Chapter 70

Chapter 70: Hatred and Obsession

— Wow. I always wanted to set foot in Valdrova Castle at least once, but who knew I would get the chance?
Erdes chattered non-stop, taking a step forward as if dancing.
It was a distracting gait; even so, no one pointed it out or said a single word.
That alone demonstrated how serious the atmosphere was at this precise instant.
— But why is everything so quiet? The Regent himself guiding us in person is already quite suspicious, isn’t it? Did you kill everyone because you disliked them? Or are you preparing to stab us in the back?
She certainly knows how to speak with elegance.
— Everyone who works inside the castle is ordinary people. They are not the type who can carry out something like this.
— Ah, so it seems. When a guy who looks like a swallow and a guy whose tears and snot are running out are knights, what kind of disgraceful behavior would the others show?
Erdes burst into laughter.
She behaves like a thoughtless child, but she must never be overlooked.
This woman is the greatest mage on the continent.
Exterminating a family with a single finger poses no difficulty to her, and even kings bow their heads in her presence.
She is a living calamity, a thug who uses magic.
That was why Ferda had expelled everyone in the castle.
The people who worked in the castle were far removed from high formalities, and they did not have the ability to endure that pressure.
— Anyway, having come here actually seems quite meaningful. Valdrova Castle is indeed vast. I tried to sneak in once before, but the barrier didn’t even flinch.
— Am I supposed to be happy about that?
— You should be. A compliment from the strongest mage of humanity? Since I couldn’t breach it, it means no other human can do it, right?
Ferda muttered to himself.
It comes from someone whom I crushed.
The one who refuted her was Goz.
— It is a building constructed for a dragon. It is natural that humans on their own cannot touch it.
— Defending her just because she is a dragon like you? Wow, dragons are something else, you think you know them but you don’t.
— Watch your mouth, Erdes Roton.
— Yes, yes.
Annoying, but he agreed.
Guys who hate Valdrova are defending her?
Even mortal enemies have lines they respect, is that it?
While Erdes grumbled, they reached the end of the red carpet.
It felt like standing at the end of a fuse.
Would this bomb explode, or would it be a dud?
Holding that thought, he opened the door.
A VIP room made of gold and red marble.
A maid who had finished preparations for any contingency.
She lifted her wide skirt and curtsied.
— Welcome. I am Ruri, Valdrova-nim’s maid.
She stood demurely upright as if nothing were wrong.
However, her eyes deliberately avoided meeting Goz’s gaze.
Goz was not paying any attention to Ruri.
Unlike when he tried to seize her, his lukewarm reaction felt suspicious instead.
Meanwhile, Erdes let out a giggle and threw herself onto the sofa as she pleased.
— Ugh, you keep making the atmosphere bloody. This is why men are useless, you know? In an elegant place, hm? They should laugh and chat. Hey maid, I want a cup of tea.
— I will prepare it immediately.
When Ruri moved to act, Ferda raised his hand slightly, stopping her.
— It is tea for the greatest mage of the continent. Should it be you who prepares it?
— If that is the case…….
— I will serve it myself.
The reason Ferda did this was because he began to feel a sense of incongruity regarding Erdes’s behavior.
If he let her be, he would get dragged into her pace.
Ferda attempted to serve the tea.
He did not rise from his seat, however.
At his feet, shadows shifted, taking shape and surging forward.
It was Ferda’s Shadow Hand.
Erdes’s face hardened upon observing it.
Openly declaring “I use black magic” was the same as provoking a “kill me.”
Ferda did not mind that reaction and poured a cup of tea.
It was perfect in etiquette.
— It is top-grade tea from the highlands of the western region. Please, have a cup.
Steam rose from the hot tea, but her gaze was fixed solely on Ferda.
Her dead, rotten pollock eyes seemed ready to draw a knife at any second.
— Unfortunately, I’m not thirsty, am I?
— Didn’t you say you needed to wet your throat?
— True. Women, you really can’t understand them, right?
Murderous intent could be felt in her smiling eyes.
Ferda faced those eyes directly, however, and took a sip of his tea.
She will shut that mouth now.
— Let us talk now.
Goz readjusted his seat and leaned forward.
— Why you secretly set foot on someone else’s territory.
Try to understand the background of the incident first.
Ferda answered.
— There was a demon research facility nearby.
— An imaginary research facility?
— Didn’t a landslide occur around there recently? As if something had exploded.
— …….
No answer.
It means it is correct.
— I found out the location where they were executing their project and tried to tear it all down. That is why I had to move quickly.
— So you used the Folded Bridge to cross over and get ahead of them?
The words Folded Bridge came from Goz’s mouth.
That must be information Erdes gave him.
— Why didn’t you tell us?
Goz asked.
— Because it had to be done in secret.
— What is the reason?
— Didn’t I say in secret?
Goz’s face twisted viciously.
He looked ready to bare his claws at any moment.
— Ferda Valdrova, not only did you barge into our territory as you pleased, but you killed that person’s son with your own hands. If you truly do not want a war, you had better speak clearly.
I will not avoid an impending war.
I have no intention of starting one unnecessarily, however.
— As I said, I did kill that bastard Abel Silverwind. And it did cause problems. But not all of that happened because I wanted it to.
Ferda added.
— He was a follower of demons. He attempted to seize power through a rebellion via a demon.
— How did you find that out?
— There is no need to approach it in a complicated way. He blabbed everything himself. Whether he saw me as a trapped fish, or mistook me for a priest in a confessional, I don’t know, but he confessed on his own.
Goz did not erupt at the words ‘follower of demons.’
It meant Sitri had definitely stamped the contract seal.
The momentum tilted a bit.
Ferda decided to say something slightly unnecessary.
— Do you know what that bastard said? That Goz Silverwind is nothing more than a usurper. He said you are unfit for that power.
— Seems Silverwind has many complaints too? Don’t tell me a small fry like that became greedy and started thinking strange things—.
— Shut up.
— You know I’m an ally, right?
He shut Erdes’s mouth as she scratched at an open wound.
— Doubting my power can happen at any time. Challenging it is something Silverwind descendants naturally must do. If it is power gained through a demonic contract, however, that is a different story.
What they want is pure power.
Power achieved through the blood inherited from the Lord of Steel and Wind.
— But what does that have to do with you killing him? Do you mean to say you did me a favor?
— No way. I said I would help him if he wanted to overthrow you.
The wind rises.
Openly proposing a plan to kill you, who wouldn’t be pissed off?
— But he didn’t accept. Not because he was noble, but because his own overthrow plan needed me.
The wind ceased.
— A mere human like you?
— He said he would use me, manipulate me, and then absorb that power.
— Whose? Valdrova’s?
— Ruri’s.
Goz’s body flinched at those words.
Erdes, seeing Goz’s reaction, chimed in.
— Ruri? Who is that?
— She exists. A child like that.
Goz tried to gloss over it, but Erdes was persistent.
She looked at the small silver-haired maid and clapped her hands together.
— Don’t tell me, is it that young lady? Looking at her, it seems so. There were traces of a small build, was it this young lady? That child is the—.
— Erdes Roton. I didn’t bring you here to chatter.
Vertical slit pupils glared ferociously.
Even more irritated than before.
Erdes smiled awkwardly and made the gesture of zipping her mouth shut.
Goz’s annoyed gaze turned inadvertently toward Ruri.
Ruri only showed her back, unable to return the gaze.
Ferda continued explaining the situation.
— Ruri came to save me, and in the end, she had no choice but to kill Abel.
— Hmm, then shall we call our Ruri who miraculously survived there and have her testify?
Do as you wish. I have nothing to hide.
Just as Ferda was about to agree to Erdes’s question.
— Enough. That is enough talk.
The one who rejected that testimony was Goz.
With Goz putting on the brakes, Erdes cast a look of disgust and then directed her gaze toward Ferda.
She smiled brightly again.
— Then, since the talk between the two gentlemen is more or less done, it is my turn to speak.
Was there a turn in this conversation? With you barging in and shooting off your mouth, I thought it was just a free-for-all.
He almost sneered, but held it back.
Erdes stretched grandly and wore a languid smile.
— Well, whatever. It was a moving story, Regent Ferda. But I can’t just accept that story at face value, you know?
Expected reaction.
— There should be traces of a demonic deal on that bastard, right?
— Yes, I found it. Hidden in a really subtle place? The heel. Well, no one checks that thoroughly, so Silverwind wouldn’t know either.
She admits it was in a place that could be overlooked.
Ferda felt the gaze observing him was ominous, however.
— But I, I am Erdes Roton.
The greatest mage of the continent.
The role model for mages, a witness to history, a war heroine.
Her word becomes law, kings bow before her, a tyrannical thug without borders.
At the same time, an authority on black magic.
They say hatred and love are a paper’s width apart.
Erdes knows black magic as much as she hates it.
— The scheme of a damn demon bastard, I can detect it immediately. For instance, the moment the seal was stamped.
A smile hung on Erdes’s lips.
Like a spider looking at prey caught in its web.
— The contract seal engraved on Abel Silverwind, the ink hadn’t even dried yet?
Checking the moment of the seal stamping; Ferda didn’t know that either.
He was not interested in demonic contracts.
No, precisely, the nature of such things was outside Ferda’s interest.
It only mattered how demons entangle humans and how to avoid it.
That is what most people concentrate on.
Erdes’s obsession was broader, however.
She obsessed over everything entangled with black magic.
It is a cleanliness obsession.
The type who pursues every kind of obsession to scrub the disease of black magic from the continent.
That obsession was now cornering Ferda.
— Shall I speak my mind?
She began laying out her deductions.
— Regent Ferda, you made ‘some kind of deal’ with Sitri, the Great Demon of Hell. Did you say you came to destroy a demon facility? That could be the deal. If it collapses not in days but in hours, what happens then? Sitri gets a damn good pretext. Ignoring the proverb about not dealing with demons, you would have crossed quietly on the Folded Bridge.
Her words were dreadfully accurate.
Enough for Ferda to feel the pressure.
— But an unexpected event occurred. The Folded Bridge you traveled on closed for some reason. Regent Ferda was left alone like a stranded duck egg, and Abel appeared. Was that unexpected thing Sitri’s trap?
As she tossed out that question, Erdes smiled with her eyes and stared fixedly at Ferda.
Trying to verify what lies beyond the mask Ferda wears, and Ferda desperately hides it.
— No. It is not. That was not Sitri’s plan.
Did she read his expression?
She shifted to a different story.
— If it were such a shallow trick, you would have noticed. Regent Ferda, you are no fool. You would have checked the Folded Bridge for traps again and again. But…… even so, you could not put your body on the Folded Bridge back. That means you took something out of that demon abode. Something important enough to risk your own life for.
His throat burns dry.
As if hypnotizing, she spun her finger in circles and continued.
— Having Abel Silverwind stumble upon you was probably one of the traps that bitch Sitri prepared. Someone to execute punishment if you had other thoughts while preventing them. Even if he died, a good card that would not become a loose end. But for some reason, she didn’t use that trap. Instead, by stamping the contract seal on Abel Silverwind, she helped you.
Admiration almost slipped out.
Even while being cornered, she was that good.
If one can hate a field as much as this, can they see that far?
It was a depth in a different dimension from what Ferda felt.
— Why would a demon help you? If she had merely left the seal unstamped, wouldn’t Silverwind have come to question you, and you would have broken into a cold sweat trying to persuade them? Would war have been a foregone conclusion? Why would she give up the chaotic situation demons love most?
Mouth dry as a desert.
Consciously maintaining tension so his Adam’s apple would not bob.
— Three clues lead me to my conclusion.
Erdes extended her index finger.
— First, that you use black magic.
Middle finger.
— Second, that a Great Demon of Hell did not trap you, but saved you.
Ring finger.
— Third, that a faint demonic smell does not cease floating in this house.
Stabbing right into the blind spot.
Whatever it is, there is a conclusion Erdes must not reach.
‘Penelope.’
Already walking a tightrope over whether he made a demonic contract or not.
If it is revealed that he is hiding a demon, Erdes’s hostility will tilt completely.
That hostility is not just an annoyance.
Erdes is the person whom the First Prince, the second most influential after the Emperor, tries to ingratiate himself with.
She will definitely put the brakes on the development of the Far East.
Everything is entangled in a headache.
‘That is also a problem, but.’
If in the process of giving explanations, it is revealed as a means to sustain a Great Demon’s lifeline, that was the bigger problem.
She will definitely obsess over Penelope with everything she has.
That could not be allowed.
Everything in this castle exists only for Valdrova.
Just as Ferda was about to open his mouth, Erdes smiled with her eyes and asked.
— You are the child of a demon, right?