Knight and Wand

Chapter 52: Thorn Flower Flag
Finally, he ran to the griffin with sweat on his forehead, and this unexpected conflict was finally stopped in time by Leon.

"Calm down, these people are not enemies." Leon tried to soothe the griffin with gestures, and finally smoothed down the ruffled feathers on the big guy's neck.

"Big brother! Big brother!"

Leon heard the call and turned to look.

I saw a little girl sitting on the horse of an armored old noble, shouting and waving over here.

Take a closer look.

It was the little brown-haired girl whom they rescued from the mercenary thugs at the windmill yesterday.

She was still wearing the coat and trousers that Leon and his two companions had taken off and given to her when they were in disguise that day, so it was easy to recognize her.

Little Lina stopped greeting and turned back to point out, "Lord Trosa, that's one of the three foreign brothers who saved me yesterday."

"Oh, really? That's not surprising." Trosa looked at the intimate behavior between the young man and the griffin in front of him and knew what had killed the group of Kantadar's defeated soldiers.

The old count looked down and saw that little Lina looked impatient, so he raised his hand and gently supported the girl under her armpits and put her back on the ground from the horse's back.

As soon as Lina landed, she ran towards Leon happily.

But when she reached the middle of the road and looked at the huge and terrifying creature, she slowed down her pace, her eyes full of fear and she dared not get any closer.

Seeing this, Leon turned back and patted the griffin's body: "Go and rest first, good brother, I'm fine. If something really happens, it won't be too late for you to save me."

Maybe the griffin understood or sensed that Leon had no hostility towards the army in front of him, but it shook its head, let out a soft cry, leaped up, and circled above the crowd with its wings flapping.

Leon then turned around and walked towards Lina.

"Big brother, I'm glad you're okay. What about the other two brothers? Was Sister Olivia also rescued?" Lina ran to him, wiped her eyes that had just been crying, and asked anxiously.

"We are all fine, but many people in the village still died." Leon sighed. He didn't know whether among the hundreds of bodies in the open space, there were any family members of this little girl.

But thinking about the situation that day when the girl was abducted to the windmill tower and almost defiled, I am afraid that her relatives are in great danger.

"But you really did bring the lord's reinforcements." Leon raised his hand and rubbed her little head, praising her comfortingly: "Well done, Lina."

When Leon first heard the girl say that she was going to find help, he didn't take it seriously. The current scene was really unexpected.

"No, they are not the lord's troops." Lina shook her head and explained, "I ran into these knights' troops when I was on the way to the town last night. Fortunately, they are all good people. After listening to my explanation, the honorable Grandpa Trosa immediately took me back."

Not the lord's army?
Leon looked at the dense formation of knights not far away, and was amazed at the fluttering flags and gorgeous robes.

Especially the one in the lead holding a big axe. Leon thought that if he was not mistaken, there was light on the axe blade. What kind of high-tech was this?

If these heroic and extraordinary heavy-armored knights were not fakes, he doubted whether his griffin friends could fight against this powerful army.

Leon shook his head and stopped guessing. Fortunately, they were not enemies.

He took the girl's hand and walked towards the knights in gorgeous armor, and stopped not far away.

Following the memory of the original owner of this body, with the etiquette of a commoner of the Kingdom of Serrian facing a noble, he respectfully placed his left hand on his chest and bowed to the noble knights in front of him.

“My name is Leon, and I am honored to meet you all.

Please forgive us, as we have just experienced a disaster here and are unable to entertain you all.

But the surviving villagers have tried their best to clean up the horse tying grounds and resting places. "

At this moment, he was somewhat glad that he did not travel through time into a different world like the Ming and Qing dynasties where the rules of hierarchy were more strict.

At least according to the memory of the original owner Leon, in the culture of the Feru people, even if you are a commoner, you generally do not have to kneel down and kowtow to the nobles.

That kind of behavior basically only occurs in cases where you are a criminal or a prisoner.

When meeting a superior, in an informal meeting, the inferior only needs to be respectful, bow, and not look directly into the eyes of the superior.

The degree of the bow depends on the status of the person doing the bow. The lower the bow, the deeper it is. However, it should not exceed ninety degrees. If it is too low, it would be considered impolite and foolish.

As for the more formal kneeling ceremony, it only occurs in formal reception occasions, and usually depends on the situation and the person.

The knights of the inner court beside the old earl remained silent in the face of Leon's salute, and did not tell him the name of the lord.

After all, one of the most powerful nobles in the Kingdom of Orland has no obligation to tell his name to a commoner.

Trosa sat upright on his horse, looking at the polite young man, and then sizing up the armor on his body.

He recognized that the outfit originally belonged to the enemy he was chasing, and he had seen the whereabouts of Baron Doson himself in a pile of corpses outside the village before.

"It's okay, young man. If there are no enemies here, my army will not stay here for long." Trosa looked at the other party with interest.

"I heard from little Lina that you are not from Orland? This accent and word usage, are they from Rolandar?"

Leon bowed his head and answered the old man truthfully, "That's right, sir. However, Rolandar had been captured by the Kantardar army. My companions and I were once captured by the enemy. Thanks to the blessing of the gods, we escaped from the bandits and wandered here for many years."

"So, those Kantadars who attacked this village were annihilated by you? Did you save this village?" Trosa continued to ask.

"I'm ashamed that we were unable to save all the villagers. We were initially drawn into this conflict only to save our friends. In addition, most of the enemies were killed by my griffin companions, and only a few were killed by our own hands."

Leon did not lie. Apart from the noble leader who was killed by Olivia, they did kill three cavalrymen by surprise, and he even smashed the head of a Kantadar knight with his own hands.

As for whether this counts as Miss Lola’s head, well, we are all soul roommates living together in the same body, so there’s no difference between us.

"Raise your head, child." Trosa nodded slightly in appreciation. "You are not a knight of Orland, but you already have the spirit of a knight of our country. If what you said is honest, then I would like to thank you for your courage and righteousness on behalf of the people you saved."

"I don't deserve your praise." After getting the other party's permission, Leon responded modestly and straightened up.

It was OK. The old nobleman in front of him was very cultured and of noble status, but he was not the arrogant guy. He felt a lot easier dealing with him.

It seems that the people of Orland are more educated than those barbarians in Kantadar, and their quality is no worse than that of the people of Serrian.

Yes, if this old man was not a broad-minded person, how could he, as a nobleman, put an ordinary village girl on his horse and take care of her personally.

"Take me to see the surviving villagers. Also, I'm very interested in your experiences." Trosa gestured to Leon to lead the way.

"It is a great honor. Please follow me, gentlemen." After safely going through the initial contact, Leon relaxed and led the huge team of knights in the direction of the village elder's house.

The only house in the village that was spacious was the village elder's, which was why the Kantadar nobles chose to stay there. Of course, this group of knights had seven or eight times more people than the Kantadars, and the village elder's house obviously couldn't accommodate so many people.

Fortunately, not all knights followed the old noble into the village.

Some knights took some men and horses to guard outside the village.

One part is centered on the village hometown, with layers of buildings surrounding it to protect it.

The remaining knights and servants checked the safety of the house inside and out.

When Trosa entered the house to rest, the whole house had already been cleaned by the women and children who had been instructed in advance.

As soon as the old earl sat down in the hall, he asked his men to summon the person in charge of the village and asked the servants to randomly select some villagers to come and question them.

Naturally, he would not easily and completely believe the one-sided words of the foreign boy and Lina.

What exactly happened here needs to be confirmed from more villagers.

Not long after, Leon, who was waiting outside the door with the noble guards, saw Brian the blacksmith limping over with a cane.

He nodded slightly to the young man, as naturally as if he was saying hello, and then walked into the hall.

Brian walked past the armored knights on both sides and bowed respectfully to General Trosa who was sitting in the main chair.

He greeted with a fearful tone like an ordinary villager: "I am Brian, a humble man, and I am honored to meet you all, the distinguished adults."

"Are you the person in charge of this village now?" Trosa asked the strong old man in the hall.

“Yes, sir, I am the blacksmith of this village.

The village official had earlier enlisted with the young and strong men to join the lord's army and was not in the village. The village elder was unfortunately killed by the Kantadars, and all the other old villagers who had a say were killed.

Now, there are only a few men and children left in the village, and the rest are women and girls." The old blacksmith answered in detail.

After learning about the survivors, Trosa asked the old blacksmith about the attack by the Kantadars.

What Brian said was almost the same as what little Lina said. Both said that the village of Selva was attacked at dawn, but the old blacksmith included a lot more descriptions of the three foreign boys.

There wasn't much content, but her attitude was the same as that of Lina who was rescued, expressing gratitude to Leon and the other two.

Next, there was no difference between the several villagers summoned, except that their testimonies were more about crying out about the atrocities they had suffered, and their impressions of later witnessing the griffins slaughtering the Kantadar people.

Trosa roughly outlined the whole incident from the survivors, and gradually let go of his habitual necessary doubts.

"After going through so much hardship, escaping from the hands of the Kantardars, he came to a foreign land and was willing to help the innocent."

The old earl stroked his beard and sighed.

Recalling the first impression of the man wearing armor and carrying a sword, looking like a young knight, the old earl suddenly felt moved.

This upright and brave young man, who had experienced the cruel test of the journey, made him want to recruit him for training.

"Sir, I'm more curious about how the child got a griffin as a companion. I've never heard of griffins living in the Gray Fir Valley before." The great knight Kailan reminded.

"Just ask him. Besides, aren't there three people? Where are the other two? Call them all over. I want to hear about their experiences along the way. I don't know how they came to Orland."

Trosa waved his hand in a good mood, preparing to ask his servants to call those brave foreign boys over for questioning.

Although he didn't manage to kill the fleeing enemies himself after coming here from afar, it would be an unexpected gain if he could get a few young people who are worth cultivating.

The servant in charge of the summons was about to turn around and leave when he saw a knight who was on guard outside the village running quickly into the hall.

"General, the patrol scout reported that a troop is approaching here. He saw the flag of thorn flowers. It should be the army of the Farolis family." The knight who came back to report the news took off his helmet, held his chest and saluted.

"Oh? Lord Elliver reacts quickly." Trosa said in surprise.

Of course the old earl knew that Baron Elliver was the lord of this area. After all, the other party was also the force under his command in this southern expedition.

So he was not surprised at who the visitor was, but was surprised that Elifer's reaction was so quick.

It was because the Farolis family's army, as one of the vanguards in the attack on Kantadar, suffered heavy losses in the battle in Mamor County and returned to the territory early for repairs. They should not have known that the remnants of the army accidentally escaped into Kossos County yesterday.

Trosa had been chasing the remnants of Doson all the way from the battlefield.

If the old earl hadn't accidentally met the girl named Lina last night, his destination would have been Baron Elliver's castle.

After all, it would be more convenient to find a local lord to act as a guide to search for Dawson's whereabouts.

Unexpectedly, just one day after the disaster in the village, Elifuer learned the news and sent troops to the village.

"Everyone, follow me out to welcome Lord Elliver. Although the chaos here is not caused by us, the village under his rule was ultimately messed up by the enemies we chased. I still feel guilty about it." Trosa said.

"General's flag? Isn't it the Kantardars?"

Riding his warhorse across the col, Baron Elliver, wearing black armor, raised his visor and looked at the green flag with a deer head outside the village of Selva in confusion.

And around the village, there were soldiers of the kingdom patrolling in the robes of various knight families.

The knights of the Farolis family, who had already prepared their horses and weapons to fight with the Kantadar cavalry who had broken into the territory, were now completely confused.

Soon, a knight wearing a robe with a deer head emblem ran out from the village and rode his horse to the front of Baron Elif's army.

"Sir Farolis." The man took off his helmet, nodded and said with a smile, "It's been a long time since we last met on the battlefield. Are you doing well?"

"Thank you for your concern, Lord Adilion. Is the general here too?" Baron Elliver urged his horse forward and greeted the noble knight who had fought with him not long ago.

"The general is waiting for you in the village. We just got here." Adrian nodded.

"Forgive me for being confused, but I just don't know why you are here. Yesterday I heard from the people that three foreign spies led a group of Kantardar cavalry to attack."

Elifer rode side by side with the other party and asked in confusion: "Have you helped me eliminate all those enemies?"

"What? Three spies?"

Adilion raised his eyebrows and looked at Baron Thornflower: "I didn't hear from the surviving villagers that there were any spies? There were three young rangers and a griffin. The Kantardars were killed by them before we arrived. Haha, old guy Dosen was stabbed through and through, and we just packed up his body."

(End of this chapter)