Translator: Nox

I Married the Dragon I Killed

Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Sealed Storage

Arken Empire, Imperial Palace Underground Dungeon.

The soldiers in uniform shouted.

“Hey, it’s shift change!”

“Ah, dammit… why can’t you guys ever be on time?”

“What are you talking about? I got here before the hourly horn even blew.”

“Ugh, you son of a bitch. I’m going to pay you back exactly for what you did later.”

The guard on duty made a face of pure disgust as they proceeded with the handover.

“More importantly, it’s been a while since this dungeon actually had people in it.”

“Now that you mention it, weren’t you out on that raid? Are these guys really demon followers?”

The man asked, curious about what he had felt while on duty.

No matter how much he thought about it, they felt less like demon followers and more like starving paupers.

“I don’t know about the ones we caught, but they were definitely with demon followers.”

“Wow, real demon followers? I thought that was just a label we used when cracking down on agitators.”

“These guys seem like the real deal. We caught them in a surprise raid.”

“Real demon followers appearing… I guess the country really is going to hell.”

At that, the relief guard glared at him.

“Don’t go saying things like that just anywhere. If I report you, you’ll be dragged in as a demon follower yourself, you know?”

“Oof, how scary. Let’s just finish the shift change already. I have to go meet Ashley today.”

“I don’t know why you like that tavern wench so much….”

The relief guard stopped clicking his tongue as he checked the duty roster’s prisoner count.

“Hey, you slacker, you didn’t even count the numbers right.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The report said twelve prisoners were captured.”

The relief guard pointed at the total.

“Then why are there thirteen listed here?”

“What? There were thirteen when we brought them in.”

“What, you moron? We reported that we bound twelve people and brought them inside ourselves. You think we were wrong?”

“Are you saying I’m wrong? I counted them one by one as I put them in! Come see for yourself!”

“Oh? Want to bet one golden bread on it?”

“I’ll bet ten, you bastard!”

“Okay! Ten golden bread. Have it ready, man.”

Both of them, filled with certainty, walked toward the cell where the heretics were confined.

They pointed their fingers and counted the group lying exhausted on the floor one by one.

“One, two, three, four….”

After counting from the right end to the left end, the winner was decided.

“It’s twelve, you idiot!”

The relief guard smacked the other guard on the head.

“What? No way?”

Unable to believe it, the guard on duty counted them again himself.

“Huh?”

Just as the other said, there were only twelve.

“You bastard, you could’ve caused a massive uproar. Were you drinking on duty?”

“A-A little, man.”

“A little? Ugh, you’re going to the brig! If you don’t want to go to the brig for drinking on duty and negligence, have ten golden bread ready, got it?”

“Ah… damn. That’s strange.”

The guard tilted his head as he looked through the bars.

The powerless paupers were simply waiting for the day they would die.

---

Meanwhile, inside the Imperial Palace,

“As expected, this isn’t easy.”

Brown hair, a square jaw, and sharp features.

A face that likely heard he’d made many women cry rather than being called simply handsome.

Zed Swallow.

He was hiding in a restroom, peering into a mirror to avoid being seen.

“‘Only need two eyes,’ my ass. Of course I need them.”

He was in an extremely foul mood.

The process of entering the dungeon and getting out of it—every step required skills that could only be performed by someone intimately familiar with such places.

‘This isn’t just anywhere; it’s the Imperial Palace.’

The moment someone realizes a prisoner has escaped, an emergency alarm will be triggered immediately.

And what happens then?

The empire’s greatest knights and mages would swarm to catch Zed, and then he would be truly, undeniably caught.

So, he had to appear and disappear as naturally as flowing water.

It was by no means an easy process.

Thus, Zed devised a method by drawing on his own experience.

‘Like ditching a partner at a party….’

The key is to slip away quietly while the other person is intoxicated by the atmosphere.

By doing so, you make them hallucinate that what they were seeing wasn’t real, and they only realize the truth once everything is over.

The process itself was easier than he thought.

No, in fact, it was easier than ditching a partner at a party.

At least these guys weren’t screaming Zed Swallow’s alias while wielding a weapon in a frenzy.

‘Maybe I do have a hidden talent for this.’

Having escaped like that, Zed secretly entered the servants’ locker room as he had planned beforehand.

At first, he worried if there would be a size that fit him, but there was no need for that.

Inside, there were uniforms designed to accommodate all sizes.

‘It seems more than a few people die here.’

Like the lives of flies.

Dozens die as a matter of course, and the moment they perish, their lives are immediately replaced.

It was only possible because servants were treated as mere consumables.

It wasn’t a pleasant thought for Zed.

Because it wasn’t just someone else’s story.

‘Ferda Valdrova.’

He thought deeply about his superior.

‘What am I to that man?’

Judging by his manner of speech, he was a man who was beyond blunt—he was rude.

However, even that rudeness didn’t feel malicious.

Zed, if no one else, could clearly feel it in the nuance of his words.

‘He feels like a human who is dealing with people for the first time.’

Someone who has never properly communicated and has only ever had one-sided conversations.

The typical characteristics that appear when such a person tries to communicate were also present in Ferda.

The time he felt that most clearly was right before the tea party, when Ferda had asked for advice.

—How does one talk to women?

He never imagined the man would ask a question so fitting for his age.

Excited, Zed had given Ferda advice based on his own deeds and experiences.

After the tea party, Ferda’s response based on that advice was this:

—It is a relief that you have that face of yours.

He still couldn’t tell if that was an insult or a compliment.

In any case, for this operation, Ferda had claimed there was a document related to his younger sister.

If that wasn’t a lie, he would soon find out the nature of their current relationship.

“Phew, alright. Shall we get to work?”

After checking himself in the mirror a couple more times, Zed began to move according to plan.

The very moment he set foot into the Imperial Palace,

“You, there.”

A voice calling out to someone echoed through the hallway.

And Zed was the only one in that hallway.

“Who are you?”

Zed muttered under his breath.

Only needing two eyes, my foot.

---

Ferda placed his hand on the Orb of Truth, and the Orb of Truth questioned him.

—Do you swear that you do not follow demons, nor do you follow their resolve?

Upon hearing that question, Ferda thought to himself:

‘Orb of Truth, indeed.’

Ferda scoffed inwardly.

In the Sealed Storage, there were also records of how this very storage was created.

The object placed here, the Orb of Truth, was not a tool that peered into a person to distinguish between truth and lies.

‘The truly important thing is the voice reciting the words of the oath.’

That voice, imbued with mana.

The moment one’s attention is captured by the Orb of Truth, that voice, which shakes one’s consciousness for a fleeting second, is everything.

The Orb simply judged whether one wavered or not upon hearing the content of that voice.

‘Distorting it is easy enough.’

Since Ferda had decided to hate everything, this was a very simple task for him.

—Do you swear that you do not follow demons, nor do you follow their resolve?

The voice asked again.

“Regent-nim? Are you alright?”

Even Yuren seemed to find it strange and asked Ferda.

Now, he had to answer.

Ferda needed the Ancient Demon Book.

However, his heart belonged to Valdrova, not to the demons.

“I swear.”

The second question flew at him.

—Do you swear that your visit to this storage is not motivated by personal desire?

All of this was for Valdrova.

It wasn’t even a question.

“I swear.”

—Do you swear that you are loyal to the Empire?

‘The Empire.’

Must fall.

“I swear.”

A moment later, the Orb of Truth, which had been glowing blue, began its judgment and changed color.

—It has been proven.

The light changed to green.

Ferda pulled his hand away.

‘To think this trivial thing is the passage procedure for the Sealed Storage.’

It seemed pathetic, but it was a procedure that struck at a blind spot—one that would inevitably catch those who didn’t know the secret.

Even now, Ferda found it so absurd that he couldn’t help but scoff.

“It is quite a humorous object, isn’t it?”

As Ferda looked down at it silently, Yuren slipped into the conversation.

“Yes, a humorous object indeed.”

Leaving the humorous object behind, Ferda and the magic investigator went inside.

They descended the stairs for a long time.

They went down the endless spiral staircase and finally set foot in the first Sealed Storage.

There were cabinets filled with sealed copper pipe canisters.

It was the Record Seal Office.

It was a place where the Empire’s shames, which must not be leaked to the outside, or major events that could have destroyed the continent, were recorded.

Ferda had used the records here to lure Zed.

‘I thought he would have reached it by now, but is he not there yet?’

Since communication wasn’t possible, he didn’t know how the situation was unfolding.

He simply had to leave with the faith that Zed would handle it well on his own.

‘Perhaps it was an operation where that fellow wasn’t necessary.’

Though he had thought it himself, it was a joke that wasn’t even funny.

Zed was an absolutely necessary person for this plan.

“There is nothing but boring things for you to see. Moreover, they are full of things you have no need to know.”

His words, suggesting they were trivial, contained a warning not to touch them recklessly.

Of course, Ferda had no intention of laying a finger on them.

To lighten the mood, he tossed a question at him.

“Don’t you ever think, when entering a place like this, that you’d like to see them at least once?”

Yuren nodded.

“Of course, the urge to look arises occasionally. Despite how I look, I am a man with a scholarly temperament.”

“And have you seen them?”

“Not even once. There is no need for me to trouble myself by knowing things I don’t need to know.”

He was a man with professional convictions rarely seen in the rotten Empire.

That was why he was able to become a magic investigator.

After a brief look at the exterior, they immediately moved to the next location.

The important thing was the second Sealed Storage located even further below.

He descended there with Yuren.

As they went down, Ferda could feel it.

‘A familiar scent.’

The groans and whispers of temptation shed by the crystallizations of thick malice and curses.

They swirled around Ferda like eels surrounding a corpse sunk at the bottom of a lake.

Yuren also became conscious of the deepening atmosphere and asked Ferda.

“Are you alright?”

The answer here was not ‘Of course.’

“What do you mean?”

“It is nothing, haha.”

Yuren pushed back his suspicion and walked again.

He must not show that he was feeling anything.

Deceiving him by showing a dullness that felt nothing was the priority.

The darkness grew thick.

They tried to brighten the surroundings with candlelight as best they could, but it seemed impossible to dispel all the darkness.

It was a peculiar energy, enough for ordinary people to feel a physiological revulsion and retreat upon sensing danger.

However, Yuren led the way inside.

Ferda followed him.

As if passing through a massive veil, Ferda’s vision suddenly cleared.

“……Hah.”

An exclamation escaped him involuntarily.

To call it a Sealed Storage, it looked more like a secret storehouse for demon worshippers.

Among them, one object caught Ferda’s eye.

One of the books placed on the central display stand, on a completely different level from the other trifles.

An object bound by silver chains with a black cover that looked deeper than the thick darkness.

‘Barbatos’s Shadow Art.’

Though he had the epithet of the Secretive Demon, he still belonged to the Great Demons, so the intensity of the seal was high.

“How is it, this place?”

At Yuren’s question, Ferda replied reflexively.

“Perhaps because it is a place for demons, it certainly gives off a loathsome energy.”

“Haha, there is no need to force yourself to be formal. It is filled with wonder rather than loathsomeness.”

Wondrous.

Yes, it truly could not be anything but wondrous.

The high-density mana emitted by the cursed magic books and grimoires.

Anyone would be ecstatic if that mana enveloped their entire body.

The feeling that if one allowed even a little bit, overwhelming power would circulate through their body.

It whispered that it would be like rain in a drought, more intense than being liberated from the limits of disgrace.

“No, it is merely loathsome.”

However, Ferda remained firm.

Even when he lived in hatred, he had never once considered such mana to be good.

The Ferda who was once consumed by hatred was the type to destroy anything he couldn’t possess.

And this mana did not belong to Ferda, nor could it ever be his.

“Is that…… so?”

Yuren tilted his head.

“That is a bit strange…… A mage of your caliber should be at least a little bit enchanted…….”

He turned his gaze and stared at Ferda.

The look in his eyes had changed significantly from before.

It wasn’t because of the strange current flowing in the Sealed Storage.

He was revealing his true colors, which he had been hiding.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. What’s important is that it’s just the two of us.”

Yuren placed Gamigin’s grimoire, which he was holding, on the floor and turned his head.

His face was filled with the loathsome murderous intent he had kept hidden.

It was a look that truly suited this room.

“I have written a scenario while coming here.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“‘At the Regent’s request, we visited the Sealed Storage together, but he fell under the enchantment of the items here, and I was forced to deal with the Regent’…… How about it? Doesn’t it seem quite plausible?”

Ferda stroked his chin as he listened.

Upon hearing those words that he would be killed, Ferda felt curiosity before fear.

“Does this place kill people without hesitation if they are enchanted by dark magic?”

“There are no exceptions for dark magic. There is no mercy beneath the omnipotent light.”

A thin smile hung on Yuren’s lips.

“Even if it is the Regent of the Grand Duchy.”

It was a truly and pointlessly fastidious country.

“If I die, you won’t be able to make it out alive either, will you?”

“There is no need to worry about me. Unlike you, I have quite a few exit strategies.”

An exit strategy for killing the Regent of the Grand Duchy.

He wasn’t curious about which path the man would use to escape.

What was important now was that he intended to kill him.

What was the benefit to be gained from that?

‘He seems to be acting like this while knowing full well what kind of mess will occur if I die…….’

Unlike when he was a prospective fiancé, Ferda was now officially engaged.

By taking the name of Valdrova, he was as good as family with the Red Dragon.

Killing that family member would surely breed revenge, and that revenge would be directed at the Empire.

It was an act on a completely different level from the Eradication Squad bastards who came just to gnaw away at some wealth.

‘Is it that he actually desires that instead?’

Inside the Imperial Palace, there was a man who would unhesitatingly commit an act that could throw not just the Empire, but the entire continent into turmoil.

Suddenly, the Orb of Truth he had passed through came to mind.

He had passed every oath.

The reason he was able to do so was…

‘It seems he knows the secret of the Sealed Storage.’

From the moment he entered until now, he had done nothing but lie.

‘As expected, there isn’t a single good one among these Empire bastards.’

In this situation where he was cornered, a smile hung on Ferda’s lips.

“Why are you laughing?”

“It’s nothing. I just didn’t expect the childish scenario I wrote to actually come true.”

“The scenario you wrote?”

Yuren, who had been smiling, tilted his head.

“I drew up a scenario where I stopped the rampage of an investigator who tried to lure the Regent and trap him. Unlike yours, mine is something that is actually happening.”

Ferda needed Barbatos’s Shadow Art.

To get it, he had to kill the magic investigator.

Whether the man was truly upright or not didn’t matter to Ferda.

“Thanks to you, I can worry less about a burden on my conscience. Since I can think of it as cleaning up trash.”

Upon hearing those words, the smile completely vanished from Yuren’s face.

“Do you think someone like you can kill me?”

The words he spoke were an insult beyond imagination according to the general common sense of mages.

He was a 5th circle Master Mage.

Not only was he recognized on the continent, but he also held a high enough position within the Empire to be considered a man of high status.

However, Ferda’s circle was a mere 3rd circle, a Magic Worker.

“If you don’t believe me.”

Mana condensed in Ferda’s right hand.

“Why don’t you check for yourself?”

Magic was rapidly discharged from Ferda’s hand.

A fast sphere, which no mage could have anticipated, flew toward Yuren.