Chapter 23
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
“What did you do last night?”
It was Zed who asked that question.
The brown-haired man looked down at one spot with an incredulous expression.
In his line of sight was Ferda, lying in bed.
“Nothing happened.”
“Nothing happened, my foot. Is someone who had nothing happen to them lying motionless in bed?”
Ferda could move only his face, as though everything below his neck had lost its strength.
Ferda always made his rounds in the morning.
Since he showed his face every day without fail, his sudden absence could only mean something had gone wrong.
And just as Zed had guessed, Ferda was lying in bed, unable even to move.
“If there isn’t anything, then there isn’t anything.”
“Of course there isn’t.”
Since Ferda stubbornly denied it to the end, Zed could not press him any further.
‘There is no need to bring that up.’
He had been struck by the attendant blocking his way, nearly beaten to death by his fiancée, and then nearly died for real after pouring all his mana into that same fiancée.
If he told that story in the simple world of nobles, it would be summarized as the perfect tale for people to curse him as an idiot.
So Ferda kept it to himself and savored it alone.
‘What a violent night.’
The pain in his arm had not yet faded, but he had received a reward to match it.
‘The dragon’s visage.’
It was normally a word used for an emperor’s face, but in this case it had literally been a dragon’s face.
Just as it was said to be a great honor for a peasant to behold the royal visage even once, Ferda too considered seeing that dragon’s face the greatest honor.
‘That was my last memory.’
Ferda recalled Valdrowa’s face from his final memory.
His consciousness had cut out after that face was the last thing he saw, and when he came to, he was looking at the ceiling above his bed.
And at Zed’s face, too.
The man was still hovering around him.
“I have one favor to ask.”
“What is it? Just say the word.”
“Could you move your face out of my sight? It’s getting in the way of my reminiscing.”
“……”
He did not want to cover the lingering afterglow with the handsome face of a young man.
Zed moved his face away as requested.
All while wearing an expression that seemed to say, ‘Is he crazy?’
“How is Vernel’s research coming along?”
“You mean that? He says he doesn’t have to keep doing those tedious things like cutting tendons and flesh anymore. He’s doing pretty well.”
Zed had tended to Vernel so that he would have no inconvenience in his research.
He had done enough that he could pride himself on having played a major part.
“Are you certain?”
“It’s probably certain.”
“Do you realize that ‘probably’ and ‘certain’ are words that cannot coexist?”
“I even kept that Vernel fellow from sleeping properly. Most people would go crazy and give up after about three days without sleep, but that guy was tougher than he looked. He wanted to sleep, but he kept insisting the research was essential and couldn’t be glossed over, crying and carrying on while still sitting there clutching his research, so it should be certain.”
“I see.”
Although Vernel had suffered at Zed’s hands, Ferda was not particularly interested.
Everything was painful by nature.
He was simply focusing on the good news that they had taken a major step into magitech.
“So how long do I have to stay in bed? Can I not work today?”
“That seems likely. You should recover on your own after about a day.”
“Hmm… Do I have to look after you?”
His voice was thick with reluctance.
“No, I want to be alone. There are things I need to think about.”
“I’ve been waiting to hear you say that. Whew. I’m going to rest, so don’t look for me for about two days.”
“Very well.”
Zed clicked his tongue and withdrew.
Ferda closed his eyes as he lay in bed.
It was not to sleep again, but to recall his memories more vividly.
‘A great harvest.’
Ferda sank into his recollections.
‘A truly great harvest.’
A picture formed around a pair of small, glossy lips.
Two pairs of black horns and crimson hair.
Set in her large eyes were golden cat’s-eye pupils.
They glistened, wet with moisture.
That was the polymorphed form of Valdrowa, the Red Dragon.
‘A lot of it was rather unexpected.’
When Ferda first saw her, she had appeared wearing armor.
And she had been well over two meters tall.
Yet in the end, she was the height of an ordinary woman, only about a head taller than him.
‘And… she didn’t have a frightening face, either.’
Valdrowa was the embodiment of power, and possessed the most fearsome form among all dragons.
She was such a terrifying dragon that no one dared underestimate her, no matter how recklessly.
It was said that when a dragon polymorphed, its features changed according to its nature.
When still, she was an iron woman, an alluring single rose.
She had the kind of face that would make anyone who grasped her carelessly prick themselves on her thorns and regret their arrogance.
‘……But she wasn’t.’
Her features were gentle, unbecoming of a sovereign.
The feature that determined a woman’s impression was the shape of her eyes, and hers were puppy-like, with the outer corners drooping downward.
Her face looked more suited to a childlike, beaming grin than a mature smile.
‘It does suit her, considering her social phobia and timid nature.’
A beauty where everything was an exception, yet everything was exactly as expected.
As he recalled her appearance, Ferda thought:
‘I want to see her again.’
It was the first time he had felt such a thing since developing the habit of remembering details precisely.
Even though her image was etched clearly in his mind, he wanted to see her with his own eyes.
‘I want to see her again.’
Ferda finally understood how men suffering from lovesickness felt.
He wanted to tear his hair out or rush out to see her that instant.
“It seems you are imagining something strange.”
The voice of a young attendant suddenly interrupted him.
“I would appreciate it if you stopped promptly.”
When he opened his eyes, a girl with silver eyes was looking down at him.
Her businesslike attitude and expression were unchanged.
“How are you feeling?”
Luri asked.
“I think I’m better.”
“Of course you should be. I treated you myself, after all.”
“You’re quite skilled. It couldn’t have been easy.”
“It was more difficult than healing my master’s wounds, but it was still manageable.
Luri looked down at him with a frown.
Strangely, she seemed quite different from the impression he usually had of her.
“You could have died.”
Her tone was worried.
“Overloading yourself while your mana circuits were running… An ordinary human would have stopped before then, once the burning pain began.”
“It was nothing to me.”
“I know. I know you are the sort of person who likes that kind of thing.”
Ferda muttered something she could not understand, then continued.
“Thank you.”
A word of thanks offered without preamble.
“For what?”
“This is the first time my master’s screams have stopped.”
Her face remained expressionless.
“And it is also the first time I have seen my master fall asleep peacefully. That night, Lord Ferda, you did a great deal for my master.”
Yet sorrow seeped from her eyes.
“And I am sorry.”
Her eyes slowly lowered to Ferda’s right arm.
“For blowing off my arm?”
“……”
She bit her lip and nodded.
A dragon spawn acknowledging her guilt and apologizing to a human.
“It’s all right. I won’t hold a grudge against you or hate you over something so trivial.”
“Are you really all right after being struck that hard?”
“I have always had a weak body. It happens often, so don’t worry about it. I’ll be able to move enough.”
“Can you move now?”
“I probably will when the time comes.”
For now, he still could not move a muscle below his face.
“Haven’t I always told you? I hold your loyalty in high regard. Like—”
“Like a dog?”
“That’s right.”
Hearing that, Luri nodded.
“That’s right. I’m a dog-like bitch.”
“I didn’t go quite that far.”
Only then did Ferda realize it.
That definitely sounded like an insult.
“In any case, you have done your best in the things you can do. You didn’t recklessly attempt what you couldn’t do and ruin everything, did you? That is enough.”
“……”
“I am thanking you for looking after her until I can meet her.”
“If you put it that way, then thank you.”
Luri’s expression brightened.
The heavy atmosphere eased somewhat.
“So, how is my fiancée?”
“I was just about to discuss that…”
Her expression grew heavy again.
“For the time being, do not even think about meeting her.”
Ferda’s expression turned serious as well.
“After all that about it being thanks to me?”
“That is that, and this is this.”
Luri returned to being the stern little maid.
Ferda asked her the reason.
“What is the reason?”
“The act you performed when you met her is the problem.”
“The act? Is this all because we merely held hands?”
Simply holding hands was hardly grand enough to be called an act.
“I mean giving her your mana.”
“Is there something wrong with that that could cause a problem for your master?”
“If I had to put it plainly, both are a problem.”
Her eyes stared intently at Ferda.
Ferda, recognizing the seriousness as well, asked her:
“What happened to the Grand Duke?”
“After meeting and coming into contact with Lord Ferda, she began making female noises.”
His mind filled with question marks.
“A female sound?”
“It is the sound furthest removed from a king. It is the sound she hates second only to screams.”
Ferda had no idea what sound she meant.
But he did not try to find out.
“What is my problem?”
“Lord Ferda squeezed out enough mana to bring himself to the brink of death in order to save my master.”
“Yes, but I didn’t die.”
“That sort of outcome does not count. If you wish to stand proudly as her fiancé, speak to me once you have reached at least the fourth circle.”
The fourth circle.
The stage called the true beginning of a mage’s path.
Ferda wondered why she stated the requirement so precisely.
So he quietly recalled and calculated the amount of mana he had released by feel.
‘It’s exactly about the amount of a fourth circle.’
An amount of mana that would have been impossible without the Red Circle.
And a rate of mana recovery that would truly have been impossible if the Red Circle had not been rotating so quickly.
If anything had gone even a beat out of sync, Ferda would have ended up either a corpse or a wreck.
‘But at the same time, it was only possible because I am who I am.’
Enduring and squeezing out such a turbulent flow was possible only because he was a mage who had reached the ninth circle.
‘But after wringing myself out like this, it will be difficult to properly operate the Red Circle for a while.’
If Ferda’s estimate was correct, it would take about a month to return to his normal condition.
“If you are to become her husband, you need to start taking better care of yourself. Don’t take pointless risks.”
Luri’s hands smoothed the wrinkles in the blanket and pulled it snugly up to his neck.
It was a service she had never provided before.
“And today, you are to rest without thinking about anything. If you need anything, I will come when you call. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I understand.”
Ferda obediently nodded.
“And congratulations.”
“For what?”
“Have you not reached the third circle?”
“?”
Ferda had no idea what she was talking about.
At least, not until he focused on his lower abdomen.
‘……What?’
Just as she had said, three circles were revolving inside Ferda’s body.
He had reached the third circle.
* * *
The next day, after confirming that his body could move, Ferda returned to his office and spoke with Vernel.
“I heard you’ve made great progress in your research. Congratulations.”
“N-no, not at all. It’s only barely reached the starting point…”
“A month and a half? You’ve made progress at a truly groundbreaking pace.”
“I-I suppose so.”
Vernel replied in a trembling voice.
It truly was a groundbreaking pace.
The past month and a half had been more meaningful than the seven years he had spent researching until now.
‘The equipment, environment, and specimens are all better, too, but…’
More than anything, the pressure driving him had been the greatest factor.
‘Am I the type who becomes stronger when pushed to the limit?’
Since he had gone without sleep, he felt as if he would go mad.
Yet it was not entirely bad, because he had been able to identify blind spots he had never noticed before and shore up the flaws.
Through work that could only be done while out of his mind, his hypotheses had become solid enough to be put to the test.
“I no longer need living specimens, but instead I now need a large number of monster corpses…”
“Monster corpses?”
It was like looking for sand in the desert or wood in a forest.
The Far East was teeming with monsters.
“Grand Duke Valdrowa is active on the front lines. Would bringing back the ones from there suffice?”
“I hear she’s catching ones as large as houses. For me to research those… there would be a lot of problems. They’re simply too large…”
“Then why not become gigantic yourself? It seems Echidna might be able to use a gigantification spell…?”
“N-no, it’s not a matter of becoming gigantic. The biggest problem is that if corpses like that remain in the East for too long, corruption could set in and turn it into the black land of the Far East. I don’t want to go that far. Besides, something that large might have a different structure.”
“What do you mean, it might have a different structure?”
“Yes. Since they grow by eating junk mana, you know how the hardness of what forms from it can vary? If they become too hard, dense, and compressed and end up crystallized, they actually become unusable for research.”
With the conversation beginning to sound technical, Ferda grasped only the gist and shortened it.
“I think I roughly understand. So, to proceed step by step, you mean we should start with the smaller ones?”
“Yes. My current research focuses on things similar to or smaller than this one the Regent captured. It’s more widely known, and if we need to acquire more, it should be easier to obtain…”
“So, roughly how many hundred monsters do you need?”
“Well…”
Vernel cast a cautious glance at him.
“I think it would have to be… at least 1,000…”
Ferda thought when he heard that.
‘He really is a money pit.’
He was making a demand enough to frighten not only ordinary nobles, but even wealthy men of means among the high nobility.
If Ferda had not known who this man was, he might have kicked him straight out the castle gates.
But Ferda knew that this man would ultimately succeed.
“I understand. I’ll discuss it with the lords for now.”
“W-wait, can you really obtain that many?”
“Monsters are caught by the dozens every day at the very least. Do you no longer need living ones?”
“I-it would be nice to have them, but they would need to be managed…”
“Don’t worry. Zed seems to be good at management, so I’ll assign him to you.”
“No! That won’t be necessary! It’s not as if I’m showing visible progress like I did in the initial stage! Yes! I don’t need him! So please don’t tell him, hahaha! Please! Spare me!”
Vernel begged him to withdraw the request, utterly horrified.
“If you say so.”
“Th-then how do you plan to obtain the corpses? Do we have to go hunting again?”
“Hmm…”
Ferda had captured one himself because it was something he could manage, but he could not go hunting every time.
“The most straightforward method would be to put up a bounty, but…”
They were already spending heavily on facilities and equipment, and even a small additional expense would be burdensome.
“For the initial supply, it would be best to have them offer them up as tribute.”
“As tribute…?”
Ferda answered Vernel, who asked with a blank expression:
“The world is full of fools.
Ferda also knew how to lure those fools.