Alien Knights

In the early morning of the next day, the North Island Knights poured out the fire pit, packed up the camp, and set foot on the road to Silver Ring City again.

After more than six hours' journey, the outline of a city gradually appeared in front of everyone.

Cumberland stared into the distance in a daze, with a gloomy expression, and remembered something.

A group of people walked along the path for another two kilometers and came to an abandoned mill.

Cumberland pushed open the door of the mill warehouse.

Several strong men dressed as farmers stood up from the haystack, and after seeing the appearance of the person, they bowed slightly and saluted.

Stopping the North Islanders from going to war, the old knight walked to the middle of the waiting people and asked their leader, "Is everything ready?"

The latter nodded dully.

Brunhilde quickly glanced at Cumberland and the farmer, pointed his spear at the latter, and asked loudly, "Who are you?!"

The person being questioned opened his mouth, and people could see through the light that his tongue had been pulled out by the roots, leaving only a vague mass of flesh still visible.

"They are not enemies." Cumberland slowly pressed Brunhilde's spear, and said later: "But they are not allies either."

Ignoring the knives and axes of the North Islanders, the farmers pulled out wooden boxes one after another from the straw pile, opened them skillfully with crowbars, and took out sets of old and musty leather armor.

Brunhilde squatted down, looked through the leather armor carefully, pointed to the deer head emblem on the chest and asked Cumberland: "Why is the armor of the northern Connaught Kingdom appearing here?"

Cumberland smiled and said, "You don't really think that we can rush into the city with just a few people like us?"

Brunhilde threw the leather armor back into the wooden box heavily, without refuting the other party's words.

Cumberland continued: "You wait here and rest for a while, I'm going into town tonight to meet someone."

Brunhilde took a step closer to the old knight, with aggressive eyes: "Why should we stay here? How long is it for a while?! Why do I feel that this is more and more like a trap? And you are consuming my patience!"

Cumberland looked at the Valkyrie with a bitter face: "People say that North Islanders are quick-tempered, and this seems to be true. Brunhilde, if you are worried about me, an old guy, you can come with me and let your people stay here and wait for the signal."

Seeing her nodding in agreement, the old knight shook his head and sighed: "Don't forget to tell them that if you don't come back within three days, you don't have to wait any longer."

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Late that night, Cumberland and Brunhilde, who put on the armor of the Northern Army, led their attendants and followed the guide to the gate of Silver Ring City.

Approaching the city, the Valkyrie looked at the tall and solid city wall in the night, and let out a low voice of amazement.

Cumberland looked forward along the line of sight of the other party, and what he said was quite strange: "The city wall may be the most contradictory invention in human history. It resists the attacks of wild beasts and foreign enemies externally, but it also imprisons people's courage and soul internally."

Cumberland looked at the incomprehensible expressions of the people around him, and just smiled and said: "In history, those kingdoms with high walls and deep pools will all go to perish without exception; those forces that give up their steadfastness and have no fixed place will slowly rise into empires instead."

"guard!"

Brünhildr whispered a warning while reaching for the spear behind her.

Cumberland shook his hand at her, signaling her to be calm.

The guard who led the passers-by to the city gate handed over a small bag of coins and revealed another badge.

Soon, the city gate officer ordered a side door to be opened, giving the visitors permission to pass.

"The silver ring has long since turned black."

After saying this, Cumberland put his legs between his horse's belly and entered the city he had been away for a long time.

Silver Ring City no longer had the prosperity of the past, and the bright lights after night were replaced by a dead silence. Along the way, the buildings were dilapidated and debris was scattered everywhere.

Brunhilde rode a horse, carefully avoiding a corrupted corpse in the stinking ditch, and said with a frown, "The legendary tragedy of Heim's underworld is nothing more than this."

A group of people continued to move forward, slowly approaching the St. Ke Cathedral.

The original huge holy cross in the center of the church square has been torn down and replaced by a stacked rectangular stone platform. On it, there are grooves used to bind hands and feet, black blood stains around the stone platform, and ancient god symbols made of wood. Without more details, everyone can imagine what the northerners did after they entered here.

"What's that?" Brunhild's question made Cumberland turn his head away.

A shriveled corpse that had obviously been embalmed, with its hands on the ground and knees on the ground. Five huge iron nails firmly fixed its hands, feet and head on the ground, and the direction above the corpse's head was the wooden statue of the ancient god.

Cumberland sighed: "Bishop Fabian, when the barbarians entered the city, he chose to live and die with the cathedral. He defended the faith with his life, and may Heavenly Father bless his soul."

Bypassing the dilapidated church and walking through the forest of corpses pierced by erected stakes, Cumberland finally stopped at the gate of the cemetery 500 meters away from the church.

He got off his horse, untied his weapon and handed it to his attendants for safekeeping. Holding a torch, he walked slowly on the muddy steps under his feet.

Seeing this, Brunhilde considered for a moment and followed his footsteps.

The huge cemetery now looks extremely crowded, too many tombstones make the land completely insufficient. Some tombstones are simply stacked together like firewood; some tombstones even have dozens of names written on the palm-sized stone surface.

Walking through the outer tombs, the further Cumberland walked in, the darker the environment became.

In the innermost part of the cemetery is a small space of no more than ten square meters. There are small flowers growing on the land here, and the ivy is lush.

An old man with white beard and hair, with his back to the old knight, knelt in front of the tombstone, praying silently with his palms folded.

Cumberland looked at the tombstone. There was no writing on it, not even patterns and emblems carved.

"Are you here?" The kneeling old man opened his eyes and turned his head.

Cumberland looked at his friend who seemed to be ten years old in front of him, bent down, placed a bouquet of flowers in his arms in front of the tombstone, and asked softly, "When did it happen?"

"After the queen left, Guy VI anesthetized himself with alcohol and revelry. At the beginning of this year, he suddenly fell to the ground at a banquet, and after being sent back to the palace, he was in a coma for a whole day. The first thing he did after waking up was to ask his attendants to carry him to the queen's gallery, where he eventually died."

Cumberland sighed inaudibly, looked at the tombstone and asked again: "Why is the Silver Ring King buried here? There is not even an inscription?"

"For the current Silver Ring Kingdom, a living king is more valuable than a dead king. Everyone who knows has been dealt with."

Cumberland nodded, paused for a moment, and said to the old friend in front of him: "Emerson, although we have communicated in the letter, I still want to ask again, are you sure?"

Hearing the words, the old man touched the tombstone with his hand, and the voice he made was like a desert that had been ravaged by wind and sand for thousands of years: "I have already thought about it, everything has a beginning and an end, so let this kingdom... collapse..."

I didn't expect that with my grades and updates, the editor would actually give a tweet... I will add an update tonight and send it out later.