Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 137 The Bad Habit of Gossiping

Jeanne nodded slightly to Orville and bowed: "Thank you for your understanding. I will not force anyone to choose their own beliefs. I believe that everyone will naturally choose to believe in the God I believe in in the end, and the world will become more harmonious and beautiful because of this. I will not use violence or coercion to achieve this, and I will also restrain others from doing so, that's for sure."

The second half of this sentence may be a bit controversial, because the world has never been truly peaceful. On the contrary, the believers of the Eternals have fought each other countless times over conflicts in doctrine and interests, but the world has not necessarily become peaceful or chaotic because of this.

But getting back to the point, Orville was relatively confident about Jeanne Dacre. At least she wouldn't cause the kind of unspeakable mess that the Palfi people did, so it was up to them to do whatever they wanted.

During this period of time, he has fully realized the other party's moral character and ideological level. Not to mention compared with his contemporaries, even compared with the historical level, he is among the highest.

During the siege of Paris, the enemy would pray for the soldiers on both sides at the same time, and the soldiers were disciplined very strictly to the point of not harming the slightest. Jeanne did not think that the Roman soldiers themselves were at fault, only those who started the war were at fault, so she repeatedly asked for preferential treatment for the prisoners, at least not to arbitrarily abuse or kill the captured Romans after their surrender. This was not like the thinking that ancient people should have.

When he met ragged or hungry people on the road, he would try to help them or at least comfort them with words. It was not a show, because Orville could see that the other person really thought so from the bottom of his heart.

Although she was treated well both in Rome and in Gaul, she always wore ordinary clothes and had no expensive jewelry or huge personal property. Apart from her horse, weapons and armor, her most valuable personal belongings should be a small silk flag embroidered with a cross and several Celtic symbols.

As the saying goes, a kind person cannot command an army, and a righteous person cannot command wealth. There is some truth to this saying. The Romans with the highest moral standards that Orville has seen so far should be Belisarius and Tia. However, even they would do things that they had to do, such as bloody suppression, such as sacrificing the interests and even lives of a small number of people, because they are soldiers and would also participate in political activities.

Because they are not involved in the gray and black areas such as politics and business, the other party appears to be particularly spotless.

In another time and space, King Charles VII of France also granted Joan of Arc territory and status after she helped him turn the situation around, but she handed over all the territories to her brothers to manage. She did not show the slightest greed for the fiefdom, and she did not even show any affection or nostalgia for the luxurious life of the court nobles. From a moral point of view, she basically had no shortcomings.

It is certainly difficult to say whether this person can be called a perfect person, but Orville asked himself that he could not reach this level anyway, and he always respected such people.

Nominally, the other party was his attendant, but Orville never treated her as an attendant. He basically received her as a retainer and aide, and placed almost no restrictions on her freedom. He only required that she must be accompanied by a Roman soldier.

For a defeated general without citizenship, this was a great honor, so great that some people in the army suspected that Orville did this because he was interested in Jeanne d'Acre, and some people secretly criticized him, but that was the extent of it.

The main point of the military gossip is that Orville was the son-in-law that Emperor Vespa prepared for Princess Tia, so he was able to enter the Flavian royal family. Combined with Orville's life trajectory, this statement has a lot of supporters, and royal gossip is always popular in any era.

After all, Orville was a member of the royal family, and he was a senior officer at the level of a legion commander in his early twenties. He was a young talent. There were actually quite a lot of people who were interested in Orville, but he had never paid any attention to them. He was so rigid. Although there had been no relevant news from the Flavian royal family, these soldiers would not take it too seriously. Most of them simply thought that this was a sign that Orville was being controlled by his wife.

Relatively speaking, women in the upper class of Rome had more power, and the proportion of men in the upper class who were dominated by their wives was also higher than that in the lower class. To be more serious, this was because the wife's father or brother was also from the upper class, and the wife had power over her parents' family. Many times men had to weigh the pros and cons before doing things, so the proportion of men who were dominated by their wives was slightly higher.

However, we need to analyze each case specifically. The soldiers generally believe that Orville's behavior has nothing to do with political and economic issues. It is simply because they cannot afford to offend Tia, the tigress in the army. The two sides are not at the same level in terms of force and strength.

Some soldiers thought that Orville's behavior showed that after Tia left, Orville had let himself go and was doing things more arbitrarily, so the soldiers were waiting to see how Orville would explain to Tia after she came back.

When Orville first heard the news, he felt speechless, but he did not try to explain. On the one hand, the more he explained, the worse it would be, but on the other hand, it was actually better this way.

If things like this are taken to a larger level, they can be brought up to absolutely correct topics like politics and stance. However, the soldiers now take the initiative to limit the topic to the level of love between men and women, which saves a lot of effort and time explaining these things.

As for the rest, time will tell. Orville has done nothing, so he is not afraid of rumors. There are so many rumors around him. The nobles in Rome have seen that he never communicates with the ladies, and he likes to run to his military camp and farm whenever he has nothing to do. There was even a rumor that he has a special taste and a problem with his orientation.

At least now Orville's sexual orientation is normal in these rumors. He almost couldn't help but curse others to defend himself. There is no need to rush to refute every time there is a rumor. He has always been too lazy to pay attention to these things and just does his own thing.

However, the situation this time is slightly different from the past.

Domitia insisted on moving with Orville from Trier to Caen. During this period, she was very busy. She recorded all the rumors in the army. At the same time, she would go to Orville whenever she had time.

Under the pretext of visiting his brother, he was actually taking the opportunity to write a "daily note" for Orville, preparing to save it and report to Tia later.

Orville was unaware of these things, and if he had, he might have chosen to curb the spread and adaptation of these rumors a little.

(End of this chapter)