Chapter 168
Cheerful music filled the hall.
People had gathered in small groups here and there, dancing or chatting, and a fairly relaxed atmosphere hung over the scene overall.
“…”
“…”
But the air around Daphne was utterly frozen with silence. This was because Daphne’s expression clearly read as “I’m furious” to anyone who looked, and the whole atmosphere around her felt ominous besides.
The academy classmates, along with Arius and Brysa, who had been about to rush toward Daphne in delight the moment they saw her, now stood there glancing anxiously at one another in every direction, clearing their throats.
‘Why’s she like that?’
‘No idea, me neither.’
‘She’s always like that, though.’
‘Should we just ignore her?’
They kept darting their eyes around, trying to figure out how to handle the situation. It was then.
“You there.”
Daphne spoke up. She pointed toward a servant weaving through the crowd with a silver tray.
“Bring me some liquor.”
“Ack! Wait a second!”
Teppy cut in hastily.
“Daphne. You’re not even of age yet.”
“So what.”
“No, I mean, not ‘so what.’ You can’t drink, you know?”
“So what!”
Daphne, apparently having finally reached her limit, stomped her foot against the floor and shouted.
“Ugh, not letting me drink! Not letting me do anything! And on top of that, endless nagging! My life is so tedious and boring I can hardly stand it!”
“…What’s she going on about?”
“No clue. She’s losing it again.”
The academy classmates, having gauged the situation, clicked their tongues in a way that suggested this was all too familiar, and simply ignored Daphne.
“Argh! I’d rather die than deal with this! Die! Just die already!”
As she thrashed about in her fit, Arius suddenly leaned his head in.
“Daphne.”
Then he held something out in front of her. A gleaming raw gemstone. A mana stone. And a top-grade one, at that.
“High-grade mana stone.”
“…”
“One more.”
“Something this trivial isn’t going to lift my mood,”
“Three more.”
“I feel much better now.”
Her mood lifted, Daphne accepted the mana stones with a broad grin. Arius clicked his tongue and stepped closer to Daphne.
“What’s wrong this time?”
Crunching noisily on the mana stone, Daphne replied.
“I dislike the hero.”
At that, Arius tilted his head.
“Daphne. Let’s be accurate here. You never actually liked Father to begin with. So saying you ‘dislike’ him now sounds a little off. It should be, you never liked him, and now you like him even less.”
“…”
Something about that struck Daphne as odd, so she narrowed her eyes and glanced around at everyone. The kids around her—though it was getting a bit awkward to still call them “kids” at this point—all looked at Daphne with utterly unbothered expressions. Uh, hm. Was this actually normal?
“None of you seem to find it strange that I dislike my own father, apparently.”
“Well, I mean. You’ve always been like that.”
“Yeah. Why bring it up now, of all times?”
“…”
Every last one of them was missing a screw somewhere, Daphne muttered to herself.
It was then that Rachel stepped forward.
“Enough of that, Daphne. We need to talk.”
Rachel grabbed Daphne’s arm and pulled her aside.
“What is it?”
“I heard something at home. And Mark said he heard it too.”
“Heard what?”
Rachel glanced around, then leaned in and whispered to Daphne.
“They say we might all be gathered together again.”
“We?”
“Yeah. Our academy classmates. The Guardians too.”
Daphne’s brow furrowed instinctively.
Wasn’t that strange?
The black mages, the wraiths, had already been wiped out by Daphne herself. With their leader Yan already captured, there was no chance of them acting up again the way they had before.
So why? She shot Rachel a look asking exactly that.
“Don’t give me that look. I don’t know why either. I just know something’s about to happen.”
Whatever that “something” might be, it clearly meant everyone would be gathering together regardless.
Having thought this far, Daphne let out a hollow laugh.
“A life shaken by the wind, apparently…”
“Huh?”
Why is everyone around me losing it while I’m the only one keeping it together? Daphne burst into laughter.
“I just mean it’d probably feel better to smash everything to bits.”
“Uh-huh?”
Daphne clenched her fist tight. Let’s smash it. Let’s just flip the whole thing over. Wouldn’t it be better to act first and take responsibility afterward, at least? An absurd thought kept circling through Daphne’s mind.
“Lady Daphne!”
At that moment, someone wrapped an arm firmly around Daphne’s shoulder. Turning her head, she found it was Shio.
“Phew.”
Shio, wiping away cold sweat as though he’d come running, looked down at Daphne.
“What’s wrong this time?”
This time, indeed.
Though, in fairness, Daphne did have these fits often enough to warrant the phrase “this time.”
Sigh.
Daphne let out a sigh instead of her temper and looked up at Shio.
“I’m furious because of the hero.”
“Why?”
“Just…”
Daphne recalled the conversation she’d shared with Heros.
-The Emperor must have had his own reasons for it. And to himself, those reasons would count as good.
-My mission is to protect the people I love.
She could, to some degree, guess at why he’d said such things. But she couldn’t fully understand the entirety of his heart. To begin with, Heros hadn’t said much of anything to her, so how could she possibly guess at more? Daphne let out another sigh.
“Ugh, forget it. Talking about it just makes my mouth tired.”
Watching her, Shio sensed something was off, but he knew that pressing Daphne for answers at a time like this would never get him what he wanted. So he waited patiently for her next words.
“Anyway, that aside.”
Daphne scanned the hall in a full circle and asked.
“Where’s the Emperor?”
“Apparently he’s still on his way.”
“Is that so.”
Daphne closed her eyes slowly, then opened them again, repeating the motion.
Right now, Daphne was thoroughly furious. Irritated, on edge, wanting to flip everything over. But she couldn’t do that. Acting purely on emotion was one of the things Daphne despised most about herself, so.
‘I just need something appropriately sized to smash.’
And wasn’t this, conveniently, the imperial palace itself?
The corners of Daphne’s mouth curled upward.
“You.”
Shio tilted his head at the finger Daphne extended toward him.
“You’re good with magic formulas, right?”
“Well… I suppose?”
“You’re the Great Sage, after all.”
“Right.”
Daphne beamed and grabbed hold of Shio’s arm.
“Let’s step out for a bit, then.”
“Huh? Where to?”
At that question, Daphne answered with a smile so pure and innocent it left absolutely no room for objection.
“To go steal something.”
…Steal what, exactly?
* * *
“Ha ha! You must be so proud, seeing your children all grown up!”
“Indeed, indeed. Especially your youngest daughter’s accomplishments—truly remarkable, wouldn’t you say?”
“A hero for a father, and a hero for a child! I’m truly envious!”
Heros glanced sidelong at the people crowded around him, showering him with flattery. In truth, he wasn’t particularly fond of such obsequious remarks, but since they weren’t doing any harm, and since they were praising Daphne alongside himself, he simply let it pass. He took a sip of his champagne.
“Wiping out the wraiths! Truly remarkable!”
“Your daughter really is something else…!”
On and on it went.
Listening to their chatter, Heros sank into thought. More precisely, he wasn’t focused on what they were saying at all—he was recalling the words Daphne had spoken earlier, in the carriage.
-Why did you become a hero?
-Wasn’t it because you performed good deeds to save people, that you became a hero?
Heros gripped his glass tightly. The question had arisen from the matter of whether he could stop the Emperor’s wrongdoings.
In truth, Heros had wanted to give a different answer.
I…
