I Married the Dragon I Killed

This was known as the Judgment of Storeus.

Each of those lightning spears possessed terrifying power capable of reducing an entire kingdom to ashes.

And he intended to throw both of them at a mere army.

His intention to annihilate it was obvious.

— Let’s see if you can withstand this attack, hmm?

Then Storeus noticed something within that crowd.

Blonde hair.

Blue eyes.

A figure that stood out among the sea of armor.

Her beauty was famous even among dragons.

— Hah! Olivia! You adorable little pup! So you were there!

With a loud laugh, the terrifying electric spears dispersed into the air.

The residual electricity made everyone’s hair stand on end.

— I can’t attack an army where Olivia is. What a shame! But I’ll have to leave for today!

Storeus spread his wings and soared into the storm clouds.

When his figure disappeared, the clouds began to scatter and the sky returned to its original color.

A dragon who had arrived like a storm and vanished like a storm.

The perfect embodiment of the Aspect of the Tempest.

Although everything had lasted barely a minute, the soldiers looked as though they had aged ten years.

Olivia’s face was also covered in cold sweat.

But it was not because of Storeus.

It was because of the existence capable of moving the Thunder Dragon Storeus.

‘The Emperor…’

Godfrey Arken.

The emperor whom the world considered incompetent.

Only he was capable of moving Storeus.

Only he was capable of controlling him.

Olivia gritted her teeth.

The extermination campaign that she had considered a firm step toward her goals would no longer proceed along the path she had planned.

***

Thus, shortly after the Spring Beginning Festival, the sudden monster disaster came to an end.

The encirclement established by the monsters collapsed completely.

News of victory arrived from every direction.

Isabella gathered the battle results and reported them to Perda.

— Out of a total of 6,253 soldiers, fatal casualties amount to 220.

“An extraordinary result.”

— Indeed. Even taking every factor into consideration, it is an achievement impossible to ignore.

Isabella’s voice was filled with pride.

It was clear that she was a member of Castle Valdrova and the administrator of Hestia Village.

Of the dead, 170 belonged to the Far East Alliance led by Consilus, a figure considered average.

Most of them died during the first battle, when the monsters were still concentrated around the mothers.

‘This will make the value of the tactical infantry rise even further.’

The tactical infantry was truly cost-effective.

Although it cost a little more than spearmen, it was vastly superior in both ease of training and deployment.

Even as a reserve force, it possessed enormous potential.

That news was beneficial not only for Perda’s territory but also for the neighboring regions.

— We have also received messages from the Pascal Trading Company and from Halim.

“Why Halim?”

— They say that since everyone has worked hard over the past month, they wish to send supplies for a celebration. They will cover provisions for two days of festivities and enough food for two months.

“There is no better ally than that one.”

That the Pascal Trading Company would help was expected.

After all, they were in the same boat.

But Perda had not expected Halim to go that far.

“Let them know that I am grateful. You’ve worked hard, Administrator. You must be exhausted.”

— The hardest thing is working hard for nothing. But now I’m enjoying it, so I’m fine. Please make sure to return safely until the very end.

Enjoying it?

Yes.

Even outside the tent, the atmosphere was practically that of a celebration.

Practically.

Because there was one group that was not celebrating.

The subordinates of Count Nazarov’s young master.

They were probably suffering as they thought about how to explain that Dmitri had thrown himself into battle like a moth drawn to a flame.

Aside from that, the battle results were cause for joy.

‘It should be like this…’

However, there was someone who did not seem happy despite having no connection whatsoever to Dmitri.

Perda turned his gaze toward her.

Ruri.

She stood in a corner of the spacious tent.

Her expression was always so professional that no one else would have noticed.

But Perda did.

He could sense the worry in her heart.

“Ruri.”

“……”

“Ruri?”

Ruri flinched and raised her head.

“Yes? Did you call me?”

“You’re distracted.”

“…Sorry. I have a few things on my mind. Do you need something?”

“Prepare a cup of tea for me. I’ll be going to sleep soon. Chamomile.”

“Yes.”

Ruri prepared the chamomile tea.

As she looked at the cup, her figure seemed more melancholic than ever.

‘She was like this when she came back as well.’

Ruri had reached the rendezvous point ahead of schedule.

And when she returned, she simply said that she had failed.

Just as a demon had appeared at Helus’s mansion, one had also appeared where she was.

And it was none other than Curved Demon.

It was a situation where failure had been inevitable.

Perda did not feel particularly disappointed by it.

But this did not seem to be simple frustration over failing.

There was something else.

There was undoubtedly a story that Perda did not know.

“Lord Perda.”

While preparing the tea, Ruri spoke with difficulty.

“What is it?”

“…It’s nothing.”

And she fell silent again.

But Perda did not let her escape.

“You can tell me.”

“……”

Perda waited patiently.

However, Ruri continued pouring the tea without opening her mouth.

“All right.”

Perda lifted the cup and said,

“If you don’t want to talk now, then don’t say anything.”

“I’m… sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for. As long as you’re safe and sound, that’s enough for me.”

“……”

“When the time comes that you want to talk, you can do so. For today, simply take your time and think.”

Upon hearing those words, a faint feeling of resentment was born within Ruri.

He should not have added that last part.

It was easy to mistake it for a promise that he would always wait for her, rather than simple indifference.

And even though she knew it was probably a misunderstanding,

she ended up speaking.

“Lord Perda…”

Because if the day ever came when she collapsed, she wanted to lean on that man.

“Have you ever had a younger brother?”

“A younger brother?”

He was the third child among three sons and one daughter.

“No. I never had a younger brother.”

“I… had a younger brother.”

She said it with great difficulty.

“When I was still a mortal, just like the other Dragon Spawn.”

And so she began to speak about her past.

A past she had never told anyone about.

***

Dragon Spawn are often called the children of dragons.

That is because they regard dragons as their parents and obey them absolutely.

In fact, their bonds are stronger than those of an ordinary family, and their unity surpasses even that of the elves.

However, they are not truly descendants born from dragons.

Some were humans.

Others were elves.

Others were orcs.

As long as they possessed intelligence, any being could become a Dragon Spawn through the Ascension Ceremony, which is why their appearances varied depending on their original race.

Ruri had once been an ordinary girl who lived a miserable lower-class life.

Back then, she was not even called Ruri.

Nor did she have silver hair.

When she was born, she was greeted not with joy for a new life, but with a curse.

For commoners, if it was not a son, a daughter was nothing more than a burden destined to leave them one day.

Ruri’s father was especially sensitive about that matter.

He always said there was no point in raising someone who would eventually become a burden instead of a source of labor.

Every time she brought a spoonful of food to her mouth, she heard her father click his tongue and felt his gaze of contempt.

Even so, she managed to survive thanks to her mother.

She had achieved that pregnancy with great difficulty, so she cared for little Ruri with all her devotion.

Ruri followed her mother around and tried to prove her worth by arousing pity while begging.

But the change came suddenly.

Ruri’s mother gave birth to a son.

When a boy who could continue the family line was born, her father smiled for the first time.

And her mother’s attitude immediately became cold.

Neither her father nor her mother showed her affection ever again.

Eventually, after being treated as nothing more than another mouth to feed, she was sold to an orphanage before her younger brother was even one year old.

Her family had abandoned her.

For several months, she was depressed after losing her family.

But the situation was not bad.

No.

In fact, it was good.

The orphanage director treated her extremely well.

The pain of being abandoned by her parents was healed by his care.

Ruri came to follow that man as if he were her own father.

However, that did not last long.

As she grew older, she was confronted with an uncomfortable truth.

That orphanage was actually a child auction house.

They evaluated the children’s potential by rank and treated them according to the grade they received.

Ruri belonged to the highest level of Category A.

That meant she was intelligent and beautiful enough that one day she could be sold to a noble family.

The director had not invested money in her to raise her.

He had done it to turn her into a product worthy of her value.

The feeling of betrayal consumed her.

It took only one hour for everything to become ruins.

After desperately fleeing amid deafening explosions, she opened her eyes and saw a devastated land.

The smell of ashes burned her nose.

And she felt an emptiness in her chest.

Ruri lowered her gaze to her arms.

That was where her younger brother should have been.

But there was nothing there.

It was strange.

In her memories, at the end she had been holding her younger brother.

Ruri shouted his name.

She cried desperately, calling out that name which she could no longer remember.

When no answer came for a long time, she stood up and began searching through the rubble.

They had been together.

He had to be nearby.

But all she found were fragments of collapsed walls and gray ashes.

There was no trace of her brother.

Until she felt as though she would suffocate from lack of air, Ruri kept moving while her mind sank into questions.

Her brother had disappeared.

Then how was it possible that she had survived so unharmed?

If they had remained holding hands, they would have lived together or died together.

That meant she had let go of her brother’s hand.

But when?

When that rain of meteors and lightning fell?

When the screams and scorching heat clouded her consciousness?

Right afterward, when a rain of rocks began to fall and everything became chaos?

Then she erased all of those questions from her mind.

It did not matter when it had happened.

Ruri had survived alone.

And her brother had vanished without leaving a trace.

She had believed that she loved him and cherished him.

But when faced with death, she had coldly turned into a stranger to him.

Everyone was the same.

Her parents.

The orphanage director.

Herself.

They were all selfish human beings.

— I’m… sorry…

She spoke to her brother, of whom not even a physical form remained.

— I’m sorry that I was the only one who survived…

Having failed to fulfill her responsibility, she became completely empty.

She had lost a part of her life.

And she simply waited for death to come.

But death never came.

Ironically, the one who took Ruri in was a dragon.

A middle-aged man with silver hair.

With a brilliant smile, he shared his blood with her.

That silver-haired man performed an Ascension Ceremony right there on the spot, in an improvised manner.

— From now on, your name will be Ruri. Forget the painful past you have lived through. Think only about how you will live from now on.

The empty emotions within her were filled once again thanks to that man’s smile.

The Ascension Ceremony was a ritual for abandoning the past and moving toward the future.

One’s original hair color, eye color, and all memories of the past lost their importance, as though they had been nothing more than a dream.

However, even in that ritual meant to abandon everything, Ruri kept one thing in her heart.

Responsibility.

The same responsibility she had felt when she had taken that child into her arms amid misery.

That responsibility became the pillar that supported her life.

Now that responsibility was directed toward Silverwind.

Ruri thought

that she would use the mistakes of her past as stepping stones to live for the sake of that great existence.

Ruri decided to become a warrior.

And that was when another, even harsher trial began.