Chapter 54 - In the New Soara (2)

The cries of livestock rang out from every direction.

Two men walked through the stench of blood that could be felt everywhere, stepping over the sticky reds of the mire clinging to the ground.

"This place is hard to endure no matter when I come."

"Mm."

Otar answered Vlad's grumbling briefly.

Because he, too, agreed with what Vlad had said.

The church did not look kindly upon those who handled the blood of dead things.

But most humans had no choice but to live on blood and meat.

The uneasy coexistence between the radiant word of God and instincts that could not be helped was right here.

The alley ruled by Black Bear the pig slaughterer, a street where red blood pooled.

This alley was older than the brothel streets full of lust, older than the gambling dens full of desire.

"The smell is dizzying."

"..."

With the weather growing hotter by the day, the stench of blood pooled on the ground was rising up nauseatingly.

An old and tangled alley, the smell of blood mixed with every kind of foul odor, and the eyes of people who lived side by side with death.

Vlad passed through them and stood before the largest building on this street.

It was decorated here and there with bones of unknown origin, enough that most people would have found it hard even to look at, but the boy born in the back alleys was already used to this atmosphere.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

A door knocker made from some kind of bone.

Vlad struck the door knocker, which looked as if it had been made in terrible taste, hard enough to announce his arrival.

"Who is it?"

"You must have heard already."

"..."

Vlad and Otar had noticed the gazes watching them from the moment they entered Black Bear's alley.

The sight of a boy carrying his own banner along with his brilliant blond hair was certainly enough to draw attention anywhere, not just in the back alleys.

"Wait."

The man harshly shut the small hole in the door, just large enough for only his eyes to be seen through.

"..."

But five minutes passed, then ten, and no matter how long they waited, no further word came.

["They’re testing your nerve."]

As the Voice said, Vlad received the kind of slight that was practically a tradition in the back alleys, and he raised his head to look at the sky.

A handspan of blue sky could be seen between the disorderly rising buildings.

'I don't think I should be getting ignored like this.'

Looking up at that small patch of sky, the boy sank into thought.

If he were Vlad of the back alleys, this level of disregard would have been nothing more than daily life, but what should Vlad of Soara do?

The boy, who had only recently heard of this thing called honor, fell into contemplation.

Clouds passed by.

By the time the color of the sky slowly began to turn red.

Only then, at long last.

CLACK!

"Come in."

Black Bear's building opened its doors.

"..."

It was a door that had opened after a long wait, but Vlad merely kept looking up at the sky as before.

Looking at the sky growing redder and redder, the boy made his decision.

He could not let this pass.

"Aren't you coming in?"

"... Yeah. I'm not."

"Oh, yeah?"

Looking at the boy holding his ground out on the street, the doorkeeper snorted.

As if he dared, in a place like this.

The street where the boy stood was a place ruled by Black Bear, the boss of the slaughterers.

"Then piss off."

But the doorkeeper should have realized.

That the boy before him right now was not simply preserving his pride.

The boy had come here bearing not only himself, but someone else's name as well.

"If you close that door now."

The boy's voice came from behind the doorkeeper as he tried to close the door with a sneer.

It was a voice carrying an intense presence unfitting for his age.

"You won't be enough to handle what happens today."

"What?"

For some reason, the doorkeeper felt a chill from those words and looked at the boy.

Blue eyes.

Inside them were none of the emotions the doorkeeper had expected, such as anger or fear.

There was only the figure of a boy who would simply do what he had to do with calm composure.

"You started this first."

Instead of answering the doorkeeper's question, Vlad took his banner from Otar and drove it into the ground.

The banner was still empty in places, but small as it was, the crest of the Bayezid Family was clearly embroidered on it.

"..."

The doorkeeper looked at the boy standing unwaveringly beside the banner and thought.

Perhaps the rumor that he had cut down the Money Bugs all by himself really was true.

Because that much presence was flowing from the boy's blue eyes.

"... Go in. I'll apologize."

"No."

In the six months he had spent away from Soara, the boy had seen, learned, and grown more than in the sixteen years he had lived in the back alleys.

What was needed at this moment was not anger or violence, but justification.

"Tell him to come out himself."

"... Who?"

The boy had learned by watching a young man who wielded justification, status, and fear as weapons.

How to make people kneel through force of presence, not violence.

That was the way of nobles.

"Tell Black Bear to come out himself and welcome the rightful representative of Bayezid."

The rightful representative of Bayezid.

The last remaining knight of the prostitutes.

And the boy who had destroyed an organization with his own strength understood his position exactly.

"This is the last chance Vlad of Soara is giving him."

The bosses of the back alleys no longer had the right to make the boy wait.

The banner the boy had planted in the mire swayed quietly.

It was a banner that only one who had proven his own honor could carry.

* * *

Outside Soara's city hall, a line of carriages was forming to leave the city.

If there were newly arrived people, there were also people who had to leave.

The knights and soldiers who had previously been stationed in Soara were once again returning to Sturma, the city where their lord resided.

Together with the former Mayor of Soara, who would be sitting with his head lowered inside one of the carriages.

"I'm sorry things turned out this way, though it wasn't my intention."

"He is merely bearing the consequences he created for himself, Lord Joseph."

Joseph, who had been watching that sight from the window, shifted his gaze to the sky with a faint smile.

"What I'm apologizing for is bringing that time forward a little."

The cloudless sky was clear without a single speck, but the city of humans beneath it could not be the same.

Unlike the sky made by God, the city called Soara had been made by imperfect humans, and so it could not shine brightly without a single blemish.

"I had no time either, so it couldn't be helped."

The former Mayor of Soara, whose municipal administration had been exposed to have all manner of stains, would ultimately return to Sturma and receive harsh punishment.

However, all these faults might have been things that could have been overlooked under normal circumstances.

He had merely delegated authority to one boss for the smooth management of the back alleys, concentrated security forces on ordinary citizens rather than insignificant people, and the donations from influential figures here and there might only have helped the former mayor's municipal administration.

If not for Joseph's sharp checks and Peter's tacit consent, that was.

"What did that boss called Black Bear say?"

"He says he will cooperate to the best of his ability."

Hearing Vlad's report from behind him, Joseph smiled.

"He must have been a man with some stubbornness and obstinacy, but the matter proceeded quite easily."

"... It seems the fact that I was from the back alleys as well worked well on him."

As if that could be true.

Joseph knew there must have been hardships of his own.

Yet even though it must have been work he was not used to, the boy had carried out the mission given to him admirably.

Joseph's intention to raise Vlad not as a simple swordsman, but as a more complete knight, was proceeding successfully.

"Good. You worked hard."

Joseph turned around with his hands clasped behind his back.

There stood the men waiting for Joseph's next words.

"As you all know, I have not yet taken complete control of Soara, and to resolve that, I must spend a very busy period of time."

The men standing behind Joseph.

Men of various ages stood at attention inside Joseph's office.

Five knights, one mage, ten administrative personnel, and thirty elite soldiers.

And even one squire.

All of them were the retinue for Soara that Joseph had newly assembled in Sturma.

And from now on, Joseph had to use them to seize control of Soara's politics, administration, public order, and military power.

For the sake of what might perhaps be the last chance given to him.

"With anything, breaking it in for the first time is always the most important and difficult part."

Joseph's retinue were people in the same boat.

If Joseph became the next Family Head, they would be promoted within the Bayezid Family, and if he lost the competition for Family Head, they too would end up like sailors on a sinking ship.

For everyone here, the city called Soara was like their final foothold.

"From now on, I will begin the work needed to rule Soara smoothly. I will proceed with all my strength, but for the time being, I will have no room to pay attention to anything other than this work."

Darkness was spreading throughout Soara, but Joseph was not yet prepared to stand against it.

However, one could not be perfectly prepared for everything.

If what he had done until now had been flailing, from now on it had to be a step forward.

"Therefore, I will entrust this matter to Sir Gregory. Select the members of the investigation team here and now."

At Joseph's words, a knight who was short but looked solid stepped forward and bowed his head.

"Thank you for entrusting me with such an important duty, Lord Joseph."

"I trust you will do your utmost in the mission."

Though he was not one of his own people, Joseph chose Gregory as the person to take responsibility for this matter.

Because Gregory, a knight who had always stood neutral within the family, was not someone who would be blinded by the conflict between brothers and ruin the work.

"... First, I would like to take Sir Cade. I judge that this matter will often require us to follow someone's trail. Therefore, I would like to work with him, as he is skilled in tracking."

Though Cade had suffered a serious injury facing the cursed woman during the last subjugation campaign, he had received another opportunity.

Feeling joy he could not hide, Sir Cade clenched both hands tightly.

"Permission granted."

"And..."

Gregory stroked his coarse beard and sank into thought for a moment.

Through a hint from Jager, he had already thought of a standard combination, but he decided to make a slightly unusual choice.

In truth, he had been curious all this time as well.

"I would like to take Vlad, Sir Jager's squire. He was the one who discovered this matter in the first place, after all."

"... Mm."

Joseph showed an unexpected expression at Gregory's choice, but nodded.

Because his choice was not completely incomprehensible.

"..."

Gregory's nomination and Joseph's permission.

The boy standing at the very back of the retinue looked at the knight who had named him.

His plump upper body, short legs, and physique that looked as if he might roll if pushed reminded Vlad of someone he knew well.

"I look forward to working with you, promising one."

Sir Gregory.

The man who had been watching the boy since his days at the Bayezid Family.

The knight who was Portly Kannor's father's cousin and also his guardian was looking at the boy and smiling.