The Princess Kidnapping System Made Me OP-Chapter 40: Unforgivable Sin

"I no longer go by that name." Daphne stared down at Taryn with an unreadable expression.

Around her, the shadows were moving, a little but important show of power.

"What are you doing here?" She asked once again, her voice even colder than before.

Taryn picked up her staff shakingly and rose to her feet.

"Do you really have the right to ask me that question?" She spat as she fixed her gaze on Daphne. "After everything you have done?"

"..."

Taryn laughed and held onto her cheek. "Silence huh? You haven’t changed one bit."

Daphne looked away from her, her cold facade slowly falling apart. "Why did you come—"

"I came to find a life! What did you expect me to do? Continue living in the rubble that was once our home?!"

"Our clan fell, the demons took over and the first question you ask me after so many years of your disappearance is what am I doing here?"

Taryn went ballistic. "Who do you even think you are? Last time I checked you renounced your role as princess to run off on your own."

"You think I came here for you? You think I’m stalking you or something?!"

Taryn’s fingers were shaking as she spoke but she did her best to hide it. To others, Daphne may look human but she saw past that, she saw her for the beast she truly was.

Daphne, still as impassive as ever, stared at Taryn, her gaze hard. "All of this... Wise should jot hear a word of it."

Taryn almost laughed. "Wise?"

Daphne cursed inwardly, realizing she had accidentally said his real name.

"I guess that is his actual name..." Taryn hit her staff against the floor in anger.

"So this is all about him, right? You want to keep your dirty little secrets buried. Why do you think I won’t walk up to him and tell him every single thing I know?"

"Taryn!" Daphne yelled, her voice tethering at the edge of rage.

"What?! What would you do if I told him about the things you’ve done? About your dirty past?"

"What will you do? Kill me?" Engulfed by a boldness she herself didn’t understand, Taryn walked closer to Daphne and stared her in the eyes.

"Do it, Kill me! At least it will be better than this life. A life without a family, a life without friends, a life where I can’t even visit the market without my feet aching!"

Tears began to well up in her eyes. "Do you know what I’ve been through? Do you even care?! You know the horrors I survived just to get here?"

"You think the Orks treat the little crippled elf with love and care?" Taryn shoved Daphne back.

In her outburst, her cane missed its mark and she tripped, falling forward. Daphne reached out to stop her from falling but she shoved her away, deciding to take the fall instead.

Daphne gritted her teeth as she stared down at the person who had once been her best friend.

Back when their clan was still stable, before the wars, before the bloodshed... they had been inseparable. They had been like sisters.

Although Taryn was from a common family while she was a princess it never showed in their relationship, they were so close that there was nothing they didn’t do together.

The war led to a whole lot of things, eventually leading to the decline of their relationship, but Daphne had put the final nail in that coffin when she left.

"I had to... I had to leave," Daphne whispered, a complicated look on her face.

"Spare me your lies." Taryn rose to her feet and glared at Daphne. "You never really cared about me, about the clan. You only ever cared about yourself."

"How is your new life?" Taryn asked in a pained voice. "I see you have already found a replacement for me, two in fact. And you’re finally putting yourself out there huh? Wise wasn’t it?"

There was a short period of unpleasant silence.

Daphne was about to say something when Taryn cut in.

"You’re selfish. Get out..." Taryn said, her voice was almost a whisper.

Daphne stared at Taryn unsure of what to say. she had decided long before coming to cross her heart and act as indifferently as possible.

That way maybe her words would not hurt the way they did now...

She had even hit her for good measure, and yet every word that left her mouth felt like an arrow being embedded in her back, only to be pulled out without warning.

But that was not all, Daphne felt a certain degree of rage burning in her heart as well.

Was she saying her life had been easy? Just the way she didn’t know what Taryn had been through, even she was completely oblivious about her life.

Daphne too had suffered a great deal and being in the rubble of what they once called their home threatened to break her mind with each passing day.

"I had to leave, why can’t you understand that?" Daphne whispered.

Taryn frowned. "What?"

"What else did you want from me?" Daphne spat. "Everything I did I did for the clan, I broke my mind, I broke my body, I broke my spirit all for the damned clan! All for you!"

It was as though her words had ignited a fire deep in Taryn’s heart. The normally gentle girl lost herself and pounced at Daphne, pushing her to the floor and slapping her on her cheek.

Taryn was furious.

"You did it for me? What the hell do you mean to did it for me?"

"Tell me Daphne," Taryn said, tears dripping down her eyes. "Why did you murder every last survivor of our clan?!"

"Why did you kill the only elders we had left? Why did you burn down our homes?"

"...W-why did you kill my mom."

Daphne didn’t realize it, but she was crying too, and for a moment, seeing the impassive girl in tears took Taryn aback.

"I had to... I did it to protect you."

Taryn smiled bitterly and pushed herself away from the floor.

"That same answer right?" She paused, her next words weighed heavily on her lips but fueled by grief, she said it.

"You are worse than the demons themselves."

Daphne’s eyes widened in shock. Right there it felt like her heart had been ripped open and a bucket of hot coals had been poured right in.

No word could be used to describe how she felt— those words had engraved a mark in her heart, one that could never be erased.

As the comotion began to settle, the entrance to the tavern was busted open and a figure slowly stumbled in.

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