Could It Work?

Storeus left the castle and walked down the corridor.

He could have gone out onto the balcony, transformed into a dragon, and left, but Storeus deliberately chose not to.

There was someone he wanted to run into, even if it meant meeting him here.

And, as luck would have it, that person came into view.

He had never heard what the man looked like, nor was he curious, but he knew the moment they met.

Gray hair and blue eyes.

That upright sardine was the man called Ferda.

Ferda greeted him politely first.

“I greet the Great Aspect of Lightning, Storeus.”

Storeus looked down at him and spoke.

“So it was you. The one called Ferda.”

“I am deeply honored that you recognize me.”

“You certainly have a talent for spouting things you don’t mean.”

Storeus extended his aura and tried to crush him beneath it.

But Ferda’s expression did not change in the slightest.

He faced Storeus without showing even a hint of strain.

“I heard the captain’s fiancé was a sickly little thing, but you’re beyond anything I imagined…… You’re going to crawl into the Demon Lands in that body?”

“……”

“You don’t seem to know what kind of dragon your fiancée is, you insignificant thing.”

“How much can anyone truly know about another person, no matter how long they have known them?”

“At least I know a face you don’t.”

Despite the obvious intent to provoke him, Storeus could not keep his emotions from stirring.

“You’re nothing more than a plaything enjoying yourself in the unstoppable flow of time. Do you think you can handle that? How long do you think you and Valdrova will really last?”

“Ten thousand years.”

“Ten thousand years?”

“Yes.”

Ferda answered without hesitation.

“She said she wanted to spend ten thousand years with me, so I will spend ten thousand years with her.”

Storeus stared at him as though he could not believe his ears.

What was even more absurd was that Ferda was not throwing out those words out of spite.

There seemed to be a resolve in his eyes to live a life approaching immortality.

“……I thought you might be a little different, but I suppose birds of a feather really do flock together?”

He laughed as though the whole thing were ridiculous.

The one who had been tormenting Ferda with Dragon Fear withdrew it.

“I heard you’re aiming for the emperor’s neck, brat.”

“I have no need for the emperor’s neck.”

“You’ll have to do that if you want to bring down the empire.”

Storeus spoke with absolute certainty.

“Olivia will come looking for you soon. Help her.”

With that, Storeus left.

The warning thrown out by that impossibly arrogant dragon was strangely weighty.

* * *

After the Flint expedition returned, they took time to reorganize.

Erika quickly distributed the expedition’s spoils.

Immediate rewards usually led to a loss of motivation, but under the circumstances, it was the best choice.

They needed more adventurers, so she encouraged everyone to display the items recovered from the mysterious eastern lands.

The adventurers boasted about them to the merchants, filling everyone with anticipation.

They became bait to lure in adventurers and merchants who wanted to get even a scrap before the place became the talk of the town.

“For now, the other adventurers say they’re willing to participate again.”

“They must have had a rough time, but they haven’t been discouraged.”

“The rough treatment isn’t the issue. This was a huge success for an adventure!”

The reasons it was such a great success were much the same as those she had explained at the beginning.

First, no one had died or suffered serious injuries, and everyone had returned.

Second, the expedition had been completed within a single day.

Third, they had brought back meaningful information and results from their first expedition.

“The exploration itself only covered part of the place, and we’ll have to go back in, but we brought this with us. So we definitely have something to show for it.”

What she showed them was a map related to Gyeonghuigung.

Adventurers ventured blindly into the jaws of danger, so this was as welcome as suddenly gaining a second eye.

“They said Escolleia is steadily developing new magical vehicles as well. After two more trips, we should be able to clean out everything in Gyeonghuigung and leave.”

“I see.”

“So we’ll be preparing for the next expedition now. We’ll leave in two weeks. What will you do, Regent Ferda?”

Erika expected an obvious answer, but she asked anyway.

“For now, I’ll give it some thought.”

“Two weeks will be cutting it close, so you’ll need to give us an answer now.”

“In that case, I suppose I’ll have to decline the next expedition.”

Ferda answered without the slightest hesitation.

Erika’s eyes widened.

“Is it because of Trauma?”

The monster that amplified the pain each person carried.

That could not be ruled out, either.

Ferda had nearly died because of the illusion Trauma showed him.

But when asked whether Trauma was the main reason, the answer was no.

“No. I realized that I can gain a great deal from the Demon Lands.”

What does not kill you makes you stronger.

The Shadow Circle had reached the second Circle, the Red Circle had reached the fifth, and the mana circulating through his body was already approaching the level of the sixth Circle.

Ferda was a seasoned mage, capable of easily using spells that were difficult to handle even at the fifth Circle.

He could certainly contribute to the expedition, and he would become even stronger if he ventured deeper inside.

But that was not possible simply because this was the East.

Ferda had found his answer, and that answer was not far away.

He had obtained an answer; seeking another answer would only cause confusion.

“Just in case.”

“Yes?”

“……There really isn’t any other reason?”

“……What on earth happened while I was unconscious?”

Erika could not answer.

“I understand. Then let’s select a new candidate for mage.”

“Yes.”

And so they saw Ferda off.

Now that he was gone, Erika could not help feeling disappointed.

‘He was quite a capable person…….’

She had not said so outright, but he was far more capable than the middle-aged mage she had brought this time.

‘I thought he would soon reach a new realm…… I just never imagined it would happen during the expedition.’

Erika had learned magic through the human method of training, so she knew how grueling it was.

She was a sixth-Circle Archmage, but that had only been possible because she had had more time than anyone else.

‘His serious training probably began after he became an adult…….’

Five Circles in the short span of a year.

That was impossible for a Blue Circle, and nearly impossible even for a Red Circle.

‘The reason he was able to reach the fifth Circle was…….’

The armored knight and Eumyangsil……

No matter how hard she tried to imagine it, all that came to mind was an unpleasant picture.

‘I must be losing my mind.’

Should she cast a spell of forgetting and erase the scene entirely?

She thought it might be better to endure the side effects.

‘Or perhaps I should deliberately make myself think of Regent Ferda……. No, that would be torture.’

If someone with a fiancé imagined such a shameful scene, she might even resort to an extreme choice out of humiliation.

Let’s just not think about it.

She had just brushed away her distractions and begun writing the report when—

Knock, knock—

“Come in.”

Someone entered.

When Erika looked up, she flinched in surprise.

The very person at the center of her filthy thoughts until a moment ago—the armored knight—had entered.

“What is it?”

The armored knight approached cautiously and handed Erika something.

The neatly folded paper left Erika with an ominous feeling she could not shake.

-Resignation Letter

Her foreboding had been right.

“Are you quitting?”

Nod, nod.

Erika stared at the resignation letter and thought,

‘What happened in that damn Eumyangsil?’

Had the two of them confirmed their love and decided to elope and live as fugitives?

Before that absurd, filthy imagination could further contaminate her mind, Erika politely asked,

“Why?”

Unlike Ferda, her tone was somewhat aggressive.

Of course, the armored knight did not answer.

As silence continued to fill the room, Erika answered for him.

“No.”

She pushed the resignation letter back toward the armored knight.

The armored knight gestured as though asking why.

“You contributed the most during this adventure. That’s why I can’t accept it.”

“……?”

“You almost killed me, and you were dangerous. But even that is only a truly trivial problem to me. Do you know why?”

“……”

“Because you contributed the most to this expedition.”

If Erika judged that Ferda was a force she could replace, the armored knight was someone no one could replace.

Even the aggressive Jonathan Sina looked like glass that would shatter the moment it received a single scratch.

The armored knight seemed to hesitate, then pushed the resignation letter on the desk toward her again.

Erika could no longer contain her frustration and spoke to him.

“Armored Knight. How about you start speaking now?”

“……!!”

“I know you haven’t sworn an oath of silence. You serve neither a religion nor a lord. How long do you think we can keep pretending not to notice?”

“……”

“If you have a valid reason, I’ll accept it. But if you leave us when everyone is already in such a difficult situation, what are we supposed to do?”

Erika folded her arms and crossed her legs.

No matter what you say, there’s no way you’ll persuade me!

Her posture said as much.

It was effectively no different from a threat.

Erika had no choice but to act this way.

The armored knight’s existence drove Erika insane.

She desperately needed the knight, while being endlessly curious about them at the same time.

Erika had always investigated the knight while respecting the proper boundaries.

At least, she had—until then.

Until she saw the Thunder Dragon, Storeus, quietly back down.

The current situation had shattered Erika’s scales.

She could no longer suppress her curiosity.

“If you have some secret, I swear on my name that I’ll protect you. Until then, I can’t approve this resignation.”

At the mention of her name, the armored knight seemed to hesitate.

Then the knight made a gesture as though they had reached a decision.

Erika thought the knight might take back the resignation letter on the desk, but what happened went beyond anything Erika expected.

The armor that defined the armored knight began to come off.

It did not simply peel away layer by layer like ordinary human armor.

It tore away as the knight emerged, like a butterfly shedding its chrysalis.

Once the armor came off, the person inside emerged with elegant grace.

Erika’s eyes, which had been narrowed in defiance, opened as wide as the full moon.

What she saw was two pairs of horns, red hair, and golden eyes.

She looked exactly like the Valdrova Erika had seen long ago.

Erika’s mind seemed to turn completely white.

She could not think any further.

No.

There was no way that could be real.

She had to be under attack by Trauma, which had secretly infiltrated her office.

The person inside asked,

“Um…… could we…… maybe not?”

Even that timid way of speaking sounded familiar.

In dragon form, Valdrova had a solemn air, but in human form, she spoke like a timid woman.

The facts driven into Erika’s eyes and ears could no longer be denied.

Erika carefully rose from her seat.

“Y-you……? Erika, no…… Eri…… ma’am?”

Erika stood before Valdrova, and then her own height gradually began to shrink.

Erika fell to her knees and folded her hands respectfully.

Unlike the quiet movement, her voice rang out thunderously.

“Please forgive this girl’s insolent behavior!!!”

* * *

They say that when a human faces death, they see a flashback of their life.

Erika had faced the brink of death several times, so she had always believed that was nonsense.

No matter how many times she experienced it, all she ever saw in her mind was Iorga’s face.

But this time was different.

Past events were racing through her mind.

It began with the first time she met the armored knight.

From the moment she met the armored knight, Erika had been searching for what she had done wrong and where she had gone wrong.

Why had she not realized it sooner?

That only a dragon could stand against a dragon.

“Um……”

Valdrova looked down at Erika and spoke.

She had shed her human form and adopted a posture of apology with her horns and tail exposed.

“I’m fine, so could you get up now?”

“No! Please let me stay like this! I feel more at ease this way!”

“Hmm……”

I’m the one who feels uncomfortable……

Valdrova could not bring herself to say it.

“I should have realized it the moment you stopped wearing ordinary armor, but this girl was so ignorant and foolish that she dared to treat someone so esteemed like that……!”

“I really am fine, so you don’t have to worry about it……”

Erika looked as though she might burst into tears at any moment, while Valdrova was at a loss.

Her awkward hand merely continued stroking down her own leg.

“Um…… if I may be so bold……”

“Yes?”

“When did you first know that I was Iorga’s child……?”

“When did I know?…… From the beginning?”

“I-is that so?”

Erika felt as though she might vomit blood.

Valdrova had known Erika was Iorga’s child and still obeyed her orders and worked with her?

Then Erika suddenly remembered what Storeus had barged in and demanded.

“Then, was the reason you stopped him from making me kneel before Storeus……?”

“That? Because you’re Iorga’s child.”

“I-is that the only reason?”

“Yes.”

Just because of that?

It was something no other dragon would ever have done.

If the person in question was not their own child or family, they would have defended Storeus, whether he made her kneel or slammed her head into the floor.

Valdrova smiled kindly.

“If Iorga found out that Storeus had made you do something like that, she would be sad.”

“That…… can’t be.”

Erika gazed up at Valdrova.

The smile she would normally have dismissed as foolish now began to look incredibly noble.

As she thought that, memories of the time she had spent with Iorga also rose in her mind.

-Valdrova’s actions are practically those of a lizard, I tell you.

-Indeed, ma’am!

-She acts so stupidly that everyone takes her for a gullible fool.

-Indeed, ma’am! The things she does are just……

“Cough!”

“A-are you all right?”

“O-of course I am……”

They say that karma eventually comes back around.

That karma was now pounding Erika in the solar plexus without pause.