Chapter 177: Ares’ Daily Life
Fian froze, staring at her in disbelief. His expression was the very picture of betrayal.
"Th-that was Hilda’s doing..." Gara coughed awkwardly. "But since you managed to make ice cubes yourself, it means your Talent control has gotten sharper, right? That’s a good thing."
He gave Fian a wide smile, trying to lift his spirits. "You really are amazing, Fian." Gara handed him one of the cups from the tray, letting their fingers brush in the exchange.
Fian lowered his gaze, still sulking. Yet the brief warmth of Gara’s touch softened the sting of disappointment, if only a little.
His gaze drifted toward Gara, who was smiling at him with a knowing look. Warmth spread through his chest, pushing away the sadness he had just felt moments ago.
Wina smiled at their interaction, while Della sulked, jealous—she wanted Gara’s encouragement too.
From the side door, Ares stepped in, sensing the cozy atmosphere. He stayed quiet, choosing not to get involved with the people of this house, especially Gara.
...
The next morning, Ares woke up in the room he had been staying in for a week now. Even so, it still felt unfamiliar.
The room was better than his basement hideout, but it didn’t compare to the one he had back in dragon territory.
There were three beds inside, each pushed into a different corner of the room. The last corner held the door.
The windows were made of clear glass—the kind usually reserved for small, valuable items.
Even in dragon territory, famed for its riches, no one would waste glass on bedroom windows. Only ritual halls or the Dragon Lord’s banquet chamber had them.
But here, every window was glass.
For the first time, Ares doubted the wealth of the dragons. Perhaps dragons weren’t the richest race after all, just the most flamboyant in showing off their wealth.
Anyway, something else caught him off guard: he wasn’t alone in the room anymore. Today was his first time waking up with roommates.
He prided himself on discipline, always rising earlier than everyone else, even earlier than Wina, who woke at dawn to cook.
But when he stirred, the two young men sharing his room were also awake, quietly tidying up their own beds.
Since they didn’t look interested in small talk, Ares decided not to greet them.
He stepped outside, heading to the well to wash up. As a fire dragon, he wasn’t fond of water, but that didn’t mean he ignored cleanliness.
Apparently, his roommates thought the same. They, too, went to the well. Except they also filled buckets to place in front of Wina’s and Della’s rooms.
Ares froze, feeling awkward. As their servant here, that should have been his task. But he had forgotten, or rather, he hadn’t known.
Trying to make up for it, he carried a bucket toward Gara’s room instead.
"No need," Madha stopped him. "Gara’s a water-based Liner. He has his own water."
"Okay," Ares nodded, diverting the bucket toward a small room next to theirs, the one Wina had told him was the bath.
With that done, Ares went to the back of the house to add firewood. There, he spotted Fian already training, shaping ice in various forms.
Ares stood still, staring at the elf for quite a while. From massive spikes erupting from the ground to perfectly neat little cubes, Fian conjured ice in all sorts of shapes.
It made Ares wonder just what kind of Talent could create ice with such versatility.
Ares only shifted his attention when he heard the sound of footsteps from the side of the house.
A moment later, Madha appeared—bare-chested, running laps around the house. Hilda had told him that Madha served as a guard.
Training his stamina like that must have been part of his daily routine. Still, running shirtless in the cold air was quite a sight.
Even though Ares himself couldn’t feel the chill—despite wearing nothing more than a thin long-sleeved shirt—it still seemed surprising.
Once he was done with the firewood, Ares went back inside to check the light bulbs one by one.
When he entered, Wina was already awake, feeding one of the triplets in the living room.
"Ares, are you busy?" she asked.
He shook his head.
"Can you hold Aldwin for a while? Just keep giving him the milk. I already changed his diaper. He won’t cry with a new face around. I need to start cooking. Gara and the others need to eat quickly before they head out."
Ares wanted to refuse. He had never taken care of a baby before.
But then he remembered, in the dragon territory, his own servants never refused his requests. So with a cautious expression, he stepped toward Wina.
The middle-aged woman carefully guided him on how to hold the baby properly.
Awkwardly, Ares cradled the silver-haired infant as he sat down on the single couch. The armrest helped him balance the small body in his arms.
Wina handed him the bottle, and Ares carefully fed Aldwin. Thankfully, the child immediately latched on and drank eagerly.
"Once Della comes out of her room, you can hand Aldwin over to her," Wina instructed.
Ares nodded.
His gaze lingered on the eldest triplet. The baby’s eyes were crimson red—strange. But his younger siblings were even stranger.
One of them was unmistakably devil-blooded, while the other carried a druid’s traits. Yet the three of them were triplets, which meant their parentage was half-blood.
At first, Ares assumed their mother must have been the half-blood—a devil-druid—rather than Gara.
But once he learned the milk the triplets drank was Gara’s own breast milk, the truth dawned on him: Gara was the half-blood, human-druid.
And Gara had given birth to them. Complicated. And bizarre.
E ven the baby bottle in his hand was odd. He had never taken care of an infant before, but he had seen a few of his relatives’ babies, and he had never seen a baby milk bottle like this one.
In dragon territory, if a royal woman couldn’t always nurse her child, they would find a wet nurse to replace her. The wet nurse would feed the child in place of its real mother.
This house, however, was full of strange things.
...