Mercenaries and Adventurers

"The village, everything is destroyed."

"Where did everyone go? Orr? Trish? Sadra?"

"Don't cry, don't cry. Please, don't cry, woo woo woo—"

"No bodies, no charred bones, all right, all right. My lord, please bless them, bless the people of the village, let them be free and have land to farm."

"May this never happen again. My Lord, I beseech you, be mighty, I beseech you."

-

The city of Montoka in the southeast of Cavan, early in the morning.

In the depths of the old mottled Saturnalia Church residential area, in a row of red-tiled houses, Priest Lothar Batar woke up from the stone bed sobbing with tears streaming down his face.

Reaching out to touch it, his face was wet, and he cried for a long time in his sleep again.

With no strength in his body, he curled up on the stone bed covered with animal skin cushions for a long time.

The window of the room the size of a human head faced south, and Chu Yang quickly shone sunlight in from this window. A meandering luminous grass at the head of the bed twisted its body, opened its numerous leaves curled up at night according to the agreed time rule, and tried its best to capture every scattered sunlight shining into the house through the stone window.

Priest Batar got up from the bed wearing a sleep robe that was more than a circle too big, picked up the copper kettle from the wooden table in the room and poured himself a glass of clean water.

Silently, he took out a silver spoon to scoop up a small spoonful of the viscous juice in the jar next to him. After a pause, he still put the spoon into the clear water cup and stirred slowly to dissolve it in the water cup.

A scent of flowers and calming woods wafts from the glass.

Facing the beam of early sunlight coming in through the stone window, he sipped the potion that was said to calm the mind.

Although this thing smells very good, it tastes very bitter in the mouth.

Frowning, he drank half of it, but Priest Batar still couldn't drink it, because the bitter feeling always reminded him of the painful moment a few days ago.

Casually pouring the potion in the water glass into the luminous plant flower pot by the bed, Priest Batar pretended that he had already drank it. And that luminous plant feels more energetic.

Putting on a formal priest's robe and buckskin boots, Priest Batar walked out of the small room he was staying in.

This is the city of Montoka, an important city located at the southeastern border of the Western Province.

Only a few kilometers away from the city, there is a neat and tall stone wall built of white stones, which firmly controls the trade roads leading to the southern province. Taking advantage of the main commercial route leading to the southern provinces and the prosperity of the Cavan Territory, Montoka City also covers a large area, with many business travelers coming and going, and there are various large and small chambers of commerce in the city, no less than a hundred.

However, this does not mean that Montoka City is a city that mainly focuses on trade. On the contrary, a large river that flows through the city to the north not only allows the city to have sufficient water sources, but also means that the entire city is built on a On the floodplain of an ancient river.

The wide plains have brought fertile land, and this is naturally a large area of ​​agricultural production under development.

Therefore, the Saturnalia Church in Montoka City is also an important pillar force in the local area that is not inferior to the Church of the God of Animal Husbandry and the Church of the God of Wealth.

Since it is a pillar force, the building scale of the Saturnalia Church in Montorka City is not small.

Not to mention the residential area that can support hundreds of priests to live at the same time, there are five churches, large and small, that pray to God, and they are not the kind of wooden low buildings in the countryside, but are all built of white stone, tall and round with emerald green vines top church.

Priest Batar, who walked out of the house he was renting, kicked his hands together, covered them with his sleeves, and walked slowly towards the church closest to his house.

Along the way, he met many local church priests, they were all in a hurry, and many of them were not about to get up and go out to handle errands, but looked tired after finishing their church affairs.

Many young priests had to get out of bed before dawn, picked up the water jars full of blessings early, followed the senior priests leading the team out of the church, and walked towards the city gates in batches.

The clever ones will put the water pot on the trolley to save effort, and the dull ones will eat and eat with magical magic to maintain their physical strength. Before many farmers in the city go out to work in the fields, they will use blessed clear water to give them to the followers of the **** of agriculture. Spread blessings.

Young priests must know every devout believer in their parish, and give them a blessing of affirmation when the morning sun shines over.

Blessing is not magic, but words have power.

A well-meaning word of blessing can make believers more confident and work hard throughout the day.

At this time, if any believer has troubles and worries, the young priests have to make an appointment with the other party. During the day, usually during the noon break, they will go to the fields to find believers with troubles, and spend time listening to each other's problems. And use your own power to solve troubles for believers.

Most of them are trivial matters, either family conflicts or neighbor quarrels.

Sometimes it's questions about farming, and sometimes it's guilt about the dark places in my heart.

Or appease, or mediate, or answer, or analyze.

For these trivial matters, the young priests need their own mouth to solve these problems. The great divine power bestowed by the **** of Saturn can also solve these problems, but it is not necessary.

Because young priests have limited divine power, they are far from being comparable to middle-aged priests or senior priests in high positions.

They rely more on their status or lip service, no, wisdom and patience to solve the troubles encountered by believers.

But all of this was of no use to the worried priest Lothar Batar.

The problems he faces are far from being solved by relying on his identity and words.

It is impossible for the disbanded soldiers who burned down Changmai Village and were blinded by desire and violence to make them feel guilty and release them back to the villagers.

"Lord, I hope you can give me some real and useful news. On behalf of the villagers of Changmai Village and your believers, I pray to you."

Kneeling in front of the stone statue of Saturn in the cathedral, Priest Lothar-Batar muttered to himself.

The cuffs of his priest's robe were torn apart by the ground because of his constant kneeling and praying recently.

Originally, the beautiful cuff decoration with silver thread, the silver thread on it has become gray, looking as desolate as Priest Batar himself.

The local pastor who was patrolling the church in the morning frowned again when he saw Priest Batar kneeling and praying like this.

"Has the Great Lord sent you any news?"

Priest Batar raised his head and saw that the person speaking to him turned out to be His Excellency the Vice-President of the Saturnalia Church in the local city of Montorka. This person's position in the church was two levels higher than him, but he was a big shot who had to be handled with care.

"Going back to your Excellency, the pastor, I just prayed to the gods for an answer, but I was still asked to go to the tavern in the city and wait for someone to come."

Priest Batar frowned, apparently dissatisfied with the same answer.

"Since the gods have given you the answer, then you go to the tavern in the city and wait for the person you are looking for. The great Lord, His mighty power is endless, how can you question it at will?"

The old vice-principal held a long stick with a wooden knob, and slammed the ground vigorously.

Boom.

Sprouts sprouted from the tumors.

"The way you look, you're overwhelmed by the difficulties you're facing, aren't you?"

A pair of old but not cloudy eyes looked down from high to low on the Batar priest who was kneeling on the ground and raised his head. His eyes were burning and his tone was serious.

Priest Batar's face turned red quickly, and he wanted to argue about something, but due to their identities and status, he could only mutter something in a low voice: "These days, I have prayed countless times, and the answer is the same. The tavern ? Waiting? Who came? People and believers are suffering.”

The old man closed his eyes, and his withered ears did not let go of the slightest sound around him.

"I heard it all. The great Saturn has already arranged for you. What are you doubting? Didn't a legendary hero descend from the sky? Don't say we don't have one, even if there is, the world has billions of people, and it happens all the time Good, bad, vile, honorable, urgent, long-term and all kinds of things."

"How can one or two heroes who can solve all troubles manage it? You are not too young, why are you still like those young trainee shepherds, always expecting others to solve your own problems? ?”

The old man twisted the green shoots that grew spontaneously from the top of the long wooden stick in his hand, and lightly put it into his mouth to hold it.

The buds turned into green light, blending into the tip of the tongue and teeth, making the old priest feel refreshed for a while.

"You are an official shepherd, a priest of the **** of agriculture who can stand on your own, and should be the steady support of others. Because you have the **** of agriculture behind you to support you, but they don't. It's time for you to help."

Priest Lothar-Batar closed his eyes, resisting the old patriarch's great truth: "Don't talk about it, I understand all these truths. Ten days ago, I really thought that it was just relying on myself With my ability, I can protect my village and the people and believers I belong to. Yes!"

He showed pain on his face, and once again thought of the night when the flames were everywhere.

The devout believers who entrusted the children to him, the crying children, and the scorched-earth Changmai Village that they saw after climbing out of the shelter the next day.

"The village is gone. Everything is gone. The villagers were taken away, either sold, or are suffering the atrocities of others at this moment. The fields that have been worked for many years were burned to ashes by a fire. Those are the wheat seedlings in spring! It was planted one by one. The hard work of deep plowing, sweat, and patience. I have sincerely blessed every inch of the field in Changmai Village, but all of this is useless!"

The old man looked at the young priest who was becoming more and more violent, and twirled another sprout from the wood tumor. This time, the old priest handed the sprout to Priest Lothar-Batar.

"Let's eat a little."

Priest Batar didn't answer, turned his head away, and remained silent.

"The gods have made arrangements. You may not understand it, but that's it." The old man swallowed the unwanted buds by himself.

Priest Batar looked up at the vice-principal: "He is so great, but why do you make me wait here? Every day, the people and believers are suffering. I am afraid that if I delay one day, they will suffer more." Without the blessing and guidance at the time of death, where will the soul go after death? The underworld? How many people can reach there completely after death? Most of them can only Turn into a lonely ghost in the world, and slowly dissipate in pain?"

The old priest was silent for a while, apparently knowing that something that caused priest Batar's pain was very likely to happen, or was happening in the process.

"Well, this is the reason you understand when you are promoted to a trainee priest one day. Our Lord is not omnipotent, even if His divine power pervades every part of the world, he is extremely huge and respectable among all gods. But."

The old priest said this and raised his head.

He looked out through the gap in the skylight of the church, just in time to see a round of mysterious celestial bodies sliding across the sky.

It was the divine emblem of a certain natural god, hanging far above the sky, never falling day and night, extremely powerful.

"However, our Lord is not the God of heaven. Just a little. Just a lot."

The old man smiled wryly here: "Oh, let the sun **** go up first. The human **** is the first? But the price is so heavy, how can our lord agree?"

Priest Lothar-Batal apparently didn't understand much of what the old priest said behind him, but he clearly understood that the local vice-principal at the priest level in front of him, an old man over a hundred years old, even recognized their Lord, Opprochen Didinai is not an omnipotent powerful god.

That's right, if everything is omnipotent, there is only one **** in the world.

There are countless gods in the world, which shows that they are not omnipotent.

"Young man, the gods may not be able to do everything. But that's not why you're down here, is it? You say you love your people, but what have you done to save them?"

The old man came back to his senses and changed his expression and tone just now.

"I." Priest Lothar-Batar became anxious: "I handed over the children in the refuge to friends in other dioceses to take care of them. I also prayed, prayed to the Lord, and asked Him to rescue the villagers in Changmai Village. I also The fire in the village was extinguished, and maybe a house or two was saved. I, I also followed the Lord's guidance, through the chaotic western part of the southern province, through the White Rock Pass, and came here."

"That's it. Since you believe, why don't you continue to believe? If our Lord has arranged, then you will go to the taverns in the city every day to wait for the gods to come. Why are you crawling here, Pray repeatedly."

The old man turned around and looked at the stone statue of Saturn several meters behind him: "What are you praying for again? Are you putting pressure on the great Saturn? Or criticizing? Why didn't you immediately arrange an army for you The kidnapped villagers?"

The old pastor turned his head: "To be honest, we have an army. Not to mention the dean, I, the deputy dean, can summon an army of hundreds of believers. But what about the consequences? If we do this without religious wars, the local two What does the viscount think of us? Those nobles will unite with other churches to oppress us and our believers. At that time, tens of thousands of people will die and be displaced."

Priest Lothar-Batar was frightened. He seemed to be able to imagine how the peasants near the city of Montorca would either convert to other gods, or resolutely not change, oppressed and insulted.

He trembled at the thought that all this might have happened because of him.

"God has his own arrangements, go down. Go to various taverns according to the Lord's instructions. Perhaps, in just these two days, the person He arranged will really come. Don't complain, we have The great Saturn is already the best thing, there are some deficiencies, and it is up to us to fill in the missing imperfections."

"You are a good seedling, and you may grow into a big fruit tree in the future, so don't cry when encountering wind and rain, read more and listen to the legends and stories of the saints in the church. You will understand that each of them, No one can do great deeds just by praying to God. While Saturn supports us, we also support him. He is not omnipotent, but with our efforts, every day, he can Walking on the road of near omnipotence."

"Climbing to the sky may not be something that can only be achieved by sacrificing a lot."

After the old patriarch finished speaking, he looked at Priest Lothar Batar with hope.

After thinking about it, the young priest was finally relieved that Saturn was not omnipotent. He also needs to arrange, to prepare.

Priest Lothar-Batar crawled to the ground again, but this time the object was no longer the statue of the God of Saturn, but the old priest and vice-principal.

"I'm leaving?"

The old man nodded: "Where are you going?"

"Go to the tavern and wait for whoever comes."

"Go. The **** of agriculture will bless you, and may you grow up in the spring breeze."

The young priest continued: "Walk in the shade of summer trees."

The old priest continued with a smile: "The autumn is full of fruit."

The young priest walked out of the church door: "Taste the sweetness of winter."

-

At noon, in a rather messy tavern in the trade distribution area inside the west gate of Montoka City.

This tavern is extremely lively, and the young guys from the surrounding chambers of commerce like to talk and drink freely in this cheap and affordable tavern.

The **** emblem of the brewing **** is generously displayed in the center of the tavern in the form of a wool tapestry.

This, on the contrary, reassures all newcomers who come in to drink for the first time.

At least the owner of this tavern, or the bartender, will not mix something worse than horse urine into the water, and then take the opportunity to increase the price and sell it to some drunken drunkards.

It is said that any tavern that dares to hang the emblem of the brewing **** sells at least one or two excellent wines.

Regarding this, Priest Lothar-Batar felt that it might be true.

He sat leaning against the corner of the tavern, wearing a low-key cloak over the robes of a formal priest. Only a glass of rye beer was placed on the half-large semi-circular table against the wall.

The aroma of the wine is strong, and the cloudy liquid looks thicker and thicker than the porridge cooked by the stingy landlord.

Just looking at this wine, many people think that they can eat a meal just by drinking this thing. Priest Batar felt that this was true, he felt his stomach was full after drinking half a cup.

A lot of viscous turbidity settled at the bottom of the wine, which were the rye components that were not removed during the brewing.

The surroundings are in a mess, and everyone's voices are chirping to the young priest's ears, which makes him have to reduce the power of a certain magic spell acting on his ears, otherwise many obscene words will be mixed with the manager of the chamber of commerce to which the guy belongs. Their cursing will always fill his mind.

"It's all useless news. Hey, when will we wait like this?"

The awakening in the morning has almost been worn away by now.

I don't know if it was the mess of all kinds of dirty news around, or the result of him running to three pubs in a row and drinking two and a half cups of ale.

Drowsy, he lay down on the wine table and snored quickly.

-

Heck, Keir and Bloodyaster walked into this nameless tavern talking and laughing.

"Look, I'm right, this is the emblem of the brewing god, and I'll let you taste the great power of the **** right now! Dude, have two glasses of the best ale, and I'm talking about your local fresh brew The finest ale!"

As soon as Bloodfang entered the tavern, he took off his windproof thin cloak, quickly pointed to the wool tapestry **** emblem hanging in the middle of the tavern with Keir, and asked the bartender to bring them the best drinks.

The two looked at the lively and crowded scene around them, and couldn't find a place to sit for a while.

"No way, let's find out where there is space!"

Keir shrugged, and took Blood Fang around the tavern unhurriedly.

The army was stationed in the barracks outside the city. Baron Kendall took Knight Crow to visit the local viscount. Kendall's army would delay here for an extra day, so he took his companions out to the big city.

This Montorka City is several times larger than Kendall City.

And it’s like a combination of Kendall City and Bingxun Pass. Not only is there a large population and a huge city, but also caravans from south to north gather here. Before entering the city, Kiel felt that this place is quite lively.

The two did not enter the city on horseback, but walked all the way from the local barracks outside the city to the west gate of the city.

After paying the entry tax for foreigners, we walked around all the way.

Bloodfang was very familiar with this place, and when he felt thirsty, he brought Kiel to this unnamed tavern to taste the good wine here.

-

In a dark corner, a hand quietly stretched out to Priest Batar, who seemed to be drunk and fell asleep. The target was the dry flat money bag embroidered with patterns on the priest's waist.

It's not that people still don't take the dry money bag. It's best to steal the dry money bag of this kind of drunk~www.readwn.com~ After all, those drunks can't tell how much money was lost in it.

Before the master could get his way, a strong figure blocked the light from the area.

"This, uh, pickpocket? If I want to take someone else's money, I have to at least get the other person's consent, don't I?"

With his hands on his hips, Kiel raised his chin slightly and looked at a thin figure who was standing there in front of him.

The pickpocket who stole was also polite: "I got the other party's consent. He owes me a sum of money. I'm helping him watch. The tavern is too messy and it's easy to lose things."

Bloodtooth laughed out loud, he had seen this kind of pickpocket a lot, and he didn't even have the idea of ​​chatting with him like Kiel. He went straight forward, pushed down the emaciated pickpocket, and then made up for it with a kick that was neither light nor heavy.

Signal the other party to **** off.

The pickpocket looked at the two of them and noticed that both Kiel and Bloodfang were wearing weapons. Although they were both hidden under the cloak held by his left hand, he knew that he had encountered a stubble, so he immediately rolled on the ground smoothly, and then After rolling away, he got up and patted his body, hunched over and walked away like a normal person.

"Keil, there's no need to tell them anything. You saw them stealing. If you want to control them, just drive them away. These pickpockets, what do you say to them, these guys with their own 'pickpocketing culture', I'm going to get excited again, and I insist on talking to you about the things in the two lines of the poem. Ugh, it's sour and smelly."

Keir was also happy, and he shook the sleeping guy: "Hey, wake up, it's not a good idea to fall asleep alone in a tavern!"

Priest Batar woke up after being shaken. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the two people who woke him up.

"Um?"

His eyes widened!