Temple Sword

Chapter 138 The Last Day——
West of the Bulgarian White Castle——
The man with thinning hair fell at the door of the storage room like a lifeless sack. From his open throat, thick, almost black blood kept gushing out, filling the gaps and cracks on the slate, and then flooding the entire piece of floor.

Laszlo stood beside the dead man with trembling hands hanging down, his fingers were white, and he was holding the bloody knife tightly, trying to get out of the warm dark red that was spreading continuously.

He never intended to do it.

He just steals, not kills.

There was no turning back now, and an eerily familiar voice echoed in his skull.You've become a murderer, you're not who you used to be, you're a criminal, you're a killer, no one loves you...

His first thought was to pick himself up, leave the house immediately, and take the food he found back to the forest, but the voice in his head ordered him sternly:
Finish what you've started!You need clothes, money and horses!Go find the bedroom!

Laszlo heeded the voice, and drawing strength from his trembling and fear, he began to turn the house upside down.

It didn't take him long to discover an entrance hidden behind a tapestry on the dining room wall.Laszlo slipped in and came to a long, dark corridor with five rooms, which should be bedrooms.

Laszlo went straight for the last door, for he knew that the servants' rooms were usually near the kitchen, and the master liked to sleep in the most secluded place.

He is right.

He reached the end of the corridor, pushed open the door, and entered a large and luxuriously furnished room.There were neatly carved boxes along the walls, a silver cross above the window, a silk pillow on the bed, and...

Laszlo could hardly believe his luck, there was no one in the bed, the owner of the manor must not be at home, he left only some servants.

He has killed one, and he begins to count, how many more will there be?Just like that, he walked to the corridor again and opened the door next door...
-
Trenchin--
Antal is still on horseback and is now in the middle of the fight.

From his right leg to his waist, from his sword-holding hand to his shoulder, was covered with blood.He didn't even count how many Trencin defenders he had cut down, but kept rushing forward, attack after attack, shouting unnecessary orders in the night: even without his command, the king's The direct army can also do very well.

After killing a fleeing defender, he gripped the hilt again as it began to slip from the iron gauntlet, spattering his face profusely with blood.

He came to himself in an instant, surrounded by the dead and dying, and several places in the castle were on fire.Antal frowned, the smell of smoke, urine, and feces scratching his throat and stinging into his eyes.

Before that, he had been pushing forward with the army by instinct, farther and farther away. When he finally looked around with a clear mind, he found something that surprised him: the real battle was over.

Charles Anjou's soldiers killed those who knelt and begged for mercy, and then began to loot their trophies.Antal also turned his horse's head and looked for the king.

He didn't linger too long in the middle of the night. Charlie rode his war horse and waited outside the city gate, surrounded by his priests, ministers and some high-ranking nobles.His face, illuminated by flickering torches, is both majestic and sinister.

"...this castle," the king was saying to the dignitaries around him, "I have no intention of destroying it, this fortress is very important, and I hope it will be restored to its former glory, no matter what it costs...

Your heart must be bleeding right now, Felician." He turned his gaze to the noble not far away, who was also on the horse, watching all this. "This land is your home, even if you are loyal to the royal family . "

"You did what you had to do, Your Majesty." Felicien Zacher said in a reserved voice.

"You are my good subordinate," Charlie said gratefully, "I will let you get the reward you deserve!"

"Your Majesty!" Antar Barto interrupted their conversation, "Your army has won, Trencin is yours now, please stop the massacre!"

"Oh, my commander!" Charlie Anjou laughed dryly, "I don't like army leaders in war! My loyal soldiers have finally won after all kinds of hardships, why should I stop them , Lord Barto?"

"Because they are slaughtering the people of your kingdom!" Antal scolded angrily, "Because the enemy has surrendered, but the soldiers are killing and looting like criminals!"

The king looked at his sworn brother, his lips pursed, his eyes hard.

"He wouldn't stop my soldiers," he said sternly and firmly, "I gave them a chance to surrender, a chance at peace, and we could have lived together.

I don't want things to be like this, but those who resisted me, instead of grabbing my hand of kindness, they spat on it, they knew what they were doing, and they knew what to bear as a result of……"

Hearing this, Antal could only laugh sarcastically. He was about to say something when another rider appeared under the light of the torch and blocked the words that came out of his mouth.

"Your Majesty!" the visitor shouted excitedly, "a small group of resisters locked themselves in the hall, and the rest of the castle has been taken, but these..."

"Stop talking!" The king passionately drew his sword, basking in the joy of victory. "Forward, all living! Go to the hall, let's smoke those bugs out, victory is ours, come on!"
-
Dubica ---
They persisted for about two hours. In Barto Manor, everyone who could pick up a weapon was fighting.The women grabbed spears, sickles, and dung forks, and stabbed and hacked at the mercenaries climbing up the stone wall with ladders.

Agnes herself fights like a lion, first killing enemies with a shortbow and then stabbing with a spear someone who is trying to scale the wall.When Varos finally ordered his mistress to leave, she was bleeding from her hands, shoulders and forehead.

This time, luck seemed to favor the defenders, but the divine miracle didn't last long.

The besieging mercenaries realized that if they attacked the west gate and the north gate at the same time, although their number would be halved, the defense of the defenders who had no numerical advantage would also be greatly reduced.

So they began attacking the walls from the side, and the peasants of Antar Bato rushed out of the storehouses they had built at the base of the stone walls as if by magic, and fought valiantly to hold off the attackers.

But God didn't create peasants for war, they may have taken away five or six Slavonian mercenaries, and seriously injured a few, but all peasants, including women and children, became black and red flags victim of.

Soon after, the enemy smashed a breach in the north gate.

Varos' heart almost exploded, he knew that they could not hold the stone wall, the gate would be opened soon, and Mikolaj's wild dogs would burst into their manor.

It was his task to defend the estate, trusted by the king's chief knight, and he let him down.He knew he had done his best, but he was still very ashamed.

"Leave the city wall and retreat!" The captain gave the order with a bitter taste in his mouth. "Let's go back to the manor!" As soon as he finished speaking, the gate opened again and was breached directly. The mercenaries charged inside with their swords in hand.

Under the protection of the guards, the people in the manor screamed and ran towards the yard in horror.
-
Trenchin--
Anjou-Charles dismounted, solemnly held his head up, and walked slowly and solemnly through the empty hall of Trencin Castle.

He was walking among the corpses, and the soldiers on both sides were cleaning up the last batch of massacred defenders. Behind him, a few Sekai men were repairing the broken gate, making similar futile efforts as Sisyphus.

Charlie didn't stop. At the end of the hall, there was a simple armchair, but it now looked more comfortable and dignified than all the thrones in the world.

He went to the chair and paused for a moment, touching the armrest cautiously.Then he took a deep breath, turned around, and sat down with the grace of a king.

It was not yet midnight, and the Trencin Castle was already in ruins, with fires raging everywhere and dead bodies everywhere.His soldiers, knights, priests, and lords surrounded him, waiting for the king's order.

"Extinguish all the fire! From now on, all surviving defenders are prisoners of the kingdom, enough blood has been shed."

"What about the dead, Your Majesty?" someone in the crowd asked.

"Find our dead and pack them up! They deserve a decent burial."

"Where are the dead in Trencin?"

"Throw them into the Vach, all!" Charlie ordered grimly. "This river will carry news of our victory to the rest of the Highlands..."

"We couldn't find Esteban Sternberg!" shouted another. "We've searched everywhere, but we still can't see him."

"He must have escaped from the castle hours ago," said the king with a shadow in his eyes. "Who knows how many tunnels there are under this castle? Look again, though I think he's almost in Moravia.

If he does escape to the Czechs, but never sets foot on our soil, we will let him go. "

"Your Majesty, is this too lenient?" asked another knight. "Many of your subjects died at the hands of that worm!"

"If I break the precarious peace with the Czechs because of him, it will only sacrifice more good people," Charlie shook his head, "I don't want to hear any more about Estevan Sternberg unless he disturbs the peace of our empire again!"

"Your Majesty..." A man with a resolute face stepped forward, new wounds on his face covered up old scars, "What is your next order? Where should our next target be and when will we set off? How long is the army resting?"

Miklos Gutkleder asks the questions everyone wants to know the answers to, but no one dares to ask.

The king looked at the person standing in front of him with a knowing smile on his face, a sweet tingling and relaxed satisfaction flowing through him.

Only now did he feel how tired he was and began to realize that his men must be tired too.He couldn't imagine how his soldiers and knights still had the strength to stand.

"How do we do it?" Charlie asked back in a relieved voice. "We'll wait."
-
Dubica ---
There were only twenty of them left, and the survivors locked themselves in the old mansion.

William Barto's house is said to have been built during the Arpad dynasty when Bela IV rebuilt his entire kingdom with unyielding perseverance after the Tatar invasion.

The Barto family's estate in Dubica, with its small windows and limestone oval walls, has long been protected from outside attack, but those inside don't feel all that safe now, especially now that the gates have been breached... …

Most of the women were shaking, and the remaining dozen or so guards were licking their wounds, awaiting their fate.There was a dull crashing sound outside the blocked door.

"My angel, my child, are you ready?" Agnes stroked her son's face, barely holding back tears, "Have you packed everything you need?"

A tearful Bograca strapped a large travel bag that didn't fit the child's diminutive stature to his back, and the two teenagers, Sepke and Corta, were also at the ready.

"Mom, I'm not going anywhere without you!" the boy yelled willfully, "I'm staying here!"

"No!" said his mother in an undeniable voice. "You can't stay here, you have to go with Sepke and Corta!"

"But Mom!" Elay yelled, "then you come with me too!"

Agnes couldn't take it anymore, tears started streaming down her face, and she showed her son her bandaged right leg, which she had sprained while retreating into the house.

Not being wounded by the enemy, but because I tripped over a bucket because I was in a hurry and didn't look at the road.It was like a bad joke and there was nothing she could do about it.

"I can't walk with you with this leg, I can't do it." She sobbed in pain, "The three of you are agile enough to go through the tunnel to the banquet hall, and from there go west, if you go along Take the road and you will reach the king's city in a few weeks.

You have plenty to eat, but beware of the beast... Go to Timisoara, your father must know what happened tonight as soon as possible! "

"Mother!" the boy cried, and Agnes grabbed him, hugged him tightly, kissed his forehead and cheek with tearful kisses, then turned him abruptly and pushed him gently but firmly. open.

"Go!" she said sternly, then looked at Sepuk and Corta, "Take care of my son, go!"

Seeing how strong the mistress was, Bograka felt that she could no longer cry. She still stood between the boys and Agnes, and began to urge the children towards the entrance of the secret passage.

Ire and the twin brothers disappeared into the depths, and the entrance to the secret passage was blocked again by several feet of marble blocks. Bograka looked at her husband.

"What now?" She approached Varos, who was gripping his spear for battle, teeth clenched, weary but still determined to listen to the increasingly ominous crash. "Can you hear me, Varos? What shall we do now?"

"Now?" The captain looked at his wife as if awakened from a strange dream. "We have no choice, we wait."
-
West of the Bulgarian White Castle——
A bearded traveler, who looked like a wealthy aristocrat, was riding along a dirt road on the north bank of the Sava.

He traveled alone through the country, with only his horse and mule for company.The man headed towards Dubica, from where he would continue along the Una River, all the way south to the sea.

He wanted to make a home there, perhaps serving under some southern lord, away from royal surveillance.

He had everything a lot of people could want: money to last him a lifetime, enough food, a few expensive sets of clothes, and a weapon to protect himself and his valuables.

With high hopes and bold dreams, this man who looked like an aristocrat set out.He feels that a new life awaits him in the land of the Croatian Viceroy, which fills him with strength and freshness.

It's just that the voice in his head never stopped.

【You killed them】

The voice echoed in his head again and again, making him never forget what he did before he got rich and before he was reborn.

[You killed them all, one by one, you are a murderer, a murderer...]

Somewhere west of Bulgarian White Castle, there is a wealthy farm.

It was on fire, and it was the cremation of eight innocent young servants.

(End of this chapter)