Chapter 171 - Rose War (2)

Rose's Smiles, the inn that represented the city of Soara.

Ordinarily, it would have been filled with the savory smell of food and the sound of lively chatter, but today, for some reason, only a heavy air hung over the place.

"Are you ordering anything besides beer?"

"No."

"You too, big brother?"

"Mm."

"Ha... What is wrong with all the customers today?"

Ned, the dark-skinned boy, looked at Haven and Otar, who had each ordered only a single beer, and began scratching the back of his head in annoyance.

They said business was going well these days, so why were they spending so little?

"Then at least give me a tip. If you don't order anything, I don't get my bonus."

"A tip? Here."

At Ned's grumbling, Haven raised his middle finger as if telling him to take that and get lost.

"Don't go around pestering customers for tips today. This is the tip I'm giving you."

"That fucking sucks. Seriously."

His gesture was playful, but his voice was serious, and Ned could only furrow his brow at Haven.

Even if he was not quite Vlad, Haven was now someone who could no longer be treated lightly.

"Like Vlad said, if that brat had kept pickpocketing, he wouldn't have lived long."

"Mmm..."

Otar could only sigh as he watched his younger brother storm off, huffing.

The boy was quick enough in his own way, but his sense for the mood could not keep up, and it seemed he had failed entirely to notice the strange tension hanging over Rose's Smiles today.

"This takes me back."

Haven lifted his beer mug and spoke while glancing around.

Had it been like this when One-Armed Jack and Jorge were here?

A sharp tension he had not faced in a truly long time was wrapping around Rose's Smiles.

"They're all faces I know."

The owner of this place likely had not intended it, but the guests who had come to Rose's Smiles today had naturally split into two groups.

People who had ordered nothing more than a simple mug of beer each and were watching one another.

Though Ned had not recognized them, every last one of them was a merchant from the trading companies that represented the North.

"All the busy people in the world are gathered here."

"Mm."

Just as Haven said, the people said to have an uncanny nose for the scent of money had gathered in the same place at the same time.

And the place they were watching with every nerve drawn taut was the private room on the third floor where Zemina and Alicia were.

Would it be Soara, or Deirmar?

The place where trade with the new worlds called elves and dwarves would unfold.

Would it be Bayezid, or Heinal?

The place where the knight called Vlad, acknowledged by the Orthodox Church and sponsored by the Iron Duke, would stay.

"I bet on Zemina."

"Mm. Me too."

This was not a simple fight over love, but a silent war underlaid with the interests and political calculations of countless people.

Haven adjusted his captain's hat and raised his beer mug toward the other captains seated across from him.

People divided between the red rose and the blue rose.

And the place where Haven was sitting now was on the side of the red rose.

* * *

"This tastes excellent. So much so that I would like to invite the person who made this dish to my estate."

Could a fight between a woman from the back alleys and a noble lady of high birth even be possible?

Normally, of course, that would have been absurd, but if the topic was limited to Vlad, then there was truly no telling.

'It seems Bayezid intends to use this woman.'

Alicia, who was a noble of high birth but also the daughter of a humble baronial house, could understand this very well.

The level of the food she was eating now was not something that could be achieved with mere money and cooking skill alone.

"The quality of the meat, in particular, is excellent."

"It is meat supplied by the Kannor Family. All of them were healthy creatures who once ran and played across the plains."

It was not only the meat.

All manner of delicacies that one would not dare purchase even with money were still being brought into the room.

Rose's Smiles, an inn under the protection of the Bayezid Family.

Through these splendid dishes, Zemina was now showing exactly who stood behind her.

"... No matter how much they ran and played across the plains, in the end, they must have been raised trapped inside a fence."

But even as Alicia looked at the fragrant dishes, she only answered coldly.

"Because the land called Bayezid is so vast that one does not even realize one is trapped."

"... Is that so?"

Did this woman know?

That she was being used by Bayezid.

If she was doing this even while knowing it, then there was no particular need to respect her.

"I worry that Sir Vlad, who has become free after his contract ended, may find himself bound like this."

Alicia smiled as she twirled the meat skewered on her fork.

But the chilling air directed toward someone at the end of that smile was surely not a mere illusion.

"... In any case, are you not also trying to keep Sir Vlad in your own arms, Baroness?"

"That is true."

"Then from my perspective, I think I would feel more at ease if he were in a broad land rather than within a small fence."

Zemina quietly answered Alicia's words while pouring sauce over the meat.

Her visible behavior was impeccably polite, but the words she spoke indirectly were so rude they were dizzying.

"No matter how fine a horse may be, it cannot run and play to its heart's content inside a fence that is too narrow."

"..."

A strange tension filled the room.

Even the seasoned Duncan set down the utensils he was holding.

The battle of nerves between the women, one that no one could easily endure, made the air in the room endlessly heavy.

"... Though what I possess may be small, I am only grateful that it is not a fence meant to imprison someone."

The sound of the knife cutting into the meat after that answer was chilling.

"Unlike someone else."

Alicia was comparing Zemina to a fence trying to imprison Vlad.

At those words, which struck more fiercely than any insult, Zemina finally bristled.

"... But you as well, Baroness."

"I, at least, would not try to imprison him."

Alicia wiped her lips with a napkin and smiled gently at Zemina.

The blue blood of a coolheaded noble showed its true worth precisely at moments like this.

"If anything, I would give instead."

With those words, Alicia nodded toward the abundant dishes that had been brought out as if to be shown off.

"All of these must be things borrowed from someone. Is there anything here that is wholly yours?"

"..."

At Alicia's sharp point, Zemina fell silent.

Indeed, just as she said, everything Zemina possessed was merely something Bayezid had lent and permitted.

"Heinal may be a small and humble family, as you said, but I can at least promise Sir Vlad many things."

The gap between Bayezid and Heinal was so vast it was embarrassing even to speak of, but if it was only support for Vlad alone, Alicia had confidence as well.

"If he wants, I can share everything I possess with him. Things my ancestors spent hundreds of years building up, no less."

It was far too much to give to a mere knight, but the special situation Alicia was in made it possible.

A female ruler who had to protect her family's name alone.

For her, who had to pay close attention to matters of succession and inheritance, Vlad, a promising knight without a background, was now the finest alternative she could not afford to miss.

"No matter what Bayezid says it will promise Sir Vlad, it probably cannot offer as much as I can."

"..."

Zemina found herself at a loss for words as she looked at Alicia, who had gone so far as to say she would offer him a place at her side.

Indeed, if she meant what she said about sharing everything, then unless Bayezid offered Soara itself, it could not match such terms.

"Why... would you go that far?"

"So let him go now."

Lady Zemina had Vlad's past, but Lady Alicia was certain of Vlad's future.

Two women who looked at the same man, yet saw entirely different things, met each other's gaze.

"Do you not think it would be a waste of his potential? Even if Sir Vlad stays here, he will only become a knight who spends his whole life obeying someone else's orders."

Beyond a knight, all the way to a lord in a high place.

Alicia was saying that while you would only become shackles to him, I could become his wings.

"Do you not think it is far too wasteful for a person like Vlad to be bound to an inn like this?"

"..."

After hearing Alicia's words, Zemina's gaze began to waver.

She had naturally thought being in Bayezid would be more helpful than being in Heinal, but if Alicia was this sincere, even Zemina could not help becoming confused.

'Am I truly... binding him?'

Zemina had always given everything for Vlad.

But Vlad, who had now gone on ahead, was no longer the boy who had stood with her in the mud and looked at an unadorned sword.

"..."

Zemina quietly looked down at the tips of her feet and thought.

Whether these footprints, which may have suited the boy beside the mud, would truly suit the Vlad of today.

What the best thing she could do for Vlad now truly was.

* * *

In front of the gate of Soara.

Vlad greeted the familiar man standing there with delight.

"It has been a long time, Lord Marcus."

"... My name is Vilmosi now, though."

The man whose face was covered in scars stroked the end of his chin as if he had no choice, looking at Vlad, who insisted on calling him Marcus until the end.

"But why are you here..."

"Good timing. Wait here with me for someone for a moment."

A man with a strange air whom he met after an ominous fortune.

Vlad began to feel that this meeting was not merely a simple coincidence.

"Will we have to wait long? There is someone I want to go find quickly."

"They are coming right over there."

Vlad turned his head following Marcus's nod.

Flags visible from the far-off hill.

Those flags, embroidered with the walls of Sturma, signified the Bayezid army returning from the western gate far away.

"Well, who do we have here! If it isn't the famous Lord Vlad A-u-re-o."

"... It has been a long time, Lord Rutiger."

Beneath the flag approaching at the very front were Rutiger, laughing heartily, and Dorothea, his mage.

"What a coincidence. I had been wanting to see you at least once anyway."

Their relationship could have been uncomfortable, if one wished to call it that, because of his relationship with Joseph, but Rutiger approached without reserve and patted Vlad on the shoulder.

"Has the rumor already spread that far?"

"Rumors are birds that fly far."

Rutiger playfully brought his two rounded hands up beside his ears.

"Besides, I have ears called mages that work anywhere."

As Rutiger finished speaking, Nibelun and Dorothea, who had recognized each other's mystery, began exchanging greetings.

The beastfolk were a race that wandered their whole lives with no place to settle, but because of that, there was an even stronger bond between members of their kind.

"It seems you have only just returned."

"We handed the rotation over to the Maringen Family and came back. They arrived a little late, so I suppose we suffered for it."

Rutiger joked that he was sick of the dry dust of the West now.

Watching him, Vlad could only smile awkwardly.

They were brothers born of the same blood, but he possessed a charm entirely different from Joseph's.

"Welcome to Soara!"

The guards of Soara shouted powerfully toward the two knights passing through the gate.

It was a cheer loud enough to make Nibelun, who had never experienced such a welcome before, open his eyes wide.

"It is good to see you after so long. How about we go to city hall like this and share a drink?"

Rutiger smiled as he tilted a drinking cup made with his hand.

Vlad wanted to go to Rose's Smiles immediately, but he could not simply ignore Rutiger's words.

CLACK!

If not for the bottle standing upside down up ahead.

"Oh..."

"...!"

Like recognized like.

To Rutiger, it may have merely seemed curious, but Dorothea, who recognized the weight of the mystery contained in that bottle, could not hide her startled look.

"... I will be sure to call on you this evening."

"Hm?"

Rutiger was left flustered at Vlad's completely unexpected words.

Could there be anything, no matter how urgent, as important as the sole heir of Bayezid?

"Where, where are you going?"

He had even mobilized Marcus to create this situation.

But Vlad, who had understood the mage's warning, hurriedly grabbed Noir's reins and began leaving the procession.

"... What is this?"

Vlad had dared refuse the proposal of the Family's heir and a knight representing the North.

Rutiger could only stare in bewilderment at Vlad's back as he hurried away.

"Shall I go with you instead?"

"..."

Thus, in the place Vlad had left, there remained only one cat he had never seen before in his life.

Rutiger looked at Nibelun, who was quietly closing the mouth of his backpack, and could only nod in confusion.

* * *

"... Vlad always had something he wanted to do. Ever since he was very young."

Alicia's criticism was nothing short of fierce.

To the question of what she could do for Vlad, Zemina had no proper answer.

"It was a back alley that would have shaken anyone, but the reason Vlad was able to become such a fine knight must be because of that."

But Zemina knew very well.

For Vlad, things that belonged to others were not so important.

"What are you trying to say?"

"... What I want to say is this."

The girl who had stood in the mud together with the boy understood better than anyone.

"Vlad will not need anything you offer him, Baroness."

That what the boy had wanted was not the five-gold sword, but the glitter that only that sword possessed.

"Because Vlad is someone who wants to possess only what is wholly his own."

Something that belonged not to another, but only to me.

Zemina knew all too well that the person called Vlad had struggled to gain a world of his own that no one could take away.

RATTLE!

Beyond the silence the two women had created, there came the sound of urgent footsteps rushing closer.

"... Huff, huff. Nothing happened, did it?"

A man hurriedly opened the door and came in as if he had run all the way.

"... Why, why is the mood like this?"

The two women, who had become equals only before Vlad, were both looking at him at the same time.

Seeing the somehow ominous looks in their eyes, Vlad found himself naturally remembering the dreadful fortune Nibelun had spoken of.