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.
“To break and eat the Hainal family heirloom… It’s really outrageous.”
Josef, leaning heavily on his chair as if he was embarrassed by what he said, sighed deeply.
Even though it was not enough to strengthen the relationship with Deermar ahead of the big 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 one 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.
“I’m sorry.”
Everything was the same as before.
Josef was looking at him with his back to the sunlight, and Zayard was standing quietly next to him.
Although he was being scolded, Vlad felt relieved to see that nothing had changed now. ※※※※
“Baron Alicia said she would let this matter pass quietly. Thank her for her generous forgiveness.
”
“yes.”
Josef and his party had gone out of the mansion and were inspecting the temporary garrison set up in the territory.
Tents and bonfires
spread everywhere. Vlad, looking at the thin smoke rising from wherever the soldiers were gathered, thought that it was a sight that did not suit Deermar for some reason. I thought,
“From today on, 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 out of the spotlight of the Vatican, and the Vatican’s army was stuck in the middle of the north, so there would be no harm in being careful. “When will it come?
” Will you continue to work under Alicia’s command until then?”
“Why? You don’t really like it?”
“It’s not like that, but…”
Vlad was left speechless in response to Josef’s question.
There was one thing that even Vlad, who had never fought in a war, understood well.
“I guess the title Vlad of Shoara is. “I like it a little more.”
“hmm.”
Josef and Xayar nodded as if Vlad’s words made sense. The
honorary title given before a knight was important, revealing not only affiliation but also identity.
Therefore, no matter how much Vlad had a connection with the territory of Deermar, Shoara’s It was inevitable that he would be reluctant to give up the title of Vlad.
“But it would be good to feel a little attached to him.”
However, Josef just looked around the military camp with a strange remark:
“Alicia said she would let it go quietly, but she didn’t say she would just let her go.”
It was a precious heirloom handed down from the ancestors who first established the family.
Even though Vlad was Deermar’s benefactor, it 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 that pledged lifelong loyalty. The
seven-year contract in which they exchanged trust for opportunity is now in its third year, and after the contract ended, Vlad It was definitely a free body.
“Can I refuse?”
“Then… you’re probably sad.”
In any case, he wasn’t forcing a contract, he was just asking him to talk to him first before going to another lord.
Alicia, the lord of Hainal, was so eager to have a knight named Vlad under her.
“Anyway, is the horse still okay? ”
“Are you talking about Noir?”
“Yeah, that guy. You’re famous for not listening.”
However, all of these conversations will ultimately only happen after the war is won.
Vlad’s affiliation may be closer to Hainal on the surface, but the authority of command remains in Josef’s hands. Josef has already
finished planning in his head how to write a knight named Vlad. “The troops stationed in Deremar will continue to move mainly towards the castle, but it would not be desirable to just wait with bated breath.
”
The group made their way through the tents erected here and there to the outskirts.
There, another tent was erected far away from the other tents. It
was a tent standing alone, as if it could not blend in.
“No-! Who is this? !”
The tent had a noticeably different shape from Josef’s tent, which had been unified in one color.
Vlad’s eyebrows furrowed as he saw the man walking out of it.
“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 guess we’ll have to move together in the future.”
Listening to Josef’s words that sounded ominous for some reason, Vlad looked forward.
The man was approaching him with his arms spread wide enough that anyone would mistake them for being close friends.
Tattoos engraved on his braided hair.
“It’s been a long time!”
Agega of the Budaat tribe was smiling brightly at Vlad.
※※※※
“You have achieved success, knight.”
“shut up.”
Vlad wiped his face with both hands as he listened to Stefan’s words.
Seeing him like that, Stefan just chewed on some beef jerky and laughed.
“It’s a big deal in itself to be promoted to a rank in the first place. Besides, the knight said this was his first time in war. “Didn’t you?”
“……It did.”
Vlad listened to Stefan’s words and looked at Noir, who was purring in the stable.
Fuh hing hing hing –
a guy who doesn’t listen, is rough, and lives for his own pride.
However, he is a son of the grasslands who is fast enough to offset all his shortcomings.
“Besides, it’s just a scout .” “No, it’s a strike force. Based on my experience, this is a really good opportunity.”
Josef was paying attention to the mobility that Vlad and Noir had.
And he was thinking of using soldiers suitable for that mobility to take Gaidar down at least once.
“You were in charge of a squad, not just a single knight, so you were definitely in charge of this war. “You will be able to make a big impact.”
“…If only the barbarians listen to me.”
Vlad was put in charge of the warriors of the Budaat tribe by Josef.
Among the knights brought by Josef, he was the only one with ties to the barbarians, so it was not an incomprehensible line 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 their leader rather than strange guys they had never met, and Stefan was promoted to Vlad’s lieutenant as soon as he was hired, so it was a good thing for everyone, except for Vlad, who had a complicated mind. “Anyone can go
in
. “It’s not a place where you can do it.”
“All right.”
Vlad decided to get some air for a moment to untangle his tangled brain.
In the first place, there were people who were desperately looking for him.
As the sun gradually set, Vlad left the garrison crowded with soldiers and ended up
in the backyard of a quiet mansion. Vlad walked in and made eye contact with the white figure bobbing on the hill.
“Why on earth are you looking for me like this?”
A huge tree with the Hainal family emblem on a low hill.
There stood a white snake tilting its head towards Vlad.
※※※※
“……Sniff.”
A white slug was wriggling alone in a large room.
The moonlight from outside the window illuminated Alicia’s figure rolling 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 a little while ago. No matter how
strong a dam is, even the slightest crack can cause it to collapse.
Despite the evil intentions coming from all directions, she had been able to withstand it until now. It was Alicia, but in the end, because of the amber stone, she finally burst out what she had been holding in for so long.
“It was something my father left 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.
Or did you say it melted?
“Ugh.”
It didn’t really matter.
Now, one of her father’s traces would never be seen again.
Alicia stood up, wiping away tears, but decided to take comfort in the fact that she didn’t shed tears in front of people.
“It’s okay. “I gave it to you to use it like this anyway.”
Her father 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, sitting on the dresser 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.
“Ausurin…they are elves.”
Aussurin, the forest of the elves.
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 you 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 he comes and goes just like his own home…”
Alicia, who knew who it was just by looking at the colors sparkling in the moonlight, watched Vlad’s back going 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 definitely see lights floating on the hill.
Tiny fireflies that looked like they had just been born were coming out of Vlad’s sword.
