TMBTAT - Ch 18 - The Mischievous Baby Is Throwing A Tantrum

Chapter 18

Daphne was truly a bad child.

-Ugh, look at her hair color. It’s weird. It’s the color of stagnant water mixed with weeds!

-Why do you look so annoying? It makes me sick just looking at you. Don’t lift your face in front of me.

-Get out! I don’t want to be in the same room as trash like you!

She was a child who said things like that every day, every moment.

Vifera, who had tried to care for Daphne diligently as per her mother’s last words, instead of being cared for, only suffered bullying.

If she were Daphne’s real ‘older sister’, Vifera would have scolded Daphne sternly. But Viperra was not a ‘blood sister’. With the mother who brought her gone, she was just a commoner child adopted by luck, who could be kicked out at any time.

Thus, Viperra could not reject Daphne. She had no choice but to endure Daphne’s harsh words. Because she didn’t want to be chased out of this house. Because she wanted to live here for life.

For such Viperra, the room was no different from her own sturdy castle. It was located in the annex where Daphne wouldn’t come, and servants didn’t peek around.

So Viperra hid in her own castle. Hiding in the castle that was the room, she avoided meeting Daphne. It had been half a year like that.

Coming to meet Daphne this time also required a lot of courage. It was something she had tossed and turned for a month, agonizing, and finally managed to come out, thinking if she missed this chance, she wouldn’t get it again.

So naturally, she thought Daphne would pour out abuse and beat her like before, and came with firm resolve.

But…

“Why are you making that face? As you said, I’ll let you meet the elf, right?”

…Why is she agreeing?

Vipera’s mind went blank. More than the fear she felt looking at Daphne, confusion surged up greatly. She clasped her trembling hands and rolled her eyes.

“Viperra. Aren’t you going to pull yourself together?”

“Uh, uh? Ah, no! Sorry! Don’t hit me!”

“…”

Daphne squinted one eye.

This kind of reaction was quite rare lately. So Daphne realized once again that this body was truly an irredeemable bully child.

“I won’t hit you.”

Daphne exhaled, hoo, and clasped her two hands obediently. As if saying she wouldn’t harm her.

“Now, and in the future. I won’t hit. So don’t be scared.”

“Th… that’s a lie.”

“Whether lie or truth, you’ll know by watching. I say again, I won’t hit anyone without reason anymore.”

“…”

Viperra could somehow feel the tension on her shoulders lightening.

Really, has she changed?

Will she not hit or curse anymore?

No, no. I won’t believe it. Anyway, it doesn’t matter what. The important thing is that I can meet the elf first!

“E, elf… you’ll really let me meet?”

“It’s not a difficult thing, so possible.”

“Thank you!”

Seeing Viperra smile brightly, Daphne tried to erase the uncomfortable feeling in her heart and asked again.

“But, why do you want to meet the elf?”

“Uh, uh… that is.”

Vifera scratched her cheek and mumbled.

“I, I make potions… but, I keep failing… e, an elf doctor would be proficient in herbal medicine, so…”

“Ah. So that’s what the smell from earlier was.”

“Sm, smell?!”

Vipera lifted her arm and sniffed the inside of her elbow, but no smell came.

Of course, herbs and drugs used in alchemy usually only give off subtle scents, and it’s natural that human noses can’t detect them.

The reason Daphne’s sense of smell was stimulated is because she still uses the habit of fully utilizing her five senses from when she was a dragon.

However, not knowing this background, Vifera thought Daphne was saying something strange.

“It’s a smell only the great me can smell, so don’t worry.”

She’s definitely strange.

It seems not only has Daphne changed, but also become strange somewhere, Vifera thought.

“But if it’s potion, isn’t it alchemy? Aren’t dwarves more knowledgeable in that?”

Vipera’s brows narrowed slightly.

“Dwarf… um. Dwarves are be, better, but.”

“Not just better. Dwarves are the ones knowledgeable in alchemy. Meeting a stupid elf won’t gain you much.”

“Th… that’s…”

“Even if I’m great, I can’t connect you to dwarves.”

“No! That’s not it!”

Viperra squeezed her eyes shut and shouted.

“I can’t trust those crazy bastards!”

Whether a 5-year-old kid Daphne who was holed up in her room every day knew that dwarves were the race knowledgeable in alchemy or not wasn’t important to Viperra.

Viperra, aiming to become a great alchemist, like typical sorcerers, when fixated on one thing, sees and hears nothing else, and now was exactly like that.

Yes. Fixated on badmouthing dwarves.

“What I want to ask the elf isn’t how to succeed in making the potion. It’s whether all these materials in my hand now are genuine!”

Where did she throw away her timid and weak impression, Vifera who shouted with flashing eyes looked really like another person.

“The materials, I bought all from dwarves. But as you know, those guys are nasty, right? Even when giving money, they don’t give the goods! And do you know what they say? If you want Prinnan’s leaves, go chop firewood! To a shut-in like me! Of course I chopped the firewood! But that’s not the end? If you want Hupul’s wings, follow me hunting! Of course I really didn’t want to go but I went! And I got them like that! But! I’m a bit suspicious! A bit? No, a lot!”

Viperra, who had been venting her anger for a while, soon realized and jutted her chin forward.

“Th, so not lying, if I ask the e, elf… I can, can know if it’s re, real or not… yes.”

Daphne, who hadn’t listened to more than half of Vifera’s words, finally turned her gaze.

At this young age, already meeting dwarves, getting materials, and making potions means she has that much talent.

And from what she heard roughly, it seemed she had pleased the dwarves. Those guys don’t even deal with those they don’t like.

But there’s a problem.

‘Will that Teti not lie?’

She lies every time she opens her mouth.

After pondering briefly, Daphne shrugged, thinking anyway it’s a hardship Vifera must overcome to become a great alchemist.

“Making you meet that one isn’t difficult.”

“Really?! Then possible now too? Yes?”

“But, there’s a condition.”

“…Uh? Co, condition?”

Before Vipera’s question ended, Daphne’s pupils flashed.

Is she going to hit again?!

Vifera squeezed her eyes shut.

But what flew wasn’t a palm, but strange words.

“Tell me about the hero. If you tell me his weaknesses or timing to kill him, that would be perfect. And about me as bonus.”

“…”

It seems Daphne has become strange somewhere, correct.

It’s good that it’s not bad,

But is it okay to leave Daphne like this…?

***

“Sip. Hoo. Sip……”

Daphne’s head, running the 8th lap around the training grounds while regulating her breathing, is full of the words Vifera left earlier.

-Ah, about father, there’s no, nothing particular to tell…. Ah, as you know, me, Arius, Rache oppa were all brought by mo, mother. Ah, it wasn’t father’s wish. So after mom passed, it became very, very distant……

Confirmed again that the hero has a beggar-like father. And that adopting the three siblings above Daphne was entirely the wish of Daphne’s mother.

The important thing isn’t that.

It’s what came next.

-Ah, father always re, receives orders from His Majesty the Emperor and moves…. Ma, many times two or three times a month…? But after the last order to kill the dra, dragon, there hasn’t been any. So father is at ho, home often now.

Order to kill the dragon?

“Ugh…!”

Daphne clenched her fist tightly and let out a groan.

Who dares to command who to kill!

“Uwaaaak!”

Unable to hold back her anger, Daphne ran the training grounds at full speed.

Without noticing the knights who, seeing her, awkwardly stood up and started running.

“Hoo, hoo……”

So, the hero came to kill me following the emperor’s order.

Here, the reason I died should be seen as the emperor’s will rather than the hero’s.

Then the question.

‘Why did that emperor bastard try to kill me?’