Cgapter 110
“Uh, um…….”
Daphne quietly stared at Kalid, who was opening and closing his mouth.
Her pupils, sharpened like a snake’s, held an immense rage so deep it was impossible to fathom.
Sensing that something was very wrong, Kalid hesitated and took a step back.
Daphne — in other words, Celus, who had struggled for hundreds of years in deep, profound loneliness — was desperately holding herself back to avoid hastily killing Kalid.
Celus did not know why she had been born.
She had appeared suddenly one day, and merely by existing she instilled terror in many.
The instinctive disgust, rejection, and fear that those who faced the ‘disaster’ felt……
That was why Celus had wondered.
Why do I exist? Why do I live?
She kept asking herself those questions and tried her best to hold onto her sanity and keep living.
Surely there must be a reason she was born.
If she struggled desperately through this horrific loneliness, someday she would find the value of life — that was what she thought.
But in the end, what was the truth she discovered?
She was nothing more or less than a trash bin to receive the consequences of other dragons.
“Why did you do it?”
Daphne wrinkled the bridge of her nose, struggling to suppress the surging emotion as she spoke.
“What wrong did I ever do?”
“Uh, uh?”
“I never even chose to be born into this world. I did nothing. Yet throughout my entire life I suffered. I never committed any wrongdoing, yet merely for the reason of existing…… I was endlessly rejected.”
Kalid might be stupid, but he wasn’t completely oblivious, so he could vaguely guess that Daphne was the black dragon Celus.
“Do you know this injustice, this anger, this sorrow?”
“…….”
“And even knowing that, you created me?”
Gulp. Kalid swallowed dryly.
He never imagined he would come face to face with the ‘disaster’ like this.
No — hadn’t Lani clearly said the disaster was killed by the warrior?
Then how is she still alive? Why is she inside the body of such a small child?
Kalid recalled the actions ‘Daphne’ had taken in the past. Preventing bomb terror attacks, dealing with black mages……
Ah. Only now did he realize with certainty that ‘Daphne’ had been the ‘disaster.’
And even though she had been the disaster, the moment the karmic debt disappeared, she was sacrificing herself for humans.
Something so great that he himself could never even dream of doing.
Having reached that thought, Kalid bit his lower lip hard and lowered his head.
He had always thought an encounter between the disaster and himself was impossible.
So Kalid had no idea what to say, and thus had no choice but to confess his honest feelings.
“I didn’t know it would be like that.”
Kalid mumbled hesitantly as he continued.
“So…… I didn’t think about anything. I only thought that if there was an existence to take on my karmic burden, I could live more comfortably. I never imagined that because of that you would suffer…… I didn’t know. It wasn’t that I didn’t know — I simply never even thought about it in the first place.”
“…….”
“I’m sorry.”
Judging from his trembling voice, he didn’t seem to be lying.
Daphne tightly closed her eyes and pressed her brow.
At that moment, Shio, who had stood up, quietly whispered.
“You can kill him. That’s why I drained his power.”
Shall I take care of him?
Looking at Shio asking that, Daphne let out a hollow laugh.
She didn’t know what Shio was thinking, but at least it seemed he wouldn’t do anything that would harm her.
Daphne took a deep breath. Then she looked at Kalid.
“I lived endlessly righteously so that I would never commit wrongdoing.”
Lest she had forgotten or failed to notice some wrongdoing of hers that caused loneliness and suffering, she had tried not to commit even the tiniest fault.
That was how she met Bertio, and Bertio taught her how she should live, what kind of life would be more fulfilling.
“Does that mean I gained nothing from that life? No, that is not the case.”
She was always hated, always persecuted, but even so, there were things she gained within that life.
Not only the memories with Bertio, but also — if she had not been the disaster, she could not have entered Daphne’s body, and thus she would never have come to understand the meaning of family.
One could call such thoughts self-deception or mental victory.
But Daphne did not judge her own thoughts to be wrong.
Even if it was something very small and trivial, if she held even one meaningful memory in her hands, that life could never have been wrong.
Therefore, Daphne was fine.
“I do not want to deny my past life just because of a guy like this.”
Daphne muttered to herself as if reaffirming it.
“However.”
Then she slowly approached Kalid.
“I do not forgive you.”
Daphne stared straight at Kalid.
Her eyes still flickered with anger, but it was no longer overflowing with murderous intent like before.
Kalid swallowed dryly once again.
“Right now I want nothing more than to skin your scalp and hang it up.”
“…….”
“But since you gave a sincere apology, in return for that apology I will spare your life.”
“……!”
Kalid’s eyes widened round.
Now that his power had been taken by Shio and Lani, he was so weakened that he could no longer be called a great red dragon.
So he had thought that if the disaster charged at him, he would die without resistance.
Yet she was sparing him.
Kalid did not know the full extent of the disaster’s hundreds of years of suffering, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t imagine it.
Hundreds of years of loneliness, hardship, and pain…… and yet she was letting him live.
Kalid felt ashamed. He wanted to crawl into a mouse hole if one existed.
“But there is something you must do in return.”
“Uh, uh! J-just say it!”
“You said you keep in contact with the other dragons? Can you meet them?”
Lani and Artson flashed through Kalid’s mind.
He thought he might be able to reach Artson somehow, but Lani……
From their previous encounter, when he had been beaten mercilessly by Lani on a rainy day until he was covered in dust, Kalid couldn’t help but shrink back a little.
“I’ll give it a try. But it might not work…….”
“If it doesn’t work, your neck will be gone that very day.”
“……Of course it’ll fucking work. How could I not do it if it’s your request? I might forget, so tell me one more time.”
Daphne let out another hollow laugh before calling to Shio.
“Slave No. 2.”
“Yes, Master. Shall I cast a tracking spell on this guy?”
“Good. You catch on quick.”
“Yes.”
While Shio placed a tracking spell on Kalid behind her, Daphne spoke again.
“You go back to the Count for now.”
“Th-that…….”
“I’m not saying I trust you. Even now you could run away and side with the others. I’m letting you go even knowing that.”
“…….”
“You’d better think carefully which side you should bet on to keep your neck.”
Kalid’s pupils shook wildly.
But soon he bowed his head deeply, clenched his fists tightly, and turned to walk away.
Judging from his staggering steps, he seemed to be genuinely agonizing over it.
“Hmm.”
After sending Kalid off, Shio frowned and said to Daphne.
“Are you really okay sending him off like that? Wouldn’t it be better to just kill him? I already drained all his power.”
Daphne looked at Shio and gave a small chuckle.
“I should at least give him one chance, shouldn’t I? I’m not such a heartless dragon.”
“…….”
Shio stared straight down at Daphne.
What stood before him was a small, cute child, but what filled his eyes was an entirely different person.
The one swinging a sword with jet-black hair fluttering like pure darkness itself.
“You really haven’t changed at all.”
It was none other than Celus.
Shio slowly began to tell his own story.
***
It had been a very long time since Shiosen met Celus.
But he could never forget that encounter.
Celus — called the disaster that would destroy the world, the guide of death —
had once breathed life back into him when he was dying.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
