Chapter 101
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
Boom!
The situation came to an end with a sound that shook Hestia Village.
Those who had gathered to eliminate the remaining monsters formed a circle around Valdrova.
Every one of their gazes was directed down at her.
“What in the world is this…….”
“Ugh…….”
Those with weak stomachs gagged at the sight.
Some of them knew what that form was.
‘Berserker.’
Those seized by rage and driven to destroy everything.
Their rage could not be controlled, and without a mage capable of casting a calming spell, they were treated as nothing more than small ogres.
The residents could guess why someone capable of wielding such absurd strength was here.
Though their guess was far from certain, fear spread in an instant.
Everyone was afraid of Valdrova.
Valdrova did nothing.
She merely raised her head slightly to look around, then sat motionless where she was.
Everyone glanced at one another and hesitated.
No one dared enter the depression the ground had sunk into from a single blow.
“Are you all right, Knight?”
The man wearing the chief of security’s shoulder insignia.
The man who had bravely faced the monsters more than anyone approached and asked her.
Valdrova could not answer.
“Can you stand? Shall I help you?”
William held out his hand, but Valdrova did not even look at it.
She remained there as though she had died on the spot.
What awakened her mind was a single voice.
“Lord William.”
It was Ferda.
She raised her head and looked up at Ferda.
“Yes, Regent.”
“I heard an enormous explosion just now. This seems to be where it originated…….”
Ferda was looking at her.
Those cold eyes.
They were not the eyes that had looked at her kindly.
“You……”
Ferda could not continue.
Valdrova knew why.
‘I am……’
Because I am a monster.
Ferda walked toward Valdrova.
Unable to bear looking at his expression, she lowered her head.
With her vision blocked, she heard his footsteps even more clearly.
When Ferda came close, he opened his mouth.
“Come to the castle. I have something to say to you.”
The kindness he had always shown her was gone.
* * *
She had seen this place several times before, but it was very different from then.
Back then, she had looked around as its owner, whereas now she had come as a guest.
It was ridiculous.
The owner of the castle had come as a guest.
Ferda did not know that.
He personally prepared and poured tea in the drawing room.
“The maid normally does this, but she is busy sorting out the situation outside, so I have to do it myself. Please understand even if it does not taste good.”
“……”
“Still, consider yourself fortunate. I made a rule that every knight has to come inside and wash, so that would only have wasted time.”
Ferda extended the teacup toward Valdrova.
Whether it tasted good or not did not matter.
‘Tea made by Mr. Ferda……’
That alone made it seem exceptionally precious.
She wanted to drink it.
But if she removed her helmet, he would see her face.
Ferda would be startled.
Then she would have to explain everything she had done until now, and things would become complicated.
He would be disillusioned.
She did not want to face such a tragedy.
‘I should stay still.’
Valdrova silently set down the teacup.
Ferda watched her quietly, then began another conversation.
“I heard that you took a vow of silence.”
Nod, nod.
“It is a good excuse. If you claim to have taken a vow of silence, you only have to answer what you are asked and do not need to say anything unnecessary. Is that not so?”
Ferda’s cold gaze seemed to pierce through her.
“I cannot say how that might work on the ignorant masses, but I was raised in a family of knights. A vow of silence is generally something only holy knights take. And if you served someone, it would have shown in the way you carried yourself.”
“……”
“But you served no one. All you possess is strength and fighting skill surpassing those of knights. If so, why did you tell such a lie?”
He spoke cynically.
“The answer is obvious. You concealed your identity in an attempt to escape your past.”
Valdrova clenched her fists.
Though Ferda had missed the mark in some respects, he had grasped the essence of the matter.
Valdrova hated herself.
She hated herself even more than the demons who had driven so many people to their deaths, because she was the one who made others tremble.
“Tell me.”
Ferda asked as he lifted his teacup.
“Have you ever killed someone while in the grip of that anger?”
Nod.
“Is that why you fled here?”
Nod.
“I see.”
A brief silence followed.
Ferda seemed to be thinking about something before asking her,
“Do you regret that day?”
Regret.
How could she not regret it?
For decades, she had been consumed by grief, hated herself, and suffered from nightmares.
She prayed for God’s mercy and salvation, but no one answered her.
Instead of moving forward, she had stopped and hated herself.
Whenever she thought of those who had been sacrificed in the Dragon-Demon War, she had only one thought.
If only the people she had killed could live again, she would not have minded becoming an evil dragon who turned the entire world against her.
Valdrova nodded.
“I see.”
That calm affirmation seemed to create the silence before a storm.
She felt as though an insult would come flying at her at any moment.
That a monster like her was not needed in this city.
That she should get out immediately.
“You……”
But no storm came.
“Do you like this village?”
It was such an easy question.
Valdrova nodded.
“Do you also wish to protect this village?”
Nod, nod.
“Then…… would you be willing to accept the knighthood I am prepared to offer you?”
She began to nod—
Valdrova raised her head.
‘If I became a knight……’
A position that protected the people and guarded the king.
Boys in the countryside dreamed of knightly romance.
Valdrova was interested in the position as well, since she liked the word ‘protection.’
‘But why?’
She could not understand.
People saw her as a monster.
Even those girls had trembled in fear.
I am an evil dragon—no, an evil person.
Someone like that should not become a knight.
“Do you think you are unqualified?”
Nod.
“What a foolish thought.”
A blunt, merciless barb.
The tender-hearted Valdrova was hurt.
“Do you know how many adventurers participated in Hestia Village?”
She shook her head.
“Twenty-three teams entered. That makes seventy-three people. Each of them possesses both strength and wisdom.”
“……”
“Yet only four teams participated when we mounted our defense. Do you understand what that means? It means that nineteen teams did not care whether people died or the village was destroyed.”
Ferda leaned forward and spoke.
“But you were different. You could have hidden yourself alongside those fools, but you moved to protect this village.”
“……”
“That is because you understand that the people before your eyes matter more than the past.”
At those words, something vanished from Valdrova’s heart.
She had thought she was looking at an utterly cold monster, but that was not the case.
That had been her mistake from the beginning.
Though he was not kind, his eyes held respect.
“If you wish to protect this place, then your past means nothing to me.”
You are not at fault.
And you only need to move forward from here.
‘What is this……?’
She felt a strange emotion.
She had had conversations like this many times while receiving Ferda’s mana.
Ferda had always been kind then.
‘But I was never comfortable.’
When Ferda dealt with her, he acted as though she were a delicate flower that might break at any moment.
His delicate, gentle hands merely brushed her skin before moving on.
Valdrova could not believe his words, and so the comfort they offered amounted to nothing more than a fleeting emotion.
‘This is different from then.’
The unkind tone and gaze.
The way he treated her as though she were someone he had never met before.
‘It feels like we are meeting for the first time.’
He did not hesitate to touch her, drawing deep empathy from within her.
All of it felt as though she were seeing another side of Ferda.
Her heart pounded.
This feeling, deeper than what she had felt when she first saw him, was undoubtedly love.
“Do you think I am a very understanding person?”
Valdrova nodded at his question.
“Unfortunately, I am not that sort of person. The only reason I am pretending to be this understanding is that you resemble someone I once met.”
Who could that possibly be?
While she wondered inwardly, he said,
“That person is truly beautiful.”
Beautiful.
Ferda smiled as he said it.
At the sight, Valdrova felt a tightness in her chest.
‘Luri said Mr. Ferda had never smiled at anyone other than me…….’
That was what Luri had told her.
That he was kind because the person he was kind to was Valdrova, and that he smiled because the person he smiled at was Valdrova.
Who could that person be to make him act like that?
“I have only seen her face once, and I cannot even say that I saw it properly.”
‘Could she really have been such a wonderful person when he saw her face only once?’
“Besides, the first time I saw her face, it was covered in tears.”
‘Was she really so beautiful when she cried……?’
“I want to see her face every time, but I cannot bring myself to say so.”
‘What a terrible man. He will not even show me her face…….’
“Still, the thought that she is resting peacefully beneath this castle is enough to comfort me.”
‘Beneath this castle…….’
Wait.
That person……
‘Was it me?’
Only then did Valdrova realize it.
When she retraced what he had said, had the circumstances he described not been exactly the same as hers?
‘Ah…….’
Valdrova’s face turned bright red.
Once she realized it, she wanted to run out of there immediately.
Then she wanted to return to her lair and roll around on the floor, making nasal noises as she usually did.
But she used all her strength to suppress her trembling and pretended to be a stranger.
‘I absolutely cannot let him find out now.’
For Ferda’s sake, and for my own!
“I have rambled on for too long. So, would you reconsider accepting the knighthood?”
Ferda returned to the main subject.
Valdrova decided to think about it again as well.
‘If I became a knight…… would I become someone who protects Mr. Ferda……?’
Valdrova’s heart pounded.
Had she been a dragon—had she been Valdrova—she would never have dared hear such words, yet now she was simply listening to them, unable to conceal her excitement.
‘I want to protect the village.’
But something even greater was,
‘I want to protect Mr. Ferda.’
And something greater still was,
‘I want to hear more about what he thinks of me!’
A woman who lacked the courage to ask him to his face, and a man who could not say it to her face.
This was the perfect moment for them to hear each other’s true feelings directly.
That was almost the entire reason.
Just as Valdrova was about to give him her answer,
“Lord Ferda.”
Luri entered.
“How is the village situation?”
“The cleanup is proceeding smoothly.”
“Were there any bad developments?”
“There do not seem to be any. The number of deaths is minimal, and although severe injuries were common, first aid was administered quickly, so there is no danger to their lives.”
“That is fortunate.”
“Allow me to attend to you.”
She swiftly and skillfully took her place and served them tea.
Luri’s gaze briefly turned toward the armor.
“Hmm?”
Though she was normally indifferent to humans, for some reason she kept looking at the armor.
Luri stared intently at it.
Her face suggested that she almost realized something, yet perhaps did not—a vague, uncertain expression.
After a while,
“……Huh?”
Luri’s expression rapidly soured.
Valdrova knew that expression.
‘She noticed!’
Her complexion paled inside the armor.
Luri gazed at her with a look of disbelief, then kept her mouth shut in accordance with the vow of silence.
Ferda, who had not noticed at all, found Luri’s behavior merely strange.
“Why is that?”
“……It is nothing. I was briefly reminded of the filth left behind in the village.”
Luri pretended nothing was wrong as she finished serving them and moved behind Ferda.
“Then, let us continue our discussion—”
“I apologize, but……”
Luri interrupted him.
“May I ask what you were discussing?”
“……This is the first time you have asked that.”
She had always been faithful to her role.
She stood like a folding screen and never interfered.
“It seemed quite important, so I felt that I needed to know as well.”
Ferda answered her without resistance.
“I asked whether he could swear an oath to me as a knight.”
“A knight…… An oath……?”
Luri wore an incredulous expression.
“So, did he accept?”
“I was just about to hear his answer.”
“Oh-ho……”
Luri narrowed her eyes and gave the knight a sidelong look.
“Is that so?”
Valdrova’s body shrank back on its own.
Was Luri planning to expose her identity?
She vehemently denied it inwardly and sent Luri a telepathic message.
Please pretend you do not know!
Luri had no intention of doing that.
Instead, she responded more cruelly than Valdrova had expected.
“Lord Ferda. What do you think of this?”
“What do you mean?”
“A situation in which a high-ranking knight swears loyalty to a commoner.”
Ferda answered,
“One cannot swear loyalty to a commoner, but one can swear loyalty to one’s own convictions. If someone declares that they will protect the people according to their convictions, it may appear as though they are swearing loyalty to the commoners. That is a noble thing.”
That was why Ferda had made William chief of security.
He had even decided that he would appoint William a knight if the village grew larger.
“I am only speaking hypothetically. Then let me put it another way. Suppose……”
She pretended to choose her words before answering.
“What if Lady Valdrova swore loyalty to Lord Ferda?”
Ferda frowned as he answered.
He glared at Luri as though asking whether she had lost her mind.
“That is absurd. I would be the one swearing loyalty, and she would be the one who should place her trust in me. Saying that she would swear loyalty to me would be little different from insulting me, would it not?”
“That is exactly what I mean.”
“If you knew that, do not say such things carelessly. I cannot tolerate it, even as an example.”
“I apologize. I only asked because I was curious.”
Luri crossed her arms and glared at Valdrova.
Her expression asked whether Valdrova understood how absurd this situation was.
“So, what will your answer be?”
Ferda asked.
There was only one answer Valdrova could give.