The head of the Ling tribe was silent for a long time. She looked into Yang Hao's eyes and nodded:
"I can see. Your eyes don't lie. The blazing fire wants to burn the plain to ashes even more than I do. I am willing to promise you that as long as you can help me bring my children and relatives back, I will let them help you prepare everything you need - provided that the Ling tribe can do it."
"That would be great—"
Yang Hao smiled, but before he could utter the word "了".
Along with the dull sound of the horn coming from afar, the face of the chief of the Ling tribe changed drastically.
What Yang Hao and Teresa heard was the familiar yet crazy call of the Pope—
"God of Light is above! Sacrifice these pagans and return my rich and fertile land to me!!"
Chapter 18: The Believers, the Trial, the Preparations, and the Atrocities Suffered by the Queen
"God of Light is above! Sacrifice these pagans and return my rich and fertile land to me!!"
When the crazed and half-naked believers rushed into the "heretic village" they had discovered earlier, holding high the banner of light, what was waiting for them was not a girl like a fish on a chopping board, but an enemy with a harsh red light flashing on his horns, commanding a stone giant who was standing behind a temporary earth fortification and was ready for battle.
Under the influence of anesthetics distributed by the church and their faith, these believers believed that the huge giant was just a "scarecrow" on the farmland.
While shouting the name of the Lord God, they set their greedy eyes on the monster village in the name of God.
As long as they abducted these demons, they would have the opportunity to please the God of Light as a sacrifice and show their piety. They could even punish the sacrifices before they were presented to the gods, to let them know that it was humans, not these barbarians, who were in charge of this land!
What's more, the antlers of these monsters are valuable goods - it is said that the bishops of St. Peter's Basilica in the diocese are willing to spend thousands of gold coins to purchase the antlers of these demons!
As long as I can get their antlers, I won't have to work on the barren land for the rest of my life, and I can live a happy life in the royal capital or the city of the parish!
The strong stimulation of desire, combined with the hallucinations brought by anesthetics and faith, forced these believers and bandits to ignore the monsters' warnings and charge in a chaotic formation.
There were probably nearly a hundred of them, and there wasn't even a single armored soldier in the group. Rather than poachers, they looked more like starving refugees who came from nowhere.
It was inevitable that the Ling people at that time would mistakenly think that these guys were victims in need of help rather than ugly enemies!
Yang Hao and Theresa hid in the high place of the village and shook their heads. At this moment, Yang Hao noticed that countless spears and arrows made of mud were sticking out from the simple mud fortifications.
These things were trembling in the soil like crossbow arrows ready to be fired. Before Yang Hao could figure out the connection between those earthen spears and arrows and the pale-faced women of the Ling tribe around him with glowing antlers, he heard the rustling sound of breaking through the air and those shrill wails.
Looking up, I saw that many people were shot into the air by the homemade guns and arrows, and were cut in half and turned into pieces.
Some were even strung up like candied haws and nailed to old trees, wailing. It was unlikely that they would die for a while.
The morale of the remaining fanatics plummeted, but they still shouted slogans of the God of Light and charged towards the village.
"It's hallucinogens - I knew it. The Church of the God of Light is almost full of addictive drugs collected from the Monster Forest. I was stupid enough to think that they were used to heal the wounds of the seriously injured!" Theresa on the side couldn't help but make an extremely angry voice when she saw this.
"In the end, they used these things on civilians - no... no no no... I fucking figured it out, that "God's gift", that "body comfort after atonement"... All the priests of the God of Light are fucking bitches!"
"We all know about this kind of thing. The biggest problem now is to survive this attack. There are nearly a hundred of them, and only a dozen have died so far. Now they are almost rushing to the fortifications to fight the golems in hand-to-hand combat. Not to mention gathering more earth spears and earth arrows, even we will be in trouble."
Yang Hao comforted Theresa for a few words, then he suddenly swooped down from the top of the tent and shouted to the women of the Ling tribe while the "Word Spirit" was still ineffective:
"Don't gather into earthen spears and arrows! Quickly make "barbed wire" in the gaps between the earthen wall and the sides of the earthen wall! Quick! As long as they don't cross the earthen wall, they will be finished!"
The women of the Ling tribe looked at each other, obviously not understanding what Yang Hao was talking about.
But soon, with Yang Hao's explanation, they tentatively understood that the obstacle was formed by a large number of tough, spiked wires entangled together.
The antlers flashed again. This time, no new arrows or earth spears appeared around the earth wall. Under the surprised gaze of Narujia, the chief of the Ling tribe, a large number of earth lines with spikes entangled with each other under the promotion of magic, and finally completely sealed off the surrounding area of the entire village.
One of the believers who rushed the fastest was caught off guard and crashed into the tough earth wire. His body was cut by the sharp spikes. He cried in pain and waved the rusty sickle in his hand, trying to cut the tangled wire nets.
However, he didn't expect that his weapon would get entangled when he chopped it hard. His companions wanted to pull him out, but ended up leaving half of his face and skin on the wire.
Seeing this, the believers were terrified, but an old man holding up the Holy Book of Light shouted, since we can't save our comrade's life, why don't we step on his corpse to avenge him!
Just like that, the unfortunate believer was hung online by his fellow villagers before he could even utter a sound to beg for mercy.
The believers regarded this only "bridge" as an important way to plunder heretics. As a result, before the fastest climber could climb up the fortification, a stone thug crushed his head like a berry.
It was the golem of Naruga, the leader of the Ling tribe. Under her control, the golem was like a nimble monkey, standing behind the fortifications and wantonly torturing the attacking believers.
She vented all the grievances and anger she had been feeling for a while on her enemies. She flattened and knocked those bastards away with her golem hands, and even pressed them to the ground and crushed them into a paste amid their painful and long screams.
Every time she killed someone, she would shout out the name of her abducted tribesman. She cried as she worried about the safety of her tribesmen, but her believers had already awakened from their fanatical faith and the hallucinations caused by anesthetics in the brutal battle.
They trembled, screamed, and turned to run away, but were caught up by the golems one by one and flattened against the tree trunks, with blood and internal organs gushing out of the holes all over their bodies.
The few who had been staying behind and not rushing forward, but were now the fastest runners, were knocked to the ground by the "rain of stones" thrown by Golem, who directly grabbed the stones on the ground, but they still struggled to crawl towards the outskirts of the forest.
Naruja, with tears streaming down her face and eyes full of anger and murderous intent, stood on Golem's back. Just as she was about to let the eight-meter-tall giant under her feet concentrate all its weight on his right foot to trample these dirty robbers, Yang Hao's voice suddenly came over with an unbearable sense of excitement:
"Chief, don't kill them! They are still useful!"
The chief of the Ling tribe was stunned for a moment.
When he turned around, he found that he was holding a torture instrument made of clay.
The human man looked at the slaughtered believers of the God of Light, with countless pleasure flashing in his eyes.
…
After the war, the members of the Ling tribe, except for the chief, were using their innate magic to deal with the corpses on the ground.
If the people of the Roman Empire dealt with the bodies of their enemies, instead of pricking them with stakes and humiliating them, they would have been considered respecting their enemies if they had simply left them exposed in the wilderness.
It was only under Yang Hao's reform that the Roman Empire's army had unified regulations for the disposal of corpses in order to avoid the occurrence of plague.
But in the Monster Forest, these demons thought this was just common sense, and they even dug a grave for each person, covered it with soil, and didn't forget to sprinkle a handful of grass on it.
Even the corpses of the enemies were properly disposed of after the war - this made Theresa feel that the demons were much more civilized than the people of the Roman Empire.
"Alas - really, we just want to live a peaceful life and have a few children, why do we always have to face such a mess."
After performing a simple diagnosis on several members of the Ling tribe who seemed to have consumed too much magic power during the battle, and then using the few divine arts she had to give them some mental comfort, Theresa stretched lazily while muttering.
She turned her head and glanced at the chief's tent, where Yang Hao and the Ling tribe leader were interrogating the prisoners.
Although she also wanted to watch from inside, in the end, under Yang Hao's insistence, she chose to respect her man's opinion - after all, he also said that if she watched it, she would have nightmares.
And this is actually the case.
In the tent, the two fanatics who were firmly held to the ground by what Yang Hao called the "earthen silk net" were breathing out more than breathing in.
Yang Hao, covered in blood, just stared at the four eyeballs in his hands and fell into deep thought.
The chief of the Ling tribe standing by was extremely anxious.
"Yang Hao, I beg you to come with me and save my children right now. Otherwise, they will be tortured and killed by these bandits who are worse than barbarians!"
"I know. But the more times come, the more you need to stay calm."
Yang Hao casually stuffed four eyeballs into the mouths of the two captives in groups of two, and forced them to bite off their own eyeballs and eat them.
The mental willpower of these fanatics was not very high, but in order to ensure that what they said was "true", Yang Hao chose to increase the intensity of the torture.
He heard that the Church of Light would punish apostates by "blinding" and "eviscerating" them.
Now he used these two punishments on the believers of the Church of Light. Before they lost their eyesight, he took out the Holy Book of Light from their arms and burned it to ashes in front of them.
Their faith and physical pain broke their wills, and they spoke of the atrocities that were about to take place in the town of Kagad in the Earldom of Kagad.
During the festival on March 1, they would burn the captured long-horned heretics through flames, along with fine wine and some "non-believers", to the God of Light they believed in, in order to pray for the arrival of the rainy season and a good harvest.
It is now February 18th. In this world, February only has 28 days. In other words, they only have less than ten days to go to the rescue -
Fortunately, no believers left the forest alive this time, otherwise, with the celebration likely to be held earlier, the captured Ling girl might have been beyond saving.
But even so, the head of the Ling tribe was still extremely anxious. Yang Hao was surprised that even the demons loved their "family" more than the landlords of the Roman Empire. At the same time, he said that the more times like this, the more calm you need to be. Attacking a town is not about mindless recklessness, but about logistics, tactics, and appropriate weapons.
With a giant as tall as Golem, Yang Hao thought that it would not be a problem to smash the city gate of Kagad Town - but the question is, how many Golems are there
Yang Hao asked curiously while hitting the two captives' temples with the sharp stone in his hand.
Never give the enemy a chance. He has deeply understood these principles. After all, he is not a saint now, not to mention that there is no rule in the world to complain about kindness.
Perhaps there are such people, but this has nothing to do with Yang Hao who left the Roman Empire.
In response to Yang Hao's question, the head of the Ling tribe said somewhat embarrassedly:
"Golem... a child of stone and earth. Currently, I am the only one who can create one."
"ha?"
"I am the only one - the other children can only condense into stone spears and stone arrows, and many children can't even make a palm-sized "palm"..."
"All right."
I thought at worst I could pull out a few golems here...
Yang Hao sighed and asked Naluga to erect a stone wall outside the tent to block the view so that Theresa would not see the scene that would give her nightmares. Then he left carrying the two horrible corpses.
This is a long-term plan - but how long has it been since you did something like this
He felt very excited.
Raising a group of mercenaries to fight his blood feud—he was excited.
…
At the same time, Priscilla has returned to the royal capital through the portal of the Earldom of Kagad, and is currently confirming the next mission with the uncle of the little queen of the Roman royal family.
"Priscilla, you can no longer indulge in studying your magic. Now that the regent has left, the royal family needs to communicate with the diocese and obtain enough money to purchase food from the surrounding small countries and even Ishugard across the sea in the name of "noble luxury."
I heard that you have a deep friendship with Saint Cecilia of the diocese... I also ask you to communicate with the reclusive Saint on behalf of the royal family during this period of time and try to gain her sympathy."
"I understand. However, Knight Robert and his men still need to rest for a few days, and their equipment..."
"I will prepare myself."
"yes."
The Witch of Night left the audience hall. In fact, she had always wanted to refuse such a job ever since her attempt to invite Yang Hao back failed and she witnessed with her own eyes the villagers slaughtering the lone Imperial Knight.
She wanted to escape back to the Mage Tower that belonged to her alone and sink into oblivion... But the Roman Empire was in such a critical situation that it needed everyone's efforts to overcome the difficulties. No matter what, she had to contribute.
Communicating with Saint Cecilia... This is an extremely complicated and... difficult matter.
Since the day she disagreed with Yang Hao, Saint Cecilia has completely locked herself up in the underground church of St. Peter's Basilica and has not appeared in front of the world until now.
"So... she knows less about the current situation in this country than I do, and she doesn't know that Yang Hao has left the Roman Empire with Theresa...
Sigh, if she knew, she might mobilize half of the parish to launch a "holy war" against the Monster Forest—
But if she knew that it was her own followers who drove him away, the contradiction between the two would probably tear her spirit apart… "
Saint Cecilia is half of the diocese, the spokesperson of the God of Light on earth, and the most devout believer of the God of Light—
But at the same time, she was Priscilla's former love rival. Although she completely disagreed with Yang Hao's ideas, she believed that she could become his "shepherd" to guide him.
How can I communicate with her? Should I just run over and tell her that your followers chased away the man you liked, and then the man eloped with another woman
When Priscilla thought of this, she felt a headache - and just as she walked to the courtyard and planned to breathe some fresh air.
She happened to see the former court president Natalia, who had been demoted to a maid, accompanying the little empress to enjoy snacks in the courtyard.
Should I go over and say hello? Just as Priscilla was thinking this, she saw for the first time that the little queen opened her mouth in pain, then quickly closed it.
I don’t know if it was her illusion, but Priscilla seemed to be unable to see what should have been in the little queen’s mouth because of the example she gave…
Watching Natalia carefully preparing extremely fine and sticky food for the little queen, Priscilla was possessed and cast a spell on herself so that she could hear the movement there.
"Uh..." At first there was a silent grinding sound. Then there was the pained cry of the little queen.
Priscilla didn't know what was going on - but Natalia's next words made her fall into an icy cave:
"My little queen, my little queen... Don't cry, don't give up. His Majesty the Regent will not let you continue to suffer here, I believe him... Come, please open your mouth gently, don't let the wind blow on the broken surface of your tongue, these cool liquids will make you feel better..."
Hearing the name of the regent, the little queen opened her mouth obediently while crying and sniffing.
In her mouth, behind the two rows of pearly teeth, the pink tongue that should have been inside was left with only the cross-section at the root.
…
Priscilla ran away with a pale face. She couldn't understand what was going on - but she suddenly realized.
Perhaps the Queen's silence is a conspiracy by other royal family members.
Now, the only member of the Roman royal family besides the Queen is her uncle.
Chapter 19: The aggrieved chief doctor, Yang Hao's industrialized improvement
February 24th.