I Married the Dragon I Killed
Chapter 112
The time was five minutes prior.
Valdroba Castle, the study.
Mori was on duty.
Her task was to document and archive the records gathered from Hestia Village. She also served as a legal advisor and a reference librarian.
She was an A-class talent that most would be desperate to recruit, but currently, she was nothing more than Echidna’s plaything.
-Echidna-nim.
“Hmm? What is it?”
-Hugging me while I am working is inefficient. It results in a 12% drop in performance under perfectly established working conditions.
A single rule had been set for managing her: do not allow her work efficiency to drop by more than 15%.
To anyone else, that warning would have meant touching her only when strictly necessary.
However, Echidna—the affection-starved witch—was different.
“Then I still have a 3% margin, don’t I?”
Her mindset was to hover as close as possible to the limit, right at 14.99%.
But she wouldn’t be a witch if even that went smoothly. Echidna’s excitement intensified the moment she embraced her, and finally, she let out a beastly cry.
“Grrr, I can’t take it anymore!”
She buried her nose right into the crown of Mori’s head.
“Sniff, sniff.”
-I advise you to stop.
“Hnnngh…”
-St—
“Snnniiiiiiff!”
Thwack!
“Guh-hugh?!”
A heavy blow struck the philtrum of Echidna, who had been lost in the scent of Mori’s hair.
Echidna’s body swayed violently before she recoiled. She eventually slumped to the floor, knocking over a pile of books she had tried to grab for support.
“Hieeeeh… That’s so mean. You didn’t have to use violence…”
Echidna shed tears while clutching her face.
Mori looked down at her with a gaze that seemed strangely satisfied. She quickly scribbled something and showed it.
-The previous action has increased work efficiency by a full 5%.
“Really? Do you have sadistic tendencies, Mori-yang? Do you want to become a witch too? I cannot allow you to become a witch!”
-I have no ego. Therefore, I cannot become a witch.
Mori returned to her work.
Echidna stopped her foolishness and turned her attention back to reality. Books and documents were scattered across the floor. It was a total mess.
“Ugh, why are there so many papers…?”
Knowing she’d catch hell if she left it like this, she began to tidy up.
With a simple gesture of her hand, the scattered books and documents rose into the air. As if rewinding time, the books slotted back into their places and the documents organized themselves neatly.
“Who even reads these books anyway… They’re so boring… Huh?”
While grumbling and tidying with her hands as well, Echidna noticed something tucked inside a book. A piece of paper folded into a square caught her eye.
“This is…”
The texture alone was different from ordinary paper. It was magic parchment, capable of absorbing mana.
Magic parchment hidden among ordinary documents. That fact alone was enough to pique Echidna’s curiosity.
Echidna unfolded the paper.
“A magic circle…?”
Her words trailed off into a question.
“Is it?”
The hieroglyphs etched within the circle were similar to the magic circles she often saw. However, there were many awkward elements for a magic circle. There were more than a few points that didn’t align with textbook principles.
As she observed it, a strange idea occurred to her.
Despite the lingering pain in her nose, she called out to Mori with a beaming smile as if nothing had happened.
“Mori-yaaaaaang~.”
Scratch, scratch.
She held out the magic circle and asked, “Don’t be so cold and take a look at this. What kind of magic circle does this look like to you?”
Scratch, scratch.
“I think Regent Ferda drew it.”
Scratch—
Roll.
Mori’s eyes moved at the mention of the name Ferda. She scanned the magic circle from top to bottom. After a few minutes of deep thought, Mori’s answer came.
-I do not know.
“Even you don’t know, Mori-yang?”
-Yes. It is a magic circle that does not exist within the records I possess.
“If even you don’t know it…”
Echidna knew what was inside Mori’s head. The Library of All Phenomena, which records everything. It contained the names and details of almost every magic known to humans and the Serdes Continent.
-There are three possible reasons why I do not know it.
First, it is magic that has not been recorded on the Serdes Continent.
Second, it is a complex magic that cannot be recorded in the languages of the Serdes Continent.
Third, it is a magic created directly by the individual in question.
Thinking rationally, the third was the most likely. A magic Ferda had created himself.
-Looking at the form and shape, the third option seems most likely.
“Right. At first glance, it looks like nothing more than a drawing…”
That was what they called magic circles that couldn’t be used. Mages who studied geometry would sometimes churn out magic circles hoping to get lucky, but only about one in ten thousand would actually work.
-Furthermore, this cannot even be called a magic circle. It lacks geometric elements, and its form is indistinct.
“Exactly, right?”
Even magic circles that looked like mere drawings usually made one wonder if they might work if researched properly, but Ferda’s magic circle didn’t even give off that impression. Unlike sophisticated and meticulous magic circles, this was crude and inefficient in form.
-It is merely a drawing that resembles a non-functioning magic circle. That is my conclusion.
Mori reached her verdict.
But Echidna felt differently. You see as much as you know.
Echidna was knowledgeable enough to create Runes. Because of that, she saw much more.
“This works.”
She knew that this crude, inefficiently shaped magic circle actually functioned.
Mori turned her head and asked.
-Is there a basis for that?
“There is… none. It’s just intuition…”
-Then there is no point in discussing it.
Mori weighed evidence based on the contents of the Library of All Phenomena. Human intuition was not logical. It was a waste of time to respond to something illogical.
Mori turned her attention away from the magic circle and resumed her work.
And so, the exchange with Mori ended.
Echidna felt a pang of regret that the conversation was over, while at the same time, she stared down at the parchment and muttered.
“How does this even work?”
Echidna questioned her own intuition. Tilting her head, she began to analyze it. She ran everything she knew through her mind. She started peeling back the veil, piece by piece.
But strangely, the more she peeled away, the more a massive wall was revealed. An enigma that could not be interpreted through logic or reason. It felt like an unsolvable theory, like the existence of Utopia or Mana Fatalism.
Echidna’s eyes sparkled. The fact that a mysterious and unknown power was embedded within it excited her. That excitement led Echidna toward an impulse.
“Let’s dismantle it.”
Her curiosity eventually reached the idea of dismantling the magic circle. Dismantling a magic circle was a taboo act that should never be done without the creator’s consent. The thought that she might make Ferda angry crossed her mind, but she felt a desire so intense it overrode even that.
“…I’ll just touch it a little bit.”
Just a tiny bit.
Messing with a single Rune shouldn’t matter. In terms of importance, it would be like briefly taking out one small gear to look at it.
Despite her words, Echidna’s finger touched the Rune at the center. The mana traces etched into the paper were clearly transmitted to her fingertip.
Echidna copied the Rune she felt and manifested it over her hand. Now, all she had to do was pull the Rune apart and read its code.
She didn’t know then. That she would pay the price for her curiosity.
“Huh?”
In that instant, before the Rune could even react, it melted and flowed into Echidna’s arm. She felt a sensation of backflow within her mana pathways.
“Wait, what?”
Echidna panicked. Though she made a sound like a startled young girl, she reacted swiftly. As a witch and a skilled mage, she used a 5th-Circle barrier spell to block the absorbing Rune.
“Wh-what?!”
But it didn’t work. Her barrier spell blocked all magic effects of the 5th-Circle and below. The fact that it didn’t work meant the Rune itself belonged to the 6th-Circle or higher.
That was impossible. The limit for Runes that humans could create and handle was the 5th-Circle.
“Gah—hack!!”
Echidna paid the price for her curiosity. There was no way to stop it.
“Explain the circumstances.”
Mori began to write down the facts she knew.
-Echidna was touched the Rune drawn in the magic circle and was consumed by it.
“She was consumed by a Rune she made?”
-She stated that it was a magic circle drawn by Ferda-nim.
“A magic circle I drew?”
Ferda frowned. He had a gut feeling that this was going to be a messy affair.
‘Even so, it makes no sense for Echidna to die…’
Ferda had stored a few things, but none of them possessed the power to kill Echidna. Furthermore, it was impossible for her to be killed by her own specialty, Runes.
Ferda cast his gaze toward the floor to find what it was. His eyes landed exactly on the scattered books.
‘This is…’
Ferda recognized that magic circle. It was the one he had drawn when he was confused by mana. It looked so complex and crude that he had made a copy and tucked it away somewhere.
‘She died because she touched this?’
Ferda looked at the Runes drawn in the magic circle. There were seven Runes in total, and the one Echidna had touched was one of them.
‘With just a single Rune?’
It was logically difficult to believe. A 5th-Circle witch. A specialist with the title of Rune Maker dying from one of Ferda’s Runes.
“And? Did you see her die?”
-After touching the Rune, she showed symptoms of respiratory distress and then simply vanished.
“Because of the Rune?”
-I cannot determine that much.
Mori predicted based on her knowledge. Elements that only a mage could perceive were beyond her.
“It must have been a Circle Overload,” Ruri guessed.
It was a hypothesis that Ferda might have accepted as well. It was something unheard of in the lower circles, but in the world of mages of the 5th-Circle and above, it was a terrifying possibility that could never be ignored.
“That’s likely not it.”
“Why is that?”
“If a Circle Overload had occurred, Mori, who was caught in the explosion, would be dead too.”
A Circle Overload literally meant the individual became a bomb. No matter how much she cherished Mori, she couldn’t have remained this safe. There had been a large vibration, but it had ended with just that.
Ferda’s deduction was as follows.
“Someone used magic.”
“If a magic circle had manifested, wouldn’t she have said so?”
“Of course.”
Since a magic circle was something Mori could also see.
“But it’s a different story if it’s a witch who has been given the name of Philiaz.”
A blue light flickered in Ferda’s eyes. He began to see more than just the simple reality.
“As I thought.”
In the spot where Echidna had been, traces of mana remained. But those traces didn’t just indicate the manifestation of mana. Ferda breathed magic into the faint form, giving it a vivid color.
Ruri was surprised when she saw it. It was in the shape of a rose.
“Is that rose-like thing a trace of mana?”
“It’s a mana signature that only high-circle mages can produce.”
“Does that mean you know who it belongs to?”
Ferda nodded. It was a signature he could never forget.
“Lucy Philiaz.”
The First Witch. Only she left a signature like this. This meant she had intervened deep inside this castle to take Echidna away. To facilitate that intervention, she had violently shaken the magic circle in this castle.
“Does that mean… she infiltrated from the outside? The castle’s barriers shouldn’t have allowed such magic to be cast.”
“She had already planted a magic circle inside the body. A tiny stimulus is enough to trigger it.”
All that was needed was a tiny spark to light the fuse, and Lucy Philiaz had intervened to provide that spark.
“Since it’s Philiaz, it must be a magic circle the Big Sister etched to retrieve the corpse.”
Killing a witch was tricky. Some kept their Life Vessels elsewhere, or used clones to keep their true bodies safe, but ultimately, they lived under the protection of the ‘Big Sister.’ If she could penetrate even a fortress-like dragon’s nest, what kind of barrier could stop her intrusion?
“Echidna is supposed to be an excommunicated witch. Does that protection still apply?”
Unlike the others who hated men, Echidna loved them. She must have been excommunicated because her ideology didn’t align, so why would they bother retrieving her corpse?
Ferda answered simply.
“What’s inside the head doesn’t care about origin.”
No matter what, she was one of the few precious artisans on the continent—a Rune Maker.
Ruri nodded as if that made sense.
“How persistent. The lot of them.”
“It’s not just witches who are like that.”
Because he was the same.
Ferda couldn’t take his eyes off the traces.
“Still, there’s one thing I don’t understand.”
“Is something bothering you?”
“It ended too cleanly.”
The only thing left behind was the rose-shaped trace. Other than that, nothing in the surroundings had been interfered with. That was why it was strange.
“A witch wouldn’t end things this cleanly…”
“Since she barely managed to infiltrate, wouldn’t it be difficult to leave anything else behind?”
Ruri’s words were logical, but Ferda refused to overlook it. After a moment of thought, he asked Ruri.
“Has everyone in the castle been evacuated?”
“Yes. They’re probably standing in front of the inner gate like frightened meerkats.”
“Let’s go there.”
Ruri looked puzzled. Did he expect to find an answer among them?
Ferda looked at the people gathered at the bottom of the stairs. Among them, he saw Zedd and Penelope, who were idly yawning.
“Zedd Swallow.”
“Yes?”
Ferda beckoned him over with a flick of his finger. Zedd walked over to his side with a face full of annoyance.
“You were a gigolo, weren’t you?”
“That’s right.”
“I assume you’ve been hitting on the women working in the inner castle too?”
“Excuse me?! Do I look like the kind of guy who can’t survive without a woman?”
Zedd took offense. Ruri glared at him with a look of utter disgust.
“You are that kind of guy, aren’t you? Every time I pass your room, the damn moaning never stops.”
“Uh? That was probably because of—not me, but—mph!”
“Shut it. The adults are talking.”
“So, your answer?”
“…I’ve checked out a few.”
Zedd scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. Ignoring him, Ferda gestured toward the crowd gathered below the inner castle.
“Among the women gathered there, is there anyone you’ve never seen before?”
“I mean, I’m not such a degenerate that I’ve memorized the faces of every single woman in the inner castle—wait, huh?”
“What is it?”
“There’s one girl I don’t recognize.”
Just one. There was a woman whose appearance had escaped Zedd’s radar. In the direction Zedd was pointing, a plain-looking woman was standing. She looked like an ordinary human with no distinguishing features.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes. I’ve never seen her in this castle before.”
Zedd was certain, and Ruri’s look of disgust deepened. Ferda began to walk toward her.
“The Regent is coming down!”
“Everyone, show your respect!”
Seeing Ferda descend, the people shouted and dropped to their knees. Ferda’s eyes were locked only on the woman Zedd had pointed out.
Ferda walked through the crowd and stood before her. Seeing Ferda’s feet in front of her, the woman looked up to greet him.
“Greetings to the Regent of Valdroba—”
Zip—!
The woman couldn’t finish her greeting. Before she could, a single bead of mana formed at Ferda’s fingertip and pierced through her forehead.
