Chapter 127
A Question Left Behind
Once Ferda and Valdrova left the ballroom, the atmosphere gradually came back to life.
It took some time before the laughter returned, but eventually everyone began talking about Valdrova.
"I never thought I'd actually see a dragon in my lifetime."
"She wasn't nearly as frightening as I expected."
"They kept calling her the Evil Dragon, so I thought I'd freeze the moment I saw her..."
"Oh, I definitely froze. I thought my heart was going to stop."
Crimson hair.
A petite figure hardly different from an ordinary woman.
Yet the two pairs of horns upon her head unmistakably declared that she was something entirely different.
Everyone present had just witnessed something they would likely never see again in their lives.
A real dragon.
Before seeing her, they had expected the entire banquet to become stiff and oppressive.
But then...
"She was an awful dancer."
"So was the Regent."
The image of the two of them repeatedly stepping on each other's feet was still fresh in everyone's memory.
Some might have thought such clumsiness tarnished the dignity of an immortal.
Olivia, however, saw it differently.
It left people with a question.
That single awkward dance had planted doubt about the terrifying reputation surrounding Valdrova.
Could a dragon capable of making such ordinary, human mistakes truly be more monstrous than Godwin?
No...
There's no way she planned that.
Everything had happened on impulse.
Olivia had realized it from the very moment Valdrova suddenly appeared.
An immortal...
Had been jealous of a mere mortal like herself.
Olivia had been the target of countless jealous stares from noblewomen throughout her life.
But Valdrova's jealousy...
Felt completely different.
Admiration.
Like a country girl dreaming of becoming the princess from a fairy tale.
Valdrova genuinely wished she could become someone like Olivia.
It was...
An unimaginably pure feeling.
"I like people who are pure."
Suddenly, Ferda's words resurfaced in her mind.
Was this... the purity he meant?
A foolish woman who became jealous of nothing more than a human princess...
Who rushed out in a panic and forced herself into a dance she couldn't even perform properly.
It was such overwhelming innocence that no one could ever believe it had been calculated.
I was wrong.
She had doubted his smile.
Believed it was no different from the cheap smiles worn by every other man.
Worse...
She had nearly destroyed both herself and Ferda because of that misunderstanding.
Like a devout believer who had abandoned her faith and become a heretic.
"Hmm..."
Olivia couldn't lower the fan covering her mouth.
Now that she realized her judgment had been mistaken...
She had to repair the disaster she'd created.
In the end...
Ferda would probably be safe.
But Olivia herself still had a problem.
By accepting his invitation to dance...
She had publicly admitted she harbored feelings for him.
Olivia began thinking rapidly.
Good.
A scenario immediately formed in her mind.
For it to work...
She needed someone expendable.
Someone harmless.
Someone who knew his place.
A simple-minded man who wouldn't cause trouble no matter what happened.
As she searched...
One man caught her eye.
"Y-Your Imperial Highness?"
Olivia stepped away from the flower garden of Golden Rose.
Crossing the ballroom, she headed straight toward him.
He was a knight wearing a neat vest.
Among all the knights present...
He stood out.
Not in a good way.
His clothes were stylish enough...
But there was an unmistakable rustic awkwardness about him that no tailoring could hide.
"Sir Knight?"
"Y-Yes, Your Highness!?"
"Your name."
"...My name?"
"Introduce yourself."
"I already know who you are."
"But I'd like to hear it from you."
The man swallowed nervously before speaking.
"I-I am Malcolm of Peach Hill."
Malcolm's face turned deathly pale.
"D-Did I... perhaps offend Your Imperial Highness somehow...?"
"Not at all."
"I simply wished to ask..."
"...whether you would honor me with a dance."
"A-A-A-A DANCE!?"
His startled shout immediately drew everyone's attention.
"Did the Princess just invite him to dance?"
"What's happening?"
"Her Highness asked that knight...?"
The young nobles stared in utter disbelief.
Olivia had expected him to panic.
He exceeded every expectation.
Hiding a smile behind her fan, she spoke softly.
"You're a knight, aren't you?"
"Y-Yes."
"Then you have a duty to fulfill."
"...A duty?"
He still looked bewildered.
But at least he was listening now.
"The conversation I had with the Regent became... complicated."
"So someone has to become the scapegoat."
"That someone..."
"...is you."
"M-Me...?"
"A scapegoat?"
"For the Regent's sake."
"If you're truly a knight..."
"...surely you can do that much?"
Looking up at him with pleading eyes...
Olivia made her request.
The moment Malcolm heard for the Regent's sake...
His entire demeanor changed.
"I-I am Malcolm of Peach Hill!"
"If it's for His Excellency the Regent..."
"I'll do anything!"
"B-But..."
"I'm not very good at dancing..."
"Would... would that be alright?"
Even better.
"That's perfectly fine."
"Just move the way I tell you."
"Y-Yes, ma'am!"
"Then..."
"Escort me."
Malcolm nervously offered his arm.
The instant Olivia took his hand...
The ballroom erupted.
"Oh my goodness..."
"The Princess is dancing..."
People stopped dancing altogether.
Every man's unattainable ideal had just broken her own rule.
Deep down, everyone knew that someday Olivia would dance with another man.
But...
No one had imagined it would be someone like him.
"Why that guy...?"
"I could dance a hundred times better than he can..."
Every eye followed Olivia and Malcolm.
Exactly as Olivia had intended.
...He's even worse than I expected.
Just as one would expect from a man with no experience around women...
Malcolm was an atrocious dancer.
He was constantly half a beat ahead...
Or half a beat behind.
Olivia practically dragged him through every movement, forcing something vaguely resembling a dance.
The Regent was like this too.
Suddenly...
The memory of Ferda's clumsy dance with Valdrova surfaced in her mind.
And...
Without warning...
Olivia laughed.
She lowered her fan completely.
Her radiant smile bloomed openly.
At this moment...
Anything she did would seem almost dreamlike.
No one would even realize who that smile truly belonged to.
The question of who would share Princess Olivia's first dance...
Was answered by Malcolm, a knight of Castle Valdrova.
Thus...
The rumors surrounding Ferda and Olivia quietly faded away.
Although...
Malcolm would later receive countless anonymous threatening letters.
But that...
Was another story.
***
Meanwhile, Castle Valdrova remained alive with the excitement of the Spring Festival.
Built for a dragon, the enormous castle contained countless secluded corners hidden from sight.
And in one such corner...
A man and a woman whispered words of love.
"Oh... we mustn't..."
"...I'm already promised to another..."
"Forget that old man."
"At least for tonight."
"If we do this..."
"...I'll be committing a sin."
"I'll no longer have the right to stand before Lord Alte."
"Then let me bear your sins."
"So please..."
"...entrust yourself to me."
"Ah... Marquis!"
Hidden away where no one could hear them...
The two lovers spoke without the slightest shame.
After all...
Neither of them imagined that someone could possibly be listening.
"Sin? More Like You'll Lose Your Head."
"Sin, my ass. You'll lose your head before that."
It was Zed Swallow.
Surrounded by a ring of communication crystals, he lazily shelled peanuts.
These were the communication crystals he and Penelope had secretly installed in the locations they had designated as ideal spots for lovers' rendezvous.
Every conversation that took place there reached Zed's ears...
And was carefully recorded.
"I thought this would be entertaining..."
"...but it got boring fast."
The conversations of secret lovers were all the same.
Forbidden family ties.
Differences in social standing.
Or men and women desperately trying to boast their way into one night together.
To Zed...
It was all one grand farce.
Not even a good one.
A third-rate stage play.
The kind of cheap melodrama village housewives would gossip about while beating laundry by the river.
Watching people justify themselves from the sidelines made him feel physically sick.
As he looked at the pathetic couples, he muttered,
"Even so..."
"I'm still better than those idiots."
"You're exactly the same."
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
"Kgh!"
A familiar voice—one he absolutely did not want to hear—came from directly behind him.
Turning around, he found a dark-skinned woman standing there.
The name escaped his lips automatically.
"Findti—"
Smack!
"Ow! What was that for?!"
"I warned you not to call me that."
"So using it again sounded like a request to be hit."
"But it has such a nice ring to it."
"It perfectly expresses the unique relationship between you and me."
Seeing him grin shamelessly only drained Garnet's patience.
"No remorse at all."
"Perhaps I should keep hitting you until you come to your senses."
"Anywhere but the face."
His shameless answer made it impossible to stay angry.
Garnet sighed and sat beside him.
She didn't look surprised in the slightest.
Seeing how naturally she settled in, Zed immediately understood.
"So it was you."
"What was?"
"When His Excellency suddenly ordered me to catch couples sneaking off together, I wondered whose idea it was."
"It was yours, wasn't it?"
"Yes."
"Honestly..."
"Someone with the status of the Prince could accomplish far better things than collecting trash like this."
"Why make us do this?"
"Because nothing creates balance quite like holding someone's children as leverage."
"If you want a long political career..."
"...you need insurance like this."
"What a miserable job."
"I should've been out having fun with beautiful women instead..."
"And instead I'm stuck doing this..."
Before he could continue complaining—
"Bitter?"
Just two syllables.
But Garnet's expression had turned frighteningly cold.
"N-No!"
"Haha..."
"Internal assignments are the best!"
"I get paid to sit around doing nothing!"
The moment Garnet glared at him...
Zed immediately tucked in his tail.
"And your contractor?"
"Working somewhere else?"
"She's inside the ballroom."
"Listening in on gossip like you?"
"No."
"Her job's different."
"By now..."
"...she's probably hosting something called the 'Victims of Zed Swallow Association' with a bunch of noble ladies."
Garnet tilted her head.
"...And what's that supposed to accomplish?"
"Once everyone's drunk..."
"...she says she's going to 'cultivate a garden.'"
Garnet didn't bother asking what that meant.
She already knew Penelope was Sitri's daughter.
There was no doubt "garden" was some indecent euphemism.
"So..."
"What did you do to deserve having a victims' association formed?"
"Nothing much."
"I just abandoned them in the ballroom."
Smack!
"Ow! What now?!"
"That was on behalf of every woman in Cerdes."
"Any objections?"
"No..."
"Next time..."
"Please at least warn me before hitting me, Representative."
Completely assuming the role of the powerless subordinate, Zed returned to work.
Then...
One of the crystals connected to the garden suddenly lit up.
"...You've got to be kidding."
"Hm?"
"The Prince and that dragon who disappeared from the ballroom..."
"...just walked into one of the rendezvous spots."
The Prince.
The Red Dragon.
Valdrova.
As expected of the leader of an intelligence network...
Garnet's eyes immediately sharpened.
"Don't turn it off."
"Record everything."
"And let's listen."
"Obviously."
"What kind of idiot would waste an opportunity like this?"
The two leaned close to the crystal.
Every word reached them clearly.
Valdrova's tearful voice.
Ferda's helpless attempts to comfort her.
Nothing was filtered out.
"Exactly as I expected."
"What was?"
"The Red Dragon..."
"...has incredibly low self-esteem."
Zed's eyes widened.
"Please."
"Go tell His Excellency that."
"I'd love to see his reaction."
"I doubt he'd mind."
"From what I've seen..."
"...he'd probably appreciate information like this."
"Fine."
"But don't drag my name into it before I lose my head."
Zed jokingly pretended to back away.
Garnet sighed.
"What an idiot."
"You really think I'd sell information like this?"
"...Wouldn't you?"
"Have you lost your mind?"
Her expression became completely serious.
"If I leaked this..."
"Every dragon on the continent would devote themselves to erasing the Black Bandana."
"...Why?"
"Because I'd be selling the means to unleash a catastrophe."
"...Huh?"
"I thought it'd just become something people mocked."
"Forget she's a dragon."
"Think of her as a woman with shattered self-esteem."
"Someone who's been rejected..."
"Mocked..."
"Broken..."
"And finally..."
"...loses her mind."
"What do you think happens then?"
Having known countless women...
Zed could picture it perfectly.
"...That would be a disaster."
When someone's self-worth collapsed completely...
They stopped caring about anything.
And...
There was no one alive capable of stopping the Red Dragon.
Godwin had spent years devastating the continent.
Valdrova had accomplished half that destruction...
...within mere hours.
She had only stopped after Silverwind's death brought her back to her senses.
Zed gave Garnet an admiring smile.
"As expected of the Black Bandana's leader."
"I've always thought your analytical skills were incredible."
"As an information broker..."
"My job isn't merely collecting information."
"It's understanding it."
She answered as though it were obvious.
"Which reminds me..."
Just when Zed assumed the conversation had ended...
Garnet casually asked,
"Have you ever considered working with me?"
"...What kind of joke is that?"
Zed laughed.
Then he looked into her eyes.
There wasn't a trace of humor there.
She was completely serious.
"You want me to abandon my knighthood?"
"I can pay whatever price you want."
"I could even make you a genuine noble."
"Everyone over there wants me dead."
"How exactly am I supposed to join you?"
"I can silence them."
"They annoyed me the moment they opened their mouths."
"It won't be difficult."
Though Zed had already begun refusing indirectly...
Garnet never looked away.
She clearly didn't want to lose him.
"It'll be just like the old days."
"You and me."
"As partners."
She lightly hooked one finger around his.
"You're the only person I'd trust with my life."
"And..."
"I'm probably the only person you'd entrust yours to."
The mercenary company...
Swallows.
Just as Garnet remembered those days vividly...
So did Zed.
"...I do miss those times."
"But..."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"You've never cared about oaths before."
"I didn't."
Zed laughed at himself.
"But..."
"They say a position shapes the person."
"...Turns out it's true."
For all his life...
Zed had dreamed of becoming a noble.
After meeting so many nobles, he had convinced himself he could imitate them perfectly.
But after becoming a knight...
He had discovered something he'd never felt while living as a carefree womanizer.
Responsibility.
And...
He no longer wanted to treat that responsibility lightly.
Seeing him like that...
Garnet's expression grew unusually grave.
"Wake up, Zed Swallow."
She thought to herself—
You still don't understand what kind of man Ferda truly is.
"I'm only telling you this."
"That man..."
"...is far too dangerous to stand beside."