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Although I was the one who said it, it sounded pretty violent to me as well. Laughter threatened to leak out of my mouth from how absurd I sounded.

As her junior and a second son of a rural viscount, how could I dare scold Senior Delphine?

It was nonsense. I intended it to be taken as a joke, but her reaction went far beyond my expectations.

First, despair flashed in her crimson eyes.

Next, a clear look of fear came over her face before finally settling into a look of acceptance.

On the verge of tears, Senior Delphine knelt on the ground.

Her reaction was so immediate that it made me feel troubled instead. Tears pooled up around her eyes.

After a brief hesitation, she slammed her head into the ground.

Thud!

It sounded very painful. Even so, Senior Delphine maintained that posture and spoke in between sobs.

“I-I’m sorry for being so rude… Hik… P-please have mercy… Hik… on me….”

It was an abrupt change that came out of nowhere.

I was aware that she became scared of me whenever I held my hatchet, but I wasn’t even holding the hatchet right now. Not to mention, although I said ‘punish’, I thought it was with a light tone.

We successfully killed the demonic beasts and should have been celebrating that we could return safely, so I couldn’t guess why Senior Delphine, who still had a rebellious streak in her, was acting this way.

She had always stood proudly despite looking intimidated every time our eyes met.

As I fell deeper into my thoughts, her trembling voice tickled my ears.

“P-please… I beg you… Hik… just an arm or a leg… Please… I b-beg you……”

What in the world was she imagining that she was saying ‘just’ an arm or a leg?

There seemed to be a significant disparity between ‘me’ and the one she thought of.

I didn’t know what to do. I let out a sigh and tried to help Senior Delphine up.

Except, a sudden thought crossed my mind.

From the start, she hadn’t believed me that my only purpose was to hunt demonic beasts while looking for clues about the big monkey that attacked us at the orphanage. Even until the end, she assumed that I was going to beat her.

Her distrust of me was that strong, and there was no way she would listen to my explanation that this was all a misunderstanding.

There was another troubling matter. She was one of the core forces of our group, but if she became paralyzed out of fear every time I wielded my hatchet, our plans were bound to experience unexpected setbacks.

My head started to heat up as my brain’s thought circuitry ran wild before pushing through an idea.

I came to a conclusion.

To punish her for real.

That was the only feasible option available to me right now. And so, I deliberately used a stern tone with her.

“……Delphine Yurdina. You know what you did wrong, don’t you?”

“P-please…. Hik… Have mercy…..”

She dug her head even deeper towards the ground as large drops of tears fell from her eyes.

Her attitude seemed to indicate that she knew her sins better than anyone else, and I was left wondering what the hell her ‘sins’ were. However, getting her to answer what they were looked to be impossible in our current situation.

I cleared my throat before continuing my charade.

“Then you’re also aware that you need to be punished accordingly, right”

“Hik… Y-yes…”

Senior Delphine obediently accepted everything I said. To be honest, I didn’t know what she did, or why she was like this, but it was evident that in her world, she deserved to be punished.

That was the problem.

Senior Delphine was firmly trapped in her own world. I wasn’t sure what future ‘me’ had done to her, but whatever it was, it had traumatized her like a nightmare and distorted her perception.

I had continued to deny whatever was in her ‘world’, but it was in vain. Even when I told her that I had no intention of harming her, she refused to believe it since it conflicted with her perception of ‘me’ in her ‘world’.

It was the same even now. Even if I told her that she didn’t need to ask for forgiveness, she would refuse to accept it.

It didn’t matter what I did to try to get her to trust me.

Therefore, there was only one solution left to try.

I reached for my hatchet and wielded it in my hand, leaving ripples of light in its trail.

As soon as Senior Delphine sensed the hatchet, she began to hyperventilate.

“Huu… Huuuu…”

Her breaths got louder and louder. Senior Delphine slightly lifted her head to peek at me, but as soon as she saw the hatchet blade reflecting the moonlight, she immediately slammed her head back on the ground.

She looked like she wanted to scream, and her eyes, which I saw in that brief moment, were overflowing with fear.

Her trembling intensified. Her legs continuously twitched as if they desperately wanted to run away. Even so, she seemed to be enduring her desire to run—thinking the punishment would only get more severe if she ran.

Just what kind of person did she see ‘me’ as? I was a bit disgruntled, but the water had already been spilled.

I decided to see this through to the end.

“…….Then, I’ll finish it in one go.”

There was no further precursory warnings.

I moved with hesitation, and my hatchet immediately bore down with strong momentum, audibly splitting the air.

Senior Delphine ended up letting out the scream she was holding in the whole time.

“P-please… forgive m- Kyahhhhhh! ……?”

However, when the pain never came, she lifted her head in confusion.

The hatchet was right next to her face, right on the verge of making contact.

Her crimson eyes shook greatly as her breaths quickened.

Then, I tilted the hatchet blade towards her cheek.

Shwick-!

She squeezed her eyes shut, and with the slightest movement, the hatchet blade lightly brushed across her skin, just enough to leave a small cut.

Stupefied, her eyes opened back up, the hatchet occupying the entirety of her vision.

Senior Delphine looked lost as a small amount of blood seeped out from the cut on her cheek. The cut was so shallow that it barely bled and would heal in a few minutes.

It was to the point that it wouldn’t leave a scar either.

Silence momentarily settled around us.

Disregarding her puzzled expression, I simply hung my hatchet back on my waist.

Senior Delphine, who had been silent while holding her breath, slowly turned her eyes towards me.

I smiled and bent over as I held out my hand to her.

“That’s your punishment. It hurts, doesn’t it?”

“Uh- ah…mm….”

Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but all that came out were unintelligible sounds. She just hesitantly held my hand and staggered up.

I had simply granted her request.

If, in her ‘world’, she deserved punishment, then all I had to do was adjust to her accordingly. Instead, the punishment had to be relatively harmless and meaningless.

Then with time, her fear of ‘punishment’ would fade along with her fear of me.

I wasn’t sure if it would be effective right away, but I hoped that, with a few repetitions, she would at least be able to fight without breaking down at the sight of my hatchet.

It was a way to overwrite her perception of me without contradicting her ‘world’.

I pat myself on the back. It was a pretty cool solution for an ignorant swordsman.

I spoke to Senior Delphine.

“Oh, come to think of it, you have a healing potion, right? Please hand it over.”

“Ah, uh… okay……”

Still dazed, she took out a healing potion. Taking it from her hand, I poured some over my back without a moment’s hesitation.

Then, I poured the remaining on my arm and watched as my skin regenerated.

I didn’t want to even think about what the Saintess would say if I went back with my injuries. It was better to treat myself with a healing potion. It wasn’t my money anyway.

Still, a healing potion was cheap compared to the price of saving her life.

I started walking.

“Feel free to take your time, Senior Delphine. Oh, right. Please don’t openly fight with Senior Elsie from now on.”

I waved my hand as I left, but there was no reply.

I was in a good mood as I was able to cross one thing off my checklist for today.

Now, it was time to meet back with Leto.

**

Delphine remained silent for a long time after Ian left.

She just blankly stood there, staring at Ian’s back as it got further and further away.

‘Why? How come?’

Such questions occupied her mind.

The least he could have done was chop off her limbs, and if he really set his mind to it, he could have done even worse.

She was the loser while he was the victor. She was practically in his hands for him to do with as he pleased.

Perhaps due to having begged so many times by now––even her shame in lowering herself like so diminished.

Then, she remembered the slight smile Ian showed her at the last moment.

Along with the small cut on her cheek.

Slowly raising her hand, Delphine gently stroked her cheek where he had punished her.

“…….How merciful.”

The words came out inadvertently. However, for a long time, she didn’t feel like anything was wrong with what she said.

She only came to her senses after a while and jumped on the spot.

“No, no, no… I must be crazy! What mercy could that murderer…”

But her words stopped there. She tried to curse Ian with all the swears she could think of, but she instinctively shut her mouth as her eyes fearfully scanned the surroundings.

The thought that Ian might still be around eavesdropping on her prevented her from speaking any further.

She thought that this was, perhaps, another part of his test. Her heart went cold and she hurriedly tried to make up for calling him a ‘murderer’.

“…….N-no, he’s not a murderer. Yeah, he’s very compassionate.”

Then, as she followed the direction Ian headed off to, Delphine pondered over the last thing he said before leaving.

‘Don’t ‘openly’ fight with Elsie from now on?’

Then, how did he expect her to fight with her?

Delphine suddenly remembered the scene she saw right after arriving at the orphanage. Elsie had smugly laughed at her as she ran Ian’s errands.

It was disgraceful behavior for someone of high nobility.

However, her pride had already been destroyed, and she had never avoided a battle before.

Did Elsie’s pride during that last fight come from the fact that she was favored by the absolute force that was Ian? Delphine’s thought process went through some mental gymnastics and reached a conclusion.

That it wouldn’t hurt to respond in kind.

If she managed to bring Ian over to her side, Elsie would have to think twice about messing with her.

Delphine averted her eyes from certain emotions by justifying herself like so.

She was in a good mood. The moment he lightly cut her cheek, she felt like all her anxiety and guilt were being washed away.

For now, Delphine decided to simply dismiss her decision as upholding her competitive spirit.

Delphine’s crimson eyes deepened as she walked into the darkness.