Chapter 53
A Precedent That Could Not Be Allowed
The council, attended only by those of ducal rank and above, came to an end.
Ferda followed the other nobles out of the council chamber.
“Regent.”
Zed and Arwon, who had been waiting for him, approached.
After studying Ferda’s expression, Zed asked,
“Were you insulted in there? You look like you’re about to kill someone.”
“You could say I was.”
He had been forced to let the insult of Valdrova being called an evil dragon slide.
For a man who had become an archmage for the sake of revenge, ignoring the emotions welling up inside him was no easy task.
It would be better not to discuss it at all.
Ferda changed the subject.
“Where’s Luri?”
“Miss Luri is… Come to think of it, where did she go?”
“She said she had something to take care of before the conference ended and left. As for where she went… I’m not sure.”
“I see.”
“I’m sorry. I should have found out beforehand…”
“No. She isn’t such an easy woman to keep track of.”
Ferda did not press the matter.
He already knew where she had gone anyway.
If she had acted as she had said she would, she must have gone to speak with Silverwind.
‘Speak, huh.’
Ferda recalled the look Goz Silverwind had given him when the subject had been raised.
He had been suppressing his rage with an almost laughably clumsy display of self-control.
Had Ferda spoken to Silverwind then and there, a brawl might very well have broken out.
Had they not been in Blancaros’s neutral territory, Ferda might have suffered an even harsher fate.
‘I wonder whether that conversation will go well.’
Just as Ferda was thinking that—
“Regent Ferda Valdrova?”
A pure-white man who blended seamlessly into the pure-white surroundings approached.
His posture was disciplined, fitting for the trusted retainer of the supreme ruler of this neutral territory.
He was one of Blancaros’s Hands.
“My master requests your presence. Would you accompany me?”
“In private?”
“Yes. He wishes to discuss the proposal raised earlier.”
It was unusual.
Blancaros never summoned humans for private meetings, precisely to preserve his neutrality.
‘Still, this is a situation that calls for it.’
Blancaros had declared that he would remain neutral, yet had unilaterally dismissed the proposal.
Naturally, he would need to offer its proposer some explanation.
That was precisely why Ferda had tolerated the unfairness in the first place.
“Very well.”
“I will guide you. This way, please.”
Ferda followed her.
Blancaros’s reception room was unlike anything one would expect from a dragon’s residence.
A dragon’s dwelling was supposed to be vast and extravagant.
It should have been so exquisitely designed and overwhelmingly magnificent that no emperor could dare compare his own palace to it.
The Grand Duke Council chamber, at least, had certainly possessed grandeur worthy of such authority.
Blancaros’s reception room, however, was different.
It felt remarkably human.
It was neither needlessly spacious nor unnecessarily majestic.
It was small and practical, like the office of a minor territorial lord.
“Welcome.”
Blancaros, seated behind a marble desk at the far end of the room, greeted him in his own voice.
Ferda stopped the moment he stepped inside.
Blancaros was not alone.
A being who shone blue within the pure-white room.
Erika Iorga.
She sat in one of the chairs.
Erika was staring at Ferda.
Her already fierce expression grew even more displeased when she saw him.
Zed and Arwon, standing behind Ferda, began to sweat for no apparent reason.
“Why is she glaring at you like that? Did you do something wrong?”
Ferda shrugged.
“Me? Do something wrong? Surely not.”
“It certainly looks like you did.”
Ferda ignored him and walked forward.
Disregarding Erika entirely, he respectfully addressed Blancaros.
“I am deeply grateful that you invited me, Lord Blancaros, but…”
Ferda glanced toward Erika.
“I have nothing to discuss with this bitch. May I leave?”
“Pfft—!”
“Khugh!”
Ferda hurled out the insult, while Zed and Arwon, who had been standing behind him like decorative screens, spectacularly choked.
Even if Erika was merely a Dragon Spawn, her status as a representative was equivalent to that of a dragon.
Ferda had essentially just called a dragon a bitch.
It was the kind of thing only someone desperately eager to die before his time would dare to do.
“Hmmm…”
“B-Bitch…?”
Blancaros hummed as though he had expected this.
Erika herself stared at Ferda in utter disbelief.
But she endured it.
This meeting had been arranged for the sake of conversation, and more importantly, violence could not be used within this room.
Erika forced a smile.
“We meet again, Regent Ferda. Let us speak with our actual voices this time, rather than relying on some petty voice transmission.”
“Suit yourself.”
Ferda covered his ears.
The smile vanished from Erika’s face.
“Are you going to keep behaving like a child?”
“My reaction is entirely justified. You insulted my fiancée, yet you expect me to speak kindly to you? How would you feel if I called Lady Iorga a water lizard?”
“K-Khh…!”
Zed and Arwon looked ready to pass out.
They wanted nothing more than to flee immediately.
Erika endured it once again.
She bit hard on her lower lip and forced herself to take a deep breath.
“Let us consider ourselves even after insulting each other. I will also apologize separately for my abusive language. However, I had a reason for saying it.”
Ferda lowered his hands from his ears.
She had endured his insults without retaliating.
It was clear that she genuinely intended to have a conversation.
“First, let us dismiss the attendants and speak among ourselves.”
“Very well. Both of you, leave us.”
“Yes!”
The instant Ferda gave permission, the two men hurried out at a brisk pace.
Only three people remained in the white room.
“Since emotions are running high on both sides, I will be brief and direct. I am on Lady Valdrova’s side.”
“How reassuring.”
Ferda responded with open sarcasm.
“Iorga as a whole is currently maintaining a stance of keeping Lady Valdrova in check. However, our highest-ranking officials have always held her contributions in great esteem.”
As if.
“You do not believe me. I stood on the front lines of that war. I witnessed with my own eyes and felt with my own body the sight of every dragon fighting. Her figure remains vivid in my memory even now.”
The fine hairs on Erika’s arms stood on end.
“When Godwin attempted to destroy himself along with this entire continent, she alone stood in his way…”
Blancaros silently closed his eyes upon hearing those words.
He too had participated in that battle and witnessed it.
Erika continued.
“Whether evil dragons or guardian dragons, Godwin intended to destroy everything. Delivering the final blow against him carried tremendous risk. Every dragon knew it. And every dragon hesitated. But Lady Valdrova threw herself into the fray without hesitation. It was like watching a black mass pierced by a crimson spear and scattered apart. Of course… it ended horribly, with one tragedy leading into another. Even so, she was not someone who deserved to bear the name of an evil dragon.”
“You mocked the very idea as though it were nonsense and acted as if you couldn’t wait to tear her apart. And now you expect me to believe that?”
“That is why I am apologizing for insulting her. But it was something I had to do.”
“You had to disgrace her? How does that make any sense?”
“Because it would have been dangerous if I had not mocked the claim and shut it down!”
“What would have been dangerous?”
“Silverwind.”
Another faction of dragons.
Ferda recalled Silverwind, who had not uttered a single word.
“Had I not intervened, Silverwind would have. I refuse to let those fools with nothing but chunks of ice inside their skulls turn this conference into a complete disaster. They would have demanded a war between dragons before you could even declare your campaign against the Far East.”
“So you objected to everything and mocked me solely to protect me?”
Erika fell silent at those words.
She seemed uncertain whether she should say what came next.
“It was not solely for your sake, Regent Ferda. As you said, if her madness was not part of her true nature, but the result of being corrupted by Godwin…”
For a moment, Ferda saw a wounded beast in Erika’s eyes.
“The precedent of a perfect being becoming imperfect is far more dangerous than you can imagine. Dangerous enough to collapse the balance of the entire continent.”
Hearing that, Ferda finally understood.
He understood why she had acted with such hostility toward Valdrova.
And why Blancaros had unilaterally brought the matter to an end.
Ferda summarized what he had understood in a single sentence.
“It seems Lady Iorga is suffering from the same symptoms.”
Erika nodded, her face filled with anguish.
“At first, the symptoms amounted to nothing more than a vague sense of discomfort. There are many among the Dragon Spawns who still suffer aftereffects from the battle against Godwin. But over the past thirty years, she has gradually become unable to endure the pain. She is growing unstable.”
“What has become of her now?”
“She has entered hibernation. She chose to remain inactive until we find a solution.”
That meant Iorga, the Pinnacle of Magic, was absent.
Hearing that, Ferda suddenly became curious.
“Then what about Lord Odograsa?”
“I do not know for certain. He has no Spawn, and as someone who is himself the object of worship, he would never reveal his shame to anyone.”
Those armed with faith would naturally believe that he remained perfect.
With that, everything fell into place.
This was not merely Valdrova’s personal problem.
‘It was an issue that could shake dragon society itself.’
When Ferda showed signs of understanding, Erika lowered her voice and explained calmly.
“If the claim that her true nature was never that of an evil dragon, and that she was instead destabilized by Godwin, were to gain acceptance, everyone would be placed in danger. Not only Valdrova’s position, but the standing of the others would also be shaken. It would become perfect fodder for troublemakers such as the Purple Dragon and the War Dragon. That is why we are buying time until we can find a cure.”
“Is that so?”
Ferda rose from his seat as though there were nothing more worth hearing.
“Then it seems you are nothing more than a coward.”
“A… coward?”
Erika was about to lose her temper at last.
But that thought lasted only a moment.
The instant she met Ferda’s eyes, she was overwhelmed.
“What will you do in the end?”
he asked.
“What end are you referring to?”
“You keep hiding it and hiding it, but what will you do when you are finally on the verge of being exposed? When matters reach a point of no return?”
“That…”
“You would sacrifice even my fiancée’s life if that was what it took to protect your secret.”
“Do you truly believe I would commit something so shameless?!”
“Wouldn’t you?”
Erika could not answer.
She could neither agree nor deny it.
She merely pressed her lips shut and clenched her fists, rendered speechless.
“Let us end the conversation here. May I leave?”
Ferda asked Blancaros.
Nothing had been resolved, but neither was it something that could be solved immediately.
“…You may.”
Once Blancaros gave his permission, Ferda walked out.
Erika remained standing there, frozen in place.
She could do nothing.
To bear the title of leader of the Dragon Spawns, only to be overwhelmed by a human—
It was laughable.
Yet if the same situation arose again, Erika knew she would freeze in exactly the same way.
Ferda’s eyes, filled with disgust.
Within them, she had glimpsed a fragment of her own distant future.
***
The Cerdes Human Magic Association.
The one seated in the president’s office was not an insolent young woman, but a well-built man.
“Uuuurgh…”
The man moved his pen while making sounds like a ghoul crawling up from hell.
For four days without rest, he had been working through the documents left behind by Association President Erdes.
“Uuurgh… Huh?”
A moment later, circular sparks began crackling in the air before him.
He knew whose hand was responsible for the phenomenon.
Normally, he would have risen from his seat to welcome her, but Lu no longer possessed even enough strength to entertain such a thought.
“Blue! I’m back!”
The one who greeted him cheerfully was Erdes.
“You’re back already?”
“I clocked out the instant the conference ended. They left me out of everything, so it wasn’t any fun at all.”
“Your appearance seems rather strange for that…”
She had returned covered in trinkets, looking less like someone who had attended a conference and more like a tourist returning from a sightseeing trip.
“You’re so fussy. I did some sightseeing around the city afterward. Got a problem with that?”
“…Of course not.”
Lu sighed, approved the final remaining document, and collapsed face-first onto the desk.
“Are you finished with the work?”
“I’ve taken care of everything that was backed up, at least.”
“See? Isn’t it wonderful how clearly we divide the work? I rest, and Blue works. The division of labor couldn’t be clearer.”
“It certainly is clear, but something feels wrong about it…”
“And while I was there, I even stopped by and bought some of the region’s famous honey buns. Where else would you find an angelic superior like me?”
She waggled her eyebrows with a look that seemed to ask what he thought of that.
Fine.
At least he could eat something delicious.
Lu opened the box she handed him.
“…It’s empty.”
“Is it? Ah, they must have been so delicious that I ate them all. Sorry. Make sure you throw the box away properly.”
Lu nodded with the resolve of a man who had made a momentous decision.
“I quit. I’m resigning.”
“Oh, no, you don’t. You still have to serve me for another thousand years. You have no right to refuse. That was our contract, remember?”
“Goddammit.”
With all hope gone from his face, Lu pretended to sob loudly.
“So… how was he?”
“Who?”
“Wasn’t Ferda Valdrova the reason you went?”
“That man? Hmm…”
She rested her index finger against her chin and gently swayed her head before answering.
“He was unusual.”
“Unusual…?”
Lu’s eyes widened.
“He was unusual enough for the strongest archmage in humanity to describe him that way?”
“Flattering me won’t get you anything. I just found something about him strange.”
Erdes perched on the edge of the desk and looked down at Lu.
“That man had a Red Circle.”
“A Red Circle!”
“And he had learned black magic as well. The stench was all over him.”
“B-Black magic?!”
Lu’s face turned deathly pale.
It was not black magic itself that frightened him.
“Is that man s-still alive?”
“Of course he is. What do you take me for, some crazed murderer who flies into a killing frenzy whenever she feels like it?”
“Well, considering you returned without causing any particular trouble… I suppose he truly must be an unusual man.”
“I couldn’t lay a hand on him right away. He’s the husband of a mad dragon. Who knows what would happen to me if I touched him carelessly?”
Erdes furrowed her brows uneasily.
Her legs, dangling above the floor, began kicking back and forth.
“Blue. How do you think you would feel if your parents suddenly abandoned you?”
“Uh… I’m not sure. I suppose I would be angry.”
“Would anger be all you felt? Hmm? Would you just scream, ‘Argh! My parents abandoned me! I’ll never forgive them!’?”
“That sounds like something you would do, President… but an ordinary person would probably feel grief as well.”
Erdes snapped her fingers.
“Exactly. That is what people mean when they say their emotions are in turmoil. Ordinary humans are overwhelmed and crushed by conflicting emotions, unable to decide which one is stronger. Even if one emotion outweighs the others, becoming consumed by that emotion alone is nearly impossible.”
“That sounds right.”
“You still don’t understand what I’m saying?”
“I’m sorry. My dull mind is having difficulty following…”
“Would you like to write fifty pages of lines?”
“Ah, wait. I think it might be coming back to me…?”
“Idiot. I’m saying that something like that alone isn’t enough to create a Red Circle.”
“Ah, I really was just about to remember.”
“You’re stupid, yet stubborn on top of it. Make it one hundred pages.”
“Gah! That’s too much! I handled all your official duties while you were gone!”
“Public matters are public, and private matters are private.”
Lu grumbled while Erdes clicked her tongue.
“So what you mean is that it should have been difficult for Ferda Valdrova to possess a Red Circle?”
“Correct.”
“But emotions are relative, aren’t they?”
“Correct. Everyone measures them by a different standard. But even accounting for that, Ferda lies far beyond anything within my frame of reference.”
“You would go that far?”
“A Red Circle forms when the scales of emotion break. But that adolescent brat is at an age when those scales simply shouldn’t be capable of breaking. For rage alone to shatter them, he would have to be so thoroughly broken that he genuinely believed even the reason he wakes up hard every morning was caused by his anger.”
“Um… that is a rather crude comparison, but wasn’t he also expelled from his family? Couldn’t that explain it?”
He had become Valdrova’s fiancé.
That was essentially a death sentence, and it should have been more than enough to unleash Ferda’s resentment.
“He accepted it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Acceptance means he still possesses reason. And that, in turn, means his anger was not intense enough.”
“So you are saying that since there was no event capable of breaking the scales, the Red Circle could not have formed?”
“Exactly.”
“And yet the regent possesses a Red Circle.”
“He does.”
“A Red Circle formed despite the conditions being insufficient…”
“And he reached the Fourth Circle in less than a year.”
“And… there were several other incidents as well.”
The execution of Thessalos Wolcher.
The battle inside the imperial warehouse.
“Black magic was involved in every one of them.”
“Black magic…”
After the two stared at each other for some time, Lu suddenly realized what she meant.
Even a dog living near a school could recite poetry after three years.
Having served under her for a full decade, he had finally become capable of reading Erdes’s thoughts.
“Are you saying you believe Regent Valdrova… made a contract with a demon?”
Erdes smiled when she saw that he had reached the conclusion.
“Can’t you smell it?”