Chapter 52
Daphne stared blankly at Brysa.
A gift?
What gift?
She had already received sufficient compensation for the previous terrorist incident?
“Ah! This isn’t from our family, it’s something I wanted to give to the young lady myself. Since I owe my life to the young lady, I thought I should do something too.”
“How can a kid have money to bring a gift like that. It’s fine even if you don’t give it.”
……Daphne is three years younger than me though? Brysa wanted to say that but held back.
“It’s a gift I personally thought about and chose. Could you please accept it?”
“Hmm.”
Daphne, after pondering for a moment, thought there was nothing to lose and extended her hand.
“Give it here.”
“Yes!”
Briasa, who came running over, handed Daphne a heavy box.
“This is…….”
As soon as she opened the lid of the box, what appeared was a bamboo sword-shaped sword. But it’s not an ordinary plain sword.
It’s made of wood, so at first glance it looks like a wooden sword, but it’s shaped like a bamboo sword without a blade. But even so, the aura was extraordinary.
A gleam appeared in Daphne’s eyes.
“I heard you’re still using an ordinary bamboo sword, so it’s a specially made sword. You can adjust the weight according to the injected mana, and since it’s blade-less like a bamboo sword and dangerous during training, they made it so that just by flowing mana, a blade appears. And they embedded a mana stone at the tip of the sword. Since you’re the young lady, you’ll surely manifest sword aura someday, so for that time. It seems perfect for practice, what do you think?”
She picks up the sword.
It fits in her hand incomparably better than the toddler bamboo sword she swung earlier.
She injects mana.
She feels the weight increasing slightly.
She looks at the sword tip.
The embedded mana stone is top-grade at a glance.
‘I needed a staff.’
Up to 2-star magic is possible with simple incantations, but beyond that, it’s easier to put mana into a staff and calculate formulas.
So she was thinking of buying a staff, but looking at the gifted sword, it seemed sufficient to use as a staff substitute.
“You…….”
Daphne looked at Briasa while leaving her twitching mouth corners alone.
“You weren’t just promising, you were an overflowing child! I’ll accept it well. Thank you!”
“……!”
Briasa cheered inwardly.
The worries like what if she refuses the gift, what if she criticizes it as a bribe, all melted away.
So Briasa decided to muster a bit more courage.
“Um, young lady. I have something I’m curious about, may I ask?”
“Go ahead.”
Daphne said while still examining the sword.
“You called me your ‘subordinate’ back then.”
“Hmm. I did.”
“Am I still the young lady’s subordinate?”
Daphne’s gaze became sly. What. You don’t like being my subordinate?
“Why, dissatisfaction…….”
“I hope so!”
“……Huh?”
“I want to be the young lady’s subordinate number 1! Sincerely! Really! I want to serve the young lady for life!”
“…….”
“I, I’m a spiritist! My skills are a bit lacking now, but I recently contracted with a lower spirit. I have a lot of uses! So please keep me as your subordinate!”
At the unexpected reaction, Daphne was dazed, then scratched the back of her head.
Haha, well. It’s the first time someone besides those previous black mages asks to be my subordinate.
What’s the motive?
Daphne narrowed her eyes.
“You know I’ll do big things in the future, so you want to be my subordinate?”
“Of course, to save the empire! To take revenge on the black mages!”
“…….”
That revenge again.
Hearing revenge every time makes her think she should really take revenge. As payment for taking this body, take revenge instead.
Well…… whatever, such worries can be done later.
For now, she has to deal with this pup who doesn’t know to fear the tiger and is wagging its tail.
“Yes? Please…….”
Hmm.
“Please allow this lacking me to follow the great young lady!”
Hmmm?
“The young lady is truly great! There won’t be another existence as excellent, amazing, and shining as the young lady!
Hmmm!
Daphne made a decision.
Absolutely not because she praised her to the bone, but just because this kid’s potential looked good. Absolutely not because of flattery.
“To be my subordinate, a lower spirit won’t do.”
“Yes, yes! So I’ll practice more……!”
“Run.”
Daphne said, pointing to the training ground with her finger.
“……Yes?”
“I’ll help with your training.”
“……Yes?!”
“Run.”
Uh, uhh?
Before Brysa could even rejoice at becoming Daphne’s subordinate number 1, she was thrown into the training ground. The so-called Daphne-style special training began.
“Today, when you go home, I’ll make it so you fall asleep as soon as your face hits the pillow. Ruuun!”
……This is fine, right?
***
Heross sat in the office chair, deeply pondering.
-Where did you seal the dragon you defe… hu… defeated?
He was recalling Daphne’s words.
-Th-that, I’m your daughter, right. So couldn’t you tell me the place where you sea… huu… sealed that dragon?
The fact that the dragon was not killed but only ‘sealed’ is known only to himself and the emperor.
The announcement itself was ‘eradicated the black dragon.’
Of course the emperor, and he himself never spoke carelessly, so how on earth does Daphne know that fact?
‘Could it be.’
One of Heross’s eye corners twisted.
‘Do the black mages know?’
So Daphne, who contacted the black mages, also found out.
The cunning and slyness of the black mages is unparalleled, so this speculation is reasonable.
But how?
‘How did the black mages know about the seal?’
Heross detached his forehead that was leaning on his interlaced hands and let out a long sigh.
Then he slowly stood up. Relying on the stick, he left the desk area and approached the bookshelf, tapping the bottom shelf of the bookshelf with the end of the stick.
Ziiing, a small vibration is felt. Heross injected a small amount of mana into the stick.
Kugugung!
The bookshelf disappeared. No, everything disappeared.
After everything in the room he was standing in disappeared, he arrived in darkness.
But he doesn’t panic. He just releases the same mana he injected earlier and moves forward.
Not long after, a new space appeared before Heross’s eyes.
It was a huge cave.
All rocks are covered in darkness, but the space itself is not dark. Because a dim blue light is flowing down from the unknown ceiling.
Heross kept walking forward.
“…….”
He stops his feet.
In front of him who stopped, there is a gigantic something as black as innate darkness.
“Calamity.”
Black dragon, Selus.
The being that lived as a calamity and plunged the world into chaos.
His sealed body is here.
Heross examined Selus’s body closely. But he doesn’t touch it. Because power still remains, if he touches carelessly, even Heross could be affected.
‘Nothing has changed.’
Heross frowned.
From the moment he stepped into this subspace until now, Heross activated all his senses to check for intruder’s presence.
But nothing is felt. Meaning no situation of someone intruding here has occurred at all.
Yet how did Daphne……. It was the moment his mind was about to get complicated.
[You stepping into this cave again. It’s surprising.]
A familiar voice pierced his ears. A soft, affectionate voice. Heross knew very well who the owner of this voice was.
“Your Majesty the Emperor.”
The owner of the empire and the being who created the subspace that imprisoned the calamity, the emperor.
“I offer greetings to the sun of the empire.”
Heross offered greetings toward the direction the voice came from. Then a low laughing sound was heard.
[I think I told you to be comfortable at least in this space, but you seem to have
forgotten.]
“I’m sorry.”
[No, no. I made an unnecessary request knowing your upright nature.]
The emperor is only heard by voice. His form is not visible.
But it was familiar to Heross.
He had never ‘seen’ the emperor in this subspace created by the emperor.
[I heard your daughter performed greatly this time.]
“……It was luck.”
[You’re really harsh on your family.]
The emperor’s laughter blooms once more. That sound echoes in the cave like an echo.
It’s a voice so soft that whenever heard, the body relaxes and emotions calm down.
Just hearing it makes one want to offer homage to him. This was the owner of the empire, the sun emperor.
[What brings you to the cave?]
Heross took a deep breath.
His reason judges that he must tell the truth to the emperor’s question.
But strangely, the instinct that raised its head stopped him.
Don’t tell the truth, mix in appropriate lies, don’t mention Daphne, it seems to warn.
“……The calamity,”
Heross steadied his trembling voice.
“It seems the fact that the calamity is not dead but just sealed has been revealed.”
There was an expected reaction.
He thought he would ask how it was revealed, thought he would interrogate how he knows that.
But the answer that came was completely different from expectation.
[……So it came to that after all.]
And, an astonishing situation unfolded before Heross’s eyes.
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By Anna 💓
