“I’m sorry, I accidentally killed my friend!”
Unable to hold back after my nape itched just a moment ago, I sneezed.
But for some reason, fire spewed from my mouth and enveloped Thuris in front of me.
With that momentary mistake, I ended up killing Thuris.
Tia fell into a panic.
“Cough! Cough······.”
At that moment, a coughing sound began to echo from beyond the black smoke.
Soon, as the thick smoke cleared, Thuris’s silhouette gradually became visible.
Tia, startled, widened her eyes.
Surely, the face of Thuris, who had been engulfed in the intense flames, was completely fine.
Except for the small fire that was burning the front of her hair.
The expression of Thuris, who had been staring blankly with her eyes open, crumpled.
Then she began to sniffle as if she were going to burst into tears at any moment.
“Wha, what was that? There was a really loud noise just now······.”
“Ah, it was nothing! It seems someone knocked over the desk.”
“Is that so? Really? It’s not scary, right?”
“Ah, no. Really. You can relax. I’ll pet your head like this, Tia!”
Tia pretended to pat her head, hurriedly brushing off the flames that had caught on Thuris’s bangs.
It seemed that Thuris didn’t fully grasp the situation.
She clearly had no idea that fire had spewed from Tia’s mouth or that it had directly hit her.
In that case, I decided there was no need to inform her of that fact.
For Thuris, nothing had happened.
I had to make her believe that.
“What is this black smoke?”
“It seems someone used magic. No problem. It’s okay.”
“Huhh·····.”
Tia hugged the trembling Thuris and gently patted her back.
Just like Julia used to do when Tia would whimper.
Embracing the much larger girl, Tia let out a sigh of relief.
‘I’m glad Thuris is a sturdy demon······.’
It was a stroke of luck that she was a demon.
If Thuris had been human, the girl sitting in front of Tia would have been a corpse with her entire face melted away.
Losing a bit of her bangs was a minor inconvenience.
‘I really am the child of a dragon. If I’m not careful, I could easily kill someone······.’
For the first time in her life, Tia faced the power she possessed directly.
She had only thought that she was slightly stronger than others.
But that wasn’t the case.
She was significantly stronger than a dozen adult men and could even spew fire.
Now she understood why Mother had repeatedly warned her never to fight with her friends.
“Th, Thuris. What just happened?”
“Didn’t I say nothing happened·····?”
“Right. That’s it. Ah! Thuris, your bangs are a complete mess!”
“Huh? Really?”
Tia calmly began to trim off the burnt parts of Thuris’s bangs with her nails.
After a few quick movements, Thuris’s previously burned bangs became somewhat tidied up.
The bangs that had completely covered her forehead were now partially swept aside, and some cut away, revealing her forehead.
In that moment, the cool and sarcastic-looking beautiful woman vanished, leaving only the large, cute girl behind.
“Ah!!!”
Tia, smiling contentedly, turned her head to look around.
She had completely forgotten about the other people’s gazes.
However, the children were all looking straight ahead and not giving a glance toward Tia and Thuris.
“Phew. I guess no one saw it.”
‘How could that be possible!’
While Tia was wiping her chest in relief, Lara, trapped in her cage, had to suppress her urge to scold them.
Not a single child in that classroom hadn’t seen Tia spewing fire.
Everyone was pretending not to see it, likely terrified of being targeted by Tia.
As Tia and Thuris were doing their best to avoid drawing attention, was there no downside to the cold sweat of the children trying not to look towards them?
For Lara, it was just exasperating.
“Surely, no one noticed. Tia sneezed and spewed fire.”
“······.”
How could you say that with your own mouth?
Lara felt completely defeated.
Of course they would notice.
From the front, some kids were whispering, “Wow, I’ve never seen dragon breath before······.”
It was hard to tell if they were trying to hide the fact that they were dragon-borne.
‘Why am I worrying about someone now······.’
A deep sigh escaped Lara’s lips.
In fact, this was not the time to worry about Tia.
She herself couldn’t use magic or body enhancement and could die screaming from Tia’s sneeze.
“I am the greatest spirit among spirits······. How did I end up like this······.”
“Shh! Sparkle, be quiet! The class has started!”
“You’re the one being noisier!”
Lara was in a dismal situation, and she ended up with a pout.
She wanted to go home.
.
.
.
“She spewed fire on the lady’s face?!”
“This unruly lizard child is unbelievable······!”
In the Demon Realm, the crumbling Demon King’s Castle.
Elder demons with scraggly beards spat and grew furious.
“Not even knowing who the lady is! This cannot be forgiven!”
The only bloodline of the Demon King who was assassinated by a hero.
The rightful heir of the crumbled dynasty had been disguised as a common demon’s daughter, Thuris, and sent to the human realm.
She needed to deeply understand the human race as a species.
If one were to point out the cause of the last invasion’s failure, it would be the lack of understanding of humans.
Living in the warm and gentle south, weak and feeble creatures.
Even when danger was imminent, they bickered among themselves, with rampant individualism focused solely on their own safety.
That had been the perception of the demons regarding humans before the war.
But as they plunged into war, the reality was a little different.
Even while a colossal empire crumbled without a fight, small insignificant villages resisted to the very last person.
While the human realm burned in flames, their faith grew even stronger.
Humans were far more resilient than they thought.
And ultimately, they succeeded in holding out without completely collapsing until the day a heroic party infiltrated the Demon Realm and assassinated the Demon King.
At that point, more than half of the land of the human realm had already been devastated, but in any case, the victors were the humans.
For the past 50 years, demons had to pay the price for their defeat severely.
“Having failed once, a second chance will come. It must.”
Thuris, who bore the blood of the Demon King, was their last hope.
Only that one child could reunite the broken demons.
All the hopes of the remnants of the Demon King’s army rested on that one child.
“But, Tiamat. That girl seems like she will be a hindrance.”
“I agree. Even though she’s still young, she holds that much power······. The power of dragons is indeed dangerous.”
It didn’t seem likely that they could recruit the child known as Tiamat to their side.
Dragania had fought alongside humans in the past.
The best course of action was to remove that hybrid before she became an adult.
“By any means necessary, she must be eliminated.”
“I agree.”
“I agree······.”
The remnants of the Demon King’s army were already on poor terms with Dragania.
It would not have been strange for an all-out war to break out at any moment; killing just one child protected by Dragania would not change much.
The elders, who continued the meeting while coughing uncomfortably, had no clue.
That the scenery and conversations inside the heavily warded Demon King’s Castle were being conveyed to a distant black dragon far away.
*
“Ugh. I guess I’m almost done with the things I had to do this morning.”
After sending Tia to school, I had to be busy.
It was a monotonous, repetitive task every day, but chatting with my colleagues made the time pass without me realizing it.
I seemed to have gotten quite accustomed to the villa without the duke.
There was no longer any need to brew tea that no one would drink, and after lunch, I no longer had to set up a sleeping area on the sofa where the duke would usually take a nap.
My body had adapted to this place without the duke.
Just as it had from the very beginning.
I thought it was surely a good thing that his traces were fading away.
When his traces disappeared and faded in my memory, I thought I would just be happy.
But it wasn’t so simple.
Even if I laughed and chatted all day without thinking about that person, every time I lay down to sleep at night, thoughts of him kept creeping in.
If I forced my eyes shut and drifted off to sleep, he would come to me in dreams.
It was driving me crazy.
I wanted to forget.
It felt like my mind was desperately trying not to forget.
Why?
At this rate, it’s as if I’m missing that coward who ruined me from the very first meeting and then ran away ugly at the end.
No, maybe that’s not entirely wrong.
I really want to meet the duke just once.
I want to meet him again and close things for good.
So there would no longer be any lingering thoughts, so he wouldn’t appear in my dreams anymore, I want to finish things cleanly.
If I could formally apologize to his face and properly end our contract, he would not show up in my mind again.
I believe that without a doubt.
“Ugh. Let’s go to the market.”
Thinking of the duke made me feel gloomy again.
To clear my mood, I decided to go outside.
Today was market day.
There was a reason I rushed to finish my morning tasks early.
I simply changed into casual clothes and slung a shopping basket over each arm.
Recently, my fellow maids had been pestering me to cook for them, so I had a lot to buy.
“What a suspicion-filled lady. Is it truly fresh!”
“Umm······.”
I squatted in front of the vegetable stall, inspecting each item carefully.
In the past, I would just grab anything out of instinct, but ever since I only got rotten stuff, I’ve been checking thoroughly.
In this world, there is no institution that guarantees quality, nor one that protects consumers; it’s a structure where only the fools get cheated.
It seems my skills in cooking, cleaning, and shopping have only improved day by day.
“Huagh!”
“Come along.”
At that moment, I was suddenly grabbed by the nape of my neck and lifted high.
The unidentified hand dragged me toward a dark back alley, gripping my clothing around my neck.
From both the voice and the rough strength of the hand, I had a good idea of who it was.
Ah. I dropped my shopping basket.
I couldn’t let anyone steal it······.
“What’s the meaning of this?”
“······.”
Thud.
A figure wearing a dark hood placed a hand on the wall, blocking my way.
Seeing their height confirmed it further.
I scoffed and pulled off their hood to reveal their face.
“Long time no see, Leopard.”
“······.”
As expected.
Beneath the hood lay the face of the beautiful hero, reminiscent of a parasite or something similar.
The funny thing was, even though I only had bad memories of Leopard, seeing his face after such a long time made me feel quite happy.
