Chapter 15
In the flickering candlelight,
Vlad saw a hint of a smirk as he looked at Josef.
It was a smile of a victor, exuding confidence in controlling the situation.
‘I got caught.’
Vlad was born in the back alleys and his birth was not even registered properly, so he needed a false identity to join the monster subjugation unit recruited under the name of a lord.
It meant having something like a mercenary badge from someone he had killed.
"That face does not look 31 years old. Is being young-looking something you’re born with?”
“It’s one of the few things I’m proud of.”
Vlad replied with the utmost politeness while looking at Josef with a faint smile.
"Zayar."
"Yes."
However, Josef was not an easy-going person.
Whack!
A harsh slap struck Vlad.
It was the kind of slap that he could have dodged but should not have avoided.
"Understand this once. You were born and raised up in the back alleys, so do you really think you know how to treat nobility?"
"..."
Josef was smiling while looking at Vlad who was bleeding from the nose.
It was a smile that seemed to say, "I know everything."
"I really hate lies. I should have told you this in advance."
A strange desire rose up in Josef's pitch-black eyes.
"Name."
"..... Vlad."
"Age?"
"I'm 16. I'll be 17 after this winter."
"Haha!"
Josef clapped his hands in joy at Vlad's answer.
"Excellent."
“......”
Vlad decided to stay quiet, even though he couldn't quite understand what was excellent. There was a knight glaring at him fiercely from behind.
"Yes, you went through a lot coming from Shoara to here."
"...You knew everything."
This time I did well not to lie. The black-haired man in front of him had already fully grasped his situation.
"It’s been confirmed that your mother was a prostitute, but we could not find out about your father. Do you happen to know who your father is?"
“It’s quite a funny joke to ask a prostitute’s child about his father.”
Vlad answered sarcastically without realizing he was in an oppressive atmosphere, and he was immediately punished.
"Krgh!"
"Be polite, kiddo."
Vlad, unable to withstand the blow that struck him in the back of his knee, fell to one knee.
"No, it was quite an amusing joke."
Josef scratched his head as he looked at Vlad, who was kneeling in front of him.
"Well, you must have killed one somewhere to get that mercenary badge, and we have already figured out why you fled from Shoara."
Josef thought to himself. He already had the background information, but he was genuinely curious about the golden-haired young man in front of him.
"Where did you learn swordsmanship?"
How did a young man who had spent his entire life surviving in the back alleys acquire such incredible skills? Who did he learn from, and under what circumstances?
And why did he possess such talent, given his background? It was enough to pique the interest of the second son of the Bayezid family, accompanied by shining swords.
Josef was too curious about what was hidden in Vlad's blue eyes.
"..."
However, the person who had to answer the question simply kept his mouth shut.
Sssshh...
The sound of a sword being drawn quietly could be heard from behind Vlad.
"Answer him."
Vlad, who was muttering quietly with his head down, made eye contact with Josef as if he had made up his mind.
"He was a teacher who appeared like lightning and disappeared like the wind."
Josef found himself getting drawn into Vlad's words without even realizing it. Vlad's words were enough to arouse someone's interest.
"He never revealed his name, he said.”
Vlad's blue eyes did not waver.
Because it wasn't a lie this time.
“A ‘one man ever-winning secret’ not be disclosed to anyone."
".... Alright."
Josef nodded his head.
He had some doubts and suspicions, but Josef couldn't untie all the knots of secrets piled up at this moment.
"I'm sorry for being harsh with you. I don’t know about you, but I’m in a pretty difficult situation right now.”
Unravel one knot at a time.
"I have a proposal for you."
"Please, go ahead, Lord Josef."
Vlad answered politely. Although a multitude of thoughts raced through his mind, he maintained his composure.
"I want to sponsor you."
"...Yes?"
Josef's sudden proposal left Vlad momentarily surprised. He had come here by deceiving and killing people and assuming a false identity. Yet, Josef was offering to sponsor him.
"Do you not want to rise to a higher position than you are now, Vlad of Shoara?"
Josef waved a card Vlad couldn't refuse.
Knighthood.
Power.
Freedom.
Survival.
Their eyes met.
The two men were able to recognize what the other wanted in each other's eyes.
※※※※
Clang!
A loud sound echoed through the encampment in the morning. Despite the early hour, mercenaries had all gathered where the sounds were coming from. They were there to witness a spectacle they rarely had the opportunity to see.
"Can he hold his ground?"
"His opponent is Sir Zayar, after all. He's just letting him win, of course."
A one-eyed knight and the blond young man were facing each other with their swords crossed.
"Has he become Sir Zayar’s disciple?"
"He certainly has extraordinary skills."
"I heard he's over thirty."
“There was someone here who believed that.”
The sight of a knight-level person practicing swordsmanship was not an easy sight for mercenaries to see.
Furthermore, the opponent who was receiving that swordsmanship was someone they were very familiar with.
"Argh!"
"You arrogant brat."
In that case, there would be no better spectacle than this. Regardless of what the person who has to receive the sword thinks.
"Do you really think you can hold your head high in front of Lord Josef with these mere skills?"
Along with the feeling of a heavy wooden sword, there was a voice whispering so that only Vlad could hear it.
"..."
Vlad did his best to endure Zayar's intimidating gaze, as if he were about to be devoured, but he couldn't do the same with the sword he was swinging.
"Ugh!"
"You really don't know your place!"
No matter how you framed it as a sparring match, the knight named Zayar was considered a formidable figure even within the Bayezid family.
The knight's swing contained a force that would be difficult for a mere brat to accept.
Clang!
The wooden sword flashed continuously without respite. Zayar moved with a constant search for openings.
Vlad was deeply flustered by Zayar's movements, which exposed dozens of his vulnerabilities with each step.
Zayar was aiming meticulously for Vlad's weak points.
Vlad had talent but lacked experience, and those weaknesses were painfully clear from his perspective but perfectly exploited by Zayar from the other side.
‘Darn it!’
When he was in the back alleys, he learned the basics from Jorge, and after escaping from Shoara, he had been instructed in swordsmanship by the Voice.
He had even defeated Hobgoblin with those skills. However, now he was being pushed around like a training dummy in the training field.
‘The difference in skill is... overwhelming.’
He felt it to his core.
He was indeed nothing more than an amateur, just as the Voice had said.
"If you don't dodge this one, you might die."
“······Lord Josef will be sad if I die.”
"Seeing you're still talking means you'll probably dodge well enough."
The gap in skill and status was clear. He was in a completely different league from the beginning.
‘This is what a knight is like!’
It was beyond comparison to Jorge, and was a different type of sword than Godin's.
"Ugh!"
That sword swung down toward his head, and Vlad had to make a split-second decision. Should he dodge it? But it would follow him. Should he block it? It was too powerful.
‘Then…’
Swish!
The wooden swords clashed, making a sound that seemed too slippery. Unknowingly, the mercenaries around them held their breath.
"Hiya."
"It's Riemann, as expected. He had a move."
Despite the vast difference in their levels, the mercenaries were people who knew how to wield a sword. Thus, they could appreciate how extraordinary the scene in front of them was.
The positions of the two swords changed in the blink of an eye.
"He managed to evade."
As someone said, Vlad succeeded in deflecting Zayar's sword.
"Yes, that's good enough."
Or rather, he was granted permission to evade the strikes.
"Cough, cough..."
Beads of sweat clung to Vlad's chin, and he looked pitiful.
"Were you really going to kill me?"
“It’s not like there aren’t squires dying when knights learn swordsmanship.”
The one-eyed knight spoke with a smile, but Vlad, who was on the receiving end, was trembling.
‘Will it continue like this in the future?’
"We'll keep sparring like this in the future."
".... Can't you go a little easier on me?"
Zayar smiled and answered Vlad, who fell down as his legs had given out without him realizing it.
"Why? It seems easy enough."
"Isn't there something odd about your eyes? Is this what someone who seems easygoing looks like?"
Zayar responded to Vlad's small grumbling by fiddling with his eye patch.
“You may be missing one eye, but your vision is correct, so don’t worry.”
Vlad closed his eyes as he watched Zayar leaving the training ground, saying that the morning sparring was over.
And muttered in a low voice.
"You don't even give me a bit of advice..."
[Sometimes, you learn by taking hits.]
He grumbled quietly to express his dissatisfaction, but the Voice simply responded as if it were self-evident.
[It was excellent sparring. He is honing your skills by chipping away at the rough edges in your body.]
The Voice's assessment was accurate.
The voice was building up Vlad's skills by passing on what he knew, but Zayar was chipping away at the rough stone called Vlad through sparring that felt like a real fight.
To be a little sharper and a little brighter.
That was an area of teaching that the Voice couldn't provide.
".... Seems like I have no allies anywhere."
With that remark, Vlad closed his eyes, so he wouldn't have seen the satisfied smile on Zayar's face as he left.
Zayar, who had beaten Vlad early in the morning, entered the tent where his lord was.
"Lord Josef."
"Come in."
Josef was sitting there, waiting for him, even skipping breakfast.
"What do you think after seeing him yourself?"
"He's quite promising."
"To what extent?"
"..... If he was a child of a noble family, even the Count would have taken notice."
"As expected, my eyes didn't deceive me."
Josef smiled deeply as he heard Zayar’s evaluation about Vlad.
"However, as I mentioned before, the problem is his lack of manners and his arrogance."
"Etiquette is something that can be taught gradually. I think I have the right person for the job in front of me right now.”
Vlad may have gotten what he wanted from last night's conversation, but he had also incurred Zayar's wrath.
“A sword without loyalty cannot be trusted.”
"I wouldn't have believed him even if he had respectfully bowed to me as soon as he saw me."
Josef's eyes sparkled as he thought back to last night's conversation.
"I'm just glad he showed his true intentions by speaking his mind."
Last night, Vlad dared to speak to him with his head held high.
He said he had things he had to do.
"Perhaps it's for the best. Maybe a relationship where we both get what we want is more suitable."
“.....”
Zayar could only nod in response to Josef's words.
Although he was not born with a strong body and a talent for the sword, Josef was not talentless.
He had the talent called the qualities of a monarch.
"Isn’t he just like a wolf, arrogant, untrustworthy, and seems to live for his own sake?"
“.....”
Zayar understood it well.
Even though Josef was speaking to him at the moment, he was actually looking at someone else.
"Even if he's such a wolf, I will eventually tame him with time, and a little patience."
Wolves are free creatures, which makes them even more desirable.
"Isn’t that right, Sir Zayar?"
“It will be as you wish, Lord Josef."
Josef decided not to rush.
Because it took time to build a cage large enough to make the wolf feel that it is free.
Chapter 15
In the flickering candlelight,
Vlad saw a hint of a smirk as he looked at Josef.
It was a smile of a victor, exuding confidence in controlling the situation.
‘I got caught.’
Vlad was born in the back alleys and his birth was not even registered properly, so he needed a false identity to join the monster subjugation unit recruited under the name of a lord.
It meant having something like a mercenary badge from someone he had killed.
"That face does not look 31 years old. Is being young-looking something you’re born with?”
“It’s one of the few things I’m proud of.”
Vlad replied with the utmost politeness while looking at Josef with a faint smile.
"Zayar."
"Yes."
However, Josef was not an easy-going person.
Whack!
A harsh slap struck Vlad.
It was the kind of slap that he could have dodged but should not have avoided.
"Understand this once. You were born and raised up in the back alleys, so do you really think you know how to treat nobility?"
"..."
Josef was smiling while looking at Vlad who was bleeding from the nose.
It was a smile that seemed to say, "I know everything."
"I really hate lies. I should have told you this in advance."
A strange desire rose up in Josef's pitch-black eyes.
"Name."
"..... Vlad."
"Age?"
"I'm 16. I'll be 17 after this winter."
"Haha!"
Josef clapped his hands in joy at Vlad's answer.
"Excellent."
“......”
Vlad decided to stay quiet, even though he couldn't quite understand what was excellent. There was a knight glaring at him fiercely from behind.
"Yes, you went through a lot coming from Shoara to here."
"...You knew everything."
This time I did well not to lie. The black-haired man in front of him had already fully grasped his situation.
"It’s been confirmed that your mother was a prostitute, but we could not find out about your father. Do you happen to know who your father is?"
“It’s quite a funny joke to ask a prostitute’s child about his father.”
Vlad answered sarcastically without realizing he was in an oppressive atmosphere, and he was immediately punished.
"Krgh!"
"Be polite, kiddo."
Vlad, unable to withstand the blow that struck him in the back of his knee, fell to one knee.
"No, it was quite an amusing joke."
Josef scratched his head as he looked at Vlad, who was kneeling in front of him.
"Well, you must have killed one somewhere to get that mercenary badge, and we have already figured out why you fled from Shoara."
Josef thought to himself. He already had the background information, but he was genuinely curious about the golden-haired young man in front of him.
"Where did you learn swordsmanship?"
How did a young man who had spent his entire life surviving in the back alleys acquire such incredible skills? Who did he learn from, and under what circumstances?
And why did he possess such talent, given his background? It was enough to pique the interest of the second son of the Bayezid family, accompanied by shining swords.
Josef was too curious about what was hidden in Vlad's blue eyes.
"..."
However, the person who had to answer the question simply kept his mouth shut.
Sssshh...
The sound of a sword being drawn quietly could be heard from behind Vlad.
"Answer him."
Vlad, who was muttering quietly with his head down, made eye contact with Josef as if he had made up his mind.
"He was a teacher who appeared like lightning and disappeared like the wind."
Josef found himself getting drawn into Vlad's words without even realizing it. Vlad's words were enough to arouse someone's interest.
"He never revealed his name, he said.”
Vlad's blue eyes did not waver.
Because it wasn't a lie this time.
“A ‘one man ever-winning secret’ not be disclosed to anyone."
".... Alright."
Josef nodded his head.
He had some doubts and suspicions, but Josef couldn't untie all the knots of secrets piled up at this moment.
"I'm sorry for being harsh with you. I don’t know about you, but I’m in a pretty difficult situation right now.”
Unravel one knot at a time.
"I have a proposal for you."
"Please, go ahead, Lord Josef."
Vlad answered politely. Although a multitude of thoughts raced through his mind, he maintained his composure.
"I want to sponsor you."
"...Yes?"
Josef's sudden proposal left Vlad momentarily surprised. He had come here by deceiving and killing people and assuming a false identity. Yet, Josef was offering to sponsor him.
"Do you not want to rise to a higher position than you are now, Vlad of Shoara?"
Josef waved a card Vlad couldn't refuse.
Knighthood.
Power.
Freedom.
Survival.
Their eyes met.
The two men were able to recognize what the other wanted in each other's eyes.
※※※※
Clang!
A loud sound echoed through the encampment in the morning. Despite the early hour, mercenaries had all gathered where the sounds were coming from. They were there to witness a spectacle they rarely had the opportunity to see.
"Can he hold his ground?"
"His opponent is Sir Zayar, after all. He's just letting him win, of course."
A one-eyed knight and the blond young man were facing each other with their swords crossed.
"Has he become Sir Zayar’s disciple?"
"He certainly has extraordinary skills."
"I heard he's over thirty."
“There was someone here who believed that.”
The sight of a knight-level person practicing swordsmanship was not an easy sight for mercenaries to see.
Furthermore, the opponent who was receiving that swordsmanship was someone they were very familiar with.
"Argh!"
"You arrogant brat."
In that case, there would be no better spectacle than this. Regardless of what the person who has to receive the sword thinks.
"Do you really think you can hold your head high in front of Lord Josef with these mere skills?"
Along with the feeling of a heavy wooden sword, there was a voice whispering so that only Vlad could hear it.
"..."
Vlad did his best to endure Zayar's intimidating gaze, as if he were about to be devoured, but he couldn't do the same with the sword he was swinging.
"Ugh!"
"You really don't know your place!"
No matter how you framed it as a sparring match, the knight named Zayar was considered a formidable figure even within the Bayezid family.
The knight's swing contained a force that would be difficult for a mere brat to accept.
Clang!
The wooden sword flashed continuously without respite. Zayar moved with a constant search for openings.
Vlad was deeply flustered by Zayar's movements, which exposed dozens of his vulnerabilities with each step.
Zayar was aiming meticulously for Vlad's weak points.
Vlad had talent but lacked experience, and those weaknesses were painfully clear from his perspective but perfectly exploited by Zayar from the other side.
‘Darn it!’
When he was in the back alleys, he learned the basics from Jorge, and after escaping from Shoara, he had been instructed in swordsmanship by the Voice.
He had even defeated Hobgoblin with those skills. However, now he was being pushed around like a training dummy in the training field.
‘The difference in skill is... overwhelming.’
He felt it to his core.
He was indeed nothing more than an amateur, just as the Voice had said.
"If you don't dodge this one, you might die."
“······Lord Josef will be sad if I die.”
"Seeing you're still talking means you'll probably dodge well enough."
The gap in skill and status was clear. He was in a completely different league from the beginning.
‘This is what a knight is like!’
It was beyond comparison to Jorge, and was a different type of sword than Godin's.
"Ugh!"
That sword swung down toward his head, and Vlad had to make a split-second decision. Should he dodge it? But it would follow him. Should he block it? It was too powerful.
‘Then…’
Swish!
The wooden swords clashed, making a sound that seemed too slippery. Unknowingly, the mercenaries around them held their breath.
"Hiya."
"It's Riemann, as expected. He had a move."
Despite the vast difference in their levels, the mercenaries were people who knew how to wield a sword. Thus, they could appreciate how extraordinary the scene in front of them was.
The positions of the two swords changed in the blink of an eye.
"He managed to evade."
As someone said, Vlad succeeded in deflecting Zayar's sword.
"Yes, that's good enough."
Or rather, he was granted permission to evade the strikes.
"Cough, cough..."
Beads of sweat clung to Vlad's chin, and he looked pitiful.
"Were you really going to kill me?"
“It’s not like there aren’t squires dying when knights learn swordsmanship.”
The one-eyed knight spoke with a smile, but Vlad, who was on the receiving end, was trembling.
‘Will it continue like this in the future?’
"We'll keep sparring like this in the future."
".... Can't you go a little easier on me?"
Zayar smiled and answered Vlad, who fell down as his legs had given out without him realizing it.
"Why? It seems easy enough."
"Isn't there something odd about your eyes? Is this what someone who seems easygoing looks like?"
Zayar responded to Vlad's small grumbling by fiddling with his eye patch.
“You may be missing one eye, but your vision is correct, so don’t worry.”
Vlad closed his eyes as he watched Zayar leaving the training ground, saying that the morning sparring was over.
And muttered in a low voice.
"You don't even give me a bit of advice..."
[Sometimes, you learn by taking hits.]
He grumbled quietly to express his dissatisfaction, but the Voice simply responded as if it were self-evident.
[It was excellent sparring. He is honing your skills by chipping away at the rough edges in your body.]
The Voice's assessment was accurate.
The voice was building up Vlad's skills by passing on what he knew, but Zayar was chipping away at the rough stone called Vlad through sparring that felt like a real fight.
To be a little sharper and a little brighter.
That was an area of teaching that the Voice couldn't provide.
".... Seems like I have no allies anywhere."
With that remark, Vlad closed his eyes, so he wouldn't have seen the satisfied smile on Zayar's face as he left.
Zayar, who had beaten Vlad early in the morning, entered the tent where his lord was.
"Lord Josef."
"Come in."
Josef was sitting there, waiting for him, even skipping breakfast.
"What do you think after seeing him yourself?"
"He's quite promising."
"To what extent?"
"..... If he was a child of a noble family, even the Count would have taken notice."
"As expected, my eyes didn't deceive me."
Josef smiled deeply as he heard Zayar’s evaluation about Vlad.
"However, as I mentioned before, the problem is his lack of manners and his arrogance."
"Etiquette is something that can be taught gradually. I think I have the right person for the job in front of me right now.”
Vlad may have gotten what he wanted from last night's conversation, but he had also incurred Zayar's wrath.
“A sword without loyalty cannot be trusted.”
"I wouldn't have believed him even if he had respectfully bowed to me as soon as he saw me."
Josef's eyes sparkled as he thought back to last night's conversation.
"I'm just glad he showed his true intentions by speaking his mind."
Last night, Vlad dared to speak to him with his head held high.
He said he had things he had to do.
"Perhaps it's for the best. Maybe a relationship where we both get what we want is more suitable."
“.....”
Zayar could only nod in response to Josef's words.
Although he was not born with a strong body and a talent for the sword, Josef was not talentless.
He had the talent called the qualities of a monarch.
"Isn’t he just like a wolf, arrogant, untrustworthy, and seems to live for his own sake?"
“.....”
Zayar understood it well.
Even though Josef was speaking to him at the moment, he was actually looking at someone else.
"Even if he's such a wolf, I will eventually tame him with time, and a little patience."
Wolves are free creatures, which makes them even more desirable.
"Isn’t that right, Sir Zayar?"
“It will be as you wish, Lord Josef."
Josef decided not to rush.
Because it took time to build a cage large enough to make the wolf feel that it is free.
