The Traitor
Once the talks concluded, Ruri slipped away from Jed and Arwen without a word and headed somewhere else entirely.
She already knew the layout of the Grand Council chamber by heart. She knew where the humans gathered to mingle—and she knew where the dragon spawns congregated.
Unlike humans, dragon spawns had little interest in social games. They were not weak enough to build power by flattering others, and their pride as dragons would never allow it.
Ruri climbed to the second floor. Up the spiral staircase, twelve doors stood arranged around a central hall.
The Twelve Dragons of the Serdes Continent. Evil dragons, guardian dragons—every one of them was represented. Godwin had once held a place among them as well.
Ruri looked up at the great doors carved with the emblem of Silverwind.
“…….”
Those sharp, proud horns. That sleek, powerful body. A bearing so valiant no one could ever deny it. Even though more than a hundred years had passed since that presence left this world, the image still flickered before her eyes.
The memory softened something inside her. The steadfast maid of Baldrova Castle—the sharp, no-nonsense maid who answered with wind at her command—was nowhere to be found in that moment. Only a girl clutching her constricted chest remained, forcing the door open with trembling hands.
Creeeak—
The hinges groaned long and low. Beyond them stretched a long corridor, and at its end stood guards. Warriors of Silverwind.
Their noisy chatter cut off at once. Every gaze snapped toward Ruri. The air froze solid in an instant.
“What are you supposed to be, little brat?”
One of them, oblivious, swaggered forward.
“You smell like someone who carries Silverwind’s blood, but I’ve never seen your face. Where’d a spy like you crawl out from?”
“…….”
“When someone talks to you, you answer. Or do you want to play rough with this big brother? Hmm?”
“That’s enough.”
The rising tension scattered at the voice of a man seated with a staff across his shoulders. The leader of the group.
“Don’t worry, Captain! You think I’d be stupid enough to kill someone inside Blancaros’s domain?”
“Be grateful it is Blancaros’s domain. Outside these walls, there wouldn’t even be bones left to bury.”
“What are you talking about? Do I look like the kind of idiot who can’t even handle a kid?”
“You could handle a kid.”
The leader’s eyes shifted to the maid girl.
“But I don’t think you could handle the former commander of the mobile brigade.”
“The mobile brigade commander…?”
Confidence drained from the man’s face, replaced by raw fear.
“Don’t tell me… Blade Wind Ruri…?”
He turned, unable to believe it. He had never seen her face, yet her reputation was legend. Any spawn of the Silver Dragon would have felt that fear at the mere name.
The man stumbled back, frozen. The hand he had stretched toward her returned trembling.
Ruri walked the space he had cleared and approached the man with the staff resting on his shoulder. Their eyes met. They had known each other for a very long time.
“It’s been a while, Percival.”
“It has, Commander of the First Mobile Brigade. Or should I say former commander, since you retired? No—even that doesn’t fit anymore.”
The warmth that had once lived in Percival’s voice had dried up completely.
“The only word that suits you now is traitor.”
Traitor. Three syllables that stabbed straight into Ruri’s chest. Yet she had prepared herself for exactly this.
“So what brings you here?”
“I’ve come to see Lord Goz.”
“Then you’ve wasted the trip. Turn around.”
“I wish to speak with him.”
Clang!
The black staff in Percival’s grip slammed into the floor.
“Two hundred years, give or take, and you’ve forgotten a great deal, Ruri Silverwind. Since when do the proud children of Silverwind bother with something as soft as conversation?”
“…….”
Silverwind’s people had always been born rough warriors. They were the ones who hunted demons and frost giants beyond the ice barriers. Action over words. The language of the body had always been closer to them.
“I understand.”
Knowing that truth well, Ruri bowed once and turned away. She spun on her heel and began to leave.
“Wait.”
Percival stopped her. Her half-raised foot froze in place.
“Go in.”
“?”
“The leader has granted permission.”
She could scarcely believe it—until the doors that should never have opened for her began to swing wide.
Ruri walked forward again. The pressure that settled over her was heavier than anything she had felt at the entrance. Hostile gazes stabbed into her like spears. Shouldering that weight, she kept moving.
The chamber resembled a king’s audience hall, with a single throne facing the main doors. Upon it sat a man as massive as a bear. Unlike the soldiers at the gate, he wore a luxurious fur coat and gold rings. Where his skin was left bare, ritual magic tattoos covered every inch of flesh. Everything about him was the Goz Silverwind she remembered.
No. Something’s different.
The pressure she felt now was on an entirely different level. Hierarchy existed among dragon spawns, but it was never absolute. What she faced now was absolute authority itself.
A dormant sense deep inside her supplied the answer.
Silverwind’s… essence?
After Silverwind’s death, Goz—leader of the silver dragon spawns—had absorbed the dragon’s essence.
But it’s unstable.
He carried it, yet it had not fully settled. His body had been unable to completely absorb Silverwind’s power. That was why he could still barely stand on two legs.
“Baldrova.”
He spoke without any greeting.
“Is Baldrova well?”
He rolled the whiskey in his glass. Ruri nodded.
“Yes. She works day and night driving back the monsters of the far east and protecting the continent.”
“I see. No doubt because you have cared for her so diligently.”
“……Yes.”
“Are you proud of that?”
“…….”
Ruri could not easily answer. Goz’s cold gaze fixed on her.
“Did I ask a difficult question?”
“No.”
“Yet you give no answer.”
Like a rope finally snapping under a merciless storm, the words tore free.
“……It is something I am proud of.”
“Is that so. I see.”
Crash!
The glass in his hand shattered. The freezing atmosphere turned absolute. Ruri’s body stiffened under that stare.
“Then tell me, traitor who has so faithfully served that woman—with what face have you come crawling back here?”
Everything around her was hostile. Even so, Ruri opened her mouth. She had come for this moment. She had to speak.
“Do you still… hate Lady Baldrova?”
Goz’s eyes sharpened at her question.
“I understand why your master would speak that way. But do not call that woman ‘Lady’ in front of me. You are a spawn who received Silverwind’s blood. Your master is Silverwind—only one.”
“I am a silver dragon spawn, yes. But she is my master now.”
“Before that woman is your master, your master is Lord Silverwind. Who was Silverwind?”
“The great lord of wind and steel.”
“Yes. He was the master of speed no one could ever match. A being who never once wavered.”
Veins stood out on Goz’s neck.
“And yet…”
Ruri heard the quiet fury beneath the calm.
“And yet—!”
He was still sharpening the blade of vengeance.
“That woman tore out his throat! She sank her teeth into his neck and severed the artery! I felt that slaughter with these two eyes! With this heart!”
“…….”
“You asked if I hate her? The hatred I feel for that woman still burns white-hot in my chest.”
Ruri squeezed her eyes shut. Every shout that left him stirred emotions she could not control. Goz watched her suffering and snorted.
“His death is still vivid in this heart of mine. It seems it is not so for you.”
“I saw it and felt it as well. And that pain… is still vivid for me too.”
Ruri herself had fought in the Dragon-Demon War to kill the demonkin. She had witnessed Silverwind’s death. As a spawn she had felt her master’s passing and grieved.
“I resented my master as well.”
It had been inevitable. To Ruri, Silverwind had been a father. How could she not hate Baldrova, the one who had driven her father to his death?
“But… I cannot hate her.”
“No. That is not true.”
Goz denied it outright.
“If you had felt everything we felt in full, you would have abandoned the side you stand on.”
“…….”
“You were only a little distance away, and still you were tainted by that woman. You forgot your origin.”
Goz took a fresh glass and poured more whiskey.
“Baldrova remains our enemy. As long as she exists on this Serdes Continent, our hatred will never end. This is the will of all Silverwind.”
“Is that so……”
She had expected it. She had already known the dream was empty.
“However… I will give you a chance.”
A chance. Ruri lifted her head.
“What is it?”
A fragile hope stirred—that perhaps she might soften even a fraction of the hatred directed at Baldrova.
Goz extended a hand toward her.
“Ruri Silverwind. Return to the fold of your people.”
The thread of hope snapped.
“Return to the fold… means leave Lady Baldrova’s side?”
“Now that she has a regent, you have no further reason to serve that woman.”
“…….”
“You have completed every task Lord Silverwind gave you. So return to the clan and become a warrior again. Blade Wind Ruri. Take back the seat of mobile brigade commander, crush the filth pouring down from the north, and serve. Do that, and I will erase the stigma of traitor from your name.”
That name had always stabbed her heart. Yet the pain was nothing compared to the responsibility she carried.
“I cannot—”
The natural refusal rose to her lips.
In that instant her body lurched hard.
“There is no refusal, Ruri Silverwind.”
The force radiating from Goz pressed down on her directly.
“My blood now carries Lord Silverwind’s authority. You know what it means for a dragon spawn to defy that authority, do you not?”
Death. For a dragon spawn who refused authority, only death remained.
“Nothing good will come of resisting it. So.”
Goz’s index finger pointed at the floor.
“Kneel and submit to me.”
His words were no bluff. Ruri, who had not blinked once, broke into a cold sweat. She felt as though someone were choking her, crushing her heart in a fist. Refuse him, and the pain would be the same as tearing out her own heart.
Even after absorbing only a fragment of Silverwind’s essence, the power was this strong.
I must not shrink back.
Ruri resisted with everything she had. Both hands clenched her apron; she forced strength into her shaking legs. That was the best she could do. And that was all she could do.
“You endure well.”
Genuine admiration colored the words. Any other spawn would have been on their knees long ago under that force.
“Yes. That is why Lord Silverwind favored you.”
Goz disliked that attitude. He did not want obedience won by authority alone. That was far from the complete submission he sought.
“If leaving is so difficult, shall I make the decision easier for you?”
He tilted his head.
“The regent knows your true identity, I assume. But does that man also know the reason you went there in the first place?”
“……!”
The composure on her face cracked. Sweat-soaked hands dampened her apron.
“Do you believe he will still shield you after hearing the truth of what you are?”
Ferda Valdrova. He loved Baldrova. And he was merciless toward anyone who threatened her.
If Lord Ferda learns of it…
What would Ferda do? The will that had withstood the pressure began to crumble under doubt.
I…
Terror overwhelmed her. Breath tightened until she could not even scream.
What am I supposed to…
She sank completely into a thick, clinging swamp. Silently she screamed.
Please. Please, someone help me.
“Forgive the sudden intrusion.”
The answer that reached Ruri’s ears was a voice she knew well.
“What exactly are you doing to my attendant?”
Ferda was already moving to find Ruri. Locating her had not been difficult. She had gone to speak with Silverwind. Therefore she would be beyond the great doors carved with Silverwind’s emblem.
He stood before them and thought.
Am I interfering where I have no right?
She was Baldrova’s attendant—yet also a spawn who carried Silverwind’s blood. There would be fury directed at Baldrova, but perhaps none at Ruri herself. He had no reason to insert himself into a family reunion.
Yet even as he tried to believe that, it would not settle.
Ferda recalled Goz Silverwind’s expression during the Grand Council. At the same time Erika’s warning rose in his mind.
—The enemy you need to watch is elsewhere. Silverwind.
Dragons were immortals. Once they took a grudge into their hearts, they never released it. Silverwind was no exception.
Was it a mistake?
Even if Ruri had begged, even if Baldrova had asked—should he have refused this journey?
The thought refused to leave him. That was why he had come as far as the spawns’ resting quarters.
What he saw were Silverwind’s soldiers guarding the inner door—and a thick wash of Dragon Fear. There was no longer any doubt. This was not needless interference.
Ferda walked straight toward the center of that power.
“You are the Regent of Baldrova?”
The dragon spawn with the staff across his shoulders—Percival—rose from his seat.
“Is Ruri here?”
“Answer the question.”
“I asked whether Ruri Silverwind is here.”
Percival did not yield. He planted himself squarely in Ferda’s path.
“She is.”
“Then step aside.”
“This is a family matter, Regent. It is not something for you to enter.”
One did not casually meddle in family affairs. In dragon society especially, that domain was inviolable.
Ferda had no intention of respecting that boundary.
“If you mean to stop me, you will have to break something.”
Ferda’s blue eyes locked onto him without flinching.
“And then Blancaros’s hand will fall on you for it. Can the children of Silverwind bear the dishonor of causing trouble here?”
“…….”
“If you are confident, try it. I have already accepted what I might lose.”
Percival stepped back. With a glance he ordered his men to clear the way completely.
Ferda opened the door.
He saw Ruri. He saw her on the verge of kneeling before Goz. He saw her suffering.
In that instant every stray thought vanished. His vision sharpened onto one thing alone—the thug playing at being a king.
“Forgive the sudden intrusion.”
Ferda spat the anger he had been holding behind his teeth.
“What exactly are you doing to my attendant?”