"Do you know what you've done? Lord Earl? ”

Father Djokovic now seems to think more and more of himself as a member of my court, perhaps at the behest of His Holiness the Pope at the time of his departure, or perhaps he himself, impressed by my personal charm and creativity, and in any case he has already begun to put himself in my shoes and faithfully perform the duties of a retainer.

"What to do? Am I punishing a knight who dares to defy the feudal king, is it wrong? ”

After seeing the priest, I don't know why, most of my anger was gone, and all that was left was a small mood that was disturbed by the fact that Knight Robert, who didn't know the height of the sky, dared to duel with him, and the priest was like a fire extinguisher, extinguishing the fire that had just burned vigorously.

"As we all know, I have long issued an order to protect the cultivated land, as a lord who relies on the output of the people to provide for support, don't you know that the land is the foundation of the people's livelihood?"

In a hurry, I blurted out a Chinese colloquialism, and Father Djokovic nodded inexplicably, then shook his head gently, as if he didn't agree with me.

"Your Excellency, you are wrong, knights are the foundation of the country, strong feudal relations are the key to the long-term stability of the country, and it is not the peasants who work hard to produce food to protect your rule, but the samurai who wield swords to maintain your rule."

The priest was attentive to educating me, and was still trying to pull me back from the brink of danger he considered dangerous to the shore.

"Although the peasants who take up arms are numerous, they are not able to fight, and the knights who have honed their martial arts since childhood can gallop among thousands of troops, and the two are very different, and they must not be the same."

"Your heart is kind to protect your people, God has seen your kindness, but the feudal lord will never interfere with the power of the vassals, it is a more sacred contract, and those who break it will inevitably lose the support of the vassals, as well as God's blessing, without the Knights of the Round Table, even if it is the heroic King Arthur, there is no way to achieve a hegemony!"

"Are you talking too badly, Father?"

After listening to the priest's words, I was a little sober, just now in front of many attendants and peasants, it was indeed a bit too much to reprimand Knight Robert, so that he could not get off the stage, but in my own territory, can't I teach my vassals a lesson? Just because I'm now Robert's knight, I lose the right to interfere with his actions?

"Of course you have the right to reprimand your subordinates, and to do whatever you want in all your domains, but it is already the domain of the knight of Robert, and together with the peasants who work above, it becomes the private property of the Robert family, and although it is not a hereditary fief, he has the power to teach, punish, and even kill any peasant whom he deems guilty, because in that small territory he is the representative of law and order, the supreme master."

The priest walked up to the chair in front of me and sat down, and the top of his head came under my nose like a pearl of illumination, and continued like a cannon in his mouth:

"You are undermining his feudal power and demanding that a proud knight confess his mistakes in public and compensate the lowly peasants for their losses, this request is too much, you are not punishing his actions, but discrediting your own family, and the knight of Robert is asking for a duel, not only to defend his own glory, but also to maintain your prestige in the entire noble circle, and in this way it is consistent to solve the problem with the usual logic, no matter who wins in the end, there will be no damage to the reputation of both sides, which shows how well-intentioned he is."

No way! It's all my fault?

In the strange fucking Middle Ages, not only did the parasitic clergymen who spread the glory of God pervade under the pretext of accumulating the people's fat and ointment, but the little knight dared to ask the dignified Earl to duel, and if it was placed in my Great China, it would have been wiped out by the ten clans a long time ago, and it was really unreasonable!

Now I was really on fire, and I slapped the table and yelled, "Do you want me to be grateful to a little knight for being thoughtful about himself?" Even God can't stand such an insult! ”

"You are enmaging the entire noble class, my Earl! This will overturn your own rule, and the peasants who can't even hold their swords will have no way to defend your realm! ”

Fr. Djokovic, too, was so enpissed off by my stubbornness that he couldn't care about the respect and propriety he deserved, and the spit almost sprayed me in the face.

I rose from my chair and pounced on the squire holding the sword like an angry lion, and drew it with a swipe in the stunned eyes of everyone, and the sharp blades of the blacksmiths repeatedly forged reflected a cold light like frost:

"If he wants to fight, I will fight! If the knights unite against me, then I will uproot them like weeds in a field and recreate new knights of mine! ”

With that, I raised my sword and cut off the long table in front of me, and the neat stubble revealed the clear annual rings of the trees, just like this pedantic system that had existed for a long time in my opinion, although it was dead, it still desperately wanted to leave traces of the entangled world.

"Your Excellency!"

"Please don't go your own way!"

"Think again, Lord Earl!"

“……………………………”

At noon the next day, I stood in the open space in front of the castle in full gear, waiting for the arrival of Knight Robert, surrounded by my closest descendants.

Bull, Kohler, Hans, and in recent months, the strictly trained Territory Youths, all of whom have obtained the qualifications of their own soldiers, have become the new forces I rely on the most, and have been named the New Guard, wearing a red battle flag decorated with the dragon coat of arms in the upper left corner, majestically lined up in a neat queue, fresh clothes and angry sabers and guns, and there is a faint vigor that devours heaven and earth.

They were not used for the castle guards or guards of the past, but were a new type of samurai who were completely closed and cultivated with the idea of loyalty, and my castle provided them with a full set of equipment and horses, and they were paid from my treasury on time at the fifteenth and end of each month, rather than the traditional knights who had obtained fiefdoms by swearing allegiance, and were more loyal, more controllable, and quite handy in command.

After a while, Knight Robert took his attendants, as well as the lords of several surrounding territories who were related to him by marriage, and came here on horseback at the appointed time, only to see that everyone's faces seemed to be full of bitterness and hatred, especially the arrogant expression of Knight Robert, who seemed to have won the battle, which made me even more angry.

"Knight Robert, I will send the first general, Baron Herusbeck to duel with you in my place, his weapon is a battle axe, dismount and fight."

When the other man stood in his place, I waved my hand and let the bull walk to the center of the field with a battle axe, his muscular upper body exposed, reflecting the metallic bronze shine in the sunlight, and his tall body was like the reincarnation of the god of war.

"And who's going to be the judge of today's duel?" Knight Robert chose his sword and shield as his weapons, and he also dismounted and walked to the opposite side of the bull, and after saluting, he opened his mouth and asked.

Father Djokovic, still wearing a plain dark linen robe, with a hood on his head covering his face, shrouded his face that could not see his expression, and said in a calm tone: "God forbid, if there is no objection between the two sides, I am willing to be the judge of this duel." ”

The duel was not as exciting and blood-pumping as one might expect.

One is an orthodox knight with many years of professional training.

One is a newcomer knight from a lowly background who was killed in a sea of corpses and blood.

There is a world of difference between the two people in terms of background and life experience, and this difference is also reflected in the martial arts, and even after ten rounds, Robert Knight was unloaded by the bull and pressed to the ground unable to move.

The bull looked up at me, seeking the next command.

Everyone around me was like a sunflower, turning their heads to stare at me, and their countless eyes contained banter, mockery, anticipation, pity, bloodthirsty, excitement,

Once again, the decision was in my hands, just as I had when I had decided to let Knight Robert pay compensation to a lowly serf.

I know what everyone is looking forward to, Father Djokovic is afraid that I don't understand the rules, and do something stupid that will cry ghosts and gods, and I specially explained last night that according to the rules of the duel, in the current situation, the winning feudal party will choose to leave the defeated vassals with their lives, because the hands of an upright knight cannot be stained with the blood of another knight, and then the feudal lord should pardon him in public, so as to gain a merciful reputation and the heartfelt service of the defeated side, and at the same time win the hearts of all vassals, the guests and hosts hugged each other and cried to drink and talk, and the matter was not resolved according to the process.

It doesn't sound like the legendary life-and-death duel, but more like a performance that has been written in a long script, each playing everyone's role, and then falsely reading out the dialogue, and finally ending with a happy ending.

I felt as if I had a fish bone in my throat, just like myself standing on the cusp of the storm at the moment, and it was very uncomfortable to go up or down.

Everyone was waiting for my answer, as if waiting for the teacher to announce the end of class, because I was manipulating life and death.

The afternoon sunshine that made people iron comfortably suddenly turned into a fierce flame in the hands of God to punish the world, scorching my back viciously, and I was already soaked with sweat.

Not far away, the peasants, who were stopped by the soldiers to watch the excitement, began to make impatient noise, and a crow fluttered over my head, deliberately opening its mouth and making a terrible chirp, like urging and like a death knell, but I didn't know for whom.

Whether my decision is correct or not, I don't have a bottom in my heart, because since I was a child, I have long been accustomed to going on according to the life trajectory arranged by various people, I always thought that I was forced to go to school, take exams, find a job, go on a blind date, get married and have children, but I didn't realize that maybe I was enjoying the comfort of sitting and enjoying it step by step, and the sadness of the canary in the cage was that while longing for freedom to chirp in the air, while willingly pecking millet.

I have never made a decision for myself from the bottom of my heart, even after being so unlucky to be crossed, it is just according to the conventions of the world, or it is a change of direction and forced to go on without a heart, and suddenly I can't find the motivation to continue to move forward.

Didn't my intention to find a way back into the future?

But he semi-voluntarily sank deeper and deeper into the quagmire of the Middle Ages!

Those self-righteous struggles are just useless struggles to speed up the mud to devour themselves, I used to think that I was trying to live for all those who love me, but I was wrong, no one in this world wants you to live, they just want to tear you apart, chew up, swallow your flesh and blood, and there will be no bones left.

I slowly stretched out my right hand and gave a thumbs up to the crowd waiting for the answer in front of me, which means that I forgive the sins of Knight Robert, and from now on we will abandon the previous hatred and renew the relationship of master and subordination, and the onlookers let out a long sigh of relief, let out a loud cheer, and the praise of real or false is endless.

"You are merciful, Lord Earl!"

"God bless, Lord Count!"

"Praise the Lord! What a harmonious scene! ”