Chapter 31 - Honorable Duel (1)

Vlad was walking with his hand trailing along the wall.

Feeling the rough bricks beneath his fingertips, Vlad quietly closed his eyes.

Then he pricked up his ears as if trying to hear something.

"..."

Keen hearing.

Vlad was using that hearing, which even Jorge had acknowledged, to search for something.

CLANG— CLANG!

Where the opposing knights were.

And how they were warming up.

"There they are."

Just as Alicia Heinal had gathered three knights to stand for her honor, Endre, who had accused her of being of illegitimate birth, had also gathered knights through his own connections.

The opening moves of an honorable duel, fought with connections and influence.

And beyond the blocked-off wall, in a place where neither side could reach the other, were the ones who would decide everything.

"Hup!"

Vlad grabbed the uneven part of the wall he had found by touch and sprang nimbly upward.

The wall looked easily over three meters high, but to Vlad, a wall of this height was as good as nothing.

Carefully, and so that no one could hear.

With the same feeling he had once used when stealing other people's things.

Vlad leaped over the wall with movements like a stray cat, brushed off his clothes, and strolled through the garden with an utterly casual expression.

If anyone had seen him, he would have looked so calm they might have thought he had been there from the start.

CLANG— CLANG-CLANG!

'There.'

Vlad followed the sound of weapons clashing and moved his feet.

Joseph had ordered Vlad to take note of the knights present here.

Although Vlad had followed the voice's request first, he had no intention whatsoever of ignoring Joseph's command.

He had actually wanted to see them, too.

After all, the knights Vlad had seen so far could be counted on one hand.

Jorge, the Whores' Knight.

Godin, the knight of blue moonlight.

One-eyed Jager.

'Sir Vordan is a knight too, I suppose.'

And even Vordan, the knight who did not seem like a knight.

For Vlad, who had ties to knights in all sorts of ways, his heart was full of the desire to glimpse the world he admired.

Because moving in search of shining things was something like an old habit for the boy.

'Hmm.'

Since he was not confident he could deceive a knight's senses, Vlad decided not to go too close.

He merely watched from a distance with his naturally sharp eyesight.

As Joseph had said, that should be enough to see and feel something.

Ahead of him, two knights were crossing swords.

Their movements were not fierce, but they were enough to fully warm up their bodies.

They looked fully occupied with preparing for tomorrow's duel.

'A greatsword.'

The first knight Vlad noticed had an enormous build and was swinging a greatsword large enough to match it.

Though not quite as much as Otar, judging by his dark skin, he seemed to be a knight of at least partial Black descent.

Even from a distance, the force of the greatsword felt fierce.

'Sword and shield.'

And the knight facing him.

Unlike the dark-skinned knight, who swung his sword with all his might, the knight who had solidified his defensive stance was steadily deflecting the greatsword and advancing little by little.

Even to the inexperienced Vlad, he seemed like a knight whose strength lay in shield techniques.

"Looks hard to break through, doesn't it?"

"...!"

Vlad was startled by someone's voice coming from beside him.

"Who..."

"Shh!"

Someone quickly clamped a hand over Vlad's mouth.

Before he even had a chance to resist, Vlad's mouth was seized in an instant, and he stared wide-eyed at the man holding him.

"You came all the way here just to get caught?"

He was a man with a playful Kaiser mustache.

The man had a friendly-looking smile, but Vlad was instead breaking out in a cold sweat.

'Why is he so fast!'

Because he had been utterly unable to avoid the hand that had just covered his mouth.

He had been subdued in truly a single instant.

"Seeing as you found the best seat, you seem to have good instincts, so let's just watch quietly."

The man with the Kaiser mustache winked mischievously as he spoke.

"Sir Jager's squire."

"... Who are you?"

Without answering Vlad's question, the man took a small piece of dried fruit from inside his clothes and handed it to him.

"Let's eat while we watch. Good entertainment needs food, after all."

"..."

Vlad had no choice but to accept the dried fruit the man gave him.

Because he could not see any way out.

Any way to escape this man.

Seeing how the man had subtly blocked every route of escape, Vlad realized he would not be able to leave this place easily.

At least not without his permission.

[I can barely feel his presence. That means he is accustomed to handling his energy. Do not act rashly.]

Since the voice said he was someone whose level was difficult to gauge, Vlad decided to observe the situation for now.

"... You should eat something expensive."

"Heh heh. Money gets spent as much as you spend it."

Watching Vlad boldly joke with him even while being subdued, the man with the Kaiser mustache seemed pleased and handed him another piece of dried fruit.

"As expected, he is strong, just as I heard."

"Are you talking about Sir Colin?"

Though this was his first time actually seeing him, Vlad had already learned simple personal details through Joseph.

"They don't call him the mud boar for nothing. If you get caught by that, even your bones will split."

"I agree."

Since he could not run away anyway, Vlad decided to simply play along.

If the man had intended to do something to him, he had more than enough skill to have done so already.

"The knight facing him looks more impressive to me."

"Ah. You mean Pablo."

The man with the Kaiser mustache answered while chewing on the dried fruit.

"He is a knight of Arnstein, a promising family in the central region. Personally, he is not the type of knight I like."

"Why?"

The man smiled at Vlad, who had somehow grown more at ease.

"Because he is boring. All defense, nothing else."

"Ah."

As befitted the Arnstein Family, whose defining feature was forming a wall by solidifying their formation with knights, Sir Pablo clearly possessed that same characteristic.

"I acknowledge his shield technique. He knows how to deflect most things."

"Hmm."

Whoever he was, he had broad knowledge.

Perhaps this was a stroke of luck.

"Then how does the remaining knight look to you? There is one more, isn't there?"

Vlad had secretly intended to learn information about the remaining one through him, but.

"..."

Before he knew it, the man with the Kaiser mustache had disappeared.

[It seems someone is coming.]

"Damn it."

Just like before, he had vanished like the wind without revealing even the slightest sign of his presence.

Though he was not as silent as the man who had disappeared without a trace, Vlad sensed the danger and succeeded in quickly leaving the spot.

Vlad retraced the path he had come by, leaped over the high wall, and succeeded in returning to the area Alicia had designated.

"Why are there so many monsters in the world..."

Having barely succeeded in returning, Vlad leaned against the wall and let out a sigh.

It was a sigh of relief that he had not been caught, but also a sigh at the massive wall he had once again come up against.

"He was a knight, right?"

[He must have been. He was not a mage.]

He was probably a knight.

If not, that level of skill could not be explained.

"Do you have to be that good to become a knight?"

[Sir Vordan is a knight too.]

"No..."

For some reason, Vlad felt drained, and rather than answering the absurd words the voice had spoken, he merely leaned the back of his head quietly against the wall.

"Not all knights are the same kind of knight."

It was not that he looked down on Vordan, but the boy had a clear goal.

The knight of blue moonlight.

Back when he was a frog in a well who had just leaped out of Soara, it had been a goal he had sworn he would surpass no matter what, but from the moment he came out into the wider world, Vlad became aware of where he stood.

Knowing where he himself was, Vlad thought of a goal he could not bring himself to speak aloud and needlessly kicked at the ground with his foot.

The sweetness of the dried fruit still left in his mouth felt strangely unpleasant.

* * *

Noon the next day.

Although it was small in size, the hall prepared at the center of the Heinal mansion was not inferior to those found in any noble estate.

People were gathering there.

Knights carrying swords, squires attending knights, priests serving god.

And two Heinals.

Alicia Heinal and Endre Heinal.

The two had once been uncle and niece, but now an immense, irreversible gap existed between them.

Among the groups split exactly in half around the two Heinals, a neat yet sharp momentum passed back and forth.

An honorable duel in which everything had to be staked.

It was the momentum created by the champions of that duel.

"Tighten it more."

"Yes."

Even Vlad, who was fully occupied attending Jager as his squire, felt a prickling tension he had never felt before in his life, and his gaze sharpened without him realizing it.

"Watch closely. A duel between knights fighting in earnest is not something you get many chances to see."

"Yes."

"And..."

Jager would soon have to step into the duel bearing Joseph and Alicia's names, yet in his one remaining eye, there was only calm.

"I do not know what happened yesterday, but do not forget the fact that you are a greenhorn."

"..."

"A greenhorn starts with walking. You have no right to run."

The world was vast, and he was small.

Having seen, felt, and even experienced powerful people he could not possibly handle, Vlad had grown impatient without realizing it.

He had talent, but it had yet to be honed.

For Vlad, whose goal was high and whose road ahead was therefore long, the words Jager had just spoken could not help but sink deep into his heart.

"I understand."

"There is no such thing as an easy task in this world."

Though brief, Jager had given Vlad the words he needed most right now, then adjusted his eyepatch one last time and rose from his seat.

"Go."

"Yes."

Just as Vlad, having finished all his duties as a squire, was about to stand behind Jager and wait.

"Lady Alicia Heinal is entering!"

Along with the voice of an old man, whether a servant or a butler, the doors of the hall began to open.

'Come to think of it, I have never seen her even once.'

Although he was with Joseph, a noble of high standing, Vlad was still nothing more than a squire.

Since he had not even met Peter, the Family Head of the Bayezid Family to which he currently belonged, perhaps it was only natural that he had not seen Alicia Heinal, the master of Deirmar.

'I heard she was young.'

Young and beautiful, and also a woman who was a baron.

Everything that described her was more than enough to stir Vlad, who was still at an age full of curiosity.

"Everyone, show your respect!"

Receiving the guidance of the old knight Duncan, who would take part in the honorable duel together with Jager this time, a woman in splendid formal attire was entering the hall.

Those on Endre's side merely bowed their heads slightly or did not show any courtesy at all, but those standing for her had to properly show respect to the rightful master of this land.

Vlad, too, was about to bow his head in order to do so, but.

"... Damn."

Their eyes met.

With the aquamarine-haired woman.

The aquamarine-haired woman following behind Duncan.

Her stiff and cold-looking expression seemed far too unfamiliar to believe she was the same person he had seen that day.

[Now you can add insulting a noble to the list.]

"..."

Alicia Heinal's gaze lingered briefly on Vlad, who had frozen awkwardly, unable to even bow his head, then passed on.

She held the blond boy's figure for a moment in her large eyes, then brushed past as if nothing had happened.

Toward the chair placed inside the hall.

Toward the seat of the Family Head, prepared at the highest place here, where only one person could sit.

Receiving Vlad's flustered gaze.

Endre's fierce eyes.

And the attention of everyone present here with composure, the aquamarine-haired woman was ascending to the place where she belonged.

"Since all parties to the duel have arrived, we shall now proceed with the formalities!"

With the words of the priest specially invited from the center for this duel as the beginning.

"The god watching this place shall testify, and today's rising sun shall be the proof!"

The doors of the hall closed.

And the duel on which everything had been staked was about to begin.

An honorable but cruel duel.