Translator: Nox

I Married the Dragon I Killed

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“My younger brother is proceeding with an engagement to the Archduke Valdrova?”

The second son, Huren Rosnova, reacted as if he couldn’t believe his ears.

Gray hair and brown eyes.

He was the man in charge of the Rosnova family’s intellectual affairs and the one destined to become the next head of the house.

He had recently been away on a business trip to the Empire as a proxy for his father, Erembalt, and was just now returning.

“Yes.”

The butler who reported the matter nodded.

“For real?”

“It is true.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. Did that idiot misunderstand something?”

“He seems to fully understand what it entails.”

“Well, if even our eldest brother understands it, there’s no way that punk wouldn’t….”

Huren scratched his chin.

His mind couldn’t make sense of the situation.

‘In a situation where he has to choose between dying or leaving, why did he choose to die?’

Was it a way to prove to their father that he was a real man?

However, since it was a matter decided by the Empire, once he accepted it instead of refusing, there was no turning back.

The same applied to Ferda.

If he were to say late in the game, ‘I’ll just leave this house then,’ he would be considered to have violated Imperial law, and his head would be separated from his body.

“So, what is he doing now?”

“He is scheduled to depart sometime today, so he should be preparing to leave right now.”

“Is that so? Then there’s a little time left for a talk between brothers.”

Hearing those words, the butler made a face of inward disbelief.

Huren was the very person who had first loathed and ostracized Ferda for being the child of a concubine and having blue eyes.

It was laughable for him to speak of being brothers.

Huren walked down the hallway with his hands behind his back as if strolling through a garden.

When he arrived in front of Ferda’s room, the maids who were supposed to be attending to him were waiting outside the door.

“Why are you all standing out here instead of attending to him?”

The maids jumped in surprise and bowed their heads to explain the situation.

“T-that is, we offered to assist him, but he ordered us to stay outside….”

“Absurd. So you’re just waiting out here?”

“Yes….”

“Pathetic things. Is he going to dress himself? He’s a noble, for better or worse; how could he possibly do that?”

Huren grumbled, but inwardly he cheered.

‘I knew it! Now that the day is here, he doesn’t want to go, does he?’

Huren cleared his throat and burst the door open.

“Ferda! You bastard, what are you doing without even preparing properly….”

Huren, who was about to lose his temper, was struck speechless.

The image of Ferda he had drawn in his head was of him sprawled out on the bed, whining that he didn’t want to go.

But what Huren saw now was—

‘He’s dressing himself?’

It was Ferda, looking into the mirror while fastening his buttons.

“How can you barge in without even knocking, hyung?”

Instead, Ferda had created an opening to point out his rudeness.

“I thought you’d be cooped up in bed.”

“Why would I do that? How could I be sluggish on a day as important as today?”

“Then why are you keeping the servants waiting outside?”

“It’s simply because I can dress myself. I won’t be able to receive a maid’s help anymore anyway.”

His voice was calm.

His gaze remained fixed on the mirror as he checked his own appearance.

Huren blinked as he watched Ferda.

‘Is this really the same guy I knew?’

What kind of guy was Ferda?

He was a parasite in human skin who tried to survive by smiling servilely.

But now?

He was as calm and composed as a dignified middle-aged man.

‘To think Ferda would….’

For the first time in his life, he felt a sense of tension from Ferda.

To brush off his feelings, Huren gave a fake cough and changed the subject.

“Ahem, right. I heard you accepted the engagement to Archduke Valdrova.”

“Yes.”

“If you’ve read any books at all, you should know what that engagement means?”

“I know it well. Wasn’t it just another way of saying get lost and stop hanging around the family?”

“Why do you put it like that? Even so, would Rosnova send you away without a single penny? We’ll help you enough to stand on your own feet.”

Ferda thought to himself.

Money….

Yes, they do give money.

How much?

Enough to live on for ten years.

The problem was that this “ten years” was based on the standards of commoners.

To Ferda, who was accustomed to noble life, it was a small amount that he would squander in just three days.

‘Well, I gave all that money to my master back then.’

It wasn’t that he liked giving it.

It was because the only magic masters willing to take on a late-blooming disciple were those who were obsessed with money.

They didn’t teach properly, but even so, being able to access information was of great significance.

‘That man must still be obsessed with money and women even now.’

Ferda let out a snort as he recalled those days.

‘This brat is laughing?’

No matter how much he thought about it, Huren believed he was misunderstanding something.

Otherwise, there was no way he could afford to be so relaxed as to laugh.

“No matter how I look at it, you seem to be mistaken. Do you know why being engaged to the Raging Dragon means death?”

“How could I not know? I am well aware. Didn’t the first fiancé get torn to death?”

Valdrova’s first fiancé was the Third Prince of the Empire. He was also an individual around the age of the current Emperor’s uncle.

He was brilliant, exceptionally handsome, and famous for his great reputation.

He was even mentioned as the next sovereign, though he refused it himself.

That Third Prince was crushed into pieces, beyond even being torn into three, to the point where his form was barely recognizable.

It happened less than a day after he went to the Archduke.

Based on that incident, the world interpreted it like this:

—The human who becomes Valdrova’s fiancé must possess abilities exceeding those of the Third Prince.

Since then, Valdrova searched for a new fiancé again, but no one applied.

The Third Prince was already close to perfect; there was no way anyone would have the ability to fill that spot.

Still, a fiancé had to be selected, so one of the nobles was chosen every year.

The problem was that they all ended up disqualified by either running away or declaring they would strike themselves from their family registers and leave.

Eventually, it evolved into a different meaning and became an excuse for nobles to kick out their children.

“Do you believe you can do what even the Third Prince couldn’t?”

Can I do it?

“I don’t know.”

To be honest, he wasn’t confident.

Even Ferda, who had proven his ability by becoming the youngest 8th-circle archmage that no one else had reached, didn’t have enough certainty to say for sure.

However, Ferda was not the kind of person who moved only when he had such certainty.

“Well, I suppose I can figure it out as I go, can’t I?”

Huren thought Ferda was being reckless.

Huren looked at him with a fed-up gaze and gave a warning.

“I don’t care what you do, but don’t you dare run away.”

“…….”

“ the moment you run, the Rosnova family will release people to take your head. Do you understand?”

Normally, Ferda would have been terrified by that look.

But Ferda stared back at Huren without showing any emotion.

“Hyung.”

Huren was momentarily overwhelmed by that gaze.

“Wh-what?”

“Keep your lower half in check. Everyone else knows about that lewd gaze you have every time you look at our eldest sister-in-law.”

Huren’s face turned bright red.

“Wh-what?! You, you, what on earth…!”

“Even if you want to hit me, please hold back. Since I have to go into the dragon’s maw, your younger brother will take his leave now.”

Ferda patted Huren on the shoulder as he passed by.

Huren could only stare blankly at Ferda, who felt beyond mature—he felt at ease.

---

“It was an honor to serve you, young master.”

The butler, greeting him on his final path, shed tears.

Ferda gazed at those tears.

‘He’s saying things he doesn’t mean.’

If those tears had any meaning, they were closer to liberation than sadness.

To serve a talentless, useless young master in a noble family was a humiliating thing for a servant.

‘Did this guy also mess with my food?’

He didn’t know back then.

He thought making the floor slippery to make him fall, or vomiting in the middle of eating, was because of his own weak body.

How could he have imagined that the servants would do such things?

Normally, it was something more than enough to burn with hatred and a desire for revenge.

The only mercy he could grant was to kill them so they wouldn’t even realize they were dead.

‘What does that matter now?’

But the current Ferda was nothing if not peaceful.

The burning flames had vanished, and only tranquility had taken their place.

Since he had already completed his revenge once, he decided not to hold any more lingering attachments to that place.

So Ferda patted the butler on the shoulder and encouraged him.

“Yes, you’ve worked hard. Taking care of someone like me for so long.”

“……Pardon?”

The butler, who had been acting out his tears, was so flustered that his tears vanished instantly.

“Please take good care of the Rosnova family in my absence.”

“Ah, yes….”

Ferda turned away.

He looked far too calm for someone heading to their death.

As Ferda stepped outside the house, the servant waiting for him greeted him.

“I am Hans, the coachman who will be escorting you to your destination, young master.”

“Coachman?”

“Yes, that is correct.”

Ferda tilted his head.

“Is what I’m riding a carriage?”

“Pardon? Ah, yes. It is a carriage. What else would there be besides a carriage?”

“Hmm, I see.”

“Is there a problem?”

“No, it’s nothing. I just thought it felt nostalgic.”

“Ah, I see. ……Pardon?”

No matter how much he thought about it, the coachman couldn’t understand what he was saying.

“Then, we shall depart!”

—Snort!

The sound of a horse’s snort was followed by the sound of hooves.

The carriage began to roll.

‘It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this.’

In the end Ferda remembered, carriages had disappeared.

No, to be precise, the concept of a carriage had settled into an object for the middle class whose status was ambiguous.

‘Because something called a Magic Car took its place.’

At first, people resisted, citing the loss of tradition.

But before long, it became established as a noble’s item due to its control and spatial convenience, which were on a different level from a carriage.

‘Then Sky Carriages came out, and all sorts of things followed.’

They were all items crafted under the name of magic engineering.

‘Though it was a story that had nothing to do with me.’

To Ferda, who had lived only for revenge, it was a field of magic that didn’t stir much emotion.

‘Magic….’

Ferda had reached the 9th circle, which no one else had achieved, and used a wish spell.

But currently, he was not a 9th-circle archmage.

‘The weak and undervalued Ferda.’

Naturally, he was far from magic right now.

He would awaken his magic after leaving home, but the driving force back then was purely anger and a desire for revenge.

The current Ferda lacked that boiling anger and blade-like desire for revenge.

It was only natural that it hadn’t blossomed.

‘I don’t want to do that anymore.’

Looking back, the magic Ferda wielded was like a drug.

It felt good at first, but as the threshold rose, it became a drug he couldn’t control.

When he was insane, everything felt refreshing and good, but now it was a terrible memory he never wanted to experience again.

Ferda liked his current, bittersweet tranquility.

‘But I don’t want to live without using magic either….’

Without magic, there were indeed many inconveniences.

For example, dressing oneself.

Once one reaches the 3rd circle, it becomes possible to wear simple clothes by wielding magic.

At the 4th circle, one can grasp the structure of complex formal wear and instruct the magic to dress them automatically.

‘To live alone without any hitches, I’ll have to reach at least the 4th circle.’

If someone else heard him mention the 4th circle as if it were a common neighborhood dog, they would be dumbfounded.

However, the emotion he felt right now was, after all, a sense of being lost.

He had already reached the realm of the 9th circle once, but it wasn’t the path Ferda was familiar with.

What would a Ferda without anger and a desire for revenge need to awaken magic?

“M-milord…!”

The voice of the frightened coachman was heard just as he was asking himself.

He could tell from that alone.

“W-we have arrived!”

---

The carriage had stopped in the middle of a forest, and a sign stood before an open road.

—This area ahead is the Archduke’s domain; entry is strictly prohibited.

This was as far as the carriage could go.

“You’ve done well.”

Ferda stepped out of the carriage, and the coachman unloaded the luggage he had brought and waited by his side.

“You may go now.”

“But I must wait for the person coming to meet you….”

He was showing a stubbornness that didn’t suit him.

He must have been ordered to monitor if he was running away.

“A dragon will be here soon.”

“A d-dragon, you say?”

“Probably not the dragon itself, but a subordinate who inherited its blood, a spawn. But to people like you, they’re basically no different from a dragon.”

Cold sweat poured down the coachman’s forehead, and his Adam’s apple bobbed.

Ferda gestured toward the horses.

“Even if you can endure seeing a dragon, those beasts won’t. If the horses go wild and you can’t return home, won’t you be the one at a loss?”

“Ah…!”

“So, go back and report that I arrived safely. If you die, it’ll all be for nothing, won’t it?”

“I-I understand.”

The coachman didn’t persist any longer.

He set down a large bag that had been placed on the back of the carriage.

“Then I shall take my leave!! Stay healthy, milord!!”

The man who said he would stay didn’t even look back as he drove the carriage away.

He was so fast that the back of the carriage bounced up and down.

Ferda sat down on the hard bag as if it were a chair and waited.

“The Archduke’s territory….”

After a while, a wind suddenly began to blow.

Ferda looked up toward the dark forest.

A girl was standing there.

She was a young maid with silver hair, dressed in a maid’s outfit.

One shouldn’t be fooled by her appearance.

She was a dragon spawn.

“Are you Ferda Rosnova-nim?”

she asked politely.

“Yes.”

“I will escort you to the castle. This way.”