You Will Be the One to Bow
"It's been a while. Three years, hasn't it?"
Wheat-blond hair. Brown eyes. A plain, unremarkable face that resembled not at all the Divine Beast Claire, with her glittering golden eyes and hair that marked her as a wildcat. At the sight of a daughter who remained every bit as pathetic as ever, Darius clicked his tongue.
"One little outing, and you've grown remarkably insolent in the time I haven't seen you."
"I take after you, so of course I've got no manners. It certainly isn't anything I got from Mother."
"Ha!"
She had never been particularly obedient to begin with, but in three years she had grown thoroughly full of herself. A livid fury rose in Darius's face.
"The moment we return, you'll be starting your moral education all over again. I'll teach you properly who your father is, and before whom you are meant to bow."
"What are you talking about? I don't have a father. And there is even less anyone I intend to bow to."
Bariya looked Darius straight in the eye and curled her lip.
"If anything, you'll be the one bowing to me."
"Have you lost your mind?!"
The instant Darius, unable to hold his temper any longer, raised his voice, a scent of grass stabbed into his nose—nothing like the honey-sweet fragrance of flowers, but something that turned his insides cold. At the same moment his legs gave out, and he collapsed where he stood.
"Wh-what is this……"
No matter how he strained, strength would not enter his legs. Even when he forced power into his trembling arms, his body kept folding under him.
"See? I told you you'd be the one to bow."
With difficulty, Darius looked up at Bariya standing before him.
"You—what in the world did you do……"
"Do you have any idea how sad you made me and Caliph?"
Bariya seized Darius by the hair with both hands and clenched down hard. It had been three years since she last saw him, and far from some sudden welling of an affection that had never existed, her rage only swelled.
"What? If I don't hand myself over, you'll drag Caliph's name through the mud? Who do you think you're threatening?!"
She poured all her fury into it and drove her head straight into Darius's face. There was a sickening crack. His nose, taking the full impact of that hard skull, snapped clean through. The blow was violent enough to rattle his brain, and Darius screamed, but Bariya ignored him, gripping his hair and shaking his head from side to side.
"Aaaaagh!"
"Because of you! I cried! You hear me?! Because I hurt Caliph! I'm so mad I could die!"
"Y-you damned—aaagh! Let go of me, aaagh!"
He wanted desperately to tear Bariya off, but that merciless grip left him helpless. No matter how he struggled, strength would not come into his arms or legs.
How is she this stupidly strong?!
Darius, who had only ever known the docile, well-behaved Claire, found the situation utterly bewildering. Not for a moment had he imagined Bariya would turn this violent.
"I shed my share of tears, so you can go ahead and bawl until the tears and snot pour out of you too!"
But Bariya's fury did not end there. Already well and truly beside herself, she drew a great breath and drove her head into him again. Something crunched and ground.
"Aaaaagh!"
Against that hard skull, Darius's nose collapsed completely, past any hope of ever being set right.
"Ghhhkk."
Pain ringing through his entire skull left him unable to gather his wits.
What in the world is this?
Why were Mariner's elite knights asleep? How had Bariya reached this place without a sound or a whisper of warning? And why was he being beaten, here and now, by some mere wildcat? He could not begin to understand.
"Ugh, honestly. If I did what I really wanted, I'd just wreck you right here and now."
Crawling on the floor from the shock of his utterly crushed nose, Darius looked up at her. From Bariya's hands, which she was dusting off with sharp little pats, dozens of chestnut-brown strands drifted down. Only belatedly did he realize they were his own. Bald patches had opened all through the hair he had always kept so carefully tended.
"Y-you……!"
"Hey, you worthless lump. I'm letting you off easy."
But with no strength in his limbs, there was nothing he could do. All he could manage was to tremble as he stared up at Bariya, who stood with her arms folded, looking down on him in arrogant ease.
"If I went and finished you off right here, everyone in Caliph would know. I don't particularly want to be remembered as a bad kid who killed her own father at ten."
On top of that, he himself had said that if Darius failed to return alive, Caliph's name would be dragged through the filth. Bariya jabbed his forehead with a finger, poke after poke.
"Got it? That pathetic life of yours got extended thanks to Caliph. Be sooo grateful to Caliph."
"You—you think you'll walk away from this unharmed?"
Darius's face flushed red and went pale by turns. Bariya only snorted, arrogant as anything.
"Yeah. Obviously. Or what—you gonna kill me?"
"……What?"
"Kill me, and the head of House Mariner will be absolutely thrilled. Won't he."
Darius went rigid. Bariya laughed at him for it.
"Of course, to the head of Mariner I'm nothing but a tool. A very expensive tool, though—one that mustn't be damaged on a whim. And you?"
Crouched low, Bariya smiled and rapped his head with light little thumps.
"Which matters more to the head of Mariner—me, or a stupid son the house has no particular use for?"
He had no answer.
"And if something happens to me, what happens to you?"
The color drained from Darius's face.
This brat—how in the world does she know that?
The child of a Divine Beast developed faster than an ordinary beastkin, which was precisely why he had deliberately given Bariya no education at all. Even if Claire had taught her behind his back, there were no books; there would have been a limit. So how did she not only know her own position, but dare to threaten him with it?
She certainly wasn't this clever, not as recently as three years ago.
Either she had realized something during three years on the run. Or else—
Claire did something to this creature before she died!
Claire had been a Divine Beast. It was possible.
"If you soil Caliph's name, I'll leave for a place no one will ever find. Forever."
Once more, Bariya seized a fistful of Darius's hair and clenched down.
"I'm going to see Mother, so I'm not the least bit afraid."
What she meant was that if he brought harm upon Caliph, she would die.
Well. I don't actually intend to die.
She hadn't even taken her revenge on Mariner yet. There was no way she was going to die. But Darius didn't know that, and so from now on he would not be able to move recklessly.
"If you've understood me, then leave Caliph alone and chase only me, the way you always have. Let's play another round of this disgusting game of tag."
Bariya let go of his hair, dusted off her hands, and got to her feet.
Ugh, gross. I'm covered in hyena stink. I'll wash my hands the second I'm out of here.
Even so, ripping out his hair and making that already ugly face even uglier had improved her mood. Just a little. The sorrow of parting from the good tigers was still with her.
"Thinking about it again just makes me furious."
Bariya lashed out in temper, slapping Darius's head with her open palm again and again.
"Thanks to you I got driven out, and now I can't go back to Caliph, so you'd better come find me properly."
The moment she finished speaking, a ferocious drowsiness crashed over him.
"W-wait!"
"If you don't want the family head to kill you, you'd better find me quickly. Not that you will. You'll fail again, same as always."
"Don't……"
"Well then. Bye."
Bariya smacked Darius across the forehead with her palm. At the same instant he could hold out no longer, and sank completely into sleep. She looked down at him with cold eyes. By now he, too, must have realized that the power she possessed was nothing so simple as adjusting favor.
He'll focus on me now, so Caliph will be safe. This is enough.
Bariya kicked Darius once more, shifted into her wildcat form, and slipped out of the hotel. By tomorrow morning both Caliph and Darius would wake. Before then, she had to get as far from here as she could.
The next morning, Sabrina gasped.
The instant sunlight pouring through the window touched her fingertips, she snapped awake. Her mind was strangely clear and clean, and she grasped the situation at once.
"Baby!"
The only people in the broad dining hall were Baden and Sirka. Bariya was nowhere to be seen.
"Wake up!"
Pale as a sheet, Sabrina struck Baden and Sirka once each upon the shoulder. Under the terrible force of her strength, both of them woke at once.
"The baby's gone. We have to find her. Now."
Roughly twelve hours had passed since they fell asleep. Surely, in that time, she hadn't met Darius and gone to Mariner.
……No. She said she would never go there.
The child might hide things, but she had never once lied. So she must have hidden again, fleeing the hyenas.
……Can we find her?
This was Bariya, who for a full three years had shaken off the pursuit of hyenas, peerless in their persistence. Could they really find her before Mariner did?