Chapter 180
20. My Daughter Told Me Not to Do It
“You, you……!”
Rache was on the verge of completely falling backward. Just learning that Daphne’s true identity had been discovered by Heros—that Daphne was, in fact, the calamity—was enough of a shock to make her fall ill, but now she was hearing that two and a half of Daphne’s wings had turned black.
She did not know much about Black Butterfly disease in detail, but she knew the basics. If all four wings turned black, the person would die. Die, Daphne? The moment that thought occurred to her, Rache’s jaw began to tremble.
“If you’re this sick, you should have told me you were sick!”
In the end, unable to contain her anger, Rache screamed, and Daphne avoided her gaze with a groan.
“No, I didn’t know either.”
“……You didn’t know?”
“That’s right. How could I possibly look at my own chest every time? I don’t even bother looking at my own face because it’s such a hassle.”
“!@#!&#*@(!!”
Rache collapsed backward while foaming at the mouth and making incomprehensible sounds, and Teiti, who had been standing nearby but had been unable to intervene because Rache was so shocked, took advantage of the opportunity to speak to Daphne.
“The rate of progression is quite alarming.”
He spoke with an unusually serious expression, which was also an indication of just how poor Daphne’s condition was. He recalled the first time he had examined Daphne’s Black Butterfly disease. It had not progressed this quickly before…… Why had the curse suddenly spread so rapidly? Teiti frowned.
“Stop making that face. It must be because I’ve been using too much power lately.”
But Daphne herself remained completely calm. Teiti was dumbfounded by this, while Rache, who had fallen down and gotten back up, was equally bewildered.
“You really……!”
Just as Rache was about to shout again, Artson suddenly cut in.
“You’re really fascinating.”
Artson said this with her eyes wide open, as if she were genuinely amazed.
“You struggle so desperately to protect the lives of insignificant humans, yet you don’t care at all whether you live or die yourself. Aren’t you afraid of dying?”
Instead of answering, Daphne stared intently at Artson, but Artson paid no attention to her gaze and continued, shrugging her shoulders.
“I’m scared. Maybe because I’ve lived for so long, I’m even more afraid. I’m more terrified. Just imagining myself disappearing is horrifying. But you don’t seem bothered at all, and that’s really fascinating.”
At her words, Daphne let out a low laugh. Asking whether she was not afraid of death. What kind of question was that? Daphne shook her head.
“I’m afraid too.”
Then she added,
“But there is a difference between the strong inevitably dying and the weak dying because they are weak.”
“I think dying because you’re weak is inevitable too.”
“They did not choose to be weak themselves.”
At the firm retort, Artson flinched slightly.
“Neither being strong nor being weak was something they chose. It is simply what they became. Therefore, inevitability is not something that is equal for everyone.”
Artson replied while taking a small half-step backward.
“I don’t know. I don’t understand. And I don’t want to understand.”
“We’ve been together for this long, yet you still don’t understand. I find you truly fascinating as well.”
Daphne glared at Artson with eyes that had turned cold, as if she had never once coughed up blood or suffered in pain. Then she quietly murmured,
“Maybe I should have killed you back then.”
“Ah, why are you threatening me again!”
Artson screamed in horror and now fled completely into the distance. Daphne chuckled. Teiti thought that she had deliberately provoked Artson in order to lighten the atmosphere. But Teiti did not let himself be distracted by it. He narrowed his eyes sharply and glared at Daphne.
“Lady Daphne. This is not something you can brush off as a joke.”
He said this while grasping Daphne’s thin arm.
“If this continues, you won’t live past twenty.”
Even twenty was an optimistic estimate. Daphne was thirteen now, so in five to eight years, she would be dead. It was difficult to predict whether she would even live to adulthood.
“And yet why are you so calm about this, seriously!”
In the end, Teiti let out a sigh and clutched his forehead, while Rache, who was beside him, became even more restless after hearing Teiti’s words, anxiously looking back and forth between Daphne and Teiti.
After watching them nervously for quite some time, Rache cautiously opened her mouth.
“Um, well, is there, some kind of method, a method?”
“A method. There is.”
Teiti said it as though it were simple.
“Returning to your original body.”
“You slave.”
“Return to the body of the calamity, Lady Daphne.”
Rache rolled her eyes upward. So, Selus, Daphne’s original body and the body of the calamity, was still there? So Daphne could enter Selus’s body? Then she could live? Wasn’t that a good thing?!
“What? Why? Why? Why won’t you go back? If you go back, the curse will disappear, so you can live, and that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
Rache asked with an attitude that might have seemed childish, but it was not because she was simply immature and asking without a care. Even when she thought about it objectively, that option was far better for Daphne. Teiti thought the same way as Rache.
“That’s right. Tell us. Why on earth are you struggling so desperately not to return to the calamity’s body?”
Daphne could not easily answer the questions the two of them had poured out and fidgeted awkwardly. Teiti’s eyes narrowed further.
“First, you suddenly said you would leave the choice to the hero, then when the hero told you to choose the path that would make you happy, you said you would decide later and put it off, and then you left your body behind! Ah! Just thinking about it makes my blood boil! Seriously, why are you doing this?!”
Teiti, saying that he could no longer endure it, abandoned his serious and solemn attitude, stomped his feet repeatedly, and shouted, as though he were finally releasing all the frustration that had been building up inside him. He fiercely frowned and tightened his grip on Daphne’s wrist.
“Lady Daphne is going to die, right? Do you know what will happen to me then?”
Daphne stared blankly at Teiti before replying.
“……Since you’ve been acting recklessly all this time because you trusted only me, you’ll get beaten senseless by Artson?”
“That’s true…… No, that’s not it!”
Teiti pounded his chest repeatedly.
“I’ll be sad!”
“Ah.”
Only then did Daphne seem to understand, nodding with an awkward expression. Teiti seemed even more dumbfounded by that attitude.
“Of course you’ll be sad when someone dies! Why are you worrying about getting beaten?! You’re turning me into some strange elf without any emotions!”
“You were always like that.”
“I’m not now!”
Huffing and puffing, Teiti glared at her.
“Haa, anyway. If there’s no proper reason, then just return to the calamity.”
“It’s because of my family.”
Daphne finally revealed the truth she had kept in her heart all this time.
“My family, that is…….”
She looked at Rache. Daphne was reflected in those two eyes that were filled with concern for her. Not Selus.
She looked at Arius, who was far away. Arius did not know in his wildest dreams that Daphne was Selus. And what about Vifera?
Heros already knew, they said, but still.
“……If I return to the calamity’s body, then I will no longer be your family, will I?”
Daphne clenched her fists tightly as she spoke.
“So.”
Her faintly trembling voice revealed the thoughts Daphne had carried in her heart all this time—the desperate longing and affection she felt for her family, and even, beyond that, her attachment to them.
“So I want to live in this body, and I want to die in this body.”
Daphne slowly raised her head and looked at Teiti and Rache.
Then she smiled bitterly.
“Is it wrong for me to think this way?”
Daphne’s expression was so unbearably pitiful that no one could say anything, not a single word.
