Life is an endless series of choices.
There comes a moment when you have to endure it alone because no one can take your place.
"I can't follow such stupid orders."
And only when that moment of choice arrives, people realize who they truly are.
Because that's the moment when you can shed the shell that has surrounded you until now.
Under the night sky with a full moon, the dwarves cried because they couldn't board the ferry in front of Chama.
Their gaunt faces and unkempt beards displayed their harsh lives.
"This is not it."
A knight of enormous stature.
The knight with the unsheathed sword stepped forward and shielded the fearsome dwarves with his body.
"Are you going to ignore the orders, Jorge?"
"You're not my lord, Sigmund."
A knight of enormous stature. Jorge.
He said, looking fiercely at the man in front of him.
"I am loyal to Count Gaidar and not to you."
"The orders I brought bear my father's seal."
Sigmund waved the order briskly in front of Jorge.
The Gaidar family seal gleaming under the moonlight was the unmanipulated truth.
"...."
Whatever the true intention contained in the order, Sigmund's procedures and justification were flawless.
A knight who doesn't follow his orders is disobeying his orders and breaking his oath.
"I am a person. I cannot follow orders like that."
"...."
And Jorge chose.
He decided to spit out the knight's oath along with the false order.
With those words, the knights began to move.
Those who agree with Jorge's words should go to his side.
Anyone who wants to follow their master's orders, even if they are false, should stand with Sigmund.
The knights bit their lips as their gazes crossed.
Godin looked at Jorge hesitantly, but his superior simply nodded with the same direct expression as always.
"Do what you want to do."
"I'm sorry."
"Go."
At a crossroads of choice where it was impossible to say who was right or who was not, Godin stepped forward.
Glory and honor.
And toward a world that can shine even brighter.
Godin was a knight.
***
"Go ahead."
Vlad took a deep breath at the sound coming from inside and opened the mayor's office door.
The afternoon sun shone brightly through the window with the curtains open.
There was a man with dark eyes and his knights seated with the sunlight behind them.
"I heard you called for me."
"Yes."
Joseph sat, straightened his back, and looked at Vlad, who opened the door and entered.
The boy, whom he first saw after dictating the arrest order, seemed a bit more serious than when he confronted him.
"You've been busy lately, haven't you?"
"...A bit."
Joseph smiled slightly as he looked at Vlad, who muttered his response.
Sometimes, he attacked like fire, but in this case, he stood firm and was impossible to control.
"There was a rumor circulating in town. And the black horse too."
There was a moment of joy in Joseph's smile as he looked at the boy.
"Something about Lady Zemina?"
"...."
"Baroness Alicia would be heartbroken to hear this. Do you still have her handkerchief?"
When Zemina's story came up, Vlad couldn't help but smile awkwardly.
Honestly, he never imagined things would escalate to this extent.
Some may have called it a joke title, but the name Lady Zemina clearly floated around Soara along with the reputation the boy had built.
"I'm sorry."
"Why apologize to me? Just be careful not to let sparks fly later on."
Joseph nodded as he watched the boy slowly advance toward his goal of becoming a knight.
Now, the value of the boy's name had risen to the point where it demonstrated not only his own honor but also someone else's.
So, I have to tell you here.
Because I couldn't let him go crazy like a lightning bolt forever.
"The reason I called you here today is to tell you something."
"...?"
Vlad looked up at Joseph's suddenly serious tone.
"That day, in a village in Baron Utman's territory, you disobeyed my orders and saved the children. Am I correct?"
"...That's right."
When the incident came out of Joseph's mouth again, Vlad's posture became cautious.
But Joseph had no intention of scaring the boy by telling him what had already happened.
Because Vlad had already paid for his sins by being suspended.
"What if something like that happens again? Are you going to ignore my orders again?"
Vlad was momentarily taken aback when Joseph suddenly asked about the events of that day.
He quickly glanced at the other knights nearby, but they all made subtle expressions and none gave him any advice.
Now, Joseph's question was something only Vlad had to think about, answer, and endure.
"The children were dying."
Vlad bit his lip and responded to Joseph's question.
Even if I'm punished again, I can't help it.
As he had sworn to be loyal to Joseph, he couldn't lie to him.
"If you ask me if I would do the same, I would."
Joseph nodded as he looked at Vlad, whose movements were hesitant but whose eyes were firm.
You choose the same.
Vlad's response made Joseph feel bitter, but it also made him smile.
I chose the boy because he had this kind of demeanor.
"Honor is the light that shines on others, but conscience is the light that shines on oneself."
Joseph slowly stood up and spoke to the boy.
Although he had a small body, his radiant presence naturally caught attention in Joseph.
"It's also a compass that shows the way when you're lost."
With the response from a moment ago, Joseph clearly identified the boy, and the boy probably knew who he was too.
Vlad set his own standards to avoid getting stuck in muddy alleys, so he could look at the bright stars.
And if he had to express that rule in one word, it would be conscience.
"You've found your way. I hope this armor helps you protect your duty."
With those words, Joseph removed the cloth next to him.
An armor shining in the sunset sunlight.
Vlad opened his mouth as he looked at the light shining toward him.
"This..."
"This is the armor sent from San Rogino. As they are the group that handles the most iron armors, they are armors that contain a variety of technologies."
After Joseph finished speaking, Vlad looked at his leather armor, which was torn here and there.
The path he had traveled so far was engraved in every torn scar, but now it was an armor that couldn't protect the boy.
"Go get closer."
Ramund, who had been sitting quietly at the reception table until now, looked at Vlad, who was hesitating, and nodded.
You can't use a broken shell forever.
Because Vlad's existence has grown to the point where it can no longer be fully contained only in the word "possibility" that Bayezid focuses on.
"Yes."
The boy took a step toward the armor illuminated by the sun.
I did what I wanted to do and what I had to do.
Rogino, who witnessed the boy's efforts, testified.
The knights here serve as witnesses.
A boy with armor gifted by San Rogino.
On one bright side of the boy's armor was engraved a phrase from that day witnessed by the Sacred Knights.
The phrase "The knight who saved and protected the lives of the children."
***
"As expected, in the North we must pay attention to the Smiths and the Knights of Bayezid. There are rumors that Baron Utman's items are showing unusual behavior these days..."
Inside the candlelit office, Godin was reviewing the report at a meeting of Gaidar's knights and vassals.
"Tell me."
"Yes."
Following Godin's instructions, the aide began reciting the list of knights he had investigated so far.
"The knights Schwanden, Mikhail, and Vastro from the Ravnoma family..."
"The knights of the Bayezid family, Antalas, Rutiger, and Agoth..."
Godin listened attentively to the names of the knights in his ears.
Gaidar, who expelled the Ravnoma family, was now the loser in name and reality in the West, and his gaze was now turning to regions other than the West.
"The names of the Bayezid family haven't changed."
"Except for Rutiger, the son of Count Bayezid, there are no people who really stand out."
In the case of the Ravnoma family, a family of blacksmiths, new names kept popping up, but Bayezid had not changed the names he mentioned years ago at all.
"It seems like the generational turnover has failed."
"...You can't judge it hastily."
Godin shook his head at the sound coming from his side.
The weight of the name Bayezid was something that couldn't be measured from a single report.
Perhaps there were knights whose names were not disclosed like before.
"Now that I think about it, there's a slightly unusual trend in Bayezid."
"Tell me."
The aide, wondering for a moment if he should even say this, looked at Godin urging him with his eyes and released a name that wasn't written in the report.
"It is said that there's a boy who is not a knight, but stands out among Bayezid's squires."
"What is his name?"
The aide thought for a moment and pulled out a name that had been buried in his head.
"His name is Vlad. His hometown is Soara, in Count Bayezid's county."
"...."
Godin heard the aide's words, furrowed his brow, and looked into the distance.
It's definitely a name I remember, but it didn't come to mind easily.
"This is the boy who first appeared in the honor duel in Deirmar... but these are just incredible rumors, so I can't confirm it with certainty."
There was a reason why the aide hesitated before pronouncing Vlad's name.
"They say he emitted an aura on the spot... but I'm not sure."
"Aura? A Seed?"
The other knights who listened to the aide's report snorted and laughed.
This was because judging that the information collected was incorrect was more believable than believing the rumor that a young man who wasn't a knight had already emitted an aura.
"Soara... Vlad."
However, despite the knights' ridicule, Godin simply closed his eyes silently and recalled the memories of that day.
As he recited the name of the familiar city, he could remember the blond boy he met in the white fields.
A child sitting by a bonfire and looking at himself.
The blue eyes of the boy who saw Aura for the first time in his life were filled with a star-like light.
"...I understand. I hope everyone knows the current names."
Godin, the new knight commander of Count Sigmund.
With his order, Gaidar's knights bowed their heads and left the leader's office.
"Vlad, Vlad."
Godin sat in his chair, tilted his neck, and smiled quietly.
He was a bold type.
I wanted to bring him with me if possible, but fate separated us.
Although Godin had no idea that Bayezid's squire, who was said to emit aura, was the boy he had seen, he could only remember the faces of the people in his memories.
"Do what you want to do."
Another person who came to mind along with the boy's name.
Godin silently thought about what Jorge had told him that night.
What would it have been like if I had followed Jorge back then?
"...It couldn't have been like this."
Godin smiled bitterly and shook his head.
At the crossroads of choice, Godin crossed the line to Sigmund instead of Jorge.
The moment he took a step and crossed that line, Godin realized who he was.
What you want, what you have to do.
Even what you have to do in the future.
"Is he living well?"
Godin's soft whistle resonated in the empty office.
The sound made by the blue-eyed boy when he called him from afar.
It was the sound of a cuckoo at the end of summer.