I Am Curious Too
Ferda had been staying in the guest room, buried in his studies, when he looked up with an expression that suggested he might have misheard.
“Meet the lords?”
“Yes.”
Ruri nodded firmly.
“Do you know why our master is called the ‘Dragon King’ of Baldrova?”
“I do. She slew the Black Dragon Godwin, and the Arken Empire bestowed the title upon her.”
The Black Dragon Godwin.
The embodiment of darkness itself, the root of every evil thing. A creature of pure, unadulterated malice who had longed for chaos across the continent and had even played a part in the birth of the Demon King. The one who had finally severed his life force was none other than the Red Dragon Baldrova.
“And so she took the title of Dragon King and established her territory along the far eastern front. That much I know.”
“Correct. You are more well-informed than you look. Do you know how many territories fall under Lady Baldrova’s rule?”
“Fifteen, isn’t it? Counting the outlying villages, one hundred and eight.”
“……And the total population?”
“Five million, two hundred fifty-six thousand, five hundred thirty-two, last I heard. Recent births and deaths are beyond my knowledge, of course.”
At that final answer, Ruri openly grimaced.
“You know it well for someone who claims to have no interest in power.”
A faint trace of Dragon Fear clung to her open disdain. Ferda merely shrugged.
“What greater shame could there be for a man about to become a consort than not knowing what his partner actually does?”
“Pretty words.”
Ruri did not believe him in the slightest. The suspicion she had already harbored only hardened into certainty. In truth, Ferda had not studied for any such noble reason.
I was simply bored.
After piercing his circle, there had been far too little to do. In the days when he had strained every nerve just to break through, even a full day had not been enough. Now he had nothing but idle time. There was no need to rehash knowledge he already possessed. So, half out of curiosity, he had turned his attention to everything written about Baldrova.
“Be that as it may, would you consider meeting them?”
“I have no interest. Unless it is absolutely necessary, I would rather not go.”
“Interest or not, once you marry our master you will officially become her consort. If she manages the outside, the consort must manage the inside.”
“So I am to become the lady of the house.”
“Yes.”
A man as the lady of the house. In other words, a declaration that the man was more incompetent than the woman. In noble society it was a humiliation great enough to make one want to hide one’s face.
Something to be ashamed of……? No.
This was not just anyone; this was the consort of Baldrova, the one they called a tyrant. When the other party belonged to an entirely different class of being, the present Ferda simply did not possess the strength to stand as her equal. Merely becoming her spouse and taking charge of internal affairs was already an extraordinary feat.
So I am to manage the lords myself……
After a moment’s thought, Ferda answered her proposal.
“Very well. I will meet them.”
“Then I shall summon them.”
Ruri bowed politely and withdrew. Ferda’s eye for people had always been sharp; he did not miss the unusual light in her gaze. He had known her intention from the start.
She still does not trust me.
Greed follows the sight of power. Even a good man, when power is placed before his eyes, will want to close his hand around it. And once a man has seized power, he will never willingly let it go again. That was simply human nature.
But I am curious as well.
Ferda understood himself no better than he understood Ruri. What choices would he make when the fire of vengeance was not burning in his chest? That was why he had decided to take the test—to see what choice he would make on the stage she had prepared.
“Very well. I shall meet them.”
There was an old joke among the nobles of the Serdes Continent: the farther a noble went into the provinces, the more provincial he became. Central nobles tended toward plumpness, while those on the front lines remained lean. Constant anxiety that monsters might attack at any moment, and the necessity of remaining combat-ready, simply did not allow for excess flesh.
The lords of the far east, however, looked nothing like that joke.
“Lord Bosch! Your belly has grown considerably!”
“Hahaha! These days my worries keep my mouth dry, so I find myself eating all the time. What can a man do?”
The Eastern Front Coalition Hall. Fifteen lords had gathered in one place, their jowls wobbling as they laughed. It had been a long time since they had all assembled like this.
“But what is the meaning of this sudden summons? The past few days have been quiet; there should be nothing for Her Grace to interfere with……”
“How can you be so out of touch with the world? Did you not hear that Her Grace the Dragon King has taken a fiancé? We have been ordered to meet him.”
“A fiancé?”
The lord hearing the news for the first time nearly jumped out of his seat.
“What kind of madman would get engaged to the Dragon King?”
“Exactly. Unless he is a complete imbecile, that engagement cannot mean what it usually means……”
“They must have dug up the greatest fool among fools.”
At the same time, curiosity began to stir about the identity of this supreme idiot.
“They say the supreme idiot is the third son of the Rosnova family.”
“Rosnova—the house of the Arken Empire’s Guardian Knights! I heard every drop of that bloodline is exceptional……”
“Apparently the third son is not. Word is he is weaker than even ordinary soldiers from other houses. His own father cast him out, it seems.”
“Weaker than a common soldier? That is a genuine defective product.”
“Hah! To waste time meeting some defective goods……”
“And the defective goods are late, no less……”
The older lords wore faces of open irritation. The thought of some wet-behind-the-ears boy putting on airs made their blood boil.
“So what are we going to do about it, gentlemen?”
“About what?”
“If he is to be the Dragon King’s consort…… he will still have a position. How do we intend to respond?”
The oldest lord among them answered.
“He is destined to be torn apart by Dragon King Baldrova anyway. Why should we bow our heads to him?”
“Agreed.”
“Why on earth would we lower our heads?”
The mood of agreement was unanimous.
“Lord Ferda Rosnova enters!”
They straightened their clothes and arranged their faces into expressions of solemn dignity. These were, after all, lords who governed people on the front lines. They intended to crush the spirit of this outsider from the very first meeting.
At the doorkeeper’s cry the council chamber doors opened. Gray hair, blue eyes. He wore a crimson formal coat embroidered with Baldrova’s crest in gold thread—fitting for the consort of Dragon King Baldrova. That much they had heard and expected.
What exceeded their expectations was Ferda himself.
They said he was defective goods……
A tall, intelligent-looking piece of defective goods, at that.
His weak constitution only seemed frail when measured against a martial house; the way he walked carried the polish of long-ingrained etiquette. Yet what impressed them all most was his gaze. It was not the cocky glare of a rebellious child. Inside those eyes lay something like a still lake. The air about him—so at odds with his age—made tension rise of its own accord.
Ferda’s lips parted.
“Tell me.”
The voice of a youth who had only just left adolescence behind. Yet the resonance carried the weight of a middle-aged man who had crossed rough years.
“Before long I will become the consort of Dragon King Baldrova.”
Ferda clasped his hands behind his back. His blue eyes swept over them one by one. It was an act of pure insolence, yet not a single man opened his mouth. Or rather—none of them could.
What kind of eyes does that boy have……
Just what is that creature!?
It felt as though they stood face to face with a single great beast. Every last one of them was overwhelmed by that gaze and could not resist. Only after the situation had already unfolded did they realize the truth.
“In that case, should I address you with respect, or should I speak down to you?”
The supreme idiot who had gotten himself engaged to Baldrova was no defective product after all.
Approximately thirty minutes earlier.
Ferda arrived at the Eastern Front Coalition Hall. Since he was traveling on official business, he had come by carriage. He checked his pocket watch.
“We are quite late.”
Ferda was strict about punctuality. Even a single minute irritated him; ten minutes was practically high treason. The culprit of the lateness, however, answered with bureaucratic calm.
“You do not understand. For seizing the initiative, a ten-minute delay is standard.”
“Is that necessary?”
“It is basic dragon etiquette, and the most important moment for establishing hierarchy.”
“Even if I have no particular interest?”
“Always remember whose consort you are becoming.”
The consort of Baldrova. Once the words were spoken, they echoed through his mind of their own accord. Ruri fell half a step behind and followed him. As they walked along the red carpet, a question suddenly occurred to Ferda.
If I become the consort of Dragon King Baldrova, where do I stand in the hierarchy?
Noble society was complicated in its own way. Among central nobles, rank followed office. But farther out on the frontiers, the sword was closer than the law; those who had served long were treated with respect.
As consort I would be a king in name, but that alone will not be enough……
The present Ferda was eighteen. Outwardly he was young and inexperienced. If some fiancé who had appeared out of nowhere suddenly started acting like a king, the lords’ rebellion was a foregone conclusion. Walking on, he reached the entrance to the council chamber.
Fifteen seats arranged in a circle came into view. The seat lying on a direct line from the door was empty—Baldrova’s place. In other words, it would become Ferda’s. Instead of taking it, he stood in the center and looked up at each of them in turn.
“Tell me. Before long I will become the consort of Dragon King Baldrova.”
The question was genuinely pure.
“In that case, should I address you with respect, or should I speak down to you?”
Meeting each man’s eyes one by one, Ferda tried to gauge where his own position ought to lie. Every lord looked down at him with tense faces. They glanced at one another and hesitated to answer. Ferda scratched his head.
“Hmm. Was my question that difficult?”
“Ah, no, it is not……”
“That is……”
The reason they could not answer was simple. The very act of declaring “you should use formal speech” or “you should speak down to us” would draw a line. Who could have expected a little boy who had arrived as a fiancé to start lining them up first?
The most elderly lord opened his mouth first.
“We are lords who dwell beneath the light of Dragon King Baldrova. It is only proper to show respect to the one who will become her consort.”
“Is that so?”
“However, every lord present has devoted himself to the nation and sacrificed for his people. It is right that Your Grace the Consort also treat us with corresponding courtesy.”
It sounded like an answer, yet in the end it simply tossed the question back—everything depended on how Ferda chose to act. Ferda looked at him and asked,
“What is your name?”
“Ulvera Consilus.”
“I see. Count Consilus, is it? Shall I call you that?”
“That is correct.”
The old lord gave a slight smile and inclined his head.
“So.”
“Yes?”
“So am I to use formal speech, or speak down to you? You have not answered my question at all.”
Ferda narrowed his eyes and fixed his gaze on the man. Looking thoroughly put upon, the old lord answered again.
“Speaking down is the proper course.”
“I see. That is an answer. Count Consilus. If I had used formal speech first, it would have made all of you quite uncomfortable, would it not?”
“N-now that you put it that way, nothing could be better.”
Politics was new to him, yet he understood the present situation perfectly well. Ferda had already seized the initiative against the lords.
I had no intention of forcing them to submit……
Feeling the need to clarify, he spoke to them.
“Do not worry. Even if I become the Dragon King’s consort, little will change. I have no great interest in what you do. So manage yourselves as you see fit. Whether you exploit or show mercy is entirely up to you.”
“Exploit? What manner of talk is that?”
A man rose as if he could not let the words pass. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, with a fierce expression. Relatively young, he wore a mage’s seal on his chest. Hearing him, Ferda thought,
I misspoke.
“No malice was intended. The words simply came out that way as I spoke.”
“From the looks of it you are puffed up over your engagement to the Dragon King. You would do well to show some manners, young fiancé! Mage to mage, you ought to be prostrating yourself before me!”
“What!”
“W-what are you saying!”
The old, fat lords broke into a cold sweat as they tried to restrain him. Everyone held their breath as though watching a candle flame set before a powder trail.
“Hmm……”
Ferda felt no particular anger at the rudeness. Instead, a question rose in his mind.
Can I defeat that man?
Having awakened as a mage, Ferda could now see mana with his own two eyes. The quantity of mana Tessalos carried was no ordinary amount. Tapping his temple with a forefinger as he considered, Ferda asked him,
“What is your name?”
“Tessalos of House Wolcher!”
Ferda rolled the name over in his mind. Tessalos Wolcher…… he had heard it somewhere before. It was not important right now, so he set it aside for the moment.
“What circle have you reached?”
“Fourth Circle. A mage capable of fourth-rank magic.”
“Hmm. Average.”
“……Average?”
To Tessalos, a Fourth Circle mage, the word was absurd. Even Fourth Circle was enough to receive precious treatment wherever one went.
Consort or not, should I just kill him?
Tessalos felt his blood surge. If this had not been the Dragon King’s consort, he would already have hurled curses and magic both.
“You have caught my interest. May I make one request, then?”
“You show that insolent attitude and still have something to ask of me?!”
His face had gone mottled red. Looking at that face, Ferda nodded.
“I think you will like it as well. Spar with me.”
He had trained enough. It was time for real combat.