Chapter 56: The Extraordinary System of Witches and Knights
The glow of the setting sun swayed in the evening breeze, and a vine leaf swirled in from the tower-shaped skylight and landed on Jilo's forehead.

Jilo swept the vine leaves away, stroked his unshaven chin, and looked as haggard as if he had suffered a serious illness.

Ever since he was abducted from Holy Grail Mountain by the villagers of Moulin Rouge and taken to the Gulag Monastery, he has been imprisoned in this abandoned corner tower.

It's like everyone has forgotten me.

There is food and clothes, but there are few people to talk to all day long.

The only time they could chat for half an hour was at breakfast and dinner every day, when the young papal guard waited for him to finish eating and collected his wooden bowl and plate.

Days like this are really hard to bear.

Gilo could almost imagine the future - the crazy Hedge Country bumpkins were wiped out by the Church, the Church discovered his existence, investigated his false identity, and then sent him back to the Witcher Castle.

Demon hunters have a certain degree of immunity. The trial may be handled by the church, but imprisonment or execution still depends on the Demon Hunter Guild.

With his behavior, he will be punished for multiple crimes and may have to work as a drug slave in Eagle Castle or Snake Castle until he dies.

Whenever he thought of this, Jilo felt so sad that he almost dropped his pearls.

Just as Ji Luo was feeling sad, the creaking sound of the wooden door opening quickly caught his attention.

"Long time no see, Jilo."

When Horn appeared in Gillo's sight, he could hardly believe his eyes.

But when he saw the wine, roast chicken and white bread in Horn's hand, his body froze.

Especially, he was followed by Danji, a strong man holding a flame-shaped sword.

Jilo couldn't stand up all of a sudden and fell to the ground limply.

"Your Majesty, what do you want to talk to me about?"

"I remember when we were chatting before, we talked about how it takes hundreds of knights and thousands of troops to kill a witch, right?"

"Yes."

"You know, Jeanne is a converted saint, so why do I feel like she can't do this?"

"Of course, Miss Jeanne is not a complete witch."

Horn picked up the wine and poured him a glass: "Then tell me about it."

"Your Majesty, this has to start with the knight." Seeing that Horn was not here to take his life, Gilo immediately relaxed.

"Speaking of knights, this Lord Danji certainly knows more than me, but since His Majesty asked me to speak, I will do my best to show my ugliness."

I don’t know if it’s because he’s been holding it in for too long, but once Jilo starts talking he starts to talk nonstop.

“According to the imperial system, although the title of knight can be inherited, the rank of knight requires the knight himself to have extraordinary abilities.

The ranks of knights from low to high are Squire Knight, Banner Knight, Royal Knight, Titled Knight and Grand Knight.

Many country bumpkins, er, I mean common people, think that the level of breathing techniques is equal to the rank of knights, but that was a thing of the classical era.

Today, the rank of a knight is determined by military exploits and knight competitions, and breathing techniques are not completely equivalent to the knight's own combat power."

"I see. Hey, Danji, what level are you at?" Horn turned and asked Danji.

Danji did not answer, but silently responded with a red face, muttering "A knight who believes in the spirit of chivalry is a true knight" and "Can you call it a loss in a knight's business?"

Gillot wisely changed the subject: "Among these three, the Knight of the Imperial Order is the pinnacle of knighthood.

Many of the titled knights are awarded posthumously, and few can obtain the title while still alive.

As for the Great Knight, that is a realm that can only be reached by breaking through the Nine-Stage Breathing Technique, and it is the pinnacle of extraordinary martial arts.

But since the end of the Hundred Years War, few knights with the Ninth Stage Breathing Technique are willing to be promoted to Grand Knight..."

As Gilo told the story, Horn gradually figured out the structure of the Extraordinary Knight system.

Supernatural powers have always been the core violent system of the nobles' oppression and rule, and will naturally become more specialized and refined with the development of civilization.

In the military aspect, which Horn is most concerned about, the Extraordinary Knights have developed a sophisticated tactical system.

Taking the Kingdom of Leia as an example, the main unit of the Kingdom of Leia’s extraordinary knights is called the Imperial Order Company.

The organization of a command company is as follows:
A lancer team consists of a royal knight, a square banner knight and a squire knight. Occasionally, mounted archers, swordsmen, pikemen and crossbowmen are temporarily recruited.

3 to 9 people are the most basic tactical unit.

Since swordsmen and spearmen are temporary workers and non-staff members without extraordinary powers, they are not counted as part of an imperial company.

An Imperial Company is composed of 100 Lancers, including 100 Imperial Knights, 100 Banner Knights and 42 Squire Knights. There are only Imperial Companies in the entire Kingdom of Leia, which are controlled by the royal family, three dukes and the Lion Knight Prince Conde.

This does not mean that the Kingdom of Leia only has 4200 Imperial Knights.

Because after the Imperial Order Knight is certified, he must be forced to join the Imperial Order Company.

Many knights with the strength of Imperial Knights are unwilling to get involved in this mess. They will deliberately not participate in the Knights' Competition or give up.

After digesting these contents, Horn continued to ask about the witch.

"Your Majesty, when I was training in Snake Castle, a scholar from the Salin Society gave us a lecture." Ji Luo's face showed a look of reminiscence, "He once told me a law, the development of extraordinary power has always been a continuous cycle of accumulation and qualitative change."

"Amount and qualitative change..." Horn muttered these two unfamiliar terms.

"Yes, when the Knight Breathing Technique was first invented, it only had one section. A knight with one section could cause a dimensionality reduction attack on an ordinary knight.

As a result, more knights began to study it, and quickly developed a two-stage breathing method, a three-stage breathing method, and so on until the ninth stage.

After reaching the ninth level, the knights began to study extraordinary martial arts in order to defeat the enemies on the battlefield.

Knights with superb martial arts skills can defeat opponents of the same level or even across levels, so the knights continue to develop extraordinary martial arts to make them stronger and more popular.

When extraordinary martial arts evolved to the point where it was difficult to make progress, the knights began to invent extraordinary weapons and armor.

We are now in the period of stacking extraordinary armor and extraordinary weapons.

This is why people no longer use the level of their breathing techniques to judge a knight's martial arts ability as they did in classical times.

Because a knight's martial power, in addition to the extraordinary power itself, also includes the application of extraordinary power, the skills of using extraordinary weapons, and a series of comprehensive abilities combined together.

When we discuss a Knight of the Edict, we always put it on par with the Six-Step Breathing Method.

But in fact, if a sixth-level knight from the Classical Era were to fight against an Imperial Knight, the Imperial Knight could easily defeat him in a few rounds."

"But what does this have to do with the witch's fighting ability?" Horn asked.

Ji Luo laughed and said, "Your Majesty, the development of all extraordinary forces follows this law, and witches are no exception."

Listening to Gilo's explanation, Horn gradually understood.

At the beginning, the witches could suppress mortals at will with their own strength.

However, with the development of a series of extraordinary skills such as breathing techniques, holy water, and blessings, the relative strength of the witches began to decline.

In order to resist the knights and demon hunters, witches also began to study extraordinary skills and extraordinary weaponry.

But witches have an extremely terrifying ability. They are almost immune to the influence of all evil objects and monsters, such as the side effects of the bone whistle.

With this ability, those battle-hardened witches appeared with a lot of strange objects hanging all over their bodies, and wearing witch armor and masks to protect them from holy water.

Moreover, the witches can live up to 150 to 200 years. After long-term training of skills, as long as they are not crazy, they can master it no matter how bad they are.

Every old witch who lives over 100 years old is more feared by the Church than the ogre expeditionary force of the Flesh Court.

After all, there are still traces of the Ogre Expeditionary Force, but a flexible and mobile witch is the nightmare of many church leaders.

Toruya Magmi, the dark witch known as the Bishop Killer, assassinated two dukes, four cardinals and a pope by herself, and even managed to escape.

The church was forced to shout "Winged angels, move out!" before they captured him and burned him at the stake.

Not to mention the heaven-defying existence of Pope Joan.

"If you want to become a witch who can defeat thousands of enemies, Miss Jeanna still lacks training, rare items, and time to accumulate." Jilo raised a finger, "This is the first point."

“The second point is that although Miss Jeanna’s supernatural power is very strong, her lightning cannot penetrate steel.

The knights all wear armor, which causes Miss Jeanna's relative strength to decline again."

Of course, there was one point that Jilo didn't say, but everyone present understood it, and that was the violent transformation.

The enraged witch's strength will experience an explosive increase.

But this was not within Horn's consideration. After all, the witch's rage was not targeted, and it would be bad if she picked up a rock and hit herself.

Horn rubbed his chin.

In this case, if you want Nana to be able to exert a higher combat effectiveness, you can't get witch armor and rare items, but you might be able to get a mask that protects you from holy water.

　p.s. there will be another chapter later

　　
　
(End of this chapter)