Chapter 111. Two Suns Rising in the South (3)
TAP, TAP, TAP
A middle-aged man was tapping on the window sill with his fingers.
The heavy silence starting from his fingertips spread widely throughout the reception room, but no one there dared to break it.
However.
“How about granting Baron Blanc the title of Count?”
Everyone in the reception room turned their heads at the voice that suddenly rang out.
“What do you mean by that, Count Berger?”
King Frederick looked at Berger with an expression where curiosity and displeasure coexisted.
“If you are worried about Count Lacie gathering power through the baseless alliance called the Southern Union.”
Berger, blessed by God, did not waver at King Frederick’s displeased attitude and boldly set forth his argument.
“It is also true that it is difficult for the distant royal family and the meritorious nobles to control Count Lacie. So, how about splitting his power, even a little, through Baron Blanc?”
Understanding Berger’s words, King Frederick wore a meaningful expression as he questioned Berger back.
“I am already aware that Baron Blanc, whom you are speaking of, is your son-in-law.”
King Frederick’s eyes narrowed.
“I cannot be certain that the remarks the Count is making are without any personal interest.”
King Frederick doubted Berger’s underlying motives.
King Frederick’s words were reasonable, but Berger was not shaken by them.
“Currently, among the lords of the south, the only one who is closest to the royal family and possesses the color of the center is Baron Blanc. Furthermore, he is a man supported by the Goddess Order and the Torch Knights, and a talent who proved his worth in this Battle of Norington.”
Berger raised his reddish-brown eyes to meet King Frederick’s.
“Leaving aside the fact that he is my son-in-law, has he not already established enough merit to receive the title of Count?”
As soon as Count Berger finished speaking, King Frederick’s vassals began to voice their opinions.
“If we give Baron Blanc any more power than this, he might grow uncontrollably large in the future.”
“It is true that right now, Baron Blanc is the only lord who can check the south.”
“He is an honorable knight and a lord. The achievements he has built up alone are already more than enough to receive a countship.”
Amidst the vassals chattering incessantly, only King Frederick and Berger kept their mouths shut.
The two rulers were speaking with their eyes.
Berger and King Frederick shared a conversation deeper and more extensive than the words heard by ears.
“Everyone, be quiet.”
When King Frederick struck the window sill hard, the reception room became quiet in an instant.
“I have decided.”
King Frederick turned from the window, sat in his chair, and looked at Berger.
“As you wish, I will raise two suns in the south. Count Berger.”
King Frederick looked at Berger with a faint, enigmatic smile.
“Since two suns cannot rise under the same sky, one will surely fall sooner or later.”
His voice echoing in the reception room was cold.
“I hope Count Berger has not thrown his young son-in-law into a snake’s maw because of his own greed.”
King Frederick, who was sharp regarding his own safety and profit, had long since grasped Count Berger’s intentions.
However, Berger answered the King with unwavering eyes.
“Baron Blanc has never once disappointed me.”
Neudorf’s Golden Balance was tilting.
“He will not bring disappointment to Your Majesty either.”
People looking at different thoughts and different directions.
However, their gazes were all directed toward a single lord in the south.
Winter was approaching.
***
“The castle gate is open, Baron.”
Rakshar used his superior vision to confirm that Langketa’s gate was open.
“It could be a trap.”
Hansen wanted to prepare for any eventuality, but.
“I do not sense the presence of soldiers.”
Simon, who had opened his Mind’s Eye, confirmed there were no ambushed troops.
“Hmm…….”
A faint puff of breath spread from Blanc’s mouth as he let out a long sigh.
“Take the lead, Simon, Barzio.”
Blanc decided to have the soldiers enter, putting Simon and Barzio at the front.
It was a castle that gave off a desolate feeling.
“It looks like it was looted.”
Household goods were scattered messily everywhere, and windows were broken.
There were even dark red bloodstains scattered here and there.
Not only the items inside the castle, but also the stables and warehouses outside had few things left intact.
Vicious Castle had such an atmosphere because Blanc’s soldiers had burned and looted it, but Langketa Castle was a place that hadn’t particularly been attacked.
“So this is the end of a noble stripped of authority.”
The Langketa family, stripped of all rights by the Goddess Order.
It was clear that the territory’s people had poured out their accumulated anger toward the old rulers who no longer had the qualification to stand above them.
“Perhaps they had to do this.”
As Hansen said, the looting committed in Langketa Castle might have been an action to show that the link between the territory’s people and Langketa had been severed.
Since they wouldn’t want to draw the Goddess Order’s anger upon themselves.
“We approach slowly.”
At the instruction of Blanc, the Vanguard of the Holy War and final commander of Langketa’s fall, the soldiers began to move in perfect order.
They were knights and soldiers conscripted from southern lords, but Blanc had already completely seized control of them during the march.
“……There is no one.”
As the soldiers slowly took control of Langketa Castle, Blanc could grasp that there was no one in this castle.
In the place where everything had been swept away by looting, the retainers, servants, and even the livestock they were raising had all disappeared.
“Baron.”
Simon, who was leading the group at the front, looked for Blanc in front of a huge door.
“There is a person inside.”
It was the hall, the deepest part and heart of the castle.
“How many?”
“One person.”
When Blanc gave a signal to the knights upon hearing Simon’s report, the huge door soon began to open with a creaking sound.
The knights escorting Blanc drew their swords and guarded the surroundings, but.
Even forcing their effort into vain, there was nothing threatening Blanc.
In the darkness without a single point of light.
There was only a man sitting on a chair, coughing dryly.
Blanc’s gaze reached someone sitting at the highest place in the hall.
“Who are you?”
The man who opened his mouth to answer Blanc’s question could not reply immediately and made dry coughing sounds.
“Did the Baron not ask who you are!”
When Simon raised his sword and pressed for an answer in a strong tone, the man sitting in the chair answered with difficulty.
“……I am…… nobody.”
Finally, the person sitting in the chair became visible to the knights whose eyes had adjusted to the darkness.
It was a scrawny old man.
An old man with liver spots blooming on his skin, holding a cane with faintly trembling fingertips.
Whoever looked at him could see he was an old man reaching the end of his life, guarding this vast castle alone.
“Where in the world is there a person born without a name?”
At Simon’s question, the old man laughed feebly and answered.
“I too had a name given when I was born and a bloodline I could boast of, but now I have lost all of that.”
Blanc approached the old man.
While he reached the place where only the head of Langketa could sit, there was no one to stop him.
“Are you the former Baron Langketa?”
The old man’s eyes reddened as he looked at the Black Wolf who had killed his son and brought ruin to his family.
“There was a time when I was.”
The old man spat out remorse and regret along with a dry cough.
“Congratulations, Baron Blanc.”
The old man’s cracked voice filled the empty hall.
“You were able to rise even from the ashes, but now my family has been erased from history forever, so isn't this truly the perfect revenge?”
The Langketa family, excommunicated by the Goddess Order.
Since they had been erased from the registries of nobles in the Order and the Royal Family, their descendants would never be able to find the surname Langketa for the rest of their lives.
The Langketa family, stripped even of the qualification to hang a white flag meaning surrender.
“This is all because we fell for Prince Aleid’s temptation…… I should have stopped him from the moment he brought dark and gloomy things, saying he would open a new world.”
Blanc heard a remark he could not overlook amidst the old man’s rambling.
“Dark and gloomy things?”
The old man’s powerless eyes, clouded with cataracts, glared resentfully at Blanc.
“How did you kill my son? Did you torture him? Did you send him off painfully?”
The old man seemed to be trying to find his son’s death within Blanc’s blue eyes.
“Baron Langketa was a man who kept the honor of the defeated.”
Unlike Baron Vicious who went mad and Baron Kamora who ran away, Baron Langketa had accepted defeat obediently and handed over information about the Void Tree to Blanc.
“I granted a peaceful death to the loser who kept his honor.”
“Ohh…….”
The pitiful old man let out a sigh of relief at the fact that his son had met a peaceful death.
“Come closer…….”
He called Blanc with a slightly trembling hand.
Then he told the story of the other side that one could not know without standing on Prince Aleid’s side.
Blanc recalled the flow of his past life while listening to his story.
His eyes flashed.
“What is your name?”
Hearing the old man’s words, Blanc stood up from his seat and asked.
“Langketa…… Dorelli Langketa…….”
Blanc spoke as he drew his sword.
“Dorelli Langketa.”
The Vanguard of the Holy War and Seeker of the Blue Star spoke.
“I permit you to carry your name on the way to the Goddess.”
SLICE.
Aselheit’s sword scattered a green afterimage and sliced the pitiful old man’s neck.
The hand of the old man who had lost everything trembled no more.
The last Langketa stained the chair where only the family head could sit with red.
Now, there would be no one who could sit in that spot.
“Raise the flag of Cadmus.”
The flag of the Black Wolf rose over Langketa’s castle, where even a white flag could not be raised.
“We go to Kamora.”
The Holy War was not over yet.
***
Inside a wide but silent tent.
A middle-aged man with graying hair swept neatly back reported to Prince Aleid.
“They say Langketa has fallen. The former head gave up resisting and sent out all soldiers and retainers.”
Even though he heard the news that the territory of a noble he had employed had been taken over, Prince Aleid showed no particular agitation.
“Are our knights ready?”
He was simply preparing to move forward.
“It will be different from the time of Norington.”
Aleid sent a sharp gaze while looking at the confident middle-aged man.
“There must be no mistakes this time. Ensadu.”
“Understood.”
Hearing Aleid’s command, the middle-aged man slipped into the shadows created by the candlelight and disappeared without a trace.
“Nasgoer.”
“Yes, my Prince.”
Aleid called his faithful retainer, Nasgoer.
“I must pause the Black Wolf’s momentum for a moment.”
Aleid handed a letter to Nasgoer and said.
“Strike the Kamora family’s territory before him.”
Aleid did not want to give kindling to the black-burning wolf.
He intended to block Blanc’s advance by taking out the firewood to be burned in advance.
“Understood, my Prince.”
As even Nasgoer left, a cold chill hung in Aleid’s tent.
The tent was full of lit candles, but Aleid could not feel warmth from them.
He rejected it.
Instead of choosing warmth and comfort, Aleid drove himself out to the land where cold winds blew.
“I cannot fail.”
Aleid took a brooch from his bosom and opened it.
Inside was a portrait of a woman with crimson hair like Aleid’s.
The woman in the picture was smiling brightly.
“Gartaria…… Goddess Order…….”
However, Aleid’s crimson eyes looking at the woman were burning like candlelight.
“I will have revenge.”
The brooch closed within Aleid’s tightly clenched grip.
His lonely monologue that no one would hear echoed inside the tent.