Chapter 49 - Because I promised I would return (2)

Every sword has its own use.

Just as large swords and small swords are used in different situations, and a sharp sword cannot be said to always be better than a dull one.

Vordan, who was always scolded by Joseph, was also such a person.

He was old, fat, and a knight who couldn't even wield a sword properly, but Joseph chose to keep him by his side.

Because he was a person with a clear and definitive use.

"Have you thoroughly blockaded the other alleys as well?"

"Of course... I did my best."

The mayor of Soara continuously wiped away his sweat with a handkerchief while nodding at the fat knight in front of him.

He was just a mere knight, but he knew the behind-the-scenes affairs of the municipal administration so well that the mayor had no choice but to surrender.

He merely wondered where on earth this man had rolled in from.

"That is why I must ask, how could you let things grow to this point in the first place? To the extent that the Count himself found out."

"Because that man named One-Armed Jack is so resourceful... But after today, won't Soara's cancer be removed!"

The mayor continually displayed his embarrassment while looking at the knight backed by the Count's authority, but Vordan just smirked at his words.

'You're the cancer.'

Birds of a feather recognize each other.

How could a man named One-Armed Jack have manipulated the massive ecosystem of the back alleys?

It must have all happened under the tacit approval of this man holding the title of mayor.

"Anyway, when will the knight who is to enter arrive? The one you said the Bayezid Family specially sent..."

The mayor had assembled not only the soldiers but all the knights dispatched to Soara, but Vordan refused them, saying someone else had been assigned this task.

This task wasn't simply about executing a back alley boss named One-Armed Jack.

It was also Vlad's official debut arranged by the Bayezid Family.

"He's coming right there."

The back alley street illuminated only by faint light.

A young man was walking alone down that path.

Drops of blood that had yet to dry dripped from his trailing sword.

"Just one?"

"..."

The mayor looked puzzled as he could see only a single figure no matter how hard he looked, but Vordan merely answered with silence.

"You're here?"

"Yes. Sir Vordan."

The boy with the thick smell of blood drifting from the cloak he wore.

The mayor, seeing Vlad for the first time, was surprised once by his appearance and surprised again by the aura he exuded.

'What a mismatch.'

A beast's expression was contained within his delicate-looking face.

His blonde hair, which anyone would admire, gleamed wet with blood, and his vivid blue eyes harbored a bizarre light that shone vividly blue even in the night.

"I've made the preparations."

"Thank you."

"Instead of doing this alone, how about entering with the soldiers even now? If you get badly hurt, I truly won't have the face to see Joseph."

Vlad smiled upon hearing Vordan's words.

His consistent attitude of always worrying about his own safety was somewhat trustworthy in a way.

"Even if I get hurt, I'll make sure no harm comes to Sir Vordan."

"... I'm saying that won't work."

Having confirmed the boy's resolve, Vordan personally moved and unfurled Vlad's personal flag.

It was a flag with only two crests embroidered on it so far, but being able to raise this itself was an item of great honor for an individual.

"Is that a Banner?"

"I thought it was a lost tradition."

The soldiers began to murmur softly beside Vlad and Vordan as they walked.

The sight they were about to witness was nothing less than the reenactment of a scene fading from the history of the North.

"Plant the flag in the ground."

"Yes."

Vlad planted his flag, handed over by Vordan, into the ground.

This land is my domain from this moment on.

Under the honorable names that guarantee me, I will exercise my own rights from now on.

Including your lives.

"Good."

Having confirmed that the boy's declaration was properly established, Vordan took a parchment from his inner pocket and unfolded it.

The boy held the honorable flag.

The fat knight held the Count's decree.

The two swords each had their assigned roles.

"Listen here, back alley ruffian One-Armed Jack! All this time, you have ignored the rules and laws set by Bayezid and sucked the lifeblood of the people!"

On behalf of Vlad, who was weak with formalities and procedures, Vordan unfolded the parchment and read its contents.

If someone were seeing him for the first time, they would have raised their hands in admiration, thinking a knight truly is different, upon seeing Vordan shouting confidently.

"Thus, I, Peter Bayezid, the rightful lord of Soara, can no longer stand by and watch your atrocities, and so I send my representative, Vlad! From this moment on, all authority he exercises is a right simultaneously proven by me, the rightful lord of Soara, and the faithful Church!"

When the decree—drafted by Joseph, approved by Peter, and declared by a knight of Bayezid—concluded, the roars of the soldiers began to resound loudly.

"Bayezid! Bayezid!"

"Kill One-Armed Jack!"

"God protects him!"

"One-Armed Jack and his subordinates, open the doors! Accept the rightful representative!"

However, even after Vordan's solemn declaration ended, Rose's Smiles remained firmly shut.

It was likely an obvious choice.

Whether they opened the doors or not, what awaited them was merely harsh ruin.

"My job is done."

"Thank you."

Vlad, who had finished wiping his unadorned sword, quietly steadied his breath upon hearing Vordan's words.

"I'll say it again, you don't really have to go this far. There are at least fifty men inside. Therefore..."

"I said I would do it this way."

"... Understood."

Seeing the firmly resolved blue eyes of the boy, Vordan nodded and took a step back.

Since he's a kid who even has his own world, his stubbornness must be exceptional as well.

After all, only those who were certain of their own path could wield aura.

Vordan's task, having come down to assist the boy in place of the immobile Joseph and Jager, was now complete.

He had excellently intimidated the mayor and succeeded in mobilizing Soara's administrative power to blockade One-Armed Jack.

Now, all that remained was the rightful representative's execution ceremony.

"..."

Vlad closed his eyes, quietly raising his unadorned sword.

The surrounding soldiers nodded at Vlad's appearance, looking as if he were praying.

Everyone thought it was truly a look fitting for a rightful representative, but as always, the reality was entirely different.

[They should already be preparing.]

'I know.'

[You must widen your field of vision. It will be a completely different battle from what you've had so far.]

'I'm prepared for it.'

Vlad, who had succeeded in establishing his own world.

The boy no longer spoke out loud to converse with the voice.

Because there was a horizon that connected across the boundaries between worlds.

[Start off spectacularly. The basic rule of every battle is seizing the initiative.]

Upon hearing the voice's final advice, Vlad closed his left eye.

A halo of light slowly began to seep into the unadorned sword.

"It's aura!"

"At that age?"

The murmuring soldiers.

And Jack's subordinates, who were monitoring the situation from the windows, also closed the curtains in shock.

The secret of a one-hit kill comes from unpredictability.

And the boy, currently making his aura shine, was unpredictability itself.

"... I am Vlad of Soara."

Within his own world, Vlad thought.

If he hadn't brought Godin that day, could Jorge have lived?

If One-Armed Jack hadn't threatened Jorge, would he have brought Godin?

"Before I am a rightful representative, I am also a rightful avenger."

The countless 'what ifs' he had agonized over wandered through the boy's mind, but ultimately, the conclusion they led to was singular.

He had to kill One-Armed Jack.

"I came here to end our conflict."

His world is eating away at my world.

Just as Joseph said, one must cut off messy ties to move forward.

"I have returned, One-Armed Jack!"

With a single shout, the boy charged toward the broken nest, Rose's Smiles.

I have returned.

To finish everything.

CRASH!

The firmly gathered world of the boy cleaved apart Jack's world.

Under the boy's intense pounding, the stolen Rose's Smiles finally opened its embrace.

* * *

ARGH!

"What kind of strength...!"

The men who had been blocking the doors were knocked backward, rolling pathetically on the floor.

These men, mere syndicate members, were lacking in many ways to block a single strike from a boy who had achieved his own world.

"Stop him from coming in!"

"Strike him down!"

Amidst the scattering wooden splinters.

The boy's blonde hair fluttered.

Along with drops of someone's blood.

Someone's blades flashed from all directions as soon as he entered Rose's Smiles.

They thrust sharp blades toward the boy charging in while smashing the doors, but.

CLANG! CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!

The flashing counterattacks of the boy forged a path through the rain of malicious blades.

Your downward strikes are incredibly weak compared to the knight who was like a fortress wall.

"Aaaagh!"

"This crazy...!"

Vlad was no longer someone who used half-baked counterattacks.

If you create an opening, you must dig into it.

To dig in, you must extend your sword.

Jager had said so.

Godin had cut down all of Jorge's daggers with a single strike, but Vlad couldn't go that far.

However, dealing with a few men surrounding him would be possible.

"Haaah!"

The boy's sword emitted a flash of light for a moment.

Having instantly lost their balance, Jack's subordinates merely offered up their frail bodies without any recourse.

From the tip of the boy's sword, roses brilliantly bloomed just like that day.

"Throw the nets! The iron nets!"

Jack's subordinates panicked at the boy's movements, charging fiercely like a wild bison.

The boy radiating light before their eyes was not the Vlad they knew.

"Hurry!"

Jack's subordinates, having finally grasped the reality of the situation, struggled desperately, but Vlad did not move as they intended.

SWOOSH!

The massive lobby, and the upper-floor corridors squarely enclosing it.

Iron nets were being thrown from up there.

The nets fell flawlessly onto the spot where the boy was, but Vlad had already widened his field of vision according to the voice's advice.

"..."

Detecting the malice, Vlad swiftly rolled his body along the familiar entranceway he could walk even with his eyes closed.

It was the entranceway he had always mopped.

"He's too fast!"

"He won't reach from our side!"

Escaping the nets with rapid movements, Vlad skillfully hid behind pillars and moved in the men's blind spots, relentlessly swinging his sword at those standing around helplessly.

"Aaaagh!"

"That bastard is too fast!"

Jack's subordinates could not handle the movements of Vlad, who possessed an innately agile disposition coupled with advanced training.

The boy was the potential that Bayezid, the prestigious family of the North, was keeping an eye on.

"Just block the stairs! There's only one staircase here!"

"Block it tightly and force him to charge at us!"

When their prepared tricks were thwarted, Jack's subordinates quickly swarmed toward the central stairs.

Preoccupying a high and narrow point being advantageous was one of the basic common senses of strategy.

'...! '

And that common sense was something the boy also knew well.

Vlad's eyes gleamed as he watched Jack's subordinates swarm toward the stairs.

The secret of a one-hit kill comes from controlling the battlefield.

Breaking the enemy with unpredictability, controlling the battlefield, and trapping the opponent within one's own world.

If that is possible, you can deliver a fatal blow to the opponent.

"What is that!"

Vlad quickly ran toward the windows near the entrance and slashed the cord of the large curtain hanging by the window.

Then, grabbing the rope that naturally retracted upward, he leaped toward the second floor.

It was the curtain he used to tie up on behalf of the short red-haired girl.

"Crazy! He flew up!"

"Raise your weapons! He's charging in!"

Jack's subordinates, trapped by the boy's intentions, tried to form a wall to block the charging Vlad, but it was already too late.

"Is this all you've got! You sons of bitches!"

Vlad furiously shouted as he cut down the men.

The blades the men thrust forward were incredibly sharp, but the directions they came from were merely dull.

Sparring with Jager was far more threatening.

"Aaaagh!"

"Bows! Bring the bows!"

It was an appearance far quicker than expected, but a few who knew how to shoot bows came down from the third floor and nocked their arrows at Vlad.

"..."

The first floor was the lobby, the second floor was the brothel.

"Shoot!"

The boy swiftly threw open a room door to protect himself from the arrows.

It was the door to the room where Anna used to be, who had been unfairly beaten for the candles being too short.

THUD-THUD-THUD!

The arrows, which couldn't be dodged in the narrow corridor, were blocked by the doors attached to the whores' rooms.

The room doors that Marcella had specially ordered were now being turned into rags by Jack's subordinates, but she would forgive him.

"Argh!"

Vlad violently shoved Jack's subordinates, who hadn't yet managed to escape their positions, into the open rooms.

The men, suddenly trapped in the cramped spaces, began to flail about.

"Die!"

"Aaaargh!"

The men, thrown onto the beds in place of the whores, were being pierced by a sharp sword.

One whore per room.

The candle boy, Vlad, diligently followed the rules of Rose's Smiles.

THUD-THUD-THUD!

Throw open a door to block the arrows.

Grab someone and stab them.

Repeating this incredibly simple process, Vlad pushed forward.

Toward One-Armed Jack, who would be on the fourth floor.

A short 20-silver candle only provided a brief time to vent out lust, but no one would be able to complain anymore.

Because the men Vlad shoved into the rooms would be lying on those damp beds forever.

"Go up! Go up!"

"That crazy son of a bitch!"

"Is that really Vlad?"

Jack's subordinates, unable to stop the boy on either the first or second floor, were running up toward the third floor.

The formation they had arranged at the start had long since collapsed.

[It looks like you've cut down over twenty men...]

The voice was left at a loss for words, watching the boy display movements far superior to its expectations.

His inherent talent, his fierce efforts, and even his intense will to accomplish his goal.

When it came to killing people, the boy was a more natural-born existence than anyone else.

"Block the stairs!"

"It's fine! There are no curtains this time!"

Jack's subordinates, blocking the stairs once again, raised their weapons and stared at the boy as if thinking this was their last chance.

"Come at us! You son of a bitch!"

"... Huu."

Vlad, who had swung his sword relentlessly, paused to catch his breath and assess the situation.

No matter how much he had established his own world, throwing his body toward such a narrow opening was something to be declined.

'Was it around here?'

Vlad looked up and slowly walked down the second-floor corridor, which was now littered only with corpses.

There were traces he needed to find.

'Here it is!'

His senior and mentor, Burleigh, was good at finding shortcuts but had a lazy nature.

Perhaps because of that, Burleigh was also a man who possessed a natural talent for haphazardly patching things up.

That opened a path for the boy.

It was a trace that might perhaps be his last consideration for his junior.

CRACK!

"... What's that?"

"Why is that breaking open?"

The second-floor ceiling was breaking open even though he merely brought the tip of his sword to it.

It was the spot Burleigh had repaired.

Vlad smiled toward Jack's subordinates, who were stupidly holding their weapons.

"I'm coming in. You bastards."

"Stop that guy!"

"He's coming up. That crazy bastard is coming up!"

Leaving behind the men's seizure-like shouts, Vlad sheathed his sword and rapidly sprinted down the corridor.

"Stop him--!"

Using the momentum gained from there, he leaped up and skillfully placed his hands on the pierced floor above.

Shooting up through the hole using his freed hands, Vlad once again succeeded in quickly drawing his sword.

"Haa..."

A rightful avenger.

A natural-born killer.

Vlad, having successfully made it up to the third floor, casually brought out a water pitcher from one of the whores' rooms, looking as relaxed as if he had just returned to his own home.

"..."

Seeing Vlad act this way, Jack's subordinates were utterly overwhelmed.

Just what exactly did he have to go through for a person to change like that?

"Should we take a quick break? I can keep going though."

"F... fucking hell!"

The boy smiling while downing water from the pitcher's spout.

Watching his smile deepen the more of them he killed, Jack's subordinates plummeted into panic.

"I need to collect the rent for letting you use my house all this time. You bastards."

Jack's subordinates probably thought this place was their domain, but that was a miscalculation.

This was Rose's Smiles.

The boy's nest.

The Boy Who Bloomed Roses

The night in the back alleys is brighter than the day in the city.

Because it was a place gathered with those who could only survive in the dark, most of the people living in the back alleys naturally operated at night.

It went without saying for the syndicate members of Captain Hoover, whose main business was smuggling.

A lame man named Haven, one of Captain Hoover's members.

He was currently suffering a headache while holding a document.

"One-Armed Jack is going crazy..."

The ledger he was holding had blank spots everywhere, but Haven, who had to fill them in, was completely at a loss about what to write in the document.

One-Armed Jack, who practically ruled the back alleys.

With Whores' Knight collapsed and other organizations severely shrunk, there was now no organization that dared raise its head against him.

Only Captain Hoover, who engaged in the special trade of smuggling, was somewhat free from Jack's checks, but even that was now a thing of the past.

"... If he keeps pillaging so openly like this, what are we supposed to do?"

Haven cupped his face with both hands and let out a deep sigh.

One-Armed Jack used to be someone who always kept the line.

Proficient at squeezing a dry rag to produce a single drop of silver coin, he was someone who avoided pushing his debtors to a dead end.

It meant that while they might not have been geese that laid golden eggs, he tried not to cut open the bellies of people who were at least as useful as mice.

However, One-Armed Jack had been showing a completely different side since Jorge's death.

He exploited people so viciously that even street thugs wouldn't go to such lengths, and as a result, the economy of the back alleys itself was collapsing.

Some said Jack was completely living at the bottom of a liquor bottle and not managing the organization at all, and Haven thought that might truly be correct.

The Money Bugs, with no one left to keep them in check, were gradually falling to ruin.

"I'll have to submit the report for now."

In the end, Haven had no choice but to list the items that had been plundered by Jack's subordinates again today and report it to Hoover.

He would definitely be yelled at, but it couldn't be helped.

Because that was the task Haven was in charge of.

CREAK!

Coming out of a room barely big enough to fit a single desk, Haven ran into a young syndicate member who was coming inside just in time.

"Haven! Did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

The syndicate member in charge of patrolling the area spoke to Haven with a flushed expression, as if he had caught wind of something massive.

"The back alleys have been blockaded?"

"Why?"

"They say someone came from Sturma to catch One-Armed Jack. Soara's guards have entirely surrounded this place."

"Ah..."

Hearing those words, Haven let out a lament.

So it's finally come to this.

One-Armed Jack had finally crossed the line.

Thinking it was only natural, Haven put weight on the cane he was leaning on.

Anticipating that a whole lot of work would pour in once he was caught and dragged away.

"By the way. Weren't you close with that kid?"

"Who are you talking about?"

The syndicate member's words were heard behind Haven's back as he was heading to Hoover's office.

"I'm talking about Vlad."

"... What about Vlad?"

When the nostalgic name he hadn't heard in a long time flowed out, Haven turned his back and looked at the member speaking to him.

"Why bring him up all of a sudden?"

"Well, I didn't see it for myself, but..."

The member scratched his head and spoke in an uncertain tone.

"They say the executor who came from Sturma is blonde. On top of that, he apparently called himself Vlad of Soara. So isn't it that kid?"

"What?"

Hearing the familiar words, Haven felt strength gathering in the hand holding his cane.

"... Is that true?"

"I'm telling you. They say he planted a flag right in front of Rose's Smiles?"

"..."

Blonde, Vlad, and Rose's Smiles.

They were all words connected to a certain someone.

Haven's heart was pounding.

"Take this."

"Huh?"

After handing over the bundle of documents he was holding to the syndicate member, Haven hastily started walking outside.

"Where are you going!"

"I have to go. I have to go check."

Haven, who was sensitive to information and news, already knew about the existence of Vlad of Soara.

Bayezid's young squire who supposedly exerted aura in a duel at Deirmar and played a great role in the recent Death Worm hunt.

'It might be real!'

But he couldn't be absolutely certain it was the Vlad he knew just from the circulating rumors.

Because he had done far too incredible things.

The Vlad he knew was certainly a kid with potential, but it was hard to believe he had accomplished such great deeds.

"You're going to get whipped again!"

"Tell them I'll be a little late!"

Haven stepped out into the blockaded streets to verify if it was the blonde he knew.

His limping steps, relying on a cane to walk, were distinctly more crooked than before.

* * *

"You should've at least gotten some teeth filled in."

"Heeu..."

Vlad looked at the man weakly meeting his gaze at his feet.

It was the guy who had come in with One-Armed Jack and knocked over the candle box back when he was Jorge's candle boy.

The teeth of the guy he had struck back then were still empty.

"I guess you won't need them anymore anyway."

Vlad slowly slid his sword into the chest of the quietly fallen man.

"Guhhh..."

Perhaps because his lung was pierced, the man couldn't even let out a proper groan before slowly dropping his head, frothing blood from his mouth.

"Haa..."

Vlad let out a short sigh and looked back at the path he had walked.

A blood-filled corridor.

Smashed stairs.

Silent whores' rooms.

All of One-Armed Jack's subordinates, numbering over fifty, lay collapsed, pierced by the boy's sword.

All holding their breath.

[This is enough.]

"..."

Hearing the voice's words, Vlad swung his unadorned sword to flick off the blood.

The boy had deliberately driven himself down a path of hardship.

As long as he set the knight of blue moonlight as his goal, Vlad had to somehow keep up with the footsteps he left behind.

"Yes. I think this is good enough to some extent."

And although it wasn't perfect, Vlad was able to recreate the sight of that day to a certain degree.

The place was filled with the roses the boy had bloomed.

"... I need to finish this."

Wiping away something indistinguishable as either sweat or blood from his forehead, Vlad leaned against the wall for a moment and looked at the stairs leading to the fourth floor.

The first floor was the lobby. The second and third floors were the brothel.

And the fourth floor was the syndicate members' space.

That was where the Whores' Knight used to be, always sitting in the same posture and polishing off his set meals.

"..."

Vlad stepped up the stairs heading to the fourth floor one by one.

CREAK!

The ominous sound from that day was still ringing out here.

The stairs needed repairs, but the fact that they had been neglected for half a year also meant that Rose's Smiles hadn't received proper maintenance during that time.

'Marcella would be appalled.'

Ascending the nostalgic stairs, Vlad absentmindedly had the same thought as in the past.

However, the boy climbing the stairs was no longer the Vlad who sold candles.

"... I'm here, Boss."

The rightful avenger and the representative of an honorable man had finally come up to the end.

"Oh, yeah. Top prospect. Welcome."

Whether he had shoved all his subordinates down to the third floor or not, only One-Armed Jack was sitting on the fourth floor.

Jack turned his head and patted the seat next to him as if welcoming him, but Vlad didn't even budge.

"You're no fun."

When Vlad simply stood there without a word, exuding a menacing aura, One-Armed Jack turned his head and raised his shot glass alone.

This would probably be Jack's last drink.

"So you really are Vlad of Soara. I did hear the rumors."

"Did they spread all the way here?"

"I should have brought you in the year before last. Who was in charge at the time again."

One-Armed Jack frowned as he thought, then ended up laughing.

"Well, that bastard is probably already dead too."

Jack tossed the drink from his glass into his mouth, slowly stood up, and faced the boy.

"Still, it's a relief it's someone I know."

Jack pulled up his waistband and tidied his attire, then looked at Vlad with a short sword resembling a cutlass in one hand, and a hook drawn in the other.

"I left you alone because I didn't feel like it all this time, but I'm naturally a person who finishes things thoroughly."

A messy tie.

A world that eats away at his own world.

"..."

However, facing One-Armed Jack directly, he did not feel the presence from back then when the boy had looked up to him.

It was partly because Jack had fallen, but also because the boy's world had expanded that much.

One-Armed Jack's world could no longer confine the boy.

"Here I go."

Even though he was like an enemy, Vlad decided to give One-Armed Jack his final respects.

CLANG!

Even if it was an incredibly rough back-alley style of respect.

"Keugh!"

Jack crossed his sword and hook to block Vlad's sword.

He blocked with both hands thinking he needed at least this much to stop it, but Vlad's momentum up close easily surpassed his expectations.

"Yeah! You must have been at least this good to crawl your way up there!"

Jack genuinely admired the boy's growth.

Jack also had something called a dream.

Though its shape might have been different, he too was a man who harbored a star.

Thus, he could understand the adversity the boy had gone through.

"Splendid!"

"..."

Sparks burst out amidst the clashes of swords.

The boy was struggling against the world that had ensnared him for a long time.

Knowing that Jack's world could no longer confine him.

"Gngh!"

Jack did his best to receive the boy's sword.

Even if he staggered, even if he looked ugly.

This would probably be the last image and choice he could take.

"Jorge would have loved it if he saw this!"

"Shut up!"

Seeing Jack daring to bring up Jorge despite being his enemy, Vlad shouted fiercely.

He was a man who could not be forgiven.

He was the son of a bitch who contributed to killing Jorge, swallowed the broken Rose's Smiles, and sold off Marcella.

You must die miserably.

"Heu... haha!"

Amidst pain and regret, emptiness and calmness, Jack swung the hook on his left arm.

Because the cutlass he was holding was already rolling on the ground along with his right arm.

He knew a day like this would come eventually.

He had only lived fiercely, hoping that today wouldn't be his last.

'This is rather better!'

One-Armed Jack genuinely thought so.

Because it would be better to be trampled to death by a young world trying to climb over him, than to be crushed to death under a massive world like Jorge was.

If his life was going to end here anyway, he just wanted to end it by his own choice.

"You'll climb higher than I did!"

"I told you to shut up!"

The boy, who had not yet retained the depth of time, merely swung blows filled with rage without properly understanding Jack's words.

However, even if the boy's heart was hot, the sword he held was incredibly cold.

"Keugh!"

That coldness pierced through Jack's innards and burst out his back.

Bright red drops of blood dripped from the blood-soaked tip of the sword.

Cutting off the messy tie to become truly free.

"Any last words?"

"..."

The boy panting pathetically.

Seeing the boy who crawled up here with all his might, Jack quietly raised his hook and pointed to where he had been sitting.

"... Rest up before you go. Good work."

"... What?"

With those incomprehensible words, One-Armed Jack took slow steps backward, one by one, pulling himself off Vlad's sword.

"Heuuk!"

Even with the pain of his innards being pulled out, he forcefully stood up and stumbled backward toward the railing.

"... This is enough."

With a sigh, Jack lifted his head and looked at the ceiling.

He looked back on his life, watching the kaleidoscope of memories flashing by within the ornate chandelier.

"I did well enough."

He was satisfied.

He lived wickedly, but his life was fierce.

Even though his end was pathetically crumpled under the weight of a massive world, it wouldn't just be his fault.

"..."

Lastly, Jack yelled loudly toward the building he ultimately could not have.

"I enjoyed my stay, Jorge!"

Vlad watched One-Armed Jack slowly fall backward.

Over the railing and into the lobby.

His final sight falling from the fourth floor down to the first floor.

CRASH!

A world that plummeted down, just like Jorge did that day.

In a silence akin to death, only the falling drops of blood showed the passage of time.

"..."

Revenge is sweet.

Therefore, it is something that must be done.

However, the bitterness lingering on the tip of the boy's tongue could not be helped.

Vlad, having finished everything he needed to do, finally walked toward the table where Jack had been sitting with exhausted steps.

"... Oh."

There were two shot glasses waiting for the boy there.

Vlad saw a full glass of liquor placed next to the one Jack had emptied.

Realizing what Jack had meant earlier, Vlad quietly sat down and stared at the liquor glass poured for him.

The seat where the boy with his head bowed sat.

Two empty shot glasses.

"... I'll give it back, Boss."

And a single gleaming gold coin.

The boy returned the gold coin One-Armed Jack had given him that day.

Because a knight must only accept rightful compensation.

This was Rose's Smiles.

A place where people passing by momentarily pooled together.

Today, a single water droplet that had been pooling here trickled out into the world.

Leaving a small ripple in the boy's world.