Chapter 11

I Can Simply Feel It Again

There was a story about blind men and an elephant.

In short, three blind men were each made to touch a different part of an elephant and asked to describe what an elephant was like. Every one of them gave a different answer.

The lesson of the story was that one could not judge the whole by seeing only a part.

And yet, there were some things so unmistakable that one could understand the whole after glimpsing only a fragment.

For Ferda, that was Valdrova’s beauty at this very moment.

All he could see were her chin and lips.

The smooth, pristine line of her jaw, as clear as porcelain, stole Ferda’s gaze.

The lips above it were red and lustrous, like an apple covered in morning dew.

Just from that lower half of her face, Ferda understood.

The person who would become his partner was a woman.

And she was an unparalleled beauty unlike anyone he had ever seen before.

As that information poured into him, Ferda could not tell what emotion he was feeling.

Thus, he merely continued staring at her lips.

The engagement wine flowed between Valdrova’s lips.

It slowly slipped through the narrow opening until she finally emptied the bowl.

At that moment, Ferda felt a change occurring within his body.

The fear of dragons engraved into his very being was disappearing.

—The mortal shall escape the unknown and wash away fear, and thus the two shall become one.

It was exactly as Luri had recited.

His primal fear of dragons was fading.

‘She truly prepared so much for the sake of ordinary humans.’

The entire purpose of this engagement ceremony was to allow the two of them to face each other.

Because of that, Ferda could once again feel the anticipation Valdrova had harbored and the pain she had suffered when those hopes were repeatedly crushed.

As Ferda continued gazing at her, the helmet modeled after a dragon’s head shifted slightly in his direction.

The eye slits glanced at him before quickly turning away.

“I suppose I stared too much.”

Ferda turned his head and stood quietly.

“Next, you will each read the vows you have written for the other.”

With an expression that made her displeasure painfully obvious, Luri handed the turn over to Ferda.

Valdrova lowered her head and waited in silence.

Ferda slowly exhaled, transforming the trembling of his vocal cords into a clear voice.

“You do not know much about me.”

It had taken Ferda an entire day to write that single sentence.

That was how difficult he found the first words needed to express his feelings.

“However, I know you.”

And the answer he had ultimately reached was—

“You gave me your heart. Through that heart, I caught glimpses of you and came to know you.”

—to honestly reveal everything about himself to her.

“I saw how you were betrayed and slandered countless times. I saw how often they hated you.”

Clink.

Each time Ferda recited another line of his vows, the armor twitched.

“And yet, you carried out your duty with dignity. You never turned away from those you wished to love, and you continued loving them until the very end.”

He believed that was the best choice he could make.

“Therefore, I swear here and now. Just as you gave me your heart, this time, I shall—”

That was where the written portion of Ferda’s vows ended.

“I did not include this in the written vows, but…”

However, Ferda had not finished speaking.

He raised his head and looked at Valdrova.

When his eyes met those of the dragon-shaped helmet, she immediately lowered her head.

Clink, clink.

Clad in armor, she fidgeted while politely clasping her hands together.

“It is a tremendous honor to be engaged to a beauty such as yourself.”

The iron helmet jolted violently.

Luri stared at Ferda without expression.

Only her hands and feet were curling so badly that they were practically twisting.

“Now, the bride-to-be will read her vows—”

Luri stopped speaking.

Valdrova had raised a hand, signaling for her to stop.

“Is something wrong?”

Valdrova did not answer.

Instead, she turned around and began walking away.

Thinking she might have prepared something, Ferda quietly watched what she would do.

Valdrova returned to her lair—

and shut the door behind her.

She had left without reading her vows.

Ferda and Luri stared at the tightly closed door.

“…The engagement ceremony has been successfully concluded.”

And with that, the ceremony came to an end.

Valdrova had not read her vows, but everything else that was required had been completed, so there was little reason to dwell on it.

“Then let us return.”

Luri called out to Ferda.

However, no answer came.

Faced with such a one-sided conclusion, he merely stared at the iron door with a grave expression.

“Lord Ferda?”

Luri asked him once again.

Ferda, who had been lost in thought as though possessed by something, finally opened his mouth.

“I apologize, but would it be possible for me to enter seclusion for about four days?”

“By seclusion, you mean…?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. I intend to spend some time alone without eating or drinking. I am asking not to be disturbed.”

He was declaring that he would shut himself inside a room and abstain from food and drink.

To Luri, it sounded like this:

‘He must have been deeply shocked.’

The ceremony was supposed to involve both of them reading vows to each other.

Yet Ferda had been the only one to read his, while the other person had retreated behind an iron door.

He was undoubtedly humiliated.

“Understood.”

The crescent-shaped smile on Luri’s lips refused to disappear.

“As expected of you, My Lady. With this, you have seized the initiative.”

Luri entered Valdrova’s lair and applauded her.

Valdrova had returned to her dragon form.

She lay curled up, her head buried beneath one of her wings.

Although Valdrova had repeatedly disrupted the engagement ceremony, her final action held tremendous significance in Luri’s eyes.

“I never imagined you had devised such a strategy. A completely one-sided hit-and-run attack.”

“To finish it like that…”

“…It appears that was not your intention after all.”

Luri’s genuinely delighted expression gradually turned blank in response to Valdrova’s silence.

Valdrova lifted her head from beneath her wing.

—We also… wished to read our vows. As one welcoming a partner…

“…I believe I understand.”

Luri turned her gaze toward the place she had deliberately been avoiding.

There were clear traces that Valdrova had prepared extensively as well.

‘Ferda’s was ten pages.’

After all the revisions, it had become a single page of vows.

It was neither too long nor too short, but just the right length.

However, the vows Valdrova had written were—

—…

‘Twenty whole pages.’

And all twenty pages were densely filled on both sides.

The number of sheets sacrificed during the writing process amounted to more than three entire books.

It displayed the pure, girlish sentimentality one would never expect from the infamous Dread Queen.

It would have been extremely embarrassing if anyone other than her fiancé were to see it.

But Luri had served Valdrova for several hundred years.

This was still within the range of things that could be handled with a single sigh.

“If you like him that much, why did you fail to read them when the ceremony began?”

—That is…

Valdrova’s mouth moved hesitantly.

—I could not look at him.

Luri tilted her head.

“What do you mean, you could not look at him?”

—I could not.

With the face and voice of a fearsome dragon, she uttered the words of a bashful young maiden.

—His gray hair, those sharp eyes that seemed to see straight through us, and his gentle voice…

“…”

—While looking at him, our mind suddenly went completely blank, and we could do nothing.

“…This Luri’s mind is going blank as well.”

—Do you understand our feelings too?

Luri felt like piercing her own eardrums and coughing up blood on the spot.

“In any case.”

If she listened any longer, she might end up shouting at Valdrova again, so Luri changed the subject.

“From now on, your future husband will begin fulfilling the role of master of the household. He will manage this castle and the territories beneath it.”

—That is… something we also understand well.

“And humans begin to change once they obtain power.”

Power.

At that word, even the excited Valdrova grew calm.

The third prince.

The third prince who had died by her hand still tormented her.

Although it had happened decades ago, to one who had lived for eternity, it felt no more distant than yesterday.

“That is simply how mortal beings live, flowing along with time. They are always—”

—We understand…

Valdrova’s gaze drifted into the distance as she sank into deep thought.

The innocent maiden who had faced a human returned once more to being an immortal.

Even Luri did not particularly enjoy pouring cold water over such an auspicious day.

‘But it is necessary.’

Just as even a war hero passing beneath a triumphal arch must remember that he is merely human, Valdrova also had to understand that everything she cherished and loved was destined to change or disappear someday.

That was the best advice Luri could offer as both a dragon spawn and Valdrova’s loyal servant.

After the engagement ceremony ended, Ferda immediately entered seclusion.

Unlike Luri, who believed he had shut himself away out of humiliation and shock, Ferda simply needed time alone.

‘This emotion I felt while looking at her.’

When Ferda had written his vows, he had merely put down whatever came to mind.

Yet when he read them aloud, he had felt something.

So much so that he had even added words that were not part of the written vows.

‘Why did I do something like that?’

Ferda knew.

He knew that saying such a thing would surely fluster her.

He also knew it might disrupt the ceremony.

‘And yet, I had to say it.’

It had been an irrational impulse.

Ferda had allowed himself to be carried along by it.

In the end, he had embarrassed Valdrova, and the engagement ceremony had not proceeded as planned.

‘Why?’

Holding that question in his mind, Ferda closed his eyes.

He retraced his five senses, drawing up what he had seen and the emotions he had felt at that moment.

To avoid reaching the wrong conclusion, Ferda went over it dozens of times.

Eventually, he arrived at an answer.

‘It was definitely then.’

Ferda had been completely captivated.

The emotion he had felt in that moment had briefly made him someone else.

Not Ferda the archmage, but Ferda the man.

‘But what should I call this?’

He searched his memories.

Again and again, he repeated the moment solely to find that answer.

Then Ferda felt something stir.

Within the circle already formed beneath his dantian, something began rotating violently.

As that driving force grew, his chest became steadily hotter.

‘The Red Circle is moving.’

It was a raging current flowing too swiftly to control.

At the same time, it was a violent torrent powerful enough to devour him.

‘This could be dangerous…’

Instead of searching for the answer, Ferda focused on the sensation.

He had two choices.

He could distract himself and calm the movement of the Red Circle.

Or he could concentrate on the emotion and make it surge even more violently.

‘Calming it would be the safest choice.’

Agitating it was as dangerous as pressing a blade against his own throat.

That remained true even for Ferda, who had once been an archmage.

‘But to cultivate a dignity befitting the Dread Queen Valdrova…’

He had to take risks and venture into danger.

That was the resolve Ferda had made when he first set foot in Valdrova’s territory.

‘Let us do it.’

Ferda focused his mind upon a single point.

Creating a second circle was similar to creating the first.

However, it was easier because he no longer faced the vague and uncertain difficulty he had experienced while forming his first circle.

‘The problem is that I do not have enough mana accumulated.’

Breaking through to a new circle was like hatching from an egg.

To reach a new world, one had to break the shell with one’s own strength.

That required a hard beak and sufficient power.

Mana and mental strength fulfilled those roles.

Ferda possessed both.

‘First, I must concentrate…’

Ferda closed his eyes and settled into position.

He lowered his consciousness deep within himself.

At the same time, his five senses began to fade.

The sound of his heartbeat vanished.

So did the flow of time felt against his skin.

Eventually, nothing remained that could disturb him.

All that was left was his pure consciousness.

Ferda drew a line within his mind.

That line became a guide, and the surging mana followed the path he traced.

Without opposing the nature of the mana, he gently led it toward a new place.

The stream branching from the great river grew steadily larger until it finally became a new circular shell.

‘Then I place it over the first.’

Another circle enclosing the one he had already created.

He slowly shaped it, defining the form of the circle with increasing clarity.

For forty-eight long hours, Ferda focused solely on molding it until it was complete.

Two circles now revolved within his dantian.

Ferda had become a Second-Circle magician—a Spell Blower.

…

Although he had reached the Second Circle in only a few days, Ferda was not satisfied.

‘The emotion has been resolved.’

With a new path opened and the Second Circle formed, Ferda’s emotion had been absorbed and settled.

That ticklish sensation had become a part of him, and the sense of fullness he had felt whenever he recalled the memory had vanished along with it.

‘That is one of the drawbacks of the Red Circle.’

It constantly demanded stronger stimulation, and when the stimulation disappeared, its growth stagnated.

Thus, one either became a monster consumed by emotion or remained something hopelessly inadequate.

‘I can simply feel it again.’

He regretted not discovering the answer, but he was in no hurry.

The moment he faced her again, that emotion would surely swell within him once more.

Of that, he was certain.

Ferda smiled.

“…”

“That is what happened.”

A magician who had reached the Second Circle within three days.

It had been only a little over a month since Ferda arrived here, yet he had gone from an ordinary person to a Second-Circle magician in the blink of an eye.

‘His rate of growth is abnormal.’

He might still be only a Second-Circle magician, but judged solely by his growth, it was enough to inspire awe.

“So this is where I will be working from now on?”

“Yes. Though you will only possess authority as an acting representative.”

Ferda and Luri stood inside the Dread Queen’s office.

It was a space imbued with the dignity of its owner.

After taking in the atmosphere, Ferda asked Luri,

“Now that I am officially her fiancé, what am I supposed to do first?”

“Appoint officials.”

“Yes, I remember hearing that.”

“Of course, you yourself do not qualify as one.”

Luri lifted the object resting on the table.

“But this does.”

It was the royal seal of Dread Queen Valdrova.

A royal seal carried authority equivalent to that of its owner.

There was a reason people said one should regard the royal seal as though the ruler stood before them in person.

“Recruiting talented people…”

Most people, when ordered to appoint someone immediately, would ask for time.

The best course would normally be to take at least two days and consider the matter carefully.

‘Yes. There is someone.’

However, Ferda’s pen moved without the slightest hesitation.

“…”