What Does That Evil Dragon Live For?

‘In our family, Damon will probably go, right?’ 

The children who were sent to the temple were not successors.

In the Newt family, it didn’t matter whether Martin, Damon, or Ellie went, but Martin would be 18 next year, which was too late, and Ellie was the youngest daughter whose parents Loved her so much that they wouldn’t send her to the temple.

So the idea of sending Damon, who turns 16 next year, was the best. 

‘He’ll have to make some good connections at the Temple.’ 

L’Arch sighed as he remembered Damon, who was following Martin around.

Even though they hadn’t any lessons for successors, L’Arch found it frustrating that his younger siblings were so unaware of their place as the children of Count.

‘I was embarrassed to see them still trying to play around like a child.’

‘Elaine is better.’ 

An illegitimate child born by his father’s half-sister.

His parents somehow hated Elaine a lot, but in L’Arch’s eyes, Elaine seemed more useful than his younger siblings.

L’Arch felt a strange sense of satisfaction and superiority in the fact that Elaine was the only one in the family who rely on him.

‘My father and mother seem to be annoyed to keep her, but what’s the point? When you have a girl that is smart and pretty in the family, you Should keep her and use her for the good of the family.’

The parents seemed to be thinking of raising Ellie well and marrying her to a good family, but in L’Arch’s eyes, Ellie was uglier than Elaine and was a bit fierce.

Although it was too early to jump to conclusions, L’Arch didn’t have high expectations for Ellie. 

‘But Elaine is pretty. If she dresses up properly, she’ll be known as a beautiful woman in society. So we just need to teach her well and get a man from a decent family.’

L’Arch, who already had a coming-of-age ceremony but still looked young, calmly calculated without even changing his expression.

The child, who was forced to behave as a perfect successor from birth and was smart, has now become a cool-headed and emotionless young man that even his parents can’t treat him carelessly. He didn’t even think it was wrong.

Count Newt’s family was not just a small family, and to lead many vassals, he believed that he had to follow accurate calculations rather than be dominated by amorphous and volatile emotions. 

That calculation determined his worth, and so did the worth of his siblings and Elaine.

‘It’s a bit late, but I’d like to send her out to the social world sometime next year. My father and mother may not like it, but I think Elaine will get a higher price than Ellie.’ 

L’Arch smiled softly recalling Elaine’s soft, full, wheat-colored hair, delicately curved eyelashes, unusually clear green eyes, and ripe peach lips.  Like a work of art to be molded by his own hands, or an adorable pet bird.

‘If Elaine visits soon, should I give her some chocolate?’ 

‘Then Elaine will rely on me even more. Because that would be more convenient for controlling Elaine.’

With that thought in mind, L’arch sipped his perfectly cooled black tea.

It was a beautiful day.

* * * 

Kkrik–

The old hinges made an unpleasant sound. 

[What is this place?]

Rabes frowned and looked around the quiet room and asked.

“When my mom was alive, this is where my mom and I lived together. Surprisingly, it was kept clean….”

Elaine looked around the room with a face as if searching for a very old memory. 

If it weren’t for the barred windows and padlocked doorways, they could have mistaken it for a beautifully decorated room was the room of a very well-to-do lady.

A bed with a canopy, luxurious rugs, a chest of drawers and a wardrobe with elaborate craftsmanship, a pretty dressing table with a large mirror, a velvet sofa, and a marble tea table.

However, this room that looked like it belonged to a princess was a beautifully decorated prison. 

“Get us out! I am not your doll, Rubaine!”

‘I can still remember the image of my mother, Mariel, who cried and knocked on the door until her hands were swollen whenever my uncle, Rubaine, came and went.’

Rabes flew to the window and looked out at the rusty bars.

[I think this place was built to keep people locked up, why did you end up here? was your mother a sinner?]

“Mmm…My mother was an illegitimate child that my grandfather had outside. It was fine when my grandfather was alive, but after his death, my uncle has been bothering her.

[Bothered her? why? Did he hate her because she was his half-sister?] 

Elaine let out a small sigh. 

“It would have been better that way.”

Elaine trembled as she thought of Rubaine at the time, who was friendly and terrifying towards her mother.

His glistening eyes, as if he were dying to eat her, even to young Elaine it was creepy.

“Mariel. I realized you were my soulmate from the first time my father brought you.” 

“Are you crazy? You and I are siblings!”

“If you stay quiet here for a few years, no one will remember you. Then I will make you my mistress. I’ll give you anything you want—” 

“Go away! Who wants to be your mistress?”

It’s a feeling that we wouldn’t have had if we had grown up together since we were young. 

But the first time Rubaine saw Mariel was when he was 25 and Mariel 16 years old.

Despite the large age difference, he was fascinated by the girl’s beauty. And his twisted affection for his step-sister strangled Mariel. 

[I can’t believe that such a disgusting guy is your uncle.] 

Elaine hesitated for a moment.

It was because of the secret that was only revealed by her mother just before her mother’s death and Elaine had never told anyone in her previous life.

“Actually, I lied earlier.”

[lie?]

“My mother is not my grandfather’s daughter. My grandfather bought my mother from the village of witches.”

[Bought her? What does that mean?]

Even Elaine, when she was seven years old when she first heard about it, couldn’t understand it at all. 

“My grandfather brought my mother, a witch, to use her magic in my grandfather’s family business. He deceives the people around him by saying that she was his daughter from outside.”

[Why Should she pretend to be his daughter?] 

“It’s easier for him to carry her around, so he pretends to care about her and uses her magic to solve a lot of problems.”

[It must have been something that was not honorable in the eyes of others.] 

“That’s right.”

Even at the moment of her death, Mariel couldn’t say about what has she done. She just said that she was infinitely ashamed and guilty.

But she couldn’t go against Count Newt’s orders when she knew that the money she received each month would ensure that the families of the witch village would have proper food.

[So after all you’re not related by blood to the Newt family?] 

“Yes. But I couldn’t say that to anyone. I don’t even have a mother, so if I was abandoned by Count Newt’s family,…I really had nowhere to go.” 

She was most afraid of being abandoned by the count family.

The only world Elaine knew was the inside Newt.

At the time, Elaine had no idea what the outside world looked like, how other people lived, or what her rights and responsibilities as a human being were.

[Your mother didn’t even tell you who your father was? Rather than living here like this, it might have been better to find your father and live.] 

“Yes. She didn’t tell me. Maybe she kept it a secret from me, fearing that my uncle would find and kill him.”

Elaine also wondered who her father was at one time, but when she learned what a cruel person her uncle was, she could understand her mother who kept her mouth shut.

Since her mother was found in the area where commoners lived, her father must have been a commoner as well.

Rubaine would have done whatever he could to find and kill the man who impregnated the woman he didn’t have. Perhaps in front of her mother.

‘I think there was no need to add another tragedy to the already enough tragedy.’ 

Elaine believed her mother was wise.

‘If she had told me who my father was, I probably won’t be able to resist my uncle’s threats and entreaties.’

[Your grandfather died in a sudden accident?] 

“Yes. It was a carriage accident.”

[[I think he died before he could tell his son your mother’s secret.]

“I think so. And my mother told me to keep this a secret too. I don’t have magical powers, but bad things could happen to me just because I’m a witch’s daughter.”

Elaine didn’t understand what her mother said until she entered the temple.

If Elaine was known to be the witch’s daughter, she would not only be kicked out of Count Newt’s family but also be persecuted anywhere. 

Mariel worried about the many ‘terrible things’ a seven-year-old girl could experience when she was abandoned on the street and urged her to keep it a secret.

Therefore, Elaine had no choice but to pretend to be of Count Newt’s blood, no matter what kind of tragedy she faced.

* * *