It's a Misunderstanding

An uncomfortable silence passed between them.

Ferda was rubbing his forehead with his index finger.

‘I understand.’

Anyone can resort to slander.

If you latch onto one thing and badmouth it, you can feel a sense of belonging to that group.

You can do it, but getting caught is another matter.

Especially if it is the badmouthing of a beloved fiancé.

Yet Ferda did not become indignant.

Rather, he grew calmer.

Was it because he had become so heated over Erdes, or because he simply had no intention of making an issue of something in the past?

For now, he decided to ask about what he was curious about.

“There is something I would like to know.”

“……Go ahead.”

“Do the other dragons think of my fiancée this way as well?”

“……Please just consider it a sign that dragons don’t get along with one another.”

“No, I only need the objective truth. If you intend to help, tell me everything without filtering it.”

Ferda spoke seriously.

Erika had no way of knowing whether that serious gaze came from anger or curiosity.

But she gave him the answer he wanted.

“Yes. Looking at her actions, we have no choice but to say such things.”

“……”

“Even now, at this very moment. Saying she wants to marry a human and make him her companion is so absurd that it is not even worth joking about.”

Whether in terms of her standing in power or her standing as someone unable to use that power.

Considering that contradiction, it was absurd.

Valdrova was a being of contradictions in every way.

“Setting aside emotional matters.”

Since being trapped in the past was not helpful, he decided to speak about the present.

“What benefit would an alliance with Iorga bring?”

“We can lend our strength to Regent Ferda’s conquest of the Far East.”

“You mean all of you?”

“We have been researching the Far East for a long time.”

There was pride in Erika’s tone.

And the arrogance peculiar to Dragon Spawns.

“The reason the Far East cannot be conquered is because it contains demonic energy.”

Ferda already knew that.

Junk mana rising from the Land of Demons destroyed the mind and body.

“To set foot in the Far East, we needed the blessings and magic of every god. That was why only a tiny elite among the heroes could enter the Far East.”

The twelve heroes.

The high priests who served each god and all the dragons protected them by chanting incantations of blessing.

Among those twelve expedition members were Erika Ior, a Dragon Spawn, and Erdes Roton.

“Only recently, after years of researching Project Hestia, have we achieved a meaningful result.”

A meaningful result.

At those words, Ferda felt a little excited.

“What is it?”

“It is called demon-repelling power.”

Demon-repelling power.

It was not a bad name.

Since Ferda had never heard the term before, he suspected it was some sort of strategic weapon Iorga had hidden away.

“Can it be used to cure the problem?”

“No. It is not a solution to the fundamental problem of being corrupted by demonic energy.”

“Didn’t you call it a meaningful result while researching a cure?”

“That is what research is. Discoveries in unintended directions also count as results.”

Is she playing with me?

When he glared at her like that, Erika mumbled, ‘Anyway,’ and glossed over it.

“To put our discovery simply, it is the difference between prevention and healing.”

Prevention prepares for something that will happen, while healing resolves something that has already happened.

“Then what is happening with the cure?”

“That…… still has not progressed. Since we have to begin the research from scratch, the direction of its results remains uncertain.”

Erika let out a deep sigh through her nose.

“So the point of this conversation is that, if you intend to approach the Land of Demons, we would like to research a demon-repelling agent rather than a cure.”

“What do you intend to do by researching a demon-repelling agent? Have the Valdrova Archduchy take the risk?”

“No. We intend to involve the Adventurers’ Guild more deeply.”

“The Adventurers’ Guild?”

“We have already brought the Adventurers’ Guild in, but until now, we have only kept assigning them requests on the level of trivial errands. We kept throwing out stopgap measures, and now it is finally time to put them to use.”

Adventurers took on all sorts of jobs, from delivering mail and running small errands to exterminating monsters and Guardians, the protectors of the region.

The cost of a request varied greatly according to the adventurer’s skill and the difficulty.

“Will they volunteer to go to the Land of Demons?”

“If this works, there is nothing they will not do.”

Erika made a circle with her index finger and thumb.

“What if, instead of merely requesting an investigation, they could bring back the mysteries of the East from before it was corrupted by demonic energy? Even trash would be feverish with excitement at the auction house.”

The mysterious records of the East were enough to captivate not only mages but also knights.

Even Ferda had thought that learning Eastern magic might lead to a major breakthrough.

‘Though demonic energy made that impossible.’

Unable to overcome the great barrier of demonic energy, it had been dismissed as nothing more than a legend.

If they could get their hands on a great deal of money, adventurers would leap into a pit of fire.

It was truly a good idea.

People had only observed the current ecology of the Land of Demons. Who had ever actually set foot there?

Mapping the terrain and determining what lay within it would help with any future attempts at conquest.

Based on her proposal, he continued drawing pictures of the future.

What Ferda had lacked was being filled in, while things he had never imagined grew richer and richer.

Even so, Ferda could not let go of one doubt.

‘Can I really trust this woman?’

The feelings he had experienced toward the Grand Council were still vivid in his mind.

“You are wondering whether you can trust me, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“You really are direct.”

She lifted her teacup and deliberately closed her eyes, pretending to savor the tea for no particular reason.

Then she opened her eyes and spoke, as if she had made up her mind.

“I keep thinking about what you said. You asked what I would do in the end, didn’t you?”

It was something Ferda had thrown out in the heat of the moment.

“My conclusion is that I will not think about that end at all.”

The moment he heard it, he was dumbfounded.

Was wanting to escape from the future something a leader should say?

But he soon realized that was not what she meant.

What dwelled in her eyes was a leader’s sense of responsibility.

“I want to do my best at what I can do right now.”

Looking into those eyes, Ferda could be certain as well.

I can trust this woman.

“Good. Let us form an alliance.”

Joy spread across her face.

But like a seasoned leader, she replied with a composed expression.

“I hope we can develop a good relationship.”

“Since we have formed an alliance, may I ask you a favor?”

Erika, who had been about to wrap things up, looked slightly taken aback by Ferda’s request.

“I did not expect you to need help so soon.”

“The timing is rather unfortunate.”

Ferda had Luri bring the things they had looted from the research facility and showed them to her.

“What is this?”

“These are items taken from the demonkin research facility. The head researcher’s journal and samples.”

“Demonkin!”

Erika was more than a little surprised.

Ferda briefly explained what had happened at the research facility.

The more he explained, the more deeply Erika was shaken.

“Good heavens…… You mean the demonkin created a drug that can turn someone into a Knight-class in an instant?”

“It is still a prototype, but a Bouncer-class opponent went up against two of our knights.”

“There is a difference in skill, but a genuine Bouncer would not have been pushed that hard. I suppose the prototype has a weaker effect or some sort of side effect……”

Erika peered into the liquid in the bottle.

Her eyes, layered with mana and multiple magic circles, tried to analyze its components.

But all that came back was a frustrated expression.

“Above all, this means it is something that imitates Godwin’s power. Good heavens. To think I am only learning about something like this now. Erika, you stupid bitch. What have you been doing all this time?”

Her eyes were wide, and her body bobbed up and down.

She could not contain her excitement.

Then she met Ferda’s eyes and swallowed her breath with an “Oh!”

“I apologize. I made a spectacle of myself. Before I am a leader, I am a researcher, so I get too excited whenever I see something like this……”

“I am used to it.”

There was already a man who had run out naked and screamed, as well as a woman who absorbed components by sniffing someone’s hair, so this was practically tame by comparison.

She examined the journal next.

When she saw the writing in it, she furrowed her brow.

“This…… is the language of the high elves.”

Unlike Ferda, she recognized it at once.

Perhaps she could decipher it.

“Can you translate it?”

“Unfortunately, I only know that it is high-elven script. The language of the World Tree’s guardians exists for the sake of secrecy.”

“Then you are saying it is impossible?”

“It is not completely impossible. No matter how secret it is, the principle is that the minds of the elves must always remain connected. Those closest to the rooted source handle everything.”

Ferda understood what that source meant as well.

“The High Chieftain.”

“Yes. That person should be able to translate it. We would have to go deep into the west, but it should not be a major problem……”

They had found a way through, but it was not as good as he had hoped.

High elves were the highest-ranking among the elves and an insular group.

There was no way the High Chieftain would be lax.

“If we persuade the High Chieftain, we might be able to do something……”

“There is no need to persuade them. We can threaten them.”

“What?”

“If we say we will expose to the world that a high elf became a dark elf, they will come running out barefoot.”

“That…… certainly is……”

It was a delicate issue.

Should he call it a good idea, or a mad one?

“Let us discuss it later. The high elves are in the middle of their autumn festival and will soon begin preparing for the winter festival as well.”

They offered prayers to honor autumn’s abundance and winter’s desolation, and did not stop until the shoots of spring began to sprout.

They would have to wait at least an entire quarter of a year.

Even so, he considered it meaningful that the slightest possibility had emerged.

“I will return the journal, but I will take these samples. Perhaps I may be able to find a clue about the cure.”

Her excited face made him think she might really be able to accomplish it.

Perhaps that was why,

“There is one more thing.”

“What else is there?”

Erika’s eyes sparkled like a child receiving a birthday present.

“My mana.”

“……What?”

She looked disappointed, like a child who had received a present chosen by a grandmother.

“What do you mean, your mana?”

“I can dispel Lady Valdrova’s bloodlust with my mana.”

At those words, Erika’s eyes widened.

Her vertically slit pupils narrowed like a cat’s in broad daylight.

“Do you mean you healed her?”

“No. It merely dispels the bloodlust that emerges in that situation.”

Erika wore a puzzled expression rather than an interested one.

It was such an outrageous claim that it was difficult to take it at face value.

The Blue-Eyed Mages were elites.

They had all racked their brains researching it, yet they had not even managed to create something that could suppress or dispel it.

And now a mere human supposedly possessed such strange mana?

Mana that could even affect a dragon?

“I knew that Red Circle mana had unusual properties because it was made from emotions. But to think it is capable of suppressing or dispelling Godwin’s chaos……”

She thought, and thought, and thought again.

Even so, she could not understand it.

Iorga, the embodiment of water and magic.

The fact that Erika, who led the organization beneath her, could not understand this wounded her pride deeply.

In the end, Erika cast that pride aside.

“All right.”

She spoke.

“Let us try it.”

“Try what?”

“The mana. We need to directly feel your mana to find out what it is like, don’t we?”

Erika removed her glove and held out her hand to Ferda.

“It probably will not have much effect. It only works on Lady Valdrova.”

“Are you sure? One hundred percent?”

It had worked on Valdrova.

But it had not worked on Luri, a Silverwind Spawn.

So it would either have no effect or only a negligible one on Erika, who was also a Spawn.

“I am fairly certain.”

“‘Fairly’ and ‘certain’ cannot coexist. Let us feel it directly. It probably will not mean much anyway.”

Yes, what special meaning could there be in passing mana to her?

Ferda thought so and took Erika’s hand.

“I expect your magical power is not special. You may have used magic unconsciously, like sorcerers born with magic in their blood, or perhaps in some other form—Kyaaaah!?”

The moment the mana entered her, a sharp scream burst from her mouth.

It was the cry of a noblewoman startled by the cool breeze slipping beneath her skirt.

Erika’s legs gave out, and she sank straight to the floor.

Erika, sitting on the floor, looked up at Ferda.

Taken completely by surprise, Ferda panicked and quickly let go of her hand.

The cold leader Erika’s face was flushed with shame, and her pupils trembled.

“??”

“??”

Ferda and Erika stared at each other’s faces.

“?????”

“?????”

But no matter how they looked at each other, there was no one to answer their questions.

* * *

“Womanizer.”

Luri condemned him with a frosty look.

She had not said anything, but she had watched everything in silence.

Ferda was considerably shaken.

“Why are you suddenly talking about womanizing?”

“Weren’t you cheating with that arrogant woman?”

“I only held her hand, and the leader screamed.”

“Screamed? Anyone would call that a moan of pleasure.”

Ferda had to admit that.

“I only let mana flow. That was what the Iorga leader wanted.”

“You have trotted out the exact spiel of people who cheat.”

This is driving me crazy.

“You have felt it before too.”

“So did I howl like that arrogant woman?”

“No.”

“There was nothing special about it. It was just mana. But when you did it to the Iorga leader, there was something different. Could it be……”

Luri narrowed her eyes and asked,

“Do you like that woman?”

“Have you gone mad?”

He reflexively hardened his expression and swore.

“It was just mana.”

“Then why am I the only one who was fine?”

“Does that matter?”

“It matters.”

Luri irritably removed her glove.

“Try it. If I feel even a little, I will let out a moan with all my might, just like that woman.”

With Luri coming on that strong, he no longer wanted to touch her, regardless of the truth.

Ferda decided to respond firmly as well.

“Why are you being so oversensitive?”

“Do not change the subject.”

“I did not mind you questioning me. But you are being incredibly persistent today.”

“……Isn’t it because you are acting this way while you have a fiancé?”

“To me, it looks like more than oversensitivity. Did I whisper words of love to her? Did I drag her into the bedroom? It was merely a new reaction arising from ignorance, so why are you making me out to be some damned scoundrel?”

Ferda showed his anger, though calmly.

Upon hearing that, agitation appeared on Luri’s otherwise expressionless face.

She thought about Ferda’s words, then lowered her head.

“I am sorry. What you said is true. I am merely Lady Valdrova’s attendant……”

Seeing her mumble like a dejected puppy reminded Ferda of what had happened today.

Luri had had no easier day than Ferda.

The pressure of war and Goz Silverwind’s glare.

She had been forced to endure them.

‘Yes, today has been a difficult day.’

That must be why she was being so oversensitive and making such a fuss.

She had been keeping up her spirits as usual.

This was not something to scold her for, but something to praise her for.

Ferda looked down at Luri, who had bowed her head before him, and spoke.

“You worked hard today.”

Then he placed a hand on her head and lightly stroked it.

“……”

Luri did not raise her head or react.

She froze solid the moment he put his hand on her head.

After placing his hand on her head, Ferda thought,

What in the world am I doing?

I acted without thinking, just following my instincts, but why did I do this?

Ferda knew why the action felt so familiar.

Wasn’t stroking a child’s head supposed to be effective when an adult man praised them?

That was why Mori had asked him to do that whenever he praised her.

That was right.

Ferda had treated Luri like a child.

She had already been annoyed by him treating her like a child.

She would surely get angry.

“Ugh……”

That was what he thought, but she did not.

Don’t treat me like a child. I am a Dragon Spawn, and you are human.

He had expected her to say that, but Luri remained silent.

She kept her head bowed and simply felt Ferda’s hand on it.

‘Why?’

I do not know.

They say animals feel comfort when they are grabbed by the scruff of the neck.

Was it because they felt their mother’s love, or because of habit?

Or perhaps her anger had overwhelmed her, and she thought she would die the moment he removed this hand, like a button that set off a detonator.

As all sorts of thoughts filled her mind, she opened her mouth.

“P-please leave quickly. I need to clean.”

“Fine, I understand.”

Only then did Ferda take his hand away, and Luri moved as well.

She immediately whipped around and began sweeping the floor.

For a brief moment, he saw skin that was not hidden by her hair.

Her face was flushed bright red.

* * *

Luri thought.

All humans change.

The heart cannot resist the passage of time.

It is such a fickle thing, like a reed, that consistency is treated as a virtue worthy of respect.

Ferda was the same.

Now she had no idea what that man was thinking.

To change so much in less than a year.

With Lady Valdrova there, he was now acting like a womanizer, holding other women’s hands.

He kept doing things she hated.

‘……’

No, Luri knew.

That man had not changed.

He had no particular thoughts when holding their hands.

Nor did he have any intention of cheating.

It was merely something he used when he needed an excuse to torment her.

And yet now, stifling feelings were surging inside her.

Yes.

The one who had changed was Luri herself.

Luri had also vaguely realized it.

When she grew anxious, Ferda’s name naturally began to come to mind instead of thinking, I can handle this.

Then, when Goz arrived at the castle, she had even unconsciously grabbed his lapel.

That change had begun after Ferda killed Abel, after that time when she had sobbed in his arms.

‘Lord Silverwind.’

Ferda had felt like the Silverwind she once knew.

‘Why……’

She could not understand why she had made such an absurd mistake.

Silverwind and Ferda were different.

Unlike the rough men of the North, he was gentle and intellectual.

The strictness that valued discipline had been formed by the rugged North and Goz, the second-in-command.

‘They do not resemble each other at all.’

When polymorphed, Silverwind was a middle-aged man with a long beard, while Ferda was a strikingly young man.

If they had anything in common, it was at most the color of their hair, and even that was only true if she forced the resemblance.

She thought it over carefully.

Luri realized one thing.

‘The smell.’

The smell she had sensed when she leaned against Ferda and cried.

A cool scent of peppermint and chamomile, spreading both intensely and gently.

And the smell of ash that laid everything to waste.

Why had she sensed that smell on Ferda?

‘It’s a misunderstanding.’

An absurd misunderstanding.

She had been overwhelmed by her emotions, and her memories had become confused.

That was what Luri thought.

She had to.

To mistake Silverwind, her father, for him was blasphemous.

‘I really need to scrub myself clean.’

She would fill the bath with lavender and soak herself thoroughly until the feeling was washed away.

No matter what, Ferda was to blame for anything bad.