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Chapter 108: Sienna (5)

“Isn’t it embarrassing and shameful to keep saying ‘I don’t know’ over and over again?”

“...Shut up.”

“If Anise was the one who wrote it, could you be trying to protect Anise’s reputation by insisting that you don’t know who it is? Even though you know that the suspicion will turn on you if you keep clinging to the same denial?” Eugene began sounding out his reasoning with a serious expression on his face. “Are you really going to prioritize protecting Anise’s honor over having to bear such an insult yourself? But I don’t think you’re that type of person. You’re not upright enough to take the blame for something that you haven’t done.”

“...Wh-what do you know?” Sienna stammered.

“Although I might not be as insightful as you, I think I have a pretty good idea of the depth of your character,” said Eugene.

These words caused Sienna to blush all the way up to her earlobes. She was unable to look at Eugene directly, and she awkwardly lowered her gaze to the floor as she fiddled with her fingers.

“...It’s-it’s really not me,” Sienna attempted to deny it one more time.

“Why don’t you look me in the eye and say that,” Eugene challenged her.

Sensing she was about to be boxed in, Sienna tried to change tracks, “This all happened three hundred years ago… so… it’s not really a big deal, isn’t it? M-Molon also really enjoyed the fairy tale. He liked it so much that he even tried to pass a law requiring the memorization of the fairy tale as his kingdom’s first ever edict.”

“...Was that bastard really a good king like they say he was? Couldn’t he have just been a mad dictator and a tyrant?” Eugene muttered to himself with a look of utter disbelief on his face. Then, his expression changed completely and became serious once more. “No. If it’s Molon, then he has reason to like it. After having heard himself be called an idiot day after day, he was actually given the prestigious title of the Brave Molon.”

“...Was it really all that great?” This time, Sienna was the one with an expression of disbelief. “Even though he’s called the brave Molon, the stupid things that he did were recorded exactly as they happened. As it was a children’s book, I couldn’t just keep calling Molon an idiot—”

Eugene cut in, “So you did write it?”

“—Or at least that’s what the author must have been thinking,” Sienna feebly finished.

“Even though they made such an edit, they still wrote down all sorts of swear words like ‘asshole’ and ‘son of a bitch’ beside my name,” Eugene complained.

“...Think about it clearly, Hamel,” Sienna told him as she straightened her expression. “At the time that the fairy tale came out, Molon was laying the foundations of a nation by mobilizing the northern tribes and gathering displaced refugees. What would happen if the fairy tale called Molon an idiot while he was doing all that?”

“So what?” Eugene asked in confusion.

“Are you seriously saying that? Don’t you feel sorry for all the people who believed in Molon and became his vassals, or the descendants who would be born from them? What kind of sins could they have committed in their previous lives to deserve hearing other people mock their king for being an idiot?” Sienna lectured Eugene.

“...,” Eugene was struck silent.

Sienna continued her tale, “If the fairy tale called Molon an idiot, everyone in the Ruhr Kingdom would have been ridiculed for being the vassals of an idiot. What would happen then? All of the people in the kingdom would surely have rebelled against their king. There might even be enraged extremists who would try to kill the author of the fairy tale no matter what….”

“With an imagination like that, you could practically write a novel,” Eugene sharply commented as his expression twisted into a scowl. “Fine. This is all because I died too early, before I got the chance to leave behind any descendants. Is that right? If I hadn’t died so early, then I wouldn’t have been called the Stupid Hamel.”

“...Well, something like that,” Sienna agreed.

“So why did you feel the need to do that to me?” Eugene asked her.

“...I already said that I didn’t write it,” Sienna insisted.

“What was it that I’m supposed to have said right before I died? Sienna, I’ve always liked you,” quoted Eugene.

Sienna’s hands rose to cover her face. Then her body started shaking and she could no longer sit face to face with Eugene, instead choosing to turn her body in the opposite direction.

“I-It wasn’t me,” Sienna whined.

“Then could it have been Anise?” Eugene prodded.

“I don’t know!” Sienna loudly screamed as she shot up to her feet. “I told you that I don’t know! So why do you keep asking me? I really don’t know! S-some other bastard must have written it!”

“You seem embarrassed,” Eugene observed.

“You-you’re the one who made a mistake, Hamel. Why did you have to go and die first? And who-who asked you to go and get yourself reincarnated? If you hadn’t been reincarnated, you wouldn’t have been able to read the fairy tale yourself in the first place!” Sienna argued passionately.

“Uh-huh, sorry for coming back to life,” Eugene sarcastically apologized. “I guess I should have just stayed dead. It was my mistake to let myself be reincarnated.”

Sienna’s shoulders trembled slightly at these words. She turned her body to face Eugene once more. With a helpless expression on her face, Sienna chewed on her lips. As she hesitantly stood there, unsure of what to say, tears welled up in her wavering green eyes.

“...Sorry, I said something crazy,” Sienna apologized tearfully.

“No… that’s…. I was just joking with you, why are you taking it so seriously?” Eugene responded awkwardly.

“It’s because I said something… that I really… really shouldn’t have. I’m-I’m so-I’m so sorry Hamel,” Sienna choked out these words as tears fell from her downcast face.

Seeing Sienna with such a tremulous expression on her face, Eugene let out a long sigh and comforted her. “It’s fine. Because I’m the one who should be sorry for dying first.”

“...Hic.” A sob was Sienna’s sole reply.

“I don’t know whether it was you or Anise who decided to call me the Stupid Hamel, but I’ll forgive you for that as well,” Eugene said.

Sienna continued crying.

Sniffle.

Eugene finished with, “And thanks for my memorial stone.”

Sienna stopped sniffling any further. Her face, which had been flushed a bright red until just now, suddenly became pale.

Eugene’s words had reminded her of something. ‘That’s right, the memorial stone…!’

She had written something like that. While thick drops of tears were flowing from her eyes, Sienna had carved several inscriptions onto Hamel’s memorial stone. It wasn’t just the memorial stone, either. She had also prepared a separate note on Hamel’s coffin, while Vermouth, Molon, and Anise weren’t looking. Without anyone knowing, she had written a last message for Hamel on the lid of his coffin.

Some day, I will meet you in the world you’ve been longing for.

Her pale, drained face once again began glowing bright red. Sienna had written down all those things because she had thought that she would never be able to see Hamel again.

Eugene continued, “There was also the coffin—”

Sienna snapped out of her fugue. “I-I’ll kill you.”

“When you were erecting my statue, you sure did cry a lot.”

“When did I ever cry? Stop imagining things —!”

Eugene teased her. “But I saw Molon drinking your tears?”

“That’s ridiculous… how do you know all that? Your soul should have been inside the neckl—! You… were you still conscious even though all that was left of you was your soul within the necklace?” Sienna’s voice was shaking as she asked this question.

Although there was no way she could think of that this was true, Sienna couldn’t help but imagine the worst case scenario where something like that was possible.

Eugene quickly dismissed her fears, “Do you really think that something like that would happen? I just saw it in a dream.”

“A dream?” Sienna asked with some relief.

“About the Holy Sword…” Eugene suddenly paused with a distressed expression on his face, unable to continue speaking as a sudden possibility sprang to mind.

Was the revelation in a dream really something that the Holy Sword had shown to him? Eugene couldn’t help but recall the powers of the angel with eight wings that looked just like Anise.

She had even shown him the scene from the past, the scene of Raizakia’s attack. And the reason why he was able to face Sienna like he was now was all because of the miracle that angel-Anise had performed.

Eugene didn’t really want a full explanation of what was going on.

It wasn’t because he didn’t have faith in the god of light. Regardless of his own lack of faith, everything that had happened were unmistakable miracles.

He simply didn’t want to admit that Anise was behind all this.

That was because, by doing so, Eugene would also have to admit that this was all just a dream that Anise had somehow created. The Sienna that was now in front of him was moving, talking, laughing, and crying like she was in perfect health. However, he couldn’t feel any warmth coming from her, nor could he hear her heart beating. In reality, Sienna still had a hole in her chest and was barely clinging on to life through the power of the World Tree.

This reminder of the reality of the situation soured Eugene’s mood.

“...Can’t we leave here together?” Eugene pleaded, feeling a bit reluctant. “You…you came to find me in Aroth, didn’t you?”

“...That was just me sending out a mental projection for a very brief moment. Even that was only possible because I squeezed out what little mana I had left,” Sienna revealed.

Squashing his disappointment, Eugene asked, “...How did you find me?”

“Your necklace,” Sienna said with a weak chuckle as her head remained bowed. “A security spell that I installed in my mansion long ago still remains intact. It wasn’t activated, but since the spell is connected to me, it detected the necklace.”

Sienna had kept the necklace with her ever since she had taken it from Hamel. As it was imbued with traces of her mana, it was only natural for the spell to have reacted when the necklace had finally returned to the mansion after hundreds of years.

“So I squeezed out the last of my mana and went to check the situation. The body produced this way was only an imperfect version of mental projection, but even so… I still managed to find you,” Sienna said with some lingering relief.

Eugene didn’t ask any further questions and just sat next to Sienna. Sienna also stopped talking to Eugene. She just quietly sat down and hugged her knees while staring forward blankly… though sometimes — no, quite often she would turn and glance at Eugene.

“...You should get going.” After sitting there silently for a while, Sienna was the first to break the silence. She stopped glancing over toward him and instead stared at him directly. “...There’s no point in you staying here any longer.”

Eugene was also aware of this.

This was why Eugene so hated the Night Demons, who would tempt people with a dream that made them reject reality. A dream that could never become reality, but was still extremely close to reality. As long as they mixed in a few factors that were different from reality, it was easy for them to seduce the human mind and completely destroy it.

“...Probably,” Eugene reluctantly agreed.

Even though he was all too aware of this truth, it wasn’t so easy for him to accept it. Now, it felt like Eugene could understand a little what was going through Eward’s head. If you didn’t want to face reality and instead rejected it… it would be easy for you to become addicted to the sweet dreams that the Night Demons offered.

Even so, you needed to face reality. If you remained stuck within a dream, you wouldn’t be able to change anything about your reality.

Eugene got up.

“We’ll meet again,” he promised.

Sienna looked up at Eugene who was standing beside her and smiled.

“...You’re no longer Hamel, so I’ll call you by your current name. Because even if your name changes, you will always be Hamel,” said Sienna.

“Just like how you are and always will be Sienna,” Eugene agreed.

“Mhm,” Sienna grunted as she tried her best to avoid crying. Her effort was obvious to see.

“Sienna,” Eugene said as he reached out to Sienna. “Don’t cry and just wait here for me patiently.”

“...Stupid, blockhead, moron, son of a bitch,” Sienna cursed. Even though she was trying her best not to cry, Sienna rubbed her eyes and grabbed Eugene’s hand. “...Because you keep saying such selfish things, I can’t help but feel some hope.”

“I know,” Eugene curtly replied.

“Because of that… because of that, I’ll wait for you,” Sienna promised him. “I will trust you, place my hopes in you, and wait for you.”

“Of course you should,” Eugene accepted her promise.

“...You don’t have to come back here to pick me up,” Sienna said as she stood up with a few sniffs. After hesitating for a few moments, she pulled Eugene closer by his hand until she was able to reach up and hug Eugene around his shoulders. “...Because I’ll come looking for you. You… you just need to wait for me.”

Eugene patted Sienna on the back. Sienna clenched her lips tightly shut at his touch, and buried her face into his shoulder. He couldn’t feel any warmth coming from the Sienna in his arms. He couldn’t even hear her heart beating.

Even so, Eugene could still feel Sienna. She hadn’t died back then and was still alive to this day.

“...Fine,” Eugene replied with a smirk.

After looking up at his grin, Sienna also returned a smile.

‘This is a miracle,’ Sienna silently thought to herself. To think that she would be able to meet with Hamel like this — Hamel, who had been the first to leave them. ‘Even though a lot of things have changed.’

She didn’t want to let go of him. She didn’t want to have to say goodbye to him.

Just for a little longer.

Even as these thoughts ran through her mind, Sienna deliberately let go of Eugene.

As Sienna looked Eugene up and down, she thought, ‘...No, nothing has changed. You’re still… Hamel.’

Sienna didn’t cry.

While smiling as brightly as possible, she waved goodbye to Eugene.

“...I’m so glad that I got to meet you like this,” Sienna confessed.

The miracle was ending.

Sienna was gradually beginning to lose consciousness. She couldn’t see Eugene’s figure any longer.

She slowly sat down on the spot. The small tree that had been growing behind her had disappeared. Everything else then disappeared and was covered in a bright light.

Sienna sait in the center of this scene, still staring forward.

“...Thank you,” she muttered.

Anise, with her eight angelic wings outspread, was now standing at a close distance. Without saying anything, Anise just stared at Sienna with a faint smile on her face.

“May you also find salvation,” Sienna said as she stared at Anise, before closing her eyes.

Anise’s wings slowly folded away, and as their light disappeared, the place was filled with darkness.

* * *

Eugene opened his eyes.

He quickly got up from where he had been lying down on the ground. Everything was as it had been before he fell unconscious; not a single thing had changed in reality. Sienna was lying down with her eyes closed, encased within the crystal, with a hole in the middle of her chest and vines connecting her to the World Tree.

Eugene stared at Sienna for a few moments. His memories of what had happened just now remained crystal-clear. From the full conversation that he had with Sienna to the technique he had learned that was meant to unlock Akasha’s seal, releasing it from its confinement within Akron.

‘Don’t blame Vermouth.’

He also recalled these words. Smiling wryly, Eugene stroked his own chin.

“...Let’s just give him a chance,” Eugene eventually muttered.

No one had ever really been able to understand Vermouth.

Vermouth also hadn’t asked for anyone’s understanding.

That guy had been carrying a lot on his shoulders, without asking anyone to help shoulder the burden with him.

No.

He had asked for help. He had faced the Demon Kings together with Sienna, Anise, Molon, and Hamel. Of all the many living beings in the world, only these four had been able to keep up with Vermouth.

However, Vermouth still hadn’t sought any understanding from his comrades. After Hamel had died in the castle of the Demon King of Incarceration, Vermouth had tried to pull everything together all by himself.

Whether it was the Oath…

…Or Eugene’s reincarnation.

‘We never understood each other.’

‘I don’t know why Vermouth did it or what he was really planning. It’s not like I’m Vermouth, and right up until the end, I never really understood him.’

‘I think you’re just the right person for the job.’

‘Vermouth may have eventually failed, but Hamel, if it’s you… then you might really be able to do it.’

“It’s heavy,” Eugene muttered as he massaged his own shoulders. “This is why I hate being called a hero.”

He soon saw that Kristina had collapsed nearby.

Anise wasn’t anywhere to be seen. However, the wand that had resonated with Anise’s light was still touching Kristina’s fingertips. Eugene stared at Kristina for a few moments, then picked her up and carried her.

Kristina was still unconscious, so how much time had really passed since he’d been caught up in the ‘miracle’? It didn’t seem like it had been too long. Fortunately, Kristina had only lost consciousness and there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her.

‘...Just what is her true identity?’ Eugene thought to himself.

There was no way that Kristina could secretly be Anise.

But the ‘angel’ had been partially connected to Kristina.

“...Well then,” Eugene muttered as he let out a sigh and turned his head. He took one last look at Sienna’s face, whose eyes were still closed peacefully. “Wait for me.”

After saying goodbye like that, Eugene headed out of the World Tree while carrying Kristina.

[...Hamel?] Tempest’s shout echoed inside of his head. [What in the world just happened? And what exactly was that light—]

“Can’t even get a moment to wallow in my emotions….” Eugene grumbled as he tucked Wynnyd back into his cloak.