Side story – For the grown boys,
the lights shining from the back alleys were vivid on the river where the red sunset had settled.
The darkest part of the city, which seemed quiet until just a moment ago.
But now, the atmosphere was becoming more lively than anywhere else due to the noisy noises coming from everywhere.
“okay. “So you’ve been hanging out with Barbo’s love all this time?”
“Rather than saying they were fighting, I would say they were just confronting each other.”
With the appearance of Vlad and Haven, the smile of a rose drew more customers than ever before, but there was a tension in the lobby on the first floor that was somehow different from usual.
People sitting at tables dressed too neatly to be here to get drunk.
Jemina’s lips were pouting as she looked at the unnourished customers who were holding empty drinking glasses and glancing upward for no reason.
“I’m glad the armistice agreement was reached quickly. “If I hadn’t done that, I would have been held captive until winter.”
“okay. “The winter sea is cold.”
Vlad was staring blankly at Haven, who was picking up a glass of wine while saying those words.
Now he has a captain’s hat full of salt and tanned skin like a sailor.
The image of San, who was locked in a small room and scribbling down documents, was hard to find in Haven today.
“Here.”
“oh. “Thank you, Ned.”
When the food arrived just in time, Haven quickly searched in his pocket and took out a coin, but Ned was hurriedly leaving the stairs as if that had been done.
“Why is he like that? “The guy who always asked me for a tip.”
“I guess something like that happened.”
Otar looked suspiciously at the sudden change in his younger brother’s appearance, but Vlad just shrugged his shoulders.
It was something I had to say someday, but I didn’t want to hear anyone else cry today.
“So you’ve finished everything you had to do? “Can I just return to my original position now?”
“……yes.”
Originally, Haven and his crew were just ordinary merchants wandering the north.
If it weren’t for this war, they would have slowly increased their power using the connections brought by Vlad.
“Great. “Already this time, the Ravnoma family asked me to find out where to connect the trade route.”
And now that the war has ended with the surrender of the Golden Ball Barbossa, it is time for everyone to get back to their proper places.
Seeing his friends who could finally be together, Vlad seemed excited and took a bite of the sausage he was holding.
“The city of Trinova is close to Nidavellir. “Maybe the two of us will share a port.”
“yes.”
“So, if you open a transaction here, you will continue to receive a steady income in the future. “And that too with a lump sum of money, not a penny.”
Although he became a sword master in pursuit of fame, that didn’t mean he didn’t need money.
Unlike Kihano, the sword master of the previous era, Vlad’s current reality is that he has nothing to call his own foundation.
However, since Vlad always wanted to be free and not tied down, the only choice he could make in the end was to accumulate wealth through merchants.
“Shall we go a little bigger this time? “Buy a new ship and gather some people.”
However, Vlad’s voice seemed somehow excited to say that it was simply a desire to make money.
“big?”
“Should we try building a fleet like Barbossa? “It’s better to be an admiral than a captain.”
Just like in the past when we were young and hungry, sitting at the entrance to a back alley and talking about various things.
Haven was also smiling little by little at the nostalgia he felt for Vlad now.
“With the money I earn, I feed the kids here and donate it to the orphanage. “Why don’t we select children from the beginning and raise them to be sailors?”
The only way children who had no one to take care of each other could comfort each other was by imagining a tomorrow that they shared.
Through the stories they shared, the two starving boys came up with a reason to endure this difficult day.
“Hey, Vlad.”
“huh?”
“I have something to tell you.”
However, even if they shared a blanket like brothers, they couldn’t be together forever.
Because children who were boys eventually become adults.
“I… I received a request.”
“huh.”
Children look at the stars, but adults walk towards the stars.
Unlike before, when they could be together even if each of them saw different stars, now Vlad and Haven were people who had to follow each other’s desired paths.
“Count Arnstein asked me to pioneer a route to the North Pole.”
“North Pole Route?”
“huh. Arctic route. “The sea beyond the Northern Limit Line.”
The blue-eyed boy looked at the starry night sky.
The lame boy crossed the narrow river and reached the wide sea.
The boys, who had not forgotten what they had shared back then, were now adults and looking at each other.
“It seems that the higher-ups want to find a way to replace the southern route that Barbossa monopolizes.”
Haven’s voice seemed calm, perhaps out of consideration for the excited Vlad.
It’s as if he won’t force himself to go if you hold him.
“That request… I’d like to take it. What do you think?”
However, Vlad could recognize the sparkling eyes of Haven in his calm appearance.
Although he is shaking his glass as if nothing is wrong, there is already excitement in Haven’s brown eyes that cannot be hidden.
“okay. I see.”
Haven, who was born in the river, wants to go to the sea.
Toward the wide sea that doesn’t care about my limping feet.
Since this was a friend who finally said that he wanted to find his own way, Vlad could only smile.
※※※※
“Oh my gosh. “It’s the head.”
Now is the time to close your eyes, even in the noisy back alleys.
Vlad, who had been drinking non-stop during that time, was climbing the stairs to the fourth floor, holding his brittle head.
“…Maybe I should have drank a little more. “I got drunk clumsily for no reason.”
Haven and Otar, who had been drinking together, and even Jemina, who joined later, were all lying face down on the table.
It was because of Haven, who said he now knew the true way to taste Captain Q and mixed the damn thing with all kinds of alcohol.
“huh?”
As Vlad was climbing the stairs, a faint light began to flicker in his vision.
In the hallway on the fourth floor where only Vlad’s guests could stay, the light was coming from the room where Nibelun was staying.
“What are you doing?”
“huh? “Are you still sleeping?”
It was a room I wouldn’t normally visit, but since I was drunk, I looked up out of curiosity.
Nibelun’s room, which I staggered towards, was so messed up that anyone could see it.
“…What is all this?”
Nibelun’s room is filled with all kinds of miscellaneous items from wherever they came from.
Among them were strange fumigation machines and carpets that I had seen before.
“I’m organizing my backpack. “Are you doing it in just five years?”
“backpack?”
“yes. “There’s something I usually carry around.”
At Nibelun’s words, Vlad’s eyes naturally turned to the backpack sitting in a corner.
A wizard’s backpack that he always took out something in times of crisis.
The backpack, which had always been full, was now facing Vlad in a sloppy manner.
“I’ve always wondered, how much stuff does that backpack fit?”
“Luggage? “That’s it…”
Nibelun, who had been organizing things for a while, scratched his head and answered.
“There is no specific amount. “I can just capture as much as I remember.”
“As much as you remember?”
“yes. “If I forget what I put in here, it will eat it up without mercy.”
“Oh…….”
So Nibelun said that he, who is not smart, cannot contain much information compared to previous users.
However, there were so many items that had already flowed out of the room and into the hallway that it seemed too much to remember them one by one.
“But why are you putting away your backpack at this time of night?”
“I’m going to follow you too.”
“Where?”
The beastmen of this era had many places to go even if there was no place that welcomed them.
Nibelun, who was also a magician who searched for mysteries, could truly be said to be a person born with the temperament of wandering.
“I’m going to follow Haven. “I heard earlier that you are exploring the Arctic route.”
A beastman wizard who can travel anywhere with just a backpack.
However, this time it was not an aimless journey, but a journey with a definite purpose.
“…Why are you taking the Arctic route?”
“It’s a place no one has ever been to.”
Nibelun’s eyes were round as he looked at Vlad.
Those eyes without the slightest hesitation are enough to make me feel grumpy.
“The purpose is to find mystery, and besides, the weather is getting warmer these days. “That’s why they say lemon farming is going well.”
When the dragons ruled, there was a land of the beast people that had sunk.
They were the ones who most fiercely resisted the emerging perfection and paid a terrible price that would last for generations to come.
“Perhaps, as the ice melts, there may be land suitable for people to live on.”
“…….”
“If there was a place like that, we could gather all the scattered tribes at once.”
Both the elves and the dwarves now had their own territories, but only the beastmen were scattered, unable to find land to take root.
Tribes like the Luga who found a place to settle down could truly be described as lucky.
“It would be nice if our children had a place to run and play to their heart’s content like the children here.”
Nibelun says that she will leave this place for the sake of the mystery she risked her life for and for the sake of the tribe she joined.
There was nothing wrong with what he said, but even though he was a little drunk, only a sad feeling flowed through Vlad’s heart.
“okay. “You should go too, then.”
I thought everyone would welcome me back, but the boys, now adults, were leaving to find their own paths.
Just like the countless relationships that left me in the past.
“I guess I should drink more.”
“Would you like to drink more there?”
“I’m having a good time drinking today.”
Vlad took a step back as he watched Nibelun packing up to leave.
I walked up the stairs after everyone had fallen asleep and passed the table where my friends were lying face down.
Just like that, Vlad, carrying only a bottle of alcohol he had retrieved from somewhere, was heading out on a dark road in the early morning, when dawn had not yet dawned.
※※※※
“……Someone put a fence around this place.”
After passing through the well-manicured bushes and opening the fence, Vlad walked inside with familiar steps.
“This is better.”
The only place where you can see green in a back alley full of all kinds of buildings.
Vlad, who was walking through a much better-maintained cemetery than before, stood in front of a familiar tombstone.
“how have you been doing. Quijano?”
It was a cemetery full of shabby tombstones because they had nothing.
However, the colorful flowers blooming here and there were already covering the tombstones as if they were embracing the dead.
“I should give you a drink too.”
Vlad, who was smiling quietly while looking at the flowers, quietly poured a drink towards the tombstones in front and behind.
In the front is an old blacksmith whose name is unknown, and in the back is a noble knight whose name cannot be written down.
Vlad, who was sitting while they were lying down, raised the bottle as if it was now his turn.
“Everyone says they are going. “How long has it been since we met?”
Vlad did not want to show his weakness easily, but he was able to reveal his true feelings in this place where no one was around.
“If everyone leaves like this, who will remain next to me?”
Quijano, Josef, and the many relationships that have passed by in the past.
However, Vlad, who now had more broken relationships than connected ones, took up the bottle again to soothe the emptiness growing in his heart.
“But I told you to go bye. Did you do well?”
Still, the reason I was able to encourage him to go bye-bye was because there were people who had always told him that.
Because I knew very well that I wouldn’t be where I am today if someone hadn’t pushed me like the people who are lying down right now.
“…There are no answers to this.”
But no matter how much I asked, the nameless tombstones gave no answer.
They had already reached a quiet silence and had nothing more to say to Vlad.
“…….”
Only Dong, who was gradually coming to terms with it, caressed Vlad’s back.
Vlad, who liked the warmth, decided to sit a little longer than he originally planned to go.
It couldn’t have been that way, but it felt like Kihano behind him was caressing him.
