Walking on the Moon Creek Plain at the foot of the mountain, all the way to the south.

Taking off his conspicuous monk's robes and cloak of a farmer and cloak he had found from Huggins, Todd looked at the dark night road by the bright moonlight and the torches of others, and yawned, "Where are we going? It's so late at night, can't we go again tomorrow?"

Huggins said to him, "It's only open to the public at night. Besides, with so much going on lately, we also need some entertainment to relax ourselves. ”

Well?

Open at night?

Todd raised an eyebrow on one side, and his mind was hot, and he immediately thought of some "inappropriate for children" pictures. While shaking his head and smiling at Huggins, he secretly said in his heart, I really can't see it, brother, you usually look like a serious person, it turns out to be such a sullen guy, no wonder you asked me to change out of my monk's uniform and put on a casual dress before I came out.

Unexpectedly, Edgar, who was walking in front, suddenly turned around, his face was excited and full of joy: "It's really amazing!" The 'Downtown Circus' only came to the neighborhood this morning, and it will be open to the public this evening. I thought they would be performing in the Silver Ring Kingdom for three months, but I didn't expect to come back in just over 20 days!"

Ha?

Circus?

That's what you've been talking about!

Realizing that he wanted to be completely crooked, Todd touched his nose in embarrassment, his old face instantly turned red, and his heart was ashamed of the filth in the depths of his soul. Suddenly remembered the question that had bothered him before, and quickly changed the subject: "Huggins, I wanted to ask a question yesterday. ”

The man brushed aside the bushes blocking the path with his hand and nodded for the monk to ask casual questions.

"When I was in Chigi Village, I noticed that the priests there did not seem to be friendly to the monks of the monastery. It stands to reason that the clergy, who are also members of the Father, should be hostile to me?"

Huggins paused, turned sideways to look at Todd deeply, took a breath through his nose, and said slowly, "Have you ever heard of 'asceticism' and 'ecclesiastism'?"

"No, never. ”

"I guess so. The man continued, thought for a moment, and said, "The teachers and monks of the Monastery of St. Sidro were once divided into two camps, the ascetic and the ecclesiastical. The so-called ascetics are those who focus on spiritual asceticism and religious contemplation, and they advocate staying away from earthly temptations and worldly noises, abandoning the guidance of the Church, and only following in the footsteps of the Father, while the ecclesiastical sects, on the contrary, advocate bringing monasteries under the jurisdiction of the Church and maintaining close relations with the world, which is more conducive to spreading the glory of the Father and increasing the number of believers. ”

Todd nodded as he listened, and then asked, "I just heard you say a word, ever?"

"Yes, about ten years ago, there was one of the worst bisectarian arguments in the monastery's history. The result was a great victory for the ascetics, and exile for the leaders and followers of the church. And the Master Myris you know is one of the leaders of the ascetic sect at that time. ”

When the monk apprentice heard this, he was a little dumbfounded, he didn't expect that Master Myris, who was usually low-key and kind-hearted, would have such a fierce record back then.

Seeing the boy's expression, Huggins laughed, shook his head and said, "Do you really think that the victory of the factional battle back then relied on those old men?"

"Is there anyone else involved?"

The man nodded, and continued: "On the one hand, the church faction agreed to accept the land donated for the purpose of 'transcending souls', and on the other hand, they advocated the introduction of church forces into the monastery of San Sidro, which can be regarded as a violation of the taboo of the Silver Ring Kingdom. Therefore, it would be more accurate to say that it was not so much a dispute between ascetics and ecclesiastical sects as a struggle between the church and the king. ”

Todd was about to ask again, but Edgar in front of him let out cheers.

"It's here! It's here!"

Following others, turning over the high slope in front of him, the monk stood on the high ground and looked down, and secretly sighed in his heart, what a lively scene.

In a huge open space, tall tents were erected one after another, colorful wind lanterns, colorful flags fluttering in the wind, beautiful women playing with flying knives, strong men spitting flames, clowns on stilts, boiling human voices resounded in the ears, and occasionally one or two animal chirpings could be heard, all of which dressed the landscape in front of you colorful and splendid, like a dream. All kinds of people shuttled through the stalls and tents like a bazaar, women in costumes, flowers and branches, sturdy young people, talking and laughing, kind old men, smiling and meditating, and naughty children, cheerfully playing.

The location of the downtown circus is not only close to the Monastery of San Sidro, but also in the middle of several large towns in the Kingdom of Silver Ring. Perhaps because of the opening of the camp on the first day, although there are many people here, according to Huggins, there will be more people here in a few days, and the maximum number of visitors can even exceed 20,000 in one night. This figure is certainly quite low in previous lives, but in the Middle Ages, when the population was scattered and sparsely populated, it was definitely at the level of a large bazaar.

Following in the footsteps of the other three, Todd approached the circus camp and found something interesting.

Contrary to what you might expect, the downtown circus is open-ended. In other words, there is no admission fee at all, and you will only be charged a certain amount of viewing fee when you enter a certain tent to watch the show. This kind of charging method seems to reduce the total income, but it attracts a large number of people with poor economic conditions, and together with the income of those self-operated or rented stalls, it forms a profit model of "customer agglomeration additional industry".

Walking down the circus path, unlike Huggins's non-squinting, Edgar is like a "little tour guide" who opens up the conversation, every performer, every stall, every juggler, every snack, he knows everything.

Finding the curiosity of the monks around him, this child, who loved to be lively and was only eleven or twelve years old, scratched his head embarrassedly and said: "Because I run fast, almost every performance of the circus in the downtown city, no matter how far away, I will sneak from the monastery to watch. But I didn't have any money before, and even when I did, I could only watch the open-air performances from a distance, and if the tent performances were loosely guarded, I would try to sneak in. But now it's different! I have this!"

Edgar untied the purse from his waist and shook it in the air as if to show off, the sound of silver and copper coins striking was crisp and beautiful.

With the reward obtained from refining silver, the child's face tugged at the expression, which couldn't help but remind Todd of his previous life, those bear children who used the family's money to show off their wealth outside.

Rolling his eyes and sighing, Huggins was about to reach out and give the little kid a chestnut, but the figure that flashed in front of him made his whole body stiff and his eyes were in a daze.

"I'm going to have something to do first, I'm going to go first. ”

As soon as the words fell, the man squeezed into the crowd and disappeared in an instant.

Todd was dumbfounded, and quickly shouted, "Hey, hey, where should I go now?!"

Suddenly, I felt someone pulling at the corner of my clothes, and I looked sideways.

Edgar triumphantly pointed at himself with a thumbs up: "I know where I'm going!"

Looking at the other party's confident expression, Todd suddenly had a bad premonition.

Sure enough.

Five minutes later, the little kid also ran away, and before leaving, he dropped a sentence, "Wow, Hercules Maddra's exclusive show!"

Looking at Edgar's distant figure, Todd and little Jerry, whose faces were full of black lines, glanced at each other, and the silly smile on the other party's face made him completely lose hope.

"Friends from afar, are you lost?"

A shriveled and hoarse voice came from the shadows of the tent.

Turning his head to look at the source of the sound, the monk saw an emaciated man in a black tuxedo walking towards him.

The upper part of his face was obscured by a mask, and the lower part was pale without the slightest hint of blood.

Behind the masked man, a pair of identical-looking beautiful girls jointly held up a huge parasol with tassels, blocking out all the light around them.

Taking a small step back, Todd looked at the person he was talking to warily: "Who are you?"

The man's upper body bent slightly, his left hand pressed his right chest, and he saluted: "Please forgive me for my rudeness, it is the leader of this little circus who is humble." Just now I heard your partner say, you want to find the location of the black sheep?"

Half a step back, the boy's doubts grew, and he hit a parasol in the middle of the night, claiming to be the head of the circus, and was kind enough to show him the way?

In his previous life, no matter how he looked at it, he looked like those liars peddling fake drugs on the side of the road.

The other party's wary demeanor made the man spread his hands in embarrassment, then turned sideways, pointed to the largest tent in the center of the circus, and said, "The black sheep you are looking for is there." ”

Watching the two monks walk farther and farther, the man took out a delicately crafted silver file from his arms, carefully sharpened his nails, and muttered to himself, "The Holy Son who is blessed by the Holy Father......

It may not seem clear from a distance, but as he got closer, Todd realized how big the tent was in the middle of the circus. The other tents used for the show were like gnomes standing beside giants.

The entrance ticket actually costs ten bronze stars, which is already several times the price of other tents. But there was still an endless stream of spectators here, and the joy and anticipation on everyone's faces made it seem like they really didn't care about the price.

Is there such a good show here?

With this question in mind, Todd walked into the tent with little Jerry.

Choosing a secluded position near the corner, the boy looked around and observed everything around him, the layout was somewhat similar to the circus tent of his previous life, but the facilities were more rudimentary, the seating was just a makeshift wooden platform, the fence was just a cheap haystack, and the only thing that made people concerned was the height of the tent. As a rough estimate, it's almost more than twenty meters.

As the audience took their seats, the fire in the tent slowly dimmed, and the curtain at the door was slowly lowered.

To Todd's surprise, in the darkness, the familiar hoarse voice sounded again: "We are convinced that the Gospel has come, and the great hour is coming. The Holy Virgin has a lamp in her hand, and the Merciful Savior has come to earth!"

Torch after torch was lit in the air, illuminating the space overhead as if it were day.

As the light came, a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl appeared on a ten-meter high platform.

Because she was so far away, her face couldn't be seen really. A long jet-black hair, rarely seen in the Middle Ages, is tied into twisted flowers and flutters in the wind, a black and white lace-up bodysuit shows off the slender figure, sequins and pendants on the garment reflect the firelight, gorgeous but not kitsch, and snow-white and small feet stand together.

The audience erupted in a tsunami-like cheer, and many men stood up and rushed to the fence, chanting praises aloud into the air.

Todd shrank back and looked up at the girl in the air.

I guess it's my own delusion...... The other party seemed to be staring intently at his position, and winked mischievously.