Literature / Damn Reincarnation

Three hundred years ago, the Five Great Heroes set out to free the world from the threat of demonkind. Consisting of the Vermouth the Great, Anise the Faithful, Molon the Brave, Sienna the Wise, and Hamel the Foolish, they battled through the demon armies and slayed three of the five Demon Lords.

But while venturing into the lair of the Demon Lord of Incarceration, Hamel takes a blow meant for Vermouth and is fatally wounded in the process. Heartbroken, Hamel's comrades swear to slay the remaining Demon Lords in his name. As the rest of the heroes mourn, Hamel uses his last breaths to declare his love for Sienna and...

"I NEVER SAID THAT!"

Unbeknownst to all, Hamel reincarnates in the future as a descendant of his friend and rival Vermouth. Hamel, now Eugene Lionheart, is baffled by the course of history, as Vermouth did not keep his oath to kill the Demon Lords and instead signed a peace treaty that ensured coexistence between people and demons. Eugene decides to take advantage of his new life and the powers granted by his friend's Superpowerful Genetics to figure out what has gone on in the centuries following his death.

Damn Reincarnation is a web novel and manhwa written by Mogma. It follows Hamel/Eugene as he explores the powers granted by his new life as well as the world he and his friend's left behind. As he trains to find the answers he seeks, he begins to unravel the mystery behind Vermouth's unfulfilled oath and his friends's disappearances.

Damn Reincarnation contains examples of:

• #1 Dime: Eugene's most prized possession is his red necklace from his previous life. It's a Tragic Keepsake that he kept on his person for decades as Hamel Dynas after reclaiming it from the monsters that killed his parents. Even when given the choice of any of the treasures in the Lionhearts's vault, Eugene can't help but pick this cheap, unremarkable necklace because of how much it means to him. But since it's not registered in the vault, Eugene gets to grab Winnead anyways. He continues to wear the necklace everywhere he goes.
• Abusive Parents: Tanis and Ancilla are physically, emotionally, and verbally abusive to their children. At no point are they ever depicted showing Cyan, Ciel, or Iode any affection that isn't an attempt at manipulating them. Both women only see their respective children as a means to ensure they remain in Guilliard's good graces and never respect their children's desires.
• The Ace:
  • Vermouth was The Hero of the Five Great Heroes known as "the Great". He was a master of every kind of weapon and known as the "God of War" and "Master of All". He's beloved by seemingly everyone in the setting aside from the demons and his influence on the world has ensured his descendant's lasting prestige, power, and wealth.
  • Eugene retains all of his skills from his previous life as Hamel, including his absurd skill-at-arms and talents as an Instant Expert. He quickly regains all of his martial talents from his previous life and studies to master magic too, utilizing his Lionheart mana cores in a way that no one else has ever attempted before.
• All for Nothing: Partially. The heroes did create an era of peace, lasting even hundreds of years later — but Hamel's Heroic Sacrifice to make sure the rest lived was undermined by Vermouth making a treaty for peace with the Demon Lord of Incarceration instead of finishing him off. Finding out why the heroes made this decision becomes the greatest mystery Eugene has to unravel. The reality is that it's because Hamel died that the group, both demoralized so severely and lacking the Jack of All Trades that held them together, took such a massive compromise. Since Hamel was headed for an early grave either way, his sacrifice instead of the group holding out to the end is the reason for the entire plot.
• Always Someone Better: Despite Hamel's many talents, he was always a distant second to Vermouth and would end up faceplanted in the dirt whenever they sparred together. It's telling that Vermouth became known as "the Great" and The Hero of the stories told about him while Hamel is written off as "the Foolish" despite being a One-Man Army and a nearly unparalleled master of weaponry.
• Ambition Is Evil: Inverted. Clear, targeted ambition is described as a virutous trait within the Lionhearts, as Guilliard tries to encourage all of the members of his family to pursue their passions. Eugene gets ahead of all of his relatives due to his knowledge from his past life as well as his ceaseless work ethic from his ambition to become stronger to find out what happened to his friends. Ciel and Cyan are also looked upon fondly by the story for trying so hard to catch up to Eugene and prove themselves worthy heirs of their family. By contrast, Iode's waffling about and lack of ambition renders him timid and unable to fully commit to things he truly enjoys when he encounters hardship. When his studies in Aroth fail to amount to anything, he becomes obsessed with drugs and sex before attempting to use dark magic as a shortcut to gaining power.
• The Archmage: Sienna the Wise is consistently described as the greatest magician in history, being the youngest mage to have ever ascended to the position of magic tower master. Countless mages have attempted to replicate her abilities to little success. All who have attempted to comprehend her magnum opus, "Witchcraft" beyond the first level give up to pursue another avenue of study. Her methods set the standard for modern magical study and her talents remained unsurpassed right up to her disappearance.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Thanks to his family's prized muscle-building techniques and medicines, Gargith chooses to bring a BFS into the Bloodline Succession Ceremony to demonstrate his physical superiority. This proves to be a mistake, as the tight corridors means that said sword is constantly banging against the walls, making it harder for Gargith to attack or defend himself. He tries to push through this through sheer grit, but ultimately collapses from his wounds. Eugene is aware of this and brings a much shorter sword and shield to attack and defend with thanks to his experiences from his previous life.
• Berserk Button:
  • As a 37-year-old man in a 13-year-old body, Eugene casually brushes off Cyan's insults and provocations when they first meet, not wanting to get into an annoying duel with a "brat". But the second Eugene's father's honor is challenged, Eugene demands Cyan toss the towel to start the duel.
  • Disrespecting his past life as Hamel and getting historical details wrong is another quick way to piss Eugene off. He takes particular offense to the idea that he was in love with Sienna, calling it bullshit and stupid drivel. By the same token, anything that would besmirch his friends' name will be quickly met with lethal force.
• Big Eater: Eugene is always depicted with at least five or six plates full of meats and other protein-rich foods whenever he sits down to eat. Justified by his nigh-constant training and study that necessitates all of these calories.
• Blow You Away: Winnead, the Windstorm Sword, has been blessed by the king of wind spirits, Tempest. As a result, it's able to call wind spirits to the wielder's aid when mana is applied to it, with the strength of the user's mana determining the power of the spirit summoned. With sufficient power, even Tempest himself can be summoned for aid.
• Brain Bleach: This is Eugene's reaction to realizing that he thought Guilliard was going to ask him to marry Ciel, a girl decades younger than him mentally. That feels like paedophilia to Eugene and he berates himself for even considering it. But after they both grow up physically and mentally, Eugene becomes more open to the idea of marrying her as Ciel continually pursues him.
• Brown Note Being: The Demon King of Destruction is so above and beyond the threat level of the rest of Demonkind that Hamel's memories recount only one time he had ever witnessed the King's appearance across empty plains many miles away, and it was more akin to a raw color in motion that nearly drove the entire hero party to insanity were it not for Anise's prayers; they couldn't even consider initiating a fight for how petrified with terror they all became, and only Vermouth's reaction isn't shown, likely being the only one that could've comprehended it as The Hero.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: Eugene is the reincarnation of Hamel Dynas and egotistic enough to praise Hamel and get angry over Hamel's name being slighted. He explains away his reactions and intimate knowledge of Hamel's life as being a "fan" of "Sir Hamel".
• Cassandra Truth: At one point an upset Cyan asks Eugene what he really is, due to being Wise Beyond Their Years and unlike any other member of the Lionhearts. Eugene outright admits he's reincarnated to Cyan's face just to see what happens, which prompts a pissed "fuck off" at what he thinks was an attempt to spite him, letting Eugene laugh off the admittedly absurd truth with ease.
• Cast from Lifespan: Hamel's unique mana technique allowed his strength to grow in leaps and bounds to match the rest of his companions. But the constant explosions of mana he created within his body took their toll on it and gradually shortened his lifespan. By the end of his journey, he knew he would live in pain and misery for only a short while due to the damage to his heart, hence why Hamel decided to sacrifice himself to save Vermouth, who could live the life he couldn't.
• The Chosen One: Vermouth was this, being the hero of the world that seemed to be utterly absurd in power and capability across the board. Hamel openly wondered why he even needed a party in the first place. As Season 2 proceeds, however, things get a bit more complicated:
  • For Eugene's current plight, the script is then flipped when it's revealed Vermouth chose Hamel, of all people, to be in his party as if understanding the inherent potential the man held, and then seemingly has prepped for the end of the peace treaty with the Demon King of Incarceration by ensuring Hamel's soul would reincarnate as one of Vermouth's own descendants around that time; the chosen one couldn't get the job done without Hamel, so he made his own chosen one out of Hamel.
  • Not long thereafter, Christina, an Identical Stranger to Anise, is sent from the Holy Church to investigate a prophecy that Vermouth's body is missing from his grave — and when it is, this confirms a second revelation to her that has her proclaim Eugene is the next Hero from Vermouth's lineage.. because the God of Light proclaimed Eugene is Vermouth's reincarnation. Eugene nearly loses his shit, curses out Christina, tells her Church to fuck off, and rejects the title of Hero as he walks away, feeling betrayed by the realization that Vermouth didn't just choose him to inherit his role, but may very well be working with the Demon King of Incarceration for reasons unknown, implying Eugene seeks his own path to answers.
• Chuunibyou: In his earlier years as a sellsword, Hamel had a habit of Calling Your Attacks, believing that his shouting would make his attacks stronger. While he gave up the habit later on, Eugene is horrified to learn that those cringy names he came up with survived to the present day, as Vermouth taught one his branch families Hamel's techniques, shouting included.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: Hamel is completely unaware that Sienna and Anise both harbored feelings for him. Any attempts for them to show him affection flew over his head and he repeatedly expresses that he's not attracted to either of them.
• Cool Sword:
  • Vermouth was the only one capable of wielding the Sacred Sword, a weapon bestowed by God and can only be wielded by the worthy. Vermouth used it to kill the Demon King of Slaughter centuries ago, but wound up preferring other weapons in time. He also used its glowing blade as a flashlight while venturing into dungeons. Eugene tries to pull it from the Lionhearts's treasury, but can't even with Vermouth's blood flowing through his veins. Later on, Eugene is recognized as the new hero and is able to draw the weapon from its resting place, boasting even greater power than it had in Vermouth's hands.
  • Winnead, the Windstorm Sword, is a lightweight blade blessed by Tempest, King of the Wind Spirits. In addition to being a weapon worthy of a hero like Vermouth, channeling mana through it can summon wind spirits to aid the user. With enough mana, even Tempest himself can be summoned.
  • The Moonlight Sword was Vermouth's most powerful weapon. Described as "destruction incarnate", the light from this sword was essential to kill the fourth and fifth-strongest Demon Lords, the Lords of Slaughter and Cruelty. Furthermore, even a fragment of this sword is capable of canceling out mid-level magic.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Eugene's instantly beats Cyan with a single thrust of the spear he was practicing with, jabbing Cyan before he could react properly or get a single swing in.
• Deader than Dead: Eugene reflects in hindsight that he was surprised that he was reincarnated, let alone given memories of his previous life, as he'd been killed by an attack from the lich with the ability to destroy someone's soul in addition to their body. Mar, Sienna's familiar, says that her master likely had something to do with it. Then it turns out part of Vermouth's deal with the Demon King of Incarceration seems to have explicitly been to help save Hamel's soul and reincarnate it into his lineage to make him his personal chosen one right around the time the truce of peace would expire.
• Deal with the Devil: The nature of black magic. Demons are able to use magic in ways humans cannot, and by signing a contract with a demon, you gain access to some of your patron's power. However, this obligates you to work as the demon's servant, and if you cannot accomplish enough on the demon's behalf within your lifespan, the demon will claim your soul upon death. Due to the treaty, this form of magic is now tolerated, but considered The Dark Arts by most.
  • The late story of Season 2 strongly implies that this is the real nature of Vermouth's negotiations with the Demon King of Incarceration: peace for many generations and salvaging Hamel's soul to be reincarnated as one of his descendants, in exchange for an inevitable time where the peace will break as the Demons invade again, and seemingly Vermouth himself either willingly or unwillingly in cahoots with said Demon King.
• Doomed Hometown: Hamel's family and hometown were slaughtered by the demons, fueling his animosity for all demons as well as his attachment to his necklace, which is the only thing he has left of his home.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Iode becomes a drug and sex addict, spending all of his time and money on prostitutes and nights in the Red Light District. It's the only way he's able to cope with the stress of knowing that all of his attempts to learn magic have failed along with the horrible home life that awaits him should he leave.
• Dual Wielding: Hamel frequently wielded more than one weapon at a time, even if those weapons were of differing lengths like a halberd and a sword as a demonstration of his skill at martial arts.
• Eldritch Abomination: The King of Destruction is the strongest of the Demon Lords and the only demon that the Five Great Heroes could not imagine taking on. It's described less as a being and more of a moving color that drives anyone who looks at it insane. If not for Anise's prayers, the entire hero's party would have been reduced to gibbering lunatics.
• Emotionally Tongue-Tied: Eugene immediately takes off in a sprint to chase after what he thinks is Sienna. When he gets to her, he's at a complete loss for words. He expects her to tell him to cut the bullshit and scream in his face as he tries to reach for her. It's one of the first points in the story where Eugene's confidence falters and he wears an awkward smile and a Luminescent Blush because of how unsure he feels.
• Entertainingly Wrong: When Guilliard calls Eugene into his office, Eugene jumps to the conclusion that Guilliard intends to offer Ciel's hand in marriage to him to tie Eugene to the main family. He's mortified when he learns that Guilliard never intended anything of the sort and apologizes for speaking out of turn.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Due to having his memories of his past life as Hamel, Eugene is surprised by how much the world has changed since his death. Aroth was a wizarding city before, but it's grown to a massive size with floating islands, flying carriages, and magitek alongside traditional tomes and wands.
• Five-Man Band: The Five Great Heroes had this dynamic in the ancient past.
  • Vermouth was The Hero, The Ace, and The Leader of the party through his unflappable bravery and strength-of-arms. His innate martial talents and measured reason make him an ideal frontline commander and fighter.
  • Hamel was The Lancer. In contrast to Vermouth, Hamel was brash, egotistic, and vain. But he was also the one most capable of keeping with Vermouth and it's clear that he and Vermouth had a deep respect for one another.
  • Sienna was The Smart Guy. She was The Archmage and the most educated of the party, having been taught by the elves to become an unparalleled magician with unsurpassed knowledge of both practical and the theoretical uses of magic.
  • Molon was The Big Guy as the largest, strongest, and toughest of the party in physical strength. While he wasn't as sharp as his companions, his physical might and use of a shield kept his party members safe.
  • Anise was The Heart. Although she's Nun Too Holy, her healing powers and the calming effects of her miracles kept the party's spirits up. She always helped others regardless of the potential cost to herself and was known as a saint for her kindness and compassion.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Eugene understands the level of pressure that Iode is under as Guilliard's firstborn son and a political pawn of his mother Ancilla, who grapples with Tanis for Guilliard's favor. But Eugene is completely unsympathetic toward his stepbrother when Iode disgraces his family by trying to use the dark arts as a shortcut to gain power. Eugene tells him that Iode's refusal to own up to his choices and failure to do anything other than drown himself in drugs and sex is no fault but his own.
• Friendly Rival: While Hamel's rivalry with Vermouth seemed strained at the best of times, Eugene makes it clear that he holds Vermouth's memory in the highest esteem. After spending his past life chasing after Vermouth's talents as The Ace, Eugene refuses to do anything that would besmirch Vermouth's name as a member of the Lionheart family. He's enraged when Iode tries using dark magic as a shortcut to gaining power and prestige, thereby shaming Vermouth and the other Lionhearts.
• Game Face: Although there's plenty of anger and rage throughout the series, Chapter 49 takes the cake when Mar recounts the last time she saw Sienna a week before her disappearance. When someone had apparently killed a Familiar guarding Hamel's grave, the sheer indignation on Sienna's face combined with Glowing Eyes of Doom spells out that she planned to murder whoever did it out of her feelings for Hamel.
• Gentle Giant: Gargith stands a head taller than Eugene and has rippling muscles that demolish his shirts when he flexes. But he's also the gentlest and kindest of Eugene's peers in the Lionheart family, being the first to show him complete respect and offering to cooperate with him. While Eugene finds Gargith annoying, he indulges Gargith's whims (like spending ludicrous amounts of money to buy a giant's testicle) and helps him when asked.
• Happily Adopted: Sienna was abandoned in the forest of the elves and taken in by those who heard her crying. While they were intially hesitant to adopt a human child, the elves discovered her unsurpassed affinity for magic and gave her a childhood surrounded by love and learning.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Although Hamel was a master of virtually every kind of melee weapon, he had a preference for swords and spears. Eugene, his reincarnation, ultimately chooses Winnead, the Windstorm Sword, as his primary weapon and prize from the Lionheart vault. Desira actively complains that he could've chosen a weapon like Dragon Spear Carbide given how good he is with spears, but Eugene retorts that he chose based on what he likes.
• Heroic Build: Justified. The male warriors of the Lionheart family are all incredibly muscular thanks to their constant physical and mana training, which turns them all into chiseled hunks. Gargith's family in particular has a special muscle growth-boosting potion that they administer to all the men in their family. Ciel and Carmen also possess curvacious yet toned bodies as a result of their own training.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: Iode's enthusiasm for magic is undercut by his complete lack of talent for it. He fails to achieve much of anything in Aroth and lacks the talent to be mentored by Roberian as he'd hoped. By his late teens he's drowning his sorrows in drugs and sex rather than even trying to continue his studies.
• Historical Badass Upgrade: Inverted in-universe. The stories about the Five Great Heroes make a mockery of Hamel, calling him "the Foolish" and describing him as being unable to even hit Vermouth in their spars. While Eugene admits to being beaten by Vermouth again and again, Hamel at least managed to draw blood. Eugene speculates that Anise wrote the stories that way to annoy him.
• Inadequate Inheritor: As Guilliard's firstborn son, Iode is set to inherit the position of patriarch of the Lionheart family at the start of the story. But Iode's timidity, lack of martial or magical talent, and naivety are all major concerns. Worse still, Iode's half-siblings and stepbrother, Cyan, Ciel, and Eugene, vastly outstrip Iode in talents and drive. Ultimately, Iode's inability to pick himself back up after failure and attempts to use dark magic to gain prestige and power disgraces him and has him under house arrest for the remainder of his life.
• Insufferable Genius: Eugene is an undeniably brilliant at everything he puts his mind to. He's a Multi-Melee Master who learns to harness the White Flame Ritual within minutes when even the most talented Lionhearts before him took days at least. He later devises (an admittedly inferior) version of Sienna's prized "Eternal Circle" state using a magical theory no one else can use because of its complexity and the Lionhearts's unique physiology. But he's also incredibly snide, arrogant, crass, and condescending, antagonizing basically everyone if it doesn't benefit him to play nice with them.
• Irony: In life, Hamel considered himself below the rest of his team since he was the Jack of All Trades with the requisite Master of None that haunted it, and generally thought he was The Friend Nobody Likes but was only kept on the party because he could at least keep up with the rest of them. In his second life as Eugene, reflection and revelation helps him realize that as the Jack of All Trades, he could hold together the team like glue where not even Vermouth bothered to, covering for the entire group's weaknesses all by himself even if at a cost to himself, and despite everyone's vulgar barbs towards and from him, Hamel was ironically The Heart that kept morale and a spirit up for the group as well as a Clueless Chick-Magnet for both Sienna and Anise — his Heroic Sacrifice shattered the team's spirits and forced Vermouth to make a Deal with the Devil for temporary peace, and the group rapidly split up to their own ends of the earth afterwards to ensure their own conflicting plans for the future because of it. In essence, Hamel failed to understand what he really had, and Eugene has to pick up the pieces of his consequences.
• It's Personal: Do not consort with demons, for Hamel had died in the war against them; do not shame the Lionhearts and Vermouth's heroic name, as Iode found out the hard way; and do not try to badmouth Hamel arbitrarily. Eugene takes all three of these personally, and finding out why Vermouth had made a deal with the Demons for peace is one of his primary goals in his second life because it breaks two of those principles. He also generally refuses to respect anyone that does dealings with Demons, primarily the Black Mages that focused their entire art around doing so.
• Jack of All Stats: Of the Five Great Heroes, Hamel was not as strong as Vermouth, not as tough as Molon, not as destructive as Sienna's magic, or capable of miracles like Anise. Instead, he excelled in all areas and acted as the glue for the team that made up for each of its member's shortcomings while supporting them with his mastery of mana and martial arts. This made him the second-best fighter overall of the Five Great Heroes, only surpassed by Vermouth. His death meant that the party failed to defeat the Demon Lord of Incarceration, forcing Vermouth to strike a deal with the Demon Lord to pursue peace.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Emphasis on the Jerk with Eugene. Eugene is rude, manipulative, arrogant, crass, and vain to the extreme. He basically flips off everyone he doesn't have a reason to be nice to and actively mocks others for not being as talented or dedicated as him. But at the end of the day, he was known as a hero for a reason and cares deeply about those who've genuinely helped him out of the kindness of their hearts. He indulges Gargith's whims despite his own misgivings about Gargith's muscle obsession and clearly loves and respects his father Jehard. He also holds the rest of the Five Great Heroes in great esteem despite his crass comments and is enraged by the thought of any of them being slandered or disrespected.
• Kissing Cousins: Although they're distant relatives, Eugene initially comes to the conclusion that Guilliard would want Eugene to marry into the main branch family to tie him to it as a political move. Eugene is less creeped out by the notion of marrying his relative than he is of marrying a girl decades younger than him mentally, which to him feels like paedophilia. He's both relieved and mortified when Guilliard informs him that he wasn't thinking of that and wanted to adopt Eugene into the main family instead.
• Magically Inept Fighter: Hamel had extremely poor aptitude for magic in his previous life but was only surpassed by Vermouth with his skill at arms and critical to many of the party's victories. One of the benefits of becoming Eugene Lionheart is his much readier access to mana and affinity for magic. Eugene spends several years studying magic to gain powers he never had in his previous life.
• Magitek: In Hamel's time, he was truly in a period of spell tomes and classic wizards, humble hovels and large castles. By Eugene's period, magic has been refined so much thanks to Sienna advancing its studies that many uses of it for smaller purposes are nigh-indistinguishable from futuristic technology, such as active, GPS-style maps, or how the Witchcraft compilations of Sienna's knowledge look like massive interlaced spheres rather than any sort of tome. By that point, the magic is the technology, which notably throws Eugene for a loop.
• Mini-Me: Mar, Sienna's familiar, takes the form of a small child virtually identical to Sienna herself. Eugene initially mistakes Mar for her until Mar clarifies that she's only Sienna's familiar.
• Missing Mom: Eugene's mother died when he was young, but he's already so mature from his memories of his past life that he bears no attachment to her, something that disturbs his father Jehard.
• The Mourning After: It's heavily implied that Sienna was in love with Hamel but could never bring herself to admit it because of how often they bickered. Despite wishing to settle down and start a family, she never married after Hamel's death and lived a largely solitary existence where she never smiled even for pictures. She was also the one who handled Hamel's body and buried him. Mar reveals that before Sienna's disappearance and retirement, Sienna was enraged by the feeling that the familiar she had guard Hamel's grave was destroyed.
• Mr. Fanservice: The first chapters of the webcomic feature a shirtless thirteen-year-old Eugene who already has rippling muscles from his harash training. He's repeatedly thee subject of other Shirtless Scenes after this, with his casual wear having a wide neck to show off his broad chest.
• Multi-Melee Master: Eugene is a master of every imaginable type of melee weapon, wielding everything from swords to spears to axes with incredible proficiency. In his past life as Hamel, he even wielded weapons of completely different lengths at the same time with deadly precision.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: Zigzagged. Gargith is the physically strongest of the Lionheart children at the start of the story thanks to his family's emphasis on building muscles. He wields a BFS during the Blood Succession Ceremony to demonstrate this and uses nothing but brute force to cut through the stone walls and behead nearby monsters. But his skills fall short of Eugene's, whose later access to the main family's mana technique ensures that Eugene would surpass Gargith in physical strength despite being significantly shorter and slimmer (but still incredibly muscular).
• Next Time On: Season 1 ends with a select few preview panels of the arc to come, including a bloodied and weakened Eugene having picked a fight in Hamel's grave with Amelia, a person even Balzark of the Black Tower warned him against trying to fight with.
• Nice to the Waiter: Eugene tips a tour guide who waited all day for him to leave Sienna's mansion for his troubles. He also swears on his family name to not let a word out about the tour guide giving him potentially damning information on Iode in exchange for complete sincerity and openness.
• No Place for a Warrior: After spending his entire life fighting demons with a technique that shortened his lifespan, Hamel had no desire to live an ordinary life with a slowly weakening body. This is why he was so willing to sacrifice himself to protect Vermouth, as his friends could go on to live the long, fulfilling lives that Hamel couldn't.
• New Life in Another World Bonus: Eugene has access to his friend and rival Vermouth's superpowers due to being reincarnated as Vermouth's descendant. Compared to his past life as Hamel, Eugene completely averts his old Magically Inept Fighter style, has a naturally powerful physique that quickly recovers from fatigue with just a few hours of rest, and access to the Lionhearts's unique and powerful mana breathing technique.
• Oblivious to Love: Eugene cannot comprehend that Sienna very likely harbored a crush on him. Sienna's familiar, Mar, recalls that Sienna fondly reminiscing about Hamel amidst the flurry of insults they used to throw at each other. Her comments about wanting to settle down and become a grandmother completely fly over his head even when Mar points out that Sienna never said anything good or bad about Vermouth to her. Ciel, his own cousin in the Lionhearts, is also eventually infatuated with Eugene's strength and capability, but Eugene is so oblivious that he doesn't even begin to see her in that light thanks to the mental age difference.
• Never Found the Body: By the end of Season 1, its become apparent that Sienna is missing and never died of old age, but seemingly disappeared when she investigated Hamel's grave being robbed. It gets worse with the end of Season 2: Vermouth isn't in his own grave, either, and as far as Eugene's considered, he may be a pawn of the Demon King of Incarceration or even the one that wounded and sent Sienna into hiding.
• Nun Too Holy: Hamel recalls Anise as a sadistic drunkard who takes pleasure in smiting her enemies and getting wasted after the battle. This is in stark contrast to her reputation as a saint and a holy woman performing divine miracles. Anise suffers from immense pain from being an incomplete vessel for divine power and has a heavily scarred back covered in scabs as a result. She drinks to dull the pain and needed Hamel to tend to her injuries after major battles.
• Older and Wiser: Eugene remembers Sienna as an emotional, smug, hot-headed woman he frequently traded insults with as Hamel. He struggles to grasp the idea that she could have become a mature, refined woman in the centuries after his death.
• Parental Favoritism: Guilliard tries to give all of his children opportunities to let their talents blossom. But it's blatantly clear that he prefers Ciel and Cyan over his firstborn son, Iode. While Ciel and Cyan are ambitious, talented, and hard-working, Iode is timid, unsure of himself, and lacking in both physical and magical talents compared to his half-siblings. The comic shows Guilliard looking at Iode with disdain when it's clear that Iode's skills haven't grown at all since they last met before greeting Ciel and Cyan warmly. When Iode is caught trying to use the dark arts, Guilliard displays nothing but embarassment over Iode's and Tanis's actions rather than doing any kind of reflection on his own parenting.
• Parental Neglect: While Guilliard tries to be a good father to his children, his duties as patriarch frequently take him away from his home. This leaves his children to be browbeaten by their mothers as they're made to compete against each other for the position of Guilliard's heir.
• Parents as People:
  • Eugene's father Jehard is depicted as someone who deeply loves and cares for his son. But the death of Eugene's mother and the Lionheart branch family's history of having their hopes of advancement dashed by the main family leaves Jehard in a state of depression with low expectations for Eugene. He tells Eugene to aim lower to protect him from crushing disappointment and doesn't believe Eugene will ever succeed against the main family. After Eugene is adopted into the main family, Jehard is surprised to learn that Eugene still considers Jehard his one and only father and the two continue to share a close bond.
  • Guilliard is a Reasonable Authority Figure who tries to give all of the Lionheart children an equal chance to succeed in the Blood Succession Ceremony. But while he loves all of his children, he's neglectful of their personal needs due to his duties as the patriarch of the family, simply giving them opportunities to pursue their passions while offering little guidance or support. He also fails to keep his wives from pitting their children against each other as political pawns, resulting in Iode's neuroses and Cyan's initial Upper-Class Twit personality due to the pressure put upon them by their parents.
• Proud Beauty: Eugene is a male example. While he was already fond of what he called his "wild looks" as Hamel, as Eugene Lionheart he's a downright Pretty Boy and proud of it. His constant training gives him a chiseled Heroic Build by the time he's thirteen that only gets even more defined as he gets older. Chapter 22 of the comic opens with him admiring his face and body while flexing in the mirror.
• Putting the Band Back Together: After learning of his friends's disappearances, Eugene makes it his mission to find Sienna, Anise, and Molon to get the band back together and figure out why Vermouth chose not to kill the other Demon Lords as they'd planned.
• Really Gets Around: After the end of the war between people and demons, Vermouth took over ten wives and sired many children with them, resulting in the main and branch familiies of the Lionheart clan. Eugene is baffled by this, as Vermouth never seemed to be the type to carouse with women.
• Sadly Mythtaken: The childrens' fairy tales written about the Five Great Heroes exploits centuries after Hamel's death tend to get a number of things wrong that clash with his memories of what actually happened. He takes particular offense to him being called "the Foolish" and that the stories seem to think that he was in love with Sienna.
• Secret Police: The Black Lion Knights, a Council-led set of elite squads under the Lionhearts that handle the messiest of family and political matters. Not only does Ciel want to be a squire to the head of them, but they're able to talk with the Tower Masters of Aroth on equal terms and even threaten them with death if foul play gets involved, indicating they are of high enough authority for the family that their mere existence is a deterrent against outside influences.
• Sensory Overload: The sheer depth and complexity of Witchcraft is enough to make any aspiring mage soil themselves and collapse in a gibbering heap when they try to access it. Even Eugene is immediately knocked unconscious while foaming at the mouth, only coming to a few hours later.
• Shirtless Scene: While practicing his magic beneath the Red Magic Tower, Eugene goes topless as he exerts himself by firing spell after spell at a fragment of the Moonlight Sword to refine his skills. This is presumably to keep cool as the effort leaves him sweaty and somewhat winded, but it gives the reader an eyeful of his ripped physique in the comic.
• Smarter Than You Look: Eugene's brash, egotistic personality makes others assume he's being short-sighted and reckless when he tries to devise highly dangerous techniques that no one has attempted before for good reason. But he's genuinely a genius when it comes to martial arts, turning theory into practice, and work ethic. His elders frequently expected him to fall to hubris as he grew up, only to show them that he's confident because he knows what he's doing.
• Spirit Cultivation Genre: The Lionhearts possess the ability to grow their mana to the point that their cores split and can each grow individually, giving them access to even more cores and mana over time. Vermouth possessed ten cores at his peak and his descendants often measure their power by how many cores they're able to manifest in their lifetime.
• Strong Family Resemblance: All Lionhearts share Vermouth's silver hair and Supernatural Gold Eyes as a sign that they've inherited his Superpowerful Genetics.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: All of Vermouth's descendants have golden eyes that mark them as having the bloodline of the great hero. They're also naturally predisposed to be talented warriors and mages.
• Superpowerful Genetics: The Lionhearts all possess physiques suited for building muscle, staving off fatigue, and manipulating mana to achieve incredible physical and magical feats. Whether or not anything comes of it is down to work ethic and talent, as Cyan, Ciel, and Eugene excel while Iode struggles to achieve anything.
• Talented, but Trained: While Eugene is ridiculously talented thanks to have decades of experience and learning know-how from his past life, he never misses a day of training or study either. His work ethic is uncanny to the point that he never seems indulge in any kind of pleasure other than eating lots of meat to help build up his muscles.
• Teen Genius: Even when Hamel was young, he was immensely talented when it came to fighting and won all of his brawls with the other children. As Eugene, he has a more than twenty-year headstart in terms of experiences and is seen as a once-in-a-lifetime genius for his absurd growth rate and work ethic.
• Title Drop: After beating Cyan in a Curb-Stomp Battle, Eugene thinks to himself that his actions are probably going to end up screwing Vermouth's descendants over. He then says that he hopes Vermouth won't be too mad about it, as Hamel never asked to become Vermouth's descendant and calls his situation "just a damn reincarnation".
• Trauma Button: Eugene can't help but clutch his chest with an anguished expression on his face when Mar mentions Bloody Mary, the staff used by the lich Belial who killed Eugene in his previous life as Hamel.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Eugene doesn't even try to act his apparent age unless he's playing politics and trying to manipulate others. He's incredibly violent and short-tempered, beating a training dummy until it's in pieces and telling his father to whip the smith responsible for producing equipment of such shoddy quality.
• Undying Loyalty: Balzark's devotion to the Demon Lord of Incarceration is unshakable, refusing to take orders from anyone else unless he's playing politics to remain on someone's good side. Even when t hreatened by the Black Lion Knights, Balzark mouths off to Carmen's face while providing thinly-veiled threats in response to the Lionhearts' accusations and insults toward the Demon Lord of Incarceration.
• Upper-Class Twit: Both Cyan and Ciel are proud of being the direct descendants of Vermouth and look down upon Eugene and the other branch family members. Eugene quickly disabuses them of this notion by flooring Cyan with a single thrust in a duel and defeating an illusory monster designed to be beaten by all the Lionheart children on his own. From then on, Cyan respects Eugene (but is still irritated by Eugene's attitude) while Ciel takes serious romantic interest in him.
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • This was Hamel's relationship with the rest of the Five Great Heroes. In Eugene's flashbacks to that time, Hamel frequently traded barbs with Sienna and mocked Anise's fake saintliness. He was also rivals with Vermouth and is always frustrated that Vermouth was better than him. Despite all this, Eugene clearly thinks fondly of all of his companions and their mourning of him likely meant that they felt the same way about Hamel. In the present, Eugene still calls his friends names like "moron", "bitch", and "bastard", but deeply respects all of them.
  • Mar reveals that Sienna was equally prone to hurling insults at her friends despite their closeness. She called Molon a dumbass, Anise a snake, and Hamel a "retard, piece of shit, dumbass, and a fucking bastard." Despite this, Mar mentions that Sienna looked like she was about to cry whenever she talked about her friends and keeps their memory immortalized in the Acryon.
• Walking Armory:
  • Vermouth was able to use subspace magic to keep his vast armoury of weapons on his person at all times, using them all with incredible skill from swords to spears to axes to hammers. The Lionheart vault in the present contains all of these weapons besides the holy and demonic weapons.
  • In his past life as Hamel, Eugene was a master of every kind of weapon he put his hands on. He'd use everything from swords to spears to axes and halberds, using them with a level of mastery only surpassed by Vermouth. While he has a preference for swords and spears, he could dual-wield any of those weapons with ease despite their differing lengths and weights. He later gets access to the Cloak of Darkness, which has its own subspace magic in which he stores his weapons.
• When She Smiles: Eugene's smiles tend to be smug smirks and shit-eating grins because of his insufferable arrogance. But he gives a much softer and more heartfelt smile over his father's outpouring of emotion for him when Eugene leaves home. Later on, the idea of meeting Sienna again leaves him Emotionally Tongue-Tied and wearing an awkward but sincere smile to show just how much his friends mean to him.
• Wizards Live Longer: Mages have developed means of extending their lifespans and youth through magic. This is why Lovellian still looks like someone in his early 20s when he's in fact more than 80 years old. Eugene also believes that Sienna and Anise are still alive despite them vanishing more than century before the present day. Eugene's grandaunt, Carmen, looks like she's in her mid-twenties despite being as old as Eugene's grandfather, implying that she uses a similar method to maintain her youth.

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