Chapter 210 - The Reason He Split (1)

The Count's face was sullen as if he hadn't slept properly.

Pablo standing next to him, and the guards standing watch at the study door, had the same expressions.

Dragged out in the early dawn before the sun had even risen, the people of Arnstein were all inwardly letting out small sighs as they looked at Vlad in front of them.

"I am glad to see you looking healthy, Sir Vlad."

"Thank you for your concern."

"I am even more glad as you seem to be overflowing with vigor as well."

"... I apologize, Count."

Seeing Count Arnstein looking extremely tired, Vlad ended up closing his mouth.

It wasn't that he didn't have anything to say, but he realized the situation was not good for him to utter those words.

"Right. You wouldn't have grasped the situation yet since you just woke up. Where should I begin to explain?"

"No, Count. I have already heard a rough outline of the situation from my mage."

It was the dawn when he had beaten Radu to a pulp for trying to steal the Dragon Slaying Sword.

Having heard a rough outline of the situation from Nibelun and Bishop Pierre, who had run out at the loud noise, Vlad was already aware of Joseph's betrayal and disappearance.

"... To be honest, it still doesn't feel real."

"I suppose so. You have been lying in bed for two weeks, so you will still need time to come to your senses."

The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was the sight of Joseph brushing past him.

His back, walking palely under the blue moon, somehow lacked a sense of reality, so it still felt just like a dream.

"But I would like to ask you something. What do you plan to do from now on?"

"..."

The Count's gaze, met up close, was akin to the aroma of cold tea.

Under his gaze, which gripped his mind like a bitter aroma, Vlad was only then able to feel the pain rising from his chest.

"I am only sorry for having caused great damage to the master of the house after being invited as a guest."

Despite his large, unhealed wound, Vlad's appearance as he bowed his head deeply clearly contained sincerity.

It was an attitude that made even Count Arnstein, known to be prickly regarding manners, look on with a satisfied expression.

"So please, give me a chance. So that I can compensate for the damage I have caused to the lord of this land."

But the Count wouldn't know.

That all of Vlad's postures shown right now were entirely copied from Joseph's mannerisms.

The man with the dark eye shadows, who was weak yet dignified everywhere, was a being sufficient for Vlad to admire.

"What kind of chance?"

The gaze of Vlad as he looked up at the Count was shining.

Joseph had said.

That opportunity lay precisely within crisis.

Arnstein had been thrown into complete disarray by Frausen's attack, but because of that, this extremely unsettled time was the perfect moment to bring up what he was about to say.

"Please lend me the crest of Arnstein."

Vlad turned his head and looked at the crest of the Arnstein Family planted in the corner of the study.

The sight of the flag standing rigidly upright by itself, despite the study being a complete mess, was something that symbolized the Count's pride.

"If you lend me your crest, I will shout the name of Arnstein first when I pierce their hearts."

Make me the sword that will act on behalf of your anger.

If you do so, I will shout the name of Arnstein first for you when I pierce them.

"..."

TAP. TAP.

There were three people standing in the study, but only one sound could be heard.

The sound heard slipping through everyone's silence was the sound of Count Arnstein's finger tapping the table.

"That's a pretty good move."

Before he knew it, Count Arnstein had buried his back deep into his chair and was smiling.

It was a transparent move, but the smile appeared because he was pleased with Vlad's intention in squeezing it out.

"Right. You have to do it like this. People should naturally make attempts."

"..."

"I like that attitude. It would have been better if you were a bit more careful, though."

Originally, people tended to feel a greater joy watching something grow rather than watching something ready-made.

And right now, the Count was giving high marks to Vlad's wild struggling to try to do something, even if his intentions could be seen right through.

"I will give it to you. My crest."

The Count had been keeping an eye on the small flag Vlad had brought with him when he first entered this mansion.

That flag hanging from the black horse he rode was a knights' custom as old as the Swordmaster's Code.

"Use my crest that you take to prove your innocence and that of your companions."

The name of Arnstein, the leader of the central region, was definitely a name that would work everywhere.

Though it might be different in the North, Vlad had no foundation in the central region, so he desperately needed his cooperation to chase after Frausen and Joseph.

"Thank you, Count."

"Please do not forget. The condition you offered me."

But there is no cooperation without a price.

The Count's mouth was smiling, but his eyes looking at Vlad were not.

"You must absolutely plant my crest in Joseph's heart."

"..."

Turning around, Vlad did not see his eyes.

However, his voice, as cold as the doorknob he was holding, clearly contained a heaviness that was hard to ignore.

* * *

"I... I am Radu Dragulia. As an imperial noble, I have the right."

It was the gaunt, shriveled face of an old man, but the voice coming out was youthful.

As if that bizarre discrepancy was hard to endure, Nibelun's expression was slowly crumpling.

"I will claim the legitimate rights of a prisoner. Because I have the right to do so!"

Radu had been out of his mind since the basement of the Dragulia mansion, but now he had recovered enough to look after his own safety.

Even though the circumstances in which he spat out about that safety were quite pathetic, it seemed enough to suggest that he wouldn't die on the road while heading to the North.

"Then why did you steal someone else's sword? That is a sword Lord Vlad treasures so much."

"I didn't steal it! I just went and looked at it!"

"That much is stealing. You stole it."

Nibelun and Bishop Pierre, having suffered through the commotion since early dawn, had their heads bowed as if they were drained of energy.

Because there wasn't a single bit of hesitation in Vlad's fists as he struck Radu as if to kill him.

The former pickpocket who had only lived a life of taking was someone who hated being taken from more than dying.

"Anyway, Bishop Pierre has a duty to protect me. Didn't you bring me here in the name of God?"

"... Anyway, there isn't a single one among these dragon bastards that I like."

Bishop Pierre ended up shaking his head as he looked at the person clinging to him.

Far from being grateful for saving his life, he was shouting demanding a guarantee of his safety.

This was truly a case of saving a drowning man only for him to demand his bundle too.

"... Calm down for now. It's not like he would actually kill you."

"That guy will really kill me! It was my first time seeing him, but my knight's senses are telling me so!"

Bishop Pierre tried to calm Radu down for now as he saw him heavily intimidated by his half-brother and fellow dragon Vlad, but that effort just ended up flying away in vain.

CRASH!

"Why is it so noisy in here?"

"Uwaaaah!"

"Why on earth are you kicking the door open! There's a doorknob attached to it!"

Seeing Vlad enter by kicking open the door to the room where the three were gathered with a loud bang, Bishop Pierre clutched his head as if he had a headache.

It was because Radu, who had barely been calmed down, began to convulse in shock again at Vlad's sudden appearance.

"Perfect. You, stay here for a moment."

"Vlad, Vlad Aureo! I have rights!"

"What are you babbling about? Did you not get hit enough earlier?"

Vlad was usually abrasive anyway, but he looked to be in an especially bad mood today.

Seeing such a Vlad, Radu quickly shut his mouth according to a judgment springing from his instincts.

"Nibelun. Can you use the magical telegram right now?"

"Probably?"

"Then connect it to Sturma. I already got Count Arnstein's consent."

Vlad said as he handed a small piece of paper to Nibelun.

That note was a slip of paper with a number written on it that could connect to the magical sphere linked to the Bayezid Family's main estate in Sturma.

"Should I connect you to Lord Rutiger?"

"No."

"Then with who?"

Nibelun thought he would connect to Rutiger since he mentioned Sturma, but Vlad was actually calling someone else's name.

"With Lord Rutiger's mage, Dorothea. I have something to ask her about inscription magic."

Rutiger's mage, the beastman Dorothea, was also the person who first showed Vlad a mystery.

Vlad remembered her well as the one who engraved the vibration inscription on his unadorned sword when he faced the hardest dragon, the Death worm.

"I think I need to engrave something on my sword. That's why I need the information she has."

"Understood."

Seeing him move so actively as he got up from his seat wasn't completely free of concern, but Nibelun merely got up from his seat quietly.

Because the gaze of Vlad as he looked at him was sparkling brightly as if he had found some clue.

"... Radu Dragulia."

Before they knew it, only a heavy silence lingered in the room Nibelun had left.

This was because a bizarre madness that was hard to describe in words dwelled in Vlad's eyes as he looked at Radu.

It was just like the gaze of a predator looking at its prey.

"I heard about you. You're from the dragon killer knights, right?"

"Y-Yes!"

"You were also a close aide of Duke Sarnus. So were you even put in charge as the Commander of the army that came to attack Moshiam?"

Pulling the seat Nibelun had been sitting on right up, Vlad stuck so closely that he could feel the sound of Radu's breathing.

"Right. I was the general in charge at that time."

At Vlad's words, Radu's back began to straighten up as if he had remembered his past self.

Even though he was thoroughly pathetic right now, Radu was once a promising knight and a Dragulia who had dreamed of becoming a perfect dragon.

"You're acquainted with that woman, right? The black mage who goes around wearing black mourning clothes."

The Dragulia army that was in Moshiam had definitely shown suspicious movements.

Spending nearly half a year just laying siege while ignoring the arguments of Bishop Pierre, who was serving in the army with them, was exactly that.

Even though it was said to be a delay to pressure the North, being able to smoothly delay things that much was clearly evidence suggesting some sort of relationship between Lamashtu and Dragulia.

"I can't understand what you're saying."

"Don't play dumb. Just hearing the story gives off a foul stench."

Vlad's momentum as he growled right in front of his nose was extraordinary, but Radu forced himself to keep his mouth shut.

In the first place, the question Vlad was trying to ask right now was the answer the Northern Orthodox Church wanted, and it was also the only valuable condition he could make a deal with.

"You've met those bastards, haven't you?"

"I will speak when I go to the North."

"Do you know their base or not? You must at least know their contact point."

"I will speak when I go to the North."

Seeing Radu not opening his mouth easily in order to live or to make a comeback, Vlad pulled out Jorge's dagger.

The dagger, which had been refined by dwarves and made even sharper, was blue enough to make even a closed mouth open, but it was soon stopped by Bishop Pierre.

"Don't do it. No torture."

"Why?"

Vlad ended up hesitating at Bishop Pierre's stiff expression.

No matter how rushed his path was, it was because he recognized who it was that had wrapped his bandages for him.

"Radu Dragulia is an imperial noble and someone under the protection of God. He has the right to be guaranteed safety according to imperial law and the providence of the church."

"And who granted that protection?"

"I did."

Bishop Pierre was a more severe torturer than anyone when it came to heresy, but he had to be an excellent protector when it came to Radu.

"I requested God's blessing in my name. In other words, the rights of a prisoner he possesses mean the holy war that I am carrying out."

"..."

The incident at dawn was a sudden accident, but now that he knew, it couldn't be helped.

Unless he intended to ignore the blessing drawn under Bishop Pierre's name, Vlad also had to recognize Radu's rights as a prisoner.

"When did you say the people from the North are coming?"

"In three days."

"There's no time."

At Vlad's words that there was no time, Radu straightened his head even more.

It was a threat right in front of him, but it was because he confirmed that Vlad could not harm him with a legitimate justification.

"... So I just have to acknowledge his rights as a prisoner?"

Looking at such a Radu, Vlad's eyes were shining.

The situation was turning out strangely, but he couldn't just send Radu, who was connected to Lamashtu, to the North like this.

"Right. Since you are a knight. Protecting Radu is fulfilling your duty as a knight."

"What if I'm not a knight?"

"What?"

Bishop Pierre could not hide his surprise as he looked at Vlad hurriedly throwing off his armor.

It was armor he had painstakingly put on with Nibelun's help, but right now Vlad was freely stripping it off.

"Beating him and all that is fine if I'm not a knight, right?"

"What do you mean?"

There wasn't even time to stop him.

Vlad's agile movements were not something Bishop Pierre could touch, no matter how injured he was.

SMACK!

"Brother! Nice to meet you!"

"No, no!"

Following Vlad's words calling out to his brother, fierce punches began flying in.

"Being glad to see you is one thing, but why won't you tell your little brother what he's curious about? Are you ignoring me right now?!"

"You crazy bastard! Have you lost your mind!"

It was absolutely not torture.

It was merely the rampage of a little brother looking for his older brother.

Realizing what kind of trick Vlad was trying to pull right now, Radu ended up glaring with his two eyes wide open.

"Why are you my little brother!"

"We have the same father, so why am I not your little brother!"

Seeing not torture to extract information, but merely a fight between brothers, Bishop Pierre nodded his head at Vlad's gaze looking at him.

"... Should I step outside?"

"An hour should be enough."

"Don't leave! Please don't leave!"

Neither imperial law nor the rules of the church would be able to sanction a private fight between brothers.

Having realized that, Bishop Pierre merely stepped out of the room quietly, telling him to take care of his business.

And so, inside the room with no one watching, only the fight thrown by the younger and older brother was fierce.