The son of a one-legged knight

Sergeant José has a new son today.

The inhabitants of the small town of Valuno had no way of knowing how José had a son, just as they did not know where the José knight had come from.

Since the establishment of the Great Pruos Empire, there have been countless strangers coming and going from the north and south of Valuno, and the local residents have gradually become accustomed to the arrival of strangers, not to mention, since these strangers came to Valuno, everyone's life has been much better than before?

But in any case, the José knight is still the most conspicuous of these strangers.

Unlike the usual chieftains, nay, vassals, who were given land, the knight of José was not concerned with the land he had been given a fief, nor was he focused on squeezing more money out of the people who passed or lived in his domain. He also never attends the dinners of the nobles, and the residents can only occasionally see him in the town's sheriff's hall and taverns, where José often carries the heads of a few notorious bandits with him.

But on that day just a month ago, instead of carrying a few heads on his saddle as usual, José had a baby in his arms, and there was a hideous wound on his right leg, and with the horse's jolting, blood that had turned dark red continued to leak from the crack in José's boot.

Seeing such a bloody and strange scene, the local residents were curious and scared. It was curious how Jose could have held a child in his arms, and he was afraid of how Jose could have suffered such a severe wound.

The knight of José was known for his strange temper in the locality, and no matter whose daughter went to tell him to kiss, he just shook his head and said nothing, and finally the youngest daughter of the local mayor's family pestered his father for several nights, and asked his father to tell the young man about his marriage, and the mayor of the town was a well-known good-natured man, and could not bear his daughter, so he went to Jose's fiefdom for a special trip, and brought a whole wagon of furs and spices with him as a dowry for his daughter.

At the time of the mayor's departure, all the unmarried men in the town were envious of the good fortune of the knight Jose, knowing that the mayor's youngest daughter was recognized as beautiful as a May flower. But to the surprise of everyone in the town, the mayor came back the night of his visit, scolding, and carrying a cart full of furs and spices. The mayor's youngest daughter locked herself in her room and cried for three days and three nights, and finally crawled out of her room to marry the son of the biggest lord in the town, who was still said to be a duke.

On the day he sent his daughter away, the mayor said to his daughter, "Don't worry, as long as he doesn't marry the woman he said he wants, I will make him look good." The mayor's daughter only bit her lip and shook her head vigorously, rejected her father's kindness, and then resolutely boarded the carriage of the duke's house, and left the town surrounded by the townspeople, and did not return for more than ten years.

What scared the townspeople was undoubtedly José's serious injury. Since the Knight José moved into the town, the security around the town has been much better, and the original criminals who often came to the town or the tribes and villages near the town to fight in the grass valley have died one after another, and good law and order has even become an important guarantee for the good development of the town.

José Knight has nothing to say, he still has a body of his own, and to find a young man around town who can play two tricks with him, it may be more difficult than a rooster that lays eggs on three legs. It won't be the Wiggans who have invaded on a large scale to make the José Knights suffer such a big loss.

It is a strange thing that a man who has never been married has a child, and a soldier who has never lost a battle is seriously wounded.

A devotion to the Sardinian religion and a knight apologists appointed by the emperor himself, José never went to a sanatorium run by a local priest, but usually chose to go to a small clinic run by the Solomons.

Speaking of which, this small clinic was just opened by a couple of Solomon and his wife a few years ago, and the couple usually do not farm, but go out every once in a while to find some herbs and come back, because the fee is relatively cheap, and some citizens often go to their store to see if they are injured.

The clinic is different from the rest of the town, although it is made of stones, but the side facing the street is inlaid with a layer of adobe bricks, and there is even a wooden threshold at the entrance, which makes it extra eye-catching and exotic among the town's many buildings. There is a little girl standing at the door of the clinic all the year round cleaning, and no matter who greets her, she will be red and even bow her head, but the work in her hands is indeed not put down all day long, so that no matter how high the dirt is piled up on the street, the stone slab at the door of the clinic will never be clean and not even a single piece of dirt can be found.

The little girl saw that José's knight came over with blood dripping on his legs, and quickly ran to the clinic and shouted, the male owner of the clinic rushed out when he heard the news, and when he saw José's appearance, he quickly helped José off the horse, beckoned the little girl to quickly pick up the child, and then called a few men on the street and carried Jose into the clinic.

By the time José Knight came out of the clinic again, it was already half a month later, and at this time, José was still holding the child in both hands, but the armor on his body was gone, replaced by a linen gown, which was also brought by Mr. and Mrs. Solomon, who opened the clinic, and has become the most popular style for men in the past two years. The beard on José's face was also clean-shaven, and he seemed to be several years younger, except that he could not ride a horse as he had come, and he still had thick strips of cloth tied to his legs, and he walked with a limp.

José went straight to the mayor's house with the child in his arms, and the mayor was angry when he saw the child. It looks like a northerner's face, the two eyes are very open soon after birth, a pair of blue eyes are as transparent as the sea water in summer, the bridge of the small nose is high, but it is a good skin, lying in José's arms, neither crying nor making trouble, looking very quiet.

If it weren't for the child reported by Jose, the mayor would definitely pick it up and tease it, but when he saw that it was Jose who brought it, he put his face up.

"You are not welcome in my house, what are you doing here?" asked the mayor as he stood in the doorway with his hands folded on his chest, looking at Jose with an unkind face.

When José saw the mayor, he bowed to him and said, "Lord, I beg you to do me a favor and take care of this poor child for me. I'm willing to raise this child myself, but you know me, I can't even take care of myself... ”

"That's enough, Jose, don't think that I won't do anything with you now that you're injured!" The mayor looked at Jose's appearance, couldn't suppress the anger in his heart anymore, and yelled at Jose: "I don't care where you picked up the wild seeds, it has nothing to do with our family!

Seeing the mayor's thunderous appearance, the child in Jose's arms suddenly burst into tears, and the pedestrians on the street began to watch this scene. Faced with the mayor's anger, Jose didn't say anything else, but knelt down in front of everyone.

The mayor was startled, and most of the anger in his heart dissipated. No matter what, Jose is also a nobleman who has been awarded by the emperor himself, no matter how he says, he can't just look like this, so he leaned down and whispered to José: "In fact, after so many years, your contribution to the town is obvious to everyone, I actually thought that you were a good young man, and I had the idea of marrying my daughter to you before, but no matter what I said at the time, you didn't agree." Now that you have a child and want to be fostered in my home, how can I promise you, you should find another home. ”

Seeing that the mayor's words did not seem to be false, Jose also spoke: "Lord Mayor, your daughter is like the moon in the sky to me, I can't accompany her, not your daughter is not worthy of me, I can apologize to you again for this, but in any case, please take this child, you are the person I trust the most in the town, I can't find a better place to turn to you than you." With these words, José became like a statue, and no matter how much the mayor tried to persuade him, José remained motionless.

Jose's appearance of not eating oil and salt really made the mayor have no choice, and the mayor first returned to his home by himself, and deliberately put down the sheepskin curtain placed at the door to protect him from the wind and rain. He hoped that through this decisive method, José would retreat, but he never imagined that José was completely a tenacious man, and as long as he did not take the child for a quarter of an hour, José would not go away from the door of his house for a quarter of an hour.

Listening to the sobbing cries outside, the mayor's wife finally rolled up the parchment curtain, snatched the child from José's arms, and said, "No matter what you have done with our family, this child is always innocent. We'll take this kid in, but you, think about all the things you've done, and you'll never want to enter our house. ”

Hearing the promises of the mayor's wife, Jose endured the sharp pain of the leg wound, got up from the ground tremblingly, and then gave the mayor's wife a respectful salute and said, "Madam, as long as I am still in the day, no one will be able to hurt you." ”

The mayor's wife spit on José's face: "Do you think we adopted your child to get your gratitude? If you really want to repay us, listen to my advice and do more things for the villagers in the town." If it weren't for the fact that you've sheltered the town for so many years, I wouldn't have accepted this child!"

Jose didn't say anything, just dragged his wound out of the door of the mayor's house, didn't wipe the spit on his face, walked back to the clinic, followed the male boss of the clinic and asked for a few more herbs, and then limped out of the town with the horse.

When the knight had gone away, the mayor's wife walked back to the house with the child in her arms, shaking the child gently while humming a Northland folk song in a low voice. The mayor looked at his wife, but did not say much, but ran into the sheepfold of the house, picked a firstborn ewe, milked a pot of goat's milk, boiled the goat's milk, and carefully dried it in a stoneware bowl.

"It would be nice if he were really my daughter and that guy's child. Looking at the child who had begun to regain his calm, the mayor couldn't help but sigh. "He's sure he'll inherit his father's prowess and his mother's goodness, and he'll be the best lad in town. ”

The mayor's wife stretched out her hand to block the mayor's mouth and said, "Don't say such things in front of the child, although he is young now, he can remember what we have said." ”

The mayor couldn't help but laugh and said, "It's hell that you can remember everything at such a young age." ”

The mayor's wife gave the mayor a blank look, picked up the goat's milk, which had become a little colder, and poured it into the child's mouth little by little.

"You say, this Jose, put the child here in foster care, but he doesn't even tell us the child's name. The mayor's wife complained to her husband after watching the child slowly fall asleep.

"I'm glad he didn't name the child, but what good name can he come up with for the child?" said the mayor mercilessly, "we should give the child a name ourselves, so that the child will be the same as our own." ”

At this time, the door of the mayor's house suddenly heard the sound of someone coming over, although he had many friends, but the people who would come to the door at the moment, he really didn't think for a while.

When the mayor lifted the curtain at the door, he couldn't help but laugh happily, it turned out that it was none other than Mendel, the mayor's childhood playmate, who was now a monk in a village not far from the town.

"Today is a great blessing to have a new family member and an old friend. The mayor dodged through the entrance, grabbed his old friend's hand, and dragged him in. As you can see, Mendel has only four fingers on his palm.

"I heard from outside just now that you just brought a little child to your house, can you let me see it?" Mendel first hugged his old friend tightly when he entered the door, and then spoke. "You must have intended to convert him to Sardinia, I have heard that the boy's father was a knight. ”