Chapter 125 - She Calls You (3)

A solidly built two-story cottage.

Before the house, far too fine for a mere commoner from some backwater village to have built, spread a wide rye field just on the verge of harvest.

“Where is she?”

The wooden floorboards creaked loudly.

A man of sturdy build was pacing through the cottage as if this place were his own home.

“I came here knowing everything. So let’s not make this tiring for each other.”

Bloodstains had spattered across the brown walls.

The old man who owned the cottage stared at those red marks with troubled eyes.

Because beneath those red traces, which would never be erased now, lay his son, unable even to close his eyes.

“... I do not know what you are asking.”

“Didn’t you see your son’s head fly off just now for saying that, old man?”

His appearance was that of a noble aristocrat, but the way he spoke was vulgar beyond measure.

“Are you really planning to open your mouth only after your whole family dies?”

The thick brows of the man making the threat twisted savagely.

The muscles of his bulging upper body moved threateningly, as if he might draw his sword even now.

“No matter how long you lived off Ravnoma’s stipend, isn’t this the time to look after your family? There’s no need to offer loyalty to a house that doesn’t even exist anymore.”

Seeing the malice swelling to bursting, the old man who had once been a knight ended up laughing.

To think he had to watch a wretch like this swagger around.

Perhaps living too long meant seeing sights like this too.

“No matter what you spout, there is no trust in your words. You vile usurpers.”

A retired old knight.

The old sword of Ravnoma, who had intended to spend the rest of his life quietly on his manor, opened his mouth with a bitter smile.

“Who in the West would believe the words of you bastards who became the dragon’s dogs?”

“Old man...”

Hearing the old man’s words, Ishtvan lifted his head without being able to suppress his boiling anger, then closed his eyes.

“... Tell me now where Ravnoma’s little brat went, and I’ll kill you without pain. You know that brat won’t be able to do a damn thing no matter where she goes.”

The uninvited guest spoke as if coaxing him, but in the end, he was speaking of ruin.

Looking at him, the old man merely smiled quietly.

“An existence that can do nothing no matter where it goes...”

Deep wrinkles carved into the old man’s face as he looked at Ishtvan.

It was a smile like that of a victor.

“That is not what the crow from the north said.”

“...!”

Having heard the answer he least wanted to hear, Ishtvan’s face twisted like an evil spirit’s.

Even if something was burned by the fiercest flames, as long as the roots were alive, it could sprout again.

The true ruler of the West.

The house that, even as it fell beneath a sudden raid, took out the dragon’s fragment before its own bloodline for the sake of the Pact.

Ravnoma.

The West still had not forgotten them.

“You old bastard!”

Ishtvan shouted as if in a fit, watching the old man speak as though mocking him.

“If you were going to die anyway, you should have died quietly!”

The sword that shot out from his fingertips pierced into the old man’s chest like lightning.

“... Guh.”

The old man collapsed with a single cry.

Even so, the reason he could smile must have been the pride of a knight who had fulfilled his mission to the very end.

Because the old knight of Ravnoma had protected a single seed until the very end.

“Burn it all!”

With Ishtvan’s nervous shout, fires began to be set throughout the cottage.

Along with the loud cries of the livestock, the heads of the rye that had not yet been harvested began to droop.

The honorable manor one man had built up over his entire life was burning.

“Damn it...”

A vile usurper with no roots.

An empty shell without a Pact.

Recalling the derogatory names for Gaidar that still wandered through the West, Ishtvan struggled to calm his anger.

“... We only need to take everything.”

If they were despised for having no honor, they could take it.

If they were looked down on for having no history, they could steal it.

Because that was the law of the West and the history of Gaidar.

“Even my sword.”

The bloodline of Gaidar snarled toward the north.

The shadows of the flames flickering on all sides filled Ishtvan’s eyes.

* * *

“Oh...”

Stefan let out a small sound of admiration as he looked at the scene before him.

A city he was seeing for the first time in his life.

The city called Deirmar, set against the border dividing the Central and the North, was clearly a place with a unique flavor unlike anything he had ever seen.

“You were a very famous knight in the North.”

“... Not that famous.”

However, the reason Stefan and the mercenary company members were surprised was not only because of their first impression of the city called Deirmar.

“Welcome to Deirmar, Lord Vlad!”

The city walls looked small but stout.

The sight of the soldiers standing beneath them and saluting Vlad was enough to stir an unfamiliar feeling in the mercenaries.

“No matter how I look at it, it doesn’t seem like you’re merely that famous.”

“Quiet.”

Watching the soldiers as if they were welcoming a triumphant general, the mercenaries unconsciously straightened their shoulders.

There had been many places to go, but the life of a mercenary had rarely involved being welcomed anywhere.

For those who had lived drifting lives like floating weeds, the sight before them was certainly an experience they were having for the first time in their lives.

“Let’s go for now.”

Vlad felt the bewildered gazes of the mercenaries behind him boring into his back, but decided to move for now.

Because the relationship between the city called Deirmar and the knight called Vlad was tied together by bonds far too deep to explain in a few simple words.

“Why are these ones following us?”

“Get away, you brats!”

The group entered the city while being seen off by the soldiers.

The road was as quiet as a country lane, but the group’s advance could only grow slower little by little.

“... No, why the hell are they clinging to us?”

The mercenaries were flustered as they looked at the children staring at them with sparkling eyes.

Children clinging to mercenaries.

They had seen plenty of children run away until now, but these were the first children they had ever seen approach them.

“It’s Vlad, the knight of the duel of honor!”

“I’ve never seen blond hair like that.”

“He really must be from some noble family.”

“...”

The mercenaries who understood the children’s words looked at Vlad once again.

The children were whispering to one another as if trying to be as quiet as possible, but their uniquely high voices were more than enough to reach the group’s ears.

“The children seem to like you a great deal, Sir Vlad.”

“... It wasn’t this bad before.”

At Stefan’s question, Vlad sighed and mussed his hair as if troubled.

It was a city he had stopped by several times, but this was the first time he had received this sort of reaction.

It seemed that moving around with so many companions had caught the children’s attention.

“It gets worse the more I go on.”

The rising star of the North, whose reputation was slowly spreading by word of mouth.

Vlad of Soara.

However, in this city, the man was known by a slightly different title.

Perhaps it was only natural that children would show curiosity toward such a Vlad.

“If I ever retire someday, settling down in a place like this would not be so bad.”

“Talking about retirement as soon as we finish the contract doesn’t seem appropriate.”

“Haha! I only mean that my impression of this place is that good.”

At Vlad’s curt reply, Stefan burst into a hearty laugh and began clearing a path by peeling away the clinging children.

It seemed the young knight before his eyes was not used to this sort of welcome.

“It’s my first time in a place like this.”

At Stefan’s quiet words, the mercenaries all nodded.

They were men who had spent their whole lives in low and rough places, so the current situation felt rather awkward, but it was not particularly bad.

Saluting soldiers, children following after them.

And even the white snake that had climbed onto the roof of the manor, craning its neck impatiently as it waited.

The small city of Deirmar was sincerely welcoming them now.

* * *

White quietly sank in.

One, two.

Soundlessly.

“We estimate them at around five thousand.”

“Five thousand?”

The Bayezid knight began dropping white sugar cubes into the small teacup as if cramming them in.

At the forceful movements of Vordan, a man who lived only for today and not tomorrow, Alicia ended up swallowing hard.

“That is correct. Five thousand.”

The level in Vordan’s teacup kept rising, but Alicia’s mouth was closing instead.

Because the word “five thousand” that he had uttered was a number with that much weight.

“The telegram you sent clearly said three thousand...”

“Gaidar’s bannermen are following them north.”

Gaidar, the new ruler of the West.

They were not marching north alone.

They were coming with other western houses as well.

“This is what makes lords called rulers so frightening.”

“...”

As soon as Alicia heard Vordan’s words, she felt as if something bitter were rising inside her.

She felt like snatching the teacup from the old knight’s hand and drinking it right then and there.

“... What does Bayezid intend to do?”

Alicia’s face hardened under the ever-growing burden.

The expression of the old knight Duncan, who was watching her, hardened along with it.

“At present, five hundred reinforcements are on their way to Deirmar. The reason I came here first was to ask that you please open the gates for them.”

“... Five hundred? That’s all?”

Only five hundred troops sent to prepare against five thousand.

At Vordan’s answer, Alicia furrowed her brows with all her strength, but the old knight facing her remained calm.

“At present, we are gathering Bayezid’s forces toward Soara. Even by pulling out the soldiers in the north.”

The city called Deirmar was far too small to accommodate several thousand soldiers.

Even if it had sturdy walls, it was a city so small it would invite inefficiency, so Peter Bayezid had no choice but to operate his troops as flexibly as possible.

“... You are even pulling away the troops in the north. Then what do you intend to do about the barbarians?”

Those who did not believe in God.

The barbarians beyond the northern boundary line were always a source of torment to the lords of the North.

The reason the Baranoff Family, led by the Iron Duke, could receive a ducal title despite being northern lords who were looked down upon was also because of them.

“You need not worry about that. Lord Joseph has already dealt with it.”

Bayezid had already noticed Gaidar’s ambition to advance into the North, and so they had made tireless efforts to avoid creating two fronts.

It might not be complete, but the appeasement policy toward the barbarians using Age and the Budaat Tribe would at least be effective in this war.

“Lord Joseph said he would protect Deirmar as if it were his own body.”

Seven hundred and five hundred against five thousand.

And the walls of Deirmar, which had protected Heinal for long years.

With this, they would hold out, then strike with the main force they had prepared.

Against the rough western wind blowing northward, the cold wind of the North had already finished its preparations.

“So all we have to do is hold out?”

“Of course. Not only that, but Lord Joseph is preparing several other methods...”

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

A small knock sounded to the two of them just as they were about to exchange more detailed talk about the war.

“Lady Alicia. A guest has arrived.”

“Oh. It seems he has finally arrived with the soldiers.”

Hearing the butler’s words, Vordan rubbed his palms together and stood.

“Please trust in Bayezid’s sincerity. The one who led these five hundred reinforcements here is none other than...”

Following the butler’s guidance, the door opened, and the man entered the office along with Vordan’s introduction.

“Huh?”

The eyes of everyone who recognized the man widened.

The man’s blond hair shining in the sunlight filled Alicia’s eyes.

“It has been a long time, Lady Alicia.”

The man who had rushed here from the far east after hearing of Deirmar’s crisis.

Lady Alicia’s knight had now arrived here.

Along with Vordan’s flustered expression, as if to ask what Vlad was doing coming out of there.

“... You are a little late, Sir Vlad.”

Alicia, finally finding the face she had been searching for, welcomed her knight with a bright smile.

Her fingertips, trembling little by little just like her eyes, picked up a white sugar cube.

All of her senses, which had known only bitterness until now, had at last found a sweetness that let them breathe.