23 – 5. Peace Movement
In the past, the mountains of the Korean Peninsula were infested with tigers.
For that reason, it was a tiger that was often featured in all kinds of folk tales and tales.
And isn’t there a tiger that blocks the road and asks for a piece of rice cake?
In this medieval world, this can be localized as a robber knight. However, there may be a difference in that, unlike tigers, golden slaves and humans demand money instead of rice cake.
“Stop, stop! “I won’t kill you if you give everything you have!”
“Licia, close your eyes.”
“Yes.”
“Didn’t you hear? “Get off your horse right now-“
Without thinking for long, he got off Sancho’s back, pulled out his sword, and drew a diagonal line.
Normally, there are not many large-scale thieves who would attack an armed knight, but those who believed in numerical superiority or were overconfident in their abilities would attack like this.
The thieves who were approaching, laughing at the indecency of someone swinging their swords from a distance that could not be reached, perhaps out of fear, seemed to sense something was wrong as they saw their comrades nearby falling one by one.
But wouldn’t it be foolish to leave regret behind? We followed and processed each step carefully. And for Lisia’s mental health, he took only valuable items and left.
The magic is definitely amazing. As expected, some wizards, even if they are lazy, have developed their skills so highly that they are gods of the battlefield… Even if he wasn’t, he seemed to have the potential to become that right-hand man.
Thanks to you, we were able to resolve issues smoothly even when we encountered thieves in the mountains or fields. It was thanks to that that both the girl and I were fine without any major injuries during the journey that lasted over a month.
We started in spring and were already looking towards summer.
And it wasn’t long until we finally left the empire and entered the Papal States, the land ruled by the Pope.
“How far have we come so far?”
“We’re more than halfway there. “We will soon enter the Papal States.”
“Is the Papacy different from the Empire?”
“The language we use is a little different, and so is the culture. “But it’s probably not something we should care about.”
After entering the Papal States, if you go a little further, there is a university. Should I break up with Licia there and go to the Vatican?
If this continues, we will be able to arrive by early fall.
It is assumed that nothing special will happen, but as we enter the area under the influence of the Pope, the security on the road has stabilized again, so it seems unlikely that anything like that will happen.
While thinking like that, one cozy and warm morning, we arrived at Villach, a huge commercial city.
As it was located on the road between the Vatican and the Empire, it was a place where merchants frequently came and went, so its size and prestige were extraordinary.
And soon after entering the city, I realized that I was not in a city of great merchants, but in a scene of passionate debauchery.
“Sign!”
“Damn. What right do you guys have to talk to me like that? And what can you do?”
“What can you do? “Let me show you now!”
Time to start the morning energetically.
Knights, priests, and soldiers, all roughly armed, were fighting fiercely in the square.
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t think it’s something worth watching. “Let’s find an inn.”
In the growing debate, the words faith and honor, knights and church were heard. When all of that was included in one conversation, something annoying would usually happen.
I had a gut feeling that the schedule would be a little behind schedule.
*****
Licia was taken out of a scene that was far from bright and wholesome.
When there was no more noise, I went to a nearby stand to assess the situation, picked up a bread, and asked.
“I just arrived in Villach, is something going on?”
“Oh, I guess you’re talking about something that just happened on the street.”
“That’s right.”
“A council was held here not long ago. And resolved to make the oath mandatory for all knights in the vicinity.”
A pledge, a pledge.
I thought about what the word meant, and soon I was able to remember what it meant.
The church had a chronic obsession with peace.
This is because he could not escape the thought that the whole world was trying to plunder and rob him. It’s unfortunate for the church, but that’s not just groundless paranoia.
It is common knowledge that churches containing relics, donations, and various works of art are the most attractive targets for plunder.
Of course, it would be easier to ridicule the common people, but even though knights were thugs, they were at least not cowardly discriminators, so they targeted the church in the same way.
Of course, Raven, the last moral figure of this era, does not do such things. He just receives his fixed salary honestly.
The church suffered greatly from this problem, but fortunately, as a result of the intellectual clergy of this era coming together and putting their heads together, they were able to come up with a solution.
“The knights’ viciousness has gone too far. “How do we solve this?”
“We can just make them stop fighting.”
“Isn’t this what people say because they can’t do that? We need concrete ways to do that!”
“How about making a vow, an oath that cannot be broken?”
The idea was to make the knights write a memorandum stating that they would not plunder without permission, occupy land without permission, or capture a passerby and challenge them to a duel before taking money as loot.
Surprisingly, there were articles mentioning the above items, so they were provisions that existed. Basically, safety rules are written in blood.
Anyway, this was shortened to an oath.
With a civil war looming just before our eyes, the times are unstable and public order is worsening.
So interest in and demands for the pledge were also increasing. In the case of Villach, the council seemed to have decided to make it mandatory.
You should at least know how the world works, so I gave a short lecture to Lisia.
And while I was walking around looking for an inn at the scene of the gang fight, Lisia asked me.
“So, isn’t this nothing more than signing a few lines of text?”
From Noble mtl dot com
“That’s right.”
A contract was something that would be broken in vain if the punishment could be endured. And as it happens, contract chewing is the knight’s trademark.
Originally, in this wild Middle Ages, there was no public power to suppress and no systematic laws were established, so they were often unilaterally abolished.
“Then what happens if I break it?”
“I will be excommunicated.”
That is why special measures were taken. If you refuse to take an oath, you will be excommunicated, and even if you make an oath and break it, you will be excommunicated.
The price for using violence for personal reasons was the heavy punishment of having human rights erased.
And let me make a confession of conscience: I also did not make an oath.
Of course, since we were born and raised around Bole, we were able to move on without worrying much about Nami’s mental health. But it won’t work in a foreign country where there is no relationship.
I had no idea what happened so much that enthusiasm was so high.
But judging from the uproar in the square earlier, we could tell that a craze for pledges was brewing in this city. And I thought that the craze would sweep me too.
Somehow, when I entered the city, the guard asked me if I had taken an oath.
I didn’t bother to tell a lie that was likely to get caught anyway, and looking at the guard carefully recording the fact, you can guess what will happen in the future.
Of course, if it were an insignificant article, you might not pay attention to it. But I was confident that I would be asked to take the oath.
It’s a bit awkward to say this myself, but I’ve recently started to make a name for myself again.
To be precise, I started twisting my whole body to fly. This is because fame is the foundation for a free knight who does not own land.
So, I decided to exercise my spirit of service by taking items that could roughly identify the identities of the thieves I met, reporting them to a nearby village, and then telling a heroic story with a bit of spice.
People who had nothing to enjoy were enthusiastic about the story of how I single-handedly surrounded and annihilated 50 bandits using outstanding military tactics.
And for those who enjoy the stigma of nicknames, this is an opportunity not to be missed.
The perfect opportunity to change your nickname has come. So, this time, I decided to use the lesson from Bolle as a lesson and come up with a cooler nickname.
“I have a favor to ask. Me… “Can you call me ‘Black Knight’?”
“Ah, of course. ‘Luminous sword’.”
“Luminous sword! Glow-in-the-dark sword! Glow-in-the-dark sword!”
“Hey.”
It seems like things went a little wrong from the start, but it’s not too late to turn things around. Maybe.
Where on earth did it go wrong? Could it be from the point where I told people at every inn I stopped by to come under the table where there was little light because I was going to show them something crazy?
Anyway, even though I don’t know the direction, it was clear that my efforts to become famous were not in vain.
I took a room in an inn, went down to the first floor, and was wondering who I should show the glow-in-the-dark sword to, when one of Villach’s deacons suddenly came up to me and started talking to me like this.
“Are you by any chance the ‘Luminous Sword’ Raven?”
“I don’t want to say it, but it’s true… “What’s going on?”
“To get straight to the point, are you interested in peace?”