Chapter 138 - Clash (2)

Sounds that might have been screams or shouts buzzed in his ears.

Someone's limbs lay scattered here and there.

A soldier who had not yet managed to die was howling as he tried to gather up his spilling entrails.

"... What is this?"

Ishtvan felt as if he were walking through a dream as he looked at the scene spread out before him.

'This can't be happening.'

'Just moments ago, we were certain of victory.'

"Come to your senses!"

His collar was suddenly seized and yanked.

When a voice pierced through his muffled ears, only then was Ishtvan able to come down from that strange floating sensation.

It was Godin, the captain of the knights.

"We have to move! It is not over yet!"

In Godin's gaze, shining more fiercely than ever, Ishtvan felt a forceful will that suppressed chaos.

Godin's presence usually felt like poison, but in the current situation, it was actually a help to Ishtvan.

"Yes... you're right. It isn't over yet."

Only after meeting Godin's eyes did Ishtvan finally manage to steady his breathing and look over the battlefield.

Indeed, just as he had said, it was clearly not over yet.

After all, his father was still on the battlefield, shouting at the top of his lungs as he reorganized their formation.

"I told you to get against the right wall already! Don't just stand there like idiots and get shot full of arrows!"

Bayezid's cavalry had suddenly come charging in.

They had taken everything they wanted with their first charge, but even so, Gaidar had not yet collapsed.

"Wagner! Lead the cavalry! Peel those madmen off us!"

"Understood!"

Though he was a knight who had lost his flag, in a situation like this, anyone would have to fulfill his role.

Wagner hurriedly gathered the cavalry and broke away from the main force.

And Sigmund moved his formation toward the right wall they had occupied.

Rutiger, who had been catching his breath for the second charge, bit his lip as he watched Gaidar's army recover from the chaos faster than expected.

"Ishtvan! You stupid son of mine! Did you not understand what I said!"

When Sigmund roared his name, Ishtvan finally returned to full clarity.

A man whose behavior was frivolous and light, yet whose qualities as a ruler were unmistakable.

"Can you not hear me telling you to set fire to the battering ram!"

Snapping back to his senses at Sigmund's shout, Ishtvan looked toward Deirmar's soot-blackened gate.

All sorts of siege weapons lay strewn there.

Until moments ago, they had been tools used to bring down the gate, but now they had become objects that had to block the Heinal army from coming out.

"... Your squad, follow me! Each of you, take oil and torches!"

Even now, the eyes of the Bayezid army staring sharply at them from the front were fierce.

But the existence weighing on them even more than that was likely Deirmar, which they had no choice but to place directly behind their formation.

"Shit!"

They were completely trapped between Bayezid and Heinal.

To break through this situation, they had no choice but to move forward.

The walls of Deirmar, which they had beaten to their hearts' content, had already lost their function, so there would be no meaning in pushing in through them.

"Hurry and set them on fire!"

Following Ishtvan's orders, the battering rams and siege towers began to catch fire one by one.

As their massive bodies began to burn, black smoke soon started blocking Deirmar's gate.

"Good!"

Seeing the roaring flames, color began to return to Ishtvan's face.

With obstacles and fire like this, no matter how much they opened the gate, they would not be able to rush out immediately.

It would likely take hours to clear away the siege weapons strewn everywhere, and with that much, they had bought enough time.

Now Gaidar's army only had to deal with Bayezid before them.

"...!"

But in that instant, Ishtvan's shoulders flinched at the sudden presence he felt.

"Oh, no."

A chilling presence came from behind the gate.

From behind Deirmar's gate, which was so quiet it almost felt bleak, someone was glaring at him.

"That bastard..."

He could not hear it, but he could feel it.

The presence of someone slowly steadying his breathing behind the gate.

The duel from that day, impossible to forget, slowly rose in Ishtvan's mind.

※※※※

The soldiers descended through the narrow staircase, leaning on one another.

The stairs, deliberately designed narrow in anticipation of the wall being captured, caught at the soldiers' ankles and made their movements sluggish.

But even with the slow retreat, the reason they were able to set foot safely on the ground was surely thanks to one knight still standing behind them and holding the line.

"Hah, haah..."

A knight of Bayezid. Vlad of Soara.

His once-brilliant blond hair was nowhere to be seen, and the hair now dyed bright red showed how fierce the fighting had been.

Even so, if there was one thing that did not waver, it was the lone blue eye shining there.

In the midst of all that blood, it was the only thing that had kept its own color.

"Come in again, you bastards."

The end of his phlegm-thick words sounded like the growl of a beast.

But knowing it was not a simple threat but a sharp warning, Gaidar's knights could only grit their teeth.

"That crazy bastard."

"Just let him go. Let's not waste our strength here."

As if sick of that sound, Gaidar's knights slowly began to step back.

It was a movement as if they were opening a path to let him go, but somewhere in their steps, there was an unavoidable sense of defeat.

The path of bright red blood seemed as though it would continue endlessly along the wall, but from behind Vlad onward, the floor was intact.

As if he had cut off a snake's head, that young knight had finally severed the path linked by blood.

"Lord Vlad. Everyone has retreated."

"... Good."

Glancing behind him, Vlad confirmed that, just as Stefan had said, every soldier had retreated.

"Let's go."

Vlad and Stefan slowly backed away while watching Gaidar's knights.

They had fought desperately, but they could endure no longer.

Deirmar's right wall was already swarming with Gaidar's soldiers, and even now, knights with sharpened blades were glaring at him.

"Be careful."

Without even blinking, Vlad glared at the knights in front of him and slowly stepped down the stairs with Stefan's support.

A strange distance formed between Vlad and Gaidar's knights.

Yet though Vlad was the one backing away, expressions of relief were appearing on the faces of Gaidar's knights instead.

'Gaidar...'

Even as Vlad slowly descended the stairs, he filled his eye with the flag fluttering above.

A flag engraved not with Heinal's tree, but with Gaidar's eagle.

Seeing the target of his revenge now so close that he could no longer avoid it, Vlad quietly hardened his resolve.

"Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere?"

After leaving the wall, Vlad and Stefan hurried over to the reserves behind them.

As Vlad approached, voices of praise began to rise little by little.

The Heinal soldiers who had collapsed in exhaustion all around began dragging their heavy bodies up the moment they confirmed Vlad's appearance.

"I am fine."

After wiping the blood from his face with the towel Jager handed him, Vlad turned his head toward the water-colored eyes watching him from ahead.

"It was something I ought to do."

Her tightly pinned-up hair looked firm, and so did her pressed lips.

But there was nothing she could do about the worried look filling her eyes.

Vlad, whose hearing was sharp, remembered the delicate voice that had shouted from far away for him to come down quickly.

"You did well. Rest now."

Joseph embraced Vlad's bloodstained shoulders, saying many things without words.

The one who had watched Vlad's desperate struggle flashing atop the wall with more anxiety than anyone else was surely none other than Joseph.

"I will go."

"... Do not be stubborn."

"Please let me follow. Did you not make a promise with me?"

But Vlad was not sheathing his sword, as if he had no intention of accepting Joseph's consideration.

Even now, red lines were dripping down along the blade.

His shoulders heaved as much as his rough breathing, showing Vlad's condition, but he could not stop here.

"You said you would send me before Godin. That was our promise."

"..."

The time they had promised had come.

The knight who had once been a boy had drawn closer to the blue moon than ever before, and now he was proudly demanding his right.

"Yes. I certainly did."

Joseph clearly remembered.

You would give me trust, and I would give you honor.

And so, if the opportunity and the qualification came, I would make you a place for revenge.

That had been one of the conditions he had set seven years ago.

"I promise you. This time, I will absolutely not act rashly."

Vlad was not simply asking to be sent out.

"Even if I stand before Godin, I will put the responsibilities and duties of a knight first."

I have made many mistakes until now, but this time, I want you to trust me.

Because I know who I am and what I must do.

Vlad, who carried the responsibility of being a knight, could no longer be a boy who thought only of revenge.

"I will not ruin this war because of my personal grudge."

"..."

Duty adds weight to life, and weight in turn brings gravity.

Looking at the boy who now remained only in traces, Joseph had no choice but to nod.

"Very well."

Ignoring Alicia's sharp gaze pricking him from behind, Joseph personally gestured and ordered Noir to be brought.

"I trust you. The trust you have shown me until now was certainly sincere."

The reason Joseph had not let go of Vlad despite his many blunders was not simply because he coveted his talent.

Even when he had been a boy, Vlad was certainly someone who tried to keep the words he had spoken.

No matter how great those words were, and no matter how difficult they were to bear.

Joseph had valued that sincere side of Vlad highly.

"No matter what anger you are in, you must not lose yourself. To lose yourself is the same as losing the path you must walk from now on."

From far away, Noir's cries began to draw closer and closer.

Even so, Vlad could not take his eyes off Joseph, perhaps because the words he was now giving him contained so much.

"Gaidar has blocked the gate. The path forward will be narrow, and there will be no one to help you."

"I understand."

Only now did Vlad break away from Joseph's eyes and look toward Deirmar's tightly closed gate.

The pitiful gate had burst apart in places because it had done its utmost.

But to move into a wider world, one must someday leap beyond the safety of the castle walls.

"Go. Go and let them know that we still stand strong."

At Joseph's command, the gate slowly began to open.

What could be seen through the narrow gap was only obstacles blocking the way here and there, but even so, Vlad could clearly recognize the path he had to take.

A single path rose between his deeply closed left eye.

Because the traces Auguste had left behind were showing Vlad the direction he must advance.

"Then I will be back."

If there was a path, there was no reason to hesitate.

Vlad, who had been trapped in a blocked world, was a man prepared to break through even the narrowest gap.

Beyond the red flames and black smoke, Vlad's blue eye began to peer outside the gate.

※※※※

"This is insane!"

Ishtvan could not help cursing as he looked at the sight before him.

Beyond the black smoke, one blue torch was quietly burning.

And that torch was now charging toward him without hesitation.

"Stop him! Stop him!"

Perhaps something had broken under the fierce assault, but Deirmar's gate was only half-open.

But even that much would be enough for a single rider to pass through.

For a boy of the back alleys, a gap opened that much was no different from a blessing.

"That bastard is charging!"

"He can't get through anyway! How many obstacles do you think there are!"

Siege weapons stood in disorder, burning everywhere.

No matter how skilled someone was at horsemanship, he would not be able to cross obstacles like these.

Knowing that well, Ishtvan's eyes flashed as he watched for the moment Vlad would be forced to stop.

NEEEEIGH!

But the black horse of the plains was a mystical creature that surpassed his common sense.

Through their connected worlds, Noir perfectly perceived Vlad's path, and without the slightest hesitation, he broke through the fire and cut through the blinding smoke as he charged forward.

"My God."

Ishtvan stared blankly with his mouth open as he watched Vlad leap over his head.

The knight who had taken his sword from him.

He had been grinding his teeth at him all this time, yet the Vlad he finally faced now was leaping beyond him and looking toward something greater beyond.

"Let's go! Noir!"

NEEEEIGH!

The blue moonlight he remembered was flowing out from between his closed left eye.

No matter how painful the wound, he could not deny that it was the foundation of Vlad's world.

The knight's world he had first encountered beside a campfire. And through it, his own lost nest.

Vlad, who had been ceaselessly repeating those things to himself all this time, had only now gained the right to fully speak the name of moonlight.

"Go—din! Godin, knight of Gaidar!"

Cutting down the soldiers blocking his way, Vlad and Noir pierced through Gaidar's still-unformed ranks.

At the sudden charge of a knight who had appeared from behind them, all of Gaidar turned back.

"I have come here! You knight who never paid what was due!"

Vlad moved forward alone, cutting through the middle of the giant wave.

Godin's gaze, passing by as if in a flash, looked at Vlad in disbelief.

"Take this back, you son of a bitch!"

He still could not fully reach it.

But now, the blue moonlight looked at him.

Into Godin's widened eyes flew a black lump that Vlad had thrown.

"I told you!"

There had been a boy who crawled across a floor stained red on a cold winter day and cried out.

"I would kill you, no matter what!"

Rose's Smiles, filled only with silence.

That place, where Jorge's swaying neck and the sobs of the prostitutes had been the boy's only witnesses.

What had flowed down there was not only blood and tears.

"... Ha."

A knight was supposed to take only what was due.

But Vlad, who had been a boy, had not accepted the false payment handed to him.

He had merely kept it for a long time.

Like a scar left behind by a wound.

"... You still had this?"

A single clumsily balled-up lump of meat.

The crude piece of jerky that had fallen onto Vlad's head that day had returned to his hand once more.

Godin looked at the black lump that had flown precisely toward him and gave a hollow smile.

"Mooove!"

Vlad pierced straight through the formation of Gaidar's army and advanced toward Bayezid.

A gap had split the formation in a straight line, like the trail left by an arrow.

From within that gap, Vlad now hurled with all his might toward the blue moonlight that finally looked at him.

Along with the jerky, even the painful memories of that day he had kept with it.