TDOWD 04

Chapter 4

Step. Step.

Someone was staggering into the garden where only Ludwig stood.

It was Kalik, my uncle’s son.

Before Ludwig reached adulthood, there had been a noble boy who tormented him whenever he suffered panic attacks caused by rain.

Ludwig eventually crippled that boy.

It was his first rampage, one he experienced after completely losing control.

The noble boy had been the one at fault in the beginning.

But after that incident, Ludwig became known as a monster.

Just like the ancient legend that claimed the evil dragon had once thrown the nation into chaos, rumors spread that Ludwig would one day become a destroyer as well.

It wasn’t entirely wrong…

But it wasn’t Ludwig’s choice.

More importantly, that noble boy was our family’s troublemaker, Kalik.

My mind immediately went cold.

The red-haired youth approached Ludwig with a malicious grin.

Right now, Ludwig was helpless.

The boy lay on the ground, gasping for breath as though reliving the horrors of his past.

And Kalik was heading straight toward him.

No.

Alarm bells rang inside my head.

What happened tonight would leave a deep scar on Ludwig.

And the more times Ludwig experienced a rampage, the closer he would come to the day the evil dragon completely took over his body.

I didn’t particularly care if that idiot Kalik got beaten up.

But this was Ludwig’s first rampage.

That changed everything.

I have to stop this. But how?

Kalik was still troublesome for me.

A giant nuisance who caused problems throughout the estate every single day.

I had seen countless maids leave the mansion in tears because of him.

If he set his sights on me, my peaceful life would be over.

“Right. I just need to make sure nobody knows it’s me.”

At that moment, something flashed through my mind.

I quickly searched through the bottom drawer.

Soon, my fingers touched something familiar.

“Found it! I still had it.”

The moment I slipped the silver ring onto my finger, my appearance changed.

My face.

My height.

My clothes.

Even my voice.

My golden hair turned brown.

My eyes became light green.

I transformed into an ordinary-looking girl that nobody would ever recognize as me.

“I used to use this whenever I ran away to avoid taking medicine. I never thought I’d use it for something like this.”

The silver ring could alter my appearance for about thirty minutes.

Once used, it couldn’t be activated again for quite a while.

I hurried out immediately.

The rain was still pouring down like madness.

The ground was soaked with mud, but I ran until I was out of breath.

By the time I arrived, Kalik was already standing over Ludwig.

“What is this? Are you really trembling like a soaked puppy because of a little thunder? How pathetic! Hahaha!”

Completely drunk, Kalik roughly grabbed Ludwig’s ebony-black hair.

In his drunken state, he had no sense of restraint.

“Let’s see that face that’s supposed to resemble an evil dragon. Stop hiding behind that mask all the time.”

“Ugh…”

“Is it true that scales are growing on your skin? Hahaha!”

What the hell was he doing to someone who couldn’t even fight back?!

“Take your hands off him right now, you idiot!”

I swung with all my strength and smacked Kalik across the head.

“Aaagh!”

Kalik released Ludwig’s hair and stumbled sideways.

“Which lunatic dares to hit me?!”

Kalik spun around with a vicious glare.

There had been a time when I was afraid of those eyes.

Before I regained my memories of my previous life, I had been nothing more than a weak child.

But now?

Kalik wasn’t terrifying.

He was just a brat with a terrible personality.

“Who are you?! I’ll tell my father and destroy your family!”

Destroy my family?

What a joke.

Without a word, I pulled out something I had brought from my room.

“What is that? A rope?”

Kalik narrowed his eyes, trying to identify the squirming object in my hand through the rain.

“Here. A gift for you, you bastard!”

I threw it at him.

The wriggling object immediately wrapped around Kalik’s neck.

Then it flicked out its tongue and started tightening around his throat.

“T-This is… AAAAAAH! A snake! A poisonous snake!”

Kalik screamed so loudly it seemed like the entire estate shook.

Years ago, I had bought the snake doll from a magic tool shop for self-defense.

This was the perfect opportunity to use it.

Of course, Kalik had no way of knowing it was fake.

It was so realistic that it looked exactly like a real snake.

“AAAAAH!”

Realizing there was nobody nearby to help him, Kalik ran back toward the mansion as fast as he could.

“……”

“H-Haa…”

Once the noisy idiot disappeared, silence returned.

Only the sound of uneven breathing remained.

“Um… are you okay?”

I helped Ludwig sit up and grabbed his shoulders.

Thankfully, I had stopped him just before he lost control.

Good. Now the problem is how to calm him down…

Even as his golden eyes trembled, they remained fixed on me.

Then—

Crack!

Lightning flashed.

BOOOOM!

Thunder shook the ground.

Even I flinched from the deafening sound.

The lightning had struck frighteningly close.

At that exact moment, Ludwig threw himself against me.

And then—

Clink.

Something fell.

The sound of a mask hitting the ground.

“L-Ludwig?”

Rainwater ran down his pale neck.

More than anything, the body clinging to me as if I were a lifeline was trembling uncontrollably.

I had no choice but to hug him back.

I wanted to take him inside the mansion.

But Ludwig wasn’t in any state to cooperate.

His trauma had completely taken hold of him.

So I gently patted his back and tried to calm him.

Fortunately, I wasn’t Sierra Drenihan right now.

Maybe that was why.

Earlier in the banquet hall, I had desperately wanted to avoid Ludwig.

But now I wasn’t afraid of him.

How long has he been alone?

Maybe that thought made me soft-hearted.

Because before I realized it, I had spoken.

“I’ll stay beside you until the rain stops. So… trust me.”

“……”

I didn’t know whether my words reached him.

But Ludwig’s trembling gradually stopped.

Several minutes passed.

The sound of raindrops striking the leaves above us slowly faded.

It really was a short rainstorm.

Thankfully.

Ludwig wasn’t letting go of me, and I was starting to worry about the ring’s time limit.

At least now, I thought I could leave before its effect wore off.

I loosened my arms around him and looked at his face.

“……”

The moment I saw Ludwig without his mask for the first time—

my breath caught.

He wasn’t a monster covered in scales like people claimed.

I already knew that.

But actually seeing his face left me speechless.

The mask Ludwig wore was enchanted to suppress the dragon’s power inside him.

His mother had given it to him when he was young because he had inherited the dragon’s power more strongly than anyone else.

If he ever lost control, the ducal family might try to kill him.

The people of the Carsian family mocked him openly.

But deep down, they feared him.

Yet now—

his mask was gone.

And nothing happened.

The symptoms had settled.

Unlike before, his golden eyes looked calm.

They focused only on me.

“Are you feeling better now?”

I gently brushed away the redness around his eyes.

Then his low voice reached my ears.

“Who are you…?”

Of course he didn’t know.

We had exchanged greetings at the banquet, but he had never seen this appearance.

His moonlit golden eyes were mesmerizing.

So beautiful that I almost answered him without thinking.

“……”

But before I could say anything, Ludwig quietly watched me.

Then his hand brushed my rain-soaked arm.

His fingers slid down to my wrist.

And then—

to the ring.

Crack.

“Huh…?”

What was that?

The instant I realized the ring had broken and looked up at Ludwig—

I forgot how to breathe.

“……”

Not because he could see my real appearance.

But because the way he was looking at me was far too intense.

“Sierra Drenihan?”

His voice sounded surprised.

“M-My ring…!”

“Ah, my apologies. You looked like you were about to run away at any second.”

As if I might disappear like an illusion from a single night.

That was what Ludwig meant.

“I’ll compensate you with a new ring.”

Apparently, tricks like this had never worked on him in the first place.

“That’s not the problem!”

I brushed my damp hair back and muttered,

“You have to keep this a secret. Especially from Kalik.”

For the sake of my peaceful life.

“I won’t tell anyone.”

“……”

He didn’t seem to be lying.

Besides, he had no reason to spread it around.

The pounding in my chest gradually calmed.

“I only wanted to know who my savior was. That’s all, so don’t worry.”

At that moment, the clouds finally parted.

White moonlight, pure as pear blossoms, spilled down from the sky.

As the darkness faded, Ludwig’s face became fully visible.

It possessed such tragic beauty that even my heart skipped a beat.

Then—

the cold corners of his lips slowly lifted.

While I stood there staring blankly at him.

Did he just smile?

His face was unbelievably beautiful.

I thought I had become immune after seeing so many exceptionally attractive people in this world.

But Ludwig was an exception.

It felt strange.

Dangerously strange.

I suddenly had the feeling that staying any longer would be a mistake.

“I-I think you’re fine now, so I’ll be leaving. You should go inside too. At this rate, you’ll catch a cold.”

I wasn’t sure why I was the one worrying about him.

I pulled my hand away and stood up.

Or at least, I tried to.

“Huh?”

If Ludwig hadn’t pulled me back, I would have succeeded.

Instead—

I fell right back onto him.

Those beautiful golden eyes stared directly into mine.

“What… what is it?”

My voice trembled.

I was completely trapped.

“Will I be able to see you again? I’d like to repay you for helping me.”

“…Of course. But keep today’s events a secret.”

“I will. So don’t be afraid.”

“I’m not afraid.”

When I protested, Ludwig slowly released my hand.

The moment he did, I sprang away from him and tried to calm my racing heart.

“Then I’m really leaving now.”

I quickly left the garden.

And the moment Ludwig disappeared from sight—

I ran.

Down the quiet hallways.

Around corner after corner.

The shattered pieces of the ring rolled around in my palm.

“Ha…”

Even as I leaned against a shadowed wall and struggled to catch my breath—

I couldn’t tell whether what had just happened was a dream or reality.