Chapter 111
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
It was while Erembald was making his way through House Rosnova.
Inside the carriage, he thought to himself:
‘Yes, this will do.’
The choice to declare their severance had been the right one.
Those had been days when Erdes's scrutiny and pressure had made his hair fall out by the handful.
Now that he had received confirmation that Ferda no longer had anything to do with him, they were strangers.
No, Erembald would instead remain the victim.
“I won’t have to get involved with that damned delinquent anymore. This will do.”
“What delinquent?”
“Gah!”
He raised his head at the familiar voice.
This was inside a carriage.
The seat across from him should have been empty.
Yet a teenage girl was sitting there.
Platinum-blond hair and blue eyes brimming with mana.
Her name was Erdes Roton.
The chairwoman of the Serdes Magic Society, a living disaster, and a magic-wielding delinquent.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
She grinned like a mischievous child.
“Tell me what you were just saying. I’m curious what you were talking about too.”
“I-I have committed a crime deserving death. I insulted you so disrespectfully—.”
“Do you think I came here to hear you make a confession over such petty gossip?”
She was actually famous for holding grudges for a very long time.
However, that was not the reason Erdes had come.
“Tell me what you discussed with the regent.”
“It was nothing important.”
“Nothing important? Then why are the regent and Waldrova’s servant traveling together?”
Erembald was startled.
“W-Where are they going?”
“I don’t know. Judging by their direction, it looks like they’re heading toward House Rosnova.”
She grinned.
“Could they be planning to personally wipe out your entire house?”
Erembald’s face went pale with shock.
Cold sweat streamed down his face.
Erdes, who had only been talking nonsense, was flustered by Erembald’s reaction instead.
“What? Why are you reacting like that?”
“It’s nothing……”
“Of course it isn’t. You reacted that way because you thought I had guessed correctly, didn’t you? You must have had a very heated conversation.”
“It was nothing. I merely spoke with the Regent of Waldrova and told him that he was no longer related to our family. He was the only one who overreacted.”
“……What?”
After hearing that, Erdes neither grinned nor grew angry.
She merely stared at Erembald with an expressionless face.
That made her even more frightening.
“As I said, I informed him that Regent Ferda has none of our blood flowing through his veins. I told him that, apart from his gray hair, he doesn’t resemble us in the slightest.”
“Mm. So you disowned him?”
“That is correct.”
“Hmm……”
After hearing his answer, Erdes only tapped her chin with her index finger.
He had to say something to break the uncomfortable silence.
“And…… it is certain that Ferda uses black magic.”
“……Why?”
“When I told him I was severing ties with him, he used black magic to create hands! He was trying to strangle me.”
Erembald continued pretending that he had not noticed what was happening.
If he had let on that he knew, he would certainly have died on the spot.
Her eyes shifted slightly.
“So did he strangle you?”
“He didn’t strangle me…… He withdrew them before that happened……”
“How commendable.”
“Y-Yes?”
Erembald was bewildered by her answer.
She hated black magic more than anyone, yet she was acting as though it did not matter at all.
“I said it was commendable that he didn’t strangle the father who wanted to sever ties with him.”
No, she was doing more than that. She was defending him.
Erembald had no choice but to ask her directly.
“What are you going to do about Regent Ferda?”
“What do you mean? I’m not going to do anything.”
“Even though he tried to kill me with black magic?”
“Yeah. Your death has nothing to do with me or anyone else, right?”
The young woman’s insolent voice was followed by a long sigh.
“Ah, I’m getting one hell of a complex from fumbling this badly. Heaven really is helping that brat~.”
Erdes rose from her seat.
“I’m sick of you. Don’t let yourself come into my sight again. If I catch you pulling any tricks, I don’t know what I’ll do to you then. Understand?”
“Yes. I will live humbly……”
She left her seat as though he was no longer worth speaking to.
The inside of Erembald’s carriage grew quiet again.
“Phew……”
Erembald unconsciously placed a hand on his neck.
Only after confirming that his neck was still attached did he let out a sigh of relief.
He did feel guilty for casting out his son, but the feeling disappeared like a passing breeze.
In any case, he could only feel relieved that he would never have to face that delinquent or that vile thing again.
* * *
The office of the chairwoman of the Serdes Magic Society.
A round gate opened, and Erdes stepped out of it.
As usual, her secretary Lu was sitting in the chairwoman’s seat and handling her work.
“Where did you go after abandoning your work again?”
Lu asked with dark circles under his eyes.
Erdes whipped her head around and glared at Lu.
Her expression was irritable.
“I went and laid the groundwork for the Far East. Why?”
“Didn’t you hate the regent?”
“Exactly. What a fucking mess. I really made a stupid move.”
Cursing profusely, Erdes threw herself onto the sofa.
It had been a good idea to entice the workers into forming a labor union and turn it into an opposing force.
But her opponent was far more powerful than she had imagined.
“Stefan Pascal? Wasn’t he clearly a nobody?”
“He’s going to become the president of the Pascal Trading Company.”
“What?”
Erdes raised her head.
Her face showed that this was the first she had heard of it.
“Since when? More importantly, weren’t there two formidable competitors?”
“What era are you talking about? The eldest daughter disappeared to a village in the west with her husband, and the eldest son caused a huge commotion trying to become independent before handing control of the mercenary company over to Stefan.”
“Why didn’t I know about that?”
“Because it was an area you were never interested in?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because it was an area you were never interested in?”
Erdes glared viciously at him.
Lu, who had been agreeing with her, wore a troubled expression.
“Uh…… Is that my fault?”
“As my secretary, shouldn’t you handle things properly and neatly on your own? Even if I say I’m not interested, you should push the information in front of me and say, ‘Please take a look, just this once.’”
“What am I, spoon-feeding a baby…… No, understood. I’ll learn mind-reading magic right away.”
Lu answered with an incredulous expression.
“And Erembald!”
He was the second thing that had irritated her.
“That bastard was such a coward. A member of a knightly family was scared of one mage?”
“The ones who weren’t scared were killed by your hands, so you should understand.”
“Even so, can he really cast out his own son?”
“Didn’t he say none of his blood flowed through the boy’s veins? Besides, he has two perfectly healthy sons. And after offering Ferda up to be used as a sacrifice, it would be rather strange for him to show paternal feelings now.”
Erdes crossed her arms and grumbled in displeasure.
“Even so, after living with him for about eighteen years, wouldn’t there still be some attachment? If it were me, I would at least have felt some bond from having lived together.”
Lu’s eyes widened in shock.
“You, Chairwoman?”
“Why? Does that bother you? Do you think you survived talking back to me because you’re so talented?”
Lu backed away with a whimper.
“Anyway, I couldn’t even find a weakness. If there had been even a little affection or bond, I could have turned it into that brat’s weakness and threatened him……”
All she had learned was how miserable his life had been.
Erdes did not like that.
“Blue.”
“Why do you call me?”
“Do I really have such a poor eye for people?”
“Have you finally opened your eyes?”
“Do you really want to die?”
“To answer seriously…… you’re not particularly good at it.”
“The Society runs well, doesn’t it? Is that because I’m good at my job?”
“If it didn’t run properly, you would cut off our heads first. It feels like it keeps running somehow because you’re so frightening.”
“Hmm, so that’s what it was. That’s what it was. I suppose I need to change while I’m at it.”
“Yes. Why not reorganize the personnel and do a complete clean sweep? Like when you brought me in.”
When Lu subtly suggested it, Erdes stared intently at his face.
“Even if you say that, I’m never going to release you from being my lifelong secretary.”
“Damn it.”
Lu, the secretary of the Magic Society’s chairwoman, failed to escape once again today.
* * *
After confessing his anxiety, Ferda returned to work.
The wound Erembald had left behind had calmed somewhat, but its aftereffects continued to circle through his mind in the form of uncertainty.
‘In any case, it is true that my power is unstable.’
The possibility that another emotion could intervene, rather than his power being moved by a single emotion, was unprecedented.
If this had been Ferda before his regression, he would have been delighted and tried to make use of it somehow.
After all, to a mage with a Red Circle, other emotions were nothing more than a brake.
Ferda understood that balance well.
‘Losing control will lead to tragedy.’
He would act against Waldrova’s wishes, and Ruri, as her servant, would make him pay for his crime.
Being killed by Ruri would undoubtedly be a tragedy.
‘But what would be even more tragic……’
Would be killing Ruri in turn when she came to kill him.
‘If I end up killing the one child Waldrova believes in…….’
The feeling of isolation Waldrova had experienced surged vividly within him.
After the Dragon-Demon War, she had lived for 150 years with guilt and loneliness.
But she had still possessed a sliver of hope.
Waldrova had known that Ruri was still on her side.
In his previous life, even she had disappeared.
That meant there had been no one in Waldrova’s life, only despair.
‘If it were me, I would have gone mad long ago.’
Yet she had not gone mad.
In the end, she had even given her heart to Ferda, who hated her.
It had been a new hope born from a final sacrifice, not an act of despair-driven surrender.
‘A woman like that…….’
How could he abandon her?
How could he hurt her?
It was as though she did not even realize that the rope thrown into the pit of despair had already rotted away.
Rather than saving her from that pit, he would only leave her with an even greater wound.
Just like……
Like the image of him strangling her in his dream.
Don’t be anxious.
At times like that, a sweet voice slipped into his ears.
There is no reason for you to worry about that.
You are strong.
Just do what you are good at.
Ferda did not answer the voice.
He ignored it again and again until it finally subsided.
‘I have to come to my senses.’
He had to steady his mind so he would not lose to such a powerful temptation.
Ferda Waldrova.
Because he was a man who had found an answer to everything, he decided to believe that he could find an answer this time as well.
‘In the worst case…….’
He could give up his life as a mage.
That would be far better than carrying a bomb that could go off at any moment.
‘If that happens, what will I have left?’
Ruri had asked one thing of Ferda.
To become a fiancé befitting Waldrova’s status.
Contrary to his belief that things would improve with time, all he had come to realize was how insignificant he was.
All he possessed was a paltry store of knowledge about the future and magic.
By the standards Ruri wanted, he was disqualified.
It was a terrible situation.
The moment he abandoned either side, the balance would collapse, and everything would fall apart.
I don’t want to give up.
Just as she had never given up on him, no matter what situation she faced.
Ferda did not want to give up on her either.
Boom!
It was then.
A tremendous vibration rang out, loud enough to shake the castle.
‘Waldrova’s blood energy?’
No.
The amplitude flowing up through his feet was different.
This vibration was coming from somewhere inside the castle.
He wondered if someone had caused a massive accident.
‘Had there been an experiment large enough to cause a vibration like this?’
Ferda rose from his seat and headed toward the research building.
The castle’s corridors were already filled with confused people.
“What is this commotion?”
“That’s what we came out to find out.”
“Was that an explosion at the laboratory over there?”
“There’s no way an explosion that large could have happened in our laboratory.”
Everyone who could have been responsible for the explosion wore a baffled expression.
Even Ferda had come assuming it must have happened in Vernel’s laboratory.
‘If it isn’t here…….’
There was only one thing capable of causing an explosion.
“Lord Ferda.”
Ruri came to report to him.
“There was a tremendous movement of magical power. The location is—.”
“The study?”
“How did you know?”
Ruri asked, narrowing her eyes.
The question in her gaze was: Ferda, was this your doing?
“If it wasn’t here, the only person who could have caused an explosion that large would be Echidna.”
This week was her turn to look after Mori.
That Echidna was probably savoring Mori in the study.
So he headed toward the study with Ruri.
When he opened the study door, he saw the interior in complete disarray.
Mori was sitting there.
She was quietly doing her work while clearing away papers that had fallen like late-autumn leaves.
The enormous explosion did not seem to concern her at all.
“Mori.”
At the sound of her name, she stopped her pen and raised her head.
Her eyes still shone with innocence, even at that moment.
No, her expression seemed strangely refreshed.
“What happened?”
Mori wrote her answer on a sheet of paper.
-Echidna has been annihilated.
It was a neat and concise summary, but its contents were extremely serious.