Chapter 208 Jocelyn
"Who are you?"
Igor looked at Leon and gave an extremely unexpected answer.
He shrank in the net, unable to move, but seemed as if he didn't recognize Li Ang at all, and there was no emotion in his eyes when he looked at Li Ang.
"You don't even remember me..."
The lord could see that Igor's expression was only that he would have when facing a stranger.
Can you even forget to kill your own enemy?
Is this still Igor himself?
Li Ang kicked Igor again, and in return he said another emotionless sentence: "You will regret it..."
Has Igor become a fool?
"He's probably lost most of his soul. He's probably dead to begin with."
Jocelyn said beside him.
Igor is indeed a dead man.
Jocelyn had just proved with his actions that he had different ideas from these people, and he still kept his hands outstretched, so Fotherg and Granlong did not tie him up.
However, there were still a few soldiers around who were not very reassured and pointed their spears at him.
Li Ang turned his head and said, "Do you know the inside story? What's going on?"
"Sir, since you are arresting heretics, I am of course happy to tell you everything... But I need your protection, if you are willing..."
Jocelyn obviously realized that Leon was the boss here, but he probably thought that Leon used the net to catch Igor in order to catch a heretic.
"With your skills... you still want to seek asylum? Why?"
The one who spoke was Foust, who had already ordered several soldiers to tie up Igor.
"I don't want to associate with heretics. I originally planned to take advantage of this mission to leave the Dusk Knights. But two witnesses just ran away... I will be regarded as a traitor, and they always spare no effort in hunting down traitors."
Jocelyn sighed, "And this isn't the only knight group chasing me. I originally fled here from Barkley, but now, the continent of Pendor is also dangerous to me..."
He took off his black hood and threw it to the ground, revealing his white skin with blue veins clearly visible on his cheeks. He had a high nose bridge and deep eye sockets, which were indeed typical features of a Barkley nobleman.
"Fother, take Igor to the inner castle first."
Li Ang nodded to Jocelyn and said, "I happen to be in need of manpower as well. It's no problem for me to find you a suitable job. Come with me..."
In the inner castle of Changhe Town, Jocelyn told his story to the lord.
Jocelyn was originally a Knight of Buckley, a minor noble.
But unfortunately, he was stripped of his noble status a few years ago and was hunted down.
The reason is simple. He was labeled a heretic by the Knights of the Dawn...
But in fact, Jocelyn had never done anything related to heresy. The reason he was accused of heresy was simply because he had accidentally helped a Phicavian.
The Phacavian woman had simply lost her way and run out of food and water, so Jocelyn, in a chivalrous act, escorted the stranger to the port.
But the Phicavians actually have nothing to do with heresy. It is a small country isolated overseas and ruled by women. The biggest difference from other countries is that this country is a matriarchal society.
That is, in Fikavia, women do men's things and men do women's things, except bearing children.
But this is just a difference in the history and culture of the two countries and has nothing to do with faith.
However, the Knights of the Dawn believed that in a country like Ficavia, where men had a low status and were castrated at any time, all men were heretics.
Anyone who helps heretics is also a heretic, and heretics must be burned to death...
Anyway, anyone who is different from them is considered a heretic. The Dawn Idiot Group has always been like this.
Jocelyn was of course not convinced. No one would accept such an unjust, false and wrongful case. After all, he was a nobleman , so he took the initiative to seek a trial and judgment.
But at that time, the Knights of the Dawn had a great influence in Barclay. Not only did Jocelyn fail to be cleared of all charges in the Inquisition, but he was also formally stripped of his noble status...
Jocelyn was helpless. He didn't expect that his good deeds of helping others would bring such a disaster, but the reality was so ridiculous.
In order to avoid being burned to death, he had to rely on his own skills to escape from his hometown.
Because of this incident, he was filled with hatred for the Knights of Dawn, so he joined the newly formed Knights of Dusk and followed the Knights of Dusk to the continent of Pendor.
The Knights of Dusk actually split off from the Knights of Dawn.
As the Knights of the Dawn gradually turned into a twisted form that arbitrarily harmed others in the name of the Goddess, many members of the Knights could not tolerate the current atmosphere and cruel behavior, and serious divisions appeared within the Knights.
This disagreement eventually exploded into a schism, with a group of knights withdrawing from the Order of the Dawn and reorganizing the Order of the Dusk - whose sole purpose was to confront and correct the Order of the Dawn.
The conflict between the two knightly orders can actually be seen from their names alone.
However, a few years ago, the Barclay Empire had completely lost patience with the actions of the Knights of Dawn, and was too lazy to take care of the internal affairs of the Knights of Dawn, so it expelled both the Dawn and Dusk Knights together.
After being expelled from the continent of Barkley, the Knights of the Dawn landed in the Howling Bay of Light in the Firdsvain, where they established a new station and hall.
At that time, the Fierdsvain Union had not been integrated into a unified country, and the local lords did not deal with the Knights of the Dawn - in fact, when the Knights of the Dawn first came to Pendor, their sanctimonious appearance did not arouse anyone's disgust, and the people of the Fierdsvain initially thought they were the embodiment of justice.
As a result, many civilians were quickly "inspired" by the "righteous" style of the Dawn Knight, who held a torch in one hand and a sword in the other...
The local Swift Dragon Knights were also quickly conquered and incorporated into the Knights of the Dawn. They served these fanatical knights as squires and became the minions of the fanatics, the 'Swift Dragons of the Dawn'.
This enabled the Knights of Dawn to quickly gain a base in the continent of Pendor, and they continued to expand their missionary work, becoming the pioneer colonizer of the Barclay Empire...
They are still powerful, and continue their fire purification across the continent of Pendor, leaving devastation wherever they go.
Like Sir Roland, Jocelyn is still being hunted by these fanatical Dawn Knights.
After all, the Knights of Dusk were considered traitors to the Knights of the Dawn, and Jocelyn himself was considered a heretic.
The Dusk Knights who had left the Knights of Dawn at that time also came to Pendor.
Due to the small number of Dusk Knights and the constant pursuit by the Knights of Dawn, they had no choice but to take root in Singar, where various dark forces were intertwined.
Singal is a paradise for crime, with slave trade everywhere and all kinds of thugs. A righteous fanatic like the Dawn Knight certainly doesn't dare to approach here...
In order to quickly grow their strength and compete with the Knights of Dawn, the Knights of Dusk had to lower the standards for admission.
Therefore, all kinds of criminals, killers, bandits, including nomads from the Desha tribe... almost all of them can join as long as they are willing to follow the Dusk Knights.
This caused the size of the Dusk Knights to expand rapidly, but also resulted in uneven quality of members.
In addition, in order to find out why the Knights of Dawn have such a twisted obsession with heresy, the Knights of Dusk intend to study heresy from a theoretical perspective.
They sought to get to the root of the heresy so that they could correct the Order of the Dawn and better combat it.
The starting point is good.
But the problem is that due to the hasty recruitment of a large number of personnel with questionable quality, coupled with the active contact with heretics, this has given the heretics an opportunity to take advantage...
In just a few years, heretical ideas had infiltrated the Order of Dusk, and many of the Knights of Dusk had been corrupted by the heretics.
In addition, the environment in a place like Singar is prone to have a negative impact on people.
As a result, the beliefs and purpose of the Knights of Dusk changed rapidly.
In order to increase their strength and fight against the Knights of Dawn, they used the method of the Knights of Dawn - if someone disagreed with their opinion, they would use swords and maces to persuade them.
In fact, the researchers of the Order of Dusk did find some theories about heresy in the past few years, but these discoveries made them even more confused.
Because the more they studied, the more they felt that the goddess of justice and the goddess of darkness might be one and the same.
In fact, this is really possible. From the perspective of the Lord, light and darkness should be one and the same. After all, the two goddesses even have the same sacrificial text...
Justice or not is inherently relative.
The Knights of Dusk changed as a result - most of them began to fully believe in the dark goddess Erida.
But unlike heretics, they believed that the goddess of justice Astalia and the goddess of darkness Erida were twins.
Therefore, in the hall of the Knights of Dusk, there is a statue with both front and back sides.
Because they think this is the correct belief. Since justice and darkness are one, believing in Ereda will not violate the oath they made to the goddess of justice, and at the same time they can get the favor of the goddess of darkness...
They do not consider themselves heretics, but they no longer fight against heretics, and even help heretics in many cases.
Moreover, their behavior began to move closer to heresy...
For example, killing innocent people and offering the flesh and blood of the dead to the goddess, trying to borrow the power of the dark goddess...
For example, studying the sacrificial rituals of the Dark Goddess and trying to see if she can summon a powerful undead demon.
The uneven quality of their personnel gradually led them to the same extreme as the Knights of Dawn, but to another extreme.
And for knights like Jocelyn, the Knights of Dusk have become another Knights of Dawn...
"Now they are no different from heretics. This time, our mission is to protect Igor and come to Changhe Town. We don't have many people, so I plan to take this opportunity to leave the Dusk Knights."
After Jocelyn finished talking about his experience with the Knights of Dusk, he began to talk about his mission this time.
"Igor is not one of yours, how did you get together?"
Leon didn't quite understand. He knew that Igor was probably not a member of the Knights of Dusk.
"My Lord, I am no longer a member of the Twilight Knights..."
Jocelyn objected to Leon's use of the term 'you', and then looked at Igor who was tied up in the hall: "That Igor might be a heretic priest, and his organization has mastered some heretical witchcraft. A few days ago, he went to Singar to seek cooperation with the Knights of Twilight. It is said that his organization is willing to use this method of resurrection in exchange for the Knights providing them with troops... and the order we received is to follow and protect him, but if he is caught, he must be killed."
The dark goddess Erida can resurrect the dead - this is of course a very important reason why the heresy can attract followers, or even the most important reason.
The Twilight Knights certainly want to find out the reason, and I'm afraid they want more than just to find out...
"What is the specific content of the cooperation between the heretics and the Knights of Dusk? With your skills, you should be an unknown figure in the Knights of Dusk... Why were you sent here as a bodyguard?"
When the lord came down the stairs from the city wall, he saw Jocelyn fighting one against three.
"I only know that the Knights of Dusk have sent most of their knights to Sarleon City. It is said that this matter has something to do with the prince of Sarleon Kingdom and the witchcraft of resurrection... but I really don't know the more specific content of the cooperation."
Jocelyn shook his head and sighed, "I was stripped of my noble status when I joined the Knights of Twilight. They can still call me a knight and still let me be a knight instead of a slave. This is the greatest benefit that my skills can bring... I am not a high-ranking official. I am not even the captain of the team of knights protecting Igor."
"Then why did we have to kill Igor after he was caught? You should know this, right?"
Li Ang nodded. He knew that Jocelyn was not lying. If he was really a senior executive, he would not have been sent as a bodyguard.
"I really don't know. Within the Dusk Knights, the superiors have issued orders not to inquire about the specific reasons."
A trace of helplessness appeared on Jocelyn's face.
Li Ang nodded. He could only execute the order without asking the reason. This was a normal operation for most regular legions.
"You said earlier that Igor might have lost most of his soul. What did you mean?"
Leon turned to look at the dazed Igor and asked Jocelyn.
"I don't know the specific reason. I'm just guessing. This Igor looks a lot like the heretic who came back from the dead... The Twilight Knights have studied this. It is said that the heretics who have sacrificed their souls to Erida will be resurrected as fallen after death. But they have abandoned part of their souls, so they will forget a lot of things after resurrection, and sometimes they will become demented..."
Jocelyn thought about it and gave an answer in a relatively easy to understand way.
He added: "It is no secret that heretics can be resurrected as fallen ones. Many people believe that if you want to kill heretics completely, it is best to burn them to ashes. If there is not enough firewood, cut off their heads and cremate them. The soul is in the head. If all the souls are burned, they can no longer be resurrected."
This was the common perception of people in this era, that the human soul was in the head and that the soul would be burned by fire.
There is actually nothing wrong with this cognition, if the soul is regarded as consciousness and memory.
This is why heretics were burned at the stake, not for any sense of ritual.
In fact, all the more peculiar operating methods that have been circulated for many years were not originally for a sense of ritual, but were based on practical functional considerations.
For example, the stake is actually a wooden cross. The cross-shaped wooden frame is used to nail the victim on it and burn him, because if he is tied with ropes, the ropes will be burned off.
"Do you know how that heretical organization resurrects people? Is it a spell or something else?"
Leon particularly wanted to figure out this problem. He had seen the Fallen created by the Three Prophets, and it seemed that they relied solely on pure spells.
But the Fallen created by the three prophets were not complete at all, without any sanity at all, and were completely out of control At best, they could only be used to scare people.
In fact, in Li Ang's opinion, all the witchcraft of the three prophets is half-baked - they can summon the fallen but cannot control them, they can change people's skin but cannot connect and grow with muscles, they can seduce men but rely on beauty and poison...
They certainly don't have the ability to resurrect Igor to his current state.
"I don't know... It is only to find out the specific method that the Dusk Knights will cooperate with Igor's organization."
Jocelyn shook her head bluntly.
"Okay... Jocelyn, from now on, you will be my subordinate, and I will protect you from being hunted by the Knights of Twilight. What is your position in the Knights of Twilight?"
"New recruit coach, I am responsible for training the new recruits in basic skills. But those people in Singal are really... well... don't mention them."
Jocelyn shook his head as he spoke, and it seemed that he was quite dissatisfied with the new members recruited by the Dusk Knights.
"Then I will give you the same position now, and my new recruits will definitely be much easier to discipline... I'm Leon, and like you, I'm also from Barkley."
Jocelyn explained everything very clearly, and his sincerity was obviously sufficient. Le Ang readily gave Jocelyn a position and asked him to serve as a skills coach for the new recruits in his unit.
"I am willing to serve you, Lord Leon."
Jocelyn seemed relieved and relaxed a little when he heard the lord say that he was also from Buckley.
'Jocelyn joins your team'.
"Go change your clothes first, and it would be best if you change your sword as well... My subordinates cannot wear the equipment of the Dusk Knights."
Li Ang waved his hand to signal his men to take Jocelyn away.
Seeing this , Fothert also ordered all the other soldiers to leave.
Jocelyn knew very little, so he had to turn around and study Igor without leaving the soldiers present.
Yes, the only word that can be used is "research", because Igor is almost impossible to interrogate at the moment.
The fishing net on Igor had been untied, and Granlon and Fothert tied him to a chair by themselves.
This was mainly to treat the wound on his body, but in fact the long wound hardly bled.
Considering that this guy was resurrected from the dead, the few people did not investigate further. Compared with his wound that did not bleed, his current condition seemed even stranger.
Igor's current appearance is similar to what Jocelyn described. Perhaps he has indeed lost a part of his soul, and he has always seemed a little stupid.
No matter what Li Ang asked, he didn't respond.
At most they would say something meaningless like “Who are you?” or “You’ll regret this.”
And torture was useless. Fothert tried it, but even when a bamboo stick was inserted into his finger, Igor had no reaction at all. It seemed that he had lost all feeling.
I feel like a walking corpse.
But... Li Ang has seen this kind of scene before.
Even Leon had seen Igor's current dead-like appearance.
His lips were blue and purple, his face was pale, and his hair was withered. He looked like a dead person, and he didn't move, refuse, resist, or cooperate.
The dead-faced spy of the Bacchus Empire looked like this.
Maybe that's what they become once they get hurt and caught.
Exactly the same.
I wonder if Governor Justus of the Bacchus Empire knows the reason for this matter - the Bacchus spy was originally Justus's subordinate.
But is Igor related to Governor Justus?
It shouldn’t be that bad…
Igor is the king's brother-in-law and the Grand Secretary of the Kingdom. With his status, it is not appropriate for him to be a spy for the Bacchus Empire!
But now, Igor's appearance interrupted Leon's plan.
