Chapter 73 - The Dragon with a Cold Heart (3)

CRRUNCH!

"Grgh... uhhhhh."

With a feeble scream, the barbarian man's eyes began to roll back.

Even the red tears he shed last with that scream froze in the cold breath.

A vivid red scattered over the pure white snowfield.

And heaps of barbarian corpses spread across it.

No, those who had not yet become corpses were desperately crawling, trying to escape the white dragon, but their pitiful struggles were futile.

Because the arms and legs that should have moved them had been sliced off and were rolling across the snowfield.

CRUNCH, GRIND.

The dragon, its mouth smeared full with bright red blood, lifted its head as if satisfied.

They were different from the tough-tasting orcs.

They were different from the rank-smelling monsters.

The white dragon Lindwurm.

The dragon, whose tongue had been branded with the taste of humans by someone's design, opened its mouth wide and let out a roar.

It was an enormous sound that even the scattering snowy fog could not swallow.

* * *

"Lord Rutiger has arrived!"

"Open the gate!"

At the gatekeepers' shouts, the gate suspended from thick iron chains began to lower.

Rutiger looked at the gate slowly descending before him and rested his hand on the hilt of his sword.

Uninvited guests, the dragon killer knights.

There had to be a reason those who had never shown the slightest interest in the North had suddenly come all the way to this place at its northernmost edge.

And there had to be a reason they had raised their flag over the fortress without the permission of the one in charge.

"Lord Rutiger!"

"Report."

Unlike usual, Rutiger crossed the gate over the moat with a hardened expression and quick strides.

A knight hurriedly ran out to him and began reporting the situation.

"The dragon killer knights sent from the center arrived about two days ago."

"The reason?"

At Rutiger's presence, which had changed in an instant, the knight swallowed without realizing it and opened his mouth.

"They say it is for the subjugation of Lindwurm."

"... Those bastards have quick information."

Rutiger clicked his tongue at the knight's answer and showed a fierce expression.

Sending an armed group into another lord's territory was an act beyond rudeness, nearly a declaration of war, but the dragon killer knights now in Berenheim Fortress were people who had entered with sufficient justification.

"Too fast. Far too fast."

The dragon killer knights.

As their name revealed, they had been made to kill dragons, and they were an organization run by the Dragonblood Duke, a noble of the center, with the guarantee of the imperial emperor.

In other words, when it came to matters related to dragons, their activities were guaranteed under imperial law together with the emperor's guarantee.

They had entered after setting up both a flag and a cause, so the knights in the fortress would not have been able to do anything about them.

"..."

Vlad followed behind the hurrying Rutiger, looking here and there out of habit.

Built of stone because there were no trees nearby, Berenheim Fortress had narrow stairs and winding corridors, an obvious structure that made its purpose clear at a glance.

"Berenheim Fortress is also called Bayezid's beacon tower."

"There must be a beacon tower on top of this place?"

At the question of whether there was a beacon tower large enough to be seen from far away, Lamund merely shrugged.

"This place itself is the beacon tower. When it burns, it can be seen well from far away."

"... Ah."

At Lamund's offhand words, Vlad looked carefully at the surrounding walls once more.

They had tried to cover them with lime plaster, but black scorch marks could be seen here and there.

Taken, and taken back again.

A fortress burned black and rebuilt once more.

To barbarians and monsters, it was a great wall, and to Bayezid's people, Berenheim Fortress was a place like their unyielding will itself.

"They are waiting up ahead."

"..."

They had raised their flag without anyone's permission in a place that was like Bayezid's pride itself, so Rutiger had no reason to try to hide the anger boiling up inside him.

"You have finally come. I was waiting."

The corridor was narrow, but the lobby had been built wide because knights needed to gather there.

At the highest point of that place, built up step by step with Bayezid blood, stood a man greeting the party.

"It is our first meeting. I am Mircea, Captain of the dragon killer knights."

The man in shining silver armor looked down at the party as they reached the lobby with an easy smile, as if this place were his own home.

Though he looked arrogant, his aristocratic appearance made even an expression that would have repulsed others suit him.

"... An honored guest has come without my knowing."

The moment his eyes met Mircea's as Mircea looked down at him, Rutiger's heart beat violently.

Because he was enraged by Mircea's attitude, daring to suppress the presence of the one who was master here.

"Rutiger Bayezid. Acting commander of Berenheim Fortress."

Seeing Rutiger's black eyes looking straight at him without yielding in the slightest, Mircea's smile deepened.

THUMP.

And Vlad, who had been looking at the man named Mircea, also felt his chest shake.

Because he could feel the same sensation from the man up there as when he had seen the Death Worm.

A beating heart was not something one could control by will.

Because it moved only as instinct.

"...!"

Forcing his heart to calm, Vlad lifted his head and was startled when he saw Mircea looking back at him from there.

The boy was not the only one who had moved by instinct.

"Were the corpses of the barbarians outside made by the dragon killer knights?"

"... That is so. It was necessary."

At Rutiger's question, Mircea naturally composed his expression and answered with an easy smile.

There were barbarian corpses rolling across the snowfield with terrible wounds, and their deaths had been caused by sharp swords, not brutal teeth.

"Lindwurm is the fastest individual among the remnants of a fallen dragon. It means it cannot be caught up to and cut down."

Joseph had tried to convey information about Lindwurm to Rutiger through Age.

But Mircea before him was a man who already held information about Lindwurm even without the existence of Age.

Because the dragon killer knights, created under the permission of the Founding King Frausen, had their own experience accumulated over several hundred years.

"If it cannot be caught, then we have no choice but to call it over. The corpses outside are bait for that."

"You son of a bitch!"

Before Mircea had even finished speaking, Age was trying to rush forward with a roar of fury.

"You imperial bastards! You filthy dogs who deserve to be chewed to death!"

If his sword had not been taken from him in advance because he was a prisoner, he would have drawn it.

If Lamund, who had been watching him, had not tripped him, he would already have charged up toward Mircea.

"Grgh! Move, old man!"

"... Say one more word, and I will cut your throat."

Age's anger was righteous.

Who would not spit out fury upon hearing that their own kin had been used as bait?

But no matter how righteous one's anger was, to become justified it needed strength to match.

The anger of powerless barbarians was merely a worthless thing rolling on the floor, like Age now.

"The son of Bayezid keeps an ill-mannered dog."

Mircea looked coldly at Age, who was shouting himself hoarse at him.

"And a cat as well."

Dorothea quickly lowered her head as she saw the cold gaze fall upon her.

It was not because she feared Mircea's gaze, but because she feared her existence would become a burden to Rutiger.

"I wonder if they have been trained properly. Lowly things sometimes forget their station."

"..."

At Mircea's words, Rutiger quietly fell silent.

The nobles of the center, and the lords of the central region.

Those who believed themselves to be the center of the world often sneered at those outside in this way.

Not only at barbarians and beastfolk, but at the people of the North as well.

"... Even so, are they not standing in their own place?"

Rutiger nodded as if he had made up his mind and breathed out.

Whether it had been intentional or not did not matter.

The noble bastard before him had crossed a line, and Rutiger was the one who represented every northerner in this place.

The anger he had always hidden deep in his chest behind an easy smile began to seep out little by little.

Rutiger's world was a hot red like an active volcano.

Toward Mircea, who stood where Bayezid should have stood, a thick anger like lava began to unfurl.

"Then should you not find your place as well, Captain Mircea?"

One step, then another.

Rutiger climbed toward the highest point, treading on the stairs Bayezid had built.

Each time he advanced toward Mircea with the dignified steps of one who had the right, the dragon killer knights around them began placing their hands on their sword hilts one by one.

"Whose permission did you receive to raise your flag?"

At last, Rutiger drew so close that their foreheads could have touched, and without the slightest movement, he looked into Mircea's blue eyes.

"I requested it. Since no one would move, my subordinates raised it."

He did not growl like Age, nor did he pressure the other man with a smile like Mircea, but simply remained still like that.

"Whose permission did you receive to climb up to this place?"

"... Well now."

It was not unexpected, but seeing Rutiger openly attempt a contest of strength, Mircea gave a cold smile.

"The dragon killer knights, who face dragons like calamities, have the right under imperial law to make proper use of all facilities and personnel in imperial territory."

"On the condition that they receive the master's permission."

Rutiger and Mircea slowly turned their bodies according to the pressure of their colliding presences.

Rutiger's presence, backed by rightful authority, was pushing Mircea toward the stairs.

"Are you saying you will not cooperate?"

"I intend to cooperate."

Rutiger's finger pointed toward the lobby below.

"If you go through the proper procedure."

The Bayezid knights, understanding Rutiger's intention, hurriedly opened the lobby doors and began running toward the highest place in the fortress.

"Ask that your flag be raised, Captain Mircea."

"..."

The highest place in the fortress.

Beside the Bayezid flag emblazoned with a sturdy fortress wall, the dragon that had been fluttering there was lowering its head.

"Ask us to cooperate so you may hunt the dragon on Bayezid land."

Their lord, qualified, legitimate, and sworn to loyalty, bared his teeth at the dragon slayers.

"No one move."

"The master of this place has not given permission."

The Bayezid knights who spat out sharp warnings had already surrounded the dragon killer knights and were blocking their way.

Rutiger and Mircea.

The Bayezid knights and the dragon killer knights.

The sharp presence they created wrapped around the lobby with a cold deeper than the snowy chill of the north wind.

"Let us start over from there."

Mircea turned his head and looked in the direction Rutiger was pointing.

The center of the lobby.

A position where he would have to lift his head to look at Rutiger.

"You will regret this."

At Mircea's low threat, Rutiger merely gave a low laugh.

"Life is nothing but regret no matter what you choose."

And the black eyes passed down through Bayezid blood looked at the man before him together with the thick aura seeping out like lava.

Blond hair and blue eyes.

And an aristocratic appearance.

At the man with a cold heart, who used even living people as bait for a dragon.