Chapter 7 - 07 Daughter
The next day, a guide arrived at the inn. Her name was Daphne Shields. She was the daughter of the Royal Guard Knight Commander, Oliver Shields. She was twenty years old, with short-cropped red hair inherited from her father, and she was tall for a woman, likely due to genetics as well. She wore a sword even in her civilian clothes, and she carried an aura that suggested one might be cut down just for carelessly speaking to her.
"I am Daphne Shields. I have been tasked with guiding Steve-dono for the day."
Being glared at with sharp eyes like those of a bird of prey, Steve wondered if this wasn't a greeting, but rather a challenge to a duel or something similar. Additionally, he was thinking the irreverent thought that the name Daphne sounded like a brand of compressor oil.
And what Steve was thinking was close to the mark.
Daphne had joined the Royal Guard Knights Order out of admiration for her father. This wasn't due to parental influence, but something she had won through her own merit. While female Royal Guard knights were necessary to protect female members of the royal family, Daphne, with her impeccable lineage and skill, was perfect for the role. Yesterday, she had been on duty guarding the Princess and, unfortunately, was unable to witness the battle between her father and Steve. Then, when she returned home after work, she saw her father speaking happily about his defeat.
To Daphne, her father was the strongest knight in the Kingdom of Cascade. She could not readily believe that he had lost to a ten-year-old child. Thinking that some kind of accident might have occurred to cause her father's loss, and wanting to confirm whether that was the truth, she was told that her job the next day was to guide that child around the Royal Capital.
Thus, Daphne intended to confirm Steve's ability during the course of this job. And by a rather rough method at that.
In other words, during the initial greeting, Daphne was looking at Steve as her father's enemy. That was why she had glared at him.
As for Daphne herself, her first impression of Steve was wondering if such a child had truly defeated her father. She was desperate to suppress the urge to slash at him right then and there to see if it was true.
The word 'muscle-brain' fit her perfectly; while her features, figure, and family lineage were beyond reproach, no talk of marriage ever arose due to her personality. She had long proclaimed that she would only marry someone stronger than herself, and the few matchmaking sessions she'd had ended as heroic tales of her beating the man senseless.
As mentioned before, she was a precious existence capable of guarding female royalty, and since it would be difficult to find a replacement if she retired for marriage or childbirth, the Royal Family—ignoring her father's anguish—was actually grateful whenever Daphne's marriage prospects fell through.
"Well then, Father, I am off."
"Right. Listen well to what Daphne-dono says, and don't be selfish."
"Yes."
Steve said this to Brian and left the inn. Judging by this alone, Daphne decided he was just an ordinary child.
"Shall we hold hands so you do not get lost?"
Steve turned red when Daphne said that. Even in his previous life, he had almost no involvement with women, so holding hands was very embarrassing. However, Daphne's purpose in holding hands was to check for the presence of sword calluses. But seeing the boy turn red with the age-appropriate embarrassment of holding a woman's hand, she thought he was quite normal for his age and gave a small chuckle.
"It's embarrassing, so I'm fine."
"I see. It would be inexcusable to Brian-sama if you were to get lost. Do not move on your own so we do not get separated."
"Understood. Well then, I want to buy souvenirs for my mother and older sister first, so I'd like to go to a shop that handles accessories popular with women."
"Is that so? I am not well-versed in such shops, but I recall a shop the other members were talking about."
For Daphne, who turned her back on the femininity demanded by society, Steve's request was difficult. However, she remembered a story about a shop where a young male knight went to buy a present, and decided to guide Steve there.
The shop, which catered to knights and nobles, had high-quality staff and high-quality customers. The interior was spacious with wide, relaxed aisles. It was the polar opposite of some mass-market retailer where products are piled high in narrow aisles.
A clerk called out to Steve and Daphne as they entered.
"Are you looking for a gift?"
"Yes. I'm looking for souvenirs for my mother and sister."
"In that case, how about a necklace using rose quartz like this one?"
The clerk immediately appraised Steve and Daphne and recommended products at a price they could likely afford. A woman wearing civilian clothes but carrying a sword, and a boy wearing clothes better than a commoner's. The clerk's read was that they were the child of a mid-to-low-ranking noble and his guard. Being almost exactly correct was expected of a clerk at a popular shop in the Royal Capital.
Since Steve and Daphne didn't know the quality of the goods, they decided to buy what the clerk recommended.
"How would you like to pay?"
When asked by the clerk, Steve didn't understand the intent. Daphne immediately sensed this and explained the meaning of the question.
"Nobles or great merchants who buy expensive goods do not carry cash, so sometimes the shop goes to the house later to collect the payment. What will you do, young man?"
"Oh, so that's how it works. Since I don't have a house in the Royal Capital, I'll pay here."
Of course, when he said he would leave the shop after finishing the payment, the clerk said,
"Then please, this way for the checkout,"
and guided them to a counter in the back of the shop. Just as they were about to sit in the chairs provided at the counter, an incident occurred inside the shop.
"Kyaa!"
Hearing a scream, Steve and Daphne looked over. There, a blonde girl was being carried by a young man.
Both the girl and the man were customers who had been in the shop until a moment ago. A maid, who appeared to be the girl's attendant, lay collapsed on the floor. The man continued to run toward the back of the shop while carrying the girl.
Steve and Daphne immediately chased after the man. Passing through the door separating the shop floor from the back yard, they saw the man kick open the back door and exit into an alley.
"Wait!"
When Daphne shouted and stepped into the alley, there were others who seemed to be the man's accomplices. There were five enemies in total. One was holding the girl, and three had dagger knives in their hands. The remaining one was empty-handed.
The man holding the girl gave orders to the other four.
"Unexpected guests followed us. Snuff them out."
"Right."
With that reply, the three with dagger knives stepped forward. Then the man holding the girl started running again.
"I won't let you get away!"
Just as Daphne drew her sword to give chase, her feet stopped. When Steve looked at her feet, he saw that she was wearing boots made of earth. The boots had grown out of the ground and were restraining her feet, making it impossible for her to move forward.
"Magic, huh?"
Steve judged so from the remnants of mana and the phenomenon before his eyes. He then deduced that the empty-handed man was an earth-attribute mage.
"Aren't you gonna restrain the brat?"
One of the three asked the mage while still facing Steve.
"A single child is hardly a threat, is he?"
"True enough—"
The man cut off his words before he could finish speaking. Steve had launched an attack in the middle of that conversation, and a hand-sword strike had hit the man's neck. That was why the man's speech stopped mid-sentence. The remaining two were stunned and unable to move. Steve was not one to miss that opening; he kicked the hands holding the dagger knives, making them drop the weapons.
Picking up one of the fallen knives, he quickly slashed the legs of the two men, and they tumbled to the ground.
At this point, the mage realized he had to stop Steve as well. Steve could have attacked the mage then, but he deliberately chose not to. The reason was to make him use magic one more time.
As expected, the mage used earth magic to try and restrain Steve's feet. However, Steve copied it with his SOP Magic. What he obtained was the magic to freely manipulate the shape of earth.
He immediately returned the earth clinging to his own feet to its original state.
"Wha—"
Both the mage and Daphne let out cries of surprise at this.
Steve immediately used the same magic on the man holding the girl, sealing his movements.
"What are you doing! Who uses magic on their own ally!"
The man shouted, mistakenly believing the mage had used magic on him.
"It wasn't me!"
The mage shouted back, but then his own body was restrained by earth. Steve had used the magic. The mage frantically tried to return the earth to its original state, but Steve obstructed him by overwriting it. Eventually, the mage ran out of mana and fainted.
With all enemies neutralized, Daphne said to Steve,
"Young man, I would like you to release my restraints soon."
As Steve complied and returned the earth to its original state, Daphne was convinced that it was only natural her father had lost. He had faced three men with knives bare-handed and defeated them in an instant. He had imitated the mage's magic after seeing it only once and surpassed his opponent.
What had happened before her eyes matched her father's claim that his Godspeed Sword had been imitated. And she understood that he was not an opponent she could possibly match.
"You are strong."
The words honestly acknowledging Steve's strength came naturally from her mouth. Steve replied to those words with a bashful smile.
"I grew up in the countryside, so I was fighting wild animals every day."
In fact, he had fought boars, deer, and even bears several times, but Daphne understood that such things alone wouldn't make someone this strong. She speculated that the secret of his strength lay in his magic.
"Now then, shall we rescue the captive princess?"
"Indeed. We shall leave contacting the soldiers to the shop staff and protect the girl ourselves."
When they released the girl from the man's grasp, she regained her composure.
"Thank you for rescuing me from such danger. My name is Christina Gis Mackintosh."
She introduced herself. Daphne knew that family name.
"So you were the young lady of the House of Marquess Mackintosh?"
"Yes. Um, excuse me, but may I ask your names?"
"Royal Guard Knights Order, Daphne Shields."
"Steve Archibalt. I am the heir of the Knightly House of Archibalt, My Lady."
When the two introduced themselves, Christina's face brightened instantly.
"So you were the daughter of Commander Shields, and the heir of the hero who saved the nation, Archibalt-sama. Thank you very much."
Hearing Christina call his father a hero who saved the nation, Steve asked Daphne,
"Is my father really a hero who saved the nation?"
"That is right. Together with my father, he protected His Majesty the King and repelled the enemies who sought to seize our territory. Did you not know he was made a Knight for those achievements?"
"He doesn't talk much about the past. By the way, what is Daphne-san's father the commander of?"
"You haven't heard?"
"Father only introduced Daphne-san as the daughter of an acquaintance."
"I see. My father is the Commander of the Royal Guard Knights Order."
Steve was surprised to hear that. Even Steve knew that the Royal Guard was the most elite force in this country. Daphne was the daughter of its commander. Why was his father an acquaintance of such a person? Since Brian didn't tell Steve about the past, he had no idea at all.
While they were having such a conversation, a chubby boy and a man who appeared to be his guard arrived on the scene.
The boy drew his sword and pointed it at Steve and Daphne.
"Hear ye, hear ye! I am the heir of House Hadley, Clark Hadley! You villains who would kidnap a delicate maiden... I shall punish you!"
Told this without any context, Steve and Daphne looked at each other. No words were exchanged, but if there were, they would have been: "Someone you know?" "No, I don't know him."
It was Christina who stopped Clark, who was about to slash at them.
"Hadley-sama, these people are the ones who saved me from the thugs. They are by no means villains."
"No, no, Lady Christina, you are being deceived. They are heinous criminals. They must be in league with those fellows lying over there."
"That is not true. Daphne-sama is a member of the Royal Guard. Furthermore—"
Just then, the soldiers who had received the report came running. The soldiers saluted when they saw Daphne. As the daughter of the Royal Guard Knight Commander, she was a celebrity and an idol for the young soldiers of the national army; her face was widely known.
Then, for some reason, Clark misunderstood that the salute was for him and ordered the saluting soldiers to arrest Daphne.
"You've come at a good time. Arrest that woman!"
The soldiers only looked puzzled at the command and made no move to arrest her. Enraged by this, Clark barked,
"You lot, can you not follow the orders of a noble!"
Daphne sneered at the child throwing a tantrum.
"Even if you are a noble, you cannot give orders to the national army defending the Royal Capital. Did you not learn that at home?"
Steve snorted at her attitude. Because of that, the flames of Clark's anger burned even brighter.
"You brat, you laughed just now. I shall cut you down for your insolence!"
If a commoner committed an act of insolence, a noble could punish them on the spot without a trial. Since the children of nobles were also treated as nobles, Clark naturally had that right. However, that was only if the opponent was a commoner. Since Steve's father was also a noble, he was treated as a noble in the Kingdom of Cascade.
Clark, unaware of this, thrust the sword he held toward Steve. Christina and the soldiers gasped in surprise, but the person himself and Daphne had composed expressions.
Steve grabbed the blade of the thrust sword with his hand and pulled it hard toward himself. As a result, Clark fell forward and ended up kissing the ground. Seeing this, Daphne and the soldiers burst out laughing.
"My parents are also nobles, so you cannot cut me down for insolence."
Being told this by Steve, Clark threw the glove he was holding at Steve.
"Then it is a duel! We shall fight with Lady Christina as the prize!!"
"Heh?"
Steve made a blank face at the unexpected turn of the conversation.
But Daphne was different. She accepted the challenge to the duel on Steve's behalf.
"Very well. The location shall be the Knights Order's training grounds, and the time shall be noon tomorrow. Is that acceptable?"
"I don't care! Don't you dare run away!"
Clark spat out his parting words and went off somewhere. Afterward, Daphne handled the interactions with the soldiers, and Steve had nothing in particular to do.
However, since Christina wanted to express her gratitude, Steve and Daphne ended up visiting the Mackintosh family's Royal Capital mansion. At this point, Steve's sightseeing of the Royal Capital was forcibly cancelled.
They boarded the carriage waiting outside the shop and arrived at the Mackintosh estate. They were shown to the salon, where tea was served.
"These are good leaves,"
Daphne said, but it did not suit the palate of Steve, who possessed the sense of taste from his previous life. Without letting a hint of that show, he sipped the tea, and Christina began to talk about Clark.
"Hadley-sama apparently saw me at a debutante ball somewhere, and since then, he has been proposing engagement. My father is trying to marry me off elsewhere and has been refusing, but I hear there have been repeated solicitations from House Hadley."
She said this and sighed.
In the modern world, it would likely be punished as stalking, but there was no such thing here, and when it came to noble marriages, the family's interests took priority. If House Hadley could convince Marquess Mackintosh that there was a benefit to marrying Christina, the marriage would happen regardless of Christina's will.
However, it seemed they hadn't even reached the stage of engagement yet.
"What an extremely bothersome story. He is like a fly swarming over a luxurious meal."
"I think that might be a bit of an exaggeration..."
When Steve offered a mild protest to Daphne, she said that wasn't the case.
"Young man, think about it carefully. It is strange for Clark to appear at that timing. It was likely a setup."
"A setup?"
Steve and Christina's voices harmonized.
"On a main street it might be one thing, but can you give a rational explanation for the heir of a noble house being in an alley right outside a shop's back exit?"
"Now that you mention it, that's true."
"Hearing Lady Christina's story, I suspect Clark is possessed by an obsession."
"I see."
Christina grew frightened upon hearing Daphne's words.
"And so, the young man accepted the duel to exterminate the fly. If you cut Clark down tomorrow, Lady Christina will have no reason to be afraid, right?"
"So that's why you accepted the duel?"
When Steve asked Daphne, she shook her head.
"To not accept a challenged duel is a disgrace to a knight's name."
"No, I'm not a knight, though."
Steve complained to the puff-chested Daphne. However, Christina was looking at Steve with expectant eyes.
"Please, you must achieve victory tomorrow."
Being told that by Christina, Steve had no choice but to nod.