He's in Love with the Devil.

Chapter 2: The King's Arrival

The cavalry leader saw a bit of silver light flashing on the carriage. He realized it was bad, but it was already too late.

Zhu Chi was simply a madman, he carried the pressure of the approaching cavalry by himself and held back until the distance between the two sides had narrowed to within range before raising his bow.

"Be careful-"

The chief shouted.

Wish Chi snapped the tiller in his moleskin gloves. The pointed beak at the front of the crossbow disengaged from the string pillow catch. The string pillow rolled and the bowstring released. [1], a bit of cold light shot out of the wagon like a meteor, reaching the unsuspecting knights in the blink of an eye. The arrow breaks through the air, piercing through the armor in the next moment.

A patch of blood splattered up, and the chief let go of the reins and planted down from his horse. The warhorse behind him stepped over his corpse.

"Crossbow!"

The rest of the knights were shocked and angry.

It was well known that the crossbow was called a "cursed object".

With simple training, an ordinary peasant could shoot a knight with it. Even the finest chain mail could not withstand it. For this reason, it was absolutely forbidden to use it in the wars of the Saints more than three hundred years ago.

The anger of the knights had no effect on Zhu Chi in the carriage.

His light blue eyes seemed to be frozen with cold ice.

Sharp arrows of fine iron broke through the air with "swoosh," "swoosh," and "swoosh" in succession.

The rest of the pursuing cavalrymen fell one after another, they mistakenly listened to their master's words, treating the lone king as an easy prey, and lightly rode after him. At this point, the lone wagon had ceased to be an easily obtainable reward and had become a horrible demon.

The horsemen grew fearful and began to try to retreat.

At this time the carriage body shook violently, Zhu Chi was not so lucky this time, and his shoulder hit the wall of the carriage solidly. His lip was cracked a little by his teeth. He stuck out his tongue and licked it, a familiar rusty flavor.

By the light of the moon, the last cavalryman got a good look at the face of the man holding the bow inside the car.

The king, who was regarded as "nothing but brutality", had a delicate pale face, with a hint of scarlet on his thin lips, and held the cursed weapon in his hand, as if he had come from hell.

The cavalrymen shivered, lost their courage to fight alone, and turned their horses to charge into the night.

By now, the maddened steeds had already pulled the wagon and rushed to the wooden fence at the entrance of the canyon.

The soldiers guarding behind the wooden fence were scared to death by the out-of-control carriage and crawled away to the sides with their asses in the water. The horses with white breath in their mouths and noses looked like the devil's mounts, and they brought the wagons to crash through the fence.

Thanks to the king's carriage being made of hard oak and metal, it barely broke apart.

The canyon wasn't long or short, and soon rushed to its end.

"Your Majesty! The pontoon bridge has been cut!"

Just as soon as he had rushed out of the canyon, the Chief of the Inner Court was shocked by the scene in front of him and turned pale. He frantically pulled back on the reins in an attempt to hold back the steeds that were occurring, his voice somewhat discolored from panic.

Out of the canyon came the winding Doma River, and it was the middle of winter, and the banks of the river were frozen along with its surface. Moonlight sprinkled on the blue-white icy river, clearly visible originally erected on the river pontoon bridge was chiseled off in half, leaving only a few holes in place that had just formed a layer of thin ice.

"Go over from the side!"

Zhu Chi was too late to see the situation on the surface of the river with his own eyes and scolded in a stern voice.

As soon as the words left his mouth, there was a heavenly rotation.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!"

At the last moment, the Chief of the Inner Court barely changed the direction of the horses' run. The carriage rubbed against the ice hole and slid and rushed out most of the distance of the river, instantly leaving a long white trail on the smooth ice surface. The connection between the carriage and the front axle completely disintegrated as it approached the riverbank.

The carriage was thrown out and overturned on the ice.

The chief steward of the inner court, who had fought in the battlefield under William III, reacted quite quickly and with little damage jumped onto the ice at the last moment.

Without being able to celebrate his good fortune, the chamberlain lunged at the overturned carriage in horror.

"Your Majesty!"

His voice was sharp and urgent.

"Shut up."

Zhu Chi climbed out of the wagon, one hand pressed against the ice, the other covering his head. He gasped for air, white mist puffing out of his mouth in large clumps. His brain hadn't recovered from the vertigo.

Seeing that he was safe and sound, the Chief of the Inner Court fell to his knees on the ice with a plop and nodded his hand on his chest, "Blessed by the Holy Lord, blessed by the Holy Lord."

He actually wept with joy.

"Roll over."

Zhu Chi almost laughed at his exasperation.

The Holy Lord couldn't bless anyone but someone like him who sold his soul to the devil.

"Ohhhhhh."

The Chief of the Inner Court woke up and hurried over to help Zhu Chi up.

Fortunately, this place was already close to the riverbank, and the ice was frozen solid. Under the Inner Court Chief's support, Zhu Chi ascended the riverbank.

The carriage was already damaged, and one of the four horses pulling it had broken its neck and one had broken its leg. The remaining two carried some minor injuries and were now stationed on the riverbank, shaking their hooves restlessly.

Zhu Chi ordered the chief of the inner court to burn the carriage, and he himself held his wrist and looked at the other side of the river.

Only to see the light of fire starting to appear in the canyon on the other side, those people finally reacted. They stopped at the river's edge, not daring to rush through the ice as playfully as Zhu Chi did - the water level of the Doma was deep, and the river was often turbulent underneath the ice, so no one knew where a foot would break through a hole in the ice.

As he burned the wagon, the Chief of the Inner Court saw the crossbow flung on the ice.

His face changed and he didn't dare say anything.

A fire was lit on this side, and torches were lit on that side.

Zhu Chi looked at it for a while, sneered, and said to the Chief of the Inner Court, "Go."

..................

Merne Castle.

This is where the Dolma River meets the Naxi River, and Mourne Castle is a solid riverside fortress on this side.

Normally, even if a nobleman was imprisoned, the prison life would not be too bad, and could even be considered decent and luxurious. However, for the past month, the old Duke of Buckingham, the King's only uncle, has been held in the infamous prison of Mourne Central Tower.

The Tower of Mourne is filled with torture, blackmail, cold, and filth.

The old Duke of Buckingham was the half-brother of William III and had followed him into battle for thirty years. He used to be an extremely radical military man, but during the years he ruled for his nephew, the old Duke gradually settled down and became extremely cautious.

A month ago, his son suffered a defeat in the expeditionary invasion against the Kingdom of Bolesi, not only losing three important towns, but even being captured by the Bolesi Palace itself.

The ransom offered by the Kingdom of Bressi was a staggering 20,000 pounds[2].

The defeat so infuriated the nation that a rumor spread:

-- That the old Duke of Buckingham had accepted a bribe from the enemy, and had purposely caused his son's defeat, knowing that the King would not give up his cousin.

The king, in his palace, was offended.

So the Duke of Buckingham was closely imprisoned in the Tower of Mourne.

However, these were only superficial reasons.

"Has he been shown the execution order from the king?"

The one responsible for guarding the old Duke of Buckingham was the owner of Mourne Castle, Earl Walter.

"Read it."

The Earl's butler replied.

"Has he promised to choose us?"

"No."

The old Duke of Buckingham only glanced at the order before dropping it to the ground and closing his eyes without a word.

Earl Walter grunted coldly and cursed, "Then let him go to hell."

"I don't know why, my lord."

The butler hesitated and spoke cautiously.

"I feel a little uneasy, like something very bad is about to happen."

"The guillotine and executioner are ready."

Count Walter said contemptuously.

The Count was even in a spare mood to crack a snide joke.

"He can hardly escape it-unless the king himself arrives."

Author's Notes:

[1] The structure of the crossbow is referenced in Zhong Shaoyi's monograph, "Jingo Iron Halberd

[2] The Rogaland economic system is set up with reference to England around the thirteenth century: in pounds, shillings and pence. 1 shilling = 12 pence, 1 pound = 20 shillings. The only coin in circulation was the silver penny; 240 silver pennies equaled the same pound. The average income of a nobleman was about 200 pounds per year, and even a person earning 20 pounds per year at that time was relatively well off. Therefore the ransom of 20,000 pounds offered by the Kingdom of Brescia would have been considered astronomical and mind-boggling.

[The economic and monetary system will be introduced later in the article, if you can't understand it, you can ignore the notes].