Chapter 324: The Choice between Good and Evil
Roland took it and looked at Reynard with eyes full of excitement and warmth: "A bright choice..."
Reynard's movements were very slow, and Roland recognized what it was as soon as Reynard took it out.
This is a statue of a goddess, a very small statue of the goddess of justice, only as big as the counterweight of a sword handle. The base at the bottom looks like a heraldic seal, and there is a slot on the edge of the base.
In fact, this was originally the counterweight of the hilt.
This is the 'Bright Choice', the hilt weight of the Sword of Justice that the Knights of the Dawn had long destroyed; at the same time, it is also the emblem seal of the Knights of the Dawn.
Its implication is that when the sword holder makes judgments and decisions, he must maintain a balance between mercy and punishment with a heart toward light - the weight on the hilt is to make the sword more balanced.
In the original scriptures of the Knights of the Dawn, the sword of the Knights of the Dawn is used to uphold justice, and to eliminate evil in moderation, both to purify evil and to forgive those who have gone astray.
But decades ago, the blade of the Sword of Justice was suddenly damaged.
It was probably from that time that the entire Knights of Dawn gradually lost their balance.
"It should be on the hilt of the sword of the leader of the Knights of the Dawn..."
Roland said softly.
"Yes, but only a true paladin should be the leader, and only a paladin's sword is worthy of the 'Bright Choice'."
Reynard nodded, then smiled at Ilano: "Madam, I am indeed a thief, but I believe in light."
Paladin Roland finally met his true kind at this time.
Leonard was originally a member of the Swift Dragon Rangers, which was originally a local civilian self-defense group in Light Howling Bay. It was somewhat similar to the Horn Rangers, but not as large in scale.
After the Knights of Dawn arrived at Light Howling Bay, the Swift Dragon Rangers were attracted by the teachings of the Goddess of Justice.
When the Dawn Knights first arrived in the continent of Pendor, they actually showed a strong sense of justice - they helped merchants for free, maintained the security of villages and towns, built bridges and roads, and acted bravely...
It can be said that he is a perfect moral role model of chivalry.
At that time, the Knights of Dawn had just experienced internal strife, and many knights defected to form the Knights of Dusk, and they were expelled from the continent of Barkley - their strength was damaged and their foothold was unstable, so they naturally had to maintain a noble image when they first arrived in Pendor.
The Dragon Rangers, a local group that had not seen much of the world, were quickly won over by those seemingly upright Knights of the Dawn.
In addition, the Knights of Dawn were powerful and quite wealthy, so soon the Dragon Rangers were merged into the Knights of Dawn and became the 'Dawn Dragons'.
And Reynard was a captain of the Dragon Rangers, and it was at that time that he became a Knight of the Dawn - all the captains of the Dragon Rangers became Knights of the Dawn, and this was the main reason . After all, everyone wanted to get the official identity of a knight, not to mention a Dawn Knight who was famous and full of justice.
This is also the first batch of Pendor native knights recruited by the Knights of the Dawn in the Firdsvain.
But soon after, the Knights of the Dawn, who gained the recognition of the people of Pendor and established a hall and a base in Guangyue Bay, quickly revealed their true nature.
They began killing in the name of justice, "purifying" the countryside with torches and swords, and forcing people to pay tribute to the goddess.
In places like Kui in the east of Guangxiao Bay, they even treated the followers of the goddess of prosperity Terra as heretics, killing and looting a large number of innocent farmers, but later they just paid a large sum of money to King Vidis and Count Edin respectively and let the matter go.
Actually, Vidis and Adin believed in the Ice Sea Gods, which was actually considered "heresy" in the eyes of the Knights of Dawn, but they almost never clashed with the Vanskerry Pirates.
Moreover, the Knights of Dawn have a very good relationship with Count Aidin, the lord of Light Howling Bay - otherwise Aidin would not allow them to build a hall in Light Howling Bay.
Probably, the main criteria they use to distinguish heretics is whether the target to be "purified" is easy to deal with, and whether the cost and benefit of implementing "purification" are appropriate...
After all, we are all businessmen doing no-cost business, and our main consideration is the return on investment...
But Leonard gradually fell into confusion.
He thought he would become a knight of justice, but he didn't expect to become this kind of businessman.
Reynald had followed the Knights of the Dawn many times, and had been blindly killing people in the name of justice with his colleagues.
In the process, Leonard gradually developed a habit of stealing spoils.
Many villagers who were forced to provide offerings would often find that a small amount of property or grain seeds were quietly returned to their homes after the Dawn Knights left.
That was what Leonard did in confusion. He almost instinctively left the villagers with hope of life.
Finally, after Quay's action, Leonard finally came to his senses.
Terra is one of the main gods of the continent of Pand, conveying the hope of a good harvest and prosperous business. How could such a belief be heresy? Why should a group of innocent farmers be purified?
He spoke out against this in the Dawn Hall, but he was denounced as 'not strong enough in faith' and was imprisoned in a penance cell.
The ascetic room is actually an internal prison. In addition to confinement and hard labor, the prisoners have to be whipped before every meal as a "teaching of the goddess."
Putting a habitual thief who can steal loot for a long time without being discovered in prison will result in the inner prison being too full to hold anyone soon...
Reynard defected from the Knights of the Dawn along with other members in prison who were not as "firm in their faith" as him.
He wanted to be a knight who truly adhered to the teachings of the Goddess of Justice, just like the former Paladin Roland.
To this end, he also stole the "Bright Choice" - he felt that the current Knights of the Dawn were not worthy of keeping this seal.
In the days that followed, he did good deeds everywhere as a wandering knight, intending to atone for the sins he had committed.
Not long ago, he had heard about Oswood's brutal deeds, so he planned to try an ambush, but he almost ambushed Roland.
"Sir Roland, I saw Oswood coming in this direction a day and a half ago, so we hid here and waited until now. I didn't expect that you would come first..."
Leonard pointed to the ground around him. "Also, we've set up a lot of traps around here, but none of them have been triggered. It seems like there are no wild animals in this woods!"
Traps set in the woods will not be triggered by humans most of the time, especially those that have been set for a long time, and will usually be destroyed by wild animals.
"No humans or beasts found? Then... have you seen the Fallen?"
Roland became alert.
"No... And if it's a fallen one, it should be easier for them to touch the trap."
Leonard shook his head.
"Teacher Roland, I think... Oswood might have gone that way."
The female warrior named Ilano pointed to the sky and said, "There is smoke in the south."
Through the gaps between the leaves, you can barely see a faint smoke in the southern sky.
Ilano was obviously very good at finding those subtle clues and had a very keen observation ability.
"Chase him southward. We can't let him get away."
Roland also trusted this young girl.
A few hours later, Roland's troops caught up with Oswood's troops at the southern edge of the woods.
Oswood ran south because he encountered many fallen people...
When Klose and Sigismund first encountered the Fallen blocking their way, their judgment was correct.
The Fallen in the woods will indeed pursue and stop the largest human forces.
Originally, this was probably to prevent the large army from reinforcing Guihu Town; but now, these fallen ones have become a roadblock for Oswood - Oswood's army is the largest at the moment.
After encountering the Fallen in the woods, Oswood had no choice but to run away.
Since there was Sir Roland to the northwest and Lion Lake City, which was obviously in a big trouble, to the northeast, Oswood chose to run south in order to avoid obstacles.
This is also the structure of the three-fork road in the forest of Guihu Town - when running, the faster the better, otherwise in the environment full of bushes, grass and vines in the woods, humans will not be able to outrun the powerful Fallen.
But when Oswood reached the edge of the woods, he was forced to retreat.
Because a huge fire broke out in the woods to the south, and the fire line was extending to the east and west - it was obvious that someone was setting the fire outside.
It is actually impossible to rush out of the fire line when you are in the woods, because the smoke and dust will continue to swirl into the woods. People near the fire line are basically unable to breathe and cannot see the surrounding environment.
People and animals who die in forest fires are not burned to death, but suffocated to death.
Plus, someone had clearly set a fire outside the woods, which meant that there were people guarding it.
At this time, the best option is to stay away from the line of fire and escape against the wind.
That’s what Oswood did.
But this is near the Lion Lake Inland Sea, and the upwind direction is actually the direction of the Lion Lake Inland Sea in the north - in this area, the wind usually blows from the Lion Lake Inland Sea to the inland.
In other words, Oswood had to turn back north and fight with the Fallen who were chasing him and fight his way out, otherwise he would most likely be suffocated to death.
When Sir Roland's team arrived here, Oswood was fighting desperately with the Fallen, and the fight between the two sides was quite fierce.
"...Sir Roland, how about we wait until they finish fighting?"
Leonard suggested.
Indeed, on one side are the inhumane brutal villains, and on the other side are the soulless and fleshless degenerates. Even Sir Roland felt that this situation was perfect for watching a show.
"withdraw!"
Before Roland had time to start watching the show, he heard someone giving orders.
Afterwards, a small group of people suddenly abandoned the Fallen and ran towards Lion Lake City.
Obviously, Oswood discovered Roland's troops. He didn't want to be entangled, so he abandoned his troops and ran away with only his confidants.
"Catch up with him!"
Roland's orders were equally brief. He shouted a greeting and then chased after Oswood without hesitation.
Some of the Fallen also followed Roland's troops and caught up.
…
Oswood felt that this period was extremely miserable.
The crimes committed around Crow Village were mainly to help the Lion Knights take the blame.
The incident in Crow Village was done by the Lion Knights, but in order to hide the truth, the Lion Knights always hire other teams to cover up such things.
Sometimes they were looking for the Three Prophets, sometimes they were looking for Oswood’s adventure group.
The way to cover it up is also simple, just massacre the surrounding villages and make it clear that it was all done by yourself...
Why do terrorists always openly claim responsibility for those anti-human attacks?
Because the Royal Knights must keep themselves clean and cannot allow other lords to investigate - terrorists like Oswood are powerful and ordinary lords cannot deal with them at all. Usually only the Lion Knights can deal with him.
But the Lion Knights would naturally be "escaped by Oswood" again and again for various reasons.
Oswood has done this kind of work many times. It not only allows him and his men to vent and have fun, but also allows him to earn some money from the Lion Knights. For Oswood, this is certainly a very suitable job.
Anyway, the Lion Knights can handle any aftereffects.
But who knew that his troops encountered the Silver Hand near Yazhu Village and lost more than 200 people for unknown reasons.
Moreover, this time the Lion Knights were unable to protect themselves and were transformed from a Royal Knights Order into an illegal Knights Order, and they didn't even get the final payment.
That would have been fine, Oswood had robbed a lot of money from the villages and towns. After his troops were damaged, he had originally planned to leave and hide somewhere else.
However, just as they were preparing to evacuate, they unfortunately ran into Godric who was rushing to Fox Town to rescue his daughter, and was blocked by the army and forced back to Crow Village.
This was very troublesome. Crow Village became the main battlefield, but he didn't have time to withdraw. Amy disappeared with a large number of cavalry at that time - Amy went south back to Sarleon City.
But in the eyes of the Lion Knights and Oswood, how could Amy suddenly withdraw in the middle of a battle?
This is most likely an ambush planned with cavalry.
So Oswood had no choice but to confront cautiously with the Lion Knights.
As it turned out, this confrontation was very much in line with Godric's fighting style - he had many archers under his command, and he liked this kind of confrontation and war of attrition.
So, after several wars of attrition, Amy became the queen, the Lion Knights became an illegal knight order, and Oswood was beaten to only about 200 people - the bastards of the Lion Knights always let him lead the charge, and Godric also wanted to kill him...
There was no way around it. Oswood was responsible for the massacre of Crow Village. He also massacred several surrounding villages and towns, which attracted too much hatred.
After that, the Lion Knights evacuated, and Oswood finally escaped from Godric's sight and hid at the seaside for a few days. After thinking that nothing was wrong, he ran into the Paladin Roland who was clearing out heretics in Crow Village...
Godric's troops were in the west, so Oswood could not go there, so he had to flee into the forest east of Weirdfox Town.
But soon after he entered the forest, he was attacked by a wave of fallen...
He then desperately headed south, trying to run out of the forest, but just as he reached the edge of the forest, a fire cut off his escape route.
After running madly for nearly ten miles through the woods, Oswood finally escaped from this damn forest.
But something even worse happened - Oswood, along with dozens of remaining soldiers, plunged headfirst into a large group of Fallen.
