Chapter 327: Return (6)

Eugene silently blinked, unable to come up with any words.

"What's with that look?" Sienna shyly challenged.

Mer asked, "From Sir Eugene's point of view, do we perhaps look strange?"

Look strange? No, they didn't. Eugene was stunned by just how good Sienna and Mer looked together in their new clothes.

"How is it? Do Lady Sienna and I look like we are a pair of mother and daughter?" Mer eagerly prompted.

"Ah... if I had to say it, rather than a mother and daughter, you look just like a pair of sisters...," Eugene awkwardly admitted.

Sienna's appearance looked so young that it was impossible to imagine that she could have had a daughter like Mer. That was why Eugene had given such a heartfelt and honest response, but Mer and Sienna showed conflicting reactions.

Sienna's cheeks blushed slightly out of embarrassment, and the reason for this was that she had clearly only heard the words 'you look so young' from what Eugene had just said.

While, in fact, Eugene hadn't directly said such a thing, that didn't really matter to Sienna. From hundreds of years ago until now, Sienna had already become used to arbitrarily interpreting Eugene or, rather, Hamel's words and attitude in a more positive light.

On the other hand, Mer narrowed her eyes and glared at Eugene. Because what Mer had wanted to hear was that they did look like a mother and her daughter rather than a pair of sisters.

Of course, being told that they looked like sisters also implied that Mer greatly resembled Sienna, but the point that Mer had been hoping to focus on this time wasn't the similarity of their appearances.

The theme of this outing was meant to be family. If Sienna was the mother, that meant Eugene would be serving as the father....

With her eyes still narrowed, Mer scanned Eugene's attire.

"How boring," Mer bluntly critiqued.

"What?" Eugene responded in confusion.

"I'm talking about your clothes," Mer clarified. "No matter how good the clothes may look on you, do you really need to wear the same thing all the time, Sir Eugene?"

"What did you just say?!" Eugene shouted as he felt sincerely offended. "These aren't the same clothes that I usually wear. They are all slightly different."

"But in the end, they're still the formal clothes of the Lionheart clan," Mer insisted.

Eugene frowned, "Hey! What's wrong with me wearing the formal clothes of my clan?"

If Eugene was forced to admit it, the biggest reason for his choice of clothing was that it was just the most convenient. Choosing a formal suit with a matching top and bottom eliminated any need for further pointless concerns. Even in his previous life, Eugene had never once spent any time worrying about what he should wear any day, and it wasn't like the Devildom had been a place for such concerns.

"I... I actually also like those types of clothes," Sienna shyly confessed.

At this, Mer just let out a long sigh and shook her head.

"Forget I said anything," Mer said resignedly.

As expected of Eugene, Mer felt she should have asked Ancilla to pick out Eugene's clothes as well. If Sienna had boldly made such a request back then, even Ancilla wouldn't have been able to refuse. On top of that, if Mer had put on her usual performance of acting cutesy and speaking with a lisp, they would have even been able to turn Ancilla into a firm ally.

'Lady Sienna always hesitates at the most important moments,' Mer thought regretfully.

Yet even if Mer thought back on it now, such things were already in the past, so it couldn't be helped. Mer relaxed her furrowed brow and stepped between Eugene and Sienna.

Squeeze.

Her hands reached out on both sides to grab Eugene and Sienna's hands.

While feeling proud of how she was connecting them by standing right between the two, Mer said, "Come on then, let's go."

Sienna glanced over at Eugene's expression. But unlike what she had expected, Eugene didn't seem to be all too flustered by the current situation.

After all, holding hands with Mer? It wasn't like this was the first time Eugene had done so, so why should he care whether he was drawing attention by doing so at this point? The fact that Mer's other hand was holding onto Sienna's? Why should that matter?

But Sienna didn't feel too satisfied to see Eugene with such a calm expression. But after glancing at Eugene's face once more, she didn't snap at him or make any verbal attacks. While reminding herself to keep her cool, Sienna allowed herself to be pulled along by Mer's hand.

In the rear of the mansion, the massive corpse of Raizakia had been left resting in a crouching position.

Kristina and Anise had gotten started with purifying the corpse early in the morning, and the two of them had an exchange of conversation when they saw Eugene leaving the mansion.

'It seems that Lady Sienna has made up her mind,' Kristina observed.

Anise agreed, [Yep, it does seem that way. It looks like she wants to advertise their relationship to the whole city, no, to the whole empire. She's practically saying, 'Hey, look at me, people of the Kiehl Empire, come and see my new look.']

'Well, it does appear like she wants to show off their relationship to such an extent. Yet even so, looking at them like this, this look does seem to really suit them.'

[Since that kid, Mer was practically Sienna's way of realizing her unfulfilled desires, it would be strange if they didn't look good together.]

As the two of them were having such a conversation, Eugene's group drew closer to Kristina. This was because it was more convenient for them to use the warp gate inside the forest than to head out of the front gates and ride a carriage.

Sienna spied on Kristina's reaction with a tense expression. If a critique that she was being disgraceful with such a blatant display were to leave the lips of this young rival of hers, Sienna felt like it would be a strong blow to her heart.

However, Kristina just smiled and said, "That look really suits you."

This was her sincere opinion, and Kristina had no intention of turning her relationship with Sienna into one of outright hostilities. Instead, if at all possible, Kristina wanted to gently guide Sienna into becoming a trusted ally and developing what they had into a symbiotic relationship.

Sienna stammered, "I-is that so? It does, doesn't it?"

From what Kristina had discovered, Sienna was weak to compliments. Just look at what was happening right now. Even though it wasn't even an over-the-top compliment, with Kristina just saying that Sienna's current look suited her, Sienna was smiling widely as she twirled her body from side to side.

"Yes," Kristina nodded. "If anyone were to look at you now, they would think that you, Sir Eugene, and young lady Mer were a family."

"Cough," Eugene suddenly choked as he finally realized what their current situation looked like upon hearing these words.

He was about to let go of Mer's hand out of a feeling of flustered embarrassment, but as if she had known that he was about to do so, Mer held on firmly to Eugene's hand and refused to let go.

Looking at this sight with a smile in her eyes, Kristina bowed her head and said, "Have a safe trip."

"Uh...," Eugene paused, suddenly feeling bothered that they were leaving Kristina behind by herself.

But they weren't just leaving her behind, were they? After all, they were entrusting Kristina with the duty of purifying Raizakia's corpse.

'It can't be helped,' Eugene thought to himself.

That said, if Eugene kept getting bothered by this and turning around to look back at Kristina, wouldn't it also be rude to Sienna, who he was with right now?

So Eugene temporarily suppressed his apologetic feelings for Kristina and Anise.

"Have you heard about the news?"

"Hm?"

"What news?"

"Ahhh, really now. I really shouldn't be telling anyone about this, but...."

"What is it? What is it?"

"Just tell us quickly."

"Tsk, fine, I'll just say it. You lot, you know who the Wise Sienna is, right?"

Just as Eugene's group was heading through the forest, on the other side of a nearby bush, three elves suddenly appeared and started conversing out of nowhere.

Their voices were so stiff that anyone could tell their conversation had been rehearsed. It was as if they were doing a script reading. Their faces also looked like they were both embarrassed and trying to hold back their laughter.

"The Wise Lady Sienna! Of course, I know who she is. The most outstanding wizard, whether it's in the past, present, or future!"

"The one who learned magic while growing up amongst the elves and a lady who is just as beautiful as an elf!"

"Yep, that's right. About that Wise Lady Sienna, have you heard that she likes Sir Eugene?"

"Kyaaaaah! Kyaaaaah!"

"You're talking about him, Sir Eugene Lionheart, right?"

"That's right! It's him, the scion of the Lionheart clan! A perfect person with talent in both the literary and martial arts!"

"The Blood Lion!"

"The Dragon Slayer!"

"If it's that Sir Eugene and the Wise Lady Sienna, don't you think they match really well together?"

By this point, Eugene couldn't hold it back any longer.

As his whole body shuddered in embarrassment, he let out a great shout, "Why don't you just get lost already!"

The elves fled while letting out shrieks of laughter. Behind the now panting Eugene, Sienna broke out in a cold sweat as her face blushed bright red.

There was no need to even think about whose brain might have devised the idea for such an absurd skit. It was Signard. That damn elder brother. To think that he would come up with an idea like this for the sake of his younger sister.

'Should... should I just kill him?' Sienna wondered.

It wasn't uncommon for siblings to harbor feelings of murderous intent for each other, but this was the first time Sienna had felt such a murderous intent towards Signard.

"Ahem.... Ahem! Um. Ahehem!" Sienna covered up her embarrassment with a series of coughs.

Then, afraid to even see Eugene's expression, Sienna strode forwards, yanking on Mer's hand. While also feeling a sense of shame and embarrassment buried deep within her heart, Mer pulled on Eugene's hand like Sienna was pulling on hers.

Eugene tried to think of something to say, but after seeing how Sienna's back seemed to be begging him not to say anything, he quietly kept his mouth shut.

In the end, the three of them headed towards the warp-gate in silence, but on their way there, they passed by several groups of elves who were coincidentally having the same sort of chat.

* * *

The primary purpose of today's outing was to purchase the materials needed to reinforce Frost.

But in fact, this was just an excuse. Most of the required materials were already inside Sienna's cloak. Of course, Sienna had no intention of revealing this fact to Eugene.

Although she might have a lot of various bits and bobs, if Sienna took a closer look, wouldn't she still be able to find one or two missing things?

Though Sienna didn't really need a reason to convince herself, after having such thoughts, her chest felt lighter.

"I'm just asking this because I really am curious, but if you were going to use perception-dampening magic anyway, why bother to come out dressed like that?" Eugene asked as he swung his hand that was holding Mer's.

Though they were walking down the streets of the capital city, Sienna currently had a perception-dampening spell activated around the three of them. Thanks to that, the people they were passing by weren't able to properly recognize the trio's presence.

"Stupid bastard."

"Sir Eugene is an idiot."

Sienna and Mer glanced at Eugene as they muttered phrases with similar sentiments.

The two of them had come out dressed like a mother and her daughter today because they wanted to put on a show for Eugene, not for these unknown passersby, who they probably wouldn't even get involved with in the future. So even if no one else could see them, it was fine as long as Eugene could.

Also, it wasn't like Sienna had cast her perception-dampening magic over everyone. She might think of them as unknown passersby who would probably never have anything to do with them in the future, but Sienna still slightly desired to show off.

Take right now, for example.

As they entered a magic shop that handled the very highest quality items in all of the Capital City of Ceres, Sienna subtly canceled the perception-dampening spell.

"Welco—Gasp!"

The wizard staffing the shop who had been approaching to greet them suddenly gasped and took a step back.

In response, Sienna winked at him and placed her index finger on her lips.

"Shhh," Sienna shushed.

The wizard stammered, "Si-Sie—"

Only for Sienna to shush him more violently, "Shhh!"

Having been told to keep quiet twice, the wizard snapped his jaws shut and started backing away, almost as if he were trying to run.

"Really now," Eugene muttered as he glanced at Sienna's amused expression with a helpless look in his eyes.

While doing her best to ignore his gaze, Sienna resumed walking forward, swinging her right hand that held Mer's hand back and forth. Since Sienna was taking the lead like this, Eugene, who was holding Mer's other hand, also had no choice but to keep up with Sienna.

As they'd feared, Sienna was far too famous, with looks far from ordinary and her purple hair that couldn't help but draw people's eyes. On top of that, since she was also holding the hand of Mer, who looked just the same as her, all eyes in the shop couldn't help but turn to Sienna.

Sienna couldn't help but feel a mix of emotions as she noticed the various gazes. If these gazes were just full of admiration for her, she would have easily accepted them with a smile, but the gazes currently being leveled at her were full of bewilderment and disbelief. This was all because of Eugene, who was still holding onto Mer's hand.

Sienna felt concerned that her face might already be blushing. However, the moment that she had such a thought, she saw Mer smiling brightly next to her.

'Fine, so what if it is?' was the thought that rose into Sienna's head.

Since Mer was this happy, what did it matter what other people might think or what sort of looks they might give her? The words Mer had told Sienna this morning kept running through her head.

That's right, she needed to be bold.

Nodding her head, Sienna took a slight step to the side. She was now standing closer to Mer, which meant she was closer to Eugene as well.

The goods being sold in this store might be of excellent quality, and there were a lot of rare items, but there wasn't anything that Sienna really felt like buying. Even so, she had a lot of fun looking around the place, thanks to how wide the store was, and by the time she had finished looking through all of their stock, one by one, an hour had passed.

Even though she emerged with empty hands, having not bought anything, all the store employees followed her out the door to see her off.

"Let's go get something to eat. I'm hungry!" Mer said as soon as they had left the store, her eyes shining with excitement.

It was about time for them to have some lunch.

However, instead of replying immediately to Mer, Eugene narrowed his eyes and asked, "Should I get rid of them?"

Sienna also said something incongruous, "For now, I think it would be better to just leave them alone. After all, I expected something like this."

Like Eugene, Sienna also seemed slightly annoyed, but even so, she wasn't about to run rampant like she had in Aroth.

'The White Dragon Knights,' Eugene thought to himself.

Their blatant gazes showed no intention of hiding themselves from their notice, so it seemed like they might be worried that secretly spying on the trio would just end up drawing Eugene or Sienna's anger. Perhaps that was also why their watchers had exposed their presence and watched Eugene and Sienna from a considerable distance.

Their uniforms bore the sigil of a white dragon, showing that they were members of Kiehl's representative Knightly Order, the Knights of the White Dragon. After shooting them another look, Eugene turned to face Sienna and Mer.

Eugene was already aware of one reason why they might be watching him. That was thanks to Gilead, who had told him in advance about the emperor's invitations last night.

He had been asked to make a visit to the Imperial Palace sometime soon, but... after seeing such blatant surveillance, it seemed like they were hoping to escort Eugene there that very day.

If he could have his way, Eugene still wanted to get rid of them, but since Sienna had said not to, Eugene decided to hold back for now. Eugene was also feeling hungry, so the trio picked one of the nearby restaurants and headed in.

Sienna and Mer sat together on the same bench while Eugene sat across from them.

A waiter approached them, "Here is our menu—"

But before they could even open up the menu, the words had erupted from Sienna's lips, "We'll have the Family Set[1]."

In the face of this unhesitating reply, Mer turned to look at Sienna with an adoring expression.

"Didn't you hear me? We'll have the Family Set," Sienna repeated.

The waiter hesitated, "M-my apologies, but our store doesn't offer Family Sets."

It was true that the store did have that sort of luxurious atmosphere. But it seemed as if Sienna hadn't even imagined that the restaurant might not offer a Family Set, as she was left fluttering her eyelashes in a fluster.

While Sienna was silently flapping her lips, unable to think of what to say, Eugene took over handling their order, "Well, even if you don't have a Family Set, don't you still have certain options on the menu that families often order when they come here to eat? Just give us those."

"Yes, right away," having taken the order, the waiter quickly withdrew.

Sienna belatedly came to her senses and let out a prim cough.

"Th-their commitment to service is lacking. Even if they don't have one, they should just make one for us," Sienna insisted.

"In today's language, customers like you are called Karens[2]," Eugene commented.

Sienna asked, "What does that mean?"

"It means a pretty and kind customer," Eugene replied.

Anyone who heard Eugene's answer could tell that it was a lie, but even so, it didn't feel too bad for her to hear such words come from Eugene's lips.

"I'll let you off this time," Sienna conceded.

After leisurely enjoying their meal, they left the restaurant. It was still too early for them to return to the mansion, and there were plenty of stores they wanted to visit and places to see.

They ended up spending more time at a huge clothing store than they had at the magic store, the original goal of their excursion. Eugene tried on all of the different clothes that Sienna and Mer picked out for him, and he also swapped places and picked out clothes for Mer and Sienna.

After they spent quite some time laughing and picking out clothes for each other, a white jacket caught Eugene's eye.

The moment he saw that pure white shade, Eugene couldn't help but imagine how Kristina might look while wearing that jacket. He also saw a coat with a similar feel to the jacket but with a different design. This coat felt like it would be more suited to Anise than to Kristina.

"Tch," Sienna clicked her tongue as she followed Eugene's gaze.

But she didn't say anything. Just like how those clothes had made Eugene recall Kristina and Anise, Sienna also had the same reaction. Also, Eugene wasn't the only one who secretly felt bothered about leaving them back at the mansion.

"Don't just stand there looking. Go ahead and buy those for them already," Sienna instructed.

"I thought you'd be angry," Eugene said in surprise.

"Why would I be angry? I'm the one who's with you right now. So what if you buy a gift for them? It just shows that I'm generous enough to pick out a gift for them, together with you," Sienna said as she walked over to Eugene with a swagger and stood right next to him.

Since they were now so close to each other, and Mer had gone into one of the changing rooms to change her clothes, Sienna thought about taking the opportunity to muster up her courage and wrap her arms around his; but when Sienna actually tried to do so, her chest began to pound, and she couldn't seem to make her body move the way that she wanted it to....

"Why are you acting so shy?" Eugene questioned.

Sienna stuttered, "Wh-what are you talking about?"

"Really now," Eugene scoffed.

Then, with a nonchalant expression, Eugene grabbed Sienna's hand.

In fact, Eugene's heart wasn't as calm as his expression made it seem. Like Sienna, Eugene also felt embarrassed when attempting such behavior, knowing well that such actions didn't really seem like him.

'I won,' Sienna thought to herself gleefully.

Regardless of the intentions behind his gesture, Sienna was inwardly delighted that Eugene had reached out first to hold her hand. While celebrating the feeling of victory, Sienna glanced over at the presents for Anise and Kristina that had caught their eyes just now.

'That's fine. If it's gifts like those, I'm fine with giving them as much as they want,' Sienna allowed generously.

After tucking away the shopping bags that had filled up both their hands into their cloaks, they started touring the streets once more. Since their stroll just happened to pass by a cafe, they casually walked in and enjoyed a cup of tea before heading out. They then spent the rest of their time looking at each store that happened to catch their interest, one by one.

After wandering around like this for quite some time, the sun floating high in the sky was also starting to set. Even Mer, who had been holding on to both their hands and happily swinging from them all this time, seemed to have grown tired as she took up her usual place inside Eugene's cloak.

"Shall we slowly head back?" Eugene proposed.

"As long as they're willing to quietly let us go," Sienna replied with a grin.

The watchers from the White Dragon Knights were still spying on Eugene and Sienna from a distance. Eugene considered just heading back through the warp-gate, but then he changed his mind and walked toward their watchers.

"The next time we want to do something like this, it looks like we'll need to disguise ourselves slightly. It might be too late for me to say this, but I feel like my purple hair is a bit too eye-catching," Sienna admitted.

Eugene commiserated, "That goes for my hair as well."

Eugene also thought it might be better to change the color of his hair slightly the next time they went out to avoid any unneeded attention.

"How do you think I would look blonde?" Sienna asked.

"Isn't that way too common a color?" Eugene frowned.

"I want to choose it because it's so common," Sienna explained with a laugh as she swept her purple hair back slightly.

Blonde, hmm, blonde, you say. After trying to imagine what Sienna would look like with her hair turned blonde, Eugene cleared his throat and nodded.

"Well, I think you would look okay," he said gruffly.

Eugene actually thought that no matter what look she chose, it would look good on her. However, if Sienna were to hear him say such a thing, she would definitely act annoyingly smug, so Eugene didn't allow such a thought to escape his lips and instead swallowed it back down.

As Eugene drew closer to them, the three knights from the Knights of the White Dragon appeared tense.

This was Eugene Lionheart. His skills alone would have been enough to make them nervous, but their tension was mainly because of his famous, volatile, and violent temperament. This was especially true since the White Dragon Knights had also participated in the Knight March, where they witnessed firsthand how this fearless young man quarreled with the Blade of Incarceration, Gavid Lindman, and even swung his sword at the Duke.

"You've really worked hard today," Eugene commented.

But no matter how nasty his personality might be, it couldn't be bad enough that he would just come up and slap them in the face, right? Seeing the smile on Eugene's face, the knights swallowed a gulp.

His smile did nothing to ease their tension. Naturally, this was because they could also see Sienna standing behind Eugene's back.

Eventually, one of the knights spoke up, "I am Fahlen of the Second Division of the White Dragon Knights. Lord Eugene Lionheart, as well as the Wise Lady Sienna, it is an honor to meet you."

It wasn't just Fahlen; all three knights belonged to the Second Division of the White Dragon Knights.

Eugene mused, 'The Second Division, huh....'

Eugene recalled the friendly match against the White Dragon Knights he had once participated in.

The Second Division.... That's right, he did have some memory of them. After defeating Eboldt Magius, the Captain of the Fourth Division, two knights had been particularly open with how hard they were glaring at Eugene.

There had been the Captain of the First Division, Karian De'Arc, and the Captain of the Second Division, Derry De'Arc.

While recalling the tanned face of the younger twin brother, Eugene said, "For what reason have you been spying on us? Could it really be that the Captain of the Second Division has given you the order to do so because he has a grudge against me?"

Fahlen was taken aback, "Huh?"

Eugene clarified, "I'm talking about the Captain of the Second Division, Lord Derry De'Arc. It seems like he's holding a grudge against me?"

This was, in fact, the truth. During the friendly match that had taken place a few years ago, not only had a Captain of the White Dragon Knights been defeated by a twenty-year-old youth, but more than half of their knights who had participated in that friendly match had also been defeated.

Although Eugene hadn't done anything bad enough that he would need to be taken to task for it, after that friendly match, the twin Captains of the White Dragon Knights had been left with the desire to teach that young lion from the Lionheart clan a lesson.

Fahlen hesitated, "That's... not the case."

"The reason we are monitoring Lord Eugene and Lady Sienna is all due to the will of our Emperor," another knight explained.

The Emperor. The moment the title was said out loud, Eugene couldn't help but click his tongue.

'It seems that I can't just ignore this.'

Well, even if he didn't really like being pushed like this, the Emperor was someone that Eugene would have ended up meeting in a few days in any case.

"Let's go," Eugene said abruptly.

The knights were confused, "Huh?"

"Hasn't His Majesty sent word several times that he would like to meet with me? Then let's go and meet him right away," Eugene declared.

Eugene's decision had a lot of calculations behind it.

Just look at the current time. The sun was already starting to set. If he were to set off for the Imperial Palace immediately, he would arrive just in time to have dinner with the Emperor. Then after dinner, it would already be deep into the night. Once it had gotten that late, Eugene could just make his excuses and depart by saying, 'It's late, so I'm afraid that I have to leave now.'

'It's better to meet him at a late hour like now than to wait and meet him in the early hours of the day the next time he invites me,' Eugene thought.

He was also curious about what kind of food an Emperor would eat.

1. Not sure how common this is worldwide, but a lot of Asian restaurants are known as Family Restaurants because they're family-friendly and offer set meals, the highlight of which are usually the kid's meals. Think of it like a Happy Meal from McDonalds, but with side options for the parents as well. ☜

2. The original Korean uses an archaic word that best translates as tribute. The kind of expensive offering that was given to a king or high-ranking officials by those of the lower class. In modern slang, the word is used to mock those customers who expect to be treated as kings by retail employees. Think of customers who staunchly believe that 'the customer is always right.' ☜