Chapter 46

False Hope

Leaving Burnell behind with a hollow look on his face, Ferda began speaking with Count Consilus.

“About the Grand Council…”

The subject was the Grand Council, which all high-ranking nobles attended.

“I received word that they would like me to participate.”

“Ah, that is wonderful news. At last, the Far East will have a voice capable of representing it…”

A single tear rolled from the deeply wrinkled corner of Consilus’s eye.

“My apologies. I seem to have become more emotional with age.”

“Pay it no mind. I heard that only those of ducal rank may attend. How much do you know about it?”

“I cannot claim to know everything, but I will rack my old brain and answer your questions as best I can.”

“What sort of standing do you think I will have there?”

Consilus let out a breath and carefully chose his words.

It was clearly not going to be good news.

“To speak honestly, your position will not be favorable. You have not even served as regent for a full year, and you are still young. Furthermore, you are attending as a proxy rather than as a co-ruler. To put that into simpler terms…”

Consilus stroked his beard and answered while imitating an arrogant noble.

“It would be like placing a real sword in the hands of an inexperienced child who should still be playing with a wooden one, merely to test him.”

“Do you see me that way as well?”

Ferda asked sharply.

Consilus chuckled.

“Of course not. You may still lack experience, but the fact that you seek my counsel for the development of the Dread Queen’s domain tells me that you sincerely wish to see it prosper.”

“I appreciate you saying so.”

“In any case, only five people, including servants, may enter the White House, the neutral territory of Blancaros. They prohibit attendees from bringing unnecessarily large entourages.”

“There are few things more unsightly than trying to show off before those who already surpass you. Do most nobles fill all five places?”

“They do. They dress servants as servants and their children as noble heirs, using every member of the entourage to display their status. Should you desire it, I can assign my knights as your escort and prepare the grandest possible entrance.”

“There is no need.”

A noble’s appearance might matter, but Ferda had no intention of competing through false smiles and elaborate decorations.

“If you already have people you intend to bring, then I will not object. Still, could you take at least one of my people with you? I promise he will do nothing to disgrace the Dread Queen.”

Ferda frowned.

He was sick of the way nobles concealed their true intentions and subtly tried to insert their people into important positions.

“I dislike people who speak in circles. If you trust me and I trust you, then speak plainly. What is your objective? Are you asking me to take you?”

“What glory could this old man possibly gain by showing his face at the Grand Council? Ahem…”

Ferda had thrown the question directly at him, and Consilus coughed awkwardly with an embarrassed expression.

“You know the knight named Arwon, do you not?”

“One of your knights.”

Ferda had encountered the knight many times.

Their first meeting had been during the hunt for the bear-like magical beast, and Arwon had later escorted him all the way to the Empire.

“I would like that child to witness the Grand Council.”

“You want to give an ordinary knight that experience?”

“He may be an ordinary knight, but he is loyal and possesses an exceptional sense of chivalry. He has spent his entire life serving the Far East, and his narrow perspective is the only thing I find regrettable. He has never seen anything beyond this region. I believe showing him the wider world at the Grand Council would provide him with valuable inspiration.”

Count Consilus’s request was unusual even among nobles.

Taking an ordinary knight to the Grand Council merely to broaden his horizons…

Ferda wondered whether Arwon might secretly be related to him.

“What exactly is your relationship with Arwon?”

“Hoho, we were complete strangers, of course. I merely saw him once on a battlefield. It was an encounter that faded from my memory, but one that the boy never forgot.”

Count Consilus had no family.

More precisely, they had all died.

After losing his wife and then his son, he had given up on remarrying.

He had then voluntarily entered the Far East.

To the childless Consilus, Arwon was likely akin to a son.

“Very well. I will take Arwon.”

“Thank you for indulging this old man’s needless stubbornness. Is there anything else you wish to ask?”

“What do you think about proposing an agenda item at the Grand Council?”

“An agenda item… You possess equal authority, so no one can openly object, but…”

His expression was even worse than when Ferda had asked about his standing.

“It may do more than simply cause difficulties. It could produce the opposite of your intended result. You are more likely to make enemies than allies.”

“That does not matter.”

Ferda looked as though he had already made up his mind.

“My apologies, but may this humble old man ask what sort of agenda you intend to present?”

“I intend to ask whether it is truly right to call Valdrova an Evil Dragon.”

“Valdrova…”

Consilus reflexively raised a finger to his temple.

“You know that she is not truly an Evil Dragon, do you not?”

“Of course. I cannot claim to know her deeply, but I at least know that she is not fundamentally as wicked as the rumors suggest.”

“She was designated an Evil Dragon because she could not suppress her nature. Is that not so?”

“As far as the public knows… yes.”

“But what if she can suppress that raging nature?”

“If she can restrain her impulses and has no intention of harming humans, then it should be easy to clear her of the accusation of being an Evil Dragon. However, I advise you not to expect too much. There will be no one at the Grand Council willing to take Valdrova’s side.”

“Then I will change their minds. Of course, should they understand my explanation and still insist on denying it until the end…”

Killing intent entered Ferda’s eyes.

“They will naturally have to provide an answer—or pay a price equal to their stubbornness.”

Consilus’s Adam’s apple bobbed heavily.

It was that same suffocating sensation he had felt when he first met Ferda.

Those were the eyes of the man who had killed Thessalos Wolcher without so much as blinking.

“The meeting hall lies within the territory of Blancaros. I sincerely hope there will be no outbreak of violence.”

“Do not worry. I am not a fool.”

Ferda rested his chin on one hand.

There was one month remaining.

The attendees of the Grand Council would be nobles of ducal rank or higher, kings—

And Dragon Spawn.

They were representatives of absolute beings capable of overturning entire nations.

Ferda would be entering both human society and the society of dragons at the same time.

It would have been a lie to say that the burden on his shoulders was light.

Even so, he had to do it.

That was the very reason Ferda existed here.

He decided who would accompany him.

First was Sir Arwon, just as Count Consilus had requested.

Then there was Zed Swallow, who was exceptionally skilled at serving as a handsome public face.

Including me, three should be enough.

Taking three more people would have been more in line with the customs of nobles attending the Grand Council, but Ferda had no desire to fill the available spaces merely for appearances.

Bringing other lords along did not suit his temperament either, and none of them dared to ask.

Just as he decided that the three of them would be sufficient, an unexpected person came to Ferda with a request.

“I will accompany you to the Grand Council as well.”

It was Luri.

Ferda said to her,

“There will not be anything delicious to eat there.”

“Do you take me for some kind of pig?”

“A pig-headed—”

“If you start saying strange things again, I will scrub your back one more time.”

Ferda closed his mouth.

She was a woman who always followed through on her threats.

“At the very least, I will do nothing that damages your dignity, Lord Ferda. So will you permit me to accompany you?”

“I will say it again. Nothing good will come of your going there. I heard that Silverwind regularly attends.”

The Silver Dragon, Silverwind.

Luri was not Valdrova’s Spawn. She was a Silver Dragon who had inherited Silverwind’s blood.

The Silver Dragon Spawn hated Valdrova.

After all, she had killed Silverwind.

They were already unlikely to look favorably upon Valdrova’s regent. How much worse would their reaction be to Luri, a Silver Dragon Spawn?

To them, Luri was no different from a traitor.

There was no reason for her to attend a gathering where she would inevitably be subjected to hostility.

Ferda thought he had explained the matter clearly enough, but Luri reacted differently than expected.

“That is precisely why I must go.”

Hearing that, Ferda’s expression grew more serious.

“Then clearly state your purpose. Do not try to hide anything from me.”

His voice became stern.

“…I merely wish to exchange information.”

Luri mumbled something under her breath before giving that answer.

“I have lived completely cut off from Silverwind’s people for far too long. I need to find out whether they still harbor resentment toward Master.”

“Is that truly something you need to investigate?”

Luri was a Dragon Spawn.

More specifically, she was the Spawn of a Silver Dragon.

That meant she understood how Silver Dragons thought better than most.

“They will not feel any goodwill toward Valdrova.”

“Many years have passed. Their hatred may have faded.”

“Once a dragon holds a grudge, it never lets go. You know that as well as I do.”

Dragons never abandoned revenge.

Even if the one who had first harbored that grudge died, the vengeance would be inherited by the next generation.

Silverwind would never forgive Valdrova.

There was no possibility that a Dragon Spawn as capable as Luri did not know that.

“That is why I merely wish to speak with them.”

Ferda looked into Luri’s eyes.

She wanted to place her hopes in that tiny possibility called what if.

“No.”

Ferda’s cold gaze drew a firm line between them.

That was exactly why he could not allow it.

He knew that hope had no chance of coming true.

“The three of us will go. You will remain here and guard this place.”

Luri’s body visibly trembled.

She tried to conceal her feelings behind an expressionless face, but Ferda could sense the depth of her resentment.

“…Understood.”

Without even offering a farewell, Luri turned and left.

Ferda occasionally attempted the cultivation method again.

He could enter a state of total concentration and achieve perfect awakening.

However, the rotation of the Red Circle that should have supported it was absent.

What am I missing?

If he lacked vengeance, then he could simply fill himself with vengeance.

For that purpose, Ferda had envied those stronger than himself and struggled against their status and power.

But how was he supposed to fill this emotion?

Did he have to look only at her every year, every month, every day, every hour, every minute, and every second?

To satisfy it…

What a ridiculous notion.

Desire was not thirst.

When one thirst was quenched, an even greater thirst merely took its place.

If one continued satisfying that thirst again and again, reason would eventually become nothing more than a tool for fulfilling desire.

Ferda had once pursued revenge for the sake of revenge itself.

He had killed countless people.

Emotions arose entirely from within Ferda’s own heart.

That was why the more impatiently he tried to resolve them, the more likely he was to stray onto the wrong path.

What exactly am I lacking?

He closed his eyes and quietly entered the world within his mind.

Her face.

More than anything, he wanted to see the face he had encountered only once.

But Valdrova would never show him her face.

She suffered from an extreme fear of people.

So Ferda erased the thought from his mind.

One day, that desire would devour him from within.

“…As expected, meditation does not suit me.”

He was a man more accustomed to filling his mind than emptying it.

Rather than sitting still and filling himself with fantasies, it was better to take a walk and replace them with other idle thoughts.

Ferda rose from his seat.

It was late at night, and the moon had begun tilting toward the western sky.

Blue moonlight filled the silent corridor.

Ferda stood beside a window and looked up at the moon.

It was full.

“Anna Rosnova.”

The name slipped from his lips as naturally as breathing.

It was his mother’s name.

Whenever the full moon rose, he always thought of her.

As a child, Ferda had hated the night.

He had imagined monsters lurking within the dark shadows, waiting to leap out and attack him.

Even now, he did not particularly like nighttime.

Whenever Ferda found himself in danger without realizing it, it was almost always at night.

Despite how much he hated it, looking up at the moon brought him one of the few comforts he possessed.

Its light, shining brightest in the deepest darkness, was the only thing that allowed him to recall his mother’s faint smile.

Until the very moment his obsession with revenge had consumed him, he had always found solace there.

Mother…

His beautiful mother with golden hair and blue eyes.

Ferda filled his thoughts with memories of her.

He used her presence to distance himself from his obsession, even slightly, and to view himself more objectively.

Then it happened.

The sound of someone walking down the long corridor reached his ears.

Clink. Clink.

In another castle, he might have assumed it was a patrolling guard or knight.

But the only person permitted to patrol Valdrova Castle was Luri.

And Luri wore a maid uniform rather than armor.

Then that means…

Ferda doubted his own conclusion.

There was no possibility that something so absurd would happen at this exact moment.

However, as the sound drew closer and the approaching silhouette became clearer, Ferda grew certain.

Dragon Dragoon armor emerged from the darkness.

Only one person could walk through this castle wearing it.

My fiancée.

Valdrova.

She was standing before him.