Chapter 17
The middle-aged servant asked back in surprise.
“Pardon? You mean you’ll take her, my lord?”
“Think about it. If what you say is true, this girl will keep failing to do what she’s told and continue like this. Then you’ll have to clean up after her again, won’t you?”
…….
The servant’s lips jutted out.
The thought that she was indeed doing that, and would continue to do so, made irritation rise within him.
“You have the authority to give that girl orders. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes, that’s right?”
“If you possess similar authority, you could order her to leave this house.”
“Hmm…… even so, she’s a child I cherish.”
“You call her a child you cherish. But think about it.”
Ferda tempted the servant.
“A jewel’s flaws are all the easier to see for how brightly it shines. In the long run, who do you think will suffer? Your master is enjoying a better life now that people call him the Water Sage. Wouldn’t covering up and correcting such a man’s flaw be the decision of a loyal servant?”
…….
The servant’s gaze changed.
Ferda’s persuasion had begun to sound strangely convincing.
The fact that he was worrying about it meant he had already been won over.
Ferda decided to deliver the finishing blow.
“I’ll help you make that decision easily.”
Ferda took out three gold coins and pressed them into the servant’s hand.
“Oh, my! Oh, my goodness……!!”
The servant’s eyes widened.
Three whole gold coins.
Even commoners who worked their entire lives tilling fields struggled to hold a single gold coin in their hands.
Having received three of them, the servant could not help but lose his head.
‘Yes, if I’m covering up my master’s flaw, someone like that brat is……!’
The servant cleared his throat, then began rubbing his hands obsequiously.
“Goodness, my lord. What can I do?”
“It’s simple. Every language possesses power. All you need to do is issue a command. Tell her to abandon her name from this moment on.”
“Oh, I understand. You brat, put that down and come here!”
The girl rose from her spot and walked over beside the servant.
“Now, you damned brat. Listen veeeery carefully.”
At the servant’s words, the girl nodded.
“From now on, you’re abandoning your name. And from now on, this gentleman will be your master. So follow him from now on. Understand?”
The girl’s eyes slowly lifted to look at Ferda.
Her unfocused, vacant eyes seemed to be asking Ferda a question.
Ferda looked into those eyes and asked,
“Will you acknowledge me as your master?”
The girl answered Ferda’s question.
Nod, nod.
“Good. That’s confirmed.”
Ferda raised his head and looked toward the middle-aged servant.
The middle-aged man was too preoccupied with touching the gold coins to pay attention to anything else.
“Since the matter has been settled, I’ll tell you one interesting fact.”
“An interesting…… fact?”
Now that he had obtained what he wanted, it was time to reveal the truth.
“Why your master cherishes the girl you cast aside so readily, despite her being incomparably foolish.”
“That’s because…… she’s pretty, isn’t it…….”
“No. Your master, Helus Fovidas, likes women with large breasts. He also likes women who giggle delightedly at his pathetic jokes. He’s a man with a terrible inferiority complex. He likes empty-headed women because he lacks the confidence to beat intelligent ones. And even if she were pretty, there is absolutely no reason for him to like a young servant who is as stiff as a piece of wood.”
The middle-aged servant’s face gradually hardened.
He could not understand why Ferda had suddenly begun speaking this way, but the context of his words seemed to be shouting that he had made a mistake.
“Would you believe me if I told you that this girl is the source of the insight your master possesses?”
“What do you mean? How could a fool this hopelessly stupid possibly…….”
Confusion appeared in his eyes.
Only then did the servant realize.
That he had been thoughtless and consumed by greed.
And that he had fallen into a trap.
With trembling hands, he held the three gold coins out again.
“I-I’d like to cancel. I’ll return the money, so please take that girl back—.”
“No. There’s no need. And even if you returned the money, you wouldn’t be able to leave here alive.”
“W-Why not?”
“You understood what I said, didn’t you? What you just heard is like peeking at the shame of a god. I hope you understand this as well.”
He had no choice but to.
Anyone who peered into a god’s shame had to die.
The servant’s face turned cold and rigid.
“I’m telling you this as a final act of goodwill. Take that money and run as far away as you can.”
Ferda offered his advice with his usual coldness.
“The moment your master catches you, you’ll disappear without a trace.”
* * *
“Do you believe humans can suddenly attain enlightenment?”
Ferda asked Luri.
Luri answered him.
“I do.”
“Why?”
“Humans may believe they live by the knowledge they accumulate over the years, but accumulation alone cannot sustain life. I believe humanity survived because there are flashes of insight that such accumulated knowledge can never catch up to.”
It was a perspective worthy of an immortal’s servant.
“That is true to an extent. But it is also wrong.”
“Which part is wrong?”
“They say you can’t dig a well in a place without an underground water vein, no matter how many days you dig. No matter how much one has realized, wisdom that wasn’t there cannot suddenly spring forth.”
Ferda looked down at the name on the list.
Helus Fovidas.
“This man is the same.”
“Then do you mean that the Water Sage is a figurehead……”
Luri turned her gaze aside.
A blonde girl about as tall as Luri stood demurely nearby.
Her eyes had no focus, and her vacant expression was exactly the sort that invited people to call her dim-witted.
“You mean this vacant little girl is the source?”
Ferda said, making a show of tugging on an invisible leash.
“Have you ever heard of a slave sage?”
Humanity stores and compresses knowledge, learning from the past to open up the future.
That was what it was called in Ferda’s world, where people did not rely on throwing themselves directly against problems.
Predicting the unpredictable and controlling the uncontrollable.
That was the core of those who pursued knowledge, and they advanced toward it by following their own methods.
By combining knowledge with knowledge to derive new conclusions.
By unearthing lost technologies through exploration and investigation.
Or by begging a god for the answers they desired.
And by stepping into forbidden realms where no one should set foot.
‘Of all those methods, the most effective is still the forbidden realm.’
Peeking at the shame of a god—not watching it smile or kissing it.
The girl Ferda had brought with him was also someone who had stepped into a forbidden realm.
The wisdom needed to possess knowledge capable of shaking the world demanded an enormous price, and that price was remarkably simple.
‘Who am I?’
She became unable to ask herself that question.
It was an absurdly simple question, yet it was everything.
Knowing who one was was connected to what one lived for, and what one lived for led to action.
But at the same time, being unable to think that thought was what allowed her to survive.
Ultimate knowledge and wisdom that could neither move nor think for itself.
The ultimate tool.
“That is how a slave sage is born.”
“Losing yourself in exchange for power…… What a foolish choice.”
“Yes, it truly is a foolish choice.”
Ferda muttered as though the thought tasted bitter.
Luri could not understand why he wore such an expression.
“Then what forbidden thing did she obtain to become like this?”
“It’s simple.”
Ferda lightly tapped the girl’s head.
“The Library of All Things.”
“The Library of All Things?”
“Would you believe that this tiny head contains more books than Escolleia’s Library?”
…….
Luri glanced at the girl.
She possessed not even a speck of magic, nor any ominous aura—just an ordinary girl.
If Luri had encountered her on the roadside, she would have thought her an idiot and passed her by without a second glance.
To think she contained more books than the Library of All Things, known as the collective of human intellect.
It was hard to believe, but Luri did not object.
The one who had made the choice was Ferda, after all, and it was his concern to bear.
“Look at me.”
Ferda gave the girl an order.
The girl’s eyes stared at Ferda.
“Before giving you a name, I will give you a command of the highest priority.”
Ferda spoke to her, enunciating every syllable.
“This command will be remembered as your breath and your heartbeat, and will become an immutable truth.”
She nodded.
Ferda commanded her as though reciting a spell.
“The Red Dragon, Grand Duke Valdrowa, ruler of great power, shall be the beginning and end of your existence. You shall devote your entire life to him.”
She nodded.
“I, Ferda Valdrowa, as the Grand Duke of Valdrowa’s proxy, possess the authority to command you and shall issue orders to you.”
She nodded.
“However, you may object if you act contrary to the Grand Duke of Valdrowa’s beliefs or oppose him. If you ultimately fail to understand……”
After a very brief silence, he spoke again.
“As a last resort, you are permitted to rebel. Have you remembered everything?”
She nodded.
“Good. From now on, your name is Mori.”
The girl was given the name Mori.
A strange vitality began to stir in her eyes.
* * *
“Except for Marquis Vernel, you’ve succeeded in recruiting everyone.”
Valdrowa Castle’s office.
“He’ll come soon enough.”
“Are you certain?”
“If he doesn’t come even after I’ve said that, then I’ll have to give up as well.”
There was no obsession or fervor that insisted he had to have them no matter what.
It felt as though he simply allowed connections that flowed like time to keep flowing.
‘That’s no different from the actions of immortals.’
Even Luri, who could clearly distinguish between the two, was confused.
Luri looked down at a sheet of paper with four names and four lines drawn beneath them.
“So are these four the end for now?”
Ferda shook his head.
“Actually, there’s one more.”
“Who is it?”
Ferda wrote down the name of the person he had already been considering.
-Luri Valdrowa.
“You.”
Ferda said it plainly.
Luri felt genuine disgust.
“I have no intention of taking your side. Don’t get the wrong idea just because we’ve become a little closer.”
Ferda did not overlook her loyalty.
“That’s fine. It isn’t what I want, either. Rather, I want something closer to you keeping watch over me and hating me just as you did before.”
“……What is that supposed to mean?”
“If Mori were to lead a rebellion, you would have to stand at its vanguard.”
…….
Luri’s expression hardened.
She was even more shaken than when she had heard herself called an aide.
“Does that mean…… I have to kill you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Ferda answered.
“Unlike immortal beings such as dragons, humans are destined to die someday.”
……!
Luri unconsciously clenched her fist.
They were words she had once spoken to Valdrowa.
“Because we will one day die, we change, and our vision grows clouded. When that happens to me, I may make excuses about doing it for the Grand Duke while merely satisfying my own greed.”
His eyes twisted with a strangely sorrowful expression.
They slowly rose and turned toward Luri.
His blue eyes gazed at her, filled with profound emotion.
Luri could clearly feel it.
“Therefore, you, his servant, must watch over me.”
This man was prepared to sacrifice even his own life.
“So that my king, my fiancé, will not be hurt.”
Luri struggled to speak through her trembling lips.
“……You’re talking like those humans who don’t know their place.”
The venomous words slipped out before she could stop them.
Luri nodded at the proposal and answered,
“I understand. Hearing you out, I think I can do at least that much.”
“Thank you. As expected of a loyal dragon spawn.”
“However, I believe there is one thing you do not know, so allow me to correct you.”
Luri erased the surname portion of her name.
That meant she was not Valdrowa’s spawn.
“My true name is this.”
-Luri Silverwind.
“Then I shall take my leave……”
Luri left the office, and Ferda silently looked down at her name.
‘Unexpected.’
The surname Luri had written gave Ferda quite a shock.
After completing the Ascension Ceremony, a dragon spawn received that dragon’s name as a surname.
Just as Ferda had gone from Rosnova to Valdrowa, Luri, too, bore the surname of the one she had inherited from.
She was not Valdrowa, but Silverwind.
‘That means she’s a Silver Dragon spawn.’
It was something he could have realized if he had thought about it carefully.
The mobility to move in the blink of an eye.
Wind-element magic.
All of it was possible if she had inherited the blood of a Silver Dragon.
But that could not be the case, because in Ferda’s mind, the pieces did not fit together.
For one thing,
‘Silverwind was killed by Valdrowa.’
After killing Godwin, the Black Dragon, Valdrowa had gone berserk.
Someone had sacrificed their life to stop him, and that someone had been Silverwind, the Silver Dragon.
‘That made them as good as sworn enemies.’
Valdrowa had become an evil dragon in part because the influence of Silverwind’s faction had been so strong.
He commanded many spawns and was greatly respected.
‘A Silver Dragon spawn swore loyalty to a Red Dragon…….’
Ferda rested a hand on the armrest and tapped his chin.
‘Does that mean she’s only pretending to be loyal?’
Ferda immediately rejected the thought.
‘Luri is more loyal than anyone.’
There was no room for doubt.
She had taken care of everything for her solitary master, something she could not have done out of mere duty.
‘Does that mean she is rejecting her blood as a Silver Dragon spawn?’
He rejected that possibility as well.
Blood was thicker than water.
That saying was even more absolute in dragon society than in human society.
‘I can’t tell.’
Ferda retraced the events of his future.
Thinking about it, there were several things that bothered him.
It had been when he went to kill Valdrowa.
‘Luri wasn’t there then.’
The castle they had built was half-destroyed, and the only one in the lair was Valdrowa, who seemed to be waiting only for death.
Luri had not appeared even as she was dying.
‘I wish I knew why, but…….’
It had been outside Ferda’s area of interest back then, so there was no way for him to know.
For now, all he knew was that she was utterly loyal, yet would one day turn her back on Valdrowa.
‘Maybe it’s something I need to know.’
Whether he liked it or not, it would certainly bring sorrow to his partner someday, so Ferda did not hesitate.
* * *
The next day, a carriage arrived in front of Valdrowa Castle.
Marquis Vernel had arrived.
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance