I Married the Dragon I Killed
Chapter 98
“Tower Master Erica.”
“Regent Valdrova.”
“Are your internal injuries severe?”
Ferda did not turn his gaze toward her.
It was out of consideration, to help her maintain her dignity as a Tower Master.
Erica forced her eyes open with strength and adjusted her posture.
“Not enough to hold you back.”
“Understood.”
Ferda gave a short nod of affirmation and assessed the enemy’s strength.
Beyond the flapping wings of the wyverns, he saw a large, burly man and a relatively smaller man.
The smaller man stared at Ferda and spoke.
“You must be Ferda Rosnova. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
At the man’s words, Ferda corrected him.
“I am Valdrova.”
“Grown in the Rosnova family, yet struggling to escape your roots? How unsightly.”
The man sneered.
However, Ferda was not such a novice as to be swayed by such provocations.
“Hestia Village is swarming with wolf monsters, and here we have wyverns… Seeing how you deploy monsters wherever you please, it seems you are the culprit behind the incident in Halim as well?”
“That is correct. Are you grateful?”
“Why should I be grateful to you?”
“Did you not achieve quite a brilliant feat in Halim and even obtain a branch of the World Tree struck by the Lightning of Defiance?”
The man casually recited a fact that had been shared with no one.
Without being shaken, Ferda provoked him back.
“Sounds like the self-consolation of a defeated dog.”
“Haha! Put that way, I suppose you are right. It is true that I underestimated you and those around you far too much. Even though I fought with the intention of killing Chancellor Bernard, I failed to do so.”
“Do you intend to target him again?”
“Regrettably, there is no need for that. It seems what I wished to destroy has already passed into your hands. So, rest easy.”
“What makes you think I would believe your words?”
“Because I am already standing above you; there is no need for me to lie. For instance,”
He swept the ground broadly with a finger imbued with mana.
Suddenly, a whirlwind arose, and the fallen leaves covering the floor were swept up into the air.
“Pretending not to know even when I am aware of such shallow tricks, for example.”
The ground was cleared, revealing what lay beneath.
The shadow extending from beneath Ferda’s feet was chanting a spell.
“Truly pathetic talent.”
Snap!
The man flicked his fingers.
Simultaneously, an explosion erupted from where the shadow hand had been.
Boom!
The shadow hand was blown to pieces and scattered.
“Ugh!”
To an outsider, the power might not have seemed lethal, but the reality was different.
Had it been an actual hand, the force was destructive enough to tear through mana protection or armor like scrap paper.
“Hooh.”
The man showed a look of interest.
“I heard that Barbatos’s Shadow Art can be handled like one’s own limbs, and because it draws the sensations of those limbs directly, the pain is also like that of one’s own flesh… Yet you reacted as if pulling your hand away from a mere burn, rather than the pain of a limb being severed.”
The man was analyzing Ferda.
Ferda neither replied nor reacted to those words.
Instead, just as the man had done, Ferda attempted to decipher the magic.
‘What kind of magic did he just use?’
Ferda recalled the events of a moment ago.
The explosion that occurred with the snap of the fingers.
No, that was no simple explosion.
It looked like an explosion at a glance, but it was not.
‘It is…’
Ferda focused on that scene.
He slowed down time, peeling back each moment to vividly recall its movement.
‘It is not an explosion, but magic that distorts a point.’
In a fleeting instant, space had warped as if being sucked into a single point in the air before being released.
‘Magic that crushes objects by distorting a point.’
Once the explanation became clear, Ferda could also identify its source.
There was only one person capable of wielding such magic.
A name that had vanished into a single line of history.
“You are Gokma.”
Gokma.
At the mention of that name, the man marveled.
“Hooh. You saw through my identity with just that one instance?”
Erica, their ally, was equally shocked.
She had naturally known he was someone of the Noblesse-class among demons, but she had not discerned his identity.
It was only natural, for Gokma was someone who should not exist.
“If you are Gokma, you should be the Noblesse-class who was the very first to die at the hands of the Hero?”
The man admitted it readily.
“That is correct. The demons of that time had no sense of vigilance toward humans. Thus, I died a hollow death by the Hero’s hand.”
“Then how are you alive?”
“It is simple. That was a time when there were only Heroes overflowing with passion, without the likes of you or Erdes.”
It meant they lacked the caution and delicacy possessed by mages.
That room for resurrection had remained.
“I never imagined… that a demon would be waiting and planning for the future like this.”
“Indeed. I did not particularly wish to reveal myself either. But it seems I had no choice.”
Gokma’s eyes turned toward Ferda.
“Because there is something bothersome.”
Bothersome.
Those words should have implied an unpleasant feeling.
Yet, Gokma’s mouth twisted upward instead.
“Does one’s emotions become warped upon becoming a demon? You seem not to know when to smile.”
“Demons feel joy as well. It is simply different from the emotions you cling to, obsessing over trivial things.”
“Is returning everything to nothingness something great?”
At Erica’s question, he nodded as if it were obvious.
“It is the great will of that person, and thus my greatest joy.”
“Then hurry up and vanish so you can greet those who went before you.”
Crackle!
A bolt of light flew toward Gokma.
However, it could not pierce his mana protection and was deflected away.
It was a Lightning Bolt launched from Ferda’s hand.
“Do you intend to kill me with such a thing?”
“No. I knew it wouldn’t work the moment the Tower Master’s magic failed to get through.”
Realizing something at those words, Erica turned her head toward Ferda.
“……Were you watching me?”
Her expression was tinged with resentment, asking why he hadn’t come to help sooner.
However, Ferda had his reasons.
“When someone is about to blow away an entire area, how could I not observe the situation?”
“Well, that is true, but……”
“Were you out of your mind, thinking of blowing away a whole part of the Archduke’s territory?”
When Ruri spoke up in a grumbling tone, Erica fell silent.
Injured as she was, her emotions had almost gotten the better of her.
“It is good to see you so confident after assessing my strength. However……”
Wearing a subtle smile, he spoke.
“I do not wish to fight you. How about we part ways amicably like this?”
“This is the territory of the Archduke. Do you think you can just run away after causing such a mess?”
“Hmph, in that case.”
He flicked his finger in the air.
“Try and stop this if you can.”
Another space tore open, vomiting out its contents.
It was a familiar sight to Ferda.
However, the numbers were different from the time in Halim.
No fewer than five rifts opened in various places, spewing out their contents.
Some of them headed toward Ferda and his party, but others turned their bodies toward Hestia Village.
Simultaneously, Gokma and the burly man prepared to throw themselves into a rift.
As it was difficult to even take a step right now, there was no way to block their escape.
No, perhaps it was possible if Ruri stepped in.
She was the child of a Silver Dragon, boasting the ultimate speed.
However, if Ruri stepped in, those many monsters would head for Hestia Village.
It was doubtful whether the people in the village could handle all those monsters.
“Ferda-nim.”
Ruri looked up at Ferda.
Her eyes, appearing as if she were wearing a mask clumsily, showed a face that had lost its way.
“Go. Protect what your master wishes to protect.”
“What about your safety, Ferda-nim?”
“Do not worry, I am here.”
Though she had suffered severe internal injuries, the ring of water surrounding Erica’s body remained steady.
“Understood.”
Ruri picked up her axe and spread her wings.
Whoosh!
A fierce gale flew out relentlessly, striking the monsters heading toward Hestia Village.
Silver flashes darted in and out of the forest, and in the wake of that light, only brutally slaughtered corpses remained.
“How many should I deal with?”
“I am sufficient on my own.”
“Then I shall simply watch your back.”
The opponents were monsters devoid of reason, filled only with instinct.
Every single strike was threatening, but their attacks were monotonous.
The more monotonous they were, the easier they were to read, and Erica’s water droplets easily identified and pierced their vital points.
‘Is this the magic of Iorga?’
It appeared soft as could be, but once it left her hand, it was harder and more lethal than any metal.
It wasn’t just a simple piercing, either.
The rotational force imbued within them twisted and burst the insides of the bodies whenever they passed through a vital point.
Even while facing a large number, there was not a hint of waste; she finished everything in a single blow.
‘Is Gokma the one who made even such an opponent struggle…….’
Thinking calmly, it was not that they had lost them, but rather that they had been let go.
She finished cleaning up every last one that had come charging.
Erica sensed the surrounding life once more and confirmed it was safe.
“Whew……”
And then she slumped down on the spot.
There was no room for composure.
“Are you alright?”
“It won’t be life-threatening, but I’ll have to focus on recovering my mana for a few days.”
“Can you stand up?”
Ferda reached out his hand.
“Thank you.”
Erica took that hand.
A hand calloused in a way unbefitting a mage.
Erica had felt this man’s hand once before.
It was then.
Simultaneously, something rode up and flowed into Erica’s hand.
Erica knew what it was.
It was that mana that had made her feel so ashamed.
“Hyaak!”
Erica recoiled in shock.
She let go of Ferda’s hand and slumped back onto the ground.
“……What is the matter?”
Her face turned bright red.
What do you mean, what’s the matter! As soon as you grabbed my hand, you tried to leak mana into me again! You lecher! Trying to do something naughty to me again!!
She wanted to scream it out, but she didn’t dare.
Ferda had a face that truly seemed to know nothing.
Without a doubt, she would be the only one looking like a fool.
“Ahem! It’s nothing. I think it would be better to practice mana cultivation like this. Please look after the surroundings.”
“Understood.”
Erica crossed her legs and closed her eyes right there.
The circuits within her body began to turn, accumulating mana along with the beating of her heart.
In the darkness behind her eyelids, her fight from just dozens of minutes ago came to mind.
‘To think that man was Gokma, one of the Seven Evil Stars of the Demon King.’
The Seven Evil Stars.
Those who belonged to the very top tier of the Noblesse-class, just below the Emperor-class Demon King, and who had become Legion Commanders.
Even though she had exchanged several blows and felt his mana, she hadn’t guessed it at all.
She had only known he was of the Noblesse-class.
It was unavoidable.
She had been driven into a corner and had to focus entirely on the battle.
She hadn’t been composed enough to see through his identity.
However, she could find no comfort even in such excuses.
She was a mage once called the Wisdom of the 12 Heroes.
She had already fought other members of the Six Evil Stars before and had even found breakthroughs against them.
‘Moreover, Regent Ferda realized it after just one time.’
He had seen through the identity while taking a single attack.
This was a fact that wouldn’t disappear just because she denied it.
‘I was even pushed back in terms of mana.’
Though she hadn’t been fully prepared, it was hard to argue about the outcome.
If Ferda and Ruri hadn’t appeared and she had faced that man, would she have won?
‘Damn it.’
She chewed on that resentment internally.
Though she couldn’t know for sure since she hadn’t seen the end of it, the helplessness Erica had felt was hard to ignore.
And,
‘I’m going to die of embarrassment.’
The fact that she had made a fuss and screamed all by herself was more painful than the ache of her twisted internal organs.
She bit her lip and repeatedly struck her own thigh with her fist.
‘Ugh, you idiot. You idiot! Why don’t you just die!’
Ferda watched her as she seemed to swallow her agony and thought:
‘It seems her internal injuries are quite severe.’
A short while later, someone flew toward them.
Ruri, who had gone off with her ferocious axe, had returned.
“I have dealt with all those heading toward Hestia Village. They say things are being wrapped up over there without needing further help.”
“Good work.”
“It is not over yet. We must clear away the monster corpses.”
“Bernel will be pleased.”
The forest was filled with the corpses of monsters.
The green blood and purple flesh gave off an alien and ominous feeling in nature.
“I shall take care of clearing this area.”
It was Erica, still sitting cross-legged, who spoke up.
“There is no need for you to do so.”
“There are many of them, and if they aren’t cleared away meticulously, some places will become contaminated, right? Such things require the help of magic. After I cultivate for a bit longer, I’ll have enough mana to tidy them up.”
“Understood. Then I shall leave it to you, Erica-nim.”
It seemed the matter was being settled, but it was not.
Thump—!
A loud, booming sound.
The source was none other than Hestia Village.
