Chapter 52: The Return Journey (6)

  It was already winter, but in this unnamed forest near the south, it didn't feel particularly cold. Johnny found a large tree and sat down with his back against it, panting like an ox. He had been soaked through by his own sweat, and every muscle in his body ached with fatigue. The exhaustion that had been suppressed by hormones and his own willpower came flooding in like the tide. All Johnny wanted to do was lie down and take a good nap, and savor the relatively wonderful life he had lived so far.

  A slight difference in opinion, and one should... go see Odin?

  Audra thrust the great sword in her hand into the mud, kneeling on one knee, with both hands clasped together and pressed against the tip of her nose: "Thank you Odin for granting me strength, guiding me forward, and protecting my victory. I will write your majesty with the enemy's blood, and adorn your glory with the honor of battle."

  After finishing his prayer, he came to Johnny's side, who was lying on the ground like a dead dog. He pressed his right hand on Johnny's shoulder and muttered strange words in his mouth. In an instant, a blue light appeared on his right hand and gradually went out, as if it had flowed into Johnny's body.

  Jony felt his strength had returned somewhat, although he was still sore all over and at least didn't feel as uncomfortable or tired as before.

  "Are you still a pastor?" Johnny raised his less heavy eyelids and asked softly.

  Audrey stood up: "Of course, otherwise you think any follower can develop faith at will?"

  "But how come you never mentioned it?" At this time, Astrid came down from the tree and asked beside Johnny.

  "It's just a novice priest, nothing special." Odala turned back to retrieve his sword stuck in the ground. "When I was young, my father took me to pray and feel Odin's blessings, but I still liked fighting, hard-hitting battles, so I didn't make much progress as a priest. If it were the Sun God Church, I'd still be in school. Just now, it was just treating minor injuries, slightly relieving this kid's pain."

  Johnny nodded calmly and did the same prayer as Odara's instructions. As a former good youth who had received more than a decade of atheist education, Johnny didn't think that his survival was due to Odin's credit, but the instinct of seeking psychological dependence gradually led him into the temple of faith. Luck is a kind of inexplicable thing, especially when walking on the blade, many times it may be just an unintentional move, yet saved one's life. Did God play a role? Johnny didn't know, but he'd rather believe that Odin was indeed taking care of himself. Simple luck was only occasional, while God's protection was a long-term guarantee.

  Although Johnny's mind was preoccupied with many thoughts, compared to the few times he had previously recited the prayer perfunctorily, this time could be considered very devout.

  After finishing the prayer, Johnny, who had somewhat recovered his physical strength, was naturally made to work on collecting the bodies by Odara. The short swords of good quality that Isaac had obtained would not be left behind, and the fine plate armor on Eitas' body was also included in the list of spoils.

  This was the most lucrative haul Jorny had ever made. After years of being mercenaries, Eryndor Thorne and Will spent almost all their earnings on their own equipment. Now that longsword that Odrak didn't cut in half belonged to Astrid, and the battle-axe was given to Odrak for safekeeping. The damaged leather armor was stripped from Eryndor's body, it might still be worth some money; Will's chainmail with its long sword gashes looked rather pitiful but he put it on anyway.

  The greatest gain came from Aidas. The full-body armor distributed by the temple was undoubtedly very solid, and even if he hadn't seen the destruction of the wild wolf, Joanie could easily judge it from the thick armor and Odala's eyes.

  "Master, can I have this breastplate...?" Johnny looked at O'Dara with expectation.

  Audrey shook her head: "No way. First, the armor of the Temple of the Sun God is all custom-made, and all the plate armor is custom-made. I see that you and he have different figures."

  Jony took a look and indeed it was so.

  "Secondly," Odara suddenly chuckled mischievously, "each and every armor of the Sun God Temple has a unique mark, and anyone who kills a priest of the Sun God will be retaliated against by the temple. Think for yourself."

  What's there to consider? Just sell it and be done with it.

  Looking down at the corpse, he thought of the role that the Sun God would play in the Battle of Tabriz - the role that Jony and Odara had conjectured - he hesitated for a moment. But in the end, Jony shook his head, sighed, and simply dragged the stripped body of Eidas to a nearby thicket, without any other extreme behavior.

  Resentment has a head, debt has an owner. The conspiracy of the church only relates to the upper echelons of the church. Joanie can't bring herself to vent her anger on small fries. Looking back at things before my first death, those people who hated a certain country and thought beating up its civilians was glorious, smashing its shops was an achievement, I absolutely cannot become that kind of loser.

  Revenge should be swift, ruthless and accurate. Taking it out on innocent people is called venting anger, not revenge.

  Odara was quite satisfied with Jony's rational behavior. He had originally worried that the young man would desecrate the corpse of the solar priest out of previous hatred. That would not have been a big problem, but if he had done so, the young man would not have had much of a future either. A warrior who cannot control his emotions and recognize his true enemy can only be an unqualified machine on the battlefield, just like those uncivilized barbarians in the north.

  For Johnny's somewhat excessive maturity, Odara had already gotten used to it.

  The capable one takes on more work, Odara has already organized the spoils of war on her back and is walking ahead. Jyoni still seems a bit tired, but she can keep up with a steady pace. Aishtier's archery skills may be a bit off due to fatigue, but her spirits are good, so an important task was assigned to her.

  "Ellal!" Astrid shouted in her clear voice, "Ellal!"

  There was no echo in the forest. Astrid's voice went out and disappeared among the trees.

  After walking about two hundred steps forward, Aethereia's call finally got a response. Elara's magnetic voice was shaking at this time: "I... I'm here..."

  The voice came from above, and everyone looked up to see Ailar sitting astride a branch, his chest and abdomen pressed against the tree trunk, his hands tightly wrapped around the branch below him.

  "Who can save me? I'm going down!" Elar opened his eyes to look at the crowd, then quickly closed them and shouted loudly with a hint of crying.

  With the help of Odala and Geoni, Ailar finally came down from the tree, but with a few minor hiccups. Originally planned to catch Ailar when Odala kicked him down, Geoni was unable to exert himself due to lack of strength and unwillingness, causing Ailar to roll on the ground twice and fall heavily. Geoni stood by with an innocent expression, shrugging his shoulders to indicate that he was powerless.

  Accompanied by the sound of "ah", the three people learned about the cause of the matter from Ailuer. It was actually very simple, after Ailuer escaped, he felt that the ground was still not safe, so he thought of climbing a tree. And when he climbed to the branch where he was, Ailuer, who was a bit dizzy, only then discovered that he originally had acrophobia.

  "I also knew for the first time, I was never afraid when looking down from those earls' castles before." Eral explained.

  "Isn't this nonsense?" Joanie said disdainfully from the side, "Can the feeling of having a fence and not having a fence be the same?"

  Aila rolled her eyes and didn't bother to respond.

  "Alright, stop playing dead, let's get moving." Odara dragged Ailar up, issuing the command.

  －－－－－－

  Aidas' party was indeed the last group of pursuers Odara encountered. Although there were occasional mercenaries in Salvae City who followed the clues provided by the tavern owner to track north, they were almost all scared off by the corpses along the way. After the army of Salvae City received the news and went to deal with the corpses, terrible rumors about "the shameful bard" Eirak spread throughout the local taverns. No one showed interest in this fifty-gold-coin task anymore, after all, only being alive made money meaningful.

  They are now amused by ridiculing that lord who was fooled into giving away his wife for only fifty gold coins.

  －－－－－－

  "For safety, let's camp outdoors again today." When the sun sets in the west, Odara stops her feet, "Let's talk about it after leaving the Kingdom of Savar."

  Still hunting, gathering firewood, clearing the plain, and then the night watch that excluded Ailar.

  On the second day, Odara left Jony and Astrid to take care of Elarl, and carried that pile of spoils out of the forest, heading towards the nearest town. Every town would have people who specialized in buying these kinds of equipment, although they definitely wouldn't give a fair price. But since it was black market goods, what kind of price could you expect?

  Audra returned with a piece of linen and two bags of dried meat. As for how much money she got, Johnny didn't ask, and Audra didn't say. For them, who already had seventy gold coins, more money was just a number, anyway it was all a pile in their hands, anyway it was all in Audra's purse.

  The last one is Johnny's idea.

  Ailar's face was re-covered with the coarsest linen cloth that Odara had carefully selected. This time, according to Odara, "You'll wear it even while you sleep! Until we cross into Osedin's borders!"

  Indeed, it didn't matter much that Jony and his group were caught up with Ailar throwing away the veil, but in the end, Odara had the final say.

  Winding through the forest, occasionally taking to the main road to another forest. Finally, on the third day after the battle, Odara led the troops out of the forest.

  "That tall castle up ahead is Jeflor Castle. This is the domain of Duke Nisco, and we should be thoroughly safe here." Odara said to everyone, pointing at a particularly large-looking castle in front of them.

  Jefrlo's fortress is not just impressive in appearance. The Duke of Nisko had hired - non-slave - a number of highly skilled dwarf craftsmen from the deep mountains in the south thirty years ago to design, select expensive but sturdy stone and wood materials for construction, which took nearly ten years to complete, finally building this massive structure with a length and width of 300 feet each, an outer wall height of 50 feet, and a main body that exceeds 80 feet.

  (Feet: 1 foot is equal to 0.3 meters, which was the length of one foot of a certain emperor in the First Empire of Vilsa. This unit of measurement is one of the few legacies left by the First Empire of Vilsa. However, in daily life, people often use their own feet for measurement. There are also specialized shops selling rulers, and they also use their own feet to measure.)

  For convenience, the author will convert it into meters later on. These two brackets will be included in the works related.

  This sturdy and majestic castle, this castle that cost a huge amount of money and countless labor, this fortress that can almost be said to be impenetrable, has only one meaning for its existence, which has never changed from the beginning to now.

  He was at odds with Duke Savary.

  The feud between the dukes was more reliable than those petty earls in the south. The wife of the current Duke of Saval had a powerful suitor at that time, none other than Duke Nisko. After the beautiful woman married the Duke of Saval, the enraged Duke Nisko, partly out of protest and also for military considerations, allocated funds from the ducal treasury to build the Jevfro Fortress.

  "Not bad," Jony commented after Odara's account. "Much better than those guys from the South."

  Geoffrey Castle had never encountered any major battles in the decades after its construction, nor even ordinary battles. Although there was a tense atmosphere between the two grand duchies, neither of them wanted to start this war. After all, the entire Velsa was not just two grand duchies.

  "It's really unchanged at all." As they entered Jevroth Castle, Odara couldn't help but exclaim, "It's still so big, the market is still so lively."

  Because there was no war, this military fortress thoroughly fell into an ordinary town.

  They found an inn to stay in, and Odala led everyone into the main hall, ordering three plates of spicy potatoes and two roasted meats. This was considered a luxurious feast.

  "Heinrich's kid." Odara avoided using the valuable name, "You're not allowed to show your face, go back and eat in your room."

  Jonny's story was loved by everyone on this road, just like people in Jonny's past life liked to listen to the radio, watch TV, surf the internet and read books. The non-stop storytelling, combined with Jonny's unsteady knowledge foundation and the passage of time causing forgetfulness, has now reached the mid-to-late Warring States period.

  When the various lords of the Spring and Autumn period were vying for power as if it were just a night before, when the Zhou royal house was gradually declining, Oudala and Ailuer both thought of the Second Empire of Wushe. This vast empire that was almost torn apart, would it also fall into a struggle for the throne like the Zhou kingdom in Jony's mouth?

  If so, it would be a good thing for Ousmane Dembele.

  "The great general of the Qin state, Bai Qi, led his troops to attack Zhao and surrounded Zhao Kuo's army in Changping...". Joanie was rushing to finish. Originally thought that the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were easy to talk about, but it turned out to be so difficult, and many things couldn't be remembered.

  The dull journey continued, spending the night in different cities, eating different foods, and listening to different stories. And thicker and thicker clothes. Along the way, there were no new assassins, nor any unscrupulous rascals coming to make trouble. This is what they mean by a smooth journey.

  More than twenty days later.

  Thus, the Sima family established the Jin Empire. The Three Kingdoms came to an end.

  "Joni, the names of these countries you mentioned are quite strange, and so are the people's names." Aisley said with a furrowed brow. Elaru also nodded in agreement beside her.

  "Shall we change the subject then? Want to hear a tale of adventure?" Jorni said, ignoring Astrid's question and casting out bait.

  "Great, great!" Astrid was delighted and instantly forgot her question just now.

  "Legend has it that in the distant Winterless City, a plague broke out..."

  "Wait a minute." Odara, who had been silent until now, suddenly interrupted Joni. "We're here."

  Have you arrived? Joanie raised her eyes and looked forward, only to see a tall stone pillar standing by the side of the road.

  "Yes, we have arrived." Odara nodded, "Beyond this stone pillar is the land of the Kingdom of Osedin."

  Is it? Has the time really come, is this where I'll be settling down for good? Johnny gazed blankly at the stone pillar that was almost devoid of any ornamentation, before his train of thought was interrupted by a voice beside him.

  "Didn't you say it would be over 40 days? It's only been over 20 days! No way, the commission must be reduced, you said it would be over 40 days!" Elara stepped onto Othaddin's land and suddenly gained confidence, shouting at Odala.

  Audrey grasped his collar, holding Erl up in mid-air and stopping his shouting: "How come I finished the task ahead of time and you didn't give me some extra reward? You even dare to yell at me, the price for keeping quiet has gone up."

  In some unknown place, the northern commander of the Ossetin army, Duke Heinrich, had incurred a debt of three hundred gold coins without his knowledge. As for the seventy gold coins that belonged to his son, they were completely transferred to Odara's name as hush money and would never be returned.