gentle and affectionate

Chapter 7.

"You said you saw the blonde princess?!"

Our princess, before we asked, the doctor asked first, with a look of astonishment on his face, which was completely different from the calmness he had just stood up to defend us.

"I thought it was a dream..." When asked again, Sakura blamed herself, "I'm sorry, if I went out at that time..."

"This is also normal," the kind doctor said kindly. "Suddenly seeing a person in a uniform walking in the snow, one would take it for granted that it was a dream."

"But," I resumed, "the townspeople don't seem to think so?" You don't think so either.

He doesn't deny it.

"After all... because to the people in Spillett, that legend is... true."

"That is to say...is it a historical fact?" Little Wolf asked.

"Well," Dr. Carl nodded, "300 years ago, there was a princess named 'Emerald'. One day, her parents died suddenly; then, the children in the town outside the castle disappeared one after another..."

"Is there any record of what happened to the children?" asked the little wolf.

"No one comes back the way they disappeared."

"This means..." Hei Gang held his fork in his mouth, "No one came back alive..."

There was a moment of silence.At this time, I also thought about the same thing as Heigangzuo, but I felt that the words were very mysterious, and there seemed to be other ways of understanding; in other words, if the children are... Then why not just say that they are missing or killed Woolen cloth?

Is it really just beautifying history?

"But it is also because the incident this time is too similar to the legend, so even though the castle is in ruins, people still think of that incident."

"Then...has anyone else in town seen the blonde princess?" Little Wolf asked sharply.

"No."

In this way, Sakura is the only witness. This is the confirmed situation now, but there is actually something wrong with the situation itself.Because whether it is the captain of the guard who suspects us in the town, the big landowner Crosham, the mayor, and Dr. Carl in front of us, their concern for this matter is self-evident, and the child disappeared in the middle of the night. Had no one checked at night?And whoever has investigated, such an obvious target as the blonde princess - such a target that Sakura accidentally wakes up and can easily find, they have never seen it?

It doesn't make sense.But Sakura is not a child of lying, and there is no need to lie; and for this doctor, even if his other words are false, there is no need to hide this matter.

So, what exactly did Sakura see?

……

Since there are records in the history books, Xiaolang asked to read the history books, but the doctor said that the books were not in his hands.We searched according to the route he said, and it is said that the mayor and the big landowner each have a copy.

However, Mr. Crosham may not lend us the words in a friendly manner.

Facts have also proved that it was the right choice for us to come to the mayor.The old mayor's white hair was almost gone, and his expression was a bit haggard, presumably caused by overwork - there are already 20 missing children, but there is still no clue, I am afraid that anyone will do the same.According to him, most of the children later disappeared at night, but at first some of them disappeared during the day, maybe they went out for a trip, and they might never return. This makes sense why the little wolf asked the little girl yesterday. Inquiring about the situation, the mother's reaction would be so great.

Unfortunately, the child disappeared overnight.

In such cold weather, where did those children go?In the world of ice and snow, is there a shelter for them?I don't know, I suddenly prayed in my heart that they really went to the castle, at least there is a shelter, so that they don't...

"In order to avoid irreparable things from happening, please leave this town immediately after reading it."

"Thank you," Little Wolf thanked him for his trust, "but we also have things we must do."

……

However, in addition to the history books, the real history still has things that still survived in the past. Even if the years are eroded, the wind and rain will not die, and it will witness an indelible past with an ancient posture.

So, we headed towards the castle.

As soon as he got the history book, the little wolf began to read it tirelessly. It is hard to say whether it is because of history or because he loves books, or maybe because he is looking for feathers... In short, he does not let go of the book, even when he is riding a horse.In this way, Xiaoying will be taken by me. She looks worriedly at the little wolf who is studying hard. Not only is the latter admirable in equestrian skills, but he can also avoid various obstacles without raising his head. He looks completely needless to worry .

After a while, we came to the castle.

"Is that the castle in the north?"

The castle is right in front of you, but there is a river that is not narrow, and the water is turbulent. Heigan said that it is difficult to pass, at least it is impossible to bring children.But I looked at the castle, and my intuition told me that there seemed to be something there, but Mokona didn't respond.

The turbulence that existed 300 years ago, the broken stone bridge, the ancient legend, the missing child... It would be far-fetched to say that all these have nothing to do with each other, but the facts are in front of us, things that even black steel cannot do, How did the culprit do it?

Return in vain.On the way back, I reorganized my thoughts again.

First, about how the children disappeared.There was no warning before the disappearance, and no trace of violence was found at the scene. If you add what you just heard this morning...the door of the house is locked from the inside, and your parents have never heard any movement. True, then the child must have unlocked the door and gone out voluntarily, but it's obviously unlikely that the group ran away at any time; and I haven't found anyone with magical powers since being in town.

So, the way to let the kids go out on their own without magic...

Second, when we went to borrow books, we heard from the mayor that the climate here has deteriorated since a few years ago, life has become more urgent, and people’s hearts have gradually become unstable; and in the past two months, children have disappeared one after another. So the story of 300 years ago was brought up again, and this series of events happened later.

But not everyone can see the history books—at least according to the information we have now, the history books of this Emerald Country only exist in the hands of the mayor and the big landlord. There are only a few scholars, but I haven't heard of any scholar who is particularly concerned about the trivial matters in the town. In order to protect himself, the prisoner should not let go of any news.

If so, then besides the mayor, there are only those two people who are the source of this rumor.

……

Just thinking of this, Hei Gang stopped his horse suddenly, and I subconsciously followed him to stop. Looking up, there seemed to be a familiar figure.

— Crosham.

He rode alone in the snow-capped mountains, surrounded by dense dead branches, jackdaws wailed, and stood with his back to us for a long time, as if looking into the distance.

Over there is the direction of the castle.

And when we went back, Dr. Carl was running out in a hurry, saying that he was going to give a follow-up visit to a little girl because she was hit hard by the disappearance of her best friend.

"Did you borrow the book?"

"Well, I borrowed it from the mayor." The little wolf replied.

"That's good," he seemed relieved, "If you find any clues, no matter how subtle, please tell me all of them."

"I hope the children will return as soon as possible."

I watched him leave.

tell him all...

……

The two suspects appeared in turn, which was somewhat interesting.After going back, the coyotes continued to read the history books. He said that there were actually very few records about Princess Emerodd in the books, but it was the same as what the mayor said. Similar climate anomalies and crop harvests also occurred here 300 years ago. Afterwards, the situation was the same as what Dr. Carl said, the princess's parents died, and the children disappeared one after another...

"So, are the children really taken away by the princess?"

"Not sure yet," Little Wolf said earnestly, "Books or history may not completely record the truth."

At that moment, the young man showed wisdom that did not match his age, as beautiful as the morning sun.

Early the next morning, the three of us finished packing, and Sakura still hadn't woken up.

"Morning Sakura!"

I knocked on the door, but there was no answer. I knocked again, but there was still no one. According to the usual habit, even if Sakura slept a little longer, she should have woken up by this time. The three of us looked at each other, feeling a little worried.

"Sakura, I'm going to open the door."

——Sakura is not in the room!

Before he even had time to worry, there was a loud noise downstairs, which seemed to be the captain of the guard.Before we could go downstairs, the man came up by himself, and Dr. Carl tried his best to stop him, but in vain.

"Please wait! These few didn't go out last night!"

"Where is the other person?" asked the captain.

"She's not in the room."

The doctor was very panicked, and seemed to be more anxious than us, but the rough guy captain actually suspected Sakura, and he was about to question Xiaolang with a gun.If I say that he hit the muzzle of a gun, there is no basis for suspecting Sakura. Besides, Xiaolang is full of restlessness now that Sakura's whereabouts are unknown. How can he control others? Hei Gang took the gun casually, and pinned the captain to the ground in a flash.

"Since you dare to point a weapon at someone, you have nothing to say even if you are killed?"

I was speechless, I really don't know if Heigang is too crazy, or he overestimated the level of these people.I stood aside and booed, he shouldn't really kill someone when he's in a good mood, that would cause a lot of trouble.

Although... that person really deserves to be killed.

"Oh, Master Hei is so handsome!"

"Crap!"

……

The most urgent task is to find Sakura.

The window was open, and there was still a cloak hanging on the window sill, so Sakura must have gone out from here.

"Could it be that she was also abducted by the blonde princess?" Hei Gang speculated, "Or, did she see someone take the children away?"

Speaking of Princess Blonde, I still feel a little weird.I asked the little wolf if he thought Goldilocks was the one who had kidnapped the child, and the little wolf wasn't sure, but he said something important.

"I asked Dr. Carl. There is no such thing as magic or 'occultism' in this country."

Hearing this, I knew that he and I thought of one place.But if this is the case, how exactly did the masterminds allow the children to "lose" themselves?

"The door lock has not been broken, the child has no sign of struggle, and no one has seen the princess before Sakura," Xiao Lang pondered, "Also, Mokona didn't feel incredible power..."

"So," I continued, "who is the princess that Sakura saw?"

At least, not a prisoner.

——Then, the person who deliberately made us doubt the princess is...

……

According to the legend about the feather, only Sakura saw the blonde princess - we followed this clue all the way north to the castle to investigate.Dr. Carl went to see the children in the town, and the captain of the guard who hadn't left rushed up as soon as we went out, saying that he would follow us so as to monitor our whereabouts.

I sighed, not because I was afraid of him following, but because it was too noisy.

"I want to ask you something," Little Wolf said suddenly, "I heard from the mayor that the harvests have been very bad in recent years."

"That's right, just to feed yourself..."

I interrupted him.

"I heard that the land in this town is basically owned by Mr. Crosham..."

"What about the land rent?" Hei Gang asked.

Then he said that if Dr. Carl hadn't negotiated, they might have all moved out.The country of Heigang is no stranger to land rent, but it is undoubtedly skeptical about the weight a doctor can occupy in the heart of a landlord.

Either the doctor is too eloquent, or the landlord is too stupid.

I can't help but sneer.

--Yeah?Doctor Carl.

The three of us deliberately did not ride horses, and went to investigate on foot, but still found nothing.The captain of the guard had everything written on his face, and asked us why we were not in a hurry, so annoyed that even Hei Gang opened his mouth, saying that he really thought wrong.

Seeing that we were about to reach the castle again, and just as we were about to go back, a figure in front caught our attention again.

Still Crosham.

But different from last time, it was Krosham who was drenched all over. The other party seemed to have noticed us, and I took a playful look at Heigan.

——Is he better than you?

- nonsense.

He squinted at me.

"If there is nothing serious, the people here will not approach the castle!" said the captain of the guard with righteous indignation.

The three of us looked at each other and had to admire his IQ again.Because of this, those who can brazenly go down the river to the castle on this eventful day...

"I want to confirm one more thing."

……

Coyote gets a list of the missing children from the mayor.

It looks like walking and watching like the last time I read a history book, but only by careful observation can I find the difference.Sure enough, the little wolf, who was still able to concentrate on sensing and avoiding obstacles when he lowered his head to read a book last time, easily tripped and fell into the snow this time.

He was absent-minded.

"Don't worry," Hei Gang lifted him out of the snow, "otherwise what is visible will become invisible."

I curled my lips.In fact, Heigang is not as indifferent as he looks. He has a knife mouth and a bean curd heart. When he is nice to people, he is always not used to looking people in the eyes. This time he was also molested by Mokona.But I somehow feel that when he said this today, his tone was a bit sad, as if he had experienced the lesson himself.

I blinked my eyes, which were a little stinging from the reflection of the snow, and seemed to be extra sensitive recently—is it because of the snow?

——It looks like it’s from my hometown, isn’t it snow?

Then we walked to a residential house, and from the window we could see Dr. Carl treating the child.We couldn't help but stop and watch for a while, and just a moment after Dr. Carl finished his diagnosis and treatment, the child suddenly walked to the window with empty eyes.

"Blackbird..."

And in the sky, there were only whitish gray cumulus clouds.

……

Later, the little wolf went into Dr. Carl's room on the grounds of looking for wound medicine.

After that, everything went as we expected.

I have to say that Karl played a good game of chess—first he gained the trust of the people in the town as a doctor, and then he negotiated with Crosham, who originally planned to exempt the land rent, to "fight" for the rent-free opportunity, and hypnotized him to make him The children stepped into the trap by themselves, covered the traces with the heavy snow, controlled the water flow with the sluice gate, entered the castle by crossing the bridge, and spread the legend to push the responsibility to the princess who is no longer alive. If they are investigated for a long time, they will push it to us These outsiders could still claim that they were deceived in the end, and ended up as a virgin.

Every step is good, and the moves are clever.

Just because he can play chess doesn't mean we can't make tricks.The little wolf intentionally revealed to him the false news that Mr. Crosham was the prisoner, which was in his favor, and Moko pretended to be a child on stilts. As expected, he couldn't sit still and chased after him. The ironclad evidence of the comparison of the missing list was finally admitted.

The coyotes then compared the history books borrowed by Karl with Mr. Crosham's history books. The missing pages of the former were the detailed explanations of the castle's mysteries.

People get loot.

The only way out for the desperate criminal is to escape.A few steps across the river—the stone bridge that is not deep underwater is usually controlled by the upstream sluice. When Heigang and I went to see it, we found traces of recent use.The little wolf left a hand in advance and asked Moko to sprinkle fluorescent powder on Carl's feet. His thoughtfulness is impressive.

Without further ado, we also stepped across the stone bridge to catch up.The castle looked like ruins on the surface, but the basement was neat and intact. When we walked down, there were actually many rooms full of small beds below.But there was no time for him at this time, Karl discovered the fluorescence, the shoes were lost here, but there was no time to eliminate the children's footprints, we chased along the footprints, and after a while we heard Sakura's voice.

"Princess Sakura!"

Sakura held Feather in her arms.But the dagger was on Sakura's neck, so we couldn't act rashly for a while.Dr. Carl took off the mask of compassion and revealed a terrifying face—it turned out that the former princess saved the children with feathers!

Then those beds and toys we saw as we chased all the way have an explanation.The captain of the guard raised the question of the sudden death of the king and queen, but Sakura suddenly spoke out at this moment, looking into the void, as if she was talking to someone, but there was indeed no one there.

"I don't have time to listen to you talking to Phantom!"

Dr. Karl swung the knife suddenly, and the coyotes flew over to protect Sakura with his body, but he injured his shoulder, luckily the wound was not deep.But misfortunes never come singly. There was a loud noise in the distance, and Hei Gang and I reacted at the same time.

--sluice!

The old locks can no longer hold back the raging torrents.The basement was the first to bear the brunt, but in the blink of an eye, the unrestrained scourge was already in sight.We stood far away from the little wolf, and the bricks and tiles washed away by the flood blocked the way, and the little wolf immediately decided that we should go first.

"We will definitely leave the castle!"

The boy's voice was as firm as ever, and Hei Gang and I looked at each other.

"... let's go," he said.

"……it is good."