Chapter 56
This Isn’t Right
Ferda stared at Goz with his eyes wide open.
The same silver hair and silver eyes as Luri.
He wore the exact same expression he had when their eyes first met at the Grand Duke Council.
“Welcome, Regent Valdrova.”
“Chief Goz.”
They addressed each other by name and observed the bare minimum of formal courtesy.
But there was not a trace of respect in either man’s eyes.
“I failed to notice such an esteemed guest entering. Ordinarily, my subordinates would have opened the door for you themselves.”
He was asking why Ferda had entered without permission.
“I told them there was no need.”
Ferda’s answer was essentially that he had done as he pleased.
Goz’s eyes shifted toward the entrance.
But no matter how he looked at them, his men could do nothing except lower their heads.
“This is a matter concerning our bloodline. A family affair. Outsiders should not interfere in family affairs.”
“I have no desire to involve myself in a family quarrel either.”
Despite saying that, Ferda took another step forward.
Then Luri felt a light weight settle upon her shoulder.
It was Ferda’s hand.
“But this girl is cherished by the woman I love. Am I supposed to stand by and watch someone she cherishes be hurt over a mere family dispute?”
Ferda did not yield so much as an inch.
That was also a direct challenge to Goz’s authority.
And Goz despised such challenges.
“I thought so when I first saw you, but you certainly have courage.”
Goz rose from his seat.
At that moment, the force radiating from him grew even stronger.
Luri immediately dropped to her knees and bowed her head.
Every other Silver Dragon Spawn followed suit and submitted.
Goz gestured toward Luri with his chin.
“Then tell me, Regent Valdrova. How well do you know Luri Silverwind, the attendant of the woman you love?”
“She is the attendant of my one and only fiancée.”
“And?”
“That is enough.”
“Indeed. That is all you see. It seems this bitch has not told you everything.”
His hand was rough and hardened from martial training and battle.
One of those fingers pointed toward Luri.
“This bitch is a spy sent by Lord Silverwind.”
He exposed Luri’s true identity.
“Lord Silverwind planted her there to monitor Valdrova and determine when she would become vulnerable. Until his death, she had been ordered to report to him regularly.”
“Is that so?”
“You do not appear particularly convinced. Do I look as though I am lying?”
“Do I look like an idiot who would believe the words of someone openly hostile to me?”
“Agreed. Then why not ask her directly? Luri Silverwind.”
At the sound of her name, Luri felt her head grow even heavier.
“Tell him the truth. Was anything I said incorrect?”
“I did not…”
“Answer properly. Did I say anything false?”
Goz allowed her no room for excuses.
In the end, Luri confessed the truth.
“Under Lord Silverwind’s orders… I was monitoring Lady Valdrova.”
“For what purpose?”
“…As Lord Goz said, I was ordered to watch Lady Valdrova and identify her weaknesses.”
Silence filled the room.
Luri could barely breathe through the pain.
Yet there was something even more agonizing than that.
With her head bowed, she could not even see what expression Ferda was making.
At last, Ferda broke the silence.
“That is hardly surprising.”
His tone was cynical.
Luri’s toes went cold.
It felt as though the floor had vanished beneath her and she had been hurled from a cliff.
“When a Spawn bearing the Silverwind name pledged loyalty to Valdrova, I naturally assumed there had to be a reason.”
Contempt.
Betrayal.
Those negative emotions seemed to form a thick swamp that swallowed Luri whole.
But only for a moment.
“So?”
That single question caused the pressure surrounding Luri to disperse like a mirage.
Goz frowned.
“What do you mean, so?”
“I mean, what exactly is the problem?”
Luri raised her head and looked at Ferda.
He wore the same stubborn expression he always did.
Goz appeared irritated by the unexpected response.
“She is a spy planted by Lord Silverwind. Do not tell me you failed to understand that.”
“Yes, she was a spy. But despite that, she is still my fiancée’s favorite attendant.”
Ferda clasped his hands behind his back and straightened his chest.
“When everyone else turned their backs on her, this girl remained beside my fiancée. She is a loyal attendant who has devoted herself to Valdrova more than anyone else. That is the value she possesses now. Do you truly think that value would be shaken by the words of someone I met for the first time today?”
Luri’s hands unconsciously tightened as she knelt.
Those words nearly caused her emotions to burst free.
“Believe her or do not. That is your choice. I cannot force such a thing upon a human who does not even carry Silverwind’s blood. However…”
Goz’s eyes grew even sharper.
“You have been exceedingly insolent for some time now.”
The air churned violently.
The fuse of a bomb powerful enough to obliterate an entire nation had already been lit.
Goz’s patience had reached its limit.
Dragon Spawns were not dragons, but neither were they human.
They were dragon supremacists who believed themselves superior to all humans.
There was no possibility they would tolerate a mere human speaking back to them.
An ordinary human would have bowed.
A wise human would have taken a step back to defuse the situation.
“Should you not be the one showing me respect?”
But Ferda neither retreated nor bowed.
A blue gleam entered his eyes.
As Valdrova’s regent, he stood before Goz as an equal and confronted him without hesitation.
“You threatened another person’s attendant and attempted to turn us against each other, yet you presume to lecture me on proper conduct?”
He enunciated each word, making it clear that Goz was not the only one angered by this exchange.
Veins bulged along Goz’s neck.
Luri knew what kind of man he was.
He was far more suited to being a hot-blooded warrior than a cold and calculating leader.
“The only reasons I have not snapped your neck are Lord Blancaros’s mercy and my own patience.”
“Does Silverwind call fear patience? You are too afraid to confront my fiancée directly, so instead you swagger before her attendant and her fiancé…”
Deep contempt filled Ferda’s narrowed eyes.
“Have you no shame?”
That marked the end of their battle of wills.
In response to Ferda’s provocation, a violent gust slammed against the windows.
Goz, who had been sitting heavily upon his throne, rose to his feet.
“Yes. It is truly shameful. To think I must stand here and watch a mere human act so arrogantly…”
Goz stepped forward.
His grotesquely veined hand cracked loudly.
“I shall wash away that shame with your blood here and now.”
Just as Ferda was about to enter his reach—
“Do not take another step.”
Someone stood before Goz.
Luri, who should still have been kneeling, had somehow risen and placed herself in his path.
“Luri, you bitch…”
“He is Lady Valdrova’s… future husband.”
She was still suffering beneath the instinctive compulsion to submit.
And yet she was able to stand because of one thing.
“I will regard this threat as a challenge against Lady Valdrova and respond accordingly.”
Resolve.
The resolve to stop him even if it cost her life.
Goz looked thoroughly disgusted.
“So the warrior of the north has become a loyal dog. Now you even serve a human as your master.”
Though his temper had been boiling moments ago, Goz suddenly calmed down instead.
The wind battering the windows subsided.
Goz sat back down and withdrew his oppressive aura.
“As Silverwind’s representative, I have nothing more to say to a dog. You may take her, Regent Valdrova. I hope we never meet again.”
Ferda answered just as calmly, as though nothing had happened.
“Then I’ll be on my way.”
Ferda no longer continued their battle of wills.
“Luri.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s leave.”
“…Yes.”
He led the trembling Luri out, bringing the incident to an end for the time being.
Goz remained lost in thought, his gaze fixed on the place where Ferda and Luri had disappeared.
Though nothing remained before his eyes, the image of Luri standing against him remained vividly engraved in his mind.
‘Luri of the Bladed Wind.’
Silverwind’s Spawns fought the creatures of extreme cold beyond the northern Ice Wall.
Among those enemies, the most vicious and dangerous were the frost giants.
Like the monsters of the Far East, no one knew where they came from. Yet they emerged endlessly, seeking to spread frost across the human realm.
They were formidable creatures that required five well-trained Dragon Spawns working together to defeat even one.
But Luri had been different.
Despite her small frame, she had fought three giants at once and defeated them.
She had sustained grave injuries, but as long as she remained alive, she could recover.
As a protector of the Cerdes Continent, she had been both a source of pride and an example to others.
Even Goz had felt threatened by her more than once.
‘And yet someone like her…’
Their reunion had been the worst possible one.
That unsightly maid uniform.
The bearing of a childish servant girl.
And on top of that, her foolish question.
The question she had asked while clinging to a thread of hope had been completely unlike the Bladed Wind.
Everything about her irritated him.
To think that pathetic thing had once been a woman he considered a threat.
But what irritated him most of all was—
‘Ferda Valdrova…’
That human who had stood against him.
There had always been humans who irritated him.
Those who believed they could command dragons as they pleased.
Those who relied on their authority and treated dragons as though they were ordinary humans.
He had beheaded such people without hesitation and made examples of them.
That was common practice in dragon society.
‘But he is different from those humans.’
Goz did not want to admit it, but he had felt it clearly when their eyes met.
Ferda had worn the face of someone closer to an immortal than anyone else.
That was why Goz instinctively understood.
‘As long as that insolent bastard is there… this revenge will never be fulfilled.’
He clenched his fist.
Not once since Silverwind’s death had he forgotten him.
Nor had a single day passed without his thirst for vengeance.
He could not allow Ferda to ruin everything now.
‘Revenge… must be carried out.’
No matter what it took.
***
Luri silently followed behind Ferda.
The surroundings were so quiet that the sound of their shoes echoed down the long corridor.
“Did the conversation go well?”
“…”
Luri said nothing.
“Why don’t you say something?”
“…I don’t want to talk.”
The heels of Luri’s shoes stopped.
She stood still with her head lowered and opened her mouth.
“Who…”
Her damp voice forced the words out.
“Who asked you… to help me?”
“…”
It was a perfect example of blaming the person who had helped her.
Yet Ferda said nothing.
She was right.
She had never asked for his help.
Perhaps it had been something she could have resolved herself.
Perhaps he had acted rashly, driven by his own assumptions.
“I see.”
Ferda acknowledged it calmly.
“I did something unnecessary.”
He turned away.
Ferda began walking toward the exit.
“Sorry for interfering.”
Then he continued on.
Luri stared blankly at his back.
***
After leaving Silverwind’s private chamber, Luri had silently followed Ferda.
She did not know what words to choose.
Her emotions churned like a whirlpool.
She glanced up at his back.
It looked broad.
Like a solid support she could lean her entire body against without fear of it collapsing.
Like her father—
like Silverwind.
And yet the feeling she received from that back was entirely different from what she had felt from Silverwind.
Her insides twisted.
I have lived longer than he has.
I have survived death many more times than he has.
So why am I still less dependable than that back?
“Did the conversation go well?”
Ferda asked.
When she remained silent for a long time, he glanced back over his shoulder and asked again.
His blue eyes gleamed through his gray hair.
“Why don’t you say something?”
Luri forced her mouth open.
“…I don’t want to talk.”
Instead of an adult response, a childish complaint slipped out.
“Is that any way to speak to someone who helped you?”
Helped her?
Had Luri not intervened at that moment, Ferda’s neck would have been snapped, and winds of calamity would have swept across the continent.
After doing something so foolish, how could he call himself the one who had helped her?
She criticized Ferda inwardly, but Luri knew the truth.
None of this would have happened if she had not clung to such a fragile hope in the first place.
She knew she should thank him for stepping in.
She knew it would all end if she simply said those words.
And yet—
she did not want to admit even that much right now.
She feared that if she spoke, the tremor in her voice would be exposed.
She feared revealing her incompetence as the attendant who had served Valdrova all these years.
She feared showing him her weakness once again.
Clenching her fists tightly, she raised her head.
“Who…”
She suppressed the resentment filling her chest and forced out the words.
“Who asked you to help me?”
Only after the words left her mouth did she realize her mistake.
That was not how an adult should have responded.
It was a pathetic refusal to acknowledge her own weakness.
The behavior of a child who had nothing left to defend except her pride.
She despised herself for it, but her throat tightened and no further words would come.
Ferda looked down at that childish girl.
His eyes seemed as though every emotion had been dropped into the depths of a vast lake.
Those eyes made Luri feel as though her heart were sinking even deeper.
At last, he nodded.
Luri replayed her regret.
“I see.”
This isn’t what I meant.
“I did something unnecessary.”
That isn’t what I was trying to say.
“Sorry for interfering.”
Ferda began walking again.
She watched him move farther down the corridor.
Her hand reached toward him without thought, trying to stop him.
But he had already gone too far for her to catch him again.