The Emperor is in his lair, in other words, the imperial treasury.
He was walking slowly across the lair with his hands behind his back. There was no one around him, and he was all alone.
Originally, an Emperor would naturally have someone escorting him. However, he was alone now. This meant that the Emperor had come to the lair without anyone knowing.
As soon as the Emperor heard the news that Lady Daphne had found the stronghold of the wraiths, he came straight to the lair.
“Daphne.”
He murmured Lady Daphne’s name.
“She is quite a useful child.”
In a way, it could be considered a compliment, but somehow his tone was chillingly cold. The gentle smile he used to show Lady Daphne in the past had long since vanished.
“I wanted to use her more.”
The Emperor muttered, blinking slowly.
“Well, I suppose it cannot be helped.”
Having muttered that, the Emperor slowly looked around the lair.
Gold, silver, jewels, and various treasures were piled up closely.
However, there is no ‘sacred artifact’ among them.
It was not that he deliberately avoided collecting sacred artifacts. It was because all the sacred artifacts were being taken away.
“Once the wraiths are cleaned up.”
He muttered abruptly.
“Now I should clean up that side too.”
That side.
In other words, it meant the opponent who was taking away the sacred artifacts.
He had plans to deal with them from before, but due to the unexpected appearance of the wraiths, he had not been able to move easily.
However, now that he heard the story that Lady Daphne had found the stronghold of the wraiths.
It seemed that he could gradually pay attention to that side now.
The Emperor’s lips curled up slanting.
“If I do that, I wonder how Heros will react.”
He blinked slowly.
The expressionless face of Heros came to mind, and behind it, Lady Daphne’s face puffing out both her cheeks while huffing came to mind.
Really…….
“She is a disaster that moves easily.”
The Emperor laughed for a long time.
Rejoicing in this situation where everything was flowing according to his plan.
***
Having heard the information about the stronghold of the wraiths from Lady Daphne, the Guardian headed straight to the snowy mountain. Naturally, Rache was also in that group.
Rache was frustrated again by Lady Daphne’s tremendous ability and upset again, but anyway, what he had to do now was to defeat the wraiths, so he decided to focus on the current situation.
The place they arrived at in that manner was a certain snow-covered mountain, which didn’t even have a proper regional name.
“Wow. Since it’s in a place like this, there’s no way we could find it. This is just at the level of severing ties with the world.”
“Since they are in such a cold place, has their mind gone crazy……?”
The Guardians exchanged trivial remarks and moved to find the place Lady Daphne had told them about.
Right at that moment.
Kwagwagang!
A tremendous explosion, enough to tear their ears, assaulted them. Some curled up their bodies while holding their ears, and some drew their swords thinking there might be an attack around.
However, only a few explosions followed, and nothing was attacking them. What is it? What is happening?
The Guardians were busy scanning the surroundings without lowering their guard.
Meanwhile, Rache could feel a familiar flow of mana from the place where the explosion occurred.
-C-Could we, everyone share th-this, please?
-I-It’s an artifact I-I made…… if we h-have it, we c-can know wh-where each other i-is.
-Because w-we are f-family……!
Rache tightly clutched the artifact that Vifera had given him. Whether it was thanks to this artifact, or because he had been continuously thinking about Lady Daphne, he didn’t know, but anyway, Lady Daphne’s presence was clearly being felt.
‘Where?’
Rache, who was turning his head back and forth, soon fixed his gaze towards the cliff. Right from that place, Lady Daphne’s presence was wafting out strongly.
Therefore, without having to think about anything else, Rache ran towards the cliff.
“Rache! Where are you going! I’m going with you too!”
Despite Kenrick’s shout, he pressed forward alone. For some reason, it felt like he just had to do that. An intuition that he shouldn’t go with another person.
And that intuition hit the mark.
Surprisingly, the wraith was kneeling before Lady Daphne.
-O Calamity!
-We have waited for your advent for a long time!
They were supporting Lady Daphne as if worshipping her, and although Lady Daphne was flustered, she wasn’t blindly pushing them away either.
What on earth is that…….
Without letting them know that he had come, Rache instinctively pressed his body tightly against the wall and listened to the conversation between Lady Daphne and the wraith.
“Ah, to see the Calamity directly while alive! Now I have no regrets even if I die! Please take my power! We are yours!”
“O Calamity. Please grant us teachings!”
The wraith was calling Lady Daphne ‘Calamity’.
What is the Calamity?
Wasn’t it a term that referred to the evil Black Dragon that possessed the power to destroy the world?
‘No way.’
Rache thought that the wraith was making a mistake.
However…….
‘Are they really making a mistake?’
At the suspicion that began to sprout in his mind, Rache took a deep breath. Come to think of it, Lady Daphne had changed from a certain moment. Lady Daphne, who used to be a reckless troublemaker who rushed in blindly, was now a reckless troublemaker who looked ahead and behind…….
He thought she had simply grown up…… but is it really that? Even if someone grows up, can a person change this much?
Suddenly, a warm word that Lady Daphne had handed to him one day, which he could never have imagined coming from Lady Daphne’s mouth, came to mind.
-You are an excellent older brother.
Yes.
The Lady Daphne he knew was not a child kind enough to say such words to him.
No way.
Really, no way.
‘Lady Daphne…… might not be Lady Daphne.’
The thing inside that body right now is not Lady Daphne.
“……Calamity.”
The moment he spat it out with his own mouth, Rache could feel the sensation of the blood in his entire body turning cold.
***
“Daphne.”
Rache asked while looking at Lady Daphne’s paled face. “You. What on earth are you?”
“…….”
Lady Daphne only kept opening and closing her mouth, unable to speak easily. No, what could she say here? It seemed Rache had already heard everything. It seemed he was asking while knowing everything!
“You…….”
Rache bit his lower lip hard.
“Are you even really Daphne?”
Lady Daphne clenched her fists.
She thought that she might get caught by them someday, and she thought that she might have to reveal the truth to them someday.
However, that someday was at least not now.
Lady Daphne…… no, Celus, who had placed that moment vaguely in the distant future, does not know what to do with the suddenly revealed secret. She doesn’t know how to speak, and she doesn’t know how to act.
“Really, you’re really not Daphne? Are you the Calamity…… the Calamity?”
Rache asked, but in fact, certainty was contained in his voice.
The certainty that Lady Daphne was the Calamity.
As soon as he harbored that certainty, Rache could feel a disgust that arose instinctively without him realizing it. The urge to flee this place right now surged, and a repulsion that he didn’t want to be by Lady Daphne’s… no, the Calamity’s side engulfed his body. He dislikes her. She is disgusting.
However, despite that, the only reason he was holding his ground painstakingly.
It is because there is something to ask the Calamity.
“Then…….”
Rache said, swallowing his dry saliva hard.
“Where did the real Daphne go?”
