Iron Powder and Spellcaster

Winters never expected that the "Brother Red" in Carman's mouth would actually be such a vicissitudes of life old man.

There is no trace of black in the old man's beard and hair, and his skin has become slack, as if it is hanging on the bones.

Because he is too old, the inevitable bone loss has made his body slightly stooped, but his eyes hidden in the wrinkles are still bright.

The mendicant monk was wearing a coarse gray robe and looked at the Wolf Town Office and the two public officials calmly, as if he was the owner of this place.

In front of this old man, Gilad and Sergey can only be regarded as young men. Kaman calls him "Brother Red," but in fact, he is old enough to be his great-grandfather.

"Old sir, how old are you this year?" Winters asked politely. Considering that the elderly generally have hearing impairment, he deliberately raised his volume by seven points: "Seventy? Eighty?"

"Please rest assured, Your Excellency, I am not so old that I am deaf." Brother Rhett laughed and said, "To be honest, I am already ninety-five this year!"

Father Carman also explained: "Brother Rhett was ordained after he was sixty years old. He vowed to become a mendicant monk, and even though he is ninety-five years old, he is still traveling and preaching."

"Ninety-five? Have I seen a living saint?" The fifty-four-year-old Gilad was shocked and quickly moved his chair to the old monk: "Old man, please sit down, you look young..."

Brother Rhett was not polite and sat down generously.

Winters was also shocked by the ninety-five-year-old mendicant monk, but he noticed another anomaly: the old man had an awkward accent when he spoke, which sounded like he was imitating the common language in another language. pronunciation.

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

The old monk smiled and replied: "No, no."

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

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

really! Winters thought to himself.

For the Senas or Imperial people on this continent, "Easterners" generally refers to the Saracens in the Near East, and "Eastern" naturally also refers to the territory of the current Freiman Empire.

And the East of the East, the turning point of the monsoon route, the land of spices, silks and porcelain, the Far East, is known to geographers as the Far East.

However, most people in this era cannot understand the difference between the East and the Far East, and they do not need this knowledge. Apart from scholars, only merchants knew that there was another powerful empire in the Far East.

To others, there was little difference between the Celica of the Far East and the Saracens of the Near East.

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

Although there are thousands of people with different faces, people from different regions have subtle differences in their facial features. Even if you can't explain the difference, you can still tell it intuitively.

But the mendicant monk was too old, and his sagging skin, layers of wrinkles, and accumulated pigment obscured his foreign appearance.

Therefore, in the eyes of less perceptive people, Brother Red is just an old man with a strange accent.

"It's nothing. I just met some Celica businessmen from the Far East in Veneta." Winters did not accept the compliment. Instead, he felt that the old man was becoming more suspicious: "I am very curious, how can a Celica man earn money?" Has he lost the priesthood of the Catholic Church? Has the church spread to the Far East?"

"Oh, this is a long story to say. I'm afraid it would take me three days and three nights to tell it from the beginning." The old mendicant monk stroked his long beard and said with a smile: "I took refuge in Rhode Island and received the Holy Spirit. He was ordained. As for why a Selika man became a Catholic mendicant monk? I don’t understand, it’s probably the Lord’s arrangement.”

Winters wanted to continue asking, but was interrupted by Girard.

"You...are you from the easternmost part of the world?" Old Dusak's attitude became awed and respectful.

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

Gilad's expression became more respectful, and he almost kissed the beggar monk's clothes: "You...are you a living saint?"

"no."

Seeing the old Dussac's knees bending, Winters was so angry.

He coughed twice and asked the old magician coldly: "I thought the Red brothers Carman mentioned were young people. You are ninety-five years old, do you still want to be my scribe?"

"What?!" Gilad suddenly became anxious. He jumped up and shouted: "How can we let Brother Red be a scribe?"

"Mr. Mitchell, please be patient." The mendicant monk waved his hand to Gilad, and old Dussac immediately calmed down like a tame puppy.

Immediately afterwards, Brother Rhett said calmly: "I'm here to apply for a job as a scribe. I plan to spend the winter in Wolf Town this year, so I want to find 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 for any time." Gilad said eagerly.

"Mr. Mitchell, I am a mendicant monk." Rhett smiled and shook his head: "I have sworn to be poor. If I don't work, I won't be able to eat. I will not accept free support from others."

Gilad looked even more moved after hearing this. He even knelt down involuntarily and held up the corner of the mendicant monk's clothes to his lips. His eyes were red, and he almost cried on the spot.

Seeing this scene, Winters felt a chill and rolled his eyes involuntarily. He thought to himself: "Okay, now even if this old bastard asks Mr. Mitchell to jump off the cliff, I'm afraid he will jump off without hesitation." .”

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

"Please rest assured, Mr. Montagne. Despite his age, his brain is still clear and his hands can still be used." The mendicant monk's smile became more kind and kind: "Copying documents, calculating money and accounting, it's not a problem; inside and outside. I have some experience in medical skills and difficult and complicated diseases; mass confession, baptism and blessing are my duties; even if it is exorcism, dream interpretation, fortune telling, I know a thing or two..."

The old mendicant monk kept talking like a tongue twister, which stunned Winters and Girard.

The more Brother Red spoke, the more respectful and humble Girard became.

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

Winters looked at Priest Carman suspiciously, and the young priest responded with an awkward smile.

Winters and Carman were relatively speechless, Girard listened devoutly, the old mendicant monk twisted his beard and smiled, and the town hall fell into silence for a while.

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

"Fenghuo?" Gilad was shocked and angry: "Were those wolves going crazy with hunger yesterday? Did they still dare to come?"

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

Girard Mitchell remained in the town hall to receive Brother Reed and Father Carman.

Winters, who got on Red Mane, didn't realize until he ran out of the center of the town that something was wrong - the direction where the smoke was rising was the village of Dussa.

…

Old Sergei led Winters to the public pasture, where the ponyboy Angelo was kneeling beside a horse corpse and crying sadly.

Seeing the green mane, Winters identified the horse carcass on the grass.

It was Terezing, the divine green horse, the leader, father and protector of the herd.

"It should have been early this morning when the ferocious beast broke in, killed Terqing and dragged him into the forest." Sergey lost his usual smile and said gloomily: "Little Hook woke up in the morning and found that the horse was missing. He told us to look for it. When we found it, the horse’s belly was empty.”

"Angelou!" Winters dismounted and walked to the ponyboy: "Did you see what it was?"

The ponyboy wiped his tears and shook his head.

Seeing the young stableboy kneeling beside the horse's body and sobbing uncontrollably, Winters grabbed his collar and pulled him up from the ground: "Stop crying! If you're a man, don't cry! It's not your fault, but you have to Use the energy of shedding tears to take revenge!"

After wiping the ponyboy's tears with his sleeve, Winters returned to the horse and asked Sergei: "Are there any other casualties?"

"The younger son of the Rostov family and the daughter of the Yushka family are also missing." Old Sergei's expression became even more gloomy: "The drunk Rostov didn't even realize that his son had sneaked out last night... Then The two children always hang out together, maybe something happened..."

Do you still dare to go fighting in the woods at this time? !

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

"No." Sergey shook his head in a muffled voice.

"Where was the horse corpse found?"

"In the woods south of the village."

"Call all Dusaks and follow me!"

No mobilization was needed. The anger and shock of the Dussacs had reached the extreme, so all the men, young and old, who could still ride a horse, brought out their horses, carried spears and shotguns and gathered in the village square.

In the eyes of the Dusaks, they are the predators and the ones providing assistance and protection.

No one thought that the village of Dussa would be attacked - the Dusaks had no such idea at all, and the village of Dussa was not even prepared for a beacon fire.

It is also this kind of blind arrogance that makes Dussa Village neglect its precautions and allows young people to dare to have a tryst in the forest at this time.

It's too late to say anything now.

After sending out riders to notify Girard and summoning militia teams from four other villages, Winters led nearly a hundred Dussacs into the forest, and in groups of three they pulled a net to search for traces of the missing men, women and beasts.

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

The crowd beat the tree trunks with wooden sticks and spears, not only to frighten the beasts, but also to determine the distance between their companions.

Winters is paired with Hunter Ralph and Sergey.

Seeing Winters' gloomy expression, Ralph cautiously advised, "Sir, please don't worry too much. Those two children will probably be fine. They may have just gone crazy and forgot to go home."

"Why?"

"Because wild beasts rarely kill for the sake of killing." The hunter carefully explained: "Even if a rabbit is thrown in front of the beast after eating, they will not pay attention. That thing abandons the horse carcass after a full meal, unless If you are provoked, you should not attack people."

Old Sergey's expression softened a little after hearing what the hunter said.

The old man slammed the stick in his hand on the tree trunk and said angrily: "First it was the wolf, then this thing. Why are these evil beasts running out of the forest as if they are crazy?"

Ralph thought for a while and replied slowly: "The most likely reason is that he doesn't have enough to eat. Unless he has tasted human blood, no matter how ferocious the beast is, he will be afraid of people. Moreover, ferocious beasts have territories. If someone more ferocious takes over Once the territory is lost, the original beast can only run away. I think...that group of wolves was probably driven out of the forest by the thing we are looking for."

Winters was moved and asked the hunter: "Are you saying that the beast's territory will be toppled one by one like dominoes?"

"That's not what I meant. If a wolf is driven into another bear's territory by a bear, it still can't beat the bear." Ralph scratched his hair and said distressedly: "I can't explain... Well, the nature of this primeval forest There are so many secrets and I actually don’t know anything.”

"Hey! What's there to think about? Is it just a plague of wolves? Where can wild beasts not injure people?" Sergey curled his lips and said disdainfully: "Is it possible that someone killed all the rabbits and deer in the forest? , so that the wolf and bear ran out without anything to eat?"

Just as the hunter was about to say something, a cry came from an invisible place deep in the forest: "Here! Here!"

The three of them immediately moved towards the direction of the sound.

A Dussac found rags hanging from a bush... and blood.

Following the blood stains, everyone found the body.

Two bodies.

A roughly complete male corpse had been bitten off above the neck, and the head was no longer known where it had gone.

There was also a corpse that could not be identified as male or female, and could not even be called a "corpse".

Because only two legs were left, the other parts were torn to pieces, and the organs and minced meat were thrown across the forest like rain.

Rostov was so distraught that he hugged his little son's cold body and refused to let go. This man who had been an alcoholic for many years regained his sobriety for the first time, but he experienced the pain of losing his son.

When the girl's father saw this scene, he fainted.

Sergey clenched his fists and looked at Ralph fiercely.

The old man said nothing, but the hunter would not misunderstand that look: "Didn't you say nothing would happen?! Didn't you say so?!"

After inspecting the two bodies, Ralph spoke with difficulty: "The beast probably dragged away the girl first. The boy wanted to save others, so he chased after her. In the end, he was bitten to death by the beast."

The Dusaks who were scattered in search heard the news and rushed over one after another. People gathered around the remains. Two young lives disappeared like this, leaving only endless grief and anger.

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

Thank you to book friends who have voted for recommendations before. Thank you to book friends 20190816233921971, Sky Lens, Kunkun, I don’t know what they are called, book friends 161120205936216, and Yellow Rabbit at the Flower Planter. Thank you all.