As expected, Debbie’s packing wasn’t finished that day.
After organizing roughly and leaving the rest on the desk, Debbie fell asleep, and in the meantime, Elaine, who had just washed up in the bathroom, covered herself in a blanket and whispered to Rabes.
“It looks like Debbie has fallen asleep, so please tell me now. What should I look for in the temple?”
[It’s nothing. Do you know the ‘Lancers Aquinal’s Remains’ that the high priest talked about during the initiation ceremony?]
“Yes.”
[That’s it.]
“What?”
Elaine blinked her eyes and stared at Rabes. But Rabes also just blinked his resolute eyes.
“Are you serious now?”
[Why am I joking with you about something like this?]
“ ‘Lancers Aquinal’s Remains’ is the representative relic of the Temple. There’s no way I could just take that away!”
[You don’t need to bring it. You can just take me there. I need to confirm whether it is really Lancers’ remains.]
“Do you think that’s easy? It’s not open to the public! Most priests, let alone saints, have no access to it.”
Even if she wanted to sneak into the place where ‘Lancers Aquinal’s Remains’ was kept, even where it was kept was top secret.
Perhaps because the divine power barrier was thick, Rabes also could not find the location of that.
Still, Rabes seemed to have no intention of giving up.
[Try to find it somehow!]
“Anyway, now that we know they are lying about keeping your seal, don’t you think ‘Lancers Aquinal’s Remains’ is fake?”
[Most likely, but we still have to check. If there’s a real Lancers remains…]
“What happens if there’s a real Lancers remains…”
Elaine and Rabes swallowed dry saliva at the same time.
[I have to retrieve the remains. I can’t see his remains being used by these liars.]
Rabes seemed somewhat solemn, but Elaine couldn’t quite understand.
“If he is Lancer Aquinal, isn’t he the same enemy who stabbed Rabes in the back?”
[Uh? Ahh, yeah, that’s right.]
“Shouldn’t you be relieved to see such an enemy being used by humans?”
Rabes’ eyes became complicated as he saw Elaine asking innocently.
‘You fool! That could be the remains of your past life!’
‘If it’s the bones left over from an ordinary person’s death, it’s not something to worry about…’
However, Lancers was a great wizard who possessed Rabes’ magical core.
It was felt that the magic core was currently inside Elaine’s body, but if the remains existed, there was a high probability that some magic power remained there as well.
‘If by some chance a priest or a wizard with excellent divine power appears, there is no way to know how they will use it.’
It was possible to determine the current location of Rabes, and it was also possible to extract the power and transform it into evil magic.
No, these were all just excuses.
Rabes truly hated the idea of Lancers’ remains being trapped and used in this false place.
‘I thought the remains were probably fake, but I needed to check it…’
‘If there were any remains of the real Lancers left, I wanted to steal them and bury them in a sunny place outside this temple.’
“When I get older, I will leave the imperial palace and find a place to be buried. I want to lie down in a place with plenty of sunlight, lots of flower grass, and no people, and wait for a peaceful death to come.”
Lancers had planned his final days as if he could picture it.
Even now, Rabes have not forgotten that sad yet beautiful sight at that time.
‘It made me feel sick to think that Lancers couldn’t die a comfortable death for some reason, and that even his bones were being used by humans.’
[Ha! That’s something only narrow-minded people like you think!]
“Yes?”
[The dragon, a divine beast, collects even the remains of its enemies with courtesy.]
Elaine tilted her head at the excuse Rabes gave her.
‘The dragon who tried to burn down this entire empire, saying that his enemies made him hate humans…’
But there was no need to scratch and make a mess, so Elaine just nodded.
“I’ll try anyway, but…It won’t be that easy. Who would show that to a kid who just joined the temple?”
[It doesn’t matter how many years it takes, so don’t be too hasty.]
Elaine laughed nervously.
‘I want to get out of here quickly.’
However, she couldn’t bring herself to say those words out loud in front of Rabes, who was smiling and nodding as if to encourage her.
* * *
“Welcome, Your Highness! It is an honor to be able to serve you.”
“Thank you, Count Newt.”
Just as spring was starting to arrive, Abel and Sasha visited Count Newt’s house.
Of course, Sasha, whose power rivaled that of the Empress, was an important guest, but it was a greater honor for a nobleman to have a ‘Prince’ visit a nobleman’s house, so Count and Count Newt and his wife redecorated the house, bought expensive flowers grown in greenhouses, and purchased precious food ingredients.
And Rubaine, who had invited other nobles who were close to Count Newt’s family, was anxious to make the most of this opportunity to show off his connections that extended all the way to the imperial family.
“As well as the mansion, the garden is very nice. It looks like you put a lot of effort into it. Can I take a look?”
“Hahaha, it’ll be better in April or May. I’m afraid it’s not quite ready yet, and I’m embarrassed to show it to your Highness.”
When Abel praised the garden, Count Newt and his wife, who had already been working hard to maintain the garden, laughed, unable to hide their joy.
He then guided Abel and Sasha to the most manicured part of the garden and explained in detail the flowers and shrubs planted here and there.
However, the reason Abel and Sasha came out to the garden was not just to look at plants.
“this….”
When Abel, who was a few steps behind Count Newt and his wife, clicked his tongue, Sasha asked in a low voice.
“What’s wrong, Malek?”
Sasha called him Malek, even though she obviously had her son, Abel, by her side.
Seventeen years ago, when Malek was called out, it was Sasha who handed over the soul of Abel, who was less than a year old, so that she could control Abel.
The real Abel’s soul could only move through his body when Malek let it go for a while, but most of the time it was trapped in the prison of his body.
Even though she had put her child through hellish pain, Sasha did not feel the slightest guilt about it.
‘The reason I gave birth to a child from a man I didn’t love anyway was to use him in this way.’
In any case, Sasha, who had only faithfully followed Malek’s orders to create an opportunity to visit Count Newt, looked at Malek uneasily when he clicked his tongue.
“No way, it’s really gone.”
“What?”
“The energy of the dragon magic stone has disappeared.”
“What? Not so long ago, it was clearly—”
“Yeah. I could feel it not too long ago, but It started getting weaker a few days ago, and I can barely feel it today.”
Malek, in Abel’s body, clicked his tongue again as he looked around Newt’s garden, where the energy of the dragon magic stone remained very faintly.
‘It must have been a few days since it disappeared, but seeing that the magical energy still remained, it was clear that it must have been an extremely strong dragon’s magical core. No, maybe it was something more than that.…’
“What happened in just a few days?”
Malek licked his lips regretfully and fell into thought.
The dragon energy felt in Newt’s family was a bit unusual.
He’d sensed dragon energy on Newt ever since he’d answered Sasha’s summons. but the energy was so weak and had a feeling of deterioration in some way that he didn’t pay much attention to it.
At best, he thought it was a dragon magic stone whose magic power had been completely used up, and a dragon magic stone with all its magic power exhausted did not mean much to Malek.
The energy of the Newt family fluctuated greatly a few months ago.
Malek was said to have had goosebumps running down his spine as that energy suddenly bloomed, as if a lightning bolt had fallen from the sky.
He has never encountered a dragon magic stone whose magical power changes in that way before.
‘I don’t know what happened, but if it’s this strong, it’s sure to amplify my magical power as much as ether!’
He had been waiting for the day to visit Count Newt’s family with such anticipation, but a few days ago, the dragon’s energy suddenly disappeared, and only a faint wave of magical power was floating in the air, like a trace of a dragon magic stone.
‘Shit. It was a mistake to delay when Rubaine said that the dragon magic stone was lost. I thought that all I had to do was secretly pick up the dragon stone at some point…’
Malek managed to calm his anger and returned to the mansion with Count Newt and his wife.
Meanwhile, an extravagant tea table was set up in the mansion’s living room.
* * *
