Chapter 117
That Smell
After Ferda accepted the witch’s invitation, everyone working in the castle returned to their duties.
Everyone except one person.
Luri Silverwind remained where she was, staring down at the spot where Ferda had disappeared after receiving the invitation.
She should have been cleaning by now, but she could not bring herself to do anything. Complicated emotions continued to circle through her mind, tormenting her.
‘Why did he make such a choice?’
Unable to understand Ferda’s intentions, she kept imagining the worst.
This was something that would have shaken even a saint.
Considering everything Ferda had done, it was only natural.
He had allowed witches and demons into the castle, struck a bargain with a Great Demon, and now he had accepted an invitation from the leader of the witches.
He was a man who had done everything he had been told not to do.
‘What would I have done if he were an ordinary human?’
What else?
Even one of those offenses would have been enough for her to expel him without hesitation.
Yet Ferda did not have merely one such offense to his name. He had an entire mountain of them.
That was more than enough to warrant execution.
The reason she had not treated Ferda that way was simple.
‘I can trust him.’
Ferda was the sort of man who would do anything for his master.
Even when serious trouble arose, he had handled it flexibly, and thus far, he had caused no real harm.
She could trust him with this invitation as well.
However, the situation had changed.
Luri had seen Ferda’s weakness.
Once she realized that he, too, was an absurdly fragile human being, she could no longer look at him the same way she had before.
He was weak, just like any other human.
And if a human posed a potential threat—
‘They must be killed.’
Luri looked down at her hands.
She remembered the promise she had once made to Ferda.
—I will kill you with these hands.
Luri wondered.
‘If he ever tries to harm Master, could I truly kill him?’
She was a Dragon Spawn.
Killing humans was not something she hesitated to do.
She had been the one to kill the Third Prince’s retainers when they attempted to use Valdrova merely as a stepping stone to power.
She had also tried to kill Ferda when they first met.
But her heart was no longer the same as it had been then.
Suppose Valdrova came to hate him.
Suppose their engagement was broken, and Luri had more than enough justification.
Would she truly be able to kill Ferda?
She was no longer certain.
‘I want…’
What she wanted to grasp with those hands was not Ferda’s throat.
‘I wish I could simply rely on that man without worrying…’
Just as her master, Valdrova, did.
She wanted to watch his actions without constantly questioning them.
She wanted to see humans gather in this once-barren land and watch it prosper.
At first, she had a reason not to trust him.
She had believed Ferda was no different from the Third Prince.
Her duty had been to seize upon even the slightest fault in his behavior and drive him away.
Yet even now, after all those misunderstandings had been resolved, Luri still could not bring herself to rely on him completely.
‘Lord Ferda is human.’
Humans were mortal.
They were destined to die someday, and as they drew closer to that fate, they invariably became unstable.
Ferda could not escape that truth either.
Luri could still vividly picture the weakness she had seen in him.
Someone had to remain clear-headed.
That someone had to be Luri.
She had to stay vigilant and seize upon anything in his actions that seemed even slightly malicious.
And it was not merely for Valdrova’s sake.
‘I have to protect him.’
She had to protect the man who wanted to protect her master.
She had to shield him from the countless things that continued to test him.
As she stood there, staring endlessly at the place where he had vanished, she suddenly felt a wave of mana ripple through the castle.
Luri knew where it had originated.
And because she knew the location, she also knew who had returned.
‘Lord Ferda.’
True to the blood of Silverwind, Luri raced toward the source at tremendous speed.
Echidna was standing in the room where only Mori should have been.
She met Luri’s gaze with a confused expression.
“W-Well, that turned into quite a commotion, didn’t it…?”
She tried to smooth things over with an awkward smile and nervous gestures, but Luri strode directly toward her.
The color drained from Echidna’s face when she saw Luri’s expression.
“Chief Researcher.”
“Y-Yes!?”
“Tell me the truth.”
Overwhelmed by Luri’s presence, Echidna hunched her shoulders.
“Where is Lord Ferda? Why did you return alone?”
“W-Well… Big Sister wished to meet the regent—”
“What did you do with Lord Ferda?”
At the words Big Sister, Luri’s pressure intensified.
Echidna’s eyes began to well with tears as she hurriedly answered.
“H-He should be safe! The regent told me not to worry and asked me to pass along a message…!”
Boom!
An immense force slammed into the wall beside Echidna’s head.
Luri had kicked the bookshelf with all her strength.
Books tumbled out from the impact.
“Can you guarantee that?”
“Y-Yes?”
“Can you guarantee that Lord Ferda will be as safe as you were when you returned?”
“Th-That…”
He was fine.
He would return safely.
All Echidna had to do was say those words, and the situation might have settled down.
“I-I don’t really know that either…”
But Echidna could not do it.
She had once been a witch of Philiase, and she understood the nature of witches well.
What she did not understand was the true intention of Big Sister Lucy Philiase.
The Witch’s Garden was far too dangerous a place for her to guarantee Ferda’s safety, and she could not read Lucy’s intentions either.
At Echidna’s answer, Luri tensed her face.
She appeared angry, but in truth, she merely felt helpless.
She had not asked the question simply to hear some superficial reassurance.
Even so, hearing Echidna admit that she did not know only deepened her anxiety.
‘I can’t leave him alone there.’
She remembered what had happened between Ferda and Abell.
If Ferda found himself helpless again as he had been then, Luri would not even be able to help him.
“Chief Researcher, you were a witch as well, weren’t you?”
“O-Of course I was…?”
“Can you take me to the place called the Witch’s Garden?”
“Th-The Garden? Even if I tried to go there…”
“Can you or can’t you?”
Luri pressed her for an answer.
Echidna responded hurriedly.
“I-I can’t… I can attempt to travel there, but whether I’m allowed to enter that space is entirely up to Big Sister. If Big Sister doesn’t permit it, entering is impossible. If I force it, I could die—or worse, I could end up as a wandering spirit drifting through limbo for all eternity!”
Mages who misused teleportation magic could become trapped between time and space, reduced to wandering specters.
It was perhaps a fate even crueler than death.
In other words, this was not something Luri could simply demand that Echidna accomplish through sheer determination.
‘More importantly, if someone has to do it, it should be me.’
But what could she do?
She was someone who knew nothing except how to wield her strength.
What could she possibly—
“Huh?”
At that moment, a sensation pierced Echidna’s mind.
As though she had been waiting for exactly this, she looked at Luri and shouted.
“L-Lord Ferda is back!”
“!!”
The moment she heard those words, Luri withdrew the foot that had been pinning Echidna in place.
As though afraid she might miss him, she sprinted back toward the spot where he had disappeared.
Just as Echidna had said, Ferda was standing there.
He was so completely unharmed that all of Luri’s worst imaginings seemed ridiculous.
A black suit.
Gray hair.
And blue eyes as deep as a lake.
The moment she confirmed his figure, her shaken heart settled with relief.
She immediately hardened her gaze instead and walked toward him.
“Lord Ferda.”
However, she could not completely hide the tremor in her voice.
Trying her best to appear composed, she questioned him.
“What did that witch do to you?”
Ferda answered.
“Nothing happened.”
“I cannot believe that nothing happened after you went all the way to the Witch’s Garden. Besides, didn’t you say Big Sister spent time alone with you?”
Ferda nodded as though conceding the point, then answered again.
“We merely talked.”
“What did you talk about?”
“A subject you and I were unable to reach a conclusion on.”
In other words, the witch had seen Ferda’s weakness.
Luri’s politely folded hands tightened.
“Did you… make a deal with that witch?”
“I did not make a deal.”
Had he stopped there, Luri might have felt a little relieved.
“But she offered to help.”
Yet she could not.
Big Sister, Lucy Philiase.
She was a witch who rarely showed herself, but Luri had met her before.
“Did that woman say she wanted to help Lady Valdrova?”
“Yes.”
“Then she must have spoken about me as well.”
“Yes.”
Luri’s face twisted with emotion.
“Do you know why I ignored her claim that she wanted to help Lady Valdrova?”
“……”
“Because witches are a group who regard everything outside themselves as either enemies or toys. They are vile creatures who use another person’s revenge for their own amusement. The descendants of Silverwind also suffered because of that amusement. Do you know what Lucy Philiase said when we demanded that she take responsibility for the incident?”
“……”
“She said she could not control Philiase over something so trivial.”
Luri was a Dragon Spawn.
Among them, the descendants of Silverwind possessed the strongest familial bonds.
It was easy to imagine how enraged she had been by someone who dismissed those bonds so lightly.
“To that damned woman, you are merely another one of those trivial matters. Witches have no compassion. They intend to entangle you so thoroughly that you become nothing more than their plaything.”
There was some truth to Luri’s anger and her words.
Speaking with a witch was like cradling a bomb that could explode at any moment.
That was the common perception.
It was also common sense.
“Do you suspect that I might betray her?”
At Ferda’s question, Luri clenched her fists.
“Yes.”
“I am telling you this so that I do not needlessly misunderstand your intentions.”
“……”
That was not the truth.
“I suspect that you may harm Master.”
I simply do not want to watch you be toyed with by a witch.
Her sharpened words stabbed at Ferda once again.
“That is a relief.”
“…What?”
Luri raised her head at Ferda’s response.
“What do you mean? How could that possibly be a relief?”
Ferda looked down at her with deep, tranquil eyes.
“As you said, perhaps one day I may harm her. I might convince myself that I am acting for her sake and walk down the wrong path. But if you remain this vigilant toward me, then even if I stray, there will still be a chance for you to set me right, will there not?”
“That sounds like nothing more than you pushing the responsibility onto me.”
“That is part of it.”
“You are irresponsible.”
“It cannot be helped. You are the person I trust most.”
Trust.
“I trust you enough to show you this weakness of mine.”
At those words, something Luri could not control rose within her chest.
‘Again.’
The faint scent of ash brushed past her, just as it had that day.
And someone else’s face overlapped with Ferda’s.
Silverwind.
Ferda did not resemble the person who had taken in her empty, hollow self in the slightest.
And yet she still found herself making that mistake.
The heart of the cold, steel-like soldier softened.
Trying desperately to conceal the feeling, she fidgeted with her lips and lowered her head.
There was no way Ferda could understand what was going through her mind.
Instead, he placed a hand on her head.
“One day, my judgment may grow clouded. But for now, please trust me. I will not allow that witch to toy with me.”
He gently stroked her hair without permission.
Her mistaken impression deepened, and the scent drew closer.
The scent of ash from that day…
Wait.
This was not the smell of ash.
“…A smell.”
“Hmm?”
Luri sniffed carefully, then lifted her head.
“Cigarette smoke…”
Her expression turned sour.
“Why do you smell so strongly of cigarettes, Lord Ferda?”
“That is…”
Ferda recalled Lucy Philiase’s behavior.
How many times had she blown the smoke from the cigarettes she had been puffing directly into his face?
‘Surely…’
No.
It was not merely a suspicion.
He was certain.
Lucy Philiase had deliberately blown all that smoke at him precisely to create this situation.
‘So this is how she screws me over.’
They said there was never a peaceful day when witches were involved.
“…You should wash first, shouldn’t you?”
Luri produced a green bath towel.
Feeling like livestock being dragged to the slaughterhouse, Ferda said,
“…Please be gentle.”
However, the word mercy did not exist in Luri’s vocabulary.
Ferda recalled what Big Sister Lucy had told him.
“The boundary between emotions…”
Lucy Philiase had told him to draw a line between the two emotions.
He did not know how to draw that line, but Lucy had given him a clue.
“The mana cultivation technique, Shape of Shadow.”
The phrase went like this:
‘I become the shadow, and the shadow becomes me.’
She had told him that within those words lay the clue to controlling the two emotions inside him.
“If the shadow can truly become me, then what could possibly be impossible…?”
Muttering Lucy’s words, Ferda raised one of his shadow hands.
This was a hand.
‘But at the same time, it is also not a hand.’
Because it was not truly a hand, there was nothing strange about its fingers bending beyond their natural limits.
By deliberately folding the fingers backward, he could freely reverse which side was the front and which was the back.
He could also alter its form to imitate a foot.
Though crude, he could even shape it into the paw of a beast.
‘Therefore, it is both a hand and not a hand.’
Ferda alternated his gaze between the hand formed from black mana and his own hand, pondering deeply.
He released his control and allowed it to move according to the flow of his thoughts.
The shadow hand was both a hand and not a hand.
‘This shadow is also both my body and not my body.’
Then—
‘Could I not create something that is both one of my circles and not a circle at the same time?’