He stared indifferently at my familiar chatter, and the changing look in his eyes flickered like a marquee, and finally stopped at a terrible insensitivity, yes, a pool of stagnant silence and silence.

I suddenly felt like I was choked by something, and the chatter came to an abrupt end, and the dead knot that I was most unwilling to face but couldn't bypass appeared in my mind, and gradually became a spark, and Zareth's friend was gone.

"May God bless you, Lord Duke of Nijmegen."

Zareth deliberately flashed in a direction away from me, and bowed with ceremonial respect: "I beg your pardon for not being able to congratulate you on the birth of your heir, and I have to feel that God's arrangement is fair to meet you in such a situation today." ”

"Lord Duke?"

I chewed on these two words, which I had heard countless times, and my ears had become calloused, and infinite sadness rose in my heart, as if I had been artificially erected on the frozen throne on the top of the snow-capped mountain, except for the endless loneliness and the wind and frost that seemed to never go away, there was nothing to prove the meaning of my existence.

"As your former comrade-in-arms and follower, I personally feel very sorry and sad for the sword and war with you, but allegiance to the feudal lord is the duty of a knight, and I have no choice in this regard, as you know, the Duke of Dietrich declares that he is an enemy of your feudal lord, His Majesty Henry of Saxony, and my master, the Count of Ardennes, must obey the decision of the feudal lord and join the crusade, and as a knight who enjoys the fiefdom, I also have to take up the sword in my hand to fulfill my feudal duty, which is an oath and allegiance witnessed by God."

In the past, Zareth would never talk nonsense to me in such a high-sounding manner, and his favorite thing to talk about was that the plump maid in the castle and the amorous peasant girl that Hunter Yan met, the two of them lay side by side in the castle stables full of straw, looking at the stars in the night sky, chatting and complaining back and forth with you without a limit, and then tacitly laughing because of a certain laughing point, this feeling is called a bosom friend.

"This is a divine right and duty given by God, knight."

As I spoke, I subconsciously sat up straight, my tone slowly became stiff, and my eyes were cold and indifferent, but no one knew that the wound in my heart was bleeding unstoppably, and every bit of it would dry up one day.

"I'm very sorry for our raiding of villages and capture people, and I hope you understand, this is the unspoken rule of war between the two countries, and the knights who have worked hard will have to bring some booty back, but ......"

He turned his words around and reprimanded me viciously: "Have you forgotten that you have cruelly murdered all our nobles and knights regardless of your status and decency, and your hands are soaked in the blood of sin, and one knight's hands will never be stained with the blood of another knight?" This is a betrayal of God and a blasphemy of the noble spirit! ”

"You know me, knight, worldly red tape has never been able to bind my free soul, Nijmegen's piety is evident to all, on the contrary, it is your duke who has been tempted by the devil to fight for dirty power, and is willing to collude with traitors to the empire, he is the betrayer of the blasphemous faith, the shameless liar and the villain!"

Speaking of excitement, I waved my fist in front of him, and the sophistry that blurted out these arguments, which even I felt were full of loopholes, not only did not make me a winner, but rather looked inward.

Zareth didn't answer, his face cloudy as if it were billowing clouds before a storm, arguing had never been his forte, he had only studied rhetoric with his master for a short time before he was officially canonized as a knight, and that was all so that he could rack his brains and piece together a few disgusting love poems to seduce the fat maid in the back kitchen.

The knight who had just righteously condemned me was now like a defeated rooster, reining in his filthy feathers and hiding aside, but even then his proud chin was always held high, and he refused to admit defeat easily.

The scene quieted down, and neither of the two sides in the stalemate was willing to break the silence first, just at this moment Luo happened to hold two wooden bowls full of freshly boiled soup, and put them in front of us, and the vegetable soup with corned beef was milky white in color, still gurgling and bubbling.

I took the prepared food from Rollo and handed another wooden bowl to Zare: "No matter what conflicts may exist between us, you are still my guest, please accept Nijmegen's hospitality, taste it, it is difficult to drink such delicious hot soup in the battlefield, so warm your body." ”

"Thank you for your kindness, Lord Duke."

Zareth naturally understood that this was the step I was looking for, and he didn't want to make the relationship too stiff, so he politely held the wooden bowl in his hand and whispered along the edge of the bowl, but the hard fight was really tiring, and he couldn't control his hunger instinct after just two bites, and he didn't care about the hot soup, so he raised his neck and gobbled it up, his whole head almost arched into the bowl, and I couldn't help but purse my lips and chuckle when I saw this funny scene. He blushed and handed the wooden bowl back, and asked hesitantly, "Is there anything else?" ”

The atmosphere was lively, and Zareth devoured bowl after bowl quickly, until Rollo, who came back with the empty bowl again, spread his hands helplessly, and he realized his faux pas, embarrassedly tore off a piece of dried bread, dipped the residual juice at the bottom of the bowl and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Forgive me for my recklessness, Lord Duke, and I have to say that your food is as warm and unstoppable as your generosity, and that you are a truly gracious gentleman, and I wish you would never be your enemy if possible......," Zareth said with emotion, looking up into my eyes.

"We're friends, aren't we, Zare?"

His words were like a monstrous flood, easily breaking down my shoddy hypocritical embankment, washing away those false honorific titles and respectful courtesies, I looked at the corners of his eyes that were instantly full of tears, and asked seriously, I want an answer, yes, an answer!

"Friend, hehe, what a distant call that is, Randy......"

Zareth gently wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, turned his face and continued with a forced composure, "If you still treat me as a friend, then grant me one last request, for God's sake, Randy, promise me!" ”

I had a vague sense of foreboding, and I frowned and asked, "As long as I can do it, I will definitely agree, but only if you can't hurt yourself." ”

Zareth grinned suddenly, giggling and bent over, the tears that had been wiped back in the corners of his eyes, unable to tell whether he was sad or happy.

"I still can't fool you, Randy, you cunning old fox!"

As if remembering what a ridiculous thing, he clapped his hands nervously and said breathlessly: "I understand your good intentions, why did you kill everyone but leave me alone, but you must know that friend, I am a knight, I have sworn allegiance to God to my lord, from then on this life is not just about living, there are too many things to be strong in faith and carrying, honor is our life!" , you let me live is a trampling on my dignity, I must die! Like those companions who are already in a different place! Friend, stop humiliating with mercy a knight's desire to die generously. ”

I shook my head desperately and deliberately didn't listen to him finish speaking: "You want honor? I'll give you the right treatment until the ransom is paid, Zareth, and this preserves the knight's dignity, so why do you have to die to curse me to live forever in the shadow of killing my best friend with my own hands? ”

"Capture Duke Dietrich, will you spare his life?"

Zareth leaned over and whispered in his ear, smiling wryly at me, "This is God's will, a fate that cannot be escaped no matter how much you struggle, my friend, please let me ascend to heaven with my pride and glory." ”

Seeing the resolute smile on his face, I sat back weakly, my head spinning, like riding a roller coaster, Zareth was so determined that it was impossible to refuse, and to find any sanctimonious reason to keep him would only be a blasphemy of his beliefs and persistence.

As a friend, I was so sad that I wanted to die. But as a sympathizer in the besieged city, I was a little envious of his awe-inspiring ease, which revealed a truth as refined as gold, and courteous gentlemen may not all be decent and frivolous bastards, how can there be no heroes.

"******** negative minds are mostly ...... readers"

Silently reciting the wise sayings that have been passed down through the ages, I held back the tears that were about to gush out, pinched my sour nose and nodded in agreement: "Zare, my friend, I promise that your noble character will be spread by bards to every corner of the world, whether it is an old man or a drooping child, they will never forget your name, I promise God!" ”

Zareth scratched the back of his head and smiled innocently, the familiar cynicism reappearing on his face, and we looked at each other arm in arm, each other's hearts worth a thousand words.

The long night was finally over, and the next day's dawn was no different from the usual day, and the Nijmegen army, having arranged all the trivial arrangements, was ready to bask in the warm and vigorous light of the morning sun, and my gaze rested for a long time on the humble cross that stood abruptly by the river, and behind it the shallow raised tomb was the sleeping pure land of Zare, and I wrote on the edge of the cross with the little ink in my belly:

"Slow down, passers-by, for a true knight sleeps in this beautiful and alluring landscape."

On June 27th, two days before St. Paul and St. Peter, perhaps with the blessing of the saints, we galloped non-stop for two days and two nights, running away many of our horses, and some of the knights had to change to charging horses in advance, and finally rushed back as quickly as possible to the battlefield where we intercepted the Duke of Dietrich.

I was soaked all over my body, the long jolting made my ass stiff like a stone, the slightest pain like a pinprick when I was next to the saddle, nine times out of ten it wore out the skin, the shirt on the lining was soft and slumped against the front and back of the chest, the chain mail seemed to become a sponge, and it also absorbed water and became heavy, and the crisp sound of the impact of the ring buckle became more and more dull.

I took off my helmet and hung it on my arm, this thing was stuffy like a steamer with a head on it, it would definitely suffocate if I wore it again, my mount was not much better, even through the thick saddle, I could feel the hot breath of this burning body under my crotch, the beautiful mane was sticky and drooping, and the tongue that spit out was shaking the disgusting white foam, this strong war horse had done its best, and there was a danger of sudden death at any time if I ran one more step.

(End of chapter)

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