Chapter 25
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
The banquet hall of Valdrowa Castle.
Ferda was watching the knights gather from above.
“Disgusting things.”
Luri, who was looking down at the banquet hall beside him, said that.
“Your hatred of humans seems rather extreme.”
“It is not hatred of humans. Those things are disgusting.”
Luri covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief, as though she could not stand it any longer.
“When I heard they were wandering knights, I thought they would be like field mice, but how… could they possibly be even worse?”
They had doused themselves in perfume from head to toe.
However, that only covered their smell as far as human noses were concerned, not Luri’s, as a dragon spawn.
Luri gagged.
“Do humans really walk around emitting such strange smells? What is this filthy, trash-like stench that is neither a smell nor a fragrance?”
Ferda nodded as though he understood.
“That much is the minimum when appearing before a king.”
“You mean not washing?”
Luri asked with an expression that said she could not believe him, and Ferda nodded again.
“It is one of the virtues of knights. Washing to remove one’s smell is a disgrace for a knight. What matters is being able to give off a fragrance even after arriving in a hurry.”
“You know a great deal about barbaric customs.”
“It comes naturally to someone from a knightly family.”
Ferda had also considered it a barbaric custom for a long time.
Most knights probably thought so, too.
It was maintained for no reason other than that it was tradition.
The knights of the empire were men who would even stab their own fathers if it were for the sake of tradition.
“Are you like that as well, Lord Ferda?”
“Why would I be, when I’m not a knight?”
Ferda liked cleanliness.
When he had lived in the restroom, he had always kept it clean, and cleanliness had now become a part of him that could not be removed even if he tried.
“It seems that everyone has gathered. What will you do?”
“Hmm…”
Ferda once again observed the people carefully.
‘As expected, he isn’t here.’
Ferda had lured the wandering knights by promising them territory in exchange for offering up thirty monsters.
The condition had been set not only to gather monster corpses all at once, but also to gather the wandering knights and inspect them.
‘Is Alberdo, the Walking Fortress, not here?’
A wandering knight who wore armor made of a material as hard and heavy as a turtle’s shell, carrying a greatsword in one hand and a tower shield in the other.
He walked the roads as a wandering knight on his own two feet, without even a horse or a squire; he was shabby, yet noble at the same time.
‘I knew he had no interest in territory or loyalty, but I thought the Far East might interest him.’
He had sworn to fight everything that threatened humanity.
Naturally, since the Far East was exposed to countless threats, Ferda thought the Walking Fortress would want the position.
“Is there someone you’re looking for?”
While Ferda was scanning the crowd, Luri asked him quietly.
“If I’m looking, then I’m looking. If I’m not, then I’m not.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s like hoping to find a silver coin lying in the road while walking. Enough small talk. Let’s go down now.”
“Yes.”
Luri’s index finger pointed toward Ferda’s toes.
She waved her finger. A white vortex began quietly turning beneath Ferda’s feet.
Ferda felt his body grow lighter.
‘Heaven Stair.’
A third-tier spell that allowed someone to descend slowly and safely from the air to the ground.
Despite being minor and useless, it was one of the spells nobles often used to maintain their dignity.
Ferda stepped into the air, and his body slowly descended diagonally toward the platform.
“Huh?”
Someone spotted Ferda and cried out.
“Someone’s coming down.”
“Is that… the owner of this castle?”
The obtuse wandering knights stared blankly at him as he descended.
Ferda stepped onto the platform with his hands clasped behind his back.
He turned around in place and looked down at the wandering knights.
The lofty bearing of a great archmage suited to the elegant magic.
Even the obtuse wandering knights had no choice but to fall silent.
“It is a pleasure to meet you.”
He greeted them in a solemn voice.
* * *
Stefan, who had been watching Ferda, was momentarily spellbound by his extraordinary appearance.
‘That’s Valdrowa’s kept man? A foolish young brat drunk on power?’
That alone was astonishing.
He had heard that the Grand Duke’s fiancé was a young man who had only just reached adulthood, but he was truly young.
There was no one among the wandering knights younger than him, and he was even five years younger than the youngest wandering knight.
‘And yet he is so full of dignity, with a charisma rivaling that of heads of families who have held their positions for decades.’
Even though he was more than five years younger, Stefan did not dare try to assert superiority based on age.
‘This is no time for this!’
Stefan came to his senses after being captivated by Ferda’s appearance.
How could he stand there with his legs stiffly extended in front of a king?
A few quick-witted knights were already on their knees.
Stefan poked Robellus in the side.
“Sir Knight.”
“Huh, yeah? Yeah?”
“You need to kneel.”
“Huh? …Ah!”
Only then did Robellus hurriedly kneel, as though he finally understood.
It was a frivolous display that did not conform to etiquette, but what did that matter?
The other knights soon came to their senses and knelt as well.
Ferda continued speaking.
“I am Ferda Valdrowa, fiancé to Grand Duke Valdrowa and currently serving as regent of the Grand Duchy.”
“Our greetings to the Regent of the Grand Duchy!”
Someone offered a booming greeting.
The knights who had been staring blankly belatedly echoed the greeting.
One knight who had been waiting at the front smoothed back his hair.
He tried to introduce himself before anyone else.
“It is truly an honor to set foot in the territory of the ruler of great power. As for me…”
“Ah. There’s no need.”
Ferda cut off the oily knight’s introduction.
Refusing to listen to a knight’s introduction was contrary to royal etiquette.
‘Why did he go out of his way to stop him?’
It was not something that required much thought.
Ferda had never intended to observe etiquette in the first place.
“The wrappers you prepared are useless. When everything inside is trash, what good is it to raise people’s expectations?”
“…Pardon?”
“W-what does th-that mean…?”
All the wandering knights made bewildered noises.
Their plate armor clattered and rattled.
‘Aaaah! This is brutal, absolutely brutal!’
His head was already spinning from the smell of perfume, and now the atmosphere had turned hostile as well, leaving him unable to think straight.
Ferda, who had hurled the abuse, merely flowed on as calmly as a great river.
“Would you like me to put it more simply? I mean that every one of you is hollow inside. You’re nothing but hollow pastries and rattling empty carts.”
Bang!
Someone slammed a gauntlet into the floor.
“Your words are too harsh, Regent! I beseech you to withdraw that statement!”
A fierce-looking knight said that.
His armor was covered in scratches, giving him the appearance of a knight who had passed through countless battlefields.
He was the man who had bought thirty monster corpses from Stefan himself.
‘Wow, what unbelievable nerve.’
As Stefan watched in exasperation, Ferda stared down at the man.
“Too harsh…”
Ferda nodded as though acknowledging his words.
“Very well. If my words were wrong, I shall apologize to you.”
With his hands clasped behind his back, Ferda walked along the edge of the platform.
His gaze swept over all the wandering knights.
“Is there anyone here who personally captured all thirty monsters?”
“Ugh…”
“Ahem…”
Some of the knights who had been preparing to rail at him for insulting them lowered their heads while clearing their throats.
But those who had not lowered their heads wore mocking smiles as they watched the reactions around them.
The fierce-looking knight still held his head high.
This time, Ferda asked those who were still holding their heads up.
“Is there anyone among you who captured thirty monsters alone?”
“Well…”
“How could anyone capture that many alone…”
They muttered, but fell silent after being overwhelmed by Ferda’s gaze.
Some lowered their heads again and spoke in sour voices.
But
that meant they were wandering knights who had caught the monsters purely through their own strength, without obtaining them from somewhere else.
‘There’s no way any of them did that.’
Any wandering knight with enough power to capture thirty monsters alone would already be serving under someone.
The fact that every one of them was holding his head up meant they were all lying.
They were acting shamelessly because there was no way Ferda could know what they had done.
‘No, even a lord who wasn’t a complete idiot wouldn’t take that at face value.’
Stefan watched Ferda’s reaction.
Ferda met the eyes of those holding their heads high, then simply nodded.
“I see.”
Yet Ferda accepted it.
That easily?
“Then I shall apologize.”
Ferda approached the young attendant standing beside him and held out his hand.
She took a scroll sealed with vermilion wax from her skirt.
“Do you know what this is?”
Ferda asked as he held it up.
Even the slow-witted ones could tell at a glance what it was.
“This is the deed to the territory Tesalos Walcher administered, along with its title certificate. All you need to do is write your names on them, and they will take effect.”
The prize every knight desired.
“In any case, you captured and offered up thirty monsters, so shouldn’t I keep my promise?”
He set it on the table atop the platform and said:
“If you desire it…”
It was as though that had sounded the first arrow announcing the beginning of a war.
“Come and take it.”
Light burst from the eyes of every wandering knight.
Stefan instinctively hunched his body.
It was a situation he had seen far too many times.
‘Like middle-aged women when a store puts up a seventy-percent-off sign to clear out its inventory!’
The expression about getting one’s back broken like a shrimp when caught among women whose eyes had turned wild was entirely fitting.
Since his opponents were knights, the ensuing brawl would be even rougher.
He decided it would be best not to watch and lowered his head.
But no one moved.
Not even Robellus beside him.
Stefan cautiously raised his head and asked Robellus:
“Sir Knight, aren’t you going?”
“Ugh… ngh…”
No, he was unable to.
Robellus was suffering.
His eyes were opened so wide they looked ready to pop out, and he was staring fixedly at one spot.
Wondering what he was looking at, Stefan turned his head without thinking, and
“H-hurk!”
Stefan also made a choking sound.
‘A d-dragon?’
Where the attendant had been standing only a moment ago.
A Silver Dragon was coiled there, glaring fiercely.
Everyone was completely paralyzed by those eyes.
‘What the hell? When did that get here? N-no, did we come somewhere else?’
Stefan wondered whether he had somehow come to a different place.
That was how deeply his terror obstructed his thoughts.
Even while everyone else stood frozen, someone rose to his feet.
“Advancement…”
He let out a breath like a dying old man.
“A terri-tory…”
“Marriage… an escape…!”
Like dying old men, they struggled toward the blank certificates.
As the race toward the platform was underway,
-Grrr……
the dragon’s form twisted.
The motionless creature growled as they approached, as though angered.
The wandering knights who had forced themselves to move froze once again.
The silver dragon’s coiled body began to move.
-Rooooar!!
It roared as though they had touched its reverse scale.
* * *
-What happens to the knights if you use Dragon Fear?
Before meeting the knights, Ferda had asked Luri that question.
-Most of them will run away. They will believe a dragon is chasing them.
-What happens if you use it weakly?
-Hmm, their five senses will convince them that a dragon is present, rendering them unable to move.
-That should be sufficient. When I give you the signal, could you release some Dragon Fear?
-At the knights?
-Yes. If we are choosing the lord of the territory, surely they need only not be cowards.
Ferda had said that, and Luri had agreed to some extent.
‘I thought I wouldn’t care who it was…’
Luri’s thoughts gradually changed.
They said things differed between merely imagining something and actually beginning the work, but there was another decisive factor shaking her resolve.
‘Damnable smell.’
It was because of the smell.
Dragon Fear made them break into a cold sweat and raised their body temperatures.
As a result, steaming heat rose from them, and the smells of the perfume they had sprayed on themselves and their body odor spread even more intensely.
A disgusting cloud, colloquially called a paoun, had formed near the ceiling.
By now, even Ferda could sense the foul smells mixing in.
For Luri, there could be no hell worse than this.
The ones sweating probably had no idea what was happening.
They were too distracted by Luri’s Dragon Fear.
Some trembled in fear, while others, consumed by greed, forced their feet to move.
“I-I’m finally… going to rise in life…!”
“D-dr-dr-Dragons a-aren’t sc-scary, n-not at a-all!”
They had even begun voicing their filthy true feelings, making it a perfect three-part assault on Luri’s patience.
‘I want to throw them out right now.’
However, Luri did her utmost to fulfill her role.
She tried to watch what they did until the very end.
But then Luri’s silver eyes inevitably saw it.
The man at the head of the group, climbing onto the platform.
A terrible stench rolled off him after he had gone several days without washing.
Several layers of sweat must have flowed over his skin and dried again and again.
A single drop of sweat slid smoothly down the man’s cheek.
As it passed over his face, it picked up the grime that had built up there.
The sweat traveled downward until it reached the tip of his chin, then fell like a drop gathering at the end of a stalactite.
Drip—
Dirty, foul-smelling sweat seeped into Valdrowa’s precious dwelling.
Crack.
Something shattered inside Luri’s mouth.
The instant all that information became conscious to Luri in the form of written lines, she momentarily lost her reason.
Dragon Fear was released at full force, covering the entire banquet hall.
It lasted only an instant, but that alone was enough.
“Aaaah! I don’t want to die!!”
The knights who had been moving despite their fear were the first to turn around and run.
Terror spread in an instant.
“Get out of my way! I’m just going home!”
“Aaaaaah! Mooom! Mooooom!!”
The knights began running disgracefully, their armor clattering.
Without waiting for anyone else, they raced toward the entrance, and the banquet hall was empty in an instant.
“Hmm…”
Ferda, who had been watching, looked at the battered gate and said:
“We should have watched a little longer. What a shame.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right. There are plenty of riffraff like that, so can’t we simply choose again?”
Ferda’s eyes slowly shifted elsewhere.
“And the selection wasn’t a complete failure.”
In the place that looked as though a storm had swept through it, one man was standing.
He was not a knight.
His legs were trembling, but a closer look revealed that he was forcing himself to hold them in place so he would not run away.
His eyes were full of tears, and mucus ran from his nose.
Fluids were dripping from every opening.
It was a situation in which fear seemed certain to suffocate him.
And yet his eyes were fixed on Ferda.
Whoever he was, he seemed worth speaking with.
* * *
Valdrowa Castle, reception room.
“What is your name?”
“I-I-I’m S-Stefan Pascal.”
“Is your name S-Stefan?”
“S-sorry. I st-stuttered over my name. S! T! E! F! A! N!”
“It’s all right. I understand. I only wanted to make sure. Speak slowly. There’s no need to force yourself.”
“Y-yes, yes! Hoohoohoo!”
Stefan had still not recovered from the aftereffects of Dragon Fear.
He was breathing deeply as hard as he could, but a few breaths were nowhere near enough to steady him.
‘His mental fortitude is extraordinary.’
The fact that he could hold a conversation while his lips trembled violently proved that much.
Ferda swallowed his admiration and asked him:
“If you are from the Pascal family, are you connected to the Pascal Trading Company I’m thinking of?”
“Y-yes, I am. I’m H-Herman Pascal’s second son! I-I’m currently the branch manager of the Imperial branch. No, I’m the b-branch m-manager!”
“I see. Why have you come?”
“I-I was s-selling monster corpses to the k-knights, and thought that p-perhaps Your Grace might n-need monster corpses, so I-I came to mention it…”
The man had come with a definite purpose.
He had suppressed his instinct to run away with reason because he could not give up on it.
‘But what bothers me is, as expected…’
The name Stefan Pascal itself.
‘I’ve never heard of him.’
Herman Pascal was the most famous merchant in the empire and even on the continent, so Ferda knew of him well.
After Herman’s death, the succession struggle had intensified, but only two people stood at its center.
Murchit and Tilda.
‘Is this Stefan an isolated sailboat…?’
A vessel destined to drift forever on windless days and die forgotten.
A man who possessed the qualifications of an heir, but would die in vain because he had no support among the people.
There were more than enough reasons to consider him unimpressive.
‘But if he is destined to collapse because he lacks the strength to follow through…’
What would happen if Ferda filled that gap himself?
‘Murchit and Tilda have already firmly established their own factions.’
There would be no scraps left for Ferda even if he took either side.
‘Insert a new axis named Stefan into the succession struggle.’
If he succeeded, Ferda would gain access to the trade network and information of the Pascal Trading Company, known as the greatest in the empire.
It would greatly aid the development and technological revolution of the Far East, which was little better than wilderness.
“You.”
Having finished his assessment, Ferda spoke.
“While you’re calming down, would you like to hear one outrageous proposal?”