Reincarnation

Chapter 8.2: Ciel (2)

The gymnasium, which Cyan had sprayed vomit all over yesterday, was now clean and tidy. Of course, the one who had cleaned it all up was Nina.

“What are you doing here?” Eugene asked.

“I was waiting for you.” Ciel was standing in the gymnasium. She smiled as she waved a hand at him and said, “You’ve come here after eating, right? I can still smell the meat.”

“But I brushed my teeth.”

“What’s the point if you only clean your mouth? The smell is coming from your entire body.”

“Not the smell of cow dung?”

“That’s something my brother said. I never said that your body smells of cow dung. Also, I wouldn’t even know what cow dung smells like.”

“What else could cow dung smell like? It’s dung. If you don’t know, you can get a whiff of your own poop.”

“How filthy.”

“So why were you waiting for me here?”

Nothing at all had happened yesterday, but could she really have come here after only a day just to banter with him? Eugene narrowed his eyes and stared at Ciel.

“I came here to train with you,” Ciel replied, giggling. “I even wore my training uniform, see?”

“It looks cool,” Eugene casually commented as he looked at the clothes Ciel was wearing.

Her training uniform had the Lionheart embroidered on its left chest, declaring her descent from the direct line.

‘And of course, there’s no lion on the clothes they gave me to wear,’ Eugene thought before saying, “Did you just leave your brother alone somewhere to come here?”

“My brother is training with Hazard. Did you know? Yesterday, my mother became furious because of you. She slapped my brother more than ten times.”

“She really hit him?”

“Mhm.”

Eugene blinked his eyes at this news, and he’d been so sure that the boy had grown up without experiencing any tough love.

“But why hasn’t she tried to slap me?” Eugene asked.

“Why would my mother slap you?” Ciel seemed confused.

“Didn’t you say that she hit your brother because I made her angry?”

“Ummm… That’s right, but my mother is angry because my brother challenged you to a duel, and then you just happened to defeat him.”

“No, but… in the end, it’s because of me that she got angry, right?”

“You could say that.”

No matter how precocious, a child is still a child; Eugene now deeply understood this fact.

“...Does your mother also know that you’ve come here?” Eugene changed the subject.

“She knows. My mother said that I should try to get closer to you,” Ciel confessed without hesitation.

‘Why would she say such crap about trying to get closer when I’m the one who made her so mad that she actually slapped that brat in the face?’ Eugene barely stifled a shout before it could leave his mouth.

After all, how could such a young child like Ciel know what the Second Lady of the main family was really up to?

“...Is that right,” Eugene finally acknowledged.

“Didn’t you say yesterday that we can be pals since we’re the same age?” Ciel brought up Eugene’s words from the previous day.

“But your brother said that just because we’re the same age, it doesn’t mean we’re friends.”

“That’s just what my brother said. It’s not like I agreed with him. So, don’t you want to be friends with me?”

“...Fine, let’s be friends. Well then, friend, since I’m going to be training, why don’t you go and play over there instead of bothering me?”

“Will you play with me?”

“Nooo, I’ll be training.”

“Then I’ll train as well.”

‘Let’s just give up and ignore her. I should have done that from the start,’ Eugene thought with a click of his tongue as he headed for the gymnasium storeroom in the corner of the hall.

“You swung a spear yesterday. Will you be swinging a spear again today?”

“Nope.”

“Then what? A knife?”

“For starters, I’m going to work up a sweat.”

Eugene slammed the door to the storeroom open. The inside of the storeroom, which had been covered in piles of dust just yesterday, had been thoroughly cleaned overnight. It was obvious who had done it. It looked like Nina had spent the entire night cleaning.

“That’s just what I like to see,” Eugene repeated with a mutter as he entered the storeroom.

Not only had all the dust been swept away, but everything had also been organized and cleaned. That went especially for the sandbags, as their surfaces were smoother and they looked heavier than yesterday. In addition, it seemed that their leather had been polished and even the sand inside had been refilled.

‘...Still, there isn't that much in here to begin with, so there’s nothing that really catches my eye.’

For some reason, he was getting an urge to do some ax-work today. Even though there weren't any axes here. Eventually, Eugene left the storeroom, only carrying a heap of sandbags.

“What about your weapon?” Ciel asked.

“I’m going to be working on my body instead,” Eugene explained.

Eugene sat down on the floor and began tying sandbags to his limbs. Ciel looked at him for a moment before heading to the storeroom and returning with some sandbags as well.

“I want to do it with you,” Ciel said.

“Why would you want to do that?”

“Because it’ll be boring just watching you.”

“Do whatever you like.”

Eugene stood up, his body covered with hanging sandbags. Then he suddenly started running around the gymnasium’s interior.

‘...it’s heavy,’ Ciel thought as she staggered to her feet.

The mana she generated at the core of her body began circulating throughout her body, boosting her strength in the process. Ciel was only able to move her body in the way she wanted to after doing this.

‘So how can he run like that using just his body?’

Ciel’s disbelieving eyes followed Eugene around the room. Eugene had just started running but was already finishing one lap of the gymnasium even as he breathed deeply. Ciel stayed where she was for a few moments, waiting for Eugene to return so that they could run together.

“Have you really not trained your mana?” Ciel felt she had to ask.

“I’ve told you already that I haven’t. Stop talking to me.”

“How amazing… How can you run with all that on you when you haven’t trained your mana?”