Shape of Shadow

Ferda returned to the dim room.

He did so to continue practicing his cultivation technique instead of sleeping.

The mana cultivation technique, Shape of Shadow.

Among the techniques ranked by ordinary mages, it was difficult enough to occupy the highest tier.

Yet Ferda was a man who had already walked a path even more difficult and arduous than this.

He could accomplish it as though it posed no problem at all.

All he needed was for the Circle to move.

And at last, that Circle began to move.

‘The quantity is absurdly insufficient.’

Ferda also knew how to force it out.

Had he done so, he would have reached the Fifth Circle by now.

But he did not.

Because he knew how dangerous it was to be devoured by one’s emotions.

Keeping a wary eye on this emotion, Ferda struggled to find an answer.

And at last, he found it.

Ferda closed his eyes.

He spread the flow of mana and concentrated it throughout his body.

Then he slowly tilted it, overturning everything.

Ferda’s entire mindscape was pressed flat against the floor.

His mind was projected into a world of shadows.

Shadows flickered within the candle flame, swaying gently with his breath.

The shadow began moving on its own, then slowly coiled up Ferda’s body.

The coiled shadow encountered the red circle in Ferda’s lower abdomen.

‘Valdrova.’

Ferda’s mind began imagining Valdrova’s form of its own accord.

A mad painter lived inside his head.

He repeatedly painted the same image on canvas, then repeatedly destroyed it when he remained dissatisfied.

He painted thousands of pictures and destroyed thousands more.

His unfulfilled heart was not mere thirst.

‘It was also what I wanted to find out when I reached the Third Circle.’

The question that had vanished while he stopped Valdrova’s rampage.

But Ferda had finally found the answer.

The image of Valdrova he was painting contained an unfilled space.

In that empty space were two syllables.

‘Tomorrow.’

At that moment, the mad painter in his heart began to move.

Unlike when he had been seized by anger, fervor filled him.

This time, he freely drew Valdrova’s form on a much larger canvas.

‘Her tomorrow.’

Not merely her tomorrow.

‘A tomorrow… in which I am there.’

He filled the empty space with himself.

The painting became a single sentence.

‘I want to share tomorrow with her.’

The moment the sentence was completed, something astonishing happened.

The paintings created from shallow imagination began to move.

Ferda knew this.

‘A child’s heart.’

Long ago, it had been the dream of a sickly boy.

The vaguely drawn figure of a companion was overwritten by a beautiful woman with red hair and four horns.

It was a dream, and at the same time, an ecstasy.

Ecstasy was the peak of emotion.

It moved.

His uncontrollably growing feelings agitated the Circle.

If he left it as it was, Ferda was destined to break.

So Ferda concentrated.

Because the future they shared had to become reality, not a fantasy.

Ferda brought the form of the spirit on which he had focused into the Circle.

At that moment, dozens of hands in clusters gathered the surging mana and began shaping it.

‘Easy.’

It was on an entirely different level from simply scooping mana up with one hand and forming it.

Creating the First and Second Circles had felt more difficult.

‘Far too easy.’

With it surrounded and pressed from all directions, there was no gap through which it could escape.

The rotation moved as rotation, while the form took shape as form.

In that way, it was overlaid with the shape of a new shell.

That was how Ferda reached the Fourth Circle.

Ferda opened his eyes.

The shadow writhed, then gradually changed into the shape of a hand.

It was the Third-Tier spell Shadow Hand.

No, this was on an entirely different level from Shadow Hand.

This was not some artificial object created by magic.

It was another part of his body that had been hidden inside Ferda.

Ferda adapted to it at once.

‘The shadow is me, and—’

The hand split apart, creating another hand.

Those hands, in turn, became more hands.

They continued splitting in that manner without end.

The narrow room was filled with black hands.

‘I am the shadow.’

Unable to withstand the deep darkness, the candle went out with a faint pop.

* * *

A guild.

A guild was an organization that proved its members’ identities and granted them benefits.

In return, it held them accountable for their actions, controlled them with rules, and sometimes demanded unity for the sake of profit.

Protecting their interests through association was its very essence.

But the Cerdess Human Magic Society was fundamentally different from such a guild.

Surveillance over proof.

Control over benefits.

That was the world in which mages lived on the continent of Serdes.

Its founder was Erdes Roton.

She was a war hero of the twelve-person expedition assembled to defeat the Demon King in the Dragon War, as well as the founder of the Human Magic Society.

Even now, 150 years later, she was alive and active.

She was the mage who had yet to relinquish the title of humanity’s strongest mage to the current generation.

The embodiment of intellect.

A living witness.

Though she possessed considerable age and experience, she looked younger than women in their prime.

“You have official duties to attend to.”

“I don’t wanna!!”

She was not merely young; she threw a tantrum like a child.

“I don’t want to work! Leave me alone!”

“Your official duties are several days overdue. Look at this. They’ve piled up so high that I can’t see the chairwoman’s face!”

“I put them there because I don’t want to see your face. Blue can handle them instead.”

“How am I supposed to handle them? And my name is Lu.”

“A few delays won’t kill anyone. If you’re that bothered, tell them to come and say it to my face.”

“But you won’t open the door, will you?”

“If they challenge me to a duel, I open it just fine, don’t I?”

“What madman in the world would fight the chairwoman?”

She was a war hero of the Dragon War and humanity’s strongest mage.

If there was a gap between their Circles, no one could theoretically defeat her, with their odds sinking infinitely close to zero.

“That’s exactly the problem. They only say they’re staking their lives, but when I ask, ‘Want to die?’ they run off squealing, ‘I want to live!’ Right? No guts, no guts.”

“You crippled someone who put his life on the line, didn’t you?”

“I failed to control my strength once in a while. We reached an amicable settlement with the person involved, didn’t we?”

She brushed it off as though it were nothing important.

The secretary could do nothing but sigh and hand over the documents he had received.

“Here’s the list of attendees for this Grand Council. Please check it.”

You don’t have to, if you don’t want to.

Lu muttered the words under his breath.

With a single twitch of Erdes’s finger, the list flew into her hand.

“There are a lot of old men I know here. If they’re old enough to have lived this long, shouldn’t they pass things on to their sons by now? How long do they plan to keep at it?”

“Exactly.”

The secretary’s eyes gazed meaningfully at Erdes.

“Look away before I pluck those eyes out. Otherwise, hmm?”

Erdes’s rapidly scanning gaze fixed on one spot.

“Is something wrong?”

“I thought I might have read it wrong.”

She repeated that word several times.

“But I didn’t read it wrong after all. Blue, you little bastard, aren’t you handling your work properly?”

“Pardon?”

He was flustered by the sudden verbal abuse.

She pointed to one of the names on the list.

“This man’s surname here is written as Valdrova, isn’t it?”

“Ah, yes, that is in fact the name of the Red Dragon Valdrova. In other words, I didn’t enter it incorrectly, nor was it a mistake by the organizers.”

“Swear it’s not a lie?”

“Yes. There are records as well.”

Erdes shrugged off her embarrassment.

“That terrifying dragon has a fiancé? Is that what’s unusual?”

“Um… you didn’t know?”

Erdes smiled faintly.

But a chilly shadow fell across her face.

“What is it that I don’t know? That I’m a brainless young lady ignorant of the world? Or that your head might be flying off today?”

“Gasp, no, I absolutely didn’t mean to belittle or mock you, Chairwoman; this was purely….”

“The point.”

“That is, this time he is the fiancé of the Red Dragon Valdrova.”

“Fiancé?”

Erdes was immature, but she knew what it meant to be Valdrova’s fiancé.

“For real?”

“Pardon?”

“I asked if it was for real.”

“Uh, yes. It’s for real.”

“How fascinating. No one goes willingly to their execution… Ferda, give me this man’s records.”

“Ah, wait a moment!”

The secretary brought both hands to his temples and chanted a spell.

“Search, Ferda Valdrova.”

At that moment, a bundle of papers squeezed through the gap beneath the office door and stacked itself neatly in front of the secretary.

When he finished the spell, the secretary handed the papers to Erdes.

“H-here they are!”

Her eyes quickly scanned the documents she had received.

“Let’s see, third son of House Rosnova… Hmm….”

Erdes’s gaze grew considerably calmer.

As her eyes moved downward, her expression grew more serious.

“Blue.”

“Yes.”

“When is the Grand Council being held?”

Lu’s eyes widened.

“In five days, but surely you aren’t thinking of going?”

“I was going to skip it because it sounded like they’d just talk about boring things, but I thought it might not be bad to go take a look.”

Erdes’s lips remained fixed on Ferda’s portrait.

“Besides, surely I can at least see this idiotically handsome face, can’t I?”

“Wouldn’t attending be meaningful in itself? You might be late, but even now, we should hurry and prepare a carriage….”

“No, there’s no need.”

Erdes’s finger drew a circle in the air.

A circular portal, resembling the path she had traced, appeared in midair.

“If there’s a simple way, why go to all that trouble?”

The Fifth-Tier spell, Teleport Door.

She easily manifested this difficult magic without an incantation or magic circle.

For a mage, it would have been a wondrous moment.

But Lu felt more anxiety than wonder.

“So, Lu. I’m going to do some official business and come back.”

“Pardon?”

“Keep things safe while I’m gone. And don’t forget to feed the cats!”

“No, Chairwoman, wait!”

“I’m off~!”

The chairwoman casually waved and threw herself into the Teleport Door.

“If you’re taking a portal, couldn’t you at least do your overdue official work before you gooo?!”

The portal closed, rendering Lu’s scream pointless.

* * *

Ten days before the Grand Council,

Ferda finished preparing to leave for the central region of the continent.

To reach Blancaros’s territory in the central region, they had to depart now.

‘Customs are useless.’

The higher one’s status, the more one had to bring.

Time was among those things, and having leisure was a virtue of the nobility.

For Ferda, who had experienced the future, it was laughable.

Once magical automobiles became widespread, that leisurely culture disappeared.

Instead, nobles began wanting ways to travel even faster.

“Regent, may I come in?”

It was Zed, not Luri.

As a member of Valdrova Castle, he was wearing a red uniform.

The vassals of the Grand Duchy of Valdrova were required to dress that way.

“Sir Arwen, sent by Count Consilius, and the soldiers under his command have just arrived.”

“I see.”

“We’ve prepared the carriage too, so all you need to do is get in… Hm?”

Zed swept his gaze over Ferda’s body, looking puzzled.

“Is something wrong?”

“Not exactly, but I was wondering if you were going in that….”

Ferda’s clothes were plain to an absurd degree.

Nobles were people who did everything they could to make themselves shine.

Thus, having threads spun from glittering jewels was the bare minimum.

Among them, the most accessible gold thread was always included.

Until he entered the royal palace, Ferda had worn red clothes threaded with gold.

But now, they were black with red accents.

Moreover, their sheen was no more than a modest polish.

Compared to other nobles, they were excessively plain.

“I’ve never liked gold.”

“Where in the world is there anyone who dislikes gold?”

Zed reacted as though it were absurd.

He gave Ferda’s clothes a quick once-over and offered his own assessment.

“Without it, I suppose I’ll look rather like you.”

“Good. It lowers the odds of some assassin who knows nothing about style targeting me.”

“I doubt they’d target me, though—I’m far too handsome for a stand-in.”

Zed gave a thoroughly narcissistic smile.

Ferda ignored him and picked up an object from the table.

“Take it.”

Zed was about to step forward because they were too far apart for him to receive it when something astonishing happened.

Ssssh—.

A shadow stretched out from Ferda’s hand, seized the object, and carried it over to Zed.

Though considerably startled by the shadow hand, Zed tried not to show it.

“What is this?”

“The item I promised you.”

At those words, Zed checked its contents.

“Ferda Valdrova, husband, proxy, and regent of Valdrova, one of the Great Twelve Dragons and Ruler of Strength and Fire, hereby knights Zed Swallow as the King’s Sword, the People’s Shield, and….”

He could tell what it was without reading all of the tongue-twisting text.

“A knighting certificate?”

Zed lifted his head, his eyes round.

“……Is this for real?”

“Would it be fake? You came here after I promised you this in the first place, didn’t you?”

“No, you said you’d help me enter high society, but I didn’t expect you to knight me right away.”

Becoming a knight was a stepping stone toward becoming a noble.

That was why it was impossible unless one came from a hereditary knightly family or had accumulated outstanding military achievements.

“Is it really all right for me to accept this now?”

“There’s no need to worry. Your abilities were sufficiently proven in the Imperial treasury.”

“No, that’s not what I meant….”

Zed waved his hands.

“A grand banquet is usually standard for something like this, isn’t it?”

“…….”

“Inviting women and singers, drinking wine—the omission of such important parts is a bit….”

Ferda stared intently at Zed as he mimed tipping back a glass.

Should I take it back?

“Focus only on your duty, Sir Zed.”

“Tch. Understood, Regent.”

My party….

Muttering to himself, he left.

“I should get ready too.”

Normally, Ferda would have received Luri’s assistance, but he no longer needed it.

Ssssh—.

Something resembling black mist stretched out from Ferda’s sleeves and chest.

The mist formed into eight hands and began attending to Ferda.

They fastened his buttons and straightened his clothes, creating an appearance close to perfection.

‘I suppose reaching the Fourth Circle really was worthwhile.’

He was using them for simple tasks while they were still immature, but these hands were Ferda’s arms.

Once he became accustomed to them, he could use magic circles and catch his opponents off guard.

Ferda still possessed his talent; all that remained was practice and experience.

“Shall we go?”

The sound of Ferda’s shoes traveled down the corridor.

When he reached the inner castle gate alone, many soldiers had gathered below it.

“Pay your respects!”

Arwen’s voice rang out.

The soldiers moved in perfect unison and knelt.

It had been only a single movement, but it showed how thoroughly they had been forged through harsh training.

“Arwen Wolfheart, with a unit of thirty under my command, reporting for escort duty!”

“Reporting!”

The knights’ cries rang out.

Ferda swept his gaze over them one by one, then nodded.

“Thank you for your efforts.”

“Yes! Take your positions!”

Arwen mounted his horse, while the soldiers formed an escort formation.

Zed had mounted a horse beside Arwen as well.

Though he had not been a knight for even a day, he looked the part, as befitted a playboy who had made no shortage of women swoon.

Ferda turned his gaze toward the carriage.

Waiting there were a red carriage and the maid Luri.

As usual, she stood holding the door with a businesslike expression.

“Please get in.”

“All right.”

It was just as Ferda left the castle and was about to board the carriage.

Ferda felt someone’s gaze and turned his head slightly to look up at the castle.

A balcony in the inner castle overlooked the gate.

There was no one there.

It was only natural.

What had I been expecting?

“Lord Ferda?”

“I’m coming.”

Ferda took his seat, and the carriage began to move.

The long ten-day journey passed in the blink of an eye.