My Slain Dragon Bride

Chapter 258. An Uncontrollable Power

Ferda left the castle and descended into Hestia Village.

The long summer was coming to an end, and with autumn approaching, the residents had gathered to prepare for the Harvest Festival.

Since they had come from various places, they were making preparations that would showcase each group’s individual characteristics while still blending them together.

Ferda glanced at the scene before walking past it.

The place he headed to was the Adventurer’s Guild.

When it had first been completed, the Adventurer’s Guild had been practically deserted, but now it was bustling with people.

The city had been designed as a city of adventurers, and it was easy to see with one’s own eyes that the city had finally gotten on track.

’There are plenty of mediocre ones as well, though....’

Even with just a sidelong glance, there were enough people who looked genuinely skilled to make him satisfied.

Ferda entered the guild.

The attention of the vigorous adventurers instantly focused on Ferda.

"Who is that man that everyone is paying attention to?"

"Who else could he be? Isn’t he the man who is going to become the husband of Red Dragon, Grand Duchess Valdrova?"

"That young man?"

Many people knew of Ferda’s achievements.

He was the man who had contributed to the development of the Far East and displayed remarkable resourcefulness while overcoming difficulties despite being surrounded by gigantic monsters.

As a lord, he had demonstrated exceptional ability in recruiting capable personnel and managing his territory. On top of that, he had been recognized for his talent as a Mage and his cool-headed qualities as a commander.

He was a man of extraordinary versatility.

Judging solely by his accomplishments, they were things one would expect a man in his mid-thirties at the youngest to have accomplished.

For those who did not know Ferda’s age, his youthful appearance came as quite a shock.

Yet there was always exaggeration in the rumors surrounding nobles.

They wanted to view Ferda through tinted glasses, assuming his reputation had been exaggerated, but it was difficult to do so.

There was a mature and dignified atmosphere about him that made it difficult to believe he was a young man.

The moment they met his blue eyes, it felt as though all their thoughts briefly came to a halt, as if they were staring into the depths of a deep lake.

Amidst that atmosphere, Ferda calmly approached the receptionist.

"Welcome, Regent. How may I assist you?"

"Is the branch manager inside?"

"Yes, the branch manager is inside. She just returned from an expedition and is resting right now. Ah, Regent—"

Leaving the receptionist behind, Ferda continued walking.

It was an utterly unreasonable thing to do, but there was no way to stop Ferda.

He went straight to the branch manager’s office and knocked.

"—I’m busy right now, so come back later."

"It’s Ferda, the Regent."

The doorknob immediately turned on its own, and the door opened.

The moment Ferda saw what was inside, he was rendered speechless.

The interior was an absolute mess.

It was filled with piles of things ranging from trash to treasures and everything somewhere in between.

And within those piles was a blue-haired woman.

She wore a dirty adventurer’s outfit and a pair of glasses with thick lenses.

She scratched her tangled hair with her fingers, making it even messier.

Ferda strongly sensed Vernel’s influence in her appearance.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"... Have you found anything useful?"

Now that they were alone, Ferda spoke respectfully.

Erika looked up at the ceiling and let out a long sigh.

"I don’t think there’s anything worthwhile this time either."

"You’re calling it a wasted trip, yet you’re examining those items quite carefully."

"That’s precisely why I have to examine them more carefully. What if I’ve overlooked something and failed to recognize its true value? That would make me sick with regret. And if there’s a human with better judgment than me, it would hurt my pride."

That was why the dignity of a Dragon had been pushed to the back of her mind.

She chewed on her lip and muttered,

"Ugh, this is so stressful. I don’t even know why I’m putting myself through all this."

"Then don’t do it."

"But I can’t quit once I start, you know? Think about it."

"What do you mean?"

"What if I risk my life entering a place where no one else dares to go, and after struggling to bring back some item, it turns out to be a precious artifact that lies beyond even our knowledge!?"

"...."

"And what if everyone else dismisses it as some worthless object, but I recognize its true value and discover that it’s worth dozens—or even hundreds—of times more than they thought!?"

"...."

"Do you know how exciting it is to know all that information, casually go to someone else and ask, ’Is this any good?’ and then watch their reaction when they find out what it really is!?"

"... As expected of someone who worships the Aspect of Water and Aspect of Magic."

"Don’t be sarcastic! Once you taste it yourself, Regent, you’ll find that it has a magical allure you can’t escape!"

Regardless of what she said, Ferda sighed and spoke.

"I heard that Alberdo has been active as an adventurer."

"Ah, that’s right."

The Armored Knight had once displayed overwhelming prowess.

However, he had suddenly disappeared after that adventure, creating a need for someone capable of replacing him.

Alberdo, the moving fortress—

He was the one capable of replacing the man who had been called the Armored Knight.

So Ferda had made him an offer.

He had asked whether Alberdo would be willing to fill the gap as an adventurer after the war.

Alberdo had calmly accepted Ferda’s proposal.

Apparently, it was the job best suited to his nature, as he had always been inclined toward a wandering life even after deciding to become a knight.

"Unfortunately, he decided to act alone."

"What was his reason?"

"He said he doesn’t like forming groups or taking orders. Quite an infuriating fellow."

Erika made a displeased expression.

"Adventurers aren’t allowed to act independently, are they?"

Ferda recalled that this was one of the Adventurer’s Guild’s admission rules and asked her.

"That rule was created to increase adventurers’ survival rate. It was established for newcomers who have nothing but enthusiasm and no skill, the sort who don’t even know their own limits and end up getting themselves killed."

"Is Alberdo strong enough to qualify for an exception?"

"Yes. He has that level of ability."

"How do you determine that?"

"..."

She cast her gaze out the window and muttered bitterly,

"If I were Erika Iorga, the Master of the Blue Eye Magic Tower...."

It seemed that she had imposed the condition that Alberdo defeat the branch manager, and apparently even the use of force had failed to persuade him otherwise.

"Well, good is good. He also promised to abide by all the profit-sharing rules, which most Gold-class adventurers would never accept. So there was no reason for us to stop him anymore."

In the first place, Alberdo had never demanded a reward even when he had wandered around beating Demon Race members to a pulp, so it was only natural.

"We’ve been talking about trivial matters for too long. You didn’t come here just to discuss things like this, so shall we get to the point?"

"Yes. I came for another reason."

Ferda quietly brought up the main matter.

"I came to ask the Master of the Magic Tower for advice."

Erika’s eyes became considerably more serious upon hearing those words.

She removed her glasses and waved her hand toward the door.

A blue barrier formed, cutting off all sounds and presences from the outside.

The Platinum-ranked adventurer, Eri, disappeared.

In her place was Erika Iorga, the Master of the Blue Eye Magic Tower.

She sat down before Ferda.

"What is it that requires my assistance, Regent?"

"Didn’t you say before that you intended to conduct research on my Mana?"

"Yes, that’s right."

She had previously said that she would investigate the nature of the Mana that had possessed such power that it had been able to calm Valdrova within the Blue Eye.

"I haven’t achieved any meaningful results until recently."

"You mean it’s just Mana?"

"Yes. It simply feels... like ordinary Mana belonging to someone who possesses a Red Circle."

"Are you certain?"

Ferda asked again.

It was only natural that Erika would find the repeated questioning unpleasant.

But at the same time, the fact that Ferda was asking so bluntly seemed to indicate just how serious his visit was.

"What exactly happened?"

"It happened when I recruited a woman named Gáe Bolg..."

Ferda explained what had happened that day.

Gáe Bolg had attempted to completely obliterate the surrounding area.

Ferda had been unable to stop her.

Then he had heard a whisper.

An action that had escaped his control.

And then—

"She was completely swallowed by the shadows... and disappeared?"

"Yes."

"Don’t you already hide many things using your shadows, Regent? Is it possible that when the shadows swallowed her, they swallowed the impact as well...?"

"I can hide objects, but I cannot make something that happened cease to have happened. Especially with an explosion of that magnitude, I would have suffered severe injuries from the shock."

The shadows merely stored things within them. They did not possess the power to nullify an impact.

Just as swallowing a bomb would not cause the bomb itself to stop functioning.

"Something that can completely erase an existence... Even so, I think it’s too early to reach that conclusion based on that one incident."

If that had been the only incident, then, as Erika said, assuming such a thing would have been nothing more than making a fuss.

"Of course, that isn’t the only incident."

The voice had whispered once more.

Ureas, who had taken the form of Amon, and King Heinkel, who had been consumed by Gamigin.

Ferda had lost consciousness to the voice just before he died.

And when he returned to normal—

"So you’re saying the corpses of both of them completely disappeared?"

"Yes."

"......"

Erika wore an expression of disbelief.

However, knowing the situation of the Arken Empire, she had no choice but to believe Ferda’s words.

King Heinkel had used Gamigin’s magic, so one could say that he had been dragged to Hell.

But Ureas, as a member of the Imperial bloodline, would have had tracking magic attached to him when he went onto the battlefield so that his corpse could be recovered.

Even if he disappeared into another dimension, that magic should have been able to track him to the very end.

Yet Ureas had reportedly been literally erased while under the effects of such magic.

If that incident were connected to Ferda’s magic...

’It’s impossible.’

If someone else had said such a thing, Erika would have dismissed it as nonsense.

But it was Ferda.

Because she knew that Ferda was not the kind of person who would fabricate something that had never happened, Erika could not simply ignore him.

Since he had come to her with such a serious expression, she had an obligation to listen carefully to what he had to say.

"In short, you’re saying that there is something within you that is stronger than the power you yourself possess?"

"Yes."

"And it seemed as though it had another ego of its own, and that it controlled your body regardless of your will..."

"That’s right."

"If possible, I’d like to see it with my own two eyes... But that would be difficult, wouldn’t it?"

"... Yes."

Even Erika, who possessed a strongly empirical disposition, hesitated.

If Ferda had overwhelmingly defeated the Mana of King Heinkel after he had been consumed by Gamigin, then Erika would not be able to control or restrain Ferda using her own power alone.

"There are two Circles inside your body, and they feel as though those Circles possess their own egos... It could be worth suspecting that you have symptoms of split personality. What do you think, Regent?"

The closer one came to the higher levels of Red Circle, the more one’s emotions became heightened, and the less stable one’s mind became.

"That may be the case."

That voice that sounded like his mother.

Perhaps that voice was the very embodiment of Ferda’s past as he remembered it.

An ugly monster who had desired nothing but power.

Ferda had been such a monster.

"But... even if it is split personality, that doesn’t explain why your power increases so dramatically, Regent."

"...."

"It’s really frustrating. It’s almost as though someone made a wish."

And so, when faced with magical mysteries that could not be explained, people sometimes brushed them aside with words like this:

Someone must have made a wish.

A wish.

A realm that humans could only reach after attaining the Ninth Circle.

Even the High Elves, who had existed for thousands of years, had failed to reach it, and Dragons were out of the question.

’A wish...’

Ferda had used that wish before.

He had killed Valdrova and reached the Ninth Circle.

And he had wished for those objects to disappear from this place.

Then the magic had manifested against his will, and the wish had been fulfilled.

’Is that what a wish is?’

Ferda did not know the specifics.

Completely erasing that bomb, annihilating the two Demons, and even coming here after turning back time—

Even to Ferda, who had experienced them firsthand, they remained an unknown realm.

Perhaps that was why.

Ferda thought of a possibility.

If, when he had returned to the past, Ferda’s wish had also crossed over with him...

"So, Regent, what do you want to do with that power?"

What should Ferda do with this power?

He thought for a while before answering.

"If possible, I want to remove it."

"Remove it...?"

Erika was surprised by Ferda’s choice.

She had met countless Mages, and she herself was, at her core, a Mage as well.

The deeper one’s understanding of magic became, the stronger one’s obsession with it grew.

If they possessed a power they could not control, nine out of ten would search for a way to control it.

There were few who would give up as quickly as Ferda had.

"Is it really necessary to remove that power?"

Because she was a Mage, she thought his choice was extremely hasty.

"You could end up burning down the whole house just to catch a flea."

Erika was not saying this merely because she was greedy for the power herself.

Removing the uncontrollable magic Ferda described would require a complicated process.

"Unnatural procedures such as cognitive impairment and distortion, or the formation of memory aversion, can damage a human being, and their effects aren’t even certain."

"I know."

"Especially since you are also the owner of a Red Circle, Regent. As long as you have an emotional driving force, complete removal won’t be possible. If you truly want complete removal, you’ll eventually have to tamper with the Red Circle itself."

"....."

"Are you prepared to give up your path as a Mage, Regent?"

For a Mage who had lost their Mana, it was akin to death.

Losing his Mana did not frighten him.

’But what forms my Red Circle is...’

Valdrova herself.

Removing the Red Circle meant removing the emotion of loving Valdrova.

For everyone to remain safe, he would ultimately have to forget her.

In the end, it seemed that even Erika had no clear solution.

"So, why don’t we start by figuring out what it is first?"

"I would like to, but... even a High Elf elder fell into critical condition while attempting to understand my Mana."

Even an elder connected to the World Tree had nearly died while attempting to approach the source of Ferda’s power.

For Erika alone, it was naturally impossible.

"You won’t fall into a situation as dangerous as you think."

"How can you be so certain?"

"Because I happened to find a few books for owners of Red Circles."

Erika rummaged through the pile of spoils she had brought back and made a suggestion.

"The reason the elder fell into critical condition was probably because they tried to approach the source of your power directly. Am I right?"

"... That’s correct."

"It was dangerous because they tried to accept it in its entirety. But if we process that information into a form and show it to you, it will be several times safer. The people of the Eastern Region call it..."

She pulled out a book and showed it to Ferda.

"It’s called the Deep Projection Technique."

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