Mercenaries and Adventurers

Everyone in Kiel waited outside the knight's mansion for a while, and the knight's nephew named Pawei changed his clothes and shoes, and walked out with five rather strong local soldiers.

These soldiers were equipped with swords and shields, and they carried several short javelins in their quiver bags on their backs. They didn't look too easy to mess with. They wore leather clothes made of several layers of flexible cowhide, and their feet were simple straw sandals made of long grass, which were light and cheap. A round iron plate is also hung on the chest of the upper body as an enhanced defense of the torso.

But the soldier only wore a fur cap on his head, so he didn't know what he was thinking.

Kiel was a little curious about the armor of the soldiers in the western provinces, but this was not the time. After he glanced at it, he asked Pawei to take someone to go with him.

"Where are you going to investigate now?" Pawei asked.

"Burning Grassland. Do you know this tavern? It should be quite famous in your town." Kiel glanced at Mr. Orobi, who nodded to confirm that Kiel was right.

Pawei shrugged: "Then you asked the right person. I am a regular customer of several pubs in the town. I went to this Burning Grassland for a drink two days ago."

After finishing speaking, he walked in front of the team. As a local, he naturally had to lead the way.

"Is there any meaning to the name? Most tavern names seem to have something to do with it."

"Of course, a kind of strong wine in their house is really like fire. After drinking it, you will understand what it looks like when the grassland is burning. It's the feeling of burning in the stomach." Pawei stretched out his hand and made a flame in the stomach The gesture of bursting, obviously he likes this thing very much.

A few local soldiers next to them also looked proud and reminiscing. It seems that they also like this spirit very much.

Keel shrugged, listening to what they said, the wine bug in his stomach was about to move.

Although he felt sorry for the victim for saying this, he felt that he might be able to have a small cup at noon and taste how it tasted. After all, the victim last night must have also drank this signature drink. He, Keel, did this specifically to understand the victim's feelings last night, not just because he was greedy.

real.

-

The knight's mansion is in the corner of the town, and the tavern where the murder happened last night is in the center of the town.

It is very lively during the day, with people coming and going. But be careful with your wallets, because Keel has seen some young people wandering on the street more than once, their eyes are not on the goods in the shops on the roadside, but on the wallets around people’s waists .

But those people are very discerning, seeing that everyone on Kiel's side is armed, and there are soldiers following them, they are not bold enough to ask for trouble.

Several pubs in the town are gathered on several streets in the central area of ​​the town.

The Burning Grassland Tavern, where someone died last night, was still open at this time, and there were still many people drinking and talking here on the large first floor where they drank and dined.

Pawei is obviously familiar with all parts of the town. After entering the tavern first, he told the waitress who served the wine to ask the owner of the tavern to come out.

Kiel and the others then entered, but the soldiers did not enter, but stood at the door of the tavern, reaching out their hands to block the people who wanted to enter from walking away.

"Come back later, Master Pawei is dealing with things." A soldier said to the drinker who wanted to drink.

The drinker craned his neck to look into the tavern, but couldn't see anything, so he left regretfully.

"Everyone, everyone. What happened? Ah, Master Pawei, what do you want to drink today? The kitchen has the freshest mutton, do you want some lamb chops? And wine from the east?"

The owner of the tavern came out from the wine cellar very quickly, he welcomed Pawei with open arms, but Pawei just waved his hands, then got out of his way, pointed to Kiel and the others behind him and said, "I don't If you dare to drink the wine here, who knows if it has been mixed with the blood of the slain."

"Just kidding, kidding. Haha."

The owner of the tavern is very muscular, and there are many old knife wounds on his deliberately exposed arms. It seems that he was not easy to mess with when he was young. He didn't dare to talk back to Pawei, whose uncle was the local knight lord, and turned to look at Kiel and his party.

He didn't know Keel and the others, but he knew they were not locals just by their clothes. But Mr. Oulobi, a businessman in the group, was recognized by him, and he immediately understood what was going on.

"It turns out that it alarmed Master Pawei, that incident. It's really unfair. I'm an honest person who runs a store and never messes around. Everyone here knows this kind of thing, right?"

The owner of the tavern first apologized to Pawei, and then aroused the emotions of the regular customers in the tavern who also came to drink during the day.

"Of course, although there are occasional people who drink to death on the wine table, it has nothing to do with our Parry!"

"If you can't drink it, don't drink it. What is it to blame the tavern if something goes wrong? Hmph."

"That's right, they are all running around taking men, cutting, drinking and drinking."

Several drinkers spoke unhappily, not afraid of anything, and spoke in solidarity with the owner of the tavern.

Keir chuckled, stepped forward and asked, "What's your name?"

"'Scar' Parry. Everyone calls me that, are you?" The owner of the tavern, Parry, looked at Keel who came out of a group of people dressed in different clothes, and asked suspiciously.

As far as he could see, one of these people, a middle-aged man who was dressed similarly to Kiel (the baron's personal guard Lubis), seemed to be the head of the group. He didn't expect it to be Kiel, a tender-faced man who was between a teenager and a young man. between guys.

"My name is Joe Keir. I am from Kendall County in the northwest province of the Kingdom. I am the knight attendant of the Doddell-Crow Knight. This time I came here to seek the permission of the local lord Anvina Knight, and was ordered by Baron Kendall. Lead someone to investigate the incident that a steward of the Red-haired Chamber of Commerce in our army's caravan was killed last night in the guest room on the second floor of your tavern."

Keir squinted his eyes and looked at 'Scar' Parry on the opposite side, paying special attention to the changes in his eyes and face.

"I hope you, as the owner of the tavern, can cooperate with the investigation. Otherwise, I think Mr. Pawei will ask the soldiers to remind them who is the most telling in this land."

But to Keir's regret, he couldn't see the panic in the opponent's eyes, only a troublesome expression.

The other party may have nothing to do with this matter.

"Yes, yes, haha, I will definitely cooperate with the investigation. Everyone, everyone, it's okay, let's drink, Weiss! Give everyone here a free glass of good wine!"

The bartender responded and immediately got busy.

Although they heard about the murder, the second floor, and the guest room, these drunkards who came to drink early in the morning did not feel scared. Instead, they raised their glasses and were complacent that they had gained a bargain, and they celebrated together.

Keir glanced at the tavern owners Parry and Pawei: "You two, let's go up and take a look. I hope the situation when what happened last night was not destroyed."

Scar Parry took over the words: "No. There was a big puddle of blood in the house. I asked the people in the shop to clean it, but no one was willing to do it. I had to pay more to work. Really, don't they usually eat me? Yeah, drink mine, have an accident, and ask me for money for half a job. What a bunch of **** things."

"Hmph, it's a good thing they didn't clean it up. Otherwise, if the murder scene was destroyed, I'd first suspect that you did it!"

Keir spoke very bluntly, and directly turned to Scar Parry.

The tavern owner was not afraid either, and stared back at Kiel, muttering something in a low voice.

-

This tavern named Burning Grassland is quite big. Including the underground wine cellar where the wine is stored, it has a four-story building.

The bottom is the wine cellar, and the first floor facing the street is where the drinkers eat and drink. The second floor is divided into rooms of different sizes by the owner of the tavern, Scar Parry, roughly forming a corridor in the shape of a corridor. There are rooms all around, the rooms facing the street with windows are not big, only the two in the middle are the largest.

Kiel asked on the third floor. It is the residence of the guys in the store. The waitresses in the store are all locals. They basically don't live here, but go home to rest.

Walking along the wide and sturdy stairs to the second floor of the tavern, Keel noticed a small table and chairs on the opposite side of the second-floor walkway facing the stairs. But there was no one there at the time.

The stairs to the third floor are behind where he is standing at this time, and if he wants to go up to another floor, he has to walk around the winding corridor.

Keir pushed Mr. Orobi: "Lead the way."

The businessman nodded, led everyone around half a circle, and then pushed open one of the two rooms in the middle.

The door was not locked, and he opened it as soon as he pushed it.

As soon as the door opened, a clear smell of blood came out. Kiel pushed the businessman at the door to look, and he could see a large pool of scarlet and conspicuous blood on the floor in the middle of the rather large room.

And blood trails on the ground towards the gate.

Keel asked first: "This drag mark?"

The merchant said embarrassingly, "This is what was left when we dragged the body away when we came to look for it before dawn."

Keir nodded and asked the businessman and others to wait at the door, and he led two town guards into the house. The recording clerk stood at the door, and the curious Mr. Pawe stood on the left and right at the door and looked inside. .

Keel saw at a glance that the room was messy, and the tables and chairs provided by the tavern seemed to be moving and toppling. He and two guards squatted in the center of the room, carefully examining the pool of blood.

The strong guard licked the thick and hard dark red blood on the ground: "It's almost solidified. Counting the time, he should have been killed late last night."

The other two nodded.

Then the young guard who had been having trouble with Keir raised his head: "I think there is something wrong with the injured part of the deceased's body."

Keir looked at each other: "You say."

Curling his lips, the young guard said, "The deceased was stabbed to death by two daggers in the front of the chest, but the question is, wouldn't you usually greet here when you fight with daggers?"

He wiped his neck with the palm of his hand to simulate a dagger.

Indeed, compared to the center of the chest protected by the sternum and ribs, if you want to fight, don't you always attack the person's neck or the unprotected abdomen?

Why did you choose this place. After all, the ribs near the sternum are quite strong, and if the knife is not cut properly, it will get stuck on it and cannot make an inch of progress.

"This shows that the murderer is very confident in his attack."

"I said, this must have been done by a professional."

Keel shrugged, not jumping to judgment.

The three stood up and began to search around the house.

Kiel was the first to notice that the murdered businessman didn't have enough clothing. The body of the murdered businessman was only wrapped in a cloth sheet wrapped around his waist, and there was blood connected to the wound on it. Obviously, the victim was wearing that when he was killed.

But the problem is that when Keir went to a wooden bed in the house to organize the businessman's clothes, he found that the other party lacked some clothes.

"Mr. Orobi, come here."

Keir called the businessman, pointed to the leftover clothes he had sorted out and said, "Look, these are the clothes that the murdered Mr. Shillong left in the house. What's missing."

The businessman Orobi saw the problem at a glance: "Kiel." He pointed to the coat on his body, as well as the belt and shoes. "The coat is made of colorful fabric, which is very valuable. Shillong also decorated the cuffs with silver thread. In addition, we found a shop to order the shoes together. They are business boots made of buckskin. Look, the tavern owner He is also wearing merchant snow, but compared to mine, the material is a little worse."

Outside the door, the owner of the tavern, Scar Parry, rubbed his boots uncomfortably, and hummed awkwardly.

"The most important thing is the belt. We have a lot of valuables on our belts. Shillong likes to play after he settles down, so he carries more money with him."

Keir patted his belt: "So is it possible that the victim who brought a lot of money was also killed for this reason? His belt and the money bag on his belt are missing."

Unexpectedly, Mr. Orobi shook his head instead: "I'm not sure about this. When I came here before, I found that he was killed. The situation was very chaotic. The waiter in the tavern and some people from the next door came to see. I'm not sure if it was them or not. I took advantage of the chaos and picked it up."

Kiel nodded: "Indeed, there is such a possibility. There is nothing valuable in the guest's room in the tavern, and it is not easy to take it away. Maybe someone else took advantage of the chaos to bring the victim's valuables. gone."

Keir then asked the other two guards to see what they had found.

"Kill, look at this." The strong guard Zambirus summoned Kiel.

In a corner of the room, behind a drapery curtain painted with simple flower patterns, two guards stood here, as if they had discovered something.

Keir asked Mr. Orobi to go out and wait first, and then walked over.

The strong guard pointed to a wooden bathtub in the corner of the room that was covered by a curtain and said, "Look, there is water in it. Although it is cold, the water has a peculiar smell, obviously it has been used."

Keir immediately said: "This is consistent with the fact that only a sheet was wrapped around the body of Shillong who was killed. And his clothes were obviously taken off on the wooden bed before he died. It seems that he didn't drink last night. A lot, obviously I plan to take a bath before going to bed to relieve my drunkenness and exhaustion."

"That's right, I thought so too. In this way, apart from the murderer, the last person who saw him must be the one who filled the tub last night!"

Kiel was about to have the man brought in for questioning, but another guard named Kayan shook his finger and disagreed.

"Haha, it seems that none of you have noticed, was there a fourth person here last night?"

"The fourth person?"

"who?"

Keel and Zambirus asked simultaneously.

The young guard proudly pointed to the cold bath water in the tub: "Look at what's in the water?"

Kiel blinked, but kept looking into the water.

Because it has been used by people, the water in the tub is a bit cloudy, with a few small petals that are common in the wild floating on it.

He didn't realize anything, but the strong guards saw it: "Very few people will add flower petals to the bathtub when taking a bath. You mean, there was another woman who took a bath with the drunk businessman at that time. ?”

Kayan laughed triumphantly. He leaned against the wall and kicked the ground with his foot: "The evidence is solid."

What he kicked lightly with his feet was a metal ring headband that a woman decorated on her hair and used to fix her hair.

This kind of thing can not only be used to fix the hair, but also some fresh flowers picked by the woman can be inserted in the gap above, which is a common decoration among women in common households.

The appearance of this thing immediately confirmed that there was indeed another woman in the same room as the murdered businessman last night. Don't think too much, everyone knows what this guy is here for.

But the question is, is this the murderer who killed businessman Shillong?

Or is the murderer someone else?

Kiel settled down, and then said: "But the next morning, before the sun rose this morning, Orobi and the others came to look for someone, but they didn't see anyone here. Obviously the other party was in the businessman Shillong. After being killed, she disappears and leaves. Maybe she killed the person, or maybe not.”

He took a deep breath: "Well, first find the waiter who added water to the tub last night, and inquire about the situation carefully. In addition, we need to find the information of that woman. Finding her~www.readwn.com~ the matter is half solved .If the murderer was her, she had a conflict with the businessman Shillong for some reason, and then killed someone with a dagger, then the incident of finding her would be solved naturally. If the murderer was not her, then she was not killed by the murderer, so she must see See the murderer's appearance and the circumstances at the time."

"Also." Kiel walked to the door and asked the businessman Oulobi a question: "When you left yesterday, that is, when you finished drinking and separated from Shillong, were there any women around him to strike up a conversation with?"

The businessman was a little embarrassed: "No, he was drinking alone when we left. But I have to say that one of the reasons Shillong does like to spend the night outside the caravan is that he likes to have fun. We often take him from The woman next to him shouted and set off."

The businessman's words confirmed the judgment of Kiel and the two guards. Last night should be the same as businessman Shillong's previous experience. After drinking, he took a bath to sober up and find a woman to spend the night with.

Keir looked at Scar Parry, the tavern owner at the side: "Two things. First, find the waiter who is in charge of serving the rooms on the second floor of your tavern. It must be the one who worked last night. The second thing, You also heard that the murdered businessman Shillong came up directly after drinking on the first floor, so where did the woman who took care of him take a bath come from? You have to explain to me what is going on here, and where are the other people? ?”

The owner of the tavern, Scar Parry, looked impatient: "The person in charge of providing hot water for washing to the guest rooms on the second floor is a young man named Gerrick, a distant relative of mine, who fell asleep on the third floor. Besides, I don't It is clear how the dead guy found the woman to sleep with, maybe he met someone when he was drinking downstairs. I open the door for business, and I never care who the guests are doing with whom!"

Keel narrowed his eyes.