I Married the Dragon I Killed

The Arken Empire had to be superior to everything.

That was why even imperial carriages were approximately fifty percent larger than any others, and their interiors offered comfort comparable to floating on clouds.

That carriage, whose mere operation consumed the monthly budget of an entire village, set out on a long journey.

Its destination was a massive dome resembling a cage, located in a remote area.

“We have arrived, Your Highness.”

The person who stepped out of the carriage was Olivia Arken.

She was a beauty worthy of being called the flower of the Empire.

Upon entering, she found a vibrant green spring instead of the barren winter outside.

“Allow me to take your coat.”

“No. I’ll keep it on. It might be cold, don’t you think?”

“It is part of the dress code established by His Excellency the Grand Duke, so I ask for your cooperation.”

“……”

Olivia removed her thick coat and proceeded down the path.

She passed gardens where exotic flowers from all across the continent were carefully cultivated and continued toward an artificial lake at the far end.

Beside the shore stood a table from which the lake could be admired.

“Oh! Welcome, Your Imperial Highness.”

In contrast to the colorful spring garden, an elderly man with white hair and age spots straightened himself to greet her.

It was Grand Duke Valdemar Golt, one of the great nobles of the Arken Empire.

Olivia smiled naturally as she put on her social mask.

“It is good to see you, Grand Duke Golt. As befits one of the Empire’s most prestigious families, you enjoy your leisure in a magnificent place.”

“Haha, that is too much praise. The scenery is beautiful, and in places like this one can drink and enjoy the water. Please, have a seat.”

Valdemar personally pulled out a chair for her.

When Olivia sat down, the old man’s hand discreetly brushed against her shoulder.

“Cough, cough.”

Olivia coughed and leaned forward.

Then she smiled carelessly.

“It must be from the long journey. I’m very thirsty.”

“Good heavens! What have they been doing inside if they haven’t even given you something to drink? Allow me to serve you myself.”

Valdemar personally walked over to the drinks table.

“What liquor would you like?”

“Liquor? That would be a little difficult…”

Olivia showed a troubled expression, her eyes slightly moist.

“I don’t tolerate alcohol very well…”

“Then why not take this opportunity to learn?”

“I don’t know. It worries me. They say a woman who enjoys alcohol is a dangerous seductress. I wouldn’t want to become one.”

“I would call her a refined lady capable of enjoying leisure alongside a gentleman.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever become a refined lady.”

Valdemar insisted again and again, but Olivia continued refusing.

In the end, he had no choice but to serve her hot tea.

However, Olivia merely pretended to take small sips.

She neither drank nor touched any of the food or beverages prepared by Valdemar.

She seemed like a doll.

She smiled, but her eyes never met the Grand Duke’s.

There was not even any vitality in them.

Such an aloof attitude should have been unpleasant, yet Valdemar’s crescent-shaped eyes never stopped gazing at her in fascination.

His sticky lips parted as he let out an admiring sigh.

“Stella was exactly this age.”

Olivia froze for a moment.

Her face hardened briefly.

“She was also very beautiful at that age. But you become more beautiful with each passing day, Your Highness.”

Olivia covered her lips with a fan and smiled with her eyes.

“Hoho. After all, my mother was known as a beauty capable of conquering nations. If golden blood is combined with incomparable beauty, isn’t it natural for the result to be beautiful?”

“Haha! That is absolutely true!”

The elderly duke laughed heartily while discreetly stretching out his hand.

“They say you are already of marriageable age, yet still have no suitor.”

Olivia picked up her teacup.

“That is correct. It seems I have not yet found the right person.”

“Don’t look too far away. The person destined to become your companion is often much closer than one imagines.”

“My, really?”

“What importance do age or appearance have? If he is a powerful man who cherishes you, you should hold on to him without hesitation.”

“I will keep your words in mind. I shall make sure to look carefully.”

They talked, but the conversation went nowhere.

Both Olivia and Valdemar were perfectly aware of that.

She wanted him to grow tired and let her leave.

But Valdemar was not someone who could be discouraged so easily.

Only after three long hours of insinuations and conversation did he finally release her.

“I suppose we can bring our pleasant time together to an end.”

“Thanks to you, it has been a very enjoyable evening.”

She did not even pretend to want to stay longer.

As they exchanged courtesies and she stood up, Valdemar extended his hand.

Olivia looked at it and tilted her head.

“What is the matter? Why are you suddenly offering your hand?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I am proposing a handshake.”

There was no way she did not understand.

“Ah, of course. I understand.”

Olivia attempted to shake it.

“Now, now. When one shakes hands, it should be done skin to skin.”

“I am an unmarried young woman. It makes me uncomfortable to take a man’s hand.”

“You did not touch the food or liquor I prepared, and you barely paid attention to my words. I think you could at least grant me this small request.”

It was a threat.

A threat saying that she had better comply with his final wish before he voiced his dissatisfaction to the Emperor.

Olivia understood that she could no longer continue refusing.

She had no choice but to remove her glove and take that hand.

Or rather, endure a prolonged handshake.

Every time she tried to pull away, he increased his grip.

For an old man standing at death’s door, he possessed surprising strength.

It hurt so much that she nearly cried out.

“Could you let go now?”

“Haha. It seems I have held you for too long. My apologies.”

Only then did Valdemar release her.

Olivia bid farewell with a slight bow of her head and left the greenhouse.

Before leaving, she glanced sideways at a ceramic flowerpot.

Its glazed surface was so shiny that it could be used as a mirror.

And it perfectly reflected the face of Grand Duke Valdemar Golt.

His eyes were smiling with perversion.

And he was greedily licking the hand he had just shaken.

***

Once back inside the carriage, Olivia spoke to the escort knight who was about to close the door.

“Could you give me my perfume?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

It was the rose perfume she normally used.

She uncorked the bottle and poured its entire contents onto her right hand.

The oil slid across her skin and eventually dripped onto the floor.

The interior of the carriage filled with the intense scent of roses.

Even a perfume capable of suffocating anyone seemed to have no effect on her.

She took a white embroidered silk handkerchief and began rubbing her hand over and over again.

The face of Grand Duke Golt appeared in her mind.

That greedy expression overlapped with the image of the Great Demon Morax.

‘Disgusting.’

She rubbed harder.

‘Disgusting.’

She rubbed again and again.

‘Disgusting, disgusting, disgusting!’

She continued scrubbing without stopping.

In the end, that jade-white hand became completely red and sore.

For a moment, she even wanted to tear off her skin.

She wanted to strip away every part of her body that had been touched by Valdemar.

‘Grand Duke Golt…’

The handkerchief she held crumpled inside her fist.

Even wearing a mask had its limits.

The porcelain mask she wore began to crack, distorted by rage.

‘How dare you mention that name?’

Stella Arken.

She was an older sister eight years her senior, a woman kinder than anyone else.

She possessed both beauty and talent and even had an excellent fiancé she had chosen herself.

When she was young, Stella had been Olivia’s role model.

However, at some point Stella changed.

It started on the day her engagement was broken.

Because her fiancé was arrested for treason and disappeared onto the execution platform.

From that day onward,

the flower that had always been radiant and beautiful withered away.

She grew more haggard with each passing day.

In Olivia’s final memory of Stella, her golden hair, like strands of spun gold, had been cut short.

“Olivia.”

A cracked voice.

“Isn’t the scenery of the Empire beautiful?”

Her body was dangerously tilted over the terrace.

Olivia replied with a worried expression.

“Sister, it’s dangerous to stand there.”

“Hehe, that’s why you must stay away from your sister, Olivia. At least today.”

“Come down from there, Sister.”

“Stay where you are and listen carefully to your sister. Olivia is a good girl, isn’t she?”

“Yes, Sister…”

She smiled.

But there was no warmth in that smile.

Olivia did not throw a tantrum.

“Do you know what runs through our veins?”

Stella asked.

“Golden blood. I was told our blood is golden.”

“Hehe, innocent Olivia. I wish you could remain that innocent forever, but it’s time to wake up from the dream.”

Stella’s body tilted forward.

“Please, see the truth with your own eyes.”

And she jumped.

The little Olivia believed that wings would suddenly sprout from her sister’s back and that she would become an angel.

But no angel appeared.

The only thing she saw was her sister’s corpse smashed against the ground.

It looked like a flower in bloom.

Her short blonde hair was the center of the flower.

The red petals spread open in full bloom.

She had finally obtained freedom.

And Olivia stared at that fully blossomed flower until a servant ran over to cover her eyes.

Stella had been the worst kind of sister.

She displayed a cruelty that should never be shown to a child.

But it was also the final act of kindness to reveal the destiny and the even crueler truth behind the Arken bloodline.

And through a servant whom Stella had deeply cherished, Olivia eventually learned even the secret behind that death.

The cause of Stella’s death had been Grand Duke Golt.

From a very early age, he had become obsessed with the young Stella and wanted to possess her.

His obsession became so extreme that he framed Stella’s fiancé and had him brutally executed.

Afterward, he sent her a message.

He warned her that he would destroy everything she loved in order to obtain her.

The one who cooperated with him was the Emperor.

Even the First Prince and the Second Prince, blinded by power, tried to sell their own sister in exchange for even greater authority.

That was the fate of those so-called flowers of the Empire.

Innocence was a luxury an imperial princess could not afford.

‘The sister who died because of you.’

And you dare.

You dare speak her name with that filthy mouth!

She repeatedly suppressed the urge to scream hysterically.

Even if no one was watching her, there were still ears that could hear.

What existed beneath that mask of purity could never be discovered by anyone.

‘This is the only weapon I possess.’

She had promised herself that she would wear the mask every man wanted to see.

And by using that mask, she would turn them into her tools.

‘But that wasn’t enough.’

Manipulating men still meant ultimately depending on men.

She wanted to spread her wings and truly fly free.

And she had found only one way out.

‘To become a saint.’

To become an absolute devotee of Alte and reach a position comparable to that of the Pope.

That was the only means of challenging the curse known as blood.

The reason she could even entertain that possibility was because Olivia possessed divine power.

According to the version known by the public, she had understood Alte’s teachings, attained enlightenment, and awakened her sanctity.

But, as always, the story was embellished.

In reality, Olivia’s awakening was born from a tragedy.

On the day she witnessed Stella’s death, she felt something turning deep within her chest.

At the time, she was too innocent to understand it.

But as she grew older, she managed to conceptualize it.

A Red Circle was revolving within her.

‘To reach the rank of saint, one must attain at least the Fifth Enlightenment.’

In terms of mages, it was equivalent to reaching the 5th Circle.

Olivia was currently at the Third Enlightenment.

Barely at the level of an itinerant preacher capable of using light magic and simple healing spells.

She could not attain enlightenment on her own.

She needed someone’s help.

The religious leader was useless.

After all, he was still an ally of the Emperor.

That was why she needed the help of the Holy Emperor of the Holy Nation of Odograsa.

He was a true saint who had shattered her prejudice that all men were the same.

Olivia sought his guidance.

And this was his answer.

“The fact that a god dwells within you does not mean remaining only inside a cathedral. You must feel and accept that He is always watching you and standing behind you.”

Upon hearing that, Olivia thought.

‘There’s an entire carriage full of people like that around me. Are all of them gods?’

Well, yes.

Idiots.

That sarcastic thought made it even harder to accept the existence of a god.

So she cautiously asked for a more detailed explanation.

And the Holy Emperor replied.

“It is not difficult because you must believe in God. Try to love God, Princess. Then you will also hear His call.”

He said that such love was born from following the precepts.

Even after swearing vengeance against her relatives and dedicating years of her life to following Alte’s commandments, her mana circuit showed not the slightest reaction.

The divine call never came.

Naturally.

Because that could not be called love.

‘Love…’

What exactly was love?

They said that if you loved, it would come.

But she did not understand that feeling.

They said it could be seen in a person’s gaze.

Yet every gaze directed toward her always passed over her chest first.

Even the supposed leader of the Church of Alte was no different.

Although, after receiving so many looks like that, she had briefly wondered whether “loving with the heart” literally meant loving breasts.

‘Love is nothing more than a tumor created by sexual desire.’

Every man carried one inside him.

And all that accumulated within her was disgust.

She believed she would never understand love.

However, recently even that belief had begun to waver.

‘Perda Valdrova.’

His image suddenly appeared in her mind.

His tall stature.

His gray hair.

His deep blue eyes like a lake.

His pessimistic expression and determined behavior.

‘Although part of that is due to the power he possesses…’

He had the ability to get things done.

The people around him were exceptional.

And he enjoyed prestige.

As the perception spread that the Far East was relatively safe, even young people from the Empire began traveling there to work.

That was not something that could be achieved through authority alone.

‘And above all…’

She had never seen desire in his eyes.

At first, it made her curious.

She wanted to know how long he could maintain that attitude.

She had done things capable of making even married men or knights devoted to their principles waver.

But Perda’s heart remained completely unmoved.

And that irritated her.

It made her feel as though she was the only fool for believing all men were the same.

No.

She truly was a fool.

Perda was working to turn the Far East into a second capital.

And the only one incapable of fulfilling her promise to become a saint and help him was herself.

‘Then how am I any different from those young noblewomen who live in a world of romantic fantasies?’

That was intolerable to Olivia.

She remained motionless.

She was of no help to him.

She was barely a collaborator who was supposed to stand on the same level as him.

And yet he continued moving forward while she remained behind.

‘In the end, all men are the same.’

At least in one respect.

They always found a way to irritate her.

The accumulated frustration felt as though it were drilling through her skull.

She tried distracting herself by looking out the window.

The blue sky.

The barren winter landscape.

As her gaze wandered without focusing on anything in particular, a small point clearly caught her attention.

“Stop.”

The carriage halted at her command.

She got out to take a closer look.

Perhaps she had been mistaken.

But after observing carefully, she realized it was no mistake.

‘That man…’

It was Perda Valdrova.

And the person standing beside him was probably Valdrova’s maid.

‘What is he doing in a place like this?’

She mentally reviewed the map.

The Rosnova Estate was nearby.

Had he visited his birthplace and ended up sitting there?

She considered approaching to greet him.

But her steps stopped before she moved forward.

When she looked at him again, she noticed that Perda seemed extraordinarily dejected.

It was a completely different image from the man who always stood straight-backed with a cold expression.

‘A weak image…’

Olivia hated that.

To her, showing wounds was the same as showing weaknesses.

In the world of nobility, a weakness was like a piece of bleeding meat.

The nobles, like piranhas, would immediately swarm toward it.

Someone who could not bear the weight of nobility was of no use to her.

“…What a pity.”

Olivia was surprised even by her own words.

Had she just said she felt pity?

Was she really sympathizing with that man?

For a moment, she thought she had to be mistaken.

But instead of feeling contempt and letting out a sigh of frustration, her chest hurt.

‘Why?’

Olivia examined that unfamiliar feeling over and over, trying to understand it.

What exactly was she expecting from that man?

The thought frightened even her.

And yet, she did not let go of that feeling.

Without realizing it, she placed both hands over her chest and clasped them together.

Her gaze remained fixed on him, carried away by her emotions.

She wanted to lick away the tears he shed.

She wanted to taste his sorrow.

That feeling continued growing and growing.

Eventually, the two hands resting on her chest ended up folded over one another.

As if she were praying.

‘If I…’

For the first time in her life, Olivia felt something like this.

‘If I could become that man’s support…’

It was not contempt for weakness.

It was compassion.

And then—

“Ah.”

She began to feel a strange sensation within her body.

The very thing that had been the main reason she had never been able to become a saint.

The thing that no longer reacted no matter how many times she deceived herself into calling herself a fervent devotee.

It was moving.

Without a doubt, this was the love for a god that the Holy Emperor had spoken of.

And then she understood.

‘Perda…’

That he was the very god she was meant to shelter within her heart.