Chapter 112. Count Cadmus (1)
There was an old man walking while cutting through a white corridor.
His hair, dyed white, clearly showed the passage of time, but his hair sticking up like a lion’s mane and his broad shoulders showed a robustness contrary to the flow of time.
“Count Bartomyu.”
There was a voice urgently calling Bartomyu, who was walking with his escort knights.
“Oh, Lord Carlo.”
The person who had hidden in the corner of the corridor as if worried someone might see and called out Bartomyu was Carlo Maximilian, the Honorary Canon of the Goddess Order.
“I know you are very busy, but for what matter have you called me?”
Bartomyu pushed Carlo away with his attitude, though he welcomed him with words.
However, Carlo did not show any particular sign despite such an attitude from Bartomyu.
He simply looked at Bartomyu with eyes containing very complex emotions.
‘It is a new flow.’
Carlo seemed to see the new flow wrapping around Bartomyu.
A new Seeker of the Blue Star, a new Saintess, a new Honorary Canon.
The times were changing, and the old sun was setting.
“Please do not push us away too much.”
The name of the setting sun was Maximilian.
“I do not quite understand what you are saying…….”
“Setting aside the vague remarks nobles use, I will speak plainly.”
Carlo spoke as if he had made up his mind.
“Even a mouse bites a cat when cornered. Furthermore, we, the Maximilians, are not a shabby family like a mouse.”
Carlo was always confident, but just for now, he looked devoid of composure as if being chased by something.
His eyes were shaking.
“……Are you warning me right now?”
Since Bartomyu enjoyed using direct speech in the first place, he accepted Carlo’s bold proposition, but.
“This is not the tug-of-war for power within the Order that we have done countless times. Please do not distort my words and listen.”
Carlo had not made such a proposal to scratch Bartomyu’s nerves.
“Please leave us a space where we can set foot. Do not push Maximilian off the edge of the cliff.”
The Maximilian family had been a family that produced honorable knights through the Goddess' blessing, but the number of descendants receiving the blessing gradually decreased, and in this generation, not a single Maximilian received the Goddesses’ blessing.
The Goddess' blessing had been cut off.
The Maximilian family with the severed blessing.
Their influence was lowering day by day, and they struggled to stop it, but eventually, a new Honorary Canon named Bartomyu stood in the Goddess Order.
The era of Maximilian was ending.
“I am not pushing you away.”
Bartomyu said while looking at Carlo with profound eyes.
“It is just that the karma Maximilian built up is returning.”
Bartomyu indirectly criticized Maximilian, who had sold the Goddess' name and used the Order’s power to gain profit all this while.
He knew well what kind of plight his grandson and granddaughter would have suffered if he hadn’t come up to Moirai to protect Iselin and Blanc.
That was how fierce and full of malice the attacks from Maximilian against Bartomyu had been.
Bartomyu had blocked them flawlessly with his own body and did his best so they wouldn’t reach the new Saintess and the Seeker of the Blue Star.
“You may think my saying this now is incomprehensible and impudent, but.”
Carlo had bared his teeth at him until a few days ago, but today the atmosphere was quite different.
“Please engrave my words deep in your heart.”
“What words do you mean?”
Carlo spoke to Bartomyu with a pitiful expression, as if sad or exhausted.
“Please do not push Maximilian away and make us make a different decision.”
Like a loser begging for mercy from the winner.
Carlo bowed his head like that.
“……I do not understand.”
Bartomyu did not understand Carlo who suddenly changed his attitude, but he noticed that his words contained sincerity.
“If there is anything I should know, speak without reservation.”
He didn't know what it was, but it made a proud man bow his head.
Bartomyu intuitively realized that something was happening to the Maximilian family, but.
“I cannot say any more than this.”
Carlo bowed to Bartomyu one last time and requested.
“Please do not forget my words.”
With those words, Carlo turned around and cut through the corridor alone.
Bartomyu looked at his back and scrutinized it as if he had missed something, but.
“Let’s go back.”
Carlo’s retreating figure held many things, but it told Bartomyu nothing more.
***
Inside a huge hall.
Blanc was listening quietly and calmly.
However, the Cadmus knights beside him could tell that Blanc was quietly burning his anger.
Toward the man in front of his eyes.
“And so, our Cohen family occupied the Kamora family’s territory first.”
Count Cohen, throwing a sneer at Blanc.
His eyes, which looked closed even though they were open, were looking at Blanc while hiding his true intentions.
“Please understand that it was unavoidable. I could not just watch an impious family excommunicated by the Order stay next to my territory, could I? Baron Blanc.”
It was because Count Cohen, a Count of Gartaria, had made the first move and occupied the Kamora family’s territory.
“……Where is Baron Kamora?”
Blanc asked Count Cohen, thinking of the reason he was here even amidst his cold anger, but.
“I killed him.”
“……Where is the corpse?”
“I burned it and turned it into powder. We could not bury the corpse of an impious person in the ground, could we?”
Hearing the Count’s words, Blanc’s blue eyes deepened.
Although they were using justification as a shield, both Blanc and Count Cohen knew well what drove each other.
Count Cohen in front of him was a noble settled in eastern Gartaria where Prince Aleid had expanded his influence.
Unless it was the Prince’s order, there was no reason to occupy Baron Kamora’s castle first knowing that Blanc was approaching.
However, Count Cohen despicably mentioned the Goddesses and made it his justification.
“I also only upheld the will of the Goddesses. Although I am not the legally appropriate person.”
Answering, Count Cohen’s eyes curved into crescents.
“……Are you saying you, who upholds the Goddess' will, ignored me, the Vanguard of the Holy War, and occupied Kamora’s castle first?”
Despite Blanc’s valid point, Count Cohen smiled and glossed over his words like a sly snake.
“As I said earlier, keeping impious people next to me was so ominous that I did so. My territory’s people were extremely afraid as well.”
At Count Cohen’s words that he acted first fearing harm to his territory, there wasn’t much Blanc could say.
“Do not think that I did this out of greed for the territory. I was planning to turn my soldiers around and return to my territory soon anyway.”
The assassin sent by Aleid was a man who wielded justification as a weapon instead of a dagger dipped in poison.
“I hope you do not blame me too much. Baron Blanc, Vanguard of the Holy War.”
Count Cohen struck first and burned away the justifications Blanc could take.
He hid Baron Kamora and his family, embezzled the Kamora family’s assets, and made Blanc make a wasted trip.
The only thing Blanc could take was an empty territory, so it would take a lot of time to fill these things.
Blanc felt hot energy rising to the top of his throat, but he held onto his reason with superhuman patience.
Because what Count Cohen did was clearly an act crossing the line, but there was a justification that served as the basis for that action.
“I will seek an apology directly from the Order regarding this matter.”
“…….”
Count Cohen was looking at Blanc with a triumphant smile.
As Baron Blanc who pursued honor and valued justification, no matter if he held the flag of the Vanguard of the Holy War, he wouldn't be able to do anything to him right now.
Indeed, as he and Prince Aleid expected, Blanc turned around and was leaving the hall.
“I pray that your way back to the Goddess is peaceful.”
Count Cohen was happy that his intention had hit the mark and sent a farewell of victory, but.
CLACK.
Blanc, whom he thought would go outside, quietly lowered the latch on the hall’s entrance and locked the door.
“Baron Blanc?”
Blanc and his knights standing quietly with their backs turned.
Count Cohen’s knights, feeling something was wrong in an instant, moved slowly and surrounded the Count.
“That is the most petty answer among all the justifications and excuses I have heard so far. Count Cohen.”
Blanc’s gloomy voice drifted through the venue.
“Just admit honestly that Prince Aleid ordered it. Do not bring up innocent territory people.”
As soon as Blanc’s words ended, his knights drew their swords and turned around.
“Damn it.”
“You are looking down on us too much.”
When merely five or so knights blocked the entrance and tried to pressure them, Count Cohen’s knights raised their momentum fiercely and responded.
There were at least ten knights escorting Count Cohen.
Fitting for a title of Count, his knights were men of outstanding skill.
“I do not know if you realize that the action you are taking right now goes beyond rudeness and is a hostile act.”
Count Cohen was briefly surprised by Blanc’s response which exceeded Prince Aleid’s and his own expectations, but he responded calmly and warned.
“Keep in mind that your action right now could become a declaration of war against the Cohen family. Furthermore, an unjustified hostile act could cause an all-out war between Gartaria and the Kingdom of Felix.”
Count Cohen thought the still-young Baron was doing this because he lost his temper for a moment, but.
“I am prepared for that much.”
Blanc was not a man who ruined things out of momentary anger.
“It might be impossible to subdue you with just the justification given by the Goddess Order, but if done well, it seems it could be smoothed over.”
There was a person behind Blanc who could do that.
“Gartaria might be displeased, but isn't it going to be split into three according to the Princes now? The 1st Prince and 2nd Prince might actually like it.”
“Baron Blanc…….”
The back of Count Cohen’s neck went cold.
Things were going wrong.
“Prince Aleid might be able to declare total war on me, but would he turn his eyes from the fight between brothers to try and save you?”
“Strike!”
At Count Cohen’s sharp command, his knights rushed out.
About a dozen knights ran toward Blanc with their swords, but Blanc and his knights drew their swords boldly without being suppressed by that momentum at all.
“What I dislike most of all is.”
A White Thunderbolt flared from Aselheit’s sword which Blanc had drawn.
“That arrogant attitude of trying to move me according to your will.”
At the Regressor’s short and firm command, his knights rushed to tear Count Cohen’s knights apart.
A blind knight occupied the unseen space and confused Count Cohen’s knights.
A gray werewolf bared his vicious fangs.
A knight in black armor swung a greatsword heavier than death.
And an old knight who had killed more knights than the wrinkles carved on his face commanded them.
And behind them, the most dangerous beast with blue eyes was preparing a single strike.
“Pay the price. You arrogant Count.”
A pure white light created by the White Thunderbolt burst out of Kamora’s castle.
***
Inside the hall of Kamora Castle, which reeked of blood.
There was a black-haired man sitting on the largest and highest chair.
“Baron.”
Jerome delivered the letter sent from the Cadmus family to Blanc.
“Baron Blanc…….”
Count Cohen, beaten to a pulp and looking like a mess amidst the piled corpses, called Blanc.
“……Can you handle this? You have now completely made an enemy of Prince Aleid.”
Count Cohen warned Blanc with a resentful expression, but Blanc, who finished reading the letter, answered in a tone peaceful beyond measure.
“To ask if I can handle it after burning my family, corrupting my people, and obstructing the holy mission I must perform.”
Blanc’s head tilted slowly.
“It is you people who will have to handle it.”
Rough breathing sounds emitted by a beast were hidden within Blanc’s voice.
‘I judged wrongly!’
Count Cohen, unable to handle the aura and gaze Blanc emitted, ended up bowing his head.
Count Cohen had judged wrongly.
That Blanc was a man who kept chivalry and walked the righteous path.
But the man named Blanc Cadmus whom he experienced firsthand was a person possessing a ferocious nature rather like a beast.
Count Cohen felt fear not at his nature, but at his attitude of hiding it perfectly.
“Cut off one leg of that arrogant bastard. Send the cut leg to Prince Aleid.”
“Yes, Baron.”
Blanc walked out of the messy place, fluttering the cloak he received from Ulrich.
“Sir Hansen, we must quickly organize the castle and return to Norington.”
“Did something happen?”
Blanc smiled slightly and handed the letter to Hansen.
“We are going to Baltimere where the King is.”
Blanc Cadmus, who fully received Norington and the three barons’ territories.
The young baron who achieved revenge and expanded the borders of the Kingdom of Felix broke through his limits and proved his ability.
From now on, people would have to call him Count Blanc Cadmus.