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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: The Evil Dragon Answers
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Armifera couldn't shut her mouth upon learning that the gift she'd sent was truly the egg of the evil dragon.
"Wow...."
And then she marveled.
"As expected of me! I'm a woman who can pull off anything!"
At Armifera's nonchalant quip, Kaleo finally lost his temper and shot up from his seat.
"You wild rose of a girl!"
Then, just like Muniel had done, he smacked his little sister's rock-solid back.
"What kind of back is this, packed tight with muscle!"
"Ow, big bro!"
"I'm hitting you so it hurts! You absolute menace!"
"Earlier you said I was like a single rose in a flower garden, sipping just a drop of dew!"
"Now you're a wild rose that'd vine out and thrive even if tossed anywhere! You tenacious weed!"
Still, a rose was a rose.
Seletrina took a step back and watched the spectacle with delight, as if it were none of her business.
But she couldn't let them keep bickering forever.
"So, anyway."
The Dayamor siblings, who had been squabbling like kids forgetting their age, stopped dead and turned as soon as Seletrina spoke up.
"We need to catch that evil dragon first, right?"
How exactly do we catch it?
"For starters, why is the evil dragon still hanging around here?"
Armifera let go of the collar she'd been gripping tight on Kaleo. She idly rotated her wrist.
"Mom and Dad are here. So it's weird for an evil dragon to stick around a place brimming with holy energy, as sacred as a temple."
Historical records described evil dragons—now treated as mere legends—as creatures that exuded malevolent auras befitting their "evil" name.
They were said to be powerless against holy power, especially the intense sacred force of someone like a saintess.
The Dayamor estate was currently classified as a "sanctuary."
A saintess and holy knight had built a family here, bearing children infused with sacred power.
Not only did Armifera possess it, but Kaleo had a touch of it too.
It made no sense for an evil dragon to keep hiding in this mansion, which might be even holier than a temple.
It didn't match the habits recorded in history.
'Could the records be wrong?'
As she pondered that possibility, Kaleo spoke up.
"Mom said she found traces of it in the warehouse not long ago. One of those commemorative coins with her face on it was on the floor."
Armifera's brows furrowed.
After a moment's thought, she abruptly threw open the study window.
"What are you doing?"
"Hm, just a little experiment?"
Armifera stretched her hand out the window as she replied.
"Who knows? Maybe it'll come if I call."
"It's not a dog...."
Kaleo couldn't hold back a hollow chuckle.
'If it actually shows up when called, I'll hand the marquess title over tofera....'
"Ater! You there? If you are, come on out?"
Rustle.
The branches of a tree reaching up to the study swayed, and something pitch-black emerged from the thick leaves.
A round gem darker than jet blinked rapidly.
Wings on its back flapped like it was stretching.
A body a bit larger than a full-grown cat.
Short but sturdy four legs.
A tail as thick as a child's leg.
"You called?"
It was the evil dragon Ater.
Kaleo mentally praised himself for not finishing that thought aloud about handing over the marquess title tofera.
"...Hm?"
Arep, who had been napping, slowly sat up.
'What was that noise...?'
Still not fully awake, Arep let out a big yawn and smacked his lips.
He'd been roused by distant chaotic screams, but his mind was still half in dreamland.
But he snapped alert soon enough and glanced to the side.
Thankfully, Nibelria was sleeping soundly.
Whatever she was dreaming about had her lips curved in a soft, blissful smile.
Arep watched her for a good while, then carefully tucked the blanket she'd kicked off back around her and straightened her crooked pillow.
Then he quietly slipped out of bed.
Stepping outside, the commotion from before rang out even louder.
His gaze naturally lifted upward.
Arep crept up the stairs on tiptoe, muffling his footsteps.
The noise was coming from Kaleo's study—the place where he'd gotten the brooch and reward for rescuing Azel.
The door was slightly ajar.
'Should I peek?'
He felt a bit scared.
He'd heard peeking on people was bad.
'...Then I'll just say I came by!'
No peeking—just look boldly!
Steel ing his resolve, Arep knocked on the study door.
The noisy room inside fell deathly silent.
Arep flinched in surprise but mustered his courage and spoke up.
"It's Arep."
The door opened, revealing Kaleo.
"Thought you were napping. Did we wake you?"
Thankfully, Kaleo met Arep's eyes with a kind smile.
He gently combed through Arep's bedhead, which looked like a bird's nest.
Arep shook his head, hyper-aware of the gentle touch.
"N-no, I just woke up. But there was noise, so...."
"Sorry. It was nothing much, but we startled you...."
Thwack!
"Nothing much? How dare you speak such nonsense in my presence!"
Thwack! Thwack!
Like a bristling cat thumping the floor with its puffed tail, the evil dragon Ater thrashed the ground with its own tail.
"......"
Arep froze at the bizarre creature he'd never seen before.
Kaleo patted the startled boy's back with a deep sigh.
"We just caught the evil dragon Ater."
"Th-the evil dragon?"
No way, that evil dragon?
Arep's red eyes wavered.
The Magic Tower Lord's angry face flashed in his mind.
The lord always wore a grumpy expression that made him seem scary at first glance, but he was a good man who showered kids with candy and chocolate.
Yet even he had quietly seethed at the mention of the evil dragon.
"......"
Arep's lips turned down as he grumbled.
"Evil dragons are bad...!"
The evil dragon Ater let out a shrill peep.
"I'm not bad!"
The cry was cute like a kitten's, but the voice from its mouth was thick and manly.
But Arep shook his head.
"The Magic Tower Lord got mad! So you're bad...!"
The dragon, about to retort, suddenly tilted its head.
Arep secretly found it cute but quickly remembered it was the Magic Tower Lord's enemy and steeled his hostility again.
"Magic Tower Lord? You mean Majia, by any chance?"
"What? You know him?"
Armifera slipped her hand between what seemed to be the dragon's armpits and hoisted it up.
The evil dragon, suddenly dangling like a dog, wagged its tail and peeped.
"Not in my current memories, but in those of the previous evil dragon."
Everyone naturally perked up at the dragon's words.
Armifera watched the dragon intently—it wasn't resisting her touch at all.
Right now, she was channeling her sacred power through her hands.
'It doesn't mind being touched by holy power.'
Nothing like the evil dragons in the records.
"Hm, right. I see...."
The dragon rummaged through its memories and found something.
"The previous evil dragon cast an immortality curse on some guy. That's the current Magic Tower Lord."
Majia's secret was revealed just like that.
Kaleo and Seletrina, beyond shock, seriously wondered if they were even allowed to know this.
Armifera asked.
"So, can you lift that curse?"
The evil dragon Ater snorted with a peep.
"Nothing is beyond me."
"Perfect. Tomorrow when the kids go to kindergarten, take it along and lift the curse. Grandpa will love that."
"Not my place to say, but is this something to wrap up so casually?"
The evil dragon Ater nestled more comfortably into Armifera's arms.
Its jet-black eyes stared piercingly at Arep.
Arep flinched at the eye contact but didn't look away.
"...This place is quite amusing."
With that enigmatic remark, the dragon yawned hugely, as if its mouth would split.
Then it closed its eyes and fell asleep.
Armifera gazed at the soundly sleeping dragon in her arms, then asked Kaleo.
"Bro, got a collar by any chance?"
"For people, or beasts?"
"Hand over both for now."
Arep, overhearing the adult Dayamor siblings, asked out of pure curiosity.
"Why do you have collars for people?"
The evil dragon Ater opened its eyes, wearing a beast collar.
"......"
In a chicken coop, no less.
"Man, this place is so backward, I can't stand it."
The furious dragon thumped the straw-covered floor with its puffed tail.
