-Shooooo.
The rain continued to pour, unrelenting.
It was as if the world had been tainted with evil and it was my duty to wash it away.
In a world of mist and blurred lines between everything, two n were walking down the street.
Osian and Balud walked in silence down a deserted street in the rain.
With no cars in sight, the streets were deserted, and they had the road to themselves.
“So you have a plan.”
“You make the plans, not .”
“You accepted my request without any plan. It seems like you’re not an ordinary person.”
Balud smirked, then turned to Osian.
“This is your last chance to pretend this request never happened. If you don’t, you’ll definitely die a dog’s death.”
In a way, it sounded like an insult to Osian, but it was also Balud's sincere advice.
The opponent is North Blinders.
They're going to have most of the family, including the other directors, at their ho base.
They're expecting important guests, so security will be tighter than ever, and they'll be on high alert, knowing Balud is alive.
Do you think you can just barge in without a plan or a tactic?
You might as well throw an egg at a castle wall.
“I've been paid.”
“You an the last one? Let's just say it was a parting gift on the way out.”
“You're a surprisingly stoic fellow, for a man who usually pretends to be so aloof, but then, northerners are surprisingly stoic.”
Balud frowned over his glasses.
He was glaring hard, of course, but his rain-soaked face made it seem even harder.
“It's a complint, so don't take it so badly. People call you barbaric, uncivilized, but you are......pure.”
Osian thought of Legor.
How many people in the world could shed a tear for soone else or throw their lives away for one person?
“So might call you stupid, but I don't hate stupid.”
“Is that because you're an idiot too?”
Osian smirked from under his umbrella.
“Of course. In this world, I'm an idiot who still holds a sword, which is why I'm accepting this job.”
Osian stopped walking as tinkling raindrops soaked his shoes.
“So let tell you, it was my will to accept the commission, and I have no intention of giving it up. I've been paid, and I must fulfill it. That's my mindset as a fixer and as a knight.”
“.......”
“So make up your mind, too. Will you give up here, or will you go all the way with ?”
Balud sighed and adjusted his glasses with his fingers.
“In the first place, I was going to go, even if I had to go alone. I have no one to look back to now.”
“That's a good attitude, then, you should go all the way. I, too, will be happy to help you along the way.”
Osian's words were unfamiliar to Balud.
Never before had soone shown such a deep level of trust.
First they fought, then he unintentionally helped him in a dispute with another coworker, then they explored the ruins together, albeit coincidentally.
Yes, it was a casual relationship at best.
But Osian was willing to go out of his way to help him.
After his boss' betrayal, he shouldn't have found it easy to trust anyone, but he did.
“The only problem is, it's just the two of us.”
“It's not just the two of you. Look ahead.”
At Osian's words, Balud could finally see straight ahead.
Beyond, through the rising mist, he could see a group of people approaching.
Walking aimlessly, like ghosts in the rain, they stood before Balud.
“You.......”
Balud's eyes widened.
Standing before him now was his family, the ones who had been driven out.
There were fewer of them than before, and most of them were covered in bloody bandages from the wounds they had suffered in their flight.
But their eyes were as alive as any in the world.
At the sight of Balud, their faces turned pale and they bowed their heads in unison.
“Brother. We've been looking for you.”
“We knew you were still alive.”
Normally, they would have called him Director since Balud hated to use the northern word for brother.
“Please let us co with you.”
“.......”
But Balud didn't point it out, just listened to them and answered.
“You might die if you go, and you still want to go?”
“I know that we'll probably die if we go and that we won't be of much help. But we have to go.”
“And you're going to waste your life like this?”
“It's a life we wouldn't have had otherwise, and it's all thanks to you, Balud, for taking us back and making us human, and even if you don't think so, everyone here thinks of you as family.”
Balud's eyes narrowed at the crude but sincere words.
They would probably never listen to him, no matter what he said.
That's the thing about northerners. You speak but they don't understand.
Savage, crude, selfish, and frustrating, that's what they were but Balud had taken them on himself and led them.
“I will leave those who are left behind.”
At that, the faces of the Balud family instantly lit up.
“Yes!”
A booming voice rang out, and Legor appeared.
He stood in front of Balud with a smirk on his face.
“Legor.......”
“Don't worry, my brother, if you're going away, how can I stay sick and bedridden? Even in this condition, I can still twist the necks of those dirty traitors.”
With that, Legor bowed his head gravely toward Osian.
“Thank you, Mr. Fixer, for listening to my insistence. I will repay you for this favor.”
“That's right, Mr. Fixer, we never forget a favor!”
“As for that fight, let's just let it go, we were weak and got beaten up anyway.”
“Do you want to introduce you to my sister after work?”
“Hey, asshole, who's taking your boar-looking sister!”
They giggled and laughed at each other.
Osian watched the skit and said.
“The important thing is what to do now. Even if we were to invade North Blinders, their defenses would be as strong as iron. It would be impossible to break through with just a little force.”
Everyone's jaws dropped at the realistic point but Osian's next words were enough to stun everyone.
“So, I'll make the first move.”
“What?”
“Really?”
“I'm going to break through by myself.......”
Osian shook his head at the disbelief and worry.
“Don't worry about it. I only said that because I'm fully capable of it.”
“But how are you going to break through? The main gate of the North Blinders Mansion is impenetrable, even with a chariot.”
“A chariot?”
The words were ant to scare, but Osian couldn't help but snort.
“How dare you compare to a re chariot.”
Ossian looked at the Balud family. The hot flas within them were the starlight that they could possess because they were pure, even though they were northerners.
From Legor to his n, their stellar embers gave Osian strength.
It was similar to what had happened with Princess Orlea.
“Let show you. What a knight is.”
Osian opened his hand that wasn't holding the umbrella and a pure white fla rose above him.
***
Isela stared out the window, her expression stoic.
She wore makeup and a beautiful dress, but her expression remained stoic.
The door to the room opened and Islow ca in, supported by his subordinates.
The maids who had been tending to Isela's hair jumped to their feet and made way for him.
“Is everything ready?”
“What did you do with Balud?”
Isela asked without looking back at her father.
“Why do you ask that?”
“Father broke his promise.”
“A promise? I never made a promise in the first place.”
“It was the sa every ti. Pretending not to know, pretending not to hear. That’s how you tried to sell out to another family.”
“Isela, you're too young to know the world. Who do you think we, the North Blinders, owe our existence to? It's all . I founded this organization.”
“Is that why you hate Balud so much, you’re jealous of him for having what you don't?”
Isela's pointed question left Islow speechless for a mont, but he casually brushed it off.
“Whatever it is, Balud is finished. Forget about that barbarian. You'll have to concentrate on welcoming today's guests.”
“You don't think......I will ss it up?”
“I don't think an intelligent child like you would do such a thing.”
Isela balled her fists, but that was all.
Islow looked at his daughter in disbelief, snorted, and left.
Left alone, Isela stared out the window into the rain and muttered to herself.
“Balud.”
She knows he won't co back if she calls him.
Her father, Islow, joined forces with the other Directors to oust Balud.
They couldn't fight him head-on, so they did it the cowardly way.
He sohow manages to escape without dying, but that's as far as it goes.
With his power gone, Balud had lost the strength to rise again.
Isela bit her lip tremulously.
She felt foolish for not realizing this before.
Did she love Balud?
Of course she did, and she still does.
From the mont she first t him, from the mont she looked into his cold eyes behind his glasses she had fallen head over heels for this man.
Balud thinks he fell for Isela first, but he's wrong.
It was Isela who fell in love before anyone else.
She didn't know why, she just liked him, so she kept an eye on him and approached him on purpose to learn more about him.
And the more she learned, the more she liked him.
He is strict, but he is kind and takes care of his subordinates.
He has the persistence to succeed even when everyone around him says no.
Even though he pretends to draw the line, he has an immature side that accepts when others throw tantrums.
“Balud.......”
Isela clutched the hem of her dress.
Now she is sold into a political marriage to a man from another family whose face and na she doesn't even know.
There was not a shred of her will in it.
Just when she thought it was all over Isela's ears caught a strange sound that shouldn't have been there.
-Hee hee hee hee!
It was the sound of a horse neighing.
In the pouring rain, the faint sound of a horse neighing echoes from afar.
Isela rose from her seat and moved closer to the window.
Her gaze traveled beyond the window to the manor's gates, which stood firmly shut in the distance.
*
“It's raining like a ton of bricks.”
“Can't help it, it's this ti of year.”
The mobsters guarding the gate grumbled.
“Hey. Don't make small talk in there. We're hosting VIPs today. We don't want a single rat in here.”
“Ha. Hey, Jimmy. Let's keep it in moderation. What kind of a nutjob would ss with North Blinders in this weather in the first place?”
“Have you forgotten what happened yesterday?”
“I know. I know. Mr. Balud's family, they were all purged.”
“Not all of them. There are so survivors, and they might take advantage of this weather to retaliate.”
“Damn it. Jimmy, think about it. Most of these guys were already disorganized to begin with. What could they do if they ca rushing in? Could they break through this solid front gate?”
To top it all off, there were twice as many guards at the gate now as usual.
They were all heavily ard and had the kind of firepower that would turn an armored vehicle into a rag.
“Not even an ant could get in here, let alone a rat.”
“I know, but that's because they don't make mistakes up there, and we're dealing with VIPs, so we have to be extra sharp.”
“Shit. We're soldiers.”
The words were spoken with a grunt, but they kept their guard up.
Inwardly, they were grimacing.
The Balud family were few in number, but they were deeply loyal and unafraid of battle.
They are the most savage and ferocious of all the North Blinders so they had to keep my guard up, not knowing what they would do here.
Then they heard sothing in the distance.
-Heeeeeee!
“What was that? Didn't you hear sothing?”
“What sound?”
“No, I swear I heard a horse neighing.”
“You didn’t sleep last night? What are you talking about?”
-Hee hee hee!
He didn't mishear.
The mobsters standing guard at the front gate all squinted, peering out into the misty street with their muzzles turned toward the source of the sound.
The cries grew closer and closer, and soon they were joined by a muffled whimper.
A mont later sothing dazzling and brilliant leaped out tearing through the mist left and right.
It was a horse made of starlight and atop the horse was a knight with his pure white cloak fluttering.
A knight on a horse.
While everyone was stunned by the strange sight, the knight charged toward the gates.
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