There may never have been death in this world.

Innumerable, countless philosophers and scholars all over the world of Rigal have explored this ending of all things in depth and shallowly. This is an area that most lives are unwilling to touch, and we always say that the oldest and most primitive emotion of human beings is fear, and the oldest and most primitive fear is the fear of the unknown.

As a life, as a species, human beings are always in a process of continuous progress. The enemies who were once feared by the unknown yesterday, after understanding their true nature, may well be able to draw their swords and sing the praises of blood, defeat and conquer.

But no one has ever truly conquered death. What it is, what death is like, is still unknown to this day - no, it may not be entirely true to say so. Although there is no real definite conclusion, the vast majority of people, the vast majority of people whose lives are on the verge of the end of their lives, are able to come up with a definite answer that they have been trying to deny and cover up the past with something else.

- There's nothing there.

The thousand-year-old belief in the Old Gods promised people to go to a palace where they drank freely and sang and danced every night after death, and the younger but more mature White Church said that after death people could go to the kingdom of gods who were good, harmonious and peaceful for all - all beliefs and sayings always tried to paint a "better" picture of death, and they became a hope, a sustenance, an expectation - I hope that the beauty that cannot be encountered in the cruel life of this world will become a reality after death.

But when death really comes, no matter how devout people are, they will begin to feel panic and fear at the last second. It was as if we were about to fall into a darkness where we could not move freely, where voices could not be heard, not even cries for help could be heard.

The reason why some people yearn to die cleanly on the battlefield, and why some soldiers rush towards the enemy as if they are seeking death -- probably not because of their bravery. Rather than experiencing the pain of this near-death struggle, feeling your limbs become cold and weak little by little, it is better to let it all end before you can react.

Why is only he alive. Why is he the only one left to suffer from all this terrible thing?

"Again...... "The dim light, the staggering walk-whose memory is this? The torrential rain is continuous--no, this is not water. A woman is standing in the square, is she singing......?" Hein...... Ntavokushur - "An ethereal voice, who is speaking, and what kind of language is it described?"

No, who am 'I', who am I, where is this?...... This is, whose memory?

"Qiang-" The greatsword reflecting the silver light was stuck in the ground, and in the middle of the muddy black-red rain lay dead corpses, and the weapon in their hands still held tightly in their well-armored armor looked extremely familiar-it was not exactly the same as the weapon in their hands, no, it was not their own, this was ...... Teacher's sword?

Teacher? Who, who's that, what the hell is this?

I am—"Hiss----" The sudden, blinding light was the hot July sun in the Soladin region, and the air in my mouth and nose was hot and smelling of blood. "Mira!" The girl's voice was eager and genuinely worried, and gradually turned from indistinct to deafening—and with it the pain in her chest and head.

"Whoa—" She curled up subconsciously, the sticky heat in her cheeks, chin and neck made Mira feel irritated, and she propped up the ground with one hand, but then an unbearable pain in her internal organs and desperate dizziness caused her to retch.

"Disgusting-" "Neighing-" The neighing of the war horse, the dense footsteps.

"Damn! Second team, come forward!" someone was shouting something like that, and she turned her head, next to her, Amonica, who had a lot of dirt on her face and a panicked and uneasy expression, carefully hiding behind a tree, and Mira began to look around her, she was now under the cover of the bushes by the side of the road, and it was obvious from the trailing marks on her heels that Amonica had pulled herself to this side.

The sound of "clanging" metal clashing continued to echo, and the dirty blonde girl wanted to look out worriedly, but looked this way again, she didn't know how to be so panicked that she couldn't escape Mira's eyes. The white-haired girl of Loan forced one hand to support her body, and Amonica immediately crawled over to help lift Mira when she saw this scene.

"I'm fine, just fainted for a while. The girl began to check her equipment, the little sword was still there, a hand and a half of the sword had been lost, the skin around her lips felt a sticky tearing sensation when she spoke, she raised her hand and touched her upper lip, there were already some hard blood stains obviously flowing from her nostrils, Amonica looked at her with concern, her crying appearance somehow made Mira settle down.

――So how did it all start?

The weather on the 4th of July was quite unusual. The rain, which had been falling for almost two weeks, had inexplicably stopped on this day, and the sun had been shining since the morning. The two young girls, who already had some travel experience, hurriedly took the opportunity to gather some dry firewood and velvet, and the road began to dry visibly, and it was a sunny day in every sense of the word. As she gradually got used to the changeable and annoying weather in the tropics, Mira began to regain some of her spirits.

Because of the attack they had been given a few days earlier, they had been heavily armed in recent days.

Mira's plate armor was rudely dismantled into two pieces under Henry's "guidance" for her and Amonica, and the blonde girl was obviously more uncomfortable with the presence of armor than she was, but she was also a native of the heat, so when balanced, the two of them could be said to be half a pound.

For breakfast was bread smeared with honey, and on the 2nd of July they passed by a small trading post where they bought a small bottle of honey from the hunters. Longer-lived canned sugar is a relatively expensive commodity in much of the barren West Coast, and honey is available only in addition to sugar beets.

Poor people in the tropics, where all kinds of fruits are abundant, usually obtain sugar by eating fruits, and candied and preserved fruits that need to be boiled in sugar water are only affordable for the aristocracy.

Although this kind of life is not luxurious now, it is unimaginable for Mira in the past. The gap between the poor at the bottom of the world and those who have nothing is so great that even the skilled carpenters, blacksmiths, and stonemasons are much better off than the peasants, who work hard to grow food, but often do not even have enough to fill their stomachs.

Is there any way to change all this? As she ate bread with grilled dried fish and clear soup, the girl still remembered herself thinking about it.

After lunch, the group decided to move forward again, although we mentioned earlier that the distribution of hotels is more regular, but this is only a comparison, most of the villages and trading posts exist in this section, and there will be more hotels closer to the docks.

Half a day's journey ahead, ahead of them was what the people they met on the way, a larger inn, where they planned to pick up their tasks, earn some more money, and go to the docks.

But before all this can be realized, the group of four leading the horses meets a vast array of a dozen or so church knights wearing mixed plate armor and riding war horses.

Mira noticed at first glance the difference between these men and ordinary Kingdom knights, who might be better defined as mounted infantry, as it was clear that none of these Church knights were good at fighting on horseback. Lacking elbow pads and iron hands, no thigh armor, shoulder armor, and smaller mixed plate armor, bright cloaks fluttering, all the cathar knights carried swords and daggers, and none of them carried spears or other horses.

The sword could also be used on horseback, but it wasn't really a main weapon—she thought, but then repudiated her own conclusions.

"Guy in front, stop me. The knights of the church shouted, and Mira noticed that they looked like they had just been through a battle, and many of them looked a little tired and had some faint traces of blood on their armor - but her attention quickly shifted from here to somewhere else, and there was no one else on the empty avenue except for their group, so it was impossible for the knights of the church to shout anyone else.

They stopped, and all four of them turned their heads, while the other turned their horses, and when they came to them, they turned over and dismounted.

What are these people here for? Referring to some of the church's policies that she had a cursory understanding of, Mira subconsciously looked at Amonica—the blonde girl looked a little nervous, and she really felt that these people were coming for her. But unlike what the two girls expected, these people didn't pay attention to the other three.

The dozen or so church knights didn't pay attention to the other three, including Joshua, at all, and all their attention was on our Mr. Sage.

The knight led by "......" had blonde hair, a square face, big eyes, and stubble. The expression on his face was clearly discernible to Mira, who was good at reading words, it was curiosity, doubt, and provocation hidden under that calm countenance, which could only be glimpsed in the corners of his mouth and eyes.

Do these people know something they don't know?—About the sage—she thought as the knight at the head of the group half-narrowed his eyes, and he looked at the people around him, and then turned his head and whispered something to the man beside him.

The deliberately muffled voice from a distance of several meters in the open environment was obviously inaudible, and the faces of the person standing next to the knight at the head began to change significantly as his words began. The next thing Mira knew was that they drew their swords against their group.

Eleven to four, there is one person here who will not fight at all - an outright disadvantage, but the other side seems to be cautious.

Fatigue and tension were an important factor in the uncontrolled battle, and after the knight in the front row drew his sword, a knight in the back row, who also looked younger without a helmet, swung his sword in confusion and slashed at the horse next to him, and the horse reacted with a kick and turned to run away.

Mistaken for the signal to charge, several knights in front and behind rushed forward.

The confrontation turned into a battle in a matter of seconds, was it a mistake, or were they just here in the first place?--Mira was more and more confused by the fact that she had been attacked the previous day, but the only thing she knew for sure was the fact that she had to start fighting.

Draw your sword, parry. Because of the confusion caused by the mistake, the person standing on the opposite side did not clearly perceive it, but this side saw it clearly—and Mira had a little contempt for these papal knights.

After all, she was famous for her own division, and she judged, or thought that she judged that the strength of the other party was only comparable to her own, and some fluttering white-haired girls boldly guarded in front of Amonica to block a rushing papal knight. But as soon as she had just fought each other, she immediately felt that this person was completely different from the enemies she had encountered before.

-- The speed and accuracy of the reaction.

Mira, who has a lot of experience with Henry's tricks, knows very well what kind of countermeasures to take when she encounters a situation, and she has no less to describe how to block in her heart, and even sometimes when she watches the sage fight, she will imagine that she will make the same movements - but thinking is thinking, and she knows how to deal with it, but her body has no way to keep up with the reaction of her mind.

Touching the two long swords together, the girl was suppressed by the other party because of her strength, but she didn't panic, at least not at this moment. She carefully recalled the techniques Henry had taught her earlier, and began to feel the force of the two swords' bites—but her reaction was too slow.

Before he could perceive his intentions, the knight withdrew his sword and slashed again, and Mira hurriedly made a parry gesture and successfully blocked the attack that was completely aimed at her bare neck, sparks flew everywhere, but the girl who blocked the blow was like falling into an ice cave - she fell into the rhythm of the opponent, both in terms of swordsmanship and physical ability, the knight was far above herself.

Mira wanted to fight back, but the knight in the plate armor didn't have much merit in the front, she didn't have the skills to attack the weakness of the opponent's armor, and when the sharp long sword was swung, the sword light and sword shadow were difficult for her to pass through - could it only be endurance? The girl thought like this, her physical strength must not be comparable to that of a man in the prime of life, but the other party had already experienced a battle before, so maybe it was half a catty?

"Mira!" she thought about the consequences of this kind of thing in the middle of the battle, she remembered the important points that Henry would emphasize during the previous sparring, but knowing that these were one thing, and playing on the spot was another thing - Mira did one thing wrong.

Any battle is inseparable from the corresponding environment.

The sun was shining today, she thought, when she started the battle, she had her back to the sun, and when the battle began, she didn't look directly at the dazzling light, so she subconsciously ignored her surroundings, and the other party, the other party, obviously understood all this more than she did, and integrated into the physical action.

It's his fighting instinct, it's a crushing of utter experience.

Ignoring the pace of her feet and being bypassed, she turned around and wanted to continue defending, and was flashed by the dazzling sunlight for a moment, and it was just such a moment, a half-sword in her hand flew out of her hand, and then she was kicked hard, her head hit the ground hard, and she fell unconscious in the screams of Amonica.

"Retreat, retreat, damn it, retreat!" a panicked roar echoed outside, and after leaving two corpses behind, the papal knights of this line ran out in the other direction.

"Whew-" Amonica wiped the blood with a water-soaked handkerchief, and Mira held on to the trunk of the tree to get up, still feeling the pain in her head, but she managed to get outside.

"Whew......" Henry and Joshua were packing up their weapons, the sage turned his head and confirmed that Mira was safe with his eyes, and Joshua next to him asked everyone's questions.

"What the hell are they attacking us for......" said the red-haired swordsman, Mira clearly heard a small cry of sorrow from Amonica behind her, Henry withdrew her gaze from looking at this side, Mira looked down at the emblem behind the knight lying with his back to the sky in front of him, and said slowly.

"I'm a little guess......" (To be continued.) )