Damn Reincarnation

ogether, I will lead you to the actual battlefield where the two of you can prove your skills,” Cyan strengthened his voice as he made this offer, while also shaping his expression into what he thought was his most impressive look.

In his opinion, combined with the words he had just said, it should be enough to create an amazing impression.

“I will follow you, young master,” Gargith immediately accepted.

While Dezra had a hesitant expression on her face, Gargith felt his heart pound in admiration of Cyan, and he hammered his chest with a fist in a salute.

“…Wasn’t the young master planning to travel together with Miss Ciel?” Dezra pointed out hesitantly.

“Do you think that we always stick together just because we’re twins?” Cyan snorted and began to lead the way.
“Ciel will do just fine on her own.
She’s much more talented than you, and she knows this forest better than I do.
At the moment, she should probably be closer to the demonic beasts’ lair than anyone else?”

* * *

Ciel bit her lip in order to clear her dizzy head.
As she bit down hard enough to draw blood, she could clearly feel the pain in her mouth.
She could also sense the taste of blood spreading throughout her mouth.

This novel is available on bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

However she couldn’t feel any sensation coming from her body.
Ciel tried to move a finger, but while it felt like… she was doing something… she couldn’t really feel it.

Ciel slowly assessed her situation.
‘My head… feels heavy.
Is this fatigue… from lack of sleep? Am I really… feeling sleepy? In this short of situation? Could it be poison…?’

“Where… are we going?” Ciel somehow forced herself to speak.

At this, Eward, who she could see walking in front of her, turned his head to look back at her.

“You’re amazing,” he marveled.

“…What?” Ciel squeezed out in confusion.

Eward explained, “The formula that I used on you is a concoction refined from a Gasamal fruit and the roots of a Pahyur.”

“…So I was drugged.” Ciel’s blood-stained lips twisted into a sneer as she said, “So you really can’t teach an old dog new tricks….
When you told us that you no longer bought drugs… you were hiding the fact that you now refine them yourself, huh?”

“I don’t use them for myself,” Eward replied with a smile.
“During these past three years… well… there have been a few times where I tested them on myself, but I’ve never used them for enjoyment.”

“But you were a user, weren’t you?” Ciel accused.

“Uhuh, I did use them, but that was three years ago.
But ever since I started making them with my own hands… it led me to not enjoy using them myself.
Did you know, Ciel? The dreams that you have while high on drugs are truly pleasant.
Whatever you want to see, whatever you want to do, they make it all come true,” Eward’s hands shook as he said this.
“However, when you wake up, it’s all so empty.
That’s all that dreams are in the end.
Even though you want to keep having the same dream, you can’t control what dream comes to you… and when you wake up, the dreams just fade from your mind.
Because, in the end, dreams aren’t reality….

“That’s why I no longer use them.
To a certain extent, you could say that it was also because it was impossible for me to invite a succubus to the mansion… but it was also due to having realized something, I just need to make reality like my dream.”

Ciel silently listened to him.

“In any case, Ciel, you really are amazing,” Eward repeated.
“With a dosage of that level, you should have lost consciousness or be seeing hallucinations, but you… you’re still resisting and trying to keep your mind awake as you shake off the effects of the drug, aren’t you?”

“Unlike you, brother, I’ve always taken my training seriously,” Ciel goaded him as she bit down on her lip once more.
“Although it seems… that you only remember me from what I was like when I was younger, brother.
I’m also grown up and I’ve changed a lot.
Just like Cyan has.
Because we’ve both worked hard.”

“That goes for me as well,” Eward said with a smile as he nodded in agreement.
“I’ve also changed, and I’ve worked hard to make these changes.
Your transformation might be extraordinary, but… haha….
Ciel, please don’t get angry at me for saying that your changes are merely praiseworthy.”

Ciel fumed silently.

Eward tried to soothe her, “What I was trying to say is that I would rather you get high on the drug, so that you can at least get to relax and see the hallucinations of what you want to see.”

“…Aren’t you happy to talk to me?” Ciel prodded stubbornly.

“Of course I’m happy.
After all, we haven’t had many chances to talk to each other like this.
However, rather than continue talking for my own happiness… I would rather that my younger sister remain happy,” Eward said with some disappointment.

“…If that’s the case… then you can still stop now.
Just what in the world are you even trying to do? No, what do you plan on doing to me?” Ciel demanded.

She had just noticed that she couldn’t feel her mana.

She kept questioning Eward.
“The medicine that you gave me should have had the effect of scattering my mana.
Is this a spell…? Some kind of black magic? Just how did you hide it?”

She couldn’t understand it.
If Eward had become a black wizard, then there was no way that the Black Lions wouldn’t have noticed it.
No… that wasn’t the only thing that she was struggling to understand.

The demonic beasts that had been killed by Eward, there was no way that the Captains who were supposed to be monitoring them would just ignore such unusual corpses without examining them.
Quite a long time had passed since Ciel had been overpowered by Eward and carried away, but… no one had come to intervene.

‘…Has he shaken off his surveillance? How?’ Ciel wondered.

Even though Eward should have been under extra scrutiny due to the precedent he had set?

“It’s not black magic,” Eward denied the accusation with a smile and a shrug.

“…You’re saying that… this isn’t black magic?” Ciel repeated incredulously.

Ciel definitely couldn’t believe those words.
She tried to get out of what was holding her up by twisting her body once more, but there was still absolutely no feeling below her neck….
Ciel gulped down the blood that was filling her mouth and looked down.

Her body below her neck was covered by a black darkness.
Was she unconsciously walking on her own two legs right now? Or else could she be flying in the sky…? If neither of those possibilities were true, had everything else except for her head disappeared?

Ciel tried not to be overcome by the spine-chilling horror of her situation.

“Are you afraid?” Eward asked without turning to look back at her.

He just continued walking through darkness.
Without a torch, without any magic light.

Quite some time seemed to have passed.
The night and dawn should have already come and gone, so by now the sun should have risen.
However, there was no light in Eward’s immediate vicinity.

Where exactly were they in the first place? Was this really the forest? Ciel’s head was clouded.
She couldn ’t fully trust her senses.
At some point, even the smell of the forest had disappeared… Their surroundings… it was too dark to see anything.

“I have no intention of deriving enjoyment from seeing you tremble in fear.
That’s the reason why I gave you that drug in the first place.
I wanted you to be at least a little more comfortable for what comes next….” Eward sighed in regret.

“Just what were you planning to do to me while I was under the drug’s effects?” Ciel spat out, unable to hide the trembling in her voice.
“I-I have to say, I know that you’re a failure and a piece of trash, brother, but I still… I still thought of you as a person.
No matter how twisted of a human being you were, I still thought of you as my big brother.”

“Hah… this kind of misunderstanding… is really awkward and embarrassing,” Eward muttered as he shook his head.
“Ciel, I’m just saying this so that you don’t get the wrong idea, but I have no intention of defiling you.”

Ciel’s silence expressed her disbelief.

“Really, there’s no point in me polluting your purity,” Eward insisted.
“You might not be a wizard, but you should still have heard about ‘sacrifices’, right? It’s… well… it’s not just something related to black magic.
While it’s now considered to be taboo, in ancient magic and witchcraft it was quite common to use sacrifices in order to strengthen a spell.”

“…Just what are you trying to say?” Ciel asked suspiciously.

“Among such sacrifices, a ‘sacrifice of kin’ is quite a special offering.
The strange thing is, with that kind of sacrifice, the value of the offering increases depending on how close the relationship of the sacrifice is with yourself,” Eward paused his explanation for a moment to burst into laughter.
“Ciel, you and I are half-siblings.
We share the same father.
That alone raises the quality of your sacrifice.

“However, after that is factored in, the quality of your sacrifice depends not on our relationship, but on your own individual value.
Silver hair and golden eyes are quite rarely found among humans.
On top of that, Ciel, you truly are beautiful.
You have the body of a maiden who has just graduated from her childhood and is overflowing with vitality.
Your skills and mana far surpass your peers.
Finally, you are pure, and your purity has never been defiled.”

“…You’re disgusting,” Ciel cursed.

“My personal opinion of you… well… it’s just to the extent of agreeing that you’re beautiful.
However, everything else is just the truth, isn’t it? You do possess such value, and you even share the same bloodline as I do.
Ciel, you are the best among all the sacrifices that I could have offered,” Eward complimented sincerely.

Ciel was paralyzed by disgust.

“However, it won’t be enough with just you,” Eward said to himself.
“Cyan… I wasn’t able to meet with him earlier, but he should be here soon.
Did you know? Just like how a pure virgin female has a high value as a sacrifice, a pure virgin male also shares the same high value.
The only things better are newborn infants, fetuses, and pregnant women, but I… well….
I don’t really want to bother with that.”

“You’re crazy,” Ciel spat out as her body trembled in fear.
“You’re not in your right mind.
So that’s it, you just want to offer me and Cyan, as your sacrifices? What exactly are you doing all this for?”

Eward said simply, “The more sacrifices the better.
Of course, there is a limit to the amount of sacrifices that I can handle at any one time with my current skills, and it would be unreasonable for me to try and take on all of the Black Lions by myself.
That’s why we need to do this as quickly as possible—”

Ciel burst out, “You’re insane! What makes you think you’ll even get away with this? You, you’re going to die here, brother.
And it won’t just be you—! Both Lady Tanis, who raised you, and Count Bossar will also—!

“They’ll be fine,” Eward cut her short, his steps halting.
“They’re all cheering me on.
No matter what I do, they won’t blame me for it.”

Ciel gasped.
“Don’t say something so absurd—!”

“It seems that you’re no longer trying to hide your true feelings.
Mhm, well it can’t be helped.
You’ve been afraid ever since earlier, and… although you’ve been good at hiding your inner feelings ever since you were young, you’ve never needed to hide terror,” Eward observed as he pointed a finger at Ciel.
“So you should just relax.
Close your eyes and stop resisting.
That’s all that you need to do.”

Everything in front of Ciel’s eyes began to blur.
Her head also started to feel heavy.
But she didn’t want to go to sleep.
If she fell asleep, she didn’t think that she would ever be able to open her eyes again.

…And Cyan? What about her twin brother? Eward had said that he would be coming here, so… would her twin be caught like this as well? What about mother, father, Sir Carmen….

‘…Eugene.’

What would happen to him? Was he coming here like Cyan was?

‘…Help me,’ Ciel begged as she lost consciousness.

* * *

“…It’s strange,” Eugene murmured as he stopped walking with a frown.

Before entering the forest of the demonic beasts, he had received a compass from Genos, though he had never actually taken it out to use it.
Eugene was able to clearly feel the ominous demonic power covering the entire forest, so he was able to sense in which direction the source of the demonic power lay without having to rely on tools.

However currently, he wasn’t able to fully trust his own senses.
Yesterday, when he had first entered the forest, he could still recall the direction in which he had sensed the center of the forest to be.
But now? Paying close attention to the confusion of his senses, Eugene took out the compass.

“…So it really has changed?” Eugene muttered when he saw that the compass was pointing in a completely different direction.
“Have I really unconsciously gotten lost in this forest?”

He took out a different compass — just an ordinary piece of equipment, this time.
Eugene held the two compasses in each hand, then kicked off the ground and raced forward.

‘There’s no way that the both of them would break at the same time,’ Eugene thought confidently, but even though he was heading forward in a straight line, the compasses were still each pointing to a different location.
‘So, has something gone wrong with the forest?’

Eugene retrieved Akasha from inside his cloak and held it in his hand.
He then examined his surroundings, but he couldn’t spot any spells that could be affecting the forest.

Eugene thought of something.
‘Is this the influence of the demonic power? Well, that’s also a possibility.’

If this were Helmuth, then it wouldn’t be strange for that to be the case.
However, this was patently not Helmuth.

In the first place, even if something had gone wrong with the forest, one would still be able to find their way without using a compass.

‘But Genos has gone missing….’

Eugene could no longer feel the faint traces of his presence.

“Hmmm…” Eugen hummed thoughtfully as he placed both compasses back inside of his cloak.

“…Uuu…,” Mer, who was lying on her back, groaned as she lifted her head to look at him.
“What’s the matter, Sir Eugene…?”

“I need you to keep your head sticking out,” Eugene instructed.

“…Huh?” Mer grunted questioningly.

“We need to find the right path,” Eugene informed her.

Tap.

Eugene knocked on Mer’s head and said, “From now on, you’re a guidepost.”

Mer reacted with confusion.
“Huuuh…?”

“Although I could keep going by following my senses, aren’t you just as sensitive to demonic power as I am? So you can just guide me to wherever it feels the most disgusting,” Eugene proposed.

Mer warned him, “But I might just throw up….”

“You’re not even capable of such a thing,” Eugen scoffed.
“You don’t even have a stomach, so just what are you trying to say….”

“If I want to, then I can manage it somehow,” Mer stubbornly insisted.
“I really will vomit inside of your cloak….”

“I’ll get mad,” Eugene threatened.

Bong.

Eugene bonked Mer on the head and resumed walking forward.