Chapter 53

Chapter 53: A Precedent That Cannot Be Allowed

The council, attended only by those with the rank of duke and above, concluded with that.
Ferda left the council chamber following the rest of the nobles.
— Regent-nim.
Jed and Arwen, who had been waiting for Ferda, approached.
Jed, examining Ferda’s expression, inquired:
— Did you suffer some insult in there? You look like you’re about to kill someone.
— If by insult you mean that I was insulted, then yes.
Because he had to swallow the insult of Valdrova being an evil dragon.
It was not easy for a man who became an Archmage through revenge to ignore his rising emotions.
So it was better not to become a topic of gossip.
Ferda changed the subject.
— What about Ruri?
— Ruri-chan is… well. Where did she go?
— She said she had unfinished business before the talks ended and headed elsewhere. Where she went… I don’t know for sure.
— Is that so?
— My apologies, I should have tracked her whereabouts beforehand…
— Not at all. She isn’t an easy woman to track anyway.
Ferda did not press further.
In any case, he already knew where she would go.
If Ruri’s previous words were anything to go by, she would have headed to speak with Silverwind.
“A conversation, huh.”
Ferda recalled the look Goz Silverwind had given when this topic came up.
He was suppressing his fury with clumsy restraint.
If Ferda had spoken with Silverwind right then and there, wouldn’t a fight have broken out?
Had it not been for Blancaros’s neutral zone, things could have turned even uglier.
“I wonder if the conversation will go well.”
Just as Ferda was thinking that.
— Regent-nim Ferda Valdrova?
A pure white man, fitting for a pure white space.
With a disciplined posture worthy of the right hand of the Absolute Sovereign of the Neutral Zone.
It was the Hand of Blancaros.
— The Master calls for you. Would you accompany me?
— In private?
— Yes. He wishes to speak regarding the motion from a moment ago.
An unusual occurrence.
Blancaros does not summon humans in private, even for the sake of neutrality.
“Still, it’s a situation where he must.”
Blancaros, who claimed to maintain neutrality, had arbitrarily approved the motion, so the proponent would need to provide supplementary information.
Ferda had endured that injustice from the beginning precisely for this moment.
— Understood.
— I will guide you. This way.
Ferda followed his lead.
— —
Blancaros’s audience chamber was a place hardly fit for a dragon’s dwelling.
For a dragon, it ought to be splendid and vast.
So delicate and majestic that no emperor would dare present a calling card.
The Great Council Hall was certainly worthy of that distinction.
Yet Blancaros’s audience chamber was different.
It was a place overflowing with humanity.
Not unnecessarily grand, not unnecessarily majestic.
Small and practical, like the office of a minor lord.
— Welcome.
Blancaros, seated at the end of a marble desk, welcomed him in person.
Ferda’s footsteps, upon entering the room, halted.
It was not only Blancaros inside.
An existence shining blue in that white space.
Erika Iorga.
She occupied one of the seats.
Erika was glaring at Ferda.
Her fierce expression grew even more displeased upon seeing Ferda.
Jed and Arwen, standing behind him, broke into a cold sweat for no reason.
— Why are you staring like that? Did you do something wrong?
Ferda shrugged.
— Me, do something wrong? That’s impossible.
— It certainly seems that way.
Ferda did not retort and walked forward.
Ignoring Erika, he politely greeted Blancaros.
— I am deeply grateful for Blancaros-nim’s invitation, however…
Ferda tilted his head slightly toward Erika.
— I have nothing to say to this bitch. May I take my leave?
— Puhup…
— Keuheum!
Ferda hurling abusive language, and Jed and Arwen, standing like folding screens behind him, bursting out loud.
Even as dragonkin, the representative’s status is comparable to that of a dragon.
Ferda had just called a dragon “this bitch.”
Something only a human who had no desire to live the rest of his life would do.
— Huuum…
— Wh-what, th-this bitch…?
Blancaros let out a muffled groan, as if he had expected it.
The party in question, Erika, stared at Ferda with a dumbfounded face.
Yet she held back.
This place was meant for dialogue and, above all, force could not be used in this space.
Erika put on a smile.
— Nice to see you again, Regent Ferda. Let us speak in person, not through trivial telepathy.
— Do as you like.
Ferda covered his ears.
The smile Erika had been wearing vanished instantly.
— Are you going to continue acting so childishly?
— It is justified. You insulted my fiancee, yet you still expect to hear kind words? How would you like it if I called Iorga-nim a water lizard?
— Heok.
— Keuheuheum…
Jed and Arwen stifling their breath.
They wanted to run away right at that moment.
At those words, Erika held back.
She bit her lower lip hard and forced a deep breath.
— Let us call it a draw with the mutual insults. Additionally, I will apologize for the abusive language. But there was a reason for it.
Ferda lowered his hands from his ears.
Since she swallowed the insult, it was certain she had the willingness to talk.
— First, dismiss the servants and let the superiors speak.
— Understood. You two, step out.
— Yes!
The moment Ferda’s authorization came, they retreated in haste.
Only three people remained in the white space.
— Since emotions are running high, I will speak simply and clearly. I am on Valdrova-nim’s side.
— A truly comforting statement.
Ferda scoffed at those words.
— The entirety of Iorga is taking a stance of watching over Valdrova-nim, but the core executives greatly value Valdrova-nim’s contributions.
— Of course they do.
— You don’t believe me. I was on the front lines of that war. I witnessed and felt with these two eyes the sight of all the dragons fighting. That image is still vivid in my eyes.
Fine hairs on her arms stood on end.
— The sight of Valdrova-nim being the only one to stop Godwin when he tried to take the continent down with him…
Blancaros closed his eyes silently at those words.
He, too, had participated in that battle.
Erika continued:
— Landing the final blow on Godwin, who attempted to destroy everything regardless of whether he was an evil dragon or a guardian dragon, carried immense risk. All dragons knew it. And they hesitated. But Valdrova-nim threw herself in purely. It was as if a black mass was pierced by a red spear and dispersed. Of course… the ending led to another tragedy and ended horribly. Even so, she did not need to bear the name of an evil dragon.
— You scoff at it as nonsense, yet I saw that you were dying to tear her to pieces. Do you expect me to believe that?
— That is why I am apologizing for the insult. But it was something that had to be done.
— You had to insult her? Does that even make sense?
— If I hadn’t ridiculed and suppressed that claim, it would have been dangerous!
— What would have been?
— Silverwind.
Another dragon faction.
Ferda recalled Silverwind, who hadn’t uttered a single word.
— If I hadn’t stepped forward, Silverwind would have. Those guys who have nothing but blocks of ice in their heads turning this conference into a disaster; no, thanks. They would have demanded a dragon war before you could even declare the conquest of the Far East.
— Are you saying you picked fights and mocked everything just to protect me?
Erika was left speechless by that statement.
She seemed torn between telling this story or not.
— Not just for you, Regent Ferda. As you said, if that person’s true nature is not that of an evil dragon, but rather she fell into madness due to Godwin’s erosion…
For a moment, a wounded beast showed in Erika’s eyes.
— The precedent of a perfect existence becoming imperfect is a far more dangerous matter than imagined. Enough to collapse the balance of the continent.
Ferda understood at those words.
Why she had been so hostile toward Valdrova.
And why Blancaros had ended it unilaterally.
Ferda summarized what he understood into a single sentence and let it out.
— It seems Iorga-nim has the same symptoms.
Erika nodded with a pained expression.
— At first, the symptoms were merely at the level of a discomfort. Many dragonkin suffer aftereffects from the fight with Godwin. But over the last 30 years, she began to be unable to endure that pain. She is becoming unstable.
— And how is she now?
— She entered hibernation. She chose not to move until a method is found.
It meant that the Phase of Magic, Iorga, was absent.
Hearing that, Ferda suddenly wondered:
— Then what about Odograsado-nim?
— I do not know for sure. She does not keep kin, and as someone who is faith itself, she wouldn’t reveal her shame to anyone.
Those armed with faith would naturally believe they are complete.
Then the front and the back match.
This is not merely Valdrova’s personal problem.
“It was a problem capable of shaking dragon society.”
As Ferda showed that he understood to some degree, Erika lowered her voice and calmly explained:
— If the claim that her true nature is not that of an evil dragon, but that she is faltering because of Godwin, takes hold, it becomes a dangerous situation for everyone. Not only for Valdrova, but the positions of others also waver. They become easy prey for those who cause chaos, like young dragons and war dragons. That is why we are buying time until a cure is found.
— Is that how it is?
Ferda stood up as if there was nothing left to hear.
— Then that only means you are nothing more than a coward.
— C-coward…?
Erika tried to flare up, unable to hold back any longer.
Yet that thought was brief.
The moment she saw Ferda’s eyes, she felt overwhelmed.
— What will you do in the end?
He asked.
— What end are you talking about?
— Hiding and hiding until a crisis arrives where it is exposed, until it reaches an irreversible stage; what were you planning to do then?
— That is…
— You would even sell out my fiancee’s life to hide the secret you keep.
— Do you think I would do such a shameless thing?!
— So you wouldn’t?
Erika could not answer.
She could not affirm, but neither could she deny.
She simply closed her mouth like a mute fed with honey and clenched her fist tightly.
— Let’s end the conversation here. May I leave?
Ferda asked Blancaros.
Nothing was resolved, but of course, nothing could be resolved at this moment either.
— …Go ahead.
With Blancaros’s permission, Ferda walked out.
Erika remained standing there, her gaze lost.
She could do nothing.
To think she would be overwhelmed by a human while bearing the title of Leader of the Dragonkin.
How pathetic.
Yet if the same situation occurred again, Erika would surely freeze the same way.
Ferda’s eyes had filled with disgust.
In their depths, she saw a fragment of her distant future.
— —
Serdes Society of Human Magic.
Seated in the Academy President’s office was not an impudent young woman, but a sturdy man.
— Uwoooo…
The man moved his pen while emitting a sound like a ghoul resurrected from hell.
He had been doing nothing but processing the documents Erdes left behind for four days straight without rest.
— Uwoo… eung?
Shortly after, a round, circular spark began to crackle in front of him.
He knew whose hand this phenomenon came from.
Normally he would rise from his seat to welcome her, but Lu didn’t even have the mental capacity for that.
— Blue-kun! I’m back!
The one greeting him cheerfully was Erdes.
— You’re back already?
— As soon as the talks ended, I clocked out on time. Isn’t it boring without me?
— For someone saying that, your appearance is a bit strange…
Not like someone returning from talks, but like someone returning from a tourist spot, loaded with bags hanging everywhere.
— So fussy. I did some sightseeing in the city after it ended, are you jealous?
— …Would there be any reason to be?
Lu sighed, approved the last remaining document, and slumped onto the desk.
— Is all the work done?
— The backlog is finished for now.
— Look at this. With such a clear division of labor, how great is it? I rest, Blue-kun works. The division of labor is clear, right?
— It is clear, but it’s weird…
— Besides, I stopped by a nearby place and bought the famous local honey bread! Where else would you find an angelic boss like me?
She wiggled her eyebrows with a ‘how about this?’ look on her face.
Fine, at least let me eat something delicious.
Lu opened the box handed to him.
— …It’s empty, isn’t it?
— Huh? Ah, it was so good that I ate it all. Sorry. Could you throw the box away properly?
Lu nodded like a person making a grand resolution.
— I quit. I submit my resignation.
— Ah, I can’t let you do that. Blue-kun must serve me for 1,000 more years. No veto rights. That’s the contract we made.
— This damn hell.
Lu made a show of lamenting with a face that had lost all hope.
— So… how was it?
— What thing?
— You went for that man, Ferda Valdrova, didn’t you?
— That man? Hmm…
She tapped her chin with her index finger, shook her head from side to side, and replied:
— He was unique.
— Unique…?
Lu’s eyes opened wide.
— The strongest Archmage on the continent says he was unique enough to say ‘unique’?
— Flattery will get you nowhere. Simply something mysterious.
Erdes sat on the edge of the desk and looked down at Lu.
— Did that human have a Red Circle?
— A Red Circle!
— And he also learned black magic. The smell was wafting off him.
— Bl-black magic?!
Lu’s complexion turned deathly pale.
It wasn’t that black magic was terrifying.
— Is th-that person a-alive?
— Of course. Do you think I’m a murderer who goes into a frenzy every chance I get?
— Well, seeing that the Academy President-nim returned without causing any particular trouble… that person really must be a unique human.
Erdes frowned with a lingering unpleasant feeling.
Her legs, dangling from the floor, began kicking back and forth.
— Blue-kun. What if your parents suddenly left one day?
— Uh… well. Wouldn’t you be angry?
— Just angry? Huh? Would you just scream ‘Aaaah! Parents who abandoned me, I cannot forgive you!’?
— The Academy President-nim might do that… but a normal person would also feel sorrowful.
Erdes snapped her fingers.
— That’s right, correct. The common expression ‘swirling emotions.’ Being overwhelmed without being able to feel superiority in either direction; those are normal humans. Even if you distinguish superiority, being obsessed with only that one thing is almost impossible.
— That would be the case.
— Don’t you understand what I’m saying?
— I apologize. My clumsy head doesn’t fully grasp it…
— Do you want to write a 50-page reflection essay?
— Ah, wait a moment. I think I might remember…
— So stupid. You can’t create a Red Circle with just that amount.
— Ah, I really could remember it.
— Stubborn despite being stupid. 100 pages for you.
— Keuk! That’s too much! I did all the official duties while you were away!
— Public is public, private is private.
Lu grumbled, and Erdes clicked her tongue.
— So what you’re saying is that it’s difficult for Ferda Valdrova to have a Red Circle?
— Correct.
— But isn’t emotion a relative factor?
— Correct. The measuring stick differs depending on the person. But even taking that into account, that bastard Ferda went far beyond my category.
— To such an extent?
— A Red Circle forms when the scale of emotion breaks. But puberty is an age where the scale cannot break. For the scale to break out of anger, you’d have to be broken enough to firmly believe that even the reason you wake up stiff every morning happens due to anger.
— Eum… it’s a petty analogy, but even so, there’s the incident of being exiled by his family, right? Couldn’t that alone explain it?
He became Valdrova’s fiance.
Effectively a death sentence, it was enough to make Ferda’s resentment erupt.
— That guy accepted it.
— What do you mean?
— Accepting means there is reason. Which also means the anger was not enough.
— So you’re saying that since there is no trigger to break the scale, a Red Circle could not have formed?
— Correct.
— But the Regent has a Red Circle.
— That is also true.
— The conditions were insufficient, and yet a Red Circle formed…
— And he reached the 4th Circle in less than a year.
— And… there were also several incidents.
The execution of Thesalos Walcher.
The battle inside the Imperial Warehouse.
— Black magic is common to all of them.
— Black magic…
While staring at each other for a long moment, Lu suddenly realized.
Even a sanctuary dog recites poetry after three years.
After serving 10 years under her command, he could finally read Erdes’s mind.
— Are you saying… you suspect Regent Valdrova made a contract with a demon?
Seeing him reach the conclusion, she smiled.
— Don’t you smell the trail?