My Slain Dragon Bride

Chapter 260. The Golden Rule

There was no visible form.

Its very existence was enough to make one refuse to comprehend it.

Erika judged that fact alone was sufficient reason to hold this being in awe.

At the same time, Erika discovered something astonishing.

This isn’t emotional contamination.

If she had sensed even the slightest trace of such a thing, Mori would have detected it.

This was not something created from Ferda’s fear. It meant that the being itself genuinely existed.

The more information she gathered, the deeper her fear of that existence became.

"Do not try to understand me, child. You will only suffer by doing so."

The woman spoke gently.

Her tone was not that of an arrogant ruler lording over others. She spoke softly, like a mother patiently admonishing her child.

"If you believe that your curiosity will fail to kill you this time as well, then that is nothing but arrogance."

Erika’s instincts screamed at her.

That voice is right.

Please, stop. Turn around and leave this place.

Even so, Erika refused to yield.

She raised her eyes and looked at the woman’s form.

All she could see was a blurred face.

It wasn’t a spell cast by the woman.

Erika herself had judged that she could not accept what she was seeing, so her mind was censoring it, preventing her from comprehending it.

"It would be better for you to stop."

The woman warned her again.

Erika kept her gaze fixed on her and gritted her teeth.

She tried to understand the form of that existence.

The hazy mist gradually cleared, and its outline began to emerge.

"Yes. Come."

The woman no longer stopped her.

At the same time, the price for ignoring her warning arrived.

Erika felt her breath catch in her throat.

It was as though she were tied to a heavy anchor and being dragged down to the bottom of a deep lake.

But that wasn’t all.

She felt the pain of her flesh burning away and the pain of freezing solid at the same time.

She was split into dozens of fragments, only to be reassembled again and again.

It was as though every pain she had ever experienced in her life was being dredged up and used to viciously interfere with her mind.

Even so, she did not stop.

Water.

The Aspect of Magic.

Iorga.

As long as the Four Syllables of the Golden Rule remained deep within her heart, she would never give up.

And finally, Erika reached understanding.

At the very moment she reached the summit of comprehension, everything pressing down upon her vanished.

"Well done."

The hazy silhouette completely cleared.

The woman’s figure became distinct, but her face was still impossible to see.

The only thing visible was the corner of her mouth, curved into a smile.

But Erika understood her completely.

"That can’t be..."

There was a monster inside Ferda’s mind.

Erika had never taken that fact lightly, but she had never understood its weight to this extent, either.

Now she understood why her mind had instinctively rejected that existence.

She understood why the woman had tried to stop her.

Erika’s face turned deathly pale.

With trembling lips, she dared to ask a question.

"You are... Anna Rosnova, according to Regent Ferda’s words. You are his mother, aren’t you?"

The woman, Anna Rosnova, nodded.

"Yes. I did have such a name once."

"Why are you parasitizing the body of a mere human and pretending to be his mother?"

"Parasitizing? Such irreverent words."

Anna’s lips curved into a gentle smile.

"It is only natural for a mother to care for her child. That child asked for my help, and I merely showed him what he possessed."

"What Regent Ferda possesses...?"

"Do you want to know?"

Anna extended a hand.

Something was materializing above her palm...

"That child possesses what everyone longs for."

At that moment, sand tickled Erika’s feet from below.

Letters glowing golden appeared beneath her feet.

-You must not look.

It was Mori.

The girl, who had remained silent until then, was performing her duty as a guardian.

-His emotions are being contaminated.

It meant that this was something belonging to the emotions that constituted Ferda.

Erika stopped herself from opening her mouth and looked away.

She began counting prime numbers so that she would not even have room for stray thoughts.

"Good. You’re enduring it well. That elf couldn’t resist the temptation, after all."

The woman put away whatever she had been about to reveal.

Mori’s warning disappeared at the same time, and Erika turned her gaze back.

Suppressing the regret rising in one corner of her heart, she asked,

"Why is someone like you inside Lord Ferda’s mind?"

"What else could a parent’s heart be? All a parent wants is for their child to walk the right path."

"And what is the right path?"

"Becoming unhappy, just as I wished."

"That’s contradictory. If that is the right path, why would you wish for your child to be unhappy?"

Anna smiled faintly and said,

"Because that child was wrong in the end."

"...."

"That child died because of an emotion as crude and pathetic as love."

Anna turned her head and looked up at the statue.

"He wavered again and again. He suffered. In the end, he took everything upon himself and sacrificed himself. But nothing changed. ’A dog’s death’ was a fitting description for it."

The sight of him embracing something resembling a round egg with such a peaceful expression clearly displeased Anna.

"You all cursed him until you were sick of it, so you know very well, don’t you?"

She knew.

Valdrova was that kind of dragon.

A foolish and hopelessly indecisive dragon who failed to understand the responsibility she should have carried for the power she possessed.

Iorga had said it countless times.

That was power he should never have possessed.

"Therefore, my child must be unhappy."

Anna placed a hand against her chest.

"I wanted that child to leave the warm embrace of his mother, to be discriminated against upon a cold and harsh land, and to have endless malice paint him blacker and blacker until he finally became the darkest moon within the abyss."

For the first time, Anna’s smile disappeared.

"But he could not abandon his true nature. Even after I drowned his soul in the swamp of oblivion and twisted him with malice, he could not forget what he had wished for."

Erika could not fully grasp exactly what Anna was saying.

But one thing was certain.

She knew what had caused Ferda’s mind to become so twisted.

That mad woman had parasitized him and driven him into malice.

"Therefore, child of Iorga."

Anna extended her hand toward Erika.

"Will you bring unhappiness to my child together with me?"

Naturally, Erika was about to refuse.

"In return, I will save Iorga."

"....!"

Iorga.

To Erika, Iorga was everything.

After the decisive battle against the Black Dragon Godwin, Iorga had shown signs of being consumed by Bloodlust. Because of that, she had chosen to enter hibernation until a way to restore herself could be found.

"Restore Iorga to the form you know. I will allow Iorga’s presence to spread across the Cerdes Continent for a thousand years, ten thousand years, forever."

"..."

"You have no need to doubt me."

Erika did not doubt that ability.

Knowing who Anna was, she believed that Anna was more than capable of fulfilling that promise.

Iorga is coming back...

Whenever Erika felt Iorga’s absence, she had always thought the same thing.

If I could restore Iorga to her original state, I would accept any sacrifice.

Ferda was nothing more than a human.

A mortal, a short-lived species for whom living beyond a hundred years was close to a miracle.

In terms of value, the scales had already tipped.

"I refuse."

Yet Erika refused.

"They say that when you are adrift upon the Dead Sea, there is nothing more foolish than swallowing seawater."

Knowing how extraordinary Anna’s existence was, and knowing that her promise could truly be fulfilled, made Erika’s Golden Rule shine even brighter.

She was a seeker.

A seeker was wind that could not be caught in a net, a lotus that could not be dirtied by mud, one who simply continued moving forward in silence.

"Is that so?"

Anna was no longer smiling.

"Then it is time for you to pay the price for intruding."

Her body rose into the sky.

At that moment, the gray sky turned black.

Anna’s body instantly merged with the darkness, wrapping herself in it like silk.

That was her true form.

A name she had deliberately refrained from speaking in the form of language forced its way into Erika’s mind.

-Listen, child of Iorga.

The voice echoed not in her ears, but directly inside her head.

I am the darkness that exists where light cannot reach, the light that shines upon those who are cast aside, and the fangs directed toward those who deserve punishment.

To those who call my name, I willingly place the sword of rest into their hands.

I shall grant you mercy.

Speak my name with those irreverent lips.

Erika’s lips trembled.

Even though she could barely breathe, the vocal cords beyond her throat instinctively began to move.

Her lips and tongue trembled as they formed the shape of words.

"Si...."

Erika knew.

She must never say it.

The moment she spoke it, she would receive the Blade of Rest, and that blade would pierce Erika’s heart, bringing her eternal death.

"Si...."

That was the mercy bestowed by Sierra, the Goddess of the Moon and Darkness.

"Si...e...."

Erika grabbed her own throat, desperately preventing the sound from escaping.

Her mind fought back with all its strength, and her eyes began to roll upward.

The harder she resisted, the more violently she was overwhelmed by powerful emotions.

Golden letters were glowing beneath her feet.

They were emotions belonging to Ferda.

Apparently, only an infinitesimally small portion of them was attempting to consume her.

Yet even that mere attempt was enough to make Erika feel as though she were going insane.

She couldn’t understand it.

How had Ferda managed to live after receiving this much malice?

I already feel like I just want to die...

Erika had two choices.

She could die peacefully right now, or she could die slowly and painfully.

She knew that resisting like this was the most agonizing way to die.

Even so, she refused to let go of her will to live.

There was only one thought that Erika’s reason kept repeating.

Even if you have to roll around in a field of dog shit, the world of the living is still better.

There is no such thing as a good death.

She yearned for life.

She wished to live.

That was when it happened.

The golden letters shining in the endless darkness surged upward and enveloped her.

"Ughhh!"

At that moment, Erika felt everything pressing down upon her release its grip.

Had she unconsciously cast a spell?

Or had Ferda’s mind saved her?

Neither.

A girl glowing with golden light appeared before Erika.

"Mori...?"

The expressionless, doll-like Slave Sage stood before Erika, extending one hand toward the sky.

A stream of letters flowed from her hand like thread.

The letters assembled themselves into a dense barrier that surrounded Erika and protected her.

-So you are the foolish child who took the Library of All Things.

Unable even to choose death for yourself, do you refuse to accept rest?

A crescent-moon-like smile appeared upon Sierra’s black silhouette.

-Little girl who became someone’s slave, do you truly wish for that child to be happy?

Mori did not answer.

It was only natural.

A slave could not make choices for herself.

-But that child must not become happy.

That is Fate. That is Truth.

How can you refuse to submit to it?

"...."

-I see.

So that is why you abandoned the Truth.

The darkness that had seemed eternal began to recede.

At the same time, Sierra’s form gradually faded away.

Everything that constituted Ferda’s mind began to scatter within a sandstorm.

-Child who abandoned the Truth and became a slave.

Take that irreverent one and leave this place.

This is the Sacred Domain of me and my child.

If you set foot here again, you will be embraced by me.

All color disappeared.

Only Erika and Mori remained.

Mori, glowing golden, turned around and extended her hand toward Erika.

It was a gesture that seemed to say, Let us leave this place.

Erika quietly took her hand.

And Erika, who had fallen into Ferda’s mind, was able to safely escape from it.

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