Chapter 9 - Like a Deep Lake

After Thessalos Vulture died, all the lords rode their carriages and returned.

The only ones left in the assembly hall of the far eastern front alliance were Luri and Ferda.

"That was absolutely excellent."

Luri looked up at Ferda and applauded with her small hands.

"You certainly showed them who holds the upper hand today. You are amazing; your political skills have gone beyond mere art."

Then, she firmly raised the thumbs of both hands, giving him a so-called double thumbs-up.

Ferda was feeling a headache, an aftereffect of his mana depletion.

He replied while lightly massaging his temples with his fingers.

"It is merely an unintended consequence."

"That result may have been unintended, but it happened anyway. What do you plan to do now?"

"About what?"

Luri scrunched her face as if asking if that was a real question.

"You just killed a noble. Even if you are backed by the Grand Duchess's prestige, this will undeniably become a controversy."

"Is that so?"

Ferda recalled the reactions of those around him and asked.

"They were rather quiet for that to be the case, so you mean there is a problem?"

"Who would be foolish enough to point that out when you are swinging a blade right in front of them?"

"Hmm... Is that so?"

Things had gone over so smoothly that Ferda had not even realized he had committed a felony.

Now that she mentioned it, Ferda also realized he should slowly start feeling troubled.

Seeing Ferda's reaction, Luri let out a small sigh and continued.

"Besides, your opponent was one of the lords already pledging his full loyalty to Valdrova. This won't just end at the level of being quite troubled."

"Was he clean?"

"He was an ordinary guy who was appropriately clean and appropriately corrupt. In the far eastern front, that kind of ordinariness signifies the greatest loyal subject."

"Since I killed the greatest loyal subject with my own hands, I suppose there will be obstacles to the engagement?"

"Naturally."

No wonder.

There was a reason Luri's eyes were sparkling.

Contrary to her expectations, Ferda scratched his cheek and replied.

"I will proceed with the engagement as planned. Wouldn't things change if I show them a reason why he had to die?"

"That is true, but... why are you so confident?"

As far as Luri knew, Thessalos Vulture and Ferda had met for the first time today.

Yet he was speaking as if he knew him better than Luri or the other lords who had been here for a long time.

'Why, you ask?'

Because I already know.

If Ferda's memory was correct, that man would have been in the middle of committing a felony even now.

"Let us head over to Vulture's territory."

"Are you saying you're going to dig up some dirt on him?"

"Do not worry. There will be a whole pile of dirt, so they will understand."

"Well, understood. But before that, first..."

Luri flicked her finger toward the corpse of the dead Thessalos.

Then, a thread-like distortion pierced through the dead Thessalos's neck.

It had cleanly severed his neck.

Luri wrapped the severed head in a cloth bundle.

"Why are you taking that?"

"It will be necessary. Whatever the reason you killed him for, he died 'because he did something wrong'."

Ferda understood and nodded.

"So are you going to display his severed head? Like you would against corrupt nobles?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

"I thought you said he was the greatest loyal subject?"

"If you want to use this to pretend the engagement never happened, you can do whatever you want. I would be happy."

Ferda shut his mouth.

One way or another, Luri was helping Ferda in the end.

* * *

Vulture's territory.

It was at the very forefront of the far eastern front, and it was the land most closely connected to the border army.

At the same time, it was also the closest place to Valdrova Castle.

"They say it is easy to miss what is right under your nose. Was it right here?"

Ferda muttered to himself.

The place he actually met Thessalos Vulture was in the southern desert lands.

Before that, he could never have imagined that the man would be on the far eastern front.

As they arrived in front of the inner keep in Vulture's territory, a butler came rushing out in a flurry.

True to his role as the butler of Vulture's territory, he responded calmly.

"We are welcoming an honored guest to our humble abode. Unfortunately, my master is currently out—"

"Ah, do not worry about that. Because that master is dead."

"... Pardon?"

The old butler asked back with a dumbfounded face.

"I said that master is dead. Let us go inside. By any chance, do you know where Thessalos Vulture's laboratory is?"

"W-Well... no, more importantly, what on earth do you mean you killed my master..."

"Enough. It was not a respectable or proud matter, so he must have hidden it. I will look for it myself."

Ending the one-sided conversation, Ferda walked past the butler and went inside.

The butler watched him pass by with an uncomprehending expression.

Luri, who was following behind him, handed the cloth bundle to the butler and pointed at the sky.

"Hang this up where it can be seen clearly from the castle gate."

"Pardon? What is this..."

With that, Luri also walked past the butler and went inside.

A moment later, the old butler's scream rang out loudly down the hallway.

* * *

Thessalos Vulture.

A mage family that had been chased out to the outskirts due to political issues.

It was a family with a hatred and inferiority complex just as intense as Ferda's.

As birds of a feather flock together, Ferda had taken in a companion for the first time, and that companion was Thessalos.

'Thessalos Vulture hated the empire.'

He was a possessor of the Red Circle, and as a result, he was treated as a heretic in the academic magic circles and pushed out to the fringes.

Thessalos developed his magic with the sole focus of killing all the nobles who had pushed him out to the far eastern front.

And what actually happened?

'He did succeed.'

Of course, he *only* succeeded.

'I never actually saw that magic.'

Because before Thessalos could even use that magic, no, before he could even properly give it a name, he ended up dying by Ferda's hands.

Just like him today, without even knowing why.

'Anyway, why did I kill him again?'

And Ferda could not remember either.

It was not strange.

Because the Ferda of that time forcibly needed something to hate, and so he did.

Having to do whatever it took to reach the 6th Circle faster than anyone else, he had to become a monster who would even kill his benefactor.

'Well, it doesn't matter.'

There was not a single shred of hesitation in Ferda's heart.

It was not because of some delusion that he was justice.

The only important thing was that the current Thessalos was undoubtedly someone who would make his spouse grieve.

'Anyway, it's definitely somewhere around here...'

Ferda thoroughly searched Thessalos's room.

He had said he was dedicating his entire life to researching it.

Even now, while acting as a loyal subject, his sinister intentions must be hidden.

Looking around like that, Ferda finally discovered something.

"It is right here."

It was right under the bed.

The seams of the tiles under the bed were not tightly sealed, and he felt a strange airflow leaking out from the gaps.

"He built a secret place under his bed."

"Are you going to open it?"

"I must. I will look for a switch. Hold on..."

CRASH!

Before Ferda could even finish his words, the sound of something breaking was heard.

When he turned his head, the bed was split in half, and the hidden secret door covering the entrance was broken right along with it.

Luri nonchalantly brushed off her cute little fists and spoke.

"Why bother finding it?"

"..."

It was a truly ignorant method, but there was no reason not to do it either.

Like that, Luri and Ferda stepped down the stairs leading underground.

As it gradually got darker, a faint smell of fishy iron wafted up.

"It's the smell of monster blood."

"You can distinguish that? You must have the nose of a hound."

"Do not compare me to such inferior creatures."

"My apologies. But I do think that your loyalty is like a dog's."

"... Are you trying to pick a fight?"

Luri glared at him, but Ferda did not even react.

The stairs came to an end, and Ferda and Luri stepped into a new space.

"This is..."

He reflexively scrunched his eyes.

It was a given that a mage's laboratory would always be a mess, creating a peculiar sight with unknown items piled up.

Sometimes, one would even brace themselves for a bloody sight when entering.

However, even taking that into consideration, Thessalos Vulture's laboratory was cruel and grotesque to an excessive degree.

If someone had a weak stomach, they would have thrown up immediately, but neither Luri nor Ferda were greatly disturbed.

'Though it seems I haven't adapted to the smell yet.'

He covered his nose with his index finger and waited for his sense of smell to adapt.

Luri scowled as she looked up at a spot with a corpse.

"So this is what it means to miss what is right under your nose."

The corpse of a dead soldier and a monster corpse were laid out side by side on a bed.

Their stomachs were split open, and the purple intestines and red intestines were connected with thread.

"To think that the lord believed to be the most loyal was a demon follower."

Demon follower.

The demons that were created 150 years ago in the Dragon-Demon War, which broke out due to the corruption of the Black Dragon Godwin.

Those who chased the traces of those demons up to the present day and sought to utilize their power were the demon followers.

"Did you not expect it?"

"I know that mages are gloomy to some extent. And they are just as skilled as they are gloomy, so we tolerate them up to a certain point. However..."

Deep disgust and a sense of betrayal filled her silver eyes.

"I never thought he would be doing something in such poor taste as connecting the internal organs of monsters and humans together like this."

However, it was said that the sense of betrayal hits as hard as the trust one had given.

"Well, humans are all like that."

Luri, a dragon spawn, did not place much trust in humans.

Thus, it was resolved cleanly, erased in the blink of an eye.

What was important right now was what he was trying to achieve through such poor taste.

Luri discovered manuscripts scattered across a writing desk.

Her eyes quickly skimmed over them, and what came out at the end was a snort.

"He really was a total psycho bastard."

"Why?"

"He came up with the idea to enhance magic power by using the monster factor possessed by monsters, and he continued his research on it."

"Is that so?"

"Would you like to take a look?"

Ferda looked at the first page of the manuscript she showed him.

He read down through the overview.

Only then did Ferda recall his memory.

'Right. He was trying to create undead that were similar to monsters.'

Among dark magic, the necromancer lineage is divided into extremes.

Either creating a single powerful monster, or deploying countless weak monsters.

Because of this extreme pattern of either overwhelming with numbers or competing with quality, necromancers are the mages most easily countered and subdued.

'He was trying to compete with the sturdiness of monsters and the quantity of undead.'

If that were to be completed, it would become the ultimate magic capable of mass-producing the empire's elite soldiers.

'Although that was not what I was interested in.'

The reason Ferda showed interest in that magic was purely because of the mana cultivation method created in order to use that magic.

Monsters continuously produce mana.

'Instead, it's foul mana that cannot be used anywhere.'

Monsters were the ones that grew stronger by feeding on overwhelmingly large amounts of mana.

'But if that production power could be reproduced to extract pure mana...'

To the point where even those who were said to have no talent could enter the ranks of a 4th Circle Mage the moment they learned it.

Through the results of that research, Ferda had reached not only the 6th Circle but had even surpassed Archmage to reach the 8th Circle.

Ferda once again looked down at the page written with the overview.

'If I research this...'

It would allow me to gather the ingredients to reach the 8th Circle even faster than usual, and it would also become easier to breakthrough the Circles.

'There is no room for doubt.'

It is possible.

Perhaps even several times faster.

As he stared intently at the overview like that, Luri also stared intently at Ferda.

'He's human, so of course he would get greedy.'

Luri ruminated on her fundamental disgust toward humans.

Making her sad was also just an excuse.

Ferda had probably only planned to kill Thessalos and snatch away this research.

'All humans lie.'

Foolish races who get consumed by lies, feeling happy and sad over them.

Since she knew he was lying, there was no need to feel a sense of betrayal.

'But...'

Why is this man different?

Unlike with Thessalos, her chest felt far more stifled.

'Is it because I want to believe in this man?'

Luri bit down tightly on her own lip.

Her pride hurt as a dragon spawn, Luri asked him directly to shake off her thoughts.

"So, what are you going to do?"

"About what?"

"That research. You could continue it. Isn't that what all mages say? Because it would be a waste."

Continuing it because it would be a waste.

It was truly simple, requiring no long excuses.

Because that was natural for a mage who sought knowledge.

However, Ferda's response was different from other mages.

"No."

Ferda handed the page back to Luri.

"Destroy it all."

"All of it... you mean?"

In an instant, Luri's emotionless expression shattered.

It was a completely unexpected moment.

She had thought he would hesitate at least a little, but Ferda's answer was as sharp as a blade.

"Did I not tell you? I dislike anything that makes the Grand Duchess grieve."

"Even so, are you going to destroy a magic research like this? It could hit the jackpot as the world says, you know?"

"A jackpot is truly a wonderful thing, yes."

Ferda nodded.

"But if it ultimately leads to my fiancée's sorrow, what meaning would it have?"

However, Ferda's eyes said otherwise.

The kind of eyes a mage could never have.

Those blue eyes reflected a calm landscape of desirelessness, like a deep lake.

"..."

"Why are you staring at me blankly?"

"Because I was wondering if it is really okay to do that."

"It is okay."

A blue flame flickered from Luri's finger.

A pure flame created by substituting magic power into the form of fire.

If she threw it, the paper would burn up in an instant.

Luri's eyes, which had been staring into the flame, rolled over and looked up at Ferda.

"... Do not change your words later, got it?"

"It is fine."

As Ferda wished, Luri burned the research to ashes.

The laboratory, and even the bizarre corpses used for the research, were entirely engulfed in the blue flames and reduced to ashes.

'It burns well.'

Ferda quietly looked down at it.

It was a magic that Ferda would have undoubtedly completed if he invested a few months.

Because he had even helped Thessalos make it, and above all, it was a magic he had learned once before.

And yet, the reason Ferda gave it up was simple.

'Every magic is imbued with personality and emotion.'

And as the saying goes, those who handle ink will be stained black; that personality and emotion inevitably become the caster's essence and corrupt them.

That is why one must not learn dark magic, and why forbidden magics exist.

'And that magic is rooted in anger and hatred.'

Thessalos hated the empire.

If he learned that magic, Ferda would undoubtedly be consumed by anger and hatred that was not his own.

'Therefore, I must throw it away.'

Rather than being consumed by personal matters.

He cherished his present self.

The twisted desires turned to ashes and scattered into nothingness.

His mind, clear as a serene mirror and calm as still water, made Ferda smile.

"It really... burns quite well."

Luri watched Ferda murmuring like that.

Luri's evaluation of Ferda was this: