Chapter 14
｡･:*:･ﾟ★ Translated by Bree ｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
Mentis questioned as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Did you just say nonsense to me?”
“Oh, I never said it was you. Did I hit a nerve, by any chance?”
“…!”
When Daphne smirked, Mentis’ face turned red in embarrassment.
In a fit of rage, he was about to say something to Daphne when he suddenly stopped.
Daphne wasn’t close to the twins. It would be more accurate to say there was a strained relationship between them.
So why would she suddenly come to the study room?
‘Could it be that she overheard me mention Amila?’
Was she trying to exploit my weakness and threaten me?
If this information reached Lyas, the Grand Duke, I might as well be signing my own death warrant.
‘I can’t afford to be cast out of the family.’
To avoid such a situation, Mentis raised his voice to admonish her.
“What kind of behavior is this during a serious class!”
As he shouted in anger, Daphne raised an eyebrow, seeming to ask if there was a problem.
“Behavior? Seems like you’ve chosen the wrong words.”
“What absurd excuses are you making…!”
“It’s not my behavior.”
Cutting off Mentis’ words in one go, Daphne looked at him and said, “It seems more suitable for someone like you who brings up a late mother in front of children with a twenty-year age gap.”
“…!”
“What a disgrace.”
Daphne looked at him with a scornful expression.
Furious, Mentis trembled with anger.
‘She must have heard it all. She came here to threaten me.’
Mentis glared at Daphne, clenching his fist. Then, he smiled, his lips curling up.
However, she was Daphne. Even if she reported this to Lyas, the Grand Duke, he wouldn’t trust her.
‘Besides, those twins are terribly sorry towards their father, so they’ll deny Daphne’s words.’
They would have to re-enact their own humiliation and insult towards their deceased mother with their own mouths.
Mentis, having concluded his judgment, spoke in a more relaxed attitude.
“You’re saying some strange things. What do you mean?”
“Are you pretending to not know?”
“Pretending not to know, I don’t understand what baseless assumption you’re making. In my eyes, all I see is how rude the lady is.”
He naturally shrugged off the accusation.
“…Fine.”
Then, Daphne slowly nodded.
“Well, there’s nothing to be done then.”
Her gaze fell onto the teacup on the table.
Not noticing it, Mentis sighed and raised his head.
“Well, it can’t be helped. Since I’m in charge of education, I’ll have to report this to the Grand Duke…”
At that moment.
Splash!
Tea poured over Mentis’ face.
In an instant, the twins’ eyes widened.
Mentis, still not aware of what had happened to him, stood there with his mouth agape.
Tea, flowing along Mentis’ beard, dripped down steadily. The sound of it falling was clear, and silence enveloped the study.
The first one to break the silence was, naturally, Mentis.
“W-What is the meaning of this!”
He shouted like thunder. His voice was so loud that it even surpassed the sound of breaking the doorknob earlier.
“What’s wrong?”
But Daphne responded as if nothing had happened.
“What…! Just now, you splashed tea water on my face, didn’t you!”
“You’re saying some strange things. I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
Daphne raised an eyebrow, smirking.
It was returning what he said earlier back to him. Mentis’ face turned red.
The humiliation in his childhood against Lyas was being vividly reconstructed.
“Such unladylike behavior…!”
He raged.
“I won’t let this go! I’ll report every detail of what happened today to Duke Peregrine!”
“Oh, really?”
Daphne shrugged.
“Then let me know.”
She reached out to the side, lightly dropping the teacup she had hooked with her index finger down.
Clink!
The teacup that fell to the floor broke with a loud noise. Mentis shrank back reflexively at the piercing sound.
“What…!”
There was no chance to ask what she was doing.
Before he knew it, Daphne approached without notice, leaning in close to him.
Then, in a voice only he could hear, she whispered.
“I would cut off your tongue.”
“…!”
“It’d be enjoyable.”
Mentis’s face began to turn pale.
“N-No.”
Looking at the clear fear, Daphne chuckled.
“After all, with your tongue cut off, you won’t be able to speak properly, right?”
Saying so, Daphne lowered her gaze.
Mentis’s gaze naturally followed hers.
Where her gaze fell was on the broken teacup.
The sharp edge of the glass fragment reflected the light from the ceiling. In that moment, the reflected light felt like it was piercing his eyes.
‘N-No, that’s ridiculous. No matter how crazy Daphne is, she wouldn’t do something like that…’
Mentis forced a smile.
However, when he saw Daphne, his entire body tensed up.
Daphne’s face was chillingly cold. The mocking smile she had shown just a moment ago disappeared without a trace.
What remained on her chillingly beautiful face was just silent anger.
A silent anger that could explode at any moment, and therefore, a more fearsome anger.
He knew this silence well.
It resembled the gaze of Grand Duke Peregrine, the only gaze he had ever feared and revered.
He forced himself to swallow his dry spit. It was an instinctual realization that he wouldn’t get away with this.
“T-This. I absolutely won’t let it go.”
As he retreated to his seat, he stumbled, stuttering like someone whose tongue had been cut.
“So, shall we continue?”
“…!”
But when Daphne smiled and asked, he scrambled out of the room.
Mentis completely disappeared. Daphne, who had been watching his retreating figure, sighed as she looked at the glass shards on the floor.
In truth, she hadn’t planned to go this far.
She had intended to find out what the children were going through, expose the scene, and question them about his crimes.
But the moment she saw the terrified twins, all her previous resolutions flew away.
‘He even mentioned their deceased mother so ruthlessly.’
It was an act that no human could do. So, without realizing it, her body moved first, and she responded in the same way.
Although she saw his frightened face, it still wasn’t satisfying.
Daphne sighed again, regaining her composure.
Realizing she should not be like this, she first approached the startled children.
“Are you okay?”
“….”
Julios still had a face that couldn’t believe what had just happened.
Ermano, whether out of fear or shock, kept his head bowed.
Trying to console the children, Daphne awkwardly patted them.
“…Why did you help us?”
However, an unexpected question caught Daphne.
“…What?”
“We did the wrong thing.”
Ermano slowly raised his head, his eyes filled with despair, resignation, and self-loathing. Daphne’s face slowly hardened.
“…Mother died because of us.”
“Brother.”
“And it’s true that Father finds it hard to face us…”
Julios urgently called Ermano, but he didn’t stop.
“It’s all true…”
Ermano’s voice began to tremble. His unfocused eyes were moist, and his lips struggled to form words.
Yet, as if trying not to cry, Ermano bit his lips.
She understood that this was his way of letting out his frustration.
Daphne had saved them from another demon. It was right to express gratitude.
However, Mentis’ words were not entirely wrong.
Born with such difficulty, they felt utterly powerless. Protecting his brother was challenging, and he had to rely on others for help.
If only we hadn’t been born. If only Mother had survived.
‘Father would have been happy too.’
Self-blame choked the young boy.
“Everything he said is true. Why did you help us, why…!”
Ermano closed his eyes as if he was blaming himself.
“Brother…”
Even the once fearless Julios began to falter.
Crack! The sky rumbled just in time. Raindrops began to slap against the window.
The sound of raindrops tapping on the window was just like tears falling to the floor. Ermano’s head slowly drooped.
“Does there need to be a reason?”
Daphne’s calm voice made Ermano lift his head as if possessed.
Daphne was looking at him with a serene face.
Her eyes were warm, and there was no hint of reproach despite the harsh words.
“I intervened because I didn’t believe it. No matter what reason, there’s no justification for abusing a child.”
“…”
“And there is no one in this world who shouldn’t have been born.”
Ermano blinked blankly at words he had never heard before. Julios was equally surprised.
“Of course, that trash from earlier is an exception.”
Daphne said with a light smile.
“And isn’t it a hero’s duty to save someone in danger?”
“Hero…”
“Yeah, a hero.”
As Ermano mumbled quietly, Daphne echoed him.
“So stop crying.”
Daphne’s warm hand gently wiped Ermano’s tear-streaked eyes.
A warmth he had never felt before. Ermano blinked his eyes. It felt like waking up from a dream.
Ermano stared blankly at Daphne.
Daphne, who had been smiling warmly at me, suddenly glanced to his side. Then, with a mischievous smile, she said.
“Since your brother stopped, Julie should stop too.”
Ermano turned his head at Julios’ name.
Julios, who seemed to be forcing back tears, was shaking and trembling.
“I-I’m not crying….”
In the midst of denying it, he sniffed loudly. His face distorted humorously.
It wasn’t right, but it was too funny.
“…ha.”
Eventually, Ermano burst into laughter. Julios gaped at his brother with a shocked face.
“W-Why are you laughing?!”
“Julie, it’s funny how you force yourself to hold back your tears.”
“It’s all because of you, Brother!”
Perhaps finding it ironic that even his brother was laughing, Julios finally burst into tears.
While laughing, Ermano also burst into tears again.
Then, as if just waking up from a nightmare, the brothers embraced each other tightly.
For a while, they seemed reluctant to separate from each other, perhaps wanting to continue feeling that this was reality.
* * *
After some time, the brothers stopped crying. I thought it was fortunate that their sorrow seemed to have eased.
‘That’s true, but…’
‘Why am I stuck in between…?’
Feeling perplexed while sandwiched in the middle, the twins clung to my sides like pieces of gum, tightly holding onto the hem of my clothes.
That trash 😭😭😭