Chapter 242
Luri set down the teapot.
The hand she had placed on the table was clenched tightly into a fist.
“Didn’t I always tell you?”
Luri spoke without turning her head.
“That you were destined to become Lady Valdrova’s husband? I told you that you had to be careful!”
“You did……”
“You knew that perfectly well! Why! Why did you act on your own!”
Luri’s raised voice gradually subsided.
Luri’s hand rose to her face.
“On your own……”
She could not hide her increasingly moist eyes.
“I hate you so much, Lord Ferda.”
“……”
“How can you possibly show that hand to Lady Valdrova?”
What followed was a stream of reproaches.
Ferda could not say a word.
Ferda already knew.
Ferda knew that Luri hated him, but that wasn’t all.
She was merely furious that her own abilities had not been enough to protect Ferda.
She was being unreasonable because she wouldn’t be able to vent her anger unless she said this much.
Ferda looked down at his right hand.
“If you tell the church, you should be able to receive help.”
“……”
“But if they make an issue of the fact that I learned black magic and use that against me, my position will become very precarious—.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Luri wiped away her tears and turned her head.
She bit her lip and spoke with her eyes reddened.
“If they refuse to treat you because you’re a black mage, I’ll smash that church to pieces.”
“……”
“Even if they say it’s difficult to restore it, I’ll destroy everything. I’ll make them do it somehow.”
Luri had never been more sincere.
Ferda was truly worried about how to soothe this angry chihuahua.
That was when it happened.
“Hah-hah! Don’t do that, child. Wouldn’t that be too pitiful for those who rely on God?”
A nasal voice came from behind Luri.
The instant she heard the voice, Luri’s hair stood on end.
“At first glance, I thought it looked quite ordinary. But as expected, since you’re a dragon’s fiancé, even the tent is splendid.”
A girl entered the tent with her hands behind her back.
Her face was youthful, but her manner was no different from that of a stooped old woman.
Luri quickly rubbed her eyes and returned to the posture of a perfect maid.
No, that was a little difficult.
Her emotions welling up over Ferda tangled with her bewilderment at the unexpected guest, leaving her shaken.
There were only a limited number of beings who could fluster her this much.
Ferda soon learned the reason.
“So you’re our little one’s fiancé?”
When she pushed back her robe, a luxuriant head of golden hair and a pair of horns were revealed.
Luri called out her name.
“It is an honor to meet you, Lady Odograsado, the Golden Dragon.”
When she gave a formal greeting, Odograsado turned her head.
Though the girl called Odograsado had her eyes closed, she faced Luri as if she could see her.
“Oh, you’re a child who bears Silverwind’s blood. Are you our little one’s attendant?”
“That’s right.”
“Hah-hah! I expected a burly man or a female warrior with an imposing physique, since Silverwind had singled you out as a candidate for a great warrior. But not only are you small and dainty, you’re beautiful as well.”
“……”
“Still, you’re utterly shabby compared to this body, hah-hah!”
Ferda knew about the Golden Dragon from rumors.
Among the dragons, she had the largest body, measuring over fifty meters in length. She supposedly lived three floors beneath the city and was so enormous that merely raising her head would make her visible at the grand cathedral.
But this girl before him?
‘A narcissistic brat?’
Aside from her somewhat similar horns, she was smaller than Luri.
‘And she doesn’t have a dragon’s presence at all.’
At first, it had been difficult to approach Valdrova, and even Storeus and Frontesis had possessed an aura that could be felt.
But this girl truly seemed no different from an ordinary girl.
On top of that, she was giving off a suspiciously strong smell of ham.
First, he should stand up.
Just as he thought that and tried to rise, Odograsado stopped him.
“Goodness, stay seated. I have no intention of forcing someone who isn’t feeling well to stand.”
Ferda lay back down.
He had not done so of his own accord; Odograsado had used magic.
The girl leisurely approached his side and let out a bubbly laugh.
“Ho-ho, what a handsome fellow. If I say just a few sweet words, our innocent little one will fall head over heels.”
“……”
“By the way, where did your hand go? Did you boil it into soup because you were hungry?”
“……”
“What a child who doesn’t know how to take a joke! Pahahah!”
It was not a situation that called for jokes, so how could Ferda laugh?
Luri had been crying until just before Odograsado arrived, and he could not laugh as though nothing had happened.
“It can’t be helped. Your sense of humor was severed along with your right hand, so if we save one, the other will return, won’t it?”
She suddenly lifted her hair and pretended to pull something out from the back of her neck.
At that moment, a brilliant light filled the tent.
“Lady Odograsado, that is……!”
Luri looked startled.
“Hmm? Do you know what this is?”
“The Golden Grace…… Isn’t that one of the scales from your body, Lady Odograsado? Such a precious object……”
The Golden Grace was precious enough for Luri to speak of it that way.
It was akin to an elixir made by collecting a single drop at a time for decades in the depths of the World Tree.
True to its name as a manifestation of faith and light, it bestowed miracles.
“You silly child, if I don’t use it at a time like this, when will I ever use it? Besides……”
“Besides?”
“I don’t want to see our Holy Kingdom’s church smashed to pieces by your hand, pahahah!”
Luri’s face turned red once more.
Laughing breezily, she unwound the bandages wrapped around Ferda’s hand.
Luri had used healing magic, but the wound had not yet properly closed.
“It’ll sting a little.”
She drove the sharp edge of the scale straight into Ferda’s right hand.
The pain of having a foreign object inserted lasted only a moment,
“Ggh……!!”
Then an even greater pain coiled around Ferda’s arm.
The sensations that had been absent until just now were slowly emerging from the void.
Ferda knew this.
It was one of the torture drugs he had created: A Beggar’s Life.
The pain was even greater than when he had drunk it.
It was the sensation of dying and coming back to life.
Ten minutes passed like ten hours.
While Ferda was too distracted by the pain to think, Luri was the first to cry out in amazement.
“Good heavens……”
Ferda’s missing right hand had returned without a blemish.
Luri carefully took hold of that hand.
She touched each knuckle one by one and asked Ferda,
“Lord Ferda, can you feel it?”
Ferda was drenched in sweat and could barely even catch his breath, so he merely nodded faintly.
Luri could not bring herself to let go of that hand.
Meanwhile, Odograsado stroked Ferda’s head and spoke like a grandmother.
“There, there. You endured it well. What a good boy. Such a good boy. We ought to give a good child a reward. Hey, attendant.”
“Yes, please speak.”
“Do you have anything sweet?”
“Something sweet……?”
“You have something you really like, don’t you? I bet you’re carrying the whole jar around with you. Am I wrong?”
Luri’s face turned bright red.
“I’ll bring some.”
After a while, Luri brought a jar from among her belongings.
After she opened the jar and brought it over, Odograsado spoke with an utterly blissful look on her face.
“Oh my, just looking at it makes my teeth rot. To think there could be such an utterly sacrilegious embodiment of pleasure.”
“……”
“I suppose I should taste it. Let’s see……”
Odograsado put one into her mouth with the skewer she had been handed.
Her face was the very picture of happiness.
“Oh my, it’s sacrilegious, so sacrilegious! How can anything be this sacrilegious?”
“……”
“If you eat things like this all the time, your teeth will melt and your belly will stick out until you look hideous. Why do you carry such a sacrilegious thing around?”
“I don’t eat much……”
“Of course not. How else could you be such a beauty, hah-hah!”
She put another one into her mouth.
“You see, perhaps because the heavens were jealous and gave me this incredible beauty, I have very little self-control. So I’m made to eat nothing but tasteless bread every day. If the faithful didn’t secretly slip me delicious things, I truly would have no joy in life.”
“Is…… that so?”
Even as she spoke, she had put more than five honey-preserved fruits into her mouth.
“Goodness, I’ve eaten this much again. If someone saw me, they’d call me a pig.”
After saying that, she stuffed about three more into her mouth before finally handing one to Ferda.
“Here, eat one. It’s a reward from the Golden Dragon.”
“I’m fine.”
“Oh, come now. Don’t sweet things make you feel better? Here, watch me eat.”
Odograsado put the honey-preserved fruit into her mouth and once again made a blissful expression.
“Mmmmmm. This is the taste. Yes, what pleasure, as if demons were dancing inside my mouth.”
“……”
“Of course, I’m not saying that I’m happy. That’s what I mean. Now, eat.”
Watching her absurd behavior, Ferda ended up putting it into his mouth despite not wanting to eat it.
“Greg told me about you.”
Odograsado was referring to Gregorio, the pope of the Holy Kingdom.
“What do you mean by ‘told you’……?”
“He said that a youngster with the ambition to conquer the Demon Lands had appeared at the Grand Council. And that our little one’s fiancé was the one who had said it.”
She laughed and popped another piece of fruit preserved in honey into her mouth.
“I thought you were quite an amusing fellow. I also thought you were a youngster. But I knew what the Demon Lands were like, so I thought you would soon get a taste of bitterness and give up.”
“……”
“But you didn’t. Even I never imagined that those demons could be put to use. It seems there was a reason Greg pleaded so earnestly.”
Odograsado patted Ferda’s right hand and laughed.
“You even have the self-sacrificing spirit to boil your own right hand into soup, pahahah!”
Faith and light.
Hearing those words, Ferda had imagined a dragon who was extremely solemn and grave, but she was astonishingly carefree.
She was so carefree that when the skewer she kept moving scraped the floor, she merely clicked her tongue.
“Oh my, I was eating so mindlessly that I ended up finishing all your honey-preserved fruit.”
“It’s all right.”
“What do you mean, it’s all right? Bring me another one.”
“Pardon?”
“Hurry. I know you have another jar.”
Odograsado crooked her finger, and Luri brought over another jar with a bewildered expression.
When she opened the lid, the smell of sugar and fruit once again stung their noses.
“These sacrilegious things need to be eaten out of existence. Isn’t that true exorcism? Hah-hah!”
The gratitude in Luri’s expression for saving Ferda was gradually disappearing.
Odograsado continued speaking.
“So when I return to my homeland, I’m thinking of discussing it with Gregorio.”
“If it is such a wonderful matter, why not stop by the castle and discuss it with him?”
“You mean your castle?”
“Since you call Valdrova your little one, you seem to be close. Wouldn’t it be good to see her face as well?”
“Hmm…… I suppose I can’t do that.”
The uniquely free-spirited atmosphere around Odograsado gradually faltered.
“I call her our little one, but I’ve committed far too many sins. After ignoring her all this time, trying to see her now that things have finally eased up would be cruel.”
As the excited atmosphere began to settle, Odograsado casually asked Ferda,
“Come to think of it, I heard Frontesis went to the castle. Did he meet Valdrova as well?”
“Yes.”
“Did he give her something? He doesn’t seem like the sort to simply pass by.”
“I gave her a wedding ring.”
“A wedding ring…… What an insolent fellow. Is he trying to score points with our little one like this?”
Odograsado pondered, letting out a breath.
It felt as though some sort of competition was about to begin.
“Then I’ll officiate your wedding! What do you think of having the Golden Dragon herself officiate it?”
“I can only be grateful that you feel that way.”
“Of course. What do you take me for? You’ll have to become close before then…… All right! I’ll ask for generous support to help with the conquest of the Demon Lands!”
Gregorio’s promise.
It proved that the promise to spare no support if Ferda showed his determination had not ultimately been empty.
“Thank you for saying so.”
“As you should.”
Odograsado stretched long and hard once and said,
“Anyway, this old woman will take her leave now. Ho-ho, refrain from strenuous exercise for the time being.”
Odograsado pulled her robe over her head.
With her horns hidden, she looked like an ordinary little child.
She glanced at the jar of honey-preserved fruit in her hand and apologized to Luri.
“Child, I’m sorry. I’ve already eaten half of it.”
“It’s all right.”
“I’ve eaten half of it, and there’s a lot of my saliva on it. Wouldn’t it be unpleasant for you to eat?”
“I’m fine—.”
“I’ll take this with me and finish eating it.”
“……”
“Well then, take care! Hah-hah!”
The Golden Dragon walked away, hiding the jar of honey-preserved fruit beneath her robe.
The two of them watched the flapping entrance of the tent with expressions as though a storm had just passed.
“……Luri.”
“Yes.”
“For some reason, I feel like eating ham.”
“I’ll prepare a meal.”
They say that wherever Odograsado stays, holiness takes root.
The place where she had stayed was filled with the smell of ham.
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance