Chapter 191 - The Flag Is a Red Rose (1)

A small ship cut through the waves, listing so dangerously it looked as though it might roll over.

Watching the Zemina attempt a sharp turn at an absurd angle, several dwarves clenched both hands without realizing it.

Because they knew ships so well, the maneuver only made them more tense.

"The human ship! It's charging the enemy flagship!"

"..."

Though the enemy ship looked larger than itself, the Zemina charged toward the flagship without the slightest hesitation.

The sight of the Zemina surging forward as it dodged the incoming cannonballs was so dizzying that it was hard to look away.

"Impact!"

CRAAASH!

With a tremendous noise, the Zemina finally broke through the enemy's interference and rammed the enemy ship.

Though its hull was small, the exhilaration of that speed made the dwarves raise their axes high.

"... Did I not clearly tell them only to lure them away?"

"That is how I remember it as well, Great Chieftain."

Olmukar scratched his chin out of habit as he watched the crew of the Zemina board the enemy flagship.

The sight of humans and elves moving together gave Olmukar a strangely peculiar feeling.

'He must have been truly furious.'

Among them, Olmukar was watching the blond knight at the very front with particular attention.

Indeed, Vlad's declaration that he would prove his innocence before him had not been a lie.

"They have already seized the deck."

"Fast."

The elves swung their swords without losing the slightest balance even atop the rocking ship.

Along the path they opened, flashes of gold began to rage.

They were flashes bright enough to stand out clearly even within the thick fog.

"Advance the ship! Do not let them be isolated!"

Olmukar's eyes were cold as he swung his command baton.

He had seen the surrounding ships trying to lay boarding planks to help the enemy flagship, which had suddenly been forced into close combat.

"The captain's head has been cut off!"

"The human knight has taken the helm!"

But it seemed Vlad's sword had been faster than they could act.

Cutting down the obstacles rushing at him as he advanced straight ahead, Vlad's sword finally took Tolbin's head from where he had been gripping the wheel.

"... I will have to offer a proper apology."

There was a scene coming into view as the distance gradually closed.

It was still far away, so he could not make it out clearly, but Olmukar could tell for certain that the blue eyes in the distance were looking at him.

A silver-gray knight was climbing up the tallest mast.

Covered head to toe in blood, Vlad climbed all the way to the ship's crow's nest and stared directly toward Olmukar.

Seeing him wave Barbosa's flag as if to ask whether this was enough proof, Olmukar had no choice but to nod.

* * *

The enemy warships numbered ten in all.

The ships of Nidavellir opposing them numbered seven in all.

To the Golden Duke, the fleet had been nothing more than a scouting force, but Nidavellir had been forced to bring out its full strength to face it.

If not for the traps they had set in advance and the Zemina's fierce struggle, the battle would probably not have ended as easily as it had.

"Captain! I was wrong!"

Yet now, aboard the Zemina, there was less joy of victory than one man's wailing.

It was the cry of a crewman standing precariously on a plank laid out over the sea.

"Any last words?"

"I was blind for a moment! I failed to recognize the grace you showed me by taking me in, Captain..."

"Trite."

Haven turned away as if there was nothing more to hear from such rambling, worthless excuses.

Even Vlad fell silent for a moment at Haven's coldly sunken gaze.

It seemed Haven, when he was a captain, was somewhat different from the Haven he knew.

"Captain!"

CRUNCH!

Behind Haven, who had turned without hesitation, Otar's axe flashed.

With a sound like splitting wood, bright red blood sprayed over the sea.

For one who betrayed the organization, there was only death.

The crewman's half-burst body fell limply into the sea.

"I'm sorry. As captain, I should have checked more thoroughly."

"It's fine as long as you dealt with it."

Even at Vlad's consolation, Haven merely let his head droop as if he had no face to show.

Whether it had been intentional or a mistake, the fact remained that the location of Lemnos Island had been discovered because of the crystal ball attached to the Zemina.

Even if they had recovered their honor through the battle just now, the wrong already committed could not be undone.

"And I think the Zemina's keel is warped. Without major repairs, fierce battles like that will be impossible."

"Is that so?"

Hearing Haven's words, Vlad narrowed his eyes and looked toward the bow of the Zemina.

Indeed, the way it was subtly out of balance, as if crooked, made it seem in need of major repairs just as Haven had said.

"If the keel is gone... will we have to change ships?"

"We might have to."

The Zemina had won a victory beginning with the enemy flagship, but the price it had paid for that victory was no small thing.

At Haven's words that they might have to give up the ship itself, Vlad simply stared silently out at the sea.

"Vlad, a moment."

It had been Haven's dream, and the first ship Vlad had gifted him.

Seeing Vlad sink strangely under a disappointment he could not hide, Varadis, who had been sitting on the railing, beckoned to him.

"What is it?"

"I think I found them."

Perhaps it was his own way of offering comfort.

Varadis told Vlad about the traces of spirits he had found.

"There were traces of spirits in the sea that I could not see on the island."

"In the sea?"

"Yes. In the sea. I would like to look for them carefully sometime later."

There had been squids that pushed the Zemina in place of the wind that had been lacking.

But because Varadis had been focused on the battle, he had not been able to grasp their exact nature, so for now he had no choice but to be satisfied that there had been a small result.

"It seems they followed because they were drawn by the sword made by the World Tree. I definitely felt something reacting."

"... I see."

Vlad raised the sword he was holding and stared at it quietly.

The unfinished sword, seen against the backdrop of the sea.

Within that sword, though the color was faint, there was a blueness like the sea.

"You carry quite a strange sword."

And Olmukar, who was steering his ship alongside the Zemina, was also watching the sword Vlad had drawn with close attention.

A knight standing on a broken ship, holding a disordered sword.

Yet seeing how, despite everything being broken, the sight was strangely balanced, Olmukar only shook his head as if he could not get a read on it at all.

* * *

CLANG!

Sitting on the floor filled with cold, Joseph carefully raised his head at the sound of the bars suddenly opening.

"Lord Joseph."

"... Yes. Good work."

He had become somewhat pale, but the smile with which he looked at Vlad was still warm.

It was a look that showed not the slightest tension, as if he had known this would happen.

"Did you deal with them?"

"There were about ten ships. Though it was only a scouting force."

"As expected of someone as grand as the Golden Duke. I suppose even a fleet of that size amounts to nothing more than a scouting force to him."

The captured Barbosa sailors had described themselves as merely a scouting force.

In other words, the Golden Duke's attempt to target Lemnos Island had not even begun in earnest yet.

"He is a man with gold attached to his title. I had heard the rumors, but it seems the wealth he possesses truly is tremendous."

The Golden Duke, one of only four dukes in the Empire.

Said to swing glittering gold coins instead of sharp blades, he could be called the greatest enemy Joseph and Vlad had faced so far.

"You seem cold."

"The blanket was too thin."

Perhaps the chill of the prison had not yet left him, for Joseph's shoulders were trembling slightly.

Seeing that trembling, which even Jager beside him looked upon with pity, Vlad spread wide the cloth he had prepared.

Great Chieftain Olmukar says he would like to speak with Lord Joseph, and also apologize for the misunderstanding.

"Yes."

The cloth draped over his shoulders gave off a strong salty smell.

But even at that rough scent, Joseph merely smiled.

—Lord Joseph Bayezid and Sir Vlad have arrived!

There had been a brief misunderstanding, but now they came as true guests.

Seeing Joseph, who had had his knight regain their honor once more, the eleven chieftains rose from their seats.

Joseph, wearing the flag of Golden Duke Barbosa like a cloak as a trophy of war, was a man worthy of the respect of everyone present.

"Then shall we continue the conversation we were unable to finish last time?"

He was like a well whose bottom could not be seen no matter how deeply one looked.

That was precisely the impression the chieftains of Nidavellir felt as they watched Joseph take his seat with a calm expression, as if nothing had happened.

Joseph, who knew clearly what he had to do, merely prepared for what came next with a faint smile.

* * *

"Oh dear. I told you to be careful."

With every step he took, the precarious planks creaked.

But Barbosa, as if accustomed to that much, simply ran up toward the helm with an easy stride.

"I told you to just watch from a distance and come back, but you couldn't even do that and ended up like this. Tsk, tsk."

Barbosa met Tolbin's eyes and clicked his tongue in pity, but no matter how much he asked, no answer came back.

Tolbin, his head and body separated, simply stood forever still.

"I sent ten ships, and only one came back. What a losing bargain this is."

After carefully setting Tolbin's head down, Barbosa scratched his head in vexation as he looked at the fog ahead.

Within that thick fog, there were surely dwarves like a gold mine and their technology, but it seemed their world, locked up tight, had no intention of giving an invader even the slightest opening.

"By the way, what is that flag? Anyone know it?"

"... It is a form of flag we are seeing for the first time as well."

"Meaning it isn't from the South or the West."

On the ship, where everything was smashed and split, not a single part left whole, there was one thing alone that had kept its shape.

Looking up at the place where his own flag had once flown, Barbosa stared at the unfamiliar flag of unknown ownership and laughed as if baffled.

"... Then the North?"

A single flag fluttered in the wind.

Looking at the flag with a red rose drawn on it, Barbosa felt his heart pound for the first time in a very long while.

Before the flag of a challenger he had not faced in far too long, Barbosa felt as though the blood vessels that had been hardened for ages were softening.

"Now that's a proper welcome for guests! Looks like we found the right way after all!"

The voice was far too loud to have been shouted by one man.

Across the wide sea, the voice he shouted rang out like an echo.

Every ship behind him could hear the thick anger hidden within that hearty cry.

"All ships, into the fog! There will be glittering things inside!"

At Barbosa's shout, dozens of black-lined ships began entering the fog.

It was a number of ships that all the ships in the North and West combined could not dare match.

"Whoever they are, they know the ways of the sea. Their declaration of war is quite old-fashioned."

New land, unfamiliar fog, and an unidentified challenger.

A deep smile had already formed on Barbosa's face as he headed toward Lemnos Island.

And beside him as he smiled sat a chest bound in silver chains.