Chapter 2 The Torn Kingdom
The heavy rains in the Levant wilderness come and go quickly. One day, I wanted to fill up the Dead Sea, but the next day, the rain stopped and the sky was clear and cloudless.
When Suno or Garris opened his eyes again, he realized that he was lying on a straw mat, resting under the shadow of the carriage.
As Garris tried to sit up, the soreness caused by the torn muscles in his body came back again. For a moment, his eyes widened, his face turned pale, his teeth clenched tightly, and he almost screamed out.
Obviously his physical fitness has not been significantly improved due to time travel, but he can break the self-limitation of the human body in a short period of time.
In that state, Garris possesses extremely powerful dynamic vision and extraordinary human reaction capabilities. In addition, at the cost of self-inflicted physical damage, Garris can use his muscles regardless of the cost.
Just when Garris endured the pain and allowed himself to sit up against the carriage wheels, he heard two people discussing something not far away.
"What to do now? If we continue to delay time, if we don't arrive in Jerusalem as soon as possible, Guy will announce that Her Highness Isabella has given up on choosing the king! By then, we will have failed, and how can we be worthy of the late King Baldwin!"
"But can we leave! So many people died, and everyone who survived was injured. Even Garris has been unconscious for a whole day. If we don't find a place to recuperate, we will die!"
Have you been comatose all day? Garris thought about it, then gathered his thoughts and reviewed the current situation.
In the year 1099 of the Christian calendar, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed, and the blood of Muslims drowned the ankles of the Crusaders in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It was also in this year that a new kingdom was established, named after Jerusalem.
The Kingdom of Jerusalem, except for the original uncrowned king and the guardian of the Holy Sepulchre, has had seven kings so far, for a total of 87 years.
During these 87 years, the kings of all dynasties seemed to be cursed. The dynasty lineage was repeatedly cut off, and it was the norm to have no children or grandchildren.
So much so that it happened twice between brother and brother, and the seven generations of kings belonged to three dynasties.
The current [Anjou-Jerusalem] dynasty, with the death of the Leper King, is destined to cut off its inheritance.
After all, now the [Anjou-Jerusalem] family has no male heirs, and only a pair of sisters remain in the world, becoming victims of ambitions fighting for the throne.
How did Gareth know so much? Did you read a lot of books in your previous life? Not only that, but also because Garris himself was the one who experienced it.
After the death of the Leper King, his allegiance was to Isabella of Anjou-Jerusalem, one of the only two remaining members of the dynastic family today.
Combining the information he knew in his previous life, Garris weakly expressed his opinion.
"Jerusalem! Can't go!"
The voice was very subtle, but the determination in his words caught the attention of those around him.
"Garys!"
"Great! He's awake! Gareth is awake."
For a moment, the survivors of this convoy rejoiced, as if they had found their backbone.
"Okay, okay, keep your voices down. Stop disturbing Garris and let us listen to what he means." An older knight with a hideous scar on his face stepped forward to calm everyone's emotions.
Perhaps it was because of yesterday's miracle that Garris could feel that he now had a lofty status in these eyes. They regarded him with full respect. The resurrection had a unique divinity for Christians.
"John, His Highness's fiancé is a coward. If he knew that knights like us who are loyal to His Highness have suffered heavy losses, he would be willing to break the engagement and not participate in the king selection for His Highness."
Garris knew very well that the Western political model was completely different from that of the Celestial Empire. For example, the Franks had always had a strong tradition of electing kings, and they did not exclude women from serving as monarchs.
However, although they do not exclude women from serving as monarchs, they do not believe that a female monarch is equal to a qualified monarch. Rather than letting the queen directly rule, they often believe that it is more reliable to let the queen's husband-in-law serve as a co-ruling king. .
Therefore, rather than choosing the king between the two sisters of the Anjou family, it is better to say that the king is chosen between the husbands of the two sisters of the Anjou family.
Nowadays, Her Highness Isabella, whom Garis is loyal to, is engaged to a certain "young and handsome man" among the nobles in northern Jerusalem.
Isabella's sister married Guy, a nobleman from France.
With these two husbands-in-law and prospective husbands-in-law of the Anjou family as the core, the entire kingdom was torn into two factions. One faction is the local aristocratic faction in Jerusalem with Isabella's fiancé as the core, and the other is the foreign aristocratic faction from Europe headed by Isabella's brother-in-law Guy.
Garris came from the lower reaches of history in his previous life and had a strong interest in history, so he naturally knew the outcome of the fight between the two factions.
Isabella's fiancé looks dignified, like a young talent, but in fact he is weak and incompetent. The competition for the king is at its fiercest when other local nobles plan to swear allegiance and elect him as king.
That guy actually abandoned his followers and Isabella, and came to Guy overnight to express that he had no intention of fighting for the throne.
After this betrayal, the local aristocratic factions of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were naturally at a loss what to do.
As for Garris himself, whose name cannot even be left in history, even if he escaped this Arab attack, there is a high probability that he will be submerged in the subsequent purges.
Neither emotionally nor rationally, Garris believed that continuing to go to Jerusalem to participate in the king selection was a good choice in their current state.
The few surviving knights around were a little at a loss after hearing what Garris said. Some of them instinctively wanted to refute Garris.
But when he thought about how Garris saved the team like a miracle last night, he shut his mouth again.
Only the older John, deep in thought and thinking carefully about Gehrys' words, continued to ask: "Then what should we do now? Return to Karak Castle?"
Karak Castle was the castle where Isabella originally lived temporarily, and it was also where these knights were stationed.
Although we are already some distance away from Karak Castle, if we want to turn back, it is only two days away.
But at this time, Garris said again: "No! We can't return to Karak Castle until we recover from our injuries. The original owner of Karak Castle is himself a foreign noble from France. Whether he supports His Highness in choosing the king is too vague. ”
Garris could feel that this Arab attack was very strange. When Isabella traveled to Jerusalem to participate in the king's election, there was no fanfare. Except for the knights who were escorting her, only a few people knew the route.
After traveling through time, thoughts were swirling in Garris's mind. Although he was weak, it was not difficult to figure out the strangeness.
Why did those Arabs dare to set up an ambush directly in the heavy rain, and also deliberately avoided hurting the carriage Isabella was sitting on. This was clearly an attack launched by the Arabs in order to eliminate Garris and the other knights who were directly loyal to Isabella.
As for the person with this ability and motive, Leonard, the owner of Karak Castle, is obviously the most suspicious.
The few surviving knights around were a little at a loss after hearing Garris's words. This is neither progress nor retreat, so how should we deal with the current predicament?
In this regard, after realizing the special respect that the people around him had for him, Garris already had a shallow idea in his mind, but he only needed to wait until he regained his basic mobility before he could implement it.
"If there is a village nearby, we will go there first to replenish some food and water, and then let the injured brothers recover from their injuries in the village."
What Garris didn't say was that as long as he could recover half of his ability from last night, there would be no one he couldn't kill within a hundred steps.
After regaining such a powerful ability, Garris naturally no longer has to worry about being purged.
Before the group set off again, the survivors who had experienced the bloody battle last night buried the bodies of their friendly soldiers, their expressions mixed with unconcealable sadness.
At the time of the trip, there were twenty knights and more than thirty attendants and servants. After the ambush attack last night, only five knights and seven attendants and servants were left alive.
Some of them surrendered shamefully, while others fainted due to injuries during the melee and were unable to fight anymore. But no matter what, at least for now they are willing to follow the team.
And the one thing they have in common is that all of them look at Garris with extremely eager eyes. Even though the nominal leader of this team is actually the girl in the carriage.
But for everyone who witnessed the miraculous resurrection, Garris, who was resurrected by the grace of God, is the undoubted core.
They had repeatedly asked for hair from Gehrys and asked him about his vision of heaven.
When asked, Garris opened his mouth and said impatiently: "There are many men in heaven, and they are all brothers; there are many women in heaven, and they are all sisters. The whole world is one family of Father, Lord, Emperor, and God, and no one in heaven is selfish." , everything belongs to the Lord, and the Lord will use it. Everyone in heaven will be in peace, nothing will be lacking, and everyone will enjoy everything. ”
After what Garris said, the knights looked at each other speechlessly. Garris's description of heaven was indeed something they had never thought of in the past.
But the eyes of those servants shone with a different kind of light.
(End of chapter)