Chapter 22
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The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
Grrr—.
A savage beast's growl echoed from within the lair.
Had anyone heard it, they would surely have described it as a terrifying roar of rage.
However, Luri, standing in the lair, knew what the sound meant.
It was Valdrowa's groan.
She was suffering.
She should have been lying there in a coil, but instead she was sprawled flat on the floor.
She trembled as she raked her sharp claws across the innocent floor.
-Luri…….
Valdrowa carefully called for her attendant.
As always, Luri answered calmly.
“Yes.”
-Are there…… no monsters coming today, either?
Luri shook her head.
“Unfortunately, that is correct.”
-Is that so? A difficult time has begun…….
Valdrowa carefully raised herself.
Her mind felt as though she were walking through a fog so thick she could not see even an inch ahead.
Wanting to divert her thoughts elsewhere, if only for a moment, she asked:
-What…… is my fiancé doing?
Luri answered.
“He is meeting with every lord in the Grand Duchy. Technically, he is meeting with them, but it is closer to threatening them. He says that if they are incompetent, he will report everything they have done.”
-Is that so? It seems he is getting along well.
A strange smile bloomed on Valdrowa's face, which had known nothing but hardship.
It was a face that was both happy and sad.
It was an expression Luri had never properly seen before Ferda came.
“I believe Lord Ferda has noticed.”
Valdrowa's face stiffened.
-What do you mean?
“That you are harming yourself, Master. Last night, you struck your body so hard that the entire castle seemed to shake. I believe he guessed what you were doing from that.”
-Is that so?
“Therefore…… I think it would be best if you were especially careful this time.”
-Yes, thank you for telling me.
Valdrowa turned her head and stepped back.
-You have worked hard. You may go now.
“……Yes.”
Luri gave a slight bow and turned away.
Her footsteps were not light.
She knew what Valdrowa was about to do.
She would violate herself with an excess of power too great to control.
-Luri.
Valdrowa called her once more.
“Please speak, Master.”
-No matter what happens…… do not let my fiancé in here. This is…… an order.
Her voice was dignified.
But what it contained was deep sorrow.
Luri could feel it.
The ghost of the Third Prince still lingered around her.
“Understood.”
The loyal attendant could do nothing but obey her master's command.
* * *
Late at night, inside the castle, Luri stood quietly before the entrance leading to the lair.
-Roaaaar!
A distant roar reached Luri's ears.
Her clasped hands tightened firmly.
She applied all her strength to keep them from moving elsewhere of their own accord.
‘I mustn't cover my ears.’
Luri found that roar unsettling.
It was not the cry of a warrior charging toward the battlefield, but a woman's scream after losing her child.
For the loyal attendant Luri, being forced to listen to her master's screams without doing anything was painful as well.
‘It's not as if I could do anything even if I went in.’
Luri had worked hard to become a capable attendant.
She kept Valdrowa Castle in the best possible condition so that it could always be used.
She constantly kept up with political conditions and trends so that Valdrowa would not fall behind even after returning.
She had lived for Valdrowa without wasting even a single second of the twenty-four hours in a day.
‘Even so…… there are things I cannot do.’
There was nothing Luri could do about the murderous intent Valdrowa emitted.
The only thing Luri could do was enter after Valdrowa finished harming herself and treat her wounds.
Luri had no way to prevent it from happening in the first place.
-Roaaaar!
The scream rang out again.
‘So I have to listen.’
It was the punishment given to an incompetent attendant who stood by and watched her master suffer.
At some point, Luri's hands, which had been clutching her skirt, had come together in a prayerful pose.
Luri knew what that pose was.
‘A prayer……?’
How ridiculous.
Dragon spawns did not believe in gods.
Their god was the dragon.
As rulers and paragons of the Great Continent, dragons were living gods and idols.
Luri was no different.
Silverwind, who had shared her blood with her, was her god, and Valdrowa was her god as well.
One was dead, and the other was powerless.
Luri wondered:
‘Then whom am I supposed to pray to?’
No answer came.
She simply prayed quietly to an unknown god she did not even believe in.
Please.
May someone end my master's suffering.
That was when it happened.
“What are you doing here?”
Luri awoke from her prayer and raised her head.
Soft moonlight streamed in through the window.
Standing in that pale light was the figure of someone she knew well.
It was that man.
The man who had brazenly intruded into her master's life.
“Go back.”
As always, she issued a cold warning.
“I'm sorry, but I can't do that. The place behind you is where I'm going.”
The man, who had been quiet for several days, was suddenly making such a demand.
He had noticed that Valdrowa was suffering now.
‘He heard that? Even I can barely hear it.’
The sound had not even been audible, so how had this man noticed it?
Setting her question aside for later, she answered once again.
“You cannot enter. This is my master's order.”
“Did the Grand Duke tell you not to let me in?”
“That's right. She said she did not want to see a human like you.”
She had added words that Valdrowa had never actually said.
Luri was shaken that badly herself.
“I stepped back yesterday, so today you step back.”
“This is not a negotiation.”
“Neither am I negotiating.”
Ferda instead took another step forward.
“Do not move any farther.”
A moonlike gleam appeared in Luri's silver eyes.
Pure white wind coiled around her body like blades.
Ferda instinctively understood.
The moment that wind struck him, his body would be sliced cleanly apart like reeds in late autumn.
“I can stop it.”
Ferda said:
“What are you saying you can stop?”
“Your master's, and my fiancée's, self-harm.”
“……!”
Luri's eyes widened for an instant.
But she quickly regained her composure.
“This is not a problem that can be solved so simply. How could a mortal like you suppress a dragon's nature?”
“It is possible.”
“No. You merely want to see what you want to see.”
“Yes, I rush forward while looking only at what I want to see.”
He moved another step.
“Isn't that what life is?”
“I told you to stop!”
The sharp wind wrapped around Luri's arm flew toward Ferda's right hand.
Ferda's arm jerked violently.
His arm hung limply, dangling loose.
At the sight, Luri was momentarily flustered.
‘I only meant to give him a light tap……?’
.
The sharpness must have vanished just before it touched him, leaving only a heavy blow against Ferda's body.
She had struck him with enough force to cause, at most, a small bruise.
“Look.”
However, Luri pressed her advantage.
She must have realized that he was not a woman she could handle easily.
“I can knock down someone like you with my own hands. This is my final warning. Go back quietly.”
Ferda looked down at his dislocated right arm.
“……Is that order really so important?”
“I am an attendant. I have a duty to obey my master's orders.”
“I see.”
When Ferda raised his head again, Luri was startled.
Ferda moved forward one step at a time.
“Then this time, be sure to cut me.”
What dwelled in his blue eyes was resolve.
Luri prepared another blade of wind.
“Do not risk your life over something pointless.”
“You say that without knowing how much what I am trying to do is worth.”
“You are merely a human being. Dragons have spent endless ages researching and trying to discover it, yet failed. How could someone like you possibly solve it?”
It was nonsensical from any reasonable perspective.
Mortals could not defeat immortals.
They were pitiful creatures that would die fragile deaths at the slightest movement of an immortal's finger.
All mortals could do was live while eternally thanking them for their mercy.
How could a mere mortal presume to solve the problems of immortals?
“I asked you before, didn't I? I asked whether you believed humans could suddenly gain enlightenment.”
“…….”
“What did you answer then?”
I know.
But she did not want to answer.
That was why Ferda answered instead.
“I said that humanity survived because there are flashes of insight that cannot be reached through the accumulation of knowledge.”
Again.
This man was once again returning her own words to her verbatim.
Ferda, who had been far away, was now only three steps away.
If she fired, his arm would be severed.
There was no time to adjust her strength.
Luri's hand began to tremble.
The sharp wind coiling around it scattered.
“Why…….”
Luri looked up at him.
His face was neither the expressionless one he always wore nor the face of contempt.
“Why…… do you keep coming closer?”
She looked like a helpless child.
“It's simple.”
Ferda placed a hand on Luri's head.
“If you had intended to stop me, you would have done so long ago.”
Luri's physical abilities were dozens of times greater than those of the frail Ferda.
Knocking him unconscious or sending him flying before he could even approach would have been effortless.
Instead of threatening him with wind magic and arguing like this, she could simply have used her strength.
“You wanted to believe in what I believe in, too.”
The miracle brought about by a mortal.
Ferda passed Luri and went down the stairs.
Luri could not even refute him as she watched him disappear.
The clicking of his shoes receded down the passageway.
* * *
‘It hurts like hell.’
His hand was numb from the lethal wind Luri had shot out.
The impact had traveled up to his shoulder and dislocated it completely.
‘I have been dislocating it often since long ago.’
He was accustomed to setting bones back in place.
Ferda grabbed his arm and reset the bone.
Crack—!
“Ngh, hoo…….”
He took a deep breath and pulled himself together.
There was still something he had to do.
Ferda raised his head and looked up.
A massive iron door entered his view.
‘It's…… very different from usual.’
Ferda recalled the first time he had stood before this door.
Back then, he had been weak and had not even drunk the engagement wine.
But now, things were even more serious than they had been then.
Ferda felt as if he were standing before the gates of hell.
If he entered, he would certainly die.
-Roaaaarrrrr—
A sound that sent shivers through his bones.
The fact that he was no longer afraid of dragons did not mean that their murderous intent had vanished completely.
‘Worthy of the paragon of power.’
Ferda opened the side door and entered.
The inside resembled an ordinary cave.
It was a dry, comfortable, and dark space.
-Luri…… why have you come here? I told you not to come here…….
Her words broke off.
She realized that it was not Luri who had entered.
He heard the sound of her body heaving violently.
-Why…… are you here?
Confusion flowed from the sovereign's voice.
-Why…… are you coming now, at a time like this?
Ferda opened his mouth in answer.
“I won't say ‘Nice to meet you for the first time’……”
Ferda looked ahead.
His naked eyes could not pierce the darkness.
“It is too dark for me to make out your face.”
-Get out of here at once!
A roar laden with Dragon Fear rang out.
But it was not enough to shake Ferda.
“Your Majesty, I have found a way to resolve your suffering.”
-I don't need it. Who said I wanted such a thing?
Ferda stepped forward.
He heard Valdrowa writhe.
She had retreated.
-I…… I don't want to hurt anyone. So please, don't come any closer!
Valdrowa begged.
“That won't do.”
Ferda refused.
-Please…….
“I don't care who dies or gets hurt.”
-Don't come any closer…….
“But I cannot stand by while you hurt yourself.”
Golden eyes flashed in the darkness.
-I told you not to come!!
The bloodlust she had been suppressing burst forth.
Along with Valdrowa's rough roar, something pierced through the darkness.
It was Valdrowa's claw.
It flew toward Ferda's small body.
Boom!
The claw came crashing down over the spot where Ferda stood.
-Ah!
Valdrowa came to her senses too late.
But the water had already been spilled.
-Ahh…….
Valdrowa let out a lament.
The ghost of the Third Prince whispered in her ear.
You killed your fiancé again.
She fell into confusion.
The voice of Valdrowa, the immortal Red Dragon who had lived for eternity and soared through the sky, trembled.
-I…… I didn't mean to…….
The bloodlust that had been directed at her target wrapped around her body.
It moved beyond self-loathing and toward rampage.
But then, she saw something standing between her claws.
It was Ferda.
He stood still in that spot, looking down at Valdrowa's foot.
“Thank you.”
He said:
“I never expected you to offer me your hand before I even said anything.”
The exact moment Ferda had been waiting for had arrived.
He placed his hand on Valdrowa's hand.
* * *
-There is a rational reason why you can become Ferda Valdrowa.
Mori explained it to Ferda.
-Lord Ferda, you activated the Red Circle by recalling your feelings toward the Red Dragon Valdrowa. Is that correct?
“Yes, that's right.”
-The Blue Circle is called cold mana because it produces a consistent effect in all magic. The Red Circle, on the other hand, specializes in specific elements, so its effects differ significantly according to the nature of the magic and the principles behind its creation. That is because mana is not completely pure; it contains emotions.
He knew that as well.
That was why Ferda's destructive magic was more powerful than that of other mages.
-The Red Circle is usually created from negative emotions. Therefore, contact with that mana is forbidden.
“Because it can cause mental contamination.”
Mori nodded.
-If your mana is composed of feelings toward a dragon, I believe you can achieve an effect by injecting that mana into the dragon.
Ferda thought it was absurd.
Could he really solve this using mana based on an emotion even he did not understand?
“Is there no other way?”
Mori shook her head.
Mori firmly denied it.
Only one possibility had been given to him.
“I see……”
Then he had no choice but to believe.
* * *
Ferda released his mana.
He poured all his concentration into making it burrow from his fingertips into Valdrowa's skin.
-What are you doing?
Valdrowa, who had asked that question, felt something climbing through her body.
When that surging something reached Valdrowa's heart, her golden eyes opened wide.
-What…… is this?
Valdrowa's voice, which had been twisted by pain, grew much clearer.
-The thing inside me…… the thing that was boiling is disappearing. Ferda, what on earth is this?
“I don't know either.”
Ferda quietly covered her mouth.
“But if this benefits you, all you need to do is accept my mana.”
-I understand…….
Through her skin, Valdrowa focused on the changes within her body.
The pounding of her violently beating heart began to lessen.
The bloodlust she could not control gradually subsided.
The urge to destroy, and even her very nature, all sank beneath the name of tranquility.
‘It seems my hypothesis was correct.’
The mana generated by Ferda's Red Circle could suppress Valdrowa's bloodlust.
‘There is something I can do for her.’
If he could suppress her bloodlust, she would no longer need to harm herself.
‘And…… she won't need to suffer, either.’
She would not have to dredge up her painful past and torment herself with it.
‘To do that…… I have to put as much of my mana into her as possible.’
Meanwhile, the Red Circle in Ferda's mana core was spinning violently.
Mana was being generated several times faster than usual.
Ferda released that mana toward Valdrowa's skin without holding anything back.
-Ferda……!
Valdrowa cried out in surprise.
-You're bleeding!
Blood flowed from Ferda's nose.
Mana Burnout was coming.
-Stop now. I am fine!
Under normal circumstances, Ferda would have stopped before that point, but not now.
‘Just a little more…….’
He squeezed out everything he had left and gave it to her without keeping anything back.
Ferda did not stop until she entered a state of complete stability.
Even if it meant dying.
“Ah…….”
At last, the overload came.
His vision blurred as though a thick fog had descended over it.
Driven beyond what his willpower could endure, Ferda would be unable to rise for several days.
‘I had already resolved to do this.’
So he had no regrets about this impulse and recklessness.
Ferda tried to close his eyes.
That was when it happened.
The thing touching Ferda's palm was writhing.
The information conveyed by that movement was simple.
‘Is she getting smaller?’
It was not his imagination.
The rough, hard hide of the dragon was gradually becoming softer and shrinking.
It slowly grew smaller until it finally became something resembling a human hand touching his own.
‘Small.’
It was so small that the little hand could not even completely wrap around Ferda's hand.
‘And soft.’
Those sensations made Ferda's heart race in a way he had never experienced before.
‘She has polymorphed into human form.’
This was the moment he could see her bare face.
“Why…….”
Her sweet voice was thick with tears.
In a voice that sounded as if she were about to cry, she said:
“Why won't you listen to me……?”
It was a frail question unlike anything Valdrowa would say.
But even if she asked, her words did not reach Ferda's ears.
His mind had been driven to the brink, as though hanging from the edge of a cliff.
He could barely hold on to his blurred vision.
What held his consciousness together was an intense yearning.
‘No matter what…….’
And a selfish desire.
‘I want to see her.’
Ferda summoned the last of his strength.
He clasped the hand touching his.
He interlaced their fingers tightly so he would not lose her and pulled her by the waist.
A red-haired woman came clearly into focus through his blurred vision.
“Ah.”
Ferda let out a cry of wonder.
That sound contained every emotion Ferda held within him.
It was a lament of regret for how shallow and arrogant his imagination had been,
and the joy of realizing that this world held beauty beyond anything he could have imagined.
“I can see you at last.”
Ferda smiled.
“Nice to meet you. My heart.”