On the hill of the white desert, the knights were gathered, watching a place.
The icy cold of the northern wind stung their eyes, but the knights paid no attention and simply gazed at the distant horizon.
They were waiting.
The torches that would bring cold breath.
"I can see it."
And the iron-clad knights carrying the torches did their best on their mission.
A huge blast of cold air approaches rapidly from afar.
And knights with torches running towards them, surrounded by a cold mist.
They were knights of the Baranov steelworking family.
"Get ready."
"Yes."
Upon receiving an order from a man who looked like a captain, the knights watching from the hill began to mount their horses one by one.
Each of them held a magical torch to protect themselves from the cold and stared intently at the remains of the fallen dragon running towards them with rough breaths.
"Now!"
With the signal from the assistant, the knights began to run downhill.
"…."
As the knights rushed forward, the man with a ponytail pulled one of the spears from the ground and silently closed his left eye.
A knight's sword is sharp, but it can only cause damage if it touches the opponent.
And the fallen dragon they were trying to face was so fast that they couldn't easily catch it.
Therefore, the blacksmith sent the knight he considered most suitable for this job.
Valkov with the lance.
The lance he held began to glow with a bright blue light.
"It's breath!"
The white dragon, roaring as it saw the knights clinging to it, opened its mouth and took a deep breath, as if its judgment had been distorted.
Its chest expanded greatly, and the white scales rose, warning of what would happen next.
The knights, sensing the impending destruction, quickly attempted evasive maneuvers.
"Hmph!"
Valkov hurled his lance at the dragon, which paused for a moment to catch its breath.
The aura-filled lance began to fly through the wind with an elastic motion.
This is enough.
At this distance, a flying lance wouldn't be noticed.
However, Valkov suddenly found himself met with blue eyes staring directly at him from a distance.
"What?"
The remains of the fallen dragon. Lindworm.
The dragon, with the icy cold in its chest, quickly writhed with movements more agile than those of a wolf.
Kwaaaah!
Gyaaaah!
It was fast, but too late.
The lance that had just passed was deeply embedded in the ground.With white scales fluttering.
"Damn it!"
Valkov let out an angry exclamation unknowingly.
Although it was known to be fast, he never expected it to be as sensitive as it is now.
"It can't move!"
"Surround it!"
The knights who noticed Valkov's failure relentlessly rode around Lindworm, blocking its escape route, but the fallen dragon realized it had already fallen into a trap set by humans.
Kwaaa-!
With a furious roar, Lindworm quickly lifted the siege of the knights and began to run towards the snowy mist.
Because judging the time and place was the basic attitude a predator should have.
"Follow me!"
"Block the front!"
As Lindworm retreated, the knights urged their horses to reach the dragon, which accelerated at great speed, but it was a tough task even for the horses.
The horses, exhausted from chasing the dragon, foamed at the mouth and began to stop one by one.
"Damn it!"
Valkov, seeing the siege lifted, shouted a single word and threw the lance he held to the ground, but Lindworm had already disappeared into the white mist.
Only the furious roar of the dragon could be heard coming from the foggy snowy distance.
***
A stable installed in Rose's Smile.
In the place Madame Marcella paid special attention to, Vlad watched Goethe with rolled eyes.
"Please, just this once. Please!"
Goethe clasped his hands as if pleading, but the black horse simply kicked him without the slightest hesitation.
"Let me saddle you just once!"
Neighing—
A black horse raising its front hoof threateningly toward Goethe, who continued clinging annoyingly to it.
Goethe simply stepped back upon seeing that.
"You seem to have a shitty personality. Seriously!"
Goethe, who was snorting as if he could no longer bear the black horse that seemed to ignore his pleas, this time turned his head and looked in Vlad's direction.
Here was another damn guy.
"Do something about it, please!"
Of the two, Goethe vented his anger towards the one who could communicate less, but the blond one was equally disobedient.
"He really doesn't listen to me."
"Isn't this what the captain said?"
Seeing Vlad shrug as if wondering what to do, Goethe lifted his head and looked up at the sky.
The black horse, and the blond boy.
Well, I met some boys.
"I want to hit you."
He was prepared, but he didn't expect it to be this difficult.
Though it was a wild horse, it still followed people, so I thought something would work, but it was a big mistake.
But it wasn't just because Goethe couldn't saddle him that angered him.
"Zemina can do it. Why can't you? Isn't it just that you lack skills?"
"…!"
Goethe clenched his teeth upon hearing Vlad's voice whispering beside him.
'Why do you listen to that girl so attentively...!'
That was the biggest issue.
Though he was a violent type, the problem was that he seemed like an innocent lamb in front of the redhead.
There was clearly someone who had tamed him, so the current situation would surely raise doubts about Goethe's abilities as the stable keeper.
"...It's because he doesn't have a name."
"What nonsense."
"It's because the wild hasn't died. You have to give him a name to know where he stands!"
It was clearly a nonsensical claim, but Vlad unconsciously nodded at Goethe's surprisingly plausible words.
That could really be the case.
Watching Vlad standing and pondering what he had said, Goethe said he should at least have a beer and went inside with a rosy smile.
"...A name."
Vlad scratched his chin as he watched the black horse walk into the stable on its own feet.
"I see. I need to build it."
The boy who ran across the plains abandoned his duties and followed the boy to this place.
In that case, it would be right to at least give him a new name.
"Is Vlad here?"
Vlad, who was contemplating a name while making eye contact with the black horse, turned his head when he heard a voice calling him from behind.
"Sir Joseph is calling for you."
Vlad nodded as he listened to the man's words who came to see him from the town hall.
"I'll think about it later."
The black horse nodded as if understanding what Vlad said.
Though it wasn't his name, Vlad took a step forward for the man who gave him a title that allowed him to have confidence anywhere.
***
Joseph made a subtle expression as he looked at the man who suddenly approached him.
He wasn't someone who arrived at a place he couldn't go to, but he wasn't necessarily someone who necessarily came to visit either.
"As expected, your mother's insight is amazing. No matter where I go, I've never tasted tea like this before."
Rutiger made a humorous expression as he raised the teacup he was holding towards Joseph.
As if his words weren't empty, Dorothea's ears perked up as she took a sip from her teacup.
"Didn't you ask your mother to give it to you? I don't think it's very expensive."
"...That's not easy."
At Joseph's words, Rutiger smiled bitterly and shook his head.
"Is there something that is difficult to explain with words? You know what I mean, right?"
Joseph nodded as he looked at Rutiger, who gave him a subtle expression.
Although Oksana wasn't the type of person who wouldn't even do him a small favor, their relationship was destined to be tense in many ways.
As they had no choice but to compete for the same things, Rutiger couldn't expect Oksana to act as a mother from an early age.
"…."
Joseph let out a small sigh as he watched Rutiger confidently talk about delicate matters that he wouldn't have dared to reveal.
The two brothers were truly different and had something that the other didn't have.
"What brings you here?"
"Well, brothers don't necessarily have to have a reason to see each other."
Rutiger, who was looking at Joseph with his arms resting on the backrest, saw his younger brother looking at him without moving and nodded as if he knew he would do the same.
"Don't look at me so seriously. There's a reason why I came here."
Joseph didn't even accept the joke he briefly made before getting into the main topic, but Rutiger wasn't embarrassed at all.
Because it was something he had seen all his life.
"After receiving the report you sent, my father assigned me to investigate the barbarian region. And there I discovered an unusual trend."
Joseph raised his eyebrows and waited for Rutiger's next words.
"The dragon is coming down. It seems that the barbarian you brought with you was right."
"...Lindworm."
Joseph uttered a word and rested his chin on his hand.
In the end, what Agge said was correct.
Even in the icy cold of the northern wind, the dragon living in the coldest place was coming down.
"It will still be too early for it to come down... Besides, he's not the type of person who always moves just because it's winter, right?"
"Yes."
If in the west there were deadly worms that burrowed into the earth, in the north there were the Lindworms that lived in blizzards.
The coldest and fastest dragon.
The death worms did not attack humans except for the damage caused by their enormous size, but the dragon called Lindworm was different.
The Lindworms, which reached human territory every few decades after the cold weather, were fierce creatures that destroyed two or three villages each time.
The remains of fallen dragons were like natural disasters for humans.
"Where is it going to come down?"
"I don't know. It's hard to find traces because it moves very fast."
After finishing his tea, Rutiger spoke to his half-brother with a serious expression instead of his usual relaxed smile.
"So my father ordered me to defend and subdue Lindworm."
"As mayor of Soara, I will spare no effort to support you as much as possible."
Joseph responded to Rutiger's words with an orderly stance.
His brother did not come with a simple request, but with a solemn order from Count Bayezid.
The two brothers competed for the position of the next head of the family, but they would have to join forces in this crisis situation.
We must not forget the purpose for the sake of the means.
What the two brothers wanted was not only the position of head of the family, but also the strong Bayezid.
"Can I help you with something?"
"We request the dispatch of knights along with reliable reconnaissance from Soara."
Joseph nodded as if he understood what Rutiger said.
This was because this level of demand was not only common sense, but also already expected.
"How many knights..."
"I only need one person."
Even Jager, who was standing next to Joseph waiting for Rutiger's response, looked at him with a hint of surprise.
You'd need strong swords to face the dragon.
Rutiger was only asking for a single knight, even when he could have requested all the knights in Soara and still wouldn't have enough words to say.
"Can it be just one person?"
"Lindworm is different from Death Worm. It's an opponent that the sword can handle well."
Rutiger was right.
Lindworm wasn't the type to hide in the ground like a death worm, and he had successfully subdued him before.
So, this time, you can do it too.
As long as the sword can reach Lindworm's swift movements.
"Who do you need?"
Rutiger responded to Joseph's question with a sly smile.
"The blond one you care so much about."
"...You mean Vlad?"
Joseph furrowed his brow for a moment as he looked at Rutiger, who was asking for Vlad instead of Jager or Gregory.
Although he was a boy with unique strengths, strictly speaking, he had only just begun his journey.
"Yes. That guy."
Rutiger remembered him.
The boy who proudly shouted against the death worm in the meadow on a summer day.
"Because he's the best Dragon Slayer I know."
The boy from that day with the black horse shone brightly.
With a presence of that magnitude, even Lindworm, who had a heart like ice, couldn't help but pay attention.
Just like the death worm that unknowingly emerged from the ground to attack the shining boy.