After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

The so-called Pure White Saint Sect is still based on that grass-roots team composed of frustrated people and low-level people.

To put it bluntly, it is a mob.

Therefore, for this group of people who spontaneously and suddenly formed the so-called jihad army, Aize could be said to have lowered his expectations to the lowest level.

We don't expect you to fight seriously, but you can wear armor and stand guard, maintain order when the Imperial Army is working, etc., which is enough to feed so many mouths.

However, it turned out that Aize's expectations were still unreasonably high.

The holy war army that appeared before him at this moment was neither holy nor able to fight, let alone an army.

There were no barracks, defenses, or other functional facilities that a military base should have, let alone patrols and guards.

As far as the eye could see, there were only refugees sitting on the ground. Many of them were in tattered clothes and skinny. Some were even lying on the ground and leaning against trees, so motionless that it was unclear whether they were alive or dead.

There are hundreds of them, and even more in the blind spots obscured by the forest.

Of course, there were weapons and armor distributed by the church leaders as a way to give them away, but they were placed and piled up together in an extremely random manner, without any effective storage or use at all.

Such a scene made Aize stunned and stood there, his brain stopped working and he couldn't react for a while.

"that……"

Suddenly, a faint female voice came from beside me.

Turning around, a little girl had come to his side at some point and was gently pulling the corner of Aize's clothes with her tender hands.

"Excuse me, are you guys here to deliver supplies from the castle?"

She was probably around ten years old, and although her appearance could be considered cute, that was all. She didn't have any aura or magical fluctuations worth mentioning.

No matter how you look at it, he doesn't seem like a character who should appear in this place at this time.

With the most malicious speculation, Aize frowned:

"you are?"

"Well, my name is Jane. I'm a member of the Pure White Saint Sect and also a member of this expedition."

"……simple?"

It was an unusually simple and casual name in every way, but Aize had seen it recently.

It's in the report on the situation in the Holy City.

The little girl who claimed to have received revelations from the goddess, provided full intelligence support for Leah's crazy behavior, and turned the church upside down during the trial, was called this name.

It is said that she, who could not read a word, was later elected as the bishop of her own sect, becoming the nominal leader but a vase in reality.

If it really is her, it's not surprising that she appears here.

Aize immediately became alert and began to respond:

"Nice to meet you. My name is Aize. You may know me as one of the God's Chosen Warriors, and also the current..."

"Aize!!? Are you Lord Aize!?"

Before he could finish his words, the little girl suddenly screamed loudly, and even came closer with her eyes shining.

"Aize?"

"Lord Aize?"

"...Who? Is this true?"

Following this shout, the sect members who were lying or sitting around stood up one after another, and instantly surrounded Aize in the center, making it impossible for him to escape.

With tattered clothes and a dirty face, he looks like a zombie crawling out to attack the protagonist.

"Really? It's really Lord Aize! I've seen him on the street before!"

“Goddess, please bless us… Goddess, please bless us… We will definitely win this expedition!!”

"Lord Aize! Why don't you return to the church? Are you really troubled by those beasts in the Inquisition?"

"Lord Aize! As the symbol of the power of the Supreme God Realm, Lord Aize, please grant us protection and blessings——"

……

……

In just a few seconds, the situation developed into a fan meeting and was irreversible, and even gradually developed into the direction of a charlatan.

Aize's head hurt from the noise, he covered his face and said nothing.

Villian, with a gloating smile on her face, secretly nudged his side with her elbow and whispered softly with a smile:

"It seems that woman included you in her brainwashing of her followers. Shouldn't you thank her properly the next time you see her?"

"I thank her *****"

Aize was furious.

"They're engaging in feudal superstition and dragging me into this. It's disgusting to hear. And how can I conjure up any kind of protection for them? I can't even use it myself. Otherwise, how could I be in this state now!? That woman, is she really disgusting to me or something?"

It's no use thinking about these things now.

More and more people gathered and kept pushing forward.

Judging from the frail physical condition of these guys, if they continue like this, sooner or later there will be a farce and tragedy of large-scale trampling and mass casualties.

Even without these, if they continued to chant, Aize would go crazy begging.

It’s better to suppress it first.

"Quiet! Everyone be quiet!"

Aize roared loudly with his teeth gnashing to the point of breaking, and the crowd actually quieted down. It seemed that his prestige among this group of people was not fake.

But why do I feel so uncomfortable?

Anyway, he looked at the little girl named Jane and asked:

"Didn't you carry a lot of supplies and equipment when you left the Holy City? What happened? How did it end up like this?!"

The little girl blinked innocently:

"What happened? No, nothing happened... I was just on the road all the time."

"...?"

Why is this answer irrelevant?

At the critical moment, the adult next to him interrupted:

"Lord Aize, the truth is, we didn't bring all the supplies with us in order to get here from the Holy City as quickly as possible and join the expedition. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to run fast."

"To be precise, I only brought about three days' worth of dry food. Or maybe four? People eat different amounts of food."

"Later, after we finished eating, we still had to keep going, so we kept running and running, and that's how it turned out."

"When we first left the Holy City, the towns and villages along the way gave us plenty of food, but later on, the food became less and less, and we ran out of food."

"..."

Aize didn't say anything.

Because at that moment, his brain was once again overloaded by the huge amount of information and the blood pressure rising to the top of his head.

What this means is that these people rushed out of the Holy City in a fit of rage, without even thinking about how to eat.

As for Rosaline, she did not carry out any form of material management and distribution, allowing these guys to use and squander them at will.

When supplies were insufficient and people were starving to death, she did not ask for support from nearby nobles or stop to wait.

Just hurry, hurry, and hurry.

Whether this behavior treats people as human beings is a sentimental issue that can be discussed later. What Aize wants to know more is how this guy did it.

Even the well-trained elite armies of various countries will inevitably experience large-scale defections, even mutinies and rebellions, if they are starving.

There is no way around it. After all, eating is basic, a necessity, and a physiological instinct.

But these guys completely ignored the factors engraved in their DNA and went against their instincts to complete a miracle that may never be replicated in the military history of this world.

Awesome.

Aize couldn't think of any other comment.

I can only ask:

"How many people were there when you set out? How many of you escaped? How many are left now?"

The little girl quickly raised her hand and came forward, anxiously answering for fear of being snatched away:

"There were probably around two thousand people when we set out, and... not many people escaped. Now there are three thousand... maybe around four thousand?"

I really like what Aize said:

"……what?"

"Because when we passed through some villages and towns along the way, many like-minded people wanted to join us on the expedition. Lady Rosalyn agreed to all of them, so there were so many people!"

The little girl even puffed out her chest as she spoke, looking quite proud and pleased.

Little did he know that Aize on the opposite side had completely fallen into self-doubt.

The world shouldn't be like this.

probably.

For now, this matter can be put aside. What is more important is the supplies behind us.

I thought it was Rosaline's extortion, but I didn't expect it was actually used to save my life.

"Everyone listen up! Do as I say next. Sect leaders, step out, and the rest of you, return to your original positions and wait for the call!"

Aize didn't waste any more words. He simply used his prestige to try to organize this mob. He distributed food first so that everyone could have a full meal to avoid starving to death in front of Aize.

Just think of it as supplying friendly forces turning into providing relief to disaster victims, what else can we do?

In short, under Aize's organization, after more than an hour, the sect was divided into several small groups and began to cook and distribute food in an orderly manner.

Suddenly, smoke rose from the forest.

"Everyone, don't be in such a hurry to eat. We haven't thanked Master Aize for the food he gave us yet!"

“Thank you, kind Lord Aize, for giving us precious food!!!”

Someone shouted, but a thunderous and orderly sound of worship suddenly rang out in the forest, shaking even the trees on the ground.

"Can I eat your food? I beg you to stop talking..."

It also brought Aize one step closer to a cerebral rupture.

Only now did he realize that under such high pressure, he had actually overlooked a most basic issue.

"Speaking of which, why haven't we seen Rosalyn? Could she have stayed away all night?"

Chapter 45 Helping in times of need

The subtext of Aize's question was so obvious that even the fanatical but frail believers in front of him could quickly understand its meaning.

The little girl named Jiandu immediately shook her head:

"No, no, no, Lady Rosalyn did return home at night, but she went to the local church before daybreak."

"……church?"

"Well, he said he wanted to meet with the local believers and clergy before the war."

"That guy...what the hell is going on in his head?"

Whether he was on a military campaign or a business trip, whenever he arrived at a place, he would definitely visit the local church and give some weird speeches or sermons.

This is also Rosalind's classic operation, which has never changed from the past to now.

At the time, this was not a big problem.

After all, with Aize backing her up, she doesn't have to worry about anything serious happening no matter how idle she is.

It's just that Aize's workload will increase exponentially - for the other members of the Goddess Blade team at the time, this was actually not a big problem.

But that's different now.

No matter what Rosaline is planning, the absolutely loyal and fanatical members of the Pure White Saint Sect must be her most important pawns.