This time in our own way (2)
It came with the fading twilight.
So silently, hiding his presence in the spreading red sunset.
“That…”
So when the guards guarding Bastopol noticed the small dot rising in the sun, it was already too late.
Because the small fluttering that started as a dot had suddenly become a huge shadow and was covering the steel city.
“What is that?”
Kaaaaaa-!
At a speed that is difficult to gauge with the naked eye.
It approached as quickly as light and was already glaring at the castle wall beneath its feet with its red breath.
“It’s an attack! Ring the bell!”
“Holy shit! too fast!”
“The ballista can’t reach!”
The city of steel begins to hastily wake up with golden light falling from the sky.
However, Bastopol’s anti-aircraft network, which had just confirmed the intruder, was unable to stop the golden dragon attacking them.
Because it was made to deal with wyverns, not dragons.
“…Oh my god.”
A huge world that the walls of an ownerless city alone cannot fight against.
However, by the time the soldiers realized the enormity of the world, the dragon’s breath had already been released violently.
“It’s breath!”
“Run away too!”
Kuguagagagang-!
It was such a strong breath that it seemed as if the pressure alone could collapse the castle wall.
But the heat that came with it was redder than the twilight behind it.
-Aaaah!
-It’s hot! help me!
The sun was setting along with the soldiers’ screams.
However, today’s setting sun was slowly tilting along the northern wall, not the west.
Wow!
The terrible sight of red-hot steel melting together with all kinds of corpses.
It was a scene reminiscent of countless worlds long ago trampled by the most perfect dragon.
-Bastopol! I’m finally setting this city on fire!
Bastopol is said to have fought until the very end with the first emperor of the empire.
However, this now rusting city could no longer serve as humanity’s last hope.
※※※※
“……A report has just arrived that Bastopol has fallen.”
Hearing Peter’s low-pitched words, a heavy silence began to fill Deermar’s hall.
It was a place where numerous knights, not only from the North but also from across regions and races, had gathered, but the silence was such that none of them could easily open their mouths.
“It was only 5 days. “Since Sarnus left the battlefield of Achiuk.”
It took only 5 days to travel from the central town of Achiuk to Bastopol, the northernmost city of the empire.
Some of the knights let out suppressed astonishment at the news that the distance that would have taken over a month, even for winged beings, was covered in just five days.
“The speed is literally beyond common sense. “Maybe we have been ignoring the remnants of the fallen dragon too much.”
The most perfect remnants of the dragon that the Sword Master, the Emperor of the Empire and the pinnacle of the sword, had personally separated.
However, the dragon that survived the longest among the torn pieces was already trying to recreate the nightmare by putting the perfect pieces together.
“Through this, three of the five pieces divided by the emperor entered the hands of Sarnus.”
A piece owned by the imperial family.
A piece that Frausen hid from the world along with his retired self.
And even the piece of steel ball that was just taken away.
“So now there is only one thing left on this earth. “All I have is a piece of Bayezid.”
Excluding the fragment of the black moon floating in the sky, there is now only one fragment that Sarnus can target.
It used to be a piece of Ravnoma, but now it was the only piece Bayezid had.
“Then where is the piece the Count kept now?”
A tense silence began to form among the knights at the question someone asked.
A dragon sculpture that may be the last chance for humans.
The direction of that piece will be an important variable that will determine the outcome of this battle.
“The piece has now left the stuurma.”
Peter’s baton, which had been pointing towards Bastopol, began to slowly move to the next city.
Past the pure white snow fields and beyond Lindwurm’s nest.
His baton, crossing from the east to the west of the North, was already pointing to a city called the Lighthouse of the North.
“And now we are passing through Shoara.”
Shoara, the city of Bayezid County.
It is the center of logistics in the northwest and has back alleys where the lights never go out.
And the city where the boy was born.
A calm tension began to form in Vlad’s blue eyes as he looked at Peter’s baton pointing to the city where he was born.
“But the problem is that Sarnus is closer to that piece than we are.”
However, there was not enough time for the piece coming down to fully reach Deermar, where the knights were.
Because the distance between Bastopol and Shoara was much closer than it was at Achiuk.
“…So someone here has to come and meet me.”
Therefore, someone had to climb up to safely greet the falling pieces.
Only then will we be able to accept it faster than the speed at which the oldest dragon flies.
The knights’ eyes began to focus on one place at the same time when they heard that someone had to meet the piece that was coming down.
“…….”
Vlad of Shoara.
The name is now known to everyone on the continent.
All the representatives of the continent were focusing their attention on the knight who had shining names in his small flag.
※※※※
There was a man walking alone in a long, narrow hallway.
Deirmar’s mansion has been visited so many times that its location can now be known without guidance.
However, Vlad did not forget that when he first entered this mansion, he was with a young man with dark eyes.
[Count Peter’s judgment is correct. The Northern Alliance forces must not move from here now.]
The threat of the dragon, which had shed its human form, had already arrived right in front of us, but no one could stop the war that had already begun.
Because they cannot be easily trusted, their worlds have already become so divided that it is safer to eliminate each other.
[This is truly an outsider’s trick. It seems that they have been preparing for this moment for a long time.]
As Quijano said, someone was laughing between the cracks.
As I watched the worlds I had divided block each other and cried out.
That’s why the old knight couldn’t hide his mixed feelings at the current era where he couldn’t stop the dragon he really needed to stop.
“What can I do?”
There is a golden army coming up to the north.
Also the oldest dragon coming to Shoara.
However, the Northern Allied Forces, unable to give up on either of them, had no choice but to accept the flying blades while offering themselves to them all.
“I just have to do my best.”
A small light was shining in front of Vlad as he exited the narrow hallway.
The exit to the low hill of Deermar was now like a familiar back alley to Vlad.
“Are you here now?”
However, there was already a passenger waiting for Vlad there.
The man with his shoulder crookedly leaning against the entrance to the outside was a man with a color that was both familiar and nostalgic to Vlad.
“Mr. Rutger?”
“okay. grow.”
A man with the same hair color as Josef, whom I missed.
Although his appearance was different, the person smiling from far away was very similar to the smile of Josef that I had longed for.
“Do you really want to go with me?”
“If the dragon slayer doesn’t go where you go to slay the dragon, who will go?”
A northern knight who cut down the toughest dragon.
The name Rutger, which is also written on the roster of the Dragon Slayer Knights, is probably already sufficient to represent the North.
“We were good together. “Was it just me who thought that?”
“but.”
Vlad hesitated for a moment, seeing him shrug his shoulders as if nothing had happened, but Rutger was not the only one waiting for Vlad on the hill of Deermar.
“We meet again in a familiar place.”
“……Pablo.”
“Count Arnstein sent me first. Fortunately, it’s not too late.”
The man who first awakened the boy’s world. Arnstein’s Pablo.
Seeing his sturdy majesty, Vlad’s frozen expression began to slowly spread a smile.
“I’m glad you look healthy.”
“Rodrigo.”
“iced coffee. From now on, I would like you to call me Commander of the Imperial Military Police. “I got promoted.”
Those who are now shaking hands with Vlad are all knights sent by the central courtier.
“I saw you once in Bastopol. “Ralph of Maringen.”
“This is Ernst from Ford Mills.”
And the knights representing the North who had fought together in the steel city of Baspol.
“I get seasick when I get off the boat.”
“I also have a connection with Shoah. “What was the name of that drink back then?”
With the dwarves of Nidavellir of the Dwarf Liberation Front whom I saved.
“It is our elf custom to extend our hand first before asking for help.”
Even the elves of Aushurin who were born in the same place as the sword I held.
“…If so many knights escape, who will protect Deremar?”
Waiting for Vlad as he exited the long, narrow hallway were so many knights that they filled the hills of Deermar.
Everyone I saw, helped, and fought with was a knight who volunteered to join Vlad against the legendary golden dragon.
“Father called together the old riders.”
“The old riders?”
“Retired knights.”
Deirmar, where the elites of the Allied forces are escaping, will literally be like a wall with holes in it.
However, despite Vlad’s concerns, Rutger just opened his mouth and crossed his arms as if there was no problem.
“I borrowed strength from the older generation. “Everyone with healthy arms and legs is probably running towards this place right now.”
However, that position was reserved for knights who had already retired.
The knights of the previous generation, thirsty for forgotten glory, were rallying under Bayezid’s banner to prove that they were still useful.
“Ramund will probably come too.”
“yes. That inspiration will probably come to you the fastest.”
It was a hallway he walked alone, but at the end of it, there were numerous knights waiting for him.
The young spirits on the tree who were watching this were waving their short hands around at Vlad, asking him to look here.
“It’s snow.”
“…That’s not snow.”
The hills of Deremar were always full of loneliness.
However, seeing the countless worlds filled there, only then was Vlad able to smile.
“Where is the snow that falls in spring?”
The singing white snake and the crackling roots of the World Tree.
And the blessings of the young spirits dancing to the rhythm were falling like white snowflakes and seeping into the armor of the knights here.
-Why snow in spring?
-Good. They say that the snow that falls when you leave brings good luck.
But only Vlad can see these children with his closed left eye.
“Let’s go. To Shoara.”
That’s why Vlad waved his arms as hard as he could toward the tree above.
Vlad’s arm gesture that made the knights around him look strange was an expression of gratitude on behalf of all the knights here.
※※※※
“The expedition has departed. “Count.”
“……okay.”
A pitch black crow flew in from behind Peter, who was holding his back.
A nameless crow with a face full of scars was quietly lowering his head towards the small coffin that Peter was looking down on.
“Are you sure you don’t mind? “The retired knights and Deirmar’s walls alone will not be able to stop the Golden Duke’s army.”
“But you still have to do it.”
A coffin where a man with dark eyes is sleeping.
Peter, who was looking down at the coffin, soon began to gently touch his son’s face.
“Someone has to have your back.”
Josef Bayezid has finally reached quiet peace.
The ugly father, who had let go of his son even though he knew he would die, was caressing his son who had now grown cold.
“My son, who did what he had to do where he was supposed to be.”
The blood of nobles is blue.
However, blood that is cold from birth would not exist in this world.
“…This father is proud of you.”
Josef’s hands were held neatly against his chest, holding a sword.
It was the knight’s sword that his son had wanted to have since he was young.
The knights were leaving with my father’s tears quietly flowing.
While being seen off by the lord of Deermar, the sleeping knight, and the dancing young spirits.
They gathered from all over the continent, crossing regions and races, and the destination they are heading to is the northern city of Shoah.
The boy’s blond hair was flowing as he ran toward his birthplace.
