Chapter 56
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The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
Ferda stared at Goz with his eyes wide open.
Silver hair and silver eyes, exactly like Ruri's.
He wore the same face he had when their eyes first met at the Grand Council.
“Welcome, Regent Valdrova.”
“Chieftain Goz.”
They exchanged names and observed the formal courtesies.
But there was not a trace of respect in either of their eyes.
“I didn't realize such a distinguished person had entered. Ordinarily, your subordinates would have opened the door for you themselves.”
He was asking why Ferda had barged in as he pleased.
“I said there was no need for that.”
Ferda answered that he did as he pleased.
Goz's eyes shifted toward the entrance.
Seen that way, there was nothing to do but bow his head.
“This is a matter for our bloodline. A family matter, in other words. Outsiders should not interfere in family affairs.”
“I’d rather not get involved in a family squabble either.”
Even as he said that, he took another step forward.
Then he felt a light weight on Ruri’s shoulder.
It was Ferda’s hand.
“But this girl is favored by the woman I love. Should I stand by and watch the girl she favors get hurt over nothing more than a family squabble?”
Ferda did not yield an inch.
It was also a direct challenge to Goz's authority.
Goz hated such challenges.
“I felt it when we first met, too, but you certainly have guts.”
Goz rose from his seat.
At that moment, the force emanating from him grew even stronger.
Ruri dropped to her knees and bowed her head.
All the other Silver Dragon spawns followed suit.
Goz asked, gesturing toward Ruri with his chin,
“So, Regent Valdrova. How well do you know Ruri Silverwind, the servant of the one you love?”
“The servant of my one and only fiancée.”
“And?”
“That is enough.”
“Yes, that is all you see her as. It seems this girl did not tell you everything.”
Rough hands hardened by martial arts and battle.
One of those fingers pointed at Ruri.
“This girl is a spy sent by Lord Silverwind.”
He exposed Ruri's identity.
“She was planted to watch Valdrova and determine when she was vulnerable. Until Lord Silverwind died, she had been ordered to report to him regularly.”
“Is that so?”
“You don't seem convinced. Do I look like I'm lying?”
“Do I look like a fool who would believe the words of someone showing me hostility?”
“Yes, I agree. Then why not ask the girl herself? Ruri Silverwind.”
At that call, Ruri felt her head grow even heavier.
“Tell me the truth. Was anything I said incorrect?”
“I was….”
“Answer properly. Did I say anything wrong?”
Goz allowed not even the slightest excuse. In the end, Ruri told the truth.
“I was ordered by Lord Silverwind to… monitor Lady Valdrova.”
“What were your orders?”
“…As Chieftain Goz said, I was to watch Lady Valdrova and identify her weaknesses.”
Silence descended.
Ruri was in such agony that she could hardly breathe.
But what tormented her even more was
that, unable to raise her head, she could not even tell what expression Ferda wore.
At last, Ferda broke the silence.
“I’m not surprised.”
His tone was scornful.
Ruri's toes went cold.
It felt as though the ground had vanished and she had been thrown into a ravine.
“I assumed there had to be a reason for a spawn bearing Silverwind’s name to pledge loyalty to Valdrova.”
Contempt.
Betrayal.
Negative emotions seemed to become a thick swamp and swallow Ruri whole.
But that lasted only a moment.
“So?”
At that question, the pressure enveloping Ruri scattered like a mirage.
Goz frowned.
“What do you mean, ‘so’?”
“So what is the problem?”
Ruri raised her head and looked at Ferda.
As always, he wore the same stubborn, unyielding expression.
Goz's face was twisted with irritation at the unexpected response.
“She was a spy planted by Lord Silverwind. Surely you understand what that means?”
“Yes, she was a spy. But even so, she is the servant my fiancée favors above all others.”
Ferda clasped his hands behind his back and thrust out his chest.
“Even when everyone else turned their backs, this girl stood at my fiancée’s side as a loyal servant. She is a spawn who has devoted herself to Valdrova more than anyone. That is the value she possesses now. Do you think that value will be shaken by the words of someone she met for the first time today?”
Ruri unconsciously tightened her hands as she knelt.
She nearly burst into tears at those words.
“Yes, whether you believe me or not is your freedom. I cannot force that on a human who does not even share Silverwind’s blood, but….”
Goz's eyes gleamed even more fiercely.
“You’ve been quite insolent for some time now.”
The air thrashed violently.
The fuse of a bomb capable of blowing away an entire country was already lit and burning down.
Goz's face showed that his patience had reached its limit.
Dragon spawns were not dragons, but neither were they human.
Every one of them was a dragon supremacist who believed dragons superior to humans.
They could hardly be pleased to see a mere human talking back.
An ordinary human would have bowed, and a wise one would have taken a step back to manage the situation.
“Are you not the one who ought to show proper respect?”
But Ferda neither retreated nor bowed.
A blue glint appeared in Ferda's eyes.
As Valdrova’s regent, he stood proudly on equal footing and confronted Goz.
“You tried to intimidate and drive a wedge between someone else’s servant and her master, and now you’re lecturing me about what I should do?”
He spoke distinctly, as if to say he was not the only one displeased by this conversation.
The veins in Goz’s neck bulged.
Ruri knew.
He was better suited to be a passionate warrior than a coolheaded leader.
“The only reason I cannot snap your neck right now is Lord Blancaros’s mercy and my patience.”
“Do the Silverwinds call fear patience? You’re afraid to confront my fiancée directly, so you puff yourself up against her servant and fiancé….”
Deep contempt lingered in Ferda's narrowed eyes.
“Aren’t you ashamed?”
It was the moment their battle of wills reached its end.
The fierce gust provoked by Ferda’s taunt battered the windows.
Goz, who had been sitting heavily, rose from his seat.
“Yes, it is truly shameful. That I should have to stand here watching a mere human puff himself up….”
Goz took a step forward.
The hand with its grotesquely bulging veins cracked.
“I’ll wash away that shame with your blood right here.”
Just as Ferda was about to come within striking range of his hand,
“Do not move any farther.”
Someone stepped in front of Goz.
Ruri, who should have been kneeling, was suddenly standing in front of Goz, blocking him.
“Ruri, you….”
“He is Lady Valdrova’s husband.”
She was still suffering under the instinctive submission to authority.
And yet the reason she could stand was
“I will take this threat as a challenge to Lady Valdrova and respond accordingly.”
Resolve.
The resolve to stop him no matter what, even if it cost her life.
Goz looked disgusted.
“You’ve gone from a northern warrior to a loyal dog. I never thought you’d even take a human for your master.”
Goz, who had been burning with anger, instead grew calm.
The wind battering the windows ceased.
Goz sat down again and released his oppressive force.
“As Silverwind’s representative, I have nothing more to say to a dog. You may take her, Regent Valdrova. I hope we never meet like this again.”
Ferda answered calmly, as though nothing had happened.
“Then, excuse me.”
Ferda no longer engaged in the battle of wills.
“Ruri.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go.”
“…Yes.”
He brought the trembling Ruri out, bringing the incident to an end for the time being.
* * *
Goz fell into thought, his eyes fixed on the spot where Ferda and Ruri had left.
Although his eyes remained fixed on the empty space, the image of Ruri standing against him burned vividly in his mind.
‘Ruri of the Blade Wind.’
Silverwind’s spawns, who fought beings of the bitter cold beyond the northern Ice Barrier.
Among them, the most vicious and dangerous were the frost giants.
Like monsters in the Far Eastern territories, no one knew where they came from, but they emerged without end, spreading frost across human lands.
They were so troublesome that it took five well-trained dragon spawns working together just to kill one.
But Ruri was different.
With her small frame, she fought three giants at once and defeated them.
Though she suffered serious injuries, she could recover as long as she remained alive.
As a guardian of the continent of Cerdess, she was a source of pride and an example to follow.
Goz, too, had sensed something strange about her more than once or twice.
‘Someone like that….’
Their reunion had been the worst possible.
The unflattering maid uniform and the demeanor of a young servant girl.
On top of that, her idiotic question.
The question she had thrown out while clinging to the faintest hope had been utterly unlike the Blade Wind.
Everything irritated him.
To think that this thing had once been a woman I feared….
But what irritated him more than anything was
‘Ferda Valdrova….’
The human who had stood against him.
There had always been humans who irritated him.
Those who believed they could make dragons do as they pleased.
Those who relied solely on authority and treated dragons as though they were ordinary humans.
He had them beheaded without leaving room for debate, making examples of them.
That was standard practice in dragon society.
‘He is different from those humans.’
He did not want to admit it, but he had felt it clearly when their eyes met.
He had a face more akin to that of an immortal than anyone else’s.
That was why Goz could sense it instinctively.
‘With that insolent bastard around… this revenge will never be fulfilled.’
He clenched his fist.
He had not forgotten Silverwind even once since his death.
Nor had a single day passed without his longing for revenge.
He could not let Ferda ruin everything now.
‘I must… have my revenge.’
No matter what it took, he had to.
* * *
Ruri silently followed behind Ferda.
The surroundings were so quiet that the sound of her shoes echoed down the long corridor.
“Did it go well?”
“…….”
Ruri kept her mouth shut.
“Would you care to say something?”
“……I don’t want to talk.”
“Is that how you speak to the person who helped you?”
Ruri's shoes came to a halt.
Ruri stopped in her tracks.
She lowered her head and opened her mouth.
“……Go.”
Her voice, wet with tears, forced the sound out.
“Who… asked you to help me?”
“…….”
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
It was a situation that fit those words perfectly.
But Ferda said nothing.
She was right.
She had not asked him to help.
Perhaps this was something she could have resolved herself.
Perhaps he had gotten ahead of himself out of rash desire.
“All right.”
Ferda acknowledged it calmly.
“I acted foolishly.”
He turned around on the spot.
Ferda started walking away, intending to leave alone.
“Sorry for interfering.”
Ferda began walking again.
Ruri stared blankly at his back.
* * *
After leaving Silverwind’s private chamber, Ruri silently followed Ferda.
She did not know what words to choose.
Her emotions seemed to swirl.
She glanced up at his back.
It was large.
It felt like a sturdy support, a reliable pillar that would not fall even if she leaned her body against it.
Just like her father,
Silverwind.
But the feeling she sensed from that back was completely different from what she had felt from Silverwind.
Her insides churned.
I had lived longer,
I had crossed the brink of death several more times,
so why was I still inferior to that back?
“Did it go well?”
Ferda asked.
When she did not answer for a long time, he glanced back over his shoulder and asked again.
Blue eyes gleamed between strands of gray hair.
“Would you care to say something?”
Ruri forced her mouth open.
“……I don’t want to talk.”
Instead of responding maturely, a childish complaint slipped out.
“Is that what you say to someone who helped you?”
Helped her?
If Ruri had not stepped forward then, Ferda’s neck would have been snapped, and a wind of calamity would have swept across the continent.
And after doing something so foolish, he called himself the person who had helped her?
She criticized Ferda inwardly, but Ruri knew too.
That none of this would have happened if she had not clung to such a small hope in the first place.
That she ought to thank him for stepping in.
That it would all end if she just said those few words.
And yet.
Even that small acknowledgment was something she did not want to give right now.
She was afraid that if she spoke now, he would hear how unsteady her voice was.
Afraid she would reveal her incompetence as the servant who had attended Valdrova.
Afraid she would show him her weakness one more time.
She clenched her fists tight and raised her head.
“Who….”
She forced out the words, suppressing her anger.
“Who asked you to help me?”
Only after the words left her mouth did she realize she had made a mistake.
That was not how an adult should handle things.
It was the pathetic 모습 of someone unable to acknowledge her own weakness.
The 모습 of a child with nothing to flaunt but her pride.
She felt pathetic, but her throat was too tight to speak any further.
Ferda looked down at that child.
Those eyes, as if he had set his emotions down at the edge of a deep lake.
Those eyes seemed to drag Ruri’s heart even deeper.
At last, he nodded.
Ruri replayed her regret.
“All right.”
This wasn’t it.
“I acted foolishly.”
That wasn’t what I meant.
“Sorry for interfering.”
Ferda walked away again.
Within her field of vision, Ferda’s figure receded down the corridor.
Her hand reached out unconsciously, trying to catch him.
But he had grown far too distant for her to catch him again.