Alien Knights

Looking at the envoy who was beating his back, Todd pretended to be concerned and said, "Is the bed in the hotel too hard?"

Tristan smiled and waved his hand.

Along the way, the residents of the town saw Todd who was wearing a holy order, and they all praised the kindness of the Holy Son, and more and more people joined the following team.

Todd wiped his forehead, and while observing the expression of the holy envoy, he winked at Huggins, telling him to quickly disperse the crowd behind him.

To his surprise, Tristan seemed to be in a good mood, and he was not at all displeased by the voice of the people.

"Father, it seems that the people here love you. I heard them call you the Holy Son."

When Todd heard the other party's words, his brain was excited, and he said quickly: "The villagers in the remote villages have never seen much of the world, and their names are just casual words. Don't care about it, my lord."

Tristan gave Todd a meaningful look, and said with a smile, "Father, it's a good thing that the people love you."

What do you mean by that?

Compliment or sarcasm?

Todd didn't speak, he lowered his head and followed behind the envoy, carefully speculating on the other party's thoughts.

Accompanying him around Muxi Town, Tristan looked quite satisfied, which made Todd slightly relieved. But walking on the road, the other party suddenly waved his hand to signal the guards to leave the two of them, and asked a question, which suddenly made the atmosphere tense.

"Father, what do you think of the boundaries between faith and scientia?" 』

The boundary between belief and culture? This is really a very difficult question to answer...

Scientia represents "knowledge and learning" in Latin, and this word is the predecessor of science. This question seems to discuss the relationship between religion and science, but in fact it is a philosophical proposition about the origin of the world.

If it had been in his previous life, Todd would have been able to cite classics and write a long speech for an hour on topics ranging from evolution to genetics, from primitive society to the information age.

but……

Now he doesn't know where to start.

Speaking of reasons. Firstly, it is now a medieval society, and there is no evidence to randomly define the origin of the world. Burning may be the most merciful grace; secondly, the thoughts of the holy envoy are really hard to guess. On the one hand, he is the deacon of the church and the envoy of the Papal Kingdom. On the other hand, he and his master both study alchemy. Is he more religious? Or science?

The helpless Todd finally had to express his views by telling stories.

"My lord, I read a fable in a book, I wonder if you are interested in hearing it?"

Tristan stopped, found a wooden box on the side of the road, sat down and patted his side.

The priest sat beside the envoy and slowly told the story:

"A long time ago, two men walked on a road. One man firmly believes that this way leads to heaven, and the other does not believe it at all. But they have no other road in front of them, they can only walk along this road. There are joys and hardships in the journey. A pious person regards joy as a gift and reward from the gods, and treats suffering as the training and test of the gods. And the other, relating these events to cause and effect, logic and nature, does not believe in the existence of gods at all. 』

Tristan heard this, watched the other party stop talking, and asked: "Then what about the end? There is always an end to this journey, right? The end proves who is right and who is wrong?"

Todd spread his hands, palms up: "These two people are walking on the road, and no one has seen them again. They may have reached the end, but they never came back to tell us what the end is like."

Tristan was silent for a long time, and finally laughed: "Father, I admit that at the beginning, I despised you because of your age, but you are smarter than I thought."

Patting the dust off his clothes, the envoy stood up, with the glare of the sun behind him, and stretched out his hand to Todd: "Come on, I have something to give you."

Following Tristan to his church, Todd saw two figures from afar.

Karin and Pamela stood at the door of the church and looked in.

Seeing Todd, Karin's eyes lit up at first, then she looked at Tristan and the Holy See guards around him, stepped back warily, and ran back to the nunnery with Pamela.

Todd walked into the chapel, but found someone waiting under the cross.

"Rachel?"

The woman heard Todd's voice, turned her head, but turned to Tristan: "I hope to attend the next meeting."

Unlike Todd's surprised face, the envoy nodded and said, "No problem."

The three of them walked into the priest's scripture hall. Tristan turned around and closed the door, took out a black wooden box from his arms, carefully placed it on the table, and slowly opened the top flap, a package of airtight scrolls lay quietly in the box.

"Todd Fisher." Tristan took out the contents with both hands, and opened the tightly wrapped silk layer by layer, revealing the gray sheepskin scroll, and put it into Todd's hands after raising it over his shoulder: "May our God, the glorious Father, bestow wisdom and courage on you, and may his light shine into the eyes of your soul."

Taking the scroll with trembling hands, Todd slowly opened it and looked at the lines of Latin text on it. Just as he thought, this is an order to support the establishment of the Church Knights in Muxi Town!

Finally, finally, the day has come!

"This is an edict drafted by the College of Cardinals and signed by the Pope. The official oracles will be officially distributed to every corner of the Father's diocese after the ecumenical council and the secular council of the Papal State in October."

Tristan's words made Todd's eyes widen. It turns out that the decree he received is not an official approval document from the Knights of the Church?

The envoy patted the priest on the shoulder: "Don't think too much, this decree means that the church has officially recognized the legal status of the Knights Order, and the meeting in October is just a formality. After the meeting, you still need to go to the capital city of Tyro to receive the regimental seal, ribbon, holy cross, etc."

Tristan found a chair and sat down, and said to Todd, "Father... No, I should call you the Chief Commander now. Next, let's talk about cooperation."

cooperate?

Just when Todd was full of doubts, the envoy pointed to himself and asked, "Do you know why the church only sent a small deacon for the delivery of the decree of the Knights?"

Todd shook his head.

"First, the situation in the Silver Ring Kingdom is rather complicated. The relationship between the church and the kingship is not harmonious. No one in the diocese wants to accept this job. Second, the Pope requires that the emissary sent this time must understand alchemy." Looking at the other party's bewildered look, Tristan continued: "The church wants you to hand over the method of making the crystal relic..."

Todd's pupils shrank, his head was slightly tilted back, and his eyes turned to Rachel behind him.

The woman nodded imperceptibly.

Todd touched the bridge of his nose with his hand, thought for a moment, and finally nodded in agreement.

Tristan seemed relieved. He took out a pen and paper, and said as he wrote, "Next, there are some rules about the knights. Regarding the regulations and rules, refer to the other three knights of the church. I copied a copy and will give it to you later. Regarding the name of the knights, the full name given by the cardinals is "Music Knights of the Muxi Harbor Blessed by the Father", and it is called "Mushi Knights" for short."

Muxi Knights?

Todd silently said the name several times in his mouth.

Tristan added: "As for the list of members of the Knights Order, if possible, it is best to give it to me as soon as possible, and it will be mentioned in the official document."

Todd was a little dazed: "Member list, everyone's?"

The envoy raised his head strangely: "Of course not, the list of important positions in the regiment. For example, the head priest, the head of the legion, the chief knight, and the chief inspector."

Todd was drenched in cold sweat. Speaking of which, it seems that he is the only commander in the Knights...

Looking at the face of the other party, Tristan put down his pen: "Commander, may I ask how many knights, sergeants, and farmers in Muxi Town together?"

"A knight?" Huggins and Alfonso immediately appeared in Todd's mind, but the former is a deserter and has been deprived of his title; although the latter is a knight of the Holy See, he is very weak now, let alone going to the battlefield, I'm afraid he can't even hold a sword. Plus Huggins' twelve subordinates and Alfonso's three followers...

Thinking of this, Todd's forehead was dripping with sweat, and he raised two fingers tremblingly.

"Two hundred people?" Tristan wrote a number on the paper, nodded and said, "Let's say more, let's say less..."

"No... it's twenty people..."

The envoy's pen fell to the ground.

Tristan stammered and said: "Commander, you should know that even the number of guards of those merchants is greater than this number, right?"

uh-huh!

Rachel, who was sitting behind Todd, suddenly coughed inappropriately.

Seeing the woman's eyes, Tristan quickly changed his words and comforted him: "Chief, the members of the Knights always have a process of increasing..."

Rachel suddenly said: "My lord, your master has accepted the special products of Muxi Town. You may need others in the future. Couldn't you lend a helping hand when the Muxi Knights are weak?"

Looking at the woman's devouring eyes, Tristan couldn't laugh or cry: "Commander, after I return to the capital, I will help you keep an eye out for those outstanding and loyal knights in the Holy See, and recommend them to serve in the Muxi Knights."

Tristan picked up the pen, looked at the paper, and suddenly remembered something, and said to Todd, "That's right! Headmaster, there is one more thing, about the group logo of the Muxi Knights."

"Regiment logo?"

"It is marked on the flag and robes of the knight order to identify the members and the army. Please note that since the knight order belongs to the church, a cross should appear in the emblem of the order."

Todd thought for a while, picked up a black pencil and red ocher, and within five minutes, he drew a sign on the paper.

Tristan and Rachel stood up and leaned over to have a look. The envoy stroked his chin and said, "It's a strange pattern."

Todd looked at the red and white sign in front of him, and asked sideways, "What? Doesn't it conform to the church's regulations?"

Tristan shook his head: "No, it's indeed a cross, but I've never seen a cross like this."

On the snow-white paper, a regular octagon composed of eight inward-curving arcs is drawn in the center, and the eight bases are 30-degree equiangular triangles that are arcs, cutting the regular octagon into eight equal parts. The triangles in the four directions of south, east, west and north are red, forming a "red cross" gathered at the origin, and the triangles in the other four directions are white, forming a white X.

Tristan glanced at Todd and asked, "Does this pattern have a name?"

"Umbrella."