When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

The night of October 5th, 1444 in the Imperial Calendar, was a dark one without moonlight.

Horn and his Papal States were still 440 li away from Duke Danner's Jeanne Fortress.

The night was as thick as splashed ink.

Standing at the entrance of the encampment, several child soldiers were on guard.

In the candlelight, Rene was reporting the results of their investigation.

According to the refugees who shouted from afar, Danji was buried in a flower field on the edge of the battlefield.

His Black William was half-eaten, the corpse rotting and reeking.

Horn nodded, said nothing more, and waved for the Cheka to rest.

Walking back alone, Horn looked at the hand-and-a-half sword in his hand.

For some reason, Barnett's sword, despite being a hand-and-a-half sword, was much longer than normal.

When this hand-and-a-half sword was inserted into the knight's sword scabbard, the blade still revealed a thumb's width of its body.

On the blade was half an Elven inscription.

After studying it for some time, Horn knew it was the Elven word for "Snow."

The full inscription on this sword was "Snow in the Clouds."

In the church's scriptures, this phrase was often used to describe the purest and most noble things.

But this sword, Danji didn't get to wield it, and instead, it fell into the hands of Barnett and Horn.

Rubbing the inscription on the sword, Horn walked towards the bonfire where the bishops were discussing matters.

"Danji, is Danji really not coming back?" Seeing Horn approach, Madland stood up impatiently and asked.

"He's not coming back."

Madland seemed to have lost his soul and slumped back onto the log.

"I don't blame him, I don't blame him, I just, I just..." Madland buried his face in his hands.

Frick sat beside him, gently patting his back.

"He doesn't blame you either." Horn threw a branch into the bonfire. "Without your words, he would still have gone back to stop those knights."

"If I hadn't said those things to him..."

"He doesn't blame you." Horn directly interrupted Madland. "Don't tarnish his honor."

The charcoal made burning sounds in the darkness, and the firelight made all the bishops' faces flushed.

"I just took a nap." Horn used the fire tongs to stir the bonfire surrounded by stones. "Mother told me that Danji was a glorious knight, and he has entered the Elysian Fields to serve the supreme Holy Father."

"Really?"

"Of course, I swear in the name of Messiah." Horn said without a doubt, "Although the race was fake, Danji's entry into the Elysian Fields is real.

Alright, go to rest, we have to set off tomorrow, we have to reach the entrance of Black Bone Swamp in six days."

The bishops looked at each other, but still obediently left under Horn's urging.

Perhaps because of Messiah's guarantee, Madland and the others felt slightly better.

They were indeed leaving tomorrow, they couldn't let Danji's sacrifice be in vain.

Grabbing Frick's arm, Horn asked, "Did you see where Jeanne went?"

The dark clouds covered the sky, tonight wasn't as bright as the previous days.

Jeanne hugged her legs and sat upright on a large rock by the road.

If Horn wasn't holding a candlestick, he would have thought it was a tree growing on the rock.

So upright, so straight.

"Can you believe it?" Seeing Horn arrive, Jeanne curled up and buried her face between her knees. "He actually stopped nine Edict Companies with just a few words."

Horn sat down beside Jeanne, he reached out, hesitated for a second, and still hugged Jeanne's shoulders.

With her hands passing under Horn's armpits, Jeanne buried her head in Horn's shoulder socket.

The familiar scent of chamomile entered Horn's nose.

"Brother, do those villagers know that Danji is gone?"

Horn's eyebrows twitched: "I informed the heads of ten households, saying that Danji went to reason with those knights, and didn't catch up after the rope bridge broke."

"So, they don't know that Danji died for them?"

Horn didn't know how to answer, he stroked Jeanne's shoulders, and could only look up at the dark clouds in the sky.

Did it block the sun during the day, and now it had to block the moonlight at night?

"Brother, do you think Danji was a chivalrous knight?"

"Of course."

"I used to always want to be a chivalrous knight." Jeanne's voice echoed in Horn's sleeves, "Later, the villagers of Red Mill Village deceived me... I thought chivalrous knights were a scam."

Horn stroked Jeanne's arm: "Everyone in the world is ordinary, how can chivalrous knights be omniscient and omnipotent?"

"I thought chivalrous knights spent their whole lives upholding justice, but perhaps chivalrous knights can only uphold justice once.

The rest of their lives, perhaps, are like Danji, living silently, or even somewhat down and out.

I saw the joy of them doing chivalrous deeds, but I didn't know how much it cost to uphold justice...

I hated all chivalrous knights after being deceived once, how much did Danji endure?"

Horn felt endless words blocking his nasal cavity, his throat was dry, he couldn't speak.

"Brother, will our country be an absolutely fair place where knights don't need to uphold justice?"

The night wind howled, tugging at Horn's twitching嘴角.

"It will be." Horn squeezed out a sentence from his throat, "Absolute fairness is impossible, but by then, everyone will have the right to uphold justice.

As for not needing to uphold justice, it will also happen, but that will be in the very, very distant future."

Jeanne didn't reply, but Horn could feel a warm, wet sensation on his shoulder socket.

"Do you want to go back to the way you were before?"

"No, this world doesn't need knights, whether they are chivalrous knights or those knights." Jeanne raised her head, her eyes were a little red, "I want everyone to be a knight, I want everyone to not be a knight."

Jeanne put down her legs, took out a roll of books from the cloth bag around her waist, and handed it to Horn.

It was a 'Knight Sifar' with yellowed pages, even some curls, but still well preserved.

"Is this the book Danji gave you?"

"Yes." Jeanne changed her posture, better resting her head on Horn's shoulder, "I lied to him, I said I could understand half of it, but I only recognized four or five words on the first page."

"Pfft!"

"What are you laughing at, don't laugh." Jeanne punched Horn's thigh with a red face, "You read it to me, teach me to read."

Spreading the Knight Sifar on his thigh, Horn gently rubbed the pages.

The blank spaces on the pages were filled with dense words, sometimes with sticky notes.

Judging from the handwriting, a small part was from more than ten years ago, and most of it should be from this period.

The new notes recorded very simple explanations, probably because he was afraid that Jeanne would not understand.

Unfortunately, Jeanne not only couldn't understand the book, but also couldn't understand the notes.

Using the dim candlelight in his hand, Horn gently recited:

"The trend of the world is that stability will inevitably lead to chaos, and chaos will inevitably lead to stability. The Seven Hills Kingdom split and merged into the El Empire..."

"On April 4, 1328 of the Imperial Calendar, the Holy El Empire Emperor Baldwin came to Schönbrunn Palace, and as soon as he sat down, a gale swept outside the palace..."

"There is a place in Charman, the place name need not be mentioned, not long ago lived a knight..."

"Sifar's knight tournament ranking was not ideal..."

At first, Jeanne followed Horn's fingers, gently following his recitation, but later, her voice became smaller and smaller, until it turned into a slight snore.

No, sister, is this your determination to learn to read?

Helplessly closing the book, handing the candle to the accompanying child soldier, Horn draped the hooded cloak over Jeanne, and carried her horizontally with sweat all over his body, staggering towards the tent.

This short journey was so long.

Horn gritted his teeth, laboriously put Jeanne on the animal skin blanket.

Bending over, with one hand supporting his knee and the other covering his waist, Horn gasped for breath.

On the last part of the road just before the tent, he almost passed out because he couldn't catch his breath.

The silly girl looks thin, but her density is really high.

After calming his violently beating heart, he walked out of the tent and carefully closed the curtain.

"Rene, go find me a wooden board, a shovel, and... a bottle of wine."