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Chapter 34.1: Before Our Spring (4)
Silence descends.
Except for the dead bodies of 〈Ross de Kaerot〉, only Count Lamaring opened his mouth.
“Sir Victor… I am sorry. I was foolish. I did not recognize your loyalty.”
“Your Grace, Count. Shut your mouth.”
The Count’s face stiffens awkwardly.
At the same time, it was a statement that made Cain smile.
Cain pointed at the awkwardly standing Count and asked Victor.
“Didn’t you come here to be loyal to your lord? Your mouth is too foul for that.”
“I was loyal. In the past.”
“……”
“He abandoned me.”
Victor’s eyes turned towards the knights of the Marquis of Ross, who lay sprawled on the ground as corpses.
His slightly twisted and stubborn lips opened a little more and continued.
“So I will treat you just that much.”
Cain also glanced at the corpses.
Then he looked back and forth between Victor and Count Lamaring.
A common conflict between a strong, loyal, and stubborn knight and the noble who sees him as a thorn in his side.
Moreover, since the Count followed the Marquis of Ross so closely, their relationship must have been even more strained.
‘Just because it’s common doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.’
The situation is roughly clear.
The elderly knight treated the Count with loyalty, but the Count must have only treated him as a tool.
Then, when the knights of Marquis Ross, who had greater utility, appeared, he got rid of Victor away, who was an eyesore.
Cain clicked his tongue.
The level of Victor standing before him now was an Expert Upper, which was rare in the Airian Kingdom.
However, as he grew old and passed the peak of his physical condition, he wouldn’t be as strong as he was when he was young, and he wouldn’t have much actual combat experience because of Lamaring Count’s personality.
With a heart full of regret for a warrior, Cain opened his mouth.
“Loyalty is unbreakable even in the face of any inferno, but the Count didn’t know that.”
The young invader, whom he met for the first time today, understands the knight’s heart better than the lord he served for his youth.
Victor couldn’t help but smile bitterly at those words. The smile somewhat resembled the smile Cain was wearing.
“Then if it’s not loyalty, why did you come?”
“I happened to see real knights passing by. I knew as soon as I saw them. They were coming to invade Count Lamaring’s castle.”
Swoosh━.
As soon as Cain finished his words, he raised his black Agweska and pointed it at Victor’s neck.
An aura that seemed to pierce through the helmet in one fell swoop gathered at the tip of the sword.
And the white aura that rises.
“If you hadn’t come, you would have lived.”
Swoosh.
Victor drew his broadsword and gripped it firmly with both hands.
Slightly bending his knees, he lowered his center of gravity and spread his shoulders, showing that he was proficient in close combat.
He also raised a yellow aura and replied.
“I lived as a knight, so I must die as a knight. I don’t want to die to a mob, and since real knights happened to be here, I came.”
“You want to die on the battlefield. You are the only real one in this Count’s territory.”
Cain liked these ‘real’ ones.
The warrior and the knight look at each other.
Even the wind held its breath, swirling around the two who raised their auras.
Numerous magic lamps illuminated them.
The skin of Victor, illuminated by the light, was full of scars, to the point where one couldn’t tell what his original skin was.
A veteran of a hundred battles, as the saying goes.
Cain exhaled deeply.
Unlike when he was cutting like a walk, he took a deep breath and calmed his mind toward Victor, a real knight.
“You’re tough.”
It didn’t matter how strong Victor was or what level he was at.
He just liked the fact that his life and will supported his sword.
Victor replied with a faint smile that bloomed like thin gold when the ice melted.
“Thank you for the compliment. I’m feeling gloomy seeing you.”
Whoaaaa━!
The aura of the two boils as if it’s about to explode.
A tense situation.
Just before Lamaring’s last knight swung his sword.
Thump, thump━.
Footsteps could be heard from afar.
A look of ecstasy appeared on Count Lamaring’s face.
“Hahaha! It’s my victory, you foolish Ethel…… red?”
He thought that reinforcements had come, but the figures that appeared were knights covered in blood.
It was the Ethelred knights.
Cain lowered his aura and lowered his sword, and Victor looked around at them with a blank smile.
First was Abel.
Abel, who was carrying a person on his shoulder, threw him in an empty space and opened his mouth.
“It’s the 1st son, Brediol.”
Brediol was tightly bound and gagged.
It resembled the appearance of a mummy made in the far south.
Not to be outdone, Vanderbilt also carried someone from the other side shortly after.
“I’m a little late. It’s the 2nd son, Tedley.”
Thump━.
He threw Tedley next to Brediol, who was wriggling like a caterpillar on the floor.
The sight of the two successors to the Count’s territory rolling on the sandy ground.
Count Lamaring opened his mouth wide and pointed at Cain.
“You! Isn’t this too much?!”
Cain tilted his head as if he was truly puzzled.
“What’s too much?”
“No matter what, these two are your maternal uncles in private, and in public, they are aristocrats who will succeed the county in the future, so treating them like this…….”
“Ah, I see. Everyone, draw your swords.”
Cain gave a quiet order without letting down his guard against Victor.
Swoosh swoosh swoosh━.
The Ethelred knights, who had come in covered in blood, as well as Abel and Vanderbilt, drew their weapons.
There was a faint murderous aura lingering on their swords because they had killed those who were guarding Brediol and Tedley and came.
Originally, Cain alone was enough.
But from now on, it’s dozens.
An atmosphere was formed where no one present could speak carelessly.
Cain ordered Vanderbilt, who was holding a greatsword.
“Vanderbilt.”