The faint light of dawn illuminated the boy.
The Smile of Rose.
The magnificent rose garden created by the boy.
The boy, dyed in bright red, advanced with heavy steps.
Leaving behind the numerous roses he had cultivated.
"·····."
Always at the end of sweet pleasure, there remains a feeling of emptiness.
Revenge is sweet, but after consuming it, only emptiness remains, and no one can avoid it.
The soldiers of Soara watched the boy exiting the blood-soaked building with expressionless faces.
He had faced 50 people and emerged victorious.
The soldiers, seeing the boy who had achieved feats they wouldn't dare approach, showed both respect and fear.
Even Bordan, who had descended to take responsibility for all this, couldn't believe it.
The avenger, exercising his rightful claim, advanced alone with reverence.
With only a dark sword to lean on.
At that moment.
"Vlad! Vlad...!"
From behind the soldiers, someone was desperately calling.
"Vlad! Here! It's Harven!"
The boy, who had not fully emerged from his own world, turned his head upon hearing the voice he missed.
The image reflected in the boy's blue eyes.
A scruffy cane was waving over the heads of the soldiers.
"…Harven."
The boy's gaze, standing at the end of the horizon, gradually returned to reality.
Harven's modest cane.
It was something the boy had personally carved for the limping Harven.
"Harven?"
Vlad made a small gesture with his hand towards the brown-haired man eagerly searching for him.
The soldiers, seeing this, quickly made way for the brown-haired man behind them.
"Hey, you..."
The view cleared, and the path opened.
Harven was speechless as the path cleared and the boy he was truly seeking was right in front of him.
The sight of the boy, tinged with red and looking almost desperate, pierced Harven's heart more than the joy of seeing him after so long.
"Are you okay?"
Harven hastily made his way through the soldiers, limping.
Vlad sheathed the sword he was leaning on and embraced the approaching Harven.
He released the tension holding the boy tightly and let out the disappointment he had been holding while embracing him sincerely.
"Ah… Harven. It really hurts. It hurts everywhere."
"What happened? What happened to you?"
Harven had no choice but to set aside the cane he was holding to receive the boy coming towards him naturally.
Vlad, leaning on the sword.
Harven, leaning on the modest cane.
Both supported each other, releasing the things they had leaned on.
They hugged each other while holding onto each other.
They stood in each other's world, as they had when they supported each other with a small blanket.
"···It seems you've finally returned."
Vlad closed his eyes while in Harven's arms.
***
The moon in the night sky set, and the sun of Soara rose in the morning.
The back alleys of the city, as if yesterday's chaos had never happened, fell back into slumber.
And now the boy, who had to work during the day and not at night, opened his eyes as the gradually increasing sunbeams struck him.
'...I can't get used to it.'
He really wasn't getting used to it.
The place where the boy opened his eyes was not the back alley.
Soara was the boy's home, but the areas outside the back alleys remained as strange as ever.
"Oh. Get up slowly, Captain."
Goethe, who was watching from beside where the boy opened his eyes, quickly offered him water.
"My muscles are sore."
"That's right. It's understandable."
Goethe, who even prepared water to drink, was smiling and chatting as if he were a butler with a towel rolled on his arm.
"Why are you like this?"
"Why? Because it's always been like this."
Seeing Goethe's uncomfortable behavior, Vlad frowned.
"Calm down."
"Understood."
Seeing Goethe smile awkwardly, Vlad thought.
He's probably anxious.
The ties Vlad had left behind in Soara were beginning to appear one after another for Goethe.
For Goethe, those beings might feel like threats to his position.
"As long as you do your job properly, I'll take good care of you."
"..."
Listening to the boy's words, who already knew his intention, Goethe simply nodded.
Goethe had not yet crossed the line set by the boy.
To enter the boundary set by the boy to survive, he would need a little more time.
"What time is it now?"
"It's already lunchtime."
Upon hearing Goethe's words, Vlad stared at the light coming in through the window.
It seemed true that he had slept and woken up as the sunlight darkened.
"Lord Bordan said he wanted to see you for a moment if you're feeling well."
"So I'd better go."
Jack One-Armed is dead.
He also killed all the man's henchmen.
However, it wasn't so easy to erase Jack's shadow without help.
For a long time, he was a figure rooted in the back alleys and also someone who dominated everything.
"...Lord Bordan must be busy."
Vlad knew well, as he had seen bosses of organizations die or be pushed aside while he was by their side.
He was always most active when a new wave arose.
"Mmm... I'll have to help."
Vlad got up from the bed with his heavy body.
After all, there was always an end to everything.
***
"The woman named Marcella is safe. It seems she has been through a bit of trouble."
"Thank you."
"You can go see her later yourself."
"Yes."
Although Vlad let out a sigh of relief upon hearing that Marcella was alright, his eyes widened as he saw the treats in front of Bordan.
"Do you want one?"
"...Did you eat them all by yourself?"
Piles of sugar, desserts leaving no trace behind. The sweets the hefty knight had devoured lay scattered on the desk like the bodies of sweet things.
"You'll die if you keep eating like that."
"If I don't eat, I'll die too."
Though Vlad replied, upon seeing Bordan adding sugar to his coffee as he spoke, Vlad shut his mouth.
"What do you plan to do now?"
"...Not sure."
Although Bordan's personal office seemed credible, to Vlad, who knew his true nature, it was only superficially refreshing.
"Thanks to you, things ended faster than expected. Though I'll be busy handling the rest, officially you can consider your job done."
"Let me help you."
Bordan stroked his thick chin and smiled.
"I would've been disappointed if you hadn't said that."
"I had planned on it from the beginning."
The old knight nodded and pulled out a sheet of paper from a drawer.
"This is for you. Take it with you and carry out the tasks I've assigned you properly."
"What is this?"
The boy, who could read but wasn't familiar with the words, fumbled to decipher the writing on the paper.
"Guard...Chief Authority...Deputy."
"Arrest warrant..."
"Hmm. An arrest warrant."
"It's also authorization to use force as necessary."
After understanding what it meant, the boy nodded, and Bordan quickly wrote his signature on the paper.
But the signature he was writing wasn't his own, but the name of Soara's mayor.
"There are still remnants of Jack's lackeys in Soara's back alleys. Lord Joseph would like to take this opportunity to clean up Soara's alleys."
It was natural for voids to emerge once the giant weeds had been uprooted.
Uprooting the weeds was already a great achievement, but it would be an even greater achievement to fill them with something suitable.
Joseph was always thinking ahead.
"If that's the case..."
Vlad stroked his chin and nodded.
If that were the case, letting the boy take charge would be the best option.
Vlad was someone who knew the back alleys situation better than anyone.
"For now, you'll officially remain on standby until Lord Joseph arrives. You just have to assist me with what I do from time to time."
Bordan pushed the treats aside and chuckled lightly.
"Rest a bit today and go see your old friends. You should also release some tension. And visit your convent girlfriend."
"...She's just a friend."
Although he denied it with words, Vlad, who had picked up some treats in his hand, grimaced.
"Then rest today. I have a lot of work to do."
"I'll help you."
Vlad wanted to go to the convent right away, but he couldn't go there freely just because he wanted to. He was bound by established dates and schedules.
Although Goethe had requested a separate visit, he probably wouldn't be able to see Zemina this week.
"So, are there any small lackeys of Jack unaided in the jail right now? Interrogate them properly. Something like Jack's hidden property or something."
"..."
The small lackeys of Jack unaided.
Upon hearing that sound, Vlad remembered the moment he escaped from Soara.
He had always been a child who wanted to live proudly without regrets, but life inevitably led him to depend on someone else.
"That's good."
Said Vlad as he rose from his seat, holding the paper Bordan had given him.
"There's also someone I need to find there."
In the relationship of give and take that wasn't easily severed, this time it was the boy's turn to give.
***
In the underground prison located at the headquarters of the guard.
Jack's captured henchmen were crowded together in a place where barely any light entered.
Despite the increasing heat and the unpleasant bodily contact, those who were there simply remained silent, aware that there was no salvation for them, as if they were trash rolling through the streets.
"To enter here, you need permission...".
"Here it is. I just received this."
"It's been checked."
Clang-
For a moment, the afternoon sun rays illuminated the dark space, apart from the torches.
A striking color, inappropriate for this dark place, suddenly appeared.
Some of the men locked behind the bars began to murmur upon seeing the man who entered suddenly.
Some of those present recognized the face of the young man who was entering.
"..."
But the men in the cell found it difficult to speak to the boy walking outside the cell.
The face was familiar, but the aura was not.
It was hard to believe they had been alley companions.
"You were here."
Ignoring the men who looked at him eagerly, the young man found the person he was looking for behind the bars and smiled.
"It's hard to recognize someone when it's so dark."
The men in the cell turned their heads to follow Vlad's gaze.
"....."
Upon hearing the boy's voice, a dark-skinned man lifted his head slightly from the darkness of the cell.
The man stared at the boy in front of him with a lost gaze.
In all his years in the dungeon, no one had ever found him crouching.
"Otar. Give me 40 silver coins. Then I'll set you free from here."
The young man extended his hand playfully towards the bars.
Otar simply looked at his hand in disbelief.
Not necessarily because his skin color was different from his.
"I'll also accept damages."
The only light shining in the darkness of the prison.
It was the boy who had not lost his blue light among the trash.
"...Thank you."
Otar followed the light and, for the first time in his life, grabbed the hand someone extended to him.
The boy's eyes facing him still shone with intense blue.