I Married the Dragon I Killed

“Ah… I-is that how you saw it?”

His voice and the way he spoke trembled.

Akad could not hide his bewilderment.

It was a feeling that threatened to overflow at any moment if he continued suppressing it.

And the longer he looked at that face.

The stronger it became.

“Haha… That’s true. Everyone has their own sense of aesthetics…”

Akad looked away.

“I-I’ll… serve you a cup of tea!”

He hurried toward the tea table.

He couldn’t let Perda see his face.

He couldn’t allow him to witness the rage that threatened to tear through his skin from within.

‘I always knew no one would ever be able to understand it.’

And yet.

He had shown Perda the shape of his love.

He had gathered his courage because he believed Perda would be different.

But Perda had called his love and his courage repulsive.

Exactly like the woman who had cruelly trampled on his first love.

‘I…’

He clenched his fist.

‘I’m not repulsive.’

‘You’re the repulsive one, because you’re incapable of understanding it.’

In the end.

Akad’s eyes became completely consumed by madness.

All the admiration he had felt for Perda instantly became fuel for the flames of his rage.

No one.

Absolutely no one.

Could belittle his love.

So.

‘I’ll show you exactly what my love means.’

Only a single resolve remained in Akad’s mind.

He carefully took a small vial hidden inside his clothes.

Inside was a completely transparent liquid.

Colorless.

Odorless.

Tasteless.

He poured it into the teacup.

“Here. It’s black tea prepared according to the principles of my alchemy.”

“I’ll drink it gladly.”

Akad pretended to take a sip while carefully watching Perda.

He had to make sure Perda actually drank the tea.

The porcelain rim touched his lips.

The cup tilted.

The tea flowed.

He drank it.

Smiling with satisfaction, Akad spoke.

“Regent Perda.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“I’m Grand Duke Golt’s right-hand man. We maintain a very close relationship.”

“Really?”

“That’s why, if you don’t mind, I’d like to support the Far East in receiving proper backing. I’d like to review the corresponding proposal. What do you think?”

Upon hearing that, Perda smiled politely.

“If you’re willing to do that, I would sincerely appreciate it.”

“What does the Far East need most at the moment?”

“Above all, we need to improve transportation. To do that, we need to repair the roads and clear part of the forest…”

Perda’s voice gradually became sluggish.

“The forest… uh… I mean… the for…”

Perda’s head, resting against the back of the chair, fell heavily to one side.

As though nothing had happened, Akad took another sip of his tea.

Then he stood up and supported Perda’s head.

“Hmm…”

Those eyes had sunk into an abyss of unconsciousness.

There was no doubt.

The drug had taken effect.

Akad looked at Perda with a gaze full of affection.

“I’m sorry.”

He spoke with the same gentleness someone would use to comfort a woman.

“I had no choice. You see… I don’t mind if someone beats me or stabs me. I’m the kind of person who deserves to suffer those things. Because… I’m such a repulsive person.”

He gently rested his forehead against Perda’s as he continued apologizing.

“But… I’ll never forgive someone who defiles my love.”

That woman who had rejected his confession while looking at him with disgust.

That woman who had pretended to return his feelings only to toy with him afterward.

Akad had wanted to make her understand what his love truly was.

It had been his first time doing it.

And precisely because of that.

His work had been full of clumsy mistakes.

That was how his first love had ended.

“Of course, all of this is my fault. This happened because I chose to trust you, but even so, I can’t forgive you. So…”

He carefully took a leather pouch from inside his clothes and untied its cord.

Inside were needles about thirty centimeters long.

He picked one up.

“I’m only going to help you a little so you can understand my sense of aesthetics.”

With the utmost care, he brought the needle toward Perda’s pupil.

Just as it was about to reach his retina.

“Hmm…?”

Akad doubted his own eyes.

For a brief moment.

It seemed to him that Perda’s eyes had moved slightly.

‘That can’t be…’

What he had administered was an anesthetic capable of turning a person into a puppet.

Even a small amount was enough.

It had even worked on a barbarian twice Perda’s size.

It was impossible for Perda to still be conscious.

He could feel pain.

He could hear.

But he couldn’t scream.

Or move his body.

Or speak.

‘I suppose I’m too agitated.’

Yes.

He must have imagined it.

Convinced of that, he aimed the sharp tip at Perda’s retina once more.

Just as he was about to pierce it.

The candles in the enormous chandelier illuminating the drawing room suddenly went out all at once.

“And now what?”

Startled by the darkness that had ruined the moment, he quickly looked around.

The chandelier’s candles had only been replaced the day before.

And even if they had burned out completely.

They never would have all gone out at exactly the same time like that.

It was as though someone had deliberately extinguished them.

It was completely unnatural.

In all the years he had lived in that mansion.

Akad had never witnessed anything like it.

It had all begun.

After allowing Perda into the house.

‘Don’t tell me…’

Perda?

When a coincidence happens twice in a row.

It ceases to be a coincidence.

Thinking that, he turned back toward Perda.

Those eyes, which should have lost every trace of life.

Were shining with an intense blue glow in the darkness.

From the very beginning.

He had never lost consciousness.

“Stu…!”

He tried to respond immediately with a Stun spell.

But he couldn’t utter the incantation.

Something had covered his mouth, preventing him from chanting the spell.

And it wasn’t just his mouth.

He also felt suffocating pressure on his hands and his abdomen, precisely where he needed to concentrate his mana to manifest the magic circle.

It was as though countless dead hidden within the darkness had thrown themselves upon him.

Akad was a Fifth Circle mage.

But at that moment, he was nothing more than a fat, defenseless man.

He had been completely subdued.

At the same time, Perda’s eyes, glowing in the darkness, began to move.

The body that should have remained slumped over, incapable of moving, acted as though it had never lost consciousness.

The one who had been immobilized was not Perda.

It was Akad.

“Akad Develung.”

A chill ran through his entire body.

It was as though an emissary from hell had whispered into his ear.

“Right now, you must be thinking something like, ‘Why is that bastard moving as if nothing happened to him?’”

Perda wiped the spot on his forehead where Akad had rested his own with a handkerchief, then crumpled it up and slipped it into his pocket.

“But, do you know something?”

Just as Akad had done earlier, Perda calmly began talking about one of his own secrets.

“It’s been a long time since I stopped eating or drinking anything prepared by someone else.”

It was back when, not yet recognized as a true mage, he had been labeled as one of the newly elevated nobles.

He had still retained a little hope and affection for humanity.

He had even thought about expanding his relationships.

That was why he attended a social gathering.

And trusted people.

“There were some miserable bastards who drugged me and tried to bury me alive.”

And he had been betrayed.

Fortunately.

He hadn’t died.

Even though the gods abandoned Perda again and again.

He always came back alive.

And he took revenge.

“So…”

Perda grabbed Akad’s face.

His eyes burned intensely as they looked upward.

Instinctively, Akad understood what he was about to do.

He struggled desperately to resist.

But he couldn’t stop Perda from forcing his mouth open.

That darkness.

Belonged to Perda.

“Now I’ll return the favor.”

Perda opened his mouth.

Akad could see inside it.

Within was an even deeper darkness.

That blackness parted like a thin membrane.

And its contents began to pour out.

It was the tea Perda had drunk.

“Mmph! Mmmphhh!”

The liquid fell directly into Akad’s open mouth.

He tried with all his strength to spit it out.

But.

The moment it touched his tongue.

It was already too late.

Akad’s body gradually began to stiffen.

And finally.

His consciousness sank once more into a deep abyss.

With the sound of hinges opening.

Light flooded the room again.

The person who entered carrying a candle was dressed as a maid.

Despite witnessing that scene, she showed neither surprise nor fear.

She simply walked forward in silence.

Her gaze shifted between Perda and Akad.

That maid was a dark-skinned woman.

Someone who should never have been in that mansion.

It was Garnet.

“Finished?”

Perda asked.

“Yes.”

“And the secret passage?”

“I found it. Just as you said.”

“Good work. Let’s take this man.”

“Understood.”

Although Akad had a large build, Garnet effortlessly hoisted him onto her shoulder.

She carried him to Akad’s alchemy laboratory.

Opening the door required an unlocking spell that only Akad himself knew.

But that posed no problem.

The key.

Was Akad Develung himself.

They entered while carrying him on their shoulders.

Although it was a secret room, it was equipped with numerous ventilation ducts.

There wasn’t the slightest trace of the typical musty smell.

At first glance.

It appeared to be a perfectly secure alchemy laboratory.

But Perda knew that wasn’t the end.

One of the shelves filled with bottles was slightly ajar.

And behind it.

There was a passage leading underground.

“Are you going down?”

Garnet asked.

Perda already knew what she had seen.

That was why she asked.

“Yes.”

And he descended.

The moment he opened the door.

A thick stench escaped as though it were steam.

It was such a revolting odor that it inspired instinctive disgust.

Perda knew that sensation very well.

It was exactly the same revulsion he had felt while looking at Akad’s abstract painting.

“Chief of the Intelligence Division.”

“Yes.”

“Sit him down, then leave.”

“…Understood.”

Garnet obeyed and left.

Perda walked over to the shelf where Akad kept his medicines.

As befitted a meticulous alchemist.

Every bottle had labels and notes perfectly organized according to its purpose.

Thanks to that.

He found what he was looking for without difficulty.

After a while.

Akad’s fingers twitched slightly.

His pupils regained focus.

And his voice returned.

But that was all.

His mouth was sealed.

Every one of his fingers had been immobilized.

And his entire body was tied to the back of the chair.

Perda had no intention of giving him the slightest opportunity to cast a spell.

He activated the recording crystal he had placed on the table.

“Akad Develung.”

That was the name of the man before him.

“The miracle alchemist who cured the Black Plague that ravaged the Empire.”

That had been Akad Develung’s greatest achievement.

Five years.

Ten million dead.

A devastating epidemic.

“But who would have imagined that all of it was nothing more than a sham secretly orchestrated by the Empire’s upper ranks?”

Akad’s eyes widened.

It was obvious he was wondering how Perda could possibly know.

“It’s still too early to be surprised. I also know that it was all carried out under Valdemar Golt’s orders.”

Akad had been the one who spread the epidemic.

But the true mastermind was Valdemar.

And surprisingly.

He had done it for the Empire’s sake.

Valdemar wanted the Empire to survive.

To keep that corrupt, decaying Empire functioning.

He needed to constantly replace its parts.

And ninety percent of those parts were the lower classes.

They were valuable pieces.

But they were also a problem.

There were too many surplus mouths to feed.

They had become nothing more than parasites consuming the pillars of the Empire.

That was why their numbers had to be reduced.

He spread the epidemic through the slums.

And murdered countless people who never even understood what was happening.

Valdemar proudly called it.

Sanitary control.

“But that doesn’t interest me.”

That had happened in the past.

And Perda hadn’t come there to talk about justice.

“However, I heard that your family has passed down a rather interesting medicine.”

Perda picked up one of the bottles he had selected.

The label read.

“Truth Potion.”

“I want you to drink it.”

“Mmph! Mmmmmmph!”

For the first time.

Akad began struggling desperately.

He knew perfectly well what effects that drug produced.

And that was exactly why he couldn’t allow it to be administered to him.

But completely immobilized.

He had no way of resisting Perda.

The dark liquid slid down his throat.

The effect was immediate.

“Ugh…”

Akad let out a groan.

His face twisted, and he shook his head as though suffering unbearable pain.

Perda watched him and spoke.

“Answer.”

He began by asking about that very potion.

“Who created it?”

Akad answered.

“My father… Jackal Develung…”

“Explain its effects.”

“It’s… an immediate-effect potion… It clouds the mind… and causes an unbearable headache whenever the drinker attempts to lie… forcing them to speak only the truth…”

“What happens if you remain silent?”

“It’s… the same… The pain… becomes so intense… that you wish you were dead…”

“I see.”

After calmly obtaining that information.

Perda moved on to the important questions.

He needed confirmation right then and there.

“Who did your father give that potion to?”

“That… Ugh… Aaaagh…!”

Akad tried to keep his mouth shut.

But he finally gave in.

“…To the Third Prince of the Arken Empire… Million Arken…”

Perda already knew the answer.

Even so, he continued.

He needed it fully recorded.

“Who was he?”

Akad answered.

“The fiancé of Grand Duchess Valdrova…”

He was.

The man Valdrova had killed.