Star-Embracing Swordmaster - Chapter 20

To the Bayezid family (1)

Dark night.

Beyond the river.

The faithful knight did his best.

He sent Vlad to add to the slightest possibility and mercilessly cut down his old colleagues who tried to tie him up.

“Keuuuuuu! “Gagging!”

He found the person controlling death behind him and pulled out his heart.

“…….”

Seeing the man who controlled death collapsed so easily, he felt that he too was just someone’s puppet, but instead of worrying, Xayar chose to run for his master.

Swimming through the ice-broken river and running back the way we came.

Even though the low branches of the trees hit his face violently, Xayar ran away without blinking.

“Knight!”

I don’t know why, but on the way, I saw Got who had come back, so I quickly picked up a horse and rode for several hours.

When Xayar finally arrived at the garrison, the sight reflected in his eyes was, as expected, the garrison was in shambles due to an attack.

“Are you here?”

It was Josef sitting on a rock and looking at a distant mountain.

After confirming that Josef was fine, Zayar finally felt relieved and let out a deep breath that had been building up until now.

“Are you okay?”

Josef’s already dark shadows, perhaps because of the hardships he had endured, had sunk down to half of his face.

“It was better than dying.”

Josef smiled listlessly at Zayar and then turned his head towards the distant mountain again.

Dawn was coming.

“This subjugation was completely ruined.”

“…There is no shame in it.”

Xayar lowered his head and dropped the things he was holding in both hands on the floor.

It was the head of a strange man and the black wooden box he was carrying.

“Is it him?”

“Maybe so.”

Although many questions and answers were omitted, it was enough conversation for Josef and Zayar, who had a deep understanding of each other.

“It was ruined, but…”

Josef said, looking blankly at the distant mountains.

“Still, the step back will be light.”

“Was he useful?”

“Was it useful?”

Josef answered Zayar’s question with a grin.

“Maybe I found it.”

“What do you mean?”

Zayar looked at Josef’s smiling face.

That smile, smiling with the rising sun, reminded me of Josef when I was young.

“Someone who will become a sword instead of me.”

Josef, who had now become a young man with dark eyes, looked at Zayar and said.

“That brat is a sword that shines brighter than any other sword.”

With those words, Josef smiled brightly as if he had no worries.

Today’s sun rose above his smiling face.

It was the sun of tomorrow that I had longed for last night when everything was overwhelming.

“It’s cold. “Let’s go back now.”

“yes.”

Jaar supported Josef, who was limping on one leg, and guided him to the tent.

Two men walked with their backs to the rising morning sun.

The subjugation failed.

Nevertheless, Josef was smiling.

Even though I failed today, I was confident that I would succeed tomorrow.

※※※※

“Keuung.”

Vlad lay in bed for three full days.

“My stomach still hurts.”

[I’ll have to be careful next time. I didn’t even know that the backlash would be this big.]

The unqualified boy forcibly borrowed someone else’s world and dragged it out of the world.

“It can’t be helped. what.”

In return, this level of reaction had to be humbly accepted.

Otherwise, I would have been lying on the ground, freezing by now.

“I thought I was going to be rolled around in a carriage, but I’m glad I did.”

[It seems that Josef cares a lot about you.]

Josef captured the mercenaries who were trying to leave for Vlad, who was sick, and maintained the garrison.

It might have been right to leave as quickly as possible because the attack was too difficult to handle, but Josef didn’t think so.

“If they are targeting us anyway, they will attack again on the way back to Varna. In that case, it would be better to regroup here, make full preparations, and then move.”

During the three days he gained, Josef did his best to reconquer the garrison and complete the field investigation.

It was the appearance of someone who failed but did not give up.

As a result, Josef was able to discover several clues that he could report to his father, Peter Bayezid.

Perhaps the report that Josef was about to bring was more valuable than the monster subjugation mission he had previously been assigned to.

“cold.”

Vlad went outside sniffling and looked around.

The number of tents has decreased significantly and the garrison has become empty. And the strange silence of the mercenaries reminded me of the atmosphere of the defeated soldiers.

“Leader!”

Amidst the quiet garrison, there was a voice calling for Vlad.

A man with a long chin approaches from afar, waving his hand.

“The one who wants to run away sticks around the longest.”

“of course. “They say they will give you a raise if you stay until you return to Varna.”

The cowardly swindler did not run away that night.

Instead of running away from danger alone, he turned his horse around and headed in the direction where Zayar was.

“You know that I took risks and went all the way to the knight Nari to save the captain, right? “You really have to talk nice to me later.”

“……okay.”

Goth was as clever as a conman.

The reason why Xayar hurriedly sent Vladado to the garrison was with the intention of buying time until he could go.

Goth, who had noticed this, realized that Zayar’s quick return was needed to resolve the situation, and rode back to get him.

Although he did not go all the way to the river, which was full of dead people, he wandered along the middle road.

“You won’t ignore and trample on my favor this time, right? Even though there is no end to the bottom, it doesn’t mean that your personality has been ruined to that extent, right?”

“I said I understood.”

It was true that he had already committed a crime and that Goth had worked hard for him, so it was difficult for even the most shameless Vlad to openly ignore what he was saying.

“Let me at least say something. “I don’t know how well it will work.”

It was only after hearing that Vlad would tell the scion of the prestigious Bayezid family about his accomplishments that Gott nodded in satisfaction.

“So, go and do some business.”

“under. “You’re still so heartless.”

Goth was lost in thought as he watched Vlad leave him.

‘It smells like money.’

In Gott’s view, Vlad was a person full of potential.

A person who is young, capable, and attracts the attention of those in power.

In other words, I was a bastard.

‘Whoever wins this first is the owner.’

The most important ability to make money is recognizing value.

Goth had an intuition that the boy named Vlad was not the one to stop here.

“Because I erased my debt.”

With those words, Goth turned around.

Because more pits needed to be dug to bury the bodies of the mercenaries made last night.

“hmm?”

Vlad, who had separated from Goth and was walking through the garrison, saw someone beckoning towards him.

“Priest.”

It was priest Andrew.

“What’s going on? “Priest?”

“There is something I would like your help with.”

Priest Andrea smiled awkwardly and pointed to the coffin behind him.

“No one wants to move the coffin.”

“…….”

There were quite a few dead, including Knight Rodrik, in the sudden attack last night.

Those who have someone to collect the body will be placed on a wagon and buried in the cemetery, but those who cannot will be buried here and forgotten.

And here was another coffin that no one was looking for.

“……I will do it.”

“Oh oh. “I thought you would do it.”

The coffin that Priest Andrew pointed to was the coffin in which the woman who had been like a terrible nightmare that night lay.

“It was an unusual curse. So, we have to take him to Varna and investigate.”

Perhaps because he felt sorry for asking me to do something that I was reluctant to do, Priest Andrea’s words were getting longer.

“And as you know, isn’t it too pitiful?”

“I know.”

Vlad waved his hand at the young deacon who said he would help.

“It’s right for people who work hard to do this kind of work.”

“Still…”

The young deacon, whose voice was cracking as if his throat had not yet healed, backed down under Vlad’s dissuasion.

“With the song you sang that night, the deacon has already done everything he was supposed to do.”

At Vlad’s words, the young deacon smiled humbly and stepped back.

“Keuung!”

Although Vlad was not very fit, he pushed the coffin around on his own and lifted it onto the cart.

She was a poor woman.

I don’t know who she was or how she went through such a thing, but Vlad truly sympathized with her.

“Come here. “If you don’t know, I will bless you.”

Vlad said as Andrea tried to hold her hand, worried about the remnants of the curse that might still remain.

“wait a minute. “Priest.”

Your hands are dirty anyway.

It wouldn’t matter if I used it at least once more.

Vlad held up the black wooden box that Andrea had wrapped beautifully with white cloth.

An ominous-looking wooden box that everyone hates to even make eye contact with.

That wooden box was the subject of a terrible curse and was what the woman had been desperately looking for last night.

“Vlad…”

“I think it’s the right thing to do.”

Squeak –

The coffin lid, which was not properly sealed, opened with a weak sound.

“If only this could be of some comfort.”

A woman’s body split in half.

And her face full of black tear stains.

“Isn’t this okay? “Priest?”

“Do it. “You deserve it.”

Vlad placed the black wooden box on the back of the woman’s stiff hand.

The wooden box held by the person controlling death contained a small corpse.

“Here you are. “Your baby.”

A murdered woman and child as mediums for a curse.

Even though she died, the woman was able to get her child back, whom she had been desperately looking for.

Is that why?

It felt as if the woman’s frozen expression had relaxed a little.

“…Would you like me to drive a nail into it?”

“Yes, I would appreciate it. “I will definitely bless you.”

Andrea looked at Vlad, who was trying to see off the poor woman for the last time, even though he was still uncomfortable, and recited a prayer for him.

A faithful priest and a faithful boy were seeing off the woman whom everyone was ignoring.

Taak-taak-

taak- like a bell for the dead.

The sound of Vlad’s hammer striking rang quietly in the middle of the garrison.

※※※※

“I’m here.”

On his last night leaving the garrison, Josef quietly called Vlad.

“Sit down.”

Vlad sat on the chair facing Xayar, who smiled faintly in front of him.

“Do you know how to drink?”

“The place I used to work at was a restaurant and bar.”

“You mean you know how to drink.”

Josef poured clear brown liquor into the glass in front of Vlad.

“Is it whiskey?”

“It’s my favorite drink.”

Vlad smelled the sweet vanilla scent emanating from the liquor and was convinced that it was not an ordinary expensive liquor.

“I’d like to say thank you first.”

Josef naturally sat down at the head of the table and continued speaking.

“You could have run away.”

“Didn’t you sign a contract?”

“Yes, you made a contract with me to offer faithfulness instead of loyalty.”

Josef said, twirling the glass in front of him.

“Even though it was just a verbal contract.”

Josef was amazed not only by Vlad’s skills, but also by the boy’s uprightness.

‘This is a talent that should not be missed.’

Although he was evaluated as a useful talent, Vlad’s actions last night easily exceeded that evaluation.

Strangely enough, the guy who had just picked up the sword started emitting an aura.

He swung it for himself.

Towards the cursed woman who was like death.

The boy named Vlad was not a useful guy, but a must-have talent.

“…….”

Vlad sat nervously, unable to even touch the precious drink in front of him.

Looking at Vlad like that, Xayar took a gulp of whiskey that looked like it was expensive.

“Then now it is my turn to fulfill the contract.”

The vassal relationship between the king and the nobles.

The loyalty relationship between a lord and a knight was ultimately a relationship of giving and receiving.

And Josef’s life was saved by Vlad.

“I was taught that I must return what I received from my father. Whatever it is.”

Josef said, tilting the glass he was holding towards Vlad.

“I would like to invite you to the Bayezid household. “I want to pay a fair price for this there.”

“…….”

Vlad thought while looking at the glass of wine that Josef handed him.

There was no reason to refuse.

However, a little bit of determination was needed.

“It’s an honor, Josef.”

“Drink it.”

And the boy was always looking forward to making this decision.

Someday, I will go out into the wider world rather than the back alleys.

After receiving permission from Josef, Vlad held the glass with both hands and took a sip of whiskey.

I will not end my life with cheap rum sold in the back alleys.

There was a day in the past when I made that promise, and that promise came true today.

“It’s delicious.”

“It’s a nobleman’s drink.”

Properly aged and fragrant whiskey was the sweetest drink Vlad had ever tasted.

The boy’s world was expanding as much as the taste of whiskey he tasted for the first time.