Uninvited Guest (1)
Although it was entirely surrounded by dark gray bricks, the space was rather bright due to the light shining from the ceiling.
Alicia thought it was impressive to see the conference hall decorated entirely with swords and shields, unlike the central style.
This is because I realized that the weapons full of scratches and breaks were not simply made for decoration.
“Thank you for your hard work in coming this far. “Baron Alicia.”
From the far end of the conference room, steelworker Timur was looking at Alicia and smiling.
“It must have been inconvenient to come all the way here on this cold winter day.”
Even though I arrived last, it is understandable since I came from the farthest.
Rather, since it was Alicia who filled the empty seat left by Baron Utman, the six lords currently sitting were waiting for her with eager hearts.
“I hope you don’t feel uncomfortable in the place I have prepared.”
“Thank you for your consideration. “Duke.”
If the other person has shown consideration, you should respond politely.
Although Alicia arrived as a lord, she quietly bowed her head towards the duke, who was one of only four in the empire.
“Then it looks like everyone who needs to be gathered has now gathered.”
7 flags. 7 chairs.
and seven lords.
As Alicia took her seat, Timur smiled faintly as he looked at the now completely filled conference room.
“Then let’s start the meeting now.”
Following the steel ball’s hand gesture signaling the start, the door to the conference room slowly began to close.
Kwiiik –
Blue snow particles floating with the cold wind.
Pure white lake ice that won’t break even if you hit it with all your might.
The intense cold of the North is not only harsh, but it is even surprising.
However, the wildness that does not succumb to the cold may be the identity of northerners.
An identity that was so solid that it could not be mixed until the end.
As he watched the gap in the door getting narrower, Cheolgong’s eyes began to deepen.
It was for the sake of now that even the discrimination practiced by the empire was treated as a medal and endured.
※※※※
‘It’s magnificent.’
I’ve visited many noble family mansions, but this was the first time I saw a hallway this long and wide.
Vlad scratched his cheek as he looked at the door of the large conference hall in the distance.
‘It looks like there’s no way out.’
It was one of Vlad’s long-standing habits to look around when entering an unfamiliar place.
It may be said that it is the instinct of the weak to find a way to escape, but Vlad always did not forget that he started from the mud.
“From now on, we just have to stand guard here.”
“okay.”
Vlad turned his head to follow the voice coming from behind him.
When I turned to look, there were six knights waiting to escort the lords, along with Rutger, who was shrugging his shoulders and smiling.
“Of course, you are more of a guest who will come in rather than guard you.”
Rutger nodded and pretended to draw a line on the floor with his finger.
As he said, there was a gap between Vlad and the guard knights who were standing now.
Vlad, who had safely led Alicia to the conference hall, was now standing here not as a knight but as an invited guest.
‘All those people over there are the lord’s closest associates.’
Vlad listened to Rutger’s words and checked the faces of the knights standing next to him.
Rutger of Bayezid and Duncan of Haynal.
And among the knights whose names I still didn’t know, someone who looked familiar was looking at Vlad.
“Now I can finally say hello properly. “Lord Vlad.”
“I am honored that you remember me. Mr. Volkov.”
The man looking at Vlad among the knights was Volkov the Javelin, a renowned knight in Baranov.
Even though he was young, some of the knights’ eyes were wide open as if they were surprised when they saw Vlad naturally shaking hands with Volkov.
“At Moshiam, we were so busy that we didn’t have time to properly greet each other.”
“It was like that.”
Although he had passed by in Moshiam, Volkov remembered the young dragon slayer rushing towards the fastest dragon.
This is because the image of Vlad crying with his broken sword remained like a vivid picture to Volkov that day.
“Congratulations on going from a squire to a knight and now a nobleman with a castle.”
“thank you.”
After hearing Volkov’s greeting, Vlad felt his heart, which he had worked so hard to calm, begin to beat again.
This is because through his words, I was able to see once again what process I went through to end up here.
“Knight Ralph of Maringen.”
“Romnier’s Guillermo.”
“This is Ernst from Ford Mills.”
“Karoi of Kharkita. “It’s nice to see the person behind this rumor in person!”
As Volkov opened the conversation, the knights began to approach as if they had been waiting.
Some are successors, some are advisors.
Another person is the lord’s closest associate.
Regardless of their level of skill, Northerners would have heard their names at least once.
“I heard a rumor that he even visited the land of the elves.”
“That’s right.”
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“Are you married?”
“Not yet…”
“My father wants to talk.”
“I will make sure to make time.”
Some knights might have thought strangely when they saw Vlad suddenly appear.
However, the knights here were all closest to the lords and were people who had to think of the benefits of the territory first rather than envy or jealousy towards anyone.
“…Before I leave here, I’d like to ask you to spar.”
However, even if one is in a position to pursue a greater cause, curiosity about Vlad itself is something that cannot be helped.
As Vlad looked into Guillermo’s burning eyes, he realized that everyone here had something they wanted from him, even if the forms were different.
“Vlad. “You need to get ready now.”
“All right.”
As the conversation was getting more heated, Vlad, who had been called by the butler, realized that it was soon time for him to enter.
Currently, he is Lord Vlad with the knights, but when he enters the conference hall, he must become Aureo.
“Do well and come back.”
Vlad looked at Rutger, who was smiling with his arms crossed, and nodded slightly.
“yes.”
Although my nervousness had not yet subsided as much as my heart was racing, I felt a little reassured by the fact that Rutger was behind me.
※※※※
“……It’s real steel. steel.”
While Vlad was waiting to be called by the lords, his wizard, Nibelun, was wandering around the city, satisfying his own self-interest.
“But can steel be made this easily?”
A beastman man takes out a magnifying glass from his backpack, clings to the castle wall like a cockroach, and talks to himself.
The guards’ eyes narrowed at the suspicious appearance, but Nibelun didn’t seem to care much about what others thought.
“No matter how much iron ore is produced here, it is not a mineral that can be mined…”
It would be difficult for anyone to make a wizard who has been immersed in the subject of research turn his attention elsewhere.
Therefore, Nibelun, who had been concentrating for a long time, could not even hear the voices of the people who were starting to mutter.
-There now…!
-There is something in the sky…!
‘Is there a volcano nearby?’
Originally, steel was made under heat and pressure strong enough to melt cast iron.
All kinds of impurities must be burned off in the heat of a blast furnace to produce steel of this level, but there is no way that this amount of steel could have been made in a blacksmith shop… “Huh?
”
“I told you to run! “What are you doing now!”
Nibelun, who had been concentrating on the castle wall for a while, suddenly felt his body floating.
This was because the soldier who had been posted as a guide urgently carried him around.
“why?”
“Why why!”
Looking at Nibelun, who was still dazed, the soldier shouted in frustration.
“excuse me! “Look at the sky!”
“sky?”
Nibelun looked at the sky with the magnifying glass he naturally held at the soldier’s shout, and soon discovered something there and his eyes widened.
“……What is that?”
As the soldier said, there was a silver dot shining from afar towards Bastopol.
At first it looked like a dot, but the closer it got, the more it became clearer.
-It’s an attack! attack!
-It comes from the sky! Everyone, raise your arrows!
The screams of people in fear began to be heard behind the soldiers who were beginning to protest.
Nibelun, who was heading to the mansion along the confusing road of Bastopol, was finally able to recognize the identity of the attackers through the magnifying glass he was holding.
“Wyvern?”
According to an old, now forgotten legend, the walls of Bastopol were initially built from ordinary iron ore.
However, the reason that ordinary iron ore was able to become the solid steel of today was because of the strong and hot breath of something that reached the castle walls.
-Dragons breathe fire!
-Everyone avoid it!
The most perfect dragon’s breath.
It is said that the dragon’s anger, which wanted to leave only pure things behind, melted the walls of Bastopol into steel.
“……Open the road. “Knights of the North.”
There was a man who came down to the ground with the dragon’s breath that started from the sky.
“I have come here now in obedience to the orders of His Majesty the Righteous Emperor.”
He has brilliant blonde hair and blue eyes.
And it was a man who came with a dragon banner with his throat slit.
“Inform the owner of this land that Mirshea of the Dragon Slayer Knights has arrived.”
No matter how high it hangs, it will not be higher than the sky above.
The seven flags hanging in Bastopol began to sway precariously as the dragon born in the highest place flapped its wings.
※※※※
‘I want to ask you something.’
[Ask.]
Vlad, who was standing in front of the door with the knights behind him, decided to ask a question he had been harboring for a while.
It was a question I asked while remembering when I was still a boy standing in the mud before entering the world of high nobility.
‘Why did it have to be me?’
[Hmm?]
‘Why did you come to me?’
When Vlad was a boy in the back alleys rolling in the mud, Quijano came with a black thunderbolt.
At first, he thought it was an unfortunate coincidence, but now that Vlad found out who Quijano was, he knew very well that he was not someone who could come across as a mere coincidence.
[…Why did it have to be you?]
Quihano’s voice began to fade away in response to Vlad’s question.
If Vlad had closed his left eye right now, he would have been able to see Quihano looking at the sunset under the bright red maple tree.
-Vlad Aureo. You are entering!
[When I was watching from the sky.]
The doors to the conference hall began to open with a loud ringing sound.
A large door opens and the door behind it opens.
As the doors blocking Vlad opened, the lords sitting in the distance began to appear.
[Of all the pieces scattered to the ground, you were the most sparkling.]
After hearing Quihano’s words, Vlad smiled faintly and began to walk away.
Although he was born in the mud, he is now headed to the world of nobility.
However, Vlad was only more willing to acknowledge the Quijano within him than the northern lords in front of him.
Because no one in the conference hall right now will shine brighter than the Quijano in me.
