Chapter 212 - City of Outlaws (1)

It was the time when the long winter was coming to an end, but a cold chill still lingered in Sturma.

Though they say it was due to the characteristic of the North where winter did not recede easily, that alone could not explain the gloom that permeated every corner of the mansion.

“…There is a lot of paperwork.”

A dark office lacking sufficient sunlight despite it being daytime.

Rutiger, who had been holding a pen there, looked back at the stacks of documents piled on either side of him and hardened his expression once again.

“There's no end. No end to it.”

He had stayed up all night to process them, yet today's tasks had already piled up once again.

Looking at the documents waiting for him yet again, Rutiger rubbed his face dryly as if he couldn't grasp reality.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

“Come in.”

The sound of knocking on the door was small and light.

Having already figured out who the visitor was by their footsteps, Rutiger spoke without even lifting his head.

“Lord Rutiger. So you were here.”

“I am always here these days. It seems your interest in me has lessened, Dorothea.”

He spoke it as a joke, but the ends of his smiling lips looked bitter.

The workload was increasing just as much as the rapidly changing political situation.

Facing Rutiger, Dorothea chewed on her lips for a moment at his seemingly gloomy demeanor.

“I have a telegram to deliver to you.”

“From whom?”

“It's a telegram from… Sir Vlad.”

That was why the name Vlad was hastily brought up.

It was terribly awkward to attach the honorific 'Sir' to a guy who couldn't even ride a horse properly, but seeing Rutiger's eyes widen made it feel somewhat rewarding.

“What is it? Did that guy have a reason to contact me separately?”

To Rutiger, the name Vlad was definitely a welcome one, but it was also just as concerning.

This was because he knew full well that the gloom currently drifting through the mansion had started right from Vlad's side.

“…Is it because of Joseph?”

“No. It is nothing like that.”

Dorothea carefully set down the notes she had brought and opened her mouth.

“I don't know the reason, but he was asking about the tribe I was born into.”

“Your tribe?”

Rutiger's eyes narrowed at the completely unexpected answer.

To think it was abruptly about Dorothea, not about Joseph's affairs nor matters related to Radu and Bishop Pierre.

“So did you give him an answer?”

“…Well. There's no reason not to tell him.”

Unlike other races who put down roots and lived in one place, the beastmen, having lost their original homeland, constantly roamed from city to city.

In order to track the whereabouts of such beastmen, he inevitably must have needed the help of a fellow tribesperson.

“I was told they are in the city of Namarca this year.”

The finger pointing at the map spread across the desk stopped at one place.

The city of Namarca.

A city situated near the southern part of the central region.

However, Rutiger's gaze was focused not on Dorothea's finger, but on the telegram from Vlad that she had set down.

“…I don't know what he's planning to do, but I'm sure he'll do well.”

It was a magic telegram that only allowed the exchange of short texts, meaning only a few words could be written.

Thus, it was a telegram that had to be written meticulously, but at the end of Vlad's message, there was clearly a greeting meant for someone.

It was just a greeting of a few words, but to Oksana, who had now lost her energy, there would be no greeting as comforting as this.

* * *

“Whether it's Namarca or Nimirka, why is it in such a deep place?”

The heavily frozen ground seemed to be thawing, making the path they walked completely muddy.

Even though he was riding a horse, Radu grumbled with a scowl at the mud splashing all the way up to his thighs.

“If you're going to keep grumbling, go to the North then.”

“…”

However, at the bleak voice coming from beside him, Radu had no choice but to quickly shut his mouth.

It was true that he didn't like their destination, but it was still better than heading North.

“I'm just saying. Why are you so extreme? Are all northerners like this?”

“Yeah. Everyone is incredibly extreme. So please shut up.”

Not only were they extreme, but they were also downright crazy.

However, since the person holding his lifeline was none other than Vlad, Radu could only quietly keep his mouth shut.

“I'm telling you, let's head back to the North even now. Why are you so anxious to keep shoving your head into the dragon's maw?”

“It's too late. What can we do when they say we can't go?”

The party that departed from Arnstein's territory was now heading toward a city in the South, rather than the North.

Bishop Pierre, who disliked that direction, also started muttering complaints, but Vlad definitely had a valid reason for heading this way.

“Marcus told me that the Dragonblood Duke faction has already spread all over the path heading North. Do you think just our group can break through all of that?”

“Damn it. Anyway, those dragon bastards never do a single thing to my liking!”

“…You aren't saying that for me to hear, right?”

The County of Arnstein was located near the center even within the central region.

That meant in order for Vlad to head to the safe North, he would have to pass through quite a few territories in the central region, which ultimately meant it would be difficult to break through the encirclement of the dragon killer knights.

Of course, Vlad had no intention of heading North from the very beginning.

“There are territories that Count Arnstein personally wrote down for us. From now on, we will head to the North by following the territories where the Court Duke faction is located, just as he informed us.”

At Vlad's words that they would choose only safe places by following the most trustworthy route possible, even Bishop Pierre had no choice but to nod in resignation.

“I see it! That's Namarca over there.”

“Ah. We will be able to sleep in an inn today.”

Along with the sigh of relief Radu let out, a chaotically sprawled city could be seen past the fingertips of Nibelun, who had taken the lead.

The city, surrounded by incredibly shoddy wooden palisades, looked precarious, but the sight of the people swarming inside was thoroughly bustling.

“…Namarca.”

Vlad, who was looking at the scenery of Namarca from atop the hill with Noir, began to smile fiercely at the vaguely thick scent of his hometown he felt from it.

“Looking at that place calms my mind for the first time in a while.”

The city of Namarca.

A place where all three surrounding lords insisted it was their city.

Because of that, with no one actually ruling Namarca, the people nearby called it the city of outlaws.

* * *

“Where are you going?”

“None of your business.”

“…I'm a guard, though?”

“Oh, really?”

Passing through a wooden palisade that didn't even look like a gate, Vlad looked at the man who grabbed him.

The guard, whose missing teeth here and there were quite striking, merely wore a bored expression as if he was rather used to Vlad's dismissive attitude.

“Then you should have said so earlier. You're indistinguishable from the guys next to you.”

No matter how crazy a lord might be, they would at least equip the soldiers guarding the gates with proper gear before sending them out.

However, the city of Namarca was a place swarming with criminal organizations, let alone a lord, so the guards' attire was indistinguishable from that of ruffians.

“Identification.”

“Don't have one.”

Vlad spoke far too confidently, but the guard naturally held out his palm as if he had expected it.

The party's appearance, vividly reconstructed by a former back-alley native, looked completely natural even when compared to the people lined up in front of the gate right now, so the guard had absolutely no reason to show any particular wariness either.

“What's the going rate for the toll these days?”

“Offer first.”

“Ah, seriously, let's not do this.”

Truly a city of ruffians.

At the sight of him calling out 'offer first,' which was practically an unwritten rule in the North, Vlad swept back his heavily tangled hair and scratched his forehead.

The handsome face revealed thanks to his lifted hair was impressive, but his smile, stained thick with dark grime, felt so raw that there was no need to ask where he was from.

“Two old men, one cat, and a greenhorn, huh…”

Dropping his guard at Vlad's unreserved attitude, the guard looked at the party lined up behind him.

Looking at the loudly coughing old men and the beastman lad whose pupils were unfocused like a strabismus, they seemed like a pathetic bunch with nothing worth extorting.

“Three silver coins. I just counted the old men as one.”

“You're good at business. Take it.”

Shoving the silver coins into the guard's arms with practiced hands, Vlad hurried the party into the gate.

Bishop Pierre, trembling with anger, stood stiffly for a moment, but in the guard's eyes, he was just a skinny, tall old man.

“T-That insolent…”

“You have to hold it in, what else can you do? We have to pass through here to get to the next territory.”

The sight of Namarca as they entered, trying hard to soothe Bishop Pierre, was exactly the mess they expected.

“…It is a thoroughly corrupted city. God is testing me again today.”

Beggars clinging to them at the slightest opening, and whores already standing in various corners of the alleys with their tops off.

Furthermore, the drunks collapsed here and there were completely indistinguishable from corpses.

“Radu. Come here.”

“…Didn't you say I was your older brother?”

It was Vlad calling his blood-related older brother like calling a puppy, but Radu couldn't particularly express his dissatisfaction.

Since he would die if he followed Mircea, and he might end up locked away for life if he went up North, the only person he could stick to was Vlad.

“Put this in your pocket and stand on the street for a moment.”

“Hmm?”

He didn't know the geography of the city well, but Vlad, having figured out the flow based on his back-alley experience, was now standing in front of a main street that seemed to have more beastmen than humans.

The subtly divided atmosphere along the street clearly indicated that the beastmen's territory started from here.

“Why this?”

“You seem not to know it yet, but northerners are also impatient.”

“…Is that so?”

“Hurry up and go.”

Given a coin pouch with a jingling sound, Radu stood in the middle of the main street without knowing why.

Standing by the street looking as if everything was awkward, Radu's appearance was exactly that of a lost old man.

“…It seems it isn't just his body that has grown old.”

Watching Radu from a hidden corner, Vlad ended up clicking his tongue.

He was a figure who had once led the dragon killer knights in his own right, but the current Radu hadn't even noticed the pickpocket that had just brushed past him.

“Let's see where you go.”

The pickpocket was walking fluidly like flowing water mixed within the crowd, but Vlad's blue eyes saw it clearly.

The tail of the young beastman kid wagging furiously along with ears perked up as if tense.

Looking around to see if anyone was chasing him, the young pickpocket checked the pouch that Vlad had just handed to Radu and then slipped away into a dark alley.

* * *

A pitch-black cat was sprinting through the dizzying alleys.

Its heavily panting breath showed just how far it had run, but the young cat's speed did not decrease in the slightest.

“God damn it!”

The young pickpocket hopped over a wall and hid his body along the familiar alleys, but he was soon startled out of his wits by a voice he heard.

“Is it here?”

“…!”

Blond hair and blue eyes that shone brightly even in the dark alley.

As if to say that all his running had been in vain, the look in Vlad's eyes as he stared at the pickpocket even held a hint of mischievousness.

“What an idiot! You actually followed me all the way in here!”

Looking at Vlad, the young pickpocket started snickering.

With his earlier surprised expression nowhere to be found, the kid now wore a deep smirk as other young beastmen who had been waiting behind him began to step out.

“There are always guys like this. Chasing only after money without valuing their own lives…”

“Yeah. I know. You lured me here on purpose.”

However, Vlad merely nodded his head at the kid's ridicule.

“Are there any more older brothers you can call out? Preferably, I'd like them to be people in high places.”

Jorge had said it before.

That a bait who doesn't know they're bait is the best bait of all.

Vlad just grinned at the young pickpocket who had guided him deep into the alley where the Luga tribe resided.

This alley where Vlad was smiling was the beastmen's territory.

And among them, it was the place where Dorothea's tribe, the Luga tribe, was situated.