I Married the Dragon I Killed

“Stephan.”

Merchit’s voice carried emotion.

But only for an instant.

“I understand that you are in a difficult situation, so as your brother I will be understanding. Later on, you should calm down and apologize for treating me like a murderer.”

He spoke as if trying to reason with him kindly, but to Stephan it felt like nothing more than treating him like a child.

“Don’t make me laugh. Are you saying…… that I’m wrong?”

“Do you really think it was me?”

“¡I already have proof! Look at this!”

Stephan pulled out the handkerchief he was holding.

The emblem of the Pascal mercenary company also entered Merchit’s sight.

“I already know your methods! That filthy method of creating demand where there is none! All of this happened after I said I would monopolize that trade route.”

“Are you really going to believe the nonsense of those merchants?”

“It wasn’t just one. Everyone who had contracts with you said the same thing! How do you expect me not to be suspicious?!”

Merchit listened to that and thought for a moment.

“Yes, perhaps what happened to those people really was this brother’s doing.”

His tone sounded as if he admitted it without issue, but then he tilted his head.

“But where is the proof that I involved myself in your affairs?”

“Right here!”

“You mean this wonderful handkerchief? Things like this can be made as many times as anyone wants.”

He waved the handkerchief and then tossed it onto the table.

“Our company alone has ten thousand registered mercenaries, and more than two thousand handkerchiefs in inventory. Anyone could steal one and make it look like it was the work of our mercenaries. You’re smarter than me, and you couldn’t even think of that?”

“Could you say that same thing in front of an imperial court?!”

“You want to take this all the way to court? You want to start a full-scale war? Bastard, you really are furious. To think you want to drag your own family into court.”

“Stop talking about family! You only talk about family when it suits you, but when there are profits involved you treat us like strangers!”

“Are you saying I wanted to keep everything for myself? Hey, Stephan. I also helped you a lot when you were struggling. I made things easier for you, I did everything I could for you, so what the hell bothers you so much?”

“I already told you earlier! The problem is that those damned bandits you command killed my employees!”

“This bastard keeps treating my men like third-rate trash—.”

“Merchit Pascal.”

Merchit, with the veins on his neck bulging, tried to stand up.

But when Perda spoke his name, he realized he had been watching and lowered his head toward him.

“My apologies, Regent. I have shown you the shameful spectacle of family matters.”

“It doesn’t bother me. But I’m sorry to say this, could you leave us alone for a moment? I have something to discuss with Stephan.”

“Of course. I will excuse myself for a moment.”

Merchit obediently said goodbye and left the room.

As soon as he left, Stephan pointed toward where he had been and shouted.

“There’s no need to see any more. It was that bastard.”

His face was completely red.

“Stephan.”

“We must catch him right now and interrogate him! Ask him if he felt satisfied after killing thirty-three people!”

“I wanted to do that, but seeing your condition made me realize it was impossible.”

“My condition? What’s wrong with my condition?”

Perda looked at him with cold eyes before answering.

“You look little more than a ghost thirsty for blood and vengeance.”

“Vengeance? It’s precisely because of that vengeance that I’m doing all of this!”

“The problem is that this vengeance does not belong to the present. What you seek now is also bringing your resentments from the past to the surface, isn’t it?”

“I…….”

He wanted to deny it, but Perda’s words managed to calm him somewhat.

“I think you’re right. If I’m honest, I suffered a lot because of my brother when I was a child.”

“Tell me.”

“When I came back beaten up from somewhere, he would say he disliked my lack of backbone and beat me nearly to death while claiming he was training me with a wooden sword.”

Perda could imagine a little how he felt.

After his mother’s death, he too had been treated like a bastard and had suffered similar situations countless times.

“And besides, I…… no, forget it. Let’s stop this conversation.”

“No. Continue.”

Perda prevented him from stopping.

“You must let out all the anger you hold toward Merchit.”

“Huh? Why would I do something like that?”

“Because it will help you.”

“I don’t think it will help much…….”

“Then consider it an order. Curse him and shout everything you want.”

Stephan was bewildered by that demand.

But forced by the situation, he ended up saying the name through gritted teeth.

“Merchit…… you…… damned…… bastard…….”

He started with difficulty.

But it did not matter.

“You……!”

Like a broken dam, his emotions exploded violently.

“You motherfucking bastard!!!”

Stephan began screaming like a madman.

“You damned bastard! After praying for my ruin you come at me with this bullshit!? Do I look that easy to trample on?! HUH?!”

“…….”

“I’m going to leave you the same way! Just like you shattered my bones when I was a child, I’m going to break yours too!”

After that, he continued venting all the accumulated resentments of the past while shouting and losing control.

Ten minutes later, Stephan could no longer get any voice out.

“Cough! Cough!”

“Drink this.”

“Cough cough…… thank you…….”

Stephan sat down and drank the tea.

He looked like a person completely drained of energy.

“Do you feel better?”

“Yes, thanks to the Regent…… I think at least I’ll avoid dying from bottled-up rage.”

“Then now you’ll be able to see things more clearly. Let us continue the conversation.”

Stephan sat back down, and Perda spoke.

“To get straight to the point, it does not seem to be the work of Merchit Pascal.”

“……What?”

Hadn’t he said just a moment ago that the culprit seemed to be Merchit because of the mercenary company handkerchief?

And now he was saying it was not?

“Then why did you make me curse my brother?”

“Because I didn’t want you to let yourself be consumed by those grudges. You kept filling your head with things that clouded your judgment, didn’t you?”

Perda’s words sounded absurd, but at the same time they were true.

When was the last time he had shouted and cursed like that?

When he was a child, all he ever did was cry while biting his fist.

And as an adult, at most he would drink alcohol hidden in a corner of his office while crying alone.

But now he had been able to let it all out by screaming.

“You said that making deals with the Pascal mercenary company was like making deals with demons, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then you always knew what they were like.”

“That’s right.”

“In that case, you could have suspected your brother, Merchit Pascal, from the very beginning. But you never showed me that suspicion.”

Perda asked calmly.

“And why didn’t you?”

“The reason I didn’t was because at that moment I was too agitated…….”

“That’s all? You simply didn’t think about it?”

Faced with Perda’s question, Stephan also shook his head.

It wasn’t only because of that.

Stephan began to think.

Why, when all this happened, he did not suspect Merchit first.

‘Merchit Pascal.’

Family and enemy.

Since childhood, he had never been able to control his overflowing temper.

Merchit took advantage of that personality to become a mercenary captain.

He had charisma and leadership.

And having leadership meant understanding the weight of an important position, something simple street thugs would never possess.

Like a merchant analyzing another businessman, he tried to judge everything about him solely through objective facts and data.

And then the answer appeared with surprising clarity.

“……The probabilities were low.”

“Why?”

“That thing about my brother taking revenge against those who don’t hire him…… honestly, it’s little more than a superstition. Most of the time, those people were digging their own graves. Almost all of them hired cheap mercenaries and ended up suffering misfortunes when entering dangerous areas. They simply bought cheap trash and then blamed others.”

People only see what they want to see and believe only what they want to believe.

Stephan had been so dominated by his emotions that he had even forgotten something so basic.

“That’s why…… right now I think a single handkerchief is not enough to confirm that suspicion.”

Not even Stephan himself could believe the conclusion he had reached.

Just a few minutes ago he had been convinced that everything was Merchit’s doing and wanted brutal revenge.

He had judged with emotion and not reason, and those emotions had blinded him.

If Perda had not managed to bring him back to his senses, he would have ended up fighting Merchit.

While Stephan swallowed his emotional emptiness, Perda listened to the answer and spoke to Ruri.

“Bring Merchit Pascal back in.”

Merchit, who had been waiting outside, sat down once again, and the three of them faced each other again.

Unlike before, when emotions had been on the verge of exploding, now there was a calm atmosphere.

“Merchit Pascal. I already finished speaking with Stephan, but I want you to make it clear one last time.”

“Speak, Regent.”

“Can you swear that you are not involved in the attack Stephan suffered this time?”

Perda asked with a coldness that could freeze blood.

Merchit raised an index finger and answered.

“I have a principle. Just as my family is important to me, the families of others are as well. My men and I wield the sword in exchange for money in order to protect people. If someone raises the sword for money to attack others, then he is nothing more than a third-rate thug or a bandit.”

“Good. Thank you.”

After hearing Merchit, Perda pointed at the handkerchief on the table with his chin.

“If this handkerchief has no relation to the mercenary company, then it means someone tried to sow discord between the two of you.”

“Between my brother and me?”

Merchit opened his eyes.

From his expression it was obvious that he was speaking completely seriously.

“What bastard dared to touch my family?”

“I think I know who it was.”

Stephan answered, now much calmer.

“Who?”

“My sister, Tilda.”

The name that left his lips was that of another member of the family.

“On the surface she acts as if the Dandollo company is enough for her, but in reality she wants to take over the Pascal company more than anyone. She has always been interfering in persistent and discreet ways. Besides, if my brother and I ended up fighting each other, the only one who would benefit would be her.”

“Yes, if it was that bitch, she absolutely could have done something like this.”

Even Merchit, who deeply valued his family, immediately agreed upon hearing his sister’s name.

It was something surprising.

“Isn’t Tilda Pascal also part of your family?”

“Don’t even say it. That woman doesn’t even deserve to be called family.”

Although he was furious, Merchit restrained his anger and answered calmly.

“Do you know what she tried to do when my wife was pregnant with our first child? She sent poison as a supposed congratulatory gift for the pregnancy. Fortunately, I was the one who took it without knowing and suffered the consequences, but if my wife had drunk it, she undoubtedly would have lost the child. She was always an unbearable sister without a single lovable quality, but at that moment she completely crossed the line.”

The one who was truly shocked was Stephan.

“That happened five years ago?”

“I wasn’t completely sure, so I didn’t tell anyone. Creating a scandal would only have satisfied her.”

For Stephan, who had always thought Merchit would react by causing chaos and wanting to kill someone, this was a completely unexpected side of him.

“Anyway, that woman never had ability, only ambition. Since she isn’t capable of building something herself, she seduced old bachelor Henri Dandollo to take over the Dandollo company and then try to devour our father’s business.”

Merchit clenched a fist as large as a pot lid.

The veins bulged violently.

“Then what do you intend to do, Regent?”

Merchit asked.

“We can storm in there right now and drag that woman here.”

“And worsen the image of the mercenary company even more?”

“You have nothing to worry about. If I can push that witch into the flames, I don’t care about becoming a demon. If she touched my family, she must pay the appropriate price.”

A burning rage.

As a mercenary who had survived crawling through mud, he knew perfectly well how to use fury as fuel.

“You must not resort directly to violence.”

The one who said that was Stephan.

“What? Stephan, are you an idiot?”

“Think about it carefully. Resorting to violence is not a good idea. If she started doing something this malicious, it means her plan is already in motion. In the worst-case scenario, the entire Pascal family could collapse.”

“That’s true…….”

Since both of them knew perfectly well the kind of person Tilda was, long explanations were unnecessary to convince them.

“That woman’s malice is persistent. Until we have definitive proof that this was Tilda’s doing, we must not touch her recklessly.”

“Then what do you propose?”

Stephan forcibly calmed his agitated heart before answering.

“For now we should return pretending we did not resolve the misunderstanding. We must give her exactly what she wants. If we do that, she will surely continue with her plan exactly as she had intended.”

“That way we can catch her when she shows her tail, huh?”

Merchit struck his knee with his hand.

“Good. I agree. Let’s drag that bitch out of her hiding place once and for all.”

“Understood.”

The two brothers, who had been on the verge of becoming mortal enemies, joined forces against a common enemy.