Her long hair began as blue but ended up black.
Her walk was smoother than anyone's, but she never touched the ground.
The tightly closed heart was so cold that no one could embrace it anymore.
She arrived with death.
"Can I really save my son this way?"
"Of course, my lord."
An exhausted man, a weeping woman.
And a dying child.
Everything around the man was tainted with despair.
He was trapped in the deepest darkness.
"I will. Please."
"I am ready, my lord."
Desperation comes like an accident and devours our lives.
It even chooses the brightest parts.
Baron Utman used to be a rational person, but despair was devouring his brilliant mind.
The agony of his only fading son and the painful wails of his wife had made him so.
"Don't torture yourself so much."
Baron Utman looked at the woman before him with moist eyes.
Although she was pale, the woman looked at him with a warmer smile than anyone.
"People like me exist because God cannot look everywhere."
The desperate man hoped for salvation, but in the end, God's hand did not reach him.
Only the woman who had come with death was smiling.
Strong wind and rain battered the mansion windows.
***
Raindrops fell with the strong wind.
The group, traversing the crest of a mountain with no place to hide from the rain, received the rain falling on their bodies.
"...The clouds are unusual."
Although Gregory was right to say that, it was still daytime, yet rain clouds darkened the sky, making it as dark as night.
It was madness to continue forward through this rain and darkness.
"Cade!"
"Let's go there!"
Despite the wind and rain, Cade, with sharp eyesight, managed to spot a tree in the distance.
Although the tree had strangely pale leaves for summer, it seemed better than facing the rain hopelessly.
"What if we get struck by lightning?"
"Even if it happens, we have to move now."
Although Gregory expressed his concern, they couldn't stand still here and be beaten by the rain.
Due to the unusual weather, the group was forced to stop and set up camp.
"This weather is crazy."
After enduring the rain and wind, the group arrived unscathed under a tree and quickly shook the moisture off their bodies before starting to tie up their nearby horses.
Swooosh-
The rain clouds surrounding the area began to throw thick raindrops like choppy waves, obscuring the sky and providing enough cover to shield themselves from the rain.
Seeing that, Gregory breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's good I brought a carriage."
It wasn't necessary to bring it, but there was someone in the group who needed a carriage.
Thinking about this mission, he worried it would be a burden hard to handle, but now it was actually becoming a great help to the group.
"Are we preparing to camp?"
"Sure."
Goethe, who also accompanied the mission as the coachman, began to move diligently and set up the carriage's camping equipment.
Using the carriage's roof as a pillar, they attached an oil-soaked cloth to a rope and staked it to the ground. In no time, a decent-looking tent was erected.
The tent was enough to block the raindrops still falling around them.
"It's a pity. We were close to our destination."
Vlad, helping to hang the tarp, looked longingly at the distant light while clicking his tongue, as if it were only illuminating the darkness.
There were traces of humans there, shining dimly like torches shining alone in the darkness.
"Life doesn't always go as planned."
Although the plan to reach the village today had failed, Gregory still wanted to stick to his plan to drink. He opened a small bottle of liquor he had in his coat and began to drink.
"It's a bit cold. The weather isn't helping."
"..."
What could a simple group member say when the leader was drinking?
Vlad nodded and decided to prepare for the final camp preparations.
"I'll gather some branches."
"It won't burn well because it's wet."
"Even if they're wet, we should give it a try."
Goethe is building a temporary camp by setting up another tent on the other side of the carriage, and Cade is looking around for anything suspicious.
Meanwhile, Vlad, who couldn't just stand there and drink, was preparing a fire with the branches he had gathered and getting ready to make a bonfire.
"These will do. It's dry inside."
"Thanks."
Cade suddenly approached Vlad, who was searching nearby in the rain, and began to help with the work.
It seemed like the knight was helping out a squire, but Cade didn't seem to mind much.
"I haven't had a chance to say anything since I got here. I'm grateful for that moment."
"...I was just doing my job. Don't worry too much."
Although Vlad and Cade had never formally met in person, they knew each other.
This was because the two were in the same place when they defeated the monsters they had recruited in Varna last winter.
"Are you feeling better now?"
"It would have been better if we got cut somewhere."
Cade responded to Vlad with an awkward smile.
A woman shedding black tears searching for her son.
The two knights who had remained in the garrison to protect Joseph during Jager's absence were in danger of death due to the attack.
If the boy hadn't borrowed the world of the voice back then, Cade wouldn't be where he is today.
"Now that I see it, I selected the people well. There are many kinds who are knights and don't do this kind of thing."
Gregory tilted the bottle as he watched the men move naturally, looking for something to do even though they hadn't been given an order.
"Let's keep it that way. From now on, we won't be knights but mercenaries."
Everyone in the group nodded at Gregory's words.
It was that kind of mission.
The mission is to sneak in and look inside the village instead of showing off with pride.
If the village the group wanted to go to was within the county of Bayezid, they would have immediately mobilized soldiers to investigate, but it was a village owned by the Baron Utman family.
For Joseph, who had discovered its whereabouts but didn't have solid evidence, this was the best he could provide.
The group began to camp with their destination ahead of them and decided to conserve their strength for tomorrow.
The sound of the strong wind blowing and the sound of the rain hitting the tent.
Vlad wrapped himself in his cloak as he watched the barely lit campfire.
"Why are you smiling so eagerly?"
"It's not a big deal."
"Tsk, it's soft."
Vlad remarked without reason as he lay comfortably with his cloak covering him.
He thought that if Oksana saw this now, she would be proud.
The day that seemed like night passed.
Vlad, who didn't know she wasn't his mother but understood clearly the affection she gave him, lay down in the warmth of the campfire.
I hope the sad screams I heard that winter day aren't here.
***
A town built with gray stones.
A dense fog rose from a village that had been swept by rain.
Gregory clicked his tongue as he looked at the thick fog that obscured his vision.
"Looks like something's about to happen."
"......"
The group, aware that there might be people involved in black magic hidden here, simply rode cautiously along the road.
Is it because it's still early or because the weather isn't good?
Although they ventured quite far into the village, there were no people walking around, making the city's atmosphere increasingly gloomy.
"There's an inn ahead."
"That's good to hear."
Perhaps because it wasn't a very large village, it wasn't until they entered the center that they finally saw an inn.
"Let's go in."
Four men drove a carriage and a horse and entered the inn.
Gregory opened the door of the inn with the creak of the carriage.
"Is the owner here?"
"...The guests arrived quite early."
"Yesterday, due to the rain, we couldn't enter even though we were right in front of the village. Please give me a plate of hot soup."
While Gregory pretended to be a mercenary and spoke with the innkeeper, Vlad watched a girl peeking her head out from the hallway connected to the inner kitchen.
"......"
A small child climbs onto her lap.
A girl who may be 3 or 4 years old but still very cute.
Vlad gently waved his hand as he looked at the girl who reminded him of Zemina's childhood.
The chubby child's rosy cheeks seemed to have become a little redder.
"...So many bad things are happening nearby these days..."
"I plan to stay a few days at least because of the weather, but are you going to let us go like this? I plan to eat here as well."
While Gregory and the innkeeper haggled over the price, Vlad slowly walked around the inn and checked the surroundings.
It was a behavior that came from a long-standing habit, so when Vlad took his eyes off him, the child gradually began to move ahead of the group.
A large cauldron boiled over a brazier in the middle of the inn.
I don't know what's inside, but it's time for Vlad to whet his appetite as he looks at the pot, which smells good.
[¡Vlad... Vlad!]
The usually calm voice urgently called the child back to his senses.
'What happened?'
When Vlad placed his hand on the sword's handle, the sound became clearer.
[...I guess this is the right place.]
In a gloomy tone, the voice told Vlad to turn his head and look at the girl approaching him.
"......"
On the opposite side of the brazier where he was, there was a girl looking at him.
The girl who was hiding behind the chair and staring at Vlad, probably because she was embarrassed, looked cute to anyone.
[I'll lend you my world.]
Maybe that appearance wasn't everything.
Vlad nervously opened his left eye.
'......!'
The girl was smiling happily at him as she looked at Vlad, who had closed his eye and looked at her as if trying to catch his attention, but Vlad felt a chill creeping up from behind when he saw that smile.
[It's a curse.]
Vlad closed his right eye and looked at the world through his left eye.
The girl's neck was held by a black hand that looked like a corpse.
It looked like it was going to twist the girl's neck at any moment.
'......Damn it.'
Vlad thought he could hear the screams of the woman he heard last winter in the scene he was seeing, so he quickly closed the world of the voice.
Ding-ding-ding-
The sound of the church bell, indicating the hour, resonated in the damp village.
Although it should have been a pious sound, to Vlad, it sounded like it was enveloped in a sticky fog.
As he returned to reality after closing the world of the voice, Vlad stared fixedly at the girl's neck, which until a moment ago had been caught by a black hand.
There was a necklace hanging around the girl's neck.
It was a necklace with the church emblem engraved on it.
____
Her long hair began as blue but ended up black.
Her walk was smoother than anyone's, but she never touched the ground.
The tightly closed heart was so cold that no one could embrace it anymore.
She arrived with death.
"Can I really save my son this way?"
"Of course, my lord."
An exhausted man, a weeping woman.
And a dying child.
Everything around the man was tainted with despair.
He was trapped in the deepest darkness.
"I will. Please."
"I am ready, my lord."
Desperation comes like an accident and devours our lives.
It even chooses the brightest parts.
Baron Utman used to be a rational person, but despair was devouring his brilliant mind.
The agony of his only fading son and the painful wails of his wife had made him so.
"Don't torture yourself so much."
Baron Utman looked at the woman before him with moist eyes.
Although she was pale, the woman looked at him with a warmer smile than anyone.
"People like me exist because God cannot look everywhere."
The desperate man hoped for salvation, but in the end, God's hand did not reach him.
Only the woman who had come with death was smiling.
Strong wind and rain battered the mansion windows.
***
Raindrops fell with the strong wind.
The group, traversing the crest of a mountain with no place to hide from the rain, received the rain falling on their bodies.
"...The clouds are unusual."
Although Gregory was right to say that, it was still daytime, yet rain clouds darkened the sky, making it as dark as night.
It was madness to continue forward through this rain and darkness.
"Cade!"
"Let's go there!"
Despite the wind and rain, Cade, with sharp eyesight, managed to spot a tree in the distance.
Although the tree had strangely pale leaves for summer, it seemed better than facing the rain hopelessly.
"What if we get struck by lightning?"
"Even if it happens, we have to move now."
Although Gregory expressed his concern, they couldn't stand still here and be beaten by the rain.
Due to the unusual weather, the group was forced to stop and set up camp.
"This weather is crazy."
After enduring the rain and wind, the group arrived unscathed under a tree and quickly shook the moisture off their bodies before starting to tie up their nearby horses.
Swooosh-
The rain clouds surrounding the area began to throw thick raindrops like choppy waves, obscuring the sky and providing enough cover to shield themselves from the rain.
Seeing that, Gregory breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's good I brought a carriage."
It wasn't necessary to bring it, but there was someone in the group who needed a carriage.
Thinking about this mission, he worried it would be a burden hard to handle, but now it was actually becoming a great help to the group.
"Are we preparing to camp?"
"Sure."
Goethe, who also accompanied the mission as the coachman, began to move diligently and set up the carriage's camping equipment.
Using the carriage's roof as a pillar, they attached an oil-soaked cloth to a rope and staked it to the ground. In no time, a decent-looking tent was erected.
The tent was enough to block the raindrops still falling around them.
"It's a pity. We were close to our destination."
Vlad, helping to hang the tarp, looked longingly at the distant light while clicking his tongue, as if it were only illuminating the darkness.
There were traces of humans there, shining dimly like torches shining alone in the darkness.
"Life doesn't always go as planned."
Although the plan to reach the village today had failed, Gregory still wanted to stick to his plan to drink. He opened a small bottle of liquor he had in his coat and began to drink.
"It's a bit cold. The weather isn't helping."
"..."
What could a simple group member say when the leader was drinking?
Vlad nodded and decided to prepare for the final camp preparations.
"I'll gather some branches."
"It won't burn well because it's wet."
"Even if they're wet, we should give it a try."
Goethe is building a temporary camp by setting up another tent on the other side of the carriage, and Cade is looking around for anything suspicious.
Meanwhile, Vlad, who couldn't just stand there and drink, was preparing a fire with the branches he had gathered and getting ready to make a bonfire.
"These will do. It's dry inside."
"Thanks."
Cade suddenly approached Vlad, who was searching nearby in the rain, and began to help with the work.
It seemed like the knight was helping out a squire, but Cade didn't seem to mind much.
"I haven't had a chance to say anything since I got here. I'm grateful for that moment."
"...I was just doing my job. Don't worry too much."
Although Vlad and Cade had never formally met in person, they knew each other.
This was because the two were in the same place when they defeated the monsters they had recruited in Varna last winter.
"Are you feeling better now?"
"It would have been better if we got cut somewhere."
Cade responded to Vlad with an awkward smile.
A woman shedding black tears searching for her son.
The two knights who had remained in the garrison to protect Joseph during Jager's absence were in danger of death due to the attack.
If the boy hadn't borrowed the world of the voice back then, Cade wouldn't be where he is today.
"Now that I see it, I selected the people well. There are many kinds who are knights and don't do this kind of thing."
Gregory tilted the bottle as he watched the men move naturally, looking for something to do even though they hadn't been given an order.
"Let's keep it that way. From now on, we won't be knights but mercenaries."
Everyone in the group nodded at Gregory's words.
It was that kind of mission.
The mission is to sneak in and look inside the village instead of showing off with pride.
If the village the group wanted to go to was within the county of Bayezid, they would have immediately mobilized soldiers to investigate, but it was a village owned by the Baron Utman family.
For Joseph, who had discovered its whereabouts but didn't have solid evidence, this was the best he could provide.
The group began to camp with their destination ahead of them and decided to conserve their strength for tomorrow.
The sound of the strong wind blowing and the sound of the rain hitting the tent.
Vlad wrapped himself in his cloak as he watched the barely lit campfire.
"Why are you smiling so eagerly?"
"It's not a big deal."
"Tsk, it's soft."
Vlad remarked without reason as he lay comfortably with his cloak covering him.
He thought that if Oksana saw this now, she would be proud.
The day that seemed like night passed.
Vlad, who didn't know she wasn't his mother but understood clearly the affection she gave him, lay down in the warmth of the campfire.
I hope the sad screams I heard that winter day aren't here.
***
A town built with gray stones.
A dense fog rose from a village that had been swept by rain.
Gregory clicked his tongue as he looked at the thick fog that obscured his vision.
"Looks like something's about to happen."
"......"
The group, aware that there might be people involved in black magic hidden here, simply rode cautiously along the road.
Is it because it's still early or because the weather isn't good?
Although they ventured quite far into the village, there were no people walking around, making the city's atmosphere increasingly gloomy.
"There's an inn ahead."
"That's good to hear."
Perhaps because it wasn't a very large village, it wasn't until they entered the center that they finally saw an inn.
"Let's go in."
Four men drove a carriage and a horse and entered the inn.
Gregory opened the door of the inn with the creak of the carriage.
"Is the owner here?"
"...The guests arrived quite early."
"Yesterday, due to the rain, we couldn't enter even though we were right in front of the village. Please give me a plate of hot soup."
While Gregory pretended to be a mercenary and spoke with the innkeeper, Vlad watched a girl peeking her head out from the hallway connected to the inner kitchen.
"......"
A small child climbs onto her lap.
A girl who may be 3 or 4 years old but still very cute.
Vlad gently waved his hand as he looked at the girl who reminded him of Zemina's childhood.
The chubby child's rosy cheeks seemed to have become a little redder.
"...So many bad things are happening nearby these days..."
"I plan to stay a few days at least because of the weather, but are you going to let us go like this? I plan to eat here as well."
While Gregory and the innkeeper haggled over the price, Vlad slowly walked around the inn and checked the surroundings.
It was a behavior that came from a long-standing habit, so when Vlad took his eyes off him, the child gradually began to move ahead of the group.
A large cauldron boiled over a brazier in the middle of the inn.
I don't know what's inside, but it's time for Vlad to whet his appetite as he looks at the pot, which smells good.
[¡Vlad... Vlad!]
The usually calm voice urgently called the child back to his senses.
'What happened?'
When Vlad placed his hand on the sword's handle, the sound became clearer.
[...I guess this is the right place.]
In a gloomy tone, the voice told Vlad to turn his head and look at the girl approaching him.
"......"
On the opposite side of the brazier where he was, there was a girl looking at him.
The girl who was hiding behind the chair and staring at Vlad, probably because she was embarrassed, looked cute to anyone.
[I'll lend you my world.]
Maybe that appearance wasn't everything.
Vlad nervously opened his left eye.
'......!'
The girl was smiling happily at him as she looked at Vlad, who had closed his eye and looked at her as if trying to catch his attention, but Vlad felt a chill creeping up from behind when he saw that smile.
[It's a curse.]
Vlad closed his right eye and looked at the world through his left eye.
The girl's neck was held by a black hand that looked like a corpse.
It looked like it was going to twist the girl's neck at any moment.
'......Damn it.'
Vlad thought he could hear the screams of the woman he heard last winter in the scene he was seeing, so he quickly closed the world of the voice.
Ding-ding-ding-
The sound of the church bell, indicating the hour, resonated in the damp village.
Although it should have been a pious sound, to Vlad, it sounded like it was enveloped in a sticky fog.
As he returned to reality after closing the world of the voice, Vlad stared fixedly at the girl's neck, which until a moment ago had been caught by a black hand.
There was a necklace hanging around the girl's neck.
It was a necklace with the church emblem engraved on it.
____
