I Married the Dragon I Killed
Chapter 116
Chapter 116
The Mystery
Lucy let go of Ferda’s hand and plucked a rose petal from the garden.
As she squeezed the petal with her small hand, it instantly transformed into dried tobacco leaves and settled into her pipe.
She conjured a spark at her fingertip to light it, then took a long, deep drag of the smoke.
Ferda, who had been waiting for her to act, finally spoke.
“What do you mean by it becoming a blessing?”
Ferda could not understand those words.
Lucy gave him an adult-like smile and replied.
“As you know, training the Blue Circle generally stems from meditation.”
Most training methods for the Blue Circle begin with meditation.
It involves emptying the mind or focusing on a single thought to maintain a steady rhythm while weaving the mana circuits.
If one wanted to mess with such mages, the natural way would be to break that composure.
“What is the material of strength in the Red Circle?”
“The emotion that gave rise to the creation of the circle.”
“Exactly. If you started with joy, growth comes from even greater joy; if you started with hatred, it leads to even greater hatred.”
Lucy nodded.
“Conversely, how do you hinder them?”
“Contradiction and dilemma.”
One who hates loses their life as a mage the moment they lose the reason for their hatred.
When presented with contradiction and dilemma, the emotions cool and turn cold.
Ferda knew this well, as he had lived with that constant awareness.
“Inside your heart right now, there is both affection and regret.”
“That is true.”
“If you wish to grow strong purely by the theory of the Red Circle, you must nurture your affection and suppress your regret so that you grow solely according to your love. Isn’t that right?”
That was as far as Ferda’s knowledge went.
He nodded slightly and asked her.
“So, are you saying you know a way to eliminate that regret?”
Lucy shook her head.
“That is a foolish choice, child. Would you burn down your house because you are afraid of bedbugs? If even one emotion is missing, the balance is bound to collapse.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means all emotions are connected by causality.”
Lucy took another deep drag of her pipe.
“Positive exists because there is negative. You have affection because that regret exists.”
Ferda’s brow furrowed slightly.
“If I don’t erase the regret, it will continue to test me, won’t it?”
Ferda said it, but he still felt as if he had gained an unnecessary organ.
Lucy likely expected Ferda to think that way.
She, too, was someone who had mastered the Red Circle.
“Then I shall ask you. Why does that regret exist?”
“That is….”
As Ferda hesitated, Lucy added.
“You do not have to answer me, but think deeply on it so you may find the answer yourself.”
Because he had killed Valdroba.
The woman who was purer than anyone else.
If he were to erase this regret… what would happen to his feelings for her?
Thinking of it that way, he felt he understood.
Why the regret had to remain.
“Child, your regret is like your heart. If it is excessive or lacking, something will go wrong; if it disappears, you will die. If you can learn to control it, it becomes a magnificent driving force. Do you understand?”
Ferda nodded.
“So what must I do?”
Lucy drew a vertical line in the air with her index finger and said.
“You must draw a line.”
“Draw a line?”
“If you build a fence between emotions so they do not mix, you will be able to see exactly what each is made of.”
Being a mage who handled the Red Circle, he could vaguely understand what she meant.
Emotions are as ambiguous as paint.
If one does not focus, they bleed into each other, becoming muddy and losing their essence.
The moment the essence disappears, the growth of the Red Circle dies.
In that regard, Ferda was an elite.
He had reached the 9th Circle purely by converting everything into rage.
‘But this time, I must divide them into two.’
It was his first time with a mana circle powered by affection, and his first time with regret interfering.
Naturally, it was also his first time attempting to build a fence between the two.
A mana circuit powered by both affection and regret for Valdroba.
How was he supposed to build a fence between those two?
“In that sense, child, you have already taken a step.”
“What step are you talking about?”
“Shape of Shadow.”
It was the mana cultivation method recorded in Barbatos’s Shadow Art.
“The shadow becomes me, and I become the shadow. Do you remember that phrase?”
Ferda nodded.
“The answer lies within that.”
Lucy ended her explanation right there.
Ferda felt as if she had stopped mid-sentence, but Lucy didn’t seem to care.
“And as for another reward, what should I give you….”
Lucy tapped her pipe.
“Hmm….”
She stared intently at her pipe, then smirked.
He wondered if she was about to give him something useless.
Then, the thorny vines hovering around Lucy gathered toward her hand.
A hundred snakes rose up, tangled in a chaotic mess, and spat something out.
It was a straight wooden branch.
Perhaps because he was looking for it, it looked similar to the pipe Lucy was holding.
“What do you think this object is?”
“……A pipe?”
“Why would I give you such a thing? You are too young to know the true taste of tobacco.”
She exhaled smoke with a mischievous look, as if telling him not to smoke such things.
Of course, Ferda had tried it before.
But he had stopped because of the dizzying sensation it caused.
Just as he was about to ask what it was,
Crackle!
Red sparks flared around the rod.
It was the Lightning of Reversal.
Lucy laughed, seemingly enjoying Ferda’s expression.
“It is Earth’s Punishment.”
“Earth’s Punishment?”
“I named it ‘Earth’s Punishment.’ It is a magic wand I crafted myself.”
“Is that so?”
“There is a branch upon which I dropped a thunderbolt, you see? The kind that mages would scramble for with fire in their eyes. It will automatically absorb that power. Then your instability will subside, and you will be able to use that power fully.”
He didn’t understand why she was explaining this to him.
The context implied she was giving it to Ferda as a gift, but he didn’t jump to that conclusion.
It could be a ploy to test his greed.
“Take it.”
As he suspected, that was the case.
Even though she told him to take it directly, Ferda did not grab the wand.
“My arm is going to fall off, child. I may look like this, but I am a delicate girl, you know?”
“…….”
“I’m trying to give you a gift, yet why do you have the face of a pig who just received a mountain of fodder? Why? Do you think I’m going to slaughter you?”
“It seems likely.”
Lucy burst out laughing.
“What insolent words. Why can’t you consider the possibility that I might give it to you for free?”
“Because people like that all died a long time ago.”
“True. That is also true.”
She said, cackling.
“As I told you, I help women of tragic fate. Valdroba, too, possesses a tragic fate. That is why I wanted to help that woman. But it was not easy.”
“Why?”
“Is there not an incredibly fierce dog by her side?”
He didn’t need to ask who she meant.
Wasn’t that fierce dog blocking entry into this space?
‘I don’t know what she’ll do once I return.’
He was already prepared to have his skin scrubbed raw.
Thinking of the green towel in her hand made him tense up reflexively.
“That puppy says she cannot trust the words of a witch, so how could I help?”
It was only natural that she wouldn’t listen.
Ruri was Valdroba’s servant, and Lucy was a witch of ill repute across the continent.
There was no way she would stand by and watch her mistress be toyed with by a witch.
“Since I have no means of contact, I thought I could simply help through you. Even if you are a man, there is no reason to be uneasy if you intend to save a tragic woman.”
Listening to this story, it didn’t feel like a lie.
He had felt it when he fought her in the past; she was the big sister of the witches, but he didn’t feel she was filled with malice.
It was as if she had become infinitely calm, leading into a sense of emptiness, much like the current Ferda.
Was he being enchanted, or was he certain of himself?
If he were enchanted, he would not trust himself; if he were certain, he would trust himself.
There was no other choice.
Only then did Ferda accept the wand.
As he grasped the blunt end of the branch she handed him, a change occurred.
In an instant, the branch transformed into a sleekly crafted black wand.
It was formed without any sense of disharmony, matching Ferda’s atmosphere and attire.
Simple transformation was a trick any other wand could perform.
There was only one thing that surprised Ferda.
‘I can’t feel any mana.’
Generally, since staffs or wands serve to assist in casting spells, they must have a reservoir to hold mana.
The higher the quality of the staff, the larger the reservoir tends to be, but even a poor-quality staff cannot be without one.
Just in case, Ferda channeled his mana into it.
Crackle!
Then, the red lightning began to surge.
‘It doesn’t emit pre-converted mana; it converts it instantly.’
He could use magic immediately whenever he wished, and since it held no mana of its own, it would be treated as nothing more than a simple stick.
It was a magic tool that was essentially a dream for all mages.
“I will use it dearly.”
“Hm? Why the sudden formal speech?”
“You have provided such help, how could I not use honorifics?”
“Heh, is that so? What a commendable child.”
Lucy gazed at him with knowing eyes.
It felt as if honey were about to drip from her gaze.
“Is there anything else you need?”
“You said it was possible through the Shape of Shadow, so I was hoping for a bit more of a clue….”
“Haha, so you were flattery-mongering just to say that?”
It would be a lie to say he wasn’t.
While she was in a good mood, Ferda had to squeeze out whatever he could from her.
“Very well. I shall tell you. In the East, they call it the Unity of Soul and Body. To wield it like your own limbs is the essence of the shadow art, is it not?”
“Yes.”
“If you truly believe the shadow can become you, what would be impossible?”
What did that mean?
Ferda wanted Lucy to explain further, but before he could even utter the question, a small finger touched his lips.
“This is the last favor, clue, and mystery this girl can give.”
Lucy’s small finger slid up and touched Ferda’s forehead.
At that moment, Ferda’s consciousness was sucked away somewhere.
When he opened his eyes again, he was back in the place where he had first received the invitation.
After Ferda disappeared, only the witch remained in the Witch’s Garden.
Lucy covered her face with a black cloth and returned to the Rose Pavilion.
The witches were laughing and chatting as usual.
“Ferda, how did that man seem?”
“An insolent fellow. Speaking informally to our Big Sister.”
“I wanted to shove this needle under his fingernails….”
“There’s nothing better than a stoic man like that screaming.”
“I like groaning. I’d make him groan for three hours.”
The witches cackled, listing their twisted fetishes.
Then, they nudged Lucy.
“Our Big Sister seems quite demure today. Did you decide to go with that concept?”
Lucy Philiaz.
The Big Sister of them all sat slumped in her seat as if uninterested in the conversation, endlessly smoking her pipe.
Seeing this, the other witches chimed in.
“You’re right, she seems unusually troubled for Big Sister.”
“It’s been a while since she’s seen a man. Imagine how heart-fluttering it must have been.”
“It’s youth, youth.”
Lucy tapped her ashes into the ashtray.
Despite all the mockery, she didn’t get angry once as she opened her mouth.
“Ferda Valdrova.”
The name came out along with the tobacco smoke.
For a man’s name to come out of Lucy’s mouth meant he had become a target.
“What do you want to do?”
“I’m curious what kind of scheme you’ll cook up.”
The witches gestured as if they were burning with anticipation.
Lucy replied like this.
“Look into that man a bit more.”
“Is that it? Nothing else to order?”
“There is.”
Lucy added, as if she had almost forgotten.
“None of you are to touch that child recklessly.”
The cackling of the witches stopped.
“That’s an unusual command. Even though he’s a man?”
“Oh my, has our Big Sister really developed an interest in a man?”
“You pathetic things, you pathetic things. It is not because of simple entertainment like yours.”
Lucy looked up at the seated witches and said.
“It is because I do not wish to see you die by that child’s hand.”
“……Pardon?”
“Does that even make sense? A mere nineteen-year-old brat killing us?”
If it were anyone else, they would have thought she was joking, but Lucy’s words carried weight.
When speaking to the witches, she never spoke words she didn’t mean.
“So, um… are you talking about some past life story?”
“Do you think it’s such a trivial tale? That child has erased your existences from this land before.”
“Did he actually invade this place?”
“He did more than just invade.”
She puffed out a cloud of smoke.
“He even took my life.”
Every witch held their breath.
It was a silent question and, at the same time, pure shock.
Limbo was a land that no being could properly track.
To enter such a land and kill Lucy Philiaz, the mother of all witches.
It was practically impossible.
The witches, who had been mocking and making him a subject of jokes, fell silent along with Lucy.
It was the first time a profound silence had greeted the Rose Pavilion.
They were likely turning their heads in their own ways.
‘If I died in that place, there must have been a definite purpose.’
Lucy considered this another message sent to her by her other self.
A signal that, though the purpose was unknown, Ferda was special.
‘Is all of that… also for that woman?’
Lucy subtly released mana into her hand.
It formed into a specific shape.
A Rune.
The Rune that had dwelled in Echidna’s heart and nearly killed her helplessly.
That Rune was a massive collection of information crafted purely from emotion.
‘Is this Rune that child’s regret?’
Just as Echidna had, Lucy tried to get a small taste of it.
But she pulled her hand away before she could even sample it.
This was something even she, the Big Sister, could not handle.
She, who could be called an authority on the Red Circle,
Wondered how a human could possibly possess such immense emotion.
The answer was clear.
‘He must have turned back time.’
She couldn’t help but wonder how Ferda could have done such a thing.
Because to reach that stage, one had to enter the realm of the 9th Circle, the domain of a demigod, and use ‘Wish.’
‘Did he go to that place that I gave up on reaching?’
It would be a lie to say she wasn’t jealous.
However, knowing it was futile, she killed the emotion.
‘To sing of regret with a Wish….’
Lucy smiled.
“Since a fellow worth watching has appeared, I won’t be bored for a while.”
Emotions that had been worn down over more than a thousand years raced in her chest.
It was, without a doubt, excitement.
