Chapter 172
“So many stars.”
Lying flat on the grass, staring blankly up at the sky, Artson murmured suddenly.
“Seriously, disgustingly many.”
She blinked, and yet the way she spoke, her tone, her expression, all of it seemed thoroughly displeased. Beside her, Kalid, sipping wine, tilted his head.
“What’s this? Why the sudden mood?”
Kalid set down his wine glass and asked.
“No, just.”
Lying there, Artson let out a sigh and scratched the back of her head.
“Back when I was first caught by that crazy dragon, remember?”
“Ah. Yeah. That was around the same time as me.”
At that, Artson’s eyes sharpened.
“Not true. Mine was later. You got caught earlier because you were weaker than me.”
“Ith not, thoo. Ith not.”
Watching Kalid mock her, Artson clenched her fist tight.
“Want to fight it out again after all this time?”
“Don’t. If we fight here, our Daphne will beat us both to death.”
“Or the hero might kill us first.”
“Ugh, so many people out to kill us.”
They both burst into laughter. After laughing like that for a while, once it finally died down, they got to the actual point.
“Anyway, back then… there was something I heard.”
Artson said slowly.
“That she’d rather live loving someone than hating someone. That’s what she said. Daphne.”
“Well… she’d say something like that.”
Kalid, setting aside Daphne’s temperament—sure, she could be hot-headed, prone to snapping, eccentric, even a little unhinged—held her basic capacity to love and cherish humans, her pursuit of good, in high regard regardless. Which was why he found it entirely believable that Daphne would say something like that.
Artson stared steadily at Kalid.
“Have you ever thought something like that?”
“Never.”
Kalid answered lightly, then let out a short laugh and added.
“I do now, though.”
Artson’s eyes went wide.
“Yeah? Who?”
“Teppy.”
“…”
Ah. Oh no.
No wonder something had felt off about the way he’d been talking about Teppy. Why in the world, of all beings, some impossibly young human… Artson’s shoulders trembled.
“Ah, why! Why that face!”
Kalid shouted, sounding stung.
“Long-lived races like us are supposed to dote on mortals, that’s just how it is.”
“…The age gap alone is thousands of years. Ugh, gross.”
“Ah, so what! What am I even planning to do about it?”
“If you’re planning to do something, at least change your gender first. Ugh.”
“Who even cares about that in this day and age?”
“Fair, but ugh, still, the age difference, ugh.”
“Hey!”
Kalid hissed and bristled with anger for a moment, then let out a sigh and steered the conversation back on track.
“Never mind that, so? Why bring this up all of a sudden?”
“Hmm.”
Artson said, resting her chin in her hand.
“So I got to thinking too. Have I ever loved anyone?”
Her gaze drifted downward, carrying with it a faint, misplaced loneliness.
“I’ve been here for nearly ten years now, and, I don’t know, it feels like I’ve never actually experienced love. So.”
“…”
“I started wondering if maybe I was just born without that basic emotion entirely.”
Sensing the mood turn heavy in an instant, Kalid looked away with an awkward expression.
What could he even say here. It’s not like he could say, well, you did seem a bit off from the moment you were born, that’s not exactly comforting. And saying, no, just try harder, felt strange too.
Having no idea what to say, Kalid simply stayed quiet for the moment. As a slightly awkward atmosphere settled between them… it was then.
“Lady Artson!”
Someone came running from behind them. The voice sounded familiar, one of the servants, it seemed. Artson and Kalid both turned toward the sound, and before long, spotted Anne coming over a small hill.
“You were here? Ugh, I’ve been looking all over! Ah, Lord Domit’s here too. Hello.”
Anne beamed and approached Artson. Kalid, going by the alias Domit, returned her greeting and stepped back slightly, since it seemed Anne had something to say to Artson.
Anne, smiling brightly, held something out to Artson.
“Here. Cookies.”
It was a basket of cookies. Filled with cookies studded with chocolate chips, strawberry bits, banana chips, every sweet thing imaginable!
“You tried one I made last time and said you wanted more, remember? So I secretly baked some more. It’s a secret from Lady Daphne, okay!”
Artson stared blankly at the cookie basket, then at Anne, then back at the cookie basket, then at Anne again, repeating the cycle.
“Uh…”
Having lost his words for a moment, he spoke carefully.
“Why…?”
“Huh?”
“Why did you make them?”
Anne tilted her head as though she’d been asked a strange question.
“Because I was thinking of you, Lady Artson, obviously!”
“Thinking of me…?”
Artson’s eyes wavered.
“Why? Why would you think of me?”
Anne shot Kalid a look, as though wondering what was going on with Artson, but Kalid simply shrugged in response.
After thinking it over for a moment, Anne answered.
“Well, because I wanted you to see it and be happy, Lady Artson. So I thought of you, and since I thought of you, I brought you a gift.”
“Ah…”
As though finally understanding, Artson nodded and stared intently at the cookie basket, then broke into a broad smile.
“I think I get it now!”
Then she shouted toward Kalid.
“I get it! This is it, right? Right?”
“Yeah. Probably.”
The moment Kalid’s answer ended, Artson spread both arms wide and rushed toward Anne.
“I like Anne!”
Caught off guard, embraced by Artson, Anne was momentarily flustered, but soon set down the cookie basket and hugged Artson back.
“I like you too.”
“Yeah. Like. Like a lot.”
“Yes, yes.”
“I like you. For real.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Hehe.”
Watching Artson grin so brightly, Kalid muttered.
“Weren’t you just saying it was gross a minute ago.”
It’s romance when I do it, but an affair when someone else does?
Sheesh.
Kalid shook his head.
* * *
[From now on, you will no longer be able to create false causality.]
Honestly, she had no idea what that meant.
What did it mean, being unable to create false causality?
Did it mean she couldn’t lie anymore? That wouldn’t do at all. She couldn’t get through life properly without lying.
Daphne deliberately tried to think of it lightly, but honestly, it wasn’t working well. Her mind was tangled. Her chest felt tight, too.
Part of it was surely the sound of footsteps approaching from behind. Those footsteps, without a doubt, belonged to the Emperor.
“Tell me properly what it means. What does it mean, that I can’t create false causality?”
At that, the voice spoke again.
[Everything you’re hiding.]
[It means all of it will come to light.]
Daphne’s eyes darted this way and that. The things she was hiding. Her true identity. Her thoughts. Her past… Daphne shook her head.
“No!”
At that, a soft laugh drifted in.
[Then will you return to that body instead?]
If she chose to live as Daphne, everything she had hidden until now would be exposed.
Revealed. She would disappoint everyone. She would never be loved by anyone again. No. Not that. Anything but that.
And so, looking at it from every angle, choosing Sellus’s body seemed like the right choice. Return to Sellus’s body, and the causal fate known as “the Calamity” would vanish, letting her finally live the way she’d always wanted.
But… the reason she hesitated was…
“If I return to Sellus, what happens to Daphne?”
Daphne snapped her head up and asked.
“What happens to Daphne’s body?”
