I Married the Dragon I Killed
Chapter 5
“I understand.”
Ruri no longer tried to dissuade the stubborn Ferda.
He had expected her to refuse, given her stern warning, but she chose to follow his lead without further protest.
After Ferda finished his meal, Ruri led the way.
She headed toward a clearing in the garden.
“I will take hold of you for a moment.”
Ruri, who had been so reluctant to touch him before, now offered to take his hand.
“Go ahead.”
“Then…”
Ruri gripped Ferda’s clothes.
In that instant, the intensely blazing sun vanished.
Something obstructed Ferda’s vision.
It was a pair of massive wings.
The wings sprouted from Ruri’s back, beat powerfully against the ground, and soared upward.
Whoosh—!
Gravity vanished, and the resistance of the air buffeted Ferda.
It felt as if the breakfast he’d just eaten might come back up at any moment.
Ferda swallowed hard, fighting through the pressure and the wind.
The dizziness and discomfort lasted only a moment.
“We have arrived.”
At Ruri’s words, Ferda opened his eyes.
The landscape before him had changed in the blink of an eye.
They had landed right at the summit of a mountain.
‘It felt like barely three seconds. We reached the peak in that time?’
It wasn't Teleport magic; to move at that speed through pure velocity meant she was among the fastest even for a dragon spawn.
‘No, she might be the fastest even among dragons.’
As Ferda stared at Ruri, lost in thought,
“It is not me you should be looking at.”
“What?”
“Look down.”
“Ah, right.”
Ferda turned his head and looked down.
He gazed east from the summit of the lonely mountain.
There, a plain drained of all color stretched out before him.
‘The Demonic Land.’
The area that had been completely corrupted upon the Demon King’s death.
He could see something writhing there.
‘Monsters.’
Monsters—the invaders of the continent that had been streaming in continuously since the birth of the Demon King.
Where they came from or how they were created remained a mystery, even up until the time Ferda had killed Valdrova.
The only thing known was that their goal was the same as the Demon King’s from 150 years ago.
‘To make the world a land where only death remains.’
To destroy and rule over all living things.
And what Ferda was watching were the monsters rising from the Eastern Region.
‘As expected of the east, the monsters are massive.’
They were truly gargantuan. Crawling out from the Demonic Land that could not be purified, they boasted an overwhelming scale.
Just rolling their bodies over would be enough to bring down a fortress.
They were a disaster-level threat that no human could handle.
Amidst the dull colors of despair, a single flame of primary red was surging forward.
No, looking closer, it wasn't a flame.
‘The Red Dragon, Valdrova.’
His future fiancée was fighting down there.
Valdrova was as large as any other dragon. However, she was barely half the size of the monster she was facing.
Though she was far outclassed in weight, Valdrova was no easy opponent.
Rumble—!
The monster and Valdrova’s bodies collided. Despite the size difference, she didn't give an inch.
Instead, the air vibrated violently. The shockwave swept through the forest and reached even the high mountain where Ferda stood.
“Ugh…”
Ferda’s body stiffened. An ordinary person might have frozen out of simple fear, but in this case, the cause was clear.
The dragon’s mana was laced into the shockwaves, piercing through his skin.
‘Dragon Fear… I suppose.’
It felt like it was on an entirely different level from when Ruri had used it. Even though he knew it wasn't directed at him, it made him feel as if she were staring directly into his soul.
‘So that is a Red Dragon.’
A sense of helplessness on a scale he’d never felt back when he was an Archmage washed over his body.
Valdrova’s battle continued.
Crunch! Rip!
The pinnacle of power and master of fire. The fight of the red tyrant was overwhelming.
With razor-sharp claws, she tore through thick hide. With her long snout and teeth, she severed the monster’s veins and tendons.
She moved so nimbly that the monster’s desperate flailing looked sluggish in comparison.
She targeted its blind spots relentlessly, leaving the creature no room to breathe.
Strength, speed, and an innate battle instinct.
—Skreeeeeee!
With its tendons sliced, the monster could no longer resist and collapsed where it stood. It would have died even if left alone, but Valdrova’s violence did not cease.
Crack! Shatter—!
Her claws pierced the monster’s belly, tearing it wide open. Even from his distance, Ferda could see the monster’s purple blood and green entrails.
At the same time, Valdrova’s chest swelled. A brilliant, crimson light radiated intensely from beneath her white belly scales.
‘Fire Breath.’
Roaaaaar!
The breath of a Red Dragon, said to be more powerful than the fires of Hell, incinerated the monster from the inside.
—Kieeeeee!
The monster let out a pained shriek. But even that sound didn't last long.
Valdrova’s red flames burst violently out of every single orifice in the monster’s body. The creature’s insides weren't just cooked; they were turned to ash and began to scatter.
Its form became ash and smoke, and upon the cursed land, only the red tyrant remained standing.
—Rooooooar!
Valdrova’s roar thundered, shaking everything in existence.
“Gah!”
Ferda could no longer hold his ground and collapsed.
‘Indeed… did a Dragon Roar always possess such power?’
It was a sensation of being overwhelmed by a dragon that he had never felt as an Archmage. His hands and feet trembled, and his teeth chattered.
Ferda was, quite literally, incapacitated.
“This is the true form of the one who is to be your partner.”
Ruri crouched down and looked down at Ferda.
“In the blood of a Red Dragon dwells a ferocious murderous intent—the essence of what you humans call an evil dragon. It is not a matter of personality, but of essence.”
Ruri emphasized the word ‘essence.’
Ferda knew why she was saying that.
‘Essence is something that cannot be changed.’
An evil dragon is an evil dragon forever. Her murderous intent cannot be removed, and there is no guarantee that it will never be turned toward Ferda.
“A Red Dragon is a creature that cannot live without destroying. If you stay by her side, you must be prepared to have your back broken every single day.”
Ruri’s expressionless eyes seemed to ask: Do you finally realize the weight of your shallow decision?
‘Her power certainly triggers fear.’
Even from a distance, her gaze was so vivid it felt as if it were burrowing into his mind. It was an inescapable, undeniable fact.
‘But I am not afraid.’
While her gaze lingered in Ferda’s mind, Valdrova’s emotions were there as well. The feelings regarding what she had seen and felt helped him understand all her actions until now.
‘She does this for the sake of the world.’
Just as she hid her true form out of love for this world, she hunted the monsters herself to protect what she loved.
‘She is an evil dragon.’
But at the same time, she was a knight with a noble heart, the guardian dragon of the continent. She was a pilgrim walking toward an ideal that could never be reached.
“Truly…”
And so, the emotion of fear transformed into wonder.
“She is magnificent.”
Ferda’s eyes sparkled. He was wearing a smile.
* * *
Ruri hated humans. With dragon blood flowing through her veins, it was only natural to harbor such feelings.
However, her master, Valdrova, loved the things beneath her.
‘And she was hurt.’
After the incident involving the attempted assassination of the Third Prince, the loathing Ruri felt for humans was even deeper than that of other dragon spawns. Because she hated them more than anyone, she understood the gap between humans and dragons better, and she understood what humans feared most.
Therefore, she already knew what happened when an ordinary human directly witnessed the form of a Red Dragon.
‘He brought this on himself.’
Ferda had said he wanted to see. Ruri had warned him enough and even tried to stop him.
Though she had grabbed him and flown off to take him there before the fight ended—she felt she had tried her best to dissuade him.
Until then, everything was going as Ruri expected. Watching the scene, Ferda just stared blankly. He looked like someone trembling before a superior Dragon Fear.
‘A classic reaction.’
That face would gradually turn to fear, and soon he would regret his own shallowness and beg for his life.
‘By then, my Master will realize it too.’
That humans and dragons can never truly be one.
She thought he was moving according to her predictions, but that wasn't quite the case.
“Truly… she is magnificent.”
Absurd words tumbled out of Ferda’s mouth.
Ruri turned her head, thinking she had misheard. But as she turned, she was even more shocked.
‘He’s smiling?’
She couldn't understand it. How could he smile while watching that scene of brutal tearing and burning? Shouldn't he be terrified that he might meet a similarly fleeting fate?
‘Wait…’
In that moment, a realization struck Ruri’s mind like a bolt of lightning. Why this man could be so relaxed even after becoming Valdrova’s fiancé. And why he could smile like that in this situation.
If it were ‘that,’ everything made sense.
‘You crazy masochist.’
It was the moment Ruri’s loathing for Ferda grew even deeper.
* * *
That day, Ferda lay in bed, unable to move a muscle.
He’d been hit by Dragon Fear and even exposed to a Roar. An ordinary human wouldn't have been able to keep their sanity. Conversely, because Ferda remained sane, his body was a wreck.
‘Can I really not move?’
Just in case, he tried to wiggle a finger. Instead, his toe twitched. When he tried to blink, his thumb flicked. When he tried to twitch his lips, his nostrils flared.
‘I guess it’s no use.’
It was a miracle his mind was even this clear. In this situation, the best thing to do was to lie still and sink into thought.
‘Looks like I’m going to waste a whole day.’
He didn't have enough time as it was to focus on breaking through his Circles, and yet he had to lie here like this.
‘In the first place, why did I want to see that?’
The reason Ferda had wanted to see it. Perhaps it was an intuition that the battle would provide him with an answer.
‘And did that intuition pay off?’
That was what he had to find out now. Ferda decided to retrace everything he had witnessed.
He went back to the moment he arrived at the mountain peak. The smell of the air, the temperature against his skin, even the sensation of the jagged pebbles beneath his feet. He recalled everything vividly.
In the world of his mental imagery, he looked down and recalled her fight.
It was not the act of an infamous evil dragon, but—
‘A noble battle conducted by a noble Red Knight.’
She was the one who would soon be his partner.
In that moment, he felt a stirring in his dantian.
‘This is…’
Ferda knew this sensation well. It was the upheaval he had felt when he was expelled from the Rosnova family.
‘A Red Circle is forming.’
A Red Circle, created from an upheaval of emotion. Since Ferda had intended to create a Blue Circle, he naturally should have rejected this.
‘This is strange.’
But Ferda didn't. He felt that this Red Circle was of a different quality.
‘This emotion does not stem from anger or a desire for revenge.’
It was an upheaval caused by an emotion different from the one he had felt back then. It was an emotion with potential no less than that of anger or revenge.
‘I felt this while imagining the way Valdrova fought.’
It was the same now. As he thought of Valdrova, the circuit began to take a clearer shape. Was this why he had felt he needed to see her fight?
‘If so…’
Perhaps this was the answer. Ferda no longer hesitated. He focused on his feelings toward Valdrova.
The sense of wonder he had felt and her magnificent figure. He organized and intensified his emotions, molding the vague feelings into words.
The mana circuit swirled violently. The dizzying rotation grew stronger and stronger, threatening to swallow Ferda like a storm-tossed sea.
But Ferda was a man who had already reached the rank of Archmage with Red Circles. He delicately controlled the vortex created by the upheaval. He gathered the stray energy, compressing and shaping it.
Eventually, he drew a single circle.
‘A Circle.’
Feeling the lingering afterglow of relief and exaltation, he reaffirmed the source of this emotion.
‘It was not built on hatred or revenge.’
That meant there would be no repeat of the same future, nor the same mistakes.
‘It’s done.’
Ferda rejoiced at that fact. His nostrils flared.
