People who don’t know each other (1)
My ears are ringing.
I felt like something was wrong with the first collision.
“No, noir…”
Vlad barely got up from his seat with blurred vision and walked towards Noir, who was far away.
Hehehehe-
A black horse recognizes Vlad, who is slinking towards him, and stands up with difficulty.
Fortunately, even though his strength seemed to be diminished, nothing seemed to be broken.
“······shit.”
Vlad, holding on to Noir’s reins, gritted his teeth as he looked at the scene in front of him.
On a bare stone bridge covered by clouds and illuminated by moonlight.
The fragments of the armor that had just broken apart were flying around.
People were seen lying among the debris sparkling in the moonlight.
“Maybe you should have laid down a little longer.”
And a person standing on a stone bridge.
The unknown man, who had finally defeated the remaining knights, sensed Vlad’s presence and turned around.
The man’s white hair was shining brightly between the hood that Vlad had torn apart.
“I think we have a lot to ask each other.”
Hearing the unknown man’s words, Vlad once again raised his sword.
The posture of pulling the sword to the extreme for a single strike.
The man, who saw Vlad’s posture like an arrow about to be fired, smiled as if he knew that would happen.
“okay. that.”
Two men were facing each other under the moonlight.
With another sword raised as if it were the same.
※※※※
“Good job.”
An office bathed in bright light.
Flowers planted here and there were sticking their heads out toward the sunlight streaming in from beyond the window.
“It was a difficult task, but you did it well. “Thank you so much.”
Vlad listened to the Count’s words and stared at the teacup in front of him.
An elf car with a clear green color.
I walked the distance for over a week to get this sip.
“I heard it wasn’t an easy match. “It’s a shame we didn’t find his body.”
Vlad raised his head and looked at the count.
A man with deep wrinkles on his parched face.
In a body that looked ten years older than its original age, the only thing that seemed to be its own age were its brightly shining eyes.
“I was lucky.”
“ha ha ha! “I guess I was lucky.”
The Count leaned his neck deeply against the back of the chair with an expression of restlessness.
“You have no idea. “How much trouble I suffered because of that guy.”
The Count closed his eyes with a relaxed expression, as if his tooth had fallen out.
Since the city’s main industry had been threatened by an unknown person, his difficulties were understandable.
However, Vlad’s eyes as he looked at the count were cold.
“Who were you planning on calling in if I failed?”
“hmm?”
The count opened his closed eyes at Vlad’s sudden question.
“He was of a very high standard. “It was a level of skill that the Count’s knights couldn’t match.”
Vlad said, stroking the spout of the teacup.
Small ripples were occurring on the clear teacup.
“Saying I was lucky wasn’t just a sign of humility.”
Red began to spread into Vlad’s teacup.
One of the countless wounds received during the fierce battle was hidden in Vlad’s finger.
It was something I was prepared to do, but the man I met on the bridge had even more extraordinary skills than the count had said.
The Count’s request had been deceiving Vlad from the beginning.
“I guess this is why you didn’t dispatch the knight commander.”
The count knew.
Even his own knight commander with outstanding skills would not be a match for an unknown marauder.
“······A person who is responsible for something always has to think about the future.”
The Count answered and looked at Vlad sitting across from him.
A face covered in scars, one swollen eye.
However, the reason he gives a strong impression rather than looking shabby is probably because of Vlad’s unwavering blue eyes.
“I was requesting knights from the Dragon Slayer Order in the capital.”
At the Count’s answer, Vlad’s fingers stopped caressing the teacup.
“We wouldn’t have been able to push him out with our might alone. “That’s what I know of his skills so far.”
In order to gain the cooperation of the Dragon Slayer Knights in the capital, a reasonable basis is needed.
A reason such as a dragon appearing, or an enemy that is too difficult to handle.
If Vlad had failed in this matter, that would also have been used as evidence and written down in the count’s report.
The reason is that they are an opponent that not even this many knights can deal with, so please send the dragon slayer knights.
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“Still, I’m really glad you solved the problem. “The knights of the Dragon Slayer Order are really expensive.”
With those words, the Count took out a leather pouch.
“I put in more than I promised. Anyway, I brought the carriage safely.”
“······.”
A heavy-looking pocket.
However, Vlad’s eyes were deeply sunken as he looked at the pocket.
“You already received an invitation from the elves, so you don’t need my letter of recommendation. “There is a price for that too.”
It doesn’t matter how much money there is.
The gold coins in this bag alone will not be able to replace the price of one’s life.
Last night, Vlad was as good as dead on the stone bridge.
“I accept it gratefully. “Count.”
Nevertheless, Vlad accepted the gold coin offered by the count.
Only if you know the exact amount contained in it will you be able to claim more from the Count later.
The price of deceiving yourself.
“Isn’t it a waste to rot in the North?”
The Count’s voice came from behind Vlad, who was holding the doorknob of the office.
“Wouldn’t it be better to work here than in the North, where there’s nothing special? Of course, I will pay more.”
Count Vitskaya says he wants to hire him.
His voice coldly crawled up the back of Vlad’s neck like a snake.
“I heard you were banished from the city. Wouldn’t it be better to work for someone who understands you rather than a master who abandoned you?”
Vlad slowly turned his head while listening to the Count treating him like an abandoned dog.
There was the figure of the Count raising a teacup towards him.
“I want a lord I can trust. “Count.”
The blood of nobles is blue.
Vlad seemed to know now what that meant.
The person in front of me right now did not see himself as a person.
“That’s too bad.”
Vlad left his office, leaving behind the count who shrugged his shoulders.
Vlad’s steaming cup of tea had not diminished at all.
※※※※
After leaving the Count’s mansion, Vlad quietly walked towards the outskirts of the city.
A strange but familiar place.
Although it was not as bad as the back alleys of Shoara, the alleys that Vlad was currently walking through were messy and messy enough to remind him of a slum.
Vlad quickly hid his armor with his cloak and walked down the back alley with familiar movements.
Someone in the dark laughed as if he was surprised, seeing Vlad change from the appearance of a straight knight to the appearance of a messy scoundrel in an instant.
Tuk-
Vlad stopped at the agreed upon place and soon felt small stones flying towards his boots.
“······.”
I couldn’t see it or feel it.
All I could hear was the sound of the blowing wind.
Judging by the fact that not even the slightest sound of footsteps could be heard, the opponent seemed to have figured out from the previous duel that he had sensitive hearing.
Tuk-
Fighting-
Just like that, Vlad followed the direction led by the stone and entered deep into the slums of Tanovo.
The darkest place in the city.
The scenes of each city were different, but the people who were pushed out looked similar everywhere.
All people living in the dark were gray.
“But you know how to keep your promises.”
After passing the gray people, I finally arrived at a dead end somewhere.
An unpleasant sound of metal began to flow through the black shadows.
“I thought you would run away like crazy.”
Slums, darkness, and voices you don’t want to hear.
These were factors that would have put pressure on anyone, but Vlad just spoke calmly.
“No one followed.”
Meaningless threats did not impress Vlad.
The familiar smell of the slums reached his nostrils, and the boy’s rebellious spirit was suddenly brought out within the driver.
“So please stop making those weird noises.”
“······okay?”
An embarrassed cough came from the shadows at the end of the alley.
It was a completely different voice from the metal sound I heard before.
“This worked well on the bridge.”
A man who finally walked out of the darkness with Vlad’s reprimand.
He was an unknown marauder wearing a gray hood.
“Shall we talk?”
“That’s what I came here for.”
The two people are similar, even in the shape of their hands holding swords.
A knight with a scruffy face and a man with a gray hood sewn up in a mess were standing facing each other, looking at the traces left behind by each other.
※※※※
“Why don’t you ask my name?”
“I don’t think they will tell me even if I ask.”
Vlad sat down at a street corner store, which was common in slums, and placed an order with familiar movements.
A gangster with a ferocious spirit that matches his messy face.
The man in the gray hood laughed as he looked at Vlad, who had already assimilated into the darkness of the back alley.
“I guess you’re from a slum somewhere?”
“Even if I ask, he won’t tell me.”
“······.”
After receiving the ordered food, Vlad sat down on a chair randomly placed nearby and picked up a skewer.
“Retired knights usually don’t tell their names.”
“To be exact, only those who have become the lowest.”
“Most people have no money.”
“······.”
Vlad remembered Ramund from the man wearing the gray hood.
Extraordinary skills and a composure that only experienced people can have.
Nevertheless, he even tries not to reveal himself.
That day, inside the hood he removed was the image of a man with white hair, just like Ramund.
“Why was a retired knight pilfering there?”
“······Retirement came sooner than I thought.”
The man with the gray hood pulled up his hood as if that was enough and smiled as he looked at Vlad.
“There’s something I haven’t done yet.”
Everyone dreams of an honorable retirement.
However, there are very few people who can choose the ending themselves.
“You owe me your life. Right?”
“Approximately.”
“Roughly what is it?”
“I mean, if you had stayed until the end, you wouldn’t have known.”
Probably not.
The man eating skewers next to me was the one who killed 5 knights, 10 dragons, and a bunch of men for dessert, then held a sword to his own neck.
To be honest, he was the person with the most overwhelming skills of anyone I had ever crossed swords with.
“Don’t talk bullshit.”
The retired knight took the skewer from Vlad’s hand and took a mouthful.
“Anyway, I have a lot to ask and a lot to do, so you’ll have to help me for a while.”
“Why is there so much to do?”
In response to Vlad’s question, the man in the gray hood took out a small pouch from his chest and threw it away.
It was a bag containing elf tea leaves.
“It’s the elves’ tea leaves. “Why is this?”
Thujon leaves with a fragrant smell.
Vlad still didn’t know why the man in front of him was looting the count’s carriage.
“Does that look like a car?”
Vlad looked at the man who was casually sipping his drink.
There was a sneer on his face that I couldn’t tell who it was being addressed to.
Retired knights who laid down the name they had built up and became the lowest of the low.
They were people who went on a pilgrimage-like journey and picked up their honor that had been lying on the ground.
“That’s not a car.”
And now, an unknown retired knight calmly drinks in front of Vlad.
“It’s a drug.”
He was a man who shed his honor among the shaking tea leaves.
