My Slain Dragon Bride

Chapter 226. What Do You Want Me to Do?

The Allied Forces and the Imperial Army, which had disbanded only thirty minutes ago, gathered again at the midpoint.

A report had reached the Allied Forces as well, just as it had the Imperial Army.

Together, they moved toward the direction where a portal had opened in the sky.

The figure that appeared from within the portal looked like a girl who had just entered adolescence.

Yet the kings who saw her turned pale as though they had encountered a grim reaper.

She was the head of the Cerdes Magic Association.

Known by the nickname the Magic-Wielding Delinquent, Erdes Roton had arrived—the woman who had reached the pinnacle among all Mages.

I was wondering why she hadn’t come until now.

Black Magic was involved in this incident with the Demon Race.

It was extremely strange that she, a woman who showed no mercy to demons, had taken no interest in the matter.

Almost every king had realized that Black Magic was being used in the Heinkel Kingdom. There was no way she could have failed to notice it.

Then why had she come now, bringing such an enormous amount of Mana with her?

Erdes’s eyes rolled downward, looking at the people below.

"Oh my, who do we have here?"

She welcomed them with an innocent expression before immediately looking down at them with a face filled with disgust.

"Isn’t this a herd of pigs that can’t even tell shit from soybean paste?"

Erdes’s anger made every king flinch.

Ureas stepped forward, attempting to take the role of leader.

"It is an honor to meet you, Head of the Cerdes Magic Association. I am the Second Prince of the Arken Empire—"

"I don’t care, you piece of garbage."

He was crushed before he could even finish making a sound.

Erdes raised one finger as a warning.

"From now on, anyone who opens their mouth will lose one finger for every syllable they utter."

Erdes spoke lightly, but she had never made empty threats.

If she said she would do something, she did it.

"You pigs have all tried to flatter me at one point or another, so you should all know what my title is."

"....."

"Erdes Roton, Head of the Cerdes Magic Association. The head of the organization that monitors the Magic of every Mage and protects the continent from Black Magic. Isn’t that right?"

"...."

"Do you really think someone like me was unaware of what was happening?"

Her eyes swept across everyone.

Every time that Mana-infused gaze touched someone, it felt as though a hole were being bored straight through them.

"At first, I just watched quietly. I wondered if someone might report this to me. Something like, ’Oh, Lady Erdes~ Those filthy demon bastards are doing all sorts of strange things with demonic magic~.’ If someone had done that, I was actually planning to say, ’Oh, good boy, good boy. You’re such a good little puppy,’ and let it go."

Her eerie performance, with its extreme swings in emotion, sent chills down their spines.

"But not a single one of you pigs reported anything to me. Not that Black Magic was involved in this incident, nor that the magic was created by Gamigin, that damned pile of bones!"

And they were scrambling desperately to get their hands on it, too.

Her anger shook their chests and sent a chill through their very bones.

"So I decided I’d had enough of your insolence, and I came here."

Erdes released the Staff she had been holding.

"To wake you disgusting bastards from your dreams."

The Staff moved on its own and stood upright in front of her.

At the same time, Erdes’s body began to rise into the sky.

Erdes’s Staff was an item known as the Lord of Mages.

Only those who had reached the Seventh Circle—the Mage Lords—could challenge it, and even among them, only those who passed its demanding qualifications could wield it.

It was an ultimate item.

The Mana contained within it was like a cloudless sky.

Its blue light spread out over a vast area, yet its depth was impossible to measure.

The Mana within it was drawn forth and condensed according to Erdes’s gestures.

The portal she had arrived through began to open wide, and something appeared beyond it.

"W-Wait... what is that?!"

"Is she out of her mind?!"

Shouts of horror erupted.

What emerged from the portal was enough to astonish even Ferda.

It was a meteor.

But its size was on an entirely different level from the meteor showers Erdes usually summoned.

It was as though someone had ripped an enormous mountain straight out of the earth and thrown it from the sky.

It was descending toward the castle of the Heinkel Kingdom.

"Open your eyes wide and watch."

Erdes spoke ominously.

"Today, I’ll show you exactly what happens to those who borrow the hand of demons."

The gray-colored Heinkel Kingdom was swallowed beneath the shadow of the enormous meteor.

The aftermath of the impact was powerful enough to strike even the forward bases established by the Allied Forces and the Imperial Army.

"Luri. Protective Magic."

"Yes."

Luri commanded the wind spirit and surrounded them with a protective barrier.

She expanded it enough to protect all the leaders of the Imperial Army and the Allied Forces.

Ferda also cast Protective Magic, preparing for the impact with a second layer of defense.

Meanwhile, the enormous meteor descended from the sky and drew closer to the Heinkel Kingdom.

The moment it touched the Heinkel Kingdom, everything inside would be reduced to dust and ash.

The shameful Chapter in human history would disappear without a trace.

Yet Ferda instinctively sensed something.

Even such a terrifying spell would not behave as intended on the land where the Demon Race had taken root.

Why?

Ferda cast a long-distance viewing spell and observed the castle of the Heinkel Kingdom.

The land had turned gray.

At the very tip of a castle tower, where not a single sign of life could be found, Ferda noticed something moving.

It wore a gray robe, but the wind and heat blowing around it caused the robe to come loose, revealing its figure.

Its skin was as white as snow—something impossible for members of the Demon Race to possess.

"That is..."

It was Curved Demon.

Although this land had been said to have joined hands with the Demon Race, Curved Demon was inside the Heinkel Kingdom.

He looked up at the meteor in the sky.

Then his eyes turned toward Ferda.

Just as Ferda was looking at him, he was looking directly at Ferda.

He was smiling.

His expression seemed to tell Ferda to watch everything happening right now with his own eyes.

He raised his hand toward the sky.

And the meteor touched Curved Demon’s hand.

Rumble...

A tremendous vibration erupted, followed by waves of shockwaves.

Contrary to everyone’s expectation that the meteor would crash down from the tower and tear its way inward, it did not move even an inch after that.

The gigantic meteor had stopped in midair.

"My God..."

"What... in the world is that...?"

The very summoning of such a gigantic meteor was enough to inspire awe.

But it had been stopped.

The meteor that should have crashed down and disappeared was still suspended in the sky, while the shape of the Heinkel Kingdom remained completely intact.

"What the hell is that?"

Even Erdes, who had intended to end everything with a single attack, was bewildered by this moment.

Was her attack simply going to end like this?

No.

Ferda could clearly see it.

A tremendous force was vibrating from within the meteor itself.

It trembled as though a new life were breaking out of an egg, creating cracks throughout its surface.

Ferda shouted.

"Defensive formation! The meteor is going to explode!"

BOOOOM!

Just as Ferda had predicted, the meteor exploded.

But the shape of the explosion was unnatural.

It resembled a volcanic eruption, with enormous fragments shooting into the sky.

Anything that flies into the sky must eventually fall.

And along their trajectory were the forward bases of the Allied Forces and the Imperial Army.

The place where Ferda was standing was no exception.

The judgment meant to punish the traitor who had joined hands with the Demon Race had become a disaster for the fools standing in its path.

"Everyone, prepare for the falling debris!"

"Protect His Majesty!"

The magic circles prepared to withstand the impact were insufficient to endure the meteor fragments, so they desperately poured every bit of available power into their defenses.

But there were fewer than ten seconds left before the fragments fell.

There was no clever solution they could come up with simply by moving now.

"Goddammit...!"

Erdes stepped forward again in fury.

A tremendous concentration of Mana once again erupted from her body.

At her gesture, a barrier made of blue Mana expanded into a gigantic wall, blocking every path along which the meteor fragments were spreading.

BOOOOOOM!

The meteor fragments came flying in parabolic arcs, hammering against the barrier Erdes had created.

Since the barrier had been designed to block a wide-area attack, it could not absorb the impact of every single fragment.

Erdes’s barrier shattered.

It had absorbed more than ninety percent of the attack.

The remaining fragments crashed into the forward bases scattered in every direction.

BOOM!

CRAAASH!

Even though ninety percent of the attack had been stopped, the vibrations from the meteor impacts still traveled through the ground beneath their feet.

The casualties would not be catastrophic, but they would certainly not be insignificant.

The bombardment ended.

Silence descended.

Ferda raised his eyes and looked toward the tower once more.

There was no one there.

Curved Demon had accomplished his objective and departed.

What would happen after this silence?

Everyone knew.

But Ferda knew before anyone else.

And he also knew what he had to do.

" Luri."

"Yes, speak."

Ferda quietly spoke to her.

"...Do we really have to?"

"We do."

Luri hesitated for a moment before disappearing.

With the Silverwind’s characteristic movement, swift as a gale, she reappeared beside Erdes.

"!!"

Erdes tried to react, but Luri’s movements were several steps ahead of hers.

With one hand, Luri covered Erdes’s mouth, while with the other she swiftly seized both of her hands.

Click! Click!

Handcuffs snapped around Erdes’s wrists.

They were not ordinary handcuffs.

They were Mana restraints designed specifically to restrain Mages.

They did not belong to Luri.

They had been prepared by a knight of the Allied Forces who had anticipated the possibility of Ferda making a sudden move.

"AAARGH!"

Erdes screamed as she squeezed out her Mana.

Under normal circumstances, she would have easily overloaded the restraints and shattered them as though they were nothing.

But Erdes had just summoned a gigantic meteor and then erected a barrier to stop its fragments.

She no longer had enough strength to destroy the restraints.

The Grand Mage, Erdes Roton, had been rendered defenseless.

"Erdes Roton, Head of the Cerdes Magic Association."

Ferda walked toward her and spoke.

"You will have to come with me for a while."

"You fucking—!"

Erdes’s anger flared.

Ferda said to her,

"The wielder of the Blue Circle is becoming far too emotional. Keep this up, and your Circle will collapse."

"Urgh...!"

Erdes bared her teeth as she swallowed her anger.

Before she could fully comprehend everything that had happened, Ferda had already taken control of the situation.

***

A shocking report spread throughout the region.

The first was that Erdes Roton had intervened and unleashed a spell powerful enough to devastate an entire kingdom.

The second was that there was an existence inside the Heinkel Kingdom capable of stopping even that devastating spell.

The third was that, in stopping the spell, that existence had actually caused damage to the Allied Forces.

They had minimized the casualties by establishing defensive lines along every path the meteor fragments could travel, but the damage was still far from insignificant.

The incident came to be regarded as the result of Erdes’s irrational and unilateral actions.

And it was Ferda who restrained Erdes.

After restraining her, he transferred her to his own camp.

The Grand Mage Erdes was now no different from an ordinary girl.

"Would you like me to serve you a cup of tea?"

"Didn’t I tell you last time? If I drink the black tea you make, I’ll bite my tongue and die."

"That’s wonderful. Then I’ll have to give you a cup for the sake of a generational change."

"I still want to live a little longer. Besides, I can’t stand watching weaker people than me keep appearing."

Erdes wore a relaxed expression, but behind her tightly closed lips, her teeth continued to grind with an incessant grrind.

"...How long are you going to keep me tied up?"

"I’ll release you when the time is right."

"How about this? If you release me right now, I’ll let you live."

"Is that a threat?"

"I’m more than capable of making one. In ten minutes, I’ll break these restraints and run away. Then I’ll make full preparations."

"And then?"

"I’ll crush you."

Ten minutes?

At her current condition, it would take her at least an hour.

"Sounds like a good plan, but for now, please remain quiet. If you wait a little longer, someone will come to take you away."

"Take me away? Who the hell is that?"

At that moment, Erdes’s body twitched.

Ferda knew exactly what that reaction meant.

He had felt the same thing.

"Hey. Don’t tell me..."

Before he could finish speaking, someone lifted the tent flap and entered.

The moment Erdes saw her face, she fell silent.

The woman who entered was a Dragon Spawn with horns on her head.

The blunt-tipped horns were something only the descendants of Iorga could possess.

She was the highest-ranking among Iorga’s descendants, and she also had a personal relationship with Erdes.

It was Erika Iorga.

"Welcome, Tower Master."

"Thank you for calling me, Regent."

She cast her eyes toward Erdes.

Then her gaze slowly lowered to the Mana restraints.

"What an utterly inappropriate combination. The great Erdes reduced to this because of a single set of Mana restraints."

Erika sighed.

Erdes gave a vicious smile and spoke to Ferda.

"How thoughtful of you. You even turned me into a zoo monkey so you could humiliate me."

Erika had not been properly informed of the details, but she seemed to have an idea of what had almost happened.

She bowed her head toward Ferda.

"Thank you for saving Erdes."

"It was nothing."

"What do you mean, ’saving me’? Can’t you see my hands?"

"Enough with the whining, don’t you think? You know very well how many enemies you have."

"....."

Unless she were truly an immature child, she would understand.

She could have suffered something much worse.

Erdes had consumed a considerable amount of Mana to summon the high-level spell, the meteor.

But as an experienced Mage, Erdes would certainly have retained enough Mana to prepare for any situation.

Then the unexpected had happened.

The meteor had not only been stopped—it had been turned back into an attack.

To block the meteor fragments spreading in every direction, Erdes had drawn upon every last bit of Mana she had remaining.

In the end, she had entered a state on the verge of Mana Burnout.

Erdes had become completely defenseless.

As her nickname, the Magic-Wielding Delinquent, suggested, Erdes had many people who held grudges against her.

The Allied Forces and the Imperial Army were no exception.

The only reason no one could touch her was her overwhelming power.

Now that power had disappeared, this was the perfect opportunity for them to take revenge.

Ferda had acted first.

By subduing her and taking her into custody before anyone else could act, he had prevented anyone from laying a hand on Erdes.

"So what? You expect me to thank you? Absolutely not. I don’t even know what the hell you’re plotting, so how am I supposed to thank you?"

"Erdes."

"What, do you like little girls? Is that why you saved me? Is that why you keep that little-girl-looking Maid glued to your side?"

Ferda could feel Luri’s gaze.

She was undoubtedly furious with Erdes.

Ferda answered,

"Of course not. I prefer voluptuous women."

"...I see. Lord Ferda is... that kind of person."

He was certain he had given the correct answer.

Yet Luri’s eyes were burning into the back of his head.

The murderous intent was so intense that it would not have been strange if she grabbed Ferda by the scruff of his neck and lifted him off the ground.

Thinking about it, perhaps he should have simply said Valdrova.

"Voluptuous, huh..."

Erdes scanned Erika from head to toe before asking,

"Does this count as voluptuous?"

"Erdes...!"

Erika called her name in embarrassment.

Ferda drove the final nail into the coffin.

"Not even close."

"....Regent?"

Erika shot him a fierce glare as well.

Erdes looked at Ferda with pity.

"Just how the hell are you still the fiancé of Valdrova?"

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