When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#146 - Changes in Yongquan Palace

The early hours of November 7th, Imperial Calendar 1444.

Longsong City.

Along the walls of the royal palace, a long dragon of torches illuminated the small world almost completely.

Sparse shadows of trees cast in the firelight onto the withered yellow grass, and the verdant evergreen hedges were stained with a few drops of fresh blood.

In the garden square before the Everspring Palace gate, the fragrance of golden thread chrysanthemums was absent, replaced by a thick, pungent smell of blood.

Not since the Winter Ember Coup centuries ago had this resplendent royal palace been soaked in blood once more.

Ever since the Golden Finch fell bleakly from the Libra Crown, the crows from Thornsward Mistfort had securely inherited the crown three times.

It seemed to be a curse upon Everspring Palace, blood always spilled in years ending in four.

His long hair matted with sweat, draped over his shoulders, two of the three helmet plumes on Inberra's helm were broken.

His lance was long shattered, and only a dozen or so of his Norn Guard knights remained by his side, while on the walls surrounding him, nearly a hundred elite longbowmen aimed their feathered arrows at them.

The gleaming arrowheads reflected the images of nearly a hundred Transcendent Knights and two hundred ax-gunners and halberdiers before Inberra, and behind those Transcendent Knights were seven or eight exorcist-level monks.

Further ahead, on the Jade Stairway for which Everspring Palace was famed, his brother Ginigis, accompanied by a Legendary Priest, coldly watched the scene.

Their faces were half-hidden in the thick darkness, the other halves flickering in the firelight.

"You violate the sacred oath!" Inberra's roar shook even the torches, "How dare you monks involve yourselves in royal politics!"

After the Church healed the Great Schism, they signed a sacred oath with the Three Kingdoms, which still stands before the Papal Palace.

That marble obelisk is carved full of the blood and tears of predecessors.

But now, four hundred years later, wind and rain have gradually worn away the words on the marble obelisk, and people may have long forgotten what a profound lesson it was.

"...Under the gaze of the Holy Father, we unanimously agree that no transcendent power from the Church should intervene in the succession of the throne..."

"...Forsake this oath, may our souls sink into the abyss forever, our bodies turn to nothing, and our descendants suffer the pain of a hundred generations of curses!"

Ginigis stood expressionlessly behind his guards, calmly watching his brother, summoned late at night by 'Father'.

"This is not a battle for the throne," a silver-tongued chamberlain stepped forward, "This is a battle to quell a rebellious prince!"

"I came in response to a summons!"

"If you came in response to a summons, why ride a warhorse and wear a helmet? Could there be fearsome bandits on the short road from your estate to the palace?"

"Ha, does he, Ginigis, not know why I wear armor?" Inberra glared fiercely at the Edict Knights along the walls with eyes like bull's bells, "Traitors, you will descend into the fiery hell!"

Some of the Edict Knights lowered their heads in shame when his gaze swept over them, while others met his gaze without fear.

The fifty Edict Guard knights he brought into the palace were meant to protect him from Ginigis's treachery, but now, it seemed, they had become evidence against him.

"My brother, my Inberra, you are too rash," Ginigis's voice, amplified by breathing techniques, pierced the air and reached Inberra, "As long as you confess your sins, you will still be my brother, and you can still obtain the title of Earl or even Duke."

"Where is Father? Is this Father's will?"

"Papa sleeps soundly," Ginigis was only about twenty years old this year, but his voice was incredibly steady, "For the sake of Messala, you have already broken his heart, so do not disturb his slumber any further."

"Ginigis! You lie! You deserve to die!" Inberra's furious roar was like a storm, the voice of a Ninth Tier Breathing Technique knight far exceeding the limits of what ordinary people could reach.

"If you say so, then so be it, I won't argue," Ginigis remained in that calm posture.

As if he were facing a dead man.

The night wind rustled the leaves, the sound of bowstrings tightening was so clear, and the warhorses uneasily pawed the ground.

Looking around, under the brilliance of the starry night, behind him was only the thousand-pound-heavy palace gate, but before him was an army of nearly three hundred men.

Among them were a hundred Edict Knights who were not at all inferior to him.

"Hahahaha—"

Inberra laughed self-deprecatingly; all his Leya knights had betrayed him.

In the end, only these alien Norn knights from his mother's tribe remained loyal to guard him.

"Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam. [Norn: Today is a good day to die.]"

Uttering the final battle cry in Norn, Inberra raised the knight's sword in his hand, forming the tip of a wedge formation and charging toward the hundred or so Transcendent Knights.

"no'Daj ghompu'meH jaghmaj yIngeH! [Send our enemies to meet their ancestors!]"

Amidst the sound of hooves, the Norn knights' thunderous roars followed closely behind, charging towards Ginigis on the steps.

In an instant, the sound of bowstrings twanging rang out continuously, and hundreds of feathered arrows blanketed the knights' heads, the arrows striking the white crystal steel plate armor with crisp clangs.

Most of these arrows would be deflected, leaving at most a white spot on the armor.

Even if an arrow accidentally penetrated a gap in the armor, it would be stopped by the silk lining and padded armor.

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The ten or so knights, each shot like a hedgehog, were not at all affected in their actions; their speed did not slow down in the slightest.

The firelight flowed and leaped on their armor, and the hooves pounded the ground like rapid drumbeats.

Under Inberra's leadership, a dozen or so Transcendent Knights plunged into the ranks of the ax-gunners and halberdiers.

In the crowded infantry ranks, the first few ax-gunners were directly knocked out of the crowd, crashing into several people before sliding along the ground for a while, dying in convulsions.

The longsword shattered the probing halberds, Inberra's roar alone shattered the eardrums of the three or four people in front of him, and the hooves leaped forward, crushing the soldiers' heads.

But just as these soldiers slowed Inberra and the others with their lives, chanting quietly began.

"We, the Lord of all things in heaven, whose name is revered as holy..."

"Your power is exercised in the sky, and your will is transmitted to the ground..."

In the chanting, the seven or eight exorcist monks split into two groups, reciting different prayers, their heads lowered, the shadows of their hoods obscuring their faces.

Their hands were crossed in fists, and translucent flames rose from the surface of their bodies, spreading forward like mist.

These flames climbed onto the knights' armor, seeping into their bodies, the heavy armor became lighter, the horses panted, and even their muscles swelled slightly.

If you looked closely, you could see the hooves slowly rising in the flames, an inch above the ground, and potholes and rocks could no longer hinder their progress.

When Inberra broke out of the crowd, he had only ten knights left by his side.

Those who were not there were mostly squire knights or banner knights, who had been pulled off their horses by halberds and were fighting on foot with the soldiers.

"Ginigis, you deserve to die!"

Looking at Ginigis behind the lances, Inberra roared and spurred his warhorse, charging once again.

His opponents were the blessed Transcendent Knights flowing with flames.

In the face of the blessed knights, emitting pure white light, Inberra, covered in dust, seemed so alone.

Nearly a hundred blessed Edict Knights collided with eleven Transcendent Knights, and blood instantly turned into a mist of blood, exploding in the air.

No matter how bravely Inberra wielded his knight's sword, he could not stop the knights around him from dwindling, and his horse's speed slowed down.

In the end, his helmet fell to the ground, and the last long feather on his helmet was broken.

"Alas," Ginigis sighed softly, "Let's go, I can't bear to see the blood of my relatives."