Chapter 111

I Married the Dragon I Killed
Chapter 111: I Don’t Want to Give Up

Chapter 111. I Don’t Want to Give Up

It was when Eremvalt was in the middle of his journey toward the Rosnova Family.
Inside the carriage, he thought to himself.
‘Yes, this is enough.’
That the choice of that severance declaration was the right one.
Those were days when he could not bear Erdes’s watchful gaze and pressure, which caused his hair to fall out in clumps.
Since he received confirmation that Ferda no longer had anything to do with him, they were now strangers to each other.
No, rather, it would be Eremvalt who would remain the victim.
— I won’t have to deal with that damn brat anymore either. This is enough.
— What brat?
— Eek!
At the familiar voice, he raised his head.
This was inside the carriage.
The seat across should have been empty, with no one there.
Yet sitting in that seat was an adolescent girl.
Platinum hair and blue eyes containing mana.
Her name was Erdes Roton.
President of the Magic Society of the Serdes Continent, a living calamity, a ruffian magic user.
— Why are you looking at me like that?
She smiled like a trickster.
— Repeat what you just said. I’m curious to know what it’s about, too.
— I, I have committed a mortal sin. I spoke rudely of the President—.
— Do you think I came all the way here to listen to a confession over such a trivial trifle?
In truth, she was famous for holding grudges for a long time.
However, Erdes had not really come for that reason.
— Tell me what you talked about with the Regent.
— The story wasn’t a big deal.
— “Not a big deal” my foot. If it wasn’t a big deal, why are Valdrova’s aide and the Regent moving together?
Eremvalt was startled.
— W-Where to?
— I don’t know. Judging by the direction, does it look like it’s roughly toward the side of the Rosnova Family?
She chuckled.
— Perhaps he plans to exterminate the family himself?
Eremvalt made an astonished face.
Cold sweat dripped ceaselessly.
At Eremvalt’s reaction, Erdes, who had been spouting nonsense, ended up bewildered.
— What? Why are you reacting like that?
— It’s nothing…….
— “It’s nothing” my foot. You reacted like that because you thought that was the right answer, right? It means there was a pretty intense conversation, huh?
— It’s nothing. I only spoke with Regent Ferda and told him he is someone with no further relationship to the family. He simply had a hypersensitive reaction on his own.
— ……What?
At those words, Erdes neither smiled nor got angry.
She just looked at Eremvalt with an expressionless face.
That made it even more chilling.
— As I said, Regent Ferda is someone who does not share our bloodline. Aside from his gray hair, I informed them that he is a boy without a single resemblance.
— Mmm, so you severed ties?
— That’s right.
— Mmm…….
Having heard the answer, Erdes only tapped her chin with her index finger.
He had to say something to break this uncomfortable silence.
— And…… Ferda is definitely using black magic.
— ……Why?
— When I told him I would sever ties, he used black magic to create a hand! To strangle my neck!
Eremvalt pretended not to notice until the end.
Because if he had noticed, he would definitely have been killed on the spot.
His eyes drifted to the side.
— So he strangled you?
— He didn’t strangle me…… he only pulled it back, but…….
— How admirable.
— Y-Yes?
Eremvalt felt bewildered by her response.
She, who hated black magic more than anyone, showed an attitude as if black magic didn’t even matter.
— Admirable that he didn’t strangle his father’s neck when he said he would sever ties.
No, not only that, she was defending him.
Eremvalt had no choice but to ask her directly.
— What are you going to do about Regent Ferda?
— Do what? Am I not going to do a damn thing?
— Even though he tried to kill you with black magic?
— Yes. Does you dying have absolutely anything to do with me?
The young woman’s shameless voice let out a long sigh.
— Ah, seriously, ruining this so badly makes me feel like total trash. The heavens are helping that brat~.
Erdes stood up from her seat.
— I’m sick of you. Don’t let me see you again. If you pull any nonsense and get caught, I don’t even know what I’ll do then. Understood?
— Yes, I will live…… humbly.
As if it were no longer worth exchanging words, she left the seat.
The interior of Eremvalt’s carriage found silence once more.
— Huu…….
Eremvalt unconsciously placed a hand on his own neck.
Only after confirming that his neck was still in place did he let out a sigh of relief.
He felt guilt for kicking his son out, but it vanished like a passing breeze.
Regardless, he only felt relieved that he would never have to face that brat and that foul thing ever again.

Office of the President of the Serdes Magic Society.
A round portal opened, and Erdes stepped out from within.
In the President’s seat, Lu was sitting naturally, processing work.
— Did you abandon work again and go where?
Lu asked with dark circles under his eyes.
Erdes snapped her head around and glared at Lu.
It was an irritated expression.
— I went to lay the groundwork in the Far East, why?
— Didn’t you hate that Regent very much?
— True, damn it. There is no other word for this shit.
Erdes threw herself onto the sofa while spouting curses.
Inciting the workers to form a union to create a counterforce was a good idea.
Yet the opponent was much more powerful than imagined.
— Stefan Pascal, that guy was no nobody, was he?
— Is he the one who will become the President of the Pascal Company?
— What?
Erdes raised her head.
It was the expression of someone hearing it for the first time.
— Since when? Weren’t there two formidable competitors?
— When are you talking about? The eldest daughter eloped to a western village with her husband, and the eldest son threw a fit over secession before handing over the management rights of the mercenary company to Stefan.
— Why didn’t I know?
— Because it was originally an area you had no interest in?
— Why didn’t you tell me?
— Because it was originally an area you had no interest in?
Erdes shot him a fierce glare.
Lu, who had been playing along, put on a worried face.
— Uh…… is it my fault?
— You’re a secretary, act like one and handle things cleanly. Even if I’m not interested, you should shove it in my face saying ‘Please, just look at this once.’
— What baby-feeding nonsense……. Fine, I’ll learn mind-reading magic from now on.
Lu replied with an astonished face.
— And Eremvalt!
The second thing that infuriated her.
— That bastard, to think he’s such a coward. A member of a knight family scared shitless by a single mage?
— Those who didn’t cower died at the President’s hands, so you have to understand.
— Even so, does disowning your own son make sense?
— Didn’t he say his blood doesn’t flow in him? And he has two other perfectly fine sons. Besides, he offered him as a sacrifice, so showing denial now is a bit much.
Erdes crossed her arms and grumbled discontentedly.
Even so, they lived together for 18 years, there would be some attachment, right? If it were me, I’d still have the attachment of having lived together.
Lu’s eyes snapped wide open in surprise.
— You, President?
— Why? Bitter? Do you think you survived talking back to me all this time because of your skill?
Lu shrank back.
— Anyway, so I couldn’t find a weakness either. If there had been even a bit of denial and attachment, I could have created that brat’s weakness and blackmailed him…
Instead, I only learned how miserable his life was.
Erdes didn’t like that.
— Blue.
— Why are you calling me?
— Is my eye for people that bad?
— Did you finally open your eyes?
— Do you want to die, damn it?
— Speaking seriously… it’s not on the good side.
— The Society runs well, doesn’t it? Is it because I work well?
— That’s because if it doesn’t run well, you fire people without hesitation. It seems to work somehow because it’s scary.
— Mmm, so that’s how it was, that’s how it was. I suppose I need to change things.
— Yes. Clean up the staff too, do a complete overhaul? Like when you brought me in.
When Lu suggested that slyly, Erdes stared straight into his face.
— Even if I say that, this lifetime secretary will never be let go.
— Damn it.
The secretary to the President of the Magic Society, Lu, failed to escape again today.

After confessing his anxiety, Ferda returned to work.
The wound Eremvalt left had settled to a certain extent, but the aftermath lingered in his head in the form of uncertainty.
‘Be that as it may, it is true that my power is unstable.’
The fact that it is not driven by a single emotion, but rather another emotion can intervene, is unprecedented.
The pre-regression Ferda would have thought ‘fine’ and desperately tried to make it work somehow.
Because for a mage with a Red Circle, other emotions are merely braking devices.
Ferda knew that balance well.
‘Losing control leads to tragedy.’
It would go against Valdrova’s will, and Ruri, as her aide, would demand payment from Ferda.
Being killed by Ruri’s hand would undoubtedly be a tragedy.
‘But what is even more tragic…’
Was killing Ruri, who came to kill him, in reverse.
‘If I kill the only daughter Valdrova believes in…’
The sense of isolation Valdrova felt resurfaced vividly.
After the Dragon-Demon War, she lived 150 years feeling guilt and loneliness.
Yet there was a sliver of hope.
Valdrova knew that Ruri was still on her side.
In the previous life, even she vanished.
That means in Valdrova’s life, there was no one; only despair.
‘I would have gone crazy a long time ago.’
Yet she didn’t go crazy.
In the end, she even gave her heart to Ferda, who hated her.
Not the resignation that leads to despair, but a new hope through the ultimate sacrifice.
‘Such a woman…’
How could I leave her alone?
How could I hurt her?
It felt as if the rope thrown into the well of despair was actually rotten, without me knowing.
Far from saving her from within, it would only leave greater wounds.
Just like.
The vision of him strangling her in the dream.
Do not fret.
At those moments, a sweet voice would pierce his ears.
There is no reason to worry like this.
Because you are strong.
Do what you do well.
Ferda did not respond to that voice.
He ignored it and ignored it until it sank down.
‘I need to pull myself together.’
He had to steel his mind so as not to yield to the great temptation.
Ferda Valdrova.
Since he was a man who found answers to everything, he decided to believe he could also find an answer this time.
‘In the worst case…’
I could simply give up my life as a mage.
That would be much better than carrying a bomb that could explode at any moment.
‘Then, what is left for me?’
Ruri demanded one thing from Ferda.
To become a fiancé worthy of Valdrova’s stature.
Unlike the idea that time would make things better, he only realizes how trivial his existence is.
All he has is insignificant future information and magical knowledge.
Under the conditions Ruri desires, he is out.
It was a terrible situation.
The moment he abandons either side, the balance will collapse and everything will fall apart.
He didn’t want to give up.
Just as she never gave up on herself no matter the situation.
Ferda didn’t want to give up on her either.

Rumble!
It was then.
A vibration large enough to shake the castle echoed.
‘Valdrova’s Blood Qi?’
No.
The amplitude flowing through his feet was different.
This was a vibration occurring inside the castle.
Someone must have caused a serious accident.
‘Was there an experiment large enough to vibrate this much?’
Ferda rose from his seat and headed toward the research building.
The interior of the castle was already filled with confused people in the hallways.
— What is this commotion?
— We came out wondering the same thing.
— Wasn’t it an explosion from your lab?
— Our lab can’t produce such a large explosion?
The people who could be the culprits all wore faces of knowing nothing.
Ferda himself had naturally assumed it occurred in Vernel’s lab and came.
‘If it wasn’t here…’
There was only one element that could cause an explosion.
— Ferda-nim.
Ruri found him and reported.
— There was a massive movement of mana. The location is—.
— The study?
— How did you know?
Ruri narrowed her eyes and asked.
The question of ‘Ferda, did you do this?’ was contained within it.
— If it wasn’t here, the only person who could cause such a large explosion would be Echidna.
This week was her shift in charge of Mori.
That Echidna would be in the study relishing Mori.
So he moved his feet toward the study with Ruri.

Upon opening the study door, a devastated interior was visible.
There, Mori sat.
She was doing her work in silence, sweeping papers falling like late autumn leaves.
The massive explosion was not even in sight.
— Mori.
Hearing her name, she stopped her pen and raised her head.
Her eyes shone with purity even at this moment.
No, she seemed to have a strangely refreshed expression.
— What happened?
Mori wrote the answer on a piece of paper.
— Echidna has dissipated.
Summarized cleanly and concisely, yet the content was quite serious.