Chapter 109
Heros, sitting on the bench, was looking up at the sky with a somewhat expressionless face.
He was not meditating or spacing out.
He was simply replaying the conversation he had just had with Daphne.
-I am not a warrior. I am your father.
-Call me that.
Now that he had completely solidified his feelings toward the children.
He had told Daphne, who called him “warrior” day in and day out, to use the proper title.
Who calls their father by his occupation?
That was why he made the suggestion, but the moment she heard it, Daphne’s expression turned strange.
Frowning in disgust and looking horrified — it was an expression he had never seen before.
-Ah……
-Father……
-……Don’t talk bullshit and get lost! Aaaah! I hate it!
Recalling Daphne’s reaction, Heros let out a long, low groan.
‘She hated it that much.’
Feeling slightly dejected, he lowered the gaze he had fixed on the sky and let out a sigh.
Then he spoke to Rache, who had been standing behind him fidgeting anxiously for a while.
“Do you have something to say to me?”
Rache, who had been wearing an anxious expression, brightened at those words and approached Heros.
“Um, Your Grace. The thing is…….”
Gulp. He swallowed dryly and repeatedly clenched and unclenched both hands.
“That…… I was wondering if it’s really okay to leave the Imperial Count like that.”
This was exactly why Rache had overcome his fear and come to find Heros.
No matter how much he personally disliked Daphne, the Imperial Count had gone too far.
-That’s exactly why even your own family abandoned you.
-You should know your place.
-You’re a failure anyway.
Daphne had simply been quiet.
He didn’t know why Teppy was crying, but Daphne had just been sitting there adorably and quietly!
So why was he grabbing an innocent Daphne and spewing such filthy words?
Rache’s anger had risen to the top of his head, but since he couldn’t charge at the Count himself, he had come to Heros first.
“Even if Daphne has caused all sorts of incidents, those are family matters at most. I don’t think it’s something the Count should interfere in. I believe his words were presumptuous.”
Instead of answering, Heros simply looked straight up at Rache.
Certainly, Rache had never particularly liked Daphne.
Wasn’t he the child who even ran away from home because of Daphne?
Yet here he was, taking Daphne’s side first……
Heros thought that Rache, too, seemed to have undergone some change of heart.
“You’re right about the Count.”
Rache’s eyes sparkled brightly.
“Then shall I take care of him?”
Take care of?
Heros gave a slight smile.
“What exactly do you plan to do to take care of him?”
“Hmm…….”
After thinking for a moment, Rache began speaking fluently as if he had prepared it in advance.
“First, kidnap him, tie his hands and feet, blindfold and gag him so he doesn’t know who it is, then crush the bones in his legs or feet — how about that? That way he won’t be able to walk, so the annoying behavior will decrease significantly.”
“…….”
“Or maybe the arms? Hands? Fingers? Oh, the mouth works too. Pulling out all his teeth would be a good option.”
“…….”
Heros couldn’t continue speaking.
After opening and closing his mouth a few times, he stood up and approached Rache closely.
“Rache.”
“Yes?”
“Is being a guardian…… a bit too hard for you?”
Not understanding why such a question was being asked, Rache tilted his head.
“No? I enjoy it tremendously!”
“……I-I see.”
Heros answered somewhat awkwardly before pulling himself together again.
“I’ll handle the Count myself. There’s no need for you to step in.”
“Yes, understood.”
“You may go back now.”
“Yes.”
When Heros said he would “handle it himself,” it probably meant he would use a far more extreme method than Rache could imagine.
So there was nothing to worry about.
Rache smiled faintly and turned to leave, but then he paused as if realizing something and glanced back.
“Um…… and.”
He swallowed dryly once more.
Then he recalled what Heros had said earlier while holding Daphne.
-This child is my daughter.
My daughter……
The moment he heard those words, Rache felt joy and relief that Daphne had finally found her place, but at the same time sorrow because it seemed there had never been a place for him to begin with.
What exactly am I to Heros?
Am I family?
Rache bit his lower lip hard.
“I also…….”
I also want to ask if I am your son.
But he was afraid of the answer he might receive.
Afraid that Heros would say he was not his son, but merely the son of a friend.
Rache shook his head.
“No, it’s nothing. I’ll head back.”
So Rache buried the resignation deep in his heart and turned away.
Yes, I can never become a member of the ducal family, I can never become real family…… thinking that.
It was at that moment.
“Rache.”
From behind him, Heros’s voice called out.
“You too.”
In a gentler tone than ever before,
“You too are my son.”
Heros said the words Rache had so desperately wanted to hear.
***
“I’m a dragon! This guy is a dragon too!”
Dragon, dragon, dragon……
I never thought an echo could ring out on flat ground.
Daphne slowly blinked while listening to the echoing reverberation.
“Heh.”
Daphne let out a hollow laugh.
“This one’s a dragon, that one’s a dragon too. What is this? Are dragons something you can meet so easily?”
Grabbing her forehead, Daphne soon narrowed one eye and turned to look at Shio.
Above all, Shio’s identity was the biggest shock.
She had thought he probably wasn’t an ordinary human, but she never imagined he was a dragon.
At most, she had pictured him as a runaway black mage…… or something like that.
Daphne pressed hard on her brow.
“Slave No. 2.”
“Yes, Master.”
Shio quickly ran in front of Daphne, grinned brightly, and pushed his face close.
Daphne stared straight at him for a moment, then lifted one corner of her mouth.
“Do you think I’ve treated you well enough so far?”
“……Well enough? Me?”
“It seems I’ve been far too lenient with you. No wonder Teiti looked so distressed.”
“Huh?”
“We’ll talk about that later. For now, bow your head.”
“……For real?”
“Head.”
“Yes.”
Thud!
Shio, who clearly had a guilty conscience, obediently slammed his forehead down, and Daphne sat her hips on his back before sweeping her hair back.
She looked at Kalid, who was trembling.
“Hic!”
Kalid was hiccupping and avoiding Daphne’s gaze.
Since the day he was born, the scariest being in the world had been the white dragon Shiosen.
Just the times he had been beaten by Shiosen could fill three full nights and days.
Yet here was a human treating that Shiosen so casually?
Kalid decided he should obediently curl his tail.
“You.”
“Y-yes!”
“Are you really a red dragon?”
It was only natural to ask such a question.
First of all, it was strange for a noble dragon to take the form of a fox beastman, and moreover, the way he was cowering didn’t look dragon-like at all.
Daphne narrowed her eyes while scanning Kalid up and down.
“I heard that guy has an incredibly bad temper, yet here he is being so docile — that’s suspicious. You don’t have some ulterior motive, do you?”
“No way! Of course not!”
Kalid shouted loudly and shook his head.
“The rumors about my terrible temper are just rumors! Rumors! Artson spread them! That guy is such a braggart and a liar!”
Daphne poked Shio’s back with her heel.
Immediately, Shio’s mouth opened.
“No. It was true. He only became this tame after I beat him senseless. Before that, he was a mad dragon. A deranged reptile.”
Kalid’s face turned deathly pale.
“Because you took my power! I had no choice!”
“So what.”
“Th-this…… thi……!”
Daphne stared at the trembling Kalid and summarized the situation.
“So because this Shio guy took your power, you can’t even put up a fight and you’re acting like this?”
“……Yes.”
“Then let me ask you just one thing.”
Daphne’s pupils slit vertically like a snake’s.
Red, green, blue dragons.
They created the ‘disaster’ known as Celus in order to redirect the karma directed at themselves.
In the illusion Shio had shown her, they were cackling with laughter.
Without the slightest consideration for Celus’s fate.
“What exactly is the state of your karma right now?”
In an instant, murderous intent swirled around them, pricking their skin.
The anger Daphne had been suppressing all this time was starting to leak out little by little.
“You’d better answer properly. If you can’t, the rest of your power will be crushed by me as well.”
Whoosh!
Black flames rose behind Daphne’s back, and beneath her feet, the aura of death began to creep upward slowly.
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