"Sheehan?"
Thrall saw that all the lines on General Sheehan's face were stretched hard. He and Sheehan grew up together, and he hardly ever saw him show such an expression.
"Sheehan?"
General Sheehan crumpled the letter into a ball and held it tightly in his hand. The wind blew across the dry ground, blowing the young general's disheveled blond hair. He was still wearing the armor that he didn't have time to take off. The sunlight fell on the armor, reflecting on his handsome face, and his eyes were indistinguishable under the brow bone.
"Go and gather our knights."
General Sheehan's voice seemed to be squeezed from between his teeth.
"Burn the granary."
"what?!"
Thrall looked at Sheehan in astonishment, and before he could understand what the order meant, the chill ran up his spine.
…
The fire rose from the southeast of the city, and under the scorching sun, it rushed into the sky. The flames were raging, and it was not that one or two rooms were on fire, but that the mountains of dry food and horse grass were ignited. The fire was so intense that the sky south of the city turned blood red.
At first people didn't know what it was, but soon the whole city was terrified. These days, under the heavy pressure of the approaching army, almost all the adult men in the entire city are preparing to fight. But before they could set foot on the battlefield, the city's last little hope was destroyed by fire.
Anger, despair, fear.
The people who witnessed the rose cavalry lighting the granary flocked to the center of the city, and more and more people gathered outside the official residence. In the roar and questioning, large and small stones were smashed into the official residence like raindrops.
"You didn't give the order!"
Thrall kicked the door open, and he pushed the crowd away with his shield, and was able to rush in with difficulty. The anger of the crowd made his heart skip a beat, and the countless cursing and hatred towards General Sheehan made him have no doubts that once General Sheehan walked out of here, people would not hesitate to eat their meat raw.
"That's the king's order! That's not your order!"
General Sheehan was wearing armor and a long sword on his waist. He stood behind the window with a bloodstain on his face, which was left on his face when the stone smashed the window.
"Saar!"
General Sheehan's voice suddenly became higher and more serious than ever. In all their years together, Thrall had never heard him speak in such a tone.
"The king gave us no orders."
He articulated clearly, turned around and stared at his friend.
Thrall fell into an ice cave, and he looked at the blond general standing by the window, his back straight. Outside the window, there were desperate people surrounding the mansion, hissing and cursing. The voices of "traitor", "coward" and "coward" were mixed together, overwhelming the sky.
"I have not received any orders from the king."
General Sheehan stared into his friend's eyes.
The moment he gave the order, he had foreseen everything now.
When standing alone in front of the window, Sheehan thought of the white-haired old man again. Those words that the imperial knight said in the snow. The old man said he was too idealistic. He said at that time, if the person wearing armor and holding the sword does not protect the weak, who will protect the weak. The old man said justice, greatness, heroism, these things cannot be used to describe a monarch.
However, it was only today that he suddenly realized that the Duke of Buckingham had only told him part of it.
The righteous and the great are heroes, knights, and never generals.
A general does not fight for one or two, but for the whole country. In this world, many people need justice, greatness, and heroes. But there are many more people who are not qualified to consider what justice is.
"Go and gather our soldiers."
General Sheehan said, the muscles in his face twitching.
It is absolutely impossible for the 5,000-strong Rose Rider to fight the 70,000-strong Sea Holy Army. Whenever there is a glimmer of hope, he will not give up on the Bubas retreat. But now, only by retreating to the Keya Mountains, with the help of the terrain, they can resist dozens of times their own enemies.
If the Rose Cavalry is destroyed in Bubas, then Legrand's southeast will no longer be able to resist the rush of the Holy Army!
The line of defense that the king wants to pull up on the land of Legrand will be torn apart by an absolutely fatal crack!
In the king's letter, there is only one succinct order—
"Burn down granaries and arsenals, evacuate Bubas, and hold on to Keya."
Every word is clear.
At the end of the order, the name of the king himself was heavily signed.
"I am the general of the Rose Cavalry, and the commander-in-chief of Legrand's southeastern defense line. The parliament and the king have given me the power to take all actions in the southeast. Now, I order—" General Sheen said word by word, "to evacuate Bubas, Stick to Keya!"
"It's me! It's my Sean Rowlands order!"
In the old year, the old man of the empire would tell the young general that people would only remember who gave the most ruthless and cruel order, not who carried it out. All the anger born of despair is directed only at the one who gave the order.
The young monarch has already carried enough infamy, but this time is different!
The entire Legrand was plunged into a turbulent, unprecedented struggle. The king himself could not care about his reputation, and that he was hated and hated by those he protected. But as a knight of the empire, as a general of Legrand, he couldn't care less! At this time of national war, the king is the flag of the whole country and the sustenance of all Legrand spirits!
The king must take on the role of "protecting the people". An order to renounce the people must never be issued by the king himself.
Sheen disobeyed the king's orders for the first time since serving as the general of the Rose Cavalry.
"This is my order!"
He growled.
"Now-"
"Execute now!"
…
Five thousand iron knights, five thousand silent knights.
The sky was dazzlingly bright, and the flames were still burning. Thrall rode on the warhorse, holding the reins tightly with one hand and pressing the hilt of the sword on his waist with the other. In the summer, his hands were shaking with cold, and what he feared happened—
When the rose iron cavalry who carried out the retreat order arrived at the city gate, the angry crowd had formed a human wall here, blocking their way. Everyone knows what it means for the Rose Cavalry to evacuate here. There were skinny old people, mothers holding their children, and men who were angry and couldn't believe it.
In the rebellion of the Northland, the knights who were able to step on the pontoon bridge from the rushing Lacey River without fear, and charged with arrows, faced these unarmed people who were not even soldiers, silent, like statues. The warhorse snorted uneasily.
"You can't go! What do we do when you go?"
A carpenter opened his hand and stood in front of the war horse.
There was a commotion in the crowd, and the children still didn't understand what war was, but they were already frightened by this heavy atmosphere and burst into tears.
"Step aside!"
The muscles on General Sheehan's face twitched, and he pulled out his long sword and swung it hard.
Sal closed his eyes.
Blood splattered, and the noisy scene instantly fell silent.
"Whoever dares to stop here, I will kill anyone!"
General Sheehan was holding a bloody long sword, and his voice was cold.
Thrall opened his eyes, like falling into an ice cave, he realized what General Sheen wanted to do.
"Rose cavalry obeys orders—"
General Sheehan raised his sword high.
"Rush out of the city gate!"
The iron hoofs stepped on, and the rose iron cavalry headed towards the city gate. The silent crowd boiled again, and people rushed up from all directions, desperately trying to stop the iron cavalry from leaving. The horses trod over the unarmed people like a cold sharp knife, and they carried out the general's orders.
In every battle in the past, the general who would rush to the front of the team stopped at the back of the army this time.
He took off his helmet, exposed his face, raised his sword high, and roared at the people who blocked the cavalry in vain:
"I am the general of the Rose Cavalry, and the commander-in-chief of the southeastern defense line of Legrand. The parliament and the king have given me the power to take all actions in the southeast."
"I ordered the burning of food!"
"I ordered the burning of the arsenal!"
"I ordered them to evacuate Bubas!"
A stone was thrown violently from the crowd, hitting him hard on the head. General Sheehan groaned and fell from the war horse.
"It's him! Traitor! Coward! Coward!" The man who threw the stone trembled and pointed at Sheehan who fell from the warhorse.
The crowd rushed towards General Sheen, who had fallen on his horse, and surrounded him heavily.
Sheehan struggled to get up from the ground and shouted at the Rose Riders who finally rushed out of the city gate because of the loosening of the crowd, but stopped again: "Go! Go to Keya! This is an order!"
Outside the city gate, Thrall stared blankly at the man surrounded by the angry crowd.
Thrall clearly realized that Sheen couldn't go.
The anger of the rioters needs an outlet. General Sheehan, who gave the order, was the focal point of all the anger.
Anyone can leave Bubas except...
Sheehan.
Could they really be able to ruthlessly slaughter the people who were abandoned by them? They should have protected these people.
Sheehan, he stayed on purpose.
Thrall froze in place, the warhorse neighing anxiously, not knowing whether he should go forward or backward.
"Thrall! Take them away!"
General Sheehan roared at Thrall. He was an outstanding knight, but he was surrounded by a group of ordinary people who didn't understand martial arts at all, but he never swung his sword once.
"Thrall! We're going to be knights who protect the weak!"
The seven-year-old blond boy raised his wooden sword high, turned his head and said to him.
A great sadness rushed to his chest, and Thrall watched as the angry crowd drowned the armored man like a tide. He was a knight of great swordsmanship, and his sword fell to the ground—the sword he swore to protect all!
Sean Rowland.
The general of the rose cavalry! Legrand excellent knight!
He didn't die on the battlefield, he didn't die in battle to protect the weak as he said when he was young. The person he wanted to protect held up a stone and smashed it on his head one by one, blood flowing down the face of the countless ladies who were obsessed. His blond hair was torn apart by desperate mothers, who gnawed at the flesh of his flesh.
Sal! We are the knights who protect the weak!
Be a knight who protects everyone in the world!
The boy with the wooden sword, the general overwhelmed by the crowd... The boy's smiling face overlapped with the man's bloody face, the world was spinning, and the world was absurd like a giant joke.
"I am the general of the rose cavalry, and I order you—"
Sheehan was shoved by the crowd, blood flowed down his forehead, and his eyes were dark red. He hissed in the direction outside the city gate.
"Evacuate Bubas!"
His voice was drowned out by the cursing of the crowd.
"Go! Go! Go!"
Thrall growled.
Walk! ! !
The rose cavalry finally took action and ran in the direction of Keya. At the end of the line, Thrall looked back one last time.
The blond knight had been drowned in the crowd, and the abandoned men had chopped his neck down with his own sword. A carpenter grabbed his head and held it high.
In an instant, the world was gray.
Thrall was dizzy and nearly fell off his horse.
He watched helplessly as the blurred head was thrown to the ground by people.
The burnt granary was burning in the southeast of the city, and the flames were soaring, printing the sky blood red. Qiangwei Tieqi moved towards the south and evacuated the city. People overwhelmed with despair and anger wailed hysterically in hopeless castles.
Old people, women, children... all crazy.
As if the day of judgment had really come.
The civilians who should have been protected smashed every bone of the general who had abandoned them, and his head was nailed to the city gate.
Blood dripped down.
The first person to lift the stone sat slumped on the ground, crying hysterically.
Cries and flames flooded the city.
The 5,000 rose cavalry went away, and the 70,000 Holy Army rushed to Bubas.
Above the city gate, the head of the lunatic hangs from the sky.
Volume 3 "The Head of the Madman"