Chapter 295: Side Story – Black-haired Man (3)

Munch munch—

At the camp where the bonfire burned, an early lunch was in full swing.

The aroma of soup rose among the carts arranged in a circle within the milky fog.

As if intoxicated by that smell, four round heads produced curiously synchronized sounds.

“Eat slowly. If there isn’t enough, I’ll give you more. Does anyone want more black pudding?”

Blond, yellow, brown, and reddish.

The children, who had gone all day without food and had barely had any water, hurriedly raised their hands when they heard they could have seconds.

All of them had their cheeks puffed out like squirrels.

Seeing them, the women around them smiled fondly.

“I knew the black pudding would be a hit. When I worked at the shop, I was the one who prepared it all.”

White bread, mashed potatoes, hot onion soup, and black pudding.

Anna had been one of the people responsible for preparing one of the dishes known as the Jorge Menu.

Although she complained that the ingredients brought from the Black Bear shop were not in very good condition, none of the children present were paying attention to her words.

“Abubu—!”

While Lenia was completely focused on eating, she noticed a baby beside her stretching its arms toward her.

The child seemed fascinated by Lenia’s skin tone, something uncommon in the North, and kept trying to touch her.

His black hair, soft and fluffy like cotton, was adorable.

“Ma’am, your baby is very cute.”

“Really? Thank you.”

Upon hearing the compliment, the woman holding the baby hugged him more tightly.

“Don’t pay him too much attention. He spent too much time alone, so now he gets excited whenever he sees someone.”

For a moment, a shadow of sadness crossed the woman’s face.

But now she held her son as though she would never let him go again.

And the baby, enjoying his mother’s warmth, moved his head from side to side.

“He looks happy. He seems like a very happy baby.”

Mother and son were embracing as though all the suffering of the past had disappeared.

Seeing such a scene overflowing with happiness, Lenia found herself thinking once more about her mother and Telsa.

“Snif…”

“Huh? Are you alright?”

“What exactly happened to you on the road? You children are a mess.”

Lenia started crying in the middle of the meal, and the women hurried to comfort her.

While that small commotion was taking place on one side, the blond boy still had his nose buried in his bowl of soup.

“……”

More precisely, he was using the bowl to hide his gaze while staring fixedly at the man sitting in the distance.

With narrowed blue eyes, Emil continued to keep watch over Joseph.

He thought he was being subtle, but he didn’t seem to realize just how intimidating his stare was.

“Emil, what’s wrong? Did that man do something to you?”

Anna looked at the boy, who was still suspicious of the black-haired man, and asked in confusion.

And it was understandable.

At first glance, the man seemed completely harmless, merely drinking a cup of tea in peace.

“……Don’t be frightened. That man is actually…”

That man isn’t alive.

He’s a ghost, and he’s been following us.

Last night I tried to touch him, and my hand went right through his body.

“R-Really?”

Emil explained the identity of the black-haired man with complete seriousness.

Beside him, Hampton and Renvar nodded nonstop as if confirming every single word.

Anna’s expression became strangely awkward.

“I see…”

After taking a closer look, Anna had to admit that she understood why the children were so alarmed.

He was tall and thin, had a pale face, and deep shadows beneath his eyes.

And on top of that, he was surrounded by the whitish fog.

Anyone would find him unsettling.

“Here!”

Tap!

Convinced that they would never get close to him otherwise, Anna threw a small stone at Joseph’s head.

“Ow…!”

Joseph rubbed his head and frowned after being struck.

Then he looked at Anna with such a bewildered expression that the entire ghostly atmosphere surrounding him vanished instantly.

“Huh?!”

“It hit him!”

“……Then he wasn’t a ghost?”

Just moments ago he had looked like a spectral apparition.

But now he simply looked like a normal person.

The sudden transformation caused Emil and the others to begin whispering among themselves.

“If he were a real ghost, shouldn’t it have gone right through him?”

Anna shrugged as she asked the question.

Emil’s eyes widened, and he was left speechless.

“……”

“……”

Both Emil and Joseph were bewildered by the unexpected situation.

Their gazes met.

And Joseph gave him a small smile.

“And even if he were a ghost, what does it matter? Go talk to him.”

“Me? Why?”

“What do you mean, why? Honestly…”

But Emil still looked at him suspiciously.

The situation wasn’t going anywhere.

Anna hit her chest in frustration.

“You want to become a knight, don’t you?”

A long time ago, Anna had known a boy who said he wanted to become a knight.

He had said it so quietly that it sounded like a sentence that had accidentally slipped from his lips.

And from that moment on, she had begun paying attention to him.

“And someone who wants to be a knight is afraid of a mere ghost? Knights of old even fought ghosts.”

What was it that had made that boy special?

Why had she considered the Vlad of those days special?

“So go and try. Do you think staring at him is going to solve anything?”

Back then, Anna didn’t know.

But after all these years, now she could answer.

“Come on, go! This lady will be watching from over here!”

It wasn’t his handsome face or his brilliant golden hair.

What had made Vlad special back then was his willingness to act.

Unlike the men of the back alleys, who only knew how to talk, Vlad truly moved and fought with everything he had.

Watching him, Anna had come to believe that that boy really might escape the back alleys.

She had even fooled herself into thinking that, if she stayed by his side, she too might be able to get out.

“…Alright.”

At Anna’s strangely energetic words, Emil scratched his head as he stood up.

There was something about her that reminded him of a certain person from Soara.

And seeing her holding a stone as if she were ready to throw it at the man if he did anything strange gave him a little courage.

“Yeah, what the hell. I’ll just ask him directly.”

If you don’t act, you can’t solve anything.

And if you don’t solve anything, all you can do is be swept along.

The women who had ultimately ended up shedding black tears watched the blond boy stand up.

“Alright. Then tell me. Why are you following us?”

Emil planted himself in front of Joseph, who was still drinking tea.

He was still immature, but there was a clear determination in him.

The Knight of the Black Moon, appreciating that attitude, straightened his posture and opened his mouth.

“…You must be very confused by all of this.”

There is no point in trying to talk to someone who is not prepared to listen.

Joseph knew that perfectly well.

That was why he smiled when he saw that Emil was still trying to start a conversation.

“I wanted to explain everything to you calmly. So that you wouldn’t be frightened.”

Now that he was listening carefully, the man’s voice was deep and calm.

It wasn’t particularly loud or authoritative.

But it had something that compelled people to pay attention.

“However, we no longer have time.”

Rumble—! Rumble—! Rumble—!

“Aaah!”

“What’s that?!”

The moment he finished speaking, the ground began to shake violently.

A terrifying vibration.

A vibration that made the hair stand on end.

Thump! Thump!

“…A moment ago it passed through Varna.”

The women hurried to embrace their babies as the vibration seemed to resonate all the way into their souls.

But the little ones, unable even to open their eyes beneath the pressure of that approaching draconic world, could do nothing but cry inconsolably.

“And now it’s heading toward Soara.”

“……!”

At the mention of Soara, Emil’s eyes flew open.

His father’s city.

The city where the people he loved were.

And now the most resilient dragon in the world was advancing toward it.

“But fortunately, we are where we are supposed to be.”

While the women and children screamed in terror, Emil remained motionless.

The ground continued shaking without pause.

Yet even amid that chaos, his gaze remained steady.

Because the man standing before him was facing it with the same calmness he himself possessed.

***

“Now… it’s ready.”

Somewhere in the prairie covered by dense fog.

A harsh voice, like metal scraping against metal, echoed through the mist.

It was the man wrapped in an old robe with his hood pulled deeply over his face.

The leader of the group beside him frowned without trying to hide his disgust.

“This is getting to be too much.”

He covered his mouth with a handkerchief, as though he didn’t even want to breathe near it.

And he had good reason.

Because in front of the hooded man was a rotting corpse.

“…Normally I don’t care as long as I’m getting paid, but this is too much even for me.”

It was a corpse in such a miserable condition that even the assassin leader was complaining.

The shriveled skin and white hair revealed the dead man’s advanced age.

Yet despite that, he had fought such a fierce battle that scarcely any of his limbs remained intact.

“What? Was he some kind of sworn enemy or something? Why did you leave him in such a state?”

But of that entire horrific scene, the most striking thing was a sword.

A sword that pierced the corpse’s abdomen.

It had been driven through from the back until it sank into the ground.

As if it were a giant nail meant to pin the body down so it could never rest.

“And what’s that?”

Fog, corpses, and strange magic circles.

The leader finally fixed his eyes on the object the hooded man was holding.

It was the only thing shining in that macabre place.

And it was shaped like a coin.

“…You’re wondering what this is?”

A single shining coin held in a hand that looked as though it belonged to a corpse.

It was silver in color.

The assassin leader couldn’t help staring at it.

But that reaction seemed to amuse the hooded man.

“After all… humans are always most interested in the things they can never possess…”

An unpleasant laugh escaped his lips.

Then he began muttering something.

At the same time, a sinister red light began gathering over the silver coin.

The same light also began flowing from the magic circles surrounding the corpse.

“This… is something people like you and me can never have…”

Tap.

The man dropped the coin in front of the corpse.

“So… perhaps that is precisely the kind of thing I most wish to destroy…”

The coin began to tremble.

Kraaaaaaah—!

Along with the vibration of the coin, a draconic roar echoed from the depths below.

It was the roar of the most resilient dragon.

The same roar that had come from Sturma.

Every time that red light flashed, the assassin leader had the feeling that the sound coming from beneath the earth was drawing closer and closer.