I Married the Dragon I Killed
Chapter 21
Late at night, under the brilliant glow of a full moon, Ferda walked down a hallway illuminated by candlelight.
‘It has been a truly busy day.’
The castle had been neglected for decades, so clearing the backlog of official duties was no easy feat.
‘Still, having Mori here makes the work proceed much smoother.’
Her processing speed had already far surpassed human capabilities.
Thanks to her, it looked as though they could finish everything within a year if they maintained this pace.
‘My role is to assist her so that she has nothing to worry about.’
Reminding himself of this, Ferda remained dedicated to his duties.
Before heading to his bedroom, Ferda made his way toward the library.
If his predictions were correct, Mori would be waiting for him there.
‘She should be standing by now. I must tell her to go back and rest.’
Mori was a child who felt she couldn't even breathe without permission. Ferda was heading there specifically to order her back to her own room.
When he entered the library, however, he encountered someone he hadn't expected.
“Hello! Ferda-nim!”
Echidna, the gloomy witch, greeted him with an awkward smile.
“Address me as Regent.”
“Ah! I will. And you must call me Echidna, okay? Promise?”
“I will.”
“Ehehehe….”
Echidna let out a dark, awkward giggle. Ferda simply acknowledged it and walked past her toward Mori.
As expected, she was waiting there quietly.
“?”
Mori looked quite different from when Ferda had seen her this morning.
She wore a light, fluttering dress, and her hair had been brushed until it shone like silk thread, making her look like a young lady. She was already beautiful to begin with, but properly groomed, she radiated the elegance of a high-born noble’s daughter.
“Is this your handiwork?”
“Hehe, yes. She didn’t answer when I called and just stood there like a doll… I was bored, so I played around with her look a bit. Is it alright?”
Echidna twisted her body shyly.
Ferda recalled the golems Echidna had created—creatures with unnervingly large, sparkling eyes and small heads, resembling a child’s drawing.
‘Is it because they are both female that her aesthetic sense isn’t warped in this case?’
It was a frivolous act, but not a bad one.
‘In fact, this is better.’
Even if she was a tool, Mori was clearly a living being, and living beings required more delicate care than inanimate objects. Since she couldn't look after herself, it was only natural that she needed someone to watch over her.
“If you have the spare time, could you continue to look after Mori?”
Echidna’s eyes sparkled as she nodded her head vigorously.
“Of course! Oh, you have no idea how wonderful it feels to touch such a pretty girl with my own hands, ehe, ehehehe…!”
“I would prefer it if you didn’t do anything strange. She is an indispensable asset.”
“Ah, I-I don’t do things like that. I’m not a wicked witch who eats children or men, you know? I’ll just cherish her, brush her hair, and feed her!”
Because her very way of speaking was so sinister, everything she said sounded suspicious. The gloomily laughing Echidna absentmindedly pulled Mori’s hair toward her nose to catch her scent.
‘She definitely is strange.’
Ferda decided not to doubt his initial judgment.
Regardless of the antics, Mori simply looked up at Ferda. Her face was that of one waiting for the next command.
“That is all for today. Go back to your room and rest well for tomorrow.”
Mori nodded, stood up, and began to walk away.
It was then.
Thump—!
The castle shook violently once.
As she walked, Mori lost her footing and tumbled to the floor.
“Oh my! Mori!”
Echidna rushed over and helped Mori up.
Ferda held his breath, waiting to see if a second shock would follow. Fortunately, there was none.
Echidna broke the silence with a flustered voice.
“W-what was that? Does this happen often here?”
“It is the first time.”
While there were occasional tremors, it was the first time the castle had shaken like this in the middle of the night.
‘And it’s the first time it has shaken this violently.’
As the Regent, Ferda needed to investigate the cause.
“Echidna.”
“Yes?”
“See Mori to her room and make sure she lies down. She is a vital asset for tomorrow. And you, go back quietly as well. Understood?”
“U-understood!”
Echidna picked Mori up and moved out.
After watching them leave, Ferda stepped out into the hallway.
‘The sound likely originated from the Lair.’
Ferda decided to head down toward the Lair. After walking for quite some time, he saw a faint light glowing in the middle of the corridor.
It was Ruri, holding a lantern.
“You have taken the wrong direction.”
With a calm, expressionless face, she pointed back the way Ferda had come.
“The bedroom is in the opposite direction.”
She pretended to be a simple guide, but Ferda saw through her intentions.
“You are hiding something from me.”
“Yes.”
She didn't deny it.
“So, would you please return to your room?”
“I cannot do that. As the one who will become the master of this castle, I need to know what is happening.”
“You are not the master of this castle.”
“I am the one who will be, soon enough.”
Silver eyes met blue eyes, neither yielding. It was a confrontation where neither moved an inch.
Finally, it was Ruri who took a step back.
“My Master is currently suppressing her bloodlust.”
“How?”
“There is no need for concern. A tremor like the one just now is rare. It does not usually happen. Since the rest of us are busy with our livelihoods—”
Ferda stepped closer to Ruri. His eyes narrowed fiercely.
“I asked, how?”
Irritation and anger flared in his voice. It was an emotion he had never shown Ruri before, despite her constant rudeness. Ruri furrowed her brow.
“How else? What do you think one does to suppress the urge to destroy?”
“…….”
“Master fights the desire to burst through those massive iron gates and turn the world upside down. That craving—to do nothing but slaughter everything—piles up in Master’s heart every single day without fail. Because that is her essence.”
An evil dragon is an evil dragon forever. The reason she could never hold the title of a guardian dragon was partly due to slander, but ultimately because she could not withstand the impulse for destruction.
“Master lived by slaughtering monsters to vent that destructive heart. If those monsters no longer appear, what do you think she does?”
Ferda recalled the memories of Valdrova etched into his heart. The answer tumbled from his lips.
“……Is she destroying herself?”
“Yes. When there is nothing else to destroy, that is what she does.”
Having watched her for so long, Ruri knew this well. And it was something like a natural disaster that even a loyal servant could do nothing about.
“The person you are engaged to is such a person. Unable to control even herself, she has already inflicted many wounds on others.”
Thus, Ruri warned Ferda and his young, foolish stubbornness.
“So, I hope you do not say you wish to see her too often. If your selfish heart is only going to end up hurting Master—”
Then stop. Ruri, who was delivering a sharp rebuke to Ferda, suddenly lost her voice. Her eyes widened as she looked up at him.
Something entirely out of place was falling from Ferda’s face.
‘Tears……?’
Tears were streaming from the eyes of that cold-faced human, Ferda.
Just a single drop. Although the tears fell from an expression that hadn't changed at all, Ruri was struck with shock. It was unmistakably because of the story she had just told.
Feeling the moisture trail down his cheek, Ferda realized it late.
“Ah.”
Ferda was also surprised by his own state. He wiped it away with his index finger and apologized to her.
“I have shown you something unsightly.”
Unlike his eyes, his voice held no trace of dampness. It was as if his tear ducts had shriveled up and forcibly spat out a pocket of stagnant water.
“I understand. I understand what you are saying.”
Ferda gave up on his investigation and turned back toward his room.
“I am sorry for being a nuisance. I shall return.”
Ruri watched silently as Ferda walked away. Only when his figure had grown faint could she finally find her voice.
“What an unpredictable human……”
Ruri thought she knew humans well, having watched many over the long years. But the more she learned about Ferda, the less she understood him.
This was a man who had broken the fingers of his own allies for the sake of fairness and killed a noble despite the potential backlash. A man who seemed to have neither blood nor tears had just wept.
‘And just from hearing a story about Master…… is that even possible?’
It hadn't even been a year since they had become aware of each other's existence. How could he feel such deep emotions? No matter how many times Ruri turned it over in her mind, she could find no answer.
* * *
“Tears……”
Ferda was also startled by the fact. To think that he could shed tears.
Those tears hadn't been triggered by his own emotions.
‘They seeped in while we were talking.’
When he realized that the massive vibration was Valdrova, and when he learned that she was engaging in self-destructive behavior, Valdrova’s emotions had seeped into Ferda.
‘Self-loathing.’
Whenever she couldn't control herself, she always nurtured self-hatred. She would throw herself into the impurities buried at the very bottom of her emotional pit. She listened to the voices of curses echoing in the deep abyss and choked herself to the point of suffocation. Crushed by that self-loathing, she suppressed her destructive impulses.
She wanted to exist, yet at the same time, she didn't.
She fought that battle alone every day.
That indescribable emotion was surging beneath Ferda’s dantian.
‘The Red Circle is spinning.’
He was still short of the level required to step up to the next stage. If Ferda were to concentrate and stay up for a few days, he could undoubtedly reach the 3rd Circle. It was very dangerous, but it would be an incredibly fast achievement.
‘No.’
However, Ferda put a brake on the spinning Red Circle.
‘Not this time.’
Ferda recalled the emotions he felt when he reached the 2nd Circle. That something which had been tickling him had vanished along with the achievement.
‘I must…… not forget this.’
He had decided to live this life for her. His vow then was that even if he couldn't make her happy, he would at least not make her sad. This was an emotion directly linked to her sorrow.
He didn't want to gloss over her sadness by trading it for a magical achievement.
‘I will resolve that first.’
Moving forward comes after. That is the reason I am standing here.
* * *
The following morning.
Ferda went to Mori, who was waiting in the library. She was fully groomed and dressed up, thanks to Echidna’s touch.
Ferda asked her,
“Do you know much about dragons?”
What resided in her mind was the Library of All Things. Information on every creation in the world was stored there. Naturally, she nodded.
“Even about the Red Dragon, Valdrova?”
A nod.
“Can you describe her for me?”
Mori nodded and picked up a pen to begin writing. Instead of the flowing cursive used by scribes, she wrote in clear, easy-to-read block letters.
- Dragons are those who fought to turn the chaos of the primordial era into order. Those who survived were bestowed with the very essence that forms the continent. To the Blue Dragon, Morgan, the power to rule over mana and water; to the Silver Dragon, Silverwind, the power to manipulate wind and ice.
It was a page from the history of the continent that he had heard during his liberal arts lessons as a child.
- The Red Dragon was bestowed with the power to manipulate strength and fire. Her raw martial prowess is the greatest among all dragons.
“Is that why there is so much slander calling her a tyrant or a demonic dragon?”
- She has been consistently described as an object of awe, but being designated as an evil dragon is a relatively recent event in dragon history.
“Since when?”
- Since after the Dragon-Demon War—specifically, after the death of Godwin.
The Black Dragon and the Aspect of Darkness. It was the day a dragon of the continent died for the first time.
- The Black Dragon Godwin was known as the dragon who ruled darkness, but it was later discovered that chaos was also an essence bestowed upon him when he revealed his ambitions. Godwin showed his ambition and became the source of all evil, throwing the continent into turmoil. However, the other rulers stepped forward, and he was eventually killed by the hand of the Red Dragon, Valdrova.
“And?”
- The most prominent hypothesis is that in the process of killing him, Godwin’s power made Valdrova’s power unstable. Consequently, the Aspect of Power could not suppress her own strength, resulting in secondary damage.
Valdrova’s rampage. While many died due to the appearance of the Demon King, her rampage also killed and burned many people.
‘Innocent humans and creatures, and even Silverwind.’
It was a tragedy for which she would have to atone forever.
“Is there no way to suppress it?”
Mori closed her eyes. She was searching through all the books in her mind. After five minutes of meditation, she opened her eyes again.
A shake of the head.
“Is that so?”
Ferda accepted it calmly. In the first place, it was a contradictory statement. If there were a way to suppress the Red Dragon, who was called the Aspect of Power, could she truly be called the Aspect of Power? She was destined to suffer from her own strength for eternity.
‘Is there really nothing I can do for her?’
Ferda was pained. He could picture her shedding her own scales and bleeding. Helplessness became a heavy weight that crushed him, and futility became a thousand spears piercing his heart. He felt a pain similar to what he had experienced when he absorbed her heart.
‘If only there were something, anything I could do……’
It was then. A small sensation tugged at Ferda’s sleeve. Mori, who had been holding the pen, was pulling on his clothes.
A tool does not move without reason. Her movement meant that the command Ferda had given was in effect.
“Has a situation arisen where you can provide an answer?”
Mori nodded. She began to move the pen once more.
- Based on the information provided, I have identified a hypothesis for suppression.
The moment Ferda saw the next sentence she wrote, the thick fog in his heart cleared and the sun rose. Mori’s eyes were looking straight at Ferda.
- According to the hypothesis, Ferda Valdrova, you can suppress her.
