Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1409: The Trio Who Uphold Chivalry

Bingdisi’s statement is indeed intriguing: planning to spend a couple of days at someone else’s fortress, and her attitude was quite arrogant when she said it. I think the fact that those three recruitment officers haven’t drawn their longswords yet proves their professionalism, of course, it might also be because they didn’t take Bingdisi’s words seriously, perhaps they just thought Sister Bing was trying to stir things up.

But I know that this female hooligan is serious: she truly intends to set aside our plans for tomorrow and visit the fortress for a bit.

Considering Bingdisi seems capricious yet never delays important matters, maybe she has some special considerations with this plan, so I just slightly nodded, indicating I had no objections. Whether going to the Imperial City or to Dark Moon is not urgent, and contacting the knight order about to participate in the Dark Moon War could probably provide some indirect insight into the war.

The red-haired mature woman named Anna ignored Bingdisi, turned away, and continued discussing conscription affairs with the old village chief in a businesslike, efficiency-first manner, which immediately triggered Bingdisi’s temper. She effortlessly conjured up two large fireballs, tossing them in her hands: "Don’t you understand human language? How long have you been dawdling over these trifles? If you truly want to solve the problem quickly, we should depart now; we’ll pack up and go with you to the fortress right away. Look at you, taking forever to recruit a few strong men, using the name of official soldiers, no wonder you’re still Iron Knights."

Then she looked at the old village chief: "By the way, what do Iron Knights do?"

The old village chief was taken aback: "Uh... The state knight order regulations, the first level after advancing from private to knight is Iron Knight... You didn’t even know this? Oh right, you’re supposedly from the non-mainstream urban-rural sorcerer region."

Bingdisi: "..." She casually fabricated the non-mainstream urban-rural sorcerer thing, and the old village chief didn’t understand what it meant, so he remembered it as a ’term’ within the sorcerer community; now the female hooligan got herself stuck.

The three recruitment officers, however, were too occupied to notice anything else, even the red-haired mature woman didn’t bother with the seemingly sensitive term "Iron Knight" (based on earlier, those three words must have affected her greatly), she looked at Bingdisi blankly: "Advanced sorcerer?"

"Super," Bingdisi casually extinguished the fireball, "If push comes to shove, you could just account for us when you return, saying you encountered a few free mercenaries on the road, which delayed Pine Forest Village’s conscription. Anyway, I reckon a small village like this doesn’t have much impact compared to your entire fortress garrison, do you really think missing fifteen strong men from here would cripple your fortress’s support?"

Free mercenaries, I’d heard of them before, they’re a sort of adventurous professions wandering the world, possessing a certain level of combat capability and organization, yet not under any governmental control, often seen in turbulent worlds, especially in this one. Now, with the Dark Moon War approaching, many free mercenaries are actively joining various defense lines motivated by human justice (earning money), world safety (earning money), and warrior’s will (earning money). Since they lack organizational discipline and fight in strange ways, they can’t be considered ’military’ recruits, but they are indeed a significant force. I believe the rulers are quite welcoming of these forces: who knew Bingdisi’s casual made-up identity would again cover us...

I couldn’t help but glance at Pandora, recalling how she mentioned not long after we met that should an Imperial Leader ever join another force, it would be considered a declaration of war against the Empire. Hence, I was curious if this disguised identity as free mercenaries for the mission counted as a ’sensitive situation,’ yet Pandora’s face showed zero expression, so it seemed fine: the Xyrin Apostles are not devoid of flexibility, it seems.

"Is there a super level among sorcerers?" Anna nudged the Elf handsome guy beside her, who helplessly eyed his companion: "So, your brain... Never mind, let’s not talk about it. Madam Sorcerer... You and your companions intend to assist at the fortress?"

His gaze naturally lingered on Pandora and Visca; I knew bringing along two children claiming to save the world was suspicious. Yet without prompting, Visca conjured a large "fireball," and Pandora slightly hesitated before creating an even larger "fireball" than Visca’s, the two little lolis holding the blistering plasma spheres like small basketballs showed them off, Visca even remarked: "I warn you, don’t call me and my sister kids, we’re older than you put together, say more and I’ll stuff this down your throat..."

Pandora and Visca operate on a technological route and don’t do magic or arcane fireball techniques; however, technology and magic aren’t vastly different, with their abilities replicating fireball techniques isn’t hard: those scorching red spheres are essentially plasma clusters, likely not much different from true fireballs in appearance, but who knows their power, surely more formidable than normal fireball techniques.

The three recruitment officers were dumbstruck at the sight of two little girls capable of producing large fireballs, their faces showing disbelief. Being constantly around extraordinarily powered beings, I lost the ability to gauge power levels and didn’t know what level instant fireball conjuring fell under, nor what it signified in this world; I pondered if these two Shorties might have overdone it.

Bingdisi casually patted the two 1.2-meter-tall heads, and bluntly joked: "See that? They’re also Advanced Sorcerers. Let me tell you, these two are seasoned veterans, only that an energy mishap during their spell research shrunk them physically, but they’re actually older and before the mishap averaged 1.7 meters in height."

"Boom boom" two sounds as Pandora’s and Visca’s fireballs expanded over double in size... Sister Bing truly deserves her name, effortlessly manipulating the problematic children, surely their affection for her skyrocketed in an instant.

The three recruitment officers certainly didn’t "kneel and bow," yet promptly showed admiration and reverence towards the three Fireball God Sect members, without doubting Bingdisi’s explanation; it seems both "spell mishaps leading to body mutations" and "long lifespans of sorcerers" are acceptable notions in this world, proving Bingdisi is indeed detail-oriented beneath her rough exterior, one of her Louse Spirits must’ve infiltrated this world’s Sorcerer Association—if such a department exists.

"What about our recruitment task..." The broad-shouldered, round-faced stout man finally remembered he’s a recruitment officer, raising the matter again, yet before Bingdisi could flip out, Anna kicked him: "That’s why Joseph, you’re dense as a log! With your adaptability, you’ll still be an Iron Knight in fifteen years!"

These three conscripted for fifteen years, only advancing one rank, using the "Iron Knight" scar to jab each other’s weaknesses, I truly don’t know if this reflects deep friendship or a masochistic self-destructive habit, either way, I find them increasingly likable.

Earlier, Bingdisi had it right: Pine Forest Village is just an insignificant border settlement, though three kingdom knights are assigned to conscript here, whether this place exists in Gandor Empire generals’ eyes is questionable, so this conscription mission might not be too concerning, and even if delayed, probably no one will urge them. However, bringing back a few sorcerers changes everything: from my observation, sorcerers seem to be a high-end profession here, akin to missile launch officers within the military.

"Then let’s do it this way," Joseph nodded to the old village chief, "Your village’s conscription task can be postponed a few days, but only temporarily; the command from above already came down. We’re temporarily shelving your conscription task using the guise of introducing free mercenaries, but you must mobilize the village, quickly report the list..."

The old village chief nodded repeatedly, then looked gratefully at us, Bingdisi waved grandly: "No need for thanks, we planned this too, take your time enjoying a few more peaceful days. It’s hard to find peace in chaotic times, but don’t worry; maybe, just maybe, this chaos will inexplicably end—don’t read into that if you don’t understand; it’s our ’internal’ affair."

From Bingdisi’s words I understood, she intends to directly intervene in the so-called Dark Moon War, if whatever kind of goddess proves incompetent, she, a proper goddess, doesn’t mind personally putting an end to this senseless and convoluted conflict. And that’s precisely my thought: while war is often cited as a catalyst for civilization’s progress, I truly fail to see any ’driving force’ in this cyclical consumption of population and resources within the Dark Moon War. Such ambiguous and bizarre stalemates, the sooner they end the better; I’m still waiting to find that Divine Artifact.

As for the villagers of Pine Forest Village, let’s say they had a stroke of good luck. In the eyes of outsiders, this conscription a few days late doesn’t make much sense at all. According to the logic of a Xyrin Apostle: why postpone something that must eventually be done, whether done early or late? Isn’t wasting time one of the greatest sins? But actually, this is just a peculiar human trait. Even if it’s destiny, people always feel that being able to enjoy a few more moments of peace is a good thing. Those who don’t understand can think back to when they wrote summer vacation homework and see how many of them went to bed before midnight on the last day of vacation...

Just when I thought things were over, the Foolish Big Guy suddenly interjected in his booming voice, "Well, I still want to go with you guys."

The Old Village Chief and I simultaneously cast our curious gazes onto the big guy. Despite his simple expression, what he said was quite logical: "According to what you guys say, won’t the village have to conscript soldiers in a few days anyway? I’ll still have to go then, so going early is no worse than going late. And if I go with you guys first and prove that I can beat fifteen people, won’t your superior accept that and stop taking more people from here?"

Who said the Foolish Big Guy is foolish? Doesn’t he understand things pretty well!

But he also has things he doesn’t understand: the big guy hasn’t realized that the conscription for Pine Forest Village isn’t important anymore. Bingdisi has already diverted the Recruitment Officer’s attention with two Fireball God Sect followers...

Since the Foolish Big Guy also wanted to come along, we were delayed another half a day. In the end, a lot of folks, including the Village Chief, gathered together and invited the three Recruitment Officers to have a lunch as a send-off. The group set out that very afternoon.

The Foolish Big Guy didn’t have any family. After packing up a few changes of clothes and some dry food, he bundled them into a backpack that wasn’t too big for him. That was all he was taking with him from Pine Forest Village. The Old Village Chief and Ron escorted us to the edge of the village. It was evident they had many things they wanted to say to this seemingly slow-witted big guy, but in the end, they said nothing.

In the eyes of these ordinary people, the Foolish Big Guy is a hero of the village, going to be among the first to fight on the front line. But those left behind also know they won’t be much better off; the Dark Moon War is a world war. Those staying might enjoy a few more days of peace than the Foolish Big Guy, but they might not live longer than him either, so in the end, no one had anything to say.

We quickly left the village path, walking north along the winding little river beside the village. Soon, we came upon a comparatively wide official road. The road conditions improved once we got on it: a heavy rain fell last night, though it was brief, it still made the village path quite muddy. The official road, though also a dirt road, was obviously treated with some means and was quite dry. Finally, I didn’t have to listen to the Miss’s complaints anymore.

My mind was still a little fuzzy: the conscription by the three Recruitment Officers was hasty, the Foolish Big Guy’s departure from his home was hasty, and this entire war seemed extraordinarily hasty in general. Now I finally had time to think about the entire situation, only to find that everything seemed to be happening in a rush and hastily, and only we few from the Otherworld could break away from this rhythm. Maybe this is the worldview caused by cyclic wars: people have become numb, expecting peace according to a pattern, expecting chaos according to a pattern, and waiting for the Goddess’s rescue according to a pattern. Besides these big patterns pushing the world forward, the details are full of mistakes and contradictions.

"Are we just going to walk all the way there?" Bingdisi, striding with long steps in the front, turned her head to Anna beside her and said, "Is this what you call conscription? Are you really regular troops? How far is it to the Northern Fortress from here, and we’re just going like this."

"You’re doing alright here," Anna, dressed in full gear, was walking without any slower pace than Bingdisi, "In some places, it’s the Second Line Corps responsible for conscription. Those irresponsible soldiers just send someone to notify you, then give you some travel allowance and rations, with a deadline for the named people to report to local barracks themselves. If they’re overdue, they’re considered deserters, and people will be sent to arrest them at home: such things happen. At least, here, we sent three people and even signed the roster on the scene. Now we’re even helping you carry your luggage... although only one person was actually conscripted, and you guys are not part of the plan."

The three Recruitment Officers came on horseback, but to my admiration, they were now walking on the ground with us: the three horses carried military bags and, respectively, the Foolish Big Guy’s luggage and the Pandora Sisters. This was at the initiative of the three Knights.

Although I had already told these three adherents of chivalry that the Pandora Sisters did not need such treatment, it was to no avail: despite the somewhat unkempt appearance of this trio, they were as stubborn as rocks when it came to the "Knight’s Code." Although this world’s knight’s code might be different from what I remember, it seemed that the core ideas were similar: to endure hardship oneself and strive to benefit others.

Before us, the oddly matched trio steadily advanced on this road—despite fifteen years of advancement, still only Junior Knights.

"Don’t worry, there’s no way we’ll walk all the way to the fortress," the Elvish handsome chap beside us said, "Not long after getting on the main road, there’s a teleportation station that can get us directly to the Northern Fortress’ gate. If we hurry, we might get there before dark."

"Big guy, do you really plan to take a cat along to join the army?" Joseph turned his head to glance at the Foolish Big Guy at the back, focusing on the cat perched on his shoulder, "It’s fine to take the cat to sign up, but war is no joke, don’t lose your life because of a cat."

The Foolish Big Guy had been depending on Little Black all along, so of course, he couldn’t leave the Spiritual God Cat back in the village. Now the cat was perched on the Foolish Big Guy’s shoulder. What surprised me a bit was that this cat, nearly as clever as a human, didn’t have much to say at the moment. She seemed indifferent to her master joining the army and losing her snug little room. She only lazily flicked her tail. Hearing Joseph’s words, she lifted a paw as a challenge, "Watch it, you may not be able to defeat me, you foolish human."

When we were in the village, Little Black had startled the three Kingdom Knights when she first spoke, but as mentioned earlier, talking cats have always existed in this world. So now, conversing with Little Black seemed natural for Joseph, who flaunted his muscular arms at the cat as a challenge, but then recalled he was in armor and just chuckled, "Including you, you’re one of three talking cats I’ve met—you’re the most unique one yet. Other cats only talk with people about food and yarn balls."

"I’m a cat above those low-level interests," Little Black said, humorously yawning and swishing her tail, "and I can read and write. Don’t forget, I was the one who helped with signing the name roster back there; my master can’t read, and because of that, I think I deserve to join the army as a war pet with him..."

Every time this cat opened her mouth or jumped into action, it was a surprising delight; today was no exception. It was the first time I encountered a situation where a pet cat signed documents because its owner was illiterate. It wasn’t surprising that the Foolish Big Guy couldn’t read, but Little Black being able to use a bamboo stick pen with her tail to write cursive was astonishing. I still remembered what the Foolish Big Guy’s enlistment roster looked like: in the name section was the Foolish Big Guy’s name, with two handprints behind—one belonged to him, and the other was a cat paw... This world is so full of wonders.

As we continued our journey and the setting sun drew closer to the horizon, with Qianqian beginning to feel bored, Bingdisi suddenly stopped, her face lighting up with a knowing grin.

"What’s up?" Her laugh sent chills down my spine, so I asked through our Spiritual Connection.

"A Louse Spirit found a ’Forbidden Book’ in the Imperial City Library, another is seeking clues in the ’Broken Stubble’ at Heaven and Earth Bridge on the northern end of Long Bridge Mountain, and one more arrived at Northern Fortress before us and made discoveries." (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com for reading.)