Chapter 172

I Married the Dragon I Killed
Chapter 172: Favor Breeds Disaster

Chapter 172. Goodwill Breeds Calamity

Penelope froze the moment she saw her face.
Aspect of Fire and Power.
When she had seen the dragon’s form from afar, it had been a figure brimming with a violent and overwhelming presence.
Even when she had approached wearing a mask, that feeling had been strong.
But the moment she saw her face, she had no choiceChapter 172: Favor Breeds Disaster

Chapter 172. Good Will Breeds Calamity

Penelope froze the moment she saw her face.

Aspect of Fire and Power.

When she had seen the dragon’s form from afar, it had been a figure overflowing with a violent and overwhelming presence.

Even when she had approached wearing a mask, that impression had been strong.

But the moment she saw her face, she had no choice but to admit that her judgment had been mistaken.

Drooping eyes, armed with purity and naivety.

Lips that possessed the fresh charm of a maiden.

Her atmosphere was also calm, putting people at ease.

Could that be why? Her frozen eyes moved naturally, and her figure, full of femininity, began to draw attention.

To put it in a metaphor, it was like the first snow covering the ground.

Penelope felt a rising desire to plant her muddy feet on that first snow.

This was almost a disaster.

She nearly swallowed her saliva unconsciously.

“So, is it still not right?”

“Huh? Ah! No! It’s not that!”

Penelope pulled back her calculating gaze and began to flatter once again.

“You are so beautiful that this humble one was left completely entranced staring at you, hahaha!”

“Beautiful?”

“Of course you are!”

Penelope’s eyes sparkled as she poured out passionate praise.

“When I sensed you were a dragon, I trembled with fear, but upon beholding your dragon face, it was beautiful enough to stop the trembling! I understood what a moth feels when throwing itself into a furnace!”

“Isn’t that thing… empty, idiotic?”

“Idiotic?! A figure that emanates such a pure and fresh scent of a maiden is what drives men crazy!”

“Ah, yes. I see.”

Although the speech and vocabulary were somewhat vulgar, Valdrova simply interpreted it in a good way.

“I see. There is a guy who doesn’t like making this kind of expression…”

“W-what?! What snake-hearted bitch said that? If there is anyone pouring such abuse upon the one and only immortal Red Dragon, Lady Valdrova, this Penelope will gladly raise the hammer of justice!”

“It’s Ruri…”

“Ruri! That damned bitch under heaven… Ruri is Lady Valdrova’s assistant, isn’t she?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“…..”

Penelope’s motion of swinging the hammer became infinitely tame.

Seeing that, Valdrova confirmed that Penelope knew Ruri.

“Do you know Ruri?”

“Ah, yes… I have some not-so-good memories with her.”

“Really?”

“I was wandering around the castle on my own, and she would come from time to time to warn me.”

“What kind of warning?”

“‘Don’t wander recklessly just because you are a demon. Is this your bedroom?’ She talks like that.”

“I see.”

“No, really, isn’t it funny? Just because I wandered around some places in this huge place, she says she will bend my spine, things like that.”

“Her words seem a bit harsh.”

“And then, she literally bends my spine!”

“…Really?”

“Three times, in fact!”

“Eh, uh? Ah, yes, that is too much…”

“Do you think so too, Archduchess? Good grief, even I think it’s really…”

Penelope began to chatter endlessly.

Knowing she was the culprit, Valdrova listened to her story in silence.

Meanwhile, Valdrova felt a strange mood.

‘What is this…?’

Right now, this moment was too comfortable.

For her, conversation was difficult.

The men she had met while she was the Armored Knight,

Ruri, who had remained by her side for the longest time,

And Ferda, who made her heart race like that.

They were all too difficult for her to converse with.

But Penelope chattering here was different.

Whatever she said, it was without hesitation or blockage, and above all, it was so trivial that it became pleasant overall.

Valdrova realized only then.

What she wanted to do by calling this girl.

“Hey…”

“Yes!”

“Do you want us to be friends?”

“…Huh?”

Penelope blinked like an idiot.

What did that mouth just say?

“Let’s be friends”?

What kind of sweet trap is this?

As if accepting the offer, will she say “gotcha?” and kill me, isn’t it that kind of test?

While she made a bewildered expression, Valdrova asked cautiously.

“Friends… you don’t want to?”

It can’t be a test.

Look at that expression.

She is as shy as a bride on her first night.

If she took it as a mockery, it would be rude to her.

“F-friends… d-do you want us to be?”

She answered forcefully, embracing the reluctance.

The eyes of Valdrova, who was proposing, rounded.

“R-really?”

“Your Highness said for us to do it…?”

Penelope felt she had stepped on a landmine.

“Ah, yes! Right! I said let’s do it! Yes!!”

Then a radiant, pure smile broke out across Valdrova’s face, which had shown anxiety.

She clenched both fists tightly and shrugged her shoulders as if saying she had achieved it.

“Then from today we are friends?!”

“Y-yes, yes…”

Penelope could not understand Valdrova’s reaction.

Is just saying “let’s be friends” something to be so euphoric about?

And with a third-rate demon, no less.

‘A friend of a dragon… no one in their right mind would accept that offer… wait, a moment…’

Penelope attempted a shift in perspective here.

‘Isn’t this fucking more incredible than I thought?’

A friend of a dragon.

What demon would become friends with a dragon, the lord of the Serdes Continent?

She achieves what not even the Seven Great Demons could.

She herself, treated as a third-rate demon in her homeland, becoming friends with a dragon in a dragon’s castle.

‘Perhaps!’

Penelope’s eyes sparkled.

‘I could really overthrow Mother and become a Great Demon!’

They say dreaming beyond your station brings harm.

She herself did not know that this sparkle was the light of a monstrous star heralding calamity.

“That was how it happened…”

“…..”

“At a friend’s request, she wants to lift Lord Ferda’s spirits. She cannot do it herself, but there are eyes around to consider, so she asked me to show it…”

The reason Ferda might have misunderstood was explainable.

The clothes were what Valdrova had worn, and the thread was made by grinding scales containing her energy.

It was enough to mask Penelope’s demonic energy, and easy to mistake her for a dragon.

“…..”

Countless thoughts swirled in Ferda’s head.

His head, turned upside down, was practically a blank slate.

When he couldn’t say a single word,

“…I see.”

Ferda realized suddenly.

“Were you the one who taught her that vulgar word as well?”

“Y-yes? W-what do you mean?”

“The expression ‘it makes me hard.’ Did you teach it to her?”

“Huh? Me saying that…”

“‘As expected, the best thing for a man is to hear “you make me hard.”‘ ”

“‘I see. But, what does “you make me hard” mean?’ ”

“‘You don’t even know that? Obviously it is the greatest compliment a man can give a woman!’ ”

“…You did it.”

She scratched her head in embarrassment.

Hearing that response, tears welled up from both of Ferda’s eyes.

Since they welled from his eyes, they were undoubtedly tears, but their color was not transparent, rather of a reddish hue.

Ferda wept tears of blood.

Ferda’s head seemed to be trampled by knights of calamity.

He felt joy that Valdrova had found a friend with whom to open her heart and converse.

But with the same intensity as the recoil of that joy, he was enraged and lamented that the friend turned out to be this bastard.

The Shadow Circle trembled violently.

Ferda’s lips moved.

“I…”

“I?”

“I will kill you, daughter of Sitri, Penelope!”

“Ah!”

Ferda could not contain himself and grabbed Penelope’s throat.

Penelope could not resist that action.

“Lord Ferda, please, stop.”

Ruri spoke up at that irrational act.

“If you are going to kill her, keep order! Even if she dies, I will kill her first!”

That small hand also reached out to strangle Penelope’s throat.

Ruri was also weeping tears of blood.

From the moment she was introduced as a friend, Ruri had been biting her lip so hard that blood dripped.

Penelope sensed it instinctively.

‘If I don’t resist here, I will really die!’

Somehow, she broke free from those two hands and shouted loudly.

“Time out! Stop! Lord Regent, will you listen to me?!”

“If you offer your neck now, I will send you off comfortably.”

“No! Don’t do that, listen! It isn’t bad for you if I am a friend, right?”

“For that comment, you will die even more painfully.”

Things were going from bad to worse.

But Penelope insisted.

“Right now, Lady Valdrova considers me a friend?”

“I will kill you.”

Ferda’s murderous intent only intensified.

“Lady Valdrova, you know? She always worries about how to look good before Lord Ferda, right?”

Ferda’s hand paused for a moment.

Penelope seized upon that wavering momentum.

“In that aspect, I can give you a unique opportunity to verify each other’s true feelings, one that Lord Ferda will like very much!”

“…For example?”

“F-for example…”

She whispered softly into Ferda’s ear.

“That beautiful red-haired woman wearing a daring outfit that reveals her explosive body without filters?”

“…..”

“Or a see-through garment made of a thin cloth like a curtain where her figure is faintly hinted?”

“…..”

“If you keep me as a friend, you’ll be able to see Lady Valdrova’s feminine sensuality without filters?”

Ferda, hearing those words, could say nothing.

Before he could fully unfold the wings of his imagination.

“What are you worrying about?”

Ruri, displeased with that silence, glared at Ferda with piercing eyes.

Ferda was startled and responded.

“I wasn’t worrying.”

“For someone who says that, does it seem you drew a very impure image of Lady Valdrova in that head?”

“…I didn’t.”

If she had asked a little later, he would have answered yes.

Ferda was even a little surprised at himself.

The temptation that not even the Great Demon Sitri could achieve, this hopeless third-rate demon accomplishes.

It is definitely because of Sitri’s Life Vessel.

A fearsome power.

“The moment I see Lady Valdrova wearing that garbage that demon speaks of, not only will I kill that demon, but I will also gouge out Lord Ferda’s eyes.”

“If she says she will wear it of her own accord, you have no right to stop her…”

“What did you just say?”

Ferda shut his mouth.

Her two index fingers were waiting menacingly for Ferda’s eyes.

Throughout the entire carriage ride, Ruri’s piercing eyes were fixed on Ferda, and Penelope survived death.

The imperial capital, after Ferda’s departure, remained noisy.

Were there two demon followers inside the empire, and those two turned out to be the people in the highest positions of the empire?

They were the best prey for agitators trying to seize a position in the empire, and the nobles could no longer simply sit comfortably on the sofas.

The Imperial Guard Office was spending frantic days.

“I heard you went to Debleung Mansion.”

“Yes.”

“How was it?”

Debleung Mansion was famous for its spaciousness, unlike its rank.

It was a place that displayed the family’s tradition and honor, an object of envy.

But that was only yesterday’s story.

The symbol of wealth and power had turned into a cursed mansion, tainted with ugly desires.

“It smelled bad from the start, fitting for a place where a demon brat lived. The taste in paintings was all fucked up too.”

“Did you really burn the entire mansion?”

“What else? Archduke Golt made the decision to save the nation. He says burn the mansion and build more buildings.”

“Saying that there is no one to trust…”

“The Archduke must be terribly heartbroken.”

Valdemar Golt, Hero of the People.

A nobleman with such a high reputation that even insulting his name in jest at a tavern would earn you a slap.

They sympathized with Valdemar and cursed Debleung, the demon’s lackey.

“Is there a girl rescued from that demon’s daughter?”

“She is recovering in the relief center. Drenched in drugs, five priests barely managed to heal her complete body paralysis.”

“Really?”

“According to the record, she survived 3 years while confined.”

“Is that surprising?”

“It is surprising. Among them was a man from the Imperial Knight Order. That knight couldn’t last 3 months and died, but only that woman survived 3 years.”

When selecting Imperial Knights, they examine everything meticulously, but mental fortitude is never compromised.

Even if the swordsmanship is first-class, weak mental fortitude is considered a severe disqualification.

“Was Debleung lenient because she is a woman?”

“It’s not that. She endured everything that others couldn’t withstand for even a month and survived.”

“She survived 3 years like that…”

“It’s like creating an assassin for a secret organization. Isn’t there something where they torture them like that and only pick the ones who endure?”

“What nonsense…”

The captain’s words faded away.

Suddenly, he felt something from the depths of his memory touch his fingertips because of those words.

“Is there a portrait drawn of that woman?”

“We had an artist make a sketch to identify her.”

The guard handed the newly drawn poster to the captain.

The captain’s expression, which had been unusual, gradually lost its brightness.

“Wait…”

The captain hurriedly rummaged through the document drawer.

The place he searched was not the missing persons posters, but criminal wanted posters.

His fingers, moving quickly, pulled out a paper from the bottom.

“…Damn it.”

His complexion turned pale.

“Why, sir?”

“That damned pig bastard kept such an important person alive until now!”

The guards became agitated at the unexpected anger.

“Take Class 1 Mana Restrictors and run to the relief center! We must restrain that woman!”

“What on earth…?”

“Shut up and move!”

“Y-yes, sir!”

They ran following the captain, without even catching their breath once, but only traces of the woman remained in the recovery room.

“Activate Level 1 Alert immediately!”

“Level 1 Alert, sir?”

“Mobilize all guards and the army to blockade the empire!”

“Captain, to activate that alert, we at least need to know the reason.”

The captain, agitated, regained his senses and spoke.

“Sierra…”

“Sierra?”

Sierra.

Those three syllables made them understand the gravity of the situation.

“Announce that the Wolf of Sierra has escaped.”