Temple Sword

Chapter 162 Summer Palace
1322, St. Jacob's Month (July)
Timisoara, Hungary
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On a hotter-than-usual summer day in Timisoara, a weary knight wanders hopelessly in the courtyard of the Royal Castle.

He was alone, without retinue or servants, like a penniless traveler, dressed in rags and devoid of any insignia of nobility.

But he rode through the outer door, and through the others, until he came into the innermost courtyard, and no one barred his way.

People saw him coming from a distance, let him go, and whispered excitedly behind him.

"He's back!" they said to each other. "How long will he stay this time?"

"Charlie's little pet," said another, more envious voice, "they say he can afford anything! He can come and go in and out of the palace as he pleases. Do you know how long he was last gone? Nine years!" "

"You don't know what you're talking about," whispered those more susceptible to rumours, "he's no ordinary man, the Knights Templar taught him magic, and he can become invisible if he wants to! In Levi's While mining, he killed 200 people with his bare hands!"

"It's true!" said the Big Mouths. "I was there, and I saw him slaughter them without weapons or armor!"

Except for the garrison, the castle was pitifully deserted.The nobles in the court, and the knights whom Charles trusted most, were all missing.In the kitchen there were only a few cook's servants snoring against the cool walls.

Antar Bator walked up and down the corridor, politely avoiding the queen's wing, looking around, but it was as if the royal family had moved away from Timisoara.

"Hey!" He stepped into the inner courtyard again, shouting to the surroundings, his shout echoing lonely among the high walls.

To his surprise, there were brisk footsteps behind him.

"Thank God!" Someone exclaimed in surprise, "You are back, Lord Barto!"

The Lily Knight turned around and found that the person in front of him was the usually calm Finance Minister Demeter Nexel.

He smiled faintly. The last time we met, Demeter was almost frozen into an iceman, but now he was panting and sweating profusely, as if he couldn't cope with the heat he had never experienced before.

"Many people say that you may not be alive anymore." Demeter walked closer, looking worriedly at Antar's weather-beaten clothes and body. "You know I've been praying for you, my lord? I think I drove you away..."

"No, Lord Demeter, it's not like that," Antal wanted to reassure him, "Your handling was in accordance with etiquette and order, I refused to wait, even if only for one day, I stupidly embarked on a period of no A journey of hope."

"Where's your family?" Demeter asked cautiously. "Have you found them?"

"I have neither found my family nor my enemy," Antal shook his head, "I have been on the road for eight months, and it seems that there is no end to everything, I could have woken up earlier.

I figured the loss of my family hurt me too much, that I was out of my mind with the pain and that this tragedy was my responsibility. "

"God will help you get over your pain," reassured the chancellor, who found it difficult to find the right words in the situation as he was not used to people pouring out their troubles to him, so he quickly changed the subject. "I suppose you are looking for the king."

"I need to talk to His Majesty," the knight nodded, "if he still wants to talk to me..."

"He's been hunting," said Demeter Nexel with a slight smile. "It's been a week. He said he had never experienced such a hot summer in Naples, and his tent was on the banks of the Timis.

The whole court moved to the river bank, as if it wasn't cool enough for them inside the castle walls..."

"So he's hunting..." Antar murmured.

The chancellor smiled wryly. "The whole court is having fun, like children," he admitted, shaking his head. "Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who cares about politics seriously, and the others only care about battles, banquets, Interested in drinking and undressing, partying till dawn."

"You are the best of us all, Lord Demeter," said the ex-Templar. "Your hard work and loyalty will pay off one day. Don't be discouraged!"

"For a year, I have been studying how to make all the subjects of the kingdom use a unified currency instead of dozens of coins of different values." Demeter said with some indignation,
"Endless calculations, dozens, even hundreds of nights of work...do you know how much work I have to put into this? And I can't seem to see the end...

All I know is that once my dream finally comes true and His Majesty orders the old coins back and the artisans start minting new coins, it will be the biggest event ever, and I will make sure you see it come true!This will be the masterpiece of my life.

But how will posterity remember this multi-year project?Will they know that this is the great economic innovation of Demeter Neksei? "

"Future chroniclers will call it the monetary reformation of Charles Anjou," said Antal calmly, "as a victory won by blood and thousands of deaths was Charles' victory, while Not our victory, everything will go to the King."

"What about us?"

"I think there is only one thing we can do," the knight shrugged, "we serve our king so that future generations can justly praise his name. A monarch who is criticized by future generations cannot have excellent subjects." Where to go.

I think that's the only way our names and deeds will survive: by helping a good king and making him a great king, by contributing our strength and our knowledge. "

"Is that why you came back?" Demeter stared at the man, whose unkempt hair, long beard, dirty face, and tired eyes made him look older than his age many. "You finally realized on the way that we all serve the same king?"

There was a hint of sarcasm in his words, but Antal nodded solemnly, expressionless.

"Yes," said Lily Knight firmly, "the king is the head of the kingdom, and we are the hands and feet of the kingdom, or the weapons in our hands.

No matter what family or tribe we are born into, whether we are Neksei, Bato, Gutkled, or Semse, we are all one.

Because we are all Anjou's family, our actions are Anjou's actions, Anjou's success is our victory, do you understand what I mean, Lord Demeter? "

Demeter nodded half-comprehensively. He suspected that the poor man in front of him might have broken his head from months of wandering and grief.

"Follow the south path all the way to the ford," he said dryly. "You'll see the king's banner in an hour's ride. You won't miss it. The banks are full of tents, like they preparing for war."

"Thank you, Lord Demeter," the knight turned away, "God bless you!"

With that Antal mounted his horse and rushed out of the castle, while Demeter hid again in his cool tower.

-

Antal did not look for too long, there is a huge tent camp on the river bank, next to the forest.Charles' multi-chambered tented palace dominated the center of the grounds, around which his nobles and knights pitched their tents.

The lower ranks were placed farther afield, the furthest cluster of small white tents belonging to the servants: tiny triangular dwellings the size of a palm.

In a separate fenced area, large pots of food are being cooked or stewed.Above the flames several feet high, pheasants and partridges spun on iron racks, and the court cooks and their best assistants were never idle.

Tarps stretched along the banks of the river offer some shade to artisans: tailors sewing ornate garments of every color, basket weavers and carpenters working with materials obtained from nature, Antal along the metal The sound of the collision found the blacksmith shop in the camp, and the blacksmith inside was repairing a sword.

The royal horses grazed in huge corrals, alongside the horses of knights, nobles, lords and other powerful courtiers.

Antal took his exhausted horse to a corral at the back, gave the reins and some silver coins to a young groom, and asked him to take care of the horse and give it the maintenance it hadn't received in a long time .

He continued on foot, and began to regret not taking off several layers of clothing in the castle.

Over his linen shirt was still the same dirty robe, and his white cloak, now taupe, bore the red cross of the Knights Templar and the coat of arms of Anjou.

The former of the two signs made many people frown, but Antal no longer cares.

For years he's tried to hide his true identity and cover up his past, but last year's battle in the Highlands and the tragedy that befell his family made him accept his fate and put his old clothes back on.

He walked toward the tented camp, straight to the royal tented palace, where the flag of Anjou was fluttering in the hot wind.

He had expected Charles to be drinking cold cider in his makeshift throne room, but the king was sweating in the open field, surrounded by dozens of cheering knights, much to Antal's surprise.

Not far from the tented palace, a circular arena had been erected, and men in shirt-sleeves fought with practice wooden swords.

The king, with his sleeves rolled up, beltless, in breeches and stockings, and his hair tied up, humiliated one knight after another with his wooden sword.His linen clothes clung to his strong body, and sweat dripped from his beard and long curly hair.

"It's incredible," said Antal to himself, that the man swimming in his own sweat should really be Charlie, and he approached the low fence to get a better look at the unusual duel.

(End of this chapter)