Chapter 103 - A Place Colder Than the North (2)

Snowflakes were piled on the bars.

Vlad silently stared at the estate gate, which had never moved and showed no intention of moving now.

"..."

Looking at firmly closed doors was, in truth, something he was used to.

After all, he could count on one hand the places that had opened their doors wide for him in his life.

"Do I look like a joke to you?"

"What? No... that is not it."

The gatekeepers' reaction toward the itinerant knight from the North was cold.

Their attitude, daring to look down on a knight, was enough to suggest the prestige of the House of the Count of Vitskaya.

He should have recognized that prestige before knocking on the gate, and failing to do so was certainly his mistake.

"I am merely asking for an answer. Not seeking permission."

Then the fact that they had failed to recognize him would have to become their mistake.

As soon as Vlad finished speaking, he took a small flag from his luggage and drove it into the ground in one motion.

CLANG!

Tiny sparks flew up.

From the ground frozen hard came a sound like sword clashing against sword.

"What are you doing right now..."

With that single action, Vlad had shown his level.

Only then did the gatekeepers begin to realize that Vlad was in a different league from the knights they had seen until now.

This knight had not come to beg the count for something.

"Even if I am merely one knight, I should at least be able to ask for the count's answer."

The wind was blowing.

The cold wind that began in the North made the flag planted in the frozen ground lift its head.

And it showed them who the man called Vlad was.

Crests of families and organizations were engraved on the fluttering flag.

And among those crests, there was one mark that drew the gatekeepers' eyes.

"Dragon... Slayer."

"Oh, no..."

The gatekeepers could not have recognized every crest of the northern families.

But there was one mark engraved on Vlad's flag that even their eyes could recognize well enough.

It was a mark anyone would recognize, no matter where on the continent they were.

"I will wait for that answer from now on."

Beneath the head of a fire-breathing dragon, a single dark line was drawn.

The mark of the Dragon Slayer.

The faces of the gatekeepers who recognized that mark began to turn pale.

Within Vitskaya County, one small flag of the North was fluttering.

There was only one way to break unreasonable disregard and discrimination.

It was proof of oneself.

And the knight now standing before the estate was a man who had proven himself with the most perfect blood.

The flag shook in the wind, but the knight's blue eyes were only steadfast.

* * *

Vegetables and fruits were piled high on a tray.

The sauce poured generously over them was running down in a miserable mess.

"How old did you say you were?"

"I am eighteen this year."

Perhaps he had been in the middle of eating, for mountains of salad were piled before the Count of Vitskaya.

No, perhaps he was rebuking Vlad's sudden visit in this way.

"You killed a dragon at eighteen?"

"I was seventeen at the time."

"... Huh."

The fastest dragon of the North. Lindwurm.

The Count of Vitskaya could not help but feel deep doubt that the young knight before him had killed it.

'But the mark is real.'

Fame was empty, but honor did not lose its light anywhere.

And on the flag the young knight had brought, there was certainly one honorable mark that could not be ignored.

But to use that mark, he would have needed the permission of the Dragon Killer Knights.

"Who permitted you to use that mark?"

At the question he heard, Vlad quietly looked at the lord of the central region staring at him.

Though the crest and mark engraved on the flag were not just one, the count kept asking only about the Dragon Slayer's mark.

Seeing that, Vlad could understand.

The influence of the North did not reach this far.

"Sir Mircea Dragulia, Captain of the Dragon Killer Knights."

And the prestige of the Dragon Killer Knights covered the central region.

"Mircea... Captain of the Dragon Killer Knights."

At the single name that flowed from Vlad's mouth, not only the count but even the knights standing around them began to murmur.

Vlad was briefly flustered by their sudden reaction, but decided not to show it.

"If those words are false, you die here."

At the name of Mircea, the count rose from his seat and began to growl at Vlad.

How dare an itinerant bastard from the North speak of the Dragulia Family and the Dragon Killer Knights.

As names that dared not be impersonated were spoken, the Count of Vitskaya's eyes began to grow fierce.

The noble blue blood dwelling in his eyes was mercilessly pressing down on Vlad.

"There is no falsehood in my words, my lord. I did indeed kill Lindwurm, and Sir Mircea watched it clearly."

But Vlad merely took even the count's sharp warning with composure.

Vlad's posture, neither arrogant nor servile, made the Count of Vitskaya think many things.

'I do not know who raised him, but they made him into something.'

The pressure held by the title of count was truly tremendous.

But looking at the young knight before him, who did not waver at all, the Count of Vitskaya could not help but click his tongue in wonder.

At this point, even if he were a fraud, it would be right to acknowledge him.

"Very well. You said you wish to borrow a mage?"

"That is correct. I wish to send one urgent piece of news to my lord in Soara."

Coming to borrow a telegram during a mission was not common, but it did happen.

If Vlad had been a knight of the central region rather than the North, the count would have readily lent him the crystal ball.

"May I ask what matter you are using the telegram for? It seems rather urgent."

"..."

But there had never once been a case of a northern knight coming down to the central region, and to a territory near the east at that, to borrow a telegram.

Not out of simple curiosity, but even out of his duty as a ruler, the Count of Vitskaya needed to know what news the young knight before him was trying to send.

Urgent news that an extraordinary person wished to deliver was surely important.

"... A few days ago, in the forest of Dobrechiti, I discovered a wicked being. It had the shape of a troll, and even when killed, it did not die."

At the count's words asking him to explain the circumstances, Vlad did not agonize for long.

Even if he did not say it here, they would learn of it anyway.

And even if it became known, it would not be a problem.

Being wary of evil and wicked beings was not anything unusual anywhere.

"It did not die even when killed? What does that..."

"Something like this happened in the North as well. It seems to me that something unidentified may be slowly beginning to stir."

The lobby, which had been murmuring until just moments ago, fell silent at Vlad's words describing the wicked being, as if cold water had been thrown over it.

That was how much stories related to black magic put people on edge.

"... Where did you say that thing that would not die was?"

"Dobrechiti, the domain of the Dalmatia Family. The nearest city to that place is Tanobo, right here."

I have my own business, but I came here to warn you as well.

And yet you treated me so poorly.

The Count of Vitskaya felt as if Vlad's blue eyes were saying that.

"Lend the crystal ball to our guest from the North!"

Having realized the gravity of the situation from Vlad's unwavering gaze, the count quickly elevated Vlad's status from unwelcome guest of the North to honored guest.

It looked as though he had been struck once by a mere knight, but the count was not a man who cared about such things.

"Thank you."

"I apologize for leaving you standing outside. These days, many knights come seeking positions. I thought you were one of those knights."

Though he held the status of a count, his attitude of personally apologizing left Vlad no small amount of surprise as well.

For someone who had ignored him without even opening the gate, the change in attitude was far too quick.

"I understand, my lord."

"Good. Go and make your report at once."

A clean greeting, an educated bearing.

The count's eyes were gleaming as he looked at Vlad, who had come from the North yet carried the manners of the central region.

The count etched even Vlad's final appearance into his eyes.

"Find out at once."

"Yes. I will send someone to Dobrechiti right now..."

"Not that!"

After Vlad left, the lobby had somehow grown quiet.

Above it, the Count of Vitskaya's small but firm voice rang out.

The count's voice was urgent, conscious of Vlad, who would no longer even be outside the door.

"Find out whether that bastard is truly a Dragon Slayer. Whether he is a knight of Bayezid!"

"Y-Yes, sir!"

The Captain could not even recognize the order of priority.

The count's gaze toward him was sharp.

"Everyone, leave!"

At the count's gesture, as if telling them to hurry up and find out, and his order to dismiss them, the knights in the lobby began pouring out in a rush.

They all moved briskly, but their somehow hurried steps seemed to show the Count of Vitskaya's temperament.

"Ha!"

Only now left alone, the count looked at the salad before him and murmured quietly.

"Arrogant, and even confident."

Because of the sudden unwelcome guest, the count had only now sat down to his late meal, and his eyes were gleaming strangely.

"I will have to find out whether he has the skill to be that confident."

A single image shimmered over the silver spoon the count held.

Even now, the Dragon Slayer's mark engraved on the flag was clear in the count's mind.

* * *

"It is incredibly expensive..."

It was the first telegram he had ever sent in his life.

A message that used magical techniques to send news to a distant place was certainly irreplaceably useful, but a price equal to that usefulness had to be paid.

"How expensive are we talking?"

"They said it is one gold per character. And it gets more expensive the farther it is."

"... How many characters did you write?"

Got could not close his mouth at Vlad's explanation.

The money they had wrung out of Baron Dalmatia by every means was barely around ten gold.

But according to what Vlad had just said, that meant it was money that would vanish completely if he sent only ten characters.

"They told me not to worry about the cost."

"Oh... thank goodness."

Cost was not the only problem.

The count's mage said that to send a telegram to a specific place, one needed to know the frequency number corresponding to that region.

But there was no way Vlad, attempting to send a telegram for the first time in his life, would know that.

In the end, the count's mage had to let out a deep sigh and personally look up the number corresponding to Soara.

"If we had gone to just any mage, we might have ended up sitting there helplessly."

"..."

Feeling sheepish at Got's words, Vlad scratched the back of his head and walked down the estate corridor.

The splendid carvings and decorations engraved here and there had long since stopped entering his eyes.

'I did not even know things like this, and what kind of knight am I?'

He had simply thought he should send a telegram without a plan, but even in that process, there was knowledge and common sense he needed to know.

Perhaps even if he had stayed quietly in Soara, he would have needed a great deal of time to function as a proper knight.

Being able to handle a sword did not mean one could become a knight.

"... Well, the start here was not very pleasant, I suppose. Still, I think it was good that you became acquainted with the count."

Seeing Vlad's face gradually stiffen as he sank into self-reproach and thought, Got quickly tried to change the subject.

Because he could not help directly with a sword, Got knew well that he had to be all the more faithful to this kind of role.

"What do you mean?"

Drawn out of his thoughts for a moment by the words from beside him, Vlad asked about what had just been said, but Got merely shrugged and pointed at the decorations around them.

"What are these?"

The carvings and decorations of the estate, which had not entered his eyes until now because he had been lost in deep thought.

Though he did not know much about such luxuries, even to Vlad, a layman, the decorations had a rather exotic air.

"They say the elves gave them as gifts."

While Vlad was meeting the count, Got had not merely been playing around.

A good swindler always had to be sensitive to the movements around him.

"I asked the servants here, and they said the elves do not let just anyone into their lands."

Vitskaya County, a territory located in the east even within the central region.

In the past, it had been nothing more than a rural territory much like Dobrechiti, but under the current lord, it had risen to become one proper trade hub.

"But apparently, this count somehow managed to open a trade route. In other words, he is someone who can talk to the elves."

"..."

At Got's words, Vlad felt as if his mind had snapped awake, but he did not bother to answer.

Instead, he only raised his hand and touched one part of the mural carved into the wall.

The place Vlad's hand touched.

There was carved the figure of a person whose ears were far too long to be an ordinary human.