Damn Reincarnation

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Pop pop pop.

Eugene cracked his knuckles as he walked over to Laman.

“So I’m going to defeat you now,” Eugene declared.

“Kaaaah!” Laman rushed at him with another scream.

Eugene ducked under the slash that flew at him and clenched his fist.

Pow!

A fist covered in mana crashed through Laman’s mana shield and drove into his side.

“Kagh!”

Laman’s breath was driven out of him, but the assault didn’t stop there.
Eugene skillfully swayed his body backward and then, for the sake of fairness, slammed his fist into Laman’s other side as well.
A blow to Laman’s stomach came after that one.

When Laman staggered, unable to endure the pain, Eugene immediately swung his leg and kicked the outside of Laman’s thigh.
Eugene wouldn’t allow Laman to fall with just that.
He grabbed Laman by the collar and held him up.
Then he swung his fist up into Laman’s jaw twice.
When Laman was about to vomit, Eugene slammed his chin upwards, preventing Laman from opening his mouth.

Laman choked, “Gah….”

Laman felt himself losing consciousness, but he was still holding on to his kukri.
He tried to swing his kukri to somehow change this situation, but it didn’t work out.

Eugene just grabbed Laman’s wrist and twisted it.
Then, with his other hand, he grabbed Laman’s head.

Using his sword first and then putting it away—this wasn’t because Eugene had the intention of sparing Laman.
It was all to show off a blatant disregard for Laman as a threat and thus break his will.
Eugene was demonstrating that he could crush someone like Laman with just his bare hands.

Having seen the truth of this, Laman’s will was immediately broken.
Compared to being sliced dozens of times with the sword, being beaten up by the fists of a nineteen-year-old youth was much more painful and depressing.

“Hold—” on is what Laman wanted to say.

But Eugene didn’t bother to allow Laman to finish.

Bang!

Laman’s head was spiked into the sand.
Since the ground wasn’t that hard, Eugene didn’t have to worry about cracking Laman’s head in two.

‘I still don’t know who’s behind these guys,’ Eugene reminded himself.

The situation was different from when Eugene had dealt with the black wizard in Aroth.
This was a foreign country—a place where Eugene didn’t even have Lovellian to look out for him.
If the one behind this old guy was at the very least a noble of Nahama, this might turn into a political fiasco.

He didn’t want to put any more wrinkles onto Gilead’s already troubled and worn-out face.

That said, Eugene wasn’t going to be excessively merciful either.

Bang, bang, bang!

Eugene slammed Laman’s head into the sand a few more times.
Laman’s already broken will was utterly crushed.
With the bitter taste of the sand entering his eyes, nose, and lips, Laman’s tears and blood turned the sand into mud.

Laman stammered, “S-stop….”

Laman knew that he was really going to die.
And he wasn’t going to die fighting with honor but instead be left dead in a barren patch of the desert while pretending to be a thief.
The realization of this was terrible, and so was the pain he was in.
In a shaking voice, Laman could barely spit out this plea for mercy, and only then did Eugene’s hands pause in their place.

“Who are you?” Eugene asked once more.

Laman tried to speak, “I am….”

The moment Laman hesitated while replying, Eugene slammed Laman’s head into the ground once more.

“Your response was late,” Eugene explained.
“If I ask you something, answer me right away.
It’s also fine if you answer me before I even ask.”

What did Eugene even mean by saying it was okay for Laman to answer before being asked the question? Although this thought went through Laman’s head, he didn’t voice his protest.

Instead, he confessed, “M-my name is Laman Schulhov.”

“Hah? What’s with your tone, you motherfucker,” Eugene cursed.

Bang!

Laman’s head crashed into the ground once more.

He repeated, “M-my name is Laman Schulhov, Sir!”

Bang!

Laman pleaded, “J-just what is it you want to hear from me…?”

Eugene raised an eyebrow, “Forgetting the Sir again? This motherfucker.”

Bang!

A cry came from elsewhere, “Please stop!”

Having seen his superior thrown around like this several times, the lieutenant, who was still suspended in the air, twisted his body to face them and pleaded with Eugene.
As blood trickled down from his nose and mouth, Laman looked up at his lieutenant.

The lieutenant stammered, “O-our master is Tairi Al-Madani….”

Bang!

Even though the lieutenant was the one who answered the question, Laman’s head was still smashed into the ground once more.
In that brief moment, Eugene had understood the relationship between Laman and his lieutenant.
He realized that this upright old man would really refuse to tell him anything, no matter how many times he was hit.

Bang!

“And who is that?” Eugene asked even as he slammed Laman into the ground once more.

Eugene’s gaze wasn’t aimed at Laman but instead at the lieutenant.

But Laman was the one to respond to his question in a dizzied voice, “Don’t… don’t tell him anything….”

Not listening to Laman’s order, the lieutenant revealed, “Our master….
Tairi Al-Madani is the Emir of Kajitan!”

Rather than his master, who was far away, the lieutenant was more afraid of the one who kept slamming Laman’s head into the dirt right in front of him — Eugene.

Eugene recalled that Kajitan was the city right on the western border of Nahama, which Eugene had just left.
This meant that Laman was a subordinate of the lord of Kajitan.

Bang!

The lieutenant continued stammering, “O-our master… he… he wanted us to—”

“To? Hurry up, you motherfucker,” Eugene urged.

Bang!

“He-he wanted us to… secretly follow you… Sir Eugene—”

Bang!

“I-I’m not sure of his reasons… but—”

Bang!

“Please just let go of the captain’s head! I… I can’t give you a detailed reason.
B-but—”

Bang!

“He told us… not to allow you to enter the Kazani desert…!”

Only then did Eugene stop pounding Laman’s head into the ground.

“Why?” he asked simply.

“That’s… I’m not really sure—”!

Bang!

“No, really—”

Bang!

“It’s the truth! Really, I swear that I’ve told you everything that I know.
I truly don’t know his reasons for this.
Truly,” the lieutenant pleaded as tears poured down his cheeks.

After eyeing him for a few moments, Eugene snorted and released Laman’s head.

That said, he wasn’t just going to allow Laman to go free.
Eugene plopped his butt down on Laman’s back as he sat and stroked his chin. Kazani.
That was the name of the desert that Eugene would enter if he kept going in this direction.

It was also the location of Eugene’s hometown.
Three hundred years ago, the frontier of Turas had been in the middle of what was now the Kazani desert.

“Why doesn’t he want me to enter?” Eugene pondered.

The lieutenant answered, “He-he didn’t say anything about that.”

“There usually isn’t anything to see in a desert.”

“Kazani… no beast or monster even lives there.
There aren’t any oases either.”

This was only natural.
The Kazani desert had only been created recently as the epicenter of the sandstorm that was gnawing at Turas’s territory.
It didn’t have an oasis, and rain only fell rarely.
Kazani was a harsh land that no one could live off.

It wasn’t like there hadn’t been any attempts to make this wide desert livable.
Just a few decades ago, an artificial oasis was created in Kazani with a village surrounding it.

However… a sandstorm had suddenly engulfed the oasis and the village, and after this had happened several times, Kazani had been abandoned as an uninhabitable wasteland.

‘Could it be the headquarters of the Sand Shamans?’

That was Eugene’s first thought.
But although it was obvious that Nahama was using the desertification to gnaw away at Turas, that didn’t explain why they would want to keep the young master from the prestigious Lionheart clan from entering Kazani.

‘Or could Amelia Merwin be…?’

In Nahama, the one that Eugene was the wariest of was Amelia Merwin.
The black wizard who had signed a contract with the Demon King of Incarceration and who was being supported by Nahama.

Not only did she have a bad personality, but Amelia Meriwn also had as much power as a natural disaster, so even Nahama treated her with caution.
It was strictly forbidden for tourists, as well as the citizens of Nahama, to enter the Ashur Desert, which was where her dungeon was located.

The Ashur desert was a long way from here, and there was no reason for Eugene to go there.
It was also far away from where Anise had last been sighted.

“…Hm,” Eugene organized his thoughts.

Raising his head, he looked around at Laman’s subordinates, who were sunken into the sand.
They hadn’t just stayed still while Laman was getting thrashed.
They had tried to attack Eugene several times, so Eugene had used magic to bury them in the sand until only their heads were sticking out.

“You all can go back,” Eugene said with a wave of his hand, then he tapped the top of Laman’s head, “But you’ll be coming with me.”

“…Hah?” Laman grunted.

Eugene pointed out, “No matter what, you can’t allow me to enter the Kazani desert, right? I don’t really care about that, but it would be annoying if I get into a pointless argument by going there.”

“What does that… have to do with me going with you…?” Laman groaned.

“If someone does make a fuss about it, I’ll just blame you,” Eugene explained.

Laman was struck dumb, “….”

“You get what I’m saying, right? I’ll use you, and thus your own master, as a shield.
You said that your master is the Emir of Kajitan, right? Doesn’t that mean I can silence any annoying protests by using his name?”

“…Th-that’s….”

“Or would you rather die to me here? Of course, your subordinates will be dying along with you.”

“….”

“Or else you could just return to your master, tell him that you failed to follow me and that you were beaten to the brink of death? Of course, I have no reason to keep quiet about this.
Didn’t you call yourself thieves when we first met? I’ll tell everyone that the Emir of Kajitan disguised his subordinates as thieves to steal the Lionheart’s treasures… how about that?”

“Th-that’s…! We never intended to do something like—”

“Who do you think they’ll believe, your words or mine? For now, what’s certain is this: the Lionheart clan will definitely believe my side of the story.
After all, I do have things that are valuable enough to tempt you to steal them.”

With a grin, Eugene pulled out Wynnyd’s hilt from inside his cloak and showed it to them.

“You know what this is, right?” Eugene asked.
“It’s Wynnyd, the Storm Sword used by the Great Vermouth, the ancestor of our Lionheart clan.
It’s an item that just about anybody would covet.
Or at least that’s what most people would think, no? So they’re sure to believe that the Emir of Kajitan pulled something so devious because he lusted for Wynnyd.”

Unable to say anything, Laman could only purse his lips.
Although the length of time that Laman had suffered under Eugene was brief, he couldn’t treat Eugene’s words as a mere threat.

What if Eugene really went around saying something like that? Laman’s head would be sent flying, and perhaps so would his subordinates’.
Even his master, Tairi Al-Madani, might lose his head if things went wrong.

“U-understood,” Laman had no choice but to concede.

Openbookworm's Thoughts

OBW: Slave get! This really reminds me of how Weed managed to recruit his own subordinates.

“If I ask you something, answer me right away.
It’s also fine if you answer me before I even ask.”

Momo: LOL good ol’ Eugene