Chapter 55: A Renegade

After the meeting ended, Ruri slipped away without Zed or Arwen noticing and headed somewhere.

She already knew what the Grand Council hall was like.

That was why she knew where the humans gathered and also where the Dragon Spawn gathered.

Unlike humans, the Dragon Spawn stayed away from social life.

They were not weak enough to flatter anyone and form factions, and besides, it was a matter of pride as dragons.

Ruri headed to the second floor.

As she climbed the spiral staircase, she saw twelve doors around the center.

The twelve dragons of the Serdes continent.

Both evil dragons and guardians were all there.

Of course, Godwin also had his place.

Ruri raised her gaze toward the great door with the emblem of Silverwind.

“……”

Those sharp horns and that slender body.

A figure whose ferocity no one could deny.

Even though more than a hundred years had passed since he left this world, his image still remained.

And that presence weakened Ruri’s heart.

The loyal servant of Valdrova’s castle.

The steadfast maid who controlled the wind and spoke her mind was no longer there.

The young woman, clutching her chest with both hands, could only open the door with difficulty.

Creeeak—

The sound of the hinges stretched out.

What appeared was a long corridor.

And at the front, soldiers guarding it.

Silverwind warriors.

The conversations they were having stopped.

Their gazes turned toward Ruri.

The atmosphere froze instantly.

“And who are you, brat?”

One of them, without much thought, approached with an arrogant attitude.

“You smell like someone with Silverwind’s blood, but I’ve never seen you. Where did this spy come from?”

“……”

“If I’m talking to you, answer. Or do you want me to play rough with you, huh?”

“Enough.”

The one who broke the tension was a man seated with a staff.

He was the leader of the group.

“Don’t worry, captain! Do you think I’d cause trouble by killing someone inside Blancaros’s domain?”

“Be grateful we’re in Blancaros’s domain. Outside, not even your bones would remain.”

“What are you saying? Do you think I’m so useless I can’t even handle a girl?”

“You could handle a girl.”

His eyes settled on the maid.

“But I don’t think you could handle a mobile brigade commander.”

“A mobile brigade commander…?”

The confident man’s face filled with fear.

“Could it be… the… Cutting Wind Ruri…?”

He turned his head, in disbelief.

He had never seen her face, but her reputation was known.

Any Silverwind Dragon Spawn would have felt fear upon hearing that name.

The man stepped back stiffly.

The hand he had extended trembled as he withdrew it.

Ruri walked through the space he had left open and approached the man with the staff on his shoulder.

They looked into each other’s eyes.

They had known each other for a long time.

“It’s been a while, Percival.”

“It’s been a while, commander of the First Mobile Brigade. Well, you’ve retired… should I say former commander? No, not that either.”

The cordiality in Percival’s voice had dried up.

“The only word that suits you now is traitor.”

Traitor.

That word pierced Ruri’s chest.

But she had already accepted it.

“What did you come for?”

“I came to see Lord Goz…”

“Then you came in vain. Go back.”

“I want to talk.”

Clang!

The black staff struck the ground.

“It seems that in these two hundred years you’ve forgotten many things, Ruri Silverwind. Since when do the proud children of Silverwind talk instead of fight?”

“……”

The Silverwind were warriors by nature.

They were the ones who hunted demons and frost giants beyond the wall of ice.

More than words, they understood the language of the body.

“I understand.”

Ruri knew it better than anyone, so she lowered her head and took a step back.

She turned and began to walk away.

“Wait.”

Percival stopped her.

The foot she had lifted remained suspended.

“Go in.”

“…?”

“The leader has permitted it.”

She could not believe it, but soon understood it was true.

The door that seemed never meant to open for her began to open.

Ruri stepped forward again.

An even stronger pressure crushed her as she crossed the threshold.

The hostile gazes felt like spears piercing through her.

With that weight on her shoulders, she moved forward.

It was a place similar to a royal audience hall.

A single throne in front of the entrance.

And seated there, a huge man, like a bear.

He was not like the soldiers at the entrance.

A luxurious fur coat, golden rings.

And on the exposed skin, magical tattoos engraved through rituals covered his entire body.

Everything was exactly as she remembered of Goz Silverwind.

‘Nothing has changed.’

At that moment, Ruri felt a completely different pressure from back then.

Even among Dragon Spawn there were hierarchies, but they were not absolute.

However, what she now felt was standing before an absolute authority.

The instinct sleeping within her gave her the answer.

‘The… essence of Lord Silverwind?’

After Silverwind’s death, Goz, the leader of the Silver Dragon Spawn, had absorbed the dragon’s essence.

‘But it’s unstable.’

He had absorbed it, but had not fully assimilated it.

He had not managed to fully integrate Silverwind’s power into his body.

That was why he could barely remain standing on his two legs.

“Valdrova.”

He opened his mouth.

There was no greeting.

“Is Valdrova well?”

He swirled the whisky in his glass.

Ruri nodded.

“Yes. She is driving out the monsters of the Far East and fighting day and night to protect the continent.”

“I see. It must be thanks to you taking good care of her.”

“……Yes.”

“Are you proud?”

“……”

Ruri could not answer easily.

Goz’s cold gaze pierced her.

“Have I asked a difficult question?”

“No.”

“Then why don’t you answer?”

Like a rope that finally snaps under an unrelenting storm, she answered.

“……It is something I feel proud of.”

“I see.”

Crash!

The glass shattered in his hand.

The atmosphere froze completely.

Ruri’s body also tensed under that gaze.

“Then tell me, with what face has a traitor who has served that woman so well come here?”

Everything around her was hostile.

Even so, Ruri spoke.

She had come for this.

“Do you still hate Lady Valdrova?”

Goz’s gaze turned fierce.

“I understand that you call her that. But in front of me, do not refer to that woman as lady again. You are a Spawn who inherited Silverwind’s blood. Your only lord is Silverwind.”

“I am a Silver Dragon Spawn, yes—but now my lady is her.”

“Before that woman is your master, your lord is Silverwind. Who was Silverwind?”

“The great lord of wind and steel.”

“That’s right. He was the owner of a speed no one could surpass. He never hesitated.”

The veins in Goz’s neck stood out.

“And yet…”

Ruri felt it in that restrained voice.

“And yet!”

He was still sharpening the blade of his revenge.

“She tore out his throat! That woman! She sank her fangs into his neck and ripped apart his artery! I saw that slaughter with these eyes! I felt it with this chest!”

“……”

“You ask me if I hate her? The hatred I feel for her still burns within me.”

Ruri shut her eyes tightly.

Every time he shouted, the emotions overflowed and she could not contain them.

Goz snorted upon seeing her suffering.

“In this chest still lives the death of that lord… but it seems that in you it does not.”

“I saw it too. I felt it too. And that pain… I still feel it clearly even now.”

Ruri had also participated in the war against the demons.

She had also witnessed Silverwind’s death.

As a Spawn, she felt the death of her lord and mourned him.

“I also came to blame my lady.”

It was inevitable.

For Ruri, Silverwind was like a father.

It was natural to hate the one who led him to his death.

“But… I cannot hate her.”

“No. That is not so.”

Goz denied it.

“If you had fully felt what we feel, you would have abandoned that side.”

“……”

“You were only a little distant, and even so you were tainted by her. You forgot your origin.”

Goz took another glass and poured himself more whisky.

“Valdrova is still our enemy. As long as she exists on this continent, Serdes, our hatred will not end. This is the will of all Silverwind.”

“I see…”

It was expected.

She already knew it was an illusion.

“But… I will give you an opportunity.”

Opportunity.

Ruri raised her head.

“What do you mean?”

For an instant, she had hope.

Perhaps she could soften that hatred toward Valdrova.

Goz extended his hand toward her.

“Ruri Silverwind. Return to the bosom of the clan.”

The hope shattered.

“Does returning mean abandoning Lady Valdrova?”

“Now that there is a regent, you no longer have a reason to serve that woman.”

“……”

“You have already fulfilled everything Silverwind entrusted to you. So return to the clan and become a warrior. Ruri, the Cutting Wind. Return to your post as mobile brigade commander and take charge of crushing the things that come from the north. If you do that, I will erase the title of traitor that you carry.”

That name that pierced her chest.

But that pain was nothing compared to the responsibility she carried.

“I can’t…”

The natural refusal was about to leave her lips.

At that instant, Ruri’s body swayed violently.

“There is no refusal, Ruri Silverwind.”

The presence emanating from Goz crushed her directly.

“In my blood now resides the authority of Lord Silverwind. You know well what it means, as a Dragon Spawn, to oppose that authority, don’t you?”

Death.

For a Dragon Spawn who disobeys authority, there is only death.

“It will bring you nothing good to resist that authority. So…”

Goz’s index finger pointed to the ground.

“Kneel before me and submit.”

Goz’s words were not an empty threat.

Ruri, who had not even blinked, began to sweat coldly.

She felt as if someone were squeezing her throat and crushing her heart.

If she rejected his words, the pain would be like tearing out her own heart.

Even having absorbed only a minimal part of Silverwind’s essence, that was his power.

‘I cannot shrink.’

Ruri resisted with all her strength.

She gripped her apron with both hands and put strength into her trembling legs.

That was the best she could do.

And even so, that was all.

“You resist well.”

It was sincere admiration.

Any other Spawn would have already knelt before that power.

“Yes. That is why Lord Silverwind valued you.”

But that attitude did not please Goz.

He did not want to subdue her only with authority.

That was far from the perfect submission he sought.

“If it is so hard for you to leave, how about I make it easier for you to decide?”

Goz tilted his head.

“The regent knows your identity, right? But does he also know why you came to that place?”

“……!”

The calm on Ruri’s face shattered.

Her sweaty hands soaked her apron.

“Do you think that man will protect you even after knowing it?”

Perda Valdrova.

He loves Valdrova.

And he has no mercy for those who represent a threat to her.

‘If Lord Perda finds out about that…’

What would Perda do?

The will with which she resisted began to collapse under doubt.

‘I…’

Fear took over.

It pressed on her breathing to the point that she could not even scream.

‘What should I do…?’

She was sinking completely into a thick swamp.

She screamed silently.

Please.

Please, someone help me.

“Sorry for barging in like this.”

The voice that reached her ears was familiar.

“What do you think you’re doing with my servant?”

***

Perda moved in search of Ruri.

It was not difficult to find her.

She had said she would go talk to Silverwind.

So she had to be behind that great door with the emblem of Silverwind.

Perda stopped in front of it and thought.

‘Would this be unnecessary interference?’

A servant of Valdrova.

But also a Spawn with Silverwind’s blood.

They might feel hatred toward Valdrova, but not necessarily toward Ruri.

There was no reason for him to interfere in a family reunion.

But—

He tried to convince himself, but it was not easy.

He remembered Goz Silverwind’s expression at the Grand Council.

And at the same time, he remembered Erika’s warning.

— The enemy you must pay attention to is none other. It is Silverwind.

Dragons are immortal.

The grudges they hold never disappear.

And Silverwind was no exception.

‘Was it a mistake?’

Should he have refused, even if Ruri insisted?

Even if Valdrova asked him to?

Perda could not erase that thought.

That was why he reached the Spawn resting hall.

There, Silverwind soldiers were guarding the inner door.

And a dense dragon pressure.

It was obvious.

This was not unnecessary interference.

Perda walked toward the source of that presence.

“Are you Valdrova’s regent?”

Percival, the Dragon Spawn with the staff on his shoulder, stood up and asked.

“Is Ruri here?”

“Answer the question.”

“I asked you if Ruri Silverwind is here.”

Percival did not step back and blocked his path.

“She is here.”

“Then move aside.”

“This is a family matter, regent. It is not something you should interfere in.”

One should not meddle in family matters.

Especially in dragon society, it was an inviolable territory.

But Perda did not respect that boundary.

“If you’re going to stop me, you’ll have to break something.”

Perda’s blue eyes stared straight at him.

“Then Blancaros’s Hand will sanction you. Will you be able to bear the disgrace of Silverwind’s descendants causing trouble?”

“……”

“If you’re confident, try it. I am already prepared to lose.”

Percival stepped aside.

With a signal, he also made his subordinates step back.

Perda opened the door.

He saw Ruri.

Ruri about to kneel before Goz.

Ruri suffering.

At that moment, all his thoughts disappeared.

His gaze fixed clearly on a single point.

On the figure of the wretch pretending to be a king.

“Sorry for barging in like this.”

Perda spat out the anger he carried within.

“What do you think you’re doing with my servant?”