Chapter 106
14. She’s my daughter
“Daphne Akion! How dare this damn delinquent bastard do that to my son…!”
The Imperial Count strode toward Daphne, raising his voice.
“If you’re going to die helplessly anyway, why even crawl out of bed! Is the sight of you stubbornly dragging yourself out just to torment a friend? Can you really call yourself a member of the ducal family after behaving like that?”
“……Me?”
“Yes, you!”
“What did I even do?”
“Ha! A child who can’t even admit his own fault. Truly demonic!”
“No. I really didn’t do anything.”
This time Daphne was genuinely aggrieved.
She had simply been practicing sword forms when Teppy suddenly came over, asked something strange, and then started welling up with tears.
And then the Count appeared and immediately began shouting in anger.
Anger management disorder…? Daphne seriously considered the possibility.
Noticing the subtle change in Daphne’s expression, the Count narrowed his eyes.
He clenched his fist tightly and sneered openly.
“Well, that’s exactly why even your own family abandoned you, isn’t it.”
The Count looked down at Daphne.
The gaze was far too icy to be directed at a child.
“You should know your place. You’re a half-wit suffering from an incurable disease no matter how desperately you struggle your whole life, and thanks to your rotten personality you’re nothing but a disgrace and a delinquent to the ducal house. Even groveling and begging on your belly wouldn’t be enough, tch.”
These words came from a firm determination to wound Daphne deeply.
The Count had disliked Daphne from the very beginning.
What irritated him most was that she was the sole heir of the ducal family, and despite pushing his own son aside to take that position, she possessed an unbearably filthy temperament.
If she had neither talent nor character, why didn’t she just die! Then Teppy could take her place!
Seeing her thrash about trying to do something now was truly laughable. Repulsive.
The Count twisted his lips, thinking that he must somehow remove Daphne — the biggest obstacle to his plan.
“Don’t even think about trying to do anything at this point. You’re a failure anyway.”
Hmph.
With a snort, the Count turned around and pulled his son, who stood there dumbfounded, toward him.
“Let’s go, Teppy. You shouldn’t be around something like that.”
“N-no, Father…!”
“Move!”
The Count shouted while dragging the hesitating Teppy along.
He seemed completely unaware that countless gazes focused on him had frozen solid.
While dragging Teppy away, a familiar pair of shoes and a cane entered the Count’s field of vision.
The Count’s eyes slowly rose.
“First of all.”
At the end of the Count’s gaze stood Heros, expressionless as always, leaning on his cane.
“Eek!”
Whether the Count was startled or not, Heros merely tilted his head slightly while resting on the cane.
“I’m curious why the Count is here.”
Heros spoke toward the knights standing beside him.
“Didn’t I order that no one except those I permitted should be allowed in?”
“Y-yes! That’s correct… but the Count insisted he absolutely had to enter. During the attempt to stop him, John fell over, and while treating him we failed to prevent the Count from going inside.”
“Not only did he enter my territory without permission, he even injured my knight.”
As Heros’s eyes narrowed, the Count raised his voice as if bouncing back.
“No, that was an accident! They kept blocking the way so I only told them to move and they fell—that’s all! And why shouldn’t I be allowed to come here? My son is here!”
Heros slowly blinked and looked at the Count.
In his bluish eyes, faint traces of emotion seemed to flicker.
“Yes. Something like that could be considered a trivial mistake.”
Heros gave a short laugh and straightened up from where he had been leaning on the cane.
Then he slowly walked toward the Count.
“However, the words you directed at my child are not something that can be passed off as a mistake.”
My child?
The Count’s eyes widened.
Who was Heros?
Wasn’t he the infamous cold-blooded man who showed no mercy even to his own flesh and blood?
Even if one could understand it toward the worthless delinquent Daphne, rumor had it he was so indifferent to his children that he even turned away from the upright Rache.
And yet… ‘my child’?
The Count wondered if he had misheard.
But,
“Daphne. Come here.”
Ignoring the Count completely, Heros called to Daphne.
Daphne pointed at herself with her index finger.
Me?
When he answered “Yes, you” to the unspoken question, she finally trotted over to his side.
Heros slipped his hand under Daphne’s armpit, lifted her up in one motion, and held her in his arms.
“Whether she’s the disgrace of the family, a delinquent, a sick child, whatever.”
Then he directed an ice-cold gaze toward the Count.
“This child is my daughter.”
“……!”
“Remember that fact.”
***
Domit, the aide and chief advisor to the Imperial Count, clicked his tongue.
He had watched the entire scene from a distance.
No matter how much he thought about it, choosing the Imperial Count had been the wrong decision.
If he had known the man was this stupid and emotional, he wouldn’t have even put him on the list of candidates.
‘The Count seems to have completely fallen out of the Archduke’s favor…’
Even Domit himself hadn’t expected Heros to react this way.
He had heard rumors that Heros’s attitude toward the children had changed recently, but he thought they were either baseless gossip or trivial matters.
The Heros he knew was a cold-blooded man who showed almost no interest in the children of the ducal family — perhaps showing no interest in anything except himself.
But looking at the current situation…
‘Has he changed?’
The moment that thought crossed his mind, Domit naturally turned his eyes to Daphne, who was held in Heros’s arms.
‘That child was the starting point.’
At some point, Daphne Akion had changed.
The figure who used to torment everyone with bizarre antics day after day disappeared, and instead she began speaking and acting like an old person who had lived a long life, completely captivating those around her.
She prevented a black magic terror attack, confronted black mages, even enrolled in the academy and clearly demonstrated her determination to eradicate black mages.
‘Why did she change?’
Domit narrowed his characteristically thin eyes and stared intently at Daphne.
There must be some reason… there has to be something… If he could figure it out, his own plan would succeed.
Right at the moment when Domit’s pupils began to take on a reddish tint—
A very short sound passed by his ear.
“Hm?”
It was a brief nasal sound, but it felt terribly familiar to Domit.
Not only had he heard it for a very long time, but it was also a voice he desperately, horrifyingly rejected.
“Uh, uh?”
Domit froze on the spot.
He wanted to turn his head to see the owner of the voice, but his neck creaked and refused to move. He was completely frozen.
Thus Domit stood motionless, unable to face the other person or run away.
“Long time no see?”
With just one nasal syllable, Shiosen — the cause that had frozen Domit — stood in front of him and waved.
“Wow, this time it’s a fox beastman. No wonder I couldn’t find you. You actually used your head this time. Quite different from before.”
Shio stared straight at Domit’s orange hair and eyes tinged with red as he spoke.
The disguise was so perfect that just standing nearby gave off the scent of fox fur.
“But why?”
Shio lowered the ends of his eyebrows and opened his mouth.
“I clearly told you never to set foot in human society again.”
“N-no, th-that’s…!”
“Then why are you here?”
His hand touched Domit’s shoulder.
“Uwaaaah!”
In that instant Domit reflexively screamed and collapsed to the ground.
His trembling body and eyes already wet as though tears would spill any second clearly showed he was gripped by terror.
“I-I was wrong! I’m sorry! Th-that just… somehow…!”
“Kalid.”
Looking down at the trembling, pleading Domit — no, the red dragon Kalid — Shio smiled brightly.
“Would you like to tell me the reason why you’re here?”
He lifted the tip of Kalid’s chin with his fingertips.
His mouth was clearly smiling, but his eyes had sunk into coldness.
Kalid knew exactly what that expression from Shio meant.
“If the reason is reasonable, I’ll kill you painlessly.”
Rage. And patience.
Feeling the death he would soon face with terrifying clarity, Domit opened his mouth.
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