Chapter 68 - Change

Around the time the sun dipped to the west and painted the evening sky,

Luri commanded the spirits and began cleaning up after the tea party.

The water spirits washed the tableware, and the wind spirits dried them.

The desserts that Ferda and Valdrova hadn't touched popped right into Luri's mouth.

It was a perfect division of roles.

Except for the fact that Ferda hadn't gotten up yet.

"Why did you say something so unnecessary?"

Ferda asked.

It would be a lie to say there was no emotion mixed in.

Luri stared at him intently with a businesslike expression.

"Womanizer."

Ferda furrowed his brow.

"That wasn't cheating."

"I merely stated the facts I saw. That you held hands with that damn wench."

"Were you trying to ruin the mood?"

"Ruin the mood? Shouldn't you be thanking me?"

"What?"

He wondered what kind of bullshit that was.

"If I hadn't said that, would you have even held hands?"

"Hands?"

"Yes, hands. The hand that enjoyed our master's hand. Who do you think you have to thank for that?"

What the hell did that...

He was about to think that, but looking back at what happened today, she wasn't entirely wrong.

Ferda had approached the tea party with the mindset of doing his absolute best not to hurt her.

He had no intention of holding Valdrova's hand today.

'If she hadn't talked about Olivia,'

He wouldn't have been able to hold her hand.

'If she hadn't mentioned that I didn't go hunting today,'

She would have been agonizing over it tonight.

Everything was because Luri said things that could cause misunderstandings.

"Are you saying that was all your calculation?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

Luri snorted.

"My master is someone with desires. She is someone who steps forward with just a little stimulation. I thought that if I brought up that wench, my master would naturally make a move."

He had forgotten for a very brief moment.

She had managed this castle and watched over Valdrova longer than anyone else.

So, she knew her better than anyone else.

Ferda couldn't hide his inner surprise.

Had she ever gone this far for him?

Luri had tried to help him numerous times as a maid.

But it had always strictly been indirect help for Valdrova's sake.

This was the first time she had intervened and helped him like this.

Perhaps that was why she looked different than usual.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

Luri asked under his intense gaze.

"You just look a little different than usual."

"How do I look different?"

"I'm not sure. Should I call this cute?"

FLINCH.

"Cute...?"

"If I had to define it, you'd be something like a cute little dog or pig."

"..."

Luri's expression violently contorted.

Ferda knew this feeling well.

The disgust he felt when he first met her.

No, it was even greater than back then.

"If you're going to talk nonsense, please leave right away. You're interfering with my cleaning."

"I will."

Not wanting to catch any sparks from her irritable tone, Ferda also tried to leave the area quickly.

"Lord Ferda."

Luri called out.

Amidst the evening sun flowing in at an angle, he saw Luri standing there with her back turned.

It was Luri the child, not the sharp and perfect maid.

"Don't worry."

Ferda beat her to the punch before she could even say a word.

Luri didn't say anything either.

She merely gave a light nod.

* * *

Valdrova's lair.

A place where the inside was just a massive, raw cave, save for the thick iron door.

A dragon knight with a red dragon's head entered.

It was the Aspect of Fire and Power, Valdrova.

She had just returned from finishing the tea party.

Valdrova stood in the middle of the cave and slightly lifted her head.

Only then did she finally realize she was alone.

She pressed the jewel embedded in her chest.

SHRRR...

Then, the interior of the dragon knight armor was revealed, spitting out its contents.

Inside was a woman who was 160 centimeters tall.

"Haaaaa..."

Valdrova gasped for air like someone who had just escaped a grueling battlefield.

No, a battlefield would have been easier for her.

It hadn't been this exhausting even when she subjugated endless waves of monsters for six hours straight.

At most, it had been about two hours.

She had merely sat there and talked with Ferda.

And yet, every single moment of it was overwhelming for Valdrova.

Even though she wore such massive armor.

Valdrova looked up at the armor and muttered.

"I couldn't take it off today either..."

The armor was an item a Bronze Dragon had made for Valdrova to use when she cast Polymorph.

So she could be large, imposing, and project a threatening voice befitting a fearsome Red Dragon.

The intention had strictly been for her to display the dignity of a dragon and a ruler.

In reality, however, contrary to its intention, it was used as a refuge.

Like a snail's shell.

"What would the mister say if he saw this...?"

She let out a hollow laugh and glanced at her reflection in the mirror placed nearby.

Two pairs of horns, golden cat-like eyes, and flowing red hair that looked as if it were spun from ruby threads.

There were very few people Valdrova had shown this appearance to.

Only Luri and the dragons remembered her face.

Because of that, the evaluations of her Polymorph form were scarce.

Luri had said it possessed a balanced beauty that concealed her external strength with softness.

The other dragons had simply called her a 'softie'.

And the human, Ferda...

"Huuut..."

She didn't want to think about it.

When she recalled his face from back then, her mind went completely blank.

She felt as if her body was floating and a hundred hands were tickling her.

She couldn't control the situation where she didn't feel like herself.

"I want to hear it..."

She wanted to hear that she was pretty.

She wanted to hear that she was beautiful.

She wanted to show her true self, not the armor, and hear those words.

That was why she wore a beautiful dress underneath, even when she wore the armor.

Did Ferda know?

That there was a woman wearing a dress inside the armor he was looking at.

But she didn't have the courage to show herself, so she hid within the armor every time.

"And yet..."

Her voice was steeped in embarrassment.

She remembered what Luri had said before the tea party.

[He held hands with Olivia Arken and looked around the White House.]

Valdrova understood.

A man of Ferda's caliber could certainly hold hands with a beautiful woman, couldn't he?

Right.

That could happen.

"Like hell..."

She was jealous.

Of course, she couldn't help but be jealous.

My fiancé held hands with another woman.

The person I'm supposed to spend the rest of my life with held hands with another woman.

Along with her jealousy, Valdrova found herself ridiculous.

"Even though I'm the one who runs away every time..."

Ferda was always waiting.

Valdrova was the one who hid because she lacked the courage to show herself.

And yet, she was getting jealous.

"Idiot."

Self-reproach.

"Stupid idiot."

Even so, what formed in the end was a smile.

"Still... I did well at the end."

To think the words asking to hold hands would come from her own mouth.

It was impulsive, but without that impulse, she wouldn't have dared to say it.

"..."

Valdrova blankly stared at her right hand.

The hand Ferda had held.

Ferda's warmth still lingered on that hand.

"It was warm..."

Valdrova clearly felt it.

Just how warm of a heart he had.

How much he could care for others.

'That's why this castle is becoming lively too.'

In the one year since he entered this castle.

The castle grounds were becoming noisy, and news of the territory's development was also rolling in.

He was accomplishing things Valdrova hadn't done, and couldn't do.

What she felt toward that sight was admiration.

'So I need to change too.'

And stimulation.

Valdrova repeated in her mind that she had to do so.

Because that would be the best reward she could give Ferda, who had come to her as her fiancé.

"I'm sleepy..."

Her eyelids felt heavy, and her body grew languid.

She used to be unable to sleep a wink on days when her blood ran hot, but now she had a feeling she could get a good night's sleep if she just closed her eyes.

She should probably turn back into a dragon to sleep, but Valdrova didn't dare to do so.

She wanted to cherish this warmth, this trace he left behind, just a little longer.

Valdrova lay down right there.

Lying on her side, she curled up as if coiling herself and tightly embraced the warmth in her right hand.

She thought about tomorrow.

Her tomorrow had always been a continuation of pain.

She hadn't wanted to think about it, and sometimes she went to sleep just to quickly escape whenever the thought crossed her mind.

But today was different.

This tomorrow drawn in her mind made her feel alive.

What could she do,

How could she do it,

To make Ferda happy?

Drawing infinite, inconclusive lines of thought, she fell asleep.

* * *

In Central Serdes, there was a building that seemed to pierce the sky.

It was the tallest building on the continent, and it was a Magic Tower.

It was a Magic Tower built by the Blue Dragon, Iorga, and all Blue Dragon spawns lived their general lives inside it.

The building's name was the Blue Eye.

An eye exists to see.

The Blue Eye, as its name implied, was a surveillance network created to observe everything under the sky.

Rank was divided according to one's position in the Magic Tower.

The very top floor was the nest of the dragon Iorga.

The floor immediately below it was the seat of the dragon spawn representative, Erica Iorga.

And she...

"It seems the humans are slowly catching on."

"It isn't overt, but the laxity of the Blue Eye's surveillance magic is currently being pointed out."

Was feeling older than ever before.

She was resolving agendas and documents while surrounded by the elders.

"How much is the estimated figure the humans can calculate?"

"They must not have had precise data, as they currently estimate it has decreased by thirty percent."

Thirty percent.

It was a figure that could absolutely not be overlooked.

"At this rate, they are going to notice Lord Iorga's absence..."

The Blue Dragon, Iorga.

The Aspect of Magic, possessor of magic power rivaling an absolute being, and truly someone who accounted for half of the Magic Tower's magic power.

However, Iorga was also being encroached upon by Godwin's darkness.

Even simply living a reclusive life without showing himself carried too great a risk.

That was why Iorga had made the arbitrary decision to crystallize his own body.

"What will you do?"

The old elder mages trailed off and waited for Erica's response.

As the leader of the Blue Dragon spawns, she was calmer than anyone else.

Erica, who had been reviewing the documents, looked down to the very last page and tossed it onto the desk.

"It is still within the normal range."

The elders were startled by those words.

"How is thirty percent within the normal range?"

"In reality, the magic power loss of our Magic Tower is fifty percent, half."

The magic power to put into the Blue Eye's surveillance network was severely lacking.

Spreading it to the same width as before left it with no depth, and focusing on depth narrowed its range.

"The humans estimating thirty percent means that our substitutes are covering the other twenty percent effectively."

Because of that, they had abandoned the existing methods and were finding substitutes in a more flexible direction.

They concentrated the surveillance network on volatile regions and used manpower in partnership with the adventurer guild to cover the areas that fell out of the network.

"We need to analyze this further and find more substitutes."

"We cannot use adventurers forever. If we don't cure the root cause, all of this is pointless."

"Aren't we going through all this trouble right now to cure that very root cause?"

Erica's eyes sharply glared at the elder.

"If you can come up with a countermeasure right this instant, I will keep my mouth shut. Go ahead and propose one."

"That is... I cannot."

The elder whimpered and bowed his head.

Erica let out a sigh through her nose and gently placated them.

"I know how anxious all of you are. It is the same for me. Currently, our Magic Tower, the Blue Eye, is facing an unprecedented crisis. To protect our reputation as the eyes that watch over the continent, expending all our magic power wouldn't even be enough."

But they couldn't do that.

"However, if we do that, making a cure for Lord Iorga will be impossible. As he instinctively sensed his condition worsening and went into hibernation, we do not have much time left."

They were truly lacking in everything.

Mana, time, and manpower.

"However, we must appear as though we can afford to deal with it leisurely. If we show any lack of conviction, this carefully built tower will crumble in an instant."

The Blue Eye ruled over magic and observed.

Because they had to clearly show that they held a tight grip when it came to magic.

"Understood."

"We have no choice but to trust you, leader."

The elders in the meeting withdrew like that.

Once the very last person left and the door clicked shut,

"Huuuuuu!!"

Erica, who had worn the face of an iron-willed leader, let out a massive breath like a pressure cooker releasing steam.

"Fuck..."

Profanity burst from her mouth.

It was said that the crown bore a heavy weight.

It felt like this crown Erica wore would snap her neck someday.

'I can't just wipe them all out either.'

Looking down on other races was inherently ingrained in the personalities of dragon spawns.

If it were other dragon spawns, they would have immediately threatened or used violence, demanding how a mere human dared talk back, but the descendants of Iorga didn't dare do such a thing.

Magic was a tool for rational beings.

Losing one's temper was irrational and nothing less than a sign that their magic was at risk.

Their greatest weapon was composure.

Showing that things were no different from usual, and that they had the confidence to overcome whatever happened.

So Erica, the leader, only accumulated more unspoken inner turmoil.

"Huuu..."

Erica stood up from her seat.

Feeling like she would explode if she just sat still, she tried to cool her head by lightly looking down at the scenery.

The rich colors of early autumn were dotted across the landscape.

Though the scenery changed with each passing year, her thoughts were always similar.

The large mountain to the north.

'A place where idiots with only blocks of ice in their heads live.'

The western plains.

'The territory of pretentious religious nuts.'

The southern desert.

'The playground of extremists prone to self-destruction.'

The black land to the east.

'... Ferda Valdrova.'

No, it was a little different from usual.

Normally, she would have thought of it as 'The graveyard of slowly rotting greedy fools.'

But after returning from the Grand Council, it had been overwritten by a human's name.

[What are you going to do in the end?]

His words were still echoing in her mind.

The secret ending brought about by Godwin.

"The end..."

She retraced the end over and over again.

No answer came.

Whether an optimistic future or a pessimistic one,

She could not accept either.

No one knew what the future held.

Even if they could predict it, thoroughly looking into it was an impossible feat.

"Arrogant bastard..."

The descendants of Iorga lived in the present to prepare for the future.

Erica Iorga was the same.

She neither despaired nor was she overly optimistic.

That was the rationality Iorga pursued.

But then.

Whenever she thought of Ferda, his words kept ringing in her ears.

It felt like a mosquito buzzing around.

What are you going to do?

What's your plan?

What are you going to do about it?

What can you even do?

"Huuu..."

Erica sensed she had reached her limit and raised her finger.

At that moment, a small water droplet condensed at her fingertip.

The droplet spread into the shape of a veil and instantly covered her surroundings entirely.

"Huuu."

She took a deep breath.

And then,

"So what?!"

She screamed.

"What makes you so damn great?!"

She stomped hard on the floor and wildly swung her hands.

"I squashed that proposal and stopped those damn ice idiots for you, so what makes you so great acting all high and mighty on your own?! A mere human! A mere human!! What makes you think you're so great!!"

If she couldn't calm down, she would just vent.

"Ah, I don't know! I quit! I'm not doing this! Why do I have to do this?! What's the point! Everyone's just blaming me!! Even though they can't do anything themselves!"

She shrieked for a few minutes, releasing everything pent up inside her.

KNOCK KNOCK.

"Excuse me, Lady Erica?"

Her secretary came looking for her and opened the door.

Erica, who had been screaming like she was having a seizure, moved frantically.

She withdrew the water veil and sat down in her seat.

She returned to her usual appearance as the leader.

"What is the matter?"

Unable to imagine that Erica was the same woman who had just been rolling around throwing a hysterical fit, the secretary began the report.

"I have come to report on the investigation records of House Rosnova you requested, but do you have time?"

The timing was artistic.

Erica needlessly felt a prick of guilt.

"Go ahead."

"First, House Rosnova itself didn't have any major issues. It is one of the Empire's knight families, built achievements typical for humans, and is just a common family barely maintaining its lineage."

"Are you saying there is nothing wrong with Regent Ferda's family?"

"At least with House Rosnova, yes."

She turned to the next page.

"The problem is Regent Ferda's biological mother, Anna Rosnova."

"Why her?"

"There isn't a single piece of information about his biological mother."

"Not a single piece? Does that mean she was just a commoner or someone ordinary?"

"No. It's not in that category. We may need to investigate deeper, but it feels like..."

The woman hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should say this.

"Like we are chasing a ghost that never existed in the first place?"

"A ghost?"

It was the most irresponsible thing an investigator could say.

However, Erica absolutely did not overlook those words.

They were children of Iorga and knew Erica well.

To have brought this up meant that even after digging incredibly deep, not a single speck of dust had been found.

Erica muttered.

"An egg exists because a hen exists."

A result exists because there is a cause.

A son exists because there is a mother.

Even for the dragons, who were their gods, a creator existed.

To dig for information to understand even a little bit about Ferda, only for an unknown question to return.

'Just what kind of person is that man?'

Just as she thought that,

A loud clattering sound came from the stairs.

Unfitting for the Iorga who valued rationality, a terrified man ran up.

"B-Big trouble!"

"Why are you making such a fuss?"

"T-That is! T-This!"

What he handed over was an image projected with magic power.

It was a scene of several dragon spawns recovering a corpse in the snowfields.

"A Silver Dragon spawn... died?"

"Yes."

That alone was a grave matter.

All dragon spawns remembered the deaths of those who shared their blood.

Silverwind, known to have the strongest bonds, would not leave their enemy alone.

If he had only brought this, she would have merely assumed a bloodbath would happen somewhere.

She instinctively realized his urgency meant something more.

"On the next page...!!"

The Silverwind faction was flying through the sky.

In their midst, a dragon spawn with massive wings could also be seen.

"The leader of the ice idiots himself...?"

Goz Silverwind moving personally was no ordinary matter.

It meant an intention to destroy everything that person possessed, rather than just finishing off an individual.

Why?

Why was he moving personally?

Erica thought.

One person immediately came to mind.

'Don't tell me...'

There was no way.

That guy wasn't that stupid.

He knew perfectly well what his relationship with Silverwind was like; there was no way he would do something so crazy.

But because she needed to be certain, she asked with difficulty.

"Who laid a hand on Silverwind's descendant?"

He answered, and her fears became reality.

"It was Regent Ferda Valdrova!"

The fuse had been lit.