chsdbacks #174 - Don't weigh it!
#174 - Don't weigh it!
Almost simultaneously, Horn had barely left the evening before when the church's fleet arrived the next morning, carrying a large army.
Nearly five thousand troops represented the church's limit in Lower Reaver County; Barnifoss even hired some militiamen himself.
Unfortunately, despite their haste, they couldn't catch up with those short-haired devils.
After a day of rest and reconnaissance, confirming they couldn't enter the Wild Spider Forest, both Barnifoss and Mizam returned to Jeanne d'Arc Castle.
Confirming that further pursuit was impossible, Barnifoss and Mizam had no choice but to first manage the aftermath in Jeanne d'Arc Castle.
Thus, in just a few days, the flags on Jeanne d'Arc Castle's church changed repeatedly, from the Duke's banner to the Savior's flag, and then again to the church's cross flag.
It seemed to have changed, yet also remained the same.
At least, in the eyes of the citizens and laborers as the knights or priests passed by, besides obedience, there now appeared a hint of resentment and disgust.
But resentment was just resentment; it couldn't kill the knights.
So the citizens hastily collected the nobles' corpses hanging by the roadside, fearing they would anger Bishop Barnifoss and Prince Condé.
The letter left by the Grand Duchess was posted outside the city hall gate.
If it were before, the church could have largely ignored this letter.
But now that Grandiva and Johnny VIII had reconciled, and Duchess Melia of Hemastone and Archbishop Constance had reconciled,
the entire Thousand Valleys region was focused on reconciliation, avoiding mishaps and safely passing the New Year Festival.
After Ginigis killed Impera, the focus of the struggle between Grandiva and Johnny VIII shifted to Longsong City.
Archbishop Constance needed the entire Thousand Valleys to be peaceful, to avoid any slip-ups in his promotion to Cardinal.
Despite the letter preventing them from making a fortune, the church's bandit army still went around making a small one.
They extorted the surrounding towns and residents, and more than a dozen cases of robbery, murder, theft, and even insults to women occurred.
Some even said in secret that the church's army was worse than the Salvation Army; at least the Salvation Army's soldiers only extorted, at most severely injuring people, and they even paid for prostitution!
After reorganizing the entire Jeanne d'Arc Castle, Barnifoss and Mizam, unable to address the land issues left by Horn, immediately began investigating the entire incident.
This was no small matter; Blue Blood Wine had been exposed, an entire diocese was wiped out, hundreds of knights were killed, and even the Duke was beheaded.
Although Duke Dane wasn't liked, he was still a noble after all.
What exactly happened had to be thoroughly investigated.
In the castle dungeon, Duke Dane's Knight Commander, Drolte, was stark naked, tied to a long pillar.
He had thought he could gain the church's forgiveness and trust by reporting the news, but he didn't expect it would lead to imprisonment.
A bucket of cold water was splashed on his whip-scarred body.
"Will you talk?" Barnifoss roared.
The current Thousand Valleys was not what it used to be; there had been the Little Pond City uprising and short-haired rebels everywhere, but with the Edict Legion's conquests, most of the rebels had either fled into the mountains or been suppressed.
So the only troublemaker left in the Thousand Valleys was the original Holy Grandson Horn.
Coincidentally, both Holy Grandson Horn and Holy Great-Grandson Thomas came from Barnifoss's diocese.
Why didn't other dioceses produce Holy Grandsons, but your diocese produced several in a row?
"Will you talk?" Barnifoss said fiercely to the Duke's Knight Commander before him.
In the Battle of Jeanne d'Arc Castle, most of the high-ranking officials, such as Zanderbeck, Bulvillef, and Frisiska, had died, only he, the Knight Commander, survived.
Why did everyone else die, but you survived? If you don't have a problem, who does?
"I've already said it, in the Battle of Long Bridge, Knight Frisiska was defeated by the vagrants, and then the Duke was killed before he could return to the castle."
"Still being stubborn, still being stubborn." Barnifoss's face was as hideous as a devil. "It's one thing if they lost to the Witch, but how could they lose to a bunch of commoners, and even if they lost to commoners, how could even the Duke die?"
Mizam, sitting to the side, was expressionless, merely giving a sidelong glance.
Four muscular men, stark naked, wearing only black leather hoods and straps on their heads, walked forward.
"You...you can't...you can't do this, you can't!" Seeing the approaching black-hooded brutes, Drolte screamed in horror, "They're vampires, there are vampires!"
"Oh?" Barnifoss's eyes lit up, raising a hand to stop the four brutes from advancing.
Vampires, enemies of Messiah; Barnifoss had finally heard something interesting.
"That day, that day on the Long Bridge, I saw a vampire shout, 'Wind, hot wind, devil's wind, Messiah, I command you to kneel!'" Drolte shouted recklessly, "Then a gust of wind blew, sending all the knights into the river."
The entire dungeon was silent for seven or eight seconds, and just as cold sweat dripped from Drolte's forehead, Barnifoss gritted his teeth and said, "Then that's no surprise, that's no surprise, indeed there are devils at work."
"This is no ordinary devil; this is practically the Devil Emperor, the chosen Demon Emperor!" Priest Mizam echoed from the side, "And then?"
"And then, then, they all fell into the river." Drolte looked at Barnifoss in a daze; now that they were in the river, what else was there to say?
The knights couldn't fly, and even extraordinary knights could only swim with difficulty in the water, just like normal people.
Besides, he didn't directly participate in the Battle of Long Bridge at the time, but followed the Duke hiding near the castle.
"Don't know? What, are you a deserter?"
"No, no, I was at the scene." Drolte immediately retorted, "I'm just recalling; the scene was too terrifying."
"Speak faster; we don't have much time for you to slowly recall."
Drolte swallowed, gritted his teeth; anyway, most of the people in the Battle of Long Bridge were dead, so he could make up whatever he wanted.
"They summoned ghosts in the river!" Drolte said loudly, "I saw it with my own eyes; the Holy Grandson shouted: 'The time has come, after all of Messiah's servants on this land have been eliminated, you can rest in peace forever. I am an ally of vampires, the son of devils, the lover of witches, Holy Grandson Horn.'
If you don't believe me, go to the riverbank; the water is murky because the Holy Grandson summoned ghosts and dragged our knights into the river to drown them..."
At this point, Drolte's inspiration exploded, and he spoke eloquently, describing how he bravely killed enemies, how he was blown away by the devil's wind, how he struggled in the water, how he killed ghosts, and how he received Frisiska's dying request.
Barnifoss was even sleepy listening, but Mizam listened with great interest, with a chilling, inexplicable meaning in his eyes from time to time.
"You will repeat these words to our secretary in a moment." Looking at the stiff expression on Drolte's face, Mizam smiled, "For every incorrect detail, it will go in half an inch."
"No, I've already said it...Gua, no, don't, don't you weigh it--"