An Unforgivable Precedent
The council reserved solely for those of ducal rank and above came to an end with that.
Ferda followed the other nobles out of the council chamber.
“Lord Regent.”
Jed and Arwen, who had been waiting for him, approached. Jed studied Ferda’s expression and asked,
“Did you take some insult in there? You’re wearing the face of a man about to kill someone.”
“If it was an insult, then yes—I was insulted.”
He had been forced to let the slander that Baldrova was an evil dragon simply pass. For a man who had become an Archmage through vengeance, ignoring the emotions that rose within him was no easy thing. Better, then, not to become grist for the rumor mill at all.
Ferda changed the subject.
“Where is Ruri?”
“Miss Ruri… well. Where did she go, I wonder?”
“She said she had business to attend to before the talks finished and left her seat. As for where she went… I honestly don’t know.”
“Is that so?”
“I’m sorry. I should have ascertained it beforehand…”
“No need. She is not so easy a woman as that.”
Ferda did not press the matter. He already knew where she would go. If she had spoken of it in advance, she would have moved in order to speak with Silverwind.
A conversation, is it.
Ferda recalled the look Goz Silverwind had given him when the subject had first been raised. The man had been smothering his rage with the clumsiest self-restraint imaginable. Had Ferda addressed Silverwind then and there, a brawl would almost certainly have erupted. If they had not been standing in Blancaros’s neutral zone, far worse might have befallen him.
I wonder whether the talk will go well.
Just as the thought crossed his mind—
“Lord Regent Ferda Valdrova?”
A man as pure white as the white space that surrounded them, posture as precise as befit the confidant of the absolute master of the neutral zone. Blancaros’s hand.
“My master summons you. Would you be so kind as to accompany me?”
“To a private audience?”
“Yes. He wishes to discuss the matter of the proposal made a short while ago.”
It was unusual. Blancaros never summoned humans into private company if only to preserve neutrality.
Still, the situation demands it.
Having claimed the seat of neutrality and then arbitrarily set the agenda aside, Blancaros would need to offer some explanation to the proposer. The very reason Ferda had endured that injustice was for this moment.
“Very well.”
“I shall guide you. This way.”
Ferda followed the attendant’s lead and set off.
Blancaros’s reception chamber was a place utterly unlike a dragon’s abode.
A dragon’s dwelling ought to be vast and magnificent—so refined and imposing that no emperor would dare present a calling card. The Grand Council chamber itself had certainly lived up to that majesty. Blancaros’s reception room, however, was different. It overflowed with human warmth. Neither needlessly large nor needlessly grand, it was small and practical, more like a minor lord’s office.
“Come in.”
Seated behind a marble desk at the far end, Blancaros greeted him with his own living voice. Ferda’s steps faltered the moment he entered. Blancaros was not alone.
A presence that shone blue within the pure white space—Erika Iorga—occupied one of the seats. She was watching Ferda. The moment her fierce eyes fell upon him, her expression grew still more displeased. Behind Ferda, Jed and Arwen broke into a cold sweat for no reason they could name.
“Why is she glaring like that? Did you do something wrong?”
Ferda only shrugged.
“Me, do something wrong? Hardly.”
“It rather looks as though you did.”
Ferda made no reply. He walked forward, ignoring Erika completely, and offered Blancaros a formal bow.
“I am most grateful that Lord Blancaros has invited me in this fashion… yet…”
He flicked a glance toward Erika.
“I have nothing to discuss with this woman. May I take my leave?”
“Pfft—”
“Ahem!”
Ferda’s scathing words, and Jed and Arwen standing like folding screens behind him and then erupting in spectacular fashion. Even as a Dragon Spawn, a representative’s standing rivaled that of a dragon itself. Ferda had just called a dragon “this woman.” It was the sort of thing only a man with a death wish would do.
“Hmmm…”
“Wh-what did you just call me…?”
Blancaros let out a knowing hum. Erika herself stared at Ferda in sheer disbelief. Yet she endured. This meeting had been arranged for dialogue, and above all, force could not be used in this space. Erika forced a smile.
“A pleasure to see you again, Regent Ferda. Let us speak with living voices rather than those tiresome telepathic whispers.”
“As you wish.”
Ferda covered his ears. The smile vanished from Erika’s face as though wiped away.
“Must you keep behaving so childishly?”
“It is only fair. You insulted my fiancée and still expect kind words? How would you feel if I called Lady Iorga a water lizard?”
“Hhk—”
“Ahem, ahem…”
Jed and Arwen nearly choked. They wanted nothing more than to flee the room at once. Erika endured even that. She bit her lower lip hard and forced herself to breathe.
“Let us consider ourselves even with mutual insults. I shall apologize separately for the abusive language. But I had my reasons.”
Ferda lowered his hands from his ears. She had swallowed the affront; her willingness to talk was certain.
“First, dismiss the attendants so that we may speak among equals.”
“Understood. Both of you, withdraw.”
“Yes, sir!”
The two retreated at a near run the instant permission was given. Only three remained in the white space.
“Given how heated tempers have become, I shall be brief and clear. I am on Lady Baldrova’s side.”
“How very reassuring.”
Ferda’s voice dripped with sarcasm.
“Iorga as a whole currently maintains a stance of checking Lady Baldrova, yet the core officers have always held her contributions in the highest regard.”
As if.
“You do not believe me. I stood on the front lines of that war. With these two eyes I witnessed and felt every dragon fighting. Her figure is still vivid before me.”
The fine hairs on her arms stood on end.
“The moment Godwin sought mutual destruction with this continent, she alone stepped forward to stop him…”
Hearing those words, Blancaros closed his eyes in silence. He too had taken part in that battle.
Erika continued.
“Delivering the final blow to Godwin—who sought to destroy everything, evil dragon and guardian dragon alike—carried enormous risk. Every dragon knew it. And every dragon hesitated. Yet Lady Baldrova cast herself into that place without reservation. It was as though a black mass had been pierced by a crimson spear and scattered. Of course… the end of it all led to yet another tragedy and finished in atrocity. Even so, she was never one who deserved the name of evil dragon.”
“I watched you mock the claim as nonsense and look ready to devour her alive. And you expect me to believe this?”
“That is precisely why I am apologizing for the insult. Yet it was something that had to be done.”
“You mean you had to defame her? Does that even make sense?”
“Because if I did not ridicule and smother that claim, it would have been dangerous!”
“Dangerous how?”
“Silverwind.”
Another faction of dragons. Ferda recalled Silverwind, who had not spoken a single word.
“Had I not stepped forward, Silverwind would have. I refuse to let those ice-brained creatures turn this conference into a shambles. They would have demanded a war of dragons before you ever declared the conquest of the Far East.”
“So you claim you opposed and mocked every point solely to protect me?”
Erika’s mouth closed. She seemed to be weighing whether to speak the rest.
“It is not solely for your sake, Regent Ferda. As you said—if her true nature is not that of an evil dragon, but rather that she was eroded by Godwin into madness…”
For an instant, the eyes of a wounded beast flickered in Erika’s gaze.
“The precedent of a perfect being becoming imperfect is more dangerous than you can imagine. Dangerous enough to collapse the balance of the continent.”
Ferda understood. He understood why she had been so hostile toward Baldrova—and why Blancaros had unilaterally ended the session.
He summarized what he had grasped in a single sentence.
“It would seem Lady Iorga suffers from the same symptoms.”
Erika nodded with a tormented expression.
“At first the symptoms were little more than a sense of wrongness. Many Dragon Spawns still suffer aftereffects from the battle with Godwin. But over these past thirty years she has begun to lose the fight against that torment. She is growing unstable.”
“And what of her now?”
“She has entered hibernation. She chose not to move until a remedy is found.”
Meaning the pinnacle of magic, Iorga, was absent. A sudden question rose in Ferda’s mind.
“Then what of Lady Odograsado?”
“That I do not know with certainty. She keeps no Spawn, and one who is herself the embodiment of faith would never reveal her own weakness to anyone.”
Those armed with faith would of course believe themselves whole. The pieces fit. This was no longer a problem belonging to Baldrova alone.
It was a matter that could shake dragon society itself.
When Ferda showed some measure of understanding, Erika lowered her voice and spoke more calmly.
“If the claim that her nature is not that of an evil dragon—that she is merely shaken because of Godwin—gains traction, everyone is placed in danger. Baldrova’s position, and the positions of others, will all be undermined. It would become perfect prey for those who sow chaos, like the Free Dragons and the War Dragons. So we are buying time until a cure can be found.”
“Is that so?”
Ferda rose from his seat as though he had heard enough.
“Then it seems you are nothing more than a coward.”
“A coward… you say?”
Erika nearly lost her temper. But the impulse lasted only a moment. The instant she met Ferda’s eyes, she was overwhelmed.
“What do you intend to do at the end?”
he asked.
“What end are you speaking of?”
“When you have hidden and hidden and the crisis of exposure finally comes—when it reaches a stage that cannot be reversed—what then?”
“That is…”
“You would sell even my fiancée’s life if it meant concealing the secret you hold.”
“Do you truly believe I would do something so shameless!?”
“Would you not?”
Erika could not answer. She could neither affirm nor deny. Like a mute who had swallowed honey, she only clenched her fists in silence.
“Let us end the conversation here. May I take my leave?”
Ferda asked Blancaros. Nothing had been resolved, yet nothing could be resolved at this moment either.
“…You may.”
With Blancaros’s permission, Ferda walked out. Erika remained rooted to the spot. There was nothing she could do. To wear the title of leader of the Dragon Spawns and yet be so thoroughly overpowered by a human—how ridiculous she looked. Yet if the same situation arose again, she knew she would freeze in exactly the same way.
In Ferda’s eyes, filled with loathing, she had glimpsed a fragment of her own distant future.
Serdes Human Magic Society.
Seated in the president’s office was not the cheeky young woman but a sturdy man.
“Uuuuugh…”
The man made sounds like a ghoul risen from hell while scratching away with his pen. He had been working nonstop for four days on the documents left behind by President Erdes.
“Uuuugh… Hm?”
A moment later, round sparks of light began to crackle in front of him. He knew whose handiwork the phenomenon was. Ordinarily he would have risen to greet her, but Lu no longer possessed the mental capacity for such thoughts.
“Blue! I’m back!”
The bright greeting came from Erdes herself.
“You’ve already returned?”
“The moment the talks ended I clocked out on the dot. They left me out of everything and it was so dull.”
“For someone who says that, your appearance is rather… peculiar?”
She looked less like someone returning from a conference and more like someone returning from a sightseeing tour, hung with trinkets.
“So picky. I finished and did a little sightseeing in the city. Got a problem with that?”
“…How could I?”
Lu heaved a sigh, signed the last remaining document, and collapsed face-first onto the desk.
“All finished, then?”
“The backlog is cleared for now.”
“See? This is why clear division of labor is wonderful. I rest, Blue works. Perfect division of labor, isn’t it?”
“Clear, yes… but also strange…?”
“And while I was there I even stopped by nearby and bought the local specialty honey buns. Where else will you find such an angelic superior?”
She waggled her eyebrows as if to say, Well?
Fine. At least let me eat something good.
Lu opened the box she handed him.
“…It’s empty.”
“Is it? Ah, I must have eaten them all because they were so delicious. Sorry. Be a dear and throw the box away properly?”
Lu nodded like a man who had reached a grave decision.
“I quit. I’m resigning.”
“Ah-ah, I can’t allow that. Blue still has to serve me for another thousand years. You have no right of refusal. That was the contract we made, remember?”
“Damn it all.”
Lu made a show of sobbing with a face emptied of hope.
“So… how was it?”
“How was what?”
“You went because of that man, Ferda Valdrova, didn’t you?”
“That man? Hmm…”
She rested a finger on her chin and swayed her head before answering.
“He was peculiar.”
“Peculiar… you say?”
Lu’s eyes widened.
“Peculiar enough that the greatest Archmage of humanity would use the word ‘peculiar’?”
“Flattery won’t get you anything, you know. He was just… somehow fascinating.”
Erdes perched on the edge of the desk and looked down at Lu.
“That human possesses a Red Circle.”
“A Red Circle!”
“And he’s learned black magic as well. The scent was practically rolling off him.”
“B-black magic!?”
Lu’s face went deathly pale. It was not the black magic that frightened him.
“Is that man… still alive?”
“Of course. Do you take me for some murderous lunatic who goes berserk at the drop of a hat?”
“Well… seeing that the President returned without causing any particular incident… that man must truly be a peculiar human.”
“I couldn’t lay a hand on him right then. He’s the husband of that mad dragon—what sort of end do you think I’d meet if I touched him carelessly?”
Erdes’s brows knitted with unease. Her legs, dangling off the floor, began to kick like a child paddling water.
“Blue. What do you think you’d feel if your parents suddenly vanished?”
“Uh… well. I suppose I’d be angry?”
“Only angry? Hmm? Would you just scream, ‘Parents who abandoned me—I can’t forgive them!’ and leave it at that?”
“You might, President… but an ordinary person would also feel sorrow, I imagine.”
Erdes snapped her fingers.
“Exactly. The common expression is that emotions swirl. Ordinary humans are overwhelmed and crushed so thoroughly that they cannot even tell which feeling is stronger. Even if they try to rank them, becoming captive to only one is nearly impossible.”
“I suppose so?”
“You don’t understand what I’m saying?”
“I’m sorry. My dull mind can’t quite—”
“Want to write fifty self-reflections?”
“W-wait a moment. I think I might be remembering…”
“Idiot. It means something that trivial cannot create a Red Circle.”
“Ah—I really did remember just now.”
“Stubborn for someone so dense. You’re writing a hundred.”
“Ghk! That’s too much! I finished all the official business while you were gone!”
“Merit is merit, and private life is private life.”
Lu muttered under his breath; Erdes clicked her tongue.
“So what you’re saying is that Ferda Valdrova should have difficulty possessing a Red Circle?”
“Correct.”
“But emotion is a relative factor, isn’t it?”
“True. The scale differs from person to person. Even allowing for that, the creature called Ferda far exceeds my category.”
“To that extent?”
“A Red Circle is formed when the scale of emotion shatters. But that age—adolescence—is one in which the scale cannot shatter. For rage to break the scale, a person must be so thoroughly broken that they sincerely believe even the reason they stand tall every morning is because of anger.”
“Umm… the metaphor is a bit crude, but there was still the incident of being cast out by his family, wasn’t there? Couldn’t that explain it?”
Becoming Baldrova’s fiancé. In effect a death sentence—more than enough to burst Ferda’s grief.
“That fellow accepted it.”
“Meaning?”
“Acceptance means reason remains. And that, in turn, means the anger was insufficient.”
“So you’re saying there was no catalyst to destroy the scale, and therefore a Red Circle could not form?”
“Correct.”
“Yet the Regent possesses a Red Circle.”
“He does.”
“A Red Circle formed even though the conditions were not met…”
“And he achieved the Fourth Circle in less than a year.”
“And… there were various other incidents as well.”
The execution of Tessalos Wolcher. The battle that erupted inside the imperial warehouse.
“They all have black magic in common.”
“Black magic…”
They stared at each other for a long while until Lu suddenly understood. Even a temple dog can recite poetry after three years. After a full decade of service under her, he could finally read Erdes’s mind.
“You’re saying… you believe the Regent of Valdrova has contracted with a demon?”
Seeing him reach the conclusion, she smiled.
“Can’t you smell it?”