I Married the Dragon I Killed

Chapter 01: Killing My Fiance

There was a one-of-a-kind individual who became an archmage driven solely by hatred.

There was once a one-of-a-kind individual who became a Grand Mage fueled by nothing but hatred.  

His name was Ferda Rosnova.  

Born as the third son of the Rosnova knight family, Ferda was frail and sickly from birth.  

To make things worse, he was the child of a concubine and didn’t inherit the family’s signature brown eyes, instead possessing piercing blue ones.

Even the Rosnova family’s servants looked down on him.  

When Ferda turned 18, his father, Erembalt Rosnova, brought him some life-changing news.  

“You’re being engaged to the Crown Prince of Valdrova.”  

At first, it sounded like a typical engagement, but for nobles, an “engagement to the Crown Prince” was nothing but a euphemism.  

In simpler terms, it was a death sentence.  

It was a choice: either be expelled from the family willingly or die.  

“I’ll leave, as you wish,” Ferda said.  

“Good.”  

Of course, Ferda chose to live. He abandoned the Rosnova name and was cast out into the world.  

But in his young heart, a deep sense of betrayal took root.  

He could never forgive his older brothers, who always looked down on him, or the servants who mocked him.  

Most of all, he could never forgive his father.  

‘You knew how hard I tried…’  

To be accepted as part of the family, Ferda forced his frail body to endure grueling training.  

Every day, he coughed up blood and practiced until his hands were covered in blisters.  

His father had once looked at him with eyes filled with pride, as if to say Ferda’s efforts were admirable.  

But over the years, as Ferda failed to make progress, that gaze began to change.  

By the end, when his father cast him out of the house, his expression was one of pure disgust, as though he were looking at filth.  

Even days later, that look was burned into Ferda’s mind.  

‘I’ll never forgive you.’  

His sorrow gradually turned into anger, and that anger ignited into flames of revenge.  

‘I’ll make everyone who looked down on me regret it.’  

Ferda clenched his fists.  

At that moment, he felt something stir deep within him.  

Something inside his core awakened, and mana began to spin in a circular motion—it was the birth of his mana circle.  

On the day Ferda Rosnova was exiled from his family, he became a mage.  

—

Awakening as a mage was considered a blessing.  

On the continent of Serdes, the ability to use magic elevated one’s status instantly.  

But awakening at 18, like Ferda, was seen as tragic.  

It was far too late.  

Mages relied on their internal strength as a source of power.  

To fully master that concept, one had to train from a young age.  

Anyone who awakened later in life had to endure immense suffering to catch up, and even then, it was nearly impossible.  

But for Ferda, even this late awakening wasn’t a problem.  

The fuel driving his mana was hatred and a thirst for revenge.  

– “How pathetic. At his age, trying to become a mage? What a joke.”  

– “He’ll do whatever we say. Just think of him as a useful slave until graduation.”  

The disdain of senior mages and even younger cadets only stoked the flames of his hatred.  

For someone like Ferda, late awakening simply meant he had more fuel lying around him.  

‘Keep barking all you want. I’ll make you all grovel at my feet.’  

His desire to grow stronger and his obsession with revenge burned endlessly, pushing him to greater heights every day.  

Eventually, he surpassed promising senior mages—and even his own mentor—with ease.  

For a while, people were too busy kissing his feet to let any dust settle on them.  

When Ferda rose to the rank of Archmage—a 6th-circle mage, one of less than 100 on the continent—his true campaign of revenge began.  

He returned to the Rosnova family, the ones who had cruelly cast him out, and killed them all.  

He handed weapons to the servants who had mocked him and made them kill one another.  

He sowed discord between his older brothers, pitting them against each other until they destroyed each other.  

And his father, the one he resented the most, was forced to watch it all.  

Erembalt Rosnova saw everything he had built crumble before his eyes.

The sight of his family falling apart drove him mad.

He aged decades in mere days and became little more than a walking corpse.  

By the time Ferda was done, everything and everyone connected to the Rosnova name was erased—except for him.  

‘Revenge…’  

The moment Ferda achieved the revenge he had craved for so long…  

‘…isn’t over yet.’  

But by the time he realized it, he had already crossed a point of no return.  

Ferda, who had once sought power for revenge, now sought revenge as an excuse for power.  

‘If there’s no one left to take revenge on, I’ll create someone.

If there’s nothing left to hate, I’ll find something to hate.’  

Clinging to his hatred, Ferda grew stronger and stronger.  

In an attempt to stop him, warriors and mages from across the continent raised their swords against him.  

But each trial only made him stronger. Each enemy was a stepping stone to his growth.  

By the age of 45, Ferda reached the pinnacle of human power.  

He became a Mana Lord, an 8th-circle mage, a level so high that even emperors bowed their heads to him.  

‘Everything must be destroyed.’  

And yet, he was still unsatisfied.  

Even with everything under his feet, his thirst for vengeance burned on.  

‘I’ll destroy everything that dares reject me.’  

Ferda’s goal shifted. He now sought to create a utopia of his own design, and to do so, he began to pursue the realm of the gods.  

After five years of research, he finally discovered the ultimate key to his ambition:  

The heart of a dragon.  

And it just so happened that there was one dragon he already despised.  

‘Valdrova.’  

His former fiancée.  

The excuse Erembalt used to cast him out.  

The Crown Prince of Valdrova had been a Red Dragon all along.  

—

– “Fate truly is a cruel thing.”  

The words came from none other than the most powerful dragon on the continent.  

Red scales, majestic horns, imposing eyes, and wings that could cover the sky—it was a being that embodied absolute might.  

But now, it was different.  

Its scales were torn in patches, its horns broken and bleeding.  

And the one who had brought this mighty dragon to its knees was none other than a single mage.  

– “I never imagined my fiancée would come to kill me.”  

Ferda smirked.  

It was a smug smile, born of arrogance and the belief that he had the upper hand.  

Even so, his body wasn’t in great shape—battling a dragon had taken its toll.  

“You’d be better off dying by my hand, Valdrova.”  

– “I know I’m called a tyrant. But for decades, even before you were born, I never revealed myself to humans. I’ve never harmed anyone. So… why do you harbor such hatred toward me?”  

“Never harmed anyone?”  

Valdrova’s calm tone felt infuriatingly indifferent.  

Ferda’s anger flared.  

“You were the reason my revenge started in the first place!”  

It all began with the engagement. That moment twisted everything in Ferda’s life.  

Ferda poured out his rage.  

“Because of you…! Because of your selfish desire to take a human as your partner, I was given the perfect excuse to be thrown out of my family!”  

– “That… was my fault?”  

“Yes! It was your greed! A savage dragon’s greed for a human partner brought misfortune upon me! Do you understand that!?”  

Ferda panted heavily, then let out a twisted laugh.  

“But at the same time, I thank you. Because of you, I was able to rise to this position.”  

– “I see…”  

Valdrova’s expression twitched subtly.

Was it anger? Perhaps it was preparing for a final desperate attack.  

Ferda began drawing mana from the surrounding area.

The hatred he’d just unleashed had only further fueled his power.  

– “So that’s how it is. I understand now.”  

The dragon moved its massive body and raised a claw.  

Its sharp, unyielding talons could tear through knights with a single swipe.  

Ferda reflexively prepared a magic circle.  

It was too late to stop the attack, but at the very least, he could ensure mutual destruction.  

However, the claw didn’t strike him.  

Instead, it plunged into the dragon’s own chest.  

**Squelch!**  

Ferda froze, unable to comprehend the sight before him.  

What the hell was this?  

The dragon’s durable hide tore open, exposing its insides.  

– “You said you needed my heart for your magic, didn’t you?”  

**Snap—!**  

The sound of blood vessels snapping echoed through the air.  

Ferda understood now.  

The dragon wasn’t destroying its heart—it was extracting it.  

“No!”  

Ferda fired off magic toward its face in desperation.  

“No, you filthy wretch! Stop right now!”  

He couldn’t let the dragon destroy its heart.  

This was his one chance—his only shot at reaching the 9th circle.  

He couldn’t let it slip away!  

Shards of shattered scales scattered in all directions, but the dragon’s movements didn’t stop.  

The sound of tearing muscles and bloodied veins continued to reverberate.  

– “You said you needed my heart, didn’t you?”  

Finally, the dragon’s claw emerged, holding a chunk of flesh larger than Ferda’s head.  

“…The heart?”  

It was still perfectly intact.  

Rather than destroying it, the dragon had neatly extracted it.  

– “Take it.”  

The dragon’s half-destroyed face uttered those words.  

Normally, Ferda would have snatched it up with gratitude.  

But even he, twisted as he was, couldn’t understand the dragon’s actions.  

He simply stared blankly at the heart.  

“…Why would you do this?”  

Ferda asked.  

“You could have killed me if you wanted to. You must have known that. So why?”  

– “Because you became unhappy because of me.”  

Ferda stood frozen, unable to respond.  

The dragon no longer even had the strength to lift its head.  

– “I have hated myself for a long time.”  

Its calm tone was tinged with deep bitterness.  

– “I hated the savage blood that flows through my veins. I hated the mindless rage and destructive urges that consumed me. But most of all… I hated how I terrified others just by existing.”  

The light in the dragon’s golden eyes began to fade.  

Something swelled within those eyes before spilling over, trailing down its face.  

Tears.