The dark clouds that lingered with the moon all night finally got tired of the arms of their lovers, and left with the wind, and the crescent moon that had gradually fallen in the west was melancholy lost, and the loneliness sowed silver thoughts, and the forests and mountains came alive and vivid, this was the last carnival of the dark forces before dawn.

I walked to the resting warriors, they looked at the leader with their eyes with fervent adoration, I knew that loyalty was maintained by heartfelt trust, and I believed that the Duke would lead them from victory to victory no matter what, and the warriors gambled their lives to support me across thousands of miles to sweep away the stubborn enemy, and all I had to do was to turn the horse's head and clean up the defeated men who had been defeated, and the glory and glory belonged to Nijmegen once, and it would belong to Nijmegen twice.

"Warriors of Nijmegen!"

I waved my arms and tried to make all I could feel the surging passion.

"Are you just accepting defeat? Martini is nothing more than a small stumbling block on the way forward, and those who walk in a hurry will inevitably wander and fall, but don't forget, a fall does not kill a person! Stand up, pat the dust, kick away the pesky pebbles, and get back on your journey! The road is not gone, there is never an end, and if you fall, you will remember the taste of pain! My loyal warriors, are you afraid to continue your journey? ”

The result is obvious, the sonorous and powerful unison shouts are deafening, the morale that slipped away is back, the so-called soldiers can not take away their spirit, the army must not lose their hearts, when everyone is sincerely united, thousands of hearts as one heart, will be like a bamboo, invincible!

I had never swaggered into an enemy city so swaggeringly, and when the warriors rushed to Martini, the small mountain town opened its doors to us.

"If your abilities are so strong, why did you bother us to fight in Baal before?" I smiled wryly and complained about Codename Four.

"Martini is a small town, and a man with the ability to resist can count them on no two hands, and of course he can catch them."

She coldly dismissed the idea of being lazy, walked quickly to her men and whispered something, and when she received an answer, she came back and said: "The enemy is too careless, all of them are drunk, and my men have not made much effort to arrest them, except for the Baron de Léman, who made a big mess by struggling twice with the strength of his wine, everything else went well. ”

Codename Four pointed to the still brightly lit hall of lords on the other side of the square: "They're all tied up waiting to be delivered, my lord." ”

What about the melee that is said to be good? I rolled my eyes, first ordered the soldiers to take over the city and set up a guard, and then I walked slowly to the stone house, resisted the pungent smell of wine, and gritted my teeth into the hall.

Inside, the strong smell was so strong that people couldn't open their eyes, more than a dozen people were tied up and thrown in the corner, there were basically no traces of fighting all over the ground, but the cups and plates on the table were messy and the disgusting vomit was impressive, and several shirtless strong men were bruised and purple, presumably there was a game of wrestling at the banquet.

I swept over the dejected captives one by one, and my gaze stopped at someone: "Untie him, this is his own people, the Sunflower Knight of Nijmegen, the Owen of Herclet." ”

The latter felt humiliated and turned his head away, obviously holding back his resentment, and it was really embarrassing to let others tie up on all fours.

"If you're not mistaken, you're the famous Duke of Nijmegen, right?"

There was a harsh sarcasm from afar, and I followed the voice, only to see Baron Otto staring at him with a sneering face.

"It's better to hear than to see, and the name of the despicable is really extraordinary......"

His tone became more and more frivolous, and the code name waved his hand, and a man in black grabbed his arm tied behind his back with a clamp, and immediately shut his mouth.

I did not waste any time, but turned around and instructed the attendants on standby: "Requisition all the horses and cattle in the city, gather the storehouses and prepare supplies, give you half a day, and set out as soon as noon is over." ”

"Lord Duke!"

Otto interrupted me in a hoarse voice: "Have you forgotten that justice is the standard that knights should follow?" Now that you have attacked the domain of a baron and detained him by despicable means, without giving him the respect he deserves, what is the oath of the Holy Church in your heart! ”

Noisy, idiot, tendon, it's a miracle that this kind of person can survive to this day.

I scratched my forehead and waved my hand to signal the attendant to give the order first: "Respect? Fair? Okay, so tell me what kind of respect and justice you want. ”

Otto bent his knees to stand up, and the man in black holding the clamp in his hand pressed him back to the ground and knelt down again: "Although you are in a high position, under the witness of God, we are all knights baptized by the Holy Contract, so you and I are on an equal footing, and I have the right to stand and speak." ”

He squinted at the man in black who was holding him viciously: "Is this the etiquette of the Duke of Nijmegen to a knight?" ”

A fool with a lot of nonsense is more annoying than a simple fool, and I have no choice but to wink, and the man in black loosens his shackles on Otto.

"It seems that you are not as incorrigible as the rumors suggest." He stood up, pretending to be relaxed and moving his stiff muscles.

"Get down to business."

I was a little impatient, but I actually thought to myself that I would be idle anyway, and it would be fun to see what the other party could do.

"I ask for a chance to fight and redeem my reputation, and if I lose, I will admit my defeat while paying a ransom commensurate with my identity."

The word duel came out of Otto's mouth as simple as eating: "You may assign a knight to fight on your behalf, and the two sides will fight a duel in the presence of God and the people, and for the sake of fairness, your men will have priority in choosing their weapons." ”

"What a superstitious and reckless man who believes in force......"

I couldn't help but look at the confident expression of the other man, and I wondered whether to praise his bravery or laugh at his recklessness: "Your request is reasonable, Baron Otto, and indeed the glory of a knight should not be tarnished by impudence. ”

I slowly drew my sword as a duel courtesy, and if I pressed the hilt of my hand to place it flat between the two of you, it meant that the opposing party had accepted the challenge.

Shouting, pumping, everyone's attention, I enjoyed the feeling of being in the spotlight on the stage.

"I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you."

Suddenly the sword was sheathed, and my smile changed from smug to stunned to frightened, like a playful cat teasing a newly caught mouse.

"I'm sorry, I refuse to accept the duel, the source of justice is to follow my heart, my heart tells me not to take care of face and vanity of glory, to accept this kind of challenge with no chance of winning, that is not an obligation, not bravery, stupidity, stupidity for two lives, I pride myself not a stupid person, so I refuse."

"How can it be!"

Otto roared in disbelief, if it hadn't been for the man in black next to him holding down his shoulder in time, this guy would definitely have crashed headlong and fought to his death.

"Coward! Coward! Shameless! God, you have rejected a knight's legitimate request! ”

The angry Otto's brute force seems to be quite large, a man in black can't control it, and has to call the past three people to help him, Enides can no matter what mess of glory and rules, for thousands of years they have been hiding in the dark and using the most insidious means to maintain their own development, nobles, commoners, pigs and dogs, in their definition, there is no difference at all.

"Bang!" With a muffled sound, Otto fell to his knees in pain, and the man in black who was the stick was not ambiguous at all, and it rained down one after another.

"That's enough."

Seeing that Otto's face was covered in blood when he was huddled in a ball on the ground, I hurriedly shouted to stop, the former's chest rose and fell violently, and his lips opened and closed, as if he had something to say.

“…… Despicable. I leaned in and finally heard what he was saying.

"Hehehe, you're not the first person to say that about me, and you won't be the last."

I ordered the man in black to turn Otto over and pinch his chin so that he could concentrate on remembering each sentence: "Listen, Baron, only the victor can make rules or make demands, the so-called justice is relative, the loser is like a duck slaughtered on the chopping board, the knightly code is indeed sacred, but it is for fairy tales, please open your eyes and take a good look around, you are in reality at the moment, understand?" ”

He snorted in his throat, weakly spat out bloody phlegm, sprayed me in the face impartially, and then laughed contemptuously and presumptuously, I raised my hand to stop the man in black who was about to do it, and rubbed the bloody phlegm off lightly.

"What if you spit on me? Wipe it clean, and the courage of the moment is the vulgar cognition of you martial artists, and people who have no thoughts are at most tools that can speak, and tools, if they are not used, they can be thrown into the corner, and they can be replaced with new ones if they are rusty. ”

He chuckled and continued, but his momentum was much weaker: "It is true that you are an excellent knight, freshly clothed and angry, happy and hateful, and very free and easy, but you are not a qualified lord, using fake chivalry to swagger and deceive, provoking senseless wars and duels again and again, in order to make up enough ransom, making the people in the territory miserable, isn't this not fulfilling the responsibility of the lord to protect the people?" There are two sides to everything, and the same is true of being a human being, the left hand is merciful, the right hand is cruel, half angel, half devil, you don't always have God in your mouth and you really believe in God, you don't deserve to have a knight's sword. ”

After being quiet for a long time, Otto slowly spoke: "Having said so much, Lord Duke, I know that I have no way to live, kill me, please be sure to agree to this last humble request, is it okay?" His eyes were complex, full of pleading, decadence, collapse and self-pity.

"Kill you? You've been a hundred, and you've preserved your glory, but do you still have glory? ”

I shook off his pleading hands, stood up with a grim face, ignored Otto's heart-rending cry, and stood solemnly with the corners of his eyes raised, ready to be called:

"Throw him into the square and leave him at the disposal of his own people."

"No!"

I turned my back and didn't see how Otto had been dragged out by the man in black, but his hysterical roar echoed in my ears, and when a man knew he was going to die, that despair was enough to extinguish the light of day.

"He should have known he wasn't going to make it, didn't he? It is also necessary to use duels to strengthen courage, so as to hide the fear of death, in the face of life and death, nobles and commoners are equal, equally humble, equally powerless. ”

I knew that Codename Four was right next to me, half talking to myself and half speaking to her.

"I just got a tip, the Duke of Normandy and Kohler successfully entered the city of Milan, both of them were slightly wounded, and it was Isaac's men who attacked them, surrounded by the Norman army who rushed to the rescue, and all the troops were annihilated, and several seriously injured were also cut off on their own."

Codename Four's voice was clear to the ear, calm as a precision-throbbing machine, and after entering Enides, her nerves seemed to be transformed into a straight one-line reaction, ruthless, desireless, and demanding.

"We've encountered a gang on the way here, the two sides have staggered by each other and haven't looked at each other, I'm sure there must be more enemies lurking nearby, but your whereabouts haven't been discovered yet, for the sake of safety, please hurry up and leave immediately."

Codename frowned, his eyes stared at the movement outside the door, and he said coldly: "Throw him there, no one dares to move." ”

"Rest assured, there will always be the first person to eat crabs."

"Crabs?" She rarely asked a rhetorical question.

Next to the guard who had been killed by the stick, another bloody corpse rose side by side, with a hideous and broken face as if it had been eaten by wild dogs, in fact this guy was not much better, half of his face was missing flesh, and one eye hung horribly from the bridge of his nose, so that everyone who walked in front of him could not bear to look directly, except for a few crows that had stopped in the distance early and waited, and mourning dogs that were anxiously circling around the wooden frame.

I stared at the two corpses that were swaying in mid-air, like two palace lamps extinguished under the sun, representing the end of some kind of dark reign.

The fresh excitement of the tattered peasants carrying the weapons they had received quickly dissipated under the stern discipline of the Nijmegen soldiers, who complained about the twisted columns that kept up with the marching troops.

"You see, there will still be people who are willing to be the first to eat crabs." I don't know who I'm muttering, but the scene before the departure comes to my mind again.

"My lord, there are a lot of people in the square, and the order is very chaotic, and I am worried that the scene will be difficult to control." A soldier hurried in, pointing out the room and shouting breathlessly.

"Panic what."

I rummaged through the wine glasses in front of me, but I couldn't find a clean one, so I had to throw the remaining half pot of ale to the farthest place from me, listening to the crisp cracking sound that came, and I felt perverted in my heart.

"You said there were a lot of people gathered outside, is it true?"

"I swear to God, it's true, it's all Martini's peasants, and here and there, with a few peddlers who didn't have time to leave yesterday, surrounded the square and stared straight at Baron Otto's angry curses in the middle."

He rubbed his hands together unconsciously, as if trying to grasp something in the void.

"What if there are Baron Otto's people in the crowd and take advantage of the chaos?"

"Okay, let them make trouble, just come and catch them all, so you don't have to spend more time later."

I grinned nonchalantly, Codename Four automatically appeared behind me without being summoned, and I turned my face to her, squeezing out the common treacherous expression of the old fritters in the casino, and laughed in a flirtatious tone as if I had eaten three Zhuang mouths in a row.

"Let's go, I'll show you what it means to be the first person to eat a crab."

(End of chapter)