp and was about to call for someone, but Eugene immediately raised his hand to stop her.
“Please, keep quiet,” Eugene groaned.
“A-allow me to call someone for assistance,” whispered Nina.
“No, it’s okay,” refused Eugene. “Just stay still.”
Nina let out a confused noise, “Huh?”
“Stay still and don’t say anything,” forcing out these words, Eugene clutched his aching head.
His memories weren’t clouded, and Eugene clearly remembered what he’d been doing just before he collapsed and the contents of his conversation with Tempest.
But that still left him with a throbbing headache, along with a hollow feeling of emptiness inside his body. This would have been an unfamiliar sensation for the thirteen-year-old Eugene if not for his memories as Hamel. This feeling was mana depletion. He had managed to squeeze out what little mana he had until there had been nothing left.
‘...This is all because Tempest just had to show up in person.’
All his mana had been sucked dry just by opening the door to the spirit world. From there, Tempest had taken over and crossed over into the physical world for a short time under his own power.
Doing this had placed quite a considerable burden on Tempest as well. Even spirits with great strength weren’t able to open the door to the spirit world by themselves. But as someone who had become a Spirit King, Tempest was able to push the door open further by placing the burden for doing so on himself.
‘It looks like Tempest must have been quite excited as well.’
Tempest had recklessly shouldered the burden and forcibly widened the opening to descend to the physical world and confirm the truth for himself. That was how much Tempest, the Wind Spirit King, had been alarmed by Eugene — no, Hamel’s reincarnation.
‘...It would have been shocking for him to see that I was reincarnated with memories of my past life intact, but the fact that I was reincarnated as Vermouth’s descendant must have made it seem even more so.’
Spirits remembered people by their souls, so Tempest had managed to recognize the one wielding Wynnyd, Eugene, as Hamel….
This fact had Eugene grinning broadly.
After accepting that he had been reincarnated, Eugene hadn’t been able to shake off a few lingering, unpleasant concerns.
Was he really Hamel? The Hamel seen in his memories of a past life from three hundred years ago?
What if… he wasn’t reincarnated and was just someone who had Hamel’s memories implanted into him?
‘Even if that’s the case, these memories are definitely real,’ Eugene had reassured himself whenever these fears popped up.
He had also comforted himself by saying that it wouldn’t make any difference if he wasn’t Hamel reincarnated. He didn’t want to attach too much meaning to the uncertain nature of his existence. I think, therefore I am; that belief alone would have to be enough.
‘But Tempest called me Hamel,’ Eugene remembered with a grin.
Those words had completely erased all those unpleasant concerns. Eugene shook his head with a carefree grin.
“...Master Eugene, are you sure you’re okay?” Nina asked uncertainly.
Eugene dismissed her concerns, “I’m fine. How long was I out?”
“About half a day….”
“I must have made you all worry.”
“The Patriarch and Master Gion have been staying in the annex, waiting for you to regain consciousness.”
“They didn’t need to do that,” Eugene said, shaking his head as he looked over to the room’s closed door.
Thanks to the mana absorbed into his body, his physical senses had become even more sensitive. As a result, he could feel a few presences hovering impatiently by the door.
“Why don’t you open the door,” Eugene suggested to Nina. “It looks like I’ve caused them a lot of worries.”
Those two had every right to be let in. Gilead had granted him a lot of conveniences, adopted him into the main family, and even given him Wynnyd. Then they had passed on the White Flame Formula that only the members of the main family were allowed to learn and even opened up the leyline for him to initiate his mana.
After having all this provided for his mana training, Eugene had still ended up collapsing. When word of this had reached them, Gilead and Gion had rushed over in alarm and were now waiting impatiently outside the door to check his recovery.
As soon as Nina opened the door, Gilead and Gion rushed in. Upon seeing Eugene sitting up in bed, Gilead sighed in relief and approached him more sedately.
“Are you alright?” Gilead asked in concern.
“Yes, sir,” Eugene gave his reply with a reassuring smile.
Although he wasn’t able to personally check his appearance in a mirror, Eugene guessed that his face would appear like it had been drained of all its blood. Gilead and Gion both looked at Eugene’s face for a moment before exchanging gazes.
It was now Gion’s turn to speak as he asked, “What exactly happened?”
As they were leaving the leyline and returning to the annex, Eugene had seemed perfectly fine. However, not long after his return to the annex, Eugene had collapsed.
Thanks to this, Gion couldn’t help but feel a whole tidal wave of concerns. He was the one who transmitted the White Flame Formula to Eugene and guided him into forming his own mana breathing cycle. What if Gion had made a mistake during this process, which had led something to go wrong within Eugene’s body? Although Gion had faith in his own abilities, he couldn’t help but worry now that something had gone terribly wrong.
“I’ve already heard part of the story,” this time, Gilead resumed speaking. “I was told that after you drew Wynnyd, a large… breeze… suddenly started blowing. Was this because you summoned a spirit?”
Although he had expected such a question, Eugene hesitated for a moment without answering right away. How should he try and explain this? Did he really have to come up with a blatant lie?
“The Wind Spirit King descended from the spirit world,” Eugene finally admitted.
There was no point in divulging the whole story, but he had to say something. There were too many eyes who had seen Tempest’s descent, and it was impossible for any other spirit to be able to provoke such a storm through their arrival on this plane.
“...What?” Gilead yelped.
Eugene explained, “He said that it had been a long time since he’d heard a summon, so he wanted to see who it was.”
“What kind of…!” Gilead fell silent, too shocked to finish his sentence.
Both Gilead and Gion couldn’t help but be astonished. Three hundred years had passed since Vermouth had left them, so of course, more than a few ancestors in the direct line had wielded Wynnyd. Although this might be stating the obvious, most of them were able to summon the spirits of the wind with the help of Wynnyd.
However, the expectations that the Wind Spirit King, Tempest, held for his summoners were just as lofty as his own royal standing. So following Vermouth, not a single ancestor had managed to successfully summon the Wind Spirit King.
Gion gave an audible gulp and asked, “Is that really the truth…?”
He knew that Eugene would have no reason to tell such a lie, but the news was so shocking that Gion felt he had no choice but to ask.
“Yes, The Wind Spirit King… um….” Eugene trailed off.
Eugene frowned, making it obvious that he was having some difficulty remembering.
While tapping the side of his own tousled head in order to jog his memories, Eugene continued speaking. “...I think he said that I didn’t have enough strength yet. And that next time… when I had enough power, he was looking forward to seeing me again someday. Then he returned to the Spirit World.”
“...Hahaha…!” Gilead, who had been silently listening to Eugene’s explanation, suddenly burst into laughter.
While shaking his head, he plopped down onto a chair next to Eugene’s bed.
“...Eugene. You really are …one surprising child,” Gilead sighed in relief.
Eugene didn’t know what to say in response, so he just smiled. After staring at Eugene for a few moments, Gilead placed a hand inside his vest.
“I heard about what happened at the leyline from Gion. In less than an hour, you were able to sense mana and make a core using the White Flame Formula. All that would have been shocking enough, but for you to attract the Wind Spirit King’s attention as well.”
Something like that happening was unprecedented. However, what about Eugene wasn’t unprecedented? Winning the Bloodline Continuation Ceremony as a collateral child, being adopted into the family, becoming the new owner of Wynnyd, and receiving the White Flame Formula with the leyline’s assistance; all these things were unprecedented in the history of the Lionheart family.
‘He went from sensing mana to accumulating it into his body in less than a day. That too… is something unprecedented,’ Gilead reminded himself.
Gilead felt nothing but pure pleasure at this news. The Wind Spirit King had taken note of this young child and had even descended personally to take a look at him. An event like this could even be considered the revitalization of the Lionheart Clan.
“Drink this,” Gilead ordered.
When his hand came out of his vest, Gilead was holding a small-sized potion.
Gilead explained, “This will restore your depleted mana. However, you have to promise me that, instead of overdoing it, you will lie in bed for the next few days.”
“But my body feels fine.”
“I still want your promise. If you injure your body by needlessly overburdening it, you will regret it in the future.”
“Fine, I promise,” without any further protest, Eugene nodded his head.
The mana recovery potion was just as valuable as it was useful. Eugene gulped down the whole bottle under the watchful eye of Gion and Gilead.
His hollowed-out body started to refill with mana. Without getting flustered, Eugene immediately began using the White Flame Formula to recharge his core with this mana, but the mana from the potion wasn’t enough to fully restore his depleted core. Due to the nature of mana, the amount that could be contained within the potion wasn’t all that great. Even so, after emptying the entire bottle, his headache and the stiffness in his limbs were considerably relieved.
“After a few days' rest, Gion will resume your lessons,” Gilead said as he stood up. “Initially, we were planning to go on another training trip once the Bloodline Continuation was over, but now… it looks like that will be impossible.”
“Is it because of me?” asked Eugene.
“That’s right. I think that we will need to prioritize cultivating your talents instead of our own training.”
“I don’t want to take up too much of Patriarch and Sir Gion’s time,” Eugene admitted shyly.
“Don’t think of it like that. After all, I’m the one who really wants to guide you personally,” Gion spoke up.
He patted Eugene on the shoulder with a grin.
Gion added, “Ah, but of course, I’ll be teaching Cyan and Ciel right alongside you. And the Patriarch will also be helping with our lessons.”
Eugene was certainly special. However, it wouldn’t be good to show Eugene excessive favoritism because of this. The eldest son, Eward, had left the main estate and headed to Aroth, but Cyan and Ciel were still staying at the main estate. They also deserved to receive the same level of teaching as Eugene.
‘I expect it will be a good stimulus to have Eugene train alongside those two,’ Gilead thought.
After hearing that Eugene had returned from the leyline with impressive results after spending less than a day there, Cyan and Ciel had immediately headed to the gymnasium and started their own training. So Gilead was also nursing high expectations of both Cyan and Ciel.
