When the Saint comes, she does not collect food.

October 4th, 1444, Imperial Calendar, morning.

It had already been three days since Horn and the others departed.

Prince Condé's nine Edict Companies had arrived near the Gulag Monastery.

These nine Edict Companies, nominally, were not Condé's personal troops, but rather the Royal Guard of the Laye Kingdom.

Condé was merely the Royal Guard Captain under the Laye Kingdom's Guard Commander, yet he still controlled nine Edict Companies.

Firstly, the influence of the former dynasty was too profound, with intermarriages within and without, the nobles would not allow the Blue Wasp Dynasty to exterminate the Goldfinch, nor would they allow the Goldfinch to regain the throne.

Secondly, many of these Edict Knights were ancestral loyalists to the Goldfinch, and rather than let them defect to the Free City or Norn, it was better to use Condé's banner to keep them.

Thirdly, Condé himself was very promising, he came from the Temple Knights, promoted to Ninth Rank Edict Knight at the age of twenty-five, and in the past twenty years, he was the only knight who had killed a Vampire Grand Duke, receiving personal investiture from the Pope.

Due to his Temple Knight background and the support of the Church, among the nine Edict Companies led by Condé, there were a large number of secularized Temple Knights and their legitimized bastards.

Condé was often accused of using the land of the Laye Kingdom to raise the Church's army.

But this could not break Condé's triple protection of blood ties, legal principles, and religion, allowing this remnant among the remnants of the former dynasty to control nearly one-fifth of the kingdom's high-end transcendent power.

As Condé stepped onto the road leading to the entrance of the Gulag Monastery, he sighed helplessly as he looked at the dilapidated monastery before him.

Condé had been here before, he had visited when he was studying at Highfort.

But the dilapidated Gulag Monastery before him was truly different from what he remembered.

If Horn were here, he would definitely lament that he was wrong.

After he left, the Gulag Monastery had undergone tremendous changes.

The nearby villagers and vagrants, after Horn and the others left, were determined to empty the Gulag Monastery.

Anything from tables and chairs, to pots and pans, to doors and windows, to bricks, if no one was watching, no one wanted it, and with automatic looting enabled, everything was taken.

Not to mention the dog's head hanging in the Stag Room, even the monastery's large bell and the slag from the electric arc furnace were taken away, and only a shallow layer remained in the cesspool.

Casually walking up the steps to the monastery entrance, Condé casually trampled two vagrants sleeping on the steps to death and entered the monastery.

The once magnificent flowerbeds were completely empty, leaving only bare branches.

And several scruffy bandits were squatting expectantly by the dilapidated flowerbeds, lighting the branches and boiling soup with gurgling sounds.

In the soup, which was covered with blood foam, one could even see a human hand floating.

Condé walked over, cut off their heads with his longsword, and continued forward.

But when he saw the monastery without those beautiful stained-glass windows and arches, only empty holes, he sighed again.

Especially since billowing black smoke was rising from these holes.

"Isn't Your Highness going to look around?" A black-clad monk appeared behind Condé like a ghost.

Condé shook his head: "I originally wanted to revisit this place, but this group of vagrants spoiled my mood. What did you rush here for?"

"The Church has sent you a letter."

Condé opened the letter in front of the monk, glanced at it casually, and then tore it up in annoyance.

"It's the same old story, Grandiva says he can also negotiate, he can also support me."

"Then what are Your Highness's thoughts?"

Condé's eyelids twitched: "Are you testing my intentions?"

"I wouldn't dare," the monk immediately bowed.

Condé looked at his slender neck, as if amused by anger, turned and left.

"Your Highness, now that those rebels are gone, shall we continue to pursue them?"

"Pursue."

"Should we notify Highfort to expel these vagrants? Or should we do it ourselves?"

"It doesn't matter, if you want to vent, go ahead, they stole the Church's property, and they deserve to be punished."

By the time the news about Prince Condé reached the Papal States, it was already night.

In the valley, the villagers had already entered dreamland after evening prayers.

In the center surrounded by thatched huts, there was a large tent, which was the new Papal Palace.

The Papal Palace was brightly lit, and the cardinals of the Papal States' high command were holding an emergency meeting.

At this critical moment, Cardinal Madlan came to the hillside and found Danji, who was sitting idly.

"A vagrant just came to report," Madlan stood opposite Danji, saying something without beginning or end.

By the moonlight, Danji silently sharpened the sword in his hand with a whetstone.

The moonlight flowed on the sword, washing away the rust and dullness of the blade.

"Those knights came so fast, they arrived at the Gulag Monastery this morning," Madlan narrated calmly, "After discovering that we were not there, they slaughtered the surrounding five villages."

Danji's sharpening stopped, and the harsh hissing sound also stopped.

"Those vagrants who reported the news had no shoes, they relayed the message one by one, running the distance we covered in two and a half days in one day.

Among them were ordinary vagrants, as well as rioters and bandits.

I asked him why he told us, he said, they didn't know either, but at least this way they could feel at ease.

I've been to all five villages, some sold us grain, some cursed us, I've seen many of them, I know them all."

Danji put down the longsword and threw it aside: "If you want, you can beat me up."

"I can't do that," Madlan shook his head, "You are innocent, I can't do such a thing."

Inserting the longsword into its sheath, Danji straddled his legs and leaned against the hillside: "I'd rather you beat me up."

The mountains surged in the moonlight like a tide, the opalescent moon was like a lake, and hundreds of millions of grasses and trees breathed loudly.

At the bottom of the mountain waves, the encampment was a narrow river, and those thatched huts were fishing boats on the river, swaying with the wind.

"They are all innocent people," Danji pointed to the thatched houses below.

There was no reply.

"I don't know if I can still be considered a knight," Danji withdrew his finger.

Still no reply.

"That day, I heard you and Fric talking, and I inadvertently heard about your affairs," Danji's face was blended into the moonlight, making it impossible to see his expression clearly, "Do you mind telling me how you were imprisoned?"

Madlan turned his head and stared at Danji's face blankly, after a long while, he opened his mouth:

"When I was seven years old, the child next door, from the Stange family, bought a church amulet, and I clamored for one too, but my family was poor, and I had younger siblings, we couldn't afford it."

Sitting alone, Madlan seemed to be sleepwalking, his voice was not loud, but Danji heard it clearly.

"Annoyed by my clamoring, my father beat me up, I cried all night, the next day I went out to play and saw Stange hanging the amulet on the window, with no one watching, so I took it.

When my father and mother saw the amulet in my hand... haha, I had never been beaten so badly in my life.

They told me that if I wanted something, I should earn it myself, with my own hands."

Madlan pulled out an amulet from his collar, the amulet was wrapped in blackened silver, making it impossible to see the face of the guardian saint.

"This is Saint George, the legendary dragon slayer," shaking the amulet in his hand towards Danji, Madlan chuckled, "Can't recognize him, can you? I can't either.

So when my mother gave it to me, I was so angry that I felt it was not as good as Stange's at all, so I threw it away.

My father beat me up again, he ran to the mud pit and searched for half the night, and found it back."

Madlan's voice was as calm as moonlight, echoing in the night wind.

"I cried at night, unconvinced, my mother said that my father didn't rest during his breaks from repairing roofs for people, but went to the roadside to find white pebbles and chisel them into shapes.

My mother borrowed fire to melt silver coins when she was free from cooking for the citizens, and inlaid them on the stone statue.

If the chiseling was not good, he would have to find new pebbles, if the inlay was not good, he would have to remelt the silver.

In one year, they only used one denarius to make this statue, one denarius couldn't buy such a beautiful amulet."

Compared to when he first held the amulet, it was much smaller in his palm.

Those slender fingers stained with mud had become thick black hands.

His fingertip brushed across Saint George's unrecognizable face, Madlan said to it: "My mother said that this amulet is ugly, but it was made by my father and mother bit by bit, if I wear this amulet, my father, mother, and Saint George will protect me by my side."

The quiet wind blew the moonlight, shaking it together with the houses, Saint George on the amulet opened his arms, as if to embrace Madlan.

"Wearing this amulet, I never stole anything again, I entered a bakery, and went from being a handyman to a laborer, from a laborer to a contract worker, from a contract worker to an apprentice.

I learned baking surprisingly fast, my new recipe for baked cream cheese bread was fragrant and soft, my master told me that in two years at most, I would be able to graduate.

During that time, my father and mother were so happy, our family was going to have a baker.

I was so happy too, so on my birthday, I asked the master baker if I could take the moldy bread from the bakery home, I asked him, I asked him!

He said, take it back, consider it a reward for you.

The next day, I was arrested and imprisoned for stealing bread, I looked into my father and mother's eyes, and they burned like fire."

The wind blew through the valley, making a whistling sound, besides this sound, there was no other sound in the valley.

Danji asked softly: "What happened later?"

"Originally, I would have been acquitted, there was physical evidence and witnesses, they had seen me take the moldy bread in front of the baker.

Then, a knight and the baker walked into the court, they talked for three or four sentences.

I was sentenced to twelve years.

In the second year after I was imprisoned, my father became addicted to alcohol and accidentally broke his neck.

In the fourth year after I was imprisoned, my mother, unable to bear the criticism of the people around her, pretended to fall into the river and committed suicide.

I escaped, wanting to see my mother one last time, but because my mother committed suicide, she was buried in a mass grave.

I couldn't find my mother, all the tombstones had collapsed, her bones were mixed with those of others, I couldn't tell them apart."

Danji didn't even make a heavy breathing sound.

"The clergy said that transcendence is a gift from God, they also said that God is merciful.

Transcendent beings are all noble people, why didn't they uphold justice for me? Why did they instead help the wicked to do evil?"

Time seemed to stop for a second or two after Madlan asked the question.

Danji placed the knight's sword representing him horizontally on his knees, his right hand grasped the scabbard, the scabbard trembled slightly: "One day, you will definitely be exonerated."

Madlan clenched the amulet on his chest, muttering to himself: "But what's the point? My family is already dead, until the last moment before they died, I was a thief."

Danji forced a smile: "That knight, he, he didn't follow the knight's code, he, he can't be considered a knight..."

"Knight, knight..." Madlan still lowered his head, but the amulet pendant in his right palm was clenched tighter and tighter, his voice went from low to high.

Finally, he straightened his body and sprang up from the rock, as if wanting to roar.

But in the end, only a dry and hoarse subtle voice was left: "I didn't steal the bread..."

After saying that, he stood there blankly, as if he had lost his soul.

After standing for a long time, he stuffed the amulet into his collar and walked towards the thatched houses without saying a word.

The whistling wind rolled the grass leaves, tickling Danji's ankles.

Danji watched Madlan's back disappear at the edge of the hillside.

He drew out the knight's sword in his hand, it was so dazed and dazzling.