The Value of Aureo (2)
Vlad, who tossed and turned all night, was able to fall asleep only at dawn.
This is because even when I close my eyes, the thoughts that come to mind continue to come to mind.
[What is the virtue of a knight?]
“……Please.”
However, even if I fell asleep late, today’s rising sun did not wait for me.
[You can only be called a true knight if you are fully prepared for action at all times. Incidents and accidents will not wait for you.]
It was truly the first time in a long time of rest since the tense incident at Moshiam.
Therefore, Vlad tried to sleep in a little late, but the problem was that the being inside him was Quihano, the knight of knights.
[As always, looking nervous….]
“Let’s get some sleep. please.”
Vlad, who was suffering from exhaustion and worry, protested to Quijano in an irritated voice, but the problem was that there was another person besides Quijano who was listening.
“shut up?”
“huh?”
Vlad’s eyes widened as he heard a familiar voice coming from inside the room.
The fatigue intertwined with the threads of blood still lingered in Vlad’s eyes, but now was a time when he could not comfortably close his eyes.
“okay. I’ll take you out. “Keep sleeping.”
“No… just wait a minute, Jemina.”
Vlad jumped up and grabbed Jemina, who was trying to leave the room, and forced her to turn around.
“Shall we talk for a moment?”
“If only for a moment.”
Jemina, who was leaning against the slammed door, nodded slightly as if she understood Vlad’s urgent expression.
[Look. Incidents and accidents don’t wait for you.]
Vlad, trying to ignore Quihano’s grumpy words, sat Gemina, who looked somewhat gloomy, on the bed and cautiously opened his mouth.
“What happened yesterday? “Why were you and Alicia alone?”
“You’re so quick to ask.”
Gemina, who was sitting on the bed and tapping her out-of-reach toes, looked up at Vlad in front of her and opened her mouth.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“really?”
“huh. “It’s just that Mistress Alicia told me to stay away from you.”
[Wow.]
It was too heavy a word to hear right after waking up, but the person speaking was just sitting there as if nothing had happened.
“You’ve seen this happen often in Rose’s Smile before. But I didn’t know it would come to me.”
Seeing Jemina shrug her shoulders and talk as if it was no big deal, Vlad felt his stomach boiling for some reason.
“So what did you say?”
“What can I say?”
Jemina’s eyes, looking up at Vlad, looked somewhat sad.
“I can do anything for you.”
“…….”
I was holding it, but I didn’t actually have the right to hold it.
It was implicitly working, but if you asked about Vlad’s qualifications like yesterday, Jemina had nothing to say.
Because nothing has been officially communicated between the two yet.
“I didn’t have anything to say.”
As Vlad watched Jemina speak so calmly, he realized that he had been too indifferent.
“sorry. I.”
“What are you sorry about?”
“…I’m sorry I didn’t tell you clearly.”
Vlad, who sat Jemina in front of him, scratched the back of his head and honestly admitted his mistake.
All it takes is just a word.
And now I have the right to call it mine with just a word.
“Listen carefully.”
“…!”
Zemina stopped breathing for a moment when she saw Vlad suddenly grabbing both of her shoulders.
Vlad’s eyes, struggling to look up at the suddenly changed atmosphere of the room, were now solely focused on Gemina.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while, but the truth is that I…”
Knock knock.
“I want you….”
Knock-knock.
Vlad was trying hard to set the mood, but the persistent knocking sound was interrupting his efforts.
“…That’s bad, isn’t it?”
“It wasn’t a bad try.”
There is a right time for every attempt.
Seeing Zemina smiling and nodding towards the door, Vlad realized that today was not that time.
“Who on earth…”
“Hello. “Lord Vlad.”
Vlad, whose pride was slightly hurt by Jemina’s remark that it was not a bad attempt, threw open the door in frustration.
However, contrary to his annoyed mood, when he opened the door, what he saw was Alicia smiling brightly at him.
“……Alicia.”
“If you haven’t had breakfast yet, I thought we could do it together.”
If there is a manor house, you can stay there, but this is Shoah, where there is only a market.
Alicia had unpacked her luggage here, perhaps because she thought that a luxury inn called Rose’s Smile would be more suitable than the cluttered city hall.
“I tasted it yesterday and the chef here was excellent. And we have something to talk about while eating breakfast.”
Although the sun had just risen in the morning, Alicia looked like she had put a lot of effort into it.
The faint smell of powder along with her finely braided hair told me that she had woken up much earlier than now.
“If we are to go to Bastopol, the city of steelworkers…”
However, contrary to her neat appearance, her head continued to tilt.
“If I have to go, if I have to go… Oh my…”
Alicia gradually leans forward to look beyond where Vlad is standing.
Vlad turned his head to follow her gaze and was astonished.
“I guess I should have come a little late. Without even noticing it.”
“No, no…”
Jemina, who had been sitting upright just a moment ago, was now lying down on the bed in a mess, looking at the two.
Jemina’s somehow disheveled hair and moist eyes were a situation that could have been misunderstood by anyone.
“…I guess I should eat breakfast first. “You two, please just do what you’re doing.”
The sound of footsteps pounding down the hallway, uncharacteristic of a noble noble, represented Alicia’s current feelings.
And Vlad was so embarrassed that he couldn’t even stop her.
[how is it. Am I right?]
“…….”
Quijano was indeed right.
Incidents and accidents do not always wait for the right time.
※※※※
There was a space that even the power held by the lord could not be arbitrarily invaded.
A place that is no one’s land because God’s will resides there. church.
It was a place where even the owner of this land could not enter without permission, but now there was someone who was freely roaming there.
“Bishop, I’m here.”
“Are you here? “Please come in.”
Knight Vlad Aureo.
The title attached to the front of the name was guaranteed by worldly power, and the surname attached to the end of the name was confirmed by the will of God.
“Come here. “I was just preparing tea.”
Vlad sat down in the seat indicated as he watched Andrea serving tea.
The silence and peace you feel as soon as you sit down.
Vlad, who had barely escaped the chaos of the morning, was able to take a breather while drinking tea served by the faithful bishop.
“Looking at it now, the office itself hasn’t changed much since Varna.”
“…Have I ever shown you Varna’s room?”
Vlad just smiled as he looked at Andrea, who had a puzzled expression on her face.
“I just said it because I thought it would be the case.”
“That’s so bland.”
Andrea smiled as if in vain at Vlad’s meaningless answer, but in fact, Vlad had already seen his room.
His room, which looked too simple to be a bishop’s office, was not much different from the scene he saw in Jean’s dream.
“I heard that a lot happened in Moshiam. “I am truly grateful that you protected Jean until the end.”
“I just did my best to repay the favor I received.”
In fact, the incident at Moshiam was not known to many people.
This was because there was strict control by the steelworkers to prevent unrest among the northern public.
“I know very well that it was not a hardship that could be answered so easily.”
However, it was an incident that was clearly recognized by those who needed to know.
Andrea, Bishop of Shoara, was well aware of how much hardship Vlad had gone through to save his young deacon.
“It was not really wrong to say that there would be salvation in the round and round of giving. “I have once again realized His deep meaning through you.”
Seeing Andrea quietly reciting a prayer with those words, Vlad just raised his teacup with a shy expression. Although Vlad was known to the world as a faithful knight, it was inevitable because he had never even read the Bible.
“I said I went through the work at Moshiam well, but I am very reluctant to finish it properly. “Bishop.”
“Hmm. “I completely empathize with that feeling.”
Among the worries I was having last night was about an unknown woman and a man who introduced himself as Frausen.
The deeply engraved memory of the name Justia was like an indelible wound to Vlad.
“Is this incident related to the woman shedding black tears we first saw?”
“Hmm…”
A woman shedding black tears that were a curse towards Joseph.
And this incident that occurred in Moshiam.
Andrea put down her tea cup heavily as she looked at Vlad, who had experienced it firsthand and demanded an explanation.
“We all walk on a path, but we get tired because we don’t know where it ends.”
With a somber expression, Andrea took out a feather pen and carefully began to draw something.
Andrea has been chasing the black curse since he was a priest in Varna.
And his constant pursuit with the church eventually bore fruit and brought them before one name.
“God’s will is far away, dark temptations are near. Therefore, our body and soul are the places where His holy war is constantly taking place.”
Vlad began to look closely at the patterns Andrea was drawing.
It resembles a church pattern, but is somehow crooked and upside down.
“This…”
What Andrea was drawing was an upside-down church symbol.
That pattern, full of blasphemy against the sacred, was also a pattern drawn by a headless priest in a village full of fog.
“It is the pattern of apostates. “It means the little lambs that have gone astray.”
Andrea’s eyebrows twitched as she looked at that ominous symbol.
“They are more threatening than any other demon because they have once walked the path toward God. “The woman you met is that kind of person.”
Andrea hurriedly covered the paper with her hand as if she was uncomfortable just looking at it.
As he passed by, the correctly drawn pattern of the church was already established at his fingertips.
“A long time ago, there was a nun who was called the mother of all orphans. “She was the voice of God recognized by the Vatican and was called a saint of her time.”
Although he didn’t say anything specifically, Vlad could tell.
What Andrea is about to say is a very deep secret that can never be heard unless it is related to the church.
“The choir she created for children became the first choir in the Vatican, and it is still named Tramasche after her.”
However, there was a reality that even the woman who was called a saint found difficult to deal with.
The events of that day, which took place under the name of God and not anyone else, eventually caused the faithful nun to shed black tears.
“The name I am about to mention from now on is one of the deep secrets that the Vatican is trying to cover up. “You must never tell others.”
“All right.”
Andrea carefully approached Vlad’s ear, as if she wasn’t going to leave a trace.
A small voice that even the drifting wind could not contain was flowing through Vlad’s ears.
-Ramyan suit.
“…!”
Even though it was delivered by a faithful bishop, someone’s name was full of a stench when touched.
Hearing that name, Vlad shivered involuntarily.
In front of God, he was Tramash, but when he turned his back on him, his name was turned upside down. Ramasht.
There was a woman who shed tears as she saw her children completely charred by fire.
It is said that the woman shed black tears mixed with ash towards the sky that day as she looked at the children’s corpses, which were more charred than the remaining matches.
※※※※
Today was a foggy day.
The fog was so thick that the walls of Sturma in the distance could not be seen.
“Cluck cluck cluck. Hmm…”
And the days when there was such thick fog were also the days when Josef’s cough got worse.
For someone with weak lungs, the air heavy with humidity was like an unwelcome guest.
“I need to breathe. slowly.”
“are you okay. mother.”
Josef said it was okay, but Oksana’s fingertips followed him all the way and patted his back.
“…….”
Josef smiled bitterly as he felt his mother’s warmth reaching his fingertips on a cold winter day.
Although he was a loser and a failure, nothing had changed as far as his mother’s concern.
“Have you thought about Josef? “It’s what I said last time.”
In front of me was a steaming cup of warm tea, and in the back was my mother’s hand gently stroking my back.
Everything in the room was soothing Josef’s heart, but there was a feeling of sadness that struck him even more sharply.
“Your grandfather already knows that you are smart. So…”
Oksana opened her mouth, but it seemed like it was difficult for her to finish her sentence, so the end of her sentence became blurred.
No mother would just watch her son running towards destruction.
Therefore, Oksana wanted to send Josef to her parents, the Oscar family.
“If you go there, you will have a chance to show off your abilities, even if it is not a great position. Plus, the weather will be warmer than here.”
“mother.”
Josef quietly held his mother’s hand as she stroked his back.
My mother’s hands, which I touched for the first time in a long time, were much rougher than I remembered.
“Thank you for your concern.”
Oksana’s face, seen up close, was wrinkled with light wrinkles.
Josef knew very well that each and every wrinkle was engraved by his coughing.
That’s why I really wanted to prove it.
That the son you gave birth to was such a proud person.
“But I don’t want to stop.”
Therefore, Josef could only say these words to Oksana.
I will not live a life of giving up.
“I want to always do my best in life as my mother taught me. “Fiercely.”
“……okay. I get it.”
The mother and son now facing each other were sinners to each other.
Oksana knew very well that even if the words started out as warm consideration, they would turn into painful wounds when they touched each other.
“But Mom will always be here. “Be sure to call me when you’re having a hard time.”
“Yes, mother.”
Oksana, having once again confirmed her son’s firm resolve, reluctantly left Josef’s room.
Josef could only bow his head as he watched his mother hurriedly turn around before the sadness he had been holding in was overflowing.
“…I will prove to you that I was not born useless.”
Not only my life, but also the life of my mother, who gave up everything for me.
Josef, who was lowering his head, quietly opened his desk drawer.
There was a letter envelope entirely black.
“…….”
Josef slowly opens the envelope.
Outside the window behind him was filled with thick fog.
Today was a foggy day when I opened the pitch-black letter.
