I Married the Dragon I Killed
Chapter 62
Chapter 62
The lightning bullet released from Ferda’s grip pierced through the man’s head.
The sight of him collapsing while spraying blood was so surreal that no one could react immediately.
“Wh—what is this!?”
The enemy forces couldn’t even properly grasp the situation.
Following Ferda’s preemptive strike, Concillus and Marco stood up and stepped into the enemy camp.
“Agh!”
“Gah!”
Concillus and Marco cut down the two men at the very front.
Only then did the enemies realize what was happening.
“Ambush!”
“R—run away!”
Just as they were about to fall into a panic, a woman’s voice rang out.
“You idiots! There’s no retreat anyway! Take up your weapons!”
At the command of the dark elf, Director Linne, the panicked soldiers drew the weapons they were carrying.
Director Linne raised her staff.
“How dare you raid this place! You, the one who shot, show yourself!”
Ferda obediently revealed himself at those words.
Director Linne’s eyes widened.
“Gray hair and blue eyes… You must be Ferda Valdrova.”
She recognized Ferda.
“What a surprise. I was thinking of taking a look at the face of the bastard who destroyed my nest, and here you are, gracing us with your presence in person.”
“Are you pleased?”
“Pleased doesn’t even cover it. Now I can kill you with my own hands. Kill them all!”
The henchmen rushed toward Ferda.
At that moment, a quiet energy began to circulate around the bodies of Concillus and Marco.
Aura, the mana of a knight, enveloped their entire bodies.
A knight using Aura boasted the strength of a hundred men.
Dealing with twenty mere servant-class enemies was an easy task.
Whoosh—!
Every time Marco and Concillus traced a trajectory with their blades, the henchmen collapsed helplessly.
The henchmen, who were little more than a disorganized mob of mercenaries, quickly lost their morale.
The dark elf grew enraged at the sight.
“You useless things! Secretary!”
“Yes? Yes!?”
“Come here!”
At her gesture, the dazed secretary approached.
The dark elf pulled something out of the bag she was carrying.
It was a syringe filled with a black liquid.
The dark elf plunged it into the secretary’s neck.
“Ack!?”
The black liquid was sucked into the secretary’s body.
“Ugh… Egegegek!?”
The injected secretary began to convulse, his body making twisting sounds.
Concillus instinctively sensed the threat and shouted.
“Marco! We must stop him before he transforms!”
“Leave it to me!”
Marco rushed toward the mutating man with his sword raised.
“Not a chance!”
The dark elf’s palm faced Marco.
A magic circle was drawn from her hand.
The magic she used was human magic.
Force Rush.
Thump!
“Ugh!”
The space in front of her palm compressed, turning into a shockwave that sent Marco flying back.
The attempt to stop the man’s mutation had failed.
“Ugek! Gegegek!”
The body of the man, who was making bizarre noises, began to swell.
At the same time, his skin started to turn a deep, dark hue.
The growth only stopped once he had torn through his clothes and reached the size of a grizzly bear.
The creature lifted its head.
Black skin, red eyes, and pointed teeth.
It possessed the unmistakable, typical characteristics of a demon.
“A demon…!”
“A Bouncer, at that.”
Demons specialized in physical strength, capable of breaking even Restrain magic with sheer power.
Marco and Concillus felt a sense of intimidation at the sight.
“Ghehehe!!! Me too! I’ve received His grace as well!!”
The Bouncer ran wild with excitement, like a child who had received a new toy.
Unused to controlling his strength, the room shook with a thud every time he struck the floor.
That vibration made even the knights, who had traversed numerous battlefields, freeze up.
However, even that failed to draw Ferda’s interest.
Ferda’s eyes were fixed on the dark elf’s bag.
‘She took the syringe from that bag.’
And there was no way only that one injection was inside.
‘I must secure that item at all costs.’
Ferda turned his gaze and commanded Concillus.
“Count, take care of that Bouncer. Can you do it?”
Concillus replied.
“If I cannot overcome a wall of this level, how could I ever hold my head up high?”
“My sword belongs to the Regent-nim!”
Concillus did not back down.
Inspired by him, Marco also took courage and gripped his sword.
“I have understood your resolve well.”
Ferda reached out his hand.
“But there’s no need to make it too difficult.”
A magic circle was drawn in his hand.
Ferda incanted the spell.
“Frenzy.”
The magic circle, dyed in black, was fired in the form of lightning and pierced the Bouncer’s head.
“Ghehe! Ge… Geck?”
The Bouncer, hit by the magic, stopped his giggling and clutched his head.
“Ugh… Graaaah!! Aaack! It hurts! It hurts!!”
The muscle monster began to run wild, clutching his head.
He started destroying everything in his vicinity indiscriminately.
“Gah!”
“What are you doing?! We’re on the same side, Pueck!”
A slaughter began, as if a mad dog had been released into a chick farm.
The henchmen were torn apart in an instant.
“It hurts too much! It hurts!”
Just as that rage was about to turn toward the dark elf, she quickly chanted a spell.
“Restrain!”
A rune-shaped spell pierced the Bouncer’s head.
The Bouncer, who had been raging madly, quieted down in an instant.
“Do you recognize who I am?”
“Uh, Di—Director-nim?”
“You’ve finally come to your senses. Now that you understand, hurry up and sweep away those pests!”
“Ye—Yes!!”
The Bouncer, having regained his sanity, rushed toward the two knights.
“To embarrass me like this in front of the Director-nim, you bastards! I won’t forgive you!!”
Marco and Concillus took the attack at the front.
Boom!
“Ugh!”
“Hmph!”
The two were pushed back with a heavy resonance.
However, they held their ground.
Because they held their ground, they could counterattack.
Slash—!
Aura, which could cut through human flesh and bone like a radish.
That Aura had become so solid that it barely managed to pierce the creature’s skin.
“Ghahaha! I’ve become strong! Me! Strong!”
A fierce clash ensued between the two knights and the Bouncer.
The decisive factor in this tight struggle would be the mages.
The outcome depended on the assistance provided by Ferda and the dark elf.
The dark elf deployed her magic circle first.
What she intended to use was Slug Time.
It was a spell to slow down the two knights shrouded in Aura and give the Bouncer an opportunity.
“Slug Ti—.”
Before she could even finish the incantation, she sensed an attack.
What appeared to the naked eye was a bullet made of mana.
It flew accurately toward the magic circle.
“Ugh!?”
The magic circle, infused with mana, exploded right then and there.
“Destroying a magic circle with a Mana Shot…”
Director Linne was struck with shock.
She forced herself to hide the doubt rising in her mind.
‘There are few who can see through and exploit mana blind spots…’
A blue light flickered in Director Linne’s eyes.
It was to gauge how strong Ferda’s mana was.
And she wasn’t wrong.
‘A green Regent who has only reached the 4th Circle is handling mana blind spots?’
Thus, the doubt amplified.
It was a fatal technique against complex magic like the Slug Time she had just used.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and try using magic.”
Ferda provoked her.
“How can an elf, who has hideously abandoned the blessings of nature to use human magic, be outmatched in sorcery?”
“You seem to be around the 4th Circle at best. Aren’t you being a bit too arrogant among fellow 4th Circles?”
Ferda also condensed his mana to gauge her circles.
The size was at a similar level to his own.
“Don’t lie to me. I already know you are of the 5th Circle.”
“These eye sockets weren’t pierced because of a lack of skin, Regent. If you’ve reached the 4th Circle, the ability to perceive mana circuits should be—”
“Do I look like a fool who wouldn’t recognize someone using the cultivation method of the Aquinas School?”
At Ferda’s words, the dark elf’s eyes went wide.
Before she could utter the words ‘How do you know that?’, Ferda cut her off.
“Don’t make that face. It only makes me feel worse.”
Ferda also prepared a magic circle.
The powerful Magic Blast among the 4th Circle spells.
As powerful as it was, it was a complex spell with a long casting time.
However, Ferda was already a skilled mage.
Every process moved faster than other mages.
But his intention in using that magic was clear.
It was a sign of looking down on his opponent.
“Such pathetic provocation!”
However, that magic circle lost its power before long.
It wasn’t Ferda’s will.
“Right, as you said, I am of the 5th Circle.”
Linne’s hidden secret had been discovered, but that didn’t mean it was a problem.
“That’s why I don’t need to resort to tricks like mana blind spots like you.”
As long as there was already a difference in circles, she could simply crush him.
She disrupted the form of the magic circle with mana that was purer and of a higher rank.
Therefore, in reality, Ferda was in a disadvantageous position.
‘The opponent uses the cultivation method of the Aquinas School.’
The Aquinas School was a firepower-oriented school that gave up lower-tier ranks and compressed mana.
It had the advantage of deceiving the opponent while increasing the effects of high-tier magic.
Looking into the dark elf’s body, she appeared to have mana at the 4th Circle level.
But in reality, it was a state where high-purity 5th Circle mana was compressed.
If it came down to a battle of raw power, Ferda’s defeat was already a foregone conclusion.
“Do you know?”
Ferda had always lived his life looking upward.
If his power wasn’t enough, he used technique.
If technique wasn’t enough, he used the next means.
If even those means didn’t work, he would fight with his bare teeth.
That was the kind of man Ferda was.
“The fact that a monster lives under your desk?”
“What?”
What kind of nonsense is that?
Just as she was about to ask, she felt something from the desk.
A blue light shining in the dark space beneath the desk.
It was undoubtedly part of a magic circle.
“How was a magic circle placed here—!?”
“Lightning Bolt.”
Crack!
A bolt of lightning shattered the wooden desk and surged upward.
It pierced right through the dark elf’s head.
“Aaaaagh!”
The one who used the magic was Ferda’s Shadow Hand.
Amidst the chaos of the battle, Ferda had focused on moving his shadow to the underside of the desk.
Even using Magic Blast had been to distract her.
‘It worked well.’
Ferda had wondered a bit how much he could utilize this in actual combat.
But it was now certain that if he hid his cards well enough, no one would know.
“Truly disappointing,” Ferda said.
“The Aquinas School is a school that gains superiority by giving the opponent information they don’t know. To be caught off guard by an opponent while using the cultivation method of such a school.”
It was a mockery, and at the same time, an expression of regret.
“Well… I suppose I didn’t properly utilize the opportunity either.”
For Ferda, this had been a chance to kill Director Linne.
However, instead of collapsing to the floor, Director Linne staggered in her spot before standing tall again.
“Uuuuuugh…!”
Director Linne groaned.
She clutched her left eye and steadied her head.
Ferda examined the wound.
The Lightning Bolt had pierced through her lower jaw and exited through her eye.
“Your survival instinct is remarkable. I intended to kill you instantly, but to think you actually dodged the attack.”
“Damn it! You miserable short-lived bastard!!”
The dark elf glared with eyes full of spite.
Ferda merely gave a twisted smile at the sight.
“Ferda Valdrova! I will surely remember this humiliation!”
As a last resort, the dark elf pulled out a scroll.
It was emergency escape magic.
As she tore the scroll, light erupted around her body and completely swallowed her.
“Uh, Di—Director-nim?”
The Bouncer stared blankly at the spot where the dark elf had disappeared.
The Bouncer, having lost his mage, was easily subdued.
Marco and Concillus, who had fought a fierce battle, looked down at the Bouncer while breathing heavily.
“Phew, phew… I never dreamed I would end up fighting a demon.”
“Likewise. To think I would only see one at this age.”
“Save the idle talk for later. We only have 20 minutes left.”
“Yes.”
With the heat of the battle still lingering, they began their search.
Since they were in the middle of classifying information before abandoning the research facility, top-secret and mundane information were already somewhat separated.
They rummaged through the place, and Ferda moved toward the spot where the Director had disappeared.
‘Emergency escape magic does not transport belongings.’
As a magic with an instantaneous effect, it was one that left everything behind.
It did not allow for the transport of belongings, nor even the clothes one was wearing.
What he saw were clothes cast off like a molted skin.
And an alchemy bag made of leather.
Ferda flung the bag open.
What he saw were a journal and a case.
Inside the case, syringe ampoules were arranged in a grid, each with a label attached.
- Doppler
- Butcher (Prototype)
- Dark Sorcerer (Prototype)
.
.
.
All of them were the monikers of knight-class demons recorded in history.
Aside from the Doppler he had learned of through the Chancellor’s kidnapping incident, new monikers were visible.
‘The Doppler wasn’t the only threat.’
What he had seen until now was merely a single tree, not the forest.
‘This should be enough for now, and what’s in the records?’
Ferda opened the journal in the bag.
Rows of unknown hieroglyphs were listed there.
‘Is it a code?’
It was written in characters so that it couldn’t be easily decoded even if the journal was stolen.
Ferda had an intuition.
That something far more valuable than the information scattered around here was hidden inside.
Ferda placed the journal into the sample bag and locked it.
“Count, I have obtained everything I wanted.”
“Understood.”
The information theft was successfully completed.
They stealthily slipped out and began their return journey.
Meanwhile, the three who had headed toward the research wing.
Zed, dressed in cold-weather gear, rubbed his body as he pushed through the blizzard.
“Ugh, damn, it’s freezing. Why the hell would anyone build a house in a mountain valley like this?”
“Please be quiet. What if they hear you?”
“Oh, don’t worry. It’s the kind of weather where you wouldn’t hear an orc howling.”
He poured out complaints every time the cold wind touched his face, and the knights walked in silence, listening to those complaints.
They soon found the designated point and went inside.
“It’s quiet.”
Unlike the living quarters, the research wing was already empty.
All that remained were unnecessarily bulky items and trash.
And the explosives prepared to bury the place entirely.
“That demon was right. They really intended to smash everything within 6 hours.”
“I wonder.”
“Are you saying he wasn’t?”
“What I mean is that it might be right now. How can we trust those demon bastards? Let’s move quickly.”
Their mission was to rescue the demons.
It was said that the test subjects to be used for research were locked in the research wing.
There was no way they would go through the trouble of transporting prisoners.
They must have been left behind with the intention of burying them with the explosives.
That prediction turned out to be correct.
“What on earth is this?”
However, when they witnessed it with their own eyes, they could not hide their horror.
