When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#379 - Juanno's Last Lesson

The raging firelight cast an orange-red glow on half of Catherine's face, her hard-soled riding boots making a clattering sound on the hard city wall floor.

Donning a breastplate and helmet, Catherine held a meter-long peacekeeper's baton in her hand, running quickly under the protection of a dozen mercenaries.

Beside them, the city was ablaze, flames erupting from the doors and windows of buildings every now and then.

Militiamen in blue cloaks with white trim, under the command of Mittenier, were tearing down all the houses around the fire source to create a firebreak.

Amidst the fire, wizards in black robes stood in a row. Under the scolding of their leader, they ceased using frost spells and instead collectively threw bottles of alchemical potions into the sea of flames.

The successive detonations of three Red Dragon Breath bombs in the city rapidly expanded the fire. Some militiamen had already gone to apprehend the culprits, but so far, they had only caught a few rogue local ruffians who had helped.

"Hah!"

Looking up, Catherine saw the melee between Imperial soldiers and Council soldiers once more.

Before her was another section of the city wall that had been breached. The narrow wall corridor was only wide enough for four people to stand shoulder to shoulder.

Black armor and light blue tunics pressed against each other, the clashing of swords creating a harsh metallic screech, a vortex of steel constantly turning.

"Charge through, don't worry about me!" Catherine took out her peacekeeper's baton, aiming it at the group of guards.

"Kill!" The black knights didn't hesitate, drawing the long swords from their waists and charging towards the guards.

With a few kicks, they overturned the shields of the rear guards. A few slashes resulted in seven or eight heads flying up neatly.

"Where did these transcendent knights come from?"

"Quick, turn around!"

"Damn, can't break their armor."

"Aha!" Just as all the guards were fighting desperately at the front, a triumphant shout rang out from behind Catherine.

An armored soldier, raising his long sword, leaped from behind Catherine, smashing a heavy jumping strike onto Catherine's back.

Catherine immediately grunted, but the armored soldier's face changed from ecstasy to horror.

This jumping strike, which could cleave an ordinary farmer in two, only left an invisible white mark on Catherine's expensive, alchemist master-level, custom-made dwarven mithril-forged white crystal steel armor.

Before the armored soldier could recover from the fear of the氪金 warrior, the dwarven master-level mithril-forged long spike smoothly pierced through his simple chainmail, penetrating his soft abdomen.

"P-peacekeeper's baton?"

The armored soldier looked in bewilderment at the weapon in Catherine's hand. This was a peacekeeper's baton for militiamen, who would bother to equip a peacekeeper's baton with such an expensive spiked hammerhead?

"President, are you alright?" Seeing Catherine attacked, a guard captain immediately abandoned the battlefield and returned to Catherine's side.

Catherine shook her head: "He bumped into me, nothing serious."

Under the charge of a dozen banner-level knights, the dozens of guards who had climbed the city wall were quickly driven off the wall.

When the last guard was thrown off the wall by the militiamen, this entire section of the west side of the city wall was retaken by Catherine.

But looking around, the entire city wall was filled with scattered battles between Imperial troops and Council troops.

To extinguish the fire in the city, Catherine had to divert a large number of troops to fight the fire.

With more troops in the city, there were naturally fewer troops on the city wall.

Plus, with the Red Dragon Breath detonated, the defenders of Rapidwater City had no way to counter large engineering equipment.

But if they didn't control the fire in the city, they would be attacked on both sides by flames and the army.

Even if they held out, it would only delay their death by two or three days.

Perhaps by then, those who were now the most determined citizen soldiers would want to open the gates and surrender.

Currently, Rapidwater City was at its weakest, and under the notification of that internal traitor, the Imperial army outside just happened to launch an attack.

She should have listened to Cece's suggestion to establish a military police force. At the time, she thought it was too harsh, but now it seemed absolutely necessary.

But fortunately, under Pettier's unified coordination, they actually managed to withstand this wave of the Imperial offensive with their limited forces.

To be honest, they could hold out until now, Pettier had definitely made a great contribution.

Catherine would never have imagined that an ordinary Highfort City Grocery Merchant Guild could simultaneously cultivate Pettier and Horne, two military and political geniuses.

"President, President, look quickly—"

"What's wrong?" Catherine, who was originally resting, looked up.

"On the west side, on the west side of the city wall." The beacon soldier who delivered the message stuttered, "Edict Knights, Edict Knights are on the wall."

Catherine stood by the wall, looking towards the west side of the city wall.

It was covered in flames, but she could still see figures flickering with orange-red light spots.

Those were Edict Knights, only Red Dragon Breath could kill and drive away the Edict Knights.

"It's over..." Someone said the word, and everything around seemed to cool down a degree.

"Is it over?" Catherine suddenly stopped talking.

She knew a way, a way she feared the most, the way she was most unwilling to mention.

She still remembered those contemptuous and fearful gazes in those two years, those strange gazes, as if she at that time was not a seven-year-old girl, but some kind of monstrous beast.

Catherine often suffered from insomnia, not because she drank too much black tea during the day, but because she always dreamed of those experiences in the dark night.

The experience of being abandoned by her mother, the experience of being driven out by villagers with pitchforks, the experience of being hunted down by knights...

She finally found a group of refugee companions who were willing to accept her.

But after using her to defeat bandits and robbers, they feared her power and sold her to the church.

If she hadn't been clever enough to escape in advance, she would probably have died long ago.

She didn't want to go through these things again.

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Taking the other guards, Catherine ran quickly down the city wall in a daze. She stood under the wall, seeing the running militiamen.

Under Pettier's command, they were rushing towards the west side of the city wall, where the gap was getting bigger and bigger.

Pettier, with arrows stuck in his shoulders and white hair at his temples, was still shouting and transferring teams of soldiers to the front line.

"I've finally found you." A senior partner of Megerd ran over, "Quick, let's go."

"Go? Go where?"

"Of course, leave through the underground sewer. The Azik Alliance is protecting us." Seeing Catherine's absent-minded expression, the senior partner thought she was reluctant and quickly added, "If Grand Duke Molia T wins, we can come back."

Because Catherine's Megerd Chamber of Commerce performed well, with a large number of Elven merchants participating in the shares, the Azik Alliance would not let Catherine go.

But Catherine stopped in place.

Taking off her glasses and placing them in her palm, these delicate crystal glasses were given to her by her teacher when she was sixteen years old.

Fifteen years had passed, and there was not a single scratch on the crystal.

She had at least ten more fifteen years, but how many years did the Thousand River Valley people have left? How many more years could they endure?

If she retreated, how long would the Thousand River Valley have to wait for such an opportunity?

Ten fifteen years? Maybe twenty, thirty, or before that, the Thousand River Valley people would be replaced by the blood of Fran and Leia immigrants?

Suddenly, she realized what she was doing?

She led the Megerd Chamber of Commerce step by step to the peak, did a lot of dirty things, what was it for?

When did she start considering her position in the Thousand River Valley after the war? When did she start considering the power and status of the Megerd Chamber of Commerce?

If the teacher was here today, what would he do?

"President, President?"

Catherine looked up and looked at Mittenier in front of her: "What did you just say?"

"For the sake of the Thousand River Valley, you should run away quickly."

"…………"

"President? Please give me a definite answer." That senior partner was almost dying of anxiety.

"For the sake of the Thousand River Valley?" Catherine looked at the palm of her hand, the crystal lens reflected the raging fire, "The teacher died for the sake of the Thousand River Valley, am I going to run away for the sake of the Thousand River Valley?"

"President, I'm not..."

"Then what's the point of the teacher's death?!" Catherine almost roared out these words.

Mittenier, who was trying to persuade her, was stopped by Carl. He looked at Catherine with burning eyes: "Then what do you want to do?"

Putting her glasses back on, Catherine closed her eyes.

The location of Rapidwater City was too important. If this place was lost, Molia T in the north and Horne in the east would be in danger.

If the teacher was here, he would probably let the women, children, and young people board the ship, and then lead the remaining people and soldiers to fight to the death.

Yes, even if there was only a one percent chance, he would not give up.

What about herself? Hesitating, but still hesitating even though she had more than 50% certainty.

If she was a student all her life, it would be too bad if she couldn't surpass her teacher.

If that meant the old nightmare would return, then let it return!

Although it was more terrifying than death, although it would cause Catherine to lose everything she had, everything she had was not what she really wanted.

What she wanted was the free hometown in her dreams, a free Thousand River Valley, a place without wandering.

"Vampire Vine seeds, do we still have them?" Catherine opened her eyes, but those eyes belonged to the sixteen-year-old Catherine.

Mittenier was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly: "I really didn't expect that there would be a chance to use it..."