A couple of years went by, and the young Vlad had grown close to everyone in the village. He was regularly helping the people and guiding them and making sure that the region of Wallach prospered. Everyone in the region of Wallach knew their gregarious lord.

He took care of his castle and also cut the long red rose vines that were outside his castle. He hanged around the commoners and Sorina all his days and nights. He welcomed the people of the village and region to visit him in his castle. He even gave his precious book collection for the village library that was built by him. He also didn't neglect his duties as a count of the region and lead it to prosper.

Not long later the lord decided to ask Sorina's hand in marriage. She accepted without hesitation. The word spread around the kingdom that the count of Wallach decided to marry a peasant girl. He was dubbed the mad count by many. On one occasion a noble was supposed to visit count Hunyadi only for him to turn around seeing the count toil in the fields.

Everyone in the region of Wallach was still very proud of him. The wedding was supposed to be a big event and everyone in the village was excited about it, but it was not meant to be.

A war had broken out between the Jacob kingdom and the nation of Brahm. The lord thought this war was stupid and thought that the king was an idiot for declaring it. He still answered the call. Many people in the village were conscripted to the war. Even women volunteered to go. They would work as nurses for the wounded. Sorina also volunteered to help the wounded soldiers.

~~

The war was bloody. Both armies refused to fight a decisive battle, but instead fought a futile war of attrition. Both sacking the countryside of the other. The young lord saw the monster that was war. He saw soldiers burning and pillaging villages and defiling the women. He kept his own soldiers in line, but many other nobles decided to let their men have the spoils of war. The nobles said ", It is necessary to feed the beast," and by the beast, they meant the army.

The armies of the two nations decided to meet after a year of pointless bloodshed of each other's people. The kingdom of Jacob had thirty-five thousand men while the nation of Brahm had thirty thousand. The battle was a bloodbath. Uncoordinated, unorganized, and unruly slugfest. Both sides suffered immense casualties.

After the battle was over both sides claimed victory. In the young lord's eyes, there was no victor. Only losers. He thought he had almost gone mad in the battle. When they were returning to the camp, they saw smoke coming from the camp.

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The young lord rushed into the camp. The nation of Brahm was able to sneak behind their army with their light cavalry and attack the camp of the kingdom of Jacob's army. Dead civilians littered the ground. All the wounded had been slaughtered. All the supplies had also been burnt to cause attrition.

The young lord was trying to find Sorina. A large pile of corpses was piled up at the center of the camp. The young lord started in tears and desperation to dig through the pile of corpses. Many Wallachians also joined in fearing they would find their own wives, or daughters in the pile. He then fell on his knees. He saw the cold body of Sorina deep in the pile.

Globally the war was seen to have ended as a draw. Neither side had won and even the borders stayed the same. The nobles and royals still declared the war a victory and praised themselves. It was considered prestigious and honorable to fight in a war, but in the young lord's opinion, there was nothing honorable or prestigious about that.

The young lord returned to Wallach with the body of Sorina. Many other people of the village had died in the war. The village decided to hold a large funeral for all the ones who had died. They placed the bodies in the village center with dry hay underneath. Sorina was in the center of them all having the tallest stack of hey underneath it. They then lit the hays on fire and gave them all a proper send-off.

All the village people were in tears. Many had lost loved ones. Even the young lord was in the crowd mourning among his people.

Days had gone by and the young lord had secluded himself in the castle. He had reverted to the secluded person he was when he was a kid. He didn't come out of the castle at all, and the vines started to grow back on the sides of the castle.

The villagers grew very worried about the lord. They knew very well how close Sorina and the young count were. One by one they came knocking on the door. Bringing food. Asked how he was. Asking him to join in the fields or even have a drink or two. Every time the young lord refused them.

Days turned into weeks and the count still refused to come out of the castle, but the villagers were persisted in cheering him up. He looked outside the window hearing a few villagers asking them to join for the harvest festival.

He then caught a glimpse of Sorina at the same window he had seen her for the first time. Those heart felled words sounded just like Sorina when she was just a child and climbed to the window years ago.

The young lord decided to walk to the village. The festival was in full swing, but everyone still felt a bit sad for all the people who had died in the war. They then saw the young lord walking slowly toward the festival. His hair had grown large and his eyes looked tired. He had slimmed to a sickly person's size from his original muscular body.

He looked around. The people didn't say a word. One small little girl came to give the man a glass of Wallach-style wine. The same wine he had tasted during his first time in the festival. Others started to get also closer to the gloomy lord. They started to try and cheer him up. Asking questions and trying to spark a conversation. The young lord fell to his knees.

"Thank you. Thank you all," he cried realizing how the people treated him.

From then on, the lord started to be brighter. He hung around the villagers and helped with their day-to-day works. He also ruled the Wallach region with wisdom and refused all summons by the royals and nobles from then on. He still decided to let the rose vines stay beside his castle. As a memory of Sorina who had climbed through them to meet him such a long time ago. Seeing it as a bridge between himself and the village.