Chapter 2
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Dragon's Bride
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Valenhardt Family.
That name meant more than just a noble house in the history of this continent.
In the ancient Great War where gods, humans, and demonkin clashed in chaos...
An existence appeared in the heart of the battlefield, turning the tide of war.
People in later generations called him the "First Hero."
The Valenhardt Family was the bloodline that directly inherited that hero's lineage.
After the Great War of Heaven and Demons concluded, the Empire had to pay the price of victory.
After countless territories and lives were exchanged, what remained was the question of how to reward the hero's merits.
As a result, the Emperor personally issued a decree, granting the Valenhardt Family the rank of duke and governance over the northern frontier.
That marked the beginning of the Valenhardt Duchy as it stood today.
The Empire's north.
The land where invaders and calamities struck first.
Humanity's foremost frontline and shield.
Just holding that position was explanation enough of the Valenhardt Family's standing.
In its heyday, Valenhardt was a legend incarnate.
One swing of the sword split the sea, ten swings overturned the heavens, and a hundred felled even the mightiest dragon in the world with a single stroke.
Of course, no one knew if those tales were true.
But one thing was certain.
The people of that era never doubted Valenhardt's blade.
However.
No matter how mighty the bloodline, time spared no exceptions.
A thousand years exactly after the hero of the Great War of Heaven and Demons perished.
The current Valenhardt Family had scarcely any of the power that evoked those bygone days.
Legends survived only in records, the bloodline had thinned, and the hero's name no longer wielded a sword.
And now, other entities were beginning to eye that void.
"Hic... Lady...!"
"Miya. I'm the one who's being sold off, so why are you crying harder?"
"Hic-hic-hiii! Because I don't wanna be separated from Lady Elysiaaa...!"
It was the third day since hearing all the details from Duke Joseph.
No matter how much they tried to keep it secret, there were limits.
This was news that the Valenhardt Family's eldest daughter—the very symbol of the duchy, Elysia herself—was to be married off elsewhere.
And to a dragon, no less. Not even human.
That it was essentially an offering for reconciliation made the event shake the entire household.
Rumors spread faster the more you tried to contain them.
The outer villages where commoners lived were still quiet, but not inside the castle.
Laughter had vanished as if they were in mourning, footsteps grew hushed.
Servants bit back unnecessary words, and even knights tried to muffle their armor.
In that silence, one being made no effort to hide her grief.
Miya, the cat beastkin maid.
Just like Kim Jinwoo in the past, she was a child Elysia had impulsively bought out of pity.
This morning too, as she brushed Elysia's radiant golden hair, Miya alternated between wiping tears and snot.
Her hands moved slower than usual, her tail limp and dragging on the floor.
"And a dragon, of all things..."
She sniffled.
"The Valenhardt Duchy and dragons have been bitter enemies since forever..."
"Yeah."
Elysia lowered her gaze briefly.
"I heard our ancestor, the hero, personally slew their leader who sided with the monsters during the Great War of Heaven and Demons."
Miya's brushing hand halted.
"Relations have been bad ever since... It's just a legend now, but if the other's a dragon, they might still cling to that memory."
She wasn't wrong.
Dragons were a long-lived race incomparable to humans.
A millennium might be mere midlife for them.
Even now, some of the elders leading them could have lived through the Great War of Heaven and Demons.
From their perspective, the Valenhardt Family—now stripped of the hero's power—was no longer a threat.
Just prime prey.
The sole reason the Valenhardt Family had survived as a duchy amid the north's hordes of hostile forces, monsters, and dragons all these years was one thing.
The hero's power.
In the past, dragons had invaded the duchy repeatedly, snarling, "You short-lived vermin dare covet our lands?!"
But each time, Valenhardt descendants summoned the holy sword—proof of the hero himself—and repelled them.
Thus, the dragons had retreated beyond the northern mountains to Dragon Valley, never to set foot again.
But.
Now was different.
"If only I had the power to forge a holy sword too...!"
Elysia's voice trembled, ever so slightly.
Her father, Joseph von Valenhardt, could summon a sword infused with mana—albeit a pitiful shadow of what one might call a "holy sword."
Yet that too seemed severed in the next generation.
Mid-brush, Elysia clenched her fist quietly.
As her family had done for generations, she drew forth the power dormant deep in her bloodline.
Focus.
In the old days, light would have bloomed in her palm.
But her mana gathered briefly in her hand... only to disperse as if nothing had happened.
No sword appeared.
In that moment, Elysia realized it.
The Valenhardt Family's holy sword was truly, utterly lost.
"By the way, Miya."
Elysia asked suddenly.
"When's Jinwoo coming back?"
"J-Jinwoo?"
Miya sniffled in reply.
"Who knows... Three days ago, he suddenly took leave and left the castle. That idiot...!"
Her limp tail lashed the floor hard once.
"In four days, you'll be dragged off by those winged lizards... If he's not back by tomorrow, I'll go drag him here myself!"
"Yeah... Relying on you then."
Elysia smiled weakly.
Truth be told, she had zero desire to go through with some dragon marriage alliance.
As mentioned, the Valenhardt Duchy and dragons were ancient foes.
And they viewed humans as inherently inferior, lowly beings.
Life there would be far from dignified.
No freedom, no choices.
Just quietly consumed as a "symbol of reconciliation."
Yet Elysia had chosen to accept it.
For her family.
For the people in the castle.
For the entire Valenhardt Duchy.
Refusing meant war.
Even dragons couldn't topple the duchy in one blow, but the cost would be rivers of blood.
So Elysia thought ending it with herself was enough.
All the more reason, then.
Before leaving, there was one person she wanted to see at least once more.
Kim Jinwoo.
Not the slave brought home out of childhood pity, but the one always by her side—who first saw her insecurities and inexperience, sharp and cool-headed beyond a slave, utterly reliable.
Above all, her precious friend who had shared her days as a young lady.
At the very least, she wanted a proper farewell this time.
"Has Jinwoo ever taken leave before?"
Miya shook her head vigorously at Elysia's question.
"Never. Slaves don't get vacations to begin with. You forced that on him. Among us, he never missed a day."
"Heh... True."
Elysia chuckled softly.
"Even when sick, even when exhausted... He was always by my side."
A brief silence.
"...If he's not here now, it's probably because he's scared. Just like me. Of parting."
Elysia murmured, gazing out the window.
It was the morning of the fourth day since then.
Once the afternoon passed, the winged lizards would enter the castle under the guise of a peace treaty with the duchy.
And Lady Elysia would be dragged to a place from which she could never return.
Yet.
At this crucial juncture, that foolhardy scaredy-cat hadn't shown his face.
So Miya—who'd been the same age as him since their slave wagon days, practically childhood friends—headed out of the castle at the crack of dawn.
Not dog-beastkin levels of smell, but a cat beastkin's senses were no joke.
Sniff sniff sniff.
"Heh... Knew it'd come to this, so I saved it."
Miya pulled a ragged cloth scrap from her bosom.
One of Jinwoo's old clothes.
Or, to be precise, the panties with the strongest lingering scent.
"This'll track him no matter where he hides."
Miya sniffed confidently.
And when she reached where the scent cut off, she frowned.
"...A smithy?"
On the village outskirts, in a spot few people trod, stood a small building.
Not just small—it looked ready to collapse any second.
Cracked walls, roof patched haphazardly everywhere.
But the sound from inside was unmistakable.
Clang.
Clang—.
Rhythmic metal strikes.
Not feeble taps, but hammer blows with precise timing and weight.
"...Why does Jinwoo's scent end here?"
Miya pondered, then paled.
"N-No way?!"
What flashed in her mind was an utterly absurd imagining.
"For Lady... He's making a weapon to fight the dragon himself?!"
Not impossible.
That was Jinwoo to a tee.
Back at the academy.
When noble brats picked on Lady Elysia, the slave beat them senseless—talk of execution even surfaced.
Without her intervention, his head would've rolled long ago.
When it came to Elysia, he didn't care about consequences.
"This is straight-up suicide!"
Miya bolted into the smithy.
"K-Kim Jinwoo! I get how you feel, but calm down first...!"
Clang!
Clang!!
"...Huh?"
Her words cut short.
Inside wasn't some reckless fool gearing up to charge a dragon.
Clang—!
Clang—!
Clang—!
The smithy's interior was worlds apart from its shabby exterior.
Oddly pristine despite the rundown look, the active forge flickered not with ordinary flames but iridescent mana.
And at its center was Jinwoo.
Silent, back straight, his hammer swings showed no hesitation—angles and timing precise, like a veteran of decades.
Amid sparks, something formless began taking shape.
"...What."
Miya swallowed.
"...That expression."
It wasn't the face of someone out for suicide.
The face of one creating.
One who knew exactly what he was doing.