Sword and Sorcery and Martial Arts

Chapter 18 The Town and the Knights

Everyone followed Weber's guidance to a stone bridge. Standing here, Rhodes could see a small town on the other side of the stone bridge, and the bridge and roofs were covered with snow.

The river below the stone bridge was covered with a thick layer of ice. Rhodes felt that the ice should be able to bear his weight, but he didn't try to die.

It should be time to eat now, but there was no smoke rising from all the houses in the town, which made Rhodes feel a little strange.

It's not far from the town, and I didn't hear the voices of people in the town, but it was unexpectedly quiet.

"I feel that something is wrong here." Weber, who is good at scouting, reminded.

"What's wrong?" Hammer asked curiously, he looked around and still didn't find anything unusual.

"It's too quiet here. Which small town have you seen so quiet?" Baron also noticed this.

"I have an ominous premonition." Weber said solemnly.

"We have all arrived at the gate of the town. If something really happens inside, we can't just ignore it." Baron said, "Let's go in and check the situation together first."

After speaking, he took the ax he was carrying on his back in his hand, and took the lead to move forward.

The rest of the people also followed Baron. After reaching the other side of the river, Rhodes also felt a little uneasy. He didn't know if he really had a bad premonition or was influenced by Weber and the others.

The surroundings of the town are protected by wooden fences, and the wooden gate to enter the town is open, and there is no guard on duty beside the wooden gate.

Although the guards of Ice Stone City feel that the weather is too cold and they don't patrol the streets very much, there are still people around the city gate who take turns guarding them.

Walking into the town, Rhodes looked up, and there was no guard in the guard tower near the gate of the town.

Standing on the street, he could see that the doors of every house in the town were tightly closed. Baron went up and knocked on one of the doors, but there was no response after a long time.

He slammed his shoulder against the door sideways, broke the wooden bolt behind the door and opened the door.

Everyone walked into the room warily. The room was very small, with only a bed, a dining table and a few benches.

There was no one in the room, and there were half-eaten black bread and solidified vegetable soup on the dining table.

"What's going on? Eat half of the meal and eat up people?" Hamer said.

"Shh!" Weber gestured for silence, listening carefully to the voices coming from outside.

Rhodes also heard a strange sound, which seemed to be the sound of horseshoes, and it was getting closer.

"Let's leave this house first. If there is a conflict, such a crowded environment is not conducive to our fighting." Baron said.

The others nodded, and followed Baron out of the small house.

After leaving the room, everyone held weapons to guard against the direction of the sound of horseshoes.

The sound of horseshoes was getting closer and closer, and finally three luxuriously equipped knights appeared in front of everyone.

They were wearing milky white full-body plate armor, with a golden cross drawn in the middle of their chests, holding a silver fusiform shield with a golden cross painted on it, and a lance that reflected faint golden light.

Only a pair of eyes are exposed on the hooded warhorses below them, and a golden cross is tattooed on their heads, giving people a sacred feeling bathed in the winter sun.

I don't know which family's coat of arms this golden cross is.

The knight stopped ten meters away from Rhodes and the others, and a knight on the far left asked:
"who are you?"

His tone was very arrogant, the mask of the knight's helmet was not opened, and the lance in his hand was still pointing at Rhodes and the others.

Judging from his voice, he should be a young man no more than 30 years old.

"We are adventurers who passed by here and wanted to rest in this town for a few days, but when we came in, we found that there was no one in the town." Baron replied.

The knight in front of him should be a nobleman, but the nobles of the Nord Kingdom are not as different from the commoners as the nobles of the Fish Kingdom and the Roman Kingdom. Generally, if it is not a formal occasion, the commoners can call nobles without honorifics. It can be used like communication between civilians.

In the Kingdom of Nord, you can even see the noble duke sitting in a tavern with ordinary adventurers, drinking and bragging.

The knight on the far left in front of him was a little displeased when he heard Baron's answer, and said in an almost commanding tone: "It's dangerous around here, it's not where you should be, you should leave here quickly."

"What happened here? I think we can solve it even if we are in danger." Hamer next to him said.

"Are you qualified to ask a nobleman, commoner?" the knight on the left said impatiently, and his attitude made Rhodes a little uncomfortable.

"This is not the place you should come to. Why did the members of the Knights of the Glorious Cross of the Roman Empire come to the Nord Kingdom?" Weber, who had been silent all this time, said.

The knight on the left raised his lance when he heard it, but was pushed down by the knight in the middle.

The knight in the center lowered his visor, a middle-aged man with deep blue eyes and a trim beard above his chin and lips.

"We are indeed members of the Knights of the Glorious Cross, but our knights do not belong to the Roman Empire, and we remain neutral to the war on the mainland.

Entering the Nord Kingdom this time is also a legal act permitted by the Nord Kingdom. We are here to hunt down several cultists of the Death Sect.

I think what happened in this town was also caused by them. It seems that we are still one step too late. "The middle-aged knight explained.

"I think you may wonder that this kind of thing is not resolved by the local lord. When we first arrived here and were about to find the lord here to negotiate and resolve this matter, we found that the lord here's family has been attacked by the death sect.

His younger brother, who has been taking risks outside, came back to succeed the lord here, but he was inexperienced, and the affairs of the territory had already made him burnt out.

So he entrusted us to find the heretics of the death sect, and when we found the gathering place of the death sect, he would personally lead his troops to exterminate them and avenge his brother's family. ’ he added.

The Death Sect is a cult in the south. Its believers kill their gods to please their gods, or in the name of gods and lands to satisfy their desire to kill. In short, this sect is full of mentally abnormal lunatics.

"If you tell us so much, aren't you afraid that we are members of the Death Sect?" Rhodes asked.

"A rookie like you? You look like you can't even beat an old lady." The young knight on the left glanced at Rhodes with disdain.

"Wouldn't they have killed all the villagers in this town?" Weber asked.

"Maybe, we won't know until we investigate this town carefully." The middle-aged knight sighed.

After hearing this, Weber clenched his fist tightly, his eyes filled with anger, Baron patted his shoulder, and said to the knight, "We can help you, and you don't need to pay us anything. "

The middle-aged knight nodded, "I am very grateful for your help, but this matter is very dangerous. If you are in danger, you'd better turn around and run."

"Who are you looking down on?" Hammer said dissatisfied.

"You don't wear armor that can resist magic like us, and you may have no resistance to some of their evil magic." The middle-aged knight explained that he was not angry because of Hammer's words.

"Thank you for your reminder, we will be careful." Baron said.

Afterwards, everyone divided into two groups and began to search in the town.

……

(End of this chapter)