GDTEA Chapter 122

Insolent Wretch

The contents of the oath document Darhan held out were simple and clear.

<Harry Chelonar, as the leader of the neutral faction, swears to prioritize the commands of Darhan Bridend above all else. This holds true even in the face of an imperial decree.>

“I considered writing up a contract, but that kind of arrangement doesn’t look good. It makes it seem as though I’m threatening you.”

“……”

“It paints a better picture if the Count simply shows his sincerity, and I respond to that sincerity with goodwill.”

Darhan smiled pleasantly and personally placed the oath scroll into the hands of Count Chelonar, who had yet to react.

The Count blankly turned Darhan’s words over in his mind.

What the monstrous demon before him demanded was one thing.

To serve as a loyal subordinate — no, to play the role of a dog.

“……Ha, haha, hahaha, haha……ha……haha……”

A hollow laugh burst out of him.

Even as he clenched his hand with all his strength, the magic oath scroll would not crumple.

As though nothing he, in all his weakness, could do would make any difference — only the Count himself was falling apart.

“Ah, before you sign the oath, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

Darhan walked past the Count and opened the door.

Count Chelonar did not turn around. It was at that moment, when he had fallen into the illusion that the functions of his body had ceased, that someone entered the waiting room with the sound of clicking heels.

“My, is this the Count Chelonar who has agreed to become my father?”

“……?”

The nonsense made his body move on its own.

He turned around to see a woman standing there, escorted by Darhan.

“Pleased to meet you, Count. My name is Eris Biyan. Ah, but since I’ll soon be entered into the family registry, I suppose I’ll be Eris Chelonar.”

She was a beauty.

The first thing that caught his eye was the mole beneath her eye. Bright silver hair. And her red eyes — a color reminiscent of Darhan’s own hair — made the woman’s noble impression all the more captivating.

But that was how she appeared to others on the outside. To Count Chelonar, she was no different from another demon Darhan had brought along.

“……Chelonar?”

“Yes. Because you will be my father from now on, Count.”

Hearing the nonsense a second time, Count Chelonar came back to his senses.

The Count glared at the woman called Eris Biyan with a deeply twisted expression.

“Chelonar is not a house whose name should be so carelessly thrown around by a lunatic woman like you!”

At the Count’s furious shout, Eris Biyan — Arisviyan — covered her lips with her fan and let her eyes curve into a smile.

“Is it not the Count’s young daughter who is the lunatic?”

“……!”

“And one who will soon die a horrible death—”

“Wh, what……!”

Count Chelonar’s eyes flew wide open in shock.

Darhan caught the Count’s gaze as he looked over, as if begging him to deny it.

“So it would be wise to hurry, Count Chelonar.”

“Darhan Bridend!!!”

His face drained white, Count Chelonar screamed and lunged forward.

“I was told she was precious to you — I suppose you don’t wish to keep your daughter alive even one more day?”

“……!”

The hand that had shot out as if to wring Darhan’s neck grabbed uselessly at empty air.

Darhan smiled with only the corners of his mouth and lightly pushed aside the Count’s frozen hand with one finger.

“Sign the oath and I’ll give you the medicine immediately. How could I turn my back on a house that pledges its loyalty to me?”

Darhan murmured words that were neither threat nor persuasion — sweet whispers — as he savored the sight of despair spreading across the man’s face.

“Ah, and if you cooperate well from this next council session, I’ll make sure there’s nothing you’ll need to concern yourself with as the leader of the neutral faction for a while. I’ll handle things on my end so that you can have time with your daughter. You won’t need to worry about family matters either. Eris here will handle the proxy duties.”

“……”

“Being entered into the family registry only means permitting her to use the family name and sheltering her in social circles. There won’t be anyone spreading idle rumors about her being an illegitimate child or a new heir, so you need only focus on making your daughter’s remaining days as happy as possible.”

“……Remaining, remaining days……? The medicine, you said you’d give medicine……”

Count Chelonar staggered.

There’s medicine, so why is he assuming Eryl will die? Why would my child die? How many days are remaining? Is Eryl dying even as I stand here doing nothing?

As Count Chelonar thrashed about in the depths of despair, tears fell from his eyes.

The demon’s whispers were burrowing into the weakness of a human being and spreading like a disease.

“At first, nightmares. Then sleepwalking, memory irregularities, memory loss, loss of emotion, loss of sensation — and so, she becomes a doll, and eventually withers away slowly and dies.”

“……”

“Still, they say that with the medicine, her sense of self will remain until she dies, so she won’t fail to recognize you.”

“How fortunate. She’ll close her eyes calling for her father until the very moment of death.”

Arisviyan even clapped her hands in delight.

At the sight of them showing not a shred of guilt over something so cruel done to a child of only five years, Count Chelonar silently sobbed and sank to the floor.

‘My child……my child, my child……my beloved Eryl……my dear child……’

He had lost his wife and abandoned his desire for power and wealth.

He had only maintained his position as the leader of the neutral faction for the sake of his daughter’s comfortable life and safety.

……And yet.

The power he had claimed to be for Eryl’s sake had, in truth, been the very poison leading that young child to her death.

“……”

Count Chelonar took the pen Darhan held out.

It was an inescapable trap, an impossible-to-refuse threat, and yet the only choice available to him.

The Count unrolled the magic oath scroll, and clenched his trembling teeth.

The Count, about to sign in a humiliating posture sprawled at the feet of two demons, had eyes that gleamed with a cold, killing light.

‘……Don’t worry, Eryl.’

If you die, I will kill the two demons before my eyes and follow after you.

He could not fail to understand what purpose Arisviyan — who they intended to enter into the Chelonar family registry — would serve for Darhan. Once his daughter died, who would be next?

The Count, suppressing the urge to flip the pen around and drive it into the demon’s throat then and there, squeezed his eyes shut.

It was at that moment.

Knock, knock—

“Marquis Bridend, a letter has arrived from the spy planted in the Grand Duchy. It seems you should receive the report directly. Additionally, Marquis Knocharff is looking for Miss Biyan.”

At the words of the knight who had secretly brought Eris Biyan to the imperial palace on Darhan’s orders, Darhan glanced down at Count Chelonar.

“I’m afraid I must take my leave for a moment. Gederus is suspicious of the relationship between myself and the lady, you see.”

Arisviyan covered her mouth with her fan and gave a slight bow.

“Then I’ll see you again, Father. It would be lovely if we could have tea together before you leave the capital.”

“I’ll escort you, Miss.”

Darhan volunteered to escort Arisviyan and stepped out of the waiting room.

“I’ll be back shortly, Count. I do hope the signing will be finished by the time I return.”

Leaving behind the pressure to finish signing quickly during his brief absence, the door closed.

In the now-quiet waiting room, Count Chelonar forcefully swallowed the furious, tearful sob rising up through his throat.

At that moment, his hair and collar swayed in a breeze.

“……”

When Count Chelonar’s bloodshot eyes looked upward, there stood a young man with long flowing hair alongside a brilliantly beautiful, jewel-like gleam.

The Count stared blankly up at the young man standing with his arms crossed and an indifferent expression — and then he spotted the person standing behind him, and his eyes went wide.

“Y, you……!”

“Master!”

It was the head butler, who should have been at the Count’s estate.

The startled Count Chelonar couldn’t immediately rise and stumbled, and the head butler, eyes filled with tears, immediately rushed to support him.

“Why, why are you at the imperial palace?! Eryl — has something happened to Eryl?!”

Count Chelonar’s face drained white with anxiety and fear.

“No, sir. I have news I needed to deliver to you immediately, so I came here in secret with the help of the Magic Tower.”

“……Magic Tower?”

The Count’s gaze shifted to the Tower Master, who stood with a nonchalant air.

But it didn’t matter how a mere head butler had received help from the Magic Tower, which had no connection to the House of Chelonar whatsoever.

“Then — what is it? Is Eryl all right?”

Unable to contain his overwhelming emotion, the head butler held out a scroll of paper before the Count.

Count Chelonar took the scroll and unrolled it, and there appeared letters written crookedly in crayon.

<Papa Eryl not sick come quick Eryl miss papa>

At the sight of his daughter’s name within the unfamiliar handwriting, tears streamed down his face again.

“The young miss is all right, sir.”

“……”

“During the day, she runs around in the garden, and at night, she dreams with a smile on her face. She eats her meals well, and she no longer disappears or wanders outside the mansion alone.”

“……”

“She is fully recovered!”

It was a dream. An illusion.

Until just a moment ago, he had been in hell — how could one pass between hell and heaven in a single instant?

As Count Chelonar could not bring himself to accept what the head butler was telling him, the Tower Master abruptly shoved his face right up to the Count’s.

“Are you going to keep standing there like a fool?”

“……?”

“You need to strike that insolent wretch from behind.”

“……!”

The Tower Master, lifting one corner of his mouth, grinned and snapped his fingers.

****

A short while later, Darhan returned to the waiting room and raised an eyebrow at the sight of the signature line on the magic oath scroll still empty.

He had been bothered to begin with, having stepped away for what was really a trivial matter.

Darhan studied Count Chelonar’s condition with suspicious eyes.

“Why have you still not signed? It seems the Count doesn’t understand how precious every single moment is right now.”

“……My daughter. I will decide after seeing my daughter.”

Though his face was still drained pale and he was still trembling, his demeanor was strangely different.

‘I’ve given him useless time to think.’

Darhan inwardly clicked his tongue.

Naturally, the human heart was a fickle thing that could change at any moment.

“Then I’ll at least need a firm answer that you’ll side with me at this next council session. That is the condition for allowing you time with your daughter, is it not?”

Count Chelonar drew a ragged breath and slowly lowered himself to his knees before Darhan.

“I give you my word that I will ‘without fail stand on the Marquis’s side at this next council session.’ My daughter is precious to me, but so is my family name. How could I make such a great decision all at once, in so selfish and unilateral a manner?”

“……Hmm.”

“I will use the imperial palace portal to go and briefly see my daughter’s face and return. Please, Marquis……”

Count Chelonar was still desperate.

There was no room to doubt — he looked every bit the defeated man.

Well. By now, she’d be barely alive, not even recognizing her own father’s face — so once he sees her, he’ll cling to me even more desperately.

The recess was nearly over, and the noble council would be resuming shortly.

A few minutes — that was all the time remaining — would be more than sufficient.

Darhan kept his expression composed and gave a magnanimous nod.

“Go now and come back. You must return before the council session begins.”

“Yes, yes. Thank you, Marquis. Thank you so very much.”

As the Count knocked his head against the floor over and over again, Darhan left the waiting room first.

Once the sound of footsteps had faded a sufficient distance away, Count Chelonar slowly rose to his feet.

“……”

The eyes of Count Chelonar — whose face had, in the span of those moments, gone completely dry of tears — were blazing fiercely.

“I will not forget this grace.”

Snap— The sound of fingers snapping rang out from somewhere, and a magic circle materialized beneath his feet before he was swallowed in an instant into a brilliant light.

Feeling a slight dizziness, Count Chelonar opened his eyes and reflexively spread both arms wide.

“Papa—!!”

“Eryl!!”

Scattering flower petals, Eryl came running with a wide, beaming smile and threw herself into the Count’s arms.

Her clear, bright laughter rang out — ringing in his ears, ringing in his heart.

This place was paradise.