75: Chapter 71: Temple Knight 75: Chapter 71: Temple Knight Luo’er asked, “Do you know about the Church Court?”
“Yes!” Kali nodded, “Archbishop Fulund once helped us treat a sickness at the Eastern Church.”
“Very well,” Luo’er nodded approvingly, handed her a letter, and said, “Give this to the one called Archbishop Fulund.”
“What is this?” Kali asked, looking up at him.
“A secret that you will know once you hand it over to him.” Luo’er replied, not worried that Kali would open and read it; he knew she was illiterate.
In the Otherworld, the Church Court and the nobles have always had a stranglehold on literacy, ordinary commoners have no opportunity to learn to read or write, and even less so Kali who lived at the bottom of society.
“Oh yes,” Luo’er spoke as if he’d thought of something, “If he asks who gave you this, tell him it’s from a dying adventurer!”
“But you guys aren’t dead!” Kali blinked and said.
“That’s called lying.
Understand?” Luo’er said, quite speechless.
“Oh!” Kali nodded, finally understanding.
“This is your reward!” Luo’er said, and took out the prepared gold coins from his pocket, placing them in her hand.
Kali excitedly took the gold coins and shoved them into her worn-out money pouch.
Luo’er watched her and then warned her, “Remember, at all costs, you must let the Church Court see this letter!”
“Yes, I know!” Kali nodded seriously.
“Have you eaten enough?
Hit the road once you’re full, quickly!” Luo’er urged, knowing that Count Ganet could potentially move his forces if there was even a minute’s delay.
It would be embarrassing if the Church Court charged to no avail.
Kali stretched, jumped agilely off the ground, did a few quick moves, then started running forward.
“Hey!” Luo’er called out loudly, stopping her.
“What’s up?” Kali stopped and turned to ask.
“Holy Heart City is in that direction!” Luo’er pointed out helplessly.
“Oh!” Kali nodded and ran off in the direction Luo’er had pointed.
“Can we really rely on this silly girl?” Watching Kali’s retreating figure, Hu Daoke couldn’t help but make a sarcastic comment.
Luo’er opened his mouth, then closed it again.
He couldn’t guarantee that Kali could complete the mission.
However, this task was only a side mission for them since they still hadn’t received the next instructions from the frontline headquarters.
In principle, they should remain in position and wait for further orders.
“Let’s find a place to observe for a while, and wait for the next instructions from Headquarters at the same time.” Luo’er turned and said.
After a few hours of travel, they finally left the forest.
they found an inn on the official road in the plains and settled down.
The inn was next to the road, and they could see the comings and goings on the road as soon as they opened the window of their room.
It was the perfect place to observe the movements of the Church Court.
The road was the only one leading from Holy Heart City to Count Ganet’s Territory.
Having already left the Count’s territory, they weren’t worried about being found by Count Ganet’s people.
This allowed them to observe the Church Court’s movements more at ease.
A week after they checked into the inn, they saw a team of well-equipped armored knights marching from Holy Heart City towards the Count’s territory.
This was a large cavalry unit.
Luo’er estimated that there were about 200 men.
It was a testament to the seriousness with which the Church Court was treating this matter.
“Temple Knights!” exclaimed Tangmo as she watched the procession of knights.
She habitually studied the magical runes engraved on the knights’ armor.
She recognized these runes from textbooks; they were decorations in the form of flowers and skylarks, unique to the Church Court.
Not even the King’s royal guards could engrave such patterns.
“Temple Knights?” Luo’er was momentarily stunned, then alarmed.
The Temple Knights were the army of the Church Court.
These knights were nobles who had undergone rigorous training since childhood.
Combined with their formidable armor, they were the foundation of the Church Court’s power.
The Church of Light in Otherworld is not a pure religious organization, but a political institution with religious beliefs.
Its headquarters is situated about 300 kilometers northeast of Holy Heart City, upstream of the Aobeni River.
Under it are two major military organizations, the Knights of the Temple and the Heresy Tribunal Army, whose battle power far surpasses that of secular forces.
Moreover, they control all mages from the human countries in the northern part of the continent.
The Magic academies in these countries were established and are controlled by the Church Court.
All mages are followers, sincerely believing in their God of Light.
If more than 200 people who pass by are Temple Knights, it means that the Church Court is very concerned about Count Ganet hoarding munitions.
Not long after, sounds of gunfire came from Count Ganette’s territory, it seemed like both sides had already started.
At night, some adventurers who were lucky to escape, were discussing today’s war in the restaurant inside the inn.
The Temple Knights suffered heavy losses from field artillery attacks from the towers of the castle when they approached Count Ganet’s castle.
But Count Ganet’s ammunition stock was not enough, so they could not maximize the killing of Knights.
At dusk, the Temple Knights launched the first major attack on the castle.
According to the adventurers, the Earth weapons of the Count’s Army had no effect on the armor of the Temple Knights.
Even close-range shots from automatic rifles failed to penetrate the armor.
Although many knights were not killed, it also hindered their siege.
When night fell, the knights stopped the attack, rested and waited for daylight to attack.
After listening to the adventurer’s live broadcast, Hu Daoke was itching to see what was going on, so he sought Luo’er’s approval with Cheng Ziang and Tangmo.
Helplessly, Luo’er had to agree to their plan.
They slowly approached Count Ganette’s castle under the full moon, found a place to observe the situation, and timely reported the news of Count Ganette’s battle with Church Court.
At dawn, they arrived at a windmill tower.
It is about two kilometers away from the castle and one can see the entire plain where the castle is located from here.
One kilometer outside the castle, some smoke was rising.
The Temple Knights were lodged there.
Since they arrived in a hurry, they didn’t have enough supplies, so many people could only shiver around the campfire, frozen by the morning mist.
Luo’er and the others hiding in the windmill were also not spared, although they were shielded from the wind and cold, they were still shivering.
Fortunately, they found animal feed on the ground to be used as an insulation tool.
After hiding in the windmill, Luo’er left someone on duty while others rested.
Hu Daoke volunteered and watched the battle between the castle and the Temple Knights with a telescope from the highest point of the mill.
Around 9 in the morning, the rumbling sound of cannons woke everyone up.
Count Ganet’s army fired its last field cannon shell, hitting the assembly area of the Temple Knights and causing massive losses.
But these Temple Knights were well-trained.
After the bombing, they gathered again and prepared to launch a total attack on the castle.
There was intense gunfire from the castle, and as Luo’er predicted, the bullets from these automatic weapons were completely incapable of penetrating the armor of these heavily equipped Temple Knights.
These knights made a simple door hammer and started attacking the castle.
The front knights were holding sturdy shields, covering their teammates.
The bullets from the automatic rifles could not penetrate the armor, let alone the sturdy shields.
Without magic runes, these knights in front of the castle’s defenders with powerful Earth firepower would have been nothing more than sitting ducks.
When the Maxim machine gun first became popular, the British army once used this weapon to repel an attack by indigenous people in the colonies, killing and injuring over 5,000 people.
But this is, after all, Otherworld, a world with magic.
The addition of magic severely weakened the power of Earth’s weapons, making the sides almost equal.
It was after the second Otherworld War that the Otherworld’s army began to focus on improving the bulletproof ability of their armor.
They improved the design of the defense runes, making them more resistant to automatic weapons.
Since the advent of automatic weapons did not disrupt the existing warfare, to this day, Earth’s weapons have not caused a new military revolution in Otherworld.
The morning’s war lasted nearly five hours.
The Temple Knights, failing to break through, chose to retreat temporarily and wait for reinforcements.
They originally thought they would have to wait for reinforcements to arrive next, but to their surprise, in the afternoon, the castle’s defenders, taking advantage of numerical superiority, launched a counterattack against the Temple Knights.
The castle’s army deployed about 1,000 troops to surround the fewer than 200 Temple Knights, but the outcome of the war was surprising.
These 1,000 men were not at all a match for less than 200 Temple Knights, and they were disbanded as soon as they confronted them.
The war lasted until nightfall, the defending army left 300 bodies and retreated back to the castle in disgrace.
The Temple Knights were too exhausted to pursue them, and the two sides reached a stalemate.
Luo’er knew that Count Ganet’s failure was inevitable.
From the moment he began to resist, his failure was already determined.
Once the Church’s reinforcements arrive, even if Count Ganet had dozens of field guns, he would not be able to escape defeat.
Therefore, around noon the next day, the count’s army sent a representative with an inverted flag outside the castle, indicating their intention to surrender.
By the afternoon, the Temple Knights had basically completed the capture of the castle, and they had essentially finished their observation.
“Splendid!” Hu Daoke put down his telescope, rubbed his temples marked by the telescope, and could not help exclaiming.
“Why did they surrender?” Tangmo asked Luo’er.
“Count Ganet is not just resisting the Temple Knights, he is resisting the entire Church, and for him, there is no chance of winning.
Even if he wiped out these 200 Temple Knights, the troops of the Church would continuously rush in.
Without aid, Count Ganet’s failure would sooner or later be a reality.” Luo’er explained earnestly.
“Oh!” Tangmo nodded as if he understood.