Chapter 5: Chapter 5
Chapter 5 - Truly Beautiful.
"I understand."
Luri no longer tried to dissuade the stubborn Ferda.
She had expected him to refuse after her firm warning, but instead, she chose to quietly accept his decision.
After Ferda finished his meal, Luri took the lead and walked ahead.
The place she headed for was an open area in the garden.
"Please allow me to touch you for a moment."
Luri, who had been so reluctant to make physical contact before, now said she would hold onto Ferda.
"Go ahead."
"Then."
Luri grasped Ferda’s clothing.
At that moment, the blazing sun shining overhead disappeared.
Something blocked Ferda’s view.
It was an enormous pair of wings.
A pair of wings sprouted from Luri’s back.
The wings beat powerfully toward the ground, and she soared into the sky.
Whoom—!
Gravity vanished, and the resistance of the air tormented Ferda.
It would not have been strange if he had thrown up the breakfast he had just eaten.
Swallowing hard, Ferda endured the crushing air pressure and wind pressure.
The dizziness and pain lasted only for a moment.
"We’ve arrived."
Hearing Luri’s voice, Ferda opened his eyes.
The scenery before him had changed in an instant.
The place they had flown to was the summit of the mountain.
Only three seconds by my sense of time... and we already reached the peak?
This was not teleportation magic.
If that speed had been achieved through pure flight alone, she was the fastest even among the Dragon Spawn.
No... perhaps even among dragons.
As Ferda stared blankly at Luri while lost in thought—
"You are not supposed to be looking at me."
"What?"
"Look below."
"Ah, right."
Ferda turned his head and looked down.
He gazed toward the eastern side of the lonely mountain peak.
There, a vast plain stripped of all color stretched endlessly before him.
The Land of Demons.
The land that had been completely corrupted after the Demon King died.
Something could be seen writhing within it.
Monsters.
Monsters.
Invaders of the continent that had continued to appear ever since the birth of the Demon King.
No one knew where they came from or how they were created.
Even until the day Ferda killed Valdrova, their origins had remained a complete mystery.
The only thing known about them was that their purpose was the same as the Demon King from 150 years ago.
To create a land where only death remains.
They slaughtered and ruled over every living thing.
And what Ferda was looking at were the monsters advancing from the Eastern Region.
As expected of the east... the monsters here are enormous.
They were unimaginably gigantic.
Having crawled out of the unpurifiable Land of Demons, they possessed monstrous sizes.
Simply rolling their massive bodies over would be enough to reduce a fortress to rubble.
They were disasters far beyond what humanity could ever withstand.
Amid the dull colors of despair, a single crimson flame, vivid enough to rival pure color, flickered fiercely.
No...
Looking again, it was not a flame.
The Red Dragon, Valdrova.
The one destined to become Ferda’s fiancée was fighting there.
Valdrova’s body was enormous, just like the other dragons.
Yet compared to the monster she faced, she was only about half its size.
Although she was greatly outmatched in sheer size, Valdrova was by no means the weaker opponent.
KRAAAAM!
The monster’s body collided head-on with Valdrova’s.
Despite the overwhelming difference in size, she did not yield even an inch.
Instead, the very air convulsed.
The resulting shockwave swept through the forest and reached even the towering mountain where Ferda stood.
"Ugh...!"
Ferda’s body instantly stiffened.
An ordinary person might have thought it was simply fear.
But the cause was unmistakable.
Dragon Mana had mixed into the shockwave and pierced through his skin.
Dragon Fear...
It was on an entirely different level from the Dragon Fear Luri had released.
Even knowing it was not directed at him, he still felt as though it was staring directly into his soul.
So this... is the Red Dragon.
A crushing sense of helplessness unlike anything he had ever experienced, even as a Grand Mage, swept over him.
Valdrova’s battle continued.
Crunch! Crunch!
The embodiment of power.
The sovereign of flames.
The Crimson Tyrant fought with overwhelming dominance.
Her razor-sharp claws tore away the monster’s thick hide.
Her long jaws and fangs severed its blood vessels and tendons.
The monster’s desperate struggles looked almost foolish compared to her agile movements.
She relentlessly targeted every blind spot, leaving her opponent with no chance to recover.
Power.
Speed.
And an innate instinct for battle.
SKREEEECH!
With every tendon severed, the monster could no longer resist and collapsed.
Even if left alone, it would soon die.
But Valdrova’s violence did not end there.
Craaack! Craaack!
Her claws pierced straight through the monster’s abdomen and ripped it wide open.
Even from such a great distance, Ferda could clearly see its purple blood and green entrails.
At the same time, Valdrova’s abdomen swelled dramatically.
A brilliant crimson light shone intensely beneath her white underbelly.
Fire Breath.
FWOOOOOSH!
The Red Dragon’s breath, said to be fiercer than the flames of hell itself, incinerated the monster from the inside out.
SKREEEECH!
The monster let out a scream of unbearable agony.
But the cry did not last long.
Scarlet flames erupted violently from every opening in its body.
Its insides were roasted so thoroughly that they crumbled into ash.
Its form dissolved into smoke and ashes.
Upon the cursed land, only the Crimson Tyrant remained standing.
ROOOOOAR!
Valdrova’s roar echoed thunderously across the land, shaking everything around her.
"Urgh!"
Ferda could endure no longer and collapsed to the ground.
So this... is the power of a Dragon’s Roar?
It was the overwhelming sensation of being utterly dominated by a dragon—a feeling he had never experienced even as a Grand Mage.
His hands and feet trembled violently.
His teeth chattered uncontrollably.
Ferda had been completely incapacitated.
"This is the true form of the one destined to become your partner."
Luri crouched beside him and looked down at him.
"The blood of the Red Dragon contains savage killing intent—the very essence of what you call an Evil Red Dragon. It is not a matter of personality. It is her very nature."
Luri deliberately emphasized the word nature.
Ferda knew exactly why.
One’s nature cannot be changed.
An Evil Red Dragon would forever remain an Evil Red Dragon.
Her murderous instincts could never be erased.
Nor was there any guarantee that those instincts would never be directed toward Ferda.
"A Red Dragon is a creature that cannot survive without destruction. If you choose to remain by my master’s side, you must be prepared to suffer the consequences every single day."
Luri’s expressionless eyes seemed to ask him one question.
Do you finally realize how naive your decision was?
Her strength certainly inspires fear.
Even though he had only watched from afar, her gaze remained vividly etched into his mind.
That was an undeniable reality.
But I am not afraid.
Valdrova’s eyes remained in Ferda’s mind.
But so did her emotions.
The feelings he had sensed from her allowed him to understand every one of her actions.
Everything she does... is for the sake of this world.
Just as she concealed her true self out of love for the world, she hunted monsters with her own claws to protect everything she cherished.
She is an Evil Red Dragon.
Yet at the same time, she was a knight with a noble heart.
The guardian dragon of the continent.
An ascetic forever pursuing an ideal that could never truly be reached.
"How truly..."
Fear transformed into awe.
"Magnificent."
A brilliant light shone in Ferda’s eyes.
He was smiling.
***
Luri hated humans.
Anyone with dragon blood flowing through their veins naturally should.
Yet her master, Valdrova, loved those beneath her.
And she was hurt because of it.
Ever since the assassination of the Third Prince, Luri’s hatred toward humans had grown even deeper than that of the other Dragon Spawn.
Because she despised them more than anyone else, she understood better than anyone the immense gulf between humans and dragons.
She also understood exactly what dragons hated.
Therefore, she already knew what would happen if an ordinary human were to witness the true form of a Red Dragon.
He brought this upon himself.
Ferda had insisted that he wanted to see it.
Luri had warned him repeatedly.
She had even tried to stop him.
Although she had ultimately grabbed him and flown him there so they could arrive before the battle ended—
She believed she had done more than enough to dissuade him.
Up until then, everything had unfolded exactly as Luri expected.
Ferda could only stare blankly at the battlefield.
His body trembled before the overwhelming Dragon Fear.
A typical reaction.
That expression would soon change into terror.
Then he would curse his own foolishness and beg for his life.
By then, my master will understand as well.
That humans and dragons could never truly become one.
Everything seemed to be proceeding exactly as she had predicted.
Except it wasn’t.
"How truly... magnificent."
An utterly absurd remark escaped Ferda’s lips.
Luri turned her head, wondering if she had misheard him.
But what she saw after turning was even more shocking.
He’s... smiling?
She couldn’t understand it.
How could someone smile while watching such a brutal scene?
Watching flesh torn apart...
Watching everything burn...
Shouldn’t he instead be terrified that he himself could meet such a fleeting end?
Don’t tell me...
At that moment, realization struck Luri’s mind like a bolt of lightning.
She finally understood why this man could remain so composed despite becoming Valdrova’s fiancé.
And why he could smile in a situation like this.
If that’s the case... everything makes sense.
This lunatic... he’s a complete masochist.
Luri’s disgust toward Ferda deepened even further.
***
That day, Ferda lay motionless in bed.
He had been struck by Dragon Fear and had even endured a Dragon’s Roar.
An ordinary human would have completely lost their sanity.
Ironically, because Ferda had retained his sanity, his body had broken down instead.
I really can’t move?
Just to be sure, he tried to twitch a finger.
Instead, one of his toes wriggled.
When he tried to blink, his thumb twitched.
When he tried to move his lips, his nostrils flared instead.
No... this won’t do.
It was already a miracle that his mind remained perfectly clear.
The best thing he could do now was quietly lie there and organize his thoughts.
Looks like I’m going to lose an entire day.
He should have been focusing on opening his Circle.
Instead, he was stuck lying in bed.
Why was I so determined to witness that battle in the first place?
The reason Ferda had wanted to see it...
Perhaps it was because he had a vague intuition that the battle might hold the answer he sought.
So... was that intuition correct?
That was what he needed to find out now.
Ferda began replaying everything he had witnessed.
His memories returned to the moment he had reached the mountain summit.
The scent carried by the wind.
The temperature against his skin.
Even the rough sensation of the gravel beneath his feet.
He recalled every detail with perfect clarity.
Within the world of his imagination, he lowered his gaze and relived her battle.
It was not the battle of the infamous Evil Red Dragon.
It was the noble battle of a noble crimson knight.
She was the woman destined to become Ferda’s partner.
At that very moment, something stirred within his Dantian.
This is...
Ferda knew this sensation well.
It was the same violent surge he had experienced when he was exiled from House Rosnova.
The Red Circle is forming.
The Red Circle...
A Circle born from an overwhelming surge of emotion.
Since Ferda had intended to create a Blue Circle, he should naturally have rejected it.
...How strange.
But he did not.
He sensed that this Red Circle was fundamentally different.
This emotion isn’t born from anger or vengeance.
It was a surge born from an entirely different emotion than the one he had once known.
Yet it possessed potential no less immense than anger or revenge.
It started when I imagined Valdrova fighting.
The same was true even now.
The more he thought of Valdrova, the clearer that Mana pathway became.
Was this why he had instinctively felt that he needed to witness her battle?
If that’s true...
Perhaps this was the answer.
Ferda hesitated no longer.
He focused entirely on his feelings toward Valdrova.
The awe he had felt.
Her magnificent figure.
He refined those vague emotions into words, organizing them, intensifying them.
His Mana pathways began to whirl violently.
The chaotic vortex grew stronger and stronger, threatening to swallow Ferda like a storm-tossed sea.
But Ferda was already a man who had once reached the rank of Grand Mage through the Red Circle.
He delicately controlled the emotional vortex.
He gathered the scattered energy, compressed it, and carefully shaped it.
At last, it formed a perfect ring.
A Circle.
At the same time, he savored the lingering feelings of relief and exhilaration, and once again confirmed the source of this emotion.
It wasn’t created from hatred or vengeance.
Which meant... the same future would never repeat itself.
Nor would he repeat the same mistake.
It’s done.
Ferda rejoiced at that realization.
His nostrils flared.
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