Chapter 145 - Following the Footsteps (3)

A sweat-soaked forehead, lips gone deathly white.

On a bed where moonlight had settled, a girl was twisting in pain.

"... Ugh, nnngh."

The smell of night fog closing in from every side was foul.

The inexplicable stickiness she felt between her fingers filled the girl with unease.

"Follow it. Hurry..."

This was no ordinary fog.

Realizing that, the Divine Maiden of the World Tree grabbed Vlad by the waist and urged him to hurry, but her words likely would not reach him.

Because this was not reality, but a dream.

A dream only the Divine Maiden of the World Tree could recognize as such.

-Chirp. Chirp chirp.

Before Vlad as he struggled through the darkness, a young canary was singing.

As if it meant to guide Vlad, the canary lit the way even in the dark like a torch.

"Hurry. Hurry."

The Divine Maiden knew instinctively.

That only that child could lead Vlad out of the darkness.

But the darkness drawing near was thick and deep, while the young canary's chirping that opposed it was far too frail.

PUFF!

The young bird suddenly vanished, as if someone's breath had blown over it.

The Divine Maiden, who had been relying on that light to move forward, froze in shock.

"...!"

In an instant, fog began to writhe and swarm around Vlad and the Divine Maiden.

In that space filled with nothing but darkness, the Divine Maiden quickly wrapped her arms around Vlad's waist and glared fiercely toward where the canary had disappeared.

-...

Someone was there.

Along with lips smiling bright red, as if in mockery.

A single tiny feather, now stripped of its light, was drifting around her.

"I'll never give him to you."

The light that had guided Vlad had not gone out.

It had been devoured.

Even now, the woman smiling in the darkness did not have both feet planted on the ground.

* * *

Alicia's office was filled with afternoon sunlight.

Looking at Heinal's hill outside the window, Vlad quietly picked up the teacup in front of him.

On the distant hill, the white snake was coiled in place with its head raised, as if it meant to sunbathe today.

"Sir Duncan said there are likely very few knights who have signed as unusual a contract as yours."

Alicia's water-colored eyes curved gently as she looked at Vlad.

Her gaze glittered beautifully, yet somehow seemed hungry.

Meeting Alicia's gaze, Vlad quietly set down the teacup he was holding.

"... Even if it had been longer than seven years, I probably would have accepted."

Vlad decided not to show any reaction to the fact that Alicia knew about his contract with Joseph.

Joseph had probably told her.

If so, then Joseph must also have predicted this situation.

"It was a short term, but the contract was far more than I deserved. I am still grateful for it."

Alicia had not said it outright, but she was hinting at recruiting Vlad.

It was such an obvious atmosphere that even Vlad, who was not used to speaking with nobles, could not fail to notice.

But because Alicia had shown interest in him countless times until now, Vlad also had an answer prepared for this situation.

"If possible, I would like to remain faithful to my contract with Lord Joseph. From now on, just as I have until now."

"Ah."

Her disappointed expression was painful to see, but he decided to answer honestly anyway.

He did not want to burden her with useless worry by giving an uncertain answer.

As a knight who also belonged to Alicia, Vlad had his own attachment to her, and if possible, he wanted to let this proposal pass on good terms.

"... Is that so."

Vlad knew he should not think this, but he thought her sorrowful figure as she forced herself to smile suited the color of her water-blue hair.

"So that is why Lord Joseph told me it would be fine to ask."

He had given her this opportunity because he was sure Vlad would not be swayed.

Only now guessing Joseph's true intentions, Alicia lifted her teacup while feeling resentment simmer calmly within her.

"I wish I had met you before Lord Joseph did."

"If that had happened, I am sure I would have made a contract with you, Lady Alicia."

"..."

Vlad's smile as he said that would have been the case seemed needlessly irritating.

If one added the premise of "if," what was there one could not say?

But what Alicia needed now was Vlad, who was right in front of her, and he had just refused her proposal.

As expected, it would be Soara rather than Deirmar.

Though Alicia had already expected it, she could not help being vexed.

"And besides, there is also a friend named Zemina in Soara."

"... Pardon?"

Vlad was flustered by Zemina's name suddenly coming up, but Alicia's smile did not waver in the slightest.

"We still have four years left, and no one knows what will happen in the future. Isn't that right?"

"That is... true."

Alicia had returned to her usual self, as if she had never uttered what she had just said.

Watching her bearing, which seemed somehow different from before, Vlad could only quietly gauge her mood.

"I will give you a manor."

"... Pardon?"

The forget-me-not flower that had only been sniffling was no longer here.

Now Alicia's eyes were filled with nothing but desire she could not hide.

"A manor. Hereditary land that will be passed down even to your children."

A manor.

The greatest reward any knight could receive from his lord.

Hearing that word, Vlad could only stare at Alicia before him, unable to hide his confusion.

"Fortunately, through this war, we were able to expand our territory as well. Of course, Bayezid's consideration played a part."

Until now, the Barony of Heinal had consisted of only one city and two villages, but through this war, it had been able to gain two more villages.

Among them, the fishing village where Vlad had arrived together with the school of squid now had a position that could become a city in terms of location, so Alicia's words about granting Vlad a manor were by no means empty boasting.

"This is a condition even Lord Joseph could never offer."

If there was something she needed, she had to take it, even by force.

Whether from a man with dark shadows under his eyes, or from a red-haired woman.

Alicia knew very well that the being called Vlad was a piece that fit not only those two, but herself as well.

* * *

'... A manor, a manor.'

Walking down the now-familiar corridor of the mansion, Vlad tried to calm his complicated thoughts.

'Is a manor really that good?'

A manor was a word whose value he could not even understand, because he had never dreamed of it.

But Godin had certainly said it.

That for a knight, a manor was like an entrance into the world of nobles.

Though Godin had given him a false name, the smile he wore then, when he said he wanted to receive proper payment through a manor, had been genuine.

'I am not telling you to decide right now. I am only asking you to remember it someday, when the time comes.'

The ruler of Heinal, who had said she would give him a manor, had made the offer to Vlad in a confident voice entirely unlike before.

'Not only I, but all the people of Deirmar cherish and like you, Sir Vlad. It may not be the same as Soara, where you were born, but this place could become another hometown for you.'

Even if she was not the first person to recognize him, she could become the person who cherished him most.

Having heard Alicia's straightforward proposal, Vlad was still walking endlessly down the corridor, frowning.

"... I don't know."

Everything was full of things he did not know, but one thing was certain: this particular worry was not something he could share with Joseph or the other Bayezid knights.

With a meaningful smile, Alicia had pushed that worry onto Vlad, and that was probably the best revenge she could take against him.

Revenge against the impertinent knight who had dared refuse her.

"It would be really nice if you popped out at a time like this."

Following footsteps as tangled as his complicated thoughts, Vlad found himself naturally thinking of the voice.

The voice was someone only he knew, someone he could freely confide in.

He did not know its identity, but it was a being with vast common sense, so it would surely have been of great help at a time like this.

"Hm?"

At that moment, Vlad, who had been walking down the corridor, stopped at a familiar sound ringing in his ears and perked them up.

"A wooden sword?"

It was the sound of someone holding something like a wooden sword and striking down through the air.

But the sound of wind that kept going subtly awry allowed him to guess the level of the person holding the wooden sword.

'What is this?'

At that sound, which was earnest but could not find its path, Vlad stood still in the corridor.

The sound, diligent yet showing not the slightest improvement, held a certain pity only someone who had experienced it could recognize.

"..."

For some reason, Vlad followed the sound tugging at him and walked into a corridor he had never visited before.

The corridors of Deirmar were narrow and winding from age.

Perhaps because the number of servants had been reduced due to poor finances, the long-neglected corridor was filled with dust that crunched softly underfoot.

Following that narrow, dark corridor, he emerged into a very small garden he had not even known existed until now.

To be precise, it was a shabby open space that had not been properly maintained.

And there, Vlad found someone swinging a wooden sword down with all their might.

"Haa, haa..."

Charles Ravnoma.

A green-haired girl who was now also the last Ravnoma.

In this place no one visited, Charles was holding a club that barely even resembled a wooden sword and earnestly swinging it through the air.

"... What a mess."

Meaningless movements that could not be called either downward strikes or upward strikes.

Seeing Charles with no path established at all, Vlad unconsciously pressed himself against the side of the corridor and hid.

"Is there no one to teach her?"

She had probably become like that because there was no one to teach her.

The awkward title of Ravnoma must have left the girl suspended in midair, and the tense atmosphere caused by the war must surely have made her shrink back.

In the end, within this unfamiliar city, Charles must not have been able to ask anyone for help.

"..."

Having guessed Charles's circumstances, Vlad quietly scratched his cheek as he listened to the sound of the wooden sword.

A wooden sword that struck down without rest, though she could reach out to no one.

Leaning quietly against the corridor wall, Vlad closed his eyes as he listened to that sound.

"Hm."

The more he listened, the more familiar the sound became.

The sound Charles was making now was the same sound once made by a boy who had struck down with a wooden sword alone in an empty lot in the back alleys.

As if facing his young, shameful self from the past, Vlad ended up stepping out of the corridor and entering the little garden.

"... Hey."

"Yes?"

The two eyes that widened roundly at Vlad's sudden appearance were tinged with confusion.

But the fact that there was the slightest hint of gladness in them was surely not Vlad's imagination.

"That... is not how you do it."

Facing Charles's eyes, which were full of some expectation, Vlad's voice even trembled with awkward embarrassment at wondering whether he had stepped in for no reason.

He was used to learning, but not used to teaching.

The boy from the back alleys was not yet used to giving what was his to others.

"Don't just swing down. Try narrowing the angle of your elbow a little."

Even so, he had received something.

Now he knew.

If not for the voice, he would have spent his entire life bound to that empty lot in the back alleys.

"Yes?"

"I said draw the line... like this."

At the end of the footsteps he had taken following a familiar sound, there was a scene that looked exactly like one from the past.

The only difference from back then was the position in which he stood.

"Like this?"

"... You need to relearn how to grip it first."

Vlad's hands were careful as he opened the girl's hand, which was folded tight as if rigid.

A small garden in the mansion that no one visited.

-The boy should narrow the angle of his elbow a little more when he swings down.

The beginning of the sound that came from there had probably been in some dark empty lot in the back alleys.

Homecoming

There was a man climbing Deirmar's hill alone.

Unlike his fine clothes, the hands he carried were full of cleaning tools.

After confirming the sunset, which had grown longer as the days had grown shorter, Vlad stopped in the middle of the hill and set down the cleaning tools.

"I didn't come to see you today."

-----?

The white snake had been wagging its tail at Vlad as he climbed up, but today's Vlad had not come to see it.

He had come to tend the family graves of the Heinal Family, which stood in the middle of the hill.

"Lady Alicia must have been very busy."

Though it was someone else's family graveyard, seeing the gravestones covered thickly in moss made him feel sorry despite himself.

Well, she probably had no time at all to pay attention to it.

It had been a time when even the living were too busy surviving to think of the dead.

"I should clean them before I leave."

From among the tools he had casually set down, Vlad took out a bundle of straw soaked in water and began scrubbing the gravestones with its rough side.

Looking at the gravestones that were too many for someone else, yet not even one existed for him, Vlad silently pressed his lips together and began pushing away the moss.

"... For now, I survived without any injuries."

Because it had been such a fierce battle, he was grateful to have survived.

Some would express that gratitude to god, and others to their ancestors, but Vlad had no suitable object for it.

Unlike those before his eyes, the existence of his mother, who had been buried without even a single gravestone, was now growing faint even in Vlad's memories.

"Thank you. For watching over me."

But even if it was faint, it would not vanish.

Though they belonged to someone else, Vlad used the gravestones before him as a bridge and began murmuring toward the distant sky.

"Hoo."

He cleaned the graves of Alicia's parents.

Then her parents' parents.

As he continued cleaning them one by one while murmuring a phrase in his heart each time, Vlad eventually faced the oldest gravestone.

'So this is the person.'

Between letters worn down by time, the oldest Heinal name was written.

The person who had passed the yellow amber down all the way to Alicia, and the first Family Head who had planted the tree where the white snake now lived.

'...'

He had not known when he first faced it, but now he could tell.

The first Family Head of Heinal was clearly someone related to the voice.

The first Family Head of Heinal, who had planted a tree where a spirit dwelled, and the voice, who had gone around seeking out and protecting spirits, clearly had something in common, and at the very top of that commonality hung the name Swordmaster.

"What are you doing here, Sir Vlad?"

"... Ah."

Vlad, who had been sinking deep into thought along with the word Swordmaster, hurriedly turned his head at the sudden voice.

"Lady Alicia."

"You are more devoted than I am."

There stood Alicia, smiling as she held down her hair that scattered in the wind.

Was it because he had only just come back to his senses?

Her water-colored hair scattered together with the vivid light of sunset.

Seeing colors that had suddenly become too intense, Vlad felt a slight dizziness.

"They say knights must not carelessly let someone get behind them. Were you not too lost in thought?"

"That is true. I have no excuse."

It was clearly a joke, but Vlad could not laugh.

Alicia's words were true, and it was also true that he had failed to sense her presence.

But perhaps if Alicia had approached from the front instead of behind Vlad, she would have noticed.

That Vlad's eyes, while he thought of the word Swordmaster, had been drawing out his own world on their own.

"Hup."

After confirming that Vlad had done everything and left no graves for her to tend, Alicia sat beside Vlad as if she had no choice and quietly began looking down the hill.

"You did it for me again. Last time, and this time too."

Feeling awkward standing there blankly alone, Vlad naturally sat beside her and looked down at Deirmar with her.

"Thank you."

"... Thank you."

It was only a simple exchange of words, but many emotions were contained within it.

He had protected her from the illegitimate heir and protected Deirmar from the usurper of the West.

In the process, the boy had become a knight, and at last had been able to face the moon he had aimed for.

Neither Vlad of Soara nor Baroness Alicia of Heinal would have existed in the end without the other.

"I truly... want to come back to this city once more."

That was why sincerity dwelled in Vlad's voice now.

The person called Vlad had been born in Soara, but the knight Vlad had begun here, for all intents and purposes.

"You will be welcome anytime."

Alicia, who was hugging her knees, smiled softly at Vlad's words and quietly looked at Vlad's face as it was dyed in the sunset.

Because now that he was leaving tomorrow, she wanted to see his face even a little more.

The two of them said nothing and merely quietly looked at what they wanted to see, but because there was a wind brushing past, it was not awkward at all.

The white snake on the hill watching the two of them raised its head toward the sky so that, at least for this moment, a warm wind could blow.

* * *

"It was nice meeting you."

"It was nice meeting you as well, knight of humans. Vlad."

Autumn rain was falling.

A rain carrying coldness, neither the welcome rain of spring nor the refreshing rain of summer, was still striking the shoulders of the men gathered in front of Deirmar.

"I am sure we will have the chance to meet again someday. I had been thinking of investigating the North once as well."

Varadis's gaze pierced through the falling raindrops and turned toward Noir standing beside Vlad.

A black horse, son of the plains.

Noir, who had certainly inherited the blood of a unicorn, was surely a being the elves would need to investigate at least once from their perspective.

"Do not worry too much about the revelation I delivered. If you carry it in your breast like a charm, one day you will understand it through intuition."

"Understood."

Hearing Varadis's words, Vlad idly touched the Divine Maiden's drawing inside his breast.

A yellow bird, himself, and the black colors ominously wrapped around them.

It was clearly a drawing that carried the meaning of a warning, but the Divine Maiden who had given him the drawing had said she could not remember any meaning beyond that.

Perhaps, like the dream she had dreamed last night, it had scattered among faded memories.

"Preparations are complete!"

Hearing the voice from afar, Vlad turned his head with a small smile.

Vlad would be leaving, but the elves would remain here in Deirmar.

To them, the world of humans was like an unfamiliar sea, so they planned to anchor for a while at the island called Deirmar, which they had barely managed to find.

"They say preparations are complete, Lord Joseph."

"... Good. Let us depart."

Joseph's complexion inside the carriage was pale.

His chronic coughing illness was sensitive to temperature, and on weather like this, he had to be especially careful.

"Understood."

At Joseph's permission, Vlad nodded.

The one responsible for this return procession was Vlad of Soara.

It was still a little early for the inexperienced Vlad, but Joseph had entrusted him with commanding this return procession, and Vlad repaid that trust with the sight before him now.

Troops, attention!

At Vlad's glance, someone's voice rang out.

Along with that voice, Bayezid's banners, heavy with water, began to line up before Deirmar's walls.

Though exhausted and wounded, those here now were victors.

Therefore, even if their banners were a mess, they had the right to bear them.

"..."

Alicia realized that the blue eyes beneath the wall were looking at her.

Vlad's gaze said that it was now time, but the reason she could not bring herself to speak was an unavoidable regret.

"... Thank you, all of you, for coming to save Deirmar from crisis."

But now it was time for them to leave, and time for her to let them go.

Alicia's voice, which had to say farewell from her own mouth, trembled slightly.

"We will never forget the peace built now upon your blood."

The soldiers had arrived in summer, but were leaving only now that autumn had come.

For those who had fought the fiercest battle of the war against the West, Alicia was raising her voice with all her might.

Alicia was doing her utmost so that her thanks might become even a small source of pride for them.

"Deirmar will welcome you whenever you return."

But the final words she shouted were entirely for one person alone.

Alicia's eyes had been looking at everyone, but at this moment, they were filled with Vlad standing beneath the banner.

Her eyes were saying that it was fine for him to return to her anytime.

The war was over.

Now it was time to go back.

Though the soldiers stood beneath the autumn rain like defeated troops, a small smile had formed on each of their faces.

* * *

"Zemina! Zemina!"

The edge of the city.

A street where sunlight did not reach.

Because it was not yet evening, Rose's Smiles had not finished preparing to open, but someone's voice began ringing loudly through it.

"... That bastard isn't doing the work he's supposed to."

With a small pin held in her mouth as she spent a long while putting up her hair, Zemina frowned at the thunderous sound ringing from below.

Unlike the previous errand boy, the newly hired one was not to Zemina's liking at all.

BANG! BANG!

"Zemina! Are you in there?"

A voice knocked mercilessly on a lady's room, as if manners were of no concern.

Otar's younger brother, Ned, was now pounding mercilessly on Zemina's door.

"What is it?"

"... You were in there. Why..."

But unlike his urgency from a moment ago, Ned could only shrink back slightly when he saw Zemina, who had only just opened the door.

"What is all this fuss about? If it is nothing, I will not let you off."

It was not merely because of her fierce gaze.

Though she had not finished her makeup yet, a flower was blooming there with only her freckles covered.

Her red hair was twisted up with splendid pins.

The slender nape that continued from that red color was more than enough to catch the boy's gaze.

"Ah! This isn't the time!"

Ned, who had been staring blankly at Zemina for a long while, clapped his hands together and began reminding himself why he had come here.

"Right now, all the priests from the church are running out to the city gate!"

"So what?"

What about the church?

Perhaps because of her experiences at the convent, Zemina had become especially cynical toward the church.

"They said the bishop went out too. The newly appointed one!"

"... Even the bishop?"

But even if she had no good feelings toward the church, she still had to detect signs that something unusual was happening.

Because the current Zemina had become the person leading Rose's Smiles.

"Why are they doing that? You are making this fuss because you found that out too, right?"

When Zemina's large eyes narrowed thinly, Ned unconsciously gulped.

No matter how much a position changed a person, there was nothing left of the old kitchen maid in the current Zemina.

It felt as if a smaller Marcella were standing there.

"They said they will arrive soon... The soldiers who went to Deirmar are coming, so everyone went out to greet them."

"... What?"

But in Zemina's face now, it seemed as though the old her could be seen for the first time in a very long while.

Because from Ned's words, she felt the trace of the person she had waited for so desperately.

"The soldiers who went to Deirmar have returned now."

"Vlad too?"

"Probably?"

In that instant, glittering lights began to shimmer in Ned's eyes.

It was the cluster of light sent out by the pair of earrings hanging from Zemina's ears.

Those earrings were what the knight Vlad had gifted to Lady Zemina before leaving Soara.

* * *

"Why are they all out there like that?"

"Because they are not priests of the Vatican."

Seeing the scene of Soara ahead, cheers began rising from various parts of the procession.

It was understandable for the soldiers to be excited after returning from a long deployment, but the current Vlad was the commander responsible for leading this procession.

Because he was such a Vlad, he could not help looking at the priests filling the front of the city gate with caution rather than gladness.

"If it is the Northern Orthodox Church, do they come out like this?"

"Not necessarily."

Joseph had grown a little paler than when they left Deirmar, but a small smile hung on his face.

Though Vlad was being appropriately cautious for his position, Joseph knew very well why they had come out like this.

"If they look suspicious, go ahead and check. Is that not your duty?"

"Understood."

Suspicious of the priests' welcome, which he had never seen in his life, Vlad walked toward Soara alone.

His hometown, which he had not been able to face for a long time because he had been exiled.

But the current Vlad was not a shabby exile who had earned the church's displeasure, but a commander leading the Bayezid army.

-Is that someone?

-He looks too young.

-It's Vlad! Vlad of Soara!

The soldiers in front of the city gate began murmuring as they watched Vlad slowly approach.

Because the banner he held showed what position Vlad now occupied.

"... No."

Vlad reached the front of the wall alone.

But unlike himself, who had been fully on guard, a priest stood there with both arms spread wide as if welcoming him.

"You have finally returned, Vlad of Soara. Were you hurt anywhere?"

Priest Andreas, now wearing not white vestments but red bishop's robes.

His face as he welcomed the name he had given him was full of smiles.

"Father!"

"Haha! You have grown taller too!"

Only then recognizing Andreas, Vlad hurriedly ran to him and embraced him.

The arms that held Vlad after his exhausting journey were as warm and soft as the white wheat bread he had tasted for the first time in his life.

Above the priest and the boy embracing each other, today's twilight fell.

And the blue moon, which had been reached but never crossed, rose into the night sky once more.

The boy who had fallen along with a girl's tears returned today together with blue moonlight.