I Married the Dragon I Killed
Chapter 115
The battle began.
Ferda drew a magic circle over his hand.
Three magic circles manifested, hovering at regular intervals.
“Lightning Bolt.”
What he fired was a lightning bullet.
The element, boasting overwhelming speed, was launched at Ferda’s gesture, streaking toward Lucy.
“A shallow trick.”
Lucy was a veteran witch and a veteran of countless battles.
Predicting that Ferda would use Lightning Bolt, she obscured its path with a screen of vines.
Pang!
An arrow flying along the trajectory struck the target directly.
However, that was not the end.
“Ho?”
Though the Lightning Bolt had been blocked, what spread out from within were clusters of mana spheres possessing actual mass.
They scattered and descended upon Lucy.
“An interesting move.”
Lucy did not dodge.
They embedded themselves cruelly into her body, but she didn’t even blink.
“To be able to draw three spells without assistance and even apply them like that.”
The technique Ferda displayed was enough to surprise even Lucy.
For a Blue Circle holder, reaching such a level of finesse usually meant they had attained the 5th Circle.
“You only used the attribute of speed required for Lightning Bolt. A method of placing small spheres inside a larger one. I certainly know there is a magic circle for creating that, but….”
She snapped her fingers as if realizing something.
“Don’t tell me you did that manually?”
“You talk too much, Pavilion Master.”
“Does that not mean I have that much leeway?”
“That’s true.”
True enough to be struck.
A black explosion erupted beneath Lucy, twisting the space around her.
Darkness—the most powerful force among existing elements.
A Dark Bolt had manifested beneath her.
Her head, which had already been pierced, was completely shattered by the Dark Bolt, and the Lucy Philiaz visible to the naked eye died instantly.
—Fufufu, marvelous.
Lucy Philiaz’s voice echoed throughout the entire garden.
The body that should have lost its vitality moved like a broken doll and took a step forward.
In that instant, as if nothing had happened, the ruined flesh returned to normal.
“Using Barbatos’s Shadow Art to catch your opponent off guard. A good strategy, but it lacks a bit of depth, child.”
“Are you really the one to talk about depth?”
He wondered if those were the words of someone who had attacked a mere 4th Circle mage to force a fight.
Instead of answering, Lucy merely offered an amused smile.
“Yes, struggle as much as you like to strike this young lady down.”
Lucy attacked Ferda by lashing out with thorny tentacles, and Ferda fought back using various spells and means as a mage.
Ferda already knew.
No matter what he did, defeating Lucy was impossible.
Even the feeling that they were somewhat evenly matched was a controlled illusion, adjusted by Lucy to make it seem like she was only slightly superior.
“There will be no end at this rate.”
Lucy let out a long, bored yawn.
“It seems my sincerity hasn’t quite reached you yet, so let me say it once more.”
Lucy’s aura surged forth powerfully.
“If you lose here, I shall ravish your fiancé.”
“You crazy bitch….”
A curse escaped his lips.
Lucy smiled gratifiedly at the sight of Ferda losing his composure.
“Child, do you know what it is like for a woman to ravish another woman? It is on a different dimension from a man. I can turn someone into a slave of pleasure in an instant. I wonder what it would be like to make a Dragon so?”
Whether those words were true or not no longer mattered to Ferda.
He could not tolerate the insulting words coming from that mouth.
Ferda changed his mindset.
He decided to fight even if it meant depleting his mana entirely.
But even so, Ferda could not defeat her.
Even if he had killed Lucy once before, this was akin to striking a boulder with a raw egg.
Ferda already knew her objective.
‘To draw out my trump card.’
Every mage has a hidden ace.
Whether it’s for escaping, landing a decisive blow, or dragging the enemy down with them.
There are secrets they keep even at the cost of their lives.
What Lucy was doing was drawing out that very means.
She was breaking down Ferda’s convictions and reason, inducing him to show everything he possessed.
And Ferda had to fall for it despite knowing.
He could not take Lucy’s threat lightly.
Even if it were a joke, if Ferda didn’t show his sincerity, even that joke would become reality.
Because that was the nature of witches.
He poured everything in, but Ferda eventually reached the brink of mana exhaustion.
“Is that the end?”
Lucy’s veil was torn, and she had lost one eye.
She was a mess, but with a single step, she returned to her original state once more.
Ferda, breathing heavily, asked her.
“Are you satisfied?”
“Satisfied? Do you think I caused all this just to be satisfied?”
Lucy sneered.
“It is truly a pity that my sincerity did not reach you despite how hard I spoke. Valdroba is indeed destined to be miserable.”
Do not speak my fiancé’s name with that mouth.
He wanted to say that, but Ferda couldn’t.
He had fought this hard, yet all he felt was a sense of helplessness. If she was to be toyed with by someone’s hand, how could he possibly save her?
You cannot save anyone.
So, show who you are.
A circuit began to turn inside Ferda’s chest.
A sweet voice whispered.
Show her your true self.
“Shut up.”
Ferda resisted the voice.
However, it sought to encroach upon Ferda’s heart through the cracks of his helplessness.
Once again, that pleasure of being seized by hatred tried to violate him.
Ferda made a choice faster than ever before.
‘Rather than submit.’
Ferda deployed a magic circle.
‘I would rather die.’
It was aimed at his own chest.
“Dark Bolt.”
The black sphere flew toward his heart.
Hwoong!
However, the sound that followed was that of something cutting through empty air.
Ferda’s wrist was pointed toward the sky, and a small hand was seen gripping that wrist.
“……You do things I cannot understand.”
A girl with black hair and red eyes looked at him with bewildered eyes.
Ruby-like pupils and a faint scent of lilac wafted from her.
It was the face of the Pavilion Master, a face no ordinary man would ever be allowed to see.
He wondered why he was seeing that face now.
A black veil fluttered behind her back.
The Dark Bolt had grazed past her head.
Ferda looked into her eyes and asked.
“Are you satisfied now, Pavilion Master?”
Ferda glared at her fiercely.
Driven to the edge by mana exhaustion and mental resistance, he could not manage his expression.
“That expression alone is quite satisfying.”
She wore a mature smile on her childlike face.
She placed her right hand on Ferda’s chest.
Something flowed in through his heart.
The sense of depletion that caused a migraine began to fade.
She was replenishing enough of his missing mana to restore his sanity.
“I am sorry for forcing you into a fight you did not want. However, child, I needed to test you.”
“What test are you talking about?”
“What is inside this.”
She pointed at Ferda’s heart.
“Did I not say these eyes see many things?”
“You did.”
“Coincidentally, these eyes can see what constitutes your mana. However, I usually pay no mind to it, as it is a power of little consequence. You are the one who shattered that thought.”
“What is in my heart?”
“Something heterogeneous.”
“Heterogeneous?”
“Something that does not suit the current you.”
She added in a quite serious tone.
“But it is undoubtedly something created by you. It is something that can never coexist within those of us who possess a Red Circle.”
“Is that why you prodded me?”
“Yes. I needed to push you before you became conscious of the reason.”
Her gesture suggested she had no other intention.
In reality, what would she want from Ferda?
Lucy Philiaz.
She was the master of the Rose Pavilion, the Big Sister of all witches, and the mage with the strongest power.
At the same time, she was the authority on the Red Circle.
For now, that alone was enough to be convincing.
“So, child, can you tell me what it is?”
Ferda’s mouth did not open easily.
Even though he knew there was no point in hiding it since he had fallen into her ploy.
It was because it was a shameful secret he carried.
“Do not tremble and speak. Are we not practically husband and wife already?”
“……What?”
Ferda’s face turned genuinely cold.
Lucy chuckled at the sight.
“Hahaha! Since you pulled off my veil, is it not the groom seeing the bride’s face?”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
“You are truly fun to tease. You have a cute side.”
She covered her laughing mouth with her hand.
Perhaps because of that, her eyes, curved like crescent moons, sparkled mischievously.
“Since the joke has lightened the mood, answer me now.”
He felt unpleasant, but the pressure from before was gone.
Just as she said, the atmosphere had lightened.
“This is….”
Having killed his enemies,
Having killed his family,
Having killed his fiancé,
“My rage.”
He felt like a penitent confessing his sins.
Hearing that answer, Lucy looked at Ferda quietly.
“Think again.”
However, her response was outside Ferda’s expectations.
“Why?”
“Why, you ask? Because it is not your rage.”
No, it was rage.
Considering the time he started hearing that voice, it had to be.
When Ruri was threatened and submitted,
And when he almost killed his father, Erembalt Rosnova, with his own hands, he had heard the voice.
If that wasn’t rage, then what was it?
“Think again. There must be something that made you mistake it so.”
Hearing those words, Ferda looked back once more.
Like a person discarding a predetermined answer to find a new one, he focused his senses.
He examined the time in his dream when he tried to kill Valdroba.
Ferda asked himself.
‘Was the emotion at that time truly rage?’
No.
It wasn’t.
What he gained by killing her was emptiness.
It was that very emotion that had sent him back to the past.
If so, was it emptiness? He thought, but that didn’t seem to be the answer either.
Following that thread, Ferda moved toward the answer.
Then, something amazing happened.
That which he couldn’t grasp no matter how hard he tried to see it began to take shape.
This emotion existed even before his affection for her.
The thing that asserted its existence very faintly every time his heart beat.
Ferda finally called it by its correct name.
“Regret.”
Yes. It was regret.
The voice of this anxiety was the regret Ferda carried.
The ashes left behind after burning everything on earth.
Those ashes had remained settled in a corner of his heart.
“So that’s what it was.”
Ferda couldn’t ask more.
Before he could, Lucy moved.
“Was that affection also ultimately created through regret?”
Ferda nodded.
“I know. It’s disgusting.”
“Hmm?”
Lucy raised an eyebrow and stared intently at Ferda.
“I do not know what misunderstanding you have, but I do not find it disgusting, child.”
“Your tone didn’t seem that way.”
“It is your misunderstanding. Why would I find it disgusting? If it weren’t for such an emotion, do you think you would have ever been able to meet Valdroba?”
Ferda could answer immediately.
That it would never have happened.
Ferda only truly came to know Valdroba after he killed her.
Until then, he had denounced her as an evil dragon who deserved to die.
At the time of the expedition, he had cheered, saying the age of dragons would end with her death and the age of humans would begin.
He had never once listened to her voice, yet in this moment, it seemed to ring out cruelly vividly.
“Valdroba is a truly tragic woman. Virtuous people do not dare to meet her, and she was surrounded by those who only sought to exploit her. She truly has no luck with people.”
“…….”
“Furthermore, she is unnecessarily fearful. Despite possessing the authority of fire and power, and the martial strength to tear apart every monster swarming the Far East, she never once asserted her authority, thereby inviting misfortune upon herself.”
Valdroba never reigned over anyone.
The current aristocratic politics was a situation full of people who knew she protected the Far East out of guilt and exploited that.
Her refusal to assert authority or claim what was hers was the behavior of a coward afraid of causing trouble.
“She isn’t fearful.”
Ferda refuted her words almost instantly.
“If she isn’t fearful, then what is she?”
“The reason she acts that way is because she is stronger than anyone else.”
To Ferda, it was far from ‘fear.’
He had once been the continent’s worst mage.
The reason he could be so was not just because of his desire for revenge.
Whenever he prepared for his endless cycle of vengeance, he always prepared for ambushes.
He spent his days suffering from paranoia, casting aside sleep and surrounding himself with barriers.
He was a vengeful demon, but at the same time, a coward.
He needed a sure way to win, and if he didn’t have it, he wouldn’t hesitate to be cowardly.
That’s why Ferda knew.
If she had been a coward, she would have reigned over everyone.
By doing so, she would have shattered even the sky above her head.
Watching him intently, Lucy spoke.
“Head.”
“?”
“Lean your head over here.”
Ferda hesitated before leaning his head toward her.
Then Lucy stood on her tiptoes and tried to place her hand on top of Ferda’s head.
“Hmm, still not enough. I suppose I have no choice.”
Lucy pulled Ferda’s body toward her and embraced his head.
She began to stroke it as if comforting a child.
“There, there.”
“What is this….”
“Shh, be quiet. It is not good to break a nice atmosphere.”
Ferda couldn’t even ask the reason for her one-sided behavior.
“Child, you entertain me. It has been a long time since I felt such fresh youth while talking to a man.”
After enjoying that for about five minutes, she released him.
“Is it not only right to give a reward to a good child?”
Looking up, Lucy’s expression was full of joy.
“Those two emotions you possess shall instead become a blessing.”
