Chapter 73 Routing
What to do? Surrender?
Now there are two witches lying on his bed, and he has annihilated so many soldiers of the church. He has also become a witch's follower. Who can he surrender to?

That’s 2700 extraordinary knights. Think about Barnett before, what level of military strength was that?
There are 900 top-of-the-line Barnetts, 900 high-end Barnetts, and 900 Barnetts.

There are even 5000 infantrymen, needless to say, they are basically the toughest professional veterans.

It’s not that the Leia royal family doesn’t want to take over all the imperial edicts, but they can’t afford the military expenses.

The dog head hanging in the Stag Room stared at everything in front of it with wide eyes in silence.

There were seven or eight people present, all high-ranking officials of the Papal States, but they just stood there like clay sculptures and puppets.

I can't say anything.

After five minutes of eerie silence, Horn's gloomy voice sounded again.

"You are not telling us that you are here to die with us, are you? You must have other ways. Stop hiding it."

Sissi smiled but didn't say anything. She just pushed the map in front of Horn and drew a line on it with a charcoal pencil.

"What does it mean?"

"We can't escape to Black Snake Bay, but we can escape to Fort Jeanne d'Arc where Duke Darnay of Kush is. Duke of Kush has a special status. With his protection, Prince Condé will not act recklessly."

"Why should he protect us?"

"Well, Duke Kush is not only a big client of our White Mountain Hermitage and the John Party, but also a big sponsor of Mr. Juanno...

You should know that the title of Duke of Kush comes from the ancestral land of the Thousand Valley people - the Kush River."

Horn tapped the table with his knuckles and said slowly, "Duke Kush is willing to take such a big risk to take us in?"

Xixi used a charcoal pencil to draw a big circle at the location of Qianhe Valley on the map: "Your Majesty, what happened to Qianhe Valley is both a danger and an opportunity.

The Norn Lords of Burning Keep have coveted this place for a long time. What if the Duke of Kush takes advantage of the chaos to revolt, declares himself a Norn, and joins the Norn Kingdom? "

"Is he really a Norn?" asked Grampven.

"It could be, or even already has been."

Horn nodded slightly: "I understand."

"What else are you talking about?" When Madeleine heard that it was related to Dean Juanno, her eyes lit up, "Go quickly."

"No, if we take the normal route to seek refuge, we will probably be caught up and strangled by Prince Condai halfway through our journey," Sissi refused.

"Is the line you drew on the map the road we want to take?" Horn asked, pointing his finger at the map.

Hearing this, several bishops around immediately stood up, surrounded Horn and put their heads forward.

But when they saw the route, they all gasped.

"Mr. Sissi, are you serious?" Picking up the map, Chilvis, an old man who was always able to keep his composure, couldn't hold it anymore.

The route drawn by Sissi requires passing through two deadly places, the Wild Spider Forest and the Black Bone Swamp.

"I know a path that is about 500 miles long and was traveled by someone ten years ago.

But if we go alone, I'm afraid it won't work. We need a lot of guards."

Horn had a bad feeling in his heart: "How many do you need?"

Sissi held up five fingers.

"Fifty?"

"Five hundred."

"Five hundred? You mean five hundred!" Horn stood up from his chair. "You want me to bring all the villagers with me?"

“Not all villagers should be young and strong. The dangers along the way cannot be overcome by simply piling up numbers. The old, weak, sick and disabled will only be a burden.

Too few is not good, too many is unnecessary. The last recorded person who took this route was the fleeing Homer mercenaries, 514 of whom entered and 114 left. "

"In other words, you want me to give up some of the old and weak."

Facing Horn's gaze, Sissi straightened her back and replied frankly: "This is an inevitable sacrifice."

"How can you say such things?" Madeleine slapped the table and stood up. "Do you know what happens to those who are left behind?"

It seems a bit unreasonable that there were only dozens of heads captured out of tens of thousands of rebels.

Especially for Prince Kongdai, the famous first knight of Leia, victory with dozens of heads means loss.

"I know, but we can't do anything." Xixi turned her head away and looked at the square bricks on the ground. "Maybe you can tell them something else, like some special event. At least they will be happy before they die."

"You goat!" Madeleine rushed over and tried to grab Sissi's collar, but was stopped by the people around her. "Silence!" Horn shouted, knocking on the table again with the Pope's staff.

Everyone's eyes were focused on Horn.

"Your Majesty, what do you think?"

It wasn't that Horn couldn't bear to take five hundred tanks with him to escape.

But there is a key point that cannot be ignored, that is, the people who are left behind must be the compatriots and relatives who serve as meat shields.

You know, Horn's golden body was appointed by the Son of Myrcella, which means that as long as you follow him, you will not fail.

These villagers always follow whoever wins. They will listen to Horn obediently, just because Horn is the winner appointed by the Holy Father and the Holy Lord.

If he stripped off the emperor's new clothes and let some villagers die, it would be tantamount to saying that Horn was not immune to failure, which would leave a loophole for the lie.

But when the lie was revealed, and Myrcella's son's illusion of invincibility was shattered, the angry villagers were able to tear Horn to pieces.

So, either Horn goes alone, or they go together, there is no second option!

"What if we all go together?"

"You want everyone to go on the road together? I don't understand why you would do that."

"Just tell me, okay?"

"Of course you can, but with all due respect, I don't think this will increase the chances of survival. I have to remind you that if Duke Kush sees too many..."

"Okay, that's settled then."

"But……"

"I said do it, so do it!"

Horn slapped the table hard, veins popped out, and the water cup on the table was knocked over.

The water cup rolled around on the table, and the clean water flowed down the corner of the table.

"I don't want to know what you think, I want to know what I think. Do you understand?" Suppressing the inexplicable anger, Horn looked straight into Sissi's eyes coldly.

After a dead silence.

Sissi took a half step back, facing the gazes of the others present, and lifted her skirt expressionlessly: "Well, if you insist."

After the meeting, the bishops and senior officials left with concerns, while Grampven walked side by side with Sissi to meet his wife Dia.

As Grampven walked, he noticed that Sissi's brows were gradually furrowed, her eyes were blank, and she seemed to be thinking about something.

"Mr. Sissi, His Holiness the Pope is usually very friendly. Today, perhaps the situation was too sudden, and he lost his composure a little."

"I'm not thinking about that. When I was doing business, I encountered much more cruel 'courtesy' than this."

"So what are you thinking about? Is there something on your mind?"

Sissi raised her head and asked, "Has your Pope always been like this?"

"What has always been like this?" Grampven didn't quite understand. "What is it like?"

Sissi didn't respond, but continued walking forward until she reached the end of the corner of the corridor.

The sunlight streamed in through the stained glass windows, making the dust particles in the air sparkle.

Standing in the sunlight with dancing flakes of light, seeing that there was no one around, Sissi turned around and faced Grampven seriously: "Don't you think his behavior and thoughts are strange?"

"Strange, what's strange about that? His Majesty the Saint Grandson has always been like this."

"Yes, that's it." Sissi clapped her hands, and he looked around, "You have a preconceived notion that he is different, so you ignore his strangeness.

I asked him before, and before he performed that little U-turn magic, he was just an ordinary farmer.

If you look at it from an ordinary person's perspective, you will find that his speech is strange, his behavior is abnormal, and..."

"Hey, hey, hey, you don't know Shengsun, don't jump to conclusions!"

He quickly interrupted Sissi's words, and said that Grampven Khan was about to come down.

The Holy Grandson can communicate with the Holy Father. If he asks his grandfather and mother about it before they go to sleep one day, something bad will happen.

"I don't mean to say that I have a problem with him or anything. He is a kind and smart leader."

Instead of continuing the deep conversation with Grampven, Sissi rubbed her brows and muttered as she walked: "But he always gives me a sense of déjà vu...but what exactly is it..."

(End of this chapter)