Daisy had been serving as the Saint's nursemaid. At least, that's what I'd heard.
The Saint had long since recovered and should have returned to her duties by now, but for some reason, she hadn't shown even the tip of her nose. Come to think of it, that unlucky brat had never once come to visit me in the hospital either.
I spoke to the Saint, feeling somewhat displeased.
"It doesn't make sense that the Saint doesn't have a single attendant accompanying her."
It wasn't that I particularly wanted Daisy to come pay her respects. It had been over a month since I'd taken to my sickbed. It was the first time I'd gone this long without seeing Daisy, and a corner of my mind felt uneasy. That girl's heart was darker than dark. Who knows what she was scheming somewhere.
"Don't get the wrong idea. I deliberately left her behind so I could speak with you."
"The maid I sent you can be kept by your side at all times. She's the sort of girl who wouldn't eavesdrop on private conversations."
The Saint looked puzzled.
"A maid? Who are you referring to?"
"...Didn't I send a dark-haired girl to attend to you some time ago? She's my adopted daughter."
The Saint furrowed her brow.
"A dark-haired girl... Ah, that child. She attended to me for a few days before being replaced by another maid. I was also out of sorts at the time, so I never got the chance to have a proper conversation with her."
"...That's a story I haven't heard."
"Well, you were on the brink of death at the time. Why not ask the head maid?"
"That child is the head maid," I almost said, but swallowed the words back down my throat. The Saint was a reliable ally, but she was also potentially a spy for Bretagne. There was no reason to hand over information of my own free will.
I parted ways with the Saint on amicable terms and made my way toward Luke. The moment I showed my face, the group of village girls surrounding Luke dropped to their knees in flustered reverence. Luke, being a member of the militia, simply placed his right fist over his heart and gave a military salute.
I put on my best benevolent-lord smile.
"Our Luke is quite popular. All the young ladies by his side are as beautiful as flowers."
The girls stifled their laughter while still bowing low. Across the continent, I was known by fearsome names like the Insulter and the Winter King, but to my domain's people, I was simply a farmer lord who worked the wheat fields alongside them.
Luke, having shed most of his greenhorn air by now, answered politely.
"Flowers bloom around Your Majesty year-round. How could someone like me dare to compete?"
"At a festival, there are no kings and no subjects. I'd like it if you called me 'Duke' rather than 'my lord.'"
"...! Yes, Father!"
The boy broke into a wide grin.
At fifteen, Luke was at the age when hearts pounded with justice. The boy's reason was submerged in a destructive but hazy fog. He had enough clarity to discern what was good and right, and what was hypocrisy, but he was nowhere near the level where he could see through the true nature of the person standing before him.
A man who cannot see what is right in front of him, yet gazes only toward a distant future—such a person has no focus.
He believes himself rational because he believes he is looking at something, yet in truth he cannot properly handle even a single event unfolding before him, which makes him unfit to be a leader. He would, however, make an excellent zealot's assault captain.
Far inferior to his sister.
Derision welled up in me, but it wasn't cold mockery. My chest grew warm. It felt like looking down at a cute little toy soldier.
"Luke. Do you happen to know where Daisy is?"
"Um..."
Luke's expression grew troubled.
"I'm sorry, Father. I have no idea..."
"No. It's fine. I just hadn't seen her around lately and wondered if she'd gone to your parents' place."
I could always ask Lapis. I was about to move on, but something about Luke's body language caught my eye. He was fidgeting noticeably—too much, in fact. When you pushed too hard in moments like this, the other person would only pull back.
"Beautiful Frauleins. I'm sorry to intrude, but would you lend me your Adonis for just a moment?"
The village maidens giggled and stepped back. Naturally, a space formed around Luke and me where no one dared approach. I projected an aura that said "I will gladly listen to whatever you have to say" and waited patiently.
"Um..." Luke began cautiously.
"Actually, Daisy hasn't been to our house in quite some time."
"Quite some time, you say. How long?"
"About two... no, almost three years."
I was surprised. Two to three years meant that Daisy had barely visited since she'd first settled in the domain.
"That's strange. Daisy always took her leave regularly. Didn't she spend that time at home each visit?"
"At first, she did. Ugh, this is something Daisy strictly told me never to mention."
Luke scratched at his curly hair.
"It was about two years ago. Daisy suddenly declared she was cutting ties right there, with the whole family gathered. She said she was no longer our parents' daughter, no longer my little sister..."
"Huh."
This was getting interesting.
Daisy's psychology was as transparent as reading the lines on one's palm. Even if they hadn't touched skin-to-skin, Daisy had, at least indirectly, committed incest with her own brother. She probably had no idea what face to show her parents and her older brother anymore. That must be why she'd declared the severance.
So she'd been hiding such an amusing affair all this time. That girl Daisy had not even a shred of respect for her stepfather.
I feigned a tone of concern.
"Just what on earth happened?"
"The thing is, I don't know myself. Naturally, Mother and Father flew into a rage and scolded her, demanding to know what she meant... But you know how she is. Once that girl shuts her mouth, nobody can get through to her."
Luke heaved deep sighs.
"Mother even begged her through tears to at least give a reason, but she wouldn't so much as twitch an eyebrow. In the end, Father was the one who said a daughter like you isn't needed and threw her out first. Honestly, what was she thinking?"
It was your doing, Luke.
I chuckled inwardly. The process of psychologically cornering Daisy appeared to have been steadily progressing even beyond my line of sight.
Daisy was a girl who, when she had something to protect, became ruthlessly vicious.
At around the age of ten, she had stepped forward before me to protect her villagers and family. To preserve her pride and exact revenge, she had tried to assassinate me. This type of person was nearly impossible to control.
The only solution was to plunge her self-esteem into the deepest pits of hell. I am human trash, unworthy of protecting anything, and unworthy of being protected by anything... that was the level of suffocating self-loathing she needed.
Until her heart rotted and festered from within.
I had her brother indirectly engage in sexual acts with her and assigned her the torture of prisoners. Of all the vile tasks, I made sure she handled the most depraved work. For a girl destined to become a Hero to be consumed by darkness—it happened in the blink of an eye.
I didn't feel a shred of pity.
To pity someone, you had to be stronger than them or at least their equal. I acknowledged Daisy as a human far superior to me. Especially when I considered how clueless of a brat I had been at the age of ten.
I was a Demon Lord, and Daisy was a girl destined to become a Hero.
If I let my guard down, I would be the one bitten.
"I understand. It may already be too late, but let me talk this through at length."
"Please, Father."
Luke spoke with a desperate expression.
"Daisy is precious family to me. And to our parents, she is, without question, their one and only daughter."
"Daisy is my one and only adopted daughter as well. Don't worry—leave it to me."
I gently ruffled Luke's hair. Heh, Luke beamed happily. He was as adorable as a hamster raised in a transparent terrarium.
"Lapis. Come here."
I sent Luke on his way and called for Lapis. She had been having what seemed like an important conversation with the village chiefs, but upon hearing my summons, she gave the chiefs a polite bow and came over right away. Lapis knew every executive's schedule inside and out, so she could easily put my questions to rest.
This time, how should I torment Daisy? I was thinking about a plan to have two slime onaholes brought in simultaneously. Double the sense of depravity, double the self-loathing. Combined, that was four times the effect. Incredible. I was a genius.
Lapis gave a slight bow.
"You called for me, Lord Dantalion."
"Yes. I didn't interrupt anything important, did I?"
"We were only exchanging trivial pleasantries. If anything, I'm grateful you called me away."
Lapis dismissed the village heads with her characteristic flat expression. It was a very Lapis thing to say.
I grumbled with a hint of playful annoyance.
"It's not about anything else, but I haven't seen Daisy around lately. I thought she was still serving as the Saint's attendant, but apparently not. I figured maybe she was with her parents, but that's not the case either. Where has she gone off slacking?"
"……."
Lapis fell silent without warning.
Her face was still expressionless, but having observed her for years, I could tell. Lapis was currently expressing her bewilderment through that very blankness. As a certified Lapis expert, I could vouch for it without a doubt.
"Lapis?"
"……As Lord Dantalion's time bedridden extended unexpectedly, unrest and confusion arose among the retainers."
Lapis lowered her voice to a near-whisper.
Something felt ominous. Instead of answering my question directly, Lapis had begun to skirt around the issue. Direct and to-the-point responses were her hallmark — this was far removed from her usual principles.
I immediately activated the magic of the ring on my right ring finger. It cast a curtain roughly three meters in radius that wildly refracted sound waves. This way, even if my voice leaked out, no one could make out a word.
I sharpened my gaze to a serious edge.
"Keep going. Don't leave out a single detail."
"While many retainers believed wholeheartedly that Lord Dantalion would make a full recovery, there were not a few who trembled with fear at the mere thought of a worst-case scenario."
"Cowards."
I scoffed coldly.
"Worrying about me is fundamentally worrying about yourselves. You fear what will become of you if you lose me — how you will fall, how you will crumble. If you cannot even keep your own emotions in check, you should be ashamed to call yourselves my retainers."
"……The Grand Secretary of Military Affairs was especially grave."
I paused. What did she say?
I furrowed my brows in a peculiar expression of disbelief.
"Raurel is among the most gifted when it comes to mental fortitude. She outranks me. Surely you haven't misread the situation?"
"Lady Dantalion."
Lapis met my gaze head-on, her eyes filled with resolve.
"There has been something I have wished to report for some time. Please forgive my outburst. ……The faces your retainers show you, Lady Dantalion — they are not their true faces."
"What are you talking about…"
"I did not want to burden you with unnecessary worries, Lady Dantalion. I believed I could — and should — maintain control over the Inner Court myself. I am sorry. I was wrong."
My jaw dropped.
Lapis was feeling despair. She was grieving. She was blaming herself. That distinct yet tangled web of emotions reached me with crystal clarity. Horror and fury washed over me in equal measure. What could possibly drive Lapis to such despair?
"……Where is Daisy?"
I asked in a quiet, trembling voice.
"You still haven't answered my question. What happened to Daisy?"
Instead of replying, Lapis bowed her head. As though she could not bear to face me. Lapis had never once — I could say this with absolute certainty — shown me such an expression. A surge of wrath rose from the pit of my stomach and boiled over in an instant.
What in the world was happening within my own legion?