new nest (1)
The black eyes I had seen for the first time in a long time were looking at me.
The corners of his eyes were slightly bent, as if he was about to smile, but his expression looked uncomfortable.
Vlad was also contemplating whether to laugh or not as he looked at that expression.
“Why you?”
His master left in the winter but met him in the summer.
Josef’s eyes, which seemed to have become slightly darker, raised sharply towards Vlad.
“Are you going to commit incidents just by coming here?”
“······sorry.”
Vlad quickly lowered his head in response to Josef’s reprimand.
It was a fact he himself knew well that his record at Deremar was spectacular.
“You broke and ate the Hainal family heirloom… “It’s really absurd.”
Josef, leaning heavily on his chair as if he was embarrassed by what he said, sighed deeply.
Even though he strengthened his relationship with Deermar ahead of the great war, he came to eat Hainal’s heirloom.
Josef still felt good about Alicia’s tears welling up at Vlad’s words.
“I went all the way to the east and nothing has changed.”
A one-eyed knight who opens his mouth on behalf of Josef, who is speechless.
Even though he had banished him as a sign of self-respect, Xayar was casting a harsh look with his only remaining eye at his disciple who was still causing accidents.
“······.”
It wasn’t that Vlad didn’t have something to say, but he also knew that he wasn’t in the right mood to say it right now.
Vlad, who had spent his entire life watching people’s opinions, realized that he had to keep his mouth shut for now.
“You idiot.”
Xayar’s new type that rolls over like a wave with a short shout.
Activating the magical steps that were his foundation, Xayar struck Vlad’s shin without the slightest hesitation.
“······!”
“Hi!”
But he didn’t hear the screams of someone he expected.
The sound of the wind passing by fiercely.
The only thing that came back empty was his kick that cut through the air.
“······.”
“······.”
Vlad is now stepping back to avoid Xayar’s kick.
Contrary to his embarrassed expression, Josef slowly pulled up his upper body, which was leaning on the chair, as if he was surprised to see that he had clearly widened the gap between them.
“ah.”
Josef is making a subtle expression while looking at himself, and Zayar is still standing with one foot raised.
Vlad, who was examining the atmosphere in the office while rolling his eyes, cautiously opened his mouth.
“······This was supposed to be right, right?”
“······I guess so.”
Seeing Vlad subtly sticking out his shin again, Xayar couldn’t help but make a bewildered expression.
As expected, this guy was unpredictable.
From when we first met until now.
“As expected, you idiot.”
Taaaak-!
A light hitting sound was heard inside the office.
Vlad’s blonde hair flutters wildly.
Jayar succeeded in hitting the back of the head rather than the outstretched shin.
“You always told me to prepare for the follow-up hit.”
Seeing Xayar secretly smiling at him, Vlad laughed along with him a little.
“sorry.”
Everything was the same as before.
Josef, who is looking at himself with his back to the sunlight, and Jayard, who is standing still next to him.
Although he was being scolded, Vlad somehow felt relieved to see that nothing had changed.
※※※※
“Baron Alicia said she would let this matter pass quietly. Thank her for her generous forgiveness.”
“yes.”
Josef and his party left the mansion and were inspecting the temporary garrison set up within the territory.
Tents and bonfires spread out everywhere.
Looking at the thin smoke rising from wherever the soldiers were gathered, Vlad thought that it was a sight that did not suit Deermar.
“From today, you will officially be working as Alicia’s knight, not under my command.”
“Do we really have to do that?”
“Now is the time to be careful.”
In this war, Vlad had to act as Vlad of Alicia, not Vlad of Shoara.
Vlad was still an outsider of the Vatican’s eyes, and the Vatican’s army was confined to the northern part of the country, so there would be no harm in being careful.
“How long will I remain under Alicia’s command?”
“why? “You don’t really like it, do you?”
“It’s not like that, but…”
Vlad hesitated in response to Josef’s question.
Even though Vlad had never fought in a war, there was one thing he understood well.
“I guess I like the title Vlad of Shoara better.”
“hmm.”
Josef and Zayar nodded to Vlad’s words as if they made sense.
The honorary title given before a knight was important in revealing not only affiliation but also identity.
Therefore, no matter how much Vlad had a connection with the territory of Deermar, he had no choice but to be reluctant to give up the title of Vlad of Shoara.
“Still, it would be good to have a little attachment to it.”
However, Josef just looked around the military camp while leaving a strange comment.
“Alicia said she would let it go quietly, but she didn’t say she would just let it go.”
It was a precious heirloom handed down from the ancestors who first founded the family.
No matter how much Vlad was Deermar’s benefactor, this was something that he had to take some responsibility for.
“The Baron requested priority negotiation rights for you. “After our seven-year contract ends.”
“Right to negotiate?”
Josef and Vlad were not bound by a contract pledging lifelong loyalty.
The seven-year contract in exchange for opportunity and trust was now in its third year, and after the contract ended, Vlad was completely free.
“Can I refuse?”
“Then… you’ll probably be sad.”
He wasn’t forcing a contract anyway, he was just asking him to talk to him first before going to another lord.
Alicia, the lord of Hainal, wanted to have a knight named Vlad under her command.
“Anyway, is the horse still okay?”
“Are you talking about Noir?”
“Yeah, that guy. “You are famous for not listening.”
However, all these conversations will ultimately only happen after the war is won.
Vlad’s affiliation may be close to Hainal on the surface, but Josef holds the command.
Josef had already planned out in his head how he would write the article Vlad.
“The troops stationed in Deremar will continue to focus on the castle, but it would not be desirable to just wait with bated breath.”
The group made their way to the outskirts, wading through the tents erected here and there.
There was another tent erected there, far away from the other tents.
It was a tent that stood alone, as if it couldn’t blend in.
“no-! “Who is this?”
A tent with a noticeably different appearance from Josef’s tent, which was unified in one color.
Vlad’s eyebrows furrowed as he saw the man walking out from inside.
“Why is that guy here?”
“That was the contract to do so in the first place.”
Josef shrugged his shoulders and looked at Vlad.
“Say hello. “I think we will have to move together in the future.”
Vlad looked forward while listening to Josef’s words, which for some reason sounded ominous.
A man who approaches him with his arms outstretched so that anyone would mistake him for being a close friend.
Braided hair, tattoos everywhere.
“It’s been a while!”
Age of the Budaat tribe was smiling brightly while looking at Vlad.
※※※※
“You have achieved success. Sir.”
“shut up.”
Vlad wiped his face with both hands while listening to Stefan.
Seeing him like that, Stefan just chewed the beef jerky and laughed.
“Raising a position in the first place is a great thing in itself. Besides, didn’t the driver say that this was his first time in war?”
“······It did.”
Vlad listened to Stefan’s words and looked at Noir purring inside the stable.
Puh hing hing-
A guy who doesn’t listen, is rough, and lives for his own good taste.
However, the son of the prairie is fast enough to offset all his shortcomings.
“Besides, it’s not just a reconnaissance team, it’s a strike team. “Based on my experience, this is a really good opportunity.”
Josef was paying attention to the mobility that Vlad and Noir had.
And I planned to use soldiers suited to its mobility and try to control Gaidar at least once.
“Since you are in charge of a squad and not just an ordinary knight, you will definitely be able to do a great job in this war.”
“······If the barbarians listen to me.”
Vlad was put in charge of the Budaat warriors by Josef.
Among the knights Joseph brought with him, he was the only one who had any connection to the barbarians, so it was not an incomprehensible choice at all.
“Where are you going.”
“walk.”
“I will go with you.”
“no. “Don’t follow me.”
It was good for the barbarians that Vlad, whom they knew, became the leader rather than strange guys they had never seen before, and Stefan was promoted to Vlad’s lieutenant as soon as he was hired, so it was a good thing for everyone.
That is, except for Vlad, who has a complicated mind.
“It’s not a place that anyone can enter.”
“All right.”
Vlad decided to get some air for a moment to unwind his tangled brain.
In the first place, there was someone who was desperately looking for him.
As the sun gradually sets, Vlad leaves the garrison crowded with soldiers.
Vlad walked into the backyard of the quiet mansion and made eye contact with a white figure bobbing on the hill.
“Why on earth are you looking for me like this?”
On a low hill, a huge tree with the Hainal family emblem engraved on it.
There stood a white snake snooping its head towards Vlad.
※※※※
“······Sniff.”
A white slug wriggling alone in a large room.
The moonlight starting from outside the window illuminated Alicia’s figure as she rolled up the blanket on the bed.
“······What if I really break it just because I gave it to you?”
The red tip of her nose and the handkerchiefs scattered on the bed showed that she had been crying profusely just a moment ago.
No matter how strong a dam is, it can collapse from even a small crack.
Alicia had been able to withstand the evil intentions coming at her from all directions, but in the end, because of the Amber Stone, she finally let out what she had been holding back for so long.
“My father left it to me.”
It was an heirloom handed down from her ancestors, but for Alicia, it was one of the few items that reminded her of her father.
But you broke it.
No, did you say it melted?
“Okay.”
I guess it didn’t matter.
Because now one of my father’s traces will never be seen again.
Alicia, who stood up wiping away tears, decided to take comfort in the fact that she did not shed tears in front of people.
“it’s okay. “I gave it to you to use it like this anyway.”
Her father had said that the yellow amber stone contained incomprehensible divine protection.
That’s why I lent it to him, and in the end, he came back in good health.
Alicia tried to think like that and nodded as she looked at herself in the mirror.
“But I didn’t just eat the sesame seeds.”
Alicia, who was sitting on the dressing table next to the bed, sighed as she looked at her swollen eyes and took out the letters that Vlad had given her in place of the amber stones.
“Aussurin… they are elves.”
Forest of the Elves, Aushurin.
It was a place where only rumors abounded as it never gave its side to humans, but I had heard that elf goods were being sold at high prices from the center these days.
‘······If I do this well’
Although Vlad lost the amber stone, he brought a personal letter from the elves instead.
Perhaps the letter I am holding now is more valuable than the amber stone my father passed down to me.
Alicia had a vague idea of the value of the letter she was holding.
‘Ugh!’
The moment Alicia opened the envelope of the letter said to have been sent by the elves, a sudden wind blew and she closed her eyes.
“······What is this.”
Alicia, who was already very depressed, panicked at the sudden wind and went to the window and started rubbing her eyes.
While Alicia was rubbing her eyes, the wind that started inside the envelope soon began to travel around and decorate her room with the refreshing scent of the forest.
“······.”
Alicia barely opened her eyes to the night breeze blowing through the window.
As she was looking out the window, what caught her eye was the image of someone climbing up a hill under the shining moonlight.
“Now I come and go like my own home…”
Alicia, who knew who it was just by looking at the colors sparkling in the moonlight, watched Vlad’s back up the hill with his lips pursed.
A bow to the tombstones.
I waved my hand towards the tree of Hainal.
And Vlad, Alicia’s knight, standing on the hill.
“huh?”
At that moment, Alicia was embarrassed by the sudden sight and rubbed her eyes again.
“There are no fireflies on that hill?”
Fireflies were visible.
Powders of light started from Vlad.
Although she couldn’t clearly tell because she was looking at it from a distance, Alicia could clearly see lights floating on the hill.
Clearly, tiny fireflies that looked like they had just been born were coming out of Vlad’s sword.
