My villains, episode 320,
57. Preface (1)
“A bloody swordsman…
“How can a knight of the three princes?”
The group of priests looked terrified as if they had seen the rider of the apocalypse. For a while, I felt a bit embarrassed that I was drawn to the childish exhilaration given by Bycon and played a prank.
“I didn’t expect the reaction to be this dramatic… Now that my introduction is over, it’s the priests’ turn.”
The words I spoke in a light tone made the group show a slight look of dismay for a moment, then drool when they saw Princess Theodora following behind me.
Standing next to me with Brightmere behind her, she had already covered her face with a full helm.
He was wearing a circus embroidered with red crosses and laurels on top of his heavy armor, so it was immediately recognizable that he was a Paladin of the Order of Calandari.
Looking at it like this, Theodora and I were very contrasting outfits.
She wearing a white surcoat and riding a handsome white horse, and I wearing bluish plate armor and riding a black beast. It was not a very suitable combination.
“I am McBride, servant of light.”
The fat priest whose white robe was stained with mud all over stood up with a determined expression on his face.
“Why did you block our way? What do you want?”
“As a scout, I just wanted to know your identity.”
“feeler?”
“yes. Because I am with the Marquis of Eavon.”
“Your Excellency the Marquis of Eavon?”
Pointing to the back with his thumb, the priest then noticed a group of hundreds of people approaching from a distance along the hill.
“So you’re saying you didn’t come here knowing who I was?”
“…of course. It’s the first time we’ve met, so how do I know who the priest is?”
The priest, who was suspicious of my assertive words, soon sighed and opened his mouth.
“I am on my way to ‘Oakford’ after being summoned by the church as the head priest of ‘Longdale’.”
Oakford is the name of a city belonging to the Oak Delhi region, east of here.
But Longdale is a name I’ve never heard of before.
“Where is Longdale?”
“It’s a settlement in the Western Highlands.”
“A highland settlement?”
“exactly. It’s about three or three days east of High Castle.”
I immediately noticed the priest’s situation and frowned.
“Did you mean to escape from there while the Elector Counts of Mittergerland were invading you?”
“You run away! We are only following orders from the Church.”
It turned out that the other priests besides McBride were also the ones who were in charge of the big towns of the West.
“No matter how it is, the clergy fell to the rear during the war? Shouldn’t we encourage believers or do something like relief work?”
“If the opponent was a pagan or a monster, he would have done that. However, the Duke of Avillambus and his father, Burcard, are of the same Gwangmyeong Church.”
“So what? Wouldn’t it be easier to protect the innocent people if the opponent is the Kwangmyeong Cult, since they won’t be able to hurt the priests carelessly?” “As a servant of the Lord, I cannot get involved in petty quarrels on the frontier.”
“For a trivial quarrel, the two sides mobilized more than 10,000 troops.”
“…it is not the size that matters.”
“Ha ha.”
Only then did I get a glimpse of why this group was so startled when they heard my name.
It must have been that he was afraid of retaliation, since he was not cooperating with Ulkar and kept his tail.
Maybe it’s because of my cold eyes. McBride and the priests, who had shown their fake confidence, shrugged their shoulders again.
…What are all these bastards?
I obediently gave way to Priest McBride and his company.
what can i do It’s not like I’m going to squeeze and beat it because I don’t want to look at it, but I have to let it go.
I was staring at the back of the clergy, but Theodora took off her helmet and opened her mouth.
“It’s not something I can’t understand. Our church has a similar policy.”
“If it’s a similar policy.”
“We can’t aim our weapons at the good Gwangmyeong Cultists, so neither the Paladins nor the Crimson Militia will be directly involved in the war.”
After a moment of hesitation, she added.
“…Of course, I will provide support from the rear as a humanitarian measure.”
“How much is rear support?”
“Perhaps the limit is to run a clinic.”
“…To call it a limit, it’s quite a big help. Isn’t that enough of a direct involvement?”
“It’s not about hurting the other person.”
Contrary to her brazen words, Theodora’s expression was a little displeased.
“…I knew that the relationship between Oesuk and the Church of Elganore was not so good, but I didn’t know it would go this far.”
“Are you sure it’s a bit harsh?”
She nodded quietly and continued.
“Your maternal grandfather has such a strong influence on the church that it is safe to say that he is the greatest in the history of the kingdom. That’s why cathedral knights went to war several times. Accompanying a healer was an orderly thing.”
but. The fact that the current king, Lionel III, was called the ‘devout king’ probably wasn’t simply because he was deeply religious.
“But now, summoning all the priests from the conflict area… I’m worried about the outsider.” Come to think of it, from Princess Theodora’s point of view, this is, so to speak, an ‘uncle war’.
Duke Abil Rambus, who leads the Mittergerant army, is his uncle, and Prince Ulkar, who opposes him, is his maternal uncle.
Families with in-laws fight each other and it’s very shit.
Still, since the two denominations of Kwangmyeonggyo formally expressed their neutrality, Theodora avoided the worst.
After a small incident, we finally arrived at Lianwell.
“…and.”
It seems that it is not an illusion that it is the best city in the West.
Lianwell is the largest city I have ever encountered since I fell into this world. Longville was incomparable, well three or four times the size of Mo Dawes or South Harbor, and a jaw-droppingly prosperous city.
Lianwell was in the shape of a distorted oval, and the front of the outermost wall alone reached 5 km.
About 200 meters along the long walls hung large curtains. Arya had carved the family crest.
“Attention of the garrison-./”
an officer standing in the gatehouse gave a loud command.
Unlike the curtains fluttering in the cool breeze in the late afternoon, the countless soldiers lined up on it greeted the Marquis without moving.
In front of the gate, forty knights were waiting on war horses. They bowed to the Marquis and followed right after him.
The road leading from the castle gate to the Marquis’ Palace was paved with white and yellow flagstones, and on both sides of it, soldiers armed with axes and scale armor were lined up endlessly.
and huge crowds.
“Whoaaaa!”
I had heard at first glance that the population of the city was close to 100,000, but most of them seemed to be there. People who don’t know it will think it’s a triumphal march.
Citizens who came out to the streets to welcome Marquis Eabon, the owner of the city, were wearing clothes that were so good that it was hard to believe that they were commoners, and their expressions looked bright as well.
The Marquis, who took the lead, waved his hand leisurely while surrounded by the knights of the golden age. It seems that this kind of welcome is a very common occurrence, seeing as he did not get nervous or shrink at all even after receiving the eyes of many people at once.
“Hahahaha!”
Utequai on the direwolf chuckled at what was so fun.
Heila rode her horse slowly, as usual, and Princess Theodora was unable to look at her expression because her helmet was tightly pressed down.
Unlike them, who were relatively unconcerned, Mongchi seemed completely fed up with the huge crowd.
He drove the speckle close to me and grabbed hold of the hem of my cloak.
Fortunately, the bicorn was distracted by the loud sound and didn’t react to Mungchi’s approach, so I was able to hold my trembling hand tightly.
It was the same with his subordinates who were embarrassed by the huge crowd, so most of them looked dumbfounded.
To be honest, I was also a little embarrassed. People are people too, but compared to the Middle World I’ve seen so far, Lianwell was completely different.
The buildings were all of good stone and usually three or four stories high. The walls were neat and the borders were engraved with various reliefs.
On both sides of the road, there were iron covers instead of flagstones, but it turned out to be a sewer cover. The sewage system must also be well maintained, as my keen sense of smell did not catch any odors.
Stylish buildings and tidy streets were not enough, and there were even street lamps filled with oil. At this point, I was confused as to whether I was in Middle World or an antique department store street in modern Western Europe.
Was it because he had enough culture shock on the streets? When I was invited by the Marquis and set foot in his palace, I was rather not surprised.
The fountain spouting water at a height of 5 meters, the pale pink marble on the floor, and the forest in the city, which was landscaped only for the family members, were definitely great things. Still, I didn’t feel like I was out of time.
Immediately after unpacking into the luxurious room provided by the Marquis, he called his subordinates and ran errands.
Veteran conjurer and crossbowman Gidon were entrusted with recruiting new recruits.
It seemed to me that the page count was usually a good thing, especially in times of war.
Marquis Eabon decided to give me 1,500 reinforcements, but they didn’t become my subordinates. As long as it wasn’t for collecting gossips, it would be unconditionally helpful to increase my direct subordinates.
The chubby Eson and the heavily armed Dervish were sent to the Alchemy Guild.
Lianwell had a branch of the alchemy guild, as befits the largest city in the west, so with the approval of the Marquis and enough money, you could buy any number of precious magic potions.
The Marquis’ approval was obtained right away, so I handed three diamonds to my own soldiers. It was the diamond he bought after receiving a huge fortune from Ulkar in South Harbor.
At that time, it was cumbersome to carry more than a hundred gold coins, so he changed them to diamonds. Besides, diamonds are difficult to dispose of outside of large cities, so I decided to just use this opportunity.
Three diamonds were worth sixty gold coins, so he could buy plenty of effective wound healing potions. Only Goll, who was a grasshopper, was familiar with the geography of this place, so he sent him along as well.
Severe prosecutor Umberta and night watchman Dylan were sent to the bank.
Yes, Lianwell surprisingly had a bank.
Of course, it was completely different from modern banks, so it was not like they would give you interest if you opened a savings account or issue a card if you created a salary account.
From my point of view, the functions that I wanted to be like a bank were only issuing certificates when depositing money, making it possible to retrieve the money from other branches, or making loans with collateral.
However, I didn’t really want to use it because the fees and interest were quite expensive. Besides, there were even rumors that the royal family was deeply involved, so it was a bit like that.
What I wanted to use was the delivery service.
In addition to the royal capital and Lianwell, the bank also had branches in large cities such as Lemerick and Mid-Isle Linneh, which served as the delivery of letters.
I entrusted Umberta and Dylan with a few letters I had written in advance.
The letters were sent to Lavalton and Longville South Harbor Tirin Mel, respectively, and were filled with only a simple greeting, fearing that someone would open them.
The ponytail Fritz just told the kids to roll. He has a dirty temper, so if he goes outside and gets into an accident, it will be a headache.
After entrusting errands to his subordinates, he left the room with the guidance of an attendant sent by the Marquis. It was to receive a ‘gift’ that was supposed to be given to Lianwell.
