CHAPTER 76

"This time it'll take about a month."

With those words, Vlad pulled up a small chair and leaned against the wall to start tending to his sword.

The unadorned sword illuminated by candlelight always soothed the boy's heart.

"Hmm. Being busy is a good thing."

Zemina, who replied to Vlad's words without much enthusiasm, was sitting on the bed, holding a flag and sewing next to the sentences embroidered by the noble lady.

"You're doing well these days. Vlad."

Zemina, who had been concentrating all her attention on sewing so as not to be embarrassed when compared to the sentences pinned next to hers, raised her head and looked at Vlad in front of her, as if she had suddenly remembered something.

"Your mother would have been pleased to see you like this."

Vlad suddenly looked at the girl who was talking about her mother with a subtle expression.

Zemina sometimes made Vlad uncomfortable with such irrelevant conversations.

"Why bring that up out of the blue?"

"Oh, no reason, it just suddenly came to mind."

Even though it had been ten years, there were few people who remembered Vlad's mother, but Zemina was one of them.

One of the very few who could speak of memories that no one else remembered.

"I don't remember my mother, but I remember your mother."

"Oh, really?"

The girl's casually spoken words carried traces of wounds.

Vlad's mother had left him to die, but not Zemina's.

Like many children in the back alleys, Zemina was an abandoned child.

"I don't remember my mother well either."

There were inevitably wounds that one couldn't tend to oneself.

Vlad, who found traces of that in Zemina's words, only answered calmly as if nothing had happened. Because it was one of the few considerations that could be given to her.

"Alright then."

Listening carefully to Vlad's troubled words, Zemina stood up, brushing off her hands and making the white flag flutter proudly.

"It won't be noticeable at this level, right? The Countess's skills are so good."

The white flag by which Vlad proves himself.

There, a sentence newly etched by the red-haired girl.

"······It won't be noticeable if you look at it from a distance."

The insignia of San Rogino glittered in the candlelight.

Just as Vlad had casually looked out for Zemina, Zemina, too, watched over Vlad's risky ventures with her usual demeanor.

Though he hadn't seen the dragon himself, it must be a dangerous creature.

Otherwise, the experienced knight in the adjacent room wouldn't have been preparing so diligently.

"You will come in the winter, right?"

"Most likely. Autumn is a fleeting season, after all."

"Then take this too."

Vlad looked at the piece of cloth thrown casually by Zemina towards the bedside with a puzzled expression.

"What's this?"

"A handkerchief."

Vlad chuckled wryly as he looked down at the handkerchief, as white as the flag.

She must have been fussing over it all this time.

"Didn't have anything else to do?"

"I felt sorry seeing you carry around a useless handkerchief, so I made it."

Listening to Zemina's words, Vlad carefully held the handkerchief in his hand and examined it closely.

Alicia's handkerchief, as Zemina said, was made of gorgeous silk and was not intended for actual use.

"It's pure cotton. It will be good to use everyday."

Vlad quietly held the handkerchief in his hand as he looked at the traces of Zemina, who had done the best she could.

Leaving behind a word of caution, Zemina departed.

Alone in the room, Vlad carefully folded the handkerchief with Zemina's name on it and placed it in his breast pocket.

"...She made it for use, but why put her name on it?"

It seemed Zemina's handkerchief, which fell asleep with Alicia's handkerchief, was not destined to turn out the way she intended.

Vlad embedded it deep into the breastplate so that it would not fall out easily.

※※※※

A group moving northward along the endless snowy plains.

After over a week of advancing, they had finally reached the northernmost region of Count Bayezid's territory, leaving about half a day's journey to their destination, Bernhem Fortress.

The knights that Rutger had already placed will be waiting for the party there, preventing the barbarians from moving south and scouting Lindworm.

"I distinctly asked for just one from him."

"..."

"But he has given me three instead of one. What could this mean?"

"...Perhaps it's out of consideration for you, sir?"

Rutger firmly shook his head at Vlad's uncertain response.

"Josef undoubtedly has some grievances against me. Don't you think so too?"

Seeing Rutger speak with such conviction, Vlad could only shrug his shoulders.

While it wasn't likely that Josef had intentionally done so, the situation, with the two men glaring at each other from behind, could lead to such misunderstandings.

A barbarian warrior and an old knight of Bayezid.

If handled properly, they could certainly be of great use, but for now, Rutger could only feel a headache as he looked at the two individuals who were clearly incompatible.

"You're already losing your spirit before we even arrive. From now on, you're in charge of those two."

"But I'm not in a position to do that."

Although the refusal had its own reasons, Vlad had no choice but to nod when he saw Rutger, whose eyes were as downcast as Josef's.

Even if Aage had to be set aside, Larmund had been a knight who had served in Bayezid for a long time, so Rutger couldn't forcefully speak against him out of respect.

"....I'll try my best."

"Thank you."

Under such circumstances, perhaps Vlad, who could at least stick together, might be the better alternative.

From Rutger's perspective, Larmund's attitude towards Vlad seemed to have a certain softness to it.

"Looks like you crawled out of the prison without dying."

"Indeed, you've managed to stay alive surprisingly. Just being near you gives off a stench of dirt."

"Hahaha. There's no order in how things happen."

At the sharp voices of the barbarian and the knight, Rutger narrowed his eyes, but Vlad raised his hand to halt the group.

"Wait a moment."

Already showing its effect, Rutger nodded in satisfaction, thinking he had made the right decision. However, Vlad's intervention came from an entirely different direction than Rutger's expectations.

"...There seems to be something ahead."

"Hmm?"

Upon hearing that, Rutger looked at where Vlad's finger pointed with a tense gaze.

The endless white snow to the north.

Vlad pointed to the beyond, which he could not clearly see, and looked at Rutger with a stern expression.

"Lead the way."

Throughout the week of heading north, Vlad had consistently demonstrated keen senses—hearing, visual, smell, and even subtle shifts in the sharp energy around them. Rutger, thinking that Vlad had detected something unusual again, didn't easily dismiss Vlad's report.

"It seems quite chaotic."

"..."

Following Vlad's lead, the group arrived at a clearing in the snow where they could witness a gruesome sight.

The scattered corpses of barbarians, their animals, and even people.

Aage's expression became increasingly hard as he looked at the cold, frozen beings lying on the snow that should have been warm.

"It has come down this far."

Rutger got off his horse and turned over the bodies lying on their stomachs.

Grim wounds cleaving through chests.

Looking at the wounds, Rutger furrowed his brow at the discrepancy between his expectations and reality.

"...They have clean cuts."

While they appeared to be people who had fled in panic due to Lindworm's rampage, the wounds they bore told a different story.

These were not wounds caused by tearing or bursting but rather sharp incisions that no creature other than a human could make.

Observing these wounds, Rutger looked at Aage.

"Are they from your tribe?"

"Not exactly."

At Rutger's question, Aage silently shook his head.

At first glance, the corpse of a barbarian with tattoos all over it looked similar to Aage, but it was not from the Budart tribe to which he belonged.

"We're not from the same tribe, but we've had dealings with each other to some extent."

It was fortunate that they were not from Aage's tribe, but the situation did not allow for a sigh of relief.

The barbarians were moving south at the same time, and the reason for this was a being called Lindworm.

The Budart tribe, who followed this trend, would undoubtedly be wandering somewhere nearby.

"The Northerners wouldn't have done this."

Rutger nodded at the words coming from behind him, spoken by Larmund.

Although the barbarians and the Northerners harbored mutual animosity, they were in no position to engage in such extreme massacres, knowing full well that it would lead to a protracted conflict soaked in blood.

The knights under Rutger's command at Bernheim Fortress would understand this even more.

"We need to move quickly."

Something unsettling was happening on the northern borders.

Sensing this, Rutger decided to hasten their arrival at Bernheim Fortress to assess the situation.

"······."

The group moves forward, urging their horses urgently.

However, as the group hurried forward, Vlad remained still, holding his chest with a troubled expression.

Thump-thump—

Vlad, who remembered the heartbeat he felt when he met the Deathworm, only bit his lip, holding his heart as it beat strangely as he moved forward.

Amidst the urgency of the situation, the only thing that responded to the boy's discomfort was the horse, which cautiously steadied its upper body to reduce the vibrations.

※※※※

Bernheim Fortress.

A military facility marking the northernmost boundary of Bayezid County.

After reaching the place that Peter cared about as much as the three cities owned by the county, the group just looked at the highest point of the fortress with puzzled expressions.

"Why are there two flags?"

Vlad, the most observant among them, asked, eyeing the flags fluttering over Bernheim Fortress.

One flag bore the familiar insignia of Bayezid, which Vlad recognized, but the other flag displayed a symbol he had never seen before.

"Why would those people be here…?"

However, even Rutger and Larmund, who recognized the flags, were perplexed by the situation.

Vlad approached Larmund, who was blinking in confusion, and cautiously tapped his shoulder.

"What flag is that?"

"....It's not a flag from the North."

In response to the boy's inquiry, Larmund furrowed his brow and savored his appetite.

"It's from the Central region."

"Central?"

"Yeah. Central."

As Larmund referred to it as being from the Central region, not the Northern one, Vlad raised his head again to scrutinize the unfamiliar flag.

It depicted the silhouette of a dragon spewing fire.

"It's the insignia of the Dragon Slayer Knights, an order of knights directly subordinate to the Dragon Blood Duke."

The image of a fire-breathing dragon depicted on the flag had a strange drawing engraved on it.

It was a drawing that symbolizes a sword cutting sharply through the dragon's neck.