I Married the Dragon I Killed

Mornings in Count Consilus’s territory began with military songs during the morning run.

“Hey! Hey!”

“One, two! One, two! Start the song!”

“Look, we have arrived!”

“Louder!”

“Advance! Advance! The final defensive line! There’s nowhere left to retreat! Use your wife as a shield and advance again today! Advance! Advance! If we become heroes, we’ll go find a new wife!”

The marching song echoed as they ran laps around the castle.

They ran every morning along the walls, but the difficulty varied enormously depending on who led the training.

And among all of them, Arwen was the strictest of the strict.

‘Damn it, why can’t we just run half a lap and be done with it?’

‘Every time this knight is on duty it’s suffering.’

Not only did they have to keep singing while running, but the route full of slopes was already difficult on its own, and on top of that, using patrols as an excuse, he added extra routes and remote corners, making the distance easily exceed two full laps.

“Good work, soldiers! Go eat breakfast and prepare for the morning duties!”

“Eeh…”

“That voice has no spirit. Do you want another lap?”

“No, sir!”

“Then disperse at the speed of light! If I catch you, there’ll be another lap!”

Fearing he was serious, the soldiers hurriedly scattered.

As Arwen wiped away his sweat with a towel, the gate guard approached and saluted him.

“Loyalty. Officer of the watch, you’ve worked hard.”

“What is it?”

“Well… he says he’s a knight from Castle Valdrova and wishes to see you.”

Castle Valdrova.

There were only two knights there.

And among them, there was only one who would come looking for him.

Arwen frowned reflexively.

“Where is he now?”

“Hey, Arwen!”

“No, I already see him.”

There was no need to ask.

That man was already approaching while waving his hand.

Arwen wiped his face with the towel while looking at the man.

Brown hair and delicate features.

“It has been a while, Sir Zed.”

“Ah, yeah, quite a while. Everything good?”

“I didn’t expect to see you here. What brings you?”

“Nothing special. I came because I wanted to be put through that knight training thing.”

“Knight training?”

Arwen’s eyes widened at that request.

“Why? Can’t nepotism knights do it?”

“It’s not that they can’t. In fact, they’re the ones who need training the most. I just never imagined you would want it…”

“Yeah, I know. I never thought I’d end up like this either.”

Zed scratched his head as he admitted it casually.

Seeing him like that, Arwen began to worry.

Didn’t people say that when someone starts doing things they never used to do, it means they’re about to die?

“Did something happen?”

“You know about the wolf monsters that appeared in Hallim, right?”

“Yes. I heard the regent performed greatly there. The whole Empire is talking about it.”

There were two main reasons for all the commotion.

The first was that seven wolf monsters had appeared inside the city.

The second was that despite that, there wasn’t a single fatality.

“I heard you also stood out there. They say you moved like a sylph, mocking the enemies while buying time.”

“Mocking them? Bullshit. If I made one mistake, I died. I was scared shitless.”

“Then what’s the problem? Valdrova’s name gained fame, and you got a good story for picking up women, didn’t you?”

That was the image Arwen had of Zed.

Being a knight was the perfect profession for lying, and with one exaggerated heroic story, conquering young noblewomen was practically as easy as eating bread.

“When that wolf bastard lunged at the regent, I stepped in front.”

“It went for the regent, you blocked it, and then?”

“Well, I couldn’t stop it. The moment I hit it, my body got sent flying. Like a wooden plank.”

After hearing that, Arwen shrugged.

“That was inevitable. Not even most knights can withstand a monster’s attack head-on.”

“And you?”

“I can.”

“That’s exactly the problem. Others can and I can’t, right?”

“I received formal training and was carefully selected as a knight. You can’t compare me to an ordinary person.”

Arwen said it trying to comfort him, but Zed merely frowned as though regretting asking.

“So what you want is strength to stop enemies in a frontal confrontation?”

“Even if it’s not frontal, I want to gain something that lets me actually do something in situations like that.”

“You mean swordsmanship or defensive techniques, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I can teach you, but how old are you, Zed?”

“Twenty-seven. Soon twenty-eight.”

“Then it’s already fairly late to start training.”

“I’ve trained my body for years. I also fought quite a bit as a mercenary.”

Arwen knew well that Zed had combat skill.

He had watched him during the rescue operation for the Director of Escolleia.

“It’s not simply a matter of training the body. Enduring attacks from creatures like monsters belongs to the domain of aura. It requires years of constant training for that, and you’re already at a difficult age to comprehend and adapt to those kinds of techniques.”

“Aura… you mean this?”

Zed clenched his fist and concentrated all his strength.

A bluish light began wavering around the surface of his body.

Arwen was surprised when he saw it.

Although it was unstable and burst out like uncontrolled solar flares, that was, without question, aura.

“How can you use it?”

“I told you I was a mercenary. You meet all kinds of people there. So, can I or not?”

“If you undergo aura correction and train, it should work. Simply being able to externalize it already means you’ve completed half the journey.”

Arwen spoke firmly.

“Even so, it’ll be hard. Everyone has habits, and the more rigid the mind is, the harder it becomes to correct them. In the worst-case scenario…”

He paused, emphasizing the gravity of his words even more.

“You could end up becoming a cripple incapable of even holding a sword.”

Becoming an invalid was a truly miserable ending.

For someone like Zed, who lived clinging to the present, the terror of becoming a living corpse was not something he could take lightly.

“I’m already prepared for that.”

Zed answered immediately as if it were nothing.

“Is it really worth going that far?”

“I don’t want to feel like that again when the time comes to protect something.”

Only then did Arwen see what lived inside Zed’s eyes.

Regret born from helplessness.

It wasn’t simply that he had failed to protect Perda. There was something deeper behind it.

Hearing that, Arwen smiled.

Zed frowned at that smile.

“And what the hell are you laughing at?”

“Nothing. Then we’ll start with some light physical training.”

“What kind of bullshit physical training—?”

“Let’s do a simple five laps around the castle and think about it afterward!”

“Five laps!?”

“To become a knight under Count Consilus, you need at least that level of stamina. Besides, we can’t spend entire years on this, right?”

“No, well, that’s true, but—.”

“Then let’s run.”

Arwen started running, and Zed followed behind him.

Maybe he could end up growing close to this man.

“Ah, Zed-ssi. Could you help me with something after training?”

“With what?”

“I have to write a letter, but my head can’t come up with a single decent sentence. I thought that with your talent, maybe something could come out…”

“And what use would my writing be…?”

Zed left the sentence unfinished as he realized something.

“Don’t tell me it’s the girl who was staring at you so intensely during the Grand Council?”

Arwen turned to look at him.

His face clearly said, “How the hell did you know that?”

“Yes, well…”

“So all that knightly honor and all that bullshit, but in the end you’re a man too! Since when have you been writing to each other?”

“I received a letter three days ago. It said she liked seeing me serve in the Far East.”

“That means she likes you. I’ll help you all you want. Just say the word. I can even teach you perfectly how to pick up women using wolf monster stories.”

“Yes, tha— wait a moment, wolf monsters?”

“Yeah, wolf monsters.”

“Didn’t that happen recently?”

“That’s right.”

Arwen blinked.

“And even while being so tormented, you still had the energy to chase women?”

“Ah, well…”

In truth, Zed did not want to do it either.

But there was an unavoidable reason.

“Why!? Why aren’t you going to do it!? You promised you would! You said that since I used magic, you’d let me absorb your energy! Harem buffet! You promisedddddd! Liar! Liar!”

Penelope was hitting his head with a pillow while making a scene, demanding what she considered an entirely legitimate claim.

Since he did not want to explain that whole process, Zed answered briefly.

“There are things a man has to do.”

“…….”

“You have to eat, right?”

“……Ten laps.”

“What? Why!?”

***

Stephan returned.

The joy from the successful business lasted only briefly, because inside the carriage, his mood became unsettled again.

Perda’s words continued echoing in his ears.

— Then you have no value.

Did he have no value if he did not obtain the Pascal Trading Company?

Was the only reason Perda recruited him the value of the company?

If he became independent, he could grow perfectly well.

And not just any growth, but explosive growth.

Perda had been regent for less than a year.

And his economic knowledge barely scratched the surface.

It was impossible for someone like that to understand how aggressive and revolutionary this strategy was.

The Pascal Company would look like nothing more than a turnip growing in a field compared to what they could achieve.

‘And what’s the point of explaining it?’

Stephan wanted to at least breathe a little.

He wanted to sit at his desk and relax, if only for a moment.

“You’ve returned?”

“Yes, I’m back. But why is the atmosphere so tense?”

“It’s because he came…”

“Me? Because I came, everyone’s this tense…?”

“No, not you, division chief…”

Only then did he understand.

Who could create such a heavy atmosphere.

“M-my brother?”

The secretary nodded slightly.

The moment he understood, Stephan also began to tense up.

Everything that happened in Hallim had already been reported, and his brother surely understood the situation perfectly.

“……Couldn’t you tell him I had to go somewhere else?”

“We can’t.”

“No, then at least let me change clothes or something before seeing him…”

“Division chief.”

The secretary grabbed Stephan’s shoulder as he nervously babbled.

“You must go.”

The last thing Stephan wanted was to do exactly that.

But he still dragged his feet toward the stairs.

He opened the door cautiously, as though entering an execution chamber.

Sitting in front of his desk was a very familiar muscular man.

“Stephan? Long time no see.”

That man greeting him like a thug was Merchit Pascal, Stephan’s older brother.

The muscles in his arms looked as though they were about to tear through the silk of his clothes.

Stephan swallowed nervously.

“It’s been a long time… hyung-nim.”

“What’s with the hyung-nim? Call me hyung, idiot. More than a hundred bastards call me hyung-nim, so among blood of the same family we should be closer, don’t you think?”

“……No, hyung-nim. How could I…?”

“What a suffocating guy.”

Merchit smiled mockingly as he spoke.

“I heard you went to Hallim.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“There was an exhibition in the Far East, and I went to support it.”

“Wasn’t that the place Father said we should stay away from? You’re still clinging to that?”

“Yes. It has enough commercial value to invest in.”

“So you’re saying your eye for business is better than Father’s?”

“How could I dare insult Father…?”

“You still have no backbone, damn it. Just speak clearly already. Don’t be so damn frustrating.”

Bang!

Merchit slammed the desk violently.

A desk that would not move even under mountains of documents cracked from a single blow.

Merchit looked at the crack and scratched his head.

“Ah, shit. I hit it too hard. I’ll pay for it later. Anyway, I heard everything. So you even opened trade with Lord Ahmad in Hallim?”

“Yes.”

“You know I’ve been working that region for years, right?”

“Yes, I know.”

“And even knowing your hyung was conquering the south, you tried to swallow everything for yourself? That juicy piece?”

Stephan hurriedly tried to justify himself.

“That wasn’t my intention.”

“But you still accepted it knowing everything.”

“I had no reason to refuse. Besides, this agreement was directed and achieved by Regent Perda.”

“Sure, and since I was sitting around doing nothing, I have no connection to it whatsoever, right?”

“It’s not that you have no connection, but…”

His voice faded.

Merchit looked at him in disgust before sighing.

“Well, what can you do? It’s not good for family to tear each other apart either.”

Would the conversation end there?

Unfortunately, that wish would not come true.

“Your hyung isn’t asking for much. I just want to share the trade of goods circulating through Hallim. That shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“Share…? You mean putting it under both our names?”

“Yeah. In the end, it’s business for the same family. You can grant me that much, right?”

The road to Hallim was a road to a gold mine.

Even if they split it between two people, both could sit atop mountains of money.

Step back a little.

Give a little.

However.

For some reason, Stephan no longer wanted to do that.

“That…”

Stephan opened his mouth.

And what came out was the first shot announcing war.

“It’s my business.”

Merchit’s face completely hardened.

“Hey, Stephan.”

“Yes.”

“So what you’re saying is that you won’t even lend the road or the carriages to your hyung, is that it?”

It felt as though a tiger were staring directly at him.

Stephan’s legs began to tremble.

Merchit never hesitated to use violence.

And once he started, he did not stop until he broke something.

Stephan had always been the target of that violence, which was why the fear was deeply engraved into him.

But there was something even greater than that fear.

‘Losing his trust…’

The trust of Perda, who believed in him as a merchant without questioning him.

He had already disappointed him once by backing down from the succession struggle.

And back then, Perda had told him this.

That abandoning even what you already possessed just to settle for less was what ordinary merchants did.

Compromise.

Compromise is a useful tool for mediating conflict.

But only now did Stephan understand what kind of compromise Perda had meant.

It was exactly this.

Like a camel first sticking its head in and eventually taking over the entire tent.

People who do not stop until they take everything from you.

Stephan could no longer disappoint someone who trusted him.

‘And not myself either…’

That was why he stepped forward.

“As for Hallim… I’ll monopolize it myself.”

“…….”

Merchit stood up.

He was already intimidating while seated, but standing made his presence overwhelming.

Stephan felt as though that fist could bury itself into his stomach at any moment.

“Fine. If that’s your decision, then so be it.”

“…….”

“But if you’re not going to consider our situation, then we won’t consider yours anymore either.”

Merchit walked past Stephan and patted him on the shoulder.

“Let’s see how long you survive without me.”

And then he left the room.

The moment Stephan realized that storm had passed, the strength left his legs.

It was the first time.

The first time he had stood against that terrifying, untouchable brother.

“Huff……”

Perda had promised Stephan that he would make him the owner of the Pascal Company.

What did one need to become an owner?

Herman Pascal’s seal of approval?

Or more money and connections than them?

The most important thing was—

‘Having the heart of an owner.’

The ability to protect what was yours.

The ability to assert your rights without yielding to outside pressure.

That was why Stephan spoke with difficulty.

“I did the right thing.”

Even if it meant opening a path covered in painful thorns…

That was what he believed.