When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

What to do? Surrender?

With two witches in his bed and having annihilated so many church soldiers, and himself now a witch's familiar, who could he surrender to?

That was 2700 Transcendent Knights! Just think of Barnett from before, what was his combat level?

Here, there were 900 top-tier Barnetts, 900 high-tier Barnetts, and 900 Barnetts.

There were even 5000 infantrymen, needless to say, almost all of them were the toughest veteran professionals.

It wasn't that the Leia royal family didn't want to bring all the edicts under their control, but they couldn't afford the military expenses.

The stag room's mounted dog head, eyes wide, silently watched everything before it.

There were seven or eight people present, all high-level figures from the Papal States, but they stood there like clay sculptures and wooden puppets.

Unable to say a word.

After a terrifying silence lasting five minutes, Horn's gloomy voice sounded again.

“You’re not telling us this just to say you’re here to die with us, are you? You must have a way out, stop hiding it.”

Cici smiled, but didn't speak, he just pushed the map in front of Horn and drew a line on it with a charcoal pencil.

“What does this mean?”

“We can't escape to Black Serpent Bay, but we can escape to Fort Jeanne, where Duke Cush Dahner is located. Duke Cush has a special status, and with his protection, Prince Condé won't act recklessly.”

“Why would he protect us?”

“Ahem, Duke Cush is not only a major client of our White Mountain Hermitage and the Roan Party, but also a major financier of Lord Huanno…

You must know, Duke Cush's title comes from the Thousand River Valley people's ancestral land—the Cush River.”

Horn tapped the table with his knuckles and said slowly: “Is Duke Cush willing to take such a big risk to take us in?”

Cici drew a large circle on the map at the location of Thousand River Valley with a charcoal pencil: “Your Grace, what Thousand River Valley is experiencing is both a crisis and an opportunity.

The Norn lords of Ranburg have long coveted this place. What if Duke Cush takes the opportunity to revolt, declares himself a Norn, and joins the Norn Kingdom?”

“Is he really a Norn?” Grampwen asked.

“He could be, or perhaps already is.”

Horn nodded slightly: “I understand.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” As soon as he heard it was related to Dean Huanno, Madelaine's eyes lit up, “Let’s go quickly.”

“No, if we take the normal route to seek refuge, Prince Condé will probably catch up and kill us halfway.” Cici refused.

“The line you drew on the map, is that the route we're going to take?” Horn asked, pointing heavily at the map with his finger.

Hearing this, the surrounding bishops immediately got up, surrounded Horn, and leaned their heads over.

But when they saw the route, they all gasped.

“Mr. Cici, are you serious?” Even Kilvis, the old guy who was usually able to keep his composure, couldn't hold it together as he picked up the map.

The route drawn by Cici required passing through two deadly areas, the Wild Spider Forest and the Black Bone Swamp.

“I know a small path, about five hundred miles long, that someone walked through ten years ago.

But it's probably not possible if only a few of us go on the road, we need a large number of guards.”

An ominous premonition rose in Horn's heart: “How many do we need?”

Cici held up five fingers.

“Fifty?”

“Five hundred.”

“Five hundred? Are you saying five hundred!” Horn stood up from his chair abruptly, “Do you want me to bring all the villagers?”

“Not all the villagers, preferably the young and strong. The danger along the way cannot be overcome by simply piling up numbers. The old, weak, sick, and disabled are more of a burden.

Too few won't work, too many is unnecessary. The last recorded time someone took this road was the fleeing Homer mercenary group, 514 people entered, 114 people left.”

“In other words, you want me to abandon some of the old and weak.”

Facing Horn's gaze, Cici straightened his back and replied frankly: “This is an unavoidable sacrifice.”

“How can you say such a thing?” Madelaine slammed the table and stood up, “Do you know what will happen to those who are abandoned?”

Tens of thousands of rebels, with only a few dozen heads taken, seemed a little unreasonable.

Especially for Prince Condé, the First Knight of Leia, who was famous for his skills, a victory of a few dozen heads was a loss.

“I know, but we have no choice.” Cici turned his head away, looking at the floor tiles, “Perhaps you can come up with another way to lie to them, like a special activity, so at least they’ll be happy before they die.”

“You son of a goat!” Madelaine rushed over, wanting to grab Cici's collar, but was stopped by the people around him.

“Silence!” Horn shouted, banging the table again with the papal scepter.

Everyone's burning gaze focused on Horn.

“Your Grace, what are your thoughts?”

Taking five hundred meat shields on the road to escape, it wasn't that Horn couldn't bring himself to do it.

But there was a key point that couldn't be ignored, and that was that those who were abandoned would inevitably be the fellow countrymen and friends of those meat shields.

You should know that Horn's golden body was appointed by the Son of Messiah, which meant that as long as he followed him, he would not fail.

These villagers have always followed whoever wins. They will obediently listen to Horn because Horn is the win-win choice appointed by the Holy Father and Holy Lord.

If he stripped off this emperor's new clothes and let some of the villagers die, it would be equivalent to saying that Horn was not infallible, which would leave loopholes in the lie.

But when the lie was exposed, and the illusion of the Son of Messiah being invincible was shattered, the angry villagers could tear Horn to pieces.

So, either Horn would go alone, or they would go together, there was no other option!

“What would happen if everyone went together?”

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“You want everyone to go on the road together? I don't understand why you would do this.”

“Just tell me, is it possible?”

“It is possible, but to be frank, I don't think this will increase the chances of survival. I must remind you that if Duke Cush sees too many…”

“Okay, that's settled then.”

“But…”

“I say do it this way, so do it this way!”

Slapping the table heavily, Horn's veins bulged, and the water cup on the table was shaken and tipped over.

The water cup rolled around on the table, and the clear water flowed down the corner of the table.

“I don't want you to think, I want me to think, understand?” Suppressing his inexplicable anger, Horn stared coldly into Cici's eyes.

After a moment of dead silence.

Cici took half a step back, met the gazes of the others present, and gave a curtsey with a blank expression: “Then fine, if you insist.”

After the meeting, the bishops and high-level figures left with worried expressions. Grampwen walked side by side with Cici to see his wife, Dia.

As Grampwen walked, he noticed that Cici's brows were gradually furrowing, his eyes were lost, as if he was thinking about something.

“Mr. Cici, His Holiness the Pope is usually very friendly. Today, the matter may have been too sudden, and he was a little out of sorts.”

“I'm not thinking about that. The 'courtesy' I encountered when I was a merchant was much worse than this.”

“Then what are you thinking about? Is something on your mind?”

Cici raised his head: “Has your Pope always been like this?”

“What do you mean, always been like this?” Grampwen didn't quite understand, “What kind of like this?”

Cici didn't answer, but continued to walk forward, all the way to the end of the corridor.

Sunlight shone in through the stained-glass window, making the dust particles in the air sparkle.

Standing in the sunlight where the light fragments danced, seeing that no one was around, Cici turned around and faced Grampwen seriously: “Don't you think his behavior and thoughts are strange?”

“Strange, what's strange? His Holy Grandson has always been like this.”

“Yes, that's it.” Cici clapped his hands, he looked left and right, “You preemptively think that he is different, so you ignore his strangeness.

I asked before, before that turning-head magic trick of his, he was just an ordinary farmer.

If you look at it from the perspective of an ordinary person, you will find that his words are strange, his behavior is abnormal, and…”

“Hey, hey, hey, you don't understand the Holy Grandson, don't jump to conclusions!”

Quickly interrupting Cici's words, Grampwen was sweating. The Holy Grandson could communicate with the Holy Father, and if he asked his grandfather and mother when he was sleeping one day, there would be trouble.

“I'm not saying that I have any opinions about him or anything. He is a kind and intelligent leader.”

Without continuing to chat with Grampwen, Cici rubbed his eyebrows and muttered as he walked: “But he always gives me a sense of déjà vu… but what is it…”