Chapter 79
What Joshua took out was bread.
Because it was something truly unexpected, Daphne couldn’t properly grasp the situation and just tilted her head in confusion. Joshua’s brow furrowed slightly.
“I brought it for you to eat.”
“……Me?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
After entering this body, the thing Daphne had realized most deeply was that ‘there is no such thing as kindness without reason.’ As Daphne looked at Joshua with a suspicious expression, Joshua let out a hollow laugh.
“During the exam.”
He deliberately avoided Daphne’s gaze while continuing.
“I know you went easy on me. I’m repaying the favor, so you don’t need to thank me.”
“……What?”
“So this settles it. Don’t say anything else later.”
Daphne, who hadn’t understood his words all at once, tilted her head in confusion. Exam? Favor? Then she soon recalled how during the third exam, she had only dodged his attacks.
“Ah.”
Daphne smirked. This guy has sharp words, but basically, he’s a polite fellow, she thought. The corners of Daphne’s mouth curved up.
“Trying to equate going easy during the exam with one piece of bread. You’re quite the thug, aren’t you.”
“Thug, what?”
“It means you need to grovel a bit more to me.”
“You……!”
Even when treated well, she acts like this, why? When Joshua’s face turned red, Daphne interrupted.
“Come on. Get down and give me a piggyback ride. I can’t move even one step on my own.”
“Why should I do that?”
“I went easy on an ungrateful guy like you during the exam. It’s my fault. My mistake. I guess I’ll just go out and die.”
“Hey! Are you really a noble?”
Joshua jumped down from the tree, landed on the ground, grumbled while supporting Daphne. Daphne giggled and settled on Joshua’s back.
“Thank you. If it weren’t for you, I would have given up my dignity as a human and walked on all fours like a beast.”
“This settles it. No saying anything else later.”
“Actually, I’m taking a bit of a loss here.”
“I’ll throw you off.”
“I am someone with enough tolerance to accept the loss. I’ll let it slide.”
“Sigh……”
Joshua shook his head. He had never lost an argument in his neighborhood, but Daphne seemed to be on a completely different level. How can she make someone so angry with every single word?
Joshua decided to hold his mental reins tightly. Because if he let go even a little, he felt like he would be completely swept away by Daphne.
“Hey.”
So Joshua deliberately spoke in a low voice.
“You’re in the same room as Cilia, right?”
Cilia was a child he had known before entering the training center. So they roughly knew each other’s circumstances.
Such Cilia had given Daphne a not bad evaluation.
-Well, keep an eye on her.
-I’m thinking of building my own faction too.
Joshua trembled at the thought of nobles, but if Daphne was someone ‘worth watching’ as Cilia said, it would be good to know her for the future. That was why he had come to find Daphne now.
“According to Cilia, you seem a bit different.”
“I am quite special.”
“……”
The word that came up to his throat was not special but peculiar, but Joshua barely held it in. Then he shook his head.
“Are you really a noble?”
“Or would I be fake?”
Joshua barely held back the laugh that was about to burst out. Clearing his throat with a cough and regaining his composure, he soon declared.
“I’ll be first place.”
He glanced at Daphne, who had placed her face on his shoulder.
“I mean I’ll graduate as the top. I absolutely won’t yield this.”
“Everyone is probably thinking the same. Everyone will be aiming for first place.”
“I’m the most desperate.”
“……”
Daphne stared blankly at Joshua’s side profile. He looks like a child of only about 8 years old. But the strongly felt determination is deeper than that of an adult man. What on earth happened? What misfortune made this young child carry such a heavy burden? Daphne’s heart became complicated.
“Do you think you can seize the results just with desperation? Do you think the results will come out proportional to your effort? If so, you’re still very much a child.”
“What? You……!”
“But I like that childish spirit.”
Daphne smirked and patted the back of Joshua’s head.
“Work hard. To the extent that others mistake your effort for talent.”
Joshua unknowingly bit his lip.
-Dear. I think your talent is perseverance. You never give up.
-An unbreakable heart will make you grow even more.
It was because he recalled the words his mother, who is no longer in this world, had said.
He had only thought of Daphne as an annoying noble…… Maybe, as Cilia said, he could see her a bit differently? Joshua felt his heart becoming slightly warm and faintly smiled……
“Of course, first place is mine.”
……Without doing so, he revised his evaluation of Daphne.
Crazy kid.
***
Ansiha Mountain Range.
It is a massive mountain range that crosses the continent from south to north.
Because the mountains are rugged and humans cannot easily approach, there are no paths worthy of being called roads.
Teiti and Shio were walking through such mountains.
“It’s really a place where you’d get lost ten out of ten times if not an elf.”
Shio said to Teiti, who was walking ahead.
As he said, thanks to Teiti’s ability as an elf to commune with nature, they could proceed straight without getting lost. If Teiti wasn’t there, even Shio would have wandered the forest for days.
“How much further do we have to go? If it’s far, should we rest a bit?”
To Shio’s question, Teiti, who had been silent the whole time, finally opened his mouth.
“Almost…… We’re almost there.”
The deeper they went into the mountains, the darker Teiti’s face became. Now it looked as if his soul had left his body. So Shio became even more puzzled.
“What’s wrong? Are you sick somewhere?”
“No……. It doesn’t hurt at all…… No, does it hurt……? Uh. My mind hurts……”
Teiti wasn’t an elf who seemed sane to begin with, but now it was even worse. He was muttering incomprehensible words while biting his nails.
“To think I’d crawl back into this rotten family home with my own feet…… My heart hurts…… My mind hurts……. Ah…… Should I turn back…… Just turn back……”
Shio, who had been leaving the crazy Teiti alone because watching him was somewhat amusing, now felt a bit serious. So Shio pulled Teiti’s sleeve hard to make him look at himself.
“Is your home that bad?”
“Yeah. I hate it.”
“Why?”
“……”
Teiti repeated opening and then closing his mouth. It seemed like he wanted to explain something but couldn’t get the words out.
“You…… Don’t know.”
Teiti sniffled as if choked up.
“How much our parents……”
Sob sob, now he’s even whimpering.
Shio first worried if Teiti had been abused or something. Don’t they say that even among elves, there are those who treat their own children like possessions, like humans. Had Teiti gone through such hardship? And eventually escaped? Shio became a bit worried about Teiti.
“Just turn back……”
“Kyaaah!”
At that moment, a scream filled with joy was heard. Who…… As Shio checked for presence, he was startled to see two elves who had approached close by.
“……A carbon copy of Teiti?”
Because they looked exactly like the Teiti next to him.
Shio looked back and forth between them and Teiti, and the elves ignored Shio and spread their arms wide, rushing toward Teiti.
“Our youngest! The youngest is here! Youngest! It’s Dad, it’s Dad!”
“Teiti! Oh my! Let me see your face. Huh? Look at me.”
They seemed like Teiti’s parents. No, they were parents. But parents with a completely different personality from what Shio had guessed.
“Oh my god……”
Teiti’s mother, who had been making such a fuss, suddenly stepped back. Her pale face was completely white.
“Honey? What’s wrong?”
“Teiti is……”
The mother buried herself in Teiti’s father’s arms and covered her mouth. The process looked so serious that Shio also tensed up. Wondering if something had happened to Teiti.
But.
“Teiti looks so much like you, honey…… I was surprised because he’s so handsome.”
……What is this?
“Huh? What do you mean! Our youngest takes after you, honey!”
“No. Our youngest is handsome because he takes after you more.”
“No, because he takes after honey!”
“Because he takes after you!”
Shio tightly closed his eyes. Because if he kept them open, it seemed he would watch them kiss live.
“This is why I hate it.”
Ah.
Shio was completely convinced by Teiti’s words.
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