A black horse and a young donkey (2)
The square jaw is as impressive as the wide shoulders.
A man who was short in stature but whose stature could not be called small.
The look in the man’s eyes did not falter at all despite Peter’s presence filling the room.
“To be honest, I don’t like it.”
Sigurdson looked at Peter with a gaze as crooked as the words he spoke.
It was a rude action in some ways, but Sigurdsson had a good reason for it.
“Why did you suddenly change the mayor of Shoara? No matter how you look at this, it seems like they are ignoring us.”
“…I never did it with that intention.”
The news of Josef, who had almost disappeared from office, caused great turmoil among the dwarves.
Anyone would feel embarrassed when someone they were working well with suddenly disappeared.
Peter thought he would be able to resolve this gap, but the world of dwarves, which he was encountering for the first time in his life, did not work as he expected.
“There will be no change in Bayezid’s welcome to Nidavellir. It’s just that the person carrying out the work has changed, so…”
“That’s the problem.” The chair
Sigursson
was sitting on was being pushed back with a sharp screeching sound on the floor.
The way he stood up showed that he did not want to hear any more.
“The problem is that people have changed. Lord of humans. Peter Bayezid.”
“…….”
The man sitting right in front of him was Bayezid’s master, but Sigurdson didn’t really care about that.
For him, the most important criterion right now is how much a person can be trusted rather than what position he holds.
“The reason we came all the way to Shoara was because of Josef Bayezid and Vlad the Knight. “If it wasn’t for them in the first place, I wouldn’t have even thought about starting an exchange.”
The dwarves’ long history of persecution had made them closed-minded, and it was still the same today.
So far, the only thing that could ease the dwarves’ wariness even a little was Joseph’s polite letter sent with the young dwarves.
“Please bring Josef Bayezid or Knight Vlad. “If you ever want to talk to us again.”
Sigurdsson begins to fold his arms tightly as if he has nothing more to say.
The dwarves’ speaking style, which was as direct as it was upright, pointed straight to what they wanted.
“……Josef Bayezid or Knight Vlad.”
The request was so direct that even Ragmus, the advisor standing next to him, was taken aback, but Peter, the person making the request, was just quietly lost in thought.
Peter, who was neither embarrassed nor offended by Sigurdsson’s request, simply needed a moment to gather his thoughts.
‘A lot of people call that name.’
Sigurdsson may not have known it, but Peter wasn’t the only one looking for their names these days.
The lord of Hainal and the green-haired girl were looking for the two who suddenly disappeared.
‘So that’s why I decided to try it.’
Peter, who had finally clearly realized Josef’s intentions, suppressed his truly complicated feelings and quietly lowered his head.
‘You worked hard to save it all this time.’
Nidavellir, with whom there was no interaction.
The fallen Ravnoma.
It was an ugly Hainal.
And even the skinny boy from the back alley.
His second son must have been quietly crouching down and picking up things that had fallen on the ground while his older brother was shining outside.
Polish them until they are shiny and shiny.
※※※※
“Please save me. “I’ll get better.”
“We were wrong. Please spare my life…”
Inside the village’s grain warehouse.
In this dark and cool place, men hanging upside down were quietly crying out for help.
Among them, the fake priest who was hanging to the highest point had already been beaten until his white robes turned bright red.
“Do you want me to spare your life?”
Vlad, who heard the impostor’s pleas, snorted as if he was dumbfounded and took out a dagger from his chest.
“Special harm, threats, fraud, extortion of money, and even blasphemy.”
Pieces of jerky are cut off little by little for each sin uttered.
It was an insignificant action, but the life felt in that action was real.
“To account for all these sins, I have to bring the dead back to life and kill them again?”
“sorry! Sir!”
“Please just save me! please!”
At Vlad’s words, which were like notifications, the fake priest and his windbreakers cried out for help.
Because the man laughing down there really had the authority to do that.
“Do you want to live?”
“yes! yes!”
“Then give it to me.”
“yes?”
Vlad held out his empty hand as if it were obvious.
The fake priest, who was looking at the hand while hanging upside down, was momentarily taken aback.
“There must be something you’ve been working on while doing this. “Looking at it, it’s not something I’ve done once or twice.”
“…….”
He didn’t seem like the type of person to be like this.
Clearly, Vlad’s appearance as he drew his sword while singing a hymn just a moment ago was brighter than any other knight.
However, their current appearance is nothing more than a rough appearance, like back alley thugs.
“If you don’t like it, tell me. “I heard the fire hasn’t gone out yet.”
“I’ll give it to you! “Everything we have!”
Perhaps the scammers hanging around right now don’t know.
The young knight who was smiling in front of them now was someone who had already committed extraordinary harm, threats, fraud, extortion of money, and even blasphemy.
A greater evil that overcomes evil.
Vlad’s eyes looked grim as he smiled in the dark warehouse.
※※※※
I told you I would save your life!
That damn cheater! Go to hell!
The group of con men being dragged away by the villagers was noisy.
He exploited innocent beliefs, took wealth, and almost burned a healthy person to death, so even if he died, he probably wouldn’t have a good death.
“fraud? “What does that mean?”
“Never mind. Deacon. People like that keep tricking until the very end.”
After patting his fat pockets, Vlad hurriedly turned Jean’s shoulder and headed towards the village chief’s house.
Men’s screams were heard from behind, but there was only a smile on Vlad’s face.
“Anyway, what happened to the man who was hanging? Are you dead?”
“Luckily I’m alive. God must have protected you.”
While Vlad was fighting fraudsters in the warehouse, Jean was concentrating on treating the man who had been burned at the stake in the village chief’s house.
Priest Andrea was renowned for his healing miracles, and Jean, perhaps because of his teacher’s temperament, was also a child who could handle a little divinity.
“Oh… precious people. “Please come inside.”
The village chief, who seemed to be anxious about waiting and was standing outside the door waiting for Vlad and Jean, bent down so much that he could no longer bend, and led them inside.
“What would have happened to our village if the two of you hadn’t been there…”
The village chief, knowing that he was about to be tricked by swindlers, kept lowering his head to the point of exaggeration.
In terms of law, the crazy burning at the stake earlier could have been punished by the knight in front, but in terms of doctrine, it could have been condemned by the young deacon.
“I was fooled by the plague spreading in a nearby village. They said that if we don’t catch that man and burn him right away, the plague will spread to our village…”
However, following the words of the con artists was an inevitable choice for the village chief.
Fraud and propaganda come through human anxiety.
The village chief, who was anxious about not being safe because there was no lord to protect him, and anxious about the fact that an evil being was nearby, could not leave alone the suspicious man who was said to have brought a plague.
“Ugh….”
“I guess you’ve come to your senses!”
Inside the house we entered following the village chief’s guidance, there was a man who was beginning to come to his senses.
Seeing that he was not able to get up easily due to the rough experience, Jean hurriedly helped him up while Vlad quietly began to check the belongings placed next to him.
Taking advantage of my experience as a pickpocket, I glanced at his robe and saw that it was full of all kinds of little things.
‘This kid is suspicious too.’
Not because of the soot, but because his jacket was completely black to begin with.
The small pockets inside the shabby robe were full of scorched-edge blades of grass and strange bone fragments.
“Where is this place?” “Have you come to your senses?”
And what was most suspicious of all was the strange mask he was wearing.
The impostors hanging upside down spoke to Vlad.
That strange mask was originally worn by a man.
“who are you?”
“I am Bayezid’s knight. “It’s Vlad.”
Vlad held up the mask he was holding to the lying man.
A size and shape that perfectly fits your face shape.
Indeed, as the scammers said, this mask belonged to an unknown man.
“I told you my name, so now it’s your turn, right?”
“…My name is Nibelun.”
Now, a small voice came out from the man who stuttered to open his mouth.
However, what I heard from the man who finally opened his mouth were only ominous words.
“I came here chasing death.”
“……death?”
The mask held close had a strange shape, as if it had a crow’s face on it.
A strange bird beak mask on top of a black robe.
The man’s face, seen through the eye holes of the mask, resembled a cat.
The man who revealed that he had been chasing death was a beastman rarely seen in the North.
※※※※
The appearance of the mansion under the moonlight was eerie.
In the old days, it must have had an old-fashioned charm, but it was neglected and now it just stands there, losing its original color.
In a deep forest where not a single bird could be heard, the mansion was alone in the falling moonlight.
Slap-slap-
“…I see.”
A small sound was heard from inside the collapsing mansion.
The sound of carefully pouring water.
A sound was coming from the old mansion, as if someone was taking a bath.
“That’s why you couldn’t go.”
A hall in a mansion where even the ceiling has collapsed and the pitch-black night sky is visible.
However, even though everything was old, the bathtub that the woman was leaning against boasted an ivory light that matched the darkness.
“Poor man.”
A woman with hair that started out green but ended up being pitch black.
She was now carefully taking water from the bathtub and washing the man in it.
The woman washing the motionless man looked skillful, as if she had practiced it a lot.
“You must have been worried about what was left. “I understand.”
The moonlight floating in the sky slowly began to seep into the mansion through the hole in the ceiling.
Then, the view inside the bathtub.
Instead of water, it was filled with bright red blood.
A man with pure white hair bowing his head.
The figure of the man whom the woman was holding on to carefully was wrinkled, like a desiccated corpse.
“…How afraid of dragons must you have been to do something like this?”
The woman, who could not touch the ground, smiled warmly like a mother and pulled the corpse’s hand out of the bright red bathtub.
Although he was now very thin, the feat he had accomplished with his hands was greater than that of anyone else.
“So, you need to wake up now, Your Majesty.”
With the woman’s voice like a spell, the corpse’s hands began to unfold.
An ominous fingertip that slowly begins to bloom, like a root sucking up water.
Every time the fingertips stretched out, the blood in the bathtub decreased little by little.
The moonlight, which had reached the end of the sky, was illuminating the crumbling mansion.
In a place that only the moon could see, corpses in miserable shapes were lying around without their heads.
