Chapter 126
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The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
Ferda moved while holding Valdrova's hand.
For now, the only words that came to mind were “a quiet place.”
Ferda was heading toward that quiet place.
They arrived at the castle's garden.
Beautifully illuminated by moonlight, it was a suitable place for a tryst.
Perhaps because the ball was in full swing, there was no one in the garden.
A dry spring breeze brushed against their skin.
His forehead felt cold.
Cold sweat had beaded across it.
Valdrova carefully released Ferda's hand and walked forward.
After walking about four steps, she squatted down and buried her face in her knees.
As though a young lady were weeping bitterly.
“……Sniff.”
A sniff rippled through the silence.
The Shadow Circle was stirring at that sound.
The regret that had split off from him was stirring in Ferda's chest.
Ferda wanted to look away from her sorrowful figure, but he forced himself to look.
Just as this woman had faced her situation, he could not avoid it either.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry for making you sad.
The words came out strangely easily.
The sound of her sniffing and swallowing only tightened his throat.
“Mr. Ferda……”
Valdrova was the first to speak.
“Please speak.”
“……Did you hear?”
“What do you mean?”
“The voices.”
She rubbed her eyes with both wrists.
“The voices whispering while looking at me.”
Whispering voices?
Ferda had not heard them.
“Didn’t you hear them cursing me as a murderer and whispering about me……?”
Ferda clenched his fists.
Valdrova's hearing was far superior to a human's.
Someone who could hear even the faint flutter of a tiny fly's wings would surely be able to hear such murmuring.
Anger enveloped his entire body.
How dare they make such remarks after setting foot on the Grand Duchess's land?
Who on earth was it?
I don't care what family they belong to.
If I find out, I'll kill them myself.
-Don't hesitate.
-They insulted your woman.
A voice rang in Ferda's ears.
The Shadow Circle had not moved, but it was urging Ferda to act.
That meant this would lead to regret.
‘Is this a dangerous thought?’
Ferda forcibly cooled his head.
If he let his emotions seize him, they would lead to a mistake, and the mistake would grow like a snowball rolling down from the summit.
By watching himself from a distance, even if only briefly, he regained his reason.
‘Even if they lack sense, they can't be fools.’
If their badmouthing the host ended with nothing worse than decapitation, he would be lucky; it could even lead to the destruction of the territory.
If they had been young ladies and young noblemen who could not distinguish right from wrong, he would never have brought them before all the nobles.
To say nothing of a dragon.
A dragon they might never have the chance to see even once in their lives, an evil dragon known for its ferocity.
There was no way they would have the nerve to say such things.
So he answered as follows.
“I didn’t hear anything.”
Valdrova pressed a hand to her chest in relief.
“Thank goodness. I suppose I was hearing things again.”
“What do you mean by ‘again’……?”
“It’s just…… I always hear voices when I go where people are. They curse me as a murderer and a mass murderer…… and scream at me.”
She took a deep breath.
“Still…… I thought things might be a little better than they were before.”
Ferda did not know this, but Valdrova had been helping with the construction of the village.
There had been no problem then.
That was because she had been wearing ordinary armor rather than being Valdrova, merely one armored knight wielding superhuman strength.
They respected and admired the armored knight like a knight from a story.
“But it turns out that wasn’t the case.”
The armored knight and Valdrova could never be the same.
The labels from her past clung to her, and she could feel them in the gazes of others.
Murderer, mass murderer, a flame that burned everything to ashes.
Evil dragon, evil dragon, evil dragon……
“That isn’t true. People don’t insult Your Highness. That incident is too old for humans.”
It had happened a full 150 years ago.
Aside from high-ranking mages like Erdes, almost no one who had lived then was still alive.
“I know. I know they can’t say things like that to my face. But…… what if…….”
Her voice trembled with tears and emotion.
“If someone really did say something like that to me, I……”
Swallowing back a surge of emotion, she could not bring herself to finish her sentence.
She swallowed down the choked sounds again and again before speaking.
“That’s why I only wanted to watch from a distance.”
The image appeared vividly before Ferda's eyes.
Her watching from outside the window, from far away so that she would not be discovered.
In the very place he had wanted to create for her, she had become an outsider.
“I only wanted to watch Mr. Ferda standing in the banquet hall…… but…… then I suddenly saw you asking that…… woman named Olivia to dance.”
As expected.
That was what had set everything off.
“Princess Arken means nothing to me. Asking her to dance was merely my duty as the host.”
Ferda said this firmly.
He hoped his sincerity would reach her, but it was not enough to ease her sorrow.
“But you looked so good together.”
“Olivia Arken means nothing to me compared to you.”
“No!”
Valdrova flared up and raised her voice.
“The Imperial princess is smart, elegant, refined, smiles beautifully, and is the kind of woman everyone admires!”
“……”
“Look at this fool who finally worked up the courage! Look at me! I’m wearing a mask like this…… I can’t even show my face to people…… I can’t show it even to my fiancé…… and I even went and became vulgarly jealous…… And……”
Valdrova covered her eyes with her hands.
“I can only cry like this……”
“……”
“I even danced so foolishly that I trampled on Mr. Ferda's feet several times……”
The reason she was this sad was not that she thought Ferda had betrayed her.
It was self-loathing that came from blaming everything on herself.
Ferda's scandal with Olivia was her own fault for being so pathetic.
Her inability to dance was her fault too.
Her self-esteem had plummeted after she was isolated in a severed world, and it sank further with every mistake that followed.
Ferda knew that she was hurting.
It was Ferda's responsibility to embrace that pain.
‘In a place where even taking one step is difficult……’
Ferda had dragged her out of it.
To prevent a useless rumor, he had burdened this woman, who knew nothing, with a terrible weight on her heart.
I am the worst fiancé.
“Iorga was right. I’m a child who ruins everything I touch.”
“That isn’t true. It is not true that Your Highness ruins everything.”
“You don’t have to say things you don’t mean.”
“I mean it sincerely.”
Ferda took a step forward.
“You said that you didn’t know what would happen if you let go of this hand.”
“……”
“I didn’t let go. You didn’t let go either. So what happened?”
“……”
“You didn’t run away, and you didn’t let out an undignified scream.”
“……”
“You ruined nothing. As a great dragon and as Grand Duchess, you maintained your dignity.”
That seemed to comfort her.
Her sobbing gradually subsided.
“Still, our dance may really have been foolish.”
“Uu……”
“But at least no one would have thought Your Highness was a fool.”
“……Why?”
Ferda answered calmly.
“Because I flapped around like a chicken in a burning coop.”
“Pfft……!”
Laughter burst from her tearful voice.
The garden fell as silent as if its breath had stopped, then Valdrova turned her head.
All he could see was a white mask, but he knew there was no longer any sorrow behind it.
“We must both have looked foolish.”
“That’s right.”
“A fool and a fool.”
“Yes.”
The sobbing disappeared, and before he knew it, laughter was spilling out.
The gloomy atmosphere vanished.
Valdrova rose, and Ferda gently approached her side.
“Mr. Ferda……”
Ferda turned his head.
She looked up at him from her small frame.
“Do you want to see my face……?”
Very much.
“There are only the two of us here…… and you always want to see my face…… so I think it might be all right to show you today……”
She made a shy gesture as she tried to remove her mask.
Behind it was the face of Valdrova Ferda had only ever imagined.
Her face as seen with his own eyes, not one conjured by imagination.
“No.”
Ferda reflexively caught the hand reaching to remove her mask.
Valdrova was flustered.
“Why?”
Why?
His body had moved on its own, so Ferda did not properly know the reason either.
He thought about the question himself.
Then he found the answer.
“You still have tears in your eyes, don’t you?”
“Probably……?”
“Then you mustn’t.”
The first time they'd met, she'd been crying.
Ferda did not want his next sight of that face filled with tears.
“I must look pathetic when I cry, don’t I?”
The mood turned subdued.
That was not it.
If that had been the reason, he would have beaten himself senseless.
Ferda racked his brain.
He wondered whether there was a suitable excuse, then suddenly remembered something Zed had said.
“My knight said that if he saw me crying the first time, he ought to see me smiling the second time. You were crying when we first met, weren’t you?”
“Oh…… yes, I was, wasn’t I?”
“Then this time, it should be a smiling face.”
“I-I see.”
After hearing that, Valdrova stopped trying to remove her mask.
Perhaps it was because Ferda looked so desperate that she accepted it as the reason.
Even so, she was terribly curious about it.
“Then what happens when you see me smiling?”
Ferda answered.
“They say we’ll live together for a hundred years.”
He had expected her to be happy or embarrassed, but what came from her lips was disappointment.
“Only a hundred years……?”
“What?”
“If love lasts only a hundred years…… it seems so sad…….”
What a foolish thing to say……
But for a moment, he had forgotten that Valdrova's sense of time was different.
A hundred years was practically a lifetime to humans, but to her, it must have felt closer to a year.
So to Valdrova, it must have sounded as though he was suggesting they spend only one year together.
Perhaps thinking that would not do, she asked in a suddenly serious voice,
“Then, you see.”
“Yes.”
“If I smile more brightly, could it last longer than a hundred years?”
Ferda was momentarily at a loss for words.
Valdrova continued asking in an innocent voice,
“Would a thousand years be possible?”
She shook her head rapidly.
“No, even a thousand years is too little. I think it should be around ten thousand years.”
“……It should be possible.”
Ferda answered while dazed.
But Valdrova seemed to brighten.
“Then I’ll prepare so I can smile really brightly. Because I…… want to live together with you for ten thousand years, Mr. Ferda.”
A woman who would look only at the finger if someone pointed at the moon.
Even in her utter foolishness, Ferda found her incredibly lovable.
The Shadow Circle no longer moved.
Instead, the Red Circle was spinning wildly of its own accord.
Ferda had to suppress his feelings as much as possible so that they would not run wild and ruin the mood.
It was painful.
It hurt unbearably to be happy.
Ferda had never imagined he would feel this way.
As though she had sensed his feelings, the smiling woman suddenly turned her head and looked up at the sky.
“The moon…… is beautiful.”
“I hear tonight is when the moon is largest.”
“I-is that so?”
The mood suddenly grew awkward.
It did not seem as though she had intended to start a conversation like this.
He must have caught her case of foolishness.
“Moonlight Step……”
“Yes.”
“They say it’s most beautiful when danced beneath the moonlight……”
“I see……?”
Even a fool could understand what she was saying.
Valdrova's hands fidgeted.
The hand he had left at his side kept fidgeting too.
Neither of them could bring themselves to say it outright.
Inviting her to dance was naturally Ferda's role.
But there was a reason he could not rashly ask her to dance.
Ferda was poor at dancing.
Olivia was skilled enough to dance while humming a song, but he was not.
For Ferda to dance beneath this moon, he needed music at the very least.
Just as she seemed to be hoping for another chance,
Ferda, too, did not want to make a mistake with the opportunity he had seized.
Then it happened.
The beautiful sound of a violin floated on the night wind.
Ferda subtly turned his head toward the source of the sound.
There, he saw a tall, long-limbed figure playing the violin.
It was Zed.
He was playing the violin with great skill.
Yet a violin alone wasn't enough to carry the melody.
Soon, the sound of a flute joined in to fill the gap and harmonize as a duet.
A woman seated beside Zed was playing the instrument.
‘Garnet.’
The music they created in harmony was a waltz called ‘Moonlight.’
The dance derived from that piece was the Moonlight Step.
The timing was uncanny.
They had been talking about the Moonlight Step just moments ago, and now he was suddenly playing ‘Moonlight.’
‘So he’s been listening to everything.’
Come to think of it, this was the place they had hidden away in order to blackmail the young ladies and young noblemen, wasn’t it?
It was only natural that they had heard Ferda and Valdrova's conversation.
‘Does it matter?’
Rather than feel offended, Ferda focused on the message Zed was sending him.
As a knight, Zed was pushing him forward.
Ferda had to seize the opportunity.
“Grand Duchess Valdrova.”
This was a chance to make up for the mistakes they had both made.
“Would you please dance with me?”
And a chance for the two of them to be together.
Valdrova answered as brightly as the morning sun.
“Yes……!”
Their hands met once more.
Excitement settled in.
The sound of their beating hearts enlivened the atmosphere, and his fingers savored the feel of her skin.
Beneath the moonlight, the two of them surrendered themselves to the beautiful melody and danced.
Even if the social gathering at the Beginning-of-Spring Festival had become a complete mess,
Even if their clumsy dancing had been exposed to everyone,
They were perfect for each other in a place no one knew about,
And that was enough for them.
When the melody of ‘Moonlight’ came to an end, they finished with a bow to each other.
They released each other's hands, but their gazes lingered wistfully on one another.
“Mr. Ferda.”
“Yes.”
“I think I should…… go now……”
“Is that so?”
Her folded hands, lowered together, fidgeted.
“It’s not that I don’t want to see you…… It’s just that I still can’t control myself right now……”
Ferda found it just as unbearable.
He wanted only to breathe alone and savor the lingering afterglow.
Contrary to those feelings, his body did not move easily.
Their hands moved awkwardly, and it took considerable effort and time before their fingertips finally separated.
“Please return safely.”
“Yes.”
She went toward the cliff at the edge of the garden.
Ferda thought it would be improper to watch Valdrova fall, so he turned away.
Let's head back to the social hall.
“Mr. Ferda!”
Valdrova's voice, filled with courage, stopped him.
Ferda turned around.
She stood on the railing with the moon above her head.
Having readied herself to fall at any moment, she reached toward her face.
She removed her mask.
At that moment, the black-and-blue backdrop was instantly filled with color.
Ferda was overwhelmed by the unreal, supernatural moment.
Ferda tried to choose the right word for what he was seeing before him.
Yes.
It was the sun.