How About a Refill? ~The Elegant Tea Party of the Grand Witches~ - Chapter 38

The Holy Dragon and the Evil Dragon

“So, does this mean they’re trying to gather new Grand Witches and want to replace us with them?”

“Is that even possible?”

The three witches shook their heads at Emilio’s question.

“That’s impossible. The Holy Dragon doesn’t exist anymore.”

“Did the Holy Dragon actually exist before?”

“It existed 800 years ago.”

“Yeah. The official records have greatly exaggerated the history in some places, and abridged it in others. It would take a long time to tell everything in detail, but do you want to hear?”

As the witches said, the official compilation of the kingdom’s history was based on facts, but over the years, it had been distorted as people rewrote it and turned it more dramatic, or made it shorter.  

Emilio and Leonardo nodded in assent.

　―――The True Story―――

Long ago, when the gods still walked the earth, there lived two twin dragons with silver scales.

The two twin dragons were good friends with each other and would always play together. 

One day, the dragons played a prank on one of the gods. At that time, the older brother was found by the god, but he hid his younger brother away.

As divine punishment for his prank, the god cursed the older one to take the form of a human, and dropped him off in the middle of a forest near a human civilization.

Looking at that, the younger one went to the god to beg for his forgiveness but he turned a blind eye to his pleas.

The older dragon collapsed in the forest. A young woman happened along and saw him, and she carried him away to her home.

His whole body was full of wounds; he must have been hurt when the god was carrying him to the forest.

The young woman had slight healing powers so, every day,  she would heal his wounds little by little.

The dragon fell in love with the beautiful woman and her devoted healing. He would whisper his love to her every day, and soon the two married. 

They gave birth to a child. The child possessed the same features as the human form of the dragon: a beautiful child with silver hair and golden eyes.

Meanwhile, the younger dragon kept begging the god to return his brother back to a dragon. He desperately went to plead with him every single day. Finally, the god was worn down and he agreed to turn the older brother back into a dragon, and sent the younger one back home.

The younger dragon celebrated his brother’s return. But the older dragon, who had been pulled apart from beloved wife and child, could do nothing but grieve.

He would say, “Why did you not just leave me alone!”

The younger dragon was hurt at his changed brother’s words.

“We were such good friends. We were always together since being born, no, even before we were born we were together. Why has he changed!” The young dragon thought. It wasn’t long before he started hating the humans who had brought this change to his brother.

His heart full of hatred became connected to an enormous magical power, and, day by day, he started changing.

His silver body became black, and his body started giving out toxic gas.

Soon the toxic miasma from his body enveloped the whole world. The gods decided to stop it and kill the dragon.

However, lamenting that his brother’s change was his own fault, the older dragon took him to the ends of the world and sealed him there. As the protector of the seal, he stayed there with him.

“I will never leave you again.” He promised.

As time passed, the gods left the earth and ascended to heaven. Mankind and animals spread across the land and there was peace for a long time.

However, it was not to last forever. The older dragon who had been expending all his energy to keep his brother sealed, felt his life flicker before him. 

And with that, the seal broke away.

The old dragon called on three people to seal his brother once again. These people held incredible power. They were the King’s sister, Beatrice, the woman from another world, Valeria, and the woman possessing the blood of two races, Eleonora.

The dragon used his own blood to bestow that power to the three women. He used the last of his power to turn himself into a magic stone. The women turned the stone into three wands, and used it to once again seal away the dragon that had now turned into an evil dragon.

　―――――――――――

“This is the wand we made during that time.”

The three placed their wands on top of the table. Each wand was made of a silver material and decorated with various colorful stones.

“So these wands are made from the body of the Holy Dragon.”

“That’s right. We can do magic even if we didn’t have the wands, but it’s more stable with the wand. Probably because the Holy Dragon is sustaining it.”

They smiled and put the wands back in their robes.

“Was the child born between the dragon and the young woman perhaps an ancestor of the Feline household? Silver hair and golden eyes…”

The witches nodded at Leonardo’s question.

“That’s likely to be true. They are rightfully the descendants of the Holy Dragon. That’s why they can’t accept us for turning the dragon’s husk into wands, and for taking his blood into our own bodies.”

“Is it because of the Holy Dragon’s protection, or blessing, that your bodies do not age?”

The three laughed self-deprecatingly at Emilio’s question.

“Do you think it’s the Holy Dragon’s ‘blessing’? This is a ‘curse’. Immortality. It’s a cruel fate. Friends, people we love, they all eventually get old and die. While we always stay young. If it’s not a ‘curse’ then what is it?”

A gloomy feeling settled over the room.

Clap! Beatrice brought her hands together and gave a bright smile.

“Okaay. Let’s not talk about such dark things! So, looking back, the organisation wants to establish new witches, and it’s possible Alessia is one of their targets. Well, we can’t overlook that they may target other young ladies too.”

“Well, from the recent kidnapping, it looks like they were set on Alessia from the beginning. It’s better to be careful.”

As their conversation came to a close, Robin suddenly opened the door to the salon and ran to Valeria’s side.

“Sister Ria! I’m hungry!”

“Hey! You have to knock before you open the door! I told you about this before too!”

Everyone looked fondly at Valeria who seemed to be getting accustomed to looking after children. …except for one person.

“So sly! Ria, you’re so sly! I also want Robin to rush over to me like that! Come, Robin, I have some sweets! Come sit here next to me!”

The air around Beatrice was heavy as she had promptly given up on all her elegance as a Grand Witch.