Our family is in decline

"If you haven't found what you want to do, then go to school and be responsible for teaching students literacy. I'll calculate the salary with you first..."

Lance briefly explained the treatment of teachers in the school. To be honest, most of the current jobs in the town conflict with her abilities.

He couldn't even afford food and had no time to study antiques. As for the wizard's supernatural mysticism, it was obviously not a serious school. Lance couldn't let anyone else learn this stuff.

Anyway, there is a shortage of teachers in the school, so it would be better to let her go and make do with it first.

School? She had a slightly subtle expression on her face today because she heard about the nun and inquired about it.

However, she did not refuse, but the serious treatment was a bit... difficult to adapt to.

Because no one treated her so normally, the feeling of being treated as an ordinary person made her feel inexplicably relaxed.

"Katherine follows the Lord's orders."

"But before that, I need to test your ability." Lance showed her what he had given Tamara before. He didn't even mention the Mother of Worms, but just briefly described the flesh and blood ritual.

Catherine couldn't help but frown when she heard this, and after a moment of confusion, she shook her head.

"I don't know the specific function of the ritual. The wizard did not teach me the knowledge of mysticism."

The wizard was obviously on the defensive. There was no system to teach Catherine the knowledge related to the supernatural. As for what she learned secretly, it was scattered and scattered, making it difficult to be effective.

"Have you ever heard of a cult in the Levant that believes in the Mother of Worms? There are also ghouls."

"I was taken away from the Levant by a wizard when I was very young. I have never heard of the Mother of Worms. However, there is a local legend about sandworms. Everyone should be careful that they may emerge from the yellow sand at any time. The sandworm is capable of swallowing a person in one bite.

As for the legend of ghouls, they are very widespread and have even become folklore. Every parent will warn their children not to run around at night. The scary ghouls will take away the disobedient children. "

At this point, Catherine's expression also changed somewhat, as if she was lost in memories.

In the past, when I was dreaming late at night, I could never remember my parents' faces, as if they were separated by a veil, and as the memory faded, it became more and more blurry.

What came to mind was the tragedy of that night. Despair and fear almost gripped her soul. Under the control of the wizard, she gradually became numb and lost herself.

But when I recalled it a little bit, I remembered that clear face. It was a happy time when the family gathered in front of the campfire. I was very naughty and full of energy, and often made everyone laugh...

He also noticed her sudden strange reaction. From her relaxed look and the slowly appearing smile, he could feel that Catherine was immersed in beauty.

Lance was sensible and did not interrupt her. He found that her thin face looked pretty good when she smiled. At least she no longer had that stern face...

But they could laugh, but Tamara couldn't.

Originally, the location where he was chased was not far from Hamlet. The reason why the opponent did not pursue him was because there were too many people involved in the wizard's battle, and it was difficult to find him.

If there were no wizards blocking the way, she might be able to escape some distance, but she was mentally exhausted in that battle and was forced to stop and recuperate.

But while she was recovering, she also roughly estimated that the other party was about to take action.

So I just came to Lance to seek asylum, but obviously failed.

Therefore, when he saw Catherine, the guy who replaced him, he was hostile when he went out. It was her appearance that made him lose all his chips.

But as someone who dared to wander the world, she also had a temper. When Lance refused to take action, Tamara was very stubborn. Even though she had not fully recovered, she still drove the carriage to leave the town.

She no longer believed what Lance said. Unfortunately, all her collections were in the car. She could not abandon the carriage and had to go back to the old road.

I hope to get out of here before that guy finds me.

But not long after she stepped out, Tamara felt a strong sense of crisis. She grabbed the reins and stopped the carriage. She looked at the road ahead. She knew she was coming...

Having an independent brick and stone house in Hamlet shows that its identity is not simple.

Leonard went on a mission last time and came back to take leave according to regulations. At this time, he was training his son in the yard.

He was not wearing armor, just ordinary casual clothes, and what he held in his hand was not the treasure [Certificate of Champions], but a wooden stick.

On the contrary, his son Ryan put on his old armor that had been repaired many times, but the difference in body shape was a bit big, so it looked a bit funny when he wore it.

The long sword in Ryan's hand was also eliminated by him. The length and weight were not something that an ordinary child could wield. Fortunately, there was enough food during this period, and the malnourished body gradually recovered.

Leonard himself was thrown into the church by his parents when he was a child. The missing childhood made him not know how to treat his son. According to his idea, he must be thrown into a training camp so that he can become a warrior capable of defending Hamlet as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, my son was not yet fourteen years old and could not join the army, so he was naturally sent to school.

Today, it was not his habit to sit idle at home during his vacation. He waited until his son got out of school and directly grabbed him to start training in advance.

"Clang!"

The long sword was blocked by the wooden stick, and before Ryan could react, Leonard struck him with the stick without mercy.

After receiving a heavy blow, even if the armor blocked most of the damage, it was still unbearable for the child and he fell to the ground.

"It wasn't like this. If it had been a sword, you would have been dead." Leonard looked at his son calmly, showing no mercy.

Having been on the battlefield, he knows that any flaw will be paid for with his life, and he must undergo more rigorous training to survive.

And he is relatively well now. At that time, he joined the Crusaders on a whim. He just waited for the team to gather and trained hastily for a month before embarking on the holy war. Some even just arrived at the assembly point a few days ago. Set off.

A large group of excited recruits walked onto the battlefield, and soon they understood that the so-called war was not as sacred as the bishop said.

In the first battle, the price was a wound that almost split him open. The only reason he survived was because the military chaplain discovered him...

A few flashbacks of the past made Leonard's face solemn, and he looked down at his son who fell on the ground.

"If you want to knock me down, stand up. The enemy will not give you a chance."

Leonard's words were cold, as if he were treating an ordinary soldier, and there was no sign of any fatherly attitude at all.

"Hmph..." As for the son in the armor, although he was exhausted, he still struggled to stand up. He has never been soft to this father.

But before training could start again, Leonard seemed to notice something and looked up outside.

He looked a little strange at this moment.

I can't help it, because this outfit is too familiar.

Fighting Sisters of the Church.

Leonard knew something about the situation, but the lord didn't say anything, and he had no intention of intervening.

In addition to the rare vacation, he spends most of his time with his family. I don't know if his son agrees with this kind of companionship, but he thinks so anyway.

But why did this person come to find me?

"Practice yourself first and swing the sword a hundred times."

Leonard put down the sentence and walked towards the door. He asked the nun, but his tone was quite cold.

"what's the matter?"

"What happened to the church? I was told I could come to you."

This question surprised Leonard. Looking at the nun standing at the door with a slightly confused look in her eyes, Leonard seemed to have seen his former self and had to take a long breath.

"Come on in kid, I don't know if this is the answer you need, but I can tell you my story."

Leonard led the people in, and did not avoid his son. Instead, he slowly told the story of the first half of his life.

He was sent to a church school by his parents to be tortured and brainwashed since he was a child... When he grew up, he responded to the church's call for jihad with fanatical beliefs and joined the Crusades... He experienced brutal wars during the jihad... he glimpsed the ugliness of the church... left the Crusaders and started wandering... Meet the lord...

Leonard had long since given up on all this. He did not deliberately discredit the church, but calmly told his story.

In fact, out of tens of thousands of recruits, him being able to stand out and become the leader of one of the legions is already a very inspiring and even somewhat legendary story.

This was indeed the case at the beginning. The silly boy in Leonard's words was filled with devout faith in the Holy Light, and even a cruel battle could not defeat him.

But as he gradually shifted his descriptive perspective to other places.

The so-called evil infidels are just ordinary people who were plundered and massacred during the holy war.

Ordinary crusaders kept dying around them, their deaths were meaningless, and those who didn't die gradually fell into madness. They were more like demons than demons.

And those disgusting church leaders. Looting and massacre were all ordered by them.

He is pious, not stupid. Leonard knows that what he is conducting is not a noble holy war, but a shameless plunder!

The naked reality directly tore apart his noble beliefs, and he found that he was nothing more than a weapon, wielded by the church to harvest those ordinary people.

At this time, his conscience became a burden, tormenting him, and he was unwilling to sink like other soldiers.

Until he lost his usefulness and was abandoned by the higher-ups, just like... a worn-out weapon thrown away casually.

Ryan, who was wielding his sword at the side, had already stopped training and was immersed in those descriptions.

In fact, he is very unfamiliar with the role of father. He only remembers that man abandoning himself and his mother when he was very young.

For so many years, I and my mother have been dependent on each other. I don't know how much discrimination I have suffered in the village. I am called a "child without a father", and my mother will be harassed by some guys.

He remembered clearly that at first he was longing for his father to come back, until one time he got into a fight with some people because of this incident. When he came home with pain all over his body, he once asked his mother My father went there, but all I got was my mother's silent tears.

From that day on, he swore that he didn't need a father to protect his mother.

So in this environment, he became tough and fierce. Only in this way can he protect himself and his mother.

Originally, he thought that the role of father would disappear from his world, but suddenly a person appeared and said he was his father.

conflict! Even disgusted.

He didn't want to admit to this guy who abandoned their mother and son, but he was forced to follow him because of his mother.

To be honest, he didn't acknowledge this father at all before, so naturally he didn't care about this person. The relationship between the two was very stiff, and their relationship was not even as good as others.

Part of staying here is because my mother is still here.

The other part of the training was that he wanted to personally defeat this guy who abandoned them!

But after listening to those words, he realized that things were not that simple back then.

Compared with Ryan's silence, the nun's silence was not calm at all. Her already tough face became uglier than ever before, like a dark cloud covering the sun. The knuckles of the right hand holding the holy book turned white due to the exertion. It was shaking a little because of too much exertion.

She was different from Leonard, who had only been in a church school for a few years. The nun had been receiving preaching from the church since she was a child, so her faith was much firmer.

The first reaction when hearing these descriptions is slander. Anyone who dares to deny the church is an enemy.

In the past, she might have picked up the hammer and swung it over, but the scene at the school just now made her calm for the time being.

But he couldn't help but question this unfaithful man.

"So you gave up your faith?"

After hearing this, Leonard turned his gaze directly to the livid nun beside him, and his tone suddenly became more intense.

"I lost my happy family while fighting for the church. I was injured countless times, seriously injured three times and nearly died. I killed countless enemies. I can say that I lost everything.

So what did I get? A pair of armor, how many medals?

No! All I got was the contempt from those guys, and the endless regret and guilt?

At that time, I went out with lofty ideals to fight against the so-called evil heretics, but now I have become so depressed that I don't even dare to recognize my wife and children. I don't want them to know that I was once a massacre with my hands stained with blood. There is no honor in this! "

Leonard said this with a bit of anger. He thought he had given up, but in fact he had not. He could never forget everything that happened.

Are you unhappy? I am even more unhappy!

As a man who truly crawled out of the dead, Leonard has given everything to the church, and he has enough confidence.

The nun was stunned by these words. She subconsciously wanted to refute his greed. How could he use vanity and material things to measure his dedication.

But he didn't say it, the words were stuck in his throat because he had just eaten...

Ryan was also frightened by Leonard's sudden outburst. The momentum almost made him suffocate, and he felt as if his heart was about to jump out.

Silence eased the restless atmosphere.

After saying this, Leonard also realized that his emotions were a little out of control. This should not happen, because the person in front of him was not a senior member of the church, but a poor person who had been brainwashed by the church and committed suicide. insect.

Just like how I did before.

Leonard shook his head and continued to bring the topic back with some pity.

"No~ I did not give up my belief in the Holy Light because of this. On the contrary, I had not gotten rid of the influence of the church. In other words, after losing everything, the Holy Light was the only motivation for me to live, and I had self-deception.

For this reason, I embarked on a solo expedition to follow the Holy Code, hoping to die in a fierce battle against evil and prove my loyalty to the Holy Light. At the same time, I also wanted to wash away the sins on my body and confess to my My family proved that I was not a sinner. "

Ryan recovered from the pressure just now, and after hearing these words, he unconsciously looked at Leonard with a strange expression.

He didn't forgive this guy, he just felt that he was a bit... pitiful.

Not only him, but even the nuns with strong faith were affected by the emotions conveyed in the deep voice and became depressed.

But Leonard didn't think so. On the contrary, his mood became intense in a short period of time, and his standing posture became straight.

"At this time I met the Lord."

The nun looked at Leonard with some surprise, not because of the person he mentioned, but because of him...

It was only a short moment, but he couldn't have felt wrong. The power of the Holy Light actually emerged from his body.

If he was still a crusader, the nun wouldn't find it too strange.

But what he saw in front of him was an apostate who had given up his faith!

The impact of this situation is far more direct and intense than those words just now.

Leonard didn't pay attention to the nun's strangeness, but continued to talk about his life after meeting the lord.

He did not talk about some core issues, but focused on ordinary people.

"Before the Lord came, Hamlet was completely in ruins. The townspeople were lying on the ground half-dead, and the air was filled with a putrid smell..."

Ryan had heard about the creation of Hamlet in his first class, but the perspective of a person who experienced it seemed more cruel, and the crisis he had to face was more difficult.

The nun had no chance to inquire like Catherine. She heard this story for the first time and couldn't help but be attracted to it.

"Under the rule of the church and the mayor, people here didn't even have enough to eat. They were called humans, but they were worse than dogs. However, the arrival of the lord directly saved them.

Have you seen Hamlet today? Not only Hamlet’s people, but thousands of refugees, this is something the empire has failed to do, and neither has the church! "

Leonard said this with a bit of pride. After all, he had contributed to the construction of this place. He was a part of Hamlet.

The nun fell into silence. Her thoughts were very confused now, not to mention that she was not a very scheming person in the first place. It was difficult to judge whether Leonard's words were true or false.

"But if the church is really as bad as you say, why do so many people still believe in it?"

Along the way, the nun's status as a church priest has brought her great convenience. She can go to the local church to make holy water in exchange for supplies and rest, she can use magic to treat ordinary people to get some food and money, or she can receive some money. The Blasphemer, the Fallen's bounty.

When walking in the empire, she encountered no obstacles in villages or cities. Even the passing robbers and bandits would not try to challenge her. She actually enjoyed the benefits brought by the church.

Most of the threats that can be encountered come from those completely crazy refugees, and what awaits them is the baptism of the Holy Light, in a physical sense.

It can be said that the wizard's task is the most dangerous task she has ever faced, bar none.

Although he almost sacrificed himself to the Holy Flame, he survived.

When she opened her eyes and saw the sun, she originally thought she would be welcomed by the townspeople, but she didn't expect that things would develop to this point, a town that made her feel extremely weird.

She couldn't tell whether these people were normal people, heretics, or cultists?

All kinds of messy thoughts came to my mind but I couldn't find any reason for it. I just felt my temples swelled and a wave of anxiety surged into my heart.

"My story is over. I know you were confused. I was the same at the time. It wasn't until I met the Lord that I returned to my family soon. I could stay with my family, have a stable job, a peaceful life, and my children. You can also go to school and won't be beaten up by the priest because you can't recite the sacred scriptures.

The reality is that even without the church, people's lives are as usual, or even better, because they don't need to have enough to eat and spend all their resources to feed those fat maggots.

And I also rediscovered the meaning of my life, which is to protect Hamlet and show my loyalty to Lord Lance! "

Leonard had nothing to say at this point, but he didn't mind warning the nun who appeared out of nowhere.

"I have experienced war and seen battlefields. I will never allow Hamlet to end up in that place!"

The nun became anxious when Leonard mentioned that the church was not needed. She opened her mouth to refute, but then she thought that this village really didn't need it, so she could only hold back those words.

At this time, she seemed to have countless pressures rushing over her, making her chest feel a little heavy.

It would be better to let her face the wizard than let her do this. At least she would have a goal and not be tortured like now.

"Go to the Lord, he will guide you."

Leonard said something, and only then did the nun react.

She still remembered what the lord said when they separated, and her doubts might be answered by him.

The nun's mobility was also at its fullest, so she turned around and walked out after saying a few words.

Leonard didn't pay attention to the reckless nun, but focused on his son Ryan.

"I told your mother these things. When I left, I did not abandon you, mother and son, but uphold justice and fight for the Holy Light. Your mother did not say that she thought I had died on the battlefield..."

Ryan didn't speak. Before Leonard could finish speaking, he turned around and continued practicing his sword swing.

He still didn't understand why the Holy Light left him and his mother behind.

Of course, if he knew that Leonard sold his family property when he left, which made them so poor, he would probably hate them even more.

Hatred is not created in a day, but is accumulated over many years, and cannot be eliminated so easily.

Just like Leonard's faith was not born in a day, but was influenced by environmental factors, it also did not collapse in a day.

No matter what, there must be a process...

But Tamara didn't think so, she felt like she was going to be finished soon!

The monthly ticket is 300, and the additional payment is 2,000. The contract is completed!