Chapter 68: Change

When the sun leaning toward the west painted the sky with sunset colors, Ruri began cleaning up after the tea party while giving orders to the spirits.

The water spirits washed the dishes, and the wind spirits dried them.

The desserts Perda and Valdrova had not touched disappeared one after another into Ruri’s mouth.

A perfect division of labor.

Except for the fact that Perda was still there instead of leaving.

“Why did you say something so unnecessary?”

asked Perda.

It would have been a lie to say there were no emotions mixed into that question.

Ruri stared at him with a professional expression.

“Womanizer.”

Perda frowned.

“That wasn’t being a womanizer.”

“I merely stated the facts exactly as I saw them. That you held hands with that damned woman.”

“Were you trying to ruin things?”

“Ruin things? Shouldn’t you be thanking me instead?”

“What?”

He could not understand what the hell she meant by that.

“If I hadn’t said that, do you think you would have even gotten to hold her hand?”

“Her hand?”

“Yes, her hand. That hand you enjoyed holding while touching my lady’s. Whose achievement do you think that was?”

That was true.

Although, remembering what had happened today, it was not completely false.

Perda had attended the tea party determined not to hurt her in any way.

He had never planned to hold Valdrova’s hand today.

‘If she hadn’t mentioned Olivia…’

He would not have been able to hold her hand.

‘And if she hadn’t said she didn’t go hunting today…’

She would have suffered tonight.

Everything had happened because Ruri let out words that could be misunderstood.

“Are you telling me all of this was calculated?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Ruri snorted.

“My lady is someone greedy. If you stimulate her a little, she always takes a step forward. I knew perfectly well she would react if I mentioned that woman.”

For a moment, Perda had forgotten.

Ruri was the one who had managed that castle the longest and observed Valdrova the most.

That was why she knew her better than anyone.

Perda could not hide his surprise.

Had she ever done this much for him before?

Ruri had tried to help him several times as a maid.

But it had always been indirectly, solely for Valdrova’s sake.

This was the first time she had intervened so directly to help him.

Maybe that was why she looked different than usual.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Ruri asked after noticing his fixed gaze.

“You just seem a little different today.”

“Different how?”

“I don’t know. Should I say… cute?”

Ruri froze.

“Cute…?”

“I suppose the best definition would be an adorable little pig.”

“……”

Ruri’s expression twisted instantly.

Perda knew that feeling very well.

It was the same disgust he had felt when he first met her.

No.

It was even worse than back then.

“If you’re going to keep saying nonsense, leave already. You’re getting in the way of the cleaning.”

“As you wish.”

Perda did not want to stay there any longer if he was just going to receive all that irritation, so he tried to leave quickly.

“Sir Perda.”

Ruri called out to him.

With the sunset glow entering from the side, Ruri stood there with the light behind her.

Not as the perfect maid.

But simply as Ruri.

“Don’t worry.”

Perda spoke before she could say anything.

Ruri did not speak either.

She merely nodded slightly.

***

Valdrova’s nest.

A place that, aside from the gigantic steel gate, was basically one enormous natural cave.

A Dragon Knight with the head of a red dragon entered there.

The Incarnation of Fire and Strength, Valdrova.

She had just returned from the tea party.

Valdrova stood in the middle of the cave and slightly raised her head.

Only then did she feel that she was truly alone.

She pressed the gem embedded in her chest.

Sshhhh—

The inside of the armor slowly opened and expelled what it carried within.

And from there emerged a woman barely 160 centimeters tall.

“Fuaaah…”

Valdrova let out a deep sigh, like someone who had just escaped from a hellish battlefield.

No.

For her, the battlefield would have been easier.

Not even when she exterminated monsters for six hours straight had she felt this exhausted.

It had only been about two hours.

Simply sitting and talking with Perda.

And yet every second had been unbearably difficult for her.

Even while wearing that gigantic armor.

Valdrova looked at the armor and muttered.

“Today too, I couldn’t take it off…”

That armor had been created by a Bronze Dragon specifically for Valdrova when she used Polymorph.

It was meant to look enormous, oppressive, and terrifying, as befitted a Red Dragon.

The original intention had been to give her the dignity and presence of a sovereign dragon.

But in reality, it had become the opposite.

A shelter.

Like a snail’s shell.

“If the old man saw this, he would surely say something…”

She let out an empty laugh while discreetly looking at her reflection in the nearby mirror.

Two pairs of horns.

Golden eyes like a cat’s.

And bright red hair, as if woven from ruby threads.

Very few people had seen that appearance of hers.

Only Ruri and a few dragons truly remembered her face.

Because of that, there were almost no opinions about her Polymorph form.

Ruri said she was a balanced beauty, a gentle appearance hiding overwhelming strength.

The other dragons simply said—

“She looks docile.”

And the human Perda.

“Huuh…”

She did not want to remember it.

Every time she remembered the expression from that moment, her mind turned completely white.

It felt as if her body were floating.

As though a hundred hands were tickling her everywhere.

She could not control that feeling of no longer being herself.

“I want to hear it…”

She wanted to hear that she was pretty.

She wanted to hear that she was beautiful.

She wanted to hear those words while showing her true self, not that armor.

That was why, even while wearing that armor, she always wore beautiful dresses underneath.

Would Perda know?

That inside the armor he saw was a woman wearing a dress.

And that she always hid inside the armor because she lacked the courage to show herself.

“And even so…”

Her voice was soaked in embarrassment.

She remembered what Ruri had said before the tea party.

— He held hands with Olivia Arken and they walked together through the White House.

Valdrova understood.

A man like Perda could naturally hold hands with a beautiful woman.

Yes.

It was something that could happen.

“How could he not…?”

She felt jealous.

Of course she would feel jealous.

Her fiancé had held another woman’s hand.

The person with whom she had promised to share the future was holding someone else’s hand.

And at the same time she felt jealous, Valdrova also felt ridiculous.

“When I’m the one who always ran away…”

Perda had always been waiting for her.

The one who hid because she lacked the courage to show herself was Valdrova.

And yet she dared to feel jealous.

“Idiot.”

Self-reproach.

“Stupid idiot.”

And yet, in the end, she ended up smiling.

“Although… in the end, I did well.”

She never imagined she would be the one to suggest holding hands.

It had been impulsive.

But if it had not been for that impulse, she never would have had the courage to say it.

“……”

Valdrova stared intently at her right hand.

The hand Perda had held.

It still retained his warmth.

“It was warm…”

Valdrova could feel it clearly.

How warm Perda’s heart was.

What kind of person capable of caring for others he was.

‘That’s why this castle has become so noisy too.’

One year since he entered this castle.

And now the place was full of life, while news of the territory’s development kept arriving.

He was accomplishing things Valdrova had never done and had never been able to do.

And what she felt while watching him was admiration.

‘That’s why I must change too.’

And motivation.

Valdrova repeated that to herself over and over in her mind.

Because that would be the best gift she could give to Perda, who had come to be her fiancé.

“I’m so sleepy…”

Her eyelids felt heavy and her body sluggish.

On the days when bloodlust consumed her, she could not sleep even for a moment.

But now she felt that if she closed her eyes, she could sleep deeply.

She knew she should return to her dragon form to sleep.

But she did not want to.

She wanted to preserve this warmth he had left behind a little longer.

This presence.

Valdrova slowly lay down.

She curled up on her side, wrapping around herself while tightly embracing the warmth remaining in her right hand.

She thought about tomorrow.

Her tomorrow had always been a continuation of pain.

There were days when she did not even want to think about the future and lay down only to escape those thoughts.

But today was different.

The tomorrow she imagined now made her feel alive.

What should she do?

How should she act so that Sir Perda would like her?

While drawing endless lines without ever reaching an answer, she fell asleep.

***

At the center of the Serdes continent stood a structure that seemed to pierce the sky.

The tallest tower on the continent.

The Magic Tower.

The Magic Tower built by the Blue Dragon Iorga, where all Blue Dragon Spawn lived and carried out their daily lives.

The name of that tower was Blue Eye.

An eye exists to observe.

And just as its name implied, Blue Eye was a surveillance network created to observe everything beneath the sky.

The hierarchy within the tower was divided according to the height of each floor.

The absolute summit was Iorga’s nest.

The floor immediately below belonged to Erika Iorga, representative of the Dragon Spawn.

And she.

“It seems the humans are beginning to notice.”

“Not directly yet, but they are already pointing out the flaws in Blue Eye’s surveillance magic.”

More than ever, she felt the weight of age.

Surrounded by elderly advisors, Erika handled documents and unresolved matters.

“To what extent do the humans estimate the situation?”

“It seems they still lack precise data, but they estimate the efficiency has dropped by around 30%.”

30%.

A figure impossible to ignore.

“At this rate, they will discover Iorga’s absence…”

Lorga, the Blue Dragon.

The Incarnation of Magic.

A being with magical power comparable to an absolute, capable of supplying half the energy of the entire Magic Tower alone.

But even Iorga was slowly being consumed by Godwin’s darkness.

Simply revealing himself already carried enormous risk.

That was why Lorga made the extreme decision to crystallize his own body.

“What do you plan to do?”

The elderly mages spoke cautiously while waiting for Erika’s answer.

As the leader of the Blue Dragon Spawn, she remained calmer than anyone else.

Erika reviewed the last page of a document and threw it onto the desk.

“It is still within an acceptable range.”

The elders were startled.

“How can you consider 30% acceptable?”

“The actual loss of magical power in our Magic Tower is 50%.”

They did not have enough magical power to maintain Blue Eye’s surveillance network.

If they expanded the range like before, the depth weakened.

And if they prioritized depth, the range became far too limited.

“The fact that humans estimate only 30% means our replacements are functioning at 20%.”

That was why they abandoned the traditional method and began searching for more flexible alternatives.

They concentrated surveillance on the most dangerous areas and replaced unprotected regions by cooperating with the Adventurer’s Guild.

“We need to continue analyzing and find more alternatives.”

“We cannot depend on adventurers forever. If we do not cure the root of the problem, none of this will matter.”

“And isn’t it precisely to cure that root that we are enduring all of this?”

Erika’s eyes sharpened as she looked at the elder who spoke.

“If you can propose an immediate solution, I will keep my mouth shut. Go ahead, try.”

“That… I cannot.”

The elder lowered his head, intimidated.

Erika let out a sigh and softened her voice slightly.

“I understand perfectly well how anxious all of you are. I am as well. Our Magic Tower, Blue Eye, is facing an unprecedented crisis. Even using all our magical power, we can barely maintain the reputation of the eye that watches over the continent.”

But they could not do it.

“But if we do that, it will become impossible to produce the treatment for Iorga. He himself sensed the deterioration of his condition and entered hibernation, so the time we have left is short.”

They truly lacked everything.

Mana, time, and personnel.

“But precisely because of that, we must appear as though we are still acting calmly. If we show doubt, this tower built with so much effort will collapse in an instant.”

Blue Eye governs and monitors magic.

They had to clearly demonstrate that control over magic still remained in their hands.

“Understood.”

“We have no choice but to trust you, leader.”

The elders participating in the meeting left one by one.

And when the last one exited and the door closed—

“Fuuuuuh!!”

Erika, who until moments ago had maintained the firm face of a steel leader, let out a huge sigh as if releasing steam from a pressure cooker.

“Shit…”

What came out of her mouth was a curse.

They said every crown carried weight.

And the crown Erika wore felt destined to break her neck someday.

‘Nor can I simply sweep them all away.’

It was in the Dragon Spawn’s nature to look down on the other races.

If it had been any other Dragon Spawn, they would have already threatened or struck someone for daring to talk back while being human.

But Iorga’s descendants could not afford that.

Magic is a tool for those who possess rationality.

Losing one’s temper was irrational and equivalent to admitting that magic was in danger.

Their greatest weapon was composure.

They had to show that they remained exactly the same as always and that they could overcome any crisis.

That was why Erika, as leader, accumulated more and more tension she could never express.

“Fuu…”

Erika stood up.

She felt like she would explode if she remained seated, so she decided to clear her mind by looking at the scenery.

The rich colors of early autumn spread beneath her like scattered dots.

The landscape changed over the years, but her thoughts were almost always the same.

The enormous mountain range to the north.

‘A place full of idiots with ice in their heads.’

The western plains.

‘Territory of religious fanatics full of hypocrisy.’

The southern desert.

‘A playground for self-destructive extremists.’

The black lands of the east.

‘…Perda Valdrova.’

No.

This time it was different.

Normally she would have thought—

‘A graveyard of greedy fools slowly rotting away.’

But after attending the Grand Council, that place had become covered by the name of a human.

— And what will you do when the end comes?

His words still echoed in Erika’s mind.

The end of the secret created by Godwin.

“The end…”

She repeated that ending over and over.

But she found no answer.

Neither an optimistic future nor a pessimistic one could be accepted.

No one knows the future.

Perhaps it can be predicted, but seeing it completely is impossible.

“Damned arrogant bastard…”

Iorga’s descendants lived in the present while always thinking of the future.

Erika Iorga did the same.

She did not allow herself to be carried away by pessimism, but neither by optimism.

That was the rationality Iorga pursued.

And yet.

Every time she thought of Perda, those words echoed in her ears again.

Like a mosquito endlessly buzzing.

What will you do?

What do you intend to do?

What the hell will you do?

What can you do?

“Fuu…”

Erika felt she was reaching her limit and raised a finger.

At that instant, a small drop of water condensed at the tip of her finger.

The droplet expanded into a barrier that completely covered her surroundings.

“Fuu.”

She took a deep breath.

And then—

“So what?!”

she shouted.

“And what’s so special about you?!”

She repeatedly struck the floor and flailed her arms.

“After everything I did to crush that damned proposal and stop those ice idiots, now you come acting like you’re such a big deal! What’s so special about you?! You’re just a human! A human! Why do you act like you’re so incredible?!”

When she could not calm herself, she exploded.

“I don’t know anymore! I want to quit everything! I won’t do it! Why the hell do I have to do this?! And for what?! Everyone only criticizes me! When they can’t do anything either!”

She spent several minutes screaming at the top of her lungs, releasing everything bottled up inside her.

Knock knock—

“Excuse me, Lady Erika?”

Her secretary opened the door.

Erika, who moments ago had been screaming like a hysteric, reacted quickly.

She dispelled the water barrier and sat back down.

In an instant she regained the flawless image of a leader.

“What is it?”

The secretary could not even imagine that this woman had just been rolling around screaming like a madwoman.

She began her report completely normally.

“I came to speak with you regarding the Rosnova family investigation records. Do you have a moment?”

The timing was far too perfect.

Erika felt a chill of discomfort.

“Speak.”

“For now, we found nothing particularly problematic with the Rosnova family. It is one of many knight families of the Empire they achieved some more or less decent merits by human standards and barely maintain their lineage alive.”

“You mean there is no issue with Regent Perda’s family?”

“At least with the Rosnova family, no.”

She turned to the next page.

“The problem is Regent Perda’s biological mother, Anna Rosnova.”

“And what about her?”

“There is not a single piece of information about his mother.”

“Not a single piece? Do you mean she was a commoner or something similar?”

“No. It is not that kind of case. Perhaps we need to investigate more deeply, but this feels like…”

The woman hesitated for a moment, wondering whether she should really say it.

“Like chasing a ghost that never existed from the beginning.”

“A ghost?”

The most irresponsible phrase an investigator could utter.

And yet, Erika did not take it lightly.

All of them were Iorga’s children and knew Erika perfectly well.

If they dared to say something like that, it was because they had investigated to the very bottom and found not even a speck of dust.

Erika murmured.

“Eggs exist because chickens exist.”

If there is a result, there is a cause.

If there is a child, there is a mother.

Even dragons, nearly divine beings, possess a creator.

And yet, every time they tried to uncover something about Perda, all they found were unknown questions.

‘What the hell is that man really?’

Just as she thought that, hurried and chaotic footsteps echoed from the stairs.

A man appeared rushing upward at full speed, completely agitated, something improper for Iorga’s descendants, who valued rationality above all else.

“It-it’s an emergency!”

“Why all the commotion?”

“I-it’s… this…!”

What he handed over was an image recorded through magic.

In it, several Dragon Spawn could be seen recovering corpses in the middle of a snowy field.

“A Silver Dragon Spawn… died?”

“Yes.”

That alone was already an extremely grave matter.

All Dragon Spawn remember the deaths of those who share their blood.

And the Silverwind, famous for their unbreakable bonds, would never leave alive anyone who shed the blood of their own.

If they had only shown her that, Erika would have simply thought some region would end up drenched in blood.

But that man’s panic clearly meant something else.

“The next image…!”

Several members of Silverwind flew through the sky.

And among them could be seen a Dragon Spawn with enormous wings.

“The leader of those ice idiots moved personally…?”

For Goz Silverwind to act directly was not normal.

That meant he was not seeking to destroy only one person, but to wipe out absolutely everything that belonged to them.

Why?

Why would he move personally?

Erika immediately thought of one person.

‘It can’t be…’

No.

It was impossible.

That idiot was not that stupid.

Knowing perfectly well the relationship with Silverwind, he would never do something so foolish.

And yet, she needed confirmation.

So she asked with difficulty.

“Who laid hands on a descendant of Silverwind?”

The man answered.

And Erika’s worst fears became reality.

“It was Regent Perda Valdrova!”

The fuse had finally been lit.