Rose Palace.

The Duke of Buckingham polished his sword slowly.

On the shelf next to him, neatly hung the set of armor that belonged to him.

When William III was still the crown prince, he wore this set of armor to go out on expeditions with his brother; when William III was crowned king, he wore this set of armor to meet the challenges of thirty-six states; after the death of William III, he wore this armor to guard the territory of the new young king; and in the civil strife during the Rose Crisis, he wore this armor to defend the throne for the king.

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Now, he would once again don this armor and fight for the King.

This was his duty as the Defender of the King.

General Johan hurried in: “Everything is ready.”

The Duke of Buckingham sheathed his sword, rose, and reached for his armor from the rack.

General Johan couldn’t help but say: “Father, let me go instead.”

When the Duke of Buckingham received the battle report from the north, as the King expected, the first thing he did was to prepare for the upcoming war. He not only made a series of preparatory work before the actual conscription, but also mobilized the royal family’s personal soldiers and the old subordinates of William III.

The soldiers transferred to the southeast by the King were the “Iron Rose” cavalry, which was expanded after October. The original royal family soldiers were still stationed in the King’s territory, waiting to fight for the King at any time.

Before heading to the southeast coast, the King not only handed over the Rose Palace to the Duke of Buckingham, but also temporarily handed over the royal family soldiers to the Duke of Buckingham.

“The stakes are high at Newcastle.”

The Duke of Buckingham stated flatly.

Although the conscription order had been issued, it would still take some time to start mobilizing food and horses from all over the place. And Newcastle in the Northland was currently under siege by the enemy. Newcastle was the anchor of the royal family nailed by Legrand in the Northland, and it couldn’t be breached no matter what.

Newcastle was controlled by Legrand, whether it was advancing or defending, it provided a fortress to rely on.

Once the castle falls, the royal family would lose a vital barrier and throat.

The rebels in the North also knew this, and they were trying their best to capture Newcastle at this time. Legrand couldn’t afford to wait for the time for conscription, nor could it afford to gamble on whether Newcastle could hold its ground until the army came.

Therefore, the Duke of Buckingham decided to personally lead the royal family soldiers and those trusted old subordinates to break the siege of Newcastle.

Today was the day of departure.

“Where are you standing now?” The Duke of Buckingham took off his helmet, and he turned to look at his son.

“The Rose Palace.”

General Johan was a little puzzled as to why his father suddenly asked such a question, but he answered anyway.

“This is the Rose Palace, and this is the heart of the kingdom.” The Duke of Buckingham snapped, “My royal brother entrusted it to me, now His Majesty entrusted it to me, and now I entrust it to you on behalf of His Majesty. You must always remember, where you stand, you must always remember that even if you must sacrifice everything, you must still guarantee its safety.”

“Yes, father.”

General Johan suddenly became solemn, and he stood up straight.

“I swear to defend the palace to the death.”

“After the army is assembled, the army gathered on the conscription order issued by the monarch can only be led by His Majesty himself. When His Majesty and I are not in the Rose Palace, you must do what you said today.” After finishing speaking, the Duke of Buckingham opened his arms and gently hugged his son.

General Johan stood frozen.

In his memory, his father had never acted so gently. He grew up listening to his father’s glory, and witnessed his father’s battles again and again, and his victorious returns. Armor, sword, and war constitute all his memories of his father.

“His Majesty told me.”

The Duke of Buckingham let go of him and patted him on the shoulder.

“The Battle of Keven is not your fault.”

The old knight who had followed his father for many years put on the armor for the Duke of Buckingham.

The entire set of armor soaked in countless blood was completely worn on the Duke of Buckingham, and the steel and murderous aura revived on the Duke of Buckingham. He became that majestic Lion of the Empire again, striking fear in enemies alike. He was the “defender” of the King, and all those who provoked the King’s authority would be trampled into mud by his cavalry.

The fierce lion was never old!

The Duke of Buckingham strode out of the Rose Palace.

The torrent of iron armor gathered in front of the gate of the palace, and the soldiers of the Rose royal family stood quietly under the sky. Dozens of scarlet royal banners were unfurled in the wind, like a wave of surging blood. Foremost among them were some knights with gray hair on their temples, but they were more to be feared than the young knights.

“Set off!”

The Duke of Buckingham mounted his horse.

The armor reflected the scorching sunlight, the King’s flag fluttered, the iron torrent went from still to movement, and the knights galloped out following the Duke of Buckingham on their horses, horseshoes kicking up snow.

This was the cavalry of the Rose family!

…………

When the Duke of Buckingham led his own troops to the north, tall catapults were set up in the cities along the southeast coast of Legrand.

This was the order of the King.

The plague ships that crossed the Abyss Strait at the beginning of the new year met the royal fleet first. After receiving the secret letter from Ferri III, the King ordered the strengthening of the sea blockade, and the urgently expanded royal fleet patrolled the coast more closely than before.

Before the plague ships could approach land, the royal fleet hurled boulders and sank them.

However, compared with the entirety of the long coastline, the patrol of the royal fleet was limited after all. Still some of the plague ships approached land and managed to hurl some corpses into the city.

However, fortunately, there was already an example of the Koszoya plague incident, and various cities now have a model on how to deal with the plague.

Once a corpse was thrown into the city, the drawbridges at each city gate were immediately lowered, and the city was immediately sealed off. After the Koszoya plague, other cities also stepped up their cleaning of the city, and imitated Koszoya to lay sewage, which more or less played a certain role in curbing the epidemic.

But it was the King who really kept the people calm.

Not so long ago, the King succeeded in saving Koszoya from the plague. And currently, the King was in the southeast. This allowed the people to maintain a precious calmness and rationality in the face of the outbreak of the Black Death, and it did not turn into panic.

The plague ships did bring a lot of trouble to the southeast of Legrand in early January.

During that time, cities in the southeast were infected with the plague one after another.

During that time, the King’s carriage was on the road almost every day. In a day, the King spent nearly a third of his time rushing from one city to the next. Thanks to the King, the royal fleet, and the countermeasures of various cities, the Black Death was gradually brought under control along the southeast coast of Legrand.

The wheels of the carriage crushed the snow on the road.

The Master of Households just delivered the letter from the Rose Palace to the King.

The King massaged his forehead with one hand and took up the letter with the other.

The letter was written by his cousin, General Johan.

In the letter, General Johan informed the King that the Duke of Buckingham led his own soldiers to go out and temporarily handed over the Rose Palace to him. At the end of the letter, General Johan made a request to the King.

——He asked to be the King’s “defender”.

The King looked at General Johan’s nervous wording at the end of the letter, smiled slightly, put the letter paper on the low table in the carriage, and wrote an agreement to General Johan’s request with his pen.

“The lowland countries…..”

After writing his reply to General Johan, the King leaned against the wall of the carriage wearily. During this period of time, the frequent opening of the gates of hell was also a big burden for the King.

The specific battle reports of the Northland were also sent to the King.

After seeing that the Newcastle rebels had excellent equipment, the King already understood what was going on.

The lowland countries and the northern part of Legrand faced each other across the sea. Of course, the lowland countries, famous for their “sea sailing ships”, had the ability to secretly send weapons and equipment supporting the rebels to the northern part of Legrand under the cover of merchant ships. This was not something that could be accomplished overnight.

This rebellion in the Northland had been planned for a long time.

It seems that the Holy Court had been preparing for a long time in order to make Legrand fall into the flames of war, and had no time to take into account the establishment of the Holy Court’s kingdom.

The carriage stopped.

This was the end of this “plague” journey, the last port city to be infected on a large scale.

As he rushed to each infected city, the King had issued an order:

He demanded that all coastal cities carry out self-defense activities against the plague. Every day, every city must send people to keep watch on the approaching plague ships from the observation tower. And every city must set up trebuchets. Once non-royal warships approached, they could be directly sunk without any communication.

If such an order was issued before the plague harassed Legrand, it would definitely encounter a lot of criticism and resistance on the grounds of “humaneness”.

However, these coastal cities have now been exposed to the Black Death in unprecedented close quarters. Even if there were “merciful people” who wanted to speak out, they would be drowned out by other voices who were more concerned about their own safety.

The cities reduced the risk of being infected, and the King dealt with cities which were caught off guard and became infected…..Under such a dual response, the predicted “dead fish” failed to approach the coast of Legrand, and the plague was brought under control.

When the preparations for food and supplies were completed, and the conscripted knights were gathered from all over the country, the King would leave the stable southeast and go north to join the war in person.

In the cold wind, the King stepped out of the carriage.

He raised his head and looked at the Royal Rose flag flying in the convoy.

Why did the Rose family finally choose “scarlet” as their signature color?

——Because the flag of a country was always stained with blood.

………………

What was war?

Blood, fire, glory.

These were the things that those in power, the chess players, have.

But for ordinary people caught in the flames of war, and others——the groaning wounded, the lying corpses, the indiscernible hatred.

The flames of war that started at the end of 1432 spread across the Northland, like a huge monster, devouring life little by little. The market town Legrand set up in Newcastle was also swept into this rebellion.

The outer wall of the fortress of the town was pushed down, and the victorious rebels rode into the town where people of Legrands had settled here on their horses. Merchants in the market, civilians…..men, women, and children were slaughtered, and their wealth was looted. Then flames blazed through the wailing settlements.

Brier was such a settlement town established by Legrand in the Northland.

Three days ago, the Northland rebels captured it, and a scene of disaster unfolded in this ordinary town.

“Abbot.”

Two young priests in black robes hurried into the Brier Abbey carrying a stretcher.

This modest monastery was the only place that survived the war, and the rebels did not step into the monastery. When the city was captured, many nearby people hid in the monastery, and Abbot Anil sheltered them.

At this time, the monastery was full of the groans of the wounded, and new stretchers already had to be placed out in the yard. The priests had been picking their way among the ruins these days, collecting the corpses for the dead, and bringing back those who were still alive to the monastery.

Rescuing the sick and the wounded was as much a maxim written into St. Ben’s Rules as giving to the poor.

God loved the world, so He required His believers to love the world too.

Father Anil, the abbot of Brier Abbey, came out quickly. Together with the priests, he washed the wounds of the wounded and read a short passage from the Holy Book.

After the new wounded were settled, Abbot Anil returned to the cross.

These days, his face was always covered with sadness.

“Abbot.”

The young Father Remy followed him, speaking out anxiously.

“What you feared happened.”

Abbot Anil raised his hand and drew a sign of the cross on his chest, and said painfully, “This is a sin.”

The accents of Abbot Anil and Father Remy both have the trace of the east side of the Abyss Strait.

More than 20 years ago, Abbot Anil was the youngest theological genius in the Holy See, and he was considered to be the youngest cardinal in the history of the Holy See. However, Father Anil, who had a promising future, made a voice in the Holy Court that was contrary to the Pope and the Holy Court.

——He demanded that “the Holy Court should return to purity.”

Father Anil believed that over the years, some actions of the Holy Court have violated the purpose of the Holy Court.

He advocated that the clergy should abide by asceticism, meditate quietly, oppose the sale of clergy positions, and oppose the participation of clergy in power struggles. In 1411 at the Holy See Whitsunday Castle Conference, Father Anil protested against the interpretation of the Confessions by the Pope-led conference.

Soon, the Pope ordered his trial at Vinocen Castle.

In court, Father Anil successfully refuted the accusation of being a “heretic” by the bishops’ conference, and his use of quotations from the holy books and many Holy Court classics were simply outstanding. In fact, his brilliant rebuttal even won him some supporters.

The Holy Court couldn’t find any reason to burn him at the stake, and in the end he could only be exiled from the power center of the Holy Court to Legrand’s Northland to serve as a humble abbot. Some of his followers crossed the raging abyss with him, and they lived a life of ascetics in the desolate north of Legrand.

These people, headed by Father Anil, successively established dozens of monasteries in the Northland. They formed a faction that followed the principles “one should not rely on authority to oppress the poor without reason; trials should be impartial and selfless, orphans and widows should be supported, and the poor should be helped as much as they could economically.” These became their tenets.

For twenty years.

Now, what Abbot Anil worried about at the beginning had truly happened.

These days, he watched in pain as the battle unfolded across the Abyss Strait and swept across the land.

Those who hold power, they pushed the torrent of history, but——

They wanted to establish the kingdom of God, but where do they leave those who were merciful, compassionate, and pious?

Like these pious young people in the monastery, their dedication and sacrifice, these love, would be overwhelmed by war and hatred.

What were they going to do? What would happen to them? How many people would be involved, and would be easily crushed into dust?

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“Holy Lord! This is our sin.”

The abbot, who already had white hair, knelt down and pressed his forehead to the cold ground.

The young priest looked at him kneeling silently before the cross, and at that moment, he thought he saw an icon.

The power of God lied not in the stake and the sword, but in love.

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