Chapter 8 - The Broken Nest (1)

A man in armor sat on a rock, wiping his sword.

"You can't fool age. These days the winter wind cuts right into my bones."

The sword he grumbled over was stained with vivid red blood.

"..."

Behind the rock where he sat lay a corpse even the falling snow could not fully cover.

Its eyes were wide open, unable to close.

"You've drifted quite far in the meantime, senior."

The man was wiping his sword while reading a bloodstained letter.

There was a sound reaching his ears from far away.

"Not bad at all."

A thin cry echoed, as if about to break off yet never quite stopping.

It was the call of a cuckoo.

* * *

"It has been a long time, Jorge."

"..."

Instead of answering, Jorge looked at the drops of blood hanging from the tip of the man's sword.

"Who did you kill?"

"Your security is as thorough as ever."

Vlad swallowed hard and stared at the man before him.

The man, whom he no longer knew what to call, was smiling as he looked at Vlad.

"He was a useful youngster."

"Why have you only come now?"

Standing behind Jorge, Vlad could feel it.

Of all the people Vlad had ever seen, the largest and strongest had naturally been Jorge.

But at this moment.

The man who walked with slow steps past Jorge and picked up a bottle of liquor looked larger than Jorge before him.

"Count Gaidar has passed away."

"...!"

Jorge's eyes went wide as he heard the man's words.

"I heard no such..."

"There are complicated circumstances, so it has not yet been announced, but soon everyone will know."

The man spoke as he swirled a glass full of liquor.

While looking at Jorge.

"To the pitiable Count Gaidar."

"You bastard!"

Before the man had even finished speaking, Jorge charged with a roar like a beast.

His movements were nimble beyond belief for something that came from such a huge body.

"And..."

SHATTER!

Jorge's fierce strike split the glass, and the liquor inside spilled out.

"To Lord Sigmund, the new Count Gaidar."

But the one Jorge had thrust his sword at was, at some point, standing behind him.

"Go--din!"

"Lord Sigmund, who has become the new count, has given his first command."

With a deep cry forced up from his lungs, Jorge's upper body hardened like a solid mountain of stone.

"The deserter knight Jorge is to return."

"Sigmund is not my lord!"

Muscles that had been hidden beneath flesh until now found their true form.

And from the wounds that burst open again as much as they found that form, streams of blood ran down.

"Of course, the count does not believe you will return quietly."

But despite Jorge's threatening appearance, the man called Godin spoke without losing his composure.

"Nor does he wish for that."

"You sons of bitches!"

CRASH!

Show seventy percent and hide thirty.

For that moment, whenever it may come.

"Aaaah!"

"Marcella!"

And in this moment, Jorge's strike, which revealed his true self without reservation, was truly destructive.

Though there was no aura, half of the fourth-floor boards were breaking apart from a single swing of Jorge's sword.

It was a blow so fierce that all of Rose's Smiles lurched for an instant.

It was the strike of a knight that Jorge had hidden until now, and it was like the desperate struggle of a wounded beast baring its injuries.

"Huuup!"

Vlad hoisted the staggering Marcella onto his back and quickly escaped the danger zone, dodging the collapsing floor.

With movements that were agile, but just as urgent.

And the moment he thought he had barely escaped and looked back.

"What the..."

There was an unreal sight there.

"Guhah!"

Scattering drops of blood and a breaking railing.

The strongest person the boy had ever seen was falling.

Down.

Down.

"You still make foolish choices, Jorge."

By the knight with his left eye closed.

Along with Jorge's fall, the boy's common sense and faith were shattering.

CRASH!

A powerful noise made by a massive body.

At that sound, everyone in Rose's Smiles rushed out in shock.

"Jorge!"

Vlad hurriedly grabbed the railing and looked down at the lobby.

"Cough..."

There, the boy's world, miserably broken, was twitching and vomiting blood.

He had been the first to reach out a hand to the boy who had rolled through the back alleys.

The first to acknowledge him.

And the person the boy had thought was the strongest of all he had seen.

"Boss!"

"What the hell!"

He was twitching in a ruined state.

The organization members were flustered, not knowing what to do in the sudden situation, while Jorge, covered in blood, struggled somehow to stand.

"Ughhhh..."

The organization members on the first floor crowded in panic, but Jorge only let out rough groans.

Only Vlad, who had seen everything, could predict what would happen next.

"Shit!"

The knight who had opened his closed left eye was about to leap down toward the first floor.

With blue aura like moonlight wrapped around his sword.

"Jorge!"

"...!"

Seeing that, Vlad warned Jorge and threw the dagger he had on him.

It was a strike from a boy who had never learned any particular knife-throwing technique, but was skilled at throwing stones.

CLANG!

For a very brief moment, Vlad's action succeeded in hindering the knight's movement toward the first floor.

"Hraaaah!"

And it bought time for Jorge, who had barely risen.

"..."

The knight's passing gaze pierced coldly into Vlad's eyes.

CRASH!

When the aura Godin held met Jorge's sword, blue afterimages like moonlight wrapped around Rose's Smiles.

It was like wind, and like mist.

"Ughhhh!"

Though he was wounded, Jorge succeeded in deflecting the knight's aura-laden strike.

It might have been a success that would happen only once.

"Godin..."

Killing intent streamed from Jorge's eyes after he had barely received the attack, but Godin, who faced it, merely wore a subtle expression.

"You should have obeyed the order."

"... I am a person. I do not obey shit orders like that."

"No."

Godin spoke without erasing the smile from his lips.

"You are a knight."

It was only a brief conversation of a few words, but countless emotions passed between the two men.

Just like the two swords pressed against each other, still growling.

"Tonight has been too long for me, Jorge. I would like to rest now."

"What?"

But Godin had nothing more he wished to say to Jorge.

He only wanted quiet rest.

* * *

"It's dangerous, Vlad. Don't go down!"

In that moment when no one could move easily, Vlad shook off Marcella, who grabbed him and called it dangerous, and leaped down to the first floor.

'I brought him here!'

Responsibility, self-reproach, confusion, anger at having been deceived by someone.

All kinds of emotions were mixing together inside the soul of the sixteen-year-old boy.

The boy had done nothing wrong, but Vlad did not think so.

The size of the vessel the boy had been born with made him think that way.

As Vlad went down to the lobby through the creaking stairs as if flying, he saw the organization members who had been holding their breath slowly rising.

"No!"

Realizing what they were trying to do, Vlad let out a scream-like shout.

The man called Godin was a knight.

And a knight who knew how to wield aura at that.

He was a being mere men who rolled around the back alleys could not approach.

"Don't!"

To stop them, Vlad grabbed the railing outright and was about to leap from the second floor when he suddenly felt the back of his neck go cold.

It was an ominous sign caught by keen senses and smelled by innate instinct.

["Duck!"]

"...!"

Following the voice that rang like thunder inside his head, Vlad quickly lowered his head.

SLASH.

A few strands of hair that failed to avoid the moonlight scattered through the air.

Blue moonlight approached silently.

And dozens of roses it created burst open everywhere.

Along with short screams.

"...!"

"Urgh!"

The roses called forth by the moonlight spread red everywhere.

Reds born from hearts and only now coming out into the world revealed their existence without restraint.

Over the antique decorations Marcella had cherished.

"Aaaaargh!"

Soaking the table where Vlad sat and sold candles.

"Guh!"

They painted Rose's Smiles generously in red.

"Guhhh..."

With the final death cry, a terrible silence settled over Rose's Smiles.

"Hah... hah..."

Vlad stayed tightly crouched, panting as he replayed the sight that had just unfolded.

It had been a single swing of the sword.

At least, that was how it looked to Vlad.

It was a single swing with nothing special about it, but the result it brought was ruinous.

Rose's Smiles had fallen silent.

"Y-You..."

Vlad forcibly held on to his trembling legs and crawled down to the first floor.

Tears and saliva he himself did not even notice were falling to the floor.

"Fuck... fuck!"

The first to greet Vlad when he finally descended to the first floor was Burleigh.

It was Burleigh's corpse, having poured out every bit of life and now growing cold and stiff.

"Ugh!"

Unable to control the emotion boiling up inside him, Vlad glared around with bloodshot eyes.

CREAK.

In the middle of the lobby where no one moved, someone was approaching, stepping on the broken wooden floor.

It was Jorge.

"You bastard!"

Jorge's head, held in Godin's hand, looked at Vlad with eyes that had lost their focus.

They were empty eyes that could hold nothing more.

"Aaaaaah!"

["Do not!"]

The boy, having lost his reason, picked up a sword from among the corpses and charged at the knight who had called down the moonlight.

It was agile and nimble, and as fierce as a strike unleashed by a wounded beast.

Just like someone from moments ago.

"Die!"

Vlad moved not by reason but by anger, yet there was one Sword Path engraved into his body.

The last must always be done with everything.

Focus all mind and strength.

Bring it down.

Tuck the elbows in!

"...!"

In that instant, the drops of blood on the boy's sword formed a thin line.

A beautiful curved trajectory.

It was a Sword Path.

It was the first gateway to becoming a swordsman instead of a mere blade wielder, and the path of the sword, a realm that ordinary effort and ordinary skill could not unfold.

The boy who had been stuck in the gutter was reproducing it.

With only his own strength.

"Splendid."

The downward strike filled with the boy's effort and rage shot toward the knight.

In that moment, even the owner of the voice ringing inside his head could only stare in a daze.

"A splendid downward strike."

But the path the boy created was too feeble to reach the world the knight had created.

THUD!

Godin did not even receive Vlad's sword.

He only dodged with a single movement, then lashed out with a kick.

Because the boy's strike had not yet reached a value that would make Godin draw his sword.

CRASH! CLATTER!

With a loud noise, the last remaining Whores' Knight rolled mercilessly across the blood-slick floor.

"Ughhh!"

["Breathe, boy! You must not lose consciousness!"]

He could not breathe.

It felt as if his chest had been completely blocked.

Even the voice buzzing inside his head was not enough to awaken Vlad's fading consciousness.

That was how powerful the blow had been.

"He has talent. He twisted his body by instinct."

Godin was once again surprised by the movements the boy had shown.

It had been a kick carrying enough force to break ribs, but the boy before him had succeeded in glancing it off through instinctive movement.

"You bastard..."

Though not perfectly.

Looking at the boy muttering a low curse, Godin fell into thought with his sword in hand.

"Kill me..."

The boy was telling him to kill him, but his eyes were still alive, and seeing them, Godin made his decision.

This sprout was too precious to cut down now.

Even if it might later return to him as a sharp sword.

"..."

The senior now held in his left hand had once said it.

That watching things with potential was always a joy.

... He had said that to Godin's former self.

"Boy who guided me. A knight takes only a proper price."

Godin decided to consider it a final gift offered to his senior.

THUD.

Something fell onto Vlad's head as he struggled to raise himself.

Something black.

"...?"

Vlad looked at what had fallen.

It was jerky.

The jerky Zemina had made for him.

"My name was not Stanga."

Another piece of meat fell onto Vlad's head.

"And my age was not forty-two."

"... What the hell are you doing!"

At Godin's humiliating treatment, a blue blaze swirled in Vlad's eyes.

"This is my proper price, so I will take it."

Godin held out Jorge's head as he spoke.

"But I received the wrong price from you, so I return it."

Vlad could not answer Godin's words in any way.

The winner above, the loser below.

Because deciding all of that was the right of the winner.

Godin turned away and spoke.

"With your life."

In Godin's left hand, Jorge's unfocused eyes swayed pitifully.

"Do not think of collecting the price for the second piece of jerky. That one tasted bad."

A drop of blood-mixed tears fell from the boy's eyes as he stared at Jorge swaying.

"I will kill you... I swear!"

Together with the sound of footsteps, the knight of blue moonlight was leaving.

After breaking the boy's world, which had stood firm until yesterday.

Crawling across the bloodstained floor, the boy cried out in a low voice.

But the person who should have heard his words had already left.

"I swear! Go-din!"

The boy's furious cry rang out toward the knight he now knew what to call.

Only the whores weeping with bated breath bore witness to that cry.

This was Rose's Smiles.

A brothel filled with red.

And the place where the boy's world was broken.

The nest that could no longer hold anything was filled only with muffled sobs.