I'm Not Your Husband, You Evil Dragon!

Yuuta remained beneath the tree, silently watching Elena play with the other children. Her cheerful laughter occasionally reached him, and despite everything weighing on his mind, seeing his daughter running around without a single worry brought a faint smile to his face.

The peaceful moment didn’t last long.

Four women soon entered the yard together, each of them the mother of one of the children playing with Elena. At first, Yuuta paid them little attention, but his expression gradually changed when he noticed that none of them greeted one another or stopped to talk. They walked directly toward their children and, almost at the same time, began pulling them away from Elena.

"Mom, wait! I still want to play!" one of the children complained, twisting around to look back at Elena.

"We’re going home now," his mother replied firmly as she tightened her grip on his hand. "You can’t play here anymore."

The other mothers did the same. Within moments, the noisy little group that had surrounded Elena disappeared, leaving her standing alone in the middle of the yard. Elena blinked several times and looked from one child to another, clearly unable to understand why their game had suddenly ended.

"Huh?"

She hurried a few small steps after them.

"What happened, Human Aunties? Did Elena do something wrong?"

Her innocent question made Yuuta’s smile disappear.

The women stopped and glanced toward Elena. They weren’t openly hostile, nor did any of them shout at her, but Yuuta immediately recognized the judgment hidden within their expressions. He had seen those same eyes countless times during his own childhood, usually moments before someone said something that stayed with him much longer than they ever realized.

One of the women opened her mouth.

"Don’t."

Yuuta’s voice immediately changed the atmosphere.

He had already risen from beneath the tree. Yuuta walked across the yard and stopped beside Elena, placing himself slightly between his daughter and the women. His crimson eyes were unusually cold as he looked directly at them.

"Whatever you’re about to say, don’t say a word to her."

A faint trace of aura unconsciously leaked from Yuuta’s body. It wasn’t enough to hurt anyone, but after everything he had experienced during his training, even that small amount carried enough pressure to make the women instinctively step backward.

Yuuta didn’t care what they thought about him. He had spent most of his life hearing whispers about his red eyes, his strange appearance, and the misfortune people believed followed him. But Elena was different. She was still a child who barely understood the human world, and Yuuta knew better than anyone how a few careless words from an adult could remain buried inside a child’s heart for years.

He gently took Elena’s little hand.

"Come on, Princess. Let’s go over there."

Elena followed him without resistance, although she continued glancing backward in confusion. After several steps, she looked up at Yuuta and noticed the seriousness still lingering across his face.

"Papa?"

Yuuta looked down.

"Yes, Princess?"

"Why is Papa angry?"

The question immediately softened him. Yuuta took a slow breath and forced the frustration from his expression before giving her hand a gentle squeeze.

"I’m not angry. I just remembered something important." Yuuta pointed toward a patch of flowers on the other side of the yard and deliberately widened his eyes. "I think I saw some butterflies over there."

Elena’s entire expression brightened.

"Butterflies?!"

"Yeah. But if we’re too slow, they’ll probably fly away."

"Papa, hurry!"

Elena immediately began pulling him toward the flowers, causing Yuuta to laugh softly as he allowed himself to be dragged along.

Behind them, however, one of the children was still struggling against his mother’s hand.

"But Mama, why? I want to play with her."

His mother quickened her steps.

"You can’t play with those people."

The child looked up at her in confusion.

"Why?"

The woman hesitated before glancing over her shoulder. Her eyes briefly met Yuuta’s crimson gaze before quickly shifting toward Elena’s matching red eyes.

Her expression tightened.

"Because they’re..."

She lowered her voice, believing the distance was enough.

"...devils."

Yuuta’s footsteps stopped.

Only for a second.

Elena continued pulling his hand excitedly, completely unaware of what had just been said.

"Papa, come! The butterflies will leave!"

Yuuta looked down at her bright smile before slowly forcing one of his own.

"Yeah, yeah. I’m coming."

He continued walking beside her without looking back.

But the word followed him.

Devil.

The word followed Yuuta even after the women had disappeared into the apartment building. He had heard it countless times before, enough that he should have become numb to it by now, yet this time it carried a completely different weight.

Because it hadn’t been directed only at him.

Yuuta lowered his gaze toward Elena as she wandered happily between the flowers, carefully searching for the butterflies he had promised her. She looked so much like Erza that sometimes it was almost frightening. The same delicate features, the tiny horns peeking through her hair, and those little dragon wings folded innocently against her back made her look like a miniature version of her mother.

She was beautiful.

She was perfect.

Yet Yuuta’s expression slowly changed when his eyes settled upon the one thing Elena hadn’t inherited from Erza.

Her crimson-red eyes.

His eyes.

Yuuta’s throat tightened as something cold settled inside his chest. Of all the things his daughter could have inherited from him, why did it have to be the one feature that had made his own childhood miserable?

Before Yuuta could stop it, an old memory dragged him backward.

For a moment, the peaceful apartment yard disappeared, and Yuuta was no longer a grown man standing beside his daughter. He was a little boy again, alone in the courtyard of the orphanage while children surrounded him from every direction.

Their laughter came first.

"Look! The monster is here! Run!"

Little Yuuta desperately chased after them, his tiny hands reaching forward as the children scattered.

"No, wait! I’m not a monster! I’m Yuuta! I just want to play with you!"

The children only laughed harder. One boy stepped forward with a disgusted expression, deliberately blocking Yuuta whenever he tried to approach the others.

"No way we’re letting you play with us. Go away, Satan!"

"Yeah! Go away, Satan!"

Yuuta remembered how much that name had hurt. He hadn’t even properly understood what Satan was back then. He only understood that whenever the other children called him that, they looked at him as though his very existence was something disgusting.

"I’m not Satan!" little Yuuta screamed, desperately pointing toward himself. "I’m Yuuta Konuari!"

The boy merely sneered before pointing directly toward Yuuta’s left eye.

"No, you’re Satan. You have the Devil’s Eye."

Little Yuuta immediately covered his crimson eye with one hand. Tears gathered along his eyelashes as he shook his head repeatedly, desperately clinging to something Sister Mary had once told him.

"No... Sister Mary said God loves red eyes. That’s why He gave me one!"

For a moment, Yuuta had genuinely believed that would convince them.

Instead, the children laughed.

"Satan lies! He tricks people just like he tricked Adam and Eve!"

One child raised his hand dramatically toward Yuuta.

"Begone in the name of Jesus!"

The others immediately copied him.

"Begone!"

"Begone, Satan!"

Little Yuuta stumbled backward as tears finally began falling. He looked around desperately, searching for somewhere to escape, but there was nowhere for him to go.

"Where would I go...?" His tiny voice cracked as he wiped his face. "I don’t have anywhere else to go."

Nobody cared.

"Go back to Hell!"

Almost as though the heavens themselves had heard him, rain suddenly began pouring across the orphanage courtyard. Within moments, Yuuta’s clothes were soaked as he stood there crying beneath the storm.

"Sister Mary!"

He screamed for the only adult he believed would protect him.

"Sister Mary!"

The children hurried toward the building, but the courtyard had already become muddy. Several of them slipped and crashed onto the wet ground, immediately beginning to cry.

When the other sisters rushed outside, frightened voices erupted all at once.

"The monster did it!"

"He cursed us!"

"The monster made us fall!"

Little Yuuta’s face turned pale.

"No! Yuuta didn’t!"

He desperately shook his head while pointing toward the ground.

"It was the rain! Look! There’s mud! Yuuta didn’t do anything!"

But the sisters simply stared at him.

Those expressions remained clearer in Yuuta’s memory than any punishment could have been. Nobody needed to strike him or scream at him because their silence already told him everything.

They believed the other children.

Little Yuuta lowered his head as rainwater mixed with the tears running down his cheeks.

"I’m not a monster..."

His voice had become almost inaudible.

"I’m Yuuta Konuari."

Nobody listened.

That night, Yuuta had locked himself inside his room and buried his face between his arms. He cried until his throat hurt, wondering what exactly was wrong with him and why God had given him an eye that made everyone afraid of him.

Alone.

Just as he had always been.

The memory gradually faded, and the peaceful apartment yard returned around him.

Yuuta found himself staring at Elena again.

His daughter was crouching beside the flowers, completely unaware of what her father was remembering. Her crimson eyes sparkled with excitement as she carefully moved aside a leaf, still determined to find the butterflies Yuuta had promised were hiding somewhere nearby.

Yuuta’s fists slowly clenched.

No.

He wouldn’t allow it.

The world could hate him as much as it wanted. People could call him cursed, monster, Satan, devil, or anything else they could think of. He had already survived those words once.

But Elena wouldn’t have to survive them alone.

You will never go through what I did.

Yuuta’s eyes began burning.

Even if everyone turns against you... even if they call you a monster because of your horns, your wings, or those eyes you inherited from me... I’ll be there.

His vision gradually blurred.

You won’t have to hide inside a room and cry alone.

Yuuta quickly wiped his eyes, but another tear escaped before he could stop it.

Not while I’m your father.

His shoulders trembled as years of memories he thought he had buried suddenly became unbearably heavy. Yuuta lowered his head, trying to hide his face before Elena noticed, but then something small and warm slipped into his trembling hand.

Yuuta froze.

Tiny fingers gently wrapped around his.

He slowly looked down.

Elena was standing beside him.

She had apparently abandoned her search for butterflies after noticing something was wrong. Her crimson eyes stared innocently up at him, filled with the kind of concern only a child could show without knowing what question she was supposed to ask.

"Papa... are you crying?"

Yuuta froze when Elena’s tiny hand wrapped around his. Yuuta quickly wiped the tears from his cheeks and forced a smile.

"Who’s crying? I don’t see anyone crying."

Elena stared at him for a moment before giggling.

"Papa is a terrible liar."

"Am I?"

Yuuta immediately reached down and began tickling her sides. Elena squealed and twisted beneath his hands, her little wings fluttering wildly as she tried to escape.

"Papa! Stop! Elena is sorry!"

"Too late. This is your punishment for calling Papa a liar."

"But Papa is a liar!"

Her laughter finally pulled a genuine laugh from Yuuta as well. After a few seconds, he released her and gently fixed the hair he had messed up during their little battle.

"What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were chasing butterflies."

Elena’s expression immediately brightened.

"Elena found a butterfly!" she announced proudly.

"Elena wanted to show Papa, but Elena saw Papa crying, so Elena came here to make Papa happy with Elena’s cute face."

She deliberately puffed her cheeks and widened her eyes, presenting her supposedly irresistible cuteness directly in front of him. Yuuta stared at her ridiculous expression before another quiet laugh escaped him.

Her words were childish and simple, yet somehow they reached through everything weighing on Yuuta’s heart. He placed one hand gently upon her head and stroked her silver-white hair, feeling some of the heaviness inside him slowly ease.

"Good girl... my little dragon."

She giggled at the nickname, her tiny wings twitching proudly behind her. Yuuta watched her with a warmth he couldn’t quite describe. Elena didn’t understand why he had been crying, or perhaps she simply didn’t need to understand. To her, Papa was sad, so she had come to make Papa happy. It was that simple.

But as Yuuta continued stroking her silver-white hair, his gaze slowly drifted toward her eyes.

Those crimson eyes.

The same cursed color he had passed down to her.

Against Elena’s delicate features, the crimson looked almost unnaturally vivid, like drops of blood against fresh snow. Yuuta knew how people reacted to eyes like theirs. He had spent his entire childhood being mistaken for something demonic because of them, and after hearing that woman whisper devil only moments ago, the fear buried inside him had returned stronger than ever.

Worse, a painful thought had already taken root inside Yuuta’s mind. He had always feared that Elena might one day hate those crimson eyes, especially after realizing they had come from him. Perhaps she would eventually look into a mirror and wonder why she hadn’t inherited Erza’s beautiful violet eyes instead.

Yuuta swallowed before gently calling her name.

"Elena."

She immediately looked up.

"Yes, Papa?"

Yuuta hesitated. He believed he already knew the answer, yet for some reason, he needed to hear it from Elena herself.

"Do you... hate your eyes?"

Elena blinked.

For several seconds, she simply stared at him as though confused about why he would even ask such a strange question. Then her lips curved into a bright smile.

"No. Elena likes red eyes very much."

Yuuta’s crimson eyes widened.

"...Really?"

The hope that entered his voice was impossible to hide. Part of him immediately wondered whether Elena had noticed his sadness and was simply saying whatever she thought would make him feel better.

Elena, however, nodded firmly.

"Yes! Elena loves red eyes."

"Why..?"

She touched beneath one of her eyes before proudly adding something Yuuta hadn’t expected.

"Mama said they’re beautiful."

Yuuta froze.

"...Erza said that?"

"Mhm!"

Elena’s wings fluttered happily behind her.

"Mama said Elena’s eyes look like a thousand red roses blooming together."

Yuuta didn’t respond.

Something about those words struck him much deeper than Elena could possibly understand.

For the past several hours, Yuuta had been trying to convince himself that Erza’s attachment to Elena was simply natural. Elena was her daughter, after all. Perhaps Erza protected and cared for her because that was what a dragon instinctively did with its offspring, just as Yuuta had begun convincing himself that Erza’s feelings toward him had been born from the same strange attachment.

But this felt different.

Erza hadn’t merely accepted Elena’s unusual eyes.

She had found something beautiful in them.

The very feature Yuuta had spent most of his life wishing he could tear from his own face had somehow reminded Erza of thousands of blooming roses.

Yuuta lowered his gaze, unable to understand the strange warmth beginning to form inside his chest.

Elena suddenly puffed her cheeks.

"But Elena hates these eyes."

Yuuta’s head immediately snapped toward her.

"What?"

His confusion was so obvious that Elena blinked.

"Wait, wait. You literally just told me you love your eyes. How can you suddenly hate them?"

Elena crossed her tiny arms and looked genuinely annoyed now.

"Because Mama is unfair!"

Yuuta became even more confused.

"What does your mama have to do with this?"

Elena pointed indignantly toward her own eyes.

"Mama says Papa’s red eyes are more beautiful than Elena’s!"

Yuuta stopped.

Elena continued complaining, completely unaware that her father’s expression had gone blank.

"Elena’s eyes are prettier! Elena told Mama many times, but Mama always says Papa’s eyes are more beautiful. Every time! Mama is unfair!"

Yuuta barely heard the last few words.

His mind had become stuck somewhere else entirely.

Erza had called his eyes beautiful.

Not merely Elena’s.

His.

The same crimson eyes children had once pointed toward while calling him Satan. The same eyes adults had looked at with suspicion throughout his childhood. The same eyes Yuuta had spent years believing were proof that something about him had been wrong from the moment he was born.

Apparently, Erza had been looking at those same eyes all this time...

And seeing something beautiful.

Yuuta stared at Elena, his lips slowly parting as disbelief replaced everything else.

"...Erza loved my eyes?"

To Be Continued...

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