“The Emperor and the temple…….”
Jan, who was pondering over Lady Daphne’s words, carefully raised his eyes. Although his face is still tightly wrapped in bandages, even so, his two glaring eyes are distinct.
Jan gazed intently at Lady Daphne, then soon opened his mouth slowly.
“If I inform you about this, what can you do for me?”
Lady Daphne’s head tilted.
“What. Didn’t you say you worship me?”
“Ah. That is so, but then this is a different story.”
“…….”
Lady Daphne stared intently at Jan. Has this bastard gone crazy?
“Argh!”
In the end, Jan, who was beaten, shed a trickle of tears while being unable to do this or that because his two hands were tied.
“If you want to get beaten more, speak more.”
“No, wait, wait a moment! Argh!”
As Lady Daphne’s fist came and went several times, Jan snorted and barely swallowed his tears.
“W-Weren’t you a magic swordsman? But what kind of fist is…….”
“Do you not use strength when wielding a sword?”
“Ah.”
Jan pulled his chin, making an expression as if he had gained a great realization.
Right. To wield a sword, strength is needed. Only when there is strength can one wield a sword or not. Right.
Jan, who was persuaded by Lady Daphne to some extent, pulled himself together again and stealthily scanned Lady Daphne’s mood.
“Th-That, well, first of all.”
And then he slyly opened his mouth.
“I wonder how it would be to make a deal by returning my subordinates who were dragged to the Imperial Palace…….”
“You haven’t been beaten enough.”
“Argh!”
Looking at Jan who eventually got beaten again and was rolling on the floor, Lady Daphne frowned.
“Those fellows are shameless people who killed innocent civilians. But even so, to leave them alive? To let them receive no punishment? Does that make any sense?”
“That is…….”
“Even now, in my heart, I want to kill you. I feel like carving out your flesh by the number of humans you killed.”
“…….”
It is too cruel.
To the point that one wouldn’t know who is the black mage and who is the dragon.
Jan swallowed his dry saliva, feeling anew why the Calamity was the Calamity.
“However.”
Lady Daphne looked down at such Jan and pondered for a moment. Is it really okay to leave this fellow alive. Should she kill him. Even while pondering like that, she recalled Jan’s mangled face she saw earlier and let out a sigh.
“For now, let us listen to the story. Since it would also be a waste to have left you alive.”
Jan dropped his head low, and Lady Daphne looked at the back of his head and said.
“Speak. What are they plotting.”
“……Yes.”
He took a deep breath, and soon opened his mouth slowly.
“First, it seems you need to know about the matter between me and the Emperor.”
“Speak.”
“I was…….”
Jan said, tightly clutching his two tied hands.
“A priest.”
—
Rache, who returned to the Guardian lodging, was sitting on a bench the whole time and blankly staring only at empty space, as if when did he ever devote himself to training.
Without saying any word, and without doing anything.
Thanks to his chest moving barely and his frowning expression, it became known that he wasn’t asleep with his eyes open, but…… so to speak, his condition was not good.
“Why is Rache acting like that?”
Nike, who approached Kenrick before anyone knew, asked.
“I don’t know. If it were normal, he is a guy who would have been running wild with joy by now and then some.”
“Because everyone is in a festival mood.”
Now that they have found the stronghold of the wraiths and wiped them out.
The Guardians, without exception, were running wild with joy, and everyone was talking noisily with a broad smile.
However, amidst such a boisterous atmosphere, only Rache is quiet. As if he is severed from the current situation.
“It seems he shared some talk with the young lady, though.”
“What talk?”
“If I knew that, I would have said I know.”
“Aha.”
Nike nodded with an innocent face and gave Kenrick’s back a nudge.
“Kenrick, you go over.”
Kenrick turned his head. It was an expression saying ‘Why me?’, but Nike was nonchalant.
“What, I should go? At times like this, a friend should ask from the side, but for Rache, Kenrick is the only friend he has, isn’t he.”
“…….”
Because it wasn’t a wrong word, Kenrick could not easily refute. Then, letting out a sigh with an “Ugh”, he took a step.
“He also needs to cultivate social skills.”
Tsk tsk. Clicking his tongue, he approached close to Rache.
But Rache was still making a soul-less expression as if he didn’t even know Kenrick was coming to him, and only then did Kenrick perceive that the situation is somewhat serious.
“What’s the matter?”
He asked while standing in front of Rache.
“What’s the matter that you are making such a dead face. What’s wrong?”
Only then did the focus return to Rache’s pupils, and he slowly raised his head and looked at Kenrick.
“It’s something I can’t tell you.”
“What is it that you can’t even tell me?”
“That’s why I’m saying I can’t tell you.”
“Hey. Are you going to keep being like this?”
Kenrick said with a voice mixed with a bit of annoyance. Rache let out a long sigh and dropped his head low.
“Just…… Daphne.”
As soon as he spoke those words, Kenrick’s eyes grew wide.
“Did she cause trouble again? What did she do? Did she do something strange again?”
“No, no! It’s not that! ……No, wait. Is it something strange.”
“What is it. Why again!”
A burnt child dreads the fire.
Because Kenrick was someone who worried about Daphne to the point of being fed up since before, he asked, startled, and Rache dropped his head, letting out a sigh again.
“Kenrick. Do you…….”
“Yeah.”
“Like the current Daphne?”
Kenrick’s expression became subtle.
“You’re not asking rationally, right. I have no taste for liking children.”
“What kind of bulls…… don’t say things like a criminal. Are you crazy?”
“That’s why. I’m saying it’s not that kind of thing.”
At the silly conversation, Rache let out a hollow laugh. Talking with Kenrick, it seems the stuffiness that was full inside his chest is subsiding at least a bit.
Rache, who slapped his cheeks with his palms, pulled his mind together and intently stared into Kenrick’s two eyes.
“Anyway, it’s not that kind of rational thing, but her behavior or words…… well, something like that. Do you like that? Is it okay?”
“Ah.”
Kenrick let out a short lament as if he understood.
“Isn’t that obvious?”
And then he answered immediately.
“Before, so to speak. It was a bit strange, wasn’t it. Her actions were like that too, but…… every time I saw her, I got annoyed and angry. It might be just because I hated her that I did that, but…… I just disliked her. Instinctively.”
“Then…… now?”
“I don’t feel that way.”
“…….”
At the expected answer, Rache let out a long sigh once again.
“Me too.”
He dropped his head and buried his face in both his hands.
“I also ceased to feel revulsion toward Daphne from a certain moment. Yes. Really from a certain moment…….”
Kenrick tilted his head. Doesn’t that mean the revulsion disappeared because Daphne became good? Why is he making such a tearful expression while saying that? Kenrick could not understand well.
“And? Why is that?”
“No. Just…….”
Rache swept down his face with his palms and straightened his waist once again.
“At the thought that all of this is because of those black mages.”
“What does that mean?”
“…….”
Rache faltered over the words lingering inside his mouth. Is it okay to say it? The fact that originally Daphne was not a person but merely a lump of calamity, and the current Daphne is a Black Dragon…… in other words, that she is a different race and a different entity from us…… is it okay to say it?
The current Rache was in a very confusing situation, and also because of that, he was in a exhausted state as well.
He unconsciously grabbed Kenrick’s sleeve.
“Kenrick. You know.”
“Yeah.”
“Actually…….”
It was right at that moment.
Kwaaaaang!
“Aaaarggh! What is it! What’s happening!”
“It’s an attack! It’s the wraiths!”
As the wall of the building collapsed, dozens of black mages began to rush in all at once.
Toward the place where Rache is.
