Iron Powder and Spellcasters

  Chapter 124 Beggars

   Winters never thought that the "Brother Rhett" in Kaman's mouth was actually such a vicissitudes of life.

   There was no trace of black between the old man's beard and hair, and the skin slackened, as if it was drooping on the bones.

  Because of his age, the inevitable bone loss made his body a little rickety, but his eyes hidden in the wrinkles were still shining.

   The alms-begging monk, dressed in a coarse gray robe, looked at the Wolf Town Office and the two public officials calmly, as if he was the owner of the place.

   In front of this old man, Gillard and Sergey can only be regarded as young men. Kaman called him "Brother Rhett," but he was actually old enough to be a great-grandfather.

   "Sir, how old are you this year?" Winters asked politely. Considering the general hearing impairment of the elderly, he deliberately raised the volume by seven points: "Seventy? Eighty?"

   "Don't worry, Your Excellency, I'm not too old to be deaf." Brother Reid laughed and said, "To be honest, the old man is ninety-five this year!"

Father    Kaman also explained: "Brother Rhett was ordained after he was sixty years old. He took an oath to become a monk, and even though he was ninety-five years old, he was still wandering preaching."

   "Ninety-five? Did I see a living saint?" Girard, who was fifty-four, was surprised and quickly moved his chair to the old monk: "Please sit down, old man, you look young..."

   Brother Reid was not polite, and sat down generously.

The ninety-five-year-old friar shocked Winters, too, but he noticed another anomaly: the old man spoke with an awkward accent that sounded like he was imitating Common Tongue in another language. pronunciation.

   "Brother Rhett? Are you not from Cenas?" Winters frowned.

   The old monk replied with a smile: "No, no."

   "Are you a Celica? A man from the East from the East?"

"Your Excellency is very knowledgeable." The old monk said with a smile: "Few people can tell that I am from Celica. Even if most people recognize that I am not a Senus, they think I am a Saracens from the East. ."

   Sure enough! Winters thought.

   For the Cenas or the imperial people on this continent, "Oriental" generally refers to the Saracens in the Near East, and "Oriental" naturally also refers to the territory of the modern Freman Empire.

   The East of the East, the turning point of the monsoon route, the land of spices, silk and porcelain, and the far east, are called the Far East in the mouths of geographers.

   But most people in this era can't figure out the difference between the East and the Far East, and they don't need this knowledge. Apart from scholars, only business people knew that there was another powerful empire in the Far East.

   For everyone else, there is no difference between the Celica of the Far East and the Saracens of the Near East.

   But from the moment the friars entered the door, Winters felt that the old man was from the Far East.

  Although there are thousands of people, people in different regions have subtle differences in their facial features. Even if you can't tell where the difference is, you can recognize it intuitively.

  Korman was too old, sagging skin, layers of wrinkles, and pigment deposits that masked the features of a foreigner.

   So in the eyes of less discerning people, Brother Rhett is nothing more than an old man with a strange accent.

"It's nothing, I just met some Celica merchants from the Far East in Veneta." Winters did not accept the compliment, but felt that the old man became more suspicious: "I'm curious, how does a Celica get Catholic priesthood? Has the Church spread to the Far East?"

"Oh, this is a long story. I'm afraid I can't finish it in three days and three nights from the beginning." The old monk stroked his long beard and said with a smile: "I converted in Rhode Island and received the Holy Spirit. He was appointed and consecrated. As for why a Celica became a catholic friar? I don't understand either, it's probably the Lord's arrangement."

   Winters wanted to keep asking, but was interrupted by Gillard.

   "You... you are from the easternmost part of the world?" Old Dussac's attitude became awe-inspiring and respectful.

   "In a sense." The begging monk stroked his beard and said with a smile, "Yes."

  Girard's expression became more and more respectful, and he was about to kiss the corner of the monk's shirt: "You... are you a living saint?"

"no."

   Looking at the appearance of old Dussac's knees bent, Winters couldn't be more angry.

   He coughed twice, and asked the old magician lukewarmly: "I thought the Reid brothers that Kaman was talking about were young people. You are ninety-five years old. Are you still going to be a scribe for me?"

   "What?!" Girard was in a hurry, he jumped up and shouted: "How can Brother Reid be a scribe?"

   "Mr. Mitchell, please be patient." The begging monk waved to Girard, and the old Dussack immediately calmed down like a tame puppy.

   Immediately afterwards, Brother Reid said calmly: "I'm here to apply for a scribe. I plan to spend the winter in Wolf Town this year, so I'm looking for a job that can support myself."

   "How can you do the work of a scribe, please come to my house. I am willing to support you anytime." Girard said eagerly.

   "Mr. Mitchell, I'm a pilgrim monk." Reid smiled and shook his head: "I swore to be poor, that if I don't work, I won't be able to eat, and I will not accept free offerings from others."

  Girard's expression was even more moved when he heard this. He even fell to his knees involuntarily and held the corner of the monk's shirt to his lips. His eyes were red, and he almost cried on the spot.

Seeing this scene, Winters only felt a chill, rolled his eyes involuntarily, and thought to himself, "Well, even if this old **** makes Mr. Mitchell jump off the cliff, I'm afraid he will jump without hesitation. ."

   Looking at the old magician in front of him, Winters became even more annoyed. He asked in a thorny voice: "Brother Rhett, the scribe's work is very heavy. I'm afraid you can't do it as an old man?"

"Please rest assured, Mr. Montagne. Don't look at the old age, the brain is still clear, and the hands can still be used." The monk's smile became more kind and amiable: "Copying papers, calculating money and keeping accounts, it is not a problem; inside and outside. Medical skills, incurable diseases, I have some experience below; confession at Mass, baptism and blessing are my own work; even if it is exorcism, interpretation of dreams, and divination, the old man knows a thing or two..."

  The old friar's eloquent, tongue-twister-like tongue stunned both Winters and Girard on the side.

The more Brother Reid said, the more respectful and humble Girard's attitude became.

   But the more Winters listened, the more he felt that the old magician in front of him didn't look like a cleric at all, but a charlatan.

   Winters looked suspiciously at Priest Kaman, and the young priest responded with an embarrassed smile.

   Winters and Kaman were relatively silent, Girard listened devoutly, the old begging monk twitched his beard and smiled, and the town hall fell silent for a while.

  The door was suddenly pushed open, and the panicked grocer once again brought bad news: "Sir! Beacon fire! Another beacon is burning!"

   "Beacon fire?" Girard was shocked and angry: "Is that group of wolves hungry and crazy yesterday? Dare to come?"

   "I'm going to see what's going on." Winters immediately took out the musket and ammunition, and ran to the backyard to get the horse before he could even say goodbye.

  Gillard Mitchell stayed in the town hall to receive Brother Red and Father Carman.

  Winters, who stepped on the red mane, didn't realize that something was wrong until he ran out of the town center - the direction of the wolf smoke was Dusa Village.

  …

   Old Sergey led Winters to the common pasture, where Anglo, the pony, was kneeling beside a dead horse, weeping bitterly.

   Seeing the cyan mane, Winters recognized the dead horse on the grass.

   is Teleqing, the mighty blue horse, leader, father, and protector of the herd.

"It should have been early this morning when the beast broke in and killed Teleqing and dragged him into the woods." Sergey lost his usual smile and said gloomily: "Little Hook woke up in the morning and found that he was missing a horse. Just called us to find it. When we found it, the horse's stomach was hollowed out."

   "Anglo!" Winters dismounted and walked to the stable. "See what it is?"

   The pony herd shook his head, wiping away his tears.

Seeing the stable sobbing kneeling beside the horse's corpse, Winters grabbed the collar and pulled him off the ground: "Stop crying! If you're a man, don't cry! It's not your fault, but you have to Take revenge with the strength of tears!"

   wiped the pony's tears with his sleeve, and returned to Winters on horseback to ask Sergey, "Are there any other casualties?"

"The youngest son of the Rostov family and the daughter of the Yushka family are also gone." The old Sergey's expression became more gloomy: "The drunkard of Rostov didn't realize that his son escaped last night... those two The children are always hanging out with each other, so there may be an accident..."

   Dare to go to the woods to fight at this time? !

   Winters was anxious and angry: "When did they run out? Did anyone see where they went?"

   "No." Sergey shook his head muffled.

   "Where was the horse body found?"

   "In the woods in the south of the village."

   "Call all the Dussacks and follow me!"

   No need for any mobilization, the anger and shock of the Dussacks had reached the extreme, so the men who could still ride horses, young and old, all brought out their war horses, and gathered in the village square with spears and shotguns.

   In the eyes of the Dussacks, they are the predators and the one who provides assistance and protection.

  No one thought that Dusa Village would be attacked—Dusaks would not have such an idea at all, and Dusa Village was not even prepared for a beacon.

   It is also this kind of blind and arrogant mood that makes Dusa Village neglect to guard against it, so that young people dare to go to the forest for a tryst at this time.

   It's too late to say anything.

After    dispatched riders to inform Girard and called up the militia teams of the other four villages, Winters led nearly a hundred Dussacs into the woodland, where they pulled nets in groups of three to search for the missing men, women and beasts.

  In the deep and dark virgin forest, the riders carefully searched within their respective fields of vision, lowered their heads and disappeared among the branches and leaves.

  Everyone used sticks and spears to beat the tree trunks to frighten the beasts and also use this method to determine the distance of their companions.

   Winters with Ralph the Hunter and Sergey.

   Seeing Winters' gloomy face, Ralph cautiously persuaded: "Sir, please don't worry too much, those two children will probably be fine, maybe they just played crazy and forgot to go home."

"why?"

"Because beasts rarely kill for the sake of killing." The hunter explained carefully: "Even if the beasts are full, even if they throw a rabbit in front of them, they will not pay attention. The thing is to abandon the horse carcass after a full meal, unless If you are provoked, you shouldn't take the initiative to attack people."

  Old Sergey softened a bit after listening to the hunter's words.

   The old man smashed the stick in his hand on the tree trunk and said angrily: "First the wolf, then this thing, why are these beasts running out of the woods like crazy?"

Ralph thought for a while, then replied slowly: "The biggest possibility is that you don't have enough to eat. Unless you have tasted human blood, no matter how ferocious beasts are, they will be afraid of people. Besides, fierce beasts have a territorial range. After leaving the territory, the original beast can only escape. I think...the pack of wolves was probably driven out of the woods by the thing we were looking for."

   Winters was moved, and asked the hunter: "You mean the beast's territory will be toppled one by one like dominoes?"

"That's not what I meant. If the wolf is driven into another bear's territory by the bear, it will still be unable to beat the bear." Ralph scratched his hair and said distressedly, "I don't understand either... Alas, the secret of this virgin forest. There are so many that I don't actually know anything."

"Hey! What's there to think about? It's just the wolf disaster? Is there any place where the beasts hurt people?" , so that the wolf bear had nothing to eat before running out?"

   The hunter was about to say something when a voice came from an invisible place deep in the woodland: "Here! Here!"

   The three immediately moved towards the direction of the voice.

  A Dussack found rags hanging from bushes...and blood.

   Following the blood trail, everyone found the body.

  Two corpses.

   A roughly complete male corpse, bitten off above the neck, and the head no longer knows where it went.

   There is also a corpse that cannot be identified as a male or female, and can no longer even be called a "corpse".

  Because only two legs were left, the other parts were torn apart, and the organs and minced meat were thrown in the woods like rain.

  Rostov was devastated, holding onto his little son's icy body and refusing to let go. The man who had been drinking for a long time regained his sobriety for the first time, but he experienced the pain of losing his son.

  The girl's father passed out when he saw this scene.

  Sergey clenched his fists and looked at Ralph viciously.

The    old man didn't say anything, but the hunter would not misunderstand that look: "Didn't you say that there will be no accident?! Didn't you say that?!"

   After examining the two bodies, Ralph said with difficulty: "The fierce beast should have dragged the girl away first, and the boy wanted to save people, so he chased after him, and was bitten to death by the beast in the end."

   The Dussacs who were searching in a scattered way rushed over to hear the news. People gathered around the remains, and two young lives were lost, leaving nothing but grief and anger.

   "Leave a few people to help the family send the body back." Winters suppressed his emotions and got on the horse again: "Others, follow me!"

   Thanks to the book friends who have voted for the recommendation before, thanks to the book friends 20190816233921971, Tianjian, makun, I don’t know what they are called, book friends 161120205936216, and the yellow rabbit of the flower gardener for their recommendation votes, thank you all.

   (end of this chapter)