Chapter 86 - Now Live Up to Your Name (3)

The winter of the North was cruel, but the winter of the West was no less so.

The winter of the barren wasteland, with nowhere to hide, was merciless to the people of the West with its blade-like winds.

Just like here, right now.

"... You should have offered up your neck instead."

Gaidar's lobby.

The knights' hall.

The man seated at the highest place there had a frame that radiated intimidation to anyone who looked at him.

"To have your sword taken from you. Can you still call yourself a knight after that?"

Count Sigmund Gaidar.

The new conqueror of the West, who had driven out the Romanov Family, was looking down at his son without hiding his rage.

"I am sorry, Father."

Ishtvan, his usual self nowhere to be seen as he trembled in terror, could only bow his head before the biting words flowing from Sigmund.

BANG!

"I thought we were finally managing to establish our position, and then you go and ruin it like this!"

Bloodshot eyes and a trembling beard.

The armrest of the chair, unable to withstand the pressure of his grip, was crushed to pieces.

The greedy conqueror of the West felt rage boiling through his entire body at the news of defeat his son had brought him.

"Not even that oh-so-great Rutiger bastard, but some green brat who only just received his knighthood?"

It was a duel he could not afford to lose.

More precisely, it was a duel he had been certain he would win.

But Ishtvan had lost, and as the price for that, he had handed over his own sword.

To be precise, it was as if he had handed over every sphere of influence over Deirmar to Bayezid along with his sword.

"What were you doing! What in the world were you doing while my son was being humiliated!"

A painful mistake and a painful loss.

At the bitter taste of defeat, something he had not experienced in a truly long time, Sigmund's anger spread in every direction.

"I have no excuse, Count."

Though the rage came flying at him harshly, Godin only stood there with perfect posture.

"You said he was someone you knew!"

"... If one must make the connection, he is likely someone with ties to you as well, Count."

There had been an old connection.

Though it had been an ill-fated one, and he had thought he had finally cut it off, a thread-fine bond still remained in Soara.

"He is the boy raised by Jorge, the deserter knight. His talent was excellent, and the caliber of the knights around him was also high."

Sigmund flinched for a moment at the name Jorge.

"Above all, they made good use of the advantage of their home ground. He was an unexpectedly difficult opponent."

In that duel, Ishtvan had been crossing swords with Vlad, but Godin, who had been standing there as an observer, had been locked in an unseen contest of strength with Jager on the other side.

He had been a knight who gave off such a strange presence that Godin wondered why his name was not better known in the North.

"Jorge...that son of a bitch."

As Sigmund listened to Godin, he dug through old memories.

That knight, whom his uncle, the previous Family Head, had especially cherished, had been a bastard who had refused to acknowledge him even to the very end.

That was why he had killed him.

"And yet, right up to the very end, he still finds a way to fuck me over."

The troublesome dwarf liberation front.

And now, the brat from the North who had newly raised his head.

The ashes the knight named Jorge had scattered behind him were still tormenting Sigmund.

"... Gaidar must not be robbed of anything."

Whatever was in your hand, shove it into your belly by any means necessary.

Then, with your two remaining hands, seize what belonged to others as well.

Only then could one survive in this harsh West.

All his life, he had stolen, broken, and toppled.

From enemies, from strangers, and even from family who shared his blood.

And thus, the one person who remained whole in this place now.

"Bring back my son's sword, by any means necessary, Godin."

"Understood."

He was a usurper who could not tolerate defeat.

He was Count Gaidar.

* * *

"Are you really not coming?"

A snowy morning in Soara, with flakes falling thickly.

Vlad stood in front of the stable Marcella had specially expanded and stared at Noir.

NEIGH!

I am not going to work today.

Watching the black horse, who seemed to be saying exactly that, Vlad could not help clicking his tongue.

"I don't think this thing is a horse."

[Being too smart is a problem too.]

The stable was spacious enough to hold five horses.

But the only horse resting inside it was Noir.

The heaps of hay piled here and there so he would not be cold and the mash boiled nice and warm clearly showed what kind of luxury this fellow enjoyed at Rose's Smiles.

"... Who would believe that bastard used to be a wild horse?"

Noir had followed the boy and given up his freedom, but in exchange, he was now fully enjoying the benefits of civilization.

Seeing Noir lying comfortably and grinning with his gums bared, Vlad found anger surging up in him.

At least when it was a mission, he came running in a hurry, so Vlad had no choice but to take comfort in that.

"Ah, it's cold."

Leaving behind Noir, who refused to listen to him to the very end, Vlad stepped through the snow piling up to his ankles and headed for Soara's city hall.

Now that he had become a knight, he could have called a carriage and ridden around, but the sorrow of hunger that had soaked into his bones always made Vlad a frugal man.

"This is the first time I've ever received something called a salary."

Vlad had lived his whole life without ever receiving fair payment.

From the time he had been a vagabond of the back alleys, to Jorge's dagger, and then to when he had been Joseph's squire.

The occasional bit of spending money had been the means by which the boy had survived until now, but from today onward, things would be different.

"Sir Vordan. It's me."

"Sharp as a knife. Come in."

A knight who could not wield a sword.

Standing before Vordan's office, Vlad smelled the sweet scent spreading from every direction and stepped inside.

"Your face is positively blooming."

In that place, where piles of snacks were strewn about messily, there was a plump man who looked as though he needed to take care of his health as much as Joseph did.

"Shouldn't you get some exercise?"

"If you move around too much, you die young."

With words that did not sound like a knight's at all, Vordan took a small pouch from a drawer and set it on the desk.

"You knew how to read, didn't you? Then I'll give you an itemized statement too, so wait a moment."

Though knights occupied a position close to minor nobility, there were many who did not know how to read.

But Vlad, even if he stumbled through it, could read and understand, so writing it down on paper rather than telling him verbally would be the proper procedure.

"..."

With a scratching sound, Vordan wrote out the statement.

Watching him, Vlad opened the pouch of gold coins with a swift motion of his hand and checked inside.

It was truly the hand movement of a former pickpocket.

"Four gold."

Though his eyes were on the paper, it seemed his ears had been turned toward Vlad, for Vordan coolly told him the amount of this month's salary.

"Why? Disappointed?"

"... No. I'm not."

Though he said no with his mouth, to be honest, he was disappointed.

'If you count it over a year, that's fifty gold...'

Before meeting Joseph, the money Vlad had saved over his entire life had been a little under one gold.

The unadorned sword, now broken and gone, had been five gold.

Compared to the past, it was certainly a luxurious amount, but for Vlad now that he had become a knight, four gold was definitely not enough to satisfy him.

"What a brat."

Looking at Vlad, who was still showing how inexperienced he was, Vordan let out a small sigh.

Because he felt like he understood why Jager still kept the boy close.

"Knights don't save money through salary."

"Then how?"

Vordan, who seemed to have finally finished writing the statement, put down his quill with a tap and looked at Vlad with a meaningful smile.

"A knight must follow honor, bear obligations, and carry the responsibilities that come with them."

"... And?"

At Vordan's words, which had suddenly moved from talk of money to the foundation of knighthood, Vlad grew bewildered.

"That is all money."

Everything of value could be converted into money.

Vlad knew that money was precious, but he was actually ignorant about how to earn it.

Because he had lived his whole life starving, he longed for it, but having never truly experienced it, he did not know what to do.

"The price of honor will be paid all at once at the end of the year. Under the name of what you might call a special allowance."

A well-fed cat does not hunt mice.

If one wanted money and honor, one had to earn accomplishments equal to them.

"You can look forward to it a little."

Just as Vordan said, the boy had been one of the protagonists who had raised Bayezid's name high over the course of this year.

Peter, the Family Head, Rutiger, who had borrowed the boy for his own use, and Joseph, his original lord, would all surely take that fact into consideration.

"Then what about the price of obligations and responsibilities?"

Now that he was beginning to understand Vordan's words, Vlad's eyes sparkled as he anticipated the next gold coins, but Vordan merely shrugged.

"I don't think that's something you should be asking when you came back carrying a treasure of the Heinal Family."

"That isn't mine. Strictly speaking, I only borrowed it."

Vlad protested to Vordan in an aggrieved voice.

Because it felt as though he was remembering all the teasing he had received from his senior knights the entire way back to Soara.

"If I'd known it was that kind of thing, I wouldn't have accepted it."

"Yes. Keep maintaining that stance in front of others too. That is your justification."

"..."

He had not known the amber would be interpreted that far in this way.

He had taken it thinking only that he would have to be ordered around by Alicia here and there, but if it had been an object with such significant meaning, he would have thought about it one more time.

"Even if you become a noble later, you must not forget me."

What was wrong with aiming to rise in the world as a knight?

Watching Vlad try hard to hide his flame-like ambition, Vordan gave him a look that said he understood everything without being told.

Along with the message that Joseph was looking for him.

"You knew, didn't you?"

[... Isn't it good? Being a noble.]

Stepping out into the corridor, Vlad could only sigh at the voice's answer.

There was no one in the world he could trust.

It was a world where the one who got played was the sinner, so Vlad merely blamed his own state of mind for having grown soft, even if only for a moment.

* * *

"I will give you a patrol district."

A bottle of wine warming near the stove with a fragrant scent.

A one-eyed knight sitting at the guest table with his eyes leisurely closed.

And Ishtvan's sword, standing against the wall.

"Now that you have become a knight as well, you must bear more responsibilities and obligations."

Only then did Joseph set down the documents, pick up the wine bottle placed beside the stove, and begin pouring it into a glass.

Among liquors, he liked whiskey the most, but in winter, when the weather grew cold, he would drink warmed wine with spices good for the bronchial tubes floating in it.

"Am I doing it alone?"

"I will give you guards, but the person in charge will be you alone, entirely."

Vlad had done well until now.

He had carried out the missions given to him splendidly and had brought Bayezid value beyond that.

So he had to be raised further.

"It will be a completely different position from being a squad leader in your mercenary days."

"Understood."

Receiving the wine glass Joseph handed him, Vlad accepted the warmth rising into both hands.

"The district should be the back alleys, of course. Others might find it troublesome, but for you, isn't it practically home?"

"That is true."

From the moment he had opened the city gates in the dark night with nothing but a word until now, Vlad had still not been aware of his own position.

But that was fine.

For the young Vlad, time and experience would become medicine.

"You will probably be short on people. The guards are personnel who have to be used here and there, not only for patrols."

There were six knights in Soara.

With the exception of Jager and Vordan, who had special duties, all of them, like Vlad now, took charge of their own districts and handled public order.

And to make that duty certain, they maintained order by hiring their own people, not only the troops Joseph provided.

Because that was both a knight's obligation and also his privilege.

"I will support the wages for up to four people. Try hiring people to serve under you."

A knight was one who stood at the front.

Someone who could become a representative anywhere.

Now that Vlad had become a knight, he had the right to hire and command his own people.

"Now you must live up to the name of knight."

More responsibilities, more obligations.

And more interests.

Even now, Rose's Smiles was full of merchants waiting for Vlad.

They were all people who had foreseen the current situation.