Chapter 109
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
Ferda could not say a word, his face blank.
‘Erembald Rosnova.’
The head of House Rosnova.
Ferda’s father.
And the source of the hatred that had made him become a mage.
“What will you do?”
Ruri asked.
It was simple.
All he had to do was send him back.
Ferda had been cast out of House Rosnova, and since he no longer used that surname, they were strangers.
No matter what he said, Ferda had no reason to listen.
After all, listening to him would only make Ferda relive negative emotions that should never arise again.
Under normal circumstances, his answer would have been obvious.
“Let him in. I’ll be ready.”
“Understood.”
Ferda decided to meet him.
Even if he thought it might be a mistake, he had to confirm it.
Whether this hatred was still alive.
***
After preparing for about twenty minutes, Ferda walked down the corridor toward the drawing room.
Once he passed through this door, the man who had driven him from his home would be waiting.
Ferda’s feet would not move easily.
“Ruri.”
Instead, he spoke to the woman standing behind him.
“Yes.”
“I’ll be the only one entering.”
“Understood.”
“And make sure no one, including you, learns anything about what happens inside.”
“……What are you planning to do?”
Thinking it was too much to ask, Ruri questioned Ferda.
“I’m asking you.”
A request.
Those words carried more weight than an order.
That was why Ruri grew even more anxious.
“Understood.”
Ruri quietly cast a barrier to shut everything out.
Ferda sensed that the space had been completely isolated, then stepped inside.
There he was.
That bastard who had treated me so viciously and cast me out.
That bastard who had repaid every wound he inflicted on me with an even crueler one.
The moment he saw Ferda, the man brightened.
“Oh, my son! My son is here!”
No, it was only a pretense of delight.
His behavior was so awkward that even a child could have seen through it.
Perhaps that was why his face seemed even more servile.
Ferda was glad he felt that way.
Contrary to his fear that the disappointment would make his hatred boil over, he was calm enough to surprise even himself.
“Welcome, Lord Rosnova.”
Ferda spoke formally, drawing a clear line between them.
Erembald looked uncomfortable.
Ferda did not know what he had hoped for, but it was clear that this was not the attitude he had wanted from Ferda.
Ferda sat across from him and studied his face.
Erembald avoided his gaze and pushed something toward him.
“This is honey from the bees raised in House Rosnova’s territory. As you know, Your Highness…….”
“Yes, Rosnova honey is delicious.”
“Yes, yes.”
“But I don’t like it much anymore.”
“Ah, I suppose not. Since Your Highness will soon be nineteen—.”
“No. I once nearly died while eating this.”
Ferda’s gaze turned cold as he stared at him.
“Your second son, Huren Rosnova, poured it into my mouth and completely blocked my airway.”
His complexion turned pale.
Ferda continued speaking calmly.
“If I hadn’t put my fingers down my throat and scooped it out, I would have died. After that, I trembled whenever I even saw a jar of honey.”
“I-I…… That…….”
He seemed about to make the excuse that he had not known.
“There were five servants who witnessed what happened that day. It seems none of them reported it to you, Lord Rosnova.”
“I’m sorry. Even if I had ten mouths, I would have nothing to say. If you wish to punish me, I’ll do it myself. No, if that isn’t enough to appease you, I’ll have him brought here and punish him…….”
“No. Enough. Just tell me the main reason you came.”
Ferda leaned back in his chair.
He no longer wanted to engage in meaningless pleasantries.
“The thing is…… Big Sister recently came to House Rosnova.”
Big Sister.
That was Erdes Roton’s alias—a title of respect and, at the same time, an insult.
“You went there to ask about me.”
“Yes. I asked about Your Highness.”
“And you told her everything.”
“No. Not quite that much…….”
“Don’t lie to me, Lord Rosnova.”
Ferda warned him in a low voice.
“Erdes already knows that I use black magic. Those who use black magic are sentenced to at least the destruction of their family. The fact that you’re still alive means you denied my existence and told her everything, doesn’t it?”
Erembald flinched.
His dry lips opened and closed repeatedly.
“Am I wrong?”
Ferda urged him to answer.
Erembald lowered his head, sweating coldly.
“You’re…… right.”
Yes, Ferda had known.
He had known that Erembald no longer considered him his son from the moment he cast him out.
‘I know this story.’
The past tried to force its way out on its own.
His emotions surged up in a choking wave.
A headache came crashing down, pressing on his skull.
“So did you come all this way to make that confession?”
Ferda still could not understand why he had come.
“There was just one thing I hadn’t told you, and I came to tell you now.”
“Tell me.”
“Do you…… remember Anna Rosnova?”
What?
That one sentence was enough to provoke Ferda.
Erembald, watching Ferda’s expression, hastily corrected himself.
“No, what I want to ask is…… whether you truly remember Anna Rosnova, your mother.”
Even the excuse he had chosen could not ease Ferda’s anger.
“Isn’t that obvious? She was my mother. And she was your wife as well.”
“Of course. She should be, but…….”
Erembald struggled to continue.
“That memory feels…… so unfamiliar to me.”
It pierced him.
Erembald’s words seemed to pierce Ferda’s heart.
It felt like he was listening to some cruel joke.
He was angry, yet a laugh escaped him.
He felt as though he were losing his mind.
Ferda forced himself to answer rationally.
“My mother, Anna Rosnova, had blond hair and blue eyes. You praised her as a woman so beautiful that she was far too good for even me.”
Every moment flashed through Ferda’s mind like scenes from a film.
He vividly remembered eating and laughing together, holding hands, and whispering words of love.
He vividly remembered the goosebumps that had risen on his skin at the sight of it all, so it made no sense that the person involved could not remember.
“There is only one thing I can remember clearly. A vagrant carrying a child into the house.”
Erembald said it.
No, “spat it out” was more accurate.
To Ferda, it was no different from spitting him out.
“When I think about it, I had no reason to take that woman in. Although I had lost my wife, I had two sons, and I wasn’t lonely. I only remembered that after she died. So…….”
“So what are you trying to say?”
He looked at Ferda with a face steeped in fear and spoke.
“I wanted to tell you that you and I never shared blood to begin with. So please…….”
He bowed his head deeply.
“Please completely sever your ties with House Rosnova.”
Ferda could not speak.
He searched desperately for words, but could not grasp a single one.
His mind was in turmoil.
Why did I have to hear this sort of thing?
Why was he coming before Ferda, who had thought he could forget everything and go on living, just to reopen old wounds?
Even after Ferda had finally let everything go and come here.
Why did he have to dredge it all up and bring it back to Ferda?
Why was the man Ferda had hated more than anything coming back to……
Ferda felt his consciousness beginning to fade.
His emotions were trying to devour him.
He quietly closed his eyes.
He tried to calm his heart.
But all he could feel was the circuit moving.
And a sweet whisper.
Ferda knew that voice.
It was the voice he had heard in his ear when Ruri was in danger.
Kill him.
Kill him.
Last time, you should have turned him into an empty shell. This time, let’s strangle him to death.
You have to pay him back for all the pain he caused you.
Why are you hesitating?
Killing someone once isn’t difficult,
and the second time is easy, isn’t it?
Those words snapped Ferda back to his senses.
The circuit in his chest was turning.
It spun so madly that it seemed as though it might reach the sixth circle at any moment.
But that was not the end of it.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw that something astonishing had happened.
A pair of black arms stretched out behind the bewildered Erembald Rosnova.
Could Erembald use shadow arts as well?
That was impossible.
Those shadows were limbs created by Ferda’s will.
They had come right up to Erembald, as though ready to seize his neck at any moment.
Ferda quickly withdrew them.
Suppressing the emotion spinning dizzily inside him, he spoke in a rational voice.
“Go back, Lord Rosnova.”
Even so, a menacing aura hung heavily in the air.
Erembald hurriedly rose from his seat.
Just before leaving through the door, he stopped and turned back.
“Thank you for your mercy, Your Highness.”
With those words, he left.
Was he wringing out the last of his remaining denial, or was he ingratiating himself to lessen the consequences even a little?
Ferda had no way of knowing.
His thoughts were in complete disarray.
“Lord Ferda.”
As Erembald left, Ruri entered.
“What could they have talked about for him to leave with an expression like that…….”
Ruri could not finish her sentence.
Ferda stood with his head bowed, staring blankly into space.
It was a face Ruri had never seen before.
“Ruri.”
A heavy voice came from his lips, which he had opened with difficulty.
“May I ask you for one favor?”
“Please, tell me.”
Ferda spoke in a trembling voice.
“I…… want to see my mother.”
“Understood. Just tell me where she is, and I’ll take you there immediately.”
“We need to go to House Rosnova.”
“Yes.”
Once they stepped out onto the terrace, Ruri pulled Ferda tightly into her arms.
It felt like an embrace, not like she was carrying a load.
She flew like a comet and arrived in an instant before the main gate of House Rosnova’s estate.
“Where is the grave?”
Ferda did not answer.
Instead, he turned and began walking somewhere else.
It was not toward House Rosnova.
Ruri had naturally assumed the grave would be somewhere on the estate, so she quietly followed behind him.
Ferda walked without saying a word.
Ruri knew how terrible his stamina was.
Before long, his labored breathing and pounding heartbeat rang in her ears.
“Lord Ferda.”
“……”
“You’re short of breath. Wouldn’t it be better to rest for a while?”
Ferda did not answer.
He merely continued moving his feet like someone under a spell.
Ruri could have stepped in front of him and stopped him.
But she did not have the courage.
She did not have the courage to face the heavy burden pressing down on those shoulders.
Nor did she have the courage to face the expression he wore now.
She followed Ferda in silence.
At last, after sweating profusely and gasping for breath, Ferda finally stopped.
It was a plain.
A barren plain with a single tree stump.
It did not feel as though he had stopped simply because he was tired.
“Is this the place?”
Ferda nodded.
“Where is the grave?”
Ruri looked around several times, just in case.
But no matter how carefully she searched, there was no trace that anyone had been buried there.
“There is no grave.”
Ferda reached out his hand toward empty space.
“Here…… I sent my mother off.”
“You mean…… she was cremated?”
People from venerable knightly families were traditionally buried when they died.
Even if she had been a concubine, once she became a member of a knightly family, she should have been buried in the family graveyard.
“When my mother died, they quickly burned her body. They even tried to have the servants dispose of it as though they were throwing away trash.”
“……”
“So I cleaned everything up myself. I carefully wrapped up the ashes one by one and put them into an urn.”
Ferda looked down at his hands.
They were empty, but the sensation of touching those ashes was still vivid in his hands.
“That day, I wanted to scatter the ashes somewhere my father didn’t know about. Even if they were scattered by the wind, I wanted to find a place where I could remember her.”
“……”
“So I walked until I reached a place so far away that I felt as though my soul would leave my body. This was that place.”
Ferda lifted his head and looked up at the sky.
Traces of life lay coldly scattered across the barren sky and earth.
Ferda’s gaze lowered to the stump.
“There used to be a tree here. It stood alone in the middle of the plain. It looked like me, left all alone, so I secretly scattered the ashes beneath it.”
“Then why is there only a stump……?”
“A servant followed me here. And he cut down the tree.”
“They did something so cruel to a son who had just lost his mother?”
Ruri was furious.
She knew how precious family was, so she could not take this matter lightly either.
She clenched her fists tightly.
When she sent that bastard away, she thought she should have threatened him more before letting him go.
“I thought it was my fault.”
Ferda’s voice trembled.
“I thought that if I hadn’t been so weak, if I had shown the qualities of an outstanding knight in the family, I might have been able to protect my desire to honor my mother…….”
His own weakness.
A body so frail that not even a trace of his efforts remained, no matter how hard he tried.
Even until the day he died, Ferda had never possessed a strong body.
“That was how I was driven out of the house.”
That was the part of the story Ruri knew.
Only Ferda knew what had happened after that.
Ferda began to ramble.
“I trained as a mage and surpassed even the talented mages who had trained for years, all in a short time. I even reached the third circle.”
Back then, Ferda had not been overwhelmed by hatred.
Inside him lived a young boy who wanted recognition and an angel.
The young boy thought:
“Perhaps Erembald would accept me if I were the person I am now?”
In truth, Erembald had been a father overflowing with paternal affection.
He had been a good father who was faithful to his wife and never spared his sons advice, and he had once been Ferda’s idol.
He simply had not been that way toward Ferda.
The angel in his heart said:
The bonds of family still remained.
The boy believed that angel.
He wanted to realize that the world was not made only of malice.
Young Ferda wanted his pathetic father to ask for forgiveness.
-How dare you set foot here!
When they let him into the estate, what came back was a roar as if they were greeting their sworn enemy.
-You are no longer my son! You think learning that worthless magic trick gives you the right to show your face here again!? Get out of here at once!
The words were hotter than fire and colder than ice.
Ellen and Huren, the two elder sons, personally beat Ferda, who had stubbornly held his ground, and drove him away.
It rained that day.
His mouth was full of blood, and his body was soaked.
Half-crippled, Ferda could have died at any moment.
If he had not crawled beneath the shade out of sheer stubbornness and lain there, he would certainly have become a corpse.
That day, the young boy realized something.
He realized that hope was an illusion that only forced him to continue living a miserable life.
The young boy killed the angel.
All that filled his heart was the voice of a malicious demon.
Begging for mercy only brought greater pain, and at the end of his hatred, he embraced yet another hatred.
Only after feeling emptiness at the end did he regret everything.
“I thought that was…… the end.”
He had regretted it deeply at the end and decided to live for only one clearer purpose.
That demon had surely died.
So he believed that the purity of that day would return to his heart.
“But it hadn’t changed.”
“What is it?”
“Hatred.”
A small monster created by his father.
“The hatred that made me a monster, that reduced me to such a hollow shell…….”
Ferda clutched his chest.
“It is still inside me.”
Ruri, looking down at him, could not say anything.
Ferda was the one who broke the silence again.
“Ruri.”
“……Yes.”
“When I met my father, I tried to kill him.”
“That father deserves to die.”
“That wasn’t my will.”
That was what Ferda feared most.
He feared that, just as he had unconsciously tried to kill his own father, he might unknowingly be choosing the option of killing Waldrova.
The fact that such a possibility still remained was an enormous burden to Ferda.
But how could he say that?
He did not want to place any more of a burden on Ruri.
“Stop saying such pathetic things.”
Ruri scolded him in a sulky voice.
“You are the Regent of the Grand Duchy of Waldrova, the ruler of Hestia Village, and the fiancé of the Great Fire. Didn’t you decide to wear the crown knowing you might have to risk your life?”
“……”
“You mustn’t say such weak things either. Straighten your back and square your shoulders. And put on an expression befitting them. It is a luxury for Lord Ferda to waste time worrying about things like this. You must not kill time in a place like this. Hurry back and get to work.”
Ruri took another step toward him.
“If you lose your judgment and become a monster…….”
Her small hands reached out.
“With these hands.”
Both hands wrapped around his neck.
The warmth of her soft skin spread through him.
At her gesture, Ferda’s head was lifted.
Ruri had put on an awkward mask of adulthood.
“I will execute you.”
Such bravado could not hide the fact that the mask was gradually cracking.
“So…….”
Her face was overcome with sadness.
“Please…… leave that foolish expression on your face forever, if only for this moment.”
His emotions were trying to consume Ruri as well.
If even Ruri was suffering like this, what about Waldrova?
She would suffer even more.
Ferda felt his head growing clear again.
“You’ve helped me again.”
Ferda smiled faintly.
“Thank you.”
* * *
Meanwhile, someone was watching Ferda and Ruri from afar.
It was Olivia Arken.