Chapter 161
The one who opened the door and walked in was none other than Domit—no, Kalid.
Why are you coming out from there…?
Daphne’s eyes went wide as she stared at him, and Kalid shrugged.
“Long time no see?”
He smirked and stepped closer to Daphne.
“Wow, human bodies really are something. Haven’t seen you in a while and look how big you’ve gotten. Next time I see you, you’ll be a wrinkled old granny.”
Kalid approached Daphne with his usual breezy attitude, and Daphne looked up at him, blinking slowly.
“You.”
Then she clenched her fist tight.
“It’s been a while since you got hit by me, hasn’t it.”
“No. My bad.”
Instantly recalling the memory of being struck in the past, Kalid dropped flat in an instant, his earlier attitude nowhere to be found. But for some reason, Daphne’s fierce expression showed no sign of easing. Uh, um. So…
“…My apologies?”
“That’s right.”
Had he always spoken to her so formally? He couldn’t quite remember, but somehow, in the time he hadn’t seen her, Daphne seemed to have turned into quite the stickler. Kalid, wondering if he shouldn’t have come at all, scratched the back of his neck.
“Why are you here?”
“The count came, so I tagged along… ma’am.”
“Are you still tagging along with that man? Fascinating. Sticking with a single human for that long.”
At Daphne’s muttered remark, Kalid let out a short laugh.
“Well, it’s fun.”
“…The count is?”
“No. His son is… ma’am.”
“Teppy?”
Daphne crossed her arms and tilted her head. Then she recalled a memory from the training hall, of Teppy grinning stupidly as he picked up dropped food and ate it.
“That kid is kind of funny, I’ll admit. Strange too.”
Daphne let out a short laugh, then turned her attention back to Kalid.
“Anyway, so? Why did you come looking for me? I don’t have time for this right now. If you’ve got no business here, go back.”
“No, no, I do have business… ma’am.”
Kalid answered hastily. Then he pointed toward Rache, lying on the bed.
“That, uh, what was her name again. Rache? Riche?”
“Rache.”
Kalid nodded.
“Right, right. I heard roughly what happened from Artson… ma’am.”
“Drop the formalities. Don’t be annoying about it.”
“Okay!”
Seeing him answer so readily, beaming as if that was exactly what he’d wanted, left her feeling thoroughly displeased. Ah, why do dragons smiling always irritate me so much. Ah, right, it’s just because I dislike this entire race. I wish he’d just stop smiling and get lost already… As Daphne muttered to herself, Kalid spoke to her again.
“You don’t necessarily need to absorb that man’s energy yourself.”
“What?”
Daphne’s eyes sharpened.
“So you’re saying I should just let Rache die?”
“Goodness. Do I really look like such a heartless dragon to you?”
“Yes.”
“…”
Well, I mean. Hard to argue with such a flat answer.
Ahem, Kalid cleared his throat awkwardly and spoke carefully.
“Not you. The black mage down in the dungeon. Tell him instead.”
“Yan?”
Daphne frowned.
It wasn’t as though she hadn’t considered Yan. But he hadn’t even been a viable option to begin with. Why, you ask?
“No. His vessel wouldn’t be able to hold Rache either. If it goes wrong, they’d both end up dead.”
Because Yan was human.
No matter how skilled a black mage he might be, a human was still a human. A human’s vessel fell far, far short of a dragon’s. Leave it to him, and there was a serious risk that both he and Rache would end up dead.
Which was, naturally, exactly why Daphne had intended to absorb the death energy herself…
“How can you be so sure of that?”
Kalid grinned and stepped closer to Daphne.
“Yan, was it. That guy.”
Then, weighing each word with deliberate emphasis, he said.
“He’s a chimera.”
“…What?”
“A fusion of human and dragon.”
At that, Daphne suddenly found herself recalling Yan’s appearance.
Come to think of it, that yellow-haired man always kept his arms and legs covered, never showing bare skin…
* * *
Rache wandered through darkness.
Nothing was visible. And nothing could be felt, either.
He had no idea where he was, or what he was supposed to do here—none of it. So Rache sat still in place for a while, then, growing tired, tried moving around, tried running, tried lying down, repeating all sorts of actions in turn. And still, the darkness refused to lift.
Why, the moment that thought crossed his mind, Rache suddenly recalled the fact that he had been captured by the black mages.
-I hear the Calamity dotes on her family something fierce.
-Wonder if she’ll really turn her back on us, even faced with your death.
Good grief.
Rache clapped a hand over his mouth. Actually, the darkness was so thick he couldn’t quite tell whether he’d covered his mouth or his eyes, but regardless.
‘Daphne.’
What had happened to her? Had Daphne shared her power with them? Had she saved him? No—if she’d saved him, he wouldn’t still be stuck here. So did that mean she hadn’t shared her power? Of course, that would be the direction that benefited all of humanity, but I…
For a moment, Rache thought himself thoroughly pathetic.
What had been his reason for becoming a Guardian, again? Hadn’t he become a Guardian resolved to shoulder the grand, exaggerated responsibility of protecting humanity?
And here he was, of all people, resenting Daphne for choosing humanity over saving him. Wanting to say he wished to keep living, still.
‘How foolish of me.’
Rache sank down where he stood. Then buried his face in both hands.
‘If I’d known I’d die like this…’
He shouldn’t have spoken so harshly to Daphne.
In truth, it remained an unchanging fact that Daphne had deceived him. And not just him, either. She’d deceived his entire family, every last one of them. Even now, in this very moment, his family would be adoring Daphne, none the wiser.
But…
‘Is that really so bad?’
The original Daphne, they said, had been a lump of curses. Calamity itself.
And so she had been wicked, and so she had been hated, and so she had made a habit of harming others.
But the Daphne of now?
Wicked, perhaps, but only ever toward wicked people, and far from being hated, she was, in fact, loved by many, in her own way. And that wasn’t all. Harming others had applied solely to black mages. Daphne had always sought to protect people, and had, in fact, actually managed it.
He knew it.
That the Daphne who had been a curse was not truly his sister. That not the slightest fragment of his heart had ever leaned toward that lump of curses.
That it was only the Daphne of now… whom he had loved, purely and entirely—Rache knew this too.
And yet the reason he had unleashed such harsh words at Daphne came down to just one thing.
‘Fear.’
He had been afraid of the Calamity.
Terrified that the Calamity, wielding power great enough to bring an end to all of humanity, was his own younger sister.
The fact that, since they weren’t even related by blood, Daphne could kill him the moment she decided to, whenever she pleased—and the terrifying premonition that not just him, but all of humanity, could perish too… it was this that had made Rache afraid, filled him with dread.
Which was perhaps precisely why Rache had lashed out at Daphne all the more. Out of fear, like a small puppy yapping all the louder in front of a much larger dog…
‘I’m sorry.’
Rache let out a hollow laugh.
Truly, if he’d known he would die like this, he should have at least offered an apology before it was too late.
But…
Thanks to all this, there was something he’d come to understand.
That Daphne was not some calamity destined to destroy humanity, but a being who would help humanity instead.
And so, he murmured, he thought he might be able to close his eyes in peace now.
‘Guess it’s alright to close my eyes now.’
Somehow, this felt like an oddly empty way to die… Rache murmured to himself, and closed his eyes just as he was,
and at that very moment.
“Aaaargh!”
He shot upright, eyes flying open.
The moment he did, the darkness that had enveloped him vanished entirely, replaced by a piercing white light stabbing into his eyes. Rubbing his eyes roughly with the back of his hand, he looked around. An underground dungeon… a strange black mage wrapped in bandages… a red-haired fox beastkin… and.
“Daphne?”
Daphne, bawling her eyes out.
The moment Rache saw her, his mouth fell open, and Daphne rushed at him, shouting.
“Waaah! You crazy idiot! I’m so glad you’re alive!”
…Huh.
Rache found himself instinctively pulling Daphne into a tight embrace, and in that moment, he could feel his heart melting, warmth spreading thro
ugh his whole body.
And so, he was finally able to say the words he’d never managed to before.
“I’m sorry, Daphne.”
The words he’d desperately wanted to say.
“You really are my sister.”
I love you.
Words just like that.
