Chapter 14
There is such a thing as karma in the world.
If there is a cause, there is a result.
And depending on what kind of being that cause is, the result is evaluated differently.
Accordingly, even if the Gold Dragon, the spokesperson of God, destroys the empire, he does not become an evil being. Because reasons for him to do so arise from various places.
Whether he shoots breath at the empire because he suddenly feels bad while sleeping, or whether he destroys the empire thinking he should just tease these humans, that becomes a good deed in the end.
However, Sellus, the continent’s only Black Dragon and a being not a fragment of God, her karma was ‘disaster’.
Disaster is evil. Because it is evil, all beings fear it and furthermore seek to annihilate it.
Even if Sellus had thoroughly beaten the Dark Elf tribe that engaged in human trafficking, she was criticized because the cause of that action was ‘disaster’.
Even if she does the right action, it becomes a disaster, and even if she does the wrong action, it becomes a disaster.
So, what choice did Sellus make while receiving misunderstandings, criticisms, and anger stemming from karma?
Sellus, or rather Daphne who she became, stared intently at the masked men surrounding the carriage.
As if feeling that gaze, one of the masked men who had cut down a mercenary trying to protect the carriage turned to look at Daphne.
“Boss! What’s with that kid?”
“I don’t know. Is anyone around? No? Did she come out alone?”
“Looking at her clothes, she seems like a young lady from some noble house, so why come to a mountain path like this? Did you fight with your parents and run away?”
“If you’re thinking of living after leaving home anyway, how about going with these uncles? We’ll sell you to a good place. Yeah?”
From what they say, it seems they’re not just bandits but also into human trafficking.
Daphne, still standing still, alternately looked at the masked men and those protecting the carriage.
Then, one of the mercenaries blocking the carriage door shouted.
“Miss! Hurry and run away. Hurry! We’ll hold them off!”
“Hmm.”
Daphne tilted her head.
“Insignificant humans are fighting insignificantly and meeting insignificant deaths in front of the great me, daringly.”
“Kid. If you’re not gonna run, come here! I don’t wanna waste energy!”
“It’s taking longer than expected. Kill them quickly. Drag that kid over.”
Insignificant things.
Insignificant humans.
In front of the great Sellus-sama, they become less than ant larvae, lowly things.
That’s why,
“I can’t leave you alone.”
The great me must save you.
This is the right path.
Daphne opened the stopper of Teti’s potion bottle, drank the medicine, and gripped the wooden sword.
You’re all done for.
***
The guild master of the Golden Chalice Merchant Guild was dumbfounded by the unfolding situation.
Just moments ago, they were helplessly overwhelmed by bandit scum who came from who knows where.
It was a situation where he thought if this continued, they’d lose the ducal house’s holy relic and die.
At that time, suddenly a child appeared. And she beat down the bandits.
Using a toddler’s wooden sword…… She literally just beat them down.
Was that all?
“You stupid kid. Get your head straight. Is fainting from one hit the etiquette of which country? Huh?”
“Sp, spare……”
“Spare you? Did you try to spare me? If you have a conscience, you wouldn’t say such things. Looks like you boiled soup with your conscience. If it were me, I’d bite my tongue and die right now. Because getting hit by such a brat is embarrassing.”
She was also thoroughly thrashing them with words.
Honey, I think my body is weak these days. I’m seeing things……
The guild master squeezed his eyes shut, then slowly opened them and lowered his head.
He thought he was seeing things, so now the real reality should show, but it didn’t. Still full of illusions.
“Guild master! Snap out of it!”
At that moment, he felt hands shaking his shoulders. When he came to his senses, it was a surviving subordinate.
Only then did the guild master admit that he wasn’t seeing things.
He gulped dryly and looked around. He saw the bandit scum piled up neatly on one side.
“Is this…… real? I’m not dreaming?”
“Yes. Hard to believe, but yes. The goods are intact, and the other guild members only have injuries, no deaths.”
“That……”
At that moment, one bandit who still had strength left charged at the child with a real sword.
“You damn brat! Die!”
A situation where the sword flies right in front of her nose. The guild master shouted loudly.
“Be careful!”
“Huh?”
The child straightened the wooden sword that was leaning on her shoulder.
“Seems you haven’t been hit enough. Come on. I’ll personally hit you more.”
Thwack!
The bandit hit in the solar plexus by the wooden sword thrust screamed and rolled on the ground.
But the attack doesn’t stop there.
Thwack! Thud! Thwump! The bandit, relentlessly beaten, fainted without even a death cry for mercy.
“Does this…… make sense?”
Gulp.
The guild master gulped and assessed the situation.
The bandits were all skilled, thirteen of them. But the child looks only four or five years old.
Her eyes were bright, but her skinny and pale complexion couldn’t be hidden. Yet, the child took down all the bandits. With one strike each!
“Ho, perhaps……”
Thud! Thwack!
The guild master opened his mouth towards the child who was thrashing the bandits who still had their wits.
Because he had a guess who the child was.
“Da, Daphne Akion, is that you?”
“Aang?”
The child, Daphne, leaned the wooden sword back on her shoulder and squinted her eyes.
Then she waddled towards the guild master.
“Who are you guys?”
Her behavior and speech all seemed like street thugs from some neighborhood. But judging by her skills, she’s definitely not mediocre. Right. Unless she’s the child of the Akion Ducal House!
“I’m Edhurt, the guild master of the Golden Chalice Guild! It’s an honor to meet lady Daphne, the precious treasure of the Akion Grand Duchy!”
That Daphne Akion is a total rascal is a fact known to the whole world, exaggeration or not.
But if this rascal is a capable rascal, that’s different. And if she’s a rascal who saved people, that’s even more different.
“Thank you, lady Daphne!”
“Thanks to you, we survived!”
“If it weren’t for lady Daphne, we all would have died without a doubt!”
“Thank you!”
They clasped their hands tightly and cried out their thanks.
Because it wasn’t some unknown scary child who saved them, but the legitimate daughter of the Akion Grand Duchy extending a saving hand, they could feel relieved and grateful.
However, Daphne’s expression was a bit subtle.
Daphne muttered if she heard wrong, scratched her ear, then realized she didn’t hear wrong and furrowed her brows.
“You’re thanking me?”
“Yes! Truly thank you! We will never forget this favor!”
“……”
Daphne’s mouth flapped open and closed.
In the hundreds of years she had lived, had she ever heard “thank you”?
No matter how much she searched her memories, no. She had never heard it.
Even when she saved entire groups of humans swept by tsunamis, she never heard the greeting “thank you”.
Yet, just for saving them from some bandit scum, to hear such words.
“Ha, this is something.”
Daphne let out a hollow laugh.
Is it because she was forcibly possessed in a human body that the reactions stemming from karma have changed? Come to think of it, previously Arius was uncomfortable but did properly apologize to Daphne.
She thought that perhaps if she lived in this body, she might no longer be a disaster.
‘Really?’
Daphne felt a sense of emptiness about the karma that had abruptly ended and unwittingly let out a wry smile.
“Ha, ha……”
For the karma that had tormented her for hundreds of years to end so easily.
It’s truly ridiculous.
So funny it’s absurd.
“Um, Daphne-nim?”
At that moment, a familiar voice pierced Daphne’s ears. It was Teti, who had approached unnoticed.
“I’m sorry, but it doesn’t seem like the time to laugh like that.”
“What? Why?”
“You drank the medicine and used magic, right?”
“But.”
“That’s like doping now. When the doping effect ends.”
He gulped and took half a step back.
“It hurts.”
“What do you mean…… Cough!”
“Kyaa! Daphne-nim!”
“You’re spitting blood!”
Daphne, who spat out a lump of blood that looked even blacker than before, glared at Teti, and Teti took another half step back and retorted.
“I told you about the side effects. I really did. I said it a bit late, but I did say it!”
“You, you slave br……!”
The angry Daphne tried to rush at Teti, but fortunately for Teti, Daphne’s consciousness cut off first.
“Aigoo, that’s why I said not to abuse the drugs.”
Is there an elf in the world who has knocked out a dragon twice?
Teti felt like he had accomplished something great.
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By Anna 💓
