Chapter 21
The Reason She Is an Evil Dragon
Late at night, beneath a brightly shining moon, Ferda walked through a corridor illuminated by candlelight.
What an extraordinarily busy day.
The castle had been neglected for several decades, so dealing with the backlog of administrative work was no easy task.
Still, having Mori has made things much easier.
Their speed of handling the work had already far surpassed anything a human could achieve.
At this pace, it seemed possible to finish everything within a year.
My role is to support her so that she never has to concern herself with such matters.
That was how Ferda remembered his duty, and he did his utmost to fulfill it.
Before heading to his bedroom, Ferda made his way toward the study.
According to his expectations, Mori would be waiting there.
She should still be waiting by now. I need to tell her to return to her room.
She was a child who could not even breathe without permission.
Ferda had not forgotten that, so he was going to order her to return to her room.
However, when he entered the study, he encountered someone he had not expected to see.
“Hello, Lord Ferda!”
Echidna, the gloomy witch, greeted him with an awkward smile.
“Call me Regent.”
“Ah! I will. But you have to call me Echidna, all right? You absolutely have to.”
“I will.”
“Ehehehe…”
Echidna gave him an awkward, sinister smile.
Thinking nothing more of it, Ferda walked past her and approached Mori.
As he had expected, she was waiting there quietly.
However, Mori looked completely different from when Ferda had seen her that morning.
She wore a flowing dress, and her hair had been carefully combed until it looked like strands of silk, making her resemble a refined young lady.
She had already been beautiful enough before, but now that she had been properly dressed up, she shone like the daughter of a prestigious noble family.
“Is this your work?”
“Hehe, yes. She didn’t answer when I called her and just sat there without moving, so she looked like a doll… I was bored, so I played around with her a little. Does she look all right?”
Echidna twisted her body bashfully.
Ferda recalled the golems Echidna had created.
They had unnecessarily large, sparkling eyes and tiny heads, giving them the appearance of children from illustrated storybooks.
Perhaps her aesthetic sense isn’t distorted when it comes to girls because she’s a woman herself.
It had been unnecessary, but it was not bad.
In fact, this is better.
Even if Mori was a tool, she was undeniably a living creature, and living creatures required more delicate care than ordinary tools.
Since Mori was incapable of taking care of herself, it was only natural that someone should look after her.
“When you have the time, could you take care of Mori?”
Echidna’s eyes sparkled as she nodded vigorously.
“Of course! Y-You have no idea how wonderful it is to touch such a pretty child with my own hands. Ehe, ehehehe…!”
“I would prefer that you refrain from doing anything strange. She is an indispensable asset.”
“I-I wouldn’t do anything like that either. I’m not some wicked witch who eats children or men, you know? I’ll cherish her, comb her hair, and feed her!”
Because Echidna’s manner of speaking was so ominous, everything she said sounded suspicious.
Still smiling darkly, Echidna absentmindedly brought Mori’s hair to her nose and breathed in its scent.
She is strange after all.
Ferda decided not to doubt his own judgment.
Regardless of what Echidna was doing, Mori merely looked up at Ferda.
Her expression showed that she was simply waiting for her next command.
“That will be all for today. Return to your room and rest well in preparation for tomorrow.”
Mori nodded, rose from her seat, and began to walk away.
At that moment—
Rumble—!
The castle shook violently.
Mori, who had been walking, lost her footing and fell to the floor.
“Oh my! Mori!”
Echidna hurried over and helped Mori back to her feet.
Ferda held his breath and waited to see whether there would be a second impact.
Fortunately, none came.
Echidna broke the silence in a flustered voice.
“W-What was that? Does this sort of thing happen often here?”
“This is the first time.”
The castle did occasionally tremble, but this was the first time it had shaken so late at night.
And it has never shaken this violently before.
As regent, Ferda needed to discover what had happened.
“Echidna.”
“Yes?”
“Take Mori to her room and put her to bed. She is an asset I will need tomorrow. You should return quietly as well. Understood?”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
Echidna picked Mori up and left.
After watching her depart, Ferda stepped into the corridor and began walking.
The shaking most likely came from the lair.
Ferda decided to descend into the lair.
After walking for some time, he noticed a faint light glowing in the middle of the corridor.
It was Luri, carrying a lantern.
“You are going the wrong way.”
With her usual calm and expressionless face, she pointed in the direction from which Ferda had come.
“The bedroom is in the opposite direction.”
She pretended she was merely guiding him, but Ferda saw through her intentions.
“You are hiding something from me.”
Luri did not deny it.
“Then could you please return to your room?”
“I cannot do that. As the man who will become the master of this castle, I need to know what is happening.”
“You are not the master of this castle.”
“I am also the man who soon will be.”
Her silver eyes and his blue eyes remained locked upon each other.
Neither yielded an inch.
In the end, Luri was the first to step back from the confrontation.
“My mistress is suppressing her own violent impulses.”
“How?”
“There is no need to worry. What just happened is rare. It normally does not occur, since the others are usually occupied with their work—”
Ferda stepped closer to Luri.
His eyes twisted fiercely.
“How is she suppressing them?”
Irritation and anger filled his voice.
It was an emotion he had never once shown Luri, despite all the disrespect she had directed toward him.
Luri furrowed her brow.
“How else do you think? What would someone do to suppress the urge to destroy?”
“…”
“My mistress is fighting the desire to break through that enormous iron door, emerge into the world, and turn everything upside down. The urge to crush every last thing accumulates inside her heart day after day, without exception. That is her very nature.”
An evil dragon would forever remain an evil dragon.
The reason she could not bear the title of guardian dragon was partly because of the slander against her, but ultimately, it was because she could not endure her destructive urges.
“My mistress survived by venting her desire for destruction through slaughtering monsters. What do you think she does when those monsters do not appear?”
Ferda recalled Valdrova’s memories engraved within his heart.
The answer escaped his lips.
“…Does she destroy herself?”
“Yes. When there is nothing else to destroy, that is what she does.”
Luri knew this well because she had watched over her for so many years.
And it was like a natural disaster, something even the most loyal servant could do nothing to prevent.
“The woman to whom you are engaged is that kind of person. Unable to control herself, she has already hurt many others.”
And so Luri warned Ferda, who was still so young and possessed such foolish stubbornness.
“So I would prefer it if you did not say that you wanted to meet her too often. If your selfish feelings are only going to hurt my mistress—”
Then stop.
But Luri, who had been delivering her cutting warning to Ferda, could not finish speaking.
Her eyes widened as she looked up at him.
And for good reason.
Something that could never have suited Ferda’s face was falling from it.
“Tears…?”
A tear was running down the face of Ferda, that shameless, stone-faced man.
Just one drop.
His expression remained unchanged even as it rolled down his cheek, but Luri was left stunned.
There was no doubt that what she had just told him had made him cry.
Only after feeling the tear slide down his cheek did Ferda realize what had happened.
“Ah.”
Even Ferda was surprised by his own condition.
He wiped it away with his index finger and apologized to her.
“I have shown you something unsightly.”
Unlike his eyes, there was no moisture in his voice.
It was as though his tear ducts had simply contracted and forcibly expelled the water that had collected inside them.
“I understand. I understand what you are trying to say.”
Ferda abandoned his investigation and turned back toward his room.
“I apologize for troubling you. I will return.”
Luri silently watched him walk away.
Only when Ferda’s figure had grown faint in the distance was she finally able to speak.
“What an impossible man to understand…”
Luri had lived for many years and observed countless humans, so she had believed she understood them well.
Yet the more she learned about Ferda, the less she understood him.
He was a man who had broken even an ally’s fingers in the name of fairness and had killed a noble simply because leaving him alive would cause trouble later.
A man without blood or tears had shed a tear.
Simply from hearing about my mistress… Is that truly possible?
It had not even been a year since they first became aware of each other’s existence.
How, then, could he feel such profound emotions for her?
No matter how many times Luri asked herself, she could not find an answer.
“Tears…”
Ferda was also astonished by the fact.
He had not known that he was capable of crying.
Yet those tears had not been caused by his own emotions.
While we were speaking, they seeped into me.
When he realized that the tremendous vibration had come from Valdrova—
and when he learned that she had been harming herself—
Valdrova’s emotions seeped into Ferda.
Self-loathing.
Whenever she could not control herself, she nurtured her hatred toward herself.
She willingly threw herself into the filthy things she had buried at the very bottom of her emotional abyss.
She listened to the voices of curses echoing within the depths, strangling herself until she could no longer breathe.
Crushed beneath that self-loathing, she suppressed her destructive urges.
She wanted to exist, yet at the same time, she did not want to exist.
Every day, she fought such a lonely battle.
That indescribable emotion was raging beneath Ferda’s lower abdomen.
The Red Circle is rotating.
It was still insufficient for him to advance to the next stage.
However, if Ferda remained focused and stayed awake for several days, he would undoubtedly reach the Third Circle.
It would be extremely dangerous, but it would also allow him to achieve astonishingly rapid progress.
“No.”
Ferda brought the rotating Red Circle to a halt.
Not this time.
He recalled the emotions he had felt when he reached the Second Circle.
The sensation that had once tickled something inside him had vanished along with his achievement.
This… must not be forgotten.
He had decided to live this life for her.
The vow he had made then was that even if he could not make her happy, he would at least never make her sad.
This emotion was directly connected to her sorrow.
He did not want to let her sadness fade away ambiguously along with his achievement.
I will resolve that first.
Advancing could come afterward.
That was the reason he stood here.
The following morning, Ferda went to Mori, who was waiting near the study.
Having once again passed through Echidna’s hands, she was dressed and groomed beautifully.
Ferda asked her,
“Do you know much about dragons?”
What existed within her mind was the Library of All Creation.
Information about everything in the world had been recorded within it.
Naturally, she nodded.
“Does that include the Red Dragon, Valdrova?”
Nod, nod.
“Can you write down what you know?”
Mori nodded, picked up a pen, and began writing.
Instead of the elegant cursive used by scribes, she wrote in neat, easily legible letters.
—Dragons are beings who fought to transform the primordial chaos into order. What the survivors were granted was the very essence that shaped the continent. The Blue Dragon Morgan was given dominion over mana and water, while the Silver Dragon Silverwind was given the power to command wind and ice.
It was a passage from a history book about the continent that Ferda had studied during his childhood education.
—The Red Dragon was granted dominion over strength and fire. Her individual combat power is the greatest among all dragons.
“Is that why there are so many slanderous claims calling her a tyrant or a demonic dragon?”
—She has consistently been described as an object of reverence. Her official designation as an evil dragon is relatively recent in the history of dragons.
“When did it begin?”
—After the Dragon-Demon War. In other words, after the death of Godwin.
The Black Dragon and the Aspect of Darkness.
It was the day one of the dragons of the continent died for the first time.
—The Black Dragon Godwin was known as the dragon who ruled over darkness. However, when he later revealed his ambition, it became clear that chaos had also been part of the essence bestowed upon him. Godwin displayed his ambition, became the source of all demonic beings, and plunged the continent into turmoil. The other rulers eventually intervened, and he was ultimately killed by the Red Dragon Valdrova.
“And?”
—The most widely accepted theory is that Godwin’s power destabilized Valdrova’s power during the process of killing him. As a result, the Aspect of Strength could no longer suppress her own strength, causing further destruction.
Valdrova’s rampage.
Many people had died because of the appearance of the Demon King, but Valdrova’s rampage had also killed and burned countless lives.
Innocent humans and creatures… and even Silverwind.
It was a tragedy for which she would have to atone forever.
“Is there no way to suppress it?”
Mori closed her eyes.
She was searching through every book contained within her mind.
After five minutes of silent contemplation, she opened her eyes again.
She shook her head.
“I see.”
Ferda accepted the answer calmly.
The question itself had been contradictory from the beginning.
If there were a method capable of suppressing the Red Dragon, who was known as the Aspect of Strength, could she truly be called the Aspect of Strength?
She would have to suffer beneath her own power forever.
Is there truly nothing I can do for her?
Ferda was tormented.
He imagined her tearing off her own scales and spilling her own blood.
Helplessness pressed down on him like a weight of a thousand tons, while despair became a thousand spears piercing his heart.
The pain resembled what he had felt when he absorbed her heart.
I wish there were something—anything—I could do for her…
At that moment, a small touch tapped against the hem of Ferda’s clothes.
Mori, still holding her pen, had tugged at his clothing.
A tool did not move without reason.
The fact that she had moved meant that one of Ferda’s previous commands had been activated.
“Has a situation arisen in which you can provide an answer?”
Mori nodded.
She moved her pen once more.
—Based on the information provided, I have identified a hypothesis by which her power may be suppressed.
The instant Ferda read the sentence that followed, the thick fog within his heart cleared and sunlight broke through.
Mori’s eyes stared clearly into Ferda’s.
—According to this hypothesis, Ferda Valdrova, you are capable of suppressing her.