The door was pushed open with a loud "click".
Mrs. Duden, who was putting the pot on the oven, was startled when the pot fell to the ground with a crisp cracking sound.
"Damn it!"
Duden, who was warming himself by the fireplace, was startled. He turned around suddenly and saw that it was Adam.
He knew that Adam had been going to the Stump Tavern every night for a drink or two recently, teasing the tavern owner Herta's daughter Dolly, bragging with other villagers and passing businessmen, and then talking to him while smelling of alcohol. A red face came back.
Pushing the door so hard tonight, Duden thought, this kid must have drunk too much. He had to teach him a lesson.
"Damn it, uncle," Adam didn't have time to apologize to Mrs. Duden for his recklessness. He quickly closed the door and looked at Duden with eyes filled with anxiety, "Those three idiots were caught!"
"Which three idiots? Oh no, you mean those three..." Duden suddenly stood up from the small chair by the fireplace, and the originally calm flames in the fireplace danced excitedly.
"Yes, uncle, they are in the dungeon of the Lord's Tower now!" Adam said as he walked to the table, picked up the wooden cup, and drank the light beer in it.
"How do you know? Who told you?" Duden cursed those three stupid guys in his heart.
He thought, those three fools were really looking for death. If they could take the money and listen to him and fly away, far away, this matter would be over and no one would know about it.
"A soldier of Baron Simon," Adam took off his dusty green hood and sat on the chair next to Duden. "He told the drinkers the whole process of catching the gangster today, and also showed him He showed off the wound on his right arm like a gold brooch."
"Is that so? Then Sheriff Kevin..." Duden was interrupted by Adam before he finished speaking. He felt a little angry and raised his brows.
"I also saw Kevin in the pub," Adam kept talking like a barrage of words. "I said hello to him and asked him about today's situation calmly. He said that two of the gangsters were still... He caught it with his own hands, and he didn't seem to know that we were involved in this. Oh, I hope God protects us from being discovered, damn, damn..."
"Calm down," Duden waved his hand. "You were wearing a hood when you met those three idiots. No one knew you were involved in this matter, including Kevin. However, I think Cliff It should be quite dangerous now.”
"Why uncle?" Adam was a little confused.
"He made up a story to deceive the lord. Originally, I thought those three idiots would not be caught, and nothing would happen to him, but the situation is different now. I will soon find out when the lord interrogates tomorrow That's fishy." Duden took a sip of warm red wine and tried to stabilize his thoughts.
"What should we do?"
"I think I have a great idea." A strange smile suddenly appeared on the corner of Duden's mouth.
………………………………
Moonlight and mist shrouded the fields and forests of the barony, and occasionally two nightingales called "coo".
The old night watchman of Esbai Village yawned and felt that the arm holding the torch was a little sore, so he changed his hand to hold the torch, turned around and walked towards the other side of the main road.
What he didn't notice was that in a dark corner of the wall not far away, a stout man was holding his breath and watching him leave.
"Old Oded is really annoying today. He looks like a wooden stake standing there." Adam saw that the old night watchman had gone far away and there was no light nearby, so he furtively moved toward the outside of the village. , "Oh, I do all the dirty work every time."
Adam wore a black soft-armored hat, a brown linen tunic and black tights. He walked tiptoeing like a cat, and his weak sound would hardly attract anyone's attention.
After he left the village, he started running.
He wanted to reach the mill outside the village as quickly as possible and without anyone noticing, so that Colliff could escape quickly. Otherwise, when Lord Simon discovers the trick the next day and arrests Cliff for interrogation, he and his uncle Duden's family will all suffer.
"call!"
Adam ran to the mill in one breath, stretched out his thighs in the front yard of the cabin to catch his breath, unscrewed the kettle from his waist and moistened his throat.
"Who is it? Adam?"
Cliff in the hut obviously heard the movement outside. He cautiously opened a small corner of the animal skin curtain and used the torch in front of the yard to see the person clearly.
"What happened?" Cliff put on his coat, wrapped his hands and opened the door.
"Hurry up and pack up your valuable things and run away. The Lord has caught the three guys who attacked the ranch." Adam's eyes widened. "Otherwise, tomorrow, when he finds out that you are making up stories to lie to him, you will be locked up too." Get up and interrogate, and we will be finished!"
"Oh no, damn it!" Cliff's legs weakened and he sat on the ground, "How could this happen? Where should I escape? How should I escape?"
"Don't you know some bandits roaming in the forest?" Adam sniffed and said, "You should bring your belongings to him now, give him some benefits, and let him take you out of here. It is best not to be caught by the lord's soldiers. Caught, otherwise you will definitely die."
"I don't have anything valuable at home to give to the brothers in the woods..." Cliff said pitifully, but Adam was unmoved and even got angry.
"What's wrong with your head?" Adam lowered his voice and said viciously, "I know exactly how many rats there are in the cracks in the wall of your house, and now you tell me that you have no money? Do you really want this life? Or do you want to keep your useless money?"
"I know..." Cliff sighed and turned back to the house.
Adam curled his lips in disdain. Cliff was just asking him for some money for his escape. In fact, whether Adam gave it to him or not, he had to flee far away, otherwise as Baron Simon said - he would take his The head was chopped off.
I heard Uncle Duden say that Cliff came to see him during the day, and he actually had a wishful thinking and asked Duden to return the deposit of the Denier silver coin to him. The reason was that he did not get the pasture in the end. It was really Extremely greedy.
Not long after, Adam heard the sound of a shovel digging into the soil from inside the house. He thought, this Colliff hid it really well, and actually buried money in the ground.
After a while, Cliff packed his things and walked out with his wife and the muddy bag.
"Oh, my mill." Cliff sighed, with unconcealed gloom and reluctance in his eyes.
He took the donkey out of the nearby warehouse and placed the packed luggage in the pannier basket beside the donkey.
"Come, dear." Cliff helped his wife get on the donkey, then put a roll of blanket on her shivering back, then took the reins around the donkey's mouth and looked at Adam.
"You ask the bandits to take you to East Frisia in the north, find a sea ship and go to England to spend the rest of your life. I guarantee that when you get to England, no one will be able to find you in the future."
"Can't we go south?" Cliff asked cautiously.
"No," Adam said decisively, "Going south requires passing through several baronies taken over by new barons. You can't guarantee which nobles are friends with Lord Simon and whether they will assist him in sending people to arrest you."
"What about going north?"
"Go some distance to the north and cross the river to the Principality of Friesland in East Frisia. I guess Lord Simon is not familiar with the nobles there, so it will be difficult to pursue you. And by that time, you have already sat down On the ferry to England." Adam said, stroking his chin in thought.
I didn't expect that this big and rugged guy like a bull had something in his head. This is all information he got from chatting with passing businessmen in the tavern.
"Last question," Cliff rubbed the back of his head in confusion, "Where is England?"
Like most medieval villagers, Colif was born here and has never left his hometown a few times in his middle age. Now that he suddenly has to leave his hometown and flee, he seems very at a loss.
"The other side of the sea," Adam recalled a description from a passing Saxon-Anglo trader, "is a rainy, damp place."
"I don't like it there."
"You have no choice."
"..."
When the backs of Cliff and his wife disappeared into the dense forest, Adam took out a dark red face-covering turban from his pocket, walked into Cliff's hut, and murmured: "Since Now that you're gone, you'll have to bear the rest of the charges."
………………………………
The next morning, the villagers started a new day of work as usual. No one seemed to notice that the owner of the mill outside the village and his wife had disappeared without a trace.
After Simon simply ate something to fill his stomach, he eagerly came to the dungeon.
He felt an inexplicable excitement filling his body - he was about to pick out the borers in Esbai Village.
At the beginning, the three robbers were tight-lipped, as if their mouths were filled with lead. They were either unwilling to say anything, or they said they were innocent travelers and cried out in tears that they were wronged.
When Miller used some "small toys" to help them recall what happened that night, finally, an overwhelmed robber spoke, but it must be mentioned that the foreign accent mixed with weakness and pain made Simon It took a lot of effort to understand what he was talking about.
According to the robbers, the three of them fled to the Dihes Forest a week ago to look for opportunities. A sturdy man wearing a dark red turban found them through nearby bandits and asked them to attack the ranch.
After the strong man paid the deposit, the three of them discussed the strategy, and finally decided that one person would pretend to be a businessman to lure away the shepherds who lived and guarded the pasture, and the other two would kill the livestock.
Simon continued to interrogate, but the information obtained was very limited. The three robbers never knew the identity of the person they were contacting.
"It's really tricky." Simon rubbed his sore temples, but at this moment, he suddenly remembered the testimony of the miller Colliff.
But what surprised Simon was that the three robbers unanimously denied that they had ever found the miller. Soon, Simon realized that either the robber was lying to him, or Cliff was panicking about him at that time.
Now, the context is clear.
"Bill, take the soldiers to the mill and bring Cliff back!"
When Simon and Sir Bill arrived at the mill with the soldiers, the wooden door of Cliff's cabin was open, and the door of the storehouse was also open. All the property that could be taken away from the house was taken away, and the donkeys in the warehouse were also missing.
"They've escaped," Bill came out of the house and shook his head at Simon. "But," Bill took out a hood and handed it to Simon, "I found this under his bed."
"Really?" Simon took the hood and looked at it carefully.
The turban is dark red and looks a bit old. Combined with what the robbers said about the muscular man wearing a dark red turban, Simon quickly superimposed the image of Colliff in his mind.
"Send someone to bring the hounds over," Simon patted Sir Bill on the shoulder. "It's going to be hard on you again, Bill. They shouldn't have gone far yet."
