《Silver Tree》 Chapter 0 - Note Note * This work is fiction based on historical facts, and some of the characters and events appearing in the work are fictional characters and events. * This work contains scenes of heresy trials and tortures related to certain religions, criticism of sectarian-secular conflicts, and depictions of pagan discrimination and persecution that was prevalent at the time. If anyone feels offended, we apologize in advance through this meeting and ask for your kind understanding. * Among the heretical controversies that appear in the novel, unorthodox interpretations of pagan mythology and theology at the time and hypotheses based on fictional thinking are included. * The Paris streets, the Cite Palace, and the Knights HQ depicted in this work were implemented by referring to a map of Paris in the 1300s, a floor plan of the Contemporaneous Cite Palace, a 3D stereoscopic restoration video, and descriptions, records, and material drawings at the time. A description that is significantly different from the present appearance may appear. Please note. Characters * Leah d¡¯Acre ¨C A silversmith from Acre, the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The eldest chattering daughter of a cowardly family, she has a cheerful and bright personality. She is at war with the Saracen, and while she escapes from Acre with her brother, she becomes embroiled in the disappearance of a castle relic by the Knights Templar. * Balthasar de Hollande ¨C The royal knight, the most powerful in jousting, is nicknamed the Knight of White Silver. Wandering as an orphan who does not know his parents or hometown, he grew up in the Knights Templar with the help of the king. He later joins the Knights Templar as he swore to God. * Philippe Le Belle ¨C King of France, handsome king, king of rock, king of steel¡­ has many nicknames. A king who laid the foundation for central government in the feudal system, possessing moral integrity and piety. He is known for his cool personality with little expression of emotion. < People around Leah > * Amos ¨C Leah¡¯s father. A craftsman of precious metals in Acre, who came to the East following the Crusades and settled in Acre, hiding his identity as an Ashkenazi Jew. * Celine ¨C Leah¡¯s mother * Rachelle ¨C Leah¡¯s younger sister * Golden Tooth Benson¨C Seal of Amos Workshop, Leah¡¯s fianc¨¦e * Tobias ¨C Rabbi of Ashkenazi village, Leah¡¯s relative * Maman Sylvia ¨C daughter-in-law of Tobias * Red-haired Camille ¨C a girl from the village of Hollande * Pascal ¨C Old Bachelor of Hollande Village * Eli ¨C The loan shark of Ashkenazi village * Daniel ¨C Eli¡¯s youngest son, Rachelle¡¯s fiance < Knights of the Templar & Knights of St. John > * Guillaume de Beau Jos, 21st general commander of the Knights Templar * Thibaut Godin, 22nd general commander of the Knights Templar * Jacques de Mollet, 23rd general commander of the Knights Templar * Raymond de Toulouse, Knight of the Crusades, nephew of Jacques de Mole * Joffrey de Charnet, commander of the Normandy branch of the Knights Templar * Joffroy de Gonneville, Templar Poatu, Head of the Aquitaine Branch * Hugh de Farrow, Inspector of the Knights Templar * Gerard de Willier, Commander of the Templars, France Come and read on our website wuxia worldsite. Thanks * Mosel Fleur, Captain of the Siren of the Knights Templar * Fulke de Villar¨¦, Commander of the Knights of St. John < People of Cite Palace > * Jeanne de Navarre ¨C Queen of France, Queen of Navarre, Countess of Champagne and Brie *Louis de Navarre ¨C King¡¯s eldest son, Louis Hutin (obstinate), Louis X * Isabelle de France ¨C King¡¯s eldest daughter (Madame Loyal), Queen of England * Philippe Le Ardi ¨C Philip III. Philippe Le Bell¡¯s father * Marie de Brabant- Second queen of Philip III * Count Charles de Valois ¨C Philippe¡¯s younger brother * Catherine de Courtne ¨C Wife of Charles de Valois. Latin Empire Empress * Count Robert de Clermont ¨C King¡¯s uncle. Louis IX¡¯s youngest son * Duke Louis de Bourbon ¨C King¡¯s cousin, son of Count Clermont * Hugh de Bouville ¨C From start to finish * Guillaume de Nogare ¨C Royal Court Justice, protector of the national seal * Anguerand Leportier de Marini ¨C Royal Guard Bishop, Chancellor * Philippe Leportier de Marini ¨C Archbishop of Saens, half brother of Angerand * Guillaume Wingbert ¨C King¡¯s Confessor, Director of the Royal Inquisition of France * Guillaume de Pleasian ¨C Royal Spokesperson, Legal Counsel * Alain de Palauille ¨C Captain of the Guard * Jean Mayar ¨C Archives of the Royal Secretariat * Nicolas de Prouville ¨C King¡¯s Confessor, Cardinal, Professor of Theology at the University of Paris * Gilles Eislain de Montague ¨C Royal Court Justice, Archbishop of Narbonne * Georges de Marseille ¨C Captain of the Leah, dispatched by the king, in charge of the pursuit of the Knights. Read latest Chapters at Wuxia World . Site Only * Pope Boniface VIII (Bonifacio) ¨C Benedetto Caetani, Conflict with King Philip over a religious dispute, the Anani incident broke out * Pope Clement V (Clemens) ¨C Bertrand de Gauss, first pope of Avignon * Verange Fredol ¨C Cardinal, full ambassador of the Pope, Inquisitor of the Templar * Etienne de Chiss ¨C Cardinal, full ambassador of the Pope, Inquisitor of the Templar *** Chapter 0 - Prologue Please read the previous chapter ¡®Note¡¯ before reading Prologue. *** Prologue [Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful girl in a small country village. One day, a noble prince appeared in front of her. The Prince, while offering the crown on his head, said, ¡°Beautiful one, I love you. I will give you the crown I have. Please marry me.¡± But she shook her head and answered. ¡°Sorry. I can¡¯t give you an answer yet.¡± Next, a dignified knight appeared. The knight offered the sword wrapped around his waist and said, ¡°Beautiful one, I love you. I will give you my sword. Please marry me.¡± ¡°Sorry. I can¡¯t give you an answer yet.¡± Then, a wealthy merchant appeared. The merchant looked at the huge gold nuggets he had loaded onto the cart and said, ¡°Beautiful one, I love you. I will give you my gold. Please marry me.¡± ¡°Sorry. I can¡¯t give you an answer yet.¡± The three suitors were very angry. They thought the maiden was making fun of them, so they accused her and turned her away. When they came back later, the maiden was already buried in the cold ground. But in the garden where she was buried, beautiful flowers that they had never seen before were in full bloom. As if to answer the three suitors, the buds were in the shape of the crown offered by the Prince, the leaves were in the shape of the sword offered by the knight, and the roots were in the shape of the golden mass offered by the wealthy merchant¡­] ¨C Do you know which flower it is about? ¨C Of course, I do, Your Majesty. It¡¯s a flower that was in our yard. Uh¡­ not now, a long time ago, when I was a kid. ¨C Aha? Was this flower in full bloom in the yard? ¨C Yes. In spring, red, yellow, and white flowers bloom brilliantly, and the buds really are like crowns, the leaves are pointed like the knights¡¯ swords, and the roots are like yellow gold chunks. No one in the village knew the exact name of the flower, but the shape of the flower bud resembles the round point of the turban, so we called it ¡®Tulipa¡¯. ¨C You¡¯re mistaken. This is the secret lore of the French royal flower, the lily. ¨C What? Well, no way! ¨C Why do you think that¡¯s impossible? ¨C Oh, well, that¡¯s¡­ ¨C That¡¯s strange. Why would an Ashkenazi* man who lived in Paris, France, not the Eastern Utremer, name it the Flower of Turban? Only some native Parisians* are familiar with the hats of the Saracens*. Besides, weren¡¯t the hats that were worn by the Ashkenazi people not turbans, but instead yellow, horn-shaped hats? ¨C Your Majesty. I don¡¯t live in Utremer, but I know what turbans are. Your Majesty has never been to the Ashkenazi village, but you know about the kippah and horn hats we wear. Come and read on our website wuxia worldsite. Thanks ¨C The way you talk to the king is arrogant, Ashkenazi. ¡­So, what choice did the beautiful woman make in the end? The Prince? ¨C The flowers that bloom in the buried land must be her heart. That means, she chose all three, not two, not one, until the end. This means, in the end, no one was chosen. ¨C The woman didn¡¯t turn down any of her proposals. She said she could not give them an answer ¡®yet¡¯. The word ¡®yet¡¯ doesn¡¯t mean to say no, it means to wait. Doesn¡¯t it? ¨C She is dead, though? Then it¡¯s over, isn¡¯t it? ¨C Because human will doesn¡¯t end with death¡­ It is said that she left a message to her suitors before her death. ¨C Oh, my God! How shameless? ¨C But one of the suitors really believed it and began waiting. Even though he knew she had fallen asleep in the cold ground, he sat in the shade of a garden full of flowers, under the tree where she was buried, waiting endlessly. ¨C Well, who was that? So what happened? ¨C I don¡¯t know who he was. Anyway, the suitor waited and waited in the garden and eventually became a stone, leaning against the tree where she slept. ¨C Oh, my God¡­ ¨C The suitor prayed earnestly as he turned a stone. ¡®I can no longer wait for you, so now you come to me. Even in the very distant future, to be born with you so that we can meet again. I will still love you, and I will confess again with the same gift, so please answer me properly then.¡¯ ¨C Oh, my God. That¡¯s not love, but a foolish obsession. And? ¨C As time passed, his stone body was shattered by the wind and rain, but his heart, harder than a stone, and the soul that dwelled there, was deeply anchored in the tree, looking down at the flowers that bloom year after year, waiting for her to return. ¨C ¡­ ¨C In the distant future, the beautiful owner of the garden will turn to stone, embrace the traces of the shattered suitor, and swear an apology. ¡®I will always keep my promises, so I ask you to keep your promises too.¡¯ ¨C So, how did it end, Your Majesty? Is the suitor alive? Or was he born again? So what happened to the two after that? Did they meet again? In heaven? On the ground? What was the woman¡¯s choice? ¨C ¡­Are you curious about the story behind it? *** Keywords: These might be wrong, I googled a few keywords so that it¡¯s easy to understand. If you find it wrong, please let me know in the comments section. I would very much appreciate it! ???? Read latest Chapters at Wuxia World . Site Only Ashkenazi ¨C The term Ashkenazi refers to a group of Jews who lived in the Rhineland valley and in neighboring France before their migration eastward to Slavic lands (e.g., Poland, Lithuania, and Russia) after the Crusades (11th¨C13th century) and their descendants. Parisian ¨C A native or inhabitant of Paris, France. Saracens ¨C Saracen (plural Saracens) A member of a nomadic people from the Sinai near the Roman province of Arabia in the early centuries CE, who were specifically distinct from Arabs. Chapter 1 - A Chatty Daughter Of A Cowardly Family (1) Part 1. Leah d¡¯Acre A Chatty Daughter Of A Cowardly Family ¡°You can go there alone, can¡¯t you, Leah? This sword, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be able to deliver it to General Guillaume.¡± ¡°Yes, father. I¡¯ll deliver it to him, don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡®I can¡¯t do it because I¡¯m scared¡­¡¯ She quickly nodded before the whisper popped out. She was not her four-year-old brother, Rachel. She was sixteen, so don¡¯t be fooled into thinking that she couldn¡¯t get the job done. As soon as she received the heavy sword, which was wrapped in cloth, her throat itched, but her mouth automatically closed shut when she saw her father trembling more than she was. ¡®I¡¯m not scared! I¡¯m not scared! I can go and come back safely!¡¯ Leah shouted inwardly about ten times, clenched her fists, and nodded. However, she didn¡¯t stop walking even though she was trembling. Her family was full of cowards. The greatest among them was her father. On the outside, he was no less than a ferocious brown bear, but he easily fell into surprise and was very good at running away from scary things. As the head of the family with the motto ¡®Make a lot of money quietly, eat well, and live well for a long time,¡¯ he had lived a life where his neighbours kept hitting and running, yet he never had watched a single fight. Objectively speaking, he could be said to be more fearful than Rachelle, who was known for being the biggest crybaby in town. Of course, her mother was unhappy too. Even though the couple had two children, they lived in a narrow house. It was so small that they often heard squeaking sounds from the rats passing the roof at night. So, as long as Leah was capable of slaying rats and insects, it could be said she was of ¡®Hercules¡¯ grade in the house. Given the circumstances, Leah¡¯s greatest wish had become to be a brave and strong woman like her aunt Alice, who lived next door. To protect the family full of cowards. In fact, when she was young, her wish was to become an invincible knight like King Richard (Richard of England) the Great of Angleterre, who was said to have the heart of a lion. [T/N: Angleterre ¨C The English word England comes from Old English, Engla land, which like the French word, ¡°Angleterre¡± means ¡°land of the Angles.¡±] It was a simple dream to defeat those evil Mamluk cultists, take away the treasures of Al-Aqsa Palace, make a fortune, and live happily by eating delicious food every day. Sadly, in order to achieve that dream, she had to be born as a ¡®son¡¯ of a ¡®noble family¡¯, and also as a ¡®handsome boy¡¯. Even if she prayed to the Virgin Mary and Saint Michel (Saint Michael) the Archangel a hundred times a day, it was highly unlikely that such a miracle would happen in this lifetime. So, when she got to know the world a little, Leah, with tears in her eyes, decided to change her dreams in a swipe. By becoming a well-paid person, and having a strong and brave handsome knight as a husband. It wasn¡¯t impossible for a knight with a very small territory to marry the daughter of a wealthy artisan. Among them, there may be a strong and brave knight who still had faint traces of being a flower boy. [Ed./N: Flower boy = a boy as pretty as flowers, so Leah wanted a pretty, strong, and brave knight!] Although Leah was young, she was very realistic, so the knight of her dreams was often the owner of a pea-sized estate, not a handsome prince of a big country. Of course, Leah did not compromise on appearance in the slightest, so the appearance of the lord of her dreams was very beautiful all year round. Well, what if a man was a little poor? I can make money if I¡¯m competent. After all, I¡¯m not a fragile metalsmith! I¡¯ll be a wife who can wrap her head to her toes with self-made gold, and even make weapons for myself! Alas, my heart swells. God. What a perfect match! Leah used to dream of working gently on the ¡®poor but handsome knight¡¯ every night. But her simple and realistic dream came to nothing when her father engaged her to Benson from the same workshop last year. Her father had a beautiful and grand dream of his own. It was his dream to have the best and most reliable of the three craftsmen as his son-in-law, who could hit the hammer with his daughter in the workshop. Then, when Leah¡¯s classmate Marguerite got married last year to him and was already pregnant with her second child, her father became upset. So, out of the three craftsmen, Benson, who had poor skills, poor dealings, and an even worse face, but who was very good at speaking and was naughty, was chosen as the son-in-law. ¡®He¡¯s a merchant from heaven. If we make it and he sells it, we¡¯ll be rich in no time!¡¯ The future her father dreamt of grew rosy day by day. But the fianc¨¦ was quite far from the groom Leah had dreamed of. He wasn¡¯t brave, he was far from a handsome guy ¨C the trinity of crooked teeth, yellow teeth, and this wasn¡¯t easy ¡ª let alone a knight, he was a coward who never even spoke a word. She hated to say this, but that man was the perfect son-in-law for a scaredy-cat family. After their engagement, whenever he saw her, he smiled while humming up to his nostrils, grinning broadly, and kept trying to touch her hands, shoulders, or waist. Even just looking into his eyes gave Leah goosebumps. She didn¡¯t want to get married and instead wanted to go to a convent right away. No matter how good a man was, to be honest, even though decent manners are a little important, a little caution, taciturn charm, and little looks are needed. No, a lot of looks. It¡¯s not that she wanted a shiny appearance like the handsome knight who was loved by women, or His Majesty, Richard the Lionheart, or His Majesty Philippe, who was rumoured to be a cold-looking man, representing France. Come and read on our website wuxia worldsite. Thanks It¡¯s not that she wanted strict chivalry like the Knights Templar, who couldn¡¯t even talk to women. Just, if this man could do the basics, where he could get better, just the basics! However, her father¡¯s grand dream was shattered when the prospective son-in-law stole 40 of her father¡¯s florin gold coins and jumped onto a boat. That night, Leah offered a prayer of thanks to God in tears. Of course, those 40 florin gold coins were worth the blood tears, but if the man hadn¡¯t escaped with it, Leah would have stolen the money and ran away. Now, the only dream left for Leah and her father was ¡®Let¡¯s make a lot of money quietly, eat well, and live well for a long time.¡¯ ¡­And not long after, war broke out in Acre. ¡°It¡¯s gonna be okay, right? Will it be okay? You¡¯re the only one who can go now, but what are you going to do with this?¡± ¡°Ahhhhhhh, honey, where are you! Ahh, help me!¡± ¡°Hey, honey, Celine! I¡¯m here! I¡¯m not going anywhere!¡± Her father jumped like a mouse pricked by a needle and frantically whirled around the door. ¡°D*mn it, what if he comes out now? I don¡¯t have anything to say. I¡¯m going to have to go out to the dock and take a boat right now¡­ Nothing goes as planned.¡± Of course, according to her father¡¯s plan, her family would have left Acre Castle this morning and sat on a nice boat on the dock. But, isn¡¯t it true that life consists of big holes in a rosy plan and tinkering with them? So the night before, the commander of the Knights Templar came and said, ¡°Repair and bring me this sword right away,¡± and her father locked the door of the workshop, finishing the repair in a day. After, her mother went into labour in the morning, and the midwife must have left Acre Castle on the first boat in the morning. Her father described this situation as ¡®a devil¡¯s play¡¯ and ¡®a dung field of fate¡¯, while her mother used to say that it was the will of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. Her father, who was an Ashkenazi pagan and converted to Catholicism during his wandering life, never fully understood her mother¡¯s higher-order claims. How can the Virgin Mary or Jesus, who say that they love them so much, push them into the dung field of fate? Leah supported her father¡¯s opinion. The current situation was just a pit of fate, looking forwards and backward. Leah, the eldest daughter of her family, did not want to get her hair cut off in order to realize the great will of the Virgin Mary. [Ed./N: It was a tradition for those entering the convent to get their hair cut. Hair is like a symbol of vanity, so getting one¡¯s hair cut is symbolic of giving up vanity in order to devote themself to God. Basically, Leah was saying that she didn¡¯t want to become a nun.] What will happen to our family if we don¡¯t get out of the castle today? Leah shook her head and shook off the scenes that came to her mind. This imagination was not very good for the mental health of a coward. For now, she had to think about completing this mission as soon as possible and escaping Acre quickly. *** It had been a month and a half since the Egyptian Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil attacked the castle in Acre. The knights guarding the castle could have raked all the way to the surrounding area, but she couldn¡¯t even figure out how many Mamluk sl*ve units there were. There were as many as a swarm of locusts covering the sky black. Looking down from the citadel, the whole field was filled with the flashing light of helmets, chain armor, and spears, as if the castle was floating on a sea of ??iron. Thump, Thump, Thump. Stones, fireballs, and siege weights from catapults smashed the fortress walls non-stop, and enemy soldiers climbed endlessly on the walls. The Knights of the Knights Templar fought against the Mamluk sl*ve soldiers with incredible valor. Read latest Chapters at Wuxia World . Site Only Even if they were carried on a stretcher with blood covering the chain armor, they grabbed their swords and went out to fight again when they came to their senses. If they couldn¡¯t stand up, they leaned on their spear to get up, and if they couldn¡¯t walk, they crawled back to the wall. They hated being branded a coward more than dead. In fact, she was told that the Crusaders who ran away from battle had to eat like dogs on the floor. ¡®We will defend this Acre and recapture Jerusalem, which had been taken away by the enemy.¡¯ ***