plumnovel #248 - I saved up for a whole month.
#248 - I saved up for a whole month.
Nanze Lake, a southern swamp.
The lowest land in the entire Daze Township, it is a paradise for magical creatures and giant spiders.
The muddy, rotten ground is covered with a thin layer of snow.
A few withered yellow straws peek out from the snow, and small bubbles occasionally emerge from the cold puddles by the roadside.
When they burst, they make a faint "pop" sound, which is incredibly clear in the quiet hills.
The heavy snow of the New Year Festival has melted a lot, and the lake is like a bright mirror, reflecting the winter blue sky and the reeds on the shore.
The reeds on the shore are covered with thick white snow, and a gentle breeze can blow up some snow powder.
Opposite the lake are rolling hills and foothills, and the branches of the pine trees on the foothills are covered with frozen snow.
Dark cyan rocks are exposed outside the white snow, and a spider the size of a dog is lying on the rocks, gnawing on the mushrooms and shrubs growing in the rock crevices.
The cold sunlight shines on its matte black shell, reflecting a metallic luster, and from time to time, their strange "hissing" sound can be heard.
What is peculiar is that those terrifying long-haired undead coexist peacefully with the giant spiders.
They hang their arms down and move blindly in the swamp and snow, wandering around this wasteland.
However, neither the giant spiders nor the undead saw the twitching beast ears in the bushes. Several beastmen hid behind the rocks and trees, nervously watching over there.
After determining the number and distribution of the giant spiders and undead, they first left the vicinity while bending over, and then ran wildly on the rolling hills.
Soon, they returned to the marching queue and passed the news to Jeanne, the commander of this pest control operation.
Standing in the large army, Brune followed the people in front of him step by step, according to the movements in the "Holy Book of War Monks".
His right hand was below, holding the end of the three-and-a-half-meter spear, resting the shaft on the socket of his shoulder, and his left hand was holding the lower section of the shaft to prevent it from shaking from side to side.
According to the introduction in the "Holy Book", Brune should maintain a marching distance of one meter and eighty centimeters from the person in front of him.
However, the marching queue did not completely follow the "Holy Book". For example, the Holy Book says that the Holy Gunners should stand at the front and back to defend against enemies.
But this time, they were fighting against giant spiders and long-haired undead, so they moved out the former Wagenburg tactics.
On both sides of their marching column, the Holy Gunners followed the armored warhorse carriages, slowly moving forward on the snow.
Snowing is not cold, but melting snow is cold. Although it was a sunny day, the soil still hadn't thawed into a muddy shape, and the carriages could still move.
Horn sent out the pest control expeditionary force in a hurry, partly due to terrain considerations.
After all, with carriages, they could load more supplies and resist more enemies.
"Brune, what are you doing? You're walking too fast," the edict sergeant next to him whispered a reminder. Brune quickly slowed down his pace.
He was tall and had long legs, and everyone around him was a bunch of old guys who were one meter and sixty centimeters tall. He would accidentally become separated from the team, which was his old problem.
"Thank you," Brune had just finished speaking.
When he suddenly heard the military judge next to him shout, "First Legion of the Guards, Third Lancer Brigade, Brune is talking during the march, one demerit."
Brune instantly pursed his lips. He even glared angrily at the child soldier with a red scarf tied on his arm.
Brune spent most of the New Year Festival at Jonar's house, only occasionally going home to chat with the familiar Gashkur.
It wasn't until he returned to the military camp that he realized he actually missed this cramped place a little.
After the New Year Festival, due to Brune's simple nature and no bad records, he was enlisted into the First Legion of the Guards along with Jonar.
However, Jonar was a Holy Favored, so he joined the First Holy Gunner Brigade. Brune was tall and strong, and also had great strength, so he was assigned to the Third Lancer Brigade.
After officially joining the military camp, he was finally able to wear a half-body breastplate and take up a spear to stab.
Holy Book training was one of Brune's most painful times. They were required to practice completely according to the movements in the "Holy Book".
How to hold the spear, how to stab, how to exert force, how to use breathing techniques, how to apply breathing techniques to resist the impact of knights.
Brune was like a puppet, doing only one movement each time, and every day there were at least hundreds of stabs and individual spear skills practice.
The most terrifying thing during this period was the island circuit training. They had to carry their spears, wear breastplates and brimmed helmets, and carry supplies, walking around the muddy Autumn Dusk Island.
That was the first time he felt that armor didn't seem so good-looking.
After forty days of military training, Brune had long forgotten how to walk with his neck hunched like before.
Not only Brune, but all the war monks around him had undergone considerable changes.
Their complexions were no longer sickly sallow or grayish-white, but rather a normal white with a bit of flesh color.
In terms of energy and spirit, they were no longer blindly dull as before, but rather revealed some of the agility that their age should have.
This change was naturally not completed in a day, but accumulated continuously, thanks to the constant preaching of the Holy Father priests and accompanying chaplains.
The key point where quantitative change led to qualitative change was probably the grievance sessions that were held three times a week.
His footsteps stepped on the mud containing crushed ice. Although it was brownish-yellow soil, it made a cracking sound like branches breaking.
The muscles on Brune's calves were tightly attached to the linen leggings, allowing him to continue to take steps.
As he walked, Brune was distracted again. At each grievance session, the accompanying chaplains would find someone to come on stage and encourage him to briefly tell his story.
In the beginning, a large number of people would cry at each grievance session. Brune saw Jonar cry several times, but stubbornly denied it.
Brune couldn't cry. He was also quite miserable, but he didn't know why he couldn't cry.
The partners in the same brigade joked that it might be because his tears were flowing in his stomach.
The neat footsteps in his ears woke Brune from his distraction. He raised his head, and the lake on the left and the foothills on the right were shining with the color of white snow under the sunlight.
Looking forward again, there were dense spears like a forest, and the sound of "clang clang" collisions between armor and armor.
Lowering his head, Brune once again adjusted the distance between himself and the people in front of him.
When he saw the serrated winter grass embroidered with gold edges at his feet, he couldn't help but think of Horn.
During this time, Horn always stayed in the military camp, for some reason, living with them, the lowest-level soldiers.
According to His Holiness himself, they were not soldiers, but war monks, and the military camp was a monastery, so he actually lived in the monastery.
Very reasonable.
To everyone's surprise, Pope Horn was not a particularly serious person. He and Bishop Paslik often cursed and joked with each other in a vulgar manner.
His Holiness often ate with them. Whatever they ate, His Holiness ate.
After eating, His Holiness would lean against the fence and tell them church jokes and many, many magical little stories.
His Holiness told them vividly, which was much more interesting than their dry jokes.
Such a big figure eating and living with them. This gesture did indeed gain the worship of many war monks.
If any officer beat or abused a war monk for no reason, the war monks would often directly complain to His Holiness, and His Holiness could basically uphold justice.
If it was confirmed, the officer would not only be locked in a small dark room, but also be fined, and even stripped of his rank or position.
But don't think that Holy Son is soft-hearted. If they stood wrong or walked wrong, His Holiness would personally pick up a wooden stick and instill piety into the offending recruits.
Occasionally, they would also have entertainment activities. Every five or six days, they would have a half-day break, allowing them to play football in the camp or pick rabbits in the nearby countryside.
They would have a big break every two weeks, giving them a day to go home to visit relatives, or they could save it and use it together at the end of the month.
"Woo-woo—woo—"
A deep horn sound rang from the front team, interrupting Brune's memories and thoughts, but the pace of his feet did not stop at all.
Without hearing an order, the war monks would not stop their forward pace.
"What happened?" Hearing the sound of the horn, Jeanne rode her horse and quickly galloped from the rear team to the front team, "Haven't we reached the scheduled location yet?"
"Your Highness Saintess, the beastman scouts saw hundreds of giant spiders and dozens of undead in front, attracted by the sound and smell, running towards our direction."
"Where did they come from?"
"I don't know."
"Spread out the formation." Standing on the stirrups, Jeanne waved the Holy Grail banner in her hand, "Prepare to engage!"