"What?"
To the bewildered Ariadne, Sancha answered with a bitter smile.
“There is a rumor going around that the girls saved the land that the King had abandoned. I have heard more than four or five songs about it.”
Ariadne's expression changed subtly. Who could be behind that song? If it was spread by a powerful force, it could be a problem.
But then again, if she thinks about it, it's the same problem that could have occurred even if it had appeared and spread spontaneously.
There is widespread discontent with the King. She will become the icon of that discontent and will rise to the forefront of politics in the future.
Sancha added naturally.
“Last time, when you heard the word ‘saint,’ you asked how she could be anything but the Virgin Mary. This time, she is not the Virgin Mary, but she is a mother.”
Ariadne blinked and looked at the mountain tea.
“She is the ‘Mother of the Poor.’ What kind of evil remark is this against an unmarried girl!”
Ariadne groaned and rubbed her forehead. Sancha grumbled.
“There are also things like ‘Goddess of War’ and ‘Angel of the Black Death.’ I don’t know what the last one means. Is it because you help people avoid the Black Death, or because you spread the Black Death to our enemies? Wait a minute.”
Sancha stopped talking and called out to Ariadne.
“Why are your hands like that, Miss?”
What Sancha noticed was Ariadne's right hand.
Ariadne's right hand was badly mangled as if it had been struck by something heavy, like a paperweight or a hammer.
“Ah... This. It’s just a little hurt.”
Ariadne hid her right hand behind her back, but Sancha did not let Ariadne go easily.
“What could possibly cause you to hurt your hand, young lady!”
Sancha hurriedly grabbed Ariadne's right hand and looked it over, then tried to run out to find the medicine bottle.
Ariadne asked Sancha cautiously.
“...You just see that I’m injured?”
“What else is wrong with this, besides the injury?”
Sancha's eyes widened and she looked at Ariadne's hand again carefully.
If you're not just injured... Are you sick? Are you saying you have the Black Death?
But Ariadne's right hand had no nails that had turned black, thickened, or swollen, except for the wound where it had been crushed.
There was just a trauma where the skin was peeled off and bleeding.
“It’s okay if you can’t see it.”
Ariadne asked if Sancha could see the glowing halo from her hand, but it was enough for her if Sancha could not see it.
If you can't see the halo on my right hand... you won't see the halo on my left hand either.
But Ariadne soon realized that this was only her wish.
“Miss... what’s wrong with your left hand?”
“This is... Can you see it?”
“Your left ring finger is... bright red.”
With Greta's death, a red dot appeared on the tip of Ariadne's left ring finger.
As the Black Death spread through Gallico's army, Ariadne's red spot also began to spread down her left ring finger.
It looked like a dot for every innocent life lost.
In three days, the red dots filled the very tip of the left ring finger, where Cesare had cut off in her previous life, and began to spread to the next joint.
“Doctor... Should I call a doctor?”
Ariadne, who was also flustered, was unable to continue speaking at Sancha's trembling question.
She thought the evidence of her sin would not be visible to others.
“Hic, Grandma.”
A young boy who was reading fortunes while looking into a basin of water called out to his grandmother.
“I... I think I got my fortune read wrong. What should I do?”
The boy thought of the sister, whom he had met in the Campo de Spezia square a while ago.
She was the first 'one who was judged' he met when he came to the Central Continent. He was happy and curious, so he read his fate.
And nothing could go wrong.
She was clearly in the 'up' phase and had the horoscope to achieve success in this world without committing any sins.
But now that he looks into her fate, he sees that karma is clinging to her.
“What can I do? That person is in trouble because of me.”
The boy's grandmother, who had answered childishly, frowned as if her thoughts had wandered elsewhere and asked.
“What did you get for the lottery?”
“Nothing...”
The old woman's face turned pale, similar to her grandson's.
“This damn bastard!”
The old woman's cane flew through the air. The boy jumped in fright and dodged the cane.
“Oh, Grandma! Stop!”
“That’s it? I thought this idiot was meddling in other people’s business, but you don’t even accept the lottery ticket? Are you out of your mind or not!”
The Salman priestesses always received a fortune when they told their fortunes.
If the fortune came out wrong, it was thought that the person had sinned against the other person and had accumulated bad karma. However, it was thought that if the fortune was burned and offered to God, no sin would be accumulated because nothing had been received.
But in cases like now where nothing was received from the beginning, there was no way to resolve the karma.
“No, that’s what I meant, at the time it seemed like there was nothing wrong with it!”
“That makes no sense!”
“It was definitely an upturn. It was long before the turning point. I think the ‘awakened ones’ intervened artificially.”
'He who is on trial' is always on the rise until a certain turning point, when he is forced to make a choice.
That choice is the reason why the 'Awakened Ones' gave that person a future poem, and he must not fall behind before realizing that choice.
Bang!
"Ouch!"
This time, instead of the cane, the boy was hit on the forehead by the grandmother's stick.
“You idiot! That’s what the ‘golden rule’ is all about!”
“But in the book...”
“Have I been doing this for a day or two? Do you think this old lady told you not to interfere for no reason?”
The old woman grumbled and drew a picture on the dirt floor with her cane.
“Why on earth do you think ‘the awakened ones’ is the plural form and not ‘the awakened ones’!”
“Well, well...”
The boy, who had never thought about that point, was unable to answer.
“Of course, because there are so many of us!”
The old woman waved her staff in the air.
“If it’s just you and I, and we can’t agree on anything, then if there were twenty, thirty, or a hundred people, would the results come out as planned?”
“It won’t come out, right...”
“That’s why there’s no point in spying on their plans!”
Well, it's not like it doesn't mean anything, the grandmother muttered.
“You’re causing trouble for grandma.”
“No, why...”
“Shouldn’t you pay for your karma!”
“I can pay it back...”
“Will it work? A guy who can’t even read fortunes properly?”
The boy hunched his shoulders and crouched down at the repeated words that left him speechless.
“There will come a time when I need to help that girl. I’ll pay you back then, and then we’ll never get involved again!”
“Yes, Grandma...”
The old woman licked her lips, filled a brass basin with water, and read her fortune herself.
Because she wanted to see the ups and downs of her life firsthand and judge when she would be able to repay it.
“Huh... This is it.”
The boy who was looking at the fortune over his grandmother's shoulder muttered with a troubled expression.
“Uh... Grandma. If it’s this much work, isn’t it ruined?”
As the karma of the 'one who is judged' piles up, the karma of the grandchild who read the fortune incorrectly also increases proportionally.
“How do I touch this?”
The boy looked up at his grandmother with a tearful face.
“No, no... There’s still a chance.”
“I can’t see a way out?”
“If you can become an ‘awakened one’ in this life... then you won’t have to receive this karma in your next life.”
It was a voice telling him to become a 'hero'. The boy's eyes widened and he scolded his grandmother.
“Grandma said that was impossible. How many people succeeded...”
“When did I say it was impossible? I said it was unlikely!”
“Isn’t that it?”
“0 and 1 are different!”
The old woman was annoyed with her grandson.
“And if there is no other way, will you just accept the karma that has piled up against you with gratitude?”
“That’s not it...”
“If you don’t want to start your next life in the sulfur springs, you should do something right now! You seem like an unenthusiastic person!”
The old woman took away all the brass basins.
“From now on, you should read this young lady’s fortune once a month. If anything seems shaky, tell Grandma right away. When I have the chance to pay you back, I’ll pay you back quickly and get rid of it.”
The old woman wanted to pay off her debt quickly.
It's better to pay it off early, because later in the girl's life, if she were to pay off this debt, she would have to pay a price dozens of times higher than what she is paying now.
According to the fate of the girl grandma had glimpsed, she was destined to rise to a much bigger stage than she is now.
“Your Highness. The knights of Citruen wish to see you.”
Alfonso, sitting at his desk inside the barracks, put down his quill.
He was already badly sunburned. His neatly shaved hair had grown thick enough to cover the back of his neck.
His boyish impression had been greatly diminished by his shoulders, which had become more solid and broad, and his angular jaw.
“What happened?”
“It seems like a request to take them under your command.”
Sir Elko, who was in charge of the secretary's work, informed Alfonso of the situation outside.
“As Your Highness knows, Count Citruen was killed in action last week...”
“It was a shame.”
“It seems that the knights under his command have nowhere to turn.”
The Third Crusade was not a fully unified army, although it had an operational commander-in-chief.
It was inevitable given the nature of the soldiers who were gathered from all over the Central Continent.
The first military funds were provided by the private funds of the Grand Duke of Yuldenburg and the patronage of King Philip IV of Gallico, but the subsequent revenues were divided strictly according to the public.
A small band of knights led by Prince Alfonso of Ligo Etruscan performed brilliant exploits.
After their first feat of guarding the rear, where they won a battle against an impossible odds of 10 to 1 and took a valuable hostage, Prince Alfonso and his knights, who had re-equipped and procured horses, rose through the ranks as a small scout force that made surprise attacks on enemy positions.
Recently, in a large-scale battle, he captured the son of Al-Namir, the Moorish Empire's greatest warrior.
Since the Crusaders were defeated in the battle itself, Prince Alfonso's achievement was the only achievement of the entire crusade.
“What do you want to do?”
Sir Elko asked.
“If Your Highness deems it difficult to accept them, I will send them back from the entrance without your having to refuse them.”
It was not only the knights of Citruen who wished to join Alfonso.
They need a lord to share the spoils and receive supplies, but if you want to distribute them strictly according to merit, it is most advantageous to find a lord whose merit is large and whose group is small in size compared to his merit.
Of all the crusades, the one who achieved outstanding results with a small number of men was by far Prince Alfonso.
“How is your financial situation?”
“I have about 40 ducats of spare cash, but it’s not much. It’s just that the ransom negotiations for Al-Namir’s son are not yet complete...”
It took a lot of money to maintain the knights, and there was still no news from the Etruscan homeland.
“Once the prisoner negotiations are over, I think they’ll give us about 50% of it.”
Alfonso nodded.
“Let’s take them this time.”
“Your Highness...”
Sir Elko looked displeased.
“If we must take them, wouldn’t it be better to take better-trained soldiers?”
The Knights of Citruen were young men who had left their homeland in the romantic hope of going on a 'holy war'.
It didn't help much in terms of actual combat power, but Alfonso waved off Sir Elko's objection.
“If I don’t accept it, what options do they have?”
If you meet a bad lord, you will be thrown away after using it once as a meat shield for a charge operation.
If they cannot save their lord, their supplies will be cut off. They will eventually break away and wander in a distant foreign land, where they will eventually fall behind.
“It’s like my situation, so I feel a bit awkward sending it.”
“...No, my Prince. It’s just that things are a little delayed in the home country...”
Alfonso cut off Sir Elko.
“There’s no need to meet him. Just prepare the barracks and send him on his way. I’ll see him in person tomorrow morning during training.”
Sir Elko nodded and went out of the tent.
Alfonso looked again at the letter that Sir Elko had covered when he came in.
It was a letter he was writing in his usual bad handwriting using blue ink.
"To Ari, whom I miss so much I can't stand it."
To the bewildered Ariadne, Sancha answered with a bitter smile.
“There is a rumor going around that the girls saved the land that the King had abandoned. I have heard more than four or five songs about it.”
Ariadne's expression changed subtly. Who could be behind that song? If it was spread by a powerful force, it could be a problem.
But then again, if she thinks about it, it's the same problem that could have occurred even if it had appeared and spread spontaneously.
There is widespread discontent with the King. She will become the icon of that discontent and will rise to the forefront of politics in the future.
Sancha added naturally.
“Last time, when you heard the word ‘saint,’ you asked how she could be anything but the Virgin Mary. This time, she is not the Virgin Mary, but she is a mother.”
Ariadne blinked and looked at the mountain tea.
“She is the ‘Mother of the Poor.’ What kind of evil remark is this against an unmarried girl!”
Ariadne groaned and rubbed her forehead. Sancha grumbled.
“There are also things like ‘Goddess of War’ and ‘Angel of the Black Death.’ I don’t know what the last one means. Is it because you help people avoid the Black Death, or because you spread the Black Death to our enemies? Wait a minute.”
Sancha stopped talking and called out to Ariadne.
“Why are your hands like that, Miss?”
What Sancha noticed was Ariadne's right hand.
Ariadne's right hand was badly mangled as if it had been struck by something heavy, like a paperweight or a hammer.
“Ah... This. It’s just a little hurt.”
Ariadne hid her right hand behind her back, but Sancha did not let Ariadne go easily.
“What could possibly cause you to hurt your hand, young lady!”
Sancha hurriedly grabbed Ariadne's right hand and looked it over, then tried to run out to find the medicine bottle.
Ariadne asked Sancha cautiously.
“...You just see that I’m injured?”
“What else is wrong with this, besides the injury?”
Sancha's eyes widened and she looked at Ariadne's hand again carefully.
If you're not just injured... Are you sick? Are you saying you have the Black Death?
But Ariadne's right hand had no nails that had turned black, thickened, or swollen, except for the wound where it had been crushed.
There was just a trauma where the skin was peeled off and bleeding.
“It’s okay if you can’t see it.”
Ariadne asked if Sancha could see the glowing halo from her hand, but it was enough for her if Sancha could not see it.
If you can't see the halo on my right hand... you won't see the halo on my left hand either.
But Ariadne soon realized that this was only her wish.
“Miss... what’s wrong with your left hand?”
“This is... Can you see it?”
“Your left ring finger is... bright red.”
With Greta's death, a red dot appeared on the tip of Ariadne's left ring finger.
As the Black Death spread through Gallico's army, Ariadne's red spot also began to spread down her left ring finger.
It looked like a dot for every innocent life lost.
In three days, the red dots filled the very tip of the left ring finger, where Cesare had cut off in her previous life, and began to spread to the next joint.
“Doctor... Should I call a doctor?”
Ariadne, who was also flustered, was unable to continue speaking at Sancha's trembling question.
She thought the evidence of her sin would not be visible to others.
***
“Hic, Grandma.”
A young boy who was reading fortunes while looking into a basin of water called out to his grandmother.
“I... I think I got my fortune read wrong. What should I do?”
The boy thought of the sister, whom he had met in the Campo de Spezia square a while ago.
She was the first 'one who was judged' he met when he came to the Central Continent. He was happy and curious, so he read his fate.
And nothing could go wrong.
She was clearly in the 'up' phase and had the horoscope to achieve success in this world without committing any sins.
But now that he looks into her fate, he sees that karma is clinging to her.
“What can I do? That person is in trouble because of me.”
The boy's grandmother, who had answered childishly, frowned as if her thoughts had wandered elsewhere and asked.
“What did you get for the lottery?”
“Nothing...”
The old woman's face turned pale, similar to her grandson's.
“This damn bastard!”
The old woman's cane flew through the air. The boy jumped in fright and dodged the cane.
“Oh, Grandma! Stop!”
“That’s it? I thought this idiot was meddling in other people’s business, but you don’t even accept the lottery ticket? Are you out of your mind or not!”
The Salman priestesses always received a fortune when they told their fortunes.
If the fortune came out wrong, it was thought that the person had sinned against the other person and had accumulated bad karma. However, it was thought that if the fortune was burned and offered to God, no sin would be accumulated because nothing had been received.
But in cases like now where nothing was received from the beginning, there was no way to resolve the karma.
“No, that’s what I meant, at the time it seemed like there was nothing wrong with it!”
“That makes no sense!”
“It was definitely an upturn. It was long before the turning point. I think the ‘awakened ones’ intervened artificially.”
'He who is on trial' is always on the rise until a certain turning point, when he is forced to make a choice.
That choice is the reason why the 'Awakened Ones' gave that person a future poem, and he must not fall behind before realizing that choice.
Bang!
"Ouch!"
This time, instead of the cane, the boy was hit on the forehead by the grandmother's stick.
“You idiot! That’s what the ‘golden rule’ is all about!”
“But in the book...”
“Have I been doing this for a day or two? Do you think this old lady told you not to interfere for no reason?”
The old woman grumbled and drew a picture on the dirt floor with her cane.
“Why on earth do you think ‘the awakened ones’ is the plural form and not ‘the awakened ones’!”
“Well, well...”
The boy, who had never thought about that point, was unable to answer.
“Of course, because there are so many of us!”
The old woman waved her staff in the air.
“If it’s just you and I, and we can’t agree on anything, then if there were twenty, thirty, or a hundred people, would the results come out as planned?”
“It won’t come out, right...”
“That’s why there’s no point in spying on their plans!”
Well, it's not like it doesn't mean anything, the grandmother muttered.
“You’re causing trouble for grandma.”
“No, why...”
“Shouldn’t you pay for your karma!”
“I can pay it back...”
“Will it work? A guy who can’t even read fortunes properly?”
The boy hunched his shoulders and crouched down at the repeated words that left him speechless.
“There will come a time when I need to help that girl. I’ll pay you back then, and then we’ll never get involved again!”
“Yes, Grandma...”
The old woman licked her lips, filled a brass basin with water, and read her fortune herself.
Because she wanted to see the ups and downs of her life firsthand and judge when she would be able to repay it.
“Huh... This is it.”
The boy who was looking at the fortune over his grandmother's shoulder muttered with a troubled expression.
“Uh... Grandma. If it’s this much work, isn’t it ruined?”
As the karma of the 'one who is judged' piles up, the karma of the grandchild who read the fortune incorrectly also increases proportionally.
“How do I touch this?”
The boy looked up at his grandmother with a tearful face.
“No, no... There’s still a chance.”
“I can’t see a way out?”
“If you can become an ‘awakened one’ in this life... then you won’t have to receive this karma in your next life.”
It was a voice telling him to become a 'hero'. The boy's eyes widened and he scolded his grandmother.
“Grandma said that was impossible. How many people succeeded...”
“When did I say it was impossible? I said it was unlikely!”
“Isn’t that it?”
“0 and 1 are different!”
The old woman was annoyed with her grandson.
“And if there is no other way, will you just accept the karma that has piled up against you with gratitude?”
“That’s not it...”
“If you don’t want to start your next life in the sulfur springs, you should do something right now! You seem like an unenthusiastic person!”
The old woman took away all the brass basins.
“From now on, you should read this young lady’s fortune once a month. If anything seems shaky, tell Grandma right away. When I have the chance to pay you back, I’ll pay you back quickly and get rid of it.”
The old woman wanted to pay off her debt quickly.
It's better to pay it off early, because later in the girl's life, if she were to pay off this debt, she would have to pay a price dozens of times higher than what she is paying now.
According to the fate of the girl grandma had glimpsed, she was destined to rise to a much bigger stage than she is now.
***
“Your Highness. The knights of Citruen wish to see you.”
Alfonso, sitting at his desk inside the barracks, put down his quill.
He was already badly sunburned. His neatly shaved hair had grown thick enough to cover the back of his neck.
His boyish impression had been greatly diminished by his shoulders, which had become more solid and broad, and his angular jaw.
“What happened?”
“It seems like a request to take them under your command.”
Sir Elko, who was in charge of the secretary's work, informed Alfonso of the situation outside.
“As Your Highness knows, Count Citruen was killed in action last week...”
“It was a shame.”
“It seems that the knights under his command have nowhere to turn.”
The Third Crusade was not a fully unified army, although it had an operational commander-in-chief.
It was inevitable given the nature of the soldiers who were gathered from all over the Central Continent.
The first military funds were provided by the private funds of the Grand Duke of Yuldenburg and the patronage of King Philip IV of Gallico, but the subsequent revenues were divided strictly according to the public.
A small band of knights led by Prince Alfonso of Ligo Etruscan performed brilliant exploits.
After their first feat of guarding the rear, where they won a battle against an impossible odds of 10 to 1 and took a valuable hostage, Prince Alfonso and his knights, who had re-equipped and procured horses, rose through the ranks as a small scout force that made surprise attacks on enemy positions.
Recently, in a large-scale battle, he captured the son of Al-Namir, the Moorish Empire's greatest warrior.
Since the Crusaders were defeated in the battle itself, Prince Alfonso's achievement was the only achievement of the entire crusade.
“What do you want to do?”
Sir Elko asked.
“If Your Highness deems it difficult to accept them, I will send them back from the entrance without your having to refuse them.”
It was not only the knights of Citruen who wished to join Alfonso.
They need a lord to share the spoils and receive supplies, but if you want to distribute them strictly according to merit, it is most advantageous to find a lord whose merit is large and whose group is small in size compared to his merit.
Of all the crusades, the one who achieved outstanding results with a small number of men was by far Prince Alfonso.
“How is your financial situation?”
“I have about 40 ducats of spare cash, but it’s not much. It’s just that the ransom negotiations for Al-Namir’s son are not yet complete...”
It took a lot of money to maintain the knights, and there was still no news from the Etruscan homeland.
“Once the prisoner negotiations are over, I think they’ll give us about 50% of it.”
Alfonso nodded.
“Let’s take them this time.”
“Your Highness...”
Sir Elko looked displeased.
“If we must take them, wouldn’t it be better to take better-trained soldiers?”
The Knights of Citruen were young men who had left their homeland in the romantic hope of going on a 'holy war'.
It didn't help much in terms of actual combat power, but Alfonso waved off Sir Elko's objection.
“If I don’t accept it, what options do they have?”
If you meet a bad lord, you will be thrown away after using it once as a meat shield for a charge operation.
If they cannot save their lord, their supplies will be cut off. They will eventually break away and wander in a distant foreign land, where they will eventually fall behind.
“It’s like my situation, so I feel a bit awkward sending it.”
“...No, my Prince. It’s just that things are a little delayed in the home country...”
Alfonso cut off Sir Elko.
“There’s no need to meet him. Just prepare the barracks and send him on his way. I’ll see him in person tomorrow morning during training.”
Sir Elko nodded and went out of the tent.
Alfonso looked again at the letter that Sir Elko had covered when he came in.
It was a letter he was writing in his usual bad handwriting using blue ink.
"To Ari, whom I miss so much I can't stand it."
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