Damn Reincarnation-Novel

Chapter 96: The Dream (1)

One could never predict what would happen in the forest at night. Even a month after they had first entered Samar, Eugene and Kristina still took turns standing guard every night.

Narissa had now been added to the initially two-man party. The elf’s sensitive hearing was certainly enough to keep a close watch on their surroundings, but as Narissa lacked the strength needed to protect herself if it came to an emergency, they couldn’t allow her to stand guard all by herself.

As such, tonight as well, Eugene and Kristina were still the only ones taking turns to stand guard.

He didn’t know how Kristina might be taking his actions, but Eugene still chose to show respect and consideration to Kristina in his own way. Generally speaking, the first and the last watches of the night were the most convenient. So every day, Eugene gave up the first and last watches to Kristina, and took on the most difficult watch in the middle of the night.

A small voice suddenly called out his name, “Sir Eugene.”

That alone was enough to make Eugene’s eyes snap open. He then easily got up from his sleeping spot without showing any signs of fatigue. Kristina was crouching down just outside the entrance to his erected tent.

“Any report to make?” Eugene checked.

Kristina shook her head. “Nothing happened.”

Monsters roamed this forest at night. Under the usual circumstances, the camp should have already received several attacks from these monsters, but Kristina’s barrier was able to hide their camp from the monsters’ perception.

That said, they couldn’t just blindly trust the barrier and not stand guard. While Eugene was rather unreliable in other matters, when it came to things like this, he was always thorough. This was because, during his time wandering around as a mercenary, there were more than a few times where he had ended up in danger when some foolish mercenaries he was working with had let their guard down while on the night watch.

“Don’t you feel tired? After all, you were quite active today. I’m not feeling that worn-out, so why don’t you just sleep in for today?” Kristina offered.

It seemed that Kristina was showing such consideration because he had been forced to deal with the warriors of the Garung tribe earlier today. Eugene just smirked in the face of Kiristina’s concern.

“In the first place, I didn’t even get enough exercise to wear me out,” Eugene reassured her. “I’ll be sure to wake you up in five hours, so don’t worry about it and get some rest.”

Kristina didn’t argue any further and just nodded. When she had yet to become as familiar with Eugene as she was now, there had been several times where Kristina continued arguing with Eugene over similar matters.

But by now, she had learned better. When it came to matters such as these, Eugene would always refuse to back down. It wasn’t that Eugene was ignoring the consideration that others showed him, but it was just that he was extremely strict with the standards that he had set for himself.

“...Okay. Well then, I’ll be counting on you,” Kristina said with a bow of her head as she withdrew from the entrance to his tent.

After roughly grooming his bedhead with only his hands, Eugene left his tent. It had been a good idea on his part to prepare several tents. After checking that Kristina had entered her own tent to rest, Eugene took a seat in front of the campfire. Narissa was sleeping in one of his spare tents, which had been set up on the other side of the campfire.

“...Ahem.” Eugene let out a cough as he flipped open his cloak and pulled out a book.

The book was a magical textbook that he had already read several times now. He had received this magical textbook from Lovellian on the day he left Aroth.

In his heart, he sincerely respected Lovellian as his teacher.

The fact that Lovellian was older than him, even when he added the age of his previous life as Hamel to his current years, only deepened his respect. For Eugene, this was a very important reason for why he should respect Lovellian.

Quite some time had passed since he started reading. The forest at night was far from quiet. The sounds of insects chirping were very loud, and each time the wind blew, the thick branches of the trees shook against each other. He could even hear the sounds of monsters from just a short distance away.

“...Ahem.” Eugene coughed again.

Ever since their first day camping in these woods, Kristina had revealed herself to be a deep sleeper. Today proved to be another example of the same pattern. Kristina had fallen asleep as soon as she had turned in for the night and only the sounds of calm breathing could be heard from her tent.

Eugene let out a sigh and folded his book closed. “...Is there something you want from me?”

These words weren’t addressed to Kristina, who was already fast asleep. The tent on the opposite side of the campfire shook slightly before the flap at the entrance slowly rose.

Narissa peeked out of the tent. “Um, that’s… I-I’m sorry….”

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“I told you to stop saying you’re sorry,” Eugene reminded her.

Narissa’s shoulders drooped at this response. Eugene calmly pushed some more firewood onto the campfire.

“Is it because the forest is too noisy?” Eugene asked. “Or is it because, after going through so many things today, you’re so afraid that you can’t get any sleep?”

“...,” Narissa stayed silent.

“Well, let me just say this, as I’m afraid that you might be having some strange concerns. I have no intention of abandoning you while you’re asleep. It’s not like I’m taking care of you solely out of my own good will. I’m protecting you because I need you for something,” Eugene persuaded her.

“...I-if that’s the case then… like I thought…,” Narissa’s eyes wavered as she muttered to herself. After a few moments of hesitation, she suddenly nodded as if she had come to some kind of decision. “...I-I don’t mind if it’s with you, Sir Eugene.”

“What?” Eugene grunted.

“I’ve been expecting you to make such a request and I’ve prepared myself for it.” Narissa suddenly blushed and stammered, “Ah, no, wait. Rather than expecting, it’s more like I thought that something like this… well, it’s not like it can be avoided, so… instead of going to sleep I’ve been waiting for you to—”

Eugene interrupted her. “Hey now, hold on a moment, I’m not sure I understand what you’re getting at. You’ve been expecting something? Something that can’t be avoided? So you were waiting? For me? Waiting for what exactly?”

“...Well… I do have a lot of scars on my body, and with my missing leg as a flaw… I might not be able to satisfy your standards, Sir Eugene,” Narissa admitted in a depressed tone.

“Why would having scars on your body mean that you wouldn’t be able to satisfy my standards…?” Eugene stiffly asked, his cheeks twitching with suppressed outrage.

Narissa gasped and started to shake, then after taking a few deep breaths, she hesitantly asked, “...Could it be that you prefer a body with a lot of scars, Sir Eugene…?”

Eugene wasn’t an idiot. He could guess what kind of scenario Narissa had envisioned, and what she had been expecting of him. Having lived as a slave, she had definitely gone through many difficult situations, so it wasn’t like he couldn’t understand why she would have come up with such an idea, but Eugene was still left feeling extremely upset.

“Hey. I have no plans on crawling into your tent, and I have no intention of getting you to repay your debt to me with your body,” Eugene clearly stated.

“...Huh…?” Narissa uttered, gobsmacked.

“Just what kind of person do you see me as? Geez, a kid like you really dares to say just about anything, huh,” Eugene scoffed.

At these words, Narissa’s jaw dropped open. Had he actually called her ‘a kid like you’? Narissa was a hundred thirty years old!

“Of course I’m aware that you have lived a longer life than me, but if we convert your age into human years, you’re still just thirteen years old,” Eugene insisted.

Ah… yes…,” Narissa muttered as she stared at Eugene for a few moments, then she straightened her posture and bowed her head to him. “...I’m really… truly grateful to you, Sir Eugene.”

“I told you that there’s nothing to be thankful for. How many times must I tell you that I’m just taking you with me because there’s something that I need from you? Eugene asked.

“...You’re talking about the Guardian of the elven village, right? I-if I do manage to meet with the Guardian, I’ll make sure to tell them that I’ve been receiving great kindness from you, Sir Eugene,” Narissa promised.

“Of course you should make sure to tell them that. Although I might know who that Guardian bastard is, if that bastard tries to turn me away because I’m a human, you’ll have a very important role to play. You get what I’m saying, right? That means that you need to keep him from escaping even if you have to throw yourself at his feet,” after saying this, Eugene opened up his magical textbook once more.

Even as Eugene continued to ignore her, Narissa kept looking at Eugene with a gaze filled with admiration for his righteous words and deeds.

Strictly speaking, he wasn’t really trying to charm her, but Eugene felt that the result was still somewhere along those lines.

The night continued to pass. After five hours had flown by, Eugene swapped shifts with Kristina and crawled back into his own tent. Although he didn’t really feel the need to rest, Eugene still closed his eyes and went to sleep. Even if you didn’t need to take a break just then, you should still rest when you can and catch some sleep if you have the chance.

Eugene was familiar with these habits from his previous life.

* * *

It had been a while since he last had a dream.

Usually, he didn’t really have clear dreams. Whenever he went to sleep, he fell into a deep, dreamless slumber that still allowed him to immediately wake up when he needed to.

Dreams just left the mind feeling more tired than when they started. For that reason, Eugene didn’t really enjoy the act of dreaming.

Whether they were happy, sad, or just ordinary dreams about everyday life, dreams weren’t reality. Eugene did not know why people dreamed, but what he did know for a fact was that dreams couldn’t take the place of his reality.

In his previous life, after defeating the Demon King of Fury, their journey to fight the Demon King of Incarceration had been one long nightmare. After all, their target was the second-ranked of all Demon Kings. Like his ranking suggested, the Demon King of Incarceration had both powerful subordinates and large armies under his command.

One of these was the Queen of the Night Demons, Noir Giabella.

Strictly speaking, she wasn’t truly subordinate to the Demon King of Incarceration. Although she hadn’t yet reached the extent to where she could be called a Demon King, even back then, Noir Giabella was a powerful demonfolk ‘queen’ who had vast numbers of Night Demons serving her.

During their journey to reach the Demon King of Incarceration, Noir Giabella had repeatedly attacked Hamel and his companions. She was hellishly tenacious, constantly appearing in their dreams rather than confronting them in reality, trying to break the spirits of Hamel and his comrades.

Thanks to these experiences, Eugene was wary of dreams, hated nightmares, and truly loathed all Night Demons. Noir Giabella’s attacks had tormented their party to the point where their pain was comparable to all that they had suffered while clashing with the Demon Kings of Carnage, Cruelty, and Fury; and in some ways, dealing with her was even more terrible than fighting against a Demon King.

This had to be some kind of lucid dream, as Eugene was fully aware that he was currently in the middle of a dream. However even though he could recognize the fact that he was currently dreaming, Eugene wasn’t able to use his will to exert any control over the dream. Caught in this dream, unable to effect any changes, Eugene was just left standing there aimlessly.

Trapped in a dream where he didn’t have any control of his surroundings, Eugene felt on edge.

With his memories of his past life intact, Eugene’s mental power was strong enough to shrug off any ordinary attacks. Yet even so, Eugene hadn’t been able to notice when these changes were made to his normal sleep pattern. For a Night Demon to be able to interfere with his dreams so subtly, it had to be quite a high-ranking one.

He didn’t seem to be having any problems with his memory.

This wasn’t an assault. It didn’t have the unpleasant, sticky sensation to it that a Night Demon’s attack usually had.

The dreamworld shook around him.

Although it was his first time seeing it, the scene being brought to life in front of him seemed somehow familiar. He was now in the middle of a spacious underground cavity. In front of him, a large, muscular hulk was carrying a statue several times the size of his own body.

WIth a gasp of realization, Eugene stood there blankly as he watched this scene take place. It really wasn’t his first time seeing this location. This was Hamel’s grave, which had been dug deep beneath the Nahama Desert. This was a scene from when the grave was first being built.

Molon erected the statue. After checking its appearance, the woman, Anise, slowly dragged her feet over to one of the walls.

In the early days of their party, Anise had hounded Hamel for quite some time, hoping to fix his behavior. It hadn’t proved to be a wholly pointless effort. Although his normal words and actions went unchanged from start to finish, thanks to Anise’s troublesome and persistent corrections, Hamel had at least managed to absorb and ingrain some table manners.

Despite having done all that, Anise was dragging her feet herself right now, and walking along with her shoulders slumped, too. Each time she dragged her feet, a scraping sound could be heard from the ground.

Anise was actually crying. The Anise who was always smiling brightly, even as she drove knives into other people’s hearts. That Anise Slywood was really crying for him.

Even as she wept, Anise carved these prayers onto the wall.

Molon stood in front of the statue that had proudly been erected in the center of the room. His lips were squeezed firmly shut as he stared up at the statue.

But why was he now taking his clothes off? Was he feeling hot?

That’s right, deserts did get pretty hot, and when you needed to cool down, Eugene guessed that the fastest way to deal with it was just to take your clothes off.

Molon was just that kind of person. If he was hot, he took his clothes off, if he was cold he put some on, if he was hungry he ate, and if he was thirsty he drank.

And if there was an enemy in front of him, he would charge right at them, no matter how strong the enemy was.

If someone gave him the order, Molon would rush over and block the enemy without any hesitation.

That was why Molon was now weeping.

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There wasn’t any complicated reason for his tears, it was just because he was sad. Sad enough that tears were welling up inside him, and that was why Molon was crying.

Molon was the type of guy to just go along with his desires, but he hadn’t been so direct as to challenge Hamel to a fight.

There had been a very simple and natural reason why Molon hadn’t done so.

Because Hamel was his comrade.

His friend.

If they wanted to decide which of them was the greatest warrior, they would need to go all out in their fight, without holding anything back. That was the only way they would truly be able to test each other’s skills. But if they did that, one or even both of them could have been seriously injured.

That was why Molon hadn’t challenged Hamel to a duel. Even if he did have the thought of deciding which of them was the superior warrior, he didn’t want to fight with all his might against his fellow comrade and friend, Hamel.

Molon was just that type of guy.

As for Sienna, without saying anything, she just floated down to the ground and sat on the spot.

Ever since earlier, from the start of the dream in fact, Sienna had been crying. Even now, she was still weeping. Tears were pouring down her face and dampening the floor.

She had told him that she wanted to live an ordinary life, get married like an ordinary person, have a few children, then live to see herself become a grandmother.

While rubbing her reddened eyes, Sienna looked up at the statue.

Sienna continued to laugh even as she kept crying.

Sienna clenched her fists.

Sienna turned her head to look behind her.

Behind her stood Vermouth.

Vermouth was staring at the statue with a slight distance between him and the others. His face was completely blank. It was a look that Eugene had become used to seeing on Vermouth’s face.

Sienna glared at Vermouth as she waited for a response.

He activated the spatial magic that Eugene had seen him use all the time. From a wide gap that seemed to have been torn into space, a large tombstone fell to the ground.

[Hamel Dynas]

(Sacred Calendar 421~459)

Vermouth reached out his hand and wrote Hamel’s name onto the tombstone.

Staggering up onto her feet, Sienna walked over to Vermouth. Hesitating, her eyes shifted left and right between Vermouth and the tombstone.

They all wrote down their words onto the memorial stone.

Vermouth walked over to the coffin that lay behind him.

As soon as Molon started getting down onto the ground, Sienna panicked and kicked Molon in the shin.

The dream began to shake.

“Ah,” Eugene gasped as he opened his eyes.

After staring blankly up at the roof of his tent for a few moments, Eugene slowly pulled himself up.

“...Fuck.”

The Cloak of Darkness had been wrapped around Eugene like a blanket.

But the Holy Sword Altair was somehow protruding from his cloak, and the hilt was resting in Eugene’s hand.