In the early morning hours, Ciel woke up in her bed. There was still time left before the sun began to rise, but Ciel was used to waking up at this hour.

She sat up in bed, rolling her neck a few times, and then, after placing her feet together in front of her, she stretched her upper body forward. After she was done with that, Ciel got out of bed and lightly stretched her body as she loosened her joints. Then she drank a glass of water that had been placed beside the bed before washing her face, brushing her teeth, and changing into a new set of clothes.

Stepping out of her room, Ciel quietly closed the door behind her. Most people were still asleep at this hour. She silently walked down the hallways that were kept illuminated with dimmed lights. Getting up and leaving her room at this hour was all part of Ciel’s daily routine.

Even during her childhood, Ciel had never once slacked off in her training, working hard to prove that she deserved to be born into the main line of the Lionheart clan. Back when the eldest son, Eward Lionheart — whose name was now forbidden even to be mentioned — had held the right to succeed the family, Ciel had been driven to fight for her mother’s approval and their position in the family. But then….

“So what if all of our hard work was aimed in the wrong direction,” Ciel muttered with a pout as she walked down the quiet hallway.

It hadn’t just been her. From a young age, both the twins had been hard workers, and it wasn’t just for the sake of their mother’s approval and their position in the main family. When they were thirteen years old, in the now-defunct Lionheart tradition that was the Bloodline Continuation Ceremony, they had competed against Eugene, who had shown them that an overwhelming gap existed between him and them before he was adopted into the main family. No, rather than competing….

At that time, they were only thirteen years old. Meeting him at such a young age, the twins couldn’t help but hold complicated feelings toward Eugene — a descendant of a collateral line who was far superior to those from the main line.

If he had simply remained a part of the collateral lines, there wouldn’t have been much for the twins to worry about, but Eugene had then become a foster child of the main family. Fortunately, Ancilla had a keen eye for reading the wind, so she chose not to show any hostility towards Eugene. She had sat the young twins down in front of her and told them they needed to become a real family to Eugene.

The fact that they had seen Eugene’s skills firsthand during the Bloodline Continuation Ceremony also served as a blessing for the twins.

Cyan had instinctively been drawn to Eugen’s strength. Boys at that age tended to admire those stronger than themselves and wanted to become friends with them. But Cyan didn’t just want to become friends; he wanted to become true brothers, and his pride as a noble young master made him want to catch up with Eugene no matter how hard he had to work for it.

Ciel also felt similarly. However, unlike Cyan, Ciel was a girl. For Ciel, who had only ever lived in the main house, which was filled with her blood-related family members, Eugene’s sudden intrusion into their lives at such a young age had left her unable to hold anything more than a vague perception of him as a family member or a sibling.

There had been too many missed opportunities: if only the awkward feelings brought about by her puberty had been less intense or if Eugene hadn’t gone to study abroad in Aroth. Or maybe if she had followed Eugene instead of becoming a Black Lion or if she had only acknowledged her feelings early on and confessed them to Eugene… if she had just made any type of concentrated effort.

Ciel laughed bitterly, “There’s still no way it would have worked out.”

If it had been in the past when she hadn’t known the full circumstances, Ciel might have believed otherwise, but the current Ciel now knew a lot more about Eugene. No matter in which direction Ciel might have chosen to devote her efforts, she still wouldn’t have been able to receive the desired answer from Eugene.

For Eugene, the past was something he would never be able to cast off, whether it was his connection to his comrades, his emotions accumulated in that life, or his unfulfilled regrets. No matter how desperately Ciel confessed her love to him, Ciel’s feelings wouldn’t have been able to reach Eugene.

No matter how pretty the clothes she wore, no matter how many times she swung her sword in the training grounds every morning, no matter how much stronger she became as a result of all that, these efforts still wouldn’t be able to grant Ciel the response that she so desperately desired.

Even now, after the war had completely ended… that was still the case. Ciel wanted to become so much stronger because she wanted to fight alongside Eugene. Whether it was against the Demon King of Incarceration or the Demon King of Destruction, she had wanted to do her part in those battles and be of help to Eugene.

But the distance between them had proved far too great. She hadn’t been able to catch up to him in time. Ciel’s only significant contribution during those battles was to use her Demoneye of Darkness to summon Molon.

In the battle against the Demon King of Incarceration, she had defeated many demonfolk and demonic beasts. In the battle against the Demon King of Destruction, she had also brought down many of the Nur. But that was all she had managed.

Ciel still hadn’t been able to stand on the same battlefield as Eugene. In both battles, Ciel’s position had always been the same. She had only fought on the battlefields that were far away from the Demon Kings. So she had been left with no choice but to wait while hoping that Eugene would return after slaying the Demon Kings.

“Phew,” Ciel let out a deep sigh.

The war was over. And there wouldn’t be another such war for hundreds of years from now. No, even if a war did break out somewhere on the continent, there wouldn’t be any need for Eugene to be there, so naturally, that meant Ciel also wouldn’t get another chance to fight alongside him.

Yet even so, Ciel still woke up in the early hours of the morning every day, changed her clothes, and headed out to the training grounds…. Was it because of her many regrets?

Did she perhaps still harbor some faint hope? Was it a desire to become stronger regardless of the situation? Or was it simply out of habit? Even Ciel herself didn’t know the exact reason for her behavior. She just naturally woke up at this time without even meaning to, and when she tried to go back to sleep, her sleep was uneasy, and if she skipped her early morning training, her body felt heavy….

So was it just because of habit in the end?

Ciel headed towards the stairs with a wry smile on her face.

“Hm? Ciel hummed, sensing a presence in the study near the hallway.

With a little bit of focus, she was able to detect the identity of that presence, so instead of heading down the stairs, she first walked over to the study.

In the Lionheart’s main estate, even a study boasted a size comparable to a small library. Vermouth was standing near a bookshelf as he read a book instead of sitting down to read it. He raised his head as he heard the sound of gentle knocking coming from the door.

“Please, come in,” Vermouth called out.

Ciel carefully cracked open the door and peeked her head through the gap.

She blinked her eyes bashfully as she looked at Vermouth, then she grinned and said, “Hello Uncle[1].”

“Haaah…,” Vermouth let out a long sigh at this playful greeting. He shook his head and muttered, “I still can’t get used to that title.”

“Isn’t it better than calling you Father? Or perhaps, would you prefer to be called Grandfather instead?” Ciel cheekily asked.

“It would be better if you could just call me by my name,” Vermouth requested resignedly.

“There’s no way I could do something like that,” Ciel said, shaking her head. “You are the Founding Ancestor of the Lionheart clan, after all, Uncle.”

“But you calling me Uncle still feels a little…,” Vermouth trailed off awkwardly.

“Since the Patriarch doesn’t have any older brothers, there’s no one else who I can call Uncle[2]. Besides, doesn’t me calling you that truly make us feel like family?” Ciel said with a giggle as she stepped into the study.

Following the dinner they had shared a week ago, Carmen had been calling Vermouth her

Father

while Ciel had been addressing him as

Uncle

.

“Am I perhaps bothering you?” Ciel politely asked.

“Not at all,” Vermouth assured her.

“Are you having trouble sleeping? Or maybe, is there anything about the main estate that’s making you uncomfortable…?” Ciel cautiously inquired.

“No, it’s nothing like that. I usually don’t sleep much…,” Vermouth admitted as he held up the book he was reading, “...and there are a lot of interesting books here.”

The book Vermouth was holding summarized the history of the Lionheart clan, and it had never been circulated outside of the family. Ciel’s eyes sparkled with interest. As a descendant of the main family, Ciel had naturally read that book several times from a young age.

“Uncle, are you curious about what happened to the family after you… well… passed away?” Ciel asked with some slight hesitation.

“I wonder if I even have the right to be curious about that,” Vermouth said as he sat down on a chair with a bitter smile.

As he stared at the book he had set down on the desk in front of him, Vermouth remained silent for a few moments.

Vermouth of three hundred years ago definitely hadn’t been a good husband, nor had he been a good father. Vermouth had had more than a dozen wives and fathered dozens more children, but not one of them had received any more affection than any of the rest, nor had he shown them any special interest.

Vermouth’s children had all been forced to work hard to escape the shadow of their father’s glory, of the Hero who had been titled the Great Vermouth. At the same time, they had longed for the affection and attention of their father, whom they couldn’t help but admire deeply.

Some of his children must have surely resented their heartless father. They would definitely have been dissatisfied with the gap between the main line and the collateral lines that Vermouth had established all that time ago. However, none of them had dared to confront Vermouth openly about his policies. That was all because their father was the Great Vermouth.

“There wasn’t even a single bad line written about me,” Vermouth muttered with a wry sense of shame.

Was it out of respect for their father that they hadn’t left any trace of their resentment? Or perhaps they had wanted the future generations to believe that their ancestor was some kind of perfect genius?

“Do you regret your past?” Ciel tilted her head in curiosity as she sat down across from Vermouth.

Unable to take his eyes off the book lying closed in front of him, Vermouth eventually spoke up, “Back then, I had no choice but to do what I did. Even if I could return to the past, I would still do the exact same things.”

The Lionheart clan had been created in order to reincarnate Hamel. Everything Vermouth had done was to increase the probability of Hamel’s reincarnation because he didn’t know just how long it would take. He had also ensured the clan’s growth and expansion so that it could serve as Hamel’s ally. So even if he were to return to the past, Vermouth would still fashion the clan in the same way.

“So, Uncle, even someone like you still has regrets,” Ciel sighed.

“As long as they’re human, everyone has regrets; it’s only a question of how many,” Vermouth said as he lifted his gaze away from the book to look ahead at the person sitting in front of him.

Ciel was one of his descendants, born two hundred years after his apparent death. She was a direct descendant of the main line. But aside from that, Ciel was also someone who held a special connection to Vermouth. Vermouth stared at Ciel’s left eye, which appeared a little cloudy compared to her right eye.

The Demoneye residing there had been awakened by Vermouth.

During the battle against the new Demon King of Fury, when Eugene’s consciousness had been sucked into the void during the Moonlight Sword’s rampage, the chains of the Demon King of Incarceration had been needed to calm the rampage, and Ciel had connected with Eugene to free his consciousness from the void. In the process of doing so, the demonic factor that Ciel had inherited through her Lionheart blood had been activated.

Vermouth was responsible for that activation. He had been wary of activating the demonic factor in Eugene’s blood, as it might arouse a backlash from Eugene’s innate divinity, so Vermouth had used Ciel’s blood instead, as she happened to be there with Eugene.

“I have done you a grave injustice as well,” Vermouth confessed with a long sigh. “Back then, when you two were at sea, I… I didn’t even consider the future consequences of what I did to you. Even though I knew that you could die from the sudden backlash of the Demoneye that was transplanted into you, I still—”

“It’s fine,” Ciel said, rubbing her left eye. “At first, I didn’t know what was going on, but it all worked out in the end, right? I actually like having this Demoneye.”

Right at the moment when Eugene had woken up from the Moonlight Sword’s rampage and had yet to gain full control of his body, the Demon King of Fury had taken advantage of that opening and launched an attack targeting Eugene. Ciel had thrown herself in front of the blow in order to save Eugene and had lost her left eye as a result of her sacrifice.

“At that time, I just thought of this Demoneye as a gift from you, Uncle. Thanks to it, I was still able to help Eugene even though my strength was severely lacking,” Ciel said gratefully.

Vermouth stared at her silently.

“So there’s no need to feel any guilt for what you did to me,” Ciel said with a giggle as she leaned closer to Vermouth. “More importantly, there are a lot of stories that I want to hear from you, Uncle.”

Vermouth raised an eyebrow and asked, “What kind of stories?”

“Just what kind of person was Eugene?” Ciel asked, her eyes sparkling with interest and curiosity.

Vermouth tilted his head to one side, considering this unexpected question. “Haven’t you already heard stories about Hamel many times before? From sources other than myself? Such as Sienna, Anise, and Molon—”

“But I’m sure that every one of you has a different impression of him. I’m curious about what kind of impression you got from him, Uncle,” Ciel explained. “Uncle, you and Eugene have always paid a lot of attention to each other, haven’t you? I’ve heard that Eugene has always considered you his rival and always wanted to win against you at least once during his previous life.”

“My impression…,” Vermouth said, slowly tapping his fingers on the table as he considered his answer for a few moments. “Setting aside what I knew of Hamel’s past life, the impression that I had when I first saw him was that he was… well… a thug[3].”

“A thug?” Ciel repeated in confusion.

Vermouth began to explain, “At that time, I only had three companions at my side, Molon, Sienna, and Anise. Meanwhile, Hamel was just someone who made quite a name for himself in the world of mercenaries. I used his reputation as a flimsy excuse to explain why I was intent on taking Hamel as my new companion.”

“So what happened next?” Ciel eagerly pressed.

Vermouth shook his head, “Sienna and Anise both had reservations. Molon and I were strong enough that they didn’t see the need for another warrior who could fight in close combat, and at that time, the impression people had of the mercenary profession wasn’t very good. On top of that, Hamel’s reputation was… well… let’s just say that he wasn’t famous for the right reasons.”

𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

There was no need for Vermouth to search his memories. He could still remember his first meeting with Hamel as clearly as if it had happened yesterday.

Vermouth fondly recalled, “During our first meeting, Hamel was beating up a group of knights.”

“And why was he doing that?” Ciel asked in confusion.

“Hamel had been looking for a ship that would take him across the sea to the Devildom. The conflict started because the knights had mocked Hamel while they were in the midst of… negotiations,” Vermouth carefully explained.

Unable to say anything in response to this, Ciel just blinked her eyes in surprise.

Vermouth continued, “Hamel broke a limb on each of the knights and confiscated their weapons. Once he was done… I approached Hamel.”

“And then what?” Ciel leaned forward eagerly.

“I invited him to share a meal. We couldn’t just have a conversation in the middle of the street surrounded by all those onlookers, after all. So we headed into a restaurant together, and while we were eating… I asked him to become my comrade,” Vermouth slowly recounted.

“What did he say in response?” Ciel asked, absorbed in the story.

Vermouth hesitated, “How should I put this in a more polite way—”

“There’s no need to censor the story for my sake,” Ciel quickly insisted.

Vermouth hesitated for a few more moments before eventually continuing in the most polite tone he could manage. “He said that he didn’t want to listen to the orders of some scrub who was weaker than he was.”

“Ahaha!” Ciel couldn’t help but burst into laughter at these words, clutching her sides as she doubled over. “So even in the past, he still had the same trashy personality that he has now?”

“I think that he’s actually become much gentler nowadays. After he became a member of our party, Sienna and Anise were always trying to beat Hamel’s personality into shape…,” Vermouth said with a smile as he looked at Ciel. “Being reincarnated and having to start a new life may also be responsible for the changes in Hamel’s personality. I could never have imagined that Hamel would actually be willing to kneel down in front of his father.”

“Um, that’s for sure,” Ciel agreed. “When I first met Eugene when I was younger, he was even more of a jerk than he is now.”

“And how did that go?” Vermouth asked.

Ciel shook her head and said, “After my brother teased him a little, Eugene immediately challenged him to a duel. My brother got knocked down in a single hit and was made to cry while throwing up.”

Just like Vermouth, Ciel was also able to remember her very first meeting with Eugene clearly.

As he was watching Ciel giggle at the memory with one hand over her mouth, Vermouth asked, “Do you like Hamel?”

Ciel’s laughter came to a sudden stop. She blinked her eyes a few times as she stared back at Vermouth.

The silence was short-lived.

“Yes,” Ciel responded without even the slightest hesitation.

Ciel still regretted not trying to get just that little bit closer to Eugene in the past. Even though she knew that, even if she did return to the past, she still wouldn’t be able to close the distance between them. But as Vermouth had said, everyone has regrets to a certain extent, but there was no way to redo what had happened in the past.

“I know that I won’t be able to get the answer I want from him. However, I don’t want to give up. If I give up…,” Ciel paused before continuing. “If I give up, then I think I will just regret it even more later on.”

Ciel still woke up every morning to swing her sword as if out of habit.

“No matter how much stronger I get by continuing to swing my sword, I will never be able to catch up to Eugene,” Ciel admitted. “But even though I may only ever be able to keep chasing Eugene’s back, I will still keep swinging my sword from now on.”

Because if she kept swinging her sword until the sun had fully risen, Eugene, who had finally woken up from his sleep, would walk over to talk to her.

Ciel loved those moments.

“I don’t want to fall behind where I can’t even see his back. No matter how far out of reach he might be, I still want to be able to keep up with him. That way… if I can just do that, there might be times when Eugene turns around to look back at me,” Ciel said, self-consciously blinking her eyes, but surprisingly, there was no sign of tears. “No, I’ll keep following him so desperately that he has no choice but to turn and look back.”

Instead of feeling sad, Ciel surprisingly felt relieved. The gloomy feeling that had been hovering over her before she had entered the study had disappeared.

Ciel smiled and said, “Uncle, do you think I’m being stupid?”

“There’s no way I would think that,” Vermouth said, shaking his head, a faint smile also on his face. “Ciel. There is no reason to laugh at you for holding on to your wish. After all, doing so just means that you never gave up or gave into despair, isn’t that right?”

“Maybe it’s because I got slapped for doing so in the past,” Ciel said with a grin as she rubbed her cheek.[4]

A faint ray of light streamed in from the window near the desk. Ciel glanced out the window to see that the sun had already risen at some point during their conversation.

“I should be heading off now,” Ciel excused herself.

“Are you going to do some sword swings?” Vermouth asked.

“Yes,” Ciel nodded.

“If it’s alright with you, would you like me to take a look at your swings?” Vermouth offered.

“Of course, I’m alright with that,” Ciel said, getting up from her chair with a bright smile. “Since you’ve listened to me talk and offered to look at my sword swings, does that mean I can assume you’re cheering me on, Uncle?”

“We’re family, after all,” Vermouth said, returning her smile with his own as he also got up from his chair. “You should head over to the training grounds first. I’ll be there right after I’m done changing.”

“Alright!” Ciel cheered, as she quickly spun around and left the study.

Vermouth, who was left on his own once more, muttered to himself as he picked up the book that he had placed on the desk and returned it to its place on the bookshelf, “Really now….”

In his previous life, Hamel hadn’t been very popular with women. That was because he had a violent personality, a rough tongue, and a face covered in scars. Sienna and Anise, who had both spent a long time fighting alongside him as comrades, had developed feelings for Hamel, but from a general perspective, Hamel wasn’t really the type to be popular with women.

But nowadays….

“To think that he would be reincarnated with such a handsome face,” Vermouth sighed ruefully.

Of course, Ciel’s feelings for Eugene weren’t just because of his handsome appearance, but his looks must have also played a bigger role in her infatuation. Especially when one took into account the fact that the hundreds of boxes of love letters that had to be burned at the Lionheart main estate every single day were all due to Eugene’s heroics and handsome face.

“It seems that you also have a lot to repent for, Hamel,” Vermouth said, shaking his head as he left the study.

1. The word Ciel uses here specifically translates to the older brother of your father. ☜

2. Again, in Korean, this term specifically applies to the

elder

brother of your father, so while Gilead does have two younger brothers, Ciel wouldn’t be able to use this specific term to address them. ☜

3. The word that Vermouth uses has a complex etymology. It’s a very archaic insult that carries the implication of the person being a useless person, an executioner, or a bastard. ☜

4. This refers to when Kristina slapped her for acting pathetic. ☜

Openbookworm & DantheMan's Thoughts

OBW: Should we have a poll on which of Eugene’s many gifts was his greatest inheritance? Agaroth’s divinity, Hamel’s relationships, or Vermouth’s good looks?

Momo: I will vote for looks ;) Who doesn’t like to admire good looks? ;)