Chapter 126 - A New Nest (1)

The black eyes he faced for the first time in so long were looking at him.

The corners of those eyes were slightly curved, as if they might smile at any moment, yet the expression was somehow uncomfortable.

Vlad, too, was looking at that expression and wondering whether he should smile or not.

"Why is it that you."

His liege, whom he had left in winter and met again in summer.

The shadows beneath Joseph's eyes, which seemed to have darkened a little, sharpened as they lifted toward Vlad.

"Whenever you come here, you cause an incident."

"... I am sorry."

At Joseph's rebuke, Vlad quickly lowered his head.

He knew very well himself that his record in Deirmar was spectacular.

"To break the Heinal Family's heirloom... I truly don't know what to say."

Joseph, as if he found it absurd even after saying it himself, leaned far back in his chair and let out a deep sigh.

At a time when strengthening ties with Deirmar before a great war would not have been enough, he had gone and broken Heinal's heirloom.

Even now, Joseph could still vividly see Alicia's eyes brimming with tears at Vlad's words.

"You say you went all the way to the eastern edge, yet nothing about you has changed."

The one-eyed knight spoke in Joseph's place, who had been left at a loss for words.

Though he had gone so far as to exile his disciple in the hope that he would learn some restraint, Jager was still glaring fiercely at him with his one remaining eye as he went around causing trouble.

"..."

It was not that Vlad had nothing to say, but he also knew very well that this was not the atmosphere to say it in.

Vlad, who had lived his whole life doing little but reading the room, realized that at this moment, he had to keep his mouth shut.

"You stupid bastard."

With a short bark, Jager's form surged like a wave.

Activating the wondrous footwork that was practically his foundation, Jager struck Vlad's shin without the slightest hesitation.

"...!"

"Eek!"

But the scream he had expected from someone never came.

Only the sharp sound of wind cutting past.

Only his own kick slicing through empty air returned hollowly.

"..."

"..."

Vlad had somehow retreated backward, avoiding Jager's kick.

Seeing him put distance between them so cleanly despite the flustered look on his face, Joseph slowly pulled his upper body away from the chair, as if surprised.

"Ah."

Joseph was looking at him with a subtle expression, and Jager was still frozen with one foot raised.

Vlad, rolling his eyes around as he gauged the mood in the office, cautiously opened his mouth.

"... That was one I was supposed to take, wasn't it?"

"... It would seem so."

Watching Vlad quietly offer his shin again, Jager could only look dumbfounded now.

As expected, this brat was impossible to predict.

From the first time they had met until now.

"A stupid bastard, as always."

SMACK!

A crisp impact rang through the office.

Vlad's blond hair shook wildly.

Jager had succeeded in striking the back of his head instead of the shin he had offered.

"I told you to always be ready for a follow-up."

Seeing Jager quietly smile at him, Vlad ended up smiling a little as well.

"I am sorry."

Everything was the same as before.

Joseph, looking at him with the sunlight at his back, and Jager, standing quietly beside him.

Though he was in the middle of being scolded, Vlad somehow felt relieved by the sight before him, unchanged as it was.

* * *

"Baroness Alicia said she would let this matter pass quietly. Be grateful to her for forgiving you so generously."

"Yes."

Joseph and his party had left the manor and were inspecting the temporary garrison set up within the estate.

Tents and campfires spread out in every direction.

As he looked at the thin trails of smoke rising wherever soldiers had gathered, Vlad thought the sight somehow did not suit Deirmar.

"Starting today, officially, you will act not as my subordinate but as Lady Alicia's knight."

"Do we really have to go that far?"

"Now is a time to be careful."

In this war, Vlad had to act not as Vlad of Soara, but as Alicia's Vlad.

Vlad was still someone who had fallen out of the Vatican's favor, and the Vatican's army was dug in right in the middle of the North, so there was nothing wrong with being careful.

"How long will I be moving under Lady Alicia?"

"Why? You don't like it?"

"It is not that..."

Vlad trailed off at Joseph's question.

Even Vlad, who had never fought a war, understood one thing very well.

"I just prefer the title Vlad of Soara."

"Hm."

At Vlad's words, Joseph and Jager nodded as if that made sense.

An honorable title placed before a knight's name was important, revealing not only affiliation but identity as well.

That was why, no matter how connected Vlad was to the territory of Deirmar, setting aside the title Vlad of Soara was bound to be something he was reluctant to do.

"Still, it would be better if you tried to grow a little attached to it."

But Joseph merely left behind those strange words and continued looking around the camp.

"Lady Alicia said she would let it pass quietly, not that she would simply let it pass."

It was a precious heirloom handed down from the ancestor who had first founded the family.

No matter how much Vlad was Deirmar's benefactor, it was an object for which he had to bear a certain amount of responsibility.

"The Baroness has requested the right of first negotiation over you. After our seven-year contract ends, that is."

"The right of negotiation?"

Joseph and Vlad were not bound by a contract swearing lifelong loyalty.

The seven-year contract that had exchanged opportunity for faith was now entering its third year, and after that contract ended, Vlad would strictly become a free man.

"Can I refuse?"

"If you do... she would probably be sad."

In any case, it was not as though the contract would be forced on him; she was merely asking him to speak with her first before seeking out another lord.

Alicia, the lord of Heinal, wanted that badly to keep a knight named Vlad under her.

"By the way, is the horse still doing well?"

"Do you mean Noir?"

"Yes, that fellow. Your horse, famous for not listening."

But all of this was ultimately something that would happen only after they won the war.

Vlad's affiliation would outwardly be closer to Heinal, but the authority to command him still rested entirely in Joseph's hands.

Joseph had already finished planning in his head how he would use the knight named Vlad.

"The troops stationed in Deirmar will be moving primarily with defense in mind, but that does not mean simply holding our breath and waiting would be the desirable thing to do."

The party passed through the tents set up here and there and made their way to the outskirts.

There, another tent had been pitched far away from the others.

It was a tent standing lonely and alone, as if unable to mix in.

"Well now! Who do we have here!"

A tent with an appearance clearly different from the tents of Joseph's army, which were unified under a single color.

When Vlad confirmed the man walking out of it, his brows furrowed.

"Why is that guy here?"

"Because that was the contract from the beginning."

Joseph shrugged as he looked at Vlad.

"Say hello. You will be moving together from now on."

Listening to Joseph's words, which for some reason sounded ominous, Vlad looked ahead.

A man was approaching him with both arms spread wide, to the point that anyone watching might mistake them for close friends.

Braided hair, tattoos carved here and there.

"It has been a long time!"

Age of the Budaat Tribe was smiling brightly at Vlad.

* * *

"You have moved up in the world, Sir Knight."

"Shut up."

Vlad dragged both hands down his face as he listened to Stefan.

Looking at him, Stefan merely chewed on jerky and grinned.

"Raising one's position by even one rank is an impressive thing in itself. And did you not say this is your first war, Sir Knight?"

"... I did."

Listening to Stefan, Vlad looked at Noir, who was snorting inside the stable.

NEIGH!

A horse that did not listen, was rough, and lived in love with his own greatness.

And yet, a son of the plains swift enough to offset all of those flaws.

"And this is not just a reconnaissance unit, but a strike force. Speaking from my own experience, this really is a good opportunity."

Joseph was paying attention to the mobility that Vlad and Noir possessed.

And he intended to attach soldiers suited to that mobility and try shaking up Gaidar at least once.

"You have not been assigned as a mere rank-and-file knight, but entrusted with a unit, so I am certain you will be able to accomplish great things in this war."

"... If those barbarian bastards actually listen to me."

Thus Vlad had been saddled by Joseph with the warriors of the Budaat Tribe.

Among the knights Joseph had brought with him, Vlad was the only one connected to barbarians, so it was not an appointment that made no sense at all.

"Where are you going?"

"For a walk."

"I will come with you."

"No. Don't follow me."

For the barbarians, it was better to have Vlad, whom they knew, as their leader than some strange man they had never seen before, and for Stefan, it was as if he had been promoted to Vlad's adjutant as soon as he was hired, so it was good for everyone.

Except Vlad, whose head had become complicated.

"It is not a place just anyone can enter."

"Understood."

Vlad decided to get some fresh air for a while, if only to untangle his thoroughly disordered thoughts.

There was also a being that had been searching for him desperately from the start.

Following the slowly setting sun, Vlad left the bustling garrison behind.

After walking all the way to the quiet backyard of the manor, Vlad met the gaze of a white shape swaying on top of the hill.

"Why on earth are you looking for me so much?"

On the low hill, beside the enormous tree embedded in the crest of the Heinal Family.

There stood a white snake, tilting its head at Vlad.

* * *

"... Sniff."

A single white grub was wriggling alone in the spacious room.

The moonlight that began outside the window shone on Alicia, who was rolled up in a blanket on the bed.

"... Just because I gave it to you, how could you really break it?"

The tip of her nose, flushed red, and the handkerchiefs strewn across the bed showed that she had been crying her eyes out until just a moment ago.

No matter how sturdy a dam might be, it was bound to collapse from one small crack.

Alicia had held out well until now against the malice pressing in from every direction, but in the end, the single trigger called the amber had made everything she had been holding back burst out.

"It was something Father left me."

It was an heirloom handed down from her ancestors, but for Alicia, it was also one of the few objects that let her remember her father.

And he had broken it.

No, had he said it melted into him?

"Hmph."

It did not matter either way.

One of the traces of her father could no longer be seen forever now.

Alicia, rising as she wiped away her tears, decided to take comfort in the fact that at least she had not cried in front of other people.

"Fine. He gave it to me to be used this way anyway."

Her father had said that an incomprehensible blessing dwelled within the yellow amber.

That was why she had lent it to him, and in the end, he had returned in good health, so that was enough.

Alicia forced herself to think that way and nodded at herself in the mirror.

"Still, it is not as though he only broke it."

Sitting at the dressing table beside the bed, Alicia sighed as she looked at her swollen eyes, then took out the letters Vlad had offered in place of the amber.

"Aushrina... elves."

Aushrina, the forest of the elves.

It was a place surrounded by nothing but rumors because it simply did not allow humans near, but lately she had heard news from the central region that elven goods were being sold at high prices.

'... If this goes well.'

Though Vlad had lost the amber, he had brought in its place a personal letter sent by the elves.

Perhaps the letter she was holding now was more valuable than the amber her father had passed down to her.

Alicia tried to roughly guess the value of the letter in her hands.

'Ngh!'

The moment she opened the envelope said to have been sent by the elves, Alicia closed her eyes at the sudden gust of wind that blew out.

"... What is this?"

Already gloomy to begin with, Alicia was startled by the sudden wind and went to the window, rubbing her eyes furiously.

While Alicia was rubbing her eyes, the wind that had begun inside the envelope soon wandered all around and began to decorate her room with the refreshing scent of a forest.

"..."

Alicia finally opened her eyes in the night breeze blowing through the open window.

Soon, what entered her eyes as she looked outside was the figure of someone climbing the hill beneath the pouring moonlight.

"Now he really comes and goes as if this were his own home..."

Recognizing who it was just by the color sparkling in the moonlight, Alicia pouted as she watched Vlad's back going up the hill.

One bow toward the gravestones.

One wave toward the Heinal tree.

And then, Alicia's knight Vlad stood atop the hill.

"Hm?"

At that moment, Alicia was startled by the sudden sight and rubbed her eyes again.

"There are no fireflies on that hill."

Fireflies were visible.

Motes of light that began from Vlad.

Because she was watching from afar, she could not distinguish them clearly, but certainly, Alicia's eyes could see lights drifting over the hill.

Certainly, tiny fireflies that seemed to have only just been born were emerging from Vlad's sword.