When the abbot of Innocent heard of the arrival of the envoy from Little East Lake City, he sent someone to stay in the settlement for one night.

According to the original plan, we were supposed to spend the night in the next town with the grain caravan, but I just wanted to see how Tom ran the abbey, so I agreed to stay. I sent messengers to inform the grain corps that we would be in time the next day, so that they could not worry about us.

The humiliated boyard was angry at this time, and he was escorted to the square by a group of peasants, and the angry inhabitants, thinking that he was another nobleman who had come to make trouble, rushed up to beat him. He was released shortly after we entered the city, but he was still furious. A soldier took boyar and his attendants to a clean room, where the two of them cursed the master of the monastery, took the clay pots and candlesticks in the room and threw them around, and asked the abbot of the monastery to come and apologize. They scolded for a long time, and instead of waiting for the dean, they waited for two exotic girls, who closed the door when they entered. After a while, the scolding subsided and was replaced by another wonderful voice.

That evening, boyar, who was a little weak, went with me to a dinner hosted by Dean Innocent, at which Boyard complimented Innocent and called him worthy of the name of a chaste man. Innocent was also asked if he could find a warm home in the monastery settlement.

Speaking of dinners, this is much worse than those in Xiaodonghu City. But there's nothing to be picky about, at least the broth and bread and boiled eggs are all-you-can-eat, and you don't have to worry about eating as much as you want, except that there are no drinks. This was because Innocent's finance officer refused to bring the limited shipyard to transport the liquor. He felt that such things could neither rest nor strengthen. It's a very useless thing, and the only little bit of alcohol is spirits. It should only be used to treat wounds, not to drink. The monks of the monastery did not have drinks, and this dinner was not as good as the inhabitants outside, who could find vendors on the docks to buy their own drinks. The Kugit were very unhappy about the meal, and Innocent promised to find someone to take them to the Big Three for a drink, and they began to eat sullenly.

"It's a nice place," Boyar said to Innocent, "I didn't know there was such a nice place outside Little East Lake." ”

"I heard that you were almost injured in the afternoon, and I apologize to you for the farmers. Hope you are doing well! ”

"Haha, it's all right," Boyar chewed a large mouthful of meat and reached for the wine, but only caught a glass of water, but he drank it anyway, "and now that it's a mess outside, if you're not careful, how can you maintain stability here?" Lord Innocent. I don't blame your people for doing a good job. Well, do you have a lot of space here? Or a ready-made house? I want to put a woman here, it's my cousin. I hope she's here under your protection. ”

"There isn't much open space, but I'll arrange it. It is somewhat inconvenient for the monastery to protect women, but we have a nunnery. There were also a few respectable grandmothers, although they didn't like me very much. But there is nothing wrong with placing a nun. ”

"Uh, what's this?" Boyar hesitated. "Actually, there is no need to be so troublesome, my cousin is not ready to serve God. You can find her a nest in the residential area, and the servant will take it with her. ”

"Oh," said Dean Innocent, smiling at each other with a look of sudden realization, "that's easy." Mr. Goth! He shouted.

"Yes, sir." Chubby goth arrived.

"Find a room for this boyar's cousin lady and let him live with the other boyar's female relatives."

"Okay." Goth looked at me and smiled sarcastically, turned away.

This sentence made the boyar a little puzzled, "You said there are other boyar's female relatives here?" ”

"There are a few, one from Dadonghu City, one from Ryazan Fort, and one from White Harbor." Innocent's eyes were as deep as water, "Maybe you can get to know each other?" ”

"Well, no," Boyar was a little surprised, and that there were other boyars who thought the same as himself, "I'll talk about it when we see it." ”

"By the way, the placement of the female dependents requires the presence of the mistress of the family," Innocent said with a pretentious matter, "let your wife bring your cousin with you, in this case, if you are out at war in the future, if there is anything wrong here, I can contact your wife directly." ”

"What?!" Boyar seemed to have eaten a bitter fruit, "How can there be such a broken rule, forget it, my cousin still lives in Xiaodonghu City." ”

"I'm kidding. You just need to know for yourself. ”

"Haha, I'm getting more and more fond of you, Dean Innocent, you're so bad!"

Throughout the feast, Tom was building a friendship with this boyar, complimenting each other. I watched them from the sidelines and thought it was funny. Tom is still Tom, and Tom is still Tom with the title of Innocent. I wonder where the Burke female captive who followed him went? That girl is interesting.

When the dinner was over, boyard was about to get up and leave, and asked me if I would have fun with him, and I said that I had something to discuss with Dean Innocent, and that I would go back to meet him in the evening. boyar shrugged his shoulders and walked away with his attendants.

After they were all gone, we were left with only Copernicus, three Kugits, and one pioneer. On Tom's side, quite a few people stayed, and the goth director and Tevi were chatting together; A few Wikibian soldiers I haven't seen, who look athletic but well-proportioned, should be good soldiers; Beside Vecchia, there were two Valans who sat there without saying a word, guarding Tom at all times; At the end of the room was a man with a turban, I don't know if it was a Creelian or a Salander, looking at a pile of papers with a look of disgust, counting something, and reprimanding the two young men standing next to him.

"Victor!" Tom waited for the boyar to leave, as if he had just found me, "I didn't expect you to die!" ”

"I didn't expect you to be an abbot. There are more soldiers than many barons. ”

"Ha, I just got cleaned up by Baron Fourier." Tom said, "I'm no match for a baron." ”

"You've got almost a small city." I walked to the window, and the noise outside was still loud, and it seemed that the wind was blowing the heat of the street, "Don't you see that boyar who worships you to death?" ”

"He just wants something from me."

"You said Baron Fourier cleaned you up, what's the matter?"

"The baron needs serfs, and I need craftsmen, and a craftsman is much better treated than a serf, so his serfs are coming." Tom smiled softly and said, "Of course. There is one more reason. He proposed to Kalinin to marry Miss Michela, and in order to show his sincerity, he divorced his wife and sent the poor woman to me as a nun'''Victor, why is your face so bad, have you played with too many women?'' You're still young'''"

"He offered his kiss to Mysera? A baron? ”

"Kalinin's reply was just three words, 'impossible'. You can think about it, how angry is that baron? ”

"And then? What does his wife have to do with him hating you? ”

"It's over. Kalinin is a prince after all," said Tom, "and you know about his wife." The arrangement of a female dependant to a monastery was accompanied by a land gift. After all, we also need gold and food to sustain ourselves. I wrote several letters urging him to deliver the land as soon as possible, which angered him. ”

"This bastard. You should teach him a lesson. ”

"Why are you angrier than me?" Tom looked at me meaningfully and said, "Victor." Your obstacle is not Fourier, but Kalinin. ”

"What are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

"Okay. Let's not talk about this for now. I said to Tom, "What are you doing with us?" ”

"As you can see, the settlement is in danger right now, and I need to do something to calm the mood of the residents. It would be great if the boyars were here, are you the boyars? ”

"It's not boyar yet. What kind of ceremony, is it burning people again? ”

"You're still too young," Tom shook his head, "there are many ways to lift the mood of the inhabitants besides burning people." Here at the monastery, I made a mistake at the beginning, I believed in Kalinin's power and majesty too much, thinking that I could find a refuge. There's nothing to be ashamed of, and if he can fulfill his obligations as a feudal lord, I don't think it's okay. But then I found out that no one could protect as much as a reliable army. Tomorrow, I will mobilize more residents and refugees to join the cavalry squad of the Knights of Taylor and the Guards of Lothar. ”

"How many people are you going to mobilize?"

"Four hundred."

"Well, how many are 400 people?''' Where did you get so much food to feed them? Do you know how much 400 people eat every day? ”

The man on the side, known as Lothar, said with a serious face, "Mr. Victor, I am a veteran, and of course I know what this number means. But I believe in all the arrangements of the dean, and my soldiers and I have been preparing for a long time, even if the number of troops is expanded to 600 men, we will be able to complete the reorganization step by step. ”

"Sixty veterans can lead four hundred recruits, that's true, but I'm asking about food and salaries, you have such a large army, did Kalinin allocate food for you? How I haven't heard. ”

My problem seems to be the problem of everyone here, even the people who trust Tom the most, at this time, they can't help but look at him with some doubt.

Under the gaze of everyone, Tom slowly walked to the window, tapped his finger on the edge of the window, and said in a calm voice: "Victor, some armies do not need food and salary. ”

"Nonsense."

"Haha, let's talk about it tomorrow." Tom said to me, "Is there anything you want to tell me this time?" ”

Copernicus looked at me with no expression.

I thought for a moment, "It's nothing, Tom. We just passed by here to get to Varykov and, if convenient, helped us change horses and replenish our food. ”

"Oh, I'll arrange it." Tom said, touching his chin, "You and your people go and rest first." ”

"Okay, then we're leaving." Copernicus and I were ready to leave.

"Victor. When things get tough, you're welcome here. He nodded to me as a polite farewell.

We didn't say anything and left here. Haven't gone out yet. He started a discussion with his people.

An army that doesn't need food and pay? What crazy words.

In the Big Three, I met that boyar.

He was drinking happily with two women in his arms. By the time I passed, he didn't recognize me a little. When he found out that it was me, he invited me to drink a piece of horn sheared wolf hair. I couldn't refuse, so I had to finish the wine, and when the strength of the wine came up, I felt a sour liquid in my stomach pushing up my throat, and I stumbled out of the Big Three, bowed my head and vomited. When I finished vomiting, I found that the boyars were gone, and the Kugit were gone. In the distance, Copernicus and a merchant bargain for a copy of Salander's Book of Kings.

I went back to where I was staying with Copernicus.

The next day I was woken up by the harsh sun, very thirsty, and the urge to urinate strongly. I stood on the second floor and peed downstairs, and I got drenched on a soldier in armor, and when he found out that he had been urinated, he began to lift his helmet, but he seemed to be unskilled and touched the armor for a long time. The helmet mask could not be lifted either. By the time he finally lifted his mask and looked up to see who was so bold, I had already run back and heard someone downstairs roaring. "Who insulted the monastery guards? Who would dare to insult Freeman? ”

Someone was urging him, "Hurry up, Freeman. The dean said that today was a big deal. ”

"I remember this room! Upstairs guy, you're screwed! I'll be back in the afternoon! ”

We ate the food brought by the servants. The three Kujits began to tell us about the strange things they had encountered last night.

Cruzedel said, "Yesterday. I took a woman to look for a small alley and found a bow and arrow workshop. A thief-headed craftsman was pouring a layer of silver-gray paint on a pile of arrows, and then using a knife to make many small cuts on the shafts of the pile. The arrows looked like the same arrows as the hardcore arrows, but in fact they were of no use, and I went over and broke a few of them after they were gone, and found them to be very brittle, and with a slight force, they broke off. I don't know what these craftsmen are doing. I was afraid that the craftsman would find out, so I took the broken arrow and turned some real iron arrows out of the workshop and put them in. Unlucky to die, when I came out, my female companion was taken away by an alcoholic. ”

"And such a thing? On the grassland, whoever dares to cut a gap in the shaft of the arrow is estimated to be killed by someone. Iyu was munching on a piece of beef fat that he had asked for from his servant, "I also encountered a strange thing, a groom in the dean's house, I don't know what kind of madness he had. He actually fed a white horse grass mixed with 'dead leaves'. ”

"'Dead Leaves'?" I asked curiously.

"Yes," said Iyu, "a salty grass, a horse will faint for most of the day if he eats a little, and he will wake up by spraying his mouth and nose with water, but if he eats too much, he will die." Both horses and sheep love to eat, so in the grassland, pay special attention to such grasses. I was very angry when I saw that the groom had turned over the horse, and the horse seemed to be in good spirits, why should he spoil this horse! When the groom was gone, I went and spoke to the horse, and then I held it down by the neck, and suffocated it for a while, lest it wait for the blade of grass to come up and die a painful death. ”

"I knew there was something strange here, and I thought I was the only one who had encountered it." Elon licked his mouth, "I finished drinking, and when I came back, I accidentally walked into an abandoned hut, and I saw a stonemason inside through the crack in the wall. This stonemason has two identical large stones beside him, presumably specially hewn into one shape. Then on top of these two big stones, each drilled an eye, and a long sword was inserted in each eye, which was quite beautiful. The stonemason was careless, and after inserting the sword, he sprinkled only limestone into one of the stone eyes, and poured water. After a while, I slipped in to take a look, and found that one of the two stone swords was easily pulled out, and the one stuffed with sticky ash was a little unable to pull out. I couldn't understand it, so I poured a soak of urine on the other stone, carefully examined the two stones, and changed their positions to see if there was anything strange or something, but I didn't find anything, very strange. ”

The meal was full of doubts, and in the end we couldn't think clearly, so we simply didn't want to go to the square and see what Tom wanted to do today.

By the time we went, all the inhabitants and the poor had been gathered, and everyone was rushing to the front of the stage to see what was going on, and the crowd was as dense as the ocean.

"What is this to see?"

"It's the Dean," an old man put a cross on his chest, "an angel fell from the sky last night. Landing at the dean's door, she said. She has arranged for a warrior of God to come down to us. This morning. It's really amazing, everyone found a sword in the stone on the high platform in the middle of the square! No one dared to touch it, and now many people are paying tribute to the garland, and no one is afraid to touch it. ”

When the old man finished speaking, the people around me and I fell into deep thought, almost squinting at something.

The crowd in front of them suddenly erupted in exclamation!

"Dean-sama!"

"The dean is here!"

"Dean!"

The crowd shouted.

Suddenly, someone shouted, "My king! ”

"Huh? Why are you calling the dean 'my king'? ”

"I don't know, even when I see the sword in the stone, I always feel that only the king deserves such an angelic gift."

There are people around me who are talking about it.

Innocent stepped onto the high platform. There was a moment of silence, and everyone looked at him enthusiastically.

When he put his hand on the sword in the stone on his side, everyone fell into a great frenzy, and everyone wanted to go and kiss the dean, and we were all swept forward by the people behind us.

The dean motioned for everyone to be quiet, and the dense crowd fell silent.

"Yesterday, an angel did come." The dean looked incredulous, "She gave me the right to hold a sword. She has sent a warrior. In the midst of you. Maybe it's me, maybe it's the soldiers around me, and of course, it's more likely that every ordinary person among you. She said to me. She has blessed this man with a victorious future, as well as the power that God promised. She said to me that this man would be able to break an arrow with his bare hands. This man will be able to awaken the dead horse with holy water, and this man will be able to pull out this sword in stone! ”

The crowd cheered wildly. The sound almost drowned out the church bells.

"So!" Innocent said, "Let's find out this warrior!" ”

Then. In an enlightening tone, a priest asked Abbot Innocent, "Your Excellency, dear Abbot, if we find this warrior, what will we do next?" ”

"I don't know," said Innocent in a sighing tone, "that the angel told me that she would give the order directly to the warrior's head, if we found him. ”

At this time, there was a commotion in the distance, and it turned out that some active citizens had already run to bring the iron arrows of the bow and arrow workshop, and piled them beside the dean, so that he could find the person who could break the iron arrows by hand; Then the groom of the stables said that a horse had died the previous day, and they dragged it up into the square to see who could wake it up with the holy water in the stone basin of the church; In the end, the soldiers around the dean all said that they wanted to know who could pull out the sword in the stone.

Innocent found that the crowd had become frenzied and almost out of control, so he rang the iron bell, and everyone finally calmed down, and many people were already in tears.

"Well," Innocent's voice trembled with excitement, "who will first try this arrow, O people of God?" ”

Immediately remembered a few untimely 'I'll come' 'I'll come', the dean frowned, and finally someone began to shout, "Dean, it must be the dean who comes first!" "The Dean is the first to come!" "There's nothing to say, Dean!"

Lord Innocent excused himself for a while, and finally took out an iron arrow under the persuasion of everyone.

Everyone fell silent, waiting for a miracle to happen.

Innocent finally excused himself, "Hey, how could it be me." ”

Let's let him try it.

Innocent smiled bitterly, closed his eyes very relaxed, and folded his hands.

Everyone was waiting for the sound of the arrows snapping.

But there was no sound. Innocent, who had his eyes closed, frowned slightly, folded it several times, and finally opened his eyes simply, clamped the iron arrow in his armpit, and folded it hard, his face turned red, but he still kept folding.

The residents waited patiently for a while, and Innocent finally smiled wryly and said, "Oops, it seems to be folding." ”

"Then give it to me!" "I'll fold it! I'm coming, I'm coming! "Give me the arrows!"

Innocent had no choice but to give the arrow to the people below, and a group of residents gathered together and gritted their teeth to break the arrow. In the end, it was all in vain.

"Alright!" Innocent waited for half an hour, and when he saw that no one could break the arrow, he said, "It can be seen that the angel has other arrangements, but what is the broken arrow compared to waking up the dead horse?" Let's see who can wake up the dead horse! ”

Everyone was looking forward to it, and hurriedly got out of the way, letting the dean walk to the white horse that was stiff on the ground.

The dean looked dissatisfiedly at Lothar beside him, who closed her eyes and nodded to the dean with a look of assurance that there was no problem.

This time, Innocent took a bowl of holy water and said to the dead horse, "If the angel wants you to listen to my call, please get up now!" ”

Tom sprinkled water on the horse's nostrils and reached out to touch the horse's nostrils.

The silence lasted for a long, long time.

The horse is still dead.

Innocent's face was clouded.

In the end, Innocent had no choice but to say, "Now, as it looks, the will of the angels is not here." ”

"What about the sword in the stone?"

"What's wrong with the sword in the stone." Innocent looked furious, "Whoever wants to pull it out, go and pull it out!" As if he knew that the sword in the stone would definitely not be able to be drawn.

He sat on a stool to the side with an annoyed expression, and Lothar's face turned pale.

Everyone saw that the iron arrow was rarely broken, and the dead horse could not live, so they did not dare to try to draw the stone and the sword.

The sacred sword was stuck in the stone, and there seemed to be a smell of urine, and everyone was afraid that they had overstepped their duty and invited the wrath of the angels.

"Does no one dare to draw a sword in a stone? Somebody has to start! ”

There was a buzz of discussion below.

The aging Tevi Knight was not ready to speak, but at this time, he didn't want to see Dean Innocent too gaffe, so he walked over, "Then I'll come." ”

When everyone saw an old man trying, they didn't care, and when he couldn't pull it out, they replaced it with another one.

Tevi reached out and grasped the hilt of his sword, straining gently. He was going to give it a try, and then he just left so that everyone could continue.

Then, the square fell silent.

Tai Wei looked blankly at the people below, holding a sword in his hand--- a sword in the stone that had just been drawn.

The silence lasted only a short time.

"Warriors!" "Warriors!" "The Angel's Chosen One!" "Oh my God, he pulled out the sword in the stone!" O warriors! ”

The crowd rushed to the platform and lifted the Tavi Knight.

Innocent and the others looked strange, standing in the stands, watching the confused Taivi Knight being lifted on the shoulders and carried around by the crowd.

Everyone was shouting warriors.

Innocent looked at it for a moment, and smiled self-deprecatingly, as if amused by himself.

He waved his hand and left the square with the people around him. (To be continued.) )