There was another person just as furious as Sergey about Malek kidnapping Elaine.
“Your Highness! Please send Elaine back.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Count Newt.”
“Your Highness! Why are you doing this?”
Lark protested strongly against Abel who had deceived him and kidnapped Elaine. Actually, he did not understand why Abel kidnapped Elaine.
The day Lark asked how to bring Elaine back, Abel told him a very good way.
Abel would inform him of a day when Sergey would be away from the mansion.
Lark had to arrange everything carefully and called Elaine to the Imperial Palace registration office.
“If she wants to leave Count Newt’s house, she will come running no matter what, but I will have the guards at the main gate of the palace hold her back as long as possible. No matter what, she will be late for the appointed time.”
Then Lark could make Elaine leave Count Lindell’s house on her own two feet, and he could claim that he gave her a chance to leave Newt.
It was a very simple plan, Lark would sit in the registry office and then take her home on time if she was late.
However, on that day, Elaine never showed up at the registry office, even as the clock neared 3 PM.
Lark was wondering if Elaine hadn’t come at all, but then an acquaintance he met at the palace said he had just seen Elaine.
“She was heading toward the Prince’s Palace with His Highness’s attendant.”
Lark immediately requested an audience with the prince, but he was ignored. He tried several more times, only to receive the same response.
Three days later, when his audience was finally granted, Abel greeted him with an unpleasant smirk and talked nonsense.
“There were several people who saw Elaine go to the prince’s palace. So don’t say you don’t know where Elaine is.”
“Hmm…”
“Why are you doing this? Do you happen to like Elaine? No, even if you do, isn’t it unfair to kidnap her like this?”
Malek seriously considered killing Lark on the spot, since he was no longer useful anyway.
But he quickly changed his mind.
What was the point of getting rid of the audience before the perfect stage he dreamed of had been set?
Malek tilted his head and said.
“I have no idea what you have been talking about. Why did I bring Miss Elaine here? There are so many eyes watching me, what kind of rumors do you think would spread?”
“Then please call the attendant who took her yesterday.”
“Why should I do that? You should know that it is becoming increasingly difficult to tolerate your rudeness.”
Malek clicked his tongue and called the guard outside.
“Count Newt is leaving. Escort him to the exit.”
“Your Highness!”
Lark shouted in frustration, but Malek didn’t look back. The guards, following the prince’s command, forcibly dragged Lark out.
Despite Lark’s struggles and the shocked stares of passers-by, they did not let him go until they had carried him out of the Prince’s Palace.
Lark muttered as he watched the backs of the guards leaving him behind.
“Something is wrong. Something is…!”
But he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what had gone wrong or where.
It was he who came to find a way to bring Elaine. If he hadn’t spoken up, would Abel have even thought of such a plan?
And Lark doesn’t understand why Abel kidnapped Elaine. Elaine had no value to him.
“Damn it…why is everyone so desperate to take Elaine away from me!”
Lark gritted his teeth and got into the carriage.
But what awaited him at home was another news that Elaine would be taken away from him.
“What did you say just now?”
“Elaine has been excommunicated. She is no longer a member of the Temple of Pavelo.”
Lorina, who had been waiting for Lark at the Newt mansion since morning, showed him the ‘Excommunication Declaration’ written by High Priest John.
Lark snatched the sentence from Lorina’s hands and examined its contents with eyes of disbelief.
“What…? Elaine is a witch…?”
“I’ve had my suspicions for a while. Elaine’s mother is said to be a witch.”
“Where did you hear that?”
“The former Count told me. She was a witch who had mastered the magic of seduction. That’s why she seduced the former Count.”
Lark snorted.
Rubaine had made all sorts of excuses for what had happened back then, but Lark knew the truth—Rubaine had truly desired Mariel.
Otherwise, there would be no reason to maintain and preserve the annex so meticulously even after her death.
But Lorina pretended not to hear Lark’s laughter and continued speaking.
“Anyway, the High Priest confirmed that Elaine also inherited that blood, and he excommunicated her according to the rules of the Laom. He then asked me to deliver this to you.”
“Where did the high Priest find out that Elaine was a witch?”
“I don’t know about that.”
Lark crumpled the paper he was holding in his hand.
Lorina was shocked to see Lark crumpling up the official document of the temple like trash, but Lark paid no attention to it.
“I should go see the High Priest and ask him. Where exactly did he meet Elaine, when even I can’t see her?”
“D-Do you really need to find Elaine? If rumors spread that there’s a witch in your family—!”
“Whether it’s treasure or trash, I’m going to find what’s mine. So what does it matter what others say?”
Lorina lost her temper when Lark referred to Elaine as ‘his’.
“Why are you so obsessed with Elaine? You can’t marry someone who’s been excommunicated anyway! You know that!”
“Aha! I did wonder why Elaine was suddenly excommunicated. Now I know what’s going on.”
Lark let out a mocking chuckle, realizing that Lorina was behind it all.
“But who said anything about marrying Elaine? I never said anything like that.”
“Then why are you so obsessed with that girl?”
“Obsessed? Well, I don’t know if obsession is the right word. I’m just trying to get back what was stolen. Shouldn’t you blame the humans who stole what was mine instead of me?”
Lark was still smiling, but his eyes were filled with anger and something akin to madness.
* * *
‘Where is this…?’
Staring at an unfamiliar ceiling, Elaine blinked her hazy eyes and tried to piece together her thoughts.
Her head was throbbing painfully, making it difficult to think, but she had no choice.
Long-forgotten memories were flooding back and forcing Elaine’s head to wake up.
“Lancer! Why are you suddenly like this!”
“Aquiesco Roevis del Luba!”
“Lancer!”
Elaine had regained memories of her past life—500 years ago when she was Lancer.
It was sudden, yet it felt like fate.
“Ahhh…!”
As the soul that had been sealed by Rabes’ curse awakened, the guilt and pain that she had not yet fully felt came rushing back to her like a tidal wave.
It can’t be helped. Because she knew it was a spell to seal the dragon.
“Aquiesco.. Roevis…del….”
It was a spell she still can’t forget.
It was a spell that no ordinary dragon would dare to cast against Rabes, unless they had Rabes’ magic core.
A spell that had to be uttered even though she knew that it would cause great pain to Rabes.
“Rabes….”
Rabes’ name leaked out like a moan from between Elaine’s dry lips.
Her memories of when she was Lancer were full of pain.
Even after meeting Rabes, her physical condition had improved, but her heart grew heavier by the day.
Rabes, who was powerful yet endlessly kind, who grumbled on the surface but was inherently gentle—he was impossible not to love.
But the more she loved him, the more she realized how insignificant she was.
He was eternal, while she was fleeting.
She was nothing but a passing moment in his endless time.
While Rabes did everything Lancer needed, she could do nothing for Rabes.
She was insignificant, and once her short human life was over, Rabes would quickly forget her.
‘A mortal falling in love with an immortal…’
She knew very well that it was an absurd and shameless feeling. That was why she gathered all her willpower and tried to deny it, and she promised herself to give up several times.
But the more she denied her feelings of love, the deeper they became.
All she could do was pretend not to love Rabes, pretend that nothing happened to her.
Her countless memories of suppressing her feelings in front of Rabes, forcing herself to smile, filled the mosaic of her life.
‘I wanted to forget…’
Time had passed, but Rabes remained the same—an eternally beautiful young man—while she, in contrast, had aged, growing wrinkled and frail. The stark difference had made her feel unbearably small and insignificant.
She couldn’t dare show even a piece of her heart in that state.
So when the sealed Rabes recited a certain magic spell towards her, she wished it was death instead. To die and be free from all these memories.
But it wasn’t death. It was a curse of reincarnation.
‘My mother may have been a victim of that reincarnation curse.’
As Lancer’s memories awakened, she naturally learned the secret of her birth that she had been curious about while living as Elaine.
Mariel swallowed the magic core of Rabes containing Lancer’s soul, and because of that, Lancer had been reborn as her daughter, taking on a human form.
Perhaps because she had such a strong desire to forget everything, she forgot her memories as a Lancer, and her magical power was sealed.
However, as the priests called by Malek performed the purification ritual, they touched Elaine’s magic that had been tightly sealed, awakening both her memories and magical power.
* * *
