Novel

“Black Lion Castle?” Eugene asked.

Eugene’s eyes twinkled brightly as he lifted his head. Across from him, Cyan was chewing on some food — no — on air. With his mouth half-open and his hand lifting empty spoonfuls of air up to his lips, Cyan looked like he had lost half his wits.

This was all because of the book that he had received from Eugene. Three days after his return to the main estate, Eugene had finished writing the book for Cyan by hand — no — by magic and had gifted it to him.

“...That’s right,” Ancilla was the one who had answered Eugene’s question.

While glaring at her son, who had gotten lost in his book during their meal, Ancilla was holding back her desire to reprimand him. As his mother, she was pondering whether she should support her son’s growth or severely criticize him for trying to eat mouthfuls of air while reading a book at the dinner table.

Ancilla decided to just ignore him for now, “...I had thought that the Council of Elders had gathered at the Black Lion Castle in order to prepare for your Coming-of-Age ceremony, but it seems they were waiting for you, as they have invited both you and Cyan to visit the Black Lion Castle.”

“Ho… Ohhh… Hmmm…” Cyan distractedly replied while pursing his lips.

His reply wasn’t meant to show amazement at Ancilla’s words. Instead, it was a reflection of how absorbed Cyan was in the book, even though it made him feel like his head was spinning.

Cyan asked himself, ‘Isn’t this just nonsense? Is something like this really possible?’

In the book that Eugene had written for him, unlike what Cyan had expected, there were no explanations of parrying or other combat techniques.

Instead, the only things listed were ways of stressing one’s ‘Core’ to the point of hellish torture. More specifically, spreading the mana extracted from the Core throughout the body and then circulating it, with the Core acting as the heart and mana as blood. Then, when you had become so familiar with this that you could maintain it unconsciously, you needed to move your body with just your mana, not the strength of your muscles.

This was similar to the outdated physical style of mana training scriptures, which had been pushed into obscurity by the Core and mana breathing training scriptures. They were both ways to train your mana through physical movements. However, unlike the original physical training scriptures, which accumulated mana by moving the body, Eugene’s method had been adapted for Cyan, who had already formed a Core with the White Flame Formula.

As such, Cyan needed to get used to actively moving his accumulated stores of mana. In order to do so, the best way was to keep everything except his mana from actively moving. Then, once he had gotten familiar with moving his body with only his mana, Cyan would halt his Core’s operations. Not using his Core would force Cyan’s body to rewire itself, causing his mana to naturally follow the movements of his body.

‘This bastard, isn’t he just writing whatever comes to mind?’ Cyan grumbled to himself.

From Cyan’s point of view, such training made absolutely no sense. Without operating your Core, how on earth were you supposed to draw on your mana? No, that wasn’t where the problems started. Was he really supposed to circulate the mana from his core like it was his blood and then use only his mana to move his body? Even muscles would get tired and tear apart when they were overused, so wasn’t this just a similar way of abusing his mana?

In the first place, the mana generated by the Core wasn’t infinite. This book told him to squeeze out all of his Core’s mana without leaving even a single drop behind. If Cyan followed this instruction to the word, he would be sure to collapse from exhausting his mana.

Repeating this over and over again would just damage his Core and disperse all of his mana, and after that? Cyan was sure to become a cripple who couldn’t handle any mana for the rest of his life.

“...You… are you seriously telling me to do this?” Cyan asked skeptically.

Eugene confirmed it, “That’s what I did.”

“Stop bullshitting me!” Cyan demanded.

“Hey now. What’s with those harsh words at the dinner table?” Eugene chided him. “Can’t you feel step-mother glaring at you?”

“Ugh,” Cyan gulped and closed the book.

Indeed, Ancilla, who was sitting right next to him, was glaring at Cyan with eyes opened wide in anger.𝑅êạd new chapt𝒆rs on no/v/e/l𝒃in(.)com

If it was just reading a book at the dinner table and chewing on air, she felt like she could show some understanding and allow him that much. However, Ancilla couldn’t tolerate Cyan’s mean-spirited attitude that didn’t show any gratitude for Eugene’s teachings and instead turned on his benefactor with eyes full of suspicion.

“Cyan,” Ancilla called out.

“Yes…,” Cyan meekly replied.

“Apologize to your brother, Eugene,” she ordered. “He personally wrote this book, all for your sake, isn’t that right?”

Cyan stammered, “...I’m so… sor….”

‘You crazy bastard! Aren’t you making fun of me by telling me to do something so fucking absurd!’

Although these furious words threatened to erupt from Cyan’s chest, while Ancilla’s narrowed eyes were fixed on him, he definitely couldn’t let them out.

Eventually, Cyan bowed his head and mumbled, “I’m sorry….”

“As long as you know your mistakes. It’s the truth that I became stronger using this method, so stop suspecting that it won’t be of any use to you and just practice it diligently. Good luck,” Eugene said, cheering him on.

Eugene wasn’t lying. In his previous life, Hamel had trained his mana by using a physical training scripture until Vermouth and Sienna had fixed it for him. Without caring about his Core or what happened to him, he had just torn apart his muscles until he was about to die, made his bones creak with strain, and overworked his body with the belief that this would allow more mana to reside within his flesh.

That’s just how it was. All Hamel had was that cheap mana training scripture mainly used by mercenaries. It had been an era where you could find the corpses of monsters, demonic beasts, humans, and sometimes even demonfolk scattered wherever you went. It had been an era where wars and conflicts never ceased. For a mercenary who lived by his sword to make a living, he needed to be able to fight better than the others and longer than others.

It was a profession that naturally required you to overwork your body.

‘...Although I did attempt to remodel it myself,’ Eugene recalled.

While practicing that cheap mana training scripture, he had made adjustments so that it was easier to use. Now on top of that, he had also modified it to work alongside the White Flame Formula.

Eugene muttered to himself, “And this bastard doesn’t even have the decency to say ‘thank you’ with tears in his eyes….”

“Eugene,” Ancilla addressed him with an apologetic tone.

Eugene dismissed her concerns, “Well, since he’s said that he’s sorry, it’s fine. I’m sure he’ll be shedding many tears in the future.”

Eugene had no intention of picking a fight with Ancilla.

He turned to Cyan, “Even if you don’t want to, once you start your training, I’m pretty sure you’ll be shedding a lot of tears and snot. But you should still keep this in mind. It's not enough just to leak some tears and have your nose run. If things are still flowing out of your body, that just means you still have room to push things. You need to keep training until the tears and snot have stopped flowing. Until you’re shitting yourself and vomiting blood.”

Cyan, who had been idly fiddling with the cover of the book, now shrugged his shoulders as he heard these words.

“That’s just what I need to do to even be able to step on your shadow. If I want to become the Patriarch of the Lionheart clan, I’m ready to at least do that much,” Cyan said acceptingly.

“...Annoying git,” Eugene muttered.

“Oh, how sweet,” Cyan smirked. “Though I’m not sure why it sounds so nice to hear you call me annoying.”

Eugene bared his teeth in a broad smile, then turned to face Ancilla.

“So, step-mother, when do we need to head off to the Black Lion Castle?” he asked.

“...They said to come as soon as you were ready,” Ancilla replied.

“Then let’s just go now,” Eugene said confidently. “They should have everything we need over there, so don’t we just need to take what’s on our bodies? Hey Cyan, you’re fine with that as well, right?”

Black Lion Castle? Why were they talking about Black Lion Castle? Cyan hadn’t heard what they were talking about, probably because he had been lost in the book, so his eyes darted here and there as he tried to figure out what was going on.

He couldn’t just keep his mouth shut, though, so he hesitantly replied, “Uh… yes?”

‘What a lucky turn of events,’ Eugene cheerfully thought to himself.

No, should he really be pleased by this?

As he left the dining room, he began to consider this matter seriously.

The Black Lion Castle lay deep within the Uklas Mountains. It was a place where even the members of the Lionheart clan were forbidden from entering without permission. To enter the Black Lion Castle, you needed to be recognized for your skills and receive a summons from the Knights of the Black Lion.

As for this ‘recognition,’ no matter how much someone wanted to join the Knights of the Black Lion, it was far from easy for them to receive approval. This was because the Council was the one to judge whether someone was qualified to become a Black Lion.

The only exceptions to this were the children of the main family who had given up on their right of succession to compete for the position of Patriarch. Ciel had been able to join the Knights of the Black Lion at a young age and become Carmen’s squire because she had given up this right.

“For it to be the Black Lion Castle… this will be the first time that the direct line’s Coming-of-Age Ceremony has been held somewhere other than the main estate,” muttered Cyan, who couldn’t hide his excitement after being briefed on the situation.

The book was carefully cradled in his arms.

“Well, I get why they’re doing it. Thanks to that bastard, Eward, we, as our father’s sons, are receiving the Council’s attention,” Cyan claimed.

“...Is that the case?” Eugene questioned doubtfully.

“Of course, that’s the case,” Cyan insisted. “Father has been in a difficult position for a while now. You know why, right?”

“Because of Eward. And probably me as well,” Eugene replied in an apathetic tone.

Eugene wasn’t so tactless that he had remained ignorant of this. Even just changing the format of the Bloodline Continuation Ceremony was enough to get a lot of people eyeing him. But Gilead had then immediately adopted a member of a collateral branch as his foster-child, and had taken Wynnyd from the main estate’s treasure vault and placed it in Eugene’s hands.

Even as the Patriarch, Gilead must have had to bear a huge weight of criticism on that day. Although Gilead had never once spoken to him about this, Eugene could easily guess that Gilead’s resolution to reform the old-fashioned traditions of their family wasn’t going down so smoothly.

“They might even be trying to discipline us,” Cyan warned with a serious expression. “By summoning a troublemaker like you, they might be warning you.”

“And what about you?” Eugene asked.

“I’m to be the next Patriarch, so maybe they’re congratulating me in advance? Or perhaps… maybe…,” Cyan’s breathing picked up as he trailed off. As his eyes shone with excitement, he clenched his trembling fists and said, “They might even plan on allowing me to enter the tomb of our ancestor.”

Eugene wasn’t as excited by this thought as Cyan.

Instead, his chest became chilled as if ice had been poured onto him.

As the place where Vermouth had stayed for the longest time, Uklas Mountain also held the tomb that was said to belong to him. The precise location of Vermouth’s tomb in the mountain was strictly kept a secret. Even the Patriarch of the Lionheart clan wasn’t allowed to know too much about their ancestor’s tomb.

‘Even though I have to open his coffin,’ Eugene thought with concern.

Eugene needed to check Vermouth’s tomb at all costs. Unlike what had been recorded in history, Vermouth hadn’t died peacefully.

Or, at least, he probably hadn’t.

Eugene needed to confirm Vermouth’s corpse to turn these suspicions into a certainty.

“...Or maybe they might even designate me as the master of the Demon Spear?” Cyan said, still caught up in his excitement. “No, instead of the Demon Spear, they might actually designate me as the master of the Annihilation Hammer. Either way, it would be so amazing…! After all, even father couldn’t become a master of the Demon Spear or the Annihilation Hammer.”

The Demon Spear Luentos and the Annihilation Hammer Jigollath were the weapons wielded by the Demon King of Cruelty and the Demon king of Carnage, respectively. These weapons hadn’t been stored in the main estate’s treasure vault and were instead kept at Black Lion Castle.

The current master of the Demon Spear Luentos was the Head of the Council and the eldest of the Lionhearts, the Immortal White Lion, Doynes Lionheart.

Gilead’s father, the former Patriarch who had died a long time ago, had been the master of the Annihilation Hammer Jigollath. After the former Patriarch’s death, under the reasoning that the Annihilation Hammer was ‘too dangerous’ and that it would expose the main estate to too much threat, it had been moved to the Black Lion Castle.

The current master of the Annihilation Hammer was Doynes’s grandson, Dominic Lionheart, the Captain of the First Division in the Knights of the Black Lion.

“The Head of the Council is already so old. In other words, he’s long since passed the age for retirement. Maybe he’s summoning us to declare his retirement while also handing the Demon Spear over to me?” Cyan speculated.

Eugene asked dismissively, “How am I supposed to know?”

“Though I only know the basics of spearmanship…. No, that doesn't matter. I can just start learning spearmanship afresh. If I end up receiving the Demon Spear, perhaps Sir Doynes will even teach me the spear personally,” Cyan sighed hopefully.

The Demon Spear and the Annihilation Hammer; as Eugene recalled those bloodthirsty and terrifying weapons, he placed his hand inside the cloak. Contained within it was the Moonlight Sword, still resting in its sheath.

Although Eugene had wondered if it might show a reaction upon returning to the main estate, unlike what he had hoped, the Moonlight Sword didn’t show any sort of response.

“...Hm,” Eugene hummed thoughtfully.

Leaving behind Cyan, who kept coming up with even more wild guesses, Eugene returned to his room in the annex and drew the Moonlight Sword. This damn demon sword still sucked up all his mana each time he drew it.

Eugene narrowed his eyes and stared at the Moonlight Sword’s blade, which was giving off a faint light. A small fragment was floating on the underside of the blade. It was the fragment of the Moonlight Sword that he had won at the auction house.

‘If I collect all of the fragments… it feels like I should be able to completely restore it.’

The fragment had been found in the Kazard Hills of Helmuth. Since he needed to be wary of the Demon King of Incarceration, he couldn’t go there immediately.

Eugene reminded himself, ‘No need to pointlessly rush into things. I can take it slowly, but first thing’s first. I need to find Vermouth’s grave.’

First of all, getting this done wouldn’t be such an easy task. Even the Lionheart clan’s Patriarch wasn’t allowed to enter the tomb feely, and Eugene didn’t even know where Vermouth’s grave was. Gilead might have indulged Eugene’s request, but the members of the Council of Elders probably wouldn’t.

Would he be able to find Vermouth’s grave while avoiding their eyes?

“To think that, after finding my own grave, I need to find Vermouth’s as well,” Eugene muttered as he placed the Moonlight Sword back inside his cloak.

From someone else’s point of view, Eugene probably seemed like a graverobber.

‘I didn’t expect that I’d be leaving the main estate once again only a few days after returning.’

Eugene glanced over Hamel’s statue and the memorial stone that had been placed inside his cloak.

‘...And what should I do about these?’ Eugene asked himself.

He naturally hadn’t wanted them to be buried forever, so he had brought them with him. But now he didn’t have any place to put them.

If Gilead was here, Eugene could have somehow talked to him about this, and he’d been planning to erect them somewhere in the main estate. But since Gilead wasn’t here, that was impossible.

‘...No, hold on,’ Eugene grinned as he suddenly thought of something.

* * *

Unlike Eugene, Cyan had spent half a day getting ready to go to the Black Lion Castle. He had brushed his hair nicely, going so far as to rub pomade into it, while also wearing a stylish formal dress that even had a cape draping around his shoulders.

“Are you going there to show off?” Eugene asked sarcastically.

“Do you think that you’re going off to play somewhere?” Cyan asked in return.

He clicked his tongue as he saw that Eugene wasn’t dressed any differently from his everyday clothes. In fact, they were the same clothes that Eugene had been wearing earlier that day. The only difference was the cloak he was wearing on top of them; everything else was the same as before. Eugene wasn’t even carrying a sword with him.

Cyan noticed something, ‘That cloak….’

It was the Cloak of Darkness. Even Cyan had heard about it. Right now, he felt deeply envious of Eugene’s cloak. Since the cloak looked so cool, wouldn’t it feel amazing to have it draped around his shoulders? On top of that, there were also various convenient spells installed in it, and it even had a subspace….

“Even if you look at me like that, I’m not giving it to you,” Eugene warned him.

“I-I wasn’t even going to ask for it,” Cyan replied in a fluster as he walked past Eugene.

Uklas Mountain was a long way away from the capital city. Since it would take around a month, even going by carriage, they would need to take a warp gate.

This warp gate also wasn’t something that they could use at will. For them to arrive there directly, the warp gate had to be opened from the Black Lion Castle’s side.

“The gate has been opened,” the wizard managing the warp gate said as he stepped out of the way.

The mana concentrated within the gate tore a hole into space, and the road leading to the distant Uklas Mountain was opened.

“Cyan. Make sure not to show off an embarrassing appearance and come back safely,” Ancilla ordered.

“Son… I believe in you,” Gerhard said as he held back tears.

Confused by these words, Eugene had to look back at Gerhard, “Do you really need to burst into tears whenever I go somewhere, Father?”

Gerhard made an excuse, “It’s because you’re leaving only three days after your return….”

“But it’s not like I’m going somewhere else. I’m just going to meet with the elders of our family, right? I’ll just go there, play around a bit, and scrounge up some pocket money, so don’t worry about me, Father, and just make sure to not miss any meals.”

As he said this, Eugene turned his head. “You were listening, right? Make sure to keep my father entertained so that he doesn’t get bored, and if he doesn’t have an appetite, just force-feed him.”

“Yes, young lord,” Laman responded. He looked entirely different, having shaved his shaggy beard and put on a butler’s uniform.

Why did he, a valiant desert warrior, need to don such an appearance? Laman himself couldn’t really understand the reason for this….

“...Aren’t you going to take me with you?” Laman asked hesitantly.

Eugene just asked, “Why would I take you with me?”

“That’s… it’s because I’m your right-hand man….”

“Since when were you my right-hand man? If I had to pick someone, my right-hand man would be Nina, not you.”

“If that’s the case, should I follow along?” Nina asked, tilting her head.

Smirking at these words, Eugene waved his hand.

“They said that they just wanted Cyan and me, so why do you all keep trying to follow me?” Eugene asked. “Stop with the nonsense and just take good care of my father along with Laman. If someone tries to bother you while I’m away, don’t needlessly keep it to yourself and just inform Laman.”

“Mhm…!” Laman grunted his assent, and his eyes shone with determination as he glanced at the Knights of the Lionheart clan.

But would he be able to win if they fought? No, in the first place, why would the Lionheart clan’s knights even bully a mere servant? Laman didn’t seem to be aware of this fact.

“Let’s go,” Eugene said, patting Cyan on the back as he headed over to the warp gate.

Already a little nervous, Cyan stared at Eugene’s back as he calmly walked forward before quickly catching up to him.

Then their two figures were swallowed up by the light of the warp gate, and the long-distance jump commenced.

Having already experienced this feeling several times, Eugene did not panic and instead enjoyed the feeling of floating through the warp.

However, he soon had no choice but to panic.

“...This is…,” Eugene muttered as their warp came to an end. Eugene burst out with confusion, “What are they trying to pull here?”

“Aaaah!” Cyan’s scream was heard from a distance.

Eugene turned to look for Cyan. In the far distance, he could see Cyan falling down through the air.

Eugene was also in the same situation. Having passed through the warp gate, it was only natural for them to arrive at another warp gate. But right at this moment, Eugene and Cyan had instead arrived in the middle of the sky and were currently falling to the ground.

Keeping calm, Eugene noted, ‘This place is….’

Eugene looked ahead, eyes peeled.

Below them lay a huge mountain range.

“Looks like things are starting off with a thrill[1],” Eugene grunted and unfurled his cloak.