Dragon's Breath

The promised month.

When there were three days left until the engagement ceremony with the Grand Duke.

Luri said, pointing at the paper and pen with a deeply dissatisfied look.

“Please write a single vow to be used at the engagement ceremony.”

“Isn’t there a standard one used for formal occasions?”

“There is, of course, but……”

At that moment, Luri’s throat bobbed.

She forcibly swallowed the sigh that would otherwise have emerged instead of a breath.

“Since this is to be an unofficial engagement ceremony, Her Grace wishes to proceed without empty formalities.”

“And?”

“She wishes to replace it with the reading of vows written by each of you personally.”

Hearing that, Ferda calmly nodded.

“A romantic.”

“That’s putting it kindly. It’s worse than getting married in a stable. What is this? Writing your own vows…… It’s like children playing house.”

Luri grumbled.

In the end, she let out what she had kept buried in her small chest.

“Haaaaah……”

A breath.

The hollow breath descended with enough force to pierce the floor.

‘An engagement to a human, and she was even made to write vows for a private ceremony……’

Even a dragon spawn who had submitted to a dragon was bound to accumulate resentment.

So it was understandable that she sighed like that.

‘Even so, she is loyal to Valdrowa herself more than to her ruler’s position.’

If she had valued the latter more, Ferda would not be here like this.

If she had set her mind to it, Luri could have tried to kill Ferda or trapped him and created grounds for fault.

But Luri did not resort to such low methods.

‘If anything, she has helped me.’

Ferda could feel the complexity of Luri’s feelings.

She wanted this engagement to fail, while at the same time wishing for Valdrowa’s happiness.

‘Being trapped in that contradiction must be why she is so irritated.’

It was truly pitiful.

Ferda decided to cast her a sympathetic look, if only briefly.

“What is with that look?”

“I was thinking how truly pitiable you are.”

At his sincere sympathy, Luri’s face crumpled.

“I don’t particularly want to hear that from a human like you.”

“For now, I’m still a guest, so let’s say that’s how it is. But in three days I’ll be your husband. What will our relationship be then?”

“It won’t be much different from now. I hope you won’t fall under the delusion that you can order me around.”

“Of course not. That wasn’t what I meant.”

“Still, if you ask me to hit you, I’ll hit you without hesitation.”

“I’ll pass.”

“There’s no need to worry. I’m confident in my strength. I’m good at controlling it, too.”

“? No need.”

Luri raised her dainty fist.

That dainty fist had smashed through the bed and even broken the floor.

He did not feel inclined to say such a thing, even as a joke.

“Anyway, once the engagement proceeds, you’ll need to bring servants into the castle. You’ll also have to select ministers to help govern the territory.”

“Servants and ministers? Do I have to do that?”

“Yes. You’ll be responsible for the territory under the Grand Duke of Valdrowa, as well as the other miscellaneous affairs.”

Hearing that, Ferda looked puzzled.

“You didn’t seem to like the idea of seizing power. Are you telling me to take power?”

“I don’t dislike people who hold power. I dislike people who are blinded by power.”

The Third Prince of the Arken Empire had been blinded by power and met his unavoidable death.

“Power should normally be held by someone who has no interest in it. Since they do not desire even greater power, they look after the people. That is the sort of person we need now.”

Ferda tilted his head.

“Isn’t looking after the people a good thing?”

“If you saw the current lords, you would know that things are an utter mess.”

Ferda recalled the lords gathered in the council.

Obese bodies, utterly sluggish.

Terrified that their own heads might be severed, they trembled like pigs trapped in a slaughterhouse.

“Every one of the people who should be pillars is busy lining his own stomach. Since they’re on the front line and don’t know when they’ll die, they frequent brothels and gorge themselves on expensive food. For now, the military strength at the forefront is keeping their discontent quiet, but it may erupt into a major revolt someday.”

“I didn’t know. I had no idea things were like that.”

The people’s welfare.

Hearing that word, Ferda felt something strange.

“Doesn’t the Grand Duke of Valdrowa wish for humans to be happy?”

“She does.”

“Wouldn’t almost everything end if she stepped forward and said a single word?”

“It would.”

“Then why can’t she do that?”

“……”

Luri closed her mouth.

Her face was cold, and she was emitting Dragon Fear uncontrollably.

She looked like a dragon whose reverse scale had been touched.

“I’ll refrain from speaking about that for now. You’ll know enough about it later anyway.”

Hearing that, Ferda decided to take a step back.

“Very well. Then I’m the one who should write the vows?”

“Yes. Then I’ll take my leave.”

Luri bowed briefly and went out the door.

Haaaaaaaah.

The sound of her sigh traveled along the floor and reached Ferda’s ears.

Remembering Luri’s words, Ferda took up the pen.

‘Vows, huh……’

They say the beginning is half the battle, but Ferda was stuck on the first line.

Should he have asked what form he was supposed to use?

If he had, this would have been easier.

‘Should I put it off until later?’

Instead of writing vows, Ferda decided to write several letters.

He had once told the lords:

-I couldn’t care less what any of you do.

But now it was time for him to care about them more than a tiny bit.

That was the problem.

‘I told the lords I didn’t care about them at all, so they’ll resist if I try to interfere.’

Ferda was aware that he had made a poor first impression.

Now that he had lied to them, his impression would only worsen.

He had no choice but to send each of them a letter.

Explaining that he might interfere in the internal affairs.

He added the following phrase at the end.

-If you don’t like it, don’t reply. I respect you, after all.

And all the lords’ replies came back that very day.

* * *

The day of the engagement ceremony.

Ferda displayed his abilities and, at the same time, proved that there was not a shred of falsehood in his words.

With nothing left to nitpick, Luri docilely accepted the engagement ceremony.

“Your epaulet is crooked. And after I went to all the trouble of starching your clothes, how could you wrinkle your trousers?”

Instead, she began the day by finding fault with every little thing.

“It would be wonderful if I had hands and eyes in your place.”

“Why don’t you get some installed?”

“You could do it yourself.”

Luri took a step back.

She tucked both hands behind her.

“I don’t want to touch it. I’m merely the attendant of the master I serve, so don’t expect too much from me.”

“Hmm, you really are like a dog.”

“Do you want to fight me? Just say the word. I’ll fight you in earnest anytime.”

“No, I only meant that you’re loyal.”

Luri growled, but Ferda accepted her nitpicking and dealt with each of her complaints one by one.

‘An engagement ceremony……’

It did not feel real.

When one gets married, there are basically two possible emotions.

The joy of getting married.

Or the sorrow of being sold off.

Ferda felt neither of those emotions.

‘I’ve been like this ever since I returned to this day.’

A tranquil heart unbefitting the owner of a Red Circle.

‘Did I get engaged simply because I thought it was something I had to do?’

He wondered whether this was merely a mechanical act of fulfilling his duty.

Ferda, who had lost his overwhelming anger and hatred, found even his other emotions growing faint.

‘Is it all right for me to face Valdrowa with feelings like these?’

A vague sense of unease lingered in one corner of his heart.

‘A vague sense of unease……’

Ferda smiled faintly.

Vagueness was a weakness of human beings.

‘No matter what, I’m still human.’

For now, that was all that mattered.

Ferda decided to hold on to that one fact.

* * *

The engagement ceremony took place in front of Valdrowa’s lair.

The inside of the lair was lit by hundreds of bundles of candles.

They decided to conduct the ceremony about twenty paces from the iron door behind which Valdrowa was waiting.

Luri, who had finished preparing for the ceremony, knocked on the door.

“Master, we will now begin the ceremony.”

Then the enormous iron door slowly opened.

Air escaped through the opening, mingled with the air outside, and flowed into Ferda’s nose and mouth.

“Mmph.”

His breath was squeezed tight.

Although it held none of the murderous intent he had felt when fighting monsters, it still exuded fear.

Had Ferda been even a little weaker, his condition was bad enough that he would have fainted on the spot.

Luri looked Ferda over and said:

“You must endure.”

“I know……”

“Then we shall proceed with the engagement ceremony.”

Ignoring Ferda’s condition, Luri began going through the ritual.

Since they had already discussed that this would happen, Ferda focused on sitting up straight and regulating his breathing.

“Mortal and immortal shall become one today, joining a golden thread that neither the authority of heaven nor the tempests of time can sever.”

Luri placed the bowl and wine tray she had set out in front of Ferda.

Luri carefully took hold of the wine bottle, poured out the clear liquor, and recited the words.

“The mortal shall escape the unknown and become one by washing away fear.”

As he had been told beforehand, Ferda accepted the bowl and drank the wine.

It was as clean and clear in flavor as it was transparent.

‘As expected, I’m not very good at drinking.’

Ferda had never once enjoyed alcohol despite growing older, so this was the first drink of his life.

Ferda drank the first portion, then poured the remaining half into the bowl and carried it to the iron door.

“The immortal shall erase the transience of the endless flow and become one.”

It was now Valdrowa’s turn to drink the wine.

Srrrk.

What emerged between the enormous iron doors was a claw larger than Ferda’s body.

The terrifying weapon that had torn monsters’ bodies to shreds.

The claw carefully descended toward the bowl containing the engagement wine, and

Clatter—!

tipped it over completely.

“……”

“……”

An awkward silence fell.

With a clatter, the claw returned inside the iron door.

Wondering whether this was normal, Ferda glanced at Luri.

“……We’ll conduct the ceremony again.”

It was repeated exactly as stated.

They read the engagement vows, Ferda drank first, and the turn came to Valdrowa again.

Clatter—!

The claw knocked over the small bowl of engagement wine about three times like that.

Ferda was beginning to face a crisis.

‘I’ve had a few cups, and I’m getting drunk……’

Ferda felt his head throb and the bonds of his five senses gradually loosen.

He had a feeling this would be the last time.

Crack—.

At that moment, a loud breaking sound came from somewhere.

It would have been foolish to worry that the cave was collapsing.

Unless Ferda had heard wrong, the sound had definitely come from Luri’s body.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

Luri squeezed her body through the slightly opened gap.

He was about to wait, thinking she might be preparing something separately, when—

“What are you doing, Master!?”

Luri’s furious shout suddenly rang out.

The alcohol haze vanished from Ferda at once.

“You were the one who made a fuss about marrying a mortal, Master, and you were the one who said you wanted to get engaged. So what has this loyal servant, Luri, done?”

The breath she had swallowed again and again over the past three days,

“I endured it!”

She began spewing it out fervently.

“I endured holding the engagement ceremony that should rightfully have been public in private! And I endured, and endured, this arrangement being made without you even facing your fiancé!”

Her voice grew louder.

He could feel that she was angrier than ever.

“But you’re afraid to face your fiancé!? Hiding like that! Interfering with the engagement! What in the world does that make the fiancé standing out here!?”

Valdrowa made no sound at all, not even a harsh breath.

Beyond the door came a deep sigh, followed by Luri’s voice once more.

“Come out proudly and greet your fiancé! If you knock over the engagement wine one more time, I won’t stand idly by either!”

Luri, who had been shouting, came back out.

Her face was businesslike and expressionless.

Ferda inadvertently stared straight at her.

And through Ferda’s gaze, Luri could guess what he was thinking.

“……Did you perhaps hear that?”

“I imagine even the other lords far away heard it.”

“……Haaah. What can I do about it?”

Luri let out a deep sigh as if she had a headache, then said:

“As you can infer well enough by now, Master has a fear of dealing with people.”

“A fear of dealing with people……”

“It means she’s afraid of dealing with humans.”

“……”

“If anyone heard that, it would be laughable. The woman who saved the world hiding because she’s afraid of mortals.”

“You’re telling me some fairly important information.”

“You had to know eventually. I can’t hide this forever just because you dislike it.”

Her silver eyes lowered slightly as she said:

“She is about to become your partner. That means her weakness is also your weakness.”

“Collective responsibility?”

“Isn’t that what marriage is?”

Ferda quietly nodded at her words.

Marriage as collective responsibility.

For some reason, it was not entirely welcome.

He had never once liked the phrase collective responsibility.

A little later, the closed door opened again.

He thought the enormous claw might emerge again, but what he saw was the shape of a person.

Ferda turned his gaze toward the person who would become his partner.

“……Huh?”

He was so shocked that he let out a cry.

‘……Armor?’

A person wearing full plate armor, at that.

The helmet was shaped like a dragon’s head.

Though made of metal, it was so detailed and imposing that he mistook it for a dragon for an instant.

It looked exactly like what a dragon might look like if it walked on two legs.

What was astonishing was not merely the armor’s detail,

‘It’s enormous.’

More than anything, it was the height.

Ferda was 180 centimeters tall and considered tall, yet the figure was so large he had to look far above his own head.

Judging by height alone, it was 240 centimeters. Without the armor, perhaps around 220?

‘I heard a dragon’s polymorph was supposed to be breathtakingly beautiful.’

If that standard of beauty applied to humans, it meant there was a 220-centimeter-tall beauty inside that armor……

Could the person inside actually be a man?

“We’ll conduct the final engagement ceremony.”

Before Ferda could entertain that ominous speculation for long, Luri resumed the ceremony.

Ferda drank the engagement wine, of which he had already had three cups.

The alcohol made his eyelids feel as heavy as lead.

He thought she might knock it over again this time, but that did not seem likely.

She had simply grasped the helmet and lifted it, ensuring that the wine would not be knocked over or spilled.

Ferda saw the figure hidden inside the cold, hard shell.

And thus, the face of Valdrowa, the Red Dragon he had first seen,

“Ah.”

made him let out an involuntary exclamation.