His mind snapped to clarity. He also realized that he must not think of Daphne the same way as other women.
‘T-To think I would make Daphne sad…….’
Strength quietly drained from his hands. Damon’s honest feeling was that he did not want to make Daphne sad, no matter what happened. And if he violated her like this……. He felt that Daphne would likely
never show him a smile again. That was the one thing Damon wished to avoid, no matter what happened.
“S-Sorry.”
Damon stumbled back. His face was deeply stained with shame and doubt regarding his own actions. Watching him, Daphne slowly raised herself. Daphne silently fastened her garments. Unable to bear looking at Daphne, Damon hung his head.
An ominous thought flitted through his mind—that Daphne would never look at him again from now on. Any ordinary woman would naturally act that way.
‘Ah, no.’
In a panic, Damon raised his head. And he saw Daphne’s dazzling smile directed at him. For an instant, Damon’s breath caught in his throat. A gentle voice reached his ears.
“As expected, mister has a kind heart.”
Pathetically, Damon could not utter a single word, merely gaping blankly.
“I have never been in love even once until now. Have you, mister?”
“……….”
The two sat side by side in their usual seats, conversing quietly. Of course, Damon was merely listening silently to Daphne’s words with his head hung low. He couldn’t bring himself to face her. The strange thing was Daphne’s attitude toward Damon.
As if she didn’t have what just happened in mind at all, she treated Damon with an extremely intimate attitude. It was to the extent that she hadn’t changed in the slightest from yesterday. As if nothing had happened, Daphne chattered away merrily.
“There were almost no men in the village where I lived. Because they were all conscripted due to the war.”
“I-Is that so?”
“You have lived longer than I, so you must have experienced a wonderful love, right?”
‘Love?’
At Daphne’s words, Damon fell into thought for a moment. The word ‘love’ was, of course, a word that didn’t suit him at all. He had never felt anything beyond lust from any woman until now. If he were to use the word ‘love,’ the target would undoubtedly be none other than Daphne.
‘To have never once experienced love at the age of fifty… my lot in life is truly pitiful.’
Damon let out a long sigh before continuing haltingly.
“I too have never experienced love. You are the first to have said such words to me.”
At those words, Daphne’s eyes sparkled.
“Then I am your first love?”
“If love is truly wanting to possess a woman so desperately, then perhaps it is?”
A faint smile rose to Daphne’s face.
“Love is not possession, mister.”
“……….”
“I don’t know the concept of love either. I only know that one must love people, or other beings, without any conditions. Love is not about possessing something, but giving without conditions. At least, the concept of love I know is like that.”
“G-Giving.”
“Giving without any conditions. For example, a mother’s love for her baby is like that, isn’t it? A mother doesn’t give expecting something in return from her baby. She simply does so because she loves them…….”
Daphne wove her story in a soft voice. Damon merely listened silently as he had done until now. Perhaps this moment was what he had longed for so much. Without even embracing Daphne, simply listening to her talk like this, merely sensing her scent and voice, made Damon infinitely happy.
Though a small incident had occurred, the two conversed until the sun slowly set before standing up.
“You’ll come out tomorrow too, right? I’ll wait for you, mister.”
Daphne promised tomorrow with a demeanor that hadn’t changed in the slightest.
Smack.
Damon watched in a daze, utterly bewildered, as Daphne walked away. Other,
no, any ordinary woman would have had some reaction to today’s incident, but Daphne was different. To think she could treat the one who had tried to violate her so unhesitatingly…….
“Is it because she is a Saintess?”
Damon, who had been in a daze for some time, walked on in silence. Vowing never again to act as he had today…….
Recalling the training he would do in the evening, he was walking when suddenly four dark shadows blocked his path.
“Hup.”
Having failed to detect their approach at all, Damon reflexively took a combat stance. But when he saw the face of the one leading them, his eyes went wide.
“Helbertron.”
The identities of the four shadows blocking his path were Helbertron and the other three Sword Masters. Their faces were all rigidly stiff. From their appearance, Damon could immediately tell who had been watching Daphne.
“I see. So it was you lot…….”
Damon was greatly surprised that Sword Masters, not magicians, could deceive his senses and approach him. He could truly feel that Sword Masters had a different side to them compared to the experts of the Central Plains. As Damon silently looked around, Helbertron stepped forward.
“You’ve got more nerve than I thought. To think you would dare lay a hand on the Saintess…….”
“……….”
“It is fortunate you stopped at that point; had you gone further, you would likely be a headless corpse by now.”
Since it was a perfectly plausible story given that they had fooled his senses, Damon’s expression hardened. Seeing Damon like that, Helbertron’s expression softened slightly.
“At any rate, it is fortunate for both of us. We didn’t want to cut the throat of a friend who cooks as well as you do.”
“You saw all of my actions until now?”
“Of course. Straight through from the beginning until now.”
Damon’s expression turned rigid. Of course, the situation earlier was a scene he would never have wanted others to see. Ashamed and furious, he bit his lip tightly. Had he the ability, he would have wanted to kill all four of them to silence them. Perhaps misunderstanding Damon’s feelings, Helbertron spoke in a low tone.
“Don’t worry too much. We have no intention of reporting this to Count Sergei……. Of course, there is one condition.”
“You mean for me to cook?”
“A friend who catches on quickly. This time, please make enough for all four of us.”
The four Sword Masters seemed to have their appetites stirred at the thought of food, and their expressions relaxed. Damon, barely suppressing his boiling anger, nodded as if he had no choice.
“It can’t be helped. But I too will set one condition.”
“What is it?”
“Buy me a drink.”
Helbertron, who had been dubious about what kind of condition it was, broke into a wide smile. That was something he could easily grant.
“Of course, that’s fine. If only you satisfy our palates, what is a mere drink? I’ll buy you enough to make your nose crooked, so let’s go.”
The four Sword Masters surrounded Damon as if encircling him and headed for the banquet hall. Already distraught at heart, Damon resolved to get completely drunk this time. Because if he didn’t, there would be no way to set his tangled mind straight.
Having arrived at the banquet hall, Damon immersed himself in cooking frenziedly. Since it was for four people, it took some time, but thanks to the chefs supporting him generously, the dishes were completed before long. After tasting the food, the chefs’ attitudes had become even more compliant.
The knights who had the food placed before them visibly brimmed with anticipation. Soon the feast began.
“Hya! This is incredible.”
“How can someone make food this delicious?”
Before the knights eating ravenously, Damon silently downed his glass. It was a high-quality liquor with a fairly high alcohol content, but Damon ignored that and devoted himself to emptying his glass. As if getting drunk was his sole purpose on earth. Eventually, around the time the knights had cleanly emptied their plates, Damon became dead drunk, completely intoxicated. Seeing Damon collapsed with his face planted on the table, the knights shook their heads back and forth.
“Huh, really! For all his looks, his drinking capacity is pathetic.”
“That’s not it. He kept drinking continuously, so it’s natural he’d pass out.”
The knights had no choice but to hoist Damon onto their backs and head toward his quarters. Even on the way, they didn’t forget to chatter.
“By the way, was he really that taken with the Saintess? Well, she is pretty, but not enough to lose one’s mind over…….”
“Indeed, when you think of her as the Saintess, she hardly looks like a woman. Rather like a doll, wouldn’t you say?”
Salamis stole a glance at Damon’s face. Of course, he couldn’t help but grimace involuntarily.
“Indeed, with a face like that, it’s understandable. What woman would follow a man with such a face?”
“You never know. If a woman fell for this fellow’s cooking skills, it might be possible…….”
The knights laid Damon’s body on the bed in his quarters as they conversed. Damon was fast asleep, oblivious to everything.
Damon seemed as though he wouldn’t wake from his unconscious state. But he possessed exceptionally keen senses. Because of that, Damon ended up waking to the sound of the emergency bell ringing at dawn.
Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
The urgent sound of the emergency bell. Waking from sleep, Damon grimaced, his head throbbing.
“What is it?”
Thanks to his considerable experience here already, Damon could immediately grasp the situation.
“It seems a raid is underway. Are they Orc raiders?”
The moment he was about to dismiss it, Damon’s expression suddenly stiffened. Because Daphne had suddenly come to mind. At this hour, Daphne would have come to the garden to meet him, and that place was thoroughly exposed to aerial raids. Since danger might befall her, he threw off his blanket and rose.
“There is no time for this.”
Damon urgently grabbed his gauntlet and dashed out of the room. Though it seemed there was little to worry about since four Sword Masters were guarding her, he still had to think of the worst-case scenario. As Damon raced like lightning down the corridor, he spotted a group of royal guards and called out to them.
“What is going on? Is it an Orc raid?”
The royal guards all looked shaken. The one who appeared to be their leader stepped forward and reported the situation.
“They are not Orc raiders. They appear to be magicians who are Liches, and their skills are truly formidable. Seven squads of royal guards have already been annihilated by them.”
The moment he heard this, Damon urgently dashed off. The deaths of the royal guards were of no concern to him whatsoever. The most important thing was Daphne’s safety. He even cast Haste as he flung himself toward the rear garden.
“The situation is no trivial matter.”
The rear garden was littered with the corpses of royal guards. As if struck by powerful magic, not a single intact body could be seen. Damon passed through them and rushed urgently to the meeting place. As he ran frantically, a strange thought suddenly flashed through Damon’s mind.
“Strange. If they are Liches, they shouldn’t have much connection with Dragons…….”
Liches. It was one of the paths chosen by magicians who had reached a high realm when they approached the brink of death in order to obtain eternal life. Usually, magicians with extremely scholarly dispositions chose this method for the sake of endless magical research. By sealing their life force within a vessel through some form of magic, they could live forever without aging—that is, a method to seek eternal life.