The carriage wheels creaked and groaned as they rolled along the dirt road in Muxi Town.
Upon seeing Todd's figure appear in the convoy, the residents on both sides of the road stopped what they were doing and ceased their conversations. They stood upright, heads bowed, their bodies moving in sync with the priest's steps, a silent reverence filling the quiet air. Only five or six young children followed the convoy, giggling and respectfully calling out, "Father."
Walton, the short, stout man who had been looking around with curiosity and talking loudly with his companions, was so startled by the strange atmosphere that he fell silent. He turned to look at Todd's familiar face, but could no longer connect this man with the monk who had been toasting people around the church camp.
“If I remember correctly, just over three months ago, this was a desolate beach…” Walton tightened his grip on the crossbow on his back and muttered to the woman beside him, Adelina, “Now it’s become a bustling and prosperous town… What kind of magic does that person possess?!”
Walton scratched his head in frustration: "Ugh! What bad luck! If it weren't for the mission, I could have stayed in Silver Ring City and witnessed that trial!"
The boy with red markings on his forehead, who was walking in front of him, turned around and saw the boots from above the man's head. He said in a mocking tone, "Even if you were there at the time, you wouldn't have been able to see them unless you were wearing stilts."
Hearing the noise behind him, Todd turned his gaze to the girl beside him as he walked.
Ever since they had gone through that harrowing trial together, he was confident that his relationship with Karin Forman would improve. But the saying "a woman's heart is like a needle at the bottom of the sea" proved absolutely true; their relationship not only failed to progress but actually regressed.
When he made eye contact with the girl, she would always avoid his gaze; when the two were alone in a room, Karin would always find various excuses to leave.
This doesn't make sense. Did I do something wrong?
Troubled and perplexed, Todd turned his attention to the knight ahead.
Beneath Alfonso's chainmail and iron mask, the gigantic parasite covering his entire body had left a deep impression on him. His 'clairvoyance' ability could only penetrate cloth, wood, and flesh; it could only reveal a blurry image of the interior of metal objects. Todd's incurable curiosity began to stir again.
If only the knight could take off that cumbersome armor, or perhaps we could secretly peel it off when he's not looking?
This dangerous and absurd thought swirled in his mind several times, but was ultimately thrown off the cliff by reason.
The caravan left Muxi Town and headed east along the road. Although the journey was not very long, the total trip was estimated to take a day and a night due to the slow speed of the carriages, with half the time spent traveling and the other half for rest.
After traveling for about an hour across Moon Creek Plain, Todd could see the San Sidlow Monastery on the hill in the distance, as well as the workshop at the foot of the hill with wisps of smoke rising from it.
That place holds too many memories for him: Master Myris, the Seven Liberals of the morning prayers, the terrible food, working in the fields, the underground laboratory, the silver refinery...
The church granted him authorization to establish the Muxi Harbor Church and bestowed upon him the holy order of priest. He had to take off his grey monk's robes, but this did not mean that Todd was completely separated from the monastery.
On the one hand, he handed over the secret formula for silver refining and all the refining furnaces at the foot of the mountain to the monks of the monastery. Although the proceeds might not be enough to ensure the livelihood of hundreds of monks, they would at least make their ascetic lives less impoverished and more comfortable. On the other hand, he also privately agreed with Bishop Fabian that the Church would cease all actions to annex the "San Sidlow Monastery".
The convoy continued forward, and the scenery along the way became increasingly familiar to Todd.
This is the road he took with Karin on their trip.
The priest turned to look at the girl beside him. She was gazing at the scenery before her, her eyes filled with longing and a sense of reverie.
"Karin, I..."
Hearing Todd's voice, the girl snapped out of her daze and, like a startled rabbit, hopped away to hide in the distance.
The speaker awkwardly touched the bridge of his nose, thinking to himself, "Am I that scary?"
After a short rest during lunchtime, the convoy continued for another four hours and finally arrived at Watchtower at around 6 p.m., as the sun was setting.
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Watchtower was built at a pass in the Falling Star Mountains, at the crossroads of three important roads: south to Moonbrook Plains, east to the borderlands of the Silver Ring Kingdom, and north to the barbarian lands of the highlands and snowfields.
The standing force at Watchtower is approximately 225 men, primarily composed of spearmen, crossbowmen, and heavy infantry. The defense commander is Ser Adams, who commands five knights, three of whom are secular knights and two are ecclesiastical knights.
Looking at the cross-section of the Watchtower's walls, its height is much greater than its width. The walls have a structure similar to a sandwich, with brick and stone masonry on the inner and outer surfaces, and stones mixed with mortar in the middle. The shape is almost completely vertical, like a curtain.
Defenders inside the castle could move freely along the thin, crenellated stone breastwork, and fire arrows or throw other projectiles at the attackers through the loopholes in the breastwork.
The castle features a double-door design: the entrance to the south is a gear-driven door, while the entrance to the north is a four-rope drawbridge door.
In summary, Watchtower was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it was built in a natural and impregnable location. It served as an important barrier for the Church and the secular state in the south to resist the northern barbarians.
Not far from this barrier, pure water formed by melting snow from the high mountains flows slowly down the mountain streams and into the groundwater inside the mountain, eventually becoming the main source of drinking water for the residents of Shouwang Town on the hillside.
After sunset, a group of uninvited guests dressed in gray robes, under the cover of night, avoided the surging crowds and arrived at the well in the town, where they began their long-planned scheme.
They opened the wax-sealed copper pot they had hidden in their bosoms and poured the viscous, light black liquid into the well.
A man straightened up, a silver badge bearing the 'Crown of Thorns' emblazoned on his chest gleaming. He gazed into the vast night and at the distant firelight, muttering, "The experiment begins..."
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