Snow fluttered in the rain and everyone stared at the sight with bated breath.
The center of the banquet hall was covered in frost. The frost was just white, symbolizing cleanliness and purity.
Balud walked out onto the white stage with a staggering step, clutching a two-handed axe.
Kursha's body was unrecognizable.
His Red Armor, made by Blackstone, had not protected him.
The chill receded, replaced by the pouring rain.
-Hah.
Balud let out the breath he'd been holding. His cold breath dispersed in the rain.
There were many different views on Balud: respect, awe, fear, and jealousy.
Even the family, who had always prided themselves on their knowledge of Balud, were surprised.'Is he really that strong?’
‘He seems stronger than before.’
It wasn't just an illusion. In fact, Balud's strength was stronger than ever before.
The near-death experiences and extreme situations had blossomed his talent.
Although Balud had been somewhat content with himself, that was not the talent he was born with.
As his father had said, he had the qualities of a great warrior but Balud didn't believe him.
He thought his father said it because he was his child and he looked pretty.
Even if he hadn't, he wouldn't have believed it. The words of his father, the barbarian who left his mother to die, felt more like an insult than a compliment.
‘Full of strength.’
It was like hot lava coursing through his veins.
The need to get it out somehow surged through him.
Would it be better if he killed more here? Should he swing his axe more now?
Then Balud's eyes met Isela's.
He looked into her round eyes and felt his blood run cold.
Isela was in tears.
A single tear rolled down her cheek, out of place on her radiant face, and fell to the ground, lost in the rain.
Balud felt his head begin to clear.
Born with nothing, struggling to survive in the cracks of the world, inside the enclosure, where only the cunning and cowardly survived, he fought tooth and nail not to be one of them.
There was only one reason, to become a man who would not be ashamed to stand by her side.
His gaze traveled beyond Isela and saw something else.
It was a timeless vision that took him back to the distant past to his mother, who had whispered her love to him.
His father, who had laughed at him, told him he would be a great warrior.
The family that had warmly embraced him as a baby.
The truth is that he wasn't ashamed of where he came from.
He just wanted to prove that the Northerners of the North are not shameful people.
They are people who love and live just like the others.
Balud raised his axe to the sky.
“Behold, I, Balud, son of Bjorn, have won the battle of discipline!”
Balud shouted, his voice rising, and everyone's attention focused.
Best of all, the way he introduced himself now was in the traditional northern style.
“I am a Northerner, a warrior of the North, and a man of the North Blinders! I am never ashamed of my origins, for that is what I have lived for!”
There was power in Balud's voice.
His family felt a chill run down their spines and a shiver run through them.
In this moment, they felt their presence with certainty.
They were warriors of the North.
They may be barbarians, but that's why they are so pure and untamed by civilization.
His whole body burned with a shiver and his heart pounded louder than thunder as it drowned out all the rain in the world.
“The North Blinders is an organization created and built by Northerners, and no one can ignore its roots! We have come this far because we are united and strong through discipline and tradition!”
Balud cried out, as if pouring out his inner honesty.
As if washing away one's sick and worn-out self, stained by the world's stains, in the rain.
The barbarian who had tried to deny his past was facing the end of his childhood.
“Who denies us?”
Balud's axe pointed at Islow.
“Who excludes us?”
The answer is fixed.
Moved by Balud's words, the mafia followed the direction of the axe and stared at Islow.
Islow looked at the other directors with a hoping gaze but the others, realizing it was an irresistible tide, avoided his gaze.
With Kursha dead, they saw no reason to intervene anymore; it was their loss, and their loss alone.
But there was another reason they refused to help Islow besides the profit-and-loss calculation.
Balud's words were the cry of a man on death's doorstep, struggling to stay alive, but even so, it had a soulful resonance that penetrated deeply.
Yes. Since when did they lose their pride?
You might ask, what kind of pride do they have, but there's a big difference between believing they have it and not having it.
It wasn't even pride.
It's not like it's a hard creed to live by, to look out for your fellow man, or at least to help your fellow man.
But the North Blinders didn't.
Or, more precisely, Islow didn't.
“Islow Bourbork!”
Balud shouted in a loud voice.
“You don't deserve to be the boss of the North Blinders!”
“Deserved? Don't be ridiculous! This is my organization! I built it, I raised it!”
“Are you saying that robbing someone else of something they built is something you built?”
“What the fuck does it matter, you guys came in later and don't know shit! North Blinders is mine! Always has been and always will be!”
Islow made no secret of his desire.
“You say it's for discipline, but you covet the position of boss, don't you think I don't know that you're doing it so you can take my place and have your own organization?”
“.......”
Islow's face contorted and Balud watched him with pity.
A once respectable man was now so ugly and broken.
He may be what he is now, but he wasn't always like that.
He's just a man who took from others to get something in this world, and he's been doing it for so long that he's broken.
Gone are the dreams of finding jewels in the mud.
All that remains is a monster who endlessly doubts and betrays those around him.
“Why do you look at me like that, you arrogant bastards? Do you know who I am? Do you know how I got here? Show me some respect! Don't look at me like that!”
Islow was already in poor physical condition.
Pushed to the brink, he hyperventilated and rambled like someone having a seizure.
Balud tried to finish the job himself, not wanting to see any more ugliness.
But it wasn't Islow, his family, or the other mobsters who stopped him.
“Father.”
Isela Bourbork, his only blood relative.
“It's all over now, so stop it.”
“Isela? What are you talking about?”
“It’s my father’s defeat.”
Islow's face turned pale with shock.
It must be an extraordinary feeling of betrayal when your daughter encourages you to give up.
“Shut up, you were in cahoots from the beginning, weren't you?! Yes, you were! There was nothing real from the beginning! You're in cahoots with Balud, you see eye to eye with him, and now you're going to betray me? Just like your mother, who was only in it for the money!”
A helpless and isolated situation with no one to help must have been a difficult environment for the old Islow to endure, even if it was his own karma.
Isela looked up from her father's rambling and looked back at Balud with sadness in her eyes.
“Balud.”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Will you support me, no matter what I choose to do?”
Perhaps sensing something in her voice, Balud replied with a serious face.
“From the moment I met you, my lady, I have always been on your side.”
“Thank you.”
Isela smiled wryly. She turned to her father, Islow.
She drew the dagger she had concealed beneath the thigh of her dress and stabbed him in the neck.
......!
Everyone's eyes widened at the unexpected sight.
Islow didn't understand for a moment what had happened to him.
“Kuck! Kuck!”
He tried to cover his throat with his hands, but blood trickled down his hands and onto the floor.
He gasped for air and slumped back in his seat.
Isela looked down at him, then wiped the blood from her dagger with the skirt of her dress.
A few drops of red blood splashed down her cheeks as well.
Turning to the silence, Isela spoke.
“In accordance with the organization’s rules, I personally ended my father who violated them. Any objections?”
Objections? They'd consider such things here?
Of course not. Even if he broke the rules, wasn’t he her father?
But even before the question came up, Balud was quicker to react.
“I, Balud, support Lady Isela, as the rules of the organization dictate. And since the boss is dead, with no succession fully established, she is the next boss, according to the rules of the organization.”
Balud dropped to one knee, and as if on cue, his family rushed forward and knelt as well.
“Meet the new boss!”
At the booming voice of the Balud family, the other mafiosi stiffened, but bowed their heads or said yes.
“Meet the new boss.”
“Meet the new boss.”
It wasn't just the regular members of the organization. Even the action leaders and directors all bowed their heads.
Isela looked down at them with a cold gaze.
She desperately suppressed the trembling in her hands.
As much as she tried not to show it, she had just killed a man with her own hands.
It was the first murder she'd ever committed with her own hands…and it was her own father.
But this is Tirna.
A place where brothers kill each other for money, parents sell their children, and children abandon their parents.
Isela decided to pull herself together.
Gone is the foolish girl who knew nothing.
Just as a warrior was born in this rain, another boss was born as well.
“As of this hour, I am allowing Mr. Balud to return to the organization. Anyone with a complaint, please come forward.”
After all this time, there could be no complaints.
When no one spoke, Isela nodded in satisfaction.
“Now, then, let's put an end to this nuisance.”
She strutted over to where Osian was holding Adrian hostage.
Now that the situation was over, Osian removed the moonlight sword from Adrian's neck and stepped aside.
Isela thanked Osian with a glare and turned to face Adrian.
“Adrian Blackstone. We invited you for a good cause, but I’m sorry for causing you such an unpleasant experience.”
“......Well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised.”
Adrian flashed a weak smile.
When you had this many surprises in a row, one tended to resign oneself to them rather than deny them.
Isela spoke up.
“But in the end, this is an internal North Blinders affair, and since you've been swept up in it, I'll make amends later.”
“Then the engagement is off, because I'm here to meet the organization's lady, not to have a private audience with the boss.”
“Yes, but Blackstone and I can have a better relationship in the future, a solid alliance, not this flimsy one.”
Reason returned to Adrian's eyes. His mind quickly calculated the deal that lay ahead.
“That sounds tempting to me, too. I've lost several of my men in unsavory incidents, but.......”
Adrian's gaze flicked to Osian as he spoke.
"…If I think of this as just the tuition fee for life's lessons, it's a cheap price to pay."
“Next time, we'll meet on better terms.”
“We will.”
Adrian let go of her shoulder and flashed her a toothy grin.
“I don't mind continuing our relationship as it was before; at the very least, I find you even more attractive now than I did before.”
“Oh, is that so? I'll take the compliment.”
Isela replied with a wry smile.
“But I'll have to politely decline, I have a job to do.”