The moonlight is not very bright.
The weather in early spring is always cloudy and sunny, day and night. The sky covered with dark clouds blocked most of the moonlight, and even Xifink's magic moon could not penetrate it. Although the low visibility gave everyone enough cover, it also made people somewhat frightened by the things that were about to move in the boundless darkness.
Unknown insects chirped in the moss-covered and weed-covered corners of nearby houses. Emerging from the cold winter weather, they began to frolic like people in a brightly lit vocal venue in the middle of a swamp village.
The literati of the Moon Kingdom often raise insects and write poems to the insects' chirping.
But this sound was not appreciated by the current group of people.
"It's been an hour and a half." Alfonso said, "It must have been an hour and a half since they left."
"It's been a while." He emphasized his thoughts, and the two missionaries beside him nodded, as did the Luoan girl who was comforting the three horses. Henry said nothing, scanning the surroundings with gray-blue eyes to ensure that any movement could be detected in time.
On nights like this, almost no one visits the banks of the river in Swamp Village, and everyone gathers in those brightly lit areas.
The leader of the Yi tribe who accompanied them was a middle-aged man named Temulun who stuttered a bit. Because the settlement was located further south than Lulu's tribe, he had more frequent interactions with He and others. Therefore, among everyone, they are the ones who know the general situation of Marsh Village as a nearby transportation hub best.
Henry and others were foreigners through and through. Although the sage had been here in the long past, in an era when foreign exchanges were more restricted than now, his pace was limited to the area around Xinjing.
This is similar to Miss Doctor. Before embarking on her foolhardy journey, Aya's activities were all in the Xinjing area in the south. And considering her body shape and other issues, even if she knew something about this place, it would be too risky to dress up and go on the road together.
Based on these premises, it is not unreasonable for Padre Alfonso to feel anxious.
——The initiative is not in their hands. Young people like Mira, Galeva, and Aggie may not be aware of it, but as people in high positions, the middle-aged priest feels very uneasy about this.
Although Henry had made it clear at the beginning that the rebels would not treat the barbarians equally, and Ling made a promise to intercede with the royal family based on her noble status, so that the barbarians could return to a stable life. This was used as a condition to obtain the cooperation of Temulun and others.
But as outsiders, it is an indisputable fact that they had to rely on Temulun and others who had a relatively better understanding of the local situation on the way to the south.
Their guarantee cannot be fulfilled until the end of the long journey, and during this journey, at least in the Northern Territory, they have to rely on Temulun and the others for many things. If the time span is extended, things will inevitably change, and due to insufficient understanding and the inability to take the initiative in the situation, it is inevitable that Alfonso, a typical Laman leader, will cause anxiety.
Adding fuel to all this is funding issues. The barbarians who make a living by hunting don't have much money, so the money they use to purchase various supplies and large enough barges comes from Henry and others - to be more precise, from Alfonso and others who are their employers. The part of the money that should have been used as the church's construction funds in Crescent Continent was spent.
Most of what Alfonso carried was gold, but some of it was converted into local silver coins in advance as working capital in case of unexpected events. And this time it was this part that was used to purchase supplies and barges.
The priest is not Lorraine. He has seen Henry treat the Laman scholars and his party before and understands that this mercenary is not a simple one. He knows that now is not a good time for him to make small calculations. In order to survive, he must prove his worth. Despite this, anyone who has no worries at all about handing over funds to an outsider who has only known them for a few days, without any insurance measures, basically has something wrong with their brains.
When assigning tasks, he actually wanted to say something like leaving Temulun's son Hulan - the boy who accidentally let go of the arrow - with them. The priest had already thought of an excuse, something like ensuring safety, and it was better to stay with them since he was still young.
But these people are not fools. They will immediately realize that they are keeping hostages to prevent them from absconding with the money. And once this opening is made, it is likely to create a rift in the temporary alliance that was not close to begin with.
Alfonso is not stupid, so he would not behave like Lorene.
Although trusting him meant facing betrayal, he didn't seem to have much choice. We can only believe in the leadership ability of this mercenary who calls himself Henry Meyer and has a Vislan name but is from Suomir, as well as the Yi people's understanding of the common crisis.
He is shrewder than the pretentious upper-class Lorraine. He knows when to let go and not to control everything, but he still begins to feel uneasy because of the nature of Laman's leadership.
Henry naturally noticed all this.
Although Alfonso thought he hid it well, his sensitivity to the passage of time and his restless appearance had long revealed his inner doubts.
Something was definitely wrong, and while the procurement itself was understandably taking a long time, they had clearly divided the work and made a list, and just followed it.
Unlike the priests, the sages did not suspect that the barbarians had changed their minds. One is because these hunters are relatively simple and do not like intrigues as much as the imperial people. The other is that their group is the best choice for Temulun and others at the moment.
So, naturally something unexpected happened.
Since arriving here, he has been observing his surroundings carefully. Although I have never been here personally, I can still roughly infer from various details with my rich knowledge.
As a result, the sage made the choice to stay in a place near the river embankment that not many people would visit.
Although staying in place can easily attract more unnecessary attention, if you keep moving, they will have no suitable contact method and may become separated.
And most importantly, Marsh Village is the same as many other towns and villages that lack reasonable urban planning settings and everyone builds houses on land - the houses are built haphazardly.
From the outside, it may seem like there is a road to go in, but when you actually walk in, you will find that someone suddenly built a house or erected a wall in the middle of the road, and you can only walk past it in a detour. Once you come and go, even locals can easily get lost in the alleys.
So for the sake of safety, they stayed on the river bank with only two directions: front and back. Except for a hut in the distance that showed a hazy shape in the dim moonlight and stood on the river at the edge of the swamp, there were not too many buildings here that would dazzle people.
Time passed by, and Alfonso didn't speak again, but silence was also a form of anxiety.
"The bugs stopped chirping." Mira slowly pulled out the sword in a very small step to avoid making any noise. Then it was lowered and hidden in the shadows to prevent the metal from reflecting moonlight and attracting the attention of distant patrols.
"Well, we are surrounded." The sage's tone remained calm, but the remaining four people, including Galeva, were a little panicked.
"What should I do, teacher, break out on horseback?" the Luoan girl asked.
"No." The sage shook his head. His keen sense of smell caught something, and then he turned his head and looked up.
The Kazuto house, which was only two meters high, looked like a house in Lilliput to Henry, so he could clearly notice some creeping black figures on the continuous roofs.
A subtle pungent sour smell permeated the cold air, and the humid swamp air made his sense of smell more acute. Therefore, from a distance of more than ten meters, he could tell that this was some kind of plant juice that was applied to the utensils in those people's hands.
"Don't act rashly. It's a poison that seals the throat at the sight of blood. The opponent will come prepared." Henry spoke in Laman language, not only to instruct Mira, but also to tell the others not to make any sudden movements.
"Okay." The nervous Galeva and the Luoan girl who was on guard put their weapons back and lowered their hands in a non-resistance gesture, while the missionary and others who had taken out the light crossbow hesitated. , but ultimately chose to do the same thing.
"Are you here to talk? As you can see, we are not holding weapons." Henry changed to the language of the Moon Country and spoke to the darkness, but no one responded.
"Come out of the shadows and let me see your face." After a moment, a slightly hoarse voice said.
"..." The sage walked slowly under the moon, his face with gray-blue eyes and tall figure fully revealed.
"..." There was some commotion in the darkness, and he could keenly catch it: "...I didn't tell lies..." and other words, but Because these people spoke with accents and local dialects, Henry could not fully understand them.
"A very articulate foreigner, with a huge body like Oni. I have two questions. Who are you? What is the purpose of a character like you visiting our village?" It is obvious that the level of speaking is different from others. The human's hoarse voice spoke like this.
"When you ask someone a question, isn't it polite to introduce yourself first?" But Henry did not give in and asked directly and firmly.
"This guy." A man standing behind the leader raised some kind of pipe in his hand as if to attack the sage, but at this moment Henry turned his head instantly as if ignoring the darkness and used his pan. Staring at him with blue eyes.
"This." It was clear that the enemy was in the open and we were in the dark, but the warrior under the cover of darkness felt like a mouse being targeted by a night owl, unable to move.
"Your Excellency...can see in the dark." The hoarse voice spoke, then sighed and waved his hand.
Immediately afterwards, the alert people around suddenly lowered their weapons.
Their movements were uniform, and they did not look like miscellaneous bandits at all.
"Tap, tap." The owner of the hoarse voice walked out of the darkness. Mira frowned because of the sound of his footsteps - only then did she notice that this man had an injury on his right foot and was lame.
How could such a person come so close to this distance silently? Not to mention her, not even her own teacher could detect it in time?
Even if the other party has the advantage of being a local snake and knows the complex local buildings well, even if they can close this distance, it is enough to prove that these people are well-trained.
"Sinobi." Henry said a word that Mira couldn't understand, which seemed to refer to the occupation of these people.
"It seems that your Excellency knows more about our country than we thought." The man who also walked under the dim moonlight was about the same age as Alfonso. His long gray hair was tied into a ponytail on the back of his head. Wearing typical Moon Country-style loose clothing, the background color is sky blue, and there is also a brown warm vest on the outside.
"How come Xinjing's elite spies and assassination troops have been reduced to working as security guards for a bunch of gangsters." The sage still spoke mercilessly, and after he said this sentence, several young and energetic people seemed to be angry. commotion.
But the leader didn't give the order, so they didn't make any move.
"The same reason you all came to our land in the Moon Country." The leader said, "It's just to survive."
"I am the leader of this insignificant team. Just call me Qingshi. As you can see, I am in charge of this area." He paused and said, "Security work."
"Henry." The sage shrugged and introduced himself.
"Your Excellency is really precious about your words, but I don't hate it. There are too many dogs in the world that can bark but not bite. This ends the greetings. Although it is a bit abrupt, I would like to ask you to come with me to meet the Lord. ."
"Your companions are already waiting there." The leader who called himself Qingshi said this. Although the words were polite, he obviously did not give them the right to refuse.
"Teacher?" Mira cast her eyes on Henry, as did everyone else.
"Let's go."
"When you enter someone else's property, you don't say hello to the owner."
"We are indeed a little rude." The sage shrugged and said.
