When the Saint comes, she does not collect food.

The glow of the setting sun swayed in the evening breeze, a vine leaf twirling in from the tower-like skylight, landing on Gilo's forehead.

Gilo brushed the vine leaf off, touching his stubbly chin, his face haggard as if he had suffered a serious illness.

Ever since he was kidnapped from Red Mill Village to the Gulag Monastery by the villagers, he had been imprisoned in this abandoned corner tower.

It was as if everyone had forgotten him.

He had food, he had clothes, but there were hardly any people to talk to all day long.

Only during breakfast and dinner, when the young Papal Guard waited for him to finish eating and collected his wooden bowls and plates, could he chat for half an hour.

Such days were truly unbearable.

Gilo could almost imagine his future—the mad hedgehogs being wiped out by the church, the church discovering his existence, examining his false identity, and then sending him back to the witcher castle.

Witchers had a certain degree of immunity; the trial might be by the church, but imprisonment or execution still had to be handled by the witcher guild.

Given his actions, with multiple crimes combined, he might have to be a drug slave in Eagle Keep or Snake Keep until he died.

Whenever he thought of this, Gilo was so sad that he was almost shedding little pearls.

Just as Gilo was secretly grieving, the creaking sound of the wooden door opening quickly caught his attention.

"Long time no see, Gilo."

When Horn appeared in Gilo's sight, he could hardly believe his eyes.

But when he saw the wine, roast chicken, and white bread Horn was carrying, his body stiffened.

Especially with Danji, the strong man carrying a flame-shaped greatsword, by his side.

Gilo immediately couldn't stand up, collapsing limply to the ground.

"Your Majesty, do you…do you have any business with me?"

"I remember when we were chatting before, we talked about how a witch needs hundreds of knights and thousands of troops to be wiped out, right?"

"Yes, that's right."

"You know, Jeanne is a converted saint, so logically speaking, why do I feel like she can't do that?"

"That's natural; Miss Jeanne is not a complete witch."

Horn picked up the wine and poured him a glass: "Then tell me about it."

"Your Majesty, this has to start with knights." Seeing that Horn wasn't here to take his life, Gilo immediately relaxed.

"Speaking of knights, Sir Danji here certainly knows more than I do, but since Your Majesty asked me to speak, then I'll make a fool of myself."

Perhaps it was because he had been憋 (suffocated) for too long; once Gilo started talking, he became eloquent.

"According to the empire's system, although knight titles can be inherited, knight ranks must be earned by the knight's own supernatural abilities.

The knight ranks from low to high are squire, banneret, knight banneret, titled knight, and grand knight.

Many country bumpkins, uh, I mean commoners, think that the breathing technique level is equal to the knight's rank, but that was already the case in classical times.

Nowadays, knight ranks are determined by battle merits and knight tournaments; the breathing technique and the knight's own combat power are not completely equal."

"I see. Oh, Danji, what rank are you?" Horn turned to ask Danji.

Danji didn't answer, only silently turning red as a response, muttering, "A knight who believes in the knight's spirit is a true knight," "Can a knight's affairs be called losing?"

Gilo wisely shifted the topic away from this: "Among these three, the knight banneret is the pinnacle of knights.

Many titled knights are posthumously awarded, and few can obtain the title while alive.

As for grand knights, they can only reach that realm after breaking through the ninth level of breathing technique; it is the pinnacle of supernatural martial power.

However, since the end of the Hundred Years' War, few knights with the ninth level of breathing technique are willing to be promoted to grand knight…"

As Gilo narrated, Horn gradually sorted out the veins of the supernatural knight system.

Supernatural power has always been the core violent system for nobles to oppress and rule, and naturally, it will gradually become professionalized and refined with the development of civilization.

In the military aspect that Horn was most concerned about, supernatural knights developed a sophisticated tactical system.

Taking the Kingdom of Laya as an example, the main force unit of the Kingdom of Laya's supernatural knights is called the Knight Banneret Company.

The organization of a Knight Banneret Company is like this:

One knight banneret, one banneret, and one squire form a lancer team, and occasionally, mounted archers, swordsmen, spearmen, and crossbowmen are temporarily conscripted.

3 to 9 people form a basic tactical unit.

Since swordsmen and spearmen are temporary workers, non-staff members without supernatural power, they are not counted within a Knight Banneret Company.

A Knight Banneret Company consists of one hundred lancer teams, including 100 knight bannerets, 100 bannerets, and 100 squires.

The entire Kingdom of Laya only has 42 Knight Banneret Companies, respectively controlled by the royal family, the three dukes, and the Lion Knight Prince Condé.

This does not mean that the Kingdom of Laya only has 4200 knight bannerets.

Because after a knight banneret is certified, they are forced to join the Knight Banneret Company.

Many knights with the strength of a knight banneret are unwilling to get involved in this mess; they will deliberately not participate in the knight tournament or throw the match.

After digesting this information, Horn continued to inquire about the witch's affairs.

"Your Majesty, when I was training in Snake Keep, there was a scholar from the Salin Society who gave us lectures." A look of reminiscence appeared on Gilo's face. "He once told me a rule: the development of supernatural power always cycles between quantity accumulation and qualitative change."

"Quantity accumulation and qualitative change…" Horn murmured these two unfamiliar terms.

"Yes, when the knight's breathing technique was first invented, there was only one level; a first-level knight could cause dimensional reduction strikes against ordinary knights.

Therefore, more knights began to study, quickly researching second-level breathing techniques, third-level breathing techniques, until the ninth level.

After reaching the ninth-level limit, in order to defeat enemies on the battlefield, knights began to study supernatural martial arts.

The more skilled in supernatural martial arts, the more the knights can defeat opponents of the same level or even cross levels, so the knights continued to develop supernatural martial arts, making them stronger and more popular.

When supernatural martial arts evolved to the point where it was difficult to improve, knights began to invent supernatural weapons and armor.

We are now in the quantity accumulation period of stacking supernatural armor and stacking supernatural weapons.

This is why people do not use the level of breathing techniques to judge a knight's martial power as they did in classical times.

Because a knight's martial power, in addition to the supernatural power itself, also includes the application of supernatural power, the skill of using supernatural armaments, and a series of other combined comprehensive abilities.

When we discuss a knight banneret, we always equate it with the sixth level of breathing technique.

But in reality, if a sixth-level knight from the classical era were to fight a knight banneret, the knight banneret could easily take him down in a few rounds."

"But what does this have to do with the witch's combat power?" Horn asked.

Gilo smiled: "Your Majesty, all developments in supernatural martial power follow this rule, and witches are no exception."

Listening to Gilo's explanation, Horn gradually understood.

At first, witches could suppress mortals at will with their own power.

But with the development of breathing techniques, holy water, blessings, and a series of other supernatural techniques, the relative strength of witches began to decline.

In order to resist knights and witchers, witches also began to study supernatural techniques and supernatural armaments.

But witches have an extremely terrifying ability: they are almost immune to the influence of all evil artifacts and monsters, such as the side effects of that bone whistle.

With this ability, when those veteran witches appear, they are covered in artifacts and wear witch armor and masks that protect against holy water.

Moreover, witches can live for 150 to 200 years; with long-term skill training, as long as they don't go crazy, they can develop something even if they are terrible.

Every old witch over 100 years old is more feared by the church than the ogre expeditionary army of the Flesh Court.

After all, there are traces to be found of the ogre expeditionary army, but a flexible and mobile witch is the nightmare of many high-ranking church officials.

The dark witch Toruya Magmi, known as the bishop killer, assassinated two dukes, four cardinals, and one pope alone, and even managed to escape successfully.

Forcing the church to "Angel Wing, mobilize!" to capture her, tie her to the stake, and burn her to death.

Not to mention the heaven-defying existence of Pope Joan.

"To become a witch capable of fighting against thousands of troops, Miss Jeanne still lacks training, artifacts, and the accumulation of time." Gilo held up a finger. "This is the first point."

"The second point is that Miss Jeanne's supernatural power was very strong, but her lightning cannot penetrate steel.

Knights, however, all wear iron armor, which leads to a further decline in Miss Jeanne's relative strength."

Of course, there was one point Gilo didn't say, but everyone present understood it in their hearts, and that was berserking.

The berserking witch will usher in an explosive strengthening of her strength.

But this is not within Horn's consideration, after all, witch berserking is not directional; it would be bad if he lifted a rock and smashed his own foot.

Horn stroked his chin.

In this case, if you want Jeanne to exert higher combat power, witch armor and artifacts cannot be made, but a holy water protection mask may be possible.

ps There will be another chapter later