Damn Reincarnation

ing serious?”

“Hey now, did I touch your ego? Don’t take it too seriously.
I’m talking about you from when we first met,” Anise calmly clarified.

Their food finally came out.

As she skewered a sausage on a large fork, Anise chuckled and said, “I can say this with all certainty, we were definitely the best.
However, Hamel, when you first met with us, you weren’t all that great.
Even now, my memories of that day are still clear.
Sienna, Molon, and I were all unable to understand just why Sir Vermouth wanted to accept you as one of his comrades.”

“Do you think I understood that?” Eugene grumbled as he sliced his meat.

Eugene was also very familiar with this story.
In that port, three hundred years ago, Vermouth had single-handedly tried to recruit Hamel into his party without even receiving the understanding and consent of his other party members.
In the end, the other party members also acknowledged Hamel’s potential through his challenge to Vermouth and accepted him as a party member.
But the Hamel that they had first met definitely did not fit the image of a ‘Hero’s Companion.’

“In the end, Sir Vermouth was right,” Anise sighed.

It had been a long time since she last had a drink, and more importantly, Kristina’s body had never partaken in alcohol, so it quickly grew intoxicated.
Anise enjoyed this languid state of drunkenness.
If she wanted to, she could easily shake it off like a cloud of dust, but Anise didn’t bother to do so.
She slightly tilted her ruddy face as she stared at Eugene.

Anise hesitated, “We were… perfect together.
It was because there were all five of us that the party was perfect.
So the absence of one of us proved fatal.”

“Are you also trying to reprimand me for dying first?” Eugene complained.

“I guess that means Sienna already reprimanded you?”

“She’s too weak-minded.
She couldn’t even muster up a reprimand.
Instead, after talking about something like that, she just started crying by herself and begging for my forgiveness.”

“Aha… I think I know what you mean,” Anise nodded.
“Sienna couldn’t get over her petulance and said something like this to you, right? That you went and died on your own or something of that.”

“Something similar,” Eugene confirmed.

“It seems that Sienna also hasn’t changed,” Anise noted fondly.
“Even though she couldn’t bear to say such a thing, she still said it and then burst into tears on her own.
Ah… Hamel, do you remember the dream that I showed you? What did you think?”

“What do you mean?” Eugene demanded.

“Didn’t it make you sad? Did you feel heartache or longing?” Anise asked with a mischievous smile.

This smile that made Anise look so cunning was why Eugene and Sienna had called her a ‘snake’ behind her back during his previous life.

“Wouldn’t you?” Eugene admitted reluctantly.

“It still feels a little unfair,” Anise pouted.
“At that time, Sienna, Molon, I, and even Sir Vermouth were shedding tears, but I’ve never seen you cry.”

“It’s better if you don’t see it.
My crying face is really fucking ugly.”

“Ahaha! Is it even possible for you to make an ugly expression with your current face?”

“Why can’t it be done?” Eugene grumbled as he reached out for his beer mug.

At that moment, Anise leaped up from her seat.
She leaned forward as if she was collapsing over the table, then her hands grabbed onto Eugene’s cheeks.
Anise’s face suddenly drew closer.

“…Fufu,” Anise chuckled to herself.

Their lips weren’t touching.
With only a slight distance between them, Anise stared at Eugene with a smile on her ruddy face.

“I really have to hold myself back,” Anise whispered.

Her hands pressed down on Eugene’s cheeks.
Eugene’s face transformed into that of a goldfish as his lips were foolishly pushed forward into a pucker.
Anise chucked at this appearance before letting go of Eugene’s face.

“If I act on my urges once more, Sienna might really go crazy and try to get rid of me.
It would be fine if I intended to stay here, but once I finally ascend… won’t that leave poor Kristina to be harassed by Sienna?” Anise reluctantly murmured.

“…Really now,” Eugene coughed.

“Stupid Hamel, what are you going to do now?” Anise asked challengingly.
“Now that I’ve made it so assertively clear that even a fool like you should be able to understand it, and Sienna must also have conveyed her feelings to you, even if she wasn’t quite straightforward as I was.”

“She definitely didn’t do what you did.
In fact, she didn’t even try to say something directly.
Sienna is really the exact same as she was three hundred years ago,” Eugene let out a deep sigh and pulled his beer mug over.
“Truthfully speaking, I’m flustered and… um… surprised.
I never really thought of you two that way—”

“Are you a eunuch?”

“Cough!”

Eugene spat out the beer that had just flowed down his throat.
Anise quickly pulled herself back to avoid the spray of beer.

Eugene yelped, “H-hey! How could you say something like that…! No, wasn’t it only natural? Where did you find the time to think about such things three hundred years ago…?”

“Who wouldn’t think about such things when there was an opportunity to relax? Sienna and I only started thinking about what happened between us after the war had ended.
Unfortunately, the war ended in such a way, and you had already died,” Anise said with a wry smile as she drank more beer.
“Well… at the time, I had no intention of revealing my feelings for you throughout the rest of my life.
I was disillusioned with many things, and I knew that my existence wasn’t one that could afford to pursue such happiness.
However, since I’ve already died like that, I just want to know if it’s alright for me to pursue it now.”

“Ahem,” Eugene cleared his throat instead of answering.

“I already know.
You’ve never held such feelings for me, right? Hamel, your feelings for me were that of friendship towards a fellow comrade and… sympathy.
Isn’t that right?” Anise asked resolutely.

“Mhm,” Eugene didn’t avoid answering this time.
“I felt sorry for you.
You never once let out a scream of pain, even though your back was drenched in blood.
You drank alcohol every day to endure the agony, and you still stubbornly tried to save those bastards who just wanted to die without taking care of your own body, so I did feel sorry for you.”

“I really liked the way you cared for me,” Anise said as she rested her chin in her hand and stared at Eugene.
“I liked the way you treated me like a fragile piece of glass.
Hamel, you’re usually incredibly rough and violent, but I….
Whenever blood was pouring from my Stigmata, and I exposed my back in front of you, your rough hands that were covered in calluses and had slaughtered countless demons… they felt very soft and delicate.”

“In that case, should I dig out a few more wounds for you?” Eugene asked sarcastically.

Anise immediately exposed him, “You’re embarrassed.
I also like that side of you.
No matter what you might think of me, it doesn’t really matter.
Fortunately, thanks to the help of the Light, I am able to remain in the world like this, and Kristina was considerate of me and even gave me this chance to resolve some of my lingering regrets.”

“Well, about that… I still don’t really know what I feel.
You like me? And Sienna… she also likes me?” Eugene asked with some disbelief.

“In Sienna’s case, you already had a few guesses, right?”

“Well… maybe a little….”

“It seems like you also at least feel something towards Sienna,” Anise observed.
“You probably have more feelings for Sienna than you do for me, right?”

Eugene complained, “Can we just drink our beers…?”

“I’m not going to rush an answer from you.”

The waiter brought them new beer mugs.
Anise raised her glass first, and Eugene responded by raising his beer mug to meet hers.

“I’ll do my best to make you love ‘us,’” Anise promised while still conscious of Kristina, who was listening from the other side of their shared consciousness.

Their beer mugs clinked together.
While Anise was draining her beer mug in large gulps, Eugene just tilted his head to the side without drinking any of his beer.

“…Us? Are you talking about Sienna and yourself?” Eugene asked inquisitively.

“Stupid bastard,” Anise said with a sincere tone of voice.

Why did she feel the need to curse at him…? Eugene just clicked his tongue instead of asking and reached his hand into his cloak.

“Happy Birthday,” Eugene said, even as he felt strange for saying those words to Anise, and placed a gift-wrapped package on their table.

Anise hesitated, “This… what on earth is this…?”

“Today’s your birthday, isn’t it?” Eugene pointed out awkwardly.

“Hamel…! Did you really prepare a present for me?”

“It’s nothing that impressive—”

“Hold on, don’t tell me what it is.
I want to confirm it personally with my eyes,” Anise said as she quickly tore the wrapping paper off of her gift.

Could there be a letter inside the wrapping along with the present? Anise thought about it for a moment, and Kristina, who was still watching from the other side of their shared consciousness, was also full of expectation, so she also looked into the gift box through Anise’s eyes.

“…Tsk.”

There wasn’t any letter.
Anise clicked her tongue at having her expectations betrayed.

Hamel complained, “No matter how much you dislike it, isn’t it a bit too rude to click your tongue like that…?”

“Hamel! I wasn’t clicking my tongue because of that! I was just hoping that you might have included a letter along with the present—” Anise’s expression abruptly changed.

She smiled sincerely as she clasped her trembling hands in front of her chest.
Inside the gift box lay a beautifully crafted necklace.
There was only a string, without any decorations, so it was for Anise to recognize what this necklace was meant for.

“Your rosary—” Eugene began.

Anise currently had a rosary hanging from her neck.
It was the rosary that Anise had used in her previous life and that they had since retrieved from the Vatican’s Special Relics Vault.
The handcrafted cross still gleamed beautifully, but the necklace’s string was only made of leather, so it had since become faded and worn out.

“—Its string has gone bad,” Eugene finished.

“…Fufu.”

Anise took off her rosary with a laugh.
She changed the string for the one she had just received as a gift and then pulled back her hair so it would be easier to put the rosary back around her neck.
Seeing this sight, Eugene got up without thinking much about it and hung the rosary around Anise’s neck.

Looking up at Eugene’s face that was titled towards her, Anise felt a strong urge to raise her head to meet his.
Should she just lean a little more forward? It is often said that the first time is the hardest and the second time is the easiest, and hadn’t Anise already overcome the challenge of the first kiss?

[Sister…!] Kristina screamed inside of their head.

If Anise had really decided on doing this, it couldn’t be helped, but Kristina felt far too embarrassed watching it happen from here….

‘I’ll be patient,’ Anise assured her.

A quick look at bit.ly/3iBfjkV will leave you more fulfilled.

Sure, she really did want to go through with it, but Anise still held herself back.
It was for the sake of Sienna and Kristina.

“What are you looking at?” Eugene eventually asked.

“I’m looking at you,” Anise replied with a smile.

Eugene just grinned and sat down again.
“We’ve finished eating, so is there anywhere else you want to go from here?”

“I still haven’t finished yet.
I want to drink some more beer,” Anise answered as she caressed the necklace around her neck.

Three hundred years ago, even after leaving Yuras, she had never really celebrated her birthday.
That went for Vermouth, Molon, Sienna, and Hamel as well.
When it was someone’s birthday, they would at least give their congratulations, but they never exchanged presents.

This was because they all didn’t have the sort of personality to care about such a thing.
However, even if they didn’t exchange gifts… having other people recognize that it was your birthday still made the day quite enjoyable.
Even in the terrible Devildom, when the time came for someone’s birthday, they would set up camp early and open up their carefully preserved stores of liquor.

Anise had felt that each and every day of her travels with her friends was a gift to her.

“Just a little more,” Anise muttered to herself.

That went for a moment like this as well.

Anise smiled as she felt a pleasant drowsiness settle over her.

The hustle and bustle of the pub.

The sound of firewood burning in the fireplace.

The noise of beer mugs clinking.

And with Hamel sitting in front of her.

All of these made Anise feel grateful that she was alive.

“I want to stay here with you until the sun goes down,” Anise said with a smile as she raised her beer mug once more.