When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#154 - Life is like a dream, how much joy can one have? [5k chapter]

November 10th, in the Imperial calendar year 1444, was a rare, clear day.

The morning mist was blown away by the scarlet sun among the mountains, and the sky was as blue as freshly dyed silk, smooth and clear.

The sky enveloped the Black Bone Swamp's ring-shaped mountains, and further down was Jeanne d'Arc Castle.

Jeanne d'Arc Castle was like a gray patch, sewn onto the yellowish-brown grassland by white canals.

And the refugee camp was the stitch of this patch.

On the open ground outside the camp, Hohen posed to the sun, exhaling a mouthful of mist dyed orange by the sunlight, and then he shivered.

The weather was getting colder and colder.

However, Jeanne, who always woke up early, didn't come to supervise Hohen's knight breathing exercises this morning, which surprised him.

Did she oversleep because it was too cold? Was she angry because he forgot to announce their engagement yesterday?

Standing up from the grass, a stream crossed Hohen's view.

Grayish-white boulders paved the way for the stream, and translucent blue stream water floated over the road like mist.

Wiping the sweat from his body with a hot towel, Hohen walked to the stream, he knelt on the soft sand, immersing his face in the water.

The cold stream water smoothly brushed over Hohen's cheeks, and the tip of his nose quickly turned red.

This also suppressed Hohen's restless heart, as if only at this moment could he stop thinking wildly.

He only raised his head when the stream water made his face start to burn and ache.

He looked at the reflection in the water, which was a young man with black hair and black eyes, but he gradually found it difficult to recall his previous face, and even began to feel unfamiliar.

When the water surface calmed down, he realized that the reflection in the water was not only himself, but also a black shadow.

"Jeanne?" Hohen looked up blankly, looking at Jeanne in front of him, if it weren't for the familiarity of this period, he would have thought he had mistaken her.

The girl did not tie up her black hair as usual, that clear hair hung down her back, and the ends of her hair had a little bit of gold.

At this moment, Jeanne was wearing a black silk dress, her smooth shoulders and chest were covered with light gauze, until the black-purple edged short cape above her elbows was tied below her collarbone.

"How is it? Is it pretty?" Jeanne lowered her head somewhat nervously, "This outfit was given to me by Sister Xixi."

"Only a blind person would think it's not pretty." Standing up and looking at the girl in front of him, Hohen subconsciously spoke his mind.

The morning light shone from her side face, as if to penetrate her skin with that blush, glowing like jade.

"We're leaving tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then can I ask for leave? I've been staying in the camp these days, I haven't been around here yet."

"Of course, let those little bastards from the child army do some things."

"Then, brother, can you take me for a walk around here?"

Jeanne reached out to Hohen, her face redder than the sun in the sky.

…………

The horses rose and fell on the roads of the wilderness, and sparse trees stood like sentinels on the yellow-green plains.

Birds flew up from the fields and landed on the scarecrows' heads. In the dilapidated thatched houses and wooden houses, refugees and beggars slept or died on the doors.

Hohen and Jeanne rose and fell with the horses.

Considering that a large number of refugee mercenaries were gathered in Jeanne d'Arc Castle, as well as robbers hiding in the city's folds.

Hohen felt that the wilderness was safer, so he brought Jeanne here.

The two went forward along the endless wilderness, crossed the stone bridge over the stream, and walked past the roadside icons and abandoned churches.

Further ahead, the road was almost covered by weeds, and rabbit holes and field mouse holes dotted the withered yellow field.

Hohen and Jeanne sometimes rode their horses and ran, sometimes dismounted, led their horses through the church ruins, and sometimes chased low-flying sparrows.

At first, it may have been that black silk dress that restrained Jeanne, she sat sideways, just jogging on her horse.

And Hohen rode his horse, sometimes circling over from the left, patting her left shoulder, sometimes circling over from the right, flicking her on the forehead.

This finally annoyed Jeanne, she didn't care about wearing a long dress, waved her horsewhip, and directly caught up with Hohen, snatching his horsewhip.

"Come on." Jeanne waved the horsewhip in her hand, "If you catch me, I'll give it to you."

Hohen clumsily drove his horse, following behind Jeanne.

His horsemanship was much worse than Jeanne's, that felt hat was now visibly at hand, but it flew away quickly.

On the golden long plain, Hohen and Jeanne chased each other on the river beach and the small road,

Until Jeanne realized that this would wrinkle her dress, she slowed down her horse and let Hohen grab her hand.

"Caught you."

"Grumble~"

Hohen looked at Jeanne's stomach, Jeanne's originally reserved face instantly turned red.

To be honest, from childhood to adulthood, this wasn't the first time they had seen each other's stomachs rumbling with hunger, but Jeanne felt an unspeakable shyness when she was in front of Hohen.

"What are you looking at? Don't look, don't listen, cover your ears!" Jeanne said somewhat angrily.

Only then did Hohen realize that the time had actually passed noon.

"Okay, you guard here, I'll go get something to eat."

Tying the two horses to the side of the road, Jeanne fetched some dead branches, fallen leaves, and firewood to start a fire, while Hohen picked up a stick, sharpened it with a long sword, and ran towards the stream.

Jeanne's stomach started rumbling for the third time before Hohen returned with two big, fat fish carried by grass ropes.

He rolled up his pants, and there were traces of river water on his calves and wrists.

"The fish are really fat in autumn." Hohen grinned.

Looking at the fat fish roasting on the fire, Jeanne looked at Hohen: "When did you learn to fish?"

"When I was little, I often went fishing with my friends..."

"When?" Jeanne asked blankly, "You didn't pay the stream tax, how could Barnett allow you to fish?"

"Oh, I remembered it wrong." Hohen quickly made amends after accidentally letting something slip, "Just now I met a villager who came to ask me if I had paid the stream tax, I thought it was going to be troublesome.

I originally wanted to lie and say I was a nobleman, but he saw the ring that Harken gave me and left directly, without me even having to say it."

Jeanne didn't reply, she looked at the burning firewood, and Hohen couldn't see her expression behind the smoke.

Maybe she was too hungry, let's eat first.

As Hohen expected, Jeanne was just too hungry before, after eating the grilled fish, her mood obviously improved a lot.

Spitting out the fish bones, the two touched their bulging stomachs and fell on the roadside tall weeds at the same time, they were soft and warmed by the sun.

"Do you remember? We used to lie down on the haystack after finishing farm work in Red Mill Village, just like now."

Jeanne turned her head and looked at Hohen.

Hohen lay on the weeds, opening his eyes and looking at the sky, but Jeanne could feel that he had fallen asleep.

Those noisy sounds were gone, leaving only the clear and distant sky.

It wasn't until this time that Hohen realized that he hadn't given himself a vacation for a long time, from Red Mill Village to Jeanne d'Arc Castle.

Hohen and Jeanne didn't continue to play, but lay on the weeds at the same time, watching the white clouds in the sky pass by, recede, and pass by again like ocean tides.

When the sunlight gradually turned red, Hohen suddenly woke up and sat up from the weeds.

"It's time to go back."

Jeanne also sat up, her silk dress was stained with mud and weeds, and she took them off one by one in distress.

Hearing Hohen's words, Jeanne took out something that looked like a pendant from her cloak pocket.

Jeanne pulled out the hand-and-a-half sword from Hohen's waist, Hohen didn't stop her at all, letting her tie that pendant-like thing to the hilt.

"What is this?" Hohen flicked the hard wooden saucer-shaped black bead hanging from the root of the hilt.

Jeanne hooked the bead between her index and middle fingers, and the rope wrapped around the back of her hand through the tiger's mouth:

"This is called a sword bead, when you hold the sword with the sword bead wrapped like this, first, it's more stable to hold the sword with one hand, and second, it prevents you from not being able to pick up the long sword after it falls out of your hand."

According to Jeanne's explanation, Hohen tried to slash the air with the sword bead wrapped around the back of his hand, and it was indeed much more stable than before.

Stroking the rough sword bead, Hohen looked at Jeanne, who was lying on the haystack with a silly smile, and pondered for half a second.

In the end, he sheathed the sword, turned around, and pulled Jeanne out of the weeds: "Let's go, I'll take you to the last place."

"Didn't you say we were leaving? It's almost evening, is there enough time?"

"There's enough time, let's go, get on the horse."

In the forest that had been quiet for who knows how many years, the sudden sound of horseshoes came again.

Passing through the intersecting branches, the remaining sunlight painted patches of light on the ground.

The horseshoes stepped on the patches of light, making them ripple like water waves, and the piebald horse under them let out a triumphant neigh.

Jeanne sat sideways on the saddle, resting her head on Hohen's chest, and the long dress at her ankles rose and fell with the grassy wind.

"Where are we going?"

Jeanne looked forward, the black forest in front of her was like where a witch lived, so cold and dark that it seemed like another world.

"Our destination." Hohen's hand holding the reins was a little stiff, "It's what Harken told me, the only place near Jeanne d'Arc Castle worth coming to in late autumn."

Tucking the hair hanging from her cheek behind her ear, Jeanne put her ear back to Hohen's chest, she could hear a clear and chaotic heartbeat.

Booming, as if there were two hearts beating at the same time, just like when he held her and said "I believe in you".

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Hohen was wearing peasant-like coarse clothes, and Jeanne seemed like a noble who had just escaped from a banquet.

It was like a peasant in a knight's novel eloping with a noble lady.

Jeanne's face flushed slightly again.

Hohen silently urged the horse to accelerate again, as if the night was chasing him behind him.

In the gaps between the dark black pine forest and beech trees, the warhorse scattered the deep mist to both sides.

The moss-covered trees quickly approached them, and then became blurred in front of them, and the light spots under the hooves became more and more intense.

"We're here."

Sunlight returned to Jeanne's world, she squinted her eyes, but when she saw everything in front of her, her eyes couldn't help but widen.

The world was almost completely quiet at this moment.

The red light of the setting sun shook the maple leaves all over the mountain, and the fresh and cold fragrance waves floated with the wind, the whole mountain was swaying with the evening.

Hundreds of millions of maple leaves rustled in unison, surrounded by the green river water printed with purple-red sunset clouds, and the red all over the mountain rippled and burned.

Under the branches and maple leaves, the green grass was chaotically painted, and the boundary between the red maple and green grass could not be seen clearly, they were blurred together.

Sitting sideways on horseback, holding Hohen's waist, Jeanne's posture was the best viewing position, she sat there blankly, unable to say a word.

The evening wind lifted her skirt, and the red leaves circled past her ankles.

She looked up and realized that the black-green pine and beech trees on both sides of the road had turned into rustling red maple trees from who knows when.

Half-yellow and half-red maple leaves fell like golden rain, falling into Hohen and Jeanne's collars against the wind.

Reining in the naughty big horse, Hohen jumped off the horse and tied the horse to a tree by the road.

He held Jeanne's waist, wanting to hug her off the horse.

But Jeanne jumped off the horse by herself, she walked towards the red maple mountain on her own, stepped on the grass covered with maple leaves, and stared blankly at everything in front of her.

The ocean of maple leaves slowly swayed, as if greeting Jeanne.

"Brother, in that little heaven you mentioned, is there such a scene?"

"Yes, but generally speaking, it's difficult for you to enjoy it alone, you'll only see internet celebrities and old men and women walking back and forth on the thick maple leaves in strange poses."

"Do you miss it there?"

"I hate it there." Hohen paused for five seconds, "But when I left, I missed it again."

"Do you like it here? Do you like Jeanne, Jeanne d'Arc Castle?"

Pretending not to hear, Hohen just looked up at the sunset on the maple leaves, it was unknowingly hiding behind the mountain.

The setting sun sank on the top of the mountain, the red light on the mountainside gradually faded, and one-third of the sky was covered with stars.

Standing next to Jeanne, Hohen didn't continue to look at the red leaves all over the mountain, but turned his head and looked at Jeanne's side face.

Her face was submerged in the glow, painted into a black silhouette by the light, her long eyelashes were shaking, and no joy or sorrow could be seen on her face.

When the setting sun completely disappeared, Jeanne's face also fell into darkness.

An inexplicable sense of suffocation occupied Hohen's mind.

"Brother, we should go."

…………

On the way back from the forest, Jeanne seemed to be asleep, without saying a word.

She buried her head in Hohen's arms, and her body rose and fell with the horse.

When they returned to the camp, they woke up again, and the sky was already covered with stars.

"Your Highness, you're finally back." Taking the reins from Hohen's hand, Xixi breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Hohen, "I thought you were caught by bandits."

"Haha, I'm late, sorry." Hohen scratched his head and dismounted with a smile.

Aermang squeezed over: "Your Highness, we found some clues in the previous account books..."

"We'll talk about this later." Hohen interrupted Aermang's words and walked towards Madelan who was welcoming him.

"I'm counting on you during this time," Horne said, holding Madelaine's hand. "Tonight, you and Bourvilf go to the Duke and settle everything. Remember, the Duke is not to be relied upon, only used. Understand?"

"Understood," Madelaine nodded emphatically. "I will definitely hold on until you come to pick us up."

"Do the people in the camp know where I'm going?"

"They all know you're going to the Holy See City. They're just a little scared that you'll forget about them after you go there."

"It can't be helped," Horne sighed.

Turning his head, Horne looked at the twenty-eight people present, including Cosette, Grampun, Yeshka, Sisi, Rene, Duvaron, Armand…

The oldest and most loyal of Horne's followers were all here.

"Is everyone ready?"

Sisi nodded: "The luggage is all packed, ready to go at any time."

"Time is of the essence." Horne looked up at the moonlight. "Let's go now."

Looking at this camp, which had been transformed from scratch, Horne felt quite emotional, but he immediately frowned again.

He saw Jeanne, still in her black dress, beside the camp gate.

"Jeanne, aren't you going to change? You can't wear this dress all the time. It's going to be cold sailing at night."

"Your Grace." Jeanne stood by the edge of the camp, still covered in mud, like a chamomile flower just emerging from the soil. "Go ahead, I have something to do."

Horne was immediately stunned: "Something to do? What could be so important right before we leave? Anything else can wait."

"It can't wait. I don't want to go to Pond Town."

"Why? Once we get to Pond Town, we won't care about Carrie and the others. We'll get married directly, you know…"

"Your Grace, don't lie to me anymore." Jeanne smiled as if she was crying. "You are the Holy Grandson. My brother, his name is Horne, he has been killed by Barnett.

You are a good person. You always consider my feelings, trying your best to play him, afraid of making me sad.

But I have to understand that my brother is dead. I am not your real sister after all, not the one you love, am I?"

"I can be," Horne said quickly. "We can go to Pond Town. Our children will inherit a great empire."

"You are the Holy Grandson. Your mission is to create a small kingdom of heaven. You see far, too far…" Jeanne looked at Horne's face in the moonlight, but Horne couldn't see hers clearly.

"And me, and us, we are just common people. We have nothing. Our horizons are too narrow. We can't see the future, only the present.

The small kingdom of heaven you speak of is good, but what's the use if they can't all reach tomorrow?

I have been following you, doing what you asked, but I don't seem to be useful at all. My lightning can't break armor, my strength is not as good as Carrie's, my knowledge is not as good as Sisi's, and my wisdom is not as good as yours.

As for the lightning fusion you mentioned, you don't really need me. I think there are many enchantment wizards related to lightning in Black Serpent Bay. With your status and connections, it won't be difficult to find them for help.

Staying here, those believers know that I am your sister, a saint. They know you haven't abandoned them, so they won't hesitate or worry.

Using my way to resist the Church's army, this is the only thing I can do.

As for the engagement you mentioned, I know it's a benevolent lie, because, because…"

After a long silence, Jeanne slowly opened her mouth:

"Your Grace, you see, from the beginning until now, you are still unwilling to call me sister, aren't you?"