Chapter 184 - Wars of the Roses (2)

The Smile of the Rose, a hallmark of the city of Soara.

On a normal day, it would be filled with delicious aromas and bustling conversations, but today, the atmosphere felt strangely heavy.

"Aren't you going to order anything besides beer?"

"No."

"And you, brother?"

"No."

"Ah... What's wrong with the customers today?"

Ned, a dark-skinned boy, scratched his neck in frustration upon seeing that Harven and Otar had only ordered one beer each.

Although business had been good lately, why were they spending so little?

"Then at least leave me a tip. If you don't order more, I won't get my bonus."

"A tip? Here."

Harven raised his middle finger in response to Ned's complaints.

"Today, don't ask customers for tips. That's my tip for you."

"That's disgusting. Really."

Even though Harven was acting playfully, his voice was serious, and Ned could only frown.

Harven, though not as much as Vlad, was now someone not to be taken lightly.

"If I had kept stealing as Vlad suggested, I wouldn't have lived long."

"Hmm..."

Otar sighed while watching his brother walk away angrily.

Although the boy moved with agility, his lack of insight prevented him from noticing the strange tension enveloping the Smile of the Rose today.

"This reminds me of the old days."

Harven lifted his beer mug and looked around.

Perhaps this was how it was when One-armed Jack and Jorge were around.

A sharp tension, unseen for a long time, enveloped the inn.

"All familiar faces."

Although the owner of the place hadn't planned it, today the inn's customers naturally divided into two factions.

Each with a simple beer, watching each other.

Ned might not recognize them, but they were all representative merchants from northern companies.

"All these busy people gathered here."

"Yes."

As Harven said, all those who prided themselves on having an incredible nose for money had gathered in the same place on the same day.

And the place where they were setting up their camp was in a separate room on the third floor where Zemina and Alicia were.

Will it be Soara or Deirmar?

The place where trade with the new world of elves and dwarves will take place.

Will it be Bayezid or Hainal?

Where the knight named Vlad, recognized by the Orthodox Church and sponsored by the Smiths, will lodge.

"I bet on Zemina."

"Mmm. Me too."

It's not just a simple political battle, but a silent war based on the interests of countless people and political calculations.

Harven, who adjusted his captain's hat, raised his beer glass towards the other captains sitting across.

People are divided into factions between red roses and blue roses.

And the place where Harven was sitting now was where the side of the Red Rose was.

***

"Delicious. I feel like inviting the person who made this dish to my mansion."

Was a fight possible between a woman from the alleys and a noblewoman?

Normally, this would have been nonsense, but if it were limited only to Vlad's issue, it would have been completely unknown.

"It seems that Bayezid is planning to take advantage of this woman."

Alicia, who was a noble but also the daughter of a baron, knew this very well.

The level of food you're consuming now cannot be achieved simply with money and culinary skills.

"Especially, the quality of the meat is excellent."

"It's meat provided by the Kannor family. They were all animals that roamed freely in the pastures."

It wasn't just the meat.

Various delicacies, which not even money could buy, kept coming into the room.

The inn 'Smile of the Rose', under the protection of the Bayezid family.

Now, Zemina was showing through the luxurious food who was backing her.

"…As much as they roamed the pastures, in the end, they were raised in a corral."

However, Alicia responded coldly as she looked at the aromatic food.

"The land called Bayezid is so vast that they wouldn't even realize they are enclosed."

"…Really?"

Does this woman know?

The fact that Bayezid was using it.

If he does this knowingly, he probably isn't worth respecting.

"I'm worried that Lord Vlad, who is now free after his contract ends, will end up tied like this."

Alicia smiles as she twirls the meat with her fork.

However, the unsettling feeling towards someone at the end of that smile is probably not just an illusion.

"Isn't the baron trying to keep Lord Vlad in his arms anyway?"

"That's right."

"So I think it would be safer for him to be on large grounds than in a small enclosure."

Zemina responds quietly to Alicia's words and sprinkles sauce over the meat.

Her behavior was courteous and irreproachable, but her comments were startlingly rude.

"No matter how good a horse is, it won't be able to run freely in too narrow a fence."

"…"

An odd tension filled the room.

Even the old knight Duncan set down the utensils he was holding.

The women's fight, which no one could resist, made the room's air infinitely heavy.

"…Although what I have is small, I'm just grateful it's not a fence trying to trap someone."

Along with the response, the sound of a knife cutting through meat is chilling.

"Unlike some people."

Alicia compares Zemina to a fence trying to trap Vlad.

Zemina was infuriated by those words, which hit her harder than any other insult.

"…But you too, Baron."

"At least I won't try to enclose him."

Alicia dried her lips with a napkin and smiled as she looked at Zemina.

In moments like this, the blue blood of a serene noblewoman showed its true worth.

"Rather, I gave it to you if you gave it to me."

Alicia nodded at those words and at the large amount of food being served, as if she was going to inspect it.

"All this must be borrowed from someone. Is there anything here that is entirely yours?"

"…"

Zemina fell silent under Alicia's sharp observation. 

Indeed, everything Zemina possessed had been borrowed and allowed by Bayezid.

"Hainal is a small and humble family as you say, but at least I can promise many things to Lord Vlad."

Although the difference between Bayezid and Hainal was immense, Alicia was confident she could offer enough support to Vlad.

"If he wishes, I can share everything I have. They are things that my ancestors have accumulated over hundreds of years."

It was too much to offer to a mere knight, but Alicia's special situation made it possible.

A lady who must protect her family's name alone.

For her, who had to worry about matters of succession and inheritance, Vlad, a promising knight without backing, had become the best option she couldn't pass up.

"No matter what Bayezid promises Lord Vlad, they won't be able to offer him as much as I can."

"…"

Zemina was speechless when she saw that Alicia even offered to stand by her side.

If she really wanted to share everything, Bayezid couldn't match her terms unless they offered Soara.

"Why... so much?"

"So, please, let him go."

Lady Zemina had Vlad's past, but Lady Alicia trusted his future with Vlad.

Although both women were looking at the same man, their perspectives were completely different as they looked into each other's eyes.

"Don't you think it's a waste of his potential? If Lord Vlad stays here, he'll just be a knight who follows orders all his life."

Alicia was telling her that, while Zemina would be only an obstacle, she could be his wings, taking him beyond the range of a knight to become a lord.

"Don't you think it's a shame that someone like Vlad is tied to an inn like this?"

"…"

Zemina began to feel confused by Alicia's words.

She thought that being in Bayezid would obviously be better than in Hainal, but upon hearing such sincerity, Zemina couldn't help but feel bewildered.

'Am I really... tying him down?'

Zemina had always given everything for Vlad.

But now, Vlad, who had progressed, was no longer the boy who stood in the mud and looked at a sword beside her.

"…"

Zemina looked down at her toes in silence and thought.

She wondered if the footprints she had ever left were suitable for the Vlad of now.

She wondered what would really be the best way to help Vlad at this moment.

***

In front of the gates of Soara.

Vlad looked at the familiar man standing in front of him and warmly greeted him.

"Long time no see. Mister Marcus."

"...My name is Vilmosi now."

The man with scars all over his face stroked his chin as if he couldn't help it while looking at Vlad, who kept calling him Marcus.

"But why are you here…?"

"Perfect. Stay with me for a moment and let's wait for someone."

A man with a strange atmosphere who greeted him after a sinister fortune.

Vlad began to feel that this encounter was not a mere coincidence.

"Do we have to wait long? There's someone I want to meet quickly."

"They're just arriving."

Vlad turned his head to follow Marcus's nod.

Flags visible from a hill in the distance.

The flags carved on the walls of Sturma symbolized the return of Bayezid's army through the Western Gate from afar.

"Who's that! The rumored Vlad Aureo. Isn't it you?"

"...Long time no see. Mister Rutiger."

Under the flag that arrived first were Rutiger and his mage Dorothea, smiling cheerfully.

"Is there such a coincidence? I still wanted to see you at least once."

Their relationship might have been awkward due to his connection with Joseph, but Rutiger approached Vlad without hesitation and touched his shoulder.

"Has the rumor spread that far?"

"Rumors are birds that fly very far."

With both hands rounded, Rutiger playfully placed them next to his ears.

"Besides, I have ears that can hear anywhere like a mage."

As Rutiger finished speaking, Nibelun and Dorothea, recognizing each other's mysteries, began to greet each other.

They were a tribe of beastmen who roamed all their lives because they had no place to settle, but because of that, there was a stronger relationship between the races.

"It seems you've just returned."

"I handed it over to the Maringen family. I wonder if those people arrived a little late and had a hard time."

Rutiger joked that he was tired of the dry dust of the West.

Looking at him like that, Vlad awkwardly smiled.

Although they were brothers born of the same lineage, he had a completely different charm from Joseph.

"Welcome to Soara!"

The guards of Soara shouted loudly at the two knights passing through the castle gate.

It was a shout that made Nibelun's eyes widen as he experienced such hospitality for the first time.

"It's great to see you after so long. How about we go to the Town Hall and have a drink?"

Rutiger smiled and clinked his handmade glass.

Vlad wanted to go to the Smiling Rose right away, but he couldn't ignore Rutiger's words.

Rumble-!

If it weren't for the water bottle that was upside down in front of me.

"Wow…"

"…!"

How to recognize your companions.

For Rutiger, it might have been nothing more than a surprise, but Dorothea couldn't hide her surprised eyes when she recognized the mysterious weight contained in the water bottle.

"...I'll definitely see you tonight."

"Huh?"

Rutiger was bewildered by Vlad's completely unexpected words.

No matter how busy things are, is there anything more important than Bayezid's sole heir?

"Where are you going?"

Even Marcus mobilized to create the current situation.

However, Vlad acknowledged the mage's warning and quickly grabbed Noir's reins and began to flee from the procession.

"...What's this."

Vlad dared to reject the offer from the heir of the family and the representative knight of the North.

Rutiger simply watched Vlad's back as he ran away bewildered.

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"…"

Then, in the place where Vlad left, there was only a cat that he had never seen before.

When Rutiger saw Nibelun close the entrance of his backpack, he simply nodded, looking embarrassed.

***

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

Alicia's point was extremely harsh.

When asked what she could do for Vlad, Zemina had no answer.

"It was a dead end that would have shaken anyone, but probably that's why Vlad could become a great knight."

But Zemina knew better.

For Vlad, being someone else's isn't as important.

"What do you mean?"

"…What I mean is this."

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

"Vlad won't need anything you give him, Baron."

What the boy wanted wasn't a 5 gold coin sword, but the shine only that sword had.

"Because Vlad is a person who only wants to have everything that is completely his own."

Not someone else's, only mine.

Zemina knew very well that Vlad had been fighting to have his own world that no one could take away from him.

Clatter!

Beyond the silence created by the two women, hurried footsteps could be heard.

"…Hah, hah. Has something happened?"

A man burst open the door and rushed in.

"…Why is the atmosphere like this?"

The two women, who had become equal only in front of Vlad, looked at him at the same time.

Seeing their somber gazes, Vlad automatically recalled the ominous foreboding Nibelun had mentioned.

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