Chapter 127
Fifteen days?
Fif-teen days?
Daphne squeezed her eyes shut, feeling a stiff tension pull at the back of her neck.
No, what on earth did she do to be lying flat on her back for fifteen days?
Of course, her body still hurt a lot. Every part of her ached so much that her hands were trembling just from hitting Arius a moment ago. But, even so! Lying down for fifteen days was just too much!
“This useless body of mine……”
Daphne muttered under her breath, and immediately, the faces of Arius and Vifera darkened.
Even though Daphne had become quite healthy now, she was, fundamentally, a patient suffering from an incurable disease. A child so sick it wouldn’t be strange if she died today or tomorrow. That was why she collapsed, vomiting blood, at the drop of a hat.
Arius and Vifera felt their hearts drop every time they heard that Daphne had collapsed. Even now…… though they were joking around, how heart-wrenching had it been to look at Daphne’s haggard face?
“Useless? Don’t say such things.”
“Y-you’re already d-doing well e-enough as it is. W-what m-more are you trying t-to do here……”
Arius spoke, and Vifera added on. Only then did Daphne’s sharp gaze soften somewhat.
“Doing enough? Hardly. It seems I must train my physical strength even more.”
“Not right now! Just lie down for now! Until the elf comes!”
“T-that’s right! D-don’t move!”
Arius and Vifera spread their arms and blocked the door hesitantly, like people stopping a wild animal trying to bolt. Daphne let out a hollow laugh.
“Fine. I get it. I’ll lie down quietly if only for your sake.”
“Whew.”
Arius wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
“Still, you regained consciousness relatively early. Half of the other kids are still groaning in pain.”
“Y-yes…… the, the kids looked r-really s-struggling……”
Even after being hit by black magic, the training center children had rushed down to the village to save people while under the effect of pain-relief magic.
Saving the people was a truly great thing, but as a result, they ended up half-dead. The pain-relief magic didn’t provide treatment; it was simply magic that made them forget the pain.
“Ah! But no kids died. You don’t have to worry about that.”
“I wasn’t worried about that.”
Daphne shook her head.
“What kind of brats do you think they are? They aren’t the type to die from something like this. They would have survived by tooth and nail.”
“Uh……”
Arius blinked his large eyes as he recalled the children lying in their hospital beds.
– You black magician bastards! I’m seriously going to kill you! I’ll kill every single one of those sons of bitches!
– Mother. I can see my late father. I guess this is the end for me…….
– Bunny! No! Live! elf Teiti promised to fix your mother’s and your molars! Live! Live and crush those black magician bastards!
– I’ll kill them, I’ll kill them, I’m seriously going to kill them, I’ll kill them all…….
Hmm.
He didn’t know exactly what kind of children they were, but they certainly didn’t seem sane. Just like someone else. Arius glanced sideways at that ‘someone’ and his younger sister, Daphne.
“R-right…… I, I think k-kids like t-that w-won’t d-die easily…… since they are t-tough and s-survive somehow……”
Vifera muttered.
“B-but, you know.”
Vifera, who had been hesitating, suddenly snapped her head up. Then, with eyes sparkling, she began to speak incessantly.
“Kids like that are the perfect test subjects for experiments. Tough kids who just endure whatever you do to them. Kids who digest whatever you feed them and endure whatever you apply to them! So, Daphne. How many of them are you going to bring? Hmm? If you bring them to the Duke’s estate, can I use them a little? Hmm?”
“…….”
“One! No, two? No, five! Just give me five! Hmm?”
Vifera, whose speech only became fast when she talked about things she liked, was always hard to get used to. And test subjects? Avoiding Vifera’s burdensome gaze, Lady Daphne hurriedly changed the subject.
“Seeing as you’re talking about taking the children, it means the training center is coming to an end.”
“Yeah. That’s what they say. So the adjutant is talking with the Guardians.”
“Hmm. My guess was correct.”
As expected, Lady Daphne’s hunch was right.
Indeed, with two black magician attacks having occurred, it would be stranger to maintain the training center.
Lady Daphne recalled the rewards the Imperial Family had put forward as a condition for entering the training center.
Being included in the Imperial Report.
And allowing them to select children from within the training center to form a knight order.
This was why Lady Daphne had been training so hard until now…….
Lady Daphne frowned.
“Hmm. If I had it my way, I’d want to take all the children.”
“T-then y-you c-can’t?”
“Aren’t they only allowing those who graduate the training center with top grades to form a knight order? I probably won’t have top grades.”
“Eh. You?”
At Arius’s question, Lady Daphne nodded.
As she said, Lady Daphne hadn’t produced very good results in the exams held every week. Her rank was inevitably pushed back because of her lack of physical strength.
That was why she had wanted to finish this exam in first place no matter what, but…….
“Those damn phantom bastards.”
How dare they ruin my plan? I will crush them all.
Lady Daphne’s eyes burned intensely.
“Well…… but for you, Daphne, it’ll work out?”
Then, Arius spoke with a smirk.
“What does that mean?”
“I told you earlier. The adjutant is here.”
“What does that slick fellow being here have to do with anything?”
“You should know that that slick fellow is a very good talker.”
“……Hmm?”
Arius smiled contentedly as if telling her not to worry and tucked the blanket around Lady Daphne again.
“Just wait. Our adjutant is the type of person whose mouth would stay afloat even if he fell into water.”
***
“U-um…… Adjutant.”
Nike, who was sweating cold sweat unusually, spoke.
“Well, if there is something you wish to say, wouldn’t it be better to say something by now?”
He smiled hollowly and initiated conversation with Pauline, the adjutant of Archduke Isaac’s household, who was sitting across from him.
Since the second attack by the phantom, the noble families who had sent their children to the training center were in an uproar. When the first attack happened, no major problems flared up thanks to the Archduke blocking it, but this time is different.
The phantom had invaded a place where Guardians and mages were stationed. And they failed to block it properly. Moreover, the children were hit by black magic.
So, the nobles, without exception, were shouting that they would withdraw their children from the training center immediately, and the Imperial Family was currently blocking their backlash as much as possible for the time being.
In the midst of this.
The adjutant of Archduke Isaac’s household had come.
– I am Pauline Trica. I am in charge of the general affairs of Archduke Isaac’s household.
He, who identified himself as Pauline, had been drinking tea in silence ever since he introduced himself.
‘Why did he come? It must be because of Daphne, right?’
‘Ah, then he should at least say something!’
‘Rache, where is Rache? Bring him at least!’
The Guardians whispered among themselves, sweating cold sweat profusely.
Normally, they wouldn’t have been this nervous in front of Pauline…… but given the circumstances, they had no choice. If Daphne, the highest-ranking person in the training center, were to withdraw, the rest of the noble children would naturally leave as well.
‘We have to hold onto her at all costs.’
‘Until His Majesty’s order arrives!’
The Guardians swallowed their dry saliva and glanced repeatedly at Pauline, and Pauline, who had been quietly feeling those gazes, slowly opened his mouth.
“First of all.”
As soon as Pauline’s voice came out, the Guardians tensed up and raised their shoulders.
“I have seen our Young Lady’s training center grades.”
“A-ah! Yes! Daphne is quite excellent. She is the child who is working the hardest despite being the youngest.”
“But for someone like that, the Young Lady’s exam grades weren’t very good.”
The Guardians looked at each other. Eventually, Kenrick Dried. answered.
“It seems unavoidable since Daphne is the youngest and lacks the most physical strength.”
“I wonder if the exams should have been conducted considering age and physical strength.”
“Ah, well. It seems the training center was a bit improvised, to some extent.”
“So I suppose that’s why you allowed the phantom’s attack as well?”
Uh, well. If you put it that way, I have nothing to say.
In any case, it was a situation where the Guardians’ fault was clear, so Kenrick Dried. quietly shut his mouth. Taking advantage of that gap, Pauline continued.
“The exams lack fairness, and on top of that, the phantom’s attack wasn’t even properly blocked……”
Thud!
Pauline struck the table with his palm.
“It will be quite a sight once the news breaks. I wonder how angry our Chief Guardian Brysa will be?”
“…….”
The Guardians imagined it.
The sight of Brysa being furious, and the scene of them being put through the wringer…… ugh, just imagining it made them want to vomit.
They each bowed their heads with gloomy faces.
“What…… do you want?”
“Ayy, what could I possibly want. I just want you to recognize that our Young Lady saved the children and defeated the phantom for as many as t-w-o. times. T-w-o. times. Not once, but t-w-o. times. Right?”
Pauline smiled beamingly and held up two fingers.
“She produced results for as many as t-w-o. times, so wouldn’t there be something like a special award? Is what I’m saying.”
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