Virgin Knight Who Is the Frontier Lord in the Gender Switched World - Chapter 61

In the modern era of my previous life, the great abbot of Ireland left the famous words, “Our Druids are to Christ,” but in this other world, there’s no need to leave such words.

Here, Druids mean the pope, bishops, and priests of monotheism.

However.

Even though people know such things as part of their education, it’s not something they’d immediately recall.

The mythology of the Celtic people.

Who they are called in this world, I do not know, nor does it matter anymore.

There’s only one thing you need to remember.

The knightly tales from mythology that Mother Marianne used to tell me as bedtime stories, and those words.

The Geis.

Yes, I remember.

The name of that oath, taboo, and promise practiced in ancient Celt.

The name of the cursed spell, I clearly remember.

Ah, yes.

In my previous life, famous instances like Cú Chulainn or Diarmuid, who died because of it.

In the current world, no one swears by such a cursed spell.

But I will do it.

I will swear the Geis, a ritual that has become a complete taboo among knights, right here today.

“Priest, my Druid, are you ready to take my oath!!”

With madness in my eyes, I glared at the priest.

Please help me.

Priest of the Cologne sect, my Druid.

Hear the oath of me, your follower.

Something beyond my power and schemes is happening.

In this other world, I’ve never been afraid on the battlefield as an unmatched superhero.

But now, I am profoundly afraid of the yet unseen existence of the nomadic horse-riding nation-state.

To break this fear,

To show my resolve to those around me, the cursed spell known as the Geis is necessary.

Right here, I will cut open my abdomen.

“Follower Faust von Polydoro. I am,”

“Priest, are you saying you cannot accept the oath of a knight?”

I may not carry the Great Sword passed down through my ancestors now.

But if you refuse, I will not discard the intimidation I can wield with my voice against the priest.

“Are you saying, as a priest, you cannot accept the oath of this single knight who is a follower?”

“I, as a priest,”

With her aged face deepening its wrinkles as if lost in thought, the priest hesitated.

But her hesitation lasted only a moment.

She then murmured softly.

“I shall accept it. Follower Faust von Polydoro. Your oath,”

“Thank you!”

I was about to shout, intensifying the aura I was spreading to the surrounding nobles.

But.

“Stop! Priest! Faust! What do you take this place for!”

The words of Queen Liesenlotte.

The priest answered.

“With all due respect, in the presence of Queen Liesenlotte herself. And in the full assembly of lords great and small, ecclesiastical nobles,”

The elderly priest boldly responded to Queen Liesenlotte.

“In this place, my follower wholeheartedly makes a knight’s vow! I have seen it now. My follower is willing to devote his life to the country! How could I, a religious leader, a priest, not respond to such resolve? If I refuse, baptism, clergy, and the church itself would lose their raison d’être!”

“How dare you! Are you saying you cannot hear the royal command!”

“If it is your wish, I would not resist even if you decapitate this wrinkled neck. However, this Geis, I cannot stop!”

The priest, silently looking me in the eye.

Yes, that’s the spirit of my Druid.

No one can stop the ceremony now.

“Royal guard, what are you doing? Arrest the priest immediately!”

Queen Liesenlotte, her face turning red with anger, screamed.

But the royal guard,

The guards securing this place were just flustered and couldn’t move.

There’s no such agreement.

Even in the presence of the queen, among lord knights, ecclesiastical nobles, the full assembly,

There’s no agreement that the Geis should not be performed.

On the contrary, there’s an agreement that one should not interfere with the sacred oath between a priest and a knight.

The Geis is taboo, but it is a sacred vow to God through the Druid.

Hence the confusion.

If they were just simple guards, the priest and I would have been restrained by now.

The education and etiquette of the royal guard worked against them.

Well, either way, even if they tried to restrain the priest, I would have just repelled them with my body.

I shout.

“When this vow is broken, let the sky fall and crush me. Let the earth split and swallow me. Let the sea part and engulf me!”

The priest shouted back.

“Follower Faust von Polydoro! State your vow!!”

“Then I swear!!”

I was about to shout my vow.

At that moment.

“Move, Sabine and the others!!”

The scream of Lady Valiere.

The second princess’s royal guard, 14 members unarmed, sprang into action at her words.

Those who can move in this situation are not the wise, but rather the fools.

Queen Liesenlotte, First Princess Anastasia, none could move in this bizarre situation.

No.

Forgive my insulting thoughts, Lady Valiere.

Your concern is appreciated.

But it’s too late.

I grabbed Sabine, who leaped at me, by the arm, swung her around like a stick, and repelled the second princess’s royal guard.

Regrettably, I slammed Sabine onto the floor from her back, making her unable to move for a while.

Then I shout.

“I swear! Within seven years, an apocalypse, the fifth of the seven plagues, akin to it, a nomadic horse-riding nation-state will attack Anhalt! I vow to fight with all my might, even if my arms and legs are torn from my body in resistance!”

An unconventional Geis.

Not simply a vow of taboo.

It’s like an oath.

The natural vow of a knight is to fight valiantly to protect his territory.

But.

This is the fated taboo given to me as a lord knight born in this medieval fantasy world, to protect my subjects and my mother’s grave.

Therefore, my prayer to God shall pass.

“Then I ask next! If within seven years, the nomadic horse-riding nation-state does not attack, what then!!”

Silence.

A moment of quiet passed.

No one moved.

No one spoke.

Everyone seemed to be trying to listen instead.

In the royal palace, within the Queens’s chamber.

Before Her Majesty the Queen, hundreds of lords, and the ecclesiastical nobility sitting in full assembly, I spoke.

“I will cut my belly open. I will take responsibility for causing unnecessary turmoil in this country and die by cutting open my belly.”

I uttered the forbidden words for when the vow is broken.

“As long as the sky does not fall, as long as the earth does not split and the sea does not swallow me, I will keep this promise.”

“With this, the vow of follower Faust von Polydoro is fulfilled. This vow must be upheld even in death.”

The priest stood as an intermediary of God, responding to my vow as a Druid.

Light.

A dazzling light enveloped me.

It was a glorious light, shining as if to mockingly declare it a blessing sworn to God.

The light converged after a second.

The ritual was complete.

I thanked the priest.

“Priest, I am grateful for your cooperation.”

“Did you have this resolve from the beginning?”

“From the start. I’m sorry for deceiving you and bringing you here.”

I deeply bowed to the priest.

I wouldn’t blame her for bearing a grudge.

But there was no other way.

I couldn’t think of anything else with my intellect.

Simply cutting open my abdomen like a Japanese warlord from a past life and making a plea wouldn’t have been enough to be heard.

It had to be done in a way that followed the customs of this other world, making it meaningful.

“What a foolish thing you have done, Faust von Polydoro.”

A trembling voice could be heard from somewhere.

It came from the throne.

“What do you think a Geis is?”

“I recognize it as a vow to God.”

“Do you think it’s a joke, that the judgment of God is fake? Countless heroes in this world have broken their Geis and died!”

Magic and miracles exist here.

I know that much.

This world is a medieval fantasy world.

When the Geis is broken, God will surely pass judgment.

“I have made a sacred promise with the priest as a Druid. If I break this promise, God will surely pass judgment on me.”

“If the nomadic horse-riding nation-state does not come within 7 years, you will die.”

“That’s what I swore. Don’t worry, I will cut my belly open without troubling the hand of God, and my life and death will be decided by me.”

Queen Liesenlotte stood up.

Then, trembling and with her face turning red, she eventually took a deep breath.

It was as if she was spitting blood in mourning as if a family member had already died.

“Your Geis is meaningless. It is completely meaningless, Lord Faust von Polydoro. Who among us believes your words enough to entrust the military power of the country to you?”

“Your Majesty!”

One of the lords.

A face I didn’t recognize well, likely a lord knight of a small territory like me.

She slowly stepped forward, knelt with proper form, and began to speak.

Her voice was shaking.

Originally, she wouldn’t have had the right to appear before Queen Liesenlotte or to speak unless she permitted, just like me.

A small lord knight, in the same situation as an advisor to the second princess.

“For the next seven years, limited to matters concerning the nomads, I vow to temporarily entrust military authority to Her Majesty.”

Despite being slightly scared, she made the vow with a face that mustered all the courage she had.

She stood in front of me and, looking past me, murmured to Queen Liesenlotte.

“Why?”

Queen Liesenlotte quietly asked for her reason.

“My territory is near the Virendorf border. Without Lord Polydoro, it would have been destroyed by Virendorf by now. Because Lord Polydoro has sworn a Geis with his life on the line. To show that my territory, my people, are not ungrateful allies.”

Before she could finish speaking, several more lord knights approached beside her.

Their faces were also unknown to me.

I did not know any connection with them during the Virendorf campaign.

I thought the campaign ended with just formal letters of thanks.

But it seems the lord knights of Anhalt, unknown faces to me who sent those letters, were all proud and couldn’t stand being ungrateful allies.

I tried hard to hold back the tears welling up in my eyes, feeling overwhelmed.

But it seems I was a person not so strong against emotion after all.

Tears flowed down my cheeks, unstoppable.

Then.

“Excuse me, you all, move aside a bit. Rather, I should be in the center.”

“Duchess Astarte!”

I exclaimed without thinking.

Duchess Astarte, who had been silent until then, slowly stepped aside.

With her authority, she pushed aside the small lord knights kneeling and took her place in the center.

Then she too knelt down and properly greeted Queen Liesenlotte.

“Astarte, you too?”

“Because of the camaraderie in the Virendorf battle. Above all, Lord Polydoro is risking his life with his vow. To say that we can barely trust him. That we can trust nothing.”

After a slight pause.

“It questions what it means to be a lord knight. It questions our pride.”

She murmured as if to provoke those around her.

Face.

She spat on the face of the lord knights present in full assembly and provoked them.

Eventually, those who owed a debt to Duchess Astarte’s standing army, those who had a debt to her.

Those lord knights stepped forward onto the red carpet laid out in front of the throne, knelt, and one by one announced themselves.

Among them were lord knights of large territories, well-known even to someone as obscure as me.

Those affiliated lord knights, now unable to remain inactive in the face of this, formed a line and knelt.

“We too, for the next seven years, under the same conditions, vow to entrust military authority to Her Majesty.”

The vow.

Following my and the priest’s vow to God, it was made.

A ceremony of vows between the lord knights and Queen Liesenlotte.

That was good.

My wishes were being fulfilled right before my eyes.

But.

It wasn’t enough yet.

Not everyone.

Not all the lord knights yet.

Just as we were reaching half, there at that moment.

“Lord Polydoro, may I ask you something?”

A marquise, who had questioned if I had the resolve, quietly asked.

“What is it?”

I wiped away my tears and desperately tried to hide my cheeks flushed with emotion as I answered.

It’s not over yet.

Stay strong, Faust von Polydoro.

“Indeed. Indeed, there is a way to defeat the northern nomads within a year. And though it’s somewhat impolite to ask now, are you truly convinced that the nomadic nation-state will attack Anhalt?”

“That’s correct.”

“Then, with conditions.”

She slowly stepped forward.

Smiling wryly at the thought of joining the line on the red carpet at the very end.

“If, in next year’s military service, we witness you fighting alongside us and defeating the northern nomads within a year, we’ll not only entrust you with military authority but also promise to mobilize our territories to work towards countermeasures against the nomadic nation-state. Don’t disappoint me.”

She knelt on the red carpet, making her vow.

The faction led by the marquise, their group forming a line, some of them smiling wryly as they imitated the marquis.

With this, the number of supporters exceeded the majority of the lord knights.

For the remaining lord knights, still undecided, Princess Anastasia, the First Princess, took an unexpected action.

“For the remaining lords, I will make a request.”

Princess Anastasia bowed deeply as if delivering the final blow.

“Princess Anastasia! Please don’t bow!! Are you saying we should believe in Lord Polydoro’s words?!”

“You all should understand, that Lord Polydoro has sworn a Geis and shown his resolve. He’s a complete fool. Truly, a complete fool.”

I was scolded.

It’s understandable; I think of myself as a fool too.

But.

“However, I feel responsible for not stopping such a fool. I want to see this through with this fool to the end. We fought together through the hellish Virendorf campaign, as comrades in arms. If you say you cannot believe in Lord Polydoro’s words to the end, if you say you cannot believe even with the use of a Geis, then believe in me instead. Believe in me, who will bear the future of Anhalt.”

I had never seen Princess Anastasia bow her head like this before.

She, with her reptilian gaze, was so fitting in intimidating others.

But now, she was bowing her head to the lord knights, regardless of their small or large territories, those still undecided to the very end.

“Understood.”

The remaining lord knights, who had kept their decisions pending to the very end, could no longer resist.

Everyone stepped on the red carpet, with only Duchess Astarte at the forefront bowing her head, and thereafter, there was no distinction in rank.

The moment was when military authority against the nomads was unified under Queen Liesenlotte’s command.