CH-017
Herens had good stamina and quickly caught up with the tail end of the village head’s group.
By the time they reached the neighboring village, the neighboring village head had already learned the basic information through a rider and was helping to gather more clues.
In fact, because Finnian’s father and the others had made a special trip yesterday to look for the missing child, the neighboring village had already helped interview many villagers, but no one had said they saw a child and a sheep moving around nearby. However, when they talked again today and the idea that “he might have been taken away by a passing carriage” was proposed, the neighboring village provided a new clue.
“The merchant carriage went straight toward Carson City and did not stop for supplies.”
Several neighboring villagers had seen it, and they nodded one after another, “We saw it with our own eyes!”
Because it happened to be the time people were heading home, several villagers walking together saw the carriage passing by on the trade route.
Hearing this, the village head made a prompt decision: “Then we go straight to Carson City! We must catch up!”
Having learned the lesson from being too nervous to ask anything last time, the village head recorded the appearance of the carriage and what kind of people were sitting on it in detail this time. They also temporarily borrowed two light, easy-to-move ox carts from the neighboring village head.
Just as the crowd was preparing to set off, Herens frowned and couldn’t help but speak: “Even with an ox cart, the road to Carson City will take at least half a day.”
“And then?” The village head didn’t understand, “Father Alis said that this kind of rainy weather is the perfect moment, and we can still work hard to catch up with the merchant carriage.”
Herens could only say: “Lord Alis instructed me that if there is no result after half a day, I should go back and contact him.”
“Since the Father said so, then you go back.” The village head was also afraid of delaying Father Alis’s business and nodded repeatedly, “And thank you for your enthusiastic help along the way.”
However, Herens remained motionless, standing in the wind lost in thought.
He always felt that Father Alis doing this had a deep meaning—
Since there is no result, what is the use of notifying the Father?
What is the use of having him contact the Father?
To go back and rest so as not to waste time?
The Father is not that kind of cold person.
Isn’t this very paradoxical?
There must be some key point in the middle that has been overlooked?
“What’s wrong?” the village head couldn’t help but ask.
“I just think what Lord Alis said feels strange.” Herens couldn’t figure it out and spoke slowly, “But I can’t put my finger on why.”
Prompted by Herens, the village head also suddenly remembered and said: “Now that you mention it, just before departing, the Father did indeed ask me a very strange question.”
“A strange question?”
The village head repeated the question from the morning: “He asked me, ‘While looking for Finnian, did the sheep come back?'”
Herens’s eyes widened instantly, confusion churning in his heart.
He remembered discussing the sheep with the Father, but during that discussion, Father Alis did not say he knew where the sheep went; he only threw out a new question: “Then what about the sheep? Where did the sheep go?”
This happened before the village head left.
Why hide what he knew?
Was it because the sheep hadn’t returned, so he guided people to think about where the sheep actually went?
Or was it because he already knew the sheep’s whereabouts and was guiding them to think about one of their guesses at the time?
The wind blew the treetops, and the rain shower stopped unnoticed. Herens felt he was getting closer and closer to the truth, and even his heartbeat quickened. He took a deep breath, “So, did the sheep come back?”
The village head froze, then recalled the earlier situation: “The sheep wasn’t seen last night, but before I went to the village to grab tools to find the Father this morning, my wife said only the little lamb had come back and was sleeping in the sheep pen. This is also why we were certain Finnian was definitely missing. Finnian wouldn’t just abandon his little lamb.”
Herens understood immediately, and his expression brightened—actually, Lord Alis had hinted very early on that Finnian was indeed related to Doctor Matthew. It was just that he couldn’t read it at the time, so Lord Alis let him and the village head spend more time together; perhaps then he would get the answer!
As expected of Lord Alis!
Only the village head was still in a daze, “What’s wrong? Is there any use in the sheep coming back?”
Herens’s eyes were bright and spirited as he said: “I am certain that everything now, whether it’s you going to Carson City or me returning to the forest ranger’s hut now, is within the Father’s foresight.”
“What do you mean?”
Herens’s gaze became increasingly firm: “We just do as Lord Alis guided, and there will be no problem!”
He paused, his voice dropping lower, as if talking to himself or giving the village head an explanation, “No, this isn’t guidance… it’s verifying the ending he already knows…”
So, they split into two groups again.
Herens dashed away, his back quickly disappearing at the end of the trade route as far as the eye could see.
Finnian’s father watched his direction, feeling a deep touch for a moment that kept him from speaking or rushing to leave the scene.
It was the villagers beside him who spoke first.
They first stared silently at the empty trade route. After a while, someone whispered: “We were just talking nonsense before about him joining the church, but I didn’t expect we actually hit the mark.”
“He’s acting so obviously, can he really hide it?”
“I’m so worried… how can this be hidden from others?”
Finnian’s father also had a complex expression: “Never mind joining the church… this level of firmness he has now, it’s as if he already treats Father Alis as his faith.”
Although they indeed respected Father Alis for having some skills, joining the church is a lifelong decision.
They wouldn’t easily offer their lifelong loyalty just because someone was capable. Not to mention, the Church is a man-eating bottomless pit. Just the annual donations to be offered to the Church are unbearable. Finally, the Savoy parish had silently begun to break away from the Church, and now someone is jumping back into this fiery pit…
“Herens himself doesn’t have much money, right?”
After a moment of silence, someone couldn’t help but voice the worry in their heart: “I just feel… now he’s done for.”
Herens’s speed returning to the forest ranger’s hut this time was even faster than when he left.
He thought Father Alis would be in the hut negotiating with Doctor Matthew, but found only the couple and their daughter inside.
The two adults didn’t know the whereabouts of the priest or the doctor either.
Herens decided to wait outside the hut.
But the male host was very wary of Herens’s appearance; he looked nervous the moment he saw him approaching. Having experienced this person’s stubbornness this morning, the host was even more unwilling to let him near his house. Seeing that Herens was still lingering a few meters away, he became even more irritable and tried to drive him away with heated words.
Herens immediately became suspicious. He ignored the host’s rhetoric and instead wanted to enter the door even more: “I want to wait inside the house for the Father to return.”
“This isn’t your home, by what right can you come and go as you please!”
Herens’s brow furrowed, and he was about to find an excuse when a detail flashed through his mind—why was he so unwilling to let others into the house?
He had also strongly refused this morning.
Herens suddenly recalled the words the host said when he saw them this morning, which were just not right.
At that time, before anyone had said much, the host said himself, “He couldn’t provide shelter from the rain for the village head and the others here.”
One sentence rejected the possibility of them entering.
To be honest, this house couldn’t hold more than 20 people.
Who would think this tiny hut could be used to shield them from the rain?
Shouldn’t the first reaction be to ask questions, or perhaps to borrow something?
Secondly, he also said later that he was concerned about his sick daughter, so how did he notice that the village head and the others hadn’t found the child yet?
They hadn’t said whether they had found the child or not.
But the host was very certain they wouldn’t find the child.
Why?!
Herens’s palm pressed against the door, his strength increasing.
Seeing this, the host pressed hard against the door but couldn’t withstand Herens’s push at all.
In less than five or six seconds, the man’s resistance was like wet paper; he instantly lost his balance and fell to the ground, looking wretched.
Herens didn’t look at the host at all. Carrying his doubts, he quickly scanned the surroundings—this house was simpler and more vacant than an inn.
Herens soon sneered: “I see this isn’t your home at all, is it? You and Doctor Matthew are in cahoots, right!”
As soon as these words fell, the host subconsciously retreated.
Herens’s intuition almost confirmed everything.
His gaze also fell on the slightly bulging bedding—was their “daughter” inside?
His hand followed his heart; Herens strode to the bedside and tore off the sheet on the bed.
He initially encountered a bit of resistance; it turned out the woman beside him was also dragging the bedsheet tightly, as if working hard to protect her secret.
But before Herens, a hunter who could kill a bear alone, she was simply vulnerable.
After Herens successfully tore off the sheet, he indeed saw Finnian, whom everyone had been searching for for half a day—
He was wearing a wig to mislead people. Because of Herens’s action of pulling the bedding, the wig was also shifted, revealing Finnian’s real hair.
Although Finnian’s complexion wasn’t very good at the moment, he had no obvious external injuries and his breathing was steady.
Herens’s heart felt relieved.
But just as he was about to approach Finnian to check his physical safety again, his intuition felt a strange and restless wind behind him—without looking, it was that man launching a desperate counterattack.
So, Herens turned around decisively.
The moment he turned, his body’s reaction preceded his mind’s judgment of the situation.
He reached out with his long arm and caught the hoe handle the host had raised high.
Immediately after, Herens pulled hard, and like pulling a weed with shallow roots, he instantly snatched the weapon into his own hands. This move didn’t end there. In the next second, the host was kicked in the abdomen and instantly flew four or five meters away, crashing into surrounding objects with a series of clatters.
The woman nearby watched with fear and trepidation, her legs so weak she slid to her knees on the floor, “Sir, sir, we really aren’t bad people, please let us go!”
“Kidnapping someone and still daring to say you aren’t bad people.” Herens didn’t believe it at all, “Who exactly are you?”
The man lying on the ground was gasping in pain, clutching his stomach, unable to speak a word.
Seeing this, the woman could only say repeatedly: “Truly, we were really just going to leave as soon as Doctor Matthew found the lost parchment roll!”
She hurriedly pointed in Finnian’s direction again, “If you don’t believe it, look, this child stumbled upon Doctor Matthew’s identity yesterday, but he is still lying here fine. If Doctor Matthew wanted to kill him, he would have just killed him, why bother bringing him back? Now he has just been given medicine to make him sleep.”
“We just wanted to find the parchment roll!”
The woman emphasized and explained while repeatedly begging for mercy.
Herens frowned, “What exactly is Doctor Matthew’s identity? What identity does he need to hide?”
“We aren’t clear either, we just work under Doctor Matthew…” The woman stammered, but as soon as she met Herens’s razor-sharp gaze, she stammered again, “Doctor Matthew seems to have… stolen a very secret military document and is now trying to find a way to escape the North.”
“Truly, if we hadn’t encountered Finnian, we would have already escaped to Carson City today and headed south all the way.”
Down from Carson City, although there are many ducal territories, the heart of the continent—the metropolis where the Holy Cathedral is located—is also in the south.
This gave Herens a headache.
Was Doctor Matthew a mercenary or a knight for some noble?
Or perhaps from the Holy See’s Order of Knights?
Herens didn’t want to interfere with these matters.
But he couldn’t help but continue to guess, and he was also very worried that the priest, who was untainted by the world, would be forced into unnecessary power whirlpools.
Just then, a dull explosion broke the silence of the forest after the rain.
He shuddered violently, his spine tensing, and a layer of goosebumps instantly rose on his arms.
This sound seemed more distant and low to the woman. However, this unfamiliar sound made her subconsciously shrink back, saying tremulously: “What is that sound?”
It’s a matchlock gun!
Herens remained calm for less than two seconds before his face suddenly changed, “…this wouldn’t be related to Lord Alis, would it?”
Intense unease burned fiercely in his chest like a fire.
Herens’s footsteps turned quickly as he subconsciously ran out the door.