This is rough. I’ll upload yesterday’s portion together with this.
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Of course, there was no need to badger the cooks. The head chef, already deeply impressed by his culinary skill, supported him wholeheartedly in both material and spirit.
“Damn it... cursed...”
Damon kept grumbling as he cooked. Yet his hands were pouring in seasonings and ingredients at a speed too fast to see. When the dish was finished, Damon transferred a portion onto a small plate.
“It’s for two people, so this should be enough, right?”
After covering the plate and picking it up, Damon turned his head toward the cooks. Since they had obediently supplied the ingredients, he intended to show them some generosity with the leftover food.
“You may eat this. If you continue to cooperate this well in the future, there will naturally be proper compensation. Understood?”
A gleam of greed instantly flickered in the cooks’ eyes, but Damon did not even see it before he shot away. Behind him, the cooks were all hurling themselves toward the dish at once.
“Why, why don’t you like it?”
Damon found himself in an utterly absurd situation. He had brought over the dish he had made with great care and set it down proudly, but Daphne showed no sign of wanting to eat it. Damon first analyzed the reason.
“The dish was definitely made properly. The aroma and taste are exactly the same as the one I made for Helbertron, without the slightest difference. But why won’t Daphne eat it?”
“I’m sorry, mister. I don’t eat meat.”
“Aha!”
Damon snapped his fingers.
“So it turns out you’re a vegetarian? Wait just a little. This old man will go make you something right away. The most famous vegetable dish in the Central Plains, no less. Let’s see, I’ll put in plenty of mushrooms...”
Daphne hurriedly grabbed hold of Damon as he was about to launch himself away in haste.
“There’s no need for that, mister. I don’t eat food cooked with fire either.”
“Huh? What does that mean?”
Damon’s eyes went round. As if it weren’t enough that she did not eat meat, she did not eat anything touched by fire at all...? From the perspective of someone from the Central Plains, it was an utterly unimaginable notion. Daphne smiled softly at the bewildered Damon.
“Of course, I have no intention of stopping other people from eating meat. But I just can’t do it myself. I can feel the suffering of the animals that died to provide that meat. Vegetables are the same. The pain of being cooked and boiled is conveyed to me as it is, and I can’t bear it. That’s why I haven’t eaten such things since long ago.”
“T-then what do you eat? Surely you don’t live only on air and water?”
Daphne shook her head and rose to her feet.
“Please wait just a little, mister. I’ll treat you to the food I eat.”
A short while later, the foods Daphne had brought were laid out before Damon. Since the identity of the food was completely unexpected, Damon stared at it with an extremely serious expression.
“So... you live eating only this?”
“Yes, mister.”
Daphne smiled shyly. Damon hurriedly lowered his head so as not to look at that smile. Before him was a basket filled with all kinds of fruits and nuts. Some resembled those of the Central Plains, but most of the fruits were things Damon had never seen before.
Of course, he was not the sort to take any interest in fruit, and so he had not really eaten much fruit from the Central Plains either. He looked down at the fruits and kept tilting his head.
“Is she that pretty because she lives eating only things like this?”
“Try one.”
At Daphne’s suggestion, Damon reached out and picked up a fruit shaped like a small gourd. Its reddish hue did not make it look particularly appetizing.
“What is this fruit called?”
“It’s a fig. Despite how it looks, it’s quite delicious.”
Damon nodded, brought the fruit to his mouth, and took a bite. In that instant, a sharp yet sweet flavor filled his mouth.
“Hm?”
The fruit tasted so good that Damon’s eyes widened. Even though his palate was accustomed to every delicacy from land and sea, it gave Damon an entirely new kind of taste.
“Isn’t it delicious?”
“It is. In all my life, I never thought fruit of all things could taste this good.”
After speaking, Damon crunched away at the fruit. With its fragrant aroma, it was quite a delicacy. Thinking that he should have tried eating fruit sooner if he had known this, Damon finished off one fig and picked up another fruit. This time, it was green and shaped like a young squash.
“This is a melon. As you know, fruit is a blessing from God that flowers and trees create to offer to humans and animals. By offering these, plants are able to reproduce their kind, so you could say it is a method that benefits both sides.”
“How does this reproduce their kind?”
Of course, apart from fighting and growing stronger, Damon possessed very little knowledge of the world. Daphne smiled brightly and picked up a fruit, splitting it open. Then the seeds inside were revealed.
“These are the plants’ babies. After they enter the bellies of animals and go through the digestive process, if they are buried in the earth, they grow into grasses and trees that will once again provide such blessings to humans.”
“I-is that so.”
Damon nodded and blushed. He was embarrassed that he had been completely ignorant of something even a little girl not yet a third of his age knew.
The two of them chatted like that while eating fruit.
Daphne was mostly the one who spoke, while Damon merely listened in silence. Of course, her stories did not contain knowledge that would make him stronger or grant him power, but Damon focused his mind and listened attentively to her words. For Damon, simply listening was enough.
Because in that moment, it felt as if he had forgotten everything and returned to the innocence of childhood. While the two of them were chatting like that, the sun was sinking slowly toward the west. Daphne looked up at the sky with a startled expression.
“It’s already gotten so late.”
“I-is it?”
Damon rose to his feet in confusion. He had been so absorbed in his conversation with Daphne that he had not noticed the passage of time. The training he had to do without fail each day had already fallen through. Strangely, however, he did not feel particularly urgent or anxious. If anything, it was as though his heart was in an extremely peaceful state. Daphne smiled gently at Damon.
“I should be going in now.”
“G-go on, then.”
Damon answered reluctantly, and regret was plain on his face. He wanted nothing more than to sit with Daphne like this and talk through the night. But he did not have the nerve to hold Daphne back, so Damon could only nod as if he had no choice. Still, his face was filled with a certain expectation.
“The road is dark at night. Be careful on your way back.”
“Yes. You too, mister... Oh, we’ll meet again tomorrow, right?”
Damon’s face brightened at once. He had heard the words he had been waiting and waiting for.
“Of course! Naturally! Without question...”
As he was nodding frantically, his cheek suddenly flushed hot. Daphne had delivered that surprise kiss of hers again. Under an unbearable electric shock, Damon’s body stiffened completely. He could not even move a single finger.
Daphne smiled sweetly at that Damon and turned around.
“Thank you, mister. You really are a good person.”
After saying that, Daphne ran off as if she might fly away. But poor Damon could not move his body until her figure disappeared. To be honest, he could not even open his mouth.
“Well, now. This is something I can’t understand.”
With his face bright red and exclamations spilling from him again and again, Damon staggered away. Damon had not the faintest idea why such symptoms were occurring in him.
After returning to his lodging, Damon threw himself madly into training. Thinking that he had to make up for the training he had failed to do today, he could not even consider doing anything else. Since he was so absorbed in training, no particular anger welled up in him. Strangely, his ill feelings toward her were disappearing as time passed.
“Train. Training! Training! There’s no time to look elsewhere.”
In the end, Damon stayed up all night and only then managed to finish the training he had missed that day. Magic was no different from martial arts; if one did not continue to refine it, one’s skill would never improve.
From that day on, for several days, Damon’s daily routine revolved like a squirrel in a wheel. From morning until evening, he met Daphne and listened to her stories, and after the sun went down, he returned to his lodging and immersed himself madly in training. Not a single day passed otherwise.
At first, after parting from Daphne, Damon could not help but feel anger toward himself rising up. He found it unbearable that he had wasted time so uselessly. But as time went on, that anger gradually disappeared. Strangely, after meeting her, his heart would settle calmly, and the results of his training became even better.
For Damon now, the time he spent with Daphne had instead become even more meaningful. Damon himself had no idea why. He simply liked being with her so much that he did not know what to do. He even began to feel glad that their deployment was being postponed.
As he spent his time like that, one day an uninvited guest came to his lodging. It was after Damon had returned from meeting Daphne and was in the midst of preparing for training. The uninvited guest, who had come with three or four royal guard knights in tow, spoke to him with a shameless air.
“Have you been well?”
“Well, well? What brings you here?”
Seeing Damon greet him in an extremely provocative manner, Sergei gave a bitter smile.
“I am, at least nominally, the duke of a kingdom. Is this any way to treat me?”
“There’s no treatment for the likes of you. Why don’t you just tell me what you came for?”
The faces of the royal guard knights escorting Sergei were filled with disbelief. Until now, not a single person had ever treated Duke Sergei this way.
“W-what...”
“Impudent bastard!”
However, since they knew the other party’s strength, none of the knights rashly drew their swords. Was it not said that in order to succeed in the royal court, one had to be quick-witted? The opponent was a man who had cut down fifty royal guards in an instant. They did not want to charge in carelessly and have their dignity utterly trampled.
After shooting a glare at the detestable knights, Sergei looked at Damon. Of course, it was not as though anger did not rise in him as well, but since his opponent was who he was, he intended to simply let it pass.
“I hear you’ve been having quite a good time lately.”
“A good time? What good time?”
Sergei smiled gently. It was a smile as though he knew everything inside the other man’s heart. For no reason, Damon felt unpleasant and tossed out a curt remark.
“If you came here to spout useless nonsense, you’d better leave. I’m busy...”
“Do you like that child named Daphne so much?”
Damon’s expression suddenly stiffened. The fact he most wanted to hide had been brought up by the very opponent he found most troublesome, so he could not help but be shocked. He clenched his teeth and glared at Sergei.
“You must have had someone tail me. Did you use a magician?”
It was a conclusion he reached under the assumption that only a magician could evade his senses. But unexpectedly, Sergei shook his head.
“Well, what need would there be to go as far as tailing you? We’re already short on hands as it is...”
“If not, then how do you know that?”
Damon’s gaze was growing darker and darker. It was a habit that appeared when his anger had risen to the extreme. Sergei waved his hand as if to say that was not it.
“You’ve guessed wrong. The one being tailed is not you.”
“If not me, then who?”
As Damon asked back irritably, a strange light suddenly appeared on his face.
“Then Daphne?”
“That’s right.”
Watching Sergei nod, Damon asked again with an expression tinged with slight disbelief.
“W-what crime has that child committed...?”
“Well, it is certainly not as if she has committed some crime. On the contrary, we must protect that child no matter what. Because……”
Sergei stared straight into Damon’s eyes. His gaze seemed to say he found this almost too absurd to bear.
“That child is the Saintess. Of course, you must have heard about the Saintess from Grand Prelate Shreckheimer?”
“D-Daphne is the Saintess?”
Damon’s eyes widened sharply. He simply could not believe it. He had long suspected she was no ordinary person, but to think Daphne possessed such a status……
Of course, having heard Shreckheimer’s explanation, Damon knew to some extent what the Saintess was. The fate of every human living in Truvenia rested upon Daphne, who looked so infinitely frail…… Seeing Damon’s reaction, Sergei’s expression hardened coldly.
“The Saintess is inherently endowed with the trait of loving all things that exist in this world. You know that much as well, I’m sure. For the Saintess is a being born to act in accordance with the will of God. Therefore, the Saintess cannot hate even a mere insect, or even those stinking orc bastards. Do you understand now?”
Sergei could not bring himself to say the rest aloud. The fact that, had Daphne not been the Saintess, she would never have treated someone as hideous as Damon with such warmth, no matter what happened……
Damon did not move a muscle. At a glance, he seemed deeply shocked by Sergei’s words. Watching him as though savoring the sight, Sergei spoke firmly.
“Whether you have feelings for her or not is none of my concern. But until the mission is over, you must not lay a hand on her under any circumstances. Remember just one thing. We must see this through, no matter what……”
“……….”
“If the mission succeeds, I will promise you one thing. After we obtain the Oath Stone, I will arrange for you to take Daphne and go far away. Well, staying in Icarot would not be bad either, but judging by your personality, there is no chance you would choose that.”
Having finished, Sergei glanced at Damon’s face. Damon merely remained silent without saying a word. No expression could be read from his stiffened face.
“I shall take my leave now. The order to move out will come soon. The diversionary operation has not yet ripened sufficiently, but it will be concluded before long, so you had best be thoroughly prepared.”
With those words, Sergei turned on his heel. The guard knights each shot Damon a glare before hurriedly following after Sergei.
As he walked down the richly decorated corridor, Sergei suddenly turned his head toward empty air.
“Benitez. Show yourself……”
“Yes, sir.”
Astonishingly, an answer came from midair. A moment later, Benitez appeared on the spot as if he had materialized of his own accord. He had been hiding with magic in order to protect Sergei. Since Damon had displayed terrifying power, if he harbored any wicked intentions, it would be difficult for the guard knights to stop him……
Thinking that Benitez was the most suitable person to face Damon now that he had become a mage, Sergei turned his head.
“What is the current situation with the dragons?”
“They have not shown any particular movement yet. Thus far, the locations of a total of four dragons have been confirmed. The whereabouts of the last one are still unclear.”
“Is that so?”
Sergei frowned. They could begin the operation only once the dragons’ positions had been fully identified. He was currently pouring troops in indiscriminately in order to draw the dragons’ attention elsewhere. Only if the dragons failed to notice would the operation’s chances of success increase.
Of course, countless soldiers were dying on the battlefield. But the dragons’ mana would be consumed by just as much. Thinking of that, Sergei clenched his teeth.
“Do your utmost to track their locations. We will begin the operation as soon as the position of the remaining dragon is determined.”
“Yes, sir.”
Watching Benitez nod, Sergei began to walk. Just then, a deep question settled around Benitez’s eyes.
“There is one thing I am curious about.”
“What are you curious about?”
Benitez’s expression turned serious.
“I mean the promise you made to Damon. As far as I know, Your Grace has never been one to lie. Yet I cannot understand why you told Damon to leave with the Saintess?”
“Hm. That?”
A cold smile spread across Sergei’s face.
“Of course it was true. There is no need for me to explain the path the Saintess must take…… If the mission succeeds, should he not likewise follow after the Saintess? Am I wrong?”
“N-no, sir.”
Benitez hurriedly shut his mouth.
“That man has no need whatsoever to exist in Truvenia. You must understand that and act accordingly. Etch it deep into your heart……”
After speaking coldly, Sergei walked on alone, leaving the flustered Benitez behind. Though Benitez had served Sergei for a long time, he still had not grown accustomed to that temperament of his, colder than a serpent’s. He glanced at the door of the lodging where Damon was staying, then silently moved on. Thus the day was drawing to a close.
“You’re back, mister.”
Daphne welcomed Damon with the same warmth as always. Looking at her, Damon let out a low groan. But as if he had resolved himself to something, he bit his lip hard and steeled his determination. Sensing something strange in Damon’s attitude, Daphne kept tilting her head.
“You look terribly unwell today, mister. Are you sick?”
“N-no, it isn’t that.”
“Did something bad happen?”
Daphne looked deeply worried. His heart weakened at the sight, but Damon endured it and walked on. The two sat down in the place where they always sat. Yet Damon could not bring himself to raise his head. Perhaps it was because he had no confidence that he could face Daphne’s face.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“Please go ahead.”
Damon continued in a businesslike tone.
“I heard from someone that you are the Saintess. Is that true?”
“……….”
Perhaps flustered by the direct question, Daphne could not speak for a moment. Damon asked again, as though pressing her.
“Will you tell me the truth? I want to know.”
Only after some time had passed did Daphne barely manage to open her mouth. And even then, her voice was as faint as a mosquito’s buzz.
“I’m not certain, but I think that may be true. It was something Mister Shreckheimer, who brought me here, emphasized to me again and again.”
Hearing Daphne admit it, Damon let out a sigh deep enough to sink into the earth.
“So it really was true.”
“A-are you disappointed?”
Daphne asked back urgently. Damon continued, taking care not to look at her face.
“Forgive me for saying this. The truth is, until now, I had never been treated like this by a woman.”
“……….”
“Women treated me as if they were looking at a revolting insect or a snake. Thanks to this appearance of mine…… That does not mean my heart is kind, either. In truth, I belong firmly among the very wicked.”
“That isn’t true. Mister, you’re kindhearted enough to water flowers no one else pays any attention to……”
Damon cut Daphne off firmly.
“I still do not understand why I did that then. If I had been my usual self, I would never have done such a thing.”
“……….”
As Damon watched Daphne, an extremely complex and subtle emotion appeared in his eyes. In that moment, he was recalling once more all the knowledge about the Saintess that he had heard from Shreckheimer.
The Saintess was a woman born with an innate heart that loved all things and with the mind’s eye.
Of course, perhaps that was why Daphne had treated him with such warmth. With an attitude he had never felt from any woman before. In a way, it might have been deeply wounding to Damon’s pride. Had she not been the Saintess, there was no way she would ever have shown him any interest. But Damon had long since steeled himself not to care about any of that.
“I know well that the Saintess loves all beings in the world. Of course, because of that, you must have taken an interest even in a hideous wretch like me, yes? But it does not matter. Whatever the reason, you are the only woman who has treated me kindly……”
Daphne listened silently to Damon’s lament. Damon slowly raised his head. In his eyes flickered a light that suggested he had made some decision.
“I want to make you mine. I mean that I want to have you, no matter what price I must pay. Of course, this is not because of some base lust. Think of it as a small desire to remain by your side and listen to what you have to say.”
Damon had already fallen deeply for Daphne. He was prepared to pay any price to obtain her. He stared intently at Daphne’s somewhat startled face.
It was a face so beautiful it was dazzling even to dare look upon. Eyes as large as a deer’s, a sharp, elegant nose. Dimples that showed faintly, and white teeth. But none of it mattered in the slightest to Damon. At this moment, he would not have cared even if Daphne were as ugly as he was.
So long as she treated him warmly, just as she did now…… Unable to endure it any longer, Damon sprang to his feet.
“Today, I will take you.”
By then, the word violation had been engraved into Damon’s mind as his eyes gleamed. He wanted Daphne even if he had to go that far. Of course, the experience of such violence was by no means unfamiliar to Damon. He had already had such experiences several times during his days in the Guardian Demon King’s army.
“Do not reject me.”
With a rigid expression, Damon lifted Daphne’s body and laid her on the floor. Her body was as light as a feather. Anticipating that she might struggle, Damon tightly grasped both of Daphne’s wrists with one hand.
But she did not try to resist in the slightest. Afraid that their eyes might meet, Damon kept his head lowered as he tore at the front of Daphne’s clothing with his remaining hand.
Riiip.
With the sound of cloth tearing, a white cloth breast covering was revealed. It shone so white it stung the eyes. Yet not a speck of lust could be found in Damon’s eyes. Damon was thinking only of one thing: making Daphne his own. Just as his hand moved toward the breast covering, a trembling voice pierced his ears.
“Mister.”
Damon simply pretended not to hear. Just as rice became cooked once it was boiled, Damon believed without a doubt that once he passed this stage, Daphne would truly become his woman. But as the voice continued to call him, a little strength left his hand.
“Mister.”
Daphne’s eyes were filled with tears. Damon tried to brace his wavering heart and put strength into the hand gripping the breast covering. All he wanted was to possess Daphne, no matter how.
But Daphne’s next words decisively made Damon hesitate. The fact that she did not resist at all also sapped his strength. Pinned beneath Damon, Daphne whispered softly.
“Do you love me?”
“Love.”
Stopping just before tearing it away, Damon silently repeated the word love to himself. Perhaps this was love. If the desire to possess one woman forever could be called love. Until now, he had never once felt such an emotion.
He had embraced many women, but once his lust was spent, he would forget them as if nothing had ever happened. Daphne, however, was different. If only he could remain with her, he was prepared to pay any price. Even if it meant he could not avenge his master and his subordinates.
Before he knew it, Damon nodded. Words he had never once uttered before forced their way past his lips and slipped out.
“I, I love you.”
Those words came from Damon’s true heart. But at Daphne’s next words,
Damon’s body went rigid, as though he had been struck by lightning.
“I like you too, mister. But if you act like this, Daphne will be truly sad.”
As Damon unconsciously lifted his head, Daphne’s eyes came into view. They were eyes filled with boundless
sorrow.