Damn Reincarnation

w, just why did you keep following me?” the man asked with a smile.
As he flicked away the blood that had spilled onto his sharp fingernails, he continued.
“I told you not to follow me, and that was after I even kindly left those corpses behind as well.
After seeing those corpses, that should have been enough to frighten you away from coming after me.”

Ujicha faltered, “That’s… uh… my-my mista—-”

“That goes for you as well.” The man interrupted him.
“Ujicha, chief warrior of the Garung tribe.”

The wolves had lowered their tails in submission.
The monsters’ innate ferocity had shriveled down to nothing in the face of their overwhelming terror.
It wasn’t just the wolves either.
All of the warriors there were trembling from their instinctive fear of death.

‘I’m going to die,’ Ujicha realized.

He had a gut feeling that no matter what he said, he wouldn’t be able to make that monster in front of him back down.
His luxurious life in the city, his glorious future — all of that would end up lost with his death.

‘It’s time.’

The man moved.

Ujicha squeezed his eyes shut.

* * *

They had a slight problem.

They had confirmed the existence of the village that was said to have been built by the wandering elves.
Although the deceased informant — Jackson — hadn’t been able to tell them anything, according to the dark elf they had caught, the elven village wasn’t just a rumor and it definitely existed.

But how were they supposed to find it? Even the dark elves weren’t completely certain of the village’s location.
The only thing that they knew was that the village was somewhere deep in the forest, near the territory of the Ajan tribe.

None of the dark elves had been able to approach the village.

They had been terrorized by the Guardian.

Three hundred years ago, the elves had truly detested the dark elves.
The elves declared that all dark elves were traitors who had forgotten their duties as an elf and had corrupted the essence of their race by cozying up to the Demon Kings.

And now?

The times had changed greatly.
During the era three hundred years ago, the whole world hated the Demon Kings.
For the elves who were dying from the Demonic Disease, the Demon Kings weren’t someone to whom they could plead for their lives, but instead an eternal enemy who had already slain much of their race.

However, the present era didn’t find the Demon Kings as detestable as it had three hundred years ago.
People wouldn’t be stoned to death just for following the Demon Kings like in the past, and they wouldn’t be hunted indiscriminately just because they were warlocks.

The same went for the dark elves.
It couldn’t be helped that they were viewed with disgust, but they weren’t an object of unconditional hatred either.
After all, dark elves born after the Oath was sworn couldn’t help but be seen as victims of injustice.
It was all because of the Demonic Disease.

Those who had caught the disease were faced with only two choices: become a dark elf or enter Samar.
If they weren’t even able to defend themselves, going to Samar would leave them with no choice but to risk being enslaved, but if they became dark elves, they could be freed from the shackles of the Demonic Disease and even receive Iris’s protection.

Ultimately, it was up to the individual to decide whether or not to become a dark elf.
They all had the choice of whether to live as an elf or as a dark elf.
Eugene was not able to accept such a decision himself, but he felt like he could understand how things probably looked from an elf’s point of view.

However, the Guardian didn’t show any such tolerance towards the dark elves.
He just gathered the wandering elves and protected the village.
Any encroaching hunters were mercilessly killed, and the same went for dark elves as well.

The Guardian did not recognize the dark elves as his kin.
Though this was a rather outdated view in these modern times.

But it was an outdated view that suited someone like Eugene — no, Hamel.

‘This probably means’ — Eugene started to imagine what the Guardian he had yet to meet looked like — ‘that the Guardian must be well over three hundred years old.’

It was just a vague guess.

‘He should be in his four hundreds at the very least.’

Elves, as a race, derived no enjoyment from killing things.

‘He also probably took part in the war.’

Elves usually refused to kill their own people, but elves and dark elves were different.
At least, that was the conclusion that the Guardian must have reached, which meant that the Guardian likely hated dark elves so much that he had no choice but to feel that way.

Three hundred years ago, the dark elves did many things that left the elves with no choice but to hate them.
Elves were originally a race that loved nature and was loved by nature.
When the Demon Kings started raising their armies and spreading the Demonic Disease, many elves participated in the war against the Demon Kings.

The elves used the mountains and forests in various sites as their battlefields on which to fight against the armies of demonic beasts and demonfolk.
In response, the Demon King of Fury used a very simple and yet effective tactic to deal with these elven rangers.

He formed a dark elf corps led by Iris.

At that time, the elves were still hesitant to kill the dark elves.
They considered the dark elves as poor innocents who had been corrupted by the Demon Kings.
They thought that they might be able to save the dark elves, or at least persuade them to coexist.

But the dark elves led by Iris left the elves with no choice but to hate them.

She set about burying all those forests and mountains.
As Iris had once been an elf, she had a good grasp on the character of these elves.
Even as the elves screamed in pain, burning alongside the forests and mountains, they refused to run away.
For them, the most important matter wasn’t to save themselves, but to instead put out the fires that were ravaging the forests and mountains.

 

—I don’t know… the location of the village.
Dark elves can’t even get close to the village.

 

That was what the dark elf who had been made to ‘confess’ had said.

 

—The Guardian… he brutally kills all dark elves.
He makes them kneel, then he slices open their stomach and pulls out their intestines.
Then he takes the… long intestines… and pulls them out as far as he can before leaving them to die.
That guy… that guy is crazy.

 

It might just be a vague guess, but these words had made Eugene feel confident that his suspicions about the Guardian were correct.

‘That was the method Iris used whenever she executed someone.’

In order to instill fear in her opponents, Iris had made sure to kill the elves in a brutal fashion.
While giving them the choice of whether to live as a dark elf or die as an elf, she would force her elven captives onto their knees and make them watch as their own comrades suffered this cruel execution.

“…Ah…!” Narissa, who was still being carried by the wind spirits and floating in mid-air, suddenly gasped as her body began to tremble with excitement.
“S-sir Eugene… I can hear… I can hear a song!”

“So that really was the case,” Eugene muttered to himself without any surprise.

The elven village had been expertly hidden.
Under such circumstances, he had been speculating how they would go about guiding the wandering elves to enter their village.
Could they have left some clues out in the open that only an elf would be able to notice?

“A song you say… but I can’t hear anything, though.” Eugene continued to mutter as he sharpened his senses.

He was certainly not an elf, but he was proud of the fact that his ears were as sharp as any of theirs.
However, even as he circulated his mana, he still couldn’t hear the ‘song’ that Narissa was talking about.

Hesitantly, Narissa described it.
“Ah… um….
This is… well….
Instead of my ears, it’s more like I’m hearing it inside my head.
Just like… just like magic….”

“Can you tell which direction it’s coming from?” Eugene asked.

“From deeper inward… huh… uh… yes…?” Narissa shrugged her shoulders, then she turned to look at Eugene and Kristina with a helpless expression.
Hesitantly, she continued, “Um… well..
Uh… Sir Eugene…?”

“What is it?”

“There’s a voice inside my head… it’s telling me to say something to you….”

“Say it.”

“It wants me to tell you that you should leave me here… and go back,” Narissa reluctantly admitted.

“And if we don’t withdraw?” Eugene asked with a smirk.

At these words, Narissa pulled a tearful expression and seemed hesitant to respond.

“Just say it, Narissa,” Eugene reassured her.

“…If you continue traveling with me any further… sob… it says that it will kill Sir Eugene and Lady Kristina…,” Narissa tearfully conveyed the message.

“Is that so?” Eugene burst out with a huge laugh as he called over the wind spirits carrying Narissa.
“If you want to kill me, then you’ll just need to come out in person.”

Eugene directly took hold of Narissa and started carrying her.

“For now, let’s start with meeting him, then we can plan our next step.”

The Guardian might just be someone that Eugene had met in his previous life.