Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Let's Run Away
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Daphne looked at the daffodil Fabian held out to her.
A flower picked from her mother’s graveside.
As she stared at it blankly, Fabian spoke.
“I thought about how to comfort you. All I could do was stop by your mother’s grave, pick some flowers, and come here.”
Fabian gave an awkward smile.
A gift thrust upon her out of nowhere—a flower from a gravesite.
“I……”
Fabian plopped down onto the floor and looked up at Daphne.
Seeing her face, tears fell from his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“……”
“I was confused. I didn’t know how to treat you.”
“……”
“I should have hugged you then, but my own confusion came first.”
“……”
“Honestly, I was scared too. Because His Majesty—no, the Emperor… he’s after you……”
He confessed through his tears.
Tears slowly welled up in Daphne’s eyes.
No one had ever apologized to her so sincerely.
Fabian kept giving back pieces of what she had tried to bury along with her emotions.
“So, Daphne.”
“……”
“Let’s run away.”
And with those words, he finally awakened her soul.
Run away. It was a word she had never even considered.
Fabian repeated himself, looking at her innocent expression.
“Let’s run away from all of this. With me.”
Fabian looked utterly desperate.
Daphne shook her head.
“What are you talking about? Why would I run away?”
“You know. You know the Emperor is after you.”
Daphne nodded.
“That’s exactly why I can’t run away.”
Daphne knew her situation well.
If the Emperor was after her and she ran, what would happen?
It wouldn’t just be her—Fabian would get hurt too.
She still remembered the tragedy that had unfolded in her home.
Her mother had deceived them by claiming Daphne was his daughter, and for that alone, countless people had been brutally slaughtered.
“Fabian, I appreciate it, but I’m fine.”
Daphne was truly grateful.
She had been hurt by Fabian, but it had already healed.
Just hearing him say this was enough.
“Daphne, you have to escape this mad place!”
When Fabian raised his voice, she looked puzzled.
This was her life.
Why was Fabian trying so desperately to convince her?
“This place is insane. To you, it’s nothing but hell.”
“……I know that.”
“Then why won’t you run away!”
Daphne blinked at Fabian’s shout.
Why wouldn’t she run away?
“Well, I have no power, no money, and no guarantee I’d live well if I did……”
“I told you, I’ll help you.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t just sit by and watch!”
Daphne flinched at his yell.
“Sorry, Daphne. Did I startle you?”
He took a breath and continued.
“You’re hesitating because you’re not sure your life will get better, right? Because you don’t know what a free life after escaping would be like.”
“……”
“You won’t live in luxury, but you can sleep in a sunlit room, not some warehouse like this.”
“……”
“No need to watch anyone’s mood. No one will hate you. They won’t even know you’re a criminal.”
“……”
“There’ll be so many joys. Whether hiding in a city or a village, there are joys everywhere.”
“……”
“I’ll make it happen. I promise.”
Fabian took Daphne’s hand as he spoke.
Daphne tried to picture that life.
A life she had never even imagined.
It would be a completely different world.
But like an animal captured and caged, Daphne felt afraid.
And if she went… that man… the one who had cherished her like a little sister……
“Thank you, but Fabian, I……”
“It’s because of the Crown Prince, isn’t it?”
Daphne startled at Fabian’s question.
He had long since read her thoughts.
Rather than facing an unhappy future by running away, staying by his side was better, at least.
Fabian looked at Daphne.
She was rejecting change.
She had already been tamed.
“Listen to me, Daphne. The Crown Prince doesn’t see you as a little sister, and he doesn’t love you either.”
“What are you saying!”
When Daphne shouted, Fabian gripped her shoulders tightly.
“The Crown Prince you like enjoys tormenting you.”
“……”
“Don’t you get it yet? That bastard says he likes you, but he’s eager to toy with you. Your whole life… it’s been one big deception.”
Daphne didn’t believe it.
Of course not.
Fabian knew nothing.
It was Asherad, whom she had known since childhood.
Why would he be so eager to toy with her?
He had cherished her so much.
“Fabian, if you’re going to say things like that, then leave.”
Daphne and Asherad had spent long years together.
Asherad could be capricious at times, but he always sought her out.
Even if he couldn’t save her from the Emperor’s clutches, she wanted to stay by Asherad’s side.
“You’re lying to me.”
Fabian’s eyes changed at the conviction in Daphne’s voice.
No matter what she did, she wouldn’t be convinced.
So, he would tell her only part of the truth.
“The Crown Prince knew from the start that you were the seductress’s daughter.”
“……”
“He knew everything. He’s the Crown Prince—how could he not?”
It wasn’t a big issue.
She was suspicious of why he pretended not to know, but if he had treated her kindly despite knowing, she was grateful to Asherad.
“That’s not a big problem.”
“Daphne, it is a big problem. The Emperor tried to depose the Crown Prince once. Because of you.”
Daphne blinked.
Because of me?
“Any noble knows it—even a stray dog! The Emperor insulted the Empress, the Crown Prince’s mother, because he loved your mother.”
Was that it?
Daphne parted her lips slightly.
Fabian squeezed his eyes shut.
“Think about it. While you were in the palace, didn’t the people who were kind to you disappear, or suddenly turn cold?”
“……”
“You know it too.”
Daphne closed her mouth at Fabian’s words.
She did.
Everyone who had been kind to her had vanished.
Or suddenly grown cold toward her.
“It was all the Crown Prince’s doing.”
Daphne’s eyes widened.
Fabian realized that shattering her illusions required a bit of exaggeration.
The Emperor may have ordered it, but the Crown Prince had surely played a part.
Wouldn’t it be better to blame him instead?
He needed to break her trust in the Crown Prince.
“He wanted you to suffer. To be lonely. To vent his frustrations.”
Only then could Daphne run away.
Even if it meant taking away her comfort.
The Crown Prince had toyed with her, after all.
“Please, open your eyes and see reality! You know it too. The Crown Prince enjoyed tormenting you. Because his own mother was tormented, and he nearly fell to ruin himself.”
“No.”
“Fine, then explain it! Why did he leave you like this? As Crown Prince, he had the power! Why make you live in a place like that?”
“……”
“Would you make your little sister live there? Subject her to scorn and disdain?”
“……”
“I never would! If it were Merveille, I’d die before letting her suffer that!”
“Stop talking, please.”
Tears brimmed in Daphne’s eyes as she shook her head.
Fabian blurted out in frustration.
“You’ll wither away like this. This isn’t normal. You deserve to be loved!”
“……No, no!”
Daphne screamed.
She gasped for breath.
“He saved me so many times.”
“He had to, or you’d die. And if he did, you’d follow him.”
“He asked me to stay by his side.”
“So he could torment you.”
“He called me to his room every night to read to him.”
“He was curious about how you were doing.”
Daphne bit her lip, swallowing sobs as she spoke.
“He stroked my hair.”
“He sat in a chair, and you knelt on the floor, like that?”
Fabian asked as if he knew.
She flinched.
“H-How……”
Fabian forced a smile.
“Daphne, Daphne…… poor Daphne.”
Tears welled in his eyes as he spoke.
“Don’t you really get it?”
For a moment, Daphne wanted to cover Fabian’s mouth.
Whatever it was, it was words that would destroy her.
But perhaps she already knew she couldn’t stop it, standing there without doing so.
“It’s exactly like petting a dog.”
Crack, crack—the unhappy yet comfortable world surrounding her began to shatter.
“Daphne, you were treated like a dog. By that bastard.”
The tears she had held back streamed down her face.