Side Story – Marble Playing
Morning leaving Ramund’s manor and heading to Shoara.
Even though it was summer, the cool air of the meadow was spreading faint fog throughout the meadow.
“What’s wrong?”
The refreshing summer air that can only be felt in the northern grasslands.
However, Noir just stood still and looked out at the hill in front of him.
“What’s going on?”
Vlad, wondering what was going on as he saw Noir standing motionlessly, narrowed his eyes towards the hill in the distance.
On a hill in a meadow where a black horse and a blonde knight look together.
There, rising like a green wave, a herd of wild horses, who I didn’t know had followed them, was looking down at them.
“…Aren’t those your friends?”
-Purr.
Chat Noir, who heard Vlad’s words, looked the other way and started scratching the ground.
Now it’s the black horse Noir, but before Vlad gave it a name, it was the wild horse Noir, the son of the meadow.
The group that had survived the attack by Death Worm, the toughest dragon, was now following the plains of Varna and looking at their former leader.
“why? “Would you like to follow me?”
Chat Noir quietly raised his head as he heard Vlad’s words coming from behind him.
Excluding the herd of wild horses seen in the distance, there are only two people on the green sea.
Up there, Noir seemed to be thinking for a moment as he looked at the old world he was a part of.
Jingle, jingle.
The sound of small bells could be heard behind Vlad and Noir, who had stopped like that.
Numerous loaded carts appear through the gradually clearing morning fog.
-Whoa.
-Who is the person in front of you?
Those who showed up driving a long procession of carts were peddlers.
The peddlers of a large store are big enough to drive dozens of carts at once.
-We are from the Kannor family. If you don’t have anything else to do, I’d like you to get out of the way.
It is natural to be wary of strangers in a deserted meadow.
Not these days, but even a few years ago, peddlers suffered greatly from the barbarians who roamed the grasslands.
“…Canorra.”
However, Vlad did not specifically answer the sharp questions of the peddlers.
I was just staring at the familiar flag waving in the middle of the procession.
“Do you want to stay here?”
Vlad muttered a little to himself and took out a flag from the back of the saddle.
A small flag filled with all kinds of sentences on a pure white background.
Vlad pointed to a sentence that seemed to have been engraved on the flag a long time ago, and opened his mouth with a grin.
“Do you know him as Potli Kannor?”
“yes?”
The merchants were greatly taken aback by the sudden sound of the name of their employer’s son.
No, to be precise, I was surprised to see the flag raised by the blonde knight.
“That friend was my classmate when I was an assistant.”
The family coats of arms are so dense that it is difficult to count them.
However, the Kannor emblem that Vlad was pointing to now was in the front, as if it had been engraved the fastest among those families.
“If you are here now, please tell me that Vlad of Shoara is looking for you.”
Nowadays, countless families bear witness to his name, but even a few years ago, he was a skinny boy who would have admired even a single sausage handed to him.
The boy at that time, who couldn’t even ride a horse properly, was now calling out the name of an old friend.
※※※※
“Wow. “I never thought we’d meet here.”
There was a young man sticking his head out of the carriage with a big smile on his face.
He was a chubby young man who ate so well that his cheeks were shiny.
“Where have you been all this time? Sturma? Or is it right?”
“Ramund’s manor. “I learned about farming there.”
Portli’s voice, much louder than usual, was ringing loudly in the middle of the procession.
There was no need to do that because they were walking right next to each other, but Portli’s voice, which grew louder with joy, was enough to wake up the morning silence.
“I still wanted to see you once. But…”
Two people walking side by side, one on a horse and the other on a horse.
However, even though they were walking the same path, Portli’s attitude towards Vlad seemed somehow cautious.
“come over. “For the time being, I will be in the rose’s smile.”
Vlad spoke first, as if he understood Portli’s attitude. It is also true that there is a huge gap between the sword master known to everyone on the continent and the son of a merchant family that is difficult to compare.
However, Vlad only answered by mumbling his sausage as if it were no different from when he was a squire.
“But there are so many people there who want to see you…”
“I’ll tell the owner there, so you can come and hang out as much as you want.”
“Is that okay?”
“…Do you still feel like nothing has changed? “Who is bothering you these days?”
Although they did not meet for long, the two clearly shared what they needed.
Vlad’s height, which had grown significantly compared to when he was a squire, may have been due to the meat provided by the Kannor family.
“But what are all these? “Do we need this much meat in Shoara?”
“iced coffee. this.”
Vlad, who changed the subject, looked around at the long line of Kannor’s carts and stuck out his tongue.
The carts were so long that you had to lift your head.
It is said that Kannor Company ate the territory of Black Bear, one of the five bosses, but the city of Shoara was not large enough to digest this much.
“We put half of it down in Shoara and put the other half on a boat and go to the west.”
“To the West?”
“huh. All the way to the West. “To be exact, we are going to Nidavellir.”
Nidavellir, the name used to refer to the Dwarf Liberation Front, is now a name referring to a city rather than an organization.
Nidavellir, a city that replaced the island of Lemnos, which was sunk by the largest dragon, and became a new home for dwarves.
“I heard that a new city of dwarves has been created next to Trinova. But the dwarves there really like alcohol and meat.”
“That’s right.”
The dwarves were able to find their old roots and take root again.
However, it would take quite a long time for the place, which was still full of sand, to return to its former self.
“But they said the dwarves there keep looking for a drink called Captain Q. It’s my first time drinking alcohol. “Do you know what it is?”
“……no.”
A sticky brown liquor that seems to embody the color of a dark back alley.
Vlad, who tried his best to pretend not to notice even though he heard an unforgettable name, began to see a corner of the castle wall in the distance.
-In front of me is Shoara!
From Sturmah to Shoara.
At the end of the long stretch of northern grassland, Vlad’s hometown began to appear.
“……What is that.”
The boy’s hometown and the city he promised to return to.
However, although I was familiar with the castle wall in front of me, the sight of the castle gate below was something I had never seen before.
-Hey, don’t cut in line!
-When did you say I got involved?
The castle gate of Shoara was always crowded with people because it was the center of northern logistics.
-I’ve been waiting here for three days now! You can come in at any time!
-Is it true that Lord Vlad is here?
But now, countless people were camped out as if the gates were a marketplace, with no room left to break through.
“…Why are you like that?”
“The war has just ended.”
“But why is that?”
“That’s why.”
Portli shrugged his shoulders as he looked at Vlad who asked with a confused expression.
“Where will the knights who have lost their place to fight go next? “I don’t think you’d want to see the famous Sword Master before returning to your hometown.”
The sparkling gold coins are reality, but the Sword Master is a legend.
A word that every knight had in his heart had finally emerged in this era, so it was perhaps natural that knights from the continent would flock to Shoara.
“What am I going to do.”
However, the sword master whom everyone wanted to meet was merely embarrassed by the feast of knights in front of him.
The knights in front of the castle gate seem to be hundreds of years old, even if we estimate them.
Because not all of them will come to you just to shake your hand.
“I guess this is why you became emperor.”
A sword master of this era who is free from everything because he does not belong to anything.
However, the freedom one wanted to enjoy came at a price.
※※※※
A tall and spacious church in the city of Shoara.
The only building that could compare to its gigantic size was the city hall church, but now instead of the reverence that should have been present, the place was filled with the sound of children running.
“Don’t run in the hallway.”
“……yes.”
There were children waving their fingers in front of the bishop wearing red robes.
Until recently, they were children who were running wild without the world knowing, but looking at their tall height and cool gray eyes, anyone would have no choice but to lower their head.
“If you understand, go ahead.”
“yes!”
The guys who said they knew until now, but they run away again.
As Pierre looked at those children, a helpless vein appeared in the corner of Pierre’s forehead.
“…It’s like this damn city.”
Bishop of the city of Shoara. Pierre.
Now that he was a bishop of the Orthodox Church, not the Vatican, he was inwardly enraged at the sight of the church that had become a mess in just a few years.
thud-!
“Oh my, this is a surprise!”
Pierre reached the bishop’s office with his long legs twitching like an angry crane.
An unauthorized guest was waiting in his own open space.
“…What are you doing here?”
He was a man with intense red hair that shined in the sunlight.
However, the neat armor worn beneath the unique hair clearly represented an Orthodox Holy Knight.
“I was waiting. “The bishop.”
“What are you waiting for? “I guess he was just fooling around like usual.”
Pierre sat down on the chair roughly, as if he was annoyed by the man’s words, and ran his hands through his hair with a long sigh.
“Why are there so many kids at church these days?”
“Isn’t that what the bishop called?”
“I?”
Pierre’s eyes became fierce as he looked at the grinning Radu, but the man in front of him was not one to give in to such threats.
“Even the bishop who banned pedophilia in the city where the Sword Master was born. “Where will all the war orphans born nearby go?”
“…….”
“Even if it were me, of course I would come here. “It’s a world where you never know what kind of trouble you might face if you stay still.”
Perhaps, as Radu had just said, the northern city of Shoara might be the only place to turn to for war orphans who lost their parents and are wandering around.
“Besides, Madame Marcella even opened an orphanage, so I think this is really right.”
“……get out.”
These words were even more troubling because they were absolutely unmistakable.
Even now, knights and orphans are constantly flocking to Shoara.
Pierre, who became the bishop of this city whether he wanted it or not, was in a position to resolve the numerous accidents caused by these people.
“Are you going out?”
“Okay, get out.”
“No. “If I go out.”
“why!”
However, Radu only smiled and answered the old bishop’s question.
“When I go out, there are dozens of knights around me who want to fight.”
“…….”
“If there is no Vlad of Shoara, then it would be Radu of Dragulia. Oh, of course I already gave up the last name. Anyway, if I go out, it will actually be detrimental to the security of the city…”
Radu kept talking as if he was about to vent his anger, but as expected, there was nothing wrong with what he said from before.
“…I told you to get out.”
However, no matter how correct something is, not everything is correct.
Pierre’s anger finally exploded when he saw Radu talking only about himself during this busy time when he had to lend a helping hand to the cat.
“Take the kids and get out!”
“Ahh!”
A loud cry that is inappropriate for one’s age.
Indeed, the bishop’s cries, which had lost no energy even in his old age, pierced through the door and echoed throughout the hallway.
※※※※
“Huhhh……”
Unlike the situation outside the castle gate, somewhere in the back alleys of Shoara, filled with silence.
There was a man who carefully raised his head from the small tunnel hidden there.
“It’s small. now.”
A hole under the castle wall that only children in the back alleys would recognize.
Vlad stood up under the shadow created by the castle wall and was shaking off the dirt from his body.
“Noir will come in on his own.”
Noire, who has been temporarily left at the top of Kannor, will enter the city with Portli.
Since he’s such a smart guy, he’ll come back with a rose-like smile on his own.
Just- taaak-
“Huh?”
Vlad secretly entered Shoara to avoid the knights outside.
Vlad was taking a moment to catch his breath while looking at the familiar scenery there, when an unfamiliar sound began to reach his ears.
“what.”
A back alley in Shoara where the scenery was familiar, but the atmosphere was noticeably different.
Vlad, who was walking along a path filled with sunlight as if it wasn’t already dark, stopped when he saw the children gathered in front of him.
“Wow! This guy is really bad at it!”
“Okay, how can I win with that?”
Children in the back alleys gather during the day, not at night.
In the past, they would have been children who begged for other people’s bread and coveted their wallets, but now they were smiling with their hands full of sparkling glass beads.
“…Can we just do it again?”
And among the children, there was a beastman man standing with an embarrassed expression.
“Just one more game of marbles.”
The wizard Nibelun is holding on to the children as they leave, shouting for one more round.
Vlad snorted in bewilderment as he looked at him, who looked somewhat comical.
