Viscount Mornon also thought that Sergey was ignorant of the world’s affairs and offered a low price for the beast skins, but Sergey accepted the price and instead obtained the right to purchase luxury goods imported from foreign countries by Viscount Mornon after the Imperial Palace.
‘That thing will shine when Elaine makes her debut in society.’
He intended to put in Elaine’s hands a precious item that no other noble could have so that everyone would envy Elaine.
While Sergey was thinking about that, the carriage arrived at Count Lindell’s house.
As he got out of the carriage, Hubert whispered beside him.
“Miss Elaine arrived this morning. As you ordered, I gave her the best room on the second floor and assigned Miss Emily as her personal maid.”
“Oh, okay. This will be Elaine’s house now.”
Sergey smiled as if he had just remembered something he had forgotten.
‘All this time, I’ve been preparing for this day by trying to please the filthy humans and taking care of annoying, unimportant things.’
In his nature, he wanted to pressure the people of the empire to support Elaine and burn to death any who resisted.
It would have been so easy, but he chose that troublesome path for Elaine’s sake.
“Lancer was human too, so he probably needed something like human affection.”
Elaine had said that the day she came back from researching Lancer’s urn, saying that she thought Lancer must have been lonely.
At that moment, Rabes vaguely understood why Elaine was making frustrating decisions.
‘Humans need things like communication with other humans and recognition within human society, right?’
So, this time, Rabes was doing that annoying, cumbersome ‘human thing’ to avoid repeating his mistake from 500 years ago.
To make sure that Elaine would have the kind of rich, relaxed, accepted life that Lancer didn’t have 500 years ago, and before the return.
And as a first step, he finally brought Elaine into his house.
“Isn’t it not very aristocratic to go straight to see Elaine?”
“I guess so. I think it would be best to be careful until you become more acquainted with Miss Elaine.”
“I miss Elaine. I haven’t seen her since she left the temple last night.”
“If that’s the case, how about visiting Miss Elaine’s room in dragon form? I think it would be best if you met her in your Sergey form at dinner.”
“Good idea. This is why I can’t eat you.”
“Please don’t make jokes like that. Sometimes I think you’re serious and it gives me the creeps.”
“If Elaine hadn’t been able to come to our house as our chaplain because you were late, then it would have been true.”
Hubert was late for the meeting to select a chaplain because he suffered from being caught in a divine power barrier while going to the temple.
It was a good thing another family hadn’t chosen Elaine, or he would have had to deal with Sergey’s immense anger and annoyance.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think about the temple barrier at all.…”
“Come to think of it, you’re really lucky. Even for a demon.”
“I haven’t felt so lucky since I met you, Sergey.”
“What?”
Sergey growled as if he was going to chew Hubert up, but then immediately feigned a blank expression when he heard a noise coming from the mansion.
Luckily, it was the head maid, not Emily or Elaine.
“Are you here?”
“Yeah. Is there anything you want to report?”
“Not much, except that Miss Elaine seems to be adjusting to the mansion quickly.”
“Are dinner preparations going well?”
“I’m sure sir Courbet will take care of that. Miss Emily was amazed every time she ate it, so I’m sure it will suit Miss Elaine’s taste as well.”
“Well, Elaine, if you give her just cream soup on white bread, she’ll eat it and cry tears of joy. Of course, that doesn’t mean you should serve her food like that.”
The maid nodded without much interest as if she had heard something obvious and opened the front door of the mansion.
“The master has come!”
“Master!”
At the maid’s shout, the servants passing by all saluted him.
And finally, Elaine’s gaze met Sergey’s as she was being guided around the mansion by Emily on the second floor.
“Ser—!Oh I mean, Are you here, master?”
“Why do you use honorifics again? Is that your hobby?”
Sergey took off his jacket and handed it to Hubert, grinning.
Elaine smiled in relief at the attitude that was no different from when they had met before.
Ignoring Hubert’s words to go straight to his room, Sergey approached Elaine on the second floor.
“You came this morning?”
“Yeah. By the way, the room is so big. Is it fair to give me such a nice room?”
“There’s no one to use it anyway, so why? Do you like the room, right?”
“Of course! I was a little taken aback because I’ve never stayed in such a nice room before.”
“From now on, you’ll get used to it.”
Sergey stroked Elaine’s hair.
Elaine looked up at him in surprise, but she did not reject Sergey’s hand, only blushing slightly and smiling vaguely.
In her excitement, Sergey stroked Elaine’s hair for much longer than the ‘little time’ normally allowed. Long enough that Elaine and everyone else around her looked at each other.
“Master.”
When Sergey refused to stop stroking Elaine’s hair, Hubert called out to Sergey.
Only then did Sergey come to his senses and barely managed to lower his hand and return to his usual appearance.
“Ahem! Oh, I’ll go to my room, change my clothes, and get some rest. I’ll see you later for dinner.”
“Okay! See you later. I’ll be preparing the evening prayer.”
“Evening prayer? Oh, yes.”
Sergey, who remembered belatedly that Elaine had come as a chaplain, managed to avoid asking further questions and mumbled the words.
‘I don’t want to hear anything like the prayers of the Laom religion.’
The prayers recited by people with strong faith were not very good for Sergey because they contained a small amount of divine power.
But he couldn’t skip the prayer if he didn’t want to arouse Elaine’s suspicions; he could only hope that she wasn’t deeply religious.
Sergey entered the room, signed a few documents Hubert handed him, and then transformed into a dragon.
[I don’t like all the clothes on humans, but the ones that are especially tight around the neck are the worst.]
“It’s a cravat.”
[Cravat, or whatever it is, why do humans make their lives so miserable?]
“I think that since they lack or have no powers like magic, they try to show the difference between themselves and others by creating rules and ranks, even with things like clothing.”
[Tsk tsk. They are so weak and vain. Anyway, I’m going to see Elaine now, so prepare dinner well.]
Rabes left everything to Hubert and immediately teleported to Elaine’s room.
Elaine wasn’t in the room yet, still exploring the second floor, but the room already smelled of her, and Rabes felt an inexplicable sense of security.
‘I didn’t like the temple dormitory room because it had the smell of other humans mixed in.’
The room, which smelled entirely of Elaine and was like her gentle embrace, reminded him of Lancer and made him feel like he had truly returned home.
‘There’s Elaine inside my home. Hmm.…this is pretty nice.’
Rabes rolled around on Elaine’s bed, enjoying the pleasure he had never felt before.
And after a while, Elaine came back into the room.
“Huh? Rabes!”
[Are you here?]
“When did you come?”
[Just now. By the way, here, isn’t it pretty good?]
“Yes. Sergey gave me a very nice room. At first, I didn’t know where to put my things because it was so big.”
Elaine sat next to Rabes and chuckled.
[You, your expression has improved.]
“My expression?”
[Yeah. What should I say, It’s like you’re smiling more relaxed]
It really was. Unlike before, when she would smile, her eyebrows would droop slightly, but now not a single crescent-shaped eyebrow was sagging.
There was not a single worry in Elaine’s gentle eyes and perfectly upward-turned lips, and her cheeks, which puffed out every time she smiled, only glowed adorably.
“I guess it’s because I feel at ease. Maybe it’s because I fulfilled a wish from my previous life.”
[Was it a wish to become a chaplain?]
“No. To leave the temple and live freely. That was my wish.”
Elaine’s answer left Rabes speechless for a moment.
Perhaps because Rabes only dealt with greedy people, Elaine’s wish felt so trivial and pitiful.
[Only that was your wish?]
“Yes. It was a wish that I could not fulfill until I died.”
Elaine chuckled softly, remembering her previous life, when she had been dragged to her death four days before she left the temple.
She didn’t think she’d ever been that greedy, but she was devastated that she couldn’t fulfill it.
But now everything was okay.
“I guess I was trying to live a life that was several times better like this.”
Rabes couldn’t answer rashly.
All the people Rabes met today had much more money and power than Elaine, but not a single one of them was satisfied with it.
He was a dragon much stronger than those humans, and Elaine was the human who had made him a contractor, so Elaine could be more greedy than anyone else in the world, but Elaine was happy as if all her wishes had been fulfilled just by getting away from the temple and Count Newt’s house.
* * *
