Chapter 173

I Married the Dragon I Killed
Chapter 173: Incomprehensible

Incomprehensible
A frontier village not far from the capital of the Empire.
This village was a place dedicated to agriculture under the protection of the Rosnova Family.
Given that it was a village located within imperial territory and not in the borderlands, peace reigned there to the highest degree.
Kwaang!
For that very reason, it was extremely rare for the mansion of that former family of knights to end up half-destroyed.
The epicenter of the explosion was the reception hall.
Within the open space left after the blast, a man lay kneeling with his forehead pressed against the floor.
Everything about him pointed toward the ground, and the only things raised were his two hands.
Those hands reached toward a single young woman, begging for mercy.
— Please… please, just spare this servant’s life.
A pitiful, middle-aged voice pleaded.
— Hey.
The very young woman who had destroyed half the building did not seem to have the slightest intention of mitigating her anger.
— What was the last thing I told you?
That mature man felt his throat close, limiting himself to letting out rough gasps through his nose.
— If you don’t answer, I’ll blow your head off.
— Y-You told me to stay out of sight and to… to live as if I were dead.
— I said live as if you were dead, that’s right. What do you think that means? Keep your head down and don’t even make a sound when breathing. Didn’t it sound like that to you?
— That was how I understood it.
— But you went and gossiped to Alexander that I’m a black mage?
A blue light flickered in Erdes’s eyes.
For Erembalt, it had been an inevitable situation.
It was true that Alexander’s faction had pressured him, but Alexander did not frighten him.
Because behind him was Valdemar.
If Valdemar was involved, not only the path to success of his two sons, but the very survival of the family hung by a thread.
Erembalt had received an offer impossible to refuse.
— It was never my intention to ignore the President of the Magic Society-nim.
— Swallow your nonsense. I saw how you stuck your head in to ruin me, do you think I’m blind? Do you think you’re the first piece of trash like you that I’ve dealt with?
A gesture with her hand suggested she could manifest magic at any moment.
Killing a noble was a serious crime, but Erdes had already executed many nobles with her own hands.
Sweat poured down Erembalt’s face.
— I completely understand that you must be displeased by this matter. It is entirely my fault. However, please grant me just one opportunity. I have prepared an object to soothe the mood of the President of the Magic Society-nim.
Erdes withdrew the hand that had been gathering mana and rested her chin on her palm.
— Fine, show it to me.
Not a hint of expectation could be sensed in Erdes’s words.
She simply thought it wouldn’t be too late to kill him after seeing what insignificant trinket he would present.
Erembalt, having seized the opportunity, urgently ordered a servant to bring the object.
— It is this.
What Erembalt showed was a swaddling blanket.
— What is this?
— This is an object related to Anna, Ferda’s mother, whom Erdes-nim has been searching for so desperately.
— What was this cloth used for?
No matter how related an object it was, if the history did not properly link with the piece, it would be useless.
If a mere connection were enough, bringing a fork she had used would have sufficed.
— It is the blanket with which Ferda… with which that child was wrapped and brought here.
— Ferda…
An object connected simultaneously to Ferda and his mother.
It was the most ideal item Erdes had been hoping to find.
— I searched every corner of the house to find this object. I even kept it prepared just as it was so I could present it the moment the President of the Society-nim arrived…
— Hmm…
The mana held in her eyes vanished.
Given that she could now carry out the investigation that had shown no progress until now, it was natural that her anger lessened.
Erdes decided to show generous treatment.
— Fine, I will forgive you.
— T-Thank—…
— Choose.
— Yes?
— Pick one. You and your two sons. One of the three.
One finger on her left hand, two fingers on the right.
— Do you want me to completely destroy one of your arms, or destroy an arm in half for each of your two sons?
Your own pain, or the pain of your family.
Erembalt chose without meditating too much.
— …My arm, please.
He chose his sons’ future.
Erdes spoke as if that choice did not surprise her in the least.
— That’s right, that is the choice a father would naturally make.
Ttududududuk!!
— Eugeueueuk…!
Erembalt’s arm bent and stretched in a zigzag, as if multiple joints had been added to it.
The pain was indescribable.
Erdes also turned around and withdrew without further ado.
— Heueuk… heuk…
Erembalt shed tears as he watched Erdes walk away.
It was not solely due to the pain he was feeling at that moment.
Within that, there was also a sense of relief for having barely managed to protect his family.
— —
Erdes, upon leaving the Rosnova Mansion, immediately prepared a magic circle.
Being an object kept in the mansion, wherever it had been, it would retain an intense energy in this environment.
— Eye of Marunz.
That spell, called the Eye of the God of Knowledge, was the highest rank among Search Magic.
Erdes threw the swaddling blanket inside the magic circle, and soon the mana began to envelop the cloth.
Scanning every individual particle interwoven in the threads, it searched for information.
Following the will and tenacity of Archmage Erdes, it found the desired information.
What she longed for was a location connected to this object.
As the yearning and information intertwined, the mana drew a sign.
Erdes moved her feet following that sign.
The place she arrived at was in front of the back gate of the Rosnova Family.
It was certain that the first meeting between Erembalt and Anna had taken place here.
— Then…
Erdes summoned her magic staff.
It was time to begin the search in earnest.
High-level magic in a completely different dimension from when she used the Eye of Marunz.
The simple flow of mana made the earth shake and overturned the sky.
To handle this amount of mana, five 6th Circle mages would have to gather and work for a week to barely manifest it.
However, the magic circle passing through Erdes’s hands was completed in just 30 minutes.
Finally, she recited the name bestowed upon that magic.
— Nostalgia of Schola.
A great wave rose, rippling the surroundings.
Her magical power turned the environment into a gray and colorless zone.
A magic that went beyond simply tracking the past, using the medium as a door to reproduce the past state itself.
Even if someone’s face was heavily wrapped in thick cloth, it became the past itself that could be revealed upon lifting it.
In other words, it transcended time.
In the grayish space, the swaddling blanket that had become the medium fluttered in the air as if riding the wind.
Then it shaped itself as if wrapping a fixed, determined form, like a package.
Shortly after, a woman appeared holding that wrapped cloth.
A woman with blonde hair and blue eyes.
There was no doubt that she was Anna Rosnova, Ferda’s biological mother.
Kkiik-.
And soon someone opened a door and showed himself.
It was a young and significantly haggard Erembalt Rosnova.
— Excuse me, Naeuri.
Anna greeted first.
— What is the matter? For the servants to call in such a hurry, it must be an urgent matter.
— It is nothing else. I am Anna, who has come here by order.
— What order are you talking about?
— The order of the Order of Sierra.
The woman showed the emblem hanging from her neck.
Erembalt frowned.
— Sierra… I am sorry, but I am a person of the Empire. An imperial person would belong to the Order of Alte.
— Then, will you harm me?
— If you do not leave, I will have to handle it by the law, will I not? I am not so heartless as to harm a woman I am seeing for the first time today. Besides, there is a child as well. I will give you food and clothing, so return quietly.
— How generous. But unfortunately, I cannot do that.
— What?
— Starting today, I must become your wife.
— What nonsense is that? Why should I take you in?
— Unfortunately, you have no choice, Yeobo.
— Yeobo? A vagrant from Sierra who comes in the middle of the night dares to… eueuk…
Erembalt, who had been getting furious, grabbed his head and groaned in agony.
The woman calmly placed her hand on Erembalt’s shoulder.
— Why are you like this? Are you alright?
— Huh? Ah… it’s nothing.
Erembalt stared at her.
His wary look relaxed as if looking at an old acquaintance.
— But why are you outside like this, Buin?
The woman smiled brightly and said as if nothing had happened:
— Because I like walks in the night wind.
— What if our son catches a cold?… Come inside quickly.
— Yes.
The woman entered with such boldness and then stopped.
Because Erdes had stopped just as she was.
Erdes, who had been observing that scene, said this:
— …What is this?
She doubted her own eyes.
She carefully turned her wrist and rewound the flowing time.
She repeated several times the moment when that woman went from being a stranger to being a wife.
Usually, even if a scene is not understood, rewinding about three times makes the silhouette visible.
Because Erdes is the greatest Archmage of this Serdes Continent.
However, it was not visible.
Not a trace of sorcery or magic, not a gesture, nothing at all was visible.
“I definitely thought Anna was a demon…”
Erdes believed Ferda was the child of a demon.
Then Anna had to be a demon or a follower of demons.
But no trace of such following was visible, nor any trace of a demon.
The only action she took was saying that it would happen that way.
“I have no choice but to delve deeper into this woman’s identity…”
It was the moment she tried to touch Anna.
Erdes felt a chill.
Reflexively twisting her wrist at that cold, she tried to rewind time.
But it does not move.
Time remained stopped, and her wrist likewise froze in place.
The one who should be dominating that space was Erdes.
But conversely, she began to become subordinate to that space.
— Ugh!
Erdes deployed emergency protection magic to shield herself.
But even with the protection magic deployed, she could not stop the sensation of being engulfed.
Just as had happened to Erembalt.
Erdes also seemed to be turning that way.
— Huh?
Inside the frozen space, the woman’s voice resonated clearly.
“That cannot be…!”
Erdes moved her eyes to look at Anna.
Anna holding the baby.
Her eyes should definitely be looking at Erembalt.
Making eye contact with Erdes in this manner was an impossible event.
She openly moved her mouth and smiled.
— An unexpected and uninvited visitor.
Erdes realizes.
The initiative had passed to the woman who should have been subordinate in this space.
She moved freely and approached Erdes.
— Are you the person who hates our Ferda so much?
Erdes reproached herself for having taken Anna lightly.
What she was facing was neither a simple woman nor a demon.
It was something transcendental that could not exist on this Serdes Continent.
— As it happens, I had something I really wanted to tell you. Since it turned out well, listen carefully with those ears.
Anna whispered something into Erdes’s ear.
At that moment, Erdes felt her consciousness being sucked somewhere.
The extended gray shattered like a thin glass window and disappeared, and Anna also vanished.
She returned to reality where color existed.
— Heueok… heueok!
Erdes caught her breath, breaking out in a cold sweat.
How did I return here?
Her body could not move a single inch, and she was in a state where she could not use magical power either.
No matter how she thought about it, she could not believe she had escaped by her own power.
Did that woman, Anna, let her go?
But that also seems unnatural.
Then who exactly helped her?
— To think there is someone who gave so much trouble to the greatest Archmage of the continent. It is quite surprising.
A mature tone of voice, yet a young voice.
That incongruity was something Erdes also knew well.
And only then did she feel the sensation of a hand placed on her back.
— Take your hand off my body!
Erdes convulsively shook off that hand and turned around.
Erdes’s staff pointed at a girl of similar build.
She was the mother of all witches and the Eldest Sister.
It was Lucy Philias.
— Ungrateful. I pulled you out of the water and, instead of thanking me, you try to slap me first?
Lucy said with a carefree face, taking a puff from her tobacco pipe.
— What stupidity is that?! When did you save me?!
— From mana exhaustion. You were about to become a cripple trapped in a manifested space, and it was I who saved you, was it not?
At Lucy’s words, Erdes could also feel it.
There was barely any mana left in her body.
The fact that it was filling up like this now was surely due to Lucy Philias’s mana.
— Your vessel is pointlessly large, so this is not enough. Receive a little more mana.
— Get lost! Don’t touch my body!
She distances herself from Lucy as the latter reaches her hand out again.
Erdes places her hand over one of the spell formulas drawn on her staff.
The formula breaks and she absorbs into her body the enormous amount of mana retained within it.
— As expected, you left behind such a trick.
Lucy murmurs as if relieved.
Erdes glares at Lucy as if she were going to kill her.
But Lucy only smiles faintly.
— Will you not even say thank you for saving your life?
— You should have let me die.
— Unfortunately, I cannot do that. Since a vow I made myself must be fulfilled.
— Let your filthy witches fulfill vows. I am not an unclean kin like you who possess Red Circles!
Despite the insults without hesitation, Lucy showed not the slightest sign of feeling offended.
Erdes traces a finger in the air.
A teleportation magic circle is completed, and she throws her body into it.
Lucy silently watches the place where Erdes has already vanished.
Given that even this amount of hostility was something she knew well, she was not surprised.
— Foolish child.
Lucy simply found her pitiful.
— Even if you hate me and curse me… I cannot turn my back on you.
Lucy’s words dispersed in vain like gray smoke, reaching no one.
— —
Office of the President of the Serdes Magic Society.
The secretary to the Society’s President, Blue, was handling the work Erdes had left behind, as always.
“Why do I have to shoulder all this crap…”
Blue lamented his own situation.
People who would not have said a single word if it were Erdes, but Blue was different.
He had become a punching bag receiving all the complaints and protests that the President of the Magic Society should have heard.
The strange thing was that the roots of Blue’s hair were still alive.
“This time I absolutely will not let it slide!”
Blue ground his teeth as he stamped the approval seal.
The moment that rogue mage returns, he will scream at the top of his lungs.
The portal opened, returning the runaway rogue he had been waiting for so desperately.
— President of the Society-nim!
Blue exploded with the grievances he had prepared.
— Where exactly have you been?! Didn’t you promise me you would work after that hearing?
— …
— Work is piled up like a mountain, you know? If we go on like this, we really won’t be able to manage it…
Even after ranting for a long time, with no reaction at all, Blue belatedly looked at Erdes’s face.
She was not listening at all.
Instead of her brazen expression, she had the face of someone possessed by something.
— President-nim?
— …
Blue placed his hand on her shoulder.
Only then did she seem to regain consciousness, turning her head to look at Blue.
— Are you alright? Your complexion…
Blue asked with genuine concern.
Erdes stared at his face for a long time before answering.
— …I’m fine.
Only three syllables, but Blue realized.
That Erdes was dejected like someone who had been struck somewhere.
— I’ll be in the meditation room for a moment.
— Ah, yes. Please rest…
Too scared to ask what had happened, Blue could only see her off.
Erdes entered the meditation room and forced herself into a seated meditation posture.
Emptying her mind, clearing her head, and circulating her Blue Circle.
But Anna still remained in Erdes’s head.
She wondered if it was magic or some mysterious power, but it wasn’t that.
The reason that woman remained in her head was because it was incomprehensible.
If that person is a mother,
If she is someone who should at least take responsibility for her child,
She left words that she would never, ever say.
— Do your best to prevent my son from being happy.