"The Count of Nijmegen has arrived, and the door is immediately opened!" The squire spoke to the old soldier who was squinting at me, who raised the white eyebrows above his cloudy pupils, mumbled his hand to his waist and fumbled for the key, and then opened the door to the tower with the sound of obscure metal rust.

A putrefining musty smell came to the nostrils, mixed with the disgusting smell of excrement, embracing fresh life that had not been seen for a long time, the candle placed in front of the statue of the Virgin was about to burn out, the flames were the size of soybean grains swaying in the half-solidified wax oil, and a black shadow was curled up in the far corner of the room, only the eyes were still radiating the essence of life and spirituality.

"Hello, Miss Crescenty!"

I told my attendant to stand outside and wait, and I strode in, and the attendant closed the door from the outside, not letting anyone near the room, and in fact no one would come here at all.

The black shadow moved slightly, and the dust on his body was piled up, making it impossible to tell where the skin was and where the burlap shirt was, and he could only tell whether the other party was looking at him or not through those bright eyes.

"Hehe, it's you, Lord Earl with blood on your hands, maybe the blood stains on your armor have long been cleaned by the diligent attendants, but the disgusting smell of blood still makes me distinguish it from afar, despicable Randy, as I have been raised like a dog for a long time, I don't know if this can satisfy you?"

Miss Crescenty brushed her hair to the sides with her hands so that her dusty face could be revealed.

"Thank God, at last you have the opportunity to come to see me with compassion, should I hug your pointy boots and cry bitterly, or kiss the dust under your feet directly, anyway, it's almost disgusting like the maggots crawling food that is sent over every day, I won't mind, aren't I just a slut who treats sin?"

"I'm sorry, I know that my actions have hurt you deeply and ruined your family, but according to your father's will and His Majesty's edict, in a while, when His Majesty the Pope returns to Berlin, the capital of the empire, in the autumn to disperse the cathedral, we will be married under the witness of God and the blessing of His Majesty, so I hope you pay attention to your words."

I walked to the side of the big bed covered with straw, picked up the wooden plate on the ground and looked at it, which contained unused dinner, a leaf of unknown vegetables floating in the light soup, and the most unbearable thing was that there was still a boiled insect sticking to the hole in the insect moth of the vegetable leaf, and the body of Bai Huahua was rotten and unsightly.

"How can this be true? I have instructed my servants to treat you as a guest, how can they do this to you the noble Miss Crescenty! ”

I threw the plate to the ground in anger and shouted at the subordinates who dared to disobey, and Miss Cresentie looked at me with a smile as if she were watching a funny clown show, and I knew that I was no longer trusted.

"Thank you so much, Earl, and may God bless your realm as the waters of the Po River."

Miss Cresentie lay on a straw pile with her coat and no emotion in her tone: "Please put away your fake set!" My father didn't know how to be deceived by you, and he actually wanted to marry me to you, it's really ridiculous in the world, I'm tired and want to rest, as a noble gentleman, you should know how to avoid the boudoir, right? ”

I stood there in embarrassment, looking at my delicate body wrapped in rags and linen, I deserved to be treated like this, didn't I? Including giving her a damp and dilapidated tower, and the daily food is terrible, isn't it a bad idea to force her to give in? But why is my heart uncontrollably sad, and I can't suppress the urge to hug a warm body, is it that I fell in love with her, this girl who hates me to the bone?

"Miss Crescenty!"

I fixed my mind and said in a harsh and ruthless tone: "As the daughter of a nobleman, you should know from a young age that life is not your own private property, you must always be ready to dedicate everything to the family, before your father died, for the continuation of the family, I decided to put you under my wing, survive strong in adversity, family interests are superior to personal happiness, it should be the consciousness of every daughter of a martial artist in troubled times, please cheer up, your father is a great knight, and his noble blood should not be cut off, Even God would not allow such a thing to happen. ”

I don't know why, I said so much with my heart and emotion, in fact, compared to her, I am the most ridiculous and weak existence, if the roles of the two of us are swapped now, I must have been desperate to find life and death.

Thinking of this, I pushed open the door and stepped into the darkness outside, the attendant hurriedly followed with torches, the door to the room locked at the back, and then the shrill cough of a veteran bellows echoed in the empty hallway.

The next morning, all the nobles who had come to the funeral of Knight Robert gathered in the chapel of the castle, the head of Knight Robert was sewn to his neck with large needles by the attendants, and the blood and dirt all over his body were cleaned, and the knight, who was in carved Venetian armor, lay on a stretcher made of shields and spears, as if asleep, his favorite sword in his hand, and his whole body was covered with beautiful wild flowers that had just been picked in the field and were still covered with dew.

I put the highest standard in organizing his funeral this time, just so that the gossiping nobles can see that the Earl is not a cold-blooded freak, and I value discipline, but it is also full of human touch.

Fr. Djokovic, dressed in red vestments, stood in the middle of a silent recitation of the Bible, then placed the cross in his hand around the head of Knight Robert to bless him, and several priests stood beside him with their heads bowed, and the shampooed white pullover against the flowers made the scene look holy.

"Let's get started!"

As the priest finished reciting the last verse of the Requiem and led the group in prayer, I nodded to a few well-dressed attendants, who picked up Knight Robert's stretcher and walked slowly to the carriage parked outside the castle, where his relatives were responsible for transporting the body back to the family cemetery for burial.

"A very successful funeral, you can see that you have put a lot of thought into it, and it must have taken a lot of manpower just to cover the flowers, and the petals are still hanging with the morning dewdrops, may God bless you for your kindness and generosity, you are a true knight, Lord Earl."

Father Djokovic walked up to me and looked at the coffin as it got farther and farther away, and said: "I think that no one will think that you are a ruthless villain who is unreasonable and unreasonable, and if they are not satisfied with the vain attempt to rebel, I will stand firmly on your side, and condemn the scheming and shamelessness of these people with ulterior motives on behalf of God." ”

"Thank you, Father!"

I bowed slightly to express my gratitude, and several of Knight Robert's relatives had already mounted their horses and were about to leave, and I specially ordered Kohler to lead the cavalry of the castle to escort them out of the country.

"But I'm afraid things are not as simple as you think, the warriors who believe in God are not all above board, under the cloak of the cross, there is still an ulterior and despicable darkness, I do this only to try to pull some poor people who are about to go astray back to the arms of the Father, as for those nasty knights who are still trying to take advantage of the opportunity, I can only use the sword in my hand to teach them how to keep their hearts clear, God, please forgive me for having to hold the spear in my hands."

"You're saying it's not over yet? Oh, God! How so! ”

When the priest heard me, he stared at me with a warm gaze and some apprehension, as if he was worried that I would be torn apart by the little people hiding in the corner.

"What can I do to help you, my friend?"

"Don't worry! Father! Remember what I said yesterday? The enemy will take the initiative to jump out and make a fool of himself. ”

I patted the priest on the back, causing his body to stiffen with embarrassment, for no one had ever dared to touch the noble body of the bishop so frivolously.

"Speaking of help, I think you can attend tomorrow's banquet, I invite all the nobles who have come to the funeral today to have a feast, the treasury is full of delicacies from the mountains and seas trafficked by the merchants, since the implementation of a more open commercial policy, the economy of the territory has become more and more prosperous, it is time to find an opportunity to treat the prosperous territory, and everyone who has worked hard day and night, even the peasants have distributed a certain amount of ale, and drunk together carefree under the glory of the Father!"

Father Djokovic looked at me in bewilderment, just as he had seen through my soul when he gave the order to kill Knight Robert, and it seemed to him that perhaps I was indeed a strange person, and his thoughts jumped so fast that he could not keep up with the rhythm:

"His Majesty the Pope has explained a lot of things before I came, just yesterday I felt that I did not understand what he said, this confusion has been entangled in my heart for a long time, until just now I did not understand the deep meaning, it is true that only people with the same vision can understand the heart of mutual sympathy, the Pope Ni said: This is a madman who makes you want to strangle him all the time, you can never guess what shocking thoughts are about to pop up in his brain as you and me."

"Then please think while eating, we have time."

I smiled as I watched the priest leave with the priests, and then quickly put away my smile, and the bull who had escaped from the funeral appeared ghostly behind me, hanging his hands in silence.

"How?" I returned to my seat in the castle hall and sat down, and instructed the attendants to prepare two glasses of ale for us.

"The knights who left under the pretext of leaving, stopped in the forest outside the territory, as if they were waiting for someone, they are indeed discussing rebellion, let's strike first, my lord?" The bull saw that there was no one left and right, and whispered in my ear what he had sent a spy to see.

"Nope! The tastiest prey often has to be fattened to have an appetite, and this is the perfect opportunity for me to annex the Low Countries. I grinned as I looked at the squire who was getting closer and closer with two glasses, and the other man stayed where he was, thinking that he had done something wrong.