Chapter 44 - Look, the Dragon Gives Chase (2)

ROOOOAR!

"..."

Listening to the roar of the Death Worm echoing from far away, Rutiger had his left eye tightly shut.

To see the self that lay deeper within, to call forth his world that was firmer and stronger.

Rutiger's world was red.

A world that held the rage and passion of an active volcano.

"The glittering thing embedded in its forehead is suspicious. I think it has something to do with magic."

His mage, who had dragged her exhausted body down, spoke.

She said someone was controlling the Death Worm.

Who were the ones who dared disturb the land of my ancestors with wicked tricks on Bayezid's land?

"... It's coming."

Rutiger, who had his left eye closed as he gathered his wrathful world.

ROOOOAR!

"Aaaaaaaah!"

His eye opened together with the boy's shout.

At the same time, Rutiger's sword slowly rose.

His sword was burning.

* * *

"...!"

[Looks like preparations are complete!]

Vlad, who had been drawing the Death Worm along through Moonless Night, felt someone's world burning savagely from far away.

"... This is...!"

[He has temporarily expanded his world. A far greater knight than I thought.]

Feeling the force that began from Rutiger, Vlad shuddered without realizing it.

Because it was rougher than any knight he had ever seen, and above all, it was burning hotter than any of them.

'He's on a different level!'

Rutiger's red, seething world looked as if it could swallow Vlad's faint world as much as it wanted.

Just as the Voice judged, Rutiger had temporarily expanded his world through deep meditation.

It was a method only a knight who could look deeply into himself could use.

One who knew who he was.

Because there would be no one more firmly rooted than that.

—!

And the Death Worm that had been chasing Vlad noticed Rutiger's world as well.

No matter how ignorant someone here might be, there was no one who could fail to notice the force Rutiger was giving off.

The Death Worm was gradually slowing down and turning its head.

"Shit!"

Realizing that the Death Worm's focus had wavered, Vlad clenched his teeth and raised the unadorned sword high.

But the boy's world was still only wrapped in a faint light.

It could not steal the Death Worm's gaze from Rutiger's brilliantly burning force.

SNORT!

"Huh?"

The pitch-black fellow, having grasped the situation, suddenly turned and looked at the Death Worm.

At the sudden reversal, Vlad could only grip its mane tightly.

[... Well now.]

"Hey, you bastard!"

At the incomprehensible action, Vlad shrieked, but the Voice alone let out an exclamation as if dumbfounded.

The pitch-black horse glared at the Death Worm as it swiftly backpedaled, keeping the momentum of its run.

Vlad did not know, but the Voice could see it.

The movement of the faint mist gathering toward the pitch-black fellow's forehead.

NEEEEIGH!

As if backpedaling was not enough, the fellow even shook its body rapidly from side to side, provoking the Death Worm, and Vlad was left speechless.

The pitch-black fellow's intention succeeded.

The faintly glittering mist succeeded in confusing the Death Worm's senses.

ROOOOAR!

At the movement of the fellow who dared provoke it, the Death Worm began glaring at Vlad, who sat atop the horse.

It had no eyes attached, but that was what it felt like.

'I didn't do anything!'

Seeing the Death Worm charge while dripping blood, Vlad was flustered, but in any case, the intention had succeeded.

NEEEEIGH!

The pitch-black fellow cried out with all its might and reared up.

Receiving the blessing that fell from the boy's armor.

Gathering the aura flowing from the boy's world.

Above the forehead of the pitch-black fellow running with all its strength, the glittering mist began to take shape more and more.

Not only in the World of voices, but in the world of reality that everyone could see as well.

A mystery that had now been forgotten was rising once more in the memory of the world.

"Go!"

NEEEEIGH!

Moonless Night, which had manifested the possibility of a unicorn, reversed direction once again and began running with the Death Worm hanging on its tail.

Toward the active volcano burning up ahead.

The sight of Moonless Night running while carrying the shining boy.

Here, in this place as well, there was a world expanding.

On the horizon where you and I touched.

I become we.

A hornless unicorn and a horseless knight were becoming a little more complete through each other's worlds.

At last, a single pure-white star rose over the pitch-black night sky.

ROOOOAR!

"Close the gap!"

"Kid! Get out of there now!"

Rutiger's knights, who had been waiting only for the proper moment, charged in at once and began surrounding the Death Worm on both sides.

ROAR!

To prevent any possible escape from the Death Worm, Bayezid's knights gradually closed the gap as if tightening a noose around its neck.

With the help of the knights, each of whom had drawn out their own world, a space was made for Vlad to briefly catch his breath.

"Lord Rutiger!"

"... You did well."

The star and the fire that brushed swiftly past met each other's gaze.

The Death Worm, which had been opening its mouth wide to swallow the boy, was flustered when it saw the horse suddenly break away from its path with the knights' help.

The pitch-black horse and boy that had been provoking it.

But now that they had slipped away, the one standing before the Death Worm was...

"It's my turn."

Rutiger Bayezid.

The legitimate son and eldest son of Bayezid, and a knight burning himself away.

"This is Bayezid's land."

Toward whoever was leading this situation, Rutiger quietly spat out his rage.

"It is not land that the likes of you may disturb."

Bayezid's sword, burning red, was raised high toward the sky.

Rutiger's sword gave off a strange resonance as it burned everything around it.

ROOOOAR!

Crimson lava erupted from the depths of his soul toward this world.

Through the tip of the knight's sword as he brought it down without the slightest hesitation.

His sword.

The anger gathered on the sword.

And even the air that existed between the Death Worm and Rutiger.

Everything began to burn.

"So get lost!"

With Rutiger's shout, a red flash shot up beneath the blue sky.

The burning rage, through the knight's restrained movement, accurately cut down the enormous world.

ROOOOAR!

The shadow of a fallen dragon split in half and let out a sorrowful cry.

The death throes of the young Death Worm echoed long across the blue grassland.

By the flames burning stickier than lava, the glittering thing attached to the Death Worm's forehead was slowly losing its light.

* * *

"Urgh!"

At the savage heat he felt from behind, Vlad hunched over.

[Looks like he finished it off.]

"..."

The scene that entered the boy's vision as he looked back.

KREEEEEE!

There stood the Death Worm, thrashing its burning body.

Half of its body had already been cut away and was writhing feebly on the grassland.

The acrid smell that arrived late on the wind only now reached the tip of the boy's nose.

"... Can you really go that far?"

Vlad asked the Voice, looking dazed.

There was the world of knights he had dreamed of.

But the sight unfolding before his eyes now was larger and more overwhelming than anything he had ever imagined.

Could the knight of the blue moon do this too?

Could that knight like a fortress wall who accepted him split apart a Death Worm too?

Was this the true world of knights?

[... If your world is firm enough not to be shaken by anything.]

Looking at a scene that surpassed common sense, the boy sank into deep thought.

The world of knights was like a mountain with no end no matter how far one climbed.

The boy was feeling, painfully, that he had only just managed to stand at the starting line.

Rutiger was kneeling on one knee with his sword planted into the red-hot ground.

Bayezid's sword was looking at the boy and smiling.

* * *

"Welcome back."

"..."

His appreciation was over.

Now it was time to return to reality.

Led by the pitch-black fellow, Vlad plodded over and jumped down from the horse's back.

"Are you all right?"

"... I want a glass of cold beer."

Rutiger, who was trying to stand on the ground where the heat could still be felt, barely supporting himself with his sword.

"Whoops."

But perhaps the strength had gone out of him, for he flopped down onto the ground in an undignified heap.

The price for temporarily expanding his world was coming due now.

"... Ugh, are you not going to help me up?"

"I'm dying too."

The Death Worm's corpse still twitched intermittently even now.

With that enormous thing in front of him, Vlad also ended up sitting down on the ground.

Feeling his backside warming up, Vlad dropped his head.

He had not come on vacation for this.

"You rode pretty well."

"I wasn't the problem."

At the boy's sly answer, Rutiger merely laughed.

The knights who had been driving the Death Worm to create an opportunity for Vlad to escape also gradually began gathering around Rutiger.

"Not bad for a kid."

"Let's have a look at you sometime later."

"Good job, brat."

Bayezid's knights passed the boy by, hitting his back and ruffling his hair when they could have just spoken kindly.

"..."

Looking at the knights who showed him affection without hesitation, Vlad felt an emotion he had not felt in a long time.

If one could laugh even in a bloody place, it was surely because of the warmth people created.

In the back alleys.

And even before the burning corpse of the Death Worm.

The boy and the knights, who had faced the powerful enemy called the Death Worm, were no different from comrades-in-arms for today.

"Lord Rutiger! Are you all right?"

Other knights came rushing in with the creak of carts.

The knights who had been standing by up ahead while protecting the pilgrims realized the situation was over and approached Rutiger while leading the priests.

"... Heh."

Vlad smiled as he saw Priest Andreas being brought on a cart.

Because the world he had protected was there.

"Vlad?"

Andreas, who had been retching on the cart with a pale face, recognized Vlad and looked puzzled.

"Yes, Father."

Vlad, who stood while clutching his trembling thighs, approached Andreas.

Perhaps because his tension had loosened, the boy's staggering movements looked pitiful enough even to the eyes of the flustered priests.

"Oh... I see."

With a drained expression, Andreas opened both arms and welcomed the boy coming toward him.

"... You did well. Thank you."

He had been far away and did not know the full details, but the small wounds on Vlad's face were telling him.

That the boy had done his best.

"Come here. Vlad of Soara."

Embracing the priest who opened both arms toward him, Vlad closed his eyes.

A warmth as warm as the sunlight on the day he had spoken his name before God was conveyed to him.

"O God. Today, the boy who received Your will here acted by his own will, so have mercy on him..."

Listening to the prayer Andreas recited, Vlad finally let out a sigh of relief.

At Rose's Smiles, he had not been able to protect it.

Because the boy back then had been a weak existence.

But today, by his own choice, the boy had protected Andreas.

The boy, who had protected one of the roots that made up his world, was someone who deserved comfort.

Because the boy had struggled for this very moment.

Listening to the sound of the priests' prayers quietly echoing over the blue grassland, the knights silently closed their eyes.

* * *

Sturma at twilight.

At the Bayezid mansion, Ragmus opened his mouth to Peter, who was looking out the window with his hands clasped behind his back.

"Count. This is a message Dorothea sent through the crystal orb."

With an indifferent expression, Peter accepted the note Ragmus handed him and began reading down it.

His jet-black eyebrows twitched and began to twist.

"... I sent them just in case, and now this."

The words written on the small piece of paper.

Among those words was a sentence conveying ominous news.

"Black magic again?"

"It seems there are some of them based in the North."

At Ragmus's words, Peter turned his head and looked at the red sun resting on the castle wall.

Sturma.

A city built up with Bayezid's blood.

The walls surrounding the city were the same as the history of the family.

"Now that the empire has grown loose, the cursed old things are quietly raising their heads."

"..."

At Peter's lament-like words, Ragmus could not give any answer.

Time flowed, and eras changed.

And Peter Bayezid might well be the person serving as Family Head in perhaps the most chaotic period in the family's history.

"Still, is there not one piece of news that offers some comfort?"

"... Yes. That squire."

Peter recalled the name in the last sentence written on the note.

Vlad, the squire his son had brought.

"Lately, I keep hearing that one's name."

"Outstanding ones tend to stand out no matter where they are."

The squire who had caught his eye even in the sparring matches between squires.

From the monster subjugation carried out last winter to this matter with the pilgrims now, if that boy had not been there, Bayezid might have suffered hardship.

He was an admirable one.

"Those who are qualified have the right to enjoy what is due to them."

With those words, Peter rang the small bell on the desk.

The silver bell rang out with a clear sound that carried even beyond the office.

"Did you call, Count?"

"Bring Joseph here."

"Understood."

The butler who had received the order left the office.

"Do you intend to grant permission?"

"He is qualified."

In his heart, Peter wanted to praise him greatly, but that admirable squire was, after all, Joseph's.

Even if he sponsored him or gave him a reward, it would be right to do it through Joseph.