41. We Have Met Before

 It was several years ago.

The navy of Secradion had been waging a long naval battle to eradicate the pirates who were oppressing the people in the distant seas of Lacteia.

Count Killian, who received ‘Serenade’ with its Delaware Art Street and verdant Olden Lake as his territory, and the vast ‘Arkas’ Strait as his medal, was a hero of the naval battle.

He was also the longtime supporter of the Green family and Daphne’s godfather.

Daphne was hit by a carriage accident at fifteen.

Because the accident happened at such a young age, they said her broken leg would heal without aftereffects if she rehabilitated…

—I’ll have to quit ballet.

The young girl whose dream was shattered was consumed by uncontrolled anger in everything.

Her godfather woke Daphne, who was bored with everything, at five in the morning, made her attend to his early morning needs, and taught her dead languages that were no longer used.

“Don’t doze off when it’s not bedtime. Walk without making footsteps, keep your back and waist straight. Don’t cross your legs when sitting. Don’t tremble either. Never curse carelessly at any time.”

When morning came, he reluctantly sent her to school, severely scolded her when report cards came out, and after returning home, made her study until bedtime at twelve.

“If I had known Amber raised her daughter so sloppily, I wouldn’t have accepted you.”

Her godfather often lamented in such ways.

“You regret quite late, don’t you?”

Daphne was deeply immersed in the role of a royal lady at the time, so she used somewhat strange speech even with adults. After all, she was the heir of a marquis, and Killian was merely a count.

Killian pointed this out at first, but when it didn’t change, he seemed to just leave it be.

Killian was in his forties but very sickly. She had overheard that he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and would die in a few years.

If Daphne endured until then, this land would become hers, and she would manage those assets entirely as her own to do business, and after that……

However, as life tends to be, things didn’t go according to Daphne’s plans. 

 * * *

 “What were you thinking writing such a letter to His Highness the Prince?”

Killian threw the dark green paper in front of Daphne with a miserable expression. The writing densely filled with anger and tears was pleading injustice.

Daphne glanced down at it briefly and stopped.

“Exactly as you see. Just as written there. I asked to exterminate the families of Ranan Calli, Janet, those girls. Ah, since they’re beggars, they probably don’t have anything like families. I should rewrite it.”

At the time, Daphne was raised pampered like a royal lady, freely coming and going from the palace, and her speech was somewhat like that too. She looked down on those below her and thought her words were law.

“Daphne Beaucater.”

Killian’s features, deeply etched with traces of time, all furrowed. He struck down the cane he was holding. With such force that the marble floor immediately cracked.

“It’s a letter I sent to my fiancé, why did you intercept it?”

“Intercept? You really don’t know where His Highness the Prince is?”

There was no way a letter would reach someone who had gone to war. It would obviously have been returned.

“Ah, so you read the returned letter. I find it quite perverted, are you a deviant?”

“Daphne.”

“I clearly told you too. That those children treated me that way. Since you won’t take my side, I merely asked for help from my future husband.”

The mansion was like a palace made of glass. Daphne interacted with commoner girls her age for the first time, and the way to make friends there was to spend money.

One semester was quite enjoyable.

“I did nothing wrong.”

She sent delicious food through hired people to small parties hosted by peers, and charitably gave pretty jewels too. Because everyone likes such things. They laughed and chatted together, and it was fun.

“You beat Calli’s face until it was pulp, and you did nothing wrong?”

The trouble started when she couldn’t prepare a birthday gift for the commoner girl who acted as queen bee at the girls’ school, so she gave her a jewel she had worn once and put away.

“She called me, the daughter of Amber Green—a wh*re, first. She said Beaucater and Green are demon families obsessed with money. When she’s just a beggar.”

It started with her being picked on for giving used accessories. She heard backbiting about how she couldn’t even spend money properly despite being a wealthy young lady.

“You disappoint me again this time. Nothing has changed at all.”

Disappointing Killian was far too easy. Even just sleeping in late, he would say he knew this would happen and disparage Daphne.

“Mother sold me to my godfather……”

Furthermore, rumors spread that she was paralyzed from the waist down and sold her body to her godfather who was famous for being sickly. When Daphne overheard that story behind the school grounds, she lost her mind and immediately pulverized Ranan Calli’s face with her fist.

And as soon as she returned home, she wrote to Romeo. Asking him to eliminate all those children’s families as soon as he read this letter!

“I’m going to be royalty in the future, so they deserve to be punished for insulting royalty.”

“Did you write to Amber Green about this content too?”

“Mother must not know. She’ll tell me to come home immediately, and it won’t just end with mere extermination.”

If Amber, who cherishes Daphne dearly, found out about this, the girls’ school could even be shut down. When Daphne injured her leg, her mother’s secretary told her that she had cried for three days and nights. That extremely busy mother!

‘Though she didn’t come to the hospital room.’

Killian, who placed his teacup on the saucer, looked troubled. Last time he had also mentioned this in passing to the butler, but he only returned words saying ‘One who will become the Crown Princess must know how to endure.’

“It’s just baseless rumors. Don’t get worked up needlessly over passing clouds.”

Just like now.

“How do you know whether it’s just baseless rumors or not? You say that because you don’t know the world of girls. It’s a world that kills people by making even untruths into truths.”

“Daphne, that’s not just the world of ‘girls.’ That’s why you need to know your position. Therefore you must be even more generous to those below……”

Daphne raised her golden eyes upward. These were tiresome words.

“I know my position too well. His Majesty the King’s niece, future daughter-in-law, Amber Green’s daughter. And even Count Killian Serenade’s goddaughter. It would be stranger if they survived after treating me that way.”

“Are you saying your violence is justified?”

“Yes.”

Daphne answered plainly. Killian heaved a deep sigh.

“If you’re going to act so willfully, go back to Beaucater.”

“I hate that.”

If only this pitiful and stupid count would die, this territory would become Daphne’s after that. Considering the humiliation so far, she couldn’t return now.

“Let me ask you again, Daphne. Do you really think it was justified for ‘you’ to beat those children ‘nearly to death’?”

“As you said, it was ‘nearly to death,’ they didn’t ‘die.'”

“Are you saying you don’t know why those children couldn’t rashly approach you even in situations where they could have sufficiently retaliated?”

“How would I know? Should I know? I don’t want to know.”

When Daphne answered clearly while sitting straight, Killian took a deep breath and shook his head. He rang the bell to call the butler and quickly disappeared from the table garden.

Daphne relaxed. Tears fell in drops. She picked up the cold teacup and struck it down on the cracked floor.

Anger rose to the top of her head. Feeling like no problems were being solved at all, Daphne buried her face in both hands. Nothing was going according to her will.

“Crazy person. Would it hurt to take my side? Take my side, I say. I’m your goddaughter……”

Narid quickly ran over and wiped Daphne’s eyes. The Serenade mansion that had seemed as kind and beautiful as first impressions felt like a gloomy cave. Narid held Daphne in her arms and kept soothing her.

“Why can’t they touch me, you ask? How would I know?”

“Oh my, that’s right. Miss, don’t cry. Your beautiful face……”

“What would you know.”

At Daphne’s vicious tone, Narid stepped back one step with a bewildered face.

“Being hit physically doesn’t hurt at all. That hurts less. At this rate, I’d rather be hit by carriages a thousand times more!”

Every time she heard the voices of whispering girls behind her, Daphne suffered murderous impulses to the point of wanting to kill everyone. She wanted to make them taste the greatest fear she had experienced.

‘But… I can’t do anything.’

Because in Lethe where dirty rumors about Daphne were rolling around, her words could have no effect.

Even when Ranan Calli’s mother vulgarly threatened them to pay compensation, Killian responded gentlemanly. Promises like since his goddaughter did wrong, he would have her admitted to Serenade’s best hospital, and would continue supporting both materially and emotionally until the child entered university.

Killian treated Ranan with a benevolent smile and polite words that he rarely showed to Daphne. Ranan also cried hypocritically in front of Killian saying she too was sorry.

‘Hah……”

But there was never a formal apology from Ranan to Daphne. 

 * * *

 No matter how much she hated Killian Serenade, Daphne had no choice but to fulfill her role as goddaughter.

She wanted to just abandon everything and run away, but running away because things weren’t going her way didn’t look good for the future Crown Princess.

Snow fell all dawn and the paths froze. Serenade, transformed white, exuded a winter atmosphere.

“It’s cold.”

Daphne wore fur gloves brought by a maid and pushed Killian’s wheelchair while walking along the dim Olden lakeside. Daphne’s cheeks were still puffed with hatred for him.

“Yes, it’s cold.”

“Are your hands and feet still cold even after drinking ginger tea?”

“Yes.”

Killian’s scarf was loose so she grabbed the end and tied it again. Daphne smiled slightly after secretly tying the knot in a ribbon shape as a small revenge.

“I see……”

She pulled him to stand on the hill and looked at Olden Lake beginning to freeze. From here, the orange lights of homes gathered in a circle around the lake were well visible.

‘It’s really pretty.’

Daphne looked around at the lights similar in color to her own eyes. This is why she couldn’t give up.

‘If godfather dies without saying anything, this land will become mine.’

Daphne thought that and flinched at her own wickedness. She even deliberately checked Killian’s reaction.

“They say tea leaves imported from the east have warming effects when steeped.”

“Green tea.”

“It wasn’t that. It had a sweet and strange smell. Like medicine.”

“I’ll smell it.”

“Alright……”

Killian constantly looked after Daphne’s health. At first she thought it was just because he wanted to make her his heir, but it seemed there might be some other reason too.

Daphne let go of the wheelchair and clenched and unclenched her hands. It got colder by the day and the days grew shorter. It seemed they should go in soon rather than staying out longer.

Just then a cold wind whooshed by, and Daphne’s nose tip suddenly tickled.

“Achoo!”

Her elbow that went up from sneezing bumped the wheelchair. Having forgotten to set the brake, it rolled straight down the sloped hill.

“Killian!”

He seemed unable to even cry out, just gripping the wheelchair tightly. Daphne’s head spun as she chased after him down the hill.

The wheelchair that precariously rolled onto the frozen lake surface made cracking sounds as it created fissures.

“Ah, ah……”

Daphne stopped in place and held her breath. On the lake, Killian’s broad back was completely rigid.

The frozen lake quickly swallowed Killian.