Chapter 84
“Full house.”
“Aaah!”
“Straight!”
“Wow, seriously……!”
Daphne was winning consecutively.
And the long-awaited final hand.
“Heh, hehehe. Hehehehe.”
Daphne chuckled and laid down her cards.
“Royal straight flush!”
“……Is this real?”
Seeing the winning hand with the rarest probability, Cilia’s mouth dropped open.
Cilia, who had made a full house and naturally thought she would win, but with the situation turning out like this, it was over.
Cilia threw down her cards.
“You said this was your first time playing card games. Is this something a beginner can do?”
“Is this…… what mother called beginner’s luck?”
“Give back the emotion I felt earlier!”
Cilia and Bunny shouted alternately, but the triumphant air fully spread across Daphne’s face did not subside at all.
“I am a great being. To me, this card game is no different from eating cold soup.”
“That mouth of hers, her mouth!”
Cilia shrieked and jumped up.
“One more round. Wait for me while I go get some water.”
“I-I’ll go to the bathroom too……”
Daphne smiled briefly watching subordinates No. 3 and 4 stand up side by side. Because this situation felt a bit unreal.
Suddenly becoming human, and thanks to that, karma was severed, and thus being able to mix with humans like this…… It felt like a dream.
Things she had wished for over hundreds of years happening all at once, so she felt unnecessarily excited and unable to stay centered, just being swept away with whoosh.
‘I need to get a grip.’
The reason she entered the training center was to obtain the ‘authority to beat down wraiths,’ wasn’t it. On top of that, she had to advance her swordsmanship by receiving teachings from the guardians.
This was no time to lazily indulge in dreams.
“Anyway, once revenge is over, I have to go back……”
If that happens, karma would occur again, so Daphne would become a ‘calamity’ once more. She would lose all these current connections.
She had already considered and decided to accept it, but every time she poured cold water on herself like this, a corner of her heart ached painfully. Daphne smiled bitterly.
‘Shall I get some fresh air.’
Daphne left the lounge and headed toward the stairs. She intended to go to the window in the corridor.
But as soon as she stepped out to the stairs, she encountered an unexpected person.
“Rache?”
Rache was standing right in the spot she had thought of. Rache made a surprised expression as if he hadn’t expected Daphne to come.
“Why are you out? Isn’t it rest time?”
“I came out to get some air after playing.”
“Ah.”
Rache nodded and detached his body that had been leaning against the window. Daphne approached beside him.
The window was small, but it was large enough to capture the pouring moonlight.
Daphne and Rache blankly looked up at the moon. It was Daphne who broke the silence first.
“Why are you doing that?”
Rache unconsciously replied.
“Because it’s tiring.”
Oops. Rache hurriedly added.
“Ah, of course, you as a trainee are more tired, but my work intensity is no joke either. Compared to you, it might be nothing……”
“What are you saying. You could be more tired.”
“……”
Rache stared down at Daphne. It seemed not just words, but that he really thought he could be more tired.
So Rache’s heart felt a bit strange. Perhaps because he was now breathing sentimental air under the moonlight. Unknowingly, he blurted out words.
“I got a message from the Chief Guardian.”
“What’s that?”
“……Think of it as the Guardian Captain.”
“Ah.”
Daphne pulled her chin in and looked up at Rache. As if asking ‘So, what?’
Rache mumbled words in his mouth, then slowly began speaking, picking words one by one that touched his tongue.
“His Highness the Archduke said to take good care of you and me.”
“That dragon slayer, seems he’s thinking of us after all.”
“……So I’m a bit bewildered.”
Rache let out a faint bitter smile looking at Daphne, who wasn’t surprised.
Daphne who casually accepts Herois’s favor, and me who finds that favor awkward. Even without saying, one can tell who the real child is.
“Just, it’s amazing that His Highness said such things. Someone who didn’t pay attention to me for years? Why now? Did he judge me useful? Or is it the same affection as before? ……I don’t know well.”
Rache let out a long sigh.
“You were young back then so you might not remember well, but His Highness after mother passed away was really like a different person.”
“Is that so.”
“Yeah. So I thought I had let go of all expectations back then……”
“……”
“Hearing words like this makes me happy again, you know. I’m really immature too. Right?”
Daphne turned her body sideways, leaned her side head against the wall, and looked up at Rache.
Though taller than her, objectively, Rache was still a child who hadn’t reached adulthood. Yet the burden he carried was heavy enough to rival an adult’s.
“It’s really amazing.”
Daphne said exactly what she thought.
“People here keep treating you all like adults. In my eyes, you’re still very much young children.”
“……Huh?”
“You should be immature, receive parents love, and throw tantrums. You’re at that age.”
“……”
Rache felt somewhat bewildered.
The youngest saying such things feels somehow, and also the thought that yeah, I’m a child too.
Anyway, at those words telling him to act childlike, his heart felt suddenly lighter. Rache’s stiff face softened a bit.
“How about just going home and punching the dragon slayer once? That might make your heart feel better.”
“What?”
Rache now laughed completely.
“Really like you. A solution so you.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“No.”
“……”
Isn’t that too firm. Daphne grumbled.
“Still…… well, thanks.”
Rache placed his hand on Daphne’s crown and turned his gaze the opposite way.
“Thanks to you, my heart feels somewhat at ease. Ah, of course not that all your words were good! Just moderately good. You know what I mean?”
“I understand that you like me.”
“No!”
Seeing Rache return to the appearance Daphne knew, Daphne smirked.
She had intended to quietly get some air alone and go back, but this wasn’t bad either. No, rather it was good.
‘I need to see him often before leaving.’
Daphne thought she wouldn’t forget Rache’s face and stared at him intently. She wanted to keep looking at him enough to engrave it in her heart.
“W-What. Why are you looking like that. Are you mad?”
“It was a gaze containing my own affection, yet saying that hurts me.”
“No it’s not. It looked like an expression that if someone gets caught, you’d kill them.”
“Seems I was born with a bad face.”
“Puhaha!”
Rache started clutching his stomach and laughing. Not sure what’s so funny…….
Anyway, since he laughed, Daphne ended up laughing together.
The stuffy atmosphere disappeared, and peacefulness took its place.
“It’s almost time for roll call now. Go up.”
Then, checking the time, Rache pushed Daphne’s back.
“Well, do well in training tomorrow too.”
He mumbled gruffly with reddened cheeks. Daphne smirked.
“You’re not honest. You could just say you’re cheering with all your heart.”
“Shut up! Hurry go!”
Rache pushed Daphne with his completely red face. Fine, fine. Daphne happily laughed and climbed the stairs. No, tried to climb.
“Ah, really!”
An unfamiliar voice came from above.
She could have just passed by ignoring it,
“Daphne or whatever, it’s fucking annoying.”
But since the conversation topic was Daphne, it was embarrassing to do so.
“Isn’t it obvious the instructors are favoring her? So fucking annoying, that bitch.”
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