Chapter 257: The Swords Are Sharpened
"This is……"

Looking down at the roast meat sprinkled with white salt, butter and rosemary on the plate, Brune looked at the people in front of him in confusion.

"Here's some food for you. You'll be going to the battlefield tomorrow, so eat more." Cook Brisa waved her hand and chased away the boys and girls who were drooling at the door.

Brune and Jonard, sitting in the cafeteria, looked at each other.

At last night's People's Assembly, Horn announced the date of the fight.

The reason for postponing it for one day, in addition to preparing supplies, is to give these war monks time to go home and say goodbye to their relatives and friends.

Brune didn't feel that nervous, or maybe he was so nervous that he was numb and couldn't feel it.

After having lunch with Gaskul in the morning, he went to Jonal's neighborhood in the afternoon and played ball with a few good friends.

They went home and prepared to pack their bags to go to the military camp.

Since the latest time to return to the camp is five o'clock in the afternoon, even though it is only three o'clock now, the cafeteria has prepared dinner for these war monks who are going out to fight.

"Aunt Brisa, we often eat meat in the military camp." Jonal smiled and cut pieces of meat with a knife, grabbed a boy and forced the meat into his mouth.

Brune did the same thing, giving each of the boys a mouthful of meat, until there was still some minced meat and broth left, which he drank up.

Aunt Brisa's eyes suddenly turned red. She rushed over and gave each of the three or five war monks a big hug.

"You are all good guys." Brisa wiped her tears with her apron. "If possible, I really hope you don't go to the battlefield."

"We have to go, either we or you." Patting Aunt Brisa's sturdy back, Jonal comforted her, "It's better for us to go."

"No, no...damn nobles..." Brisa leaned on Jonal's shoulder, sobbing softly.

Brune was standing next to Jonal. Others might not have heard it, but he could hear a hint of sob in Jonal's words of comfort.

"Ouch, my stomach hurts."

Sure enough, after saying a few words, Jonal suddenly covered his face and ran towards the toilet.

Brune couldn't help but smile, and just as he was about to walk out the door, someone grabbed his clothes.

It was old Jonal. He looked a little haggard, with two scratches on his neck. "Would you like to chat sometime? I'll buy you a drink."

Following old Jonal up to the second floor, Brune did not go in because the room was too small and there were women there.

Old Jonal walked into the room and took two small glasses of potato wine. He and Brune leaned on the wooden railing of the corridor and looked down.

After licking his wine glass, old Jonal looked at the children playing in the courtyard and said, "You know what? Among the ten people in my family, Jonal is the only one who is my biological child."

Brune, who is usually calm in the face of adversity, suddenly widened his eyes. Is it so explosive?
"Liza and Alita are my cousins' children. Their parents died of starvation, so I adopted them." Old Jonal took another sip. "Before I knew it, I had adopted ten of them."

Brune then realized that this was the custom of the Thousand River Valley, similar to an insurance system that relied on blood ties.

It originated from the custom of raising orphans communally during the Kushite tribal period.

The people of Qianhe Valley attach great importance to the concept of kinship, and this custom of adopting orphans from relatives and treating them as their own children has played a great role in promoting this custom.

For example, Jeanne was adopted by Horn's father, Old Galar.

"See these scratches?" Old Jonal tilted his head so Brune could see the marks on his neck.

"My wife said that I had already made her lose her own little daughter, Kalshensa. Am I going to make her lose her last child again?"

Brune did not respond. He was so tongue-tied that he had no idea how to respond.

With his head lowered, he just watched Jonal and his brothers and sisters playing hide-and-seek among the flower beds.

Jonal was also just a young man under twenty years old.

If I think about it carefully, I am only in my early twenties and I haven’t even married yet. It’s really a big loss.

"But I told her that Jonal went to the battlefield so that little Jonal wouldn't have to fight, and so that other Karlshensha wouldn't have to fight..."

Old Jonal looked at his reflection in the wine glass and laughed at himself: "I can't go to the battlefield, but if you go to the battlefield, if you have the chance, help my wife take care of her children."

"I will." Seeing Brune's decisive agreement, Old Jonal suddenly smiled and said, "If there is still a chance, help me kill a knight."

"it is good."

"Don't force it. I mean if there's a chance." Maybe Brune gave people a sense of being too serious, and old Jonal was afraid that he didn't understand the joke, so he quickly tried to make up for it.

Brune gave him a strange look: "Of course I know."

Looking at Brune with a strange look on his face, old Jonal was stunned for a moment, and then he couldn't help laughing.

"In fact, every child in the Thousand River Valley is like our child, including you, Brune. If you had met me earlier, maybe I would have adopted you."

"It would be an honor to have a father like you."

Brune did not look at old Jonard, but instead looked with envy at Jonard who was being knocked down by his younger brothers and sisters and pretending to surrender.

"Cheers." Old Jonal raised the wooden wine glass in his hand, "To our common enemies and our common relatives."

After staring blankly at old Jonard for a while, Brune slammed the wine glass in his hand against old Jonard's glass.

"cheers!"

"cheers!"

Madeleine tapped the wine glass in his hand gently against Frick's tombstone, and a little wine spilled and seeped into the wet soil.

"You're still trying to quit drinking? I don't think you can quit drinking at all, old man." Madeleine cursed with a smile and sat cross-legged in front of Frick's tombstone.

Turning the glass between her fingers, Madeleine had a thousand words to say, but she could not utter a single word.

He originally wanted to talk about how powerful the Savior Army was, how good Autumn Island was, and how quickly these three months had passed.

The wine clinked in the glass, as if all the words had sunk into the wine.

"The children of the Thousand Valleys are going to the battlefield again."

Madeleine's voice was a little hoarse and dry. He looked at the simple wooden tombstone and said, "I'm sorry, but if we don't take them to the battlefield, more children will die in the future."

There was no response from the tombstone, only a gust of wind blew in the distance.

A leaf that had survived the entire winter suddenly fell in the spring breeze and landed on Madeleine's shoulder.

I picked the dead leaf from my shoulder and unfolded it in my palm. It was so fragile that it seemed like it would collapse at the slightest touch, but it had survived the entire winter with strength.

He clenched the holy icon against his chest.

"Don't worry, I'm here, and Your Majesty is here too. Once we capture Fort Jeanne d'Arc and expel the Thousand Valley Church, we will establish a brand new Papal State."

"I promise you that in the new Papal States, every Thousand River Valley person can go home and have a home."

"Our Papal States will be a country where all children can laugh."

The sound of the wind blew away Madeleine's murmurs and turned them into the sound of flowing water in a stream.

Sitting cross-legged in front of the tombstone, the setting sun shone obliquely on his side, casting black silhouettes of the man, the tombstone, and countless Metasequoia trees on the ground.

The leaves rustled, and the sound of the wind seemed to be weeping or singing, but Madeleine could not tell.

Standing in front of the tombstone, he didn't know how long he had been sitting there, but his ears suddenly moved, and he could hear a lot more in addition to the original sounds of wind and water.

He stood up slowly and listened carefully. He heard it among the trees, in the spring breeze, and in the grass leaves.

He heard the coordinated shouts and the sound of armor colliding coming from Autumn Dusk Island, and was carried far away by the wind.

"Blood covers the clouds, weapons are sharpened, and the Holy Grandson is sent by Heaven to kill the unjust!"

"Those who are not fair, come forward and listen, kill them all and bring peace!"

(End of this chapter)