Fairy tale: Little Red Riding Hood's wolf mentor

“Why… why has this vine withered here…? And judging by the looks of it, it must have been dead for some time.”

Lake searched around the massive, folded, dried-up, and dehydrated vine that was nearly two thousand meters long.

Polo followed the girl closely.

“Polo, am I… misremembering?”

“If we go by the images from the magic mirror, there shouldn't be any problems. It's just that we're a little late.”

Polo said in a deep voice. The memory ability granted by [Spiral Beacon: Sage] wouldn't fail.

“What should we do now?”

A trace of confusion appeared in Lake's eyes.

“Judging from this bean pod…”

Polo walked forward, extended his paw, and pried open a dried bean pod—

It was the only bean pod on this nearly two-thousand-meter-long vine, and it was already empty.

“There should have been more than one magic bean in this pod. Someone beat us to it.”

Polo thought for a moment and added, “Perhaps we could ask around the nearby villages and towns, and also inquire about this village's situation…”

Fortunately, the nearest town, Coud Town, wasn't too far away, and there weren't any other settlements nearby.

If there really was information about the magic vine, then this place undoubtedly had the highest possibility of having it.

“This town looks a little better than Bo Ren's… At least there are quite a few merchants.”

“Yeah, it looks like a big market. We should be in the right place this time.”

Coud Town, although located on the border of the Biwei Kingdom, had a lot of people coming and going, mostly residents of nearby villages and towns.

However, as a border market town, although there were many people and merchants, the environment wasn't very formal.

Although there was a kingdom garrison, judging by the few soldiers at the entrance who weren't wearing armor and were just leaning against their long spears while dozing off…

…they obviously didn't care much about the security here.

“Uh, where should we go to ask first?”

Lake looked at the farmers selling crops, the hunters selling their game, and the merchants selling miscellaneous goods in the market… feeling a little hesitant.

There were also a few guys who looked like gang members standing at the entrance of the market, scanning the people passing by.

Some of them saw Lake and seemed to start whispering to each other.

Polo didn't pay too much attention.

Right now, even if those “ordinary people” looked tall and strong, it would be difficult for them to threaten himself and Lake.

Besides…

They didn't plan to stay in this market town for long.

“We have money. Perhaps we should find a local guide in the market.”

Polo thought for a moment and said, and just as the two of them were starting to think about where to find such a “local,” a simply dressed little girl walked up to them from not far away.

“Miss, you must be from out of town, right? Would you like a guide?”

The little girl looked up and said seriously, “I know where things are sold here, and I can help you save time. I'm very cheap, I only need a few copper coins…”

“Uh, copper coins… Is this silver coin okay?”

Lake opened her pocket and remembered that in order to travel light, she had exchanged the copper coins for gold and a small amount of silver coins.

“Silver coin?”

The girl took it in surprise, “O-of course, miss. What would you like to ask?”

Lake thought for a moment and told the girl about the magic vine in detail.

“Magic vine?”

The girl was stunned for a moment, then thought for a little while and began to say, “That magic vine grew out of nowhere a long time ago. I heard that the houses of several families in that village collapsed because of the magic vine…

So later, they all left.”

The girl hesitated for a moment, then continued, “About a week ago, that vine seemed to start withering rapidly, and then it died. As for the vine having bean pods, I haven't heard of that.”

I see…

Lake nodded after listening, showing a little disappointment.

But just then, the little girl suddenly thought of something and said:

“But a few days ago, there was always a short man with his face covered by a robe who came to the market. He seemed to be selling a handful of beans that looked just a little bigger than ordinary beans…”

“Bigger beans!?”

Lake widened her eyes and asked quickly, “Do you know where he is? Can you take us to find him?”

The little girl blinked and shook her head apologetically, saying:

“I'm sorry, I really don't know. The rest of us always thought he was a scammer, unlike the person you're looking for, miss.”

“Why?”

Lake asked in confusion.

“He kept telling people that he was hungry, and then said that he wanted to exchange a handful of beans for a cow, and touted that those beans had unusual magic.”

The little girl shrugged, “Even the best beans, to exchange for a whole cow?! Who would be so stupid?”

The little girl said here, looking at Lake's eager eyes, suddenly shrunk her neck, “Uh, miss, of course, I'm not talking about you, I'm just saying…

That dwarf came for several days in a row, and just came yesterday, but unfortunately, he didn't come today.

I guess…

Either he was really bought by someone, or he felt that he couldn't deceive anyone and left.”

“I see…”

Lake asked the little girl some more about the peddler, but the little girl didn't know any more details.

She also followed the little girl and walked past several farmers' or hunters' stalls.

But after some inquiries, no one could give information related to the vine. The people here didn't seem to care much about that strange plant.

From the inquiries, Lake and Polo also grasped a strange thing about this part of the region—

In this vicinity, large plants would always grow out of thin air for no reason.

But they would quickly wither.

Although this was a rare thing in other places, most plants, apart from viewing, did not have more value.

Only a very small part had valuable effects.

But obviously, that vine did not contain any effective valuable ingredients, so no one cared.

It was getting late, and Lake and Polo hadn't found any more useful information.

Lake said goodbye to the little girl and went to the market exit.

But what she didn't see was…

When the little girl happily walked towards a side alley, two tall men stood in front of her, and one of them took out a piece of candy from his arms and handed it to the little girl.

The little girl took the candy and thanked him. She obviously knew the two men in front of her.

“Sir, what are your… instructions?”

She asked obediently.

“The foreign girl you brought today, can you tell how rich she is?”

The man asked bluntly.

“Well, she should be very rich. I saw that there should be a lot of gold and silver in her pocket.”

The little girl replied. The people living in this market never dared to provoke these gangs, and most of the children were also the eyes and ears of these gangs. “Just the guide fee gave me a silver coin.”

“Oh, that's great.”

A trace of greed and joy flashed in the eyes of the two men. After they waved to let the little girl go, they began to whisper:

“I said, that girl looks fair-skinned, she must be a young lady who ran away from somewhere, she must be rich!”

“And the style of her clothes is not from the Biwei Kingdom, there will be no worries.”

“But the boss didn't say…”

“Tsk, that young lady is definitely from a noble background. We have been exploited by those big masters for so long, what's wrong with taking some interest?”

“What you said makes some sense…”

“Hey, gold? We're going to get rich this time!”