Thesalos Walcher died, and all the lords returned in their own carriages.
Only Ruri and Ferda remained in the assembly hall.
"You were absolutely magnificent."
Ruri looked up at Ferda and clapped her small hands.
"You certainly showed who stands above today. Amazing, your political skills have surpassed even art."
Then she raised both thumbs with a 'click'âthe so-called double thumbs-up.
Ferda was feeling a headache from the aftereffects of mana exhaustion.
He lightly massaged his temple with his finger and replied.
"It was an unintended result."
"The result may not have been intended, but that's how it turned out. What do you plan to do now?"
"What do you mean?"
Ruri frowned as if to say, 'Is that really a question?'
"You just killed a noble right now. Even with the Duke's authority behind you, this will clearly be controversial."
"Is that so?"
Ferda recalled his surroundings and asked.
"For something like that, it was awfully quiet. You're saying there's a problem?"
"Who's the fool that would point it out when you're dancing with a sword right before their eyes?"
"Hmm... is that so?"
It had gone so smoothly that Ferda hadn't even realized he'd committed a major crime.
At those words, Ferda also began to recognize that he should be feeling troubled.
Seeing Ferda's state, Ruri let out a small sigh and continued.
"Moreover, the other party was one of the lords who had already sworn loyalty to Valdrova. This won't just be 'quite troublesome.'"
"Was he clean?"
"Moderately clean, moderately corruptâa perfectly ordinary bastard. In the Far East, that kind of ordinary loyalty means the best retainer."
"I killed the best retainer with my own hands, so there'll be trouble with the engagement too?"
"Naturally."
No wonder.
There was a reason Ruri's eyes were sparkling.
Contrary to her expectations, Ferda scratched his cheek and replied.
"The engagement will proceed as planned. If you show me a reason why it should be called off, would it change?"
"That's true, but... how can you be so confident?"
As far as Ruri knew, Thesalos Walcher and Ferda had met for the first time today.
Yet he spoke as if he knew the man better than Ruri or the other lords who had been around longer.
'Why, you ask.'
Because I already know.
If Ferda's memory was correct, that man was still in the middle of committing a major crime even now.
"Let's go check Walcher's territory."
"You mean to dust off the dirt, so to speak?"
"Don't worry. There's a whole pile of dust stacked up, so you'll understand."
"Well, alright. But before that..."
Ruri flicked her finger toward Thesalos's corpse.
Then a thread-like distortion pierced through dead Thesalos's neck.
It cleanly severed the head.
Ruri wrapped the head in a cloth.
"Why are you taking that?"
"It'll be needed. Whatever the reason for killing him, he died 'because he did wrong.'"
Ferda understood and nodded.
"So you're going to execute and display it? Like with the corrupt nobles?"
"Isn't that obvious?"
"You said he was the best retainer?"
"If you want to make the engagement never have happened, feel free. I'm fine with it."
Ferda closed his mouth.
For all her talk, Ruri was ultimately helping Ferda.
Walcher's territory.
It was at the very front line of the Far East, the land closest to the border army.
At the same time, it was also the closest place to Valdrova Castle.
"Dark under the lamp, they say. Right here, was it?"
Ferda muttered.
He had actually met Thesalos Walcher in the southern desert lands.
Until then, he never imagined the man would be on the Far East front.
Arriving at the inner gate of Walcher's territory, the butler came rushing out.
True to a butler of Walcher's territory, he responded calmly.
"We welcome our honored guest to this humble place. Unfortunately, the master is currently awayâ."
"Ah, no need to worry about that. The master is dead, after all."
"...Excuse me?"
The old butler asked back with a dumbfounded face.
"I said the master is dead. Let's go inside. Do you happen to know where Thesalos Walcher's laboratory is?"
"Th-that is... more importantly, what do you mean you killed the master...?"
"Never mind. It wasn't something proud or honorable, so you must have hidden it. I'll find it myself."
At the end of the one-sided conversation, Ferda pushed past the butler and went inside.
The butler watched him pass with an uncomprehending face.
Ruri, following behind, handed the cloth-wrapped bundle to the butler and pointed to the sky.
"Hang it where the castle gate is clearly visible."
"Huh? What is this...?"
Ruri also passed the butler and went inside.
Soon after, the old butler's scream rang loudly through the corridor.
Thesalos Walcher.
A mage family exiled to the outskirts due to political issues.
They possessed hatred and inferiority complex just as intense as Ferda's.
Birds of a feather flock togetherâFerda took his first colleague, and that was Thesalos.
'Thesalos Walcher hated the Empire.'
He was a Red Circle owner, and because of that, the magic academia treated him as a heretic and pushed him to the outer regions.
Thesalos developed magic with the single-minded determination to kill every noble who had pushed him to the Far East.
And how did it actually turn out?
'He succeeded, alright.'
He just succeeded.
'But I never actually saw that magic.'
Before Thesalos could even use that magic, before he could even properly name it, he died at Ferda's hands.
Just like today, without knowing why.
'Come to think of it, why did I kill him?'
And Ferda didn't remember that either.
It wasn't strange.
The Ferda of those days needed something to hate by force, so he did.
To reach the 6th Circle faster than anyone, he had to become a monster who would kill even his benefactor.
'Whatever.'
Ferda's heart felt not a shred of hesitation.
It wasn't some delusion that he was justice.
The only thing that mattered was that the current Thesalos would surely make his betrothed sad.
'But still, it must be somewhere around here...'
Ferda thoroughly searched Thesalos's room.
He had said he devoted his life to research.
Even while playing the loyal retainer now, a sinister heart must be hidden.
As he searched, Ferda finally discovered something.
"It's here."
Right under the bed.
He felt the bed tiles weren't tightly woven, and a foreign current was leaking through the gaps.
"He made a secret space under the bed."
"Shall I open it?"
"Of course. I'll find the switch. Just a moment..."
Bang!
Before Ferda could finish speaking, a sound of something breaking was heard.
Turning his head, the bed was split in two, and the hidden door covering it was smashed along with it.
Ruri brushed off her dainty fists and said.
"What's the need to search?"
"..."
It was a truly brute-force method, but there was no reason not to do it.
Thus, Ruri and Ferda descended the stairs leading underground.
As it grew darker, a faint bloody metallic smell drifted up.
"Smell of monster blood."
"You can distinguish that? You've got a nose like a dog."
"Don't compare me to such a lowly creature."
"My apologies. But I think that loyalty of yours is dog-like."
"...Are you picking a fight?"
Ruri glared, but Ferda didn't even react.
When the stairs ended, Ferda and Ruri stepped into a new space.
"This is..."
He involuntarily frowned.
A mage's laboratory is always a mess, piled with unknown thingsâit's natural for it to be a bizarre sight.
Sometimes you enter prepared for a bloodbath.
But Thesalos Walcher's laboratory was cruel and grotesque beyond all reckoning.
Anyone with a weak stomach would have vomited immediately, but neither Ruri nor Ferda were greatly shaken.
'The smell seems not to have adapted yet, though.'
He covered his nose with his index finger and waited for his sense of smell to adapt.
Ruri looked up at a corpse and frowned.
"So this is what 'dark under the lamp' means."
A dead soldier's corpse and a monster corpse lay side by side on a bed.
Their bellies were split open, and purple entrails and red entrails were connected with thread.
"To think the lord we believed most loyal was a demon follower."
Demon followers.
Created during the Wyrm-Ma War 150 years ago due to the Black Dragon Godwin's corruption.
Those who have been tracking those demons' traces and trying to use their power are the demon followers.
"Did you not expect this?"
"I know mages are shady to some extent. The shadier they are, the more skilled they tend to be, so we tolerate up to a certain line. But..."
Deep disgust and betrayal filled her silver eyes.
"I never imagined they'd do something this pervertedâconnecting monster and human entrails like this."
But they say betrayal comes in proportion to trust.
"Humans are all like that, what can you do."
As a dragon spawn, Ruri didn't trust humans much.
So it ended cleanly enough to erase it with a single blink.
What mattered now was what he tried to gain through such perversion.
Ruri discovered manuscripts scattered in the writing space.
Her eyes quickly scanned them, and what came out at the end was a snort.
"He was a total psycho bastard."
"Why?"
"He conceived the idea of enhancing magical power using the monster factors that monsters possess, and continued his research."
"Is that so?"
"Want to take a look?"
Ferda looked at the first page of the manuscript she showed him.
He read through the outline.
Ferda then recalled the memory.
'Right. He tried to create undead similar to monsters.'
Among black magic, the necromancer branch is extremely polarized.
Create one powerful monster, or lay out countless weak monsters.
Because of this extreme aspect of pushing with quantity or competing with quality, necromancers are the most easily countered and suppressed mages.
'He tried to win with monster hardness and undead quantity.'
If completed, it would become the ultimate magic capable of mass-producing the Empire's elite soldiers.
'But that wasn't what I was interested in.'
Ferda showed interest in that magic only because of the mana cultivation method created to use it.
Monsters endlessly produce mana.
'But it's defective mana that can't be used anywhere.'
Monsters were beings that grew stronger by feeding on overwhelmingly large amounts of mana.
'However, if that productivity could be reproduced to extract pure mana...'
Even those said to have no talent could reach the 4th Circle, the rank of Mage, the moment they learned it.
Ferda reached not only the 6th Circle but even surpassed Arch Mage to the 8th Circle through that research's results.
Ferda looked down at the page with the outline again.
'If I research this...'
It would become material to reach the 8th Circle faster than usual, and breaking through circles would become easier too.
'No doubt about it.'
It's possible.
Maybe several times faster.
As he stared intently at the outline, Ruri also stared intently at Ferda.
'He's human, so greed would naturally rise.'
Ruri chewing on her fundamental hatred of humans.
Making her sad is just an excuse.
Ferda must have only thought to kill Thesalos and steal this research.
'All humans lie.'
Foolish tribes who rejoice and grieve caught in lies, knowing they're lies.
Since I know they lie, there's no need to feel betrayal.
'But...'
Why is this man different?
Unlike with Thesalos, her chest feels even more stifled.
'Do I want to believe him because I believe him?'
Ruri bit her lip hard.
Ruri, her pride as a dragon spawn wounded, tried to shake off the thought and asked him directly.
"So what will you do?"
"About what?"
"That research. You could continue it. Don't all mages say that? Because it's a waste."
Because it's a waste, continue it.
Truly simple, no need for long excuses.
Because for mages pursuing knowledge, that was natural.
But Ferda's answer was different from other mages.
"No."
Ferda handed the page back to Ruri.
"Destroy it all."
"All of it...?"
For a moment, Ruri's expressionless face cracked.
A completely unexpected moment.
She thought he'd hesitate at least a little, but Ferda's answer was too clean.
"Didn't I say? I dislike making the Duke sad."
"Even so, destroy magic research like this? It could be a jackpot, you know?"
"A jackpot is a good thing, sure."
Ferda nodded.
"But if it ultimately leads to my betrothed's sadness, what meaning would it have?"
But Ferda's eyes weren't like that.
Eyes a mage could never have.
Those blue eyes reflected a desireless landscape, calm like a deep lake.
"..."
"Why are you spacing out?"
"Just wondering if it's really okay."
"It's fine."
Blue flames flickered from Ruri's fingertips.
Pure flames created by converting mana into fire form.
If she threw them, the papers would burn in an instant.
As Ruri stared into those flames, her eyes rolled and she looked up at Ferda.
"...No taking it back later?"
"It's fine."
As Ferda wished, Ruri burned all the research.
The laboratory, the grotesque corpses used in the researchâeverything was engulfed in blue flames and turned to ash.
'Burns well.'
Ferda watched it quietly.
If it were Ferda, he would surely have completed that magic in a few months.
Because he had helped Thesalos make it, and above all, because it was magic he had learned once before.
Yet the reason Ferda gave up was simple.
'All magic contains personality and emotion.'
And as the saying goes, those who stay near ink get stainedâthose personalities and emotions gradually become the caster's essence and lead to corruption.
That's why one must not learn black magic, and forbidden magic exists.
'And that magic originated from anger and hatred.'
Thesalos hated the Empire.
If he mastered that magic, Ferda would surely be caught in anger and hatred that weren't his own.
'So I must discard it.'
Not caught by trivial things.
He cherishes his current self.
Twisted desires turn to ash and scatter into nothingness.
A mind like a mirror-still lake made Ferda smile.
"Really... burns well."
Ruri watching Ferda mutter that.
Ruri's evaluation of Ferda was this.
'An unpredictable psycho.'
And she added one more thing, not forgetting.
'And a masochist on top of that.'
Ruri wondered what kind of messed-up combination this was.
An ominous feeling deepened, and her expression distorted further.