I Married the Dragon I Killed

It was while Eremvalt was on his way back to the Rosnova Estate.

As he rode in the carriage, he thought to himself.

‘Yes. This is enough.’

He was convinced that cutting ties had been the right decision.

These had been days in which he had been losing entire clumps of hair because of Erdes’s constant scrutiny and pressure.

Now he had obtained confirmation that Perda no longer had any connection to him.

From this moment onward, they were complete strangers.

No.

Rather, Eremvalt would be the one left as the victim.

“I’ll never have anything to do with that damned useless brat again. This is enough.”

“What useless brat?”

“Uagh?!”

Upon hearing that familiar voice, he looked up.

They were inside the carriage.

The seat across from him should have been completely empty.

However, a teenage girl was sitting there.

Platinum hair.

Blue eyes infused with mana.

Her name was Erdes Roton.

President of the Serdes Magic Association.

A living disaster.

A delinquent who used magic.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

She smiled mischievously.

“Repeat what you just said. I’m interested in hearing what you were talking about too.”

“M-My unforgivable sin. I dared to speak disrespectfully of the President…”

“Do you think I came all the way here just to hear gossip that insignificant?”

She was famous for holding grudges.

But Erdes had not come for that.

“Tell me what you discussed with the Regent.”

“It was nothing important.”

“Of course it was. If it wasn’t important, why did Valdrova’s maid and the Regent leave together afterward?”

Eremvalt flinched.

“W-Where did they go?”

“I don’t know. Judging by the direction, it seemed related to the Rosnova Estate.”

She smiled, showing her teeth.

“Or perhaps they’re planning to personally exterminate your entire family?”

Eremvalt’s face turned pale.

Cold sweat began running down his back.

Seeing that reaction, even Erdes, who had spoken jokingly, became confused.

“What’s wrong? Why are you reacting like that?”

“It’s nothing…”

“Of course it is. That reaction means you thought it was possible, doesn’t it? You must have had quite an intense conversation.”

“It was nothing special. I simply spoke with Regent Valdrova and told him that he no longer had any connection to our family. He just overreacted.”

“…What?”

Erdes stopped smiling.

Nor did she become angry.

She simply stared at him with a completely expressionless face.

And that was even more terrifying.

“As I told him, Regent Perda does not share our blood. I explained it to him. Aside from the gray hair, he resembles us in absolutely nothing.”

“Hmm. So you severed ties with him?”

“That’s right.”

“Hmm…”

After hearing the answer, Erdes merely tapped her chin lightly with her index finger.

Eremvalt felt the need to break the uncomfortable silence.

“And besides… Perda uses black magic.”

“…Why?”

“When I told him I wanted to cut ties with him, he used black magic to create a hand. He tried to strangle me!”

Eremvalt pretended not to understand what had really happened.

Because he was certain he would have died on the spot if he had.

Erdes’s eyes shifted slightly.

“And did he strangle you?”

“No… he withdrew it before doing so…”

“What a good boy.”

“Huh?”

Eremvalt was bewildered.

The woman who hated black magic more than anyone was acting as though it were unimportant.

“He’s a good boy because he didn’t strangle his father after his father went to tell him that he wanted to sever all ties with him.”

Not only that.

She was defending him.

Eremvalt had no choice but to ask directly.

“What do you intend to do about Regent Perda?”

“Do about him? Nothing.”

“Nothing? Even though he tried to kill me with black magic?”

“Yes. Whether you live or die has absolutely nothing to do with me.”

The insolent young woman’s voice was accompanied by a long sigh.

“Ah, honestly. When everyone fails this badly, it makes me terribly depressed. Heaven really protects that brat.”

Erdes stood up.

“I’m tired of you. Try not to cross my path again. If you do something stupid and I find out about it, even I don’t know what I might do. Understood?”

“Yes… I’ll live humbly.”

As though he was no longer worth wasting time on, she left the carriage.

The interior fell silent once more.

“Huff…”

Eremvalt placed a hand on his neck.

Only after confirming that it was still attached to his body did he let out a sigh of relief.

He felt some guilt for having cast out his son.

But that feeling disappeared as quickly as a gust of wind.

The only thing that mattered to him was the relief of knowing he would never have to encounter that delinquent or that impure thing ever again.

***

Office of the President of the Serdes Magic Association.

A circular portal opened and Erdes stepped out of it.

As usual, Secretary Lu was seated in the office, tending to his work.

“So you abandoned your responsibilities again to disappear who-knows-where?”

Lu asked, dark circles clearly visible beneath his eyes.

Erdes turned her head sharply and glared at him.

Her expression was filled with irritation.

“I went to strengthen the foundations of the Far East. Do you have a problem with that?”

“Weren’t you supposed to hate the Regent?”

“That’s what I thought. Damn it. What a stupid idea.”

Still cursing, she dropped onto the sofa.

At first, it had seemed like a good idea to manipulate the workers into creating a union and turn it into an opposition force.

But the enemy had proven far more formidable than expected.

“Stephan Pascal. Wasn’t he supposed to be some useless nobody?”

“Are you talking about the future President of the Pascal Chamber?”

“What?”

Erdes raised her head.

It seemed she was hearing it for the first time.

“Since when? And didn’t he have two very strong competitors?”

“What era are you talking about? The eldest daughter disappeared with her husband into a village in the west, and the eldest son attempted to become independent but eventually handed control of his mercenary company over to Stephan.”

“And why didn’t I know that?”

“Because you were never interested in the subject.”

“And why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you were never interested in the subject.”

Erdes glared fiercely at him.

Lu, who had answered completely naturally, looked troubled.

“Uh… is that somehow my fault?”

“Isn’t that the sort of thing a secretary is supposed to handle? Even if I say I’m not interested, you should insist at least once.”

“That sounds like feeding a baby… Fine, I understand. I’ll start studying mind-reading magic immediately.”

Lu replied with an expression of disbelief.

“And Eremvalt!”

The second thing ruining her mood.

“Who would have thought he was such a coward? A man from a knightly family getting scared by a mere mage!”

“People who don’t get scared usually end up dead at the President’s hands. You have to understand that.”

“Even so, how can he cast out his own son?”

“Didn’t he say they didn’t share blood? Besides, he already has two perfectly healthy sons. And considering he was willing to offer him as a sacrifice, it’s strange that you expected fatherly affection now.”

Erdes crossed her arms and grumbled unhappily.

“Even so, after living together for eighteen years, there should be some affection left, shouldn’t there? If it were me, I’d at least have some fondness left from all those years together.”

Lu’s eyes widened in horror.

“You, President?”

“Why? Does that sound strange? Do you think you survived after speaking to me so disrespectfully because you’re exceptionally competent?”

Lu shrank back in fear.

“Anyway, I couldn’t find any weakness either. If there had been even a little affection or some kind of family bond left, I could have used it as leverage to blackmail that brat…”

The only thing she had discovered was how complicated his life had been.

And she did not like that.

“Blue.”

“What is it?”

“Am I really that bad at judging people?”

“Have you finally realized it?”

“Do you really want to die?”

“If you want a serious answer, you’re not particularly good at it.”

“But the Association functions well, doesn’t it? Doesn’t that mean I’m doing my job properly?”

“Well, if it didn’t function properly, you’d start by chopping off heads. Since everyone’s afraid of you, things somehow end up working.”

“Hmm, so that’s what it was. That’s what it was. I suppose it’s time for a change.”

“Yes. You should also reorganize the staff and do a general cleanup. Like when you hired me.”

Lu took the opportunity to suggest it.

Erdes stared at him.

“Even if you say that, I’ll never release you from your lifetime contract as my secretary.”

“Damn it.”

The secretary of the President of the Magic Association continued failing in his attempts to escape.

***

After confessing his concerns, Perda returned to work.

The wound Eremvalt had left behind had calmed somewhat, but the aftereffects still lingered in his mind in the form of uncertainty.

‘No matter what, it’s a fact that my power is unstable.’

It was not simply a matter of being driven by a single emotion.

The possibility of other emotions interfering was something unprecedented.

If he had been the Perda from before the regression, he probably would have considered it an opportunity and tried to take advantage of it somehow.

For a Red Circle mage, other emotions are nothing more than restraints.

Perda understood that balance very well.

‘Losing control only leads to tragedy.’

He would end up acting against Valdrova’s wishes.

And Ruri, as Valdrova’s maid, would demand accountability from Perda.

Dying at Ruri’s hands would undoubtedly be a tragedy.

‘But an even greater tragedy would be…’

Killing Ruri when she came to kill him.

‘If I ended up killing the only person Valdrova trusts…’

The loneliness Valdrova had felt appeared vividly in his mind.

After the Dragon-Demon War, she had spent one hundred and fifty years carrying guilt and loneliness.

But she had still possessed a small measure of hope.

She knew that Ruri remained by her side.

In the previous life, even she had disappeared.

That meant Valdrova had absolutely no one left.

Nothing remained except despair.

‘I would have gone mad long ago.’

But she had not gone mad.

In the end, she had even given her heart to Perda, someone who hated her.

It was not surrender born of despair.

It was a final hope created through sacrifice.

‘To a woman like that…’

How could he abandon her?

How could he hurt her?

It would be like throwing a rope to someone trapped in a pit of despair without realizing that the rope was rotten.

It would not save her.

It would only leave even deeper wounds.

Just like in that dream.

Like when he was strangling her.

Don’t worry.

At those moments, a sweet voice echoed in his ears.

There is no reason to worry about that.

Because you are strong.

Just do what you’re good at.

Perda did not answer that voice.

He ignored it.

And continued ignoring it until it faded away.

‘I must keep a cool head.’

He had to strengthen his will so he would not succumb to that enormous temptation.

Perda Valdrova.

A man who always found answers.

He decided to believe that he would find one this time as well.

‘In the worst-case scenario…’

He could abandon his life as a mage.

That was preferable to carrying a bomb that could explode at any moment.

‘If that happens, what will I have left?’

Ruri had asked only one thing of him.

To become a fiancé worthy of Valdrova.

He had thought he would improve with time.

But all he understood more clearly with each passing day was how insignificant he truly was.

Everything he possessed consisted of fragments of future knowledge and magical expertise.

By the standards Ruri desired, he was completely out of the running.

It was a miserable situation.

If he abandoned either side, the balance would shatter and everything would collapse.

He did not want to give up.

Just as she had never given up on him, regardless of the circumstances.

Perda did not want to give up on her either.

Rumble!

At that moment.

A tremendous vibration shook the castle.

‘Valdrova’s draconic energy?’

No.

The frequency was different.

The vibration was coming from inside the castle.

It seemed that someone had caused a major incident.

‘Was there any experiment large enough to cause something like this?’

Perda stood up and headed toward the research building.

The hallways were already full of confused people.

“What’s happening?”

“That’s exactly what we were trying to find out.”

“Didn’t the explosion occur in your laboratory?”

“There’s no way an explosion of this magnitude could occur in our laboratory.”

None of the people capable of causing something like this understood what had happened.

Even Perda had assumed it came from Vernell’s laboratory.

‘If it wasn’t there…’

Only one possibility remained.

“Lord Perda.”

Ruri appeared to report to him.

“There has been a massive magical disturbance. The location is…”

“The library?”

“How did you know?”

Ruri narrowed her eyes.

The unspoken question was whether he had something to do with it.

“Because if it wasn’t here, the only person capable of causing an explosion of this level is Echidna.”

That week, it was Echidna’s turn to take care of Morida.

And Echidna was undoubtedly enjoying Morida’s company in the library.

Perda and Ruri headed there.

When they opened the door, they found the interior completely devastated.

Morida was sitting in the middle of the wreckage.

She calmly moved piles of fallen papers aside like late-autumn leaves while continuing her work.

The enormous explosion seemed not to bother her in the slightest.

“Morida.”

Upon hearing her name, she stopped writing and raised her head.

Her eyes shone with an unchanging purity.

No.

She even seemed to have a strangely refreshed expression.

“What happened here?”

Morida wrote her answer on a sheet of paper.

— Echidna has been destroyed.

It was a brief and straightforward explanation.

But the content was extremely serious.