Chapter 114. Count Cadmus (3)
Blanc sat leaning his back against a tree, looking up at the night sky where stars seemed about to pour down.
White snow was spread around him like a cushion, but no coldness was felt in the breath he exhaled.
Blanc smiled and stroked the young phoenix that was only poking its head out from his bosom.
“Are you alright, Count?”
“I am still a Baron. Simon.”
Blanc appointed Simon as the temporary commander to spare his old Knight Commander and was going up to Baltimere cutting through the cold winter road.
“If we camp out just today, it is the King’s Path from the next day.”
The King’s Path, a road no different from the bloodline of the Kingdom of Felix.
It was a road Blanc had a deep connection with.
That road, which Wilhelm I, the founding king of the Kingdom of Felix, was said to have used for conquest, was a road of glory and also a road meaning pioneer spirit and challenge.
And now.
Among those walking the King’s Path, the person most suited for this road was Blanc Cadmus.
“The stars are bright. Not a single cloud.”
“……It is the same sky as the night sky in my memory.”
It might be a rude remark to Simon who couldn't see, but Blanc and Simon were already in a relationship transcending such things.
It was a relationship of lord and vassal, but what they had built up between them wasn't simply loyalty.
Friendship communicating as man to man and knight to knight had been built up.
“Every time I walked this road, there were big changes in my life.”
From the time the boy who came up through the ashes drew a dagger in front of Baltimere’s gate.
The King’s Path was watching Blanc.
And it remembered the legends and achievements Blanc created and let them spread throughout the kingdom through itself.
“Do not set up a night watch today. I will be watching since sleep does not come.”
Blanc took out the brandy he brought, pulled out the cork with his teeth, and drank from the bottle.
From his overly natural appearance, he smelled of a mercenary who had experienced all sorts of hardships rather than a young man not even twenty yet, but fortunately, Simon was a person who couldn't see that appearance.
Just for today, Blanc wanted to spend the night as Blanc Scar, not Blanc Cadmus.
The warmth of the hot liquor and the warm energy of the phoenix in his bosom met inside Blanc’s chest.
“……Please give me a sip too.”
Simon reached out his hand toward where the brandy bottle was with unusual accuracy with his unseeing eyes.
“What a cheeky subordinate.”
Blanc smiled and handed the bottle to Simon.
Two knights tilted the liquor bottle under the cold winter night.
The young phoenix avoiding the cold in Blanc’s bosom squirmed inside and poked its neck out.
A divine beast symbolizing immortality, but in the past life, its connection with humans didn't reach, so eventually it couldn't shine red on the darkening world.
However, this time, by Ulrich’s guidance, it was inside Blanc’s chest.
Just as the giant phoenix that said it would always watch Blanc from the Iron Bank’s vault had said, the young phoenix of this life was looking at Blanc with jet-black eyes.
One Regressor looked up at the night sky, one blind man recalled the night sky in his memory replacing his unseeing eyes.
The pink young bird raised its head and looked at Blanc, but what they were looking at was the same.
“It looks like the stars will pour down.”
“Indeed.”
All of them were looking at the stars in the night sky.
***
People are not good.
People all want to become something special, but not everyone could reach that position.
And the moment they realize that, unfortunately, it was human nature not to look back on their lack of ability, passion, or effort, but simply to try to grab someone shining brightly in the distance and drag them down to where they are.
And Edwin, the old knight, knew that well.
That the numerous nobles and knights gathered here right now were wearing smiling expressions as masks while holding sharp daggers upright inside.
Blanc Cadmus, an honorable knight and a baron in name only, would become the twelfth count of the Kingdom of Felix as of today.
Until now, Blanc had been protected by Tolome and Neudorf, but from the moment he becomes a count, he would have to stand up on his own and endure the cleverly hidden malice.
“What are you thinking about?”
Vitelli, standing next to Edwin, spoke to him seeing that the old knight’s expression was unusual.
“……I am just worried.”
Now there wasn't much time left for the old knight.
Time to draw his sword himself and cut down the pack of jackals rushing toward his disciple.
They say time flows fairly for everyone, but in reality, it wasn't so.
Time was harsher and fiercer to the old.
‘If only we had met a little earlier.’
Edwin was regretting not meeting Blanc, his disciple who now had to stand as a count of a kingdom on his own, a little earlier.
If so, he could have given a little more and protected a little more.
“You have become weak.”
Vitelli saw through such inner thoughts of Edwin.
Indeed, it was an insight worthy of becoming the head of the Tolome family following Bartomyu in the past life.
“I am rather looking forward to it, though.”
Vitelli smiled and looked around at the nobles.
Then he approached Edwin closely and whispered in his ear.
“Thinking that the wolf we raised will grow while chewing up those things, I am truly looking forward to it.”
Vitelli, who always hid his inner thoughts, exceptionally revealed his own thoughts just for today.
He was also excited.
About the appearance of the Black Wolf who would open a new era with him.
“……I forgot for a moment the meaning the blood of Tolome holds.”
The Tolome family, colder and crueler than any noble here, and thus proudly responsible for one axis of power in the Kingdom of Felix.
“Baron Blanc Cadmus, entering!”
Blanc was also one who inherited their cold blue blood.
With the chamberlain’s words, the elaborately decorated red door opened.
A black-haired man walking out from within.
The pack of jackals that had been slandering and envying him until now held their breath without realizing it upon seeing the man.
Just as one cannot claim their territory in front of a lion, they felt a similar intense aura from the Black Wolf walking out now.
The people inside the hall all ended up shutting their mouths at the strange momentum emitting from Blanc.
Watching that silence, Edwin recalled once again what blood Blanc inherited and smiled.
Then he filled his two eyes with every step the black-haired man took.
The boy who crawled up the King’s Path covered in black ash was now proudly stepping on the red carpet laid toward the King.
Blanc had the qualification to step on that carpet.
Because Blanc, who broke through numerous adversities and hardships, was no longer a baron in name only.
The current him was a veteran commander who defeated a force reaching four thousand with only a thousand soldiers.
The Vanguard of the Holy War who upheld the noble will of the Goddesses.
A strong lord who put a total of four territories under his feet.
“Baron Blanc Cadmus. Welcome.”
He was a person qualified to receive the King’s call.
Blanc going up toward the highest place following King Frederick’s hand gesture.
A ray of sunlight fell onto his shoulder.
King Frederick looked at Blanc climbing the stairs with a smile on his face, but.
His face stiffened gradually at his presence growing bigger every time Blanc took a step up.
‘Is this the gaze a young man not even twenty can possess?’
Blanc’s eyes reflected in the backlight within the sunlight were too deep and dark for a young man merely under twenty to have.
The beast that climbed against the sunlight like that and stood before the King.
It seemed as if blood from biting three territories was still on his mouth.
‘Is my judgment to give the countship to this man right now correct?’
King Frederick, meeting Blanc’s eyes for the first time, wasn't sure if making Blanc a count to block Count Lacie was the right choice.
No, he was regretting it.
The dark pupils starting from blue eyes were deep beyond measure.
At that moment, King Frederick turned his gaze and scanned those present.
Everyone’s gaze was focused on Blanc.
Even though the King who should shine most at the highest place was there, their gazes were clearly looking at the young Baron in front of the King.
Confirming that fact, King Frederick felt a chill rising from deep within his chest, but.
“Blanc Cadmus. I have come to this place receiving Your Majesty’s command.”
However, granting the countship to the man in front of his eyes was something he had decided.
“……My loyal vassal. Blanc Cadmus.”
The giant wheel had already started rolling and was reaching Blanc.
“To you who raised the flag of the Kingdom of Felix high, found what was lost, and went beyond that to pioneer new territory, the title of Baron is too small a vessel.”
King Frederick could only recite what he had prepared according to the flow.
“I intend to provide a new vessel for you, so the name of that vessel is the Countship of the Kingdom of Felix.”
King Frederick grasped the prepared baton and handed it to Blanc.
“Become the sword and shield of the Kingdom of Felix and protect this country in the future as well.”
Blanc accepted it carefully with two hands.
The black baton granted by the King was cold, but it wrapped perfectly into Blanc’s hand.
“Everyone, applaud! The new Count of the Kingdom of Felix! Count Blanc Cadmus!”
With King Frederick’s declaration, people sent applause for Blanc who became a new Count, but it didn't reach Blanc’s ears.
In his eyes, only the red carpet laid below him was seen.
And only his teacher looking at him with red, bloodshot eyes was seen.
“……Thank you.”
Bartomyu laid the stairs going up to Baron, but the stairs going up to Count were laid by Blanc himself.
He was a person qualified to walk more proudly than anyone else here.
‘Walk proudly. Count Blanc.’
Blanc, who was Baron Cadmus when he came up here, but would be Count Cadmus when he goes down.
As per Edwin’s wish, Blanc slowly walked out the path placed before him proudly.
Blanc Cadmus, who grasped his mother’s spirit tablet and cut through the darkness using the stars in the night sky as a map.
His first step was wretched, but everyone was holding their breath watching the steps he walked now.
“I shall protect as per Your Majesty’s will.”
The Regressor who returned to protect took one step forward today.
Count of the Kingdom of Felix.
Blanc Cadmus.
He returned to do so.