Damn Reincarnation

that the distress Gilead had felt during these few days was enough to leave his cheeks sunken in and his arm muscles withered away.

“…Thank you, Eugene,” Gilead addressed him gratefully.

“…I only did what I should have done,” Eugene responded evasively.

“If it weren’t for you, then it would have been too late to do anything.”

“…I was just lucky.
It wasn’t just my strength either.”

As he said this, Eugene glanced at the two Inquisitors from the Maleficarum — Atarax and Hemoria.
They were blatantly staring at Eugene’s bare waist.

“…The Holy Sword is in safe hands,” Eugene eventually assured them.

“That’s a relief,” Atarax said with a smile as he put the shako he had taken off in greeting back on top of his head.
“Well then… please lead the way.
We need to see the place where that devil, Eward Lionheart, performed his forbidden, depraved, and almost calamitous ritual.”

‘That devil.’

Gilead’s eyes shook at these words.
However, he wasn’t in a position to show any reaction to this accusation.
Gilead just let out a short sigh and released Eugene and Ciel from his embrace.

“Please follow me,” Genos suddenly spoke up.

Genos didn’t trust the Maleficarum as a whole.
But even amongst them, Atarax’s name was especially famous for having a dirty reputation attached to it, of which Genos was well aware.

‘…For the church to send the Punisher Atarax… and Guillotine Hemoria,’ Genos thoughtfully considered.

Although he had known that someone of high status would be sent due to the significance of this incident, to think that they would really send the Punisher.
And his disciple, Hemoria, was just as high-ranking as Atarax was.

“What about the survivors?” Atarax brought up.

“They are all safe,” Genos reported.

“You mean that they didn’t suffer from any mental pollution?”

“Fortunately, that was the case.”

“Pollution can quickly spread from even the smallest grain.
After inspecting the site of the ritual, we will interview each of the survivors individually,” Atarax declared.

“You know, your tone doesn’t sound like someone who’s asking for permission,” Genos pointed out aggressively.

“It needs to be done.
You don’t want any more of your clan to fall to corruption, do you?” Atarax responded.

Klein’s expression stiffened at Atarax’s words.
He glared at Atarax with an uncharacteristic hostility in his eyes.
Hemoria reacted to this gaze by placing her fingers on the mask that covered her mouth and glaring back at Klein.

“We are not here to sympathize with the Lionheart clan’s unfortunate incident, nor are we here to assist in discovering the truth,” Atarax said as he raised a hand and grabbed Hemoria’s shoulder.
“This incident is an unprecedented and bizarre case of the remnants of the Demon Kings, who were subjugated three hundred years ago, returning to cause chaos.
In the current Maleficarum, we may not be allowed to hunt black wizards or demonfolk, but… should we discover the breaking of any taboos, particularly the committing of any crimes that involve the ‘use’ of humans, the Maleficarum will not hesitate to hunt the perpetrators, no matter who they may be.”

“…Therefore?” Klein prompted.

“We are here to do what needs to be done,” Atarax stated with determination.
“As such, we will not ask for permission.
Council Head, we understand that you might want to cover up your clan’s embarrassment, but… what if any seeds of the devil were to remain in the heads of the sacrifices? What if this leads to them falling into madness and one day performing the same demonic ritual that Eward did?”

“Alright, I see the necessity,” Klein reluctantly admitted as he sighed and shook his head.
“…However, allow me to correct just one thing.
I have no intention of covering up our clan’s embarrassment.
Because if we blindly attempt to conceal it, all we will do is cause ourselves to rot from within.
However, what I was concerned about is that your methods of interviewing the sacrifices might be too harsh.”

“Our interviews will be gentle and polite,” Atarax promised.

“In that case, you won’t mind me watching,” Klein requested.

Atarax conceded, “Yes, please watch as you like.”

They headed into the depths of the forest.
Finding the place where the ritual had been performed wasn ’t difficult as several Black Lions were guarding the forest so no demonic beasts could damage the site.

“…Hm,” Melkith hummed thoughtfully.

For this entire time since they had entered the forest, Melkith had stayed focused without saying a word.
She stopped walking for a few moments, then bent down and touched the soil with her hands.

“…Hm,” Melkith hummed again, her eyes narrowing.

The soil she swept her hands over trembled, and clay people[2] the size of a finger climbed out of the ground.

“…Indeed, it does seem… like there truly was a spirit of darkness….
This is quite unusual,” Melkith muttered as she patted the clay people on the head with a finger.
“The spirits of this land… aren’t really in harmony with the soil here.
They were pushed over from a different patch of land to this one.
And over there… hmmm… the number of primal spirits is lower than it should be.”

Melkith scooped up a heap of soil with her hands.
Then she spread her fingers and let the soil trickle down like grains of sand.

“Perhaps, once this season passes, there won’t even be a blade of grass left in that area? It’s quite curious….
This is… rather than the land being dead….
Hmm, that’s right… so that’s the case.
It seems like the primal spirits of the land were actually transformed into spirits of darkness?” Melkith hypothesized.

“Is something like that even possible?” Eugene asked her.

“For me? Of course, it’s impossible.
I don’t have any contracts with the spirits of darkness, nor do I want to make a contract with them.
Even so, it ’s not like I need to know the spirits of darkness firsthand, no? No spirit can interfere with or obstruct other spirits of completely different elements.
Even if they’re a Spirit King,” Melkith said with a chuckle as she straightened up.” So a normal spirit of darkness shouldn’t have the power to forcibly assimilate the primal spirits of another element.
On top of that… didn’t you say that it was able to block the eyes and ears of the prestigious Knights of the Black Lion? Haha! That’s impossible.”

“That’s because it wasn’t just any ordinary spirit,” Eugene explained.

“Yep, that’s why it’s so curious… how intriguing,” Melkith said with excitement.
“The remnants of the Demon Kings who were defeated hundred of years ago lingered on in their weapons… that much I can understand.
However, for these remnants to then become spirits? There are already several papers written on the close relationship between mana and spirits, but for a Demon King to become a spirit is—”

“It could also mean that spirit worship truly is a type of heresy,” Atarax muttered.

“You’re still spouting such nonsense,” Melkith said with a snort as she raised her hands.

The clay people crawled back into the soil, causing the ground to tremble and rise.
It was the wave of dirt that Melkith had shown them back in the Lionheart clan’s forest.

“For someone like you, who spouts such bullshit, you don’t deserve to ride this amazing dirt wave of mine,” Melkith declared proudly.

“Instead of doing something so embarrassing, let’s just go already,” Lovellian scolded her.

“This is it,” Eugene said as they arrived at the site where the ritual had taken place.
“Over there… that’s where the ritual was held.
Maybe there are a few traces of it left? A magic circle was drawn all over the ground… parts of it were also painted in the air, but those have disappeared.”

He was met with silence as the others examined the site.

“Also, there was a black… tree over there.
I don’t know if it really should be called a tree, but well, it at least looked like one.
The sacrifices were hung from branches that were wriggling like tentacles.
And everything was swallowed up by a dark gloom,” Eugene said as he glanced at Ciel.
“Since I wasn’t captured as a sacrifice, if you want to know how it felt, you’ll want to ask Ciel instead of myself.
She was able to keep partly conscious even in that situation.”

“…Really now, this is…,” Lovellian muttered quietly as he looked around at the surroundings, then let out a snort.
“This is even worse than I thought.”

“It was quite the horrifying ritual,” Eugene agreed.

“No, I’m not talking about the ritual,” Lovellian clarified as he lifted a finger and pointed at something.
“It can even be considered fortunate for there to be only one innocent casualty.

Lovellian was pointing at the traces of the battle.
He looked down at a large hole so deep it looked as if it had pierced all the way into the bedrock.
Melkith also whistled as she took a look around.

“This is huge.
How bad was it that there aren’t even any spirits in the ground?” Melkith marveled.

“How terrible,” Atarax growled as he narrowed his eyes and raised a hand.

He ‘grabbed’ at the air with his white-gloved fingers and rubbed his fingers together.
After doing so, his gloves were instantly dyed black.

“…To think that I would be able to see such vicious, ominous demonic power in a place outside of the Devildom…,” Atarax muttered.

“Five days ago, it was even worse than it is now,” Eugene spoke casually, then flinched and held his cloak open.
“…Without the power of the Holy Sword and Akasha, I also wouldn’t have been able to survive.”

Although he had already received quite a lot of attention, Eugene didn’t want to attract even more attention and suspicion from these outsiders.

So he took out the Holy Sword and Akasha and showed them to the group.
Akasha didn’t receive much attention, but everyone’s eyes shone as they looked at the Holy Sword that Eugene was holding in his hands.
They couldn’t help but do so.
This Holy Sword was part of the Great Vermouth’s legend and was said to be the legendary sword that had cut down three Demon Kings.
After Vermouth had passed, only the Patriarch had been able to carry the Holy Sword during family ceremonies, and not a single person had been recognized by the Holy Sword as its master.

“…Whoah…,” Atarax breathed out in awe as he, too, looked at the Holy Sword with admiring eyes.

Hemoria, who hadn’t uttered a single word so far, also stared at the Holy Sword with alarmed eyes.

Atarax muttered, “…It’s really Altair…!”

“Yes, that’s right,” Eugene confirmed.

“At first, I thought that the report was wrong… but to think that a new master of Altair has truly been found…!” Atarax exclaimed in amazement.

Eugene began to say, “My apologies for hiding it—”

“There’s no need for you to say such a thing,” Atarax interrupted Eugene with a shake of his head.
“There was good reason for you to not be able to announce that you are the master of the Holy Sword, and weren’t the Saintess Candidate Kristina and the Holy See already made aware of your status as the new master of the Holy Sword, after all?”

Atarax raised his hands.

“Hemoria! Applause for the master of the Holy Sword!” Atarax instructed.

Hemoria silently raised her hands and began clapping.
But the sound of Atarax’s clapping was much louder than Hemoria’s.

“Enough,” Atarax said as their applause abruptly stopped.
“Now then, master of the Holy Sword, please, tell us the story of how you heroically slew the devil who attempted to descend here!”

“It died because I swung the Holy Sword at it,” Eugene simply explained.

Atarax and the others were struck dumb.

“Well, it also made a ‘Kaagh’ sound before biting it,” Eugene muttered as he walked over to the altar where parts of the magic circle remained.

1.
The word used in the raw is ‘gun-moh,’ the soldier’s cap, a type of soft, Korean cloth cap with a brim and a flat top.
It seems a bit anachronistic and unfamiliar to our western audiences, so I went to the inspiration for the gun-mo, the shako, or cavalry hat.
☜

2.
Different from golems, these are the spirits of the land taking physical form.
☜