Battle in bed

The friendship between knights is indeed not much different from cohabitation.

After accepting Conosa's arranged marriage proposal, Joan directly moved her belongings into Damian's mansion without preparing anything else.

Nevertheless, Damian still instructed the servants of the manor to prepare a set of new clothes for Joan and the necessary items for the wedding.

When Joan, dressed in a gray long skirt, entered with the servants, Damian had already changed into a new white robe and gestured for Joan to change into the wedding gown.

Joan was surprised, but she willingly changed into the white wedding dress symbolizing the bride and stood with Damian at the doorway of the new house.

In fact, in the medieval era, the wedding attire for brides and grooms was not well-defined. It was not until the 12th century that a more complete Christian wedding ceremony was formed, but it did not specifically require attire. Only widows needed to prepare coarse cloth to cover their left hand when getting married.

Both of them had straightforward personalities, so Damian directly took Joan's left hand and stood in front of a small shrine at the doorway.

In formal etiquette, this step should appear before the church. However, since the two were not formally married, Damian simplified the ceremony and changed the location to the bedroom doorway.

The reason for holding the bride's left hand is because in Christian legend, woman was formed from Adam's left rib. However, there was also a legend that using the right hand was more convenient for holding a sword to prevent someone from snatching the bride.

As Damian himself was a monk, he played the role of the priest in the wedding for convenience.

"In the presence of God, his angels, and all the saints, and under the witness of the church, we are united as one. We are to become one, although before God and the law we are two individuals, we will be joined for life. Therefore, I ask in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, if there is any reason you cannot join together… Oh, wait, it seems like this sentence is unnecessary," Damian said, chuckling to himself.

Joan also rarely covered her mouth and laughed.

Marriage in the Middle Ages can be said to have nothing to do with love, mostly based on transactions.

The combination of power and faith, like Lady Shayla and Dean Andreas, was the most normal marriage pattern.

"Cough… The next step." Damian continued to recite the lines in the wedding ceremony, "Do you take this woman to be your wife, to honor, protect, and cherish her as a husband should, to live together?"

He answered his own question, "I do."

Joan looked at the solemn Damian, her eyes gentle and full of joy. The sunlight cast on her, making her beautifully enchanting after the carefully done dress-up.

She also said, "I do."

Then, Damian skipped the part of the vows to each other and took out a silver ring.

"Let us sincerely pray to the Creator of humanity, the Giver of spirits, the bestower of eternal salvation, our God. He will bless this ring to guard us in Heaven…"

Damian took Joan's hand, "With this ring, I take you as my wife. I will give you gold and silver to respect you. I will give you a home and protect you with strength."

The ring was successively placed on Joan's thumb, index finger, and middle finger, symbolizing the Holy Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in Christian theology. Finally, the ring was placed on the ring finger, as it was said that the vein here leads to the heart.

After the ceremony, Damian lifted Joan and entered the bridal chamber filled with flowers.

Thus, the small wedding finally concluded.

The thirsty man could no longer restrain himself and began to tear off the woman's long skirt, but she stopped him halfway.

She picked up the holy water basin by the bedside and sprinkled holy water on the ground, symbolizing exorcism protection. This should have been Damian's job, but Damian only remembered the last step of getting into bed.

When the holy water was sprinkled, Damian could not help but hug Joan from behind.

But the lady refused Damian once again.

She took off her long skirt, folded it and placed it at the head of the bed, then lay beneath Damian, even placing her hands on her chest.

This was the most traditional, so-called "missionary position." Because of religious constraints, many believed that human intercourse should be conducted in the most traditional manner. Otherwise, it would be like that of beasts.

Damian, having experienced two rejections, was not discouraged. He lay on Joan like the most traditional missionary.

Joan had already closed her eyes nervously, her muscles tense. Her body, sculpted by years of exercise, was healthy and graceful, with wheat-colored skin glistening in the lamplight.

Meanwhile, Damian gently caressed her, softly comforting the young knight who was experiencing her first time.

As Joan gradually calmed her excitement and tried to open her eyes, the rooster outside suddenly crowed.

Then, she felt a pain below, as Damian pressed his entire body against hers.

Honestly, Joan didn't think her first sexual experience was very good. She always instinctively treated it as a battle, tensing her muscles and engaging in one-on-one combat with Damian.

It wasn't until both were exhausted that they slowly found their rhythm.

And on this rocking little boat, it wasn't until the early hours of the next morning that Joan and Damian finally embraced and fell into a deep sleep.

…

The day they woke up was the day the bandit knights from the southeast appeared.

Damian considerately let Joan continue sleeping, as their properties had not yet been merged.

But Joan insisted on getting out of bed, expressing her willingness to fight the enemy to the death immediately, which made Damian sigh with the realization that medieval people had shorter lifespans for a reason.

In fact, as soon as Joan stepped out of the room, she began to regret it.

The split wound below prevented her from moving too quickly or making too much movement. Just now, she had shown off in front of Damian, but it was actually her knight training that led to her stubbornness.

Of course, Damian wasn't foolish enough to force Joan to ride into battle.

Before the enemy approached, Damian began recruiting peasant horse archers in the camp.

With the clattering in the camp, Damian saw the recruitment pattern of the camp for the first time.

Some farmers from the countryside, leading their workhorses and carrying short bows, came to the camp and formed a team of 40 people.

Damian recruited two teams in one go, 80 horse archers, enough to give the attackers a hard time.

Joan was very surprised. "Do you have so many mounted soldiers in your territory?"

"They're not quite soldiers, but enough to defend against enemies." Damian looked up at the sky and suddenly said in a low voice, "Since we still have some time, how about another battle?"

The newlywed wife, who had only tasted the taste of men yesterday, blushed instantly.

"Sure, bring it on, I'm not afraid!"

…

Near the monastery, on the northeast hillside of the Marian Manor.

Henrik, a bandit knight who had been expelled from his family as the youngest son, had been living in the bandit's lair. But a few days ago, his family sent messengers asking him to lead the bandits northwest to capture Gothingen Free City, so he could obtain a fiefdom.

This made Henrik furious.

Who would want to be a bandit when they could be a lord?

So he quickly packed up his base, gathered his men, and set out on the journey to the north.

"Boss, it looks like there's a group of mounted peasants up ahead?"