Chapter 125

I Married the Dragon I Killed

Chapter 125: Smile and Punishment

Chapter 125. Smile and Punishment

The first Spring Festival was welcomed in the Grand Duchy of Valdrova.

Hestia Village praised the spring sprouts with lively music, laughter, and the scent of alcohol.

The noble social gathering held a preliminary meeting around noon, when the sun had tilted halfway to the west.

Most were young lords and ladies who had arrived early to expand their connections, mingling with one another.

The later one arrived, the more it demonstrated the influence that person held.

Olivia arrived just before sunset and entered the social hall.

Although she was not the host, everyone paid attention to her.

No one said it, but all the attendees, all the guests, even the host, knew it.

That the true protagonist here was Olivia Arken.

— You are beautiful today as well, Princess-nim.

— I heard you used your influence so that I could attend the Spring Festival. Thank you so much.

The members of the Golden Rose fluttered with flattery.

Since she had told Ferda in advance to ensure they attended the gathering, naturally all of them were able to attend.

Given that they were faithful to their roles, rewarding them was what she ought to do.

— Of course. We share a friendship connected as one, do we not?

— Until last year, I could not even imagine setting foot in a Spring Festival like this……. I am so moved that I feel like crying.

— Ah, my makeup is about to be ruined as well. At this rate, I wonder if I will end up looking like a Ghost Bride.

— Ghost Bride? Do not say such frightening things.

The young ladies giggled.

Other young ladies might not know, but for Olivia there was no moment as hard as this.

Because she had to utter exclamations and comforts she did not feel, and receive glances from men she did not desire.

“Still, it is less annoying than other social gatherings.”

It was strange.

Could it be because there was someone she anticipated in her heart?

She was not as tired as usual, and she could even act with more liveliness.

Night fell, and Ferda entered the banquet hall.

— Enter the Grand Secretary of State, Regent Ferda Valdrova!

The music stopped and everyone bowed their heads toward Ferda.

The young ladies of the Golden Rose chattered ceaselessly.

— So that is Regent Ferda Valdrova.

— He is young and handsome just as the rumors say…….

Could it be because of his unique atmosphere?

There were quite a few young ladies feeling a flutter they could not feel when looking at their peers.

At the same time, they glanced sideways at Olivia.

They wanted to confirm with their own eyes whether that gossip was true or not.

Olivia had no openings.

She merely wore the professional smile she offered to other men.

“Now he will deliver the banquet speech.”

That banquet speech was none other than the one she had written.

Having attended many social gatherings, she crafted the best banquet speech considering the age and status of the banquet audience.

Now, reading it was Ferda’s part.

The banquet speech began.

The moment he opened his mouth, the surprise began.

The clear pronunciation and serious atmosphere characteristic of a mage combined, overwhelming the hall enough to slap the cheeks of most orators.

“They said he moved those old men in the Grand Council, so the rumors were not false.”

She only felt the shallowness of herself, who had imagined him giving the speech.

Olivia ended up imagining.

That man reigning as the new emperor, pushing aside Emperor Arken.

That image made Olivia’s heart beat wildly.

It ended with applause alongside his closing remarks.

Olivia applauded and returned to the Golden Rose.

The young ladies talked about Ferda with flushed faces.

— Isn’t Regent-nim truly cool?

— Right? If only he didn’t have a fiancée, I would want to go seduce him.

The splendid atmosphere combined with the banquet speech properly captured the hearts of the women.

Olivia, strangely, did not like their reactions.

Even though everything went according to plan.

— Oh, my goodness, he is coming over here.

The young ladies flipped their hair back and feigned dignity while pretending to chat among themselves.

— Thank you for helping with the Spring Festival.

Ferda offered words of gratitude to Olivia.

— Not at all. It is I who am honored to be able to help.

— Then, enjoy yourselves.

Two people ending coldly with only greetings.

The young ladies made gestures wondering if they had seen correctly.

Olivia, naturally, tilted her head and asked them.

— Why do you ask?

— No. It is nothing.

Nothing, my foot.

Their heads must be full of gossip right now.

If there had been the slightest opening, they would have thought ‘good, something to chew on’, but there was absolutely none.

Since she sowed doubt, time would naturally make the interest dwindle.

— Come to think of it, Regent-nim has not smiled even once.

— I thought that if he had a close friend, he would at least smile with them.

“Of course.”

Olivia did not intervene and retorted internally.

That man’s laughter is different from the cheap laughter that men spit out pressured by blood and spirit.

That laughter was something even Olivia had not seen.

Did it not possess the supreme value forged from pure affection?

Olivia was glad.

The fact that only she knew that value,

Meant she was different from these fools chasing the coattails of men.

And it was a moment to confirm once more how noble that man was.

The dance began.

The bees flew toward the flowers, and Olivia was no exception.

Bees flying without knowing their place.

— Nice to meet you. Although I am humble, I would like to ask the Princess-nim for a dance—.

— Oh, my goodness, how about dancing with me?

— Huh?

— Come over here quickly!

A hand extending toward Olivia was snatched by another young lady, and the young master was dragged onto the dance floor with a blank face.

The sight of her devouring the bees swarming around the Golden Rose was like a Venus flytrap.

Falling in love like that and leading to an engagement was the style of the Golden Rose.

“I need to prepare.”

After the first dance ends, Ferda will come.

And Olivia only has to refuse.

Everyone will watch, and the suspicion will end right there.

Olivia was calculating the expression and appearance she would put on until then.

— Oh, my goodness?

— Oh my goodness, oh my goodness.

It starts again.

The fuss of a reckless young lady.

Just as she was about to sigh internally.

— Is Regent-nim smiling?

Smiling?

Wondering what nonsense that was, Olivia cast her gaze toward the dance floor.

Coincidentally, Ferda caught her gaze immediately.

The moment she saw him, a crack momentarily formed on Olivia’s mask.

“……Is he really smiling?”

She wondered if she had seen wrongly.

The banquet music flowed, men and women moving like schools of fish in a lake.

Among them, Ferda was smiling and conversing.

Her eyes reflexively turned toward the partner.

“Who is that young lady……?”

Freckles with black hair.

No matter how much she looked, her appearance was inferior to Olivia’s and her attire lagged behind trends.

She could not be Valdrova.

As far as she knew, when Valdrova took human form she was a woman with red hair and two pairs of horns.

Which meant Ferda simply approached some unimportant stranger for the stage.

But.

“Why is he smiling like that?”

It was strange.

I danced longer than that wench.

Even after dancing for 4 hours, he did not smile.

At me.

Not even once.

Olivia reflexively unfurled her hand fan to cover her mouth.

The mask covering her mouth shattered.

Olivia analyzed herself objectively with a confused heart.

“Could it be…… am I feeling jealous?”

No.

That cannot be.

Ferda loves Valdrova.

Olivia treasured that love.

Because she treasured that pure devotion, she admired Ferda.

Like a god who moved her heart.

“……I understand.”

She was angry because he lied.

You acted differently from other men, but in the end you are the same type of man.

Laughter comes easily to others, but not to me.

Because you know I am special.

“You intended to keep me in the palm of your hand that way…….”

Exactly.

That was it.

In the end, you were just like other men.

The music stopped.

Ferda bows to that harlot and turns around.

And he walks in this direction.

Just as Olivia had scripted on the stage.

What would happen after this, Olivia herself recognized.

That from now on, what she would commit would be an improvised act, outside the plan.

That it was an act driven by emotion.

But even knowing it, she could not stop.

The only phrase repeating in her head.

“Let’s do that.”

You deserve a punishment.

Ferda found himself in a situation where everything was going according to plan, when suddenly he was drawn into a baffling situation.

“What is this, what trick is this?”

If he asks for a dance, she refuses.

Yet she accepted the dance request differently from the scenario she had spoken of.

Not only Ferda was surprised.

The young ladies who naturally thought she would refuse could not hide their wide eyes behind their fans and looked back and forth between the two.

“What on earth is she trying to do?”

Olivia is cold-blooded.

In matters like this, she was more calculating and cunning than Ferda.

Which means she knows that the one who receives the greatest blow from a scandal is the woman.

A man simply meets a new woman, but a woman loses her life the instant she is branded a harlot.

There was no way Olivia did not know that.

“Is there something I do not know?”

He thought there might be a rational reason he could not perceive.

He needed an explanation for that.

— Would you escort me?—

Olivia extends a hand wearing silk gloves.

Then he has to take that hand.

He has to dance with Olivia here.

That is what he must do.

Meanwhile, he felt he was doing something terrible, which made his heart heavy.

That heaviness and duty collided, confusing Ferda’s hand.

Is it right to take her hand and dance here?

The moment he tried to rest his hand upon hers,

— Mind your manners!—

A resonant voice.

The one who spoke was not a member of the dispatched imperial staff, but Ruri.

She, who did not meddle carelessly in human banquets, overwhelmed the banquet hall.

The only moment she steps forward is one.

The appearance of Valdrova.

— Her Highness the Grand Duchess enters!—

The door opens.

Ferda doubted his eyes.

That was not the dragon armor he had seen countless times while in this castle.

Height of about 160 cm.

Red hair and two pairs of horns.

A splendid dress with gold details over a red base that matched her hair.

She walked elegantly treading upon the carpet.

Everyone bowed their heads, showing respect and awe before the immortal.

Ferda watched her appearance in a daze.

It was a moment as if an audience with the Goddess of Beauty were granted to him.

Valdrova’s steps, advancing along the carpet, veered toward Ferda.

She approached directly toward Ferda.

— …….—

Valdrova, arriving right in front of Ferda’s nose, did not speak.

Instead, she simply held out her hand in silence to Ferda.

The hostess asking the host for a dance.

Ferda’s perplexity deepened even further.

Just now Olivia had asked for a dance.

By etiquette, he had to make Valdrova wait.

Yet if he said that now, that hand hovering in the air seemed like it would fall powerlessly.

— I hope you have a pleasant time with His Highness the Grand Duke.—

Fortunately, Olivia stepped back obediently.

Ferda took her hand.

Ferda felt what Valdrova always feared.

An appropriately controlled strength.

One could tell how much arduous training she had undergone to control it.

He escorted her to where the dancing was taking place.

Ferda carefully placed his hand on her body.

The body temperature felt from a soft hand.

And a trembling.

Just by holding hands, Ferda noticed.

That Valdrova knew of the gossip with Olivia.

“I see.”

Her coming here was not courage displayed before the people.

She was driven out of her sanctuary.

By the emotion called anxiety.

The root of that anxiety was clearly something Ferda had caused.

“I hurt her.”

Guilt tormented Ferda.

The voice that spun the Shadow Circle blew a breath into Ferda’s ear.

As if there were nothing else to say, it only sneered.

Although the moment he desired most had arrived, Ferda could not feel joy.

He only cared about what expression she was making behind that mask.

“I need to match the rhythm…….”

The music did not reach his ears, so his steps kept tangling.

Valdrova was the same.

They displayed the worst coordination, stepping on each other’s feet the entire time.

A hellish minute, one minute passed and the song ended.

They should let go of each other’s hands and bow, but Valdrova did not.

Instead, she stood on tiptoe and whispered into Ferda’s ear.

— ……Ferda-ssi.—

Ferda’s heart sank to the very bottom.

Not through a voice modulator, but her real live voice.

That sound trembling faintly held the dampness of morning dew.

— Speak.—

— This hand…… if you let go…… please don’t.—

— I…… don’t know where I would run to right now. If you definitely let go of this hand…… I will show an appearance unfitting for a Supreme Sovereign. I might…… bring dishonor to Ferda-ssi.—

That uncertain voice trembled gradually with greater intensity.

Ferda knew what he had to say.

— I will guide you.—

Ferda left the banquet hall with her, holding that hand tightly.

He did not bid farewell to the guests.

Etiquette, prestige, such things were no longer important.