How The Sub-Male Lead’s Stepmother Teaches Love Chapter 174

– I love you, my daughter. Please see, hear, and enjoy many things in this world.

 

Blink.

 

When she opened her eyes, Rake realized that she was very different from before.

 

No, she noticed.

 

It wasn’t just the Dragon Heart that Rake absorbed during her deep sleep for several days.

 

Within the Dragon Heart lay the deep knowledge like the sea and towering experiences like mountains left behind by her mother. The history that began from a distant past, is now only in fragments, and the laws of this world.

 

 

Rake had possessed the intelligence to understand human speech, but lacking education, she merely pecked at the grains and fruits given to her like a bird. But now, she was different.

 

‘I am a dragon. A supreme being once called a god in ancient times.’

 

‘The vast Hiyela mountain range is entirely my domain. My mother passed it down to me.’

 

‘There is nothing greater than me in this world.’

 

Rake was thrilled. Or should she say excited?

 

Even though she had just hatched from the egg and taken the form of a bird, Rake had no awareness that this was not her true form.

 

The reflection in glass or ice showed a tiny bird, and since others treated her that way, she believed she was just a bird.

 

“Rake, why are you here…? Get out of the greenhouse, you might be in danger if you stay here.”

 

“Rake, you fought with Ruby again, didn’t you? Stop that. What if you get eaten?”

 

“Gotcha! Rake, if you’re this slow, what will you do if something tries to catch you? You should at least be good at hiding, but look at how chubby you’ve gotten!”

 

 

Raenel and Noah always told her to be careful, so she thought she was truly weak.

 

That’s why, the moment she saw Felix, she immediately hid inside Raenel’s pocket.

 

Her instincts screamed. That man was dangerous.

 

‘But not anymore.’

 

‘I am not a little bird.’

 

‘I am a powerful dragon!’

 

Before obtaining the Dragon Heart, she hadn’t known a thing about magic.

 

But now, she had overflowing magic from the Dragon Heart and the knowledge her mother left behind.

 

‘With a single flap of my wings, I could easily destroy this tower!’

 

Rake wanted to boast about that.

 

She wanted everyone to know that she was not a weak bird.

 

Raenel, who had given her a name.

 

Noah, with whom she had spent so much time. And the many people who shared delicious snacks with her when they saw her.

 

There were many she wanted to show off her strength to, but the first person she went to was Felix.

 

The reason was simple.

 

He was the first being to ever make her afraid.

 

– There you are, human!

 

For Rake, who had absorbed the Dragon Heart, teleporting freely inside a tower filled with dozens of spells was effortless.

 

Finding Felix among the hundreds of humans in the tower was just as easy.

 

Rake, who appeared on the balcony connected to the outside, let out a cheerful beeping sound as she looked at Felix, who was sitting on the railing.

 

– Now that I see you up close, you are truly insignificant, human. I could kill you with just a flap of my wings!

 

Not just her wings. She was confident she could end him with a mere breath through her beak.

 

But since she was still in the form of a tiny bird…

 

Just in case Felix didn’t believe her, Rake decided to return to her true form.

 

She wanted to proudly show off her massive body and was about to fly off the balcony when—

 

“Yeah, I guess so.”

 

– Huh?

 

“If you are determined to kill me as you say, I will die without even being able to fight back. My magic will not only not be able to scratch you, it will not even be able to stop your magic.”

 

– Haha, you know well! That’s right, no magic in this world can stop me. Before it even reached me, it would dissipate and be absorbed by my power! Want to test it out?

 

“No thanks.”

 

– Why? Are you scared you’ll lose to me?

 

“Yeah.”

 

– Hahaha! Coward, coward!

 

Rake flapped her wings in excitement. She felt even better because she still had a vivid memory of hiding in Raenel’s pocket to avoid the man in front of her.

 

– Now, no one can make me afraid! I am a dragon, a mighty dragon! Now others will be the ones running from me!

 

Raenel and Noah won’t be able to tell her she’s weak, in danger, or should run away anymore.

 

Rake was so thrilled that she circled the air in excitement.

 

Then, she belatedly noticed Felix, staring off into the distance, completely indifferent to her.

 

– Why aren’t you running away or hiding? I’m so powerful, and I’m right in front of you!

 

“You don’t really look like you’re going to harm me.”

 

His indifferent voice and expressionless face annoyed her.

 

So Rake whined with her chest feathers puffed out.

 

– That’s not true! I could harm you. I could kill you right now!

 

But Felix didn’t even blink an eye.

 

“Whether it’s true or not, it’s best to stop. There’s Marquis Ajas in this tower.”

 

– Marquis Ajas? Why does that matter?

 

Rake knew that Marquis Ajas meant Leonhard, and she remembered his face clearly, even though she had only seen him a few times.

 

Since he barely had any magic, she never considered him a threat.

 

On the contrary, she felt strangely familiar with him, as if she had known him for a long time.

 

“He has Raynbert.”

 

‘What?’

 

“A sword made from your kin’s fangs, capable of piercing a Dragon’s Heart.”

 

– What? Why does Leonhard have that?

 

“It must have been a gift from the dragon. It is a well-known fact to everyone that the first Ajas was a dragon’s contractor.”

 

– No, my mother…

 

Her mother had given the sword to the first Sesto as a token of their contract, and he had gifted it to his wife.

 

Rake screamed as the facts flashed through her mind.

 

– T-then, does that mean Leonhard can kill me?

 

“It’s possible.”

 

– That’s ridiculous! I’m a dragon, the greatest being! I can’t be killed so easily by a human… Wait! I just have to take the sword!

 

“That sword is an heirloom of Ajas. It won’t be easy to steal.”

 

– Then I’ll just kill him and take it! A mere human, I can easily—

 

“You can kill him, Marquis Ajas?”

 

Felix’s clear, jewel-like eyes locked onto her.

 

Those emotionless eyes were neither reprimanding nor condemning Rake.

 

Yet Rake instinctively clamped her beak shut. She didn’t understand why she suddenly felt so uneasy.

 

“Whether you mean it or not, it would be best not to say such things. The Marquise would be sad.”

 

– Marquise? Raenel?

 

“Yes. Not only the Marquise, but Noah too will be sad.”

 

“They wouldn’t forgive you for harming their family. They would seek revenge, and you would end up killing them too. You would no longer be able to stay at Ajas Castle.”

 

Felix spewed out his terrifying words without even blinking.

 

“The disaster that occurred at Castle Ajas will soon spread throughout the Empire. The Emperor would see you as a threat and send an extermination force after you. If you wipe them out, another will come. This will continue until the empire falls”

 

– Then I’ll just destroy the empire!

 

“Then you’ll be alone.”

 

Felix’s quiet voice countered her outburst.

 

His amber eyes, almost devoid of emotion, watched her.

 

“No, are you already alone?”

 

– I’m not alone!

 

“Well… I don’t know how you were just born now, but dragons went extinct a long time ago. You’re the only dragon in this world.”

 

– Well, that’s true, but…

 

‘It was certain—there wasn’t a single dragon left in this world. My mother, the one who gave birth to me, left me with nothing but whispered words of love before she disappeared. Without even hugging me once.’

 

– Am I… alone?

 

‘Am I truly alone in this world?’

 

‘I was just born. I don’t even know how many thousands or tens of thousands of years I’ll have to live.’

 

Even though her mind understood how long that time would be, it still didn’t feel real.

 

After all, she hadn’t even been out of the egg for a year.

 

At that moment, some of the memories inherited through Hiyela flashed through Rake’s mind.

 

The memories of countless dragons enduring and enduring through that long period of time and eventually leaving the world in various ways.

 

Among them was Hiyela.

 

Her mother, who had grown tired of even breathing, gave birth to her and left the world.

 

‘Mother…. You said you loved me, so why did you leave me?’

 

Of course, Rake knew the reason.

 

That her mother had sacrificed herself for her. If not for her, she wouldn’t have been born safely.

 

But knowing that didn’t make her feel any less lonely.

 

– Why am I alone? Why don’t I have a family?

 

At that moment, loneliness hit her harder than the love left behind in a mere whisper.

 

For the first time in her life, she felt truly alone. And the realization that no others of her kind existed in the world made the feeling even stronger.

 

Rake could not hold it in anymore and burst into tears.

 

– M-Mother.…!

 

Felix looked down at Rake, who was crying and squeaking with her head buried in her fluffy wings.

 

Felix’s voice, when he finally spoke, was filled with incomprehension.

 

“Why did your mother give birth to you… if she knew she wouldn’t be able to take care of you?”

 

– Mother, Mother gave birth to me because she loved me. She told me so!

 

“How can you believe that? If she really loved you, she wouldn’t have left you.”

 

– She had no choice! She left to save me!

 

“And how does saving you prove her love? In the end, she still left you alone.”

 

Felix continued to speak. At some point, his words were no longer directed at Rake.

 

“Maybe it was a punishment. A baby abandoned in a world with no one to care for it… left to suffer and die.”

 

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