Side Story – Looking up at the sky,
“There is a ghost in this mansion.”
Early in the morning, the sun is not yet up and the surroundings are dim.
Vlad, who couldn’t even open his eyes properly, woke up when he heard Jemina’s voice next to him.
“what?”
“I heard there’s a ghost here. “I saw it yesterday.”
In the field of vision that finally came into focus, there was Gemina with her hands folded like a cat.
It seemed like he was trying to express a threatening appearance, but to Vlad, who didn’t know the context, it was just an incomprehensible eccentricity.
“…Did you eat something wrong?”
“Yeah, I knew you would say that.”
It came in the morning and I wondered what he was talking about, but he said it was a ghost.
Vlad lay down again as if he was dumbfounded, but Jemina was removing Vlad’s blanket with a firm hand.
“…Why are you like this this morning?”
“Look at this. “There is clear evidence here.”
Zemina held out a white piece of paper to Vlad, who was squinting his eyes as if he wanted to go back to sleep.
The paper with the picture on it was given to Jeminah by the World Tree priestess last night.
“This is a painting left behind by the ghost I met yesterday. how is it? “Just looking at it makes you feel cool, doesn’t it?”
“…….”
“Look at this untidy drawing. Anyone who looks at it says it’s a picture that contains a curse?”
As expected, just as Gemina said, the drawing style was not organized at all.
However, because the colors were brighter than that, it was difficult to determine what age group the painting was painted at.
“Did a ghost give this to you?”
“That’s right.”
“…Could it be that the ghost has platinum-blonde hair and the dress she’s wearing is white?”
“Oh my god!”
Jemina covered her mouth as she watched Vlad accurately explain the ghost’s facial expressions.
“I just got goosebumps.”
Jemina’s big eyes became even more round as if Vlad’s words were accurate.
Vlad, who was looking at this, scratched his head and started looking at the picture that Zemina gave him.
“……hmm?”
Above the walls of Sturma, where dawn is finally beginning to break.
Vlad, who was interpreting the priestess’s revelation in a room that was starting to get brighter, began to furrow his eyebrows with an expression that he found difficult to understand.
※※※※
Bayezid’s mansion, where many guests were now gathered, could literally be said to be a social gathering place itself.
Nobles and envoys gathered from all over the continent.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, which would normally be difficult to meet, some who were already keen were busy forming new connections.
“Oh oh. Lord Vlad Aureo…”
And among them, the person people most want to meet is Vlad, the new Sword Master.
However, Vlad, who indifferently passed through the countless people approaching, just walked up the stairs with familiar steps.
‘I want you to go see your mother once. ‘I’m sure you’ll be happy.’
“…….”
After passing through the bustling first and second floors, we reached the third floor, which was not open to customers.
Vlad came up there and stopped for a moment as he looked at the empty hallway.
“The sun is still bright.”
When I was a squire, it was a hallway where servants always came and went.
But now it has become so quiet that even the birds chirping outside can be heard.
Sniff.
Before he stepped from the stairs into the hallway, Vlad began to touch his nose to various parts of his body to see if he could smell anything.
A boy from a back alley who previously didn’t even know he had a smell.
However, the lady here always smiled at the boy who wore winter clothes even in the middle of summer.
“……Vlad?”
“long time no see.”
Vlad quietly stood in front of Oksana’s room and nodded slightly towards the familiar maid there.
“I came to see Oksana.”
“iced coffee.”
The middle-aged maid, who had been following Oksana since her parents’ family, recognized Vlad at a glance and began to smile brightly.
“I almost didn’t recognize him. “You’ve become so cool.”
“thank you.”
It was a loud laugh, but not a single sound came out of the maid’s mouth, as if she was conscious of the quiet atmosphere in the room.
Or perhaps it was the voice that could not come out because he had not laughed for so long.
“Please wait. “Because we have to put a message inside.”
I said I would stop by today, but ladies always need time.
Vlad, who was well aware of the situation, stood in the empty living room and began to quietly look around.
“…….”
Originally, it was said that a room resembles its owner.
It was a large room, but the furniture and decorations were simple.
However, the reason this living room does not look empty is probably because the orange sunlight that reaches all the way to my feet is filling the place.
“Vlad?”
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“Ah yes.”
There was a noble lady who smiled along with that light.
Seeing her smile at me made Vlad feel like his moldy, damp heart had brightened up a little.
“You must have had a hard time coming this far. “Vlad.”
“…….”
However, instead of the brightness seen back then, her smile today was filled with rain clouds that looked as if they were about to fall at any moment.
It was a thick, dark rain cloud that felt as if it would pour down at the slightest touch.
“……sorry. “I should have come to see you a long time ago.”
“no. no. “Come closer.”
Oksana’s hand, sitting on the bed and beckoning me to come closer, was as dry as a dry tree.
A woman who couldn’t eat, was sick, and was exhausted, so she withered away.
Looking at Oksana, who was as skinny as the last time he saw his mother when he was young, Vlad took out his tongue and skimmed her lips.
“I know everything. “You’ve been busy.”
“…….”
“And that my son has been working hard all this time to do what he was unable to do.”
It had already been two years since Josef died.
But Oksana was bringing up Josef’s name as if it had happened yesterday.
“Have you killed all the warlocks who ran away?”
“……The North. Almost all of the North.”
“What about those who created strife and divided people under Dragon Blood Lord?”
“There will be a round table discussion in Brigantes this time. “I plan to bridge the gap there.”
In each era, there are duties that the people of that era must bear.
Some eras are for freedom and some eras are for glory.
And there was a man who said that in this day and age, we are a generation that has to drink the poisons that have been spreading for so long.
“okay. You worked hard. “Vlad.”
Josef tried to burn off the poison that had spread throughout the world by burning his remaining life.
Oksana smiled quietly as she watched Vlad continue his legacy.
“Thank goodness. “The next children won’t have to suffer like you did.”
The Vlad in front of me had neither black hair, nor a pale complexion, nor was he weak.
Although Vlad did not resemble her son in any way, the way Oksana looked at him was no different from when she looked at Josef.
“As expected, it’s nice to see that they are well fed. “The wide shoulders are very manly.”
“……thank you.”
But Vlad, who was bowing his head at the side of the bed, could not bear to look at her.
Because she could be a mother to me, but I couldn’t be her only son.
Vlad, who was now bowing his head, knew very well that the only person who could comfort her as she withered away was Josef, who was lying outside the window.
※※※※
“……I think it’s really unfair at times like this.”
Under the cloudy sky, Vlad was quietly opening a bottle of whiskey.
The mansion in the back was bustling with festival atmosphere, but this small garden was quiet, as if it were a completely different world.
Vlad, who was quietly pouring himself a drink in front of Josef’s tombstone in the garden, sighed as he looked at the knights’ memorial tower behind him.
“It seems like only those who went first felt comfortable. “It’s still difficult for those who remain.”
Gregory Ragmus Age……. And I don’t know their names, but there were countless knights who fought together toward Sarnus that day.
Vlad, who had raised his whiskey for the names newly written on the memorial tower, quietly turned his head when he sensed someone behind him.
“Still, I guess it’s the job of those who remain to do what they couldn’t do.”
“Marcus.”
A man began to walk out from a place where no one had been before.
He was a man whose face was covered in hideous scars from something that had happened in the past.
“Still, the knights here are lucky. “There are many more people in this world who disappear without even leaving a name.”
Vlad nodded without saying a word as Marcus spoke next to him.
No one is born without meaning, but that doesn’t mean that it will be that way until death.
“Pope Andrew asked me to say thank you. “It looks like the guys we killed this time caused quite a bit of trouble.”
“is that so?”
Therefore, for the past two years, Vlad has wandered the continent and focused on eliminating the remaining remnants.
Sometimes he killed the warlocks who were deceiving people, and other times he cut down the remaining followers of Dragulia.
The constant movement was like Vladman’s struggle to not make the names in front of him in vain.
“Are there any others left? “I’m thinking of taking a look around after this succession ceremony.”
“…….”
However, Marcus did not open his mouth until the end when Vlad asked him to tell him the next goal.
He simply took out the bottle of alcohol he had brought with him and quietly sprinkled it on the nearby grass.
“You are still young and I think what you have done is enough.”
“Marcus?”
Marcus quietly drinks alcohol for nameless people like himself.
He raised his head and said, nodding towards Vlad, who had a puzzled expression on his face.
“According to Count Peter’s last command, the crows will no longer give you any information.”
“…….”
“Now, this is the Count’s final request to live your life instead of others.”
There was a shining star because there was something I wanted to do and something I wanted to become.
But now that star was gradually losing its light, unable to let go of the relationships it had to let go of, so it was time to raise its head towards a new sky.
“I won’t be able to see you for a while now.”
“yes.”
“Then let me ask you just one question.”
Vlad asked behind Marcus, who was slowly moving away as if he had finished what he wanted to say.
“What is your original name?”
“…….”
A nameless crow. A man who introduced himself in a new way every time we met.
Vlad was curious about the person’s identity, but Marcus, who turned around, simply pointed to the memorial tower behind him.
“I do not know either. “The old name was buried there.”
A man who was able to blend into any darkness because he buried the name that defined him.
The man called Marcus was disappearing without a trace, just like when I first saw him.
“…Now I’m unemployed.”
Vlad stood alone in the garden where even Marcus had left.
Vlad, who suddenly lost his direction in life, quietly took out a piece of paper from his pocket and asked.
“What should I do now, Josef?”
A painting given to Jemina by the World Tree priestess.
Vlad had been looking down at the painting for a long time, but now only Josef was standing next to him, with no answer even when asked.
Shoot,
it started raining slowly from the sky.
Vlad, who was looking up at the sky, felt bitter as if the rain was falling on his back.
