Silver Ring City, the royal palace, early in the morning. (Escape Day)

"Your Majesty, it's been more than an hour, how long do you want us to wait?!" shouted the presiding judge of the Grand Court, standing outside the door of the dormitory.

As soon as he finished speaking, the door opened.

Queen Mary, dressed in a white court gown, amazed everyone's attention with her light pink and dazzling brilliance, and she did not look at all like a sinner awaiting trial, but like a princess dressed for a banquet.

"You're really in a bit of a relaxed and elegant way. ”

The familiar voice made Queen Mary look away from the Count of Narl standing beside the presiding judge, and the smug smile of the other party made her raise her head: "Lord Earl, people always remember the roses that wither in the frost, and who can think of the weeds that rot in the mud?"

The earl was stunned for a moment, then his face was gloomy, and he shouted in a low voice: "Don't worry, whether it's a rose or a weed, I promise you'll be the first to know!"

At five o'clock in the morning, the sky was just light.

Queen Mary walked in the middle, with nobles, female officials, maids, and hundreds of soldiers walking in front of her, and this strange "procession" passed through the gardens and the promenade to the square of the palace. There, a prisoner's cart and a battalion of cavalry ready to escort the woman awaited her.

Dressed in armor and armed with a sword and shield, Herman hides quietly by a corridor in the court. He glanced at the ten heavily armed Guards Knights beside him, who were his most trusted friends in the Guards Camp and the only companions in the rescue operation.

His course of action is not complicated.

Relying on their familiarity with the terrain and the convenience of their identity, the 11 Guards Knights, led by Herman, chose this narrow corridor in the palace as the location of their operations. There are two reasons for this: first, the terrain here is narrow, and the formation cannot be spread, which is more conducive to elite combat; second, after crossing this road, a few minutes later, is the square of the palace, where a large number of elite troops are waiting. After that, there will be no more places to get your hands on, and this is probably the best and only opportunity.

"My lord, here they are. ”

Hearing the reminder from his subordinates, Herman cautiously poked his head out, looked at the long line on the other side of the corridor, and frowned slightly.

The troops in charge of escorting the queen are the soldiers of the "Eastern Legion" of the Silver Ring Kingdom, who have been fighting against the Holy Guard for a long time, and they are skilled and fearless of death, which is not good news for the rescue plan......

Herman counted the convoy in front of and behind the queen, where there were eighty soldiers and nobles, and in front of her, there were only twenty soldiers, and the others were mostly female officers and maids. If the queen was to be rescued, the best way was to cut off the team from her, and the 11 knights were divided into two teams, the front team was responsible for defeating the twenty soldiers in the front half of the escort team as quickly as possible and opening the way to retreat, and the rear team needed to block the attack of the eighty soldiers before that.

After thinking for a while, the chief knight gestured to his six men to attack the front half, and he and the other four to block the second half of the team.

Watching the escort get closer and closer, Herman lowered his body in the grass and held his breath as he watched the front half of the procession walk past him. When Queen Mary's white dress came into view, the knight slammed to his feet, grabbed the guardrail with both hands, and rolled over into the corridor.

Looking at the 11 guards knights who seemed to have descended from the sky, everyone in the escort team was stunned.

Herman took the still stunned queen with one hand and pushed her behind her, and with the other hand removed the shield from the back, facing the flood of soldiers, forming a "shield wall" with his comrades.

After a moment of silence, it was like pouring ice water into a pot of hot oil, and the shouts, fights, and blades quickly resounded in a corner of the palace.

"Hold the shield!" Herman shouted at the knights beside him as he resisted the blade in front of him with his shield.

While they were gaining time, the six knights who were in charge of attacking the front half abandoned their defenses and launched a life-sacrificing attack on the twenty soldiers in front of them.

If they were against the lord's private soldiers, or the defenders of the city, it would probably be an easy battle.

But unfortunately, they may be facing the most elite garrison troops in the entire Silver Ring Kingdom. After losing 4 sergeants due to the initial shock, the remaining 16 sergeants in the first half reacted quickly and formed a battle formation. The knights' first mover advantage was getting smaller and smaller, and their superior equipment became their only way to gain the upper hand, and they had to fight for the opportunity to be stabbed and cut a bloody mark, and use a lose-lose method to deal with one enemy after another.

If the attack in the first half is only progressing slowly, then the defense in the second half can only be described as tragic and cruel.

Seeing that the blades and sharp spears of the enemy could not inflict substantial damage on the knight's armor, the enemy immediately changed formation. Heavy infantry armed with flails, tomahawks, and hammers engaged the knights. The battle suddenly became dangerous, with a huge crash and splashing sparks, accompanied by faint cries of pain, the knights' "shield wall" was hit backwards, and the shields were repeatedly hit by heavy weapons, becoming cratered and debris flying.

One of Herman's knights was shot in the head with a hammer because he couldn't dodge, and the steel helmet suddenly dented, and blood flowed down the cracks in the armor. Even so, the knight still held his shield high and mechanically made defensive movements, protecting his comrades from harm.

"Bastard! with crossbow arrows!"

A shrill voice sounded in the middle of the soldiers in the back half, and Count Narr blushed and shouted angrily at the commander.

"But there are our soldiers on the other side, and some women from the palace. ”

"Fools, do you want to watch the criminals escape?!

A moment later, there was a dense sound of crossbows breaking through the air on the battlefield.

Herman's left shoulder cooled, and the warm liquid slowly overflowed and dripped under his feet. The power in the knight's body passed bit by bit, his consciousness slowly became blurred, the voice of deep memories echoed in his mind, and the oath of the knight's canonization sounded in his ears. The sound of this oath grew louder and louder, gradually dragging out all the sounds of war.

"I will be kind to the weak."

Herman roared angrily and swung his sword to pierce the thigh of the enemy in front of him, who sat on the ground in pain and rolled his helmet to the side. The knight raised his sword again, and was about to slash it when the distorted face of a fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy under his helmet made him withdraw his weapon.

"I will be brave against the strong."

Seeing a tall warrior wielding a flail in front of him, rushing towards the "shield wall", Herman stepped forward and slammed his shield into the opponent's shoulder, and the dancing sword accurately slit the enemy's throat.

"I will fight all who do wrong."

A crossbow bolt stabbed Herman's right leg with a sharp sound of wind. The knight looked at the dastardly crossbowman not far away, snatched the spear of the enemy in front of him, and threw it with his backhand, piercing the chest of the sneak attacker.

"I will fight for those who cannot fight."

"Sir, the front line is open, it's time to retreat!"

Herman glanced back, looked at the white figure in his sight, smiled and turned his head back, and waved his weapon again.

"I will help those who call me for help."

Herman's comrades fell one by one, and in the end only he and the other were left, and the two retreated to the entrance of the corridor as they fought. A giant axe swung from below, slashing the other man's calf. Seeing his comrade fall to the ground, he threw his shield at the enemy, grabbed the arm of the other knight, and pulled him to the rear with all his might.

"I will harm no woman."

Dragging his comrades, Herman, who quickly retreated backwards, bumped into the person behind him, and three girls dressed as maids hugged each other, crying and looking at the blood-stained knight chief. The latter lowered his sword, but was accidentally hit in the back by a throwing axe, and a mouthful of blood gushed up his throat.

"I will help my brother knight."

The entrance to the corridor was close at hand, and the knights in charge of attacking the front line turned back to fend off the enemy's attack, and Herman dragged his wounded comrades out of the corridor first.

"I will be true to my friends."

Herman and the others closed the door of the corridor, and he sat down in front of the closed gate, holding the axes on both sides with both hands, blocking the enemy's slamming door with his body, and shouting loudly for the others to leave. The blood gradually gathered into a pool of blood under him.

"I will be faithful in love."

Seeing Queen Mary weeping and reaching out to herself, Herman, whose eyes were bloody, shook his head with a smile, his mouth no longer sounded, and he moved his lips with the last of his strength.

"Farewell...... I love ......

At the west gate of the palace, Baron Cumberland, who led his private soldiers to meet him, looked silently at the scarred knights in front of him, and then glanced at Queen Mary, whose white dress was half soaked in blood.

"Lord Baron, Chief Hermann is still inside!, please save him!" said the knight, who had been rescued from a wounded leg, to the old man.

Cumberland looked into the depths of the palace, listening to the shouts that were getting closer and closer in his ears, his arm holding the sword trembled slightly, his throat was dry, and he almost gritted his teeth and spat out a word: "Get on the horse." ”

"But!"

The old man's eyes widened angrily: "Bastard! I said it! Get on the horse!"

A subordinate asked, "My lord, where are we going next?"

The baron took one last look at the palace, closed his eyes in pain, the reins in his hand creaked, and two words were dropped with a hard bang.

"To the west. ”