Chapter 133 - There Was One at Sea, Too (1)

Inside a tent filled only with the faint light of candles.

There, Sigmund looked over the report Godin had submitted and let out a hollow laugh.

“They even took the flag?”

“That is correct.”

“... And by barely ten greenhorns and barbarians?”

He was smiling, but there was a deep chill seeping through it.

For Sigmund, whose fury had already passed its breaking point and stretched far beyond, that cold smile must have been the only way he could express it.

Wagner, the Gaidar 3rd Cavalry Captain, stood there like a sinner and merely bowed his head, not daring to meet that smile.

“And on top of that, they chewed up the city of Nassau to their hearts’ content, then picked out only the intact sailing ships and flew off with them...”

A bitter taste rose with every word he spat out.

The burned port city. Nassau.

News that Baron Iznik had gone bankrupt before the war had even truly begun was already spreading throughout the West.

The word that each house’s joining was gradually being delayed was probably not entirely unrelated to this matter.

“I wonder how Count Bayezid managed to hold himself back all this time.”

Sigmund swirled the wineglass in his hand and gave a faint smile.

Bayezid’s hands were moving swiftly, as if they had been waiting for this.

The schemes Peter had produced so far were far too painful to have been accomplished through mere improvisation.

“Then again, it has been too easy until now.”

Watching the situation unfold, Sigmund now had no choice but to admit it.

They had not been the only ones waiting for this war.

Amid the shaking chaos of troubled times, Bayezid, too, had been watching for an opportunity.

“... So it was a difficult path, but the right one after all.”

Sigmund drained the wineglass in his hand and let out words like a sigh.

Peter Bayezid. He was indeed no easy opponent.

They were not facing a single house, but an army gathered from the forces of the West, yet rather than wavering, he was trying to seize the initiative in the war.

“That is exactly how formidable they should be.”

Yet the reason Sigmund could be pleased despite how difficult an opponent they were was because Bayezid was worth that much.

The brighter the prey one caught shone, the higher the hunter’s worth rose.

If they could bring down the great prize called Bayezid, then not only the West, but no house anywhere would be able to call them usurpers anymore.

“Godin. Prepare to send a telegram.”

“Where shall I have it prepared for?”

At the tip of the flickering candle flame.

As he watched the candle sway this way and that with the wind blowing in, Sigmund quietly opened his mouth.

“Dragulia. To the Dragonblood Duke.”

He knew why they had taken the last Ravnoma.

They must have wanted to set a spark in the unstable rear of the West.

But Bayezid would need to understand well.

“Tell him the time has come.”

That the one who had first set a spark in their rear was not the North, but Dragulia.

Behind Bayezid, the central army that had been lodged like a stake in the Barony of Uthman was slowly turning the direction of its banners.

※※※※

“It really is wide.”

Vlad was leaning against the railing on the deck, looking out at the blue waves filling the world beneath the sky.

It was the first sea he had ever seen in his life.

It was a vastness on a completely different level from the gray walls of Soara he had once sworn to leave someday.

As Vlad looked at the endless sea spread out before him, he could only marvel once again at how wide the world was.

‘I would’ve been seriously wronged if I’d died without seeing this.’

Along with the salty wind blowing fiercely, only blue waves reached all the way into his chest.

The deep-blue waves he had never seen before in his life were making white foam as they slowly surged into Vlad’s world.

BLEEEGH!

Vlad had been marveling at the blueness of the sea for quite some time.

However, even when looking at the same sea, it seemed everyone’s impressions were different.

“Are you all right?”

“... No.”

Hollow cheeks and skin clearly paler than yesterday.

Looking at Rutiger’s eyes, which were growing more sunken by the moment, Vlad had no choice but to think of Joseph.

As if proving they were brothers, the moment dark circles appeared under their eyes, the two of them looked astonishingly alike.

“... Why are you perfectly fine?”

“Maybe I’m made for the sea.”

“What sea? You’ve lived in a city your whole life.”

At Vlad’s answer, Rutiger waved his hand as if it were absurd and sprawled over the railing again.

“If you were going to buy one anyway, couldn’t you have bought a bigger ship...”

He had no reason to resent him, but he simply wanted to.

The tiny cog had no choice but to rock more because it was small.

And since they had packed it to the limit with horses and people on top of that, the burden on Rutiger, who was weak to seasickness, could only double.

“If I’d had more money, I would have bought a big ship.”

“... That’s why I told you to come under me instead of Joseph.”

Rutiger’s words made it hard to tell whether he was joking or serious.

But knowing there was no turning back now, the two men merely gazed quietly at the sea.

“Thank you. For waiting for me.”

Vlad knew that the reason he had been able to board Haven’s ship safely was entirely thanks to Rutiger.

If not for him and the Bayezid knights who had blocked hundreds of men with him, Vlad might still be roaming the wasteland without rest, running for his life.

“I only did it because it could be done.”

With those words, Rutiger sagged and began collapsing onto the deck as if he had spent the last of his strength.

It seemed even a knight Bayezid boasted of could do nothing about the seasickness rising from within.

‘Because it could be done...’

Vlad quietly chewed over Rutiger’s answer.

Just how skilled did one have to be to make that judgment in front of hundreds of men?

“I still don’t know.”

Leaning back against the railing, Vlad lifted his head and looked at the highest point of the ship.

The red flag was fluttering this way and that in the wind.

Perhaps because of the stinging sunlight, Vlad narrowed one eye and quietly muttered as he looked at the flag.

“When I get back to Soara later, I’ll have to tell him to change the ship’s name first.”

A small ship was cutting through the calm waves and heading north.

The Red-Haired Zemina was now on its way to a small port village near Deirmar.

※※※※

Three men were huddled together beneath the night sky.

The sea’s night sky, where more stars had gathered than in the night sky over a city, looked bright even without anyone needing to bring a lamp.

“Noir seems to have lost a lot of strength. I guess he really doesn’t suit the sea.”

“... I suppose not.”

Vlad had no choice but to quietly nod at Otar’s report.

Noir had been loaded into the hold because the ship was too cramped.

Whatever his foul temper or anything else, Noir was completely unable to get his bearings on the rocking ship.

“Still, you’re pretty strange too. I didn’t know there were people who didn’t get seasick at all like this.”

Looking at Haven, who was grinning at him, Vlad merely held back his temper in silence.

Haven had waited for him at the harbor until the very end, so at least for this matter, he had to let it pass quietly.

“... Still, isn’t it a bit much to put Zemina’s name on the ship?”

“You think I did it because I wanted to? Zemina said I had to, so I did.”

Haven answered while brazenly turning the helm.

The way he handled the ship now looked as familiar as the stylish captain’s hat on his head.

“She says she has a stake in this ship. Said all of this started from the sword she gave you.”

“Hah!”

Vlad heard Haven’s words and snorted before he could stop himself.

No, by that logic, was she saying she would have a hand in everything he did from now on?

“It’s not exactly wrong, but it’s wrong.”

“Well, you two can settle that yourselves.”

He was telling them to settle it between the two of them, but the way he was grinning looked extremely suspicious.

It was clear that when Zemina had told him to name it after her, he had seized on the idea right away.

“No, I’m telling you, I wanted to name it the Rose’s Smiles Marcella.”

“... Why the hell are sailors so desperate to name ships after women?”

The world of sailors was sensitive to superstition.

It was a superstition no one knew where it had begun, but even at this moment, countless ladies were surely cutting through the wind and roaming the sea.

“Who knows. That, I cannot say.”

“...”

Haven had always been a little cowed.

But now, as he naturally lifted the bottle of rum beside him and drank from it, his face was simply full of laughter.

The sight of him relying not on a cane now, but on the helm, seemed to hold not the slightest crease of gloom.

The name was outrageous, but it had still been the right choice to buy him a ship.

“By the way, is business going well?”

“We’re doing all right. We have a regular customer.”

Before Vlad had left Soara, he had connected the Kannor Family and Haven.

Perhaps his skill at handling animals had come from the experience he had gained trading with Kannor.

“Still, there’s nothing we can do about winter. The river freezes over.”

It was unavoidable because the North was cold.

Even though Soara possessed a broad river connected to the sea, the reason it did not particularly have a navy was because of that.

“That’s why all the merchants of Soara rushed out for this Nassau business. It’s an ice-free port that doesn’t freeze even in winter.”

“So that was why.”

War was opportunity.

Vlad had heard that the merchants of Soara had volunteered for this matter to seize whatever opportunity might arise.

If Bayezid came to firmly control Nassau through this war, the merchants who had joined the raid this time would be able to receive places of their own in the new northern port.

“If we can just get Nassau, the northern trade routes will become much more varied. That means it’s an opportunity for us too.”

Haven, who had once been rotting away in a tiny room at the end of the river, was now looking beyond it.

The boy from the back alleys who had been starving for opportunity had not been Vlad alone.

“I’ll be counting on you from now on too, Sir Knight.”

“If you want to keep counting on me, pay your tribute properly.”

Feeling somehow awkward, Vlad snatched the bottle from Haven.

“Hm?”

Near the helm, Vlad had been letting his gaze drift far along the calm flow of the sea when he soon discovered glowing objects shining around the ship.

“Haven. What’s that?”

“What? Where?”

When they moved their eyes along Vlad’s fingertip, they saw clusters of light beginning to cling around the ship as though blue paint had been dissolved in the water.

Otar, who had been quietly watching the sight beside Haven, quickly crossed the deck and checked below.

“Otar, what is that!”

“... Hm.”

Instead of answering Haven, Otar quickly picked up a harpoon and began looking down below the ship.

The dark-skinned man always showed things through action rather than words.

“Hup!”

At the end of the harpoon that shot powerfully from his hand, something was hanging and flailing weakly.

“A squid.”

“What?”

“This is a squid.”

A white sea creature squirmed on his black hand.

What Otar held in his hand was a squid about as thick as a man’s forearm, and it looked plump at a glance.

“... A squid?”

Curious about the sea creature he was seeing for the first time, Vlad hurried over to Otar, but Haven’s brows merely drew together as he watched.

“Is this good with drinks? This is seriously my first time eating sea fish!”

Vlad took the squid from Otar and shook it around as if excited.

However, even as Haven watched him, he only tilted his head as though he could not understand.

“... But it’s summer right now.”

Although his experience at sea was limited, Haven had firmly learned the common knowledge about it, and he knew well that there was no way squid should be in the south at this time of year.

Squid were a cold-current species that moved along cold waters.

Yet the things now glowing with pale light as they surrounded the Red-Haired Zemina were unmistakably squid.

And in such enormous numbers that no one could possibly count them by eye.

From Vlad’s sword, as he rejoiced with the squid in his hands, sparkling flower pollen was scattering little by little without even its owner knowing.