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Chapter 119: Akasha (4)

“...For now…,” Lovellian hesitated.

Yet, he couldn’t find it in himself to get annoyed. With a distressed expression, Lovellian looked at the person in the seat across from him.

Eugene Lionheart.

The very first disciple that the Red Tower Master, Lovellian, had ever taken. At the same time, he was also the adopted child of Lovellian’s longtime friend, Gilead Lionheart. Being the son of a friend wasn’t enough reason for Lovellian to ever treat Eugene with unconditional favoritism. The reason why Lovellian had made Eugene his disciple, aside from being the son of his friend, was that Lovellian was fascinated with Eugene’s talent.

This was why Lovellian was finding it so hard to get angry at Eugene.

“...Please explain to me just how in the world things got like this,” Lovellian pleaded as he looked down at the staff that had been placed on the table between them.

This was Akasha… the Wise Sienna’s personal staff.

Lovellian considered himself to be a grand-disciple who had inherited the legacy of the Wise Sienna, and held pride in this fact. It was a pride that had been instilled in him from a young age. Lovellian’s master’s master was Sienna’s disciple. So ever since Lovellian had first started learning magic, he had been told every day by his master to treat his master’s master’s master, the Wise Sienna, as his grandmaster and pay his respects to her.

‘...This is a strange feeling…,’ Lovellian thought to himself as he looked down at Sienna’s staff.

Not only Lovellian himself, but even his master and his master’s master had been unable to become the wielder of this staff.

‘...To think that my disciple… would truly be able to receive Akasha’s recognition,’ Lovellian marveled.

When he thought of it like that, Lovellian just couldn’t bring himself to get angry or annoyed at Eugene. He didn’t even feel any jealousy. He just felt like Eugene was a truly unique individual and held pride in the fact that such a person was his disciple.

While waiting for Eugene’s reply, Lovellian took the teacup in front of him and brought it to his lips.

Right. Was something like a ‘reason for which Akasha would choose Eugene’ really all that important? What was truly important was that Lovellian’s only disciple had already become Akasha’s master. As a result, the royal family could even decide to hold a hearing where they would discuss whether or not to punish his disciple.

If that really did happen…. Lovellian would use everything that he had available to him, both from his position as the Red Tower Master and as an Archwizard, in order to protect Eugene….

The moment that Lovellian had made up his mind on this and was about to take a sip of his hot tea, a voice suddenly spoke up. “Excuse me.”

Pwoosh!

Lovellian spewed out his tea in surprise.

Yet even at such a moment, he proved himself worthy of the title of an Archwizard. Before the tea that he had spat out could even touch Eugene, Lovellian evaporated the liquid using magic, then grabbed his sore throat as he went into a coughing fit.

“Are you okay?” Eugene asked in concern.

“I-I’m fi-I’m alright,” Lovellian replied as he waved off Eugene’s concern.

Then, Lovellian’s eyes widened in shock as he stared at Eugene.

To be more precise, rather than at Eugene, Lovellian was staring at Mer, who had popped out of Eugene’s cloak, so that only her face was showing.

“Why did you come out without permission?” Eugene chided her.

Mer complained, “Just how long do I have to keep hiding in here? After all, I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Look at how surprised he is, why did you burst out like that?” Eugene scolded her. “That’s why I told you to wait until the conversation is over and then slowly make an—”

“I don’t feel like it makes much of a difference whether I shock him now or I shock him later. Even though you led me out of there while promising to give me freedom, you stuffed me inside your cloak as soon as we left Akron,” Mer grumbled, her cheeks puffing up in indignation.

Then she twisted her body back and forth inside the cloak, while trying her best to work her way out. However, no matter how much effort she put into it, it was impossible for Mer to fully leave the cloak on her own.

“...Can’t you just let me out of here for a bit?” Mer begged. “You may not know this, but it’s very dark and lonely here.”

“Well, it should be fine,” Eugene muttered as he glanced up at Lovellian for approval.

Lovellian was staring at Mer with his jaw half-dropped.

“...Ahem,” Eugene coughed and opened up his cloak further.

Mer crawled out of the opening on her own and, while putting on an elegant act, she greeted Lovellian, “Hello, Sir Lovellian. I believe that it has been a month since we last met.”

“...Uh…. Um…. Uh…,” Lovellian stammered before finally nodding. “...Just how… what in the world are you doing outside of Akron? No, but how does this make any sense? Isn’t Lady Mer the familiar in charge of Witch Craft?”

“Lady Sienna asked me to do this,” Eugene explained.

Lovellian’s expression underwent another change at these words. He picked his jaw back up and then tried to calm himself.

“...So it’s true… you really have met Lady Sienna?” Lovellian asked eagerly.

“Yes,” Eugene simply replied.

“I’ve heard that you’ve been to the Samar Rainforest, Eugene. You then returned to the Lionheart clan’s main estate with over a hundred elves following you.” Lovellian hesitated, “Those elves… did they come from the elven territory that’s said to lie at the foot of the World Tree?”

“That’s not the case,” Eugene denied. “I led back some elves who weren’t able to return to the elven territory and were just living among themselves.”

“...I still can’t believe it,” Lovellian said as he lowered his teacup with a trembling hand. “For you to have found the elven territory where Lady Sienna was rumored to have gone into seclusion…. Two hundred years ago, when Lady Sienna went into seclusion, my master’s master, who was Lady Sienna’s own disciple, countless wizards of Aroth, and even the Court Wizards Division went over to Samar hoping to track down Lady Sienna.”

However, let alone Sienna, they hadn’t even found the elven territory.

“...Um, about that… it all has to do with when I went to Nahama.” Eugene thus started his attempt at convincing Lovellian.

He had already thought about what to say.

In Nahama, Eugene claimed to have accidentally discovered Hamel’s grave. The story up to here was the same as the one he had given at the Black Lion Castle. He went over the Death Knight’s attack and his encounter with Amelia Merwin. Then Eugene described how he had found a leaf of the World Tree within Hamel’s coffin.

After heading over to Samar, he had been guided by the leaf. With its help, he had managed to enter the elven territory, and met Sienna who had been placed under a seal….

Eugene hesitated. ‘Telling him that I’m Hamel would be a bit….’

It wasn’t that Eugene didn’t trust Lovellian. But even if Eugene did trust him, there was still something holding him back. Eugene had yet to even reveal to Gerhard and Gilead that he was the reincarnation of Hamel. Apart from the Demon King of Incarceration, only Mer knew that Eugene had once been Hamel.[1]

There was a simple reason for this. Mer was a familiar created by Sienna. She would absolutely never betray this secret, because she was incapable of such a betrayal, so no one would be able to question Mer and make her tell them the truth.

“...So Lady Sienna… has been placed under a seal…,” Lovellian considered this problem as he chewed on his bottom lip.

A huge hole had been pierced through her chest and only the power of the World Tree was barely keeping her alive. As a disciple who had inherited Sienna’s legacy and who deeply admired her as an example to all wizards, Lovellian naturally felt an extreme amount of anger at this fact.

“...While transferring the ownership of Akasha to me, Lady Sienna also asked me to look after Mer,” Eugene finished his explanation.

“...,” Lovellian listened silently.

“She also told me the method of how to undo her seal,” Eugene revealed. “If we can somehow kill Raizakia, who’s trapped within a dimensional rift, the curse afflicting Lady Sienna will disappear—”

“Eugene,” Lovellian interrupted with a stiff expression. “I think it would be better not to talk about this matter at the hearing.”

“Yes, I also feel the same way,” Eugene agreed.

The Wise Sienna had been fatally wounded. This fact alone was enough to make countless wizards go crazy. If this information were to be revealed, just how many wizards would go searching for Sienna in Samar, and would take out their hostility on Helmuth out of a desire for revenge?

On top of that, the Black Tower Master, Balzac Ludbeth, would also be attending the hearing. Although Raizakia didn’t have any sort of contract with the Demon King of Incarceration, that still didn\'t mean that they could be sure the Demon King of Incarceration had nothing to do with Sienna’s sealing.

‘Two hundred years have passed. Neither the Demon King of Incarceration, nor the demonfolk contracted to him have gone looking for Sienna,’ Eugene considered.

However, if it was revealed to them that Sienna had been mortally wounded and placed under a seal… this might drive them to a different course of action.

“...I don’t trust Balzac Ludbeth,” Lovellian continued speaking. “However, aside from my distrust of him, Balzac Ludbeth has indeed behaved with more decency and common sense than the ‘true’ demonfolk and the other black wizards like him that are found in Helmuth. As such, while I might distrust Balzac Ludbeth, I do not hate him.”

Eugene hesitated, unsure what to say. “...Well, that’s….”

“I’m sure that you also cannot deny this fact,” Lovellian stated.

Eugene clicked his tongue. In the present, there were only three black wizards who had personally signed a contract with the Demon King of Incarceration. Although Eugene had never met Earl Edmond Codreth, who resided in Helmuth, so he couldn’t say for sure, it was true that, when compared to the likes of Amelia Merwin, Balzac showed an incomparable amount of decency and common sense.

“Even if Balzac doesn’t leak this information, if you were to reveal Lady Sienna’s condition during the hearing, Eugene… the story is sure to eventually be spread far and wide,” Lovellian stated with certainty. “Eugene, there are a large number of demons in Helmuth who are interested in gaining prestige. Right now, Helmuth’s Three Princes might be the closest to the position of the next Demon King, but there are countless demonfolk below them who also covet their prestigious titles and the position of the next Demon King.”

One such demonfolk was the Raskshasa Princess Iris, but apart from her, there were many others. The honor of taking the Wise Sienna’s life was sure to be coveted by these prestige-seeking demonfolk.

“I’ll be sure not to spill any information about Lady Sienna being sealed away during the hearing,” Eugene promised. “I was thinking of saying something along the lines of ‘she just went into seclusion out of a desire for some serenity and introspection.’”

“Yes,” Lovellian agreed. “I, too, think that would be for the best. …As for the transfer of Akasha and Lady Mer… if the other party is you, Eugene, then I’m sure that everyone at the hearing will have no choice but to accept it.”

Eugene was a descendant of the Great Vermouth Lionheart. At the same time, he was also a distant disciple who had inherited the legacy of the Wise Sienna. There weren’t many people on the continent who could claim to be of Sienna’s lineage and possess as many ties to her as Eugene did.

‘Though the Green Tower Master is sure to have a seizure,’

 Lovellian thought as an aside.

Jeneric Osman was the Tower Master of the Green Tower of Magic, in which Sienna had once presided, and his masters’ master was also once Sienna’s disciple.

Eugene hesitantly brought up another issue. “...But, Master Lovellian, I’m a bit worried that I’ll be forced to swear an oath to tell the truth during the hearing.”

Wizards were not able to deceive an oath sworn on their own mana. If they swore to tell the truth, but instead told a lie, their mana would no longer act according to the will of the wizard who had told the lie.

“There’s no way that will happen,” Lovellian said with a smirk. “Eugene, an oath sworn on one’s mana is so absolute that its use cannot be forced so arbitrarily. Even criminals have the right to remain silent, so how could they justify forcing you, when you haven’t even committed any crime, to swear such an oath?”,

“Well, with this matter being what it is…,” Eugene trailed off hesitantly.

“Hm, I agree that issues concerning Lady Sienna cannot be discussed lightly, but Eugene, you haven’t committed any crimes and Lady Sienna also hasn’t requested for the truth to be revealed, now has she?” As Lovellian said these words, he gently grabbed Eugene’s hands. “If those attending the hearing do attempt to persecute you and force you to swear such an oath, as Lady Sienna’s disciple, your master, and a friend of the Lionheart clan, I will be sure to protect you. Of course, feel free to use all of the qualifications available to you in order to protect yourself. No matter how powerful Aroth’s royal family is, they cannot recklessly persecute the descendant of Kiehl’s great hero, a member of the Lionheart clan.”

This was indeed the case. If they really did have the guts to persecute Eugene, then Trempel would have taken Eugene in for questioning immediately, instead of leaving him in Akron. The fact that he hadn’t meant that Trempel was also one of those wizards who truly revered Sienna. Also, it was because the Lionhearts weren’t a clan that could be so recklessly messed with.

“Furthermore… in regards to the Black Dragon Raizakia, I will use my own personal connections and my information network in order to acquire any clues to his whereabouts,” Lovellian promised.

“Please also look into any information about Barang,” Eugene added in a cold tone of voice.

He had given it a lot of thought, but it was clear that the information that Lovellian could collect would be qualitatively superior to any information that Eugene would be able to collect by running around on his own two feet.

“Yes, of course I will. After all, there’s no good reason why your location should have been exposed.” After saying this, Lovellian was lost in thought for a few moments.

While listening to this conversation between the two of them, Mer ever so slowly stretched her fingers across the table between their seats. Refreshments such as cookies, chocolates, and candies had been placed in the center of the table. For Mer, these were the very first sweets that she had encountered after hundreds of years.

Would it be okay if she ate them? They were laid out like that because they were meant to be eaten, right? Although she hadn’t been offered any tea, it should still be fine for her to try the snacks, right?

“What are you acting so secretive for?” Eugene said with a grin as he pulled over the basket of snacks and placed it in front of Mer.

Even Lovellian, who was still lost in thought, used a spell to push a teacup over to Mer.

“...Wow… it’s been two hundred years since my last cup of tea. I really like tea leaves from the Yukar region,” Mer said as she brought the teacup to her lips.

The tea was hot. This warmth brought a bright smile to Mer’s face. While blowing on the black tea to cool it down, she took a sip of the tea and then closed her eyes as her body shook in pleasure.

…Although Mer preferred sweet milk tea over black, as the first tea that she had drunk in over two hundred years, it would have tasted sweet even if it was the most bitter concoction in history.

“...You didn’t necessarily need to tell me the truth, Eugene,” Lovellian said, breaking silence after he was done sorting out his thoughts. “However, you have revealed it to me. That’s… is it because I am your master?”

“That was part of it, but it was also because I know that Master Lovellian is a good person,” Eugene replied with a grin. “Also, the truth is that I haven’t revealed everything. There are some things that I definitely cannot tell anyone.”

“Of course that would be the case. However, I won’t try and squirrel them out of you, Eugene. Even if you don’t tell me what they are, the fact that you’ve mentioned you’re keeping secrets in the end means that you’re asking me to forgive you for keeping them from me, right?” Lovelian asked with a grin. “As such, I will happily wait until the day you feel it’s safe to share your secrets with me.”

“...Well… I might be able to tell you someday soon,” Eugene answered his trust with an awkward smile.

Glancing away to hide his embarrassment, Eugene noticed Mer eating a flat cookie that was covered in chocolate. The way that she closed her eyes and clenched her fists with each bite reminded him of Sienna. Though Sienna favored alcohol, she also liked sweet desserts just as much.

‘…Would it be alright for me to try and feed Mer a whiskey bon-bon?’ Eugene thought with idle curiosity.

Whiskey bonbons, chocolates filled with liquor, were a treat that Sienna loved to death.

From Mer’s outer appearance, she appeared to be about ten years old. However, she had been in existence for hundreds of years and wouldn’t it be strange to treat a familiar like a human at the same age?

“...Would you like to join us for dinner?” Eugene eventually offered.

“No, the two of you should go and have fun by yourselves,” Lovellian declined with a smile.

At the word ‘dinner,’ Mer’s eyes shone brightly. Stealthily wiping away the chocolate off of her lips with a finger, Mer turned to look at Eugene.

“I want to eat cake,” Mer requested.

Eugene argued, “But cakes aren’t really food, are they?”

“What kind of a statement is that? If you eat it and it fills you up, then of course it’s food,” Mer insisted.

“...If that’s the case, then that’s even more reason why you shouldn’t consider a meal. Since there’s nothing that can actually fill you up,” Eugene pointed out.

Mer pouted at these words. As a familiar, while she had the same appearance as a human being, this didn’t mean that the inside of her body was the same as a human. The food that she ate was completely decomposed by her own mana and disintegrated. In other words, this meant that no matter how much she ate, she could never be full.

“...If it tastes good, then it’s food,’ Mer stubbornly insisted, unwilling to give in.

Eugene stood up, along with Mer, and bowed his head towards Lovellian.

Once they had left the tower, Mer asked, “Aren’t you going to tell the Red Tower Master about your past life, Sir Eugene?

“Not yet.”

“Then, does that mean that the only ones who know that Sir Eugene is Hamel are Lady Sienna and I?” Mer asked excitedly.

Eugene corrected her, “The Demon King of Incarceration probably knows as well.”

“The Demon King is different. So it’s true that the only ones you treated as special and ‘personally’ revealed the truth to are Lady Sienna and me, right?” Mer insisted with a bright grin as she stuck closely to Eugene’s side. “Thinking about it like that makes me feel a little happy.”

“Even if you act all cutesy, we’re not going to eat cake,” Eugene warned her.

“...You’re a piece of trash,” Mer cursed disappointedly.

Eugene changed the subject, “Anyways, you… do you know how to drink alcohol? When it came to alcohol, Sienna would always go crazy.”

“...’Go crazy’?” Mer repeated. “Could you please stop insulting Lady Sienna. Lady Sienna would elegantly savor her wine, she would never go crazy for it.”

“How hilarious, do you really think that you know Sienna better than I do?” Eugene challenged Mer.

“...Ugh…. That’s… that might not be the case, but I too know a lot about Lady Sienna,” Mer defended herself.

Eugene returned to his main point. “That’s why I was asking you, do you know how to drink?”

Mer hesitantly admitted, “...While Lady Sienna was drinking, I once asked her for a cup. But Lady Sienna refused, saying that I was too young to drink.”

“If so, then I shouldn’t give you any,” Eugene concluded.

“Why shouldn’t you give me some? At that time, it was just because it hadn’t been long since I was created. Now, after two hundred years have passed, I’m much older than Sir Eugene. I should be able to drink as well,” Mer claimed proudly.

Eugene wasn’t swayed. “That still won’t do. After all, your mother said that you shouldn’t drink any.”

“...My mother…?” Mer’s eyes shook as she repeated this word. “Please don’t say such a thing in front of anyone else. It might create some strange misunderstandings about Lady Sienna.”

“It’s the truth, so why shouldn’t I?” Eugene said with a shrug. “Since Sienna was the one who made you, then Sienna is your mother.”

“However, I’m a familiar, not a human,” Mer pointed out. “Who in the world would treat a familiar as their own child? We familiars also don’t consider our creators to be our parents. To put it bluntly, familiars just see their creators as their owners.”

“Why would you being a human or a familiar make any difference? In the first place, you’re different from the regular familiars, aren\'t you?” Eugene questioned.

Mer hesitated. “...That’s… that’s true. However, rather than her child, as Lady Sienn’as familiar… um… it would be closer to call me her clone. Because I was made based on a childhood version of herself….”

“So what, do you really dislike being treated as Sienna’s daughter that much?” Eugene asked with a grin.

At these words, Mer’s eyes began to dart here and there.

Eventually, she said, “...My own desires don’t matter. What’s important is what Lady Sienna thinks of me. And probably, Lady Sienna doesn’t think of me as her daughter.”

“Then we can just ask her later,” Eugene said with a smile as he righted her hat, which had tilted to the side. “Sienna was worried about you. She also felt sorry for abandoning you. That’s why she asked me to take care of you. At the very least, the Sienna Merdein that I know isn’t the type of person who would think of you as a mere familiar. If you really were just a simple familiar, she wouldn’t have made you in her own image.”

Sienna’s deepest desire was to live an ordinary life, get married like everyone else, have children, live happily, and eventually become a grandmother.

However, Sienna hadn’t even found a single romantic partner in Aroth, let alone getting married. She didn’t have any children either.

Instead, she had created a familiar that closely resembled her in her own childhood.

“I’m sure that Sienna will accept you as her daughter,” Eugene promised Mer.

Mer wasn’t able to say anything, her lips pouting silently. With both hands, she pulled her hat low to cover the expression on her face. Even so, she wasn’t able to cover the sniffling sounds.

“Are you crying again?”

“...Sob….”

“I’ll let you eat some cake, so don’t cry,” Eugene weakly conceded with a sigh. “Though we won’t go there right away. I want to get a meal first, then we can get you some cake….”

“...Sir Eugene… you really like Lady Sienna don’t you?” Mer accused.

Eugene was taken aback. “Has this girl gone crazy? Why spout such bullshit all of a sudden?”

“You definitely like her,” Mer stated confidently. “It-it’s love, isn’t it? I already found out about it. In the fairy tale, Hamel admitted that he loved Sienna….”

“I fucking said that was a lie, didn’t I? Do you really think I’m crazy enough to say that I li- lik- I’m fond of that tomboy? Uuurgh…!” Eugene gagged and then covered his mouth with a disgusted expression on his face.

At his violent reaction, Mer just proudly raised her chin high.

“...The younger a man is, the less honest he is with the girl he likes, and instead he bullies her,” Mer lectured.

“...So what about it? I’m not a young man,” Eugene argued.

“That saying refers to the age of the mind, rather than the age of the body.”

“That’s even more reason why I’m not young any more. Don’t you know how old I was in my previous life?!”

Changing the subject, Mer revealed, “Whenever she spoke of Hamel, Lady Sienna seemed happy.”

Embarrassed, Eugene tried to hurry along. “Stop with the nonsense and let’s get going.”

“If Lady Sienna gets engaged to Sir Eugene, does that mean I should call Sir Eugene father instead?” Mer asked teasingly.

“Don’t say something like that, I really will vomit.” Eugene threatened her with a frown as he hastened his steps.