He's in Love with the Devil.

Chapter 17: The Loyalty of the Knights of the Oath

"But the Church has also recognized him as the earthly incarnation of St. Val." The squire loathed this king of theirs, and at this point, he instead made an effort to defend the king, "They also baptized him with great pomp and circumstance in the Cathedral of St. Wessex."

Baron Sheen held up his torch and smiled, shaking his head.

He knew his good companion all too well, as did most of the Roglans and Brethren, who were devout beyond measure and had a firm trust in the Church ...... Recognizing that the Church had lied and deceived the congregation could be far more painful for them than accepting a tyrant.

Soon after the king's birth, however, the ever-powerful William III backed down to the Church, which had a much greater say in appointing and dismissing the Church's clergy.

Baron Sheen ceased to speak.

He drove his horse forward for another two paces, and between the flickers of the firelight one thing caught his attention.

The scarlet figure appeared in front of him.

"On guard."

Baron Sheen didn't forget that the king was accompanied by at least five sworn knights. With a torch in one hand and his sword drawn, he led the alert crowd forward.

Surprisingly, they were not attacked in any way.

The scarlet shadow was the king's cloak.

It was hanging on a slightly lower tree trunk, swaying slightly from the cold wind, and from a distance it looked like the king was standing. The cavalry spread out and surrounded the Baron. Baron Sheen reached down and removed his red cloak. Flipping it to the back of the cloak, there were two ragged holes in the cloak.

The locations were slightly down the shoulders and at the back of the heart.

It looked like his arrow had indeed hit the king.

But the king was nowhere to be seen, leaving only this cloak hanging on the branch.

That's when the hound made his discovery.

The hounds barked low at a spot on the ground. Baron Sheen dismounted, walked over, reached down, brushed away the thick leaves on the ground, and saw where his arrow had been discarded. He picked up the arrow, reached down and squeezed the arrowhead, dabbing up the sticky scarlet liquid - it had hit.

"It's not far from here, search!"

Baron Sheen ordered as he stood up.

The cavalry nodded and were about to spread out.

The hounds suddenly scurried up beside the horses, close to their respective masters, and made an odd, nervous noise from their throats, not like a warning but like they were in some great fear. They warbled toward the darkness of the forest front.

"What the hell?!"

The cavalrymen looked in horror in the direction of the hounds' terror.

There was a thick darkness ...... I don't know if it was their illusion, at this moment, that darkness seemed to be expanding, and it seemed as if something inside was awakening a little bit, and then salivating at them, the uninvited guests ...... What is that?

The war horse also began to get uneasy, and the cavalrymen had to tighten the reins hard.

"What's that? My lord, what is that?!"

The squire asked in alarm.

Baron Sheen grabbed the iron arrow and cloak and leapt up, flipping onto his horse. His warhorse was the best of Rogaland's famous horses, but at this moment, it was also trembling.

"Retreat!"

A strong sense of crisis swept over him, and Baron Sheen gave the order without hesitation.

The warhorse barely needed its master to swing the whip, and fled as if it was running for its life out of the Kono Forest, which was shrouded in mysterious colors.

After leaving the Kono Forest, the feeling of being watched suddenly disappeared, but the crowd still had palpitations when they looked back at the black tree trunks.

"Seal off the forest."

Baron Sheen wasn't all bad, he'd acquired the king's cloak and the iron arrow, and was able to confirm that he'd indeed shot the king - which was actually enough. Cold rain, forest, no healer ...... Baron Sheen couldn't imagine how the king could survive. Still, out of an abundance of caution he decided to block off those parts of the forest leading to the road.

"Just take ......"

Baron Sheen mused and smiled.

"In the name of guarding the royal forest."

The cavalrymen laughed.

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

Tick.

The raindrops fell on the mossy ground, and it was all dampness and chill between breaths.

Baron Sheen's estimation was in fact wrong; the king was not near the trunk of the tree from which the cloak hung; they had gone much deeper. Almost as soon as the horses came to an exhausted halt, the king and his knights rolled off their horses and fell to the ground, all exhausted.

Thanks to the thick moss and fallen leaves, they didn't fall with new injuries.

The king listened sideways for a moment, the cloak he had left behind to disorient his vision should have worked.

The pursuers were no longer following them.

The rain had stopped by now, but it was still dark where they were, and even after their eyes adjusted, they could only see the rough outlines of the people around them. They had no torches, they were cold and tired, and all of them were wounded.

It was a terrible night.

A sworn knight spoke up, saying that things would be better if they waited until morning to meet the others.

The king sniffed and snorted softly and coldly in the darkness, "That would be really good, and it wouldn't even take Baron Sheen to do it."

For the Lord's sake, they might as well expect not to run into anyone else. While the forest was also a place of refuge for hermits, it was often the vicious thieves, and desperate outlaws that favored the forest over those hermits - either of which would be detrimental to them.

Much less expect rescue from lumberjacks.

Like the vast majority of nations, Rogaland's forest laws are harsh; the forests are subordinate to the Crown, and all living things in them belong to the King. Any cutting of forest trees and underwood is done under the supervision of the chief forester[1]. And for the people who depended on the forest for their livelihood, it was difficult for them to pay that permission fee to the crown.

As a king, Pulan I was definitely a good hand at exploitation. Before Zhu Chi was reborn over, Pulran expanded the application of the forest law to nearly a third of Rogaland's territory. The levy had also risen by a full double compared to the previous kings.

Most people were logging forests privately.

It's hard to say what kind of behavior they'll do when the private loggers walk away and find the king.

No one dared speak again for a while.

Everyone remembered the forest law, but to speak of it at this time was undoubtedly tantamount to accusing the king of tyranny.

As a matter of fact, the king was more annoyed by it than anyone else at this point. He gritted his teeth in the darkness, and when things calmed down, the first person he would manipulate would be that damn royal forest law.

To hell with those foresters.

"Tell me about your companions ......" the king spoke in the silence, he paused, "their names, ages, where they came from - including yourselves."

It was as if the word "weak" was never in his vocabulary. Even in the darkness, the king's voice was still cold and dignified, and that was exactly what was needed.

It put the tired and bewildered knights at ease.

Their majesty was born proud, and never knew what "kindness" was since he was born, and there was always a sharpness in his eyes that made people feel as if he was just like him. He was as cold as steel as the rose badge in his hand. The fact that he said that meant that the king remembered their loyalty and sacrifice.

They hadn't expected the king to remember that.

After a few moments of silence, the Knight Commander opened his mouth and spoke in a low voice, knowing his crew better than anyone else.

"Kahn, seventeen years old, from the county of Saxony ......"

The King interrupted him, "Is that the one just now?"

The Knight Commander quickly understood the King's meaning, "Yes, the one who blocked the longbowman."

"Continue."

The king remembered the sworn knight who had hissed at him in the mud-he was young, with a round face and a childish air.

"He has two sisters at home, and his mother was sick with a cold last month ...... " The king asked only for name and age and where he came from, but the knight-errant suddenly had the courage to speak to the king about such trivial matters, and his voice trembled slightly as he said. "He had wanted a week's leave of absence ......"

The king did not interrupt him.

The knight-errant's voice smoothed out.

He began to tell of his companions, endeavoring to describe their habits as if they had not yet left. Gradually, other sworn knights joined the conversation.

The king rarely spoke, but the occasional inquiry let them know that he did listen and remember. Their eyes reddened slightly.

The Knight Commander spoke of himself last.

"...... Twenty-nine, I am a Northlander." The Knight Commander said naturally.

"No."

In the darkness, the king's voice was emotionless and hard to distinguish between joy and anger.

"You are not from the Northlands."

Some of the lively atmosphere ended at once, the others were confused, not knowing what the king meant.

"Yes." The Knight Commander admitted bitterly, "I'm from Angell."

The other sworn knights sucked in a cold breath, realizing something.

Engel was a small state that Rogaland had previously conquered, but its repeated rebellions had angered the royal family. As early as several hundred years ago in the penal code, the Angels were prohibited from possessing land, serving as royal officials, and not even allowed to wear armor ...... The Angel nation's status was humble to the extreme.

Yet the Knight Commander became the King's sworn knight.

After the hidden secret was told, the Knight Commander recoiled in relief, and he said in a low voice, "Your Majesty, please allow me to escort you back safely, after which I am willing to accept everything ......"

"Don't bother me with trivial matters of no importance." The king's tone was cold, "Tell me about Angel."

The other sworn knights cheered.

The Knight Commander wiped his face haphazardly, he couldn't believe his ears, he almost messed up trying his best to express his feelings, but the King just interrupted him impatiently, telling him to hurry up and say what needed to be said.

He stumbled on about the rebellious region that was shrouded in wildness, speaking in a mess from over-excitement.

The king listened quietly.

This time he was silent for a long time, long enough for the Knight Commander to finally calm down and realize something was wrong.

"Your Majesty? Your Majesty?"

The king did not answer.

Joy receded cleanly for a moment, and inexplicable fear tumbled over him. The Knight Commander struggled, stumbling and crawling over in the direction of the King.

The storm stopped for a long time, and the unearthly moon came out at that moment.

The moonlight fell through the cracks in the tree trunks, and the Knight Commander's breathing stopped for a moment.

Their king lay not far from them, pale as an ice sculpture.

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"

He couldn't care about the pain all over his body, he shouted as he jumped to the king's side. He trembled as he tried the king's breath, so slight that it was like a little breeze.

There was a terrifying dark red color spreading out under the king's shoulders, and those mosses took on a dark brown color.

A horrible word appeared in everyone's mind, and they were so shocked that their brains went blank.

LOL, LOL ......(A chilling sound)

Something even worse happened.

A faint blue mist spread out against the ground, and from the mist came the creepy sound of bones clashing. The knights leapt up and shielded the unconscious king in the center, gripping their swords with cold, stiff hands.

The sound was getting closer and closer.

The fog grew thicker.

They saw the outline of a carriage appear in the thick fog.

Author's Notes:

[1] Referring to the Knut Law