Chapter 71
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
Ferda was a little dumbfounded by those words.
She had laid out such an impressive deduction, only for the conclusion to come out of nowhere.
A demon’s child?
Had this woman been saying all that just to make some kind of joke?
That was how it seemed, but Erdes’s expression was serious.
No, she wore a playful smile, yet her face made it clear that, at the very least, she was certain that statement was no joke.
Ferda thought.
How should he respond?
Should he leap up in fury, or keep wearing an expression of utter disgust?
In the awkward silence, Erdes was the one to speak.
“I went to see Erembalt Rosnova.”
This was no simple visit.
She had clearly turned the place upside down.
The Rosnova family.
From the moment she became involved, Ferda had assumed she would naturally investigate his background.
Erdes blinked at Ferda’s reaction.
“Oh my? Your reaction is rather unexpected. Still, most people get angry when someone touches their family.”
“That man wanted to deny my very existence.”
Ever since Ferda’s mother died, Erembalt Rosnova had not treated him as his son.
He had turned a blind eye to the bullying by his siblings and the servants, and even seemed to encourage it.
In effect, his father had been at the center of the abuse.
“What a lovely father-and-son relationship~. Still, he didn’t deny your existence. Maybe it’s because you’re living comfortably under Valdrova.”
Erdes continued, as though immediately playing her next card.
“But your mother was different.”
Mother.
“Oh my? I suppose you loved your mother very much, then? Your expression changed.”
Erdes found a weak spot and grinned like a mischievous child.
“They say he was bewitched by that woman and spent years in a dream, only coming to his senses after she died?”
Her childish, immature gestures were beginning to grate on him.
“It was fascinating. Do you know what that bastard said? He apparently spent ten years believing he had loved a woman he didn’t even love. They say he hypnotized himself for a full ten years? A mage’s bloodline really does seem to be inherited properly. Or is it demonic?”
Her intention was obvious.
That damned woman was insulting his mother.
“Anna Rosnova was an excellent mother.”
“Even a hedgehog thinks its own young are cute. All the more so when the child bears the blood of the demon she loved so dearly.”
“Hedgehog or goblin, I couldn’t care less. If you keep running your mouth, I won’t stay quiet either.”
“And what will you do if you don’t?”
Light blazed in Erdes’s eyes.
“Do you think your paltry love for your mother will change my conclusion?”
Erdes was trying to agitate Ferda’s emotions.
She hated black magic.
She hated demons.
She hated the owners of Red Circles.
Ferda understood her intent.
She was trying to provoke him into losing control by riling up his emotions.
Look, that is the true face of those who follow black magic.
Yes, her intention was obvious.
Even so, he couldn’t simply let her continue.
Even Alte, whose doctrine was to show mercy, mercilessly killed anyone who set foot in the sacred domain.
His mother was a sacred domain.
He had killed every last person who touched it.
‘Erdes Roton.’
You must be fated to die by my hand in this life as well.
“Don’t you think you’ve strayed rather too far from the subject, Erdes Roton?”
A noblewoman’s voice rang out.
Ferda remembered that voice.
For Ferda, who remembered people he disliked better than those he liked, she was unforgettable.
He turned his head and saw her.
A blue-haired woman in a uniform.
Erika Ior.
She was the leader of the Blue Dragon Spawns.
Why was she here?
Ferda shifted his gaze and glanced toward Luri.
Luri gave a small thumbs-up, as though answering his unspoken question.
Apparently, she was on their side, at least for now.
“Strayed from the subject? What do you mean by that?”
“The subject we’re discussing is undoubtedly Abel Silverwind’s death, isn’t it? Your intent to shake his emotions by casually claiming that his mother was a demon is blatantly obvious, isn’t it?”
“He must have received benefits from Sitri, naturally, since he’s a demon’s child, right?”
“Demons don’t help other demons. And it makes no sense for the Great Demon Sitri to help him merely because they belong to the same species.”
She defended Ferda by exploiting the characteristics of demons.
Erdes smiled and twirled a strand of golden hair around her index finger.
It meant she was annoyed.
“Long time no see, Erika. How have you been?”
“Yes, it has been a long time, Erdes Roton.”
Erdes addressed her casually, while Erika responded with a formal smile.
Yet the battle of nerves between them was no less intense than the one between Goz and Ferda.