Chapter 12
“Ugh……”
“Ugh…… Ack.”
Daphne hummed a tune while watching the knights letting out groans. Ah, just looking at them makes it feel like ten years’ worth of pent-up frustration is easing away.
“My lady.”
At that moment, Lloyd approached. Then, in a very small voice, he whispered.
“You did well. Perfect.”
Daphne let out another chuckle as she watched him raise his thumb and leave. Well, that guy seemed to be holding back earlier too, so he must feel relieved inside by now.
‘Humans, really.’
I don’t know why they discriminate so much based on status. In my eyes, they’re all just insignificant things anyway.
Daphne glanced at the clock tower. About 30 minutes had passed since the knights started banging their heads.
Their trembling state looks quite ridiculous. But she wasn’t going to tell them to stop here. She intended to push them until they truly felt like they were going to die.
‘No matter who it is, I won’t stand by and watch someone bullying the weak in front of me.’
Daphne’s eyes flashed.
At that moment.
“Daphne!”
Arius, who had disappeared right after the knights started banging their heads, came running over in a hurry. And in his arms……
“Flowers?”
There was a huge bouquet of flowers.
“Gather up. That crazy bastard.”
Daphne fiddled with her ear while looking up at Arius, who had come right up to her feet.
Arius, who had caught his breath several times, smiled brightly and extended the bouquet he was holding straight out.
“Here, take this.”
It was a lily that looked precarious, as if its stem might snap at any moment.
What is this?
Some new kind of murder threat?
“Uh, um. I heard you were awake, so I picked them. Absolutely not because you protected me or anything. You get what I mean, right? Anyway, I didn’t know what flowers you like, so I brought my favorite ones for now. Here, take them.”
Ah.
His head must be full of flowers, so he doesn’t even know what lilies symbolize.
‘In many ways, he’s flowery.’
Daphne smirked and took the bouquet Arius offered.
“Hehe.”
As soon as Daphne took the flowers, Arius grinned and plopped down beside her.
Then, he looked at the knights who were still banging their heads, and slyly tilted his head toward Daphne.
“Daphne.”
With his hands clasped together and mumbling, it seemed like he had something to say. Daphne quietly waited for his words.
“Uh…… Um. So.”
Sigh. Arius took a deep breath, lowered his head deeply, and said.
“Thank you.”
He had no shame about being an illegitimate child.
Hadn’t his mother told him that he was her son too?
So Arius had been cherishing the name ‘Arius Akion’ in his heart.
But when they ignored Arius like today, declared that they would eventually be discarded someday, and bullied the people around him because of it…… his heart wavered.
Am I really ‘Arius Akion’? Or just ‘Arius’? No, maybe I’m not even that—just a nameless ‘lowborn child’?
Does Dad…… think that way too?
That’s why he couldn’t easily step forward even when the count’s knights insulted him.
Because he was afraid that if he stepped in there and something went wrong, his dad would come to dislike him.
But,
-Arius is Arius Akion.
Daphne had said that.
As if it were an obvious fact.
As if no one could deny it.
That fact made him truly happy, and he couldn’t help but feel grateful.
‘I’ve only ever been mean to Daphne all this time……’
He had mocked her for dying and coming back to life, said it was okay if she died, and even when she wasn’t well, he’d requested a spar and made her collapse.
Yet Daphne had acknowledged him as the son of the Akion family. In other words, she accepted him as her brother.
‘……’
Arius could feel a deep, stinging shame.
“And, um. Um. You know.”
So Arius took another deep breath.
“Mi……”
“Mi?”
“……You can stop that crazy crap now, I think.”
“……”
What nonsense is this?
Daphne looked at Arius with an expression of utter disbelief, and Arius’s face turned bright red.
What should he say? She collapsed from swinging a sword to indulge his stubbornness despite her unwell body, so he feels half the blame is his. So he should say sorry…… or something?
No, he couldn’t say such an embarrassing thing at all. Separate from the guilt he felt toward Daphne!
“Th-that, ah, it’s nothing! Just! Thank you!”
“Hmm.”
Daphne crossed her arms and wiggled her finger.
She could read this lowly human’s thoughts.
He came to apologize because he feels partially responsible for her collapse, but his petty pride keeps him from opening his mouth.
If Daphne thought there was no hope for Arius, she’d let it slide.
But Daphne held a hope that Arius might grow up decently in his own way. Like the upright humans she’d seen so far.
So she decided to give him some moral instruction, which she didn’t usually do.
“If you’ve done something wrong, you should apologize right away, no matter who it’s to. Only then will you gain pride in yourself.”
“……Huh?”
“The pride in acknowledging your mistake, the admirable feeling of suppressing your shame to apologize, the regret of vowing never to commit the same wrong again. All of that combined is what pride is.”
“……”
“Pride is the very foundation that makes up ‘me.’”
Daphne stood on her tiptoes and lightly placed her hand on Arius’s forehead.
“Are you going to throw away the foundation to build yourself up with such flimsy pride?”
“That……. Uh……”
Arius unwittingly opened and closed his mouth repeatedly. Was it shameful to be lectured by Daphne, who was much younger than him? No, that’s not it. More than that……
“You’re right, but for some reason, hearing it from you makes my stomach boil. What is this?”
It was bizarrely infuriating. Like goosebumps rising all over his body.
Daphne narrowed her eyes as she looked at such an Arius.
Celus, called the ‘calamity’ in his previous life.
Celus, who was truly a calamity, aroused antipathy in every being he encountered. This was instinct. An instinctive loathing and rejection of calamity.
That’s why in the past, even when Celus spoke rightly, he was criticized as wrong, and even when he acted rightly, he was persecuted as if it were wrong.
‘So even in this body, it’s the same, huh.’
Daphne felt the cruelty of fate once more and clicked her tongue.
“That means you’re a narrow-minded frog in a well.”
“Ah. That I’m narrow-minded…… That’s not it!”
Arius, who had yelled sharply, soon took a deep breath and dropped his head low.
Whether his stomach boiled, he felt annoyed, or he was pissed—it didn’t matter. What mattered was that he had wronged Daphne.
“I’m sorry.”
So he continued haltingly.
“I made you push yourself too hard because of me. From now on, I’ll be more considerate and ask questions.”
Daphne’s eyes widened slightly.
‘Things like this never happened before.’
Days when not getting stabbed with a sword was a blessing, let alone an apology.
‘Is something different this time?’
Well, she’d have to see.
Daphne smirked.
“You’re not saying you won’t ask at all. Admirable.”
“Why! I said I’ll be the carefull !”
“Fine. Let’s see you drag out that tact stuck to the sole of your foot.”
“Ah, seriously!”
Arius, who had stomped his feet while yelling, saw Daphne plop down and sit cross-legged, then quickly scooted over to her side.
“What’s this? What are you doing today?”
“I’m going to do mana training.”
“I’ll do it next to you too.”
Arius, who had sat down beside her, seemed to realize something and cleared his throat awkwardly while turning his head away.
“Ahem. This isn’t because I enjoy being around you or anything. Absolutely not.”
He emphasized it once more.
“Absolutely not. You get what I mean, right?”
They say strong denial is strong affirmation.
Daphne found this obviously transparent human quite amusing and let out a chuckle.
“I get it, so shut up and sit still. Now I have to do my training too.”
“Yeah.”
They sat side by side and did mana training, and the people were somehow newly surprised to see Daphne and Arius looking like they were getting along.
After that, it was only natural for the words ‘Daphne has changed’ to spread throughout the mansion as established fact.
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By Anna 💓
