Chapter 177
Heros pressed his eyes shut firmly. How to put it. Some indescribable emotion seemed to be welling up within him.
Betrayal? No. The situation didn’t quite fit that word cleanly enough for him to feel true betrayal.
Sorrow? That, he understood, came from facing Elise again. Not from Daphne.
So then, why.
“Daphne.”
Slowly opening his closed eyes again, Heros looked steadily down at Daphne.
“Which life made you happier?”
Daphne froze in place, as though she hadn’t expected such a question. Behind them, the sound of explosions still echoed, along with screams and shouts of battle.
The scent of blood filled the air everywhere. And yet between Heros and Daphne, right now, it felt as if none of that existed at all—only stillness.
“Which life was happier? Which life was more satisfying?”
“…”
“Tell me that, and I’ll make my choice.”
Daphne now found herself somewhat dumbfounded, for the simple reason that Heros wasn’t angry with her at all—no fury, no indignation, nothing of the sort. His eyes were as calm and still as the very air flowing between them right now.
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
A hollow laugh escaped her.
“You’re not even angry.”
Daphne suddenly thought to herself. Elise and Heros both seemed like the kind of pushovers who’d lose out anywhere they went… no wait, he wasn’t like that when he was beating me up, was he.
Regardless, Daphne let out a sigh, releasing the tension that had built up throughout her body.
“I deceived you for a long time.”
“I’ll ask why later.”
“Hero.”
“Whatever the case, getting out of here should be the priority right now.”
Heros seemed to be deliberately steering the conversation elsewhere. Daphne, displeased by this, frowned, but since his point held some merit regardless, she nodded.
“But you’re not going to deal with those guys?”
Daphne asked, gesturing toward the ones still fighting behind them. Heros simply shrugged, unbothered.
“Isn’t the Imperial Knight Order just for show?”
“To be precise, aren’t you a member of the Imperial Knights too, hero?”
“Right now, I’m simply a father who came looking for his daughter.”
“…”
Daughter, he’d said.
Daphne found herself swept up in a strange emotion. That Heros wasn’t angry with her, that he was still calling her “daughter”—all of it felt awkward. It was an emotion too complex to define cleanly, so all she could call it was “strange.”
Her reason told her, you are a liar, and yet her heart… felt relieved. Relieved that Heros didn’t hate her.
As Daphne stood there, lost in thought, Heros stepped closer. Then grabbed her by the back of the neck and lifted her up.
“Ah! I told you not to grab me like that!”
“This is easier.”
Lifting Daphne up as he always did, Heros hoisted her onto his back. Daphne squirmed, but laughter burst out of her at the same time. Because even with everything now revealed, nothing between them seemed to have changed at all.
It was then.
“Planning to just leave on your own terms, are you.”
A voice she really didn’t want to hear rang out. The Emperor.
Daphne, all trace of her earlier laughter gone in an instant, narrowed her eyes into a glare at the Emperor, while Heros turned to face him, unbothered. The Emperor gestured with his chin toward the scene behind them.
“Leaving them like that?”
Where he pointed, plenty of people were still locked in battle. But Daphne and Heros both wore matching expressions as they looked at the Emperor. As if to say, who cares.
“I thought it wasn’t our place to interfere.”
“Exactly. Not our concern.”
At that, the Emperor’s face twisted slightly. But he soon smiled broadly again and addressed Daphne.
“No, no. You should interfere.”
Then he pointed toward Sellus’s body.
“That’s your body, after all.”
Around it, figures were fighting to claim Sellus’s body, along with Shio holding them off, and a handful of Imperial Knights. The Emperor said, unbothered.
“If you don’t protect it right now, I might just end up using it myself.”
“Go ahead.”
But Daphne remained entirely unbothered. Her tone was indifferent, as though discussing someone else’s problem entirely.
“…What did you say?”
The Emperor asked, somewhat taken aback, and Daphne smirked as she answered.
“Try it, then. If you can.”
And then she revealed the reason she’d felt no real sense of crisis this entire time—the reason behind her confidence.
“There must have been a good reason you’ve left it alone until now, hasn’t there?”
Yes. There was a reason.
He had tried to use Sellus’s body to create more chimeras, but the moment he’d touched it, he’d been repelled.
However he tried to break through the protective barrier and pry it open, he couldn’t manage to peel off even a single scale. Daphne must have set some kind of device in place. As though protecting her own body.
“And as far as I’m concerned, whether you take my body or Lani takes it, I couldn’t care less. I’ll be reclaiming it either way.”
“You think that’s possible?”
Unlike his earlier composure, the Emperor’s voice now carried a hint of anger. Daphne only sneered further.
“Yellow boy.”
Daphne said, looking up at the Emperor.
“Don’t you realize I’m going easy on you right now?”
The corner of the Emperor’s eye twitched. Yes. Just as she’d said, if Daphne chose Sellus’s body and entered it right now, the Emperor alone would never be able to handle her. She was, after all, the Calamity itself.
Knowing this well, the Emperor could no longer offer any counterargument, and Daphne, chuckling, tapped Heros’s back. A signal that she wanted to be put down now.
After a moment’s hesitation, Heros set Daphne down, and Daphne rested her hand on the sword at her waist as she spoke.
“You told me to ask if I ever needed help.”
“Daphne.”
The sword her hand now rested on was the very one the Emperor had given her. Back then, the Emperor had implied he could help her with anything—but Daphne, as she was now, had no need for his help whatsoever. In fact, it was he who needed hers.
“Sounds like you’re the one who needs that help.”
Daphne clicked her tongue and said.
“If you want to use my body, you’ll have to come begging to me for it.”
The Emperor’s expression twisted mercilessly. But he offered nothing further. No—he couldn’t. Because, as she’d said, using that body more easily meant her current state, remaining the hero’s daughter, was far more advantageous for him.
Guessing at the Emperor’s thoughts, Daphne chuckled and asked.
“Actually, there’s something I’m curious about.”
Daphne was in a good mood. Why, you ask? Well, for one, she’d learned her soul had originally been meant to be Elise’s daughter, and Heros, having learned she was Sellus, hadn’t gotten angry at all.
And so Daphne, gripping Heros’s hand tightly, said.
“Do you have a mother?”
I do, you know.
Daphne laughed for a long while, watching the Emperor’s expression darken.
She hadn’t quite managed to catch Heros’s smile, but no matter.
To say it again, Daphne was in a very good mood.
* * *
“Ah! I was so close to finding Lani!”
Shio, suddenly hauled outside the lair, grumbled. Daphne shook her head.
“Already found him.”
“What?”
Shio’s eyes went wide.
Wait, after all that thorough searching I did, and you found him without even trying?
“H-how?”
“Because I’m better than you.”
“…You know you’re being really annoying right now, right?”
“No idea.”
Daphne crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall. Then, looking up at the ceiling, she spoke.
“Lani, or whatever your name is, green boy.”
The ceiling flinched, rippling faintly.
“Come on out now.”
Daphne said, still staring fixedly at the ceiling.
“Let’s have a talk, me and my mother.”
