ERTHMB Chapter 76

Hero

 

The shadows receded from Eugene’s face, and moonlight took their place.

 

Aslan clasped his hands behind his back and turned toward the side wall.

 

“You have finally set foot on that trajectory. If you cannot handle it, you may give up even now. It’s no trouble to have a few more heirs as replacements. Your mother’s improper conduct would be sufficient grounds to cut you and that woman out of Evergale.”

 

“……I will do my utmost so that you need not go to such trouble.”

 

“No. Abandon your best. Become the greatest.”

 

Eugene deliberately did not look at Aslan’s back as he turned away. He knew what expression he would be wearing. He simply stared blankly down at the pile of papers covering the desk.

 

Political circles, business circles, martial arts circles, social circles, even women who made names for themselves in the pleasure quarters.

 

Documents densely recording personal information were spread out conspicuously.

 

Before the abilities he pursued, things like background, birth, or character flaws were nothing more than invisible specks of dust. Just as he had stoically gone through with his wedding despite knowing of his mother’s infidelity.

 

Meanwhile, Aslan, who stood facing the wall at close range, continued speaking.

 

“Before long, you too will come to know. The more achievements and accomplishments you accumulate, the more people will begin to chatter. That Eugene Evergale has everything perfectly. That the world is so unfair.”

 

A faint laugh escaped through Aslan’s teeth. With his back still turned, it was impossible to distinguish whether it was mockery or genuine laughter.

 

He reached out his hand to grasp what he wanted before turning to face Eugene again.

 

“As the number of those who revere you increases, so too will the enemies who smile to your face but busy themselves sharpening knives behind your back. There’s no spectacle that provides more thrill than watching someone fall from the summit.”

 

Only then did Eugene realize what was in his grip and unconsciously rose slowly from his seat.

 

What Aslan had brought back was the sword that had always decorated one wall of the study like wallpaper. The sword that had once roamed battlefields with him and shared life and death.

 

The sword that had never once allowed even his touch.

 

“Regardless of how many lives you sacrifice, how many times you cross death’s threshold, how many hectares of severed flesh you must stand upon—that ignorance too is a weight you must bear.”

 

Aslan—father—was now offering that sword to him.

 

“Remember this, Eugene.”

 

Two pairs of unavoidably similar golden eyes shared a gaze in the air.

 

A heavy voice and an even heavier lump of metal fell onto Eugene’s hands. Like the words that followed, it was a weight carved into his entire being.

 

“I want not merely a dog guarding the house, but a hero.”

 

……..

 

After the appointment ceremony, Eugene was immediately sent to the battlefield.

 

The carnage he witnessed for the first time was a nightmare itself. Dust so thick you couldn’t tell where it began or ended, the dense scent of blood that stung the nose, screams pouring from all directions.

 

“S-save me, please save me……. Aaahhh!”

 

Eugene put his full strength into every single strike. He swung his sword like a desperate struggle.

 

Kill or be killed. As if those two propositions were the entirety of life, he carved through the living hell while repeating them to himself.

 

He could not allow Aslan’s shadow to cover him. Like him in the past, he had to earn countless titles. The metallic sound of his blade splattering blood and flesh had to reach his ears.

 

He had to make this chaos of murderous intent and killing his own stage. In that place, Eugene rolled for a full four years. Time endured solely for the sake of proof.

 

And so, when the victory cry finally rose to announce the end of the long battle, Evergale’s heir returned triumphantly, holding the severed head of the enemy commander.

 

“Bow before Instantia’s new hero!”

 

“Glory also to the God who granted him infinite strength!”

 

Brilliant jubilation erupted in every village they passed. Eugene let the praises that scattered at his feet flow past his impassive face.

 

Though Aslan’s actions had not been just, at least his words had been right. People remembered only the victory he had brought them.

 

They did not know what kind of wasteland he stood upon, how his ears, dulled by the sound of shells, tormented his nerves at all hours, how his corneas, scorched by flames, throbbed. Instead, only more targets appeared on his back.

 

With this incident, it was only a matter of time before Evergale’s master would change. The Imperial faction and other families weighed gains and losses, wondering whether the new head of house would be as free from material desire as Aslan.

 

During the final battle when victory was within reach, Eugene threw the countless letters coming addressed to his name rather than Aslan’s into the bombardment.

 

[—But even that ignorance is a weight you must bear.]

 

The last stop on the way to Evergale was Hyer.

 

Eugene finally removed his armor and rested from his journey. Even the sword that had guarded his waist like his own skin for the past three years felt burdensome, so he set it aside.

 

Yet his body was heavy. His body, wearing nothing, was heavy. As if the countless souls he had killed were clinging to him.

 

Eugene both wanted to return to Evergale and did not want to return. He had only come one step closer.

 

The severed head of the enemy commander opened its eyes wide every night and whispered in his ear.

 

‘How can you be afraid already, Grand Duke? This is merely the beginning of the countless victories you must create.’

 

The moment he stood before his father, the title of hero would disappear, leaving only a monkey that had just learned to walk.

 

When would the next war be? What would he have to prove when even that ended? And then what after that?

 

He knew he had to keep moving forward, but his feet would not lift. Eugene continued to stay in Hyer, making various excuses.

 

Then one day, an urgent message flew from the estate.

 

[Grand Duke Aslan Kaumshvarts von Evergale has passed away.]

 

Thud. It felt like his peeled brain had rolled directly onto the dirt floor.

 

Father—Aslan—was dead.

 

It was neither assassination by forces that envied and plotted against him, nor heart failure complained of by an aged body.

 

[What remains in my life is only bitter emptiness. Time that stirs no emotion is like endless suffering. Would you have a different ending?]

 

Aslan had seen through Eugene, who would not advance further from Hyer. At this moment of most desperate yet brilliant soaring, he perceived that deep anxiety simultaneously remained.

 

So he threw him a new trial.

 

[Try to overcome my shadow, Eugene.]

 

By abandoning his own life.

 

[You are indeed my blood.]

 

Eugene read and reread the letter. He repeated it several times as if the contents of the will might change.

 

I lived my entire life trying to resemble you. I believed that someday would come when I became your son. With that single thought, I could not even die.

 

I left as a house-guarding dog and returned as a hero, yet the master who should welcome me had vanished.

 

The man I barely thought had become a father ultimately died as Aslan.

 

I never wanted this kind of recognition. Because I never wanted it, I could not accept it either.

 

‘Where……is this place?’

 

Eugene seemed to have forgotten the way back to Evergale. Though the new head’s coronation ceremony should have been held, he was utterly cynical about it. Everyone except him acknowledged it, but that one person did not.

 

It was merely filling a vacant position—what made him a new head of house?

 

He postponed both the coronation and funeral as much as possible. Days became frequent when he would go out blankly at dawn, walk endlessly, and return.

 

Today too, Eugene avoided the noisy marketplace and headed for a deserted path. He moved because he could not stay still. He walked because his legs moved. Though it was his own body, he spent time as if being controlled.

 

‘The day is too slow.’

 

It was barely evening. His aimless, limping steps paused momentarily. A pack of fierce wild dogs was at the end of the road.

 

Naturally, having flayed human flesh and bone, he had not stopped out of fear of such a pack.

 

It was because they barked so loudly that his tinnitus flared momentarily.

 

When the sharp noise subsided, Eugene opened his eyes.

 

An old man crouched and trembling among the dogs came into view. And some woman who had suddenly intervened in front of him.

 

‘……Red hair?’

 

Eugene remembered the stories about Hyer’s witch. He recalled the woman passed from mouth to mouth by everyone. It was somewhat unexpected that she did not have the gloomy and melancholy impression he had anticipated.

 

She was too beautiful to be called a witch. However, it was not greatly surprising. People often attached such stigma to exceptionally outstanding beings.

 

‘If she were someone who could be suppressed by such a mere name, she would never have caught attention in the first place.’

 

His father and the sword he held were no exceptions. On the double edge that had been stained with countless blood for their sake, the titles of hero and monster were simultaneously attached. Unbearable talent was sometimes a disaster.

 

Eugene quietly gazed at that small body bearing the current disaster. It seemed to be planning to commit an act even more unexpected than the unexpected impression.

 

Instead of a meager staff, the witch held a thick piece of wood, and instead of evil sorcery, she deployed terrible martial arts.

 

“Get lost, you damned beasts!”

 

The words coming from a face like some noble family’s delicate young lady were truly paradoxical. The pack of dogs bared their sharp teeth and barked even louder.

 

Kill or be killed.

 

Eugene bet on the former with his dazed mind. It was an obvious fact to anyone with proper eyes.

 

Eugene simply stood at a distance, waiting for blood to gush forth.

 

However, the woman did not die. The dogs did not die either. Blood did not gush from either side.

 

But a different kind of red gushed forth. It was a small flame.

 

The woman broke the oil lamp she had brought, lit the end of the wooden stick, and swung it around. The dogs that had rashly attacked and had their fur badly singed whimpered and fled.

 

“Are you alright?”

 

As soon as she drove off the pack, the woman hurriedly approached the old man’s side. The old man had already been bitten on his arms and legs.

 

When he could not easily stand up, the woman supported him, telling him to lean on her. This situation proceeded as Eugene had expected.

 

Though called an old man, he was a male a span taller. The woman immediately swayed as soon as the old man’s arm rested on her shoulder. Nevertheless, she stubbornly attempted that futile act several more times.

 

‘……Did she seriously think it was possible?’

 

Unable to watch any longer, Eugene strode over. Though the woman looked at him with surprised eyes, he paid no attention and instead lifted the old man onto his back. The woman immediately guided them toward the medical station.

 

As they left the path, the woman casually asked.

 

“Is……he not heavy?”

 

Eugene answered by shaking his head and silently moved forward. It was the first time in his life that something was so light.

 

Lighter than his steel sword that reached about the old man’s waist, lighter than Aslan’s hand that had pressed firmly on his shoulder. Though at most it was a sword, at most a hand, so there was no reason for that.

 

When they came out after leaving the old man at the medical station, the sun had completely set. Stars that had appeared densely brightened the darkening sky.

 

The woman asked again with eyes that seemed to have those very stars embedded in them.

 

“You’re a knight returned from war, aren’t you? I saw the procession entering the village a few weeks ago.”

 

“……”

 

Eugene only stared intently at the woman. This time there was not even a nod.

 

When he stared at people like this, they all acted as if they had committed some crime. The woman spoke without being flustered.

 

“You’ll definitely be alright.”

 

What would be alright, how would it be alright? Without any explanation whatsoever, the woman suddenly said such a thing.

 

Though you may never forget, you won’t remain stagnant forever. She continued to add plainly while telling the story of her mother who had left her behind.

 

“Even if you don’t have confidence to do so, you must believe that you will. We have to live, don’t we? You can’t abandon even yourself.”