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Chapter 18
Daphne was really a terrible child.
“Ugh, look at your hair color. Gross. It looks like filthy water mixed with weeds!”
“Why do you have to look so annoying? It makes me sick just to look at you. Don’t lift your face in front of me.”
“Get lost! I don’t want to be in the same room as someone like you!”
She said things like that every single day, every single moment.
Vifera, who had tried to look after Daphne carefully as her mother had asked, didn’t get to care for her—she only got bullied.
If she had been Daphne’s real “older sister,” she would have punished Daphne sharply. But Vifera was not a biological sister. Ever since the woman who had brought her there died, she was someone who could be kicked out at any time… just a lowborn child who had been adopted by luck.
For that reason Vifera could not refuse Daphne. She had no choice but to endure Daphne’s cruel words. She didn’t want to be kicked out of this house. She wanted to live here for the rest of her life.
For Vifera, her room was like her own solid fortress. It was in the main building so Daphne didn’t come looking for her there, and the servants also didn’t poke around.
So Vifera hid in her own fortress. She hid in the room and didn’t meet Daphne. That had been going on for half a year.
Coming to see Daphne this time took a lot of courage. She had spent a whole month restless, thinking this over, worried that if she missed this chance she’d never get another, and finally forced herself out.
So of course she had braced herself, expecting Daphne to rain verbal abuse and beatings down on her like before.
But…
“Why do you have that expression? I said I’ll let you meet an elf, didn’t I?”
…Why does she agree?
Vifera’s head went blank. More than the fear she felt toward Daphne, she was more bewildered. Her trembling hands clasped, and her eyes rolled.
“Vifera. Will you not come to your senses?”
“Uh, uh? Ah, no! Sorry! Don’t hit me!”
“……”
Daphne squinted one eye.
It had been a while since she’d reacted like that. Seeing Vifera’s response made Daphne once again realize that she truly was an incorrigible brat.
“I won’t hit you.”
Daphne breathed out and held both hands politely, as if to show she wouldn’t harm her.
“Now and from now on. I won’t hit you. So don’t be afraid.”
“Th–that’s… a lie.”
“Whether it’s a lie or true, you’ll see if you watch. I said again, I won’t hit anyone without reason anymore.”
“……”
Vifera felt, somehow, the tension that had been on her shoulders ease.
Really, has she changed?
Will she really stop hitting and stop cursing?
No, no. She wouldn’t believe it. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. The important thing was that she could meet an elf!
“Uh, you’ll… really let me meet an elf?”
“It’s not difficult, so it’s possible.”
“Thank you!”
Watching Vifera light up with a bright smile, Daphne forced away the discomfort she felt and asked again.
“By the way, why do you want to meet an elf?”
“Uh, uh… well.”
Vifera scratched her cheek and muttered.
“I — I make potions… but I keep failing… s-so an elf doctor would know herbalism well, b-because—”
“Aha. So that smell I noticed earlier was that.”
“Th–there’s a smell?!”
Vifera raised her arm and stuck her nose into the crook of her elbow and sniffed, but she couldn’t detect anything.
Well, herbs and substances used in alchemy usually emit only a subtle scent, often imperceptible to a human nose.
Daphne’s sense of smell was stimulated because she still used all five senses the way she had when she was a dragon.
But Vifera, not knowing this backstory, thought Daphne was saying something strange.
“It’s a smell only I, the great one, can detect, so don’t worry.”
Even that was odd.
Vifera thought Daphne hadn’t only changed—she’d become strange in some way.
“But isn’t potion-making alchemy? Aren’t dwarves more learned in that field?”
Vifera’s brows tightened slightly.
“Dwarves… hmm. Dwarves are b-better, though.”
“Better isn’t enough. Dwarves are the ones truly knowledgeable about alchemy. Meeting some dumb elf won’t give you any real advantage.”
“Th— that’s why.”
“I won’t connect you with dwarves, no matter how great you claim to be.”
“No! That’s not it!”
Vifera squeezed her eyes shut and shouted.
“Because I don’t trust those crazy bastards!”
How a five-year-old Daphne knew that dwarves were expert alchemists didn’t matter to Vifera.
Vifera, aiming to be a great alchemist, was like other adepts: once she fixated on something, she couldn’t see or hear anything else. She was firmly stuck on one thing now.
Yes. She was fixated on complaining about the dwarves.
“What I want to ask the elf isn’t how to make my potions succeed. I want to know whether the ingredients I have in my hands are actually okay!”
She looked like a different person—no trace of a timid, frail impression—eyes flashing as she shouted.
“I bought the ingredients from the dwarves. But you know how awful they are, right? Even if you give them money they don’t give you the goods! And do you know what they asked? If you want the Frinan leaf, bring them firewood! For someone like me who’s always shut in my room! Of course I chopped the wood, but it didn’t end there. If you want a Hupul’s wing, you have to go hunting with them! I truly didn’t want to go, but I did! I got it that way! But! I started to get suspicious! A little? No, a lot!”
Vifera, who had been ranting with indignation, suddenly clapped a hand to her chin as if realizing something.
“S-so if I ask the elf whether they’re lying… I’ll be able to t-tell whether it’s true or not… I think… yeah.”
Daphne, who hadn’t been listening to more than half of what Vifera said, finally turned her gaze.
For someone this young to be meeting dwarves to get ingredients and making potions meant she had talent.
And it sounded like she’d made the dwarves like her. Those folk wouldn’t even deal with someone they disliked.
But there was a problem.
‘Does that bitch Teity ever not lie?’
She lied every time she opened her mouth.
Daphne paused a moment, then shrugged. After all, if Vifera had to overcome hardships to become a great alchemist, this would be one of them.
“Bringing you to meet that one isn’t difficult.”
“Really?! Even now? Huh?”
“However, there’s a condition.”
“…Huh? A c-condition?”
Before Vifera could finish her question, Daphne’s eyes flashed.
Is she going to beat me again?!
Vifera squeezed her eyes shut.
But what flew over wasn’t a palm but a strange demand.
“Tell me about the hero. His weakness, or a timing when you could kill him—something like that would be perfect. And about me, too, as a bonus.”
“……”
It seemed true that Daphne had become odd.
It was a relief in some ways, but could Daphne really be left like this…?
“Shss. Hoo. Shss…”
Daphne controlled her breathing as she ran her eighth lap around the training grounds. Her head was full of the words Vifera had left behind.
“—Ah, there isn’t much to say about my father… As you know, Arius, Rache, and I were brought here by Mother. Father didn’t want us. After Mother died I became, well, more affectionate….”
She had confirmed again that the hero had a lousy dad. And that the adoption of the three siblings above Daphne was entirely their mother’s will.
But that wasn’t the important part.
What came next was.
“—Father always carried out the Emperor’s orders… sometimes two or so times a month…? But after the order to kill the dragon last time, there weren’t any orders. That’s why Father’s been at home more lately.”
Order to kill a dragon?
“Ugh…!”
Daphne clenched her fist tightly and let out a pained sound.
How dare someone order someone to be killed?!
“Arghhhh!”
Unable to contain her rage, Daphne sprinted with all her might across the training ground.
She didn’t even notice the knights, who had been watching, awkwardly rising and starting to run after her.
“Hoo, hoo….”
So the hero had come to kill her under the Emperor’s orders.
If she were to die, it was more because of the Emperor’s will than the hero’s.
Then the question.
‘Why the hell did the Emperor want me dead?’
Had she done anything to harm this empire? Well, being a calamity, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t caused any trouble, but she didn’t think she’d caused a massive incident.
‘Did he touch me even though I was living quietly?’
Daphne’s eyes blazed.
‘That damned human Emperor…!’
Fine. All right then.
Emperor?
You’ll be killed right after the hero.
And I’ll crush not only the hero’s family but the royal household as well!
“Down with the hero! Kill the Emperor—ahhh!”
Fueled by burning stamina, Daphne ran, and the knights clapped and chased after her.
