In New Shoara (1)
A street in a back alley colored with the colors of night.
bang-! bang-!
The sound of bones being cut and tendons being cut was waking up the quiet alley.
That sound, along with the unidentifiable bones hanging all over the store, was making the atmosphere of the place gloomy.
“Is there a owner?”
“……what?”
Two men came into the butcher shop, removing meat hanging all over the place.
The owner of the butcher shop, who had been cutting meat for a while, frowned as he looked at the two men crowding the front of the store.
“How can a bastard with no blood on his head speak rudely to an adult?”
When the boy, who seemed to have just gotten out of his teenage years, spoke informally to him, the owner, who was very indifferent, spat out the tendon he was chewing and growled.
“Did your parents teach you that?”
“It’s been a while since anyone came here looking for their parents.”
Shrugging his shoulders, Vlad took off the hood he was wearing and handed a small note to the owner.
The owner’s face seemed to harden a little when he saw the boy’s blonde hair that did not match the atmosphere of the place and the note with small letters.
“Why these people?”
“No, I was wondering if you’ve seen it.”
“Why come to the butcher shop and look for someone? “We don’t sell people here.”
“okay?”
Vlad smiled when he saw the owner putting down the meat with no regard for himself.
It’s here.
“I used to be a native here and recently came back. Was this place originally a butcher shop?”
“Go ask the black bear about that. “I have permission.”
Pig Butcher Black Bear.
The name of another boss from the back alley popped up, but Vlad just laughed as if it was ridiculous.
Now, that amount of name value alone was not enough to sway the boy.
“Then let’s ask about that later.”
Vlad leaned over the workbench and brought his face close to the butcher’s.
The sight of him thrusting his face into the person who was slashing the meat with a knife was clearly dangerous, but each of the boy’s actions was imbued with an unknown weight.
“…But it’s really amazing.”
“what.”
The owner swallowed his saliva without realizing it as he looked at the blue eyes that were looking straight at him.
When I first saw it, I thought it was a fluffy baby, but before I knew it, I was taking control of the atmosphere of the place with just a few words.
“If you want to survive, buy something. Or leave right away…”
“How did you know that it was a person’s name written on the note?”
With the boy’s question, the knife that was about to be struck stopped.
Only the sound of the chains that Vlad had playfully pulled apart echoed quietly.
A strange silence hovered around the butcher shop.
“It’s not easy to learn letters here.”
“…….” The owner still
raised
the meat cleaver and just rolled his eyes and looked at the boy in front of him.
To be exact, the dark-skinned man standing behind the boy.
The man just closed the store.
“I came all the way here to ask, so please give me an answer.”
The corner of Vlad’s lip curled up as he looked at his owner who was looking at him with tense eyes.
“Are you just selling people instead of human meat?”
“You fucking idiot!”
The master quickly swung the knife he was holding, but Vlad just tilted his head back as if he had already expected it.
It was a sharp blow, unbecoming of a butcher, but the boy was now on the cusp of a knight.
“Business here is over today. Otar.”
“hmm.”
A dark-skinned man. Otar.
Officially the assistant to Acting Guard Commander Kwon, he took out the hatchet he was wearing.
“What are you! “Where did you come from!”
“…Where are you from?”
As the door closed and the lights coming from outside were hidden, only the candles lit by the owner flickered inside the butcher shop.
A faint light swaying in the darkness.
It was the color of the back alley.
“That’s actually something I’d like to ask.”
The lights cast dark shadows on the boy’s face.
bang-! bang-!
Inside the tightly closed butcher shop, the sound of meat and bones being cut could still be heard.
The only difference from before was that someone’s cries could be heard mixed in.
※※※※
A back alley street just before dawn.
Vlad sat in front of a street vendor who was about to close down his business and picked up a skewer.
“You take one too.”
“hmm.”
The two men sitting down began to bite into skewers and prepare the weapons they were holding.
Otar’s hatchet covered in blood.
And now only Vlad can hold Jorge’s dagger.
Things suitable for use in the back alleys were peeling blood from the hands of their owners after finishing their day’s work.
“When did a guy like that come in?”
“One-armed Jack hasn’t been taken care of well.”
“Did you mess up like that?”
“…People have changed since that day.”
Otar, who was Jack’s liaison, didn’t seem to want to criticize him until his last appearance.
Whatever the outcome, Jack was the only person in the back alley who accepted him despite his different skin color.
“Well, the details will be found out from the higher-ups.”
The man disguised as a butcher said:
He said he was just an intermediate recruiter and the slave traders would know the details.
I didn’t hear anything about Anna, but it meant that she had been selling people out in the back alleys without anyone knowing.
“But now that we have confirmed the reality,
I wonder if this will end…” It started out lightly, and I didn’t think it was an incident with such deep roots.
Perhaps, if it weren’t for the existence of Vlad, it might have been buried, as it always was, dismissed as just one of those things that happened in the back alleys.
Light and darkness Those who are marginalized and those who shine.
The boy was still standing on the dividing line.
“Vlad! brother!”
Vlad, who had been lost in thought for a while, heard a familiar boy’s voice in his ears.
In the distance, there was a pitch-black boy running hurriedly from the end of the alley.
“Gasp…Gasp. OMG.”
“I’m not running away anywhere.”
Vlad placed a skewer in the mouth of the boy who ran to him eagerly.
It was fair compensation that the boy deserved.
“Did you know what I asked for?”
“Huh…. I heard there are kids who saw it.”
indeed.
Vlad and Otar made eye contact and nodded.
Just as a bird hears words during the day and a mouse hears words at night, rumors in the back alleys were bound to reach the eyes and ears of young tramps.
“What did you see?”
“The woman Vlad is looking for. “You said Anna, right?”
“It did.”
Ned took a bite of the skewer given to him by Vlad and responded with a triumphant expression.
“There was a kid who saw her get on a carriage that he had never seen before about a month ago. “But it was a little strange.”
“what?”
Instead of answering, Ned thrust his palm towards Vlad.
“…You did a good job educating your younger brother.”
“hmm.”
Even the youngest ones had to be clever in order to survive in the muddy back alleys.
Since they knew this very well, rather than getting angry, they just nodded.
“Here’s one more skewer.”
“What was strange?”
With Vlad’s spell, Ned’s mouth began to open.
The little mouse that was scanning the floor of the back alley came back with exactly the information Vlad wanted.
“They said all the women who got on the carriage there were pregnant women.”
“what?”
Ned’s words might have seemed strange to others, but to Vlad, they were words that reminded him of something.
“…They’re all pregnant?”
“They said all the women riding in the carriage had bloated bellies. It’s really strange, isn’t it? “There are people who buy pregnant women who can’t work.”
“…….”
When Ned asked if he could eat more, Vlad just pointed backwards with his thumb without saying a word.
“what’s the matter. Is there any problem?”
“no.”
Otar asked, his expression becoming increasingly serious, but Vlad was not easily able to get out of his own thoughts.
‘Buying and selling pregnant women?’
It was shocking news that Anna was pregnant, but it was also difficult to accept that there were people buying and selling pregnant women in the back alleys.
It was something that did not make sense and should not have happened.
But there were people here who did that.
‘……no way.’
An ominous premonition that passes by for a moment.
[Bad premonitions always come true.]
I wanted to think no, but the advice from the voice echoing in my head reminded me of something that happened on a winter day.
There was a woman crying in the middle of the garrison where the white snow field was spread out.
The woman was looking for her child.
A small child who was never born.
[You must learn to listen to the warnings you give yourself.]
Vlad had no choice but to nod at what the voice said.
There was something the boy always noticed in Josef’s behavior.
His attitude was always to prepare for the worst.
“…There’s no harm in being prepared.”
The memory of that winter day was still vivid in Vlad’s mind.
The morning sun was rising, but in Vlad’s eyes, it still seemed like a shadow was deep in the back alley.
※※※※
“Mr. Bordan.”
“why? “Do you have anything to report?”
Bordan’s office located at City Hall.
There were always corpses of junk food strewn across his desk, but today it had been cleaned up neatly.
“I discovered a suspicious trend.”
“Oh yeah?”
Looking at Vlad, who had a serious expression on his face, he seemed likely to listen for once, but Bordan was just biding his time organizing the remaining documents.
“I told you to rest… I guess you listened to me in vain when I told you to rest.”
“He said I should investigate One-Armed Jack.”
“I didn’t expect you to ask me something so quickly.”
Bordan’s chunky chin trembled and he smiled awkwardly.
“If you rest, shouldn’t I get some rest too?”
“…….”
Vlad was finally able to realize.
Why did Josef growl and grind whenever he saw Bordan?
The fat knight was a person who would not get up unless someone pushed him.
“Can’t this be postponed for a day or two? “Is this something that requires hourly wages?”
“I think so.”
“Think about it carefully. “Think again whether a crisis is just around the corner.”
Bordan was saying with his expression that it was understandable at this point, but Vlad was already fully understanding.
“Should I go to the mayor?”
Bordan sighed, realizing that Vlad’s seemingly strong attitude meant he was the only one who could handle the matter.
“It was a precious vacation that we barely made it…”
Bordan, who had been preparing to joke for a while, approached the window in frustration.
However, paradise could not exist in the place where they fled.
“No matter what, both of them are coming to peck at me… “They said it would come in a day or two.”
Vlad approached Bordan, who was sighing, and looked down at him out the window.
Horse carriages and horsemen entering City Hall.
The flag hanging in the middle of the procession had a familiar emblem.
It was Bayezid’s emblem.
※※※※
“Are you here?”
“How have you been?”
After seeing the procession, Bordan, Vlad, and the mayor of Shoara hurried to the front of the city hall to greet Josef.
City Hall began to become busy as he arrived faster than expected.
“Nothing much has happened so far, right?”
“sure. Nothing much happened. Josef.”
Bordan was bowing his head to Josef, flexing his stomach, which seemed to not be folding.
“……”
However, Vlad, who actually made eye contact with Josef, was only making a subtle expression as if he had something to say.
“Something special happened.”
“……”
Bordan sighed without anyone noticing and followed Josef with weak steps.
People greeting Josef.
And people newly entering Shoara with the procession.
While the servants were busy unloading the luggage that Josef had brought, the group followed the mayor’s guidance and entered his office located in the very center of the city hall.
“Let me check first.”
Zayar began to search the room to see if there were any suspicious items to be guarded.
“Nothing suspicious. There is no way I would leave something like that behind.”
“……”
Despite the mayor’s embarrassed smile, Zayar just rummaged around the room without saying a word.
The most important thing to Zayar is Josef’s safety.
The mayor’s reputation was not important at all.
In response to that cold response, the mayor of Shoara just sighed and took a step back.
While Xayar searched the room, Josef turned his head to look at Vlad.
“Good work.”
“thank you.”
The two men, who knew what they had worked hard for and what they were grateful for, simply asked each other how they were doing.
From the perspective of those in the same boat, that would be enough.
“What do you want to say? “Tell me.”
“…I don’t know if I’m causing trouble for no reason.”
Vlad was hesitant at Josef’s words.
This is because Vlad knew that procedures were important because of what he had seen and heard from the Bayezid family.
“I would like to receive support in one way or another, but I guess I have to speak directly to the mayor…”
Josef was a noble man, but his bloodline did not guarantee authority.
A position appropriate for the position. Only with that, could Josef have authority.
And right next to Josef stood a person with such authority.
Even though I stood there not knowing what to do due to the discomfort that Josef gave me.
“okay. “It’s a good decision.”
Josef smiled as he looked at the boy who studied the time and situation for himself and did not act recklessly.
He felt proud because his teaching had been worthwhile.
“I don’t see anything suspicious. Josef.”
With Jayar’s nod, Josef naturally started walking towards the center of the office.
“…….”
Watching Josef walk to the mayor’s desk in the afternoon sunlight, Vlad remembered his office in Sturm.
The image of Josef sitting where he should always be, looking at Vlad, seemed to come to mind.
“The scenery here is pretty nice too.”
Josef, leaning back on a chair that only the mayor could sit on, was smiling as he looked at the scenery outside the window.
The mayor of Shoara naturally retreated due to the confident spirit displayed by Josef.
“I guess I’ll have to replace the chair.”
“……no no. Joseph, perhaps.”
The lips of the former Mayor of Shoara, who had finally figured out what was going on, turned blue, but no one looked at him.
The atmosphere in the office was changing.
It was the air that Josef created.
“Now don’t worry about it and just say it.”
Vlad looked ahead with blank eyes.
There was a man sitting there as always, looking at the boy.
There was a man there who didn’t feel awkward at all even if he looked down at someone.
“To the new mayor of Shoara.”
The young man who had struggled to survive was now sitting in a position that he had won for himself rather than being guaranteed by blood.
The new mayor of the city of Shoara.
Josef Bayezid.
With the light shining from the window, a man with dark eyes was looking at the boy and smiling.
