The two gates of the wooden castle that had been destroyed by the Vikings had been restored. However, the soldiers standing guard on the wall of the wooden castle and on both sides of the gate were both strange and familiar to Simon.
Most of them wore a cross helmet with a leather turban and an open padded hood, old long-sleeved soft armor, a belt around their waist, hoods and scarves on their shoulders, and broads in their hands. Leaf spear and military fork.
These soldiers seemed to have entered a lazy trance. They had lived in this comfortable village and fort for a long time, and their vigilance and vigilance had been worn away.
Except for one or two older-looking soldiers who poked their heads out from the wall in confusion and looked at the people coming in front of the fort, the other soldiers were almost completely indifferent.
"Hey, Barry, it's you!" Simon searched through his previous memories and recognized the young soldier standing guard in front of the fort. He used to be a private soldier stationed in Dorstenberg. During this time, he was sent by his father, Baron Cooser, to station in Fordeburg.
"Oh, hey! My respected Master Simon, welcome home!" The young soldier's soul seemed to return to his body in an instant, and he responded to Simon with a smile on his face.
"Master Simon is back!"
"What?"
The soldiers standing guard on the fort wall came to their senses amid whispers, changed their posture, and continued to stand guard with a majestic and energetic posture.
This left Simon speechless, because when he was a child, whenever his father returned to Dorstenberg from afar, these soldiers would use such tricks to greet his father in high spirits.
He really didn't expect that one day, such a trick would be used on him.
Simon entered the fort gate, and to his great surprise, the originally relatively low lord's mansion was gone, replaced by a double-story wooden tower several meters higher than the surrounding fort walls.
"Master, while you were away, Mr. Ryan removed the roof of your villa, and then used part of the building materials shipped from Cologne to build you a double-story lord tower based on the original foundation!" The village chief beamed with joy. As he spoke, the renovation process of the lord's mansion seemed to fly past his cloudy eyes again.
“What a surprise!”
The renovation of the lord's mansion was something Simon specifically asked Ryan to do before leaving Verde Village. Ryan is worthy of being a mason who studied in Rome, and Simon is quite satisfied with this transformation.
Simon got off the horse, and a horse breeder who knew a thing or two about raising horses and was in charge of the stables came over to help Simon hold the reins, and led "Lucky" to the stables. The troughs in the stables were filled with hay, straw and wheat bran.
"By the way, village chief, did you receive a batch of rotten grapes and the letters brought back by my trustee some time ago?" Simon suddenly remembered this matter and looked at the village chief expectantly.
"Yes, sir, it was sent by a group of soldiers and monks from the Frankfurt fief. I was still confused when I received your letter, and the old brewer and Alice were also puzzled. But when the old brewer tasted one After seeing the shriveled grapes, his face was full of surprise, as if he understood something. When I met him a few days ago, this guy was still showing off his newly brewed wine like gems and jewelry. We wanted to taste some of it and he was stingy. Like many Jewish businessmen, they held their hands tightly and insisted on waiting for you to come back before talking." The village chief pursed his lips and shrugged, seeming to be speechless at the stubborn old man of the old brewer.
"It seems that the brewing of noble rot wine has been successful." Simon thought to himself, and a big stone in his heart suddenly fell to the ground.
If the brewing failed, I would be like a fool who spent so much money to buy a bunch of rubbish just to please the church.
At this time, Simon had already reached the gate of the tower, and a soldier standing guard next to the gate of the Lord's Tower pushed open the gate of Simon's Tower.
No one has lived here since it was built, and no blind servant would dare to defecate anywhere in Simon's house. Therefore, unlike other lord towers, the oncoming smell except for some musty and... There is basically no odor like the smell of old wood and the smoky smell of wood burning in the fireplace.
The first floor of the tower was very empty. Simon saw that on the leftmost wall there was a wooden ladder leading to the second floor of the tower. The overall structure was somewhat similar to the tower of Baron Iser to the north.
In addition to the fireplace and simple toilet pit left over from the previous mansion, a large oak table and a large armchair with fur cushions were placed next to the fireplace.
Simon recognized it as the table and chairs left by Fox, the tax collector, in the previous village counting house.
"Village Chief, find someone to arrange a place for Gabriel and Pedi. I'll go in and change clothes first." Simon said to the village chief.
The village chief immediately waved to a young man at the door of the granary beside the tower and gave some instructions. Then, Gabriel and Pedi, who had tied the horses to the stables, followed the young man out of the castle gate.
"Come on, Fatty, help me take off this mail armor." After entering the house, Simon took off his helmet, and with the help of Fatty, he took off the dusty and dirty long-sleeved mail armor and hung it on the wall. on the shelf.
"I think I need to take a shower." Simon frowned as he smelled the strong smell of sweat on his body. There was no way, during the long and arduous journey, I ended up becoming the person I hated the most.
"Everything has been arranged. Master, can I come in?"
The village chief knocked on the door of the tower, and after receiving Simon's promise, he carefully opened the door a crack, walked into the warm first-floor hall of the tower with the cold wind outside, and then quickly closed the door.
"Come, sit by the fire."
Simon leaned comfortably on the back of the big chair and watched the village chief point to a small chair next to the fireplace.
"Oh my god, this weather is really terrible." The village chief untied the animal skin hat. Dense drops of water seeped out from the skin of the originally cold leather hat when it encountered the warm heat emanating from the fireplace.
"But it's much better than last winter anyway, right?" Simon said, feeling that the skin of his lips was almost dry and cracked to the point of bleeding, so he waved to the fat man and asked him to go to the stable and put the baggage on the packhorse. Take out the pot, get some water from the well, and boil it by the fireplace.
"Yes, sir, this year our village has been blessed by God, with granaries full of grain, new serfs and militiamen, warehouses full of weapons and armor, solid wooden walls and wooden forts, and... There were brewers and breweries, supplies and help from the church, churches and priests, and, yes, there were also pilgrims who came here to visit. Unfortunately, the food had been harvested at that time, and they did not see the Holy Spirit. Traces." The village chief put his calloused and scarred hands close to the fireplace and rubbed his hands while saying.
"Hahaha, my God, there are actually people coming for pilgrimage?" Simon couldn't help grinning and didn't know what to say. It seems that this is all "the fault" of that smooth-talking guy Ludwig.
"Yes, sir, you don't know that there is a strange couple among the pilgrims. After they came to Verde Village, they said that they must see the manifestation of God with their own eyes, otherwise they would not leave." The village chief said. Mouth, swallowed.
"Is there such a thing?" Simon asked doubtfully, and by the firelight of the fireplace he could see the helplessness on the wrinkled face of the village chief.
"Yes, but fortunately, the lady's husband is a beekeeper and has his own bee cart. Seeing that the environment here is good, he decided to live here, and promised to give you a jar of honey as the cost of accommodation in the coming year. I agreed to him at that time , arranged for the free farmer Claude, who escaped before the Norman pirates, to live in the house of the old man and his wife. By the way, sir, speaking of that lady, my God, it is better to say that she is a female knight. More relevant..."
"Female knight?" Simon scratched his head, seeming to remember a story he had heard somewhere before.
"That's right, sir, this lady is really different from the noble ladies I usually see. Although she looks very beautiful, she is very strong. She is not wearing the gorgeous dress that noble ladies often wear, but a bright and beautiful dress. Shining chainmail and splint leather boots. She doesn't speak softly like noble ladies, but rather rough, and often even has swear words mixed in. Compared with her, her husband is gentle and polite. . I often wonder if the Creator has reversed their personalities and souls." The village chief spread his hands and sighed.
"Wait a minute, is that lady, or female knight, named Mathilde or Matilda? She speaks with a strong West Frankish accent. And her husband's name is Ercle, and he has black hair. Eyes, from the Kingdom of Italy in the south?" Simon couldn't help but patted the table and stood up. He recalled the stories he had heard in the taverns in Wiesbaden, and was amazed.
"Ah, sir, how did you know? Did you meet little Klein outside the village and he told you in advance?" The village chief looked at Simon in surprise, his gray eyes widening.
Simon took a deep breath, waved his hands, and sat back on the chair. He recalled that at that time, the bard of Wiesbaden finally said that Matilda and Ercle finally embarked on a pilgrimage, but he never thought that in the dark, the big hand of fate would finally control They came here.
"Perhaps they went on a pilgrimage to Cologne and decided to come here after hearing the story of Verde Village in Cologne?" Simon closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. This was the most reasonable explanation he could think of. .
"No, I just heard the story about the couple during my trip." Simon licked his dry lips. "By the way, village chief, where is Klein? It's such a cold day. What are you doing outside the village?”
"Ah, little Klein, he went out to hunt with his hunting bow today. No matter how we tried to persuade him, he didn't listen to the dangers outside the village. Such a stubborn child..." The village chief seemed tired at this time. The father shook his head.
"Lord Simon!"
"Master Simon!"
At this moment, two familiar shouts came from outside the door. Immediately afterwards, after receiving Simon's promise from the door, the door of the tower was opened by the guards outside, and two figures, one large and one small, walked in quickly.
