Vlad, who had been tossing and turning all night, only managed to fall asleep at dawn.
This was because even when he closed his eyes, the thoughts that came to mind kept chaining together non-stop.
[What is the virtue of a knight?]
"...Please."
However, even though he had fallen asleep late, today's sun was not going to wait for him.
[You can only be called a true knight if you are always fully prepared for action. The incidents and accidents that will come won't wait for you.]
After the tense incident in Moshiam, Vlad finally found a moment to rest.
Therefore, even though he wanted to sleep a little longer, the problem was that the presence within him was none other than Kihano, the knight of knights.
[Always be on guard...]
"I just want to sleep. Please."
Struggling against fatigue and worries, Vlad protested irritably to Kihano, but the problem was that there was another person hearing his words besides Kihano.
"Be quiet, will you?"
"Huh?"
Vlad's eyes opened when he heard a familiar voice coming from inside the room.
The fatigue intertwined with bloodshot veins still persisted in Vlad's eyes, but now was a moment when he shouldn't be able to comfortably close his eyes.
"It's fine. I'll go. Keep sleeping."
"No… Wait a minute, Zemina."
Vlad jumped out of bed and grabbed Zemina, who was trying to leave the room, making her turn around.
"Can we talk for a moment?"
"If it's just a moment."
Leaning against the door she had just slammed shut, Zemina slightly nodded, seeing the urgent expression on Vlad's face.
[See? Incidents and accidents won't wait for you.]
Vlad deliberately ignored Kihano's words and carefully sat Zemina down on the somewhat gloomy-looking bed, cautiously opening his mouth.
"What happened yesterday? Why were you alone with Lady Alicia?"
"You ask so quickly."
Sitting on the bed, swinging her feet that didn't reach the floor, Zemina looked at Vlad and replied.
"It wasn't a big deal."
"Really?"
"Yes. Lady Alicia just asked me to stay away from you."
[Oh, wow.]
Even though it was too heavy news to hear first thing in the morning, Zemina, who was saying it, seemed perfectly calm.
"I used to see things like that at the Rose's Smile. But I didn't expect it to happen to me."
Seeing Zemina shrug as if it wasn't a big deal, Vlad felt a mix of frustration and anger.
"And what did you say?"
"What could I say to her?"
Zemina's eyes, looking at Vlad, seemed somehow sad.
"I can do anything for you."
"..."
Although she was present, she had no right to cling to him.
Implicitly, it was functioning, but if you asked about Vlad's qualifications like yesterday, Zemina had nothing to say.
Because between them, officially, there was nothing concrete.
"I had nothing suitable to say."
As Vlad watched Zemina speak so indifferently, he realized he had been too insensitive.
"I'm sorry... I apologize."
"Why are you apologizing?"
"...For not telling you clearly."
With Zemina sitting in front of him, Vlad scratched his neck and sincerely admitted his mistakes.
He only needed to say one word.
And now he had the right to say that word.
"Listen carefully."
"...!"
Zemina held her breath when Vlad suddenly grabbed both her shoulders.
Vlad's eyes, struggling to look at the abruptly changed atmosphere of the room, were now focused solely on Zemina.
The atmosphere in the room had changed abruptly, and Vlad's eyes were looking intensely at her.
"I wanted to tell you for a long time, actually I..."
KNOCK, KNOCK.
"I..."
KNOCK, KNOCK.
Vlad was trying his hardest to create a special moment, but the persistent sound of knocking interrupted his efforts.
"…It's bad, isn't it?"
"It wasn't a bad try."
For each attempt, there is a suitable moment.
Seeing Zemina smile and point to the door with her head, Vlad realized that today was not that moment.
"Who the hell..."
"Good morning, Lord Vlad."
Vlad, whose pride was wounded by Zemina's comment that it wasn't a bad try, opened the door irritably.
However, contrary to his annoyed mood, when he opened the door, what he saw was Alicia smiling brightly at him.
"…Lady Alicia."
"If you haven't had breakfast yet, I thought we could have it together."
Although she could have stayed at the lord's mansion, in Soara there was only one market.
Alicia had unpacked her luggage here, maybe because she thought a luxury inn called Rose's Smile would be more suitable than the crowded town hall.
"I tried the food here last night, and the chef is excellent. Also, there are things I want to talk about over breakfast."
Even though it was early in the morning, Alicia seemed to have put a lot of effort into her appearance.
With her hair carefully braided and a light scent of perfume, it was evident she had gotten up much earlier.
"To get to Bastopol, the city of blacksmiths..."
But, despite her neat appearance, her head was tilting more and more.
"To get there, to get there... Oh, God…"
Alicia was leaning more and more to see past Vlad.
Vlad turned his head to follow her gaze and was astonished.
"I guess I should have come later. What a lack of consideration."
"No, no..."
Zemina, who had been sitting for quite a while, was now lying on the bed in disarray, looking at the two of them.
With her disheveled hair and wet eyes, the situation could be easily misinterpreted.
"…I suppose I'll have breakfast alone. You two can continue what you were doing."
The sound of footsteps echoing down the hallway, uncharacteristic of a noble, represented Alicia's current feelings.
And Vlad was so bewildered that he couldn't stop her.
[How about that? Didn't I tell you?]
"…"
Kihano was indeed right.
Incidents and accidents don't always wait for the right moment.
***
There was a space where not even the power wielded by a lord could be arbitrarily invaded.
A place that belonged to no one but the will of God: the church.
Not even the landowner could enter without permission, but now there was someone moving freely in that place.
"Bishop, I'm here."
"You've arrived? Come in."
Knight Vlad Aureo.
The title preceding his name was guaranteed by secular power, and the surname following it was certified by the will of God.
"Come here. I was just preparing the tea."
Vlad sat in the place Andrea indicated, observing as he poured the tea himself.
As soon as he sat down, he felt calm and peace wash over him.
Vlad, who had barely escaped the chaos of the morning, could take a breather while sipping the tea served by the faithful bishop.
"Looking at it now, the office itself hasn't changed much since Varna."
"...Have I ever shown you my room in Varna?"
Vlad simply smiled as he looked at Andreas, who had a puzzled expression on his face.
"I said it because it seemed like it could be so."
"Wow, how simple."
Andreas laughed disheartenedly at Vlad's trivial response, but in reality, Vlad had already seen his office.
His room, which seemed too simple to be a bishop's office, was not much different from the scene he had seen in Jean's dream.
"I heard that many things happened in Moshiam. I'm truly grateful that you protected Jean to the end."
"I simply did my best to repay the favor I received."
Indeed, the incident in Moshiam had not been widely disclosed.
There was strict control of the situation by the Iron Lord to prevent unrest in the north.
"I understand it wasn't an easy problem to overcome."
However, the people who needed to know were well aware of the incident.
Andreas, bishop of Soara, was very aware of the hardships Vlad had gone through to save his young deacon.
"The idea that there is salvation in reciprocity is not wrong. Through you, I have come to understand the profound meaning of His designs once again."
Watching Andreas mutter a prayer silently, Vlad could only raise his cup with a sheepish expression. Although he was known as a devout knight, he had never actually read the Bible.
"Although we managed to overcome the situation in Moshiam, I feel uneasy for not having resolved it completely, Bishop."
"I understand that feeling well."
Among the concerns that had tormented Vlad the night before was the unknown woman and the man who had introduced himself as Frausen.
The deeply engraved memory with the name Justia was an indelible wound for Vlad.
"Is this incident related to the woman who shed black tears that we first saw?"
"Mmm..."
A woman shedding black tears that were a curse towards Joseph.
And this recent incident that occurred in Moshiam.
Andreas heavily set down his tea cup as he looked at Vlad, who had experienced it firsthand and demanded an explanation.
"We all walk the path, but we do not know where it ends, and that tires us."
Andrea took out a pen with a grave expression and began to draw something carefully.
Andreas had pursued the black curse since his days as a priest in Varna.
And the church's and his own relentless search had finally led them to a name.
"The will of God is far away, dark temptations are close. Therefore, our body and soul are the places where His holy war is constantly waged."
Vlad began to closely observe the patterns Andreas was drawing.
It looked like the pattern of a church, but somehow it was twisted and upside down.
"This is..."
What Andreas was drawing was a symbol of an upside-down church.
That pattern, full of blasphemy against the sacred, was also a pattern drawn by a headless priest in a mist-filled village.
"It is the pattern of apostates. It represents the lost lambs."
Andreas's eyebrows furrowed as he looked at that sinister symbol.
"People who have walked the path to God but have become more dangerous than any demon. The woman you encountered is one of those people."
Andreas quickly covered the paper with his hand as if he felt disgusted just by looking at it.
By the way, the correctly drawn pattern of the church was already established within his reach.
"Long ago, there was a nun called the mother of all orphans. She was God's voice recognized by the Vatican and was called the saint of her time."
Although he didn't say it explicitly, Vlad knew what Andreas was about to tell.
It is a very deep secret that can never be heard by anyone unless they are related to the church.
"The choir she created for the children became the first choir of the Vatican, and to this day, it is known as Tramashu in honor of her name."
However, even the woman known as a saint could not bear a certain reality.
The events of that day, which took place in the name of God and no one else, ultimately caused the faithful nun to shed black tears.
"The name I'm going to mention from now on is one of the darkest and deepest secrets the Vatican is trying to hide. You must never tell anyone."
"I understand."
Andreas carefully approached Vlad's ear, as if he didn't want to leave any trace.
A barely audible voice, one that not even the wind could carry away, whispered in Vlad's ear.
"Ramashthu." [1]
"…!!"
Although the voice was from the devout bishop, the name resonated with an unmistakable stench.
Upon hearing that name, Vlad involuntarily shuddered.
Before God, it was Tramashu, but when turned away, the name was reversed and became Ramashthu.
There was a woman who shed tears upon seeing her children completely charred by fire.
It is said that on that day, the woman shed black tears mixed with ash towards the sky as she looked at the corpses of the children, which were more charred than the remaining matches.
***
Today was a day with dense fog.
The mist was so thick that the Sturma wall couldn't be seen in the distance.
"Cough, cough. Hm..."
And the days when there was such thick fog were also the days when Joseph's cough worsened.
For him, with weak lungs, the moisture-laden air was like an unwelcome visitor.
"You need to breathe. Slowly."
"I'm fine, mother."
Joseph said he was fine, but Oksana's fingertips followed him to the end and patted his back.
"..."
On that cold winter day, Joseph gave a bitter smile as he felt the warmth of his mother's hand.
Although he was a failure and a loser, his mother's concern hadn't changed at all.
"Joseph, have you thought about what I mentioned last time?"
In front of him was a steaming hot cup of tea, and behind, his mother's hand was gently stroking his back.
Everything in the room soothed Joseph's heart, but precisely because of that, the sadness felt even sharper.
"Your grandfather already knows how smart you are. So..."
Oksana started speaking, but her voice faded, as if she found it hard to finish the sentence.
No mother would simply watch her son run towards destruction.
That's why Oksana wanted to send Joseph to her mother's family, the Oskar family.
"If you go there, you'll have a chance to demonstrate your skills, even if it's not a high position. Besides, the weather will be warmer than here."
"Mother."
Joseph silently took his mother's hand as she continued to stroke his back.
His mother's hand, which he hadn't touched in a long time, was much rougher than he remembered.
"Thank you for caring about me."
Up close, Oksana's face was lined with slight wrinkles.
Joseph knew very well that each of those wrinkles was there because of his cough.
That's why he was eager to prove it.
That the son she brought into the world had become someone to be proud of.
"But I don't want to stop."
Therefore, Joseph could only tell these words to Oksana.
I won't live a life of giving up.
"I want to always live giving my best, as you taught me. With intensity."
"...Okay. I understand."
At that moment, mother and son felt guilty towards each other.
Oksana knew very well that even if the words started as warm consideration, they would turn into painful wounds when touched upon.
"But mom will always be here. Make sure to call me when you're going through a tough time."
"Yes, mother."
Oksana, once again confirming her son's firm determination, reluctantly left Joseph's room.
Joseph could only bow his head as he watched his mother hurriedly turn away before the sadness he had been holding back overflowed.
"...I'll prove to you that I wasn't born useless."
Not just my life, but also the life of my mother, who gave everything for me.
Joseph, with his head bowed, quietly opened the drawer of his desk.
Inside was an envelope as black as coal.
"..."
Joseph slowly opened the envelope.
Outside, the window behind him was filled with thick fog.
Today, as he opened the black letter, it was a day shrouded in mist.T/N (1): This character has already been mentioned by the headless knight chapter 64.
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