「My father has passed away, and my heart aches as if my whole world has fallen apart. I couldn’t attend the funeral because of Rubaine, and I cried myself to sleep, clutching the only thing he had left for me. It’s a beautiful black, crystalline jewel that shines in the center of the stone. It was like my father’s last words to me, telling me not to lose hope in the midst of despair.」
「As soon as Rubaine takes over the Count title, he tries to manipulate me as he pleases. But I am more afraid that he will try to steal my father’s belongings. Is there any way to protect this treasure?」
「It looks like Rubaine is going to kill me. he’s holding Elaine’s life hostage and locking me in an outbuilding, and he’s constantly searching for my father’s belongings.」
「I think it would be better to leave this item to you, but I don’t know if I will be able to deliver it to you before I die.…If I ever die, please take care of Elaine.」
Elaine shed tears as she finished reading the last letter, folded it again, and placed it on the tray.
Her mother had once seemed so strong, but she was only in her late teens and early twenties when she wrote this letter.
It felt heartbreaking to think about how scared her mother, who was younger than her in her previous life, must have been alone.
At that time, a white handkerchief was suddenly held out in front of Elaine.
“Everyone who sees it is heartbroken. All I can do is offer you my handkerchief, will you accept it?”
“Ah, it’s an honor.”
Elaine took the handkerchief offered by Malek and wiped her tears.
Meanwhile, Rabes passed from Sasha’s shoulder to Malek’s shoulder, his eyes shining blue again.
Before she had time to wonder what Rabes was doing, Sasha patted Elaine on the shoulder.
“After Mariel was locked in the annex, it became more difficult to write letters, so that letter you saw earlier was the last. I think she was trying to entrust me with something.… By any chance, does Miss Elaine know?”
Elaine was a little worried about Sasha’s extremely friendly attitude.
She remembered her mother’s last words about the ‘something’ Sasha was looking for.
[From now on, just say you don’t know about that stone. And no matter what anyone says, you are my daughter and you are human. You just have to remember that.]
It was something she couldn’t understand, but one thing was clear: ‘Pretend not to know.’
But just as Elaine was beginning to wonder if she should tell Sasha what she knew because Sasha was the person her mother was counting on, Rabes suddenly shouted.
[Say you don’t know! You must never say anything.]
Elaine suddenly came to her senses.
‘okay. It’s not like I know anything about that treasure. It would be better not to say anything at all than to bring it up for no reason and face even greater disappointment.’
Elaine swallowed dry saliva and shook her head.
“After my mother passed away, my uncle also asked me, but I never received anything from my mother. He went through all my and my mother’s belongings, but he didn’t find any jewelry.”
“Did Mariel tell Miss Elaine anything? She wrote something that hinted at a hidden place somewhere.…”
“Uh, no. All she said to me was that she was sorry, that’s all.”
“Ah…I see.”
A look of disappointment was evident on Sasha’s face.
It was no wonder she’d worked so hard to get Mariel’s handwriting and the information about the Newt family’s dragon stone to create a fake letter, and it hadn’t gotten her anywhere.
“If my mother had treasures like that, I wonder where she kept them. If there was anything left, I would keep it as a keepsake from my mother.”
“Ah, I know. I’m sorry for that…”
Elaine added something as if she were making an excuse, but Sasha only gave a perfunctory answer and smiled blandly.
While Sasha was finishing the conversation, Malek’s gaze did not leave Elaine.
‘Strange. It’s really strange…’
The sense of discomfort he’d felt when they’d met in the temple was now too clear to be an illusion.
‘My magic doesn’t work? And I still can’t feel anything from this kid.’
As Malek, it was more advantageous to get a straightforward answer, so he had scattered deception magic around her in advance. It was a magic that made most people, unless they were mentally strong, develop more than favorable feelings towards Malek.
But Elaine did not waver at all. In fact, she seemed faintly wary.
That was not something that could be easily understood.
There was no being stronger than the dragon Malek himself on this earth. So who can stop his magical power?
‘That kid…Is she really a saint?’
If Elaine is a saint, and therefore capable of using a huge amount of divine power, it makes sense to suppress his magical power.
But there was no way to explain why he couldn’t sense any aura from Elaine.
‘First of all, I need to be a little careful.’
If he wanted to, he could have crushed Elaine with his magic right now and forced her to answer about the whereabouts of the dragon’s magic stone, but for some reason, Malek felt uneasy and decided to take a step back.
There was no need to waste more time on a worthless meeting, so Malek gave Sasha a slight glance, and Sasha, receiving Malek’s signal, smiled regretfully and said to Elaine.
“I wish we could talk more, but the time allowed is too short. I have another meeting right away.”
“Oh, no! It wasn’t short at all. It was an honor to meet you. Thank you so much for talking about my mother.”
“Yes. Then I guess I should go first.”
Sasha stood up.
Since Rabes came over to Elaine’s shoulder again, Elaine also had no regrets at all. It would have been nice to hear more about her mother, but she did not dare to ask the Emperor’s mistress for such a favor.
After seeing Sasha off, Malek naturally took Elaine to the entrance of the prince’s palace and made a request.
“Just in case…”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“If you found out about the items your mother had, would you contact me? Anytime doesn’t matter. Of course, it is an important item to Miss Elaine, but my mother looks sad about what happened back then.”
“Really?”
“As soon as I find out what it is and what Miss Mariel Newt wanted to ask my mother for, I’ll return it to Miss Elaine, I promise. It won’t be a bad thing for Miss Elaine.”
Elaine was quite concerned about his hand on her shoulder, but she managed to make a smiling face and nod.
“I’d be happy to find it, but my uncle might find it first, though.”
“I hope Miss Elaine can find it first.”
When they left the entrance, the carriage that brought Elaine was waiting.
“Well then, I hope to see you again next time.”
“Thank you for the invitation today. May the Bara’s blessings be with you, my prince.”
Elaine bowed to Malek and climbed into the carriage.
She hadn’t really thought much about it, after Sasha left, it felt like her tea time had ended too suddenly.
However, since it seemed like there was nothing left to say even if she stayed longer, Elaine did not feel disappointed.
Rather, she was more curious about Rabes, who used magic even by Prince Abel’s side.
“Rabes. What happened?”
[….I need some time to organize my thoughts.]
Rabes, who normally would have been chattering before getting into the carriage, answered in a somewhat heavy voice and closed his mouth again.
For Elaine, it was a strange visit to the imperial palace in many ways.
* * *
Rabes, who returned with Elaine, sat on the window sill and looked out the window, lost in thought.
‘That’s strange.…’
He had a bad feeling even before he entered the prince’s drawing room. It was the aura of deceptive magic wafting from beyond the door.
‘If he had called Elaine to praise her, there was no way he would have used such lowly magic.’
He wanted to at least hit Abel in the back of the head, but he had to hold back in order to read the soul memories flowing through Sasha’s magic.
Rabes, who had placed a magic shield around Elaine to prevent her from being affected by any magic, jumped over to the shoulder of Sasha, hoping that he would feel a magical power closer to that of their ancestors.
But as soon as he sat on Sasha’s shoulder, Rabes realized something that surprised him.
Sasha and Abel may have been biologically a mother-son relationship, but in terms of magic, they could not have been a mother-son relationship.
Sasha also had some magical power, but the wavelength was completely different from Abel’s magical power.
Sasha’s magic power is completely different from Abel’s and had also been encountered by Rabes 500 years ago.
‘What on earth are these?’
Feeling somewhat uneasy, Rabes hurriedly traced Sasha’s magic and found out where he encountered her magic.
‘Are you a descendant of the witch who was Lancers’ assistant?’
To improve the witch’s image, Lancer hired a witch as his assistant. And Sasha was a descendant of that witch.
Thanks to that, Rabes was able to find and read a few pieces of memories from that time from the fragments of the soul left behind in her magical power.
The first thing he saw was Lancer, now in his mid-thirties. It was around that time that Lancer hired the witch as his assistant.
“It was dangerous, Molly. Are you okay?”
“If you come close, I’ll whip you with thorns! go away!”
“It’s wonderful that you can use magic to throw a whip of thorns. I’d like to help you develop that ability, so why don’t you come with me?”
After defeating a man who tried to rape her with magic, Molly was discovered to be a witch and was running away.
She was almost caught by the villagers, but was rescued by Lancer.
Already fearful and disgusted with men, Molly tries to run away from Lancer, but she has nowhere to go. She had no money, no family, and no immediate place to eat or sleep.
Molly, who was wary of Lancer like a furry animal, eventually followed Lancer, who persuaded her with kindness and patience.
* * *
LANCER ON TOP