Chapter 113
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The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
A sudden murder.
The silence lasted only a moment before everyone fell into a panic.
“H, huh?!”
“T-The Regent has committed murder…!!”
He had killed someone without hesitation in front of everyone.
Amid that chaos, only Ferda remained unconcerned.
He merely stared down at the woman he had killed.
“This is a terrible waste of time.”
The woman did not move.
That was only natural.
How could she move with her forehead pierced between the eyebrows?
While everyone faltered at Ferda’s sudden action,
only Ferda remained calm and decisive.
“Stop the pointless act, witch. It must be difficult for you to keep lying there like that.”
At that moment, the body everyone had believed to be dead began to twitch.
“Huh?!”
“T-The corpse is moving!”
It rose to its feet, twitching unnaturally like an improperly assembled marionette.
With its forehead still pierced, the figure opened its mouth.
“……How did he know?”
An awkward smile spread across the frightened woman’s face.
Crack—.
A moment later, her form began to split apart.
Her skin sloughed off as though she were shedding a husk, exposing the flesh within.
White-scaled hair, vertically slit pupils, and a staff shaped like two snakes entwined around each other.
A snake’s tongue poked from her mouth and flicked about.
Her identity was immediately apparent.
“Yord, the Snake Witch!”
“A witch has infiltrated our castle!”
The people who had been kneeling scrambled backward in terror.
In an instant, a circular space opened up around the witch and Ferda.
‘Yord Philiaz.’
Ferda knew that name as well.
She was one of the most infamous witches of all.
As befitted a powerful witch, her magical power was dense.
And in proportion to its density, that magic ruthlessly pressed down on everything around her.
The witch lifted the hem of her skirt and gave him a playful bow.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Regent Valdrova.”
Her voice was not rough, but clear and high-pitched.
Yet it was saturated with malice.
“You’re the first person to pierce my forehead the moment we met. As the dragon’s consort, shouldn’t you treat me with a little more dignity?”
“Don’t be melodramatic. If I had wanted to kill you, I would have used another method.”
“Oh my, how brave. I make a hobby of tearing out the hearts of brave humans like you……”
She licked her blade-like fingernails.
“Are you trying to indulge that hobby?”
Before he had even finished speaking, Yord’s form disappeared.
No, something moving too quickly for the eye to follow had flown at her and struck.
It was Luri.
She had pinned Yord down by pressing a foot against her neck.
“Your heart will be torn out first, witch.”
Luri growled.
But the witch was not flustered.
Instead, she merely looked up as though she found Luri adorable.
“What a cute little clingy miss. Try to tone down that temper and live a more easygoing life. Isn’t that how you become an adult?”
Then she cast a sidelong glance beneath the girl’s skirt and smiled in satisfaction.
“You’re pretty cute.”
“You crazy bitch—.”
“Enough.”
Just as Luri’s fist was about to smash the witch’s mouth, Ferda stepped in to stop her.
“I don’t have time to play with you, Yord Philiaz.”
Ferda crooked a finger.
“Stop trying to fish for information with pointless provocations. Just deliver Big Sister’s message and get out of here.”
Yord narrowed her eyes at his words.
She had been making exaggerated gestures, but now she looked genuinely surprised.
“Let’s set aside the fact that you know I was fishing for information. How did you know that?”
“Because it ended too cleanly despite what happened to Echidna.”
A witch and a demon.
People entangled with either of those two were usually made to suffer horribly.
“It’s your job to pursue and curse forever any human who kills a witch, isn’t it?”
“Hmm…… What a foolish thing to say. You do know that Echidna was excommunicated, don’t you?”
“If a witch has a pretext, what is there that she cannot do?”
“Heh heh, that’s true.”
At that moment, the form of Yord that Luri had pinned down scattered into dozens of snakes.
Yord emerged from the crowd as though nothing had happened.
“Our Regent knows far too much about witches for no reason.”
She frowned as though she found it boring.
“Anyway, I’ll deliver Big Sister’s message.”
One of the snakes on Yord’s staff writhed and spat out something long.
It was a sealed scroll.
Yord cleared her throat and recited its contents.
“I hereby proclaim that Ferda Valdrova has been invited by Lucy Philiaz, the pillar of Philiaz’s roots and the mother of witches, Big Sister, and is obligated to accept this invitation.”
She playfully imitated a royal envoy as she tilted the invitation she had brought toward Ferda.
“When you unfold this invitation, you’ll arrive directly in the Witch’s Garden.”
Then, as though she had just remembered something, she smiled and added one more thing.
“There’s no trap.”
Ferda quietly looked down at the invitation.
“You mustn’t accept it.”
Luri held on to him from the side.
“Clingy miss, sorry, but this is an adults’ conversation. Could you leave us alone?”
“Shut up, witch.”
Luri’s expression grew even fiercer.
A level of anger and disgust entirely different from before was visible in it.
“Know that the only reason your mouth hasn’t been torn apart yet is because I’m exercising patience.”
“Oh my, how frightening. But this big sister’s mouth is already torn open. Would you like to see?”
The skin around her mouth split open with a crack, revealing an interior large enough to engulf a human head.
“Eeeek!”
The people who saw the witch’s grotesque appearance recoiled in horror, and Yord cackled in satisfaction.
Without sharing their reaction, Ferda merely continued looking down at the invitation.
“Why should I go?”
Ferda asked her.
Yord answered with a smile in her eyes.
“Because Echidna died while touching a rune you created.”
It was a simple answer, and one he already knew.
“That’s enough.”
“Are you serious?”
Luri turned her head at Ferda’s answer.
She was so startled that the searing killing intent immediately vanished.
“She’s a witch. The leader of them, no less. They hate men and use them as playthings, yet you believe what she says?”
“Oh my, that’s a hurtful way to put it. We have feelings too, you know?”
After making exaggerated gestures at Luri’s words, Yord stole a glance at Ferda.
Her eyes glittered with curiosity.
“But I’m curious too. What are you relying on to act that way?”
Ferda accepted the invitation without saying a word.
Yord shrugged.
“Whatever. Come alone. Well, you couldn’t bring anyone else even if you wanted to, but I’m telling you so you don’t make a pointless effort. Then……”
Her eyes turned toward someone.
It was Zed.
When she saw him, she smiled brightly.
“Handsome little Swallow boy. How have you been?”
“Oh, I’ve been doing well. How have you been, big sis?”
“Hoho, when did we ever meet for you to call me that? It does feel nice coming from such a handsome boy, though.”
Unlike her smiling eyes, her killing intent was palpable.
“You know, don’t you? There are enough women holding grudges against you to fill a bowl.”
“Haha, I know, but I’d rather not worry about it.”
“That’s right, that’s right. Don’t worry about it. That way, when you let your guard down, I can kill you in the most painful way possible. Please live like that forever.”
She crooked a finger at Zed.
“Then, adieu~.”
Her form sank into the floor and disappeared completely.
The people looked at one another and sighed in relief amid the silence the witch had left behind.
Everyone returned to their work, but the two of them remained where they were.
Ferda stood there, quietly looking down at the invitation.
“You mustn’t go.”
Luri stopped Ferda again.
“Do you know where you’re going?”
“The Witch’s Garden.”
The Witch’s Garden.
A space for every witch who was born, given the name Philiaz, and became a witch.
Having been summoned by Lucy Philiaz, he would have to go there.
“Do you even know where that Witch’s Garden is?”
Limbo.
A space between dimensions.
It was a place where passage through that tiny gap took but an instant, beyond the perception of ordinary humans.
Lucy Philiaz, the first witch, had built the witches’ home in that place.
“If Lord Ferda enters, you may not be able to return.”
“That won’t happen.”
“Why are you so certain?”
“Because she formally invited me into her domain.”
Ferda knew witches well.
They had rules of their own, and the Witch’s Garden was sacred territory.
They could not use that sacred territory as a trap of hatred and loathing.
Even if the man in question was someone they hated.
“And I have to get Echidna back.”
“That witch isn’t important.”
Luri could not understand.
The way he spoke made it seem as though he was risking his life for a single witch, despite having said he intended to live for Valdrova.
“If you fall into a trap and die, Lady Valdrova will be left alone.”
Ferda wavered slightly at those words.
Because he could picture her alone.
“Please don’t forget your position.”
However, as her words continued, Ferda realized something.
My position.
‘My position is…….’
That he was still not good enough to stand at her side.
Ferda unfolded the invitation.
* * *
He felt as though he were being sucked in.
His body was being disassembled.
From his body into chunks.
From chunks into molecules.
From molecules into atoms.
He could even feel those atoms being split apart.
It was a sensation that ordinary humans, and even mages, would have difficulty enduring while remaining sane.
Ferda was no exception.
Even to a four-star mage recognized as a proper mage, his instincts kept screaming that this was fatal.
Yet despite the alarm, Ferda’s body was transmitted safely.
‘Incredible.’
Limbo was a tiny space between spaces.
A space that neither existed nor could be perceived—and because it did not exist, was infinite.
To pinpoint its location and transmit someone there intact was something Ferda could never accomplish.
It was proof of how long the witches had lived within Limbo, understood it, and made use of it.
At the same time, it was proof that although witches were described as a scourge, they could not be eradicated from the continent of Serdes.
Ferda opened his eyes.
A sky of vivid colors rippled chaotically above him.
Below it lay dark, damp grass and a narrow path.
At the end of the path stood a wall of thorn bushes and black roses.
Ferda followed the path.
An unusual wooden gate stood before him, welcoming him in.
It was a style of eastern architecture that existed only in records.
-Hoh?
A voice rang throughout the entire garden.
Ferda knew that voice.
It belonged to Lucy Philiaz.
-The invitation arrived less than an hour ago—no, not even ten minutes ago, and you opened it right away? What an impatient fellow. Or are you that confident in your abilities?
She let out a laugh.
Creak—.
The gate leading into the garden opened.
-Either way, I want to see your face, dear. Come in quickly.
A building in an unfamiliar style, hidden from view by the gate, came into sight.
It was called the Rose Pavilion.
-Oh my, he really came.
-The man known as the dragon’s consort has entered the witches’ domain.
A frivolous voice rang throughout the Witch’s Garden.
Soon, another deep voice guided Ferda onward.
-Come closer, dear.
Ferda took a step forward.
As an invited guest, he proceeded with proper courtesy, and as the Red Dragon’s consort, he advanced while maintaining his dignity.
When he climbed the pavilion and entered through the doorway, the people welcoming him were women sitting close together around the gazebo.
Their clothes were all different, but every one of them concealed her face behind a black veil.
That was the etiquette of the witches belonging to the Witch’s Garden.
Of them, only one woman—the one seated in the highest place at the center—stood apart in position.
From her silhouette alone, he could infer only that her build was similar to Luri’s or Mori’s.
The way she sat on a long wooden bench with a pipe between her lips suggested the mannerisms of someone advanced in years.
The mistress of the Rose Pavilion.
The mother of all witches.
Big Sister.
She was Lucy Philiaz.
Although a black cloth covered her face, Ferda could feel her gaze sweeping over his entire body.
“You’re rather delicate for someone whose actions are so brave.”
The weight of her presence was on an entirely different level from Luri’s, despite their similar builds.
“Welcome to this girl’s garden, dear.”
Ferda answered her.
“Thank you for inviting me, Big Sister.”
“Oh my, you’re not using honorifics in front of Big Sister?”
“You must be dying to be cursed.”
“Shall I be the one to grant your wish, brat?”
The witches’ voices were edged with hostility.
“Silence.”
At Lucy’s short command, the witches stilled even their breathing.
“This girl apologizes in their stead. My children have many grudges against men.”
“I don’t mind. If I was rude instead, I apologize. Should I use honorifics?”
“There’s no need.”
Pure white smoke poured out from between the veil.
“Hearing honorifics from a monster like you would only make me uncomfortable.”
“Monster?”
“Did that offend you? Yes, I suppose it must be rather upsetting to hear such a thing from me when you’re only nineteen.”
She chuckled and exhaled more tobacco smoke.
“But these eyes watching you see far more than you might expect.”
He understood why her gaze felt so unsettling.
Those eyes were literally seeing straight through Ferda.
“It is the insight one gains from living a long time. Among other things, this girl can see how many people you have killed.”
Lucy’s head tilted to the left.
“So many people have died in your eyes.”
“……”
Did she mean only the people he had killed since returning to the past?
Even so, he had killed many people, but the word monster as she used it did not fit his current self.
‘A monster…….’
Yes, he had been a monster.
He had hated people to keep his hatred alive.
He had been hated by just as many people, and had killed even more.
He had left no one alive—not even those who did not need to be sacrificed—unless they posed no great threat in the future.
The Ferda of that time had indeed been a monster.
‘Is that karmic burden something even time cannot turn back?’
Was it because such feelings did not change even when time was turned back?
Was that why a voice still remained within Ferda’s body?
Amid these questions, another question he wanted to ask suddenly occurred to him.
“Do you know whom I killed?”
Lucy Philiaz herself was among those countless victims.