I'll Stop Regressing and Raise a Baby Dragon - Chapter 32

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 32
***
After briefly reviewing the previous meeting,
I did a quick mental check for anything I might have missed or gotten wrong.
Truth was, there wasn’t much to slip up on.
My story had been consistent from start to finish.
‘I simply mentioned that something seemed off about Cael, and the Duke handled everything else! Thanks to him, I felt reassured.’
That was all.
Naturally, there had been questions—specifically, how I’d come to know what I knew.
I’d answered in detail, but I’d credited everything to Luke.
There was no need to hand him the unvarnished truth.
‘And I don’t think I should mention the Black Magic yet.’
Edward was definitely under some kind of curse.
The problem was, no one knew how to lift it.
Even Luke, whom I’d trusted without question, said he’d never encountered anything like it.
Which meant whether the Black Magic could even be undone was still an open question.
Of course, Luke was among the world’s finest minds,
and he showed a passion he wouldn’t hesitate to pour into solving his son’s problem.
I didn’t doubt for a moment that he’d find a way to break it.
Still, when the time came to tell Edward, it would be better if everything was certain.
‘It isn’t possible yet, but since the Duke exists, it will be undone someday!’
…would ring hollow compared to:
‘In truth, my young master has been cursed by Black Magic, and I can lift it right now!’
…which would be infinitely better.
“So…. In the end, you saw right through me.”
While I was still gathering my thoughts, Edward spoke with a rueful sigh.
He’d been sitting on the bed the whole time, quietly examining the bruises on his skin and listening.
“I wasn’t entirely caught off guard. Father knows everything about me, after all.”
“The Duke doesn’t know everything about you, though.”
“No. Perhaps…. He might even know what shameless thing I did.”
Edward’s voice trembled as he spoke.
He swallowed hard, his brow creasing.
He seemed to be in pain.
Over the choice he’d made in the past.
“Eria.”
“Yes?”
But nothing came.
Despite calling my name with such solemn weight,
Edward couldn’t manage a single word.
He only gazed out the window at the night sky—at the moon, the stars, the drifting clouds.
So rather than wait, I decided to answer for him.
“It’s all right.”
“…What?”
“I’m all right.”
Some things don’t need to be spoken to be understood.
Restless hands clasped tightly together.
The flush rising in his cheeks.
The furrow between his brows.
The fidgeting of his feet.
These small signals Edward was sending reached me, and my heart stirred gently in response.
‘Thank goodness.’
That I possessed a talent for reading hearts more keenly than most.
I’d always thought of it as a curse, but perhaps it wasn’t entirely one.
“…What do you mean, it’s all right?”
“I’m not upset or angry at what you did—”
“You should be angry! I sold you out! To that damned Research Facility!”
Edward’s voice cracked as he shouted, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
The person most wronged was saying it was fine, yet he grew only more furious, gripping his head in his hands.
“Eria, I’ve noticed it before, but you…. You don’t take care of yourself at all.”
“Is it taking care of myself to get angry over something pointless?”
“Meaningless, you say…….”
My words clearly flustered him; Edward’s brow twitched.
“I betrayed you. I deceived our house. Isn’t it only natural that you’d be angry? Isn’t it?”
Edward’s breathing grew ragged.
“But the fact that someone like me is supposed to be Croiman’s heir. It’s unbearably shameful.”
I have no right. I’m too ashamed.
He repeated such words to himself, turning his head away.
In that final glance, moonlight caught the reddened corners of his eyes.
A clear, bright light—as though directing the next action I should take.
Mesmerized, I rose from my seat and approached him.
“Young Master.”
“…….”
“Brother.”
His shoulders, which had been still, trembled at the word.
“I’m actually a far worse person than you think.”
“……What do you—”
“I abandoned the other children who were undergoing experiments with me.”
“……What?”
“I chose to save only myself because the odds were best that way.”
Edward fell silent.
I placed my hand over his, which trembled slightly.
“Sometimes I even dream about it. Why I didn’t take them with me.”
Since before memory could reach, my emotions had grown dull and faded, and yet.
I laid bare the secret dreams I’d harbored in solitude—the very things that let me feel what it meant to be human.
“By the standard you’ve used to judge yourself, I’m bound to be the worse person.”
“…….”
“That’s why I want to find that Research Facility and save those children. I will save them.”
Slowly, his gaze returned to me.
I reached out and gently placed my fingers against the corners of his eyes.
I wanted to ease the weight of remorse and self-recrimination he carried.
The way I had with Theodore.
“That’s how I’ll make Atonement.”
“……Atonement.”
Edward’s lips pressed together tightly, as though suppressing something.
He swallowed his anguish, letting it settle within him.
I hoped I’d lifted even a fraction of the burden his heart carried.
“Brother Edward.”
“……Yes.”
“How do you want to apologize?”
I wanted to show him a direction.
A way that didn’t involve being trapped in a sordid past.
It had been the most effective method for me, after all.
So I believed it would work for Edward too, given his similar nature.
But then.
“……Am I crying?”
I hadn’t expected this outcome.
“No.”
Edward denied it harshly, his voice thick and nasal.
He knocked my fingers away from his eyes.
“You’re seeing things wrong.”
Ah, I see.
Then what is this moisture on my hand…….
Sweat, perhaps?
Besides, he was sitting directly in the path of moonlight streaming through the window.
‘Well, if he doesn’t want it, I’ll just pretend not to notice.’
I shifted my gaze to the window and changed the subject.
“……The moon is beautiful tonight. Don’t you think?”
“No, ahem, I suppose so.”
Edward seemed to have wanted to say “I can’t see it,” but for a moment his mind wasn’t following.
For someone so quick to read a room, he couldn’t parse the context through his own confusion.
“……Eria.”
Edward, who had wiped his nose when I wasn’t looking, called me in a strained voice.
“Give me time to think.”
“Think about what?”
“How to make atonement to you, to Father, and to our house.”
“That’s quite a long list.”
“I’ve done enough wrong to warrant it, haven’t I?”
He spoke with the same fresh tone as before, glancing sideways at me.
“……You’ll wait for me, won’t you?”
“You’ll have to repay me several times over. I’m someone who counts interest.”
“I will.”
Even though I’d said it lightly, the answer came back completely earnest.
I hadn’t expected him to say something like that.
The mood had turned awkward somehow.
‘Is there anything to change the subject to…… Oh!’
“Now that I think about it, what happened to Luke and Cael?”
I’d only heard about it, never seen Luke actually take action himself.
It was a shame I hadn’t witnessed it directly.
While I hid those feelings carefully, Edward spoke casually.
“What do you mean what happened—he’s getting beaten.”
Cael must be taking a pounding just as you said, Eria.
***
“Gasp—gasp—ugh…… damn it—!”
His breath had risen all the way to his throat.
Cael was fleeing more desperately than at any other point in his entire life.
Rage welled up inside him.
Wasn’t managing the eldest son’s affairs of Croiman supposed to be the entirety of his duties?
‘How did those fools who looked down on fieldwork let the Research Facility fall into such a state!’
Of all things, the two most important Experimental Subjects had fled to Croiman.
He’d shouldered only the blame due to pressure from above, and now faced ruin.
Bang—!!
A tremendous blast erupted where he had been standing moments before.
And a massive crater opened up, burning fiercely.
It was the largest Firehole he’d ever seen in his life.
Had he run even slightly slower, he would have vanished from this world.
Cael couldn’t pinpoint exactly why his heart was racing so wildly.
Was it because his body was exhausted from running?
Or was it the terror that had soaked through his trousers?
“Look at the little rat scurry.”
Luke, suspended in mid-air above him, spoke casually.
Luke merely watched, murmuring softly to himself.
Watching Cael slowly, carefully, suffering longer as he withered and died.
That was how he would appease his own rage.
“Ahhh!”
Fear drained the strength from his legs, and Cael stumbled, crashing hard to the ground.
“Gasp—huff—sob—”
Tears streamed down his face.
Shame and dignity—none of it mattered to him anymore.
His comrades had long since died in every conceivable way.
‘If I had the power of the Black Magic developed at the Research Facility, wouldn’t I be able to stand against Luke?’
Even the pathetic fantasy he’d harbored until meeting him had now faded.
All that remained was instinct.
At this point, perhaps it would be better to end it by his own hand.
‘Yes, truly……. That’s what I should do.’
Cael rummaged through his pocket and managed to pull out the Snake-Marked Pen.
He traced the edge from twelve o’clock to nine o’clock, then from six to three.
The moment he pressed the pen to drive the needle into his own throat—
“What kind of nonsense is this now?”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————