Chapter 198 - Is There Any Way?

Storeus left the castle and walked down the corridor.

He could have gone out to the balcony, transformed into a dragon, and flown away, but Storeus deliberately did not.

There was one bastard he hoped he might run into, if only like this.

And by coincidence, that bastard entered his sight.

He had never heard a single thing about what he looked like, nor had he been curious, but the moment they met, he knew.

Gray hair and blue eyes.

That scrawny little runt holding his head so straight was the one called Ferda.

Ferda greeted him politely first.

"I greet the great Aspect of Lightning, Lord Storeus."

Storeus looked down at him and said,

"So it was you. The one called Ferda."

"I am deeply honored that you recognize me."

"You spout words you do not mean quite well."

Storeus spread his force and tried to crush him with it.

But Ferda's expression did not move in the slightest.

Without showing any sign of strain, he faced him.

"I heard Boss's fiancé was a sickly little thing, but you exceed imagination... You crawl into the Land of Demons with that body?"

"..."

"It seems you do not know what kind of dragon your fiancée is, you insignificant thing."

"How much can anyone know about each other simply because they have known each other for a long time?"

"At the very least, I know a face of hers you do not."

Though the intent to provoke him was obvious, Ferda could not stop his emotions from stirring.

"In any case, you are nothing but a passing amusement she enjoys within the flow of time you cannot defy. Do you think you can endure that? How long do you think you and Valdrova will really last?"

"Ten thousand years."

"Ten thousand years?"

"Yes."

Ferda answered without hesitation.

"She said she wished to be with me for ten thousand years, so I will be with her for ten thousand years."

Storeus stared at him as if he found it absurd.

What was even more absurd was the fact that those were not words thrown out in mere stubbornness.

In those eyes, he seemed to see a resolve to truly live a life close to an immortal's.

"... I thought you would be a little different, but perhaps birds of a feather truly do flock together."

He laughed as if it were ridiculous.

Storeus, who had been acting spitefully with his Dragon Fear, withdrew his Dragon Fear.

"I hear you are after the emperor's head, brat."

"I do not need the emperor's head."

"If you mean to bring down the Empire, you will have to do that."

Storeus spoke with certainty.

"Olivia will come to find you before long. Help her."

After saying that, Storeus left.

The warning thrown out by that endlessly arrogant dragon strangely carried weight.

After the Flint Expedition returned, they took time to reorganize.

Erica quickly distributed the spoils to the expedition members.

Immediate rewards tended to lead to a drop in motivation, but for now, it was the best move.

They needed more adventurers, and for that, she had guided them into showing off the items they had salvaged from the mysterious eastern land.

The adventurers boasted to the merchants, swelling expectations to the fullest.

Before it became a feast everyone had already heard rumors of, it became bait to lure in adventurers and merchants who would join late, hoping to at least grab a single noodle strand.

"For now, the other adventurers say they intend to participate again."

"They must have had it quite rough, yet they did not break."

"Having it rough isn't the problem. By adventure standards, this was a huge! Success!"

The reason it was a huge success was similar to what she had explained at first.

The first was that everyone returned without any deaths or serious injuries.

The second was that it was an exploration that could be completed within a day.

The third was that they had brought back meaningful information and results from the first exploration.

"Although the exploration itself covered only part of it, and we have to go back in, we brought this back. So we definitely have gains as well."

What she showed him was a map related to Gyeonghui Palace.

Adventurers were people who walked blind into deadly places, so gaining a pair of eyes could only be welcome news.

"Escolaia also said they are steadily developing new mana-powered automobiles, and if we only make about two more trips, we should be able to sweep up everything in Gyeonghui Palace and leave."

"I see."

"So we will now prepare for the next exploration, and we will depart in two weeks. What will you do, Regent Ferda?"

Erica asked for now, though she thought the obvious answer would come.

"For the moment, I will only keep it in mind."

"In two weeks, that will be tight, so you will need to give an answer now."

"In that case, I suppose it would be correct to say I will not participate in the next exploration."

Ferda answered without the slightest hesitation.

Erica's eyes widened round.

"Is it because of the trauma?"

The demonic creature that amplified the pain each person carried.

He could not say that had nothing to do with it.

After all, Ferda had nearly died because of the illusion that trauma had shown him.

But if asked whether trauma was the main reason, that was not it either.

"No. I learned that I can gain much from the Land of Demons."

What does not kill him makes him stronger.

His Shadow Circle was at the 2nd Circle, and his Red Circle had reached the 5th Circle, so the mana circulating inside his body was already nearing the 6th Circle.

Ferda was a seasoned mage, skilled enough to easily use even magic difficult to handle at the 5th Circle.

He could certainly play an active role in the exploration, and if he went deeper into that place, he would grow even stronger.

But that was not something possible only because it was the East.

Ferda had now found the answer, and that answer was not somewhere far away.

Now that he had obtained an answer, going to search for another answer would only cause confusion.

"I am asking just in case."

"Yes."

"... There really is nothing else, right?"

"... What exactly happened while I was unconscious?"

Erica could not answer.

"Understood. Then I will try selecting a new mage candidate."

"Yes."

And so she sent Ferda away.

Now that he was gone, Erica could not help feeling regretful inside.

'He was quite capable...'

She had deliberately not said it aloud, but he had far more ability than the middle-aged mage she had brought this time.

'I thought he would soon reach a new realm... but I never imagined it would be during the exploration.'

Because Erica had learned magic through human training methods, she knew how arduous that was.

She was a 6th Circle Great Mage, but even that had only been possible because she had more time than anyone else.

'His proper training probably only began after he became an adult...'

The 5th Circle in the short span of one year.

If it were the Blue Circle, it would be impossible, and even with the Red Circle, it was close to impossible.

'The reason he was able to reach that 5th Circle was...'

The armor knight and the Yin-Yang Room...

No matter how much she tried to imagine it, only unpleasant images came to mind.

'I must be insane.'

Should she recite a forgetting spell and wipe that scene away completely?

She wondered if it would not be better to endure the side effects instead.

'Or perhaps I could make myself think of Regent Ferda instead... No, that would be torture.'

If someone with a fiancée remembered such a shameful scene, he might even make an extreme choice out of humiliation.

Let us just not think about it.

She was shaking off idle thoughts and writing her report when it happened.

KNOCK, KNOCK.

"Come in."

Someone entered.

When she raised her head, she flinched in surprise.

The person at the center of the filthy thoughts she had been having until just now, the armor knight, had entered.

"What brings you here?"

He carefully walked over and handed her something.

The neatly folded paper gave her an ominous feeling she could not shake.

-Notice of Withdrawal

Her ominous feeling had been right.

"You intend to quit here?"

Nod, nod.

Erica stared fixedly at the notice of withdrawal and thought.

'What the hell happened in that damned Yin-Yang Room?'

Had the two people who had been together confirmed their love for each other and decided to run away?

Before that absurd, filthy imagination could pollute her mind, her mouth politely asked a question.

"Why?"

Unlike with Ferda, it was somewhat aggressive.

Of course, the armor knight did not answer.

As only silence circulated, Erica answered him.

"No."

She pushed the submitted notice of withdrawal back toward the armor knight.

The armor knight made a gesture as if asking why.

"You contributed the most during this adventure. That is why I cannot allow it."

"...?"

"You nearly killed me, and you were dangerous as well. But even that is truly nothing more than a trivial problem to me. Do you know why?"

"..."

"Because your contribution in this exploration was the greatest."

If she judged that she could replace Ferda as a fighting force, the armor knight could not be replaced by anyone.

Even that combative Jonathan Sina looked like glass that would quickly shatter once it took a single scratch.

The armor knight seemed to hesitate a little, then pushed the notice of withdrawal on the desk again.

In the end, Erica could not contain her frustration and spoke to him.

"Armor knight. How about you speak now?"

"...!!"

"I know you have not made a Vow of Silence. You are not a person who serves a religion or a liege lord. How long did you think we would keep pretending not to know?"

"..."

"If you have a valid reason, I will accept it. But if you leave now, when everyone is in a difficult situation, there is nothing we can do."

Erica folded her arms and crossed her legs.

No matter how you come at me, there will be no way to persuade me!

Her posture said as much.

In truth, it was no different from a threat.

From Erica's perspective, she had no choice but to do this.

To Erica, the armor knight was a presence that drove her mad.

She desperately needed him, and at the same time, he made her curious.

Erica had always investigated him while maintaining the line.

Until then, that had certainly been true.

Until she saw the Thunder Dragon, Storeus, quietly withdraw because of him.

The current situation had shattered Erica's scales.

She could no longer suppress her curiosity.

"If you have some sort of secret, I swear on my name that I will protect it. Until then, I cannot accept this notice of withdrawal."

At the words that she had put her name on it, the armor knight seemed to hesitate.

Then he made a movement as if he had resolved himself to something.

She thought he might be taking back the notice of withdrawal placed on the desk, but his action went beyond the range of her expectations.

The armor that was the armor knight's identity came off.

It did not come off one layer at a time like a human's clothing.

He emerged by tearing out of it, like a butterfly shedding its chrysalis.

Once that armor came off, the contents inside revealed themselves gracefully.

Erica's eyes, which had been holding an arrogant posture, opened wide as the moon.

What she saw now was two pairs of horns, red hair, and golden eyes.

She looked exactly like the Valdrova Erica had seen long ago.

Erica's mind seemed to turn completely white.

Erica could not think any further.

No.

There is no way that is real.

I must be under attack by a trauma monster that secretly snuck into my office.

The contents inside asked her,

"So... is there any way...?"

That cautious way of speaking, too, felt like something she had heard somewhere before.

In dragon form, it gave off a grave feeling, but in human form, it was a timid, feminine way of speaking.

The facts stabbing into her eyes and ears could no longer be avoided.

Erica carefully rose from her seat.

"U-Um...? Erica, no, Eri...?"

Erica stood before Valdrova, and her height gradually lowered.

Erica knelt and politely clasped her hands.

Unlike her quietly performed movement, her voice rang out thunderously.

"Please forgive this girl's disrespectful behavior!!!"

It was said that when humans faced mortal danger in life, their lives flashed before their eyes.

As Erica had experienced mortal danger again and again, she had believed that was bullshit.

No matter how many times she experienced it, only Iorga's face had come to mind within her heart.

But now was different.

Past events were racing rapidly through her mind.

The starting point was when she first met the armor knight.

From the moment Erica had met the armor knight, she was searching for where and what she had done wrong.

Why had she not noticed sooner?

That only a dragon could stand against a dragon.

"Um..."

Valdrova looked down at Erica and spoke.

Erica had released her human form and was in a posture of apology, with her horns and tail out.

"I am fine, so could you get up now?"

"No! Please allow me to remain like this! Only then will my heart be at ease!"

"Mm..."

But I am uncomfortable...

She could not say that.

"I should have recognized it from the moment you did not wear ordinary armor, but because this girl was ignorant and foolish, I dared to treat someone so noble like that...!"

"I really am fine, so you do not need to worry..."

Erica looked as if she might burst into tears at any moment, and Valdrova was at a loss.

Her awkward hand only kept stroking down her own leg.

"If... if I may be so bold..."

"Yes?"

"May I ask since when you knew I was a child of Iorga...?"

"Since when...? From the beginning?"

"I-Is that so?"

It felt like she might vomit blood.

Did that mean Valdrova had known she was a child of Iorga, yet still listened to and carried out her orders?

Then, suddenly, she recalled what had happened when Storeus had barged in and made his demand.

"Then p-perhaps, the reason you stopped me from kneeling before Lord Storeus was...?"

"That? Because you are Iorga's child."

"W-Was that the only reason?"

"Yes."

Just for something like that?

It was an action other dragons would absolutely never have taken.

If it were not their own child, if it were not their own family, they would stand by even if that person was forced to kneel or made to slam their head into the floor.

Valdrova smiled gently.

"If Iorga found out Storeus had made you do that, she would be sad."

"How... can that be."

Erica looked up at Valdrova.

That smile, which she normally would have thought of as a vacant grin, began to look exceedingly noble.

As she thought that, the memories she had shared with Iorga also surfaced in her mind.

["Valdrova's behavior is exactly like that of a lizard, I swear."]

["That is exactly right!"]

["Because she acts so foolishly, everyone sees her as a sucker and a moron."]

["Indeed! The things she does are so..."]

"Cough!"

"A-Are you all right?"