Chapter 10 - Dragon's Breath

The promised month.

When there were three days left until the engagement ceremony with the Grand Duchess.

Luri pointed at the paper and pen with a face full of dissatisfaction and said,

"Please write one copy of the vows to be used at the engagement ceremony."

"Isn't there something used as a formality?"

"Of course there is, but..."

Just then, Luri's throat bobbed.

She forced the sigh that came out in place of a Breath back down her throat.

"She says that since it is an unofficial engagement ceremony, she would like to proceed without empty formalities."

"And?"

"She says she would like to replace it with reading vows written by hand."

Ferda listened and nodded calmly.

"So she is a romantic."

"Romantic is putting it nicely. This is worse than getting married in a stable. What is this? Writing the vows ourselves... It is not as if we are playing house."

Luri grumbled.

In the end, she spat out what she had been holding inside her small chest.

"Haaaah..."

It was a Breath.

A hollow Breath sank down as if it might bore through the floor.

'An engagement to a human, and a private engagement ceremony at that, and now she even makes them write their own vows...'

Even a spawn obedient to a dragon could not help accumulating emotions.

So Ferda could understand why she sighed like that.

'Still, she is loyal to Valdrova herself rather than to her position as a ruler.'

If she had placed more importance on the former, Ferda would not have been able to remain here like this.

If Luri had set her mind to it, she could have tried to kill Ferda or trapped him and created a flaw.

But Luri had not used such low-grade methods.

'If anything, she has helped me.'

He could feel Luri's complicated state of mind.

She hoped this engagement would not go well, while at the same time wishing for Valdrova's happiness.

'She must be so irritated because she has been trapped inside that contradiction.'

It was truly pitiable.

Ferda decided to cast her a brief look of sympathy.

"What is with those eyes?"

"I was thinking that you are truly pitiful."

At that sincere pity, Luri's face crumpled.

"I do not want to hear something like that from a human like you."

"I will let it pass since I am still a guest, but in three days, I will become the Consort, so what will my relationship with you be then?"

"It will not be very different from now. I hope you are not seized by the delusion that you will be able to give me orders."

"Of course not. I did not ask with that intention."

"Still, if you ask me to hit you, I will hit you without hesitation."

"I will decline that on my end."

"There is no need to worry. I am confident in my strength. I am also good at controlling it."

"? I do not need that."

Luri raised her tiny fist.

That tiny fist had destroyed a bed and even broken the floor.

Even as a joke, he had no desire to say such a thing.

"In any case, once the engagement proceeds, you will have to bring servants into the castle from now on. You will also have to select ministers to lead the territory."

"Servants and ministers? Must I do that?"

"Yes. Because the territory and other miscellaneous affairs under Grand Duchess Valdrova will be handled by the Consort."

Ferda found that strange when he heard it.

"You seemed not to like people taking power. Are you telling me to take power?"

"I do not hate humans who take power. I only hate humans blinded by power."

The 3rd Prince of the Arken Empire had been blinded by power and could not avoid death.

"Power is something that should originally be held by someone who has no interest in it. Because they do not desire greater power, they look after the livelihood of the people. That is the kind of human we need right now."

Ferda tilted his head.

"Is the people's livelihood not good?"

"If you saw the current lords, you should already know this, but it is an absolute mess."

Ferda recalled the sight of the lords who had gathered at the council.

Their fat, utterly dull bodies.

The way they trembled in fear that their necks might be cut off was like pigs trapped inside a slaughterhouse.

"Those who should serve as pillars are all busy stuffing their own bellies. Since they stand at the front line, they visit brothels and devote themselves to eating expensive food, saying they never know when they might die. Complaints are being suppressed for now by the military strength of the foremost front, but someday they may erupt into a major riot."

"I did not know. That things were in such a state."

The people's livelihood.

Hearing those words, Ferda felt one thing was strange.

"Does Grand Duchess Valdrova not wish for humans to be happy?"

"She does."

"If she personally stepped forward and said a word, would almost everything not come to an end?"

"It likely would."

"Then why is she unable to do that?"

"..."

Luri closed her mouth.

Her face was cold, and she was emitting Dragon Fear she could not control.

She was like a dragon whose reverse scale had been touched.

"I will keep silent on that point for now. It is something you will be able to know well enough later anyway."

Ferda decided to take one step back after hearing that.

"Then let us leave it at that. So I simply need to write the vows?"

"Yes. Then I will excuse myself."

Luri bowed and left through the door.

Haaaaah.

The sound of her sigh traveled along the floor and entered Ferda's ears.

Ferda took up the pen while recalling the things Luri had said.

'Vows, is it...'

They said the beginning was half the battle, and Ferda got stuck on the first line.

Should he have asked specifically what sort of thing he was supposed to write?

If he had, it would have been a little easier.

'Shall I put it off for now?'

Instead of the vows, Ferda decided to write several letters.

He had once said this to the lords.

-I have not the slightest interest in what you do.

But now it was time to have more than the slightest interest.

That was the problem.

'I told the lords I had no interest in them, so if I try to interfere, there will be resistance.'

Ferda was aware that his first impression had not been good.

And since he had ended up lying there, his image would become even worse.

He had no choice but to send them each a letter.

The content said that he might possibly interfere in internal affairs.

He added this phrase at the end.

-If you do not like it, do not reply. I respect you, after all.

And the replies from all the lords came back that very day.

* * *

The day of the engagement ceremony.

Ferda had shown his abilities, and at the same time, proven there was not a single lie in his words.

With nothing left to nitpick, Luri meekly accepted the engagement ceremony.

"Your epaulet is crooked. And I went to the trouble of starching them, so how could you wrinkle your trousers?"

Instead, she began the day by finding fault with every little thing.

"It would be quite nice if I had hands and eyes where you are."

"Why not acquire a set?"

"I think you could do it."

Luri took one step back.

She also tucked both hands behind her back.

"I do not want to touch you. I am merely the attendant of the master I serve, so please do not expect too much from me."

"Hm, you truly are like a dog."

"Do you wish to fight me? Just say the word. I will gladly fight you seriously at any time."

"No, I only meant that you are loyal."

Luri growled, but Ferda accepted her fault-finding and dealt with each of her criticisms one by one.

'An engagement ceremony...'

None of it felt real.

If one married, there were basically one of two emotions.

The joy of getting married.

Or the sadness of being sold off.

Ferda felt neither of those two emotions.

'It has been like this ever since I returned to this day.'

A calm heart unbecoming of the possessor of a Red Circle.

'Did I become engaged simply because I thought I had to?'

He suspected it might be mechanical behavior faithful only to obligation.

With his overwhelming rage and hatred gone, even his other emotions had grown faint.

'Is it right for me to face Valdrova with a heart like this?'

A vague anxiety lingered in one corner of his chest.

'Vague anxiety, is it...'

Ferda smiled slightly.

Vagueness was a human weakness.

'For all that has happened, I am still human.'

For now, that was all that mattered.

Ferda decided to think only of that fact.

* * *

The engagement ceremony was held before Valdrova's lair.

Inside the lair, illuminated by hundreds of bundles of candles.

They decided to hold the ceremony with only about twenty paces between them and the iron door behind which Valdrova was.

Luri, who had finished preparing for the ceremony, knocked on the door.

"Master, we will proceed with the ceremony."

Then the enormous iron door carefully opened.

Air escaped from the gap, diluted with the outside air, and flowed into Ferda's nose and mouth.

"Urgh."

His breath tightened painfully.

Even though there was none of the killing intent she had shown when fighting the monster, that alone carried the emotion of fear.

If Ferda had been even a little weaker, his condition was bad enough that he would have fainted right there.

Luri looked over Ferda's state and said this.

"You must endure it."

"I... know."

"Then we will proceed with the engagement ceremony."

Luri ignored Ferda's condition and began following the procedure.

They had already discussed that it would be like this, so Ferda sat up straight and focused on steadying his breath.

"Mortality and immortality shall become one today and join a golden thread that neither the authority of the heavens nor the storms of time can sever."

Luri placed the bowl and wine table that had been set before them in front of Ferda.

Luri carefully held the bottle, poured clear wine, and recited the words.

"Mortality shall become one by casting off the unknown and washing away fear."

As he had been told in advance, Ferda accepted the bowl and drank the wine.

It tasted as clean and clear as its transparency suggested.

'I really cannot drink alcohol well.'

Ferda had never enjoyed alcohol even as he grew older, so this wine was the first of his life.

After Ferda drank the first cup, he poured the half that remained into the bowl and brought it before the iron door.

"Immortality shall become one by erasing the futility of the infinite flow."

Now it was Valdrova's turn to drink the wine.

SLIDE.

What emerged from between the enormous iron doors was a claw larger than Ferda's body.

That fearsome weapon that had torn monsters' bodies to shreds.

The claw carefully descended toward the bowl containing the engagement wine, and,

CLATTER!

It flipped it over just like that.

"..."

"..."

An awkward silence flowed.

The claw returned inside the iron door with a clattering sound.

Wondering whether this was how it was originally supposed to be done, Ferda glanced toward Luri.

"... We will proceed with the ceremony again."

It proceeded again, exactly as she said.

They read the engagement text, Ferda drank first, and Valdrova's turn came again.

CLATTER!

In that way, the claw overturned the small serving of engagement wine about three times.

Ferda was gradually facing a crisis.

'After drinking several cups, I am getting drunk...'

Ferda felt his head throb and the strings of his five senses gradually loosen.

He had an intuition that the next time would be the last.

CRACK.

Just then, a loud breaking sound came from somewhere.

It would have been foolish to worry that the cave might be collapsing.

If Ferda had not misheard, that was undoubtedly a sound coming from Luri's body.

"Please excuse me for a moment."

Luri squeezed her body through the slightly opened gap.

Just as he was about to wait, wondering whether she intended to prepare something separately.

"What are you doing right now, Master?!"

Luri's furious shout suddenly flew out.

Ferda's drunkenness vanished at once.

"You were the one who made such a fuss about marrying a mortal, Master, and you were the one who said you would get engaged. So what did I, your loyal servant Luri, do?"

The Breath she had swallowed and swallowed over the past three days,

"I endured it!"

She began to spew it out fervently.

"I endured making the engagement ceremony, which should naturally be made public as a Grand Duchess, private! And I endured and endured forming an engagement like this without even facing each other!"

Her voice grew louder and louder.

He could feel that she was angrier than ever before.

"But because you are afraid to face your fiancé! You hide like that! And obstruct the engagement! Just! What! Does that make! The fiancé! Out there!?"

There came the sound of rough breathing, and Valdrova, unable to make even a peep.

Beyond that came a deep sigh, then Luri's voice again.

"Come out proudly and receive your fiancé! If you overturn the engagement wine one more time, I will not stand by either!"

Luri, who had been roaring in anger, came out again.

Her face was businesslike and expressionless.

Ferda inadvertently stared straight at her.

And through Ferda's gaze, Luri could guess what he was thinking.

"... Did you perhaps hear that?"

"Even the other lords far away probably heard it."

"... Haa. Well, what can be done?"

Luri let out a deep sigh as if she had a headache, then said this.

"As you can sufficiently infer from what just happened, Master has anthropophobia."

"Anthropophobia means..."

"It means she is afraid of dealing with humans."

"..."

"If someone heard it, they would laugh. A being who saved the world hiding because she is afraid of mortals."

"You are telling me rather important information."

"It is something you must know anyway. Just because you dislike it does not mean this fact can be hidden forever."

Her silver eyes slid down as she said this.

"You are going to become her partner now. That means her weakness will also be your weakness."

"Are you saying it is joint responsibility?"

"Is that not what marriage is?"

Ferda quietly nodded at her words.

Marriage was joint responsibility.

For some reason, it did not feel entirely welcome.

There had never been a single time when he had liked the words joint responsibility.

A moment later, the closed door opened again.

He thought the enormous claw might emerge again, but what his two eyes saw was a human figure.

Ferda cast his gaze toward the person who would become his partner.

"... Hm?"

He was so startled that a sound escaped his lips.

'... Armor?'

And full plate armor, at that.

The helmet was in the shape of a dragon's head.

Though it was made of metal, it was so elaborate and imposing that, for an instant, he mistook it for a dragon.

It was the sort of sight that made him think a dragon might look like this if it walked around on two feet.

The detail of the armor was astonishing, but so was,

'She is incredibly large.'

Above all, her height.

Ferda's height was 180 centimeters, which made him tall, and yet she was so tall that he had to look far above his own head.

Judging by height alone, she was 240 centimeters.

If one excluded the armor, perhaps around 220.

'I heard that a dragon's polymorph is wondrously beautiful.'

If that standard of beauty belonged to humans, then that meant there was a 220-centimeter beauty...

Could the person inside actually be a man?

"We will proceed with the final engagement ceremony."

No sooner had that ominous guess occurred than Luri proceeded with the ceremony again.

Ferda drank the engagement wine again, though he had already drunk three cups.

His eyelids were as heavy as lead from the alcohol.

He wondered if she might overturn it again this time too, but that did not seem likely.

Luri simply grabbed the helmet and lifted it so that she could not overturn or spill it.

Ferda saw the figure hidden inside that cold, hard shell.

And so, the face of the Red Dragon, Valdrova, that he saw for the first time,

"Ah."

Made him let out an exclamation without realizing it.