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Spring of 1177 in the imperial calendar

In this season of warm flowers blooming and all things reviving and blooming, the commoners who have survived the cold winter again have finally breathed a sigh of relief, poverty makes them know how to cherish more than the nobles, and every family carefully disassembles and washes the precious warm clothes and presses them back into the wardrobe, and can't wait to change into patched and thin spring clothes, go out of the house, and exchange heavy labor for food that is only enough for the stomach of the family......

Even...... Even the beasts, which had been cats for a winter, began to come alive, eagerly filling their empty bellies with tender plants and abundant meat

However, everything that should have been done in the spring of this year was completely lost in the vicinity of the Grey Fort on the border between the central and northern parts of the Empire, and large swaths of fertile fields were abandoned and overgrown with weeds, and the surrounding villages were only ruins

The battlefield in which hundreds of thousands of troops confronted each other, even the most sensitive beasts were reluctant to approach, and with the exception of the occasional scavenging fowl that swooped down to feast, it seemed to have become a forbidden area for all other creatures except the military......

"Three months and seven days, here we have lasted three months and seven days, my dear friends, look at everything before me, in the silence of the night sometimes I can't help but think about what makes us and our kind so cruel to each other, of course, when I wake up in the morning I realize, oh, I am one of them...... I was even afraid, afraid that the constant smell of blood from my fingertips would one day make me feel used to it, or ...... Indulge in ......"

The well-fitting paladin armor seemed to have become a little wider on Leo's body at this time, and the skin on his cheeks, which had obviously lost a lot of weight, was no longer delicate and white, as if it was gritty, revealing some weathered black and red from the inside out, and the long hair that was too lazy to trim was simply tied up in a ponytail by Leo, and his hands were propped up on the battlements that were dry and coagulated blood everywhere, and his eyes seemed to be a little dazed at this moment

Several subordinates behind him looked at each other a few times, and finally Professor Pericles stepped forward and gently persuaded him

"Your Highness...... I can probably understand your thoughts, and I have the same opinion on this, that is, war is the greatest destroyer and destroyer of all the processes of civilization, but even as a pedantic scholar before following you, I know that in an age when the majority of people are still ignorant, ignorant, and easily demagogued, war is indeed the best and quickest means to achieve its ends, cruel! But extremely effective...... Maybe when human society progresses again, we can completely eliminate these things."

Turning his face, Leo smiled and handed the professor and everyone a reassuring look, stretched out his hand and subconsciously shook the non-existent dust on the cloak, and then said leisurely

"Don't worry, friends, I'm fine, I understand everything you said, but occasionally I feel a little ironic, we have to use violence in order to overthrow it, hehe! However, I can't agree with the professor's last fantasy, it seems to me that even after thousands of years, humanity will still be like this, the only difference may be that killing will become more effective and cheaper! ”

Waving his hand, Leo stopped the professor's habitual desire to refute and argue, and after regaining his composure, he motioned for Al to step forward, and then commanded

"The weather is gradually warming, we must be on guard and alert for the arrival of disease, my marshal, perhaps you can send messengers to inform our enemies, we can give a few days, let them send men to clean up the corpses below, of course, in terms of numbers, we must get our permission"

As he spoke, Leo frowned tightly, and his eyes were on the bottom of the city wall, both sides, of course, most of them were the corpses of the coalition forces, which were gradually revealed after the ice and snow melted, because the temperature on the surface was still relatively low for the time being, so most of the thawed corpses still preserved the shape and even demeanor of the time of death......

The layers of corpses even indirectly made the walls of the Gray Fort a lot shorter, and the tiled ones stretched all the way to the direction of the coalition siege camp, in a radius of several miles, such a sculpture of corpses that were still stiff for the time being has made people lose the desire to count, but these will become worse with the gradual warming of the temperature, in any era, tens of thousands of decaying corpses will be a disaster for a city or even a country

As if the stench of decay had come at this time, Al Andergrims subconsciously took out a handkerchief and gently covered his mouth and nose, and nodded to Leo

"I'll take care of this, I don't think the enemy will refuse such kindness, compared to us who own the city, a large number of rotting corpses will be more terrifying to the other party, of course, Your Highness, you need to give me a day, we must be prepared to deal with all emergencies, after all, the other party is also growing in the war"

"yes...... Not only us, but also the enemy is advancing......"

With a sympathetic sigh, Leo took a deep breath of the somewhat strange smell of air and fell into the thoughts of memories......

In more than three months of war, the coalition army, as the besieging side, after several setbacks, also slowly made some changes, active or passive, their attacks became more targeted, more hidden, after the enemy learned to test and feint, so that the principality side had to be forced to strengthen the movement of the army, the reduction of rest time made the soldiers, including the knights, more or less tired, the results of the battle declined, and their own losses also increased

Especially after the opponent threw in a large number of siege equipment, the seemingly impregnable walls of the Grey Castle were also greatly tested, although the giant crossbows and trebuchets arranged by Leo were relatively sophisticated and reliable, but after the quality was completely crushed by the quantity, the walls that had been strong for many days still appeared

Now the huge gap not far from everyone, even after many repairs, is still much lower than other places, like a neat front tooth missing in the middle, hollow and ugly, the shape is definitely the existence of obsessive-compulsive disorder......

The most dangerous attack occurred in the middle of the night, when the enemy army, who had been fighting all day, seemed to ignore death, constantly consuming the physical strength of the defending army with human lives, without formation and command, just rushing up under the cover of trebuchets, giving people the illusion that everyone would die here if they did not capture the city

As a result, they succeeded this time, and everyone, including Leo and Al, was careless, they did not expect the exhausted enemy at all, and took advantage of the dark and moonless night, led by hundreds of Knights of Glory and Templars, for the first time, the enemy carried out an almost successful night attack with all the elite team without a single miscellaneous soldier at all

The dark clouds obscured the light of the moon and the stars, and even after a day of non-stop fighting, the soldiers on guard at night could not help but doze off, and the light of the torches at the head of the city could only illuminate a small distance around them......

In the end, it was not the already famous Finn and the Knights of Punishment who saved Leo's current undefeated reputation and the city, nor the famous Ardarian and the Knight of the Noldor Dawn, but the somewhat cynical Tyr, Tyre Oleo

As the officer on duty that day, Tyr, who was born as a mercenary, did not have much vigilance, and after sleeping until midnight, his abdomen was unbearably bloated but he didn't want to go through the long corridor to a fixed place to relieve himself, yawning, Tyr habitually slipped to the corner of the city wall with the longbow on his back, and after happily releasing the water, he stared in a daze but felt that the impact of the water droplets was too close

As a result, Tyr, who subconsciously leaned down to look down, broke out in a cold sweat on the spot, and the dense enemy soldiers were like devouring monsters in the dark, quietly attached to the same black-painted ladder, and the person at the top in front of him was already less than two meters away from the edge of the city wall, and at this moment the knight was staring at him fiercely with angry fire-breathing eyes, and a brown liquid was slowly dripping down along the arc of the opponent's helmet......

"Enemy Attack !!!"

Tyr's mournful shout was no less than a thunderclap in the quiet night, and after staring at the other party in a stunned array for a few seconds, when the glorious knight was about to turn over and jump onto the city wall, Tyr was faster, and the huge black bow appeared like lightning in his hand The next second three arrows had already shot out, and at the same time, Tyr, who was fully conscious, threw away the bow and arrow that had no effect without mercy while shouting a warning...... Pull your legs backwards and run......

[Meteor] may not care about face, but his sharp and desolate cry for help alarmed all the defenders......

After a brutal and sudden contact battle, the enemy who lost his suddenness left behind more than 200 corpses, and had to retreat after Finn led the Knights of Punishment to arrive, and Tyr became a hero, of course, as a hero, now Leo is holding his head up behind him, he will never tell everyone how embarrassed he was running at that time......

"Your Highness? Your Highness! ”

"Whew! ~”

Retracting his thoughts, Leo looked apologetically at Finn, who was constantly calling softly beside him

"Sorry I'm a little distracted"

Shaking his head, Finn, who was as steady and trustworthy as ever, opened his mouth to persuade

"Your Highness, the wind is a little strong, let's go back, Al has already gone to arrange the things you explained, I think you need to rest very much now, there will be no problem in handing it over to Keith and the others here"

Nodding, Leo did not refuse the kindness of the Grand Master, and he suddenly asked a question as he walked back in the company of everyone

"It's been three months and seven days, did Al say how much longer do we need to stay here?"

"Yes, he said that, Your Highness, Al said, now is not the time......"

"yes, maybe it's not time yet, let's go Fein, I'm just starting to get a little tired of this place......"