I Married the Dragon I Killed
Chapter 57
Chapter 57
Kidnapped
The regular meeting of the Grand Council had come to an end.
People began to disperse, just as they had gathered.
In a display befitting the movement of those ranked Duke and above, a massive army concentrated in the central region.
In this state, it also served as a military parade to inspect and flaunt national power to rivals.
In that sense, Escoleia was far removed from such splendor.
They were a city of knowledge, free from diplomatic conflicts.
Preferring practical and efficient movement, they traveled in a magic carriage powered by a mage’s mana.
“Can’t we switch back to a horse-drawn carriage?”
Chancellor Bernard grumbled to the mage acting as the pilot.
“Are you on about that again?”
“Every time I come to the Grand Council, the thought crosses my mind. As the Chancellor of a city, hmm? I need to maintain some dignity.”
“Oh, please, don’t talk about ‘dignity.’ You’re not some mercenary who rolled around on the rough ground; an old man with a potbelly sounds cheap saying things like that.”
“Besides, in a city as cramped as a chicken coop, where would we even keep horses? It’s obvious someone would object, saying the space needed to raise one horse could house a hundred more scholars.”
“Still, I am the Chancellor in name, you should at least let me save face….”
“Do you want to see an audit report fly in and cause a riot? I know luxury is important in the world of nobles, but the kind of people who understand that don’t become scholars.”
“I want to ride a carriage too, sigh….”
“If you keep whining like that, I’m quitting, you hear? I’m clocking out and going straight home.”
“Sigh… Fine, I was wrong. Let’s go, then. Let’s go.”
It was as if the servant had become the master.
To think the Chancellor was in a position where he couldn’t even budge if the mage threatened him.
‘If we’re going for efficiency, it would be better if we could charge mana without needing a mage….’
Bernard grumbled inwardly.
‘Right, how great would it be if we could just breathe mana into it and make it move?’
Using a few gears and levers….
If it could be operated just like that, it would be perfect.
Bernard sketched his idea into a notebook.
The carriage, which had been moving steadily, suddenly jerked to a halt.
“What is it?”
“It looks like someone is blocking the road. Judging by their appearance, they seem to be bandits.”
Bandit groups that block paths and collect tolls are found everywhere.
“Shall I handle it? I’ve got nothing else to do anyway.”
The mage grinned, making a throat-slitting gesture.
“Avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Just give them a little money.”
“Why give them money?”
“They’re just trying to make a living, aren’t they? Give them a fair amount and send them on their way.”
“This is why we’re always looked down upon….”
“What was that?”
“Nothing. I’ll be right back.”
The mage stepped out of the carriage with a few handfuls of silver coins.
Chancellor Bernard watched with a displeased expression.
The mage, carrying the silver, kept his distance, tossed the coins onto the ground, and gestured for them to take it and let them pass.
Suddenly, a sharp flash of light erupted from the mage’s torso.
“Huh?”
Then, the mage’s upper body slid down along a diagonal line of light.
Standing where the upper body had been was a beggar with a fishy smirk.
And a sword.
“Wh-What!? What is this!?”
The Chancellor cried out in horror.
Instead of reacting pathetically, the mage sitting in the driver’s seat prepared a spell.
It was time to show why he was paid 50 gold coins a day for protection.
But despite his efforts, an object flew toward him at high speed.
Crash!
A dagger pierced through the glass window and lodged in his neck.
“Ea— Gurgle…!”
The mage’s incantation failed.
The drawn magic circle scattered into the air and vanished.
In an instant, two 4th-Circle mages had been eliminated.
The Chancellor watched, frozen, as the beggar approached.
He felt it instinctively.
Running would only lead to a faster death.
The man who had dispatched two 4th-Circle mages in a heartbeat opened the door.
Then he sat on the opposite side.
He wore a sickening smile.
“Greetings, Chancellor of Escoleia.”
“Wh-Who are you?”
“There is no need for you to know who I am. Let’s talk about you.”
The man continued speaking unilaterally.
Frozen, the Chancellor nodded.
“You are the one who proposed at this Grand Council that there are signs of the resurrection of the Black Dragon Godwin, correct?”
“That is true, but…?”
“What were you thinking when you did that?”
“I did it for the safety of the continent….”
“Even though it might put you in danger?”
“I might have been wrong. But I felt I had to say it….”
“Ah!”
The mysterious man cut off Chancellor Bernard and pressed a blade to his throat.
“Let’s not waste time with useless talk. It’ll only be painful for you if we drag this out.”
Blood from the two mages dripped from the dagger.
The Chancellor swallowed hard, trying his best to suppress his trembling.
“So, weren’t you planning to announce a device for predicting the appearance of demons?”
“H-How do you…?”
“Ears are everywhere. No matter where it is.”
The man smirked.
The only people who knew that were a few scholars he trusted, his secretary.
And Ferda Valdrova.
“Ferda Valdrova!”
The Chancellor shouted as if he had suddenly realized something.
“Are you… a man sent by Regent Ferda?”
“I wonder. Does it seem like he sent me?”
“Damn it! I should have known from the moment that young brat had that look in his eyes…!”
Chancellor Bernard cried out in indignation.
Instead of answering, the man chuckled.
“Our Chancellor is a cuter person than I thought. This might not be so bad after all.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“What else could it mean?”
He pulled out a syringe.
“It means this.”
The large needle was a weapon in itself.
But what terrified the Chancellor was the tar-like, sticky black liquid inside it.
“What on earth is that inside?”
“A vaccine.”
“A vaccine?”
“Yes, a vaccine. A medicine that will wipe out all the clumps of germs infesting this world.”
The man placed his thumb on the plunger and prepared the injection.
He plunged the needle in.
Not into Chancellor Bernard, but into himself.
“Ugh…!”
The man groaned in agony.
However, he was not dying.
It was a mutation—no, an evolution.
From his covered skin, something similar to the injected tar oozed out like grease, coating his body.
The man’s form, having completed the mutation, literally turned black.
Rather than a human, he looked like a mannequin made of soft material, a new cocoon.
Within it, red eyes tore open and glowed.
As his mouth opened, sharp, beast-like teeth were menacingly revealed.
“N-No way….”
As those elements came together, a single word flashed in the Chancellor’s mind.
“A demon…!”
The man had become a demon.
“Hahaha! Finally, His… Her grace flows through this body as well!”
The man caressed his own face, lost in ecstasy.
Having achieved his long-held desire, the man, steeped in pleasure, turned his gaze back to the Chancellor.
Instinctively, Bernard sensed his death.
Desperate to survive somehow, he threw a question at him.
“Why would a man of your skill… be a demon follower?”
Demon followers were those with nothing to lose.
They were far more persistent and vicious than devil worshippers.
“I was once a knight who knew honor.”
The man let out a faint, mad laugh.
“But no matter how much honor you uphold, serving a king who falls for the words of cunning, petty men means ruin comes in an instant.”
He was a fallen knight.
“So, since I have nothing left to lose, I plan to destroy everything.”
“If you become a demon… you won’t be able to function normally in the human world, let alone on this Serdes Continent…. You will become a lost soul who can go to neither Heaven nor Hell. Knowing that, why…?”
“That’s just your opinion.”
The man raised his dagger and slashed Chancellor Bernard’s arm.
It wasn’t a deep wound, but blood flowed freely.
The man pressed down on the wound with his own hand.
Just as the thought of ‘giving a disease and then the cure’ crossed the Chancellor’s mind, something amazing happened.
“Mother, Marun….”
His jet-black body gradually began to take on the color of flesh.
It wasn’t just the color changing to look human; parts of his body stretched, while others shrank.
Finally, he transformed into a form very familiar to Chancellor Bernard.
It was Bernard himself.
“How is it, Chancellor? Do I look like you?”
The man in Bernard’s likeness smiled.
A smile full of malice, the likes of which Bernard had never made in his life.
“What do you intend to do with my research?”
“As expected of a Chancellor, your mind works fast.”
The man tapped his head with the dagger.
“Don’t you know already? You’re making something called a monster appearance prediction device, so there’s obviously only one thing for demons to do.”
To ruin the research and ensure the prediction device never existed.
“I—I won’t let you do that!”
At the thought of losing the research he had dedicated his life to, Chancellor Bernard mustered his courage, late as it was.
But the other Bernard on the opposite side moved nimbly and grabbed his throat.
Slowly and powerfully, he squeezed his neck.
“Ack, Gasp!”
“Rest well. I shall follow you soon into the world of the void.”
Just as he was about to kill the original Chancellor Bernard,
“It’s an ambush!”
The shout of a man standing guard outside pierced through the carriage.
When the disguised Bernard turned his head, a battle was unfolding outside.
Mysterious attackers were clashing with the demon followers posing as beggars.
Overpowering more than twenty people were a mere two individuals.
One with brown hair and one with blonde hair.
At the unexpected ambush, the man loosened his grip on the throat and asked.
“You, when did you hire guards?”
“Cough, wheeze, wh-what guards??”
Chancellor Bernard asked back with a look of total confusion.
Before he could get an answer, the demon followers were quickly dealt with.
Those disguised as bandits were nothing but fodder, while the two attackers were exceptionally skilled knights.
“This has become troublesome.”
The man was genuinely concerned.
If it were two mages, he could kill them instantly by ambushing them before they could chant, but facing two knights simultaneously was difficult.
The man decided to use his wits.
It was a diversion.
“You guys! Be careful!”
He kicked open the carriage door and ran out desperately.
“In there! In there is someone who looks exactly like me! He’s trying to kill me!”
The man ran like a terrified victim.
On the other hand, he firmly concealed a reverse-gripped dagger against his forearm.
The moment they were within range, he was prepared to strike with the hidden blade.
“Quickly, kill that thing in th— Urgh!”
The man didn’t get far before he collapsed.
A dagger was embedded in his ankle.
It was a dagger identical to the one held in the brown-haired man’s hand.
“Aaaargh!! What is the meaning of this!?”
There was no reply.
Instead, the brown-haired man ran over quickly and kicked Bernard in the head with all his might.
Thwack!
A sickening sound, like bone snapping.
The body of the fake Chancellor Bernard went limp.
The blonde-haired man’s eyes widened as he shouted.
“Sir Zed! What are you doing to the Chancellor?!”
The man called Zed gestured toward the fallen Chancellor and said.
“That’s not the Chancellor.”
“What do you mean?! He didn’t use magic to disguise himself! If you kick him that hard, he’s definitely dead… Oh?”
His fussing stopped when he saw Bernard late to emerge from the carriage.
“Why are there two Chancellors…?”
“Ha, you naive country fellow. You need to develop your observation skills. For now, bind this man tightly. I’ll go fetch the real one over there.”
“Uh… Understood.”
Arwen bound the fake, and Zed pulled the real one out of the carriage and supported him.
“Are you alright?”
“Uh, yes… I am fine. You all are… from Regent Valdrova?”
“Our apologies for the late introduction. I am Zed Swallow, a knight who has sworn loyalty to the Valdrova Principality. This naive fellow here is Sir Arwen. We were secretly monitoring and guarding you under the Regent’s orders.”
“The Regent’s subordinates…? Why is the man who stabbed me in the back helping me?”
“Pardon? I don’t know what misunderstanding there might be, but for now, we will take you to where our Regent is.”
Bernard’s head was spinning, as he had been on the verge of death just moments ago.
But he had no choice.
The mage who was supposed to drive the carriage was dead, so the carriage couldn’t move.
The way back was long, and it was too dangerous to walk alone.
Chancellor Bernard resigned himself.
“I understand. I shall follow you.”
“Then, let’s start by stopping the bleeding.”
Zed lightly treated Bernard’s wound, and Arwen tied up the other Bernard and placed him on the back of a horse.
Leaving the scene of the incident behind, they moved out.
Even while riding, a question lingered in Arwen’s mind.
“Sir Zed.”
“What?”
“How exactly did you recognize him?”
Because Zed had attacked without hesitation, he was able to catch the enemy off guard.
But Arwen couldn’t understand the reason behind that lack of hesitation.
Zed smirked and answered.
“There was no shine.”
“…Excuse me? Shine?”
“That fake fellow over there, it seems he couldn’t replicate the Chancellor’s glossy head.”
“….”
Arwen’s eyes flickered over Zed’s shoulder.
Chancellor Bernard’s head was faintly reflecting the moonlight.
“Ah.”
It was absurd, but he couldn’t find any words to say.
After riding through the night, they arrived at a place where a carriage was waiting.
Regent Valdrova’s carriage and a tent were there.
A young silver-haired maid greeted them.
“This way.”
The maid pulled back the tent flap, and Bernard stepped inside.
A warmth, different from the cold and ruthless wild ground, touched his skin.
The interior was several times larger than it appeared from the outside.
It was so cozy and well-maintained that it felt impossible to be inside a tent.
‘A Subspace Tent… Is that not a legendary treasure?’
A single subspace pocket, which must be created using fairy dust as a medium, is a treasure in itself, but a tent is on a completely different level.
Only a King of Imperial rank or a Dragon could possess such a treasure.
He was once again reminded of the fact that this man was the partner of a Dragon.
“Welcome.”
A young man with grey hair and blue eyes.
Ferda greeted him.
