Chapter 43
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The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
Luri’s actions upon invading the Imperial Palace might have seemed impulsive.
In reality, however, they were closer to rational actions based on reason.
Breaking through the magic circle and summoning all the mages and knights was meant to make them realize how serious the situation was and put them on alert.
It was a very small warning, showing what could happen if the dragon’s consort were injured.
That was why Luri brought out everything she usually kept hidden.
Her tail, horns, and even her four white eyes.
Once they realized she was someone they could communicate with, the commander would ask Luri whom she served.
Luri would answer that she was Grand Duke Valdrova’s attendant, and they could talk things out.
‘Lord Ferda will be safe anyway.’
Even if he had been injured inside the Imperial Palace, there would be priests stationed there.
Every one of them possessed holy power on the level of a bishop, so treating Ferda’s wounds would be no trouble at all.
‘And yet……’
The thought kept circling through Luri’s mind.
She could not feel reassured.
Just as immortals and mortals were different, dragon spawn and humans were different as well.
What if his injuries were so severe that he could not wake even after they healed his wounds?
What if some demon had placed a curse on him inside the Sealed Vault?
What if he had been unable to resist its temptation and entered some absurd contract?
Such worries, all leading to Valdrova’s sorrow, were making Luri’s thoughts increasingly complicated.
A master’s worries were a servant’s worries as well.
Luri did not allow herself to be swept away by that anxiety and maintained her reason to the very end.
She knew very well that emotion would not help in this situation.
Thus, Luri hacked through every Imperial Palace garden blocking her path and cleared the way ahead.
After destroying even the wall of rose vines, she saw the knights who had been moving noisily waiting to receive her.
Among them, Luri spotted a man she knew well.
‘Ferda.’
Gray hair and blue eyes.
He was tall, but his body was slender.
Yet he also wore a solemn expression that did not suit his age.
Ferda Valdrova.
Everything she saw was Ferda himself, exactly as she knew him.
Unlike the report that he had been injured, he appeared perfectly fine.
‘He’s safe.’
For a moment, she felt the worries lodged in her heart drain away.
Now that her worries had disappeared, she should have felt relieved.
But this was slightly different from the relief she usually felt.
The satisfaction of watching grime being scrubbed away.
The relief that came from dispelling an anxiety that had driven her mad.
Neither of those was what filled Luri’s heart.
‘……I’m angry.’
She was angry.
The emptiness left by the enormous worries and concerns that had occupied her was filled by anger.
‘The Regent, the man who is Valdrova’s fiancé, went to some pointless place, caused trouble, and got himself hurt?’
As the taut thread of Luri’s reason finally snapped, she released Dragon Fear.
Toward Ferda.
The innocent knights were caught in the backlash without even knowing why.
“C-Commander! Give the order, quickly……!”
If they merely continued this standoff, they would collapse before the fighting even began.
The knights guarding the Imperial Palace had to decide whether to fight or retreat.
“I-I…….”
At the moment the commander was about to signal an attack, someone placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Wait a moment.”
Unlike the trembling commander, the man’s voice was calm.
“I’ll resolve this.”
“Pardon? If I may ask, Your Excellency……?”
“I am Ferda, Regent of Valdrova. I was invited here today.”
Ferda pointed toward Luri with his chin and said,
“And the maid over there is Grand Duke Valdrova’s attendant.”
“Ah, is that so?”
The knight commander’s tension eased, if only slightly.
Since the person standing before them was Valdrova’s regent, they could at least reason with him.
“So could you give us a moment?”
Of course, they had no choice but to do so.
They were curious why she had broken through the magic circle, descended, and even released Dragon Fear.
But containing the situation came first.
The knight units maintained their formations and moved back as Ferda walked forward.
With every step he took, the Dragon Fear grew denser.
Wrinkles gradually formed across his expressionless face, and the veins in his neck stood out.
‘It really feels like I’m walking straight into a dragon’s mouth.’
He stopped five paces away from her.
When Luri traced a circle on the ground with her index finger, a pure-white wind began to swirl around the ground where she and Ferda stood.
The wind rose upward and covered Ferda and Luri in the shape of a hemisphere.
Luri, who had kept her mouth tightly shut, exhaled a deep sigh through her nose.
It seemed as though she were releasing the pressure that had built up as her temper rose.
“We’re cut off from the outside here. No matter what we say, nothing will leak out.”
“I see.”
“So…… I’ll just say it plainly.”
Luri spat out the emotions that had surged up inside her.
“Are you insane?”
She was utterly frank.
“The man who is the Grand Duke’s fiancé is going around making a fool of himself without even understanding what his position means?”
“It was necessary.”
“That is not an answer. Even if it was necessary, if word of this had reached my master, everything would have become a mess. Are you aware of that?”
“I am. And I also know that you wouldn’t tell your master.”
“Why is that?”
“Because you care about your master. You wouldn’t want them to make a move.”
He also knew that if anyone came from Valdrova Castle, Luri would be the first to arrive.
“Yes. I have a duty to serve my master. But Lord Ferda, it seems you don’t love my master as much as I thought.”
“I care about them too.”
“And yet you let word reach my master that you were injured inside the Sealed Vault? Fine, I’ll concede that point a hundred times over.”
Luri had grown even angrier as Ferda drew closer, but there was another reason.
Even Ferda had overlooked one thing.
Luri grabbed Ferda’s wrist and brought it to her nose.
“And yet someone like you goes around with the scent of another woman’s perfume on his hand?”
“……”
She shook Ferda’s wrist as she asked,
“Which bitch was it?”
“……Olivia Arken.”
“The Empire’s Flower with that vulgar figure?”
An even deeper venom entered Luri’s expression.
At the same time, her grip around his wrist tightened.
She felt as though it might break.
“……She does have that nickname.”
Ferda pretended not to have heard the remark.
As though being injured were not enough, his fiancée had held hands with the Empire’s greatest beauty.
Luri’s entire body trembled.
Her gaze, which had been looking up at Ferda, dropped to the floor as though she could no longer bear it.
“Are you the kind of man who grabs a woman’s hand whenever he sees one? Was approaching my master also just an excuse to hold their hand once?”
“Don’t jump to conclusions. She grabbed mine of her own accord. I had no choice but to play along if I wanted to talk to her. It’s not as though I enjoyed it.”
“……I don’t believe you.”
Luri’s left hand clenched into a tight fist.
Watching her anger, Ferda asked her with an expression of resignation,
“Do you want to hit me?”
“……”
“You may hit me once, if you want.”
Only then did Luri’s eyes, which had fallen to the floor, cautiously rise to look at Ferda.
She saw Ferda’s angular jaw and cheek.
It was the face she had thought she would gladly hit just once, since his offhand remarks were so irritating.
Her emotions did not settle and continued to surge upward.
In the end, Luri reached out her hand.
Ferda slowly closed his eyes like a condemned man.
Several seconds passed, but no sting touched his cheek.
Instead, his collar rustled as it was straightened.
“So…… did you get what you wanted?”
Ferda nodded.
“I made some gains.”
“Is that so?”
Having finished straightening him up, Luri withdrew her hand.
Wherever her hand had passed, everything was neatly set right.
“Please don’t disappoint my master.”
“I understand.”
As she said that, Luri studied Ferda’s expression.
Only after seeing the life return to his previously lifeless expression did she feel reassured.
“Then.”
When Luri gestured again, the hemispherical space dissolved and returned to normal.
Luri glanced at the knights, then simply flapped her wings and left the Imperial Palace.
The knights and mages who had watched while holding their breath could only stare up at the spot where she had disappeared.
“……Situation resolved.”
“Haaaah!”
“Huff, huff…….”
They had allowed intruders who had entered without permission to leave just like that, but no one dared to point it out.
“But is it really all right to just let her go? She was an intruder.”
Except for one tactless person.
* * *
Once the Level-One alert was lifted, the commander walked over to Ferda and bowed courteously.
“Thank you for resolving the situation.”
“No, I should apologize. It happened because of my carelessness, yet the entire palace was thrown into an uproar.”
“Not at all. We should be satisfied that we managed to get through an incident that could have incurred a dragon’s wrath without any bloodshed. Your Excellency, how would you like to handle this matter?”
If they raised the issue, it could turn into a messy argument, with each side rebutting the other.
But that was not what Ferda wanted.
Now that he had gained a collaborator named Olivia Arken, it would not be wise to make unnecessary enemies among the Imperial family.
“Let’s just bury the matter. There’s no need to argue over who was at fault. Thanks to this, we discovered that a dragon spawn might be able to smash through the magic circle and enter, didn’t we?”
“That’s true. I had already been thinking that those Ministry of Magic bastards were only looking after their own turf, but now we have an excuse to deal with them.”
The commander nodded with a pleased expression.
Ferda did not know how court politics worked, but it was clear that the palace was a formidable battlefield.
“It seems the matter is settled for now. May I leave?”
“If you have finished your business…… of course. But how about resting overnight in the Imperial Palace? You were injured today as well, and it would be best to rest comfortably for a day or two while we observe your condition…….”
The sun was still up, but sunset would come soon.
As the commander had said, it would be better to rest for even one day.
“I’m sorry. I have business to attend to.”
“Ah, you have another engagement? I understand.”
He did not actually have anything scheduled, but Ferda simply wanted to leave this uncomfortable place and return as quickly as possible.
“Ah, and there’s one more thing.”
Ferda spoke to the commander as though he had just remembered something.
“Yes?”
“I’d like to take one of the knights here with me. Would that be all right?”
“A knight……?”
It was an extremely sudden request and something the commander could not accept.
Every knight in the Imperial Palace was an outstanding talent, and even the last-ranked, least capable knight could become an exceptional knight in another kingdom.
But the other party was the Grand Duke’s fiancé.
It would be improper to refuse him outright.
“Which one has caught Your Excellency’s eye?”
“It was someone I saw earlier…… but I can’t remember his name.”
Ferda glanced around, searching for the man.
Before long, he spotted him.
He was sprawled facedown, listening to his seniors chew him out.
“Malcolm, you bastard! You were missing when we were forming the formation, weren’t you?”
“You bastard! While we were busting our asses, what were you doing? Sleeping?”
“I-I’m sorry! I was trying to stop the Regent…….”
“You tried to stop the Regent? Did you actually stop him, you idiot!?”
“I definitely saw him walking through the garden.”
“I couldn’t stop him! I was told we couldn’t lay hands on a noble!”
“During a Level-One alert, don’t you know that we come first after the Imperial family?!”
“Ah, I didn’t know!”
“You don’t know, and you think your military career is over!? Do you want to see the end of it!?”
Ferda pointed at the man undergoing disciplinary exercises while sweat poured down his face.
“That one.”
“……That deadweight?”
The commander looked as though he were asking whether Ferda was serious.
“Is he famous?”
“In a bad way, he’s famous enough to make everyone else look good. I don’t know how that man got into the Imperial Palace’s knight corps, but he’s useless. He can’t use a sword, and he rides a horse that looks like a donkey…… Aside from that, I have no idea how he ever made it here.”
“Is that so?”
“I was already considering throwing him out…… but you still want him?”
The commander asked worriedly.
He was not worried about losing a talented man; he was worried because it felt like he was passing a bomb along.
Yet Ferda firmly nodded.
“Perfect. Have him wrapped up for me.”
“Understood.”
Every Imperial Palace knight was valuable.
But Malcolm was the exception.
* * *
As the sun sank beyond the hazy western mountains and sunset fell,
the official carriage of the Grand Duchy of Valdrova left the capital.
At the same time, a man who had been hiding beneath the carriage while holding his breath emerged.
“Phewww!! It’s really over.”
It was Zed.
After leaving the Sealed Vault, he had somehow escaped and managed to climb aboard the carriage.
“Good work. What about the item?”
“I kept it safe here. And I didn’t open it.”
Zed took out the golden cloth bundle he had been carrying inside his clothes.
A black-covered book bound with silver chains and wrapped in golden silk.
No ordinary method would allow Ferda to break those chains and open it.
Since he had no intention of looking at it right away, Ferda wrapped it in the cloth again and set it beside him.
“But we’re not going to get in trouble, right? Even so, we took a book from the Sealed Vault. There’s no way things will just quiet down…….”
“It’s fine. Now that we have a collaborator, things will be easier.”
“Who is that?”
“Olivia Arken.”
Zed’s eyes widened.
“Oh. You talked with the Empire’s Flower? I heard she’s incredibly beautiful and pure. What was she like?”
“She was devious at heart.”
“She’s a noble lady, after all……. There are surprisingly many people like that.”
Zed had dealt with many nobles, but he still could not hide his envious look.
She certainly was a woman with a bewitching charm.
“Neighhh!”
Just as they were leisurely leaving, a horse’s cry rang out from where the knights were.
“Hey, hey! You there, old man! I told you to keep your line straight! How many times have I told you it’ll be chaos if the horses get too close to one another?”
“S-sorry! Rosy, you rascal! I told you not to pester them!”
Hearing a voice he had never heard before, Zed stuck his head out the window.
There he saw a man who had hurriedly packed his belongings and loaded them high onto a saddle.
“I’ve never seen that face before. Who’s that?”
He was dressed like a wandering knight, but he looked unmistakably inept.
His clothes made that clear, too.
“And he’s riding a donkey……?”
He was riding a donkey, not a horse.
“His name is Malcolm. He’s an Imperial knight and a trainee knight at the same time. I plan to use him as a specimen.”
“A specimen?”
Zed tilted his head at Ferda’s words.
“Yes, a specimen.”
He merely gave a brief reply.