Chapter 21: The Reason She Is an Evil Dragon
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 21: The Reason She Is an Evil Dragon
Late at night, under the silver glow of the moon, Ferda walked down a hallway illuminated by flickering candlelight.
It has been a truly exhausting day.
Since the estate had been neglected for decades, clearing the backlog of official business was no small feat.
Still, having Mori here makes things proceed smoothly.
Her processing speed far outstripped any human's. Thanks to her, it seemed he could finish everything within a year if they maintained this pace.
My role is to assist so that Her Grace has nothing to worry about.
Keeping that in mind, Ferda did his best to fulfill his duties. Before heading to his bedroom, he made his way to the study. If his calculations were correct, Mori would be waiting for him there.
She should be on standby by now. I should tell her to go back and rest.
She was a girl who wouldn't even draw breath without permission. Ferda was moving now to ensure he didn't forget to command her to return to her own room.
When he entered the study, however, he encountered an unexpected figure.
"Hello! Lord Ferda!"
The gloomy witch, Echidna, greeted him with an awkward smile.
"Call me the Regent."
"Ah! Right, I will. But you have to call me Echidna, okay? Promise?"
"I will."
"Ehehehe..."
Echidna let out a dark, awkward giggle. Ferda noted the behavior and walked past her toward Mori. As expected, she was waiting there quietly.
"?"
Mori looked quite different from when Ferda had seen her that morning. She wore a light, fluttering dress, and her hair had been combed as smooth as silk, like a noble lady's. She had always been beautiful, but now that she was properly dressed up, she shone like a high-born lady of a prestigious house.
"Is this your handiwork?"
"Hehe, yes. I called out to her, but she didn't answer and just stood there like a doll... I was bored, so I played around with her look a bit. Is it okay?"
Echidna squirmed as if feeling shy. Ferda recalled the golems Echidna used to make—creatures with unnecessarily large, sparkling eyes and small heads, looking like a child's drawing.
Is it because they're both female that her aesthetic sense isn't warped in this case?
It was a frivolous act, but it wasn't bad.
In fact, it's better this way.
Even if she was a tool, Mori was clearly a living being, and living beings required more delicate care than inanimate objects. Since she couldn't look after herself, it was only natural that she needed someone to watch over her.
"If you have the spare time, could you look after Mori?"
Echidna’s eyes sparkled as she nodded vigorously.
"Of course! To think I get to touch such a pretty girl with my own hands... Ehe, ehehehe...!"
"I would prefer it if you didn't do anything strange. She is an essential talent."
"A-Ah, I don't do things like that. I'm not a wicked witch who eats children or men, you know? I'll just cherish her, brush her hair, and feed her!"
Because her very way of speaking was so sinister, everything she said sounded suspicious. The gloomily laughing Echidna reflexively brought a lock of Mori's hair to her nose to catch its scent.
She definitely is strange.
Ferda decided not to doubt his judgment. Regardless of the antics, Mori simply looked up at Ferda. Her face showed she was merely waiting for her next command.
"That is all for today. Go back to your room and get some rest for tomorrow."
Mori nodded, stood up, and began to walk. It was then—
Thoom—!
The castle shook violently. Mori, who had been walking, lost her footing and tumbled.
"Oh my! Mori!"
Echidna rushed over and helped Mori up. Ferda held his breath and waited to see if there would be a second shock. Fortunately, there wasn't. Echidna broke the silence with a flustered voice.
"W-What was that? Does this happen often here?"
"It is the first time."
The castle occasionally trembled, but never like this in the middle of the night.
And never this violently.
As the Regent, Ferda needed to find out what was happening.
"Echidna."
"Yes?"
"Put Mori to bed. She is a talent I need tomorrow. And you, go back quietly as well. Understood?"
"U-Understood!"
Echidna picked Mori up and moved out. After watching them leave, Ferda stepped out into the hallway.
The sound likely came from the Lair.
Ferda decided to head down to the Lair. After walking for a while, he saw a faint light glowing in the middle of the corridor. It was Ruri, holding a lantern.
"You have taken the wrong direction."
With a calm, expressionless face, she pointed back the way Ferda had come.
"The bedroom is in the opposite direction."
She pretended to be a simple guide, but Ferda saw through her.
"You are hiding something from me."
"Yes."
She didn't deny it.
"So, could you please return to your room?"
"I cannot do that. As the man who will become the master of this castle, I need to know what is happening."
"You are not the master of this castle."
"I am the man who will soon become so."
Silver eyes and blue eyes locked onto each other. It was a confrontation where neither side would yield an inch. It was Ruri who finally took a step back.
"My Master is currently suppressing her blood energy."
"How?"
"There is no need for concern. A tremor like that is a rare occurrence. Usually, it doesn't happen. Since the rest of us have to earn a living—"
Ferda stepped closer to Ruri. His eyes narrowed fiercely.
"I asked, how?"
Irritation and anger radiated from him. It was an emotion he had never shown Ruri before, despite her constant rudeness. Ruri furrowed her brow.
"How else? What would one do to suppress the impulse to destroy?"
"..."
"My Master fights the desire to burst through those massive iron doors and turn the world upside down. That desire—which consists of nothing but slaughtering everything in sight—accumulates in her heart every single day without fail. Because that is her essence."
An Evil Dragon is an Evil Dragon forever. The reason she could not bear the name of a Guardian Dragon was partly due to slander, but ultimately because she could not withstand her own destructive impulses.
"My Master lived by venting that destructive urge through killing monsters. If those monsters no longer appear, what do you think she does?"
Ferda recalled the memories of Valdrova etched into his heart. The answer tumbled out of his mouth.
"...She destroys herself?"
"Yes. If there is nothing else to destroy, that is what she does."
Having watched over her for a long time, Ruri knew this well. And it was something that even a loyal servant could do nothing about—it was like a natural disaster.
"The person you are engaged to is that kind of person. Because she cannot control herself, she has already caused much pain to others."
Thus, Ruri gave a sharp warning to Ferda, whom she viewed as having nothing but youthful, foolish stubbornness.
"So, I hope you do not say you wish to see her too often. If your selfish heart is only going to hurt my Master—"
Stop.
Ruri, who had been delivering her stinging rebuke, suddenly lost her voice. Her eyes widened as she looked up at him. Something that absolutely did not belong on Ferda's face was falling.
A tear...?
From the eyes of that iron-faced man, Ferda, a tear was trickling down. Just a single drop. It fell from a face that remained otherwise expressionless, but Ruri was struck with shock. There was no doubt that he had shed it because of the story she had just told.
Feeling the moisture on his cheek, Ferda realized it belatedly.
"Ah."
Ferda himself was surprised by his state. He wiped it away with his index finger and apologized to her.
"I have shown you something unsightly."
Unlike his eyes, his voice held no moisture. It was as if his tear ducts had shriveled, forcing out the stagnant water within.
"I understand. I understand what you are saying."
Ferda gave up on his investigation and turned back toward his room.
"I apologize for bothering you. I shall return."
Ruri stood still, watching Ferda walk away. Only when his figure had grown faint did she finally manage to speak.
"What an unpredictable human..."
Ruri had watched many humans over the long years and thought she understood them well. But the more she learned about Ferda, the less she understood him. He was a man who would break his own ally's fingers for the sake of fairness and kill a noble despite the potential repercussions. A man without blood or tears had just wept.
And only after hearing a story about my Master... Is that even possible?
It hadn't even been a year since they had acknowledged each other's existence. How could he feel such deep emotion? No matter how many times Ruri turned it over in her mind, she could find no answer.
* * *
"Tears..."
Ferda was also surprised by the fact. To think he was capable of crying. Those tears hadn't been born from his own emotions.
They seeped in while we were talking.
When he realized that the great vibration was Valdrova, and when he learned she was engaging in self-destructive behavior, Valdrova's emotions had seeped into him.
Self-loathing.
Whenever she couldn't control herself, her self-loathing grew. She would throw herself into the foul things buried at the bottom of her emotional pit. She listened to the echoing voices of curses in the deep abyss and strangled herself to the point of suffocation. Crushed by that self-loathing, she suppressed her destructive impulses.
She wanted to exist, but at the same time, she didn't. She fought that battle alone every day. That indescribable emotion was surging beneath Ferda's Dantian.
The Red Circle is spinning.
He was still at a level insufficient to move to the next stage. However, if Ferda were to focus now and stay up for a few days, he could undoubtedly reach the 3rd Circle. It was very dangerous, but it would allow for incredibly rapid achievement.
No.
But Ferda put the brakes on the spinning Red Circle.
Not this time.
Ferda recalled the feeling he had when he reached the 2nd Circle. The thing that had been tickling him disappeared along with the achievement.
I must not forget this.
He had decided to live this life for her. His vow back then was that even if he couldn't make her happy, he wouldn't make her sad. This was an emotion directly linked to her sorrow. He didn't want to gloss over her sadness by turning it into a mere stepping stone for achievement.
I will resolve this first.
Moving forward comes after that. That is the reason I am standing here.
* * *
The next morning.
Ferda went to Mori, who was waiting near the study. She had been groomed by Echidna's hands. Ferda asked her:
"Do you know much about Dragons?"
Inside her head was the Library of All Things. Information about everything in the world was stored there. Naturally, she nodded.
"Even about the Red Dragon, Valdrova?"
Nod, nod.
"Can you describe her?"
Mori nodded and picked up a pen to start writing. Instead of the flowing cursive used by scribes, she wrote in clear, easy-to-read block letters.
- Dragons are those who fought to turn primordial chaos into order. Those who survived were granted the very essence that forms the continent. To the Blue Dragon, Morgan, the power to rule mana and water was given; to the Silver Dragon, Silverwind, the power to command wind and ice.
It was a passage from a continental history book he had heard in a liberal arts class as a child.
- The Red Dragon was granted the power to command fire and the Aspect of Power. Her raw martial might is the greatest among all Dragons.
"Is that why there is so much slander, calling her a tyrant or the Demon Dragon?"
- She has been consistently described as an object of awe, but her official designation as an Evil Dragon is relatively recent in Dragon history.
"Since when?"
- Since after the Dragon-Demon War—specifically, after the death of Godwin.
The Black Dragon and the Aspect of Darkness. It was the day the first Dragon of the continent died.
- The Black Dragon Godwin was known as the Dragon who ruled darkness, but it was later discovered through his revealed ambitions that Chaos was also an essence granted to him. Godwin showed his ambition and became the source of all demonic influence, throwing the continent into turmoil. However, the other rulers stepped forward, and he was eventually killed by the hand of the Red Dragon, Valdrova.
"And then?"
- The most prominent hypothesis is that in the process of killing him, Godwin's power made Valdrova's power unstable. Consequently, the Aspect of Power could not suppress its own strength, leading to secondary damage.
Valdrova's rampage. Many people died due to the appearance of the Demon King, but her rampage also killed and burned many.
Innocent humans, living creatures, and even Silverwind.
It was a tragedy for which she would have to atone forever.
"Is there no way to suppress it?"
Mori closed her eyes. She was searching through all the books in her mind. After five minutes of meditation, she opened her eyes again.
She shook her head.
"I see."
Ferda accepted it calmly. In a way, it was a contradiction. If there were a way to suppress the Red Dragon, who was called the Aspect of Power, could she truly be called the Aspect of Power? She was destined to suffer from her own strength forever.
Is there really nothing I can do for her?
Ferda agonized. He could picture her tearing off her own scales and bleeding. Helplessness became a heavy weight of a thousand pounds pressing down on him, and futility became a thousand spears piercing his heart. He felt a pain similar to what he had felt when he absorbed Valdrova's heart.
If only there were anything I could do...
It was then. A small sensation tugged at Ferda's sleeve. Mori, who had been holding the pen, was pulling on his clothes. A tool does not move without reason. Her movement meant that a command Ferda had given was in effect.
"Has a situation arisen where you can give me an answer?"
Mori nodded. She began to move the pen again.
- Based on the provided information, I have identified a hypothesis for suppression.
The moment he saw the next sentence she wrote, the thick fog in Ferda's heart cleared, and the sun rose. Mori's eyes were looking straight at Ferda.
- According to the hypothesis, Ferda Valdrova, you are the one who can suppress her.