"Do you know what they would say about us: he died in a place where he shouldn't have been, for a war he didn't understand, in a country that didn't mean anything to him. - Unknown mercenary, epitaph.

......

In the many literary works on the West Coast and many other civilizations ignited by the Lamani culture, all those that involve wars and all that involve the magnificent torrent of history will definitely have a powerful and outstanding heroic figure.

These people are the embodiment of individual heroism, who can turn things around the world by themselves. Such heroes are aspired to, such heroes are sung and sung by writers and poets, and the noble paintings that are kept on the walls of the lavish mansions of the aristocracy and wealthy merchants are often great heroes and the magnificent deeds of their lives.

Not only in literature, but also in the history of the nations, the names of some of the great men who have certainly existed have become famous because of this vision of heroes, and many people still talk about them today—national heroes, great generals, even gods of heaven, or heroic angels. Raised by the culture of the Lamanite system, children have always believed that their own heroism is enough to change the invisible and vast fate, and this powerful faith of mortals born from the brilliant empire of heaven can revert to the heavens and exist with the Church to this day - but we will mention here the culture of the North, which is very different from the mainstream society of the whole Rigal world.

The beliefs born of the cold northern islands are very different from the fertile south of the prosperous land, perhaps because the barren land and frequent tsunamis give them national character, although the name of the Stin pirates still makes many people hear, these tall warriors of the northern islands belong to a pessimistic and silent people.

In their stories, you rarely see a hero who actually makes it to life.

Among the Suomis who fled further north after the conquest of their homeland by the Laman Empire, the legendary leader who led the remnants of the tribe through the rough seas and the incomparable cold of the North Sea and the infestation of giant sea beasts to the discovery of these islands, Eric Helvieriknin, the legendary figure of the founding heroes of the four northern islands, was very embarrassed to die of dehydration due to cold and diarrhea after achieving such a feat.

Coming from a land of destruction, fleeing and battling the winds and amphibious beasts in the barren lands, and then fighting within the nation, all of these events shaped their perseverance and silence, and made their stories and legends very different from most of the rest of Rigal.

The stories of northerners are more depicted in the context of the great era, how dazed and helpless an individual is in a battle or war.

The great swordsman, the most handsome young man in the village, the tall, handsome and graceful girl who all longed for, may have just stepped on the battlefield when he was shot by his own people and pierced his heart from behind.

The life of the civilians and soldiers at the bottom was bitter, and even a nobleman often followed the orders of the higher nobles without knowing what he was fighting for.

In the three great empires of civilization, whether it is Patrosi or Ottolo or Rum Anato, there are always scholars who ridicule this because the northerners are ignorant and barbaric and unfaithful, and the stories and legends of the northerners are also extremely narrow in the many kingdoms of the West Coast, and people are disgusted with their pessimism, and they hate to see those beautiful people die inexplicably - but this is not it, because this is the reality of this world.

The king and the nation, the nation and the faith, justice and glory.

People yearn for those simple and beautiful stories and legends, precisely because in reality, all of these things will eventually be corrupted by profits.

What is justice - is a relative concept, corresponding to evil.

So what is evil, and by whom?

Even the knights of the White Papal Cathar Order, who have the strongest beliefs, will be embarrassed to not be able to give you a clear answer to this question.

The holy books of the Church say that the evil that walks in darkness is the object of their struggle - any inhuman thing, the demon that feeds on man, should be eradicated by these warriors who worship the glory of God, and the prosperity and peace of this world, and the infidels who discredit the glory of God, who are also the objects of evil that will be punished with a hammer - but are the two evils equal?

What kind of thing is the righteousness you are upholding?

Just follow the rules of a certain book, follow the command of a certain big man above, and firmly believe that what you are doing is right, then that's it, okay?

When everything has become an empty slogan, into some kind of rule, some kind of restraint, some kind of excuse, and is used by those in power to violently achieve their own desires, then how different is there between the soldiers who are indiscriminately slaughtered by the command of the other side who are convinced that they are acting for the sake of justice, and those mercenaries who die in a foreign land in a war that does not belong to them for money?

Perhaps the latter is more realistic.

Whether it is religion or national feelings, honor, justice, or faith. Once these things are used and instigated, the result can be said to be earth-shattering -- but then again, does honor and justice in the true sense ever exist?

Throughout history, I'm afraid the answer has always been no.

Every time someone starts shouting a certain slogan and raising the banner of justice and glory, it is often the beginning of a bloody storm. And behind it, you can always find traces of interests.

Many creatures in the storm caused by the desires behind an event are dying meaninglessly for the sake of the ethereal name. They believe that they are doing something bigger, they believe that what they are doing is righteous, but in the end they are like those "evil" objects who have been killed inexplicably, and they are just a dazed and lonely individual who knows nothing about this huge background.

The righteousness they believe in is superficial, it is recorded in books, it is in the mouths of others, and it is mixed with the desires of the vested interests of the leaders, the big nobles, the archbishops, and even the big businessmen.

Most soldiers will mature after going through many battles, and you will rarely see a veteran who is old enough to believe in this kind of thing in the Pan-Rigal world. There are many people in this world who have forgotten the original appearance of dreams in the long years, they do not remember what the real beauty looks like, poets and writers praise the justice in fantasy, the personal heroism that turns the tide, the distorted beauty that deliberately extracts the bitter reality and rewrites everything is loved but unreal.

But when the whole world was in this state of vanity and confusion, there were two people.

Just two, neither those writers and poets who have not experienced many bitter realities, nor those who are confused and do not know how to think for themselves.

Still on their journey.

What justice is may not need to be proven by fighting evil. The more ancient meaning it represents, which is still held in the minds of some people today, is the act of not accepting the world as it is, but trying to transform it into "what it should be".

Even if he is weak and small, he still sticks to his heart.

The two, one big and one young, were trying to escape the storm behind them.

But their actions are like a pebble thrown into a pond, and even if the body has left, the impact will reverberate for a long time like a ripple for those who have come into contact with this beautiful mind.

In the war-torn forests of the Five Kingdoms, many hidden civilians are trying to rebuild their lives, red-haired swordsmen who have thrown ashes into the sea turn and walk north, and young knights with white and blond hair have hidden their faces and cross the sea to the far east. Their minds have undergone a certain degree of change, and certain seeds have taken root and are destined to thrive in the ensuing wind and rain.

The storm finally arrived in earnest at the end of July, much larger than the previous one. In a church in a certain part of the Soradin, the emaciated and balding bishop disappeared in the midst of a raging storm, and the people under his command swore that a dark shadow had flashed by. At the same time, many of the high-ranking personnel who had been replaced had somehow disappeared from the dungeons, and the size of the stubborn old-fashioned old-fashioned conservatives in the upper echelons of the church was further reduced, and more young and disadvantaged and even discriminated faces from poor families took their place in the place of their former superiors.

The bureau was out, the flags were in place, and the church launched a full-scale operation with astonishing speed.

After the storm of August swept in, the Church sent a large number of troops in the name of aid and reconstruction, and quickly covered a series of surrounding areas like a fishing net, and the local personnel movement continued day and night, and the blacksmiths, cobblers and carpenters of northern Soradin were gathered in large numbers, and the workshops were kept in operation all day long. The nobles of the northern Lamanite origin began to frequently visit the headquarters of the White Holy See on the west coast, and the soldiers under their command carried the banners of various families and were led by the Knights of the Cathar.

The knights, who had expanded for aid, approached the surrounding nations, and after expanding the entire north, they made their way to the foothills of Mount Tambur in the Midwest. In the Midwest, where the influence of the church was not very strong, many nobles and kings began to get anxious about the well-equipped and well-trained soldiers on these frontiers, and they were discussing some kind of alliance, but the interests could not be agreed, and there were a large number of believers in the country, and they could not really react to it.

The aristocracy, who had simply enjoyed the benefits of the Church, understood for the first time the meaning of the word tricky when the course of action of the White Church began to change.

They could not refuse these heavily armed soldiers who had come under the banner of helping to rebuild, nor could they confront them, even if they desperately tried to maintain their interests and influence, but in the end they could only watch those people enter their territory.

Some irreversible changes are in full swing.

It all started with the appearance of a demon in April and lasted until the middle of August. The inhabitants of Soladin and the Midwest, who had always faced a difficult life in the aftermath of the storm, suddenly noticed that their standard of living had improved after the storm in July, and the abundance of free food and employment provided by the Church, coupled with the tariffs that had inexplicably disappeared from the borders of neighboring countries, made the people and merchants at the bottom happy, while the nobles at the top were worried.

On the surface, everything is thriving, and only a few people realize that the territory controlled by the White Church is forming a unified area. This series of drastic changes could not escape the attention of other countries, but on the west coast, where the means of communication were lacking and lagging behind, by the time Avenella and Sivalier learned everything about Soladin, it was already the beginning of September.

It was at this time that the remaining independent states of the Soradin Heights, including the mercenary kingdom of Cori Conrad, realized that a superpower appeared in their immediate vicinity, and they began to be vigilant against all those who wore divine emblems, and the act of sending troops to station around to prevent themselves from being annexed made the embarrassing atmosphere expand again and again, and a new round of conflict seemed to be coming, but it was at this time that they stopped their pace, made a 180-degree turn, and went behind them.

On September 7, 1330 A.D., the year 192 of the Avenella calendar, the mighty forces of the White Church began to advance towards the Lidella wetland in the north.

Their actions surprised Corey Conrad and many of the Soladin nations in the south, and they were all relieved.

But if the sage, who had been away since July, heard the news, he would have taken it for granted. From the day Amonica died, when he saw and reasoned about the change of power behind the White Church, Henry knew that it was going to happen.

The chase that caught him off guard was not only a test of the abilities of the Knights of the Cathars, but they would not have taken such a move if they hadn't known his past and really understood what the man Henry Mel was.

It was all for him, a reminder, a warning, a test, and a question. Test if his sword is still sharp, and ask him what position he will stand.

The real mastermind knows everything about him, and he or she is deliberately trying to test the sage in order to get an answer through a series of operations. And under such a premise, Henry chose to continue to move south, in addition to avoiding everything that was not friendly for the sake of survival, there was also an idea that needed to be verified.

In terms of position, he had already chosen it when he decided to help Edward. Even if it weren't, because of what Amonica had done, he wouldn't be on the same side as the person who raised the question.

This may seem a bit narrow-minded to those people, after all, they often talk about things like seeing the bigger picture become big things - but sorry, his justice is such a narrow thing.

Turmoil on a larger scale is coming, and if he wants to survive everything that follows, both he and Mira can only swallow the negative emotions in their hearts at this moment and become stronger.

......

Volume II, Part I, End. (To be continued.) )