It's even more humid than Skye here, with a hint of chill. Although Char's appearance is not as eye-catching as Alicia's, in order to avoid trouble, he still put on a cloak, covering most of his appearance. .
They walked through the forest and came across a small abandoned village. The houses in the village were all low-rise brick and earth houses about two meters tall. The bluestone-paved path was soaked with water vapor.
Not far away, a slender waterfall flew down, washing out a small lake.
The village looks like it has not been inhabited for a long time. Many broken tiles have fallen to the ground and are covered with moss. The buildings must be at least from the medieval period.
After passing through the abandoned village, they never found such a gathering village again.
Except for some places where water resources are scarce, many rural houses are very scattered. There are no neat rows of houses like small towns. Most of them are built next to their own farmland or pasture.
But from a visual inspection of the surrounding houses, the population of this valley should be around 500 to 1,000. The streets are all dirt roads and are muddy after rain.
Suddenly, Xia Ya seemed to notice something, raised her head slightly and looked at the roof of a certain house.
On the ridge of the roof, a young man wearing special clothes and a hood was secretly observing them. When Xia turned his attention, he hurriedly hid behind the house.
"There seems to be someone watching us over there." Sebastian stared at the ridge of the roof not far away and said, "Do you need me to go over there and deal with it?"
Xia Ya calmly shook his head, "It's okay."
"Is he someone you know?" Sebastian seemed to understand something.
"I don't know, but it should be related to a friend I haven't seen for a long time." Xia Ya said.
Wearing an assassin suit and a hood, there was only one person in the world who wore this look, and that was Heilang.
But obviously, the person wearing the assassin uniform should not be Heilang, otherwise he would not be able to recognize Xia Ya.
The brotherhood that Heilang wanted to establish when he came to Europe should have achieved certain results.
Although this assassin's movements are still a bit unfamiliar, for ordinary people, he is definitely considered a master.
The purpose of Heilang's establishment of this organization is to find his sister and the existence of the mysterious organization that caused the Marquis of Os to be parasitized by nightmares.
And this mysterious organization seems to be looking for some kind of special treasure.
So, maybe that's why these fraternity guys are here.
Sebastian nodded, and since he was an acquaintance, he said no more words.
They walked straight to the tavern, an intelligence center found almost everywhere.
The pub here fits the stereotype of many pubs.
There were some rough, hairy men everywhere who were very drunk. They were very loud and noisy. Some of them were even kicking their feet. The strong stench was mixed with the smell of alcohol.
But what is surprising is that the waiters here are all teenagers, the youngest of whom looks younger than Arthur.
It seemed that no one had come here for a long time, so when Char and Sebas came in, all eyes were focused on them.
There were several people wearing assassin uniforms and hoods sitting in a corner not far away, looking at this from the corner of their eyes.
Xia Ya ignored these looks and walked directly to the bar.
The owner behind the bar is a Celtic woman with red hair tied back casually.
She looked to be about thirty years old, with fair skin like all Celts, and three-dimensional facial features. The only flaw was that there was a very ferocious scar from her chin to the corner of her eye, like a bug, which greatly affected her appearance.
"welcome."
The landlady looked at Char and Sebas, and she joked, "I don't know what the wind has been blowing recently. In the past, there was no stranger in Sleepy Valley for several years, but recently there have been so many people."
Xia Ya smiled, casually found a seat to sit down, and took over the conversation, "And maybe, the questions are all about the same thing."
The landlady stared at Xia Ya, her eyes gradually getting sharper.
"Are you that interested in the Headless Horseman?"
"Headless Horseman?" Xia Ya's eyes showed a little interest, "Do you have a Headless Horseman here?"
The landlady reacted and said angrily, "Are you trying to trick me?"
Xia Ya shrugged, "It's just a wonderful misunderstanding."
He took out a map from his body and handed it to the landlady.
"I want to ask about this place."
The clairvoyance given to him by Merlin's destiny can only see everything on the "now" timeline, but cannot see the past or future.
But in this work, Merlin can use his clairvoyance to be similar to Laplace's demon, using everything he knows to predict the future and make certain predictions.
So Char can do it to a certain extent, and as the weaver of destiny, he should do it too.
But compared to asking directly, it definitely requires more effort.
With that said, Xia Ya took out a gold coin from his arms and placed it on the table. Although the currencies were not the same, the gold was real.
The landlady's eyes lit up. She picked up the gold coin and looked at it. She took a bite to test whether it was genuine or not. Then she clicked her tongue and said in surprise, "You are much richer than those people."
She accepted the coins, then looked at the map carefully, frowning slightly.
"This is the Forbidden Forest?"
She looked at Char and said suspiciously.
"Are you really not here to find the Headless Horseman?"
A glimmer of light flashed in Xia Ya's eyes.
This treasure must be inseparable from this knight.
"Can you tell me about the legend of the headless horseman?" Xia asked.
Catherine came back to her senses, shrugged and said, "This is not a secret, everyone in Sleepy Hollow knows it.
Legend has it that he was a brave knight under the Duke of Britain during his lifetime. Unfortunately, he was killed on the battlefield and his head was cut off by the enemy.
So the Duke of Britain buried him in Sleepy Hollow.
Every night when the moon is dark and the wind is high, he will ride a horse that is also undead, looking for his lost head everywhere;
Whenever he saw someone who looked similar to himself in life, he would cut off his head and take it back.
Speaking of which, the end of April and the beginning of May is also the time when the legendary Headless Horseman appears most often. "
"Has any of you here really seen the Headless Horseman?" Xia asked with interest.
Catherine shook her head, "Maybe the old man has seen it before. During this period, we would draw down the curtains at night and stay indoors and wear gold jewelry.
Because the Headless Horseman is afraid of the light from gold, this is his only weakness.
Although gold cannot cause harm to the Headless Horseman, it can protect the souls of the residents of Sleepy Hollow from being taken away.
This is a custom passed down from long ago. "
"There must be some people who don't follow customs, right?" Xia Ya asked.
Catherine nodded, "It is true that some people did die in the suburbs during this period, but most of them died of accidents and were not beheaded."
Xia Ya nodded. He looked at the proprietress and said with a smile, "I don't know your name yet?"
"Catherine." said the landlady, "the boss here."
After a pause, Catherine said, "Would you like some wine? I can provide it for free."
"No." Xia Ya smiled, "Actually, I used to run a tavern."
"Then are you planning to open a restaurant here?" Catherine said half-jokingly.
"That's not true." Xia Ya said, "If I want to drive it, I will drive it in the city."
"Indeed." Catherine nodded, "A big boss like you who can easily take out a gold coin will look down on a small place like ours."
"I'm a little curious." Xia Ya looked around, "Why are there all teenagers here? Are they all your children?"
"That's right." Catherine nodded. "They are all children without a father, a mother, and nowhere to go. I give them a bite to eat, and they also call me mother."
She seemed to want to say something, but at the same time, there was some commotion in a corner of the tavern.
The two men fought fiercely, overturning all the tables and chairs along the way, and the wine bottles fell to the ground. The rumbling sound was accompanied by the cheers and cheers of the drunken men around them.
"Ma Lin is mine, you are not worthy of her at all!"
"I'm not good enough for her, so you are? You delusional sewer rat!"
Catherine shouted angrily, "Stop it! If you want to make a fuss, get out of here!"
But they didn't respond.
She shouted directly, "Haron, throw them out!"
Soon, the curtain on one side of the bar was opened, and a strong man about 1.9 meters tall walked out. He pulled the two of them apart with absolute force, grabbed one person's collar with one hand and threw them out respectively. to the tavern.
"Calculate the losses and send the bill to their house later!" Catherine said angrily with her hands on her hips.
In this era, those who can open a tavern are usually local gangsters. After all, they still need to deal with those very restless drunks and gangsters.
"I still prefer the tavern you opened." Sebastian whispered to Char.
Char's eyelids slightly closed, but she didn't answer. Instead, she looked at Catherine, "Do you often get fights here?"
"It's just those two idiots." Catherine said disdainfully, "Wulf and Baker were fooled around by a woman."
"Is your name Ma Lin?" Xia Ya asked. The two men had called out this name when they were arguing just now.
"She's just a bitch from a foreign country." Catherine said contemptuously. "I heard that she escaped to Sleepy Hollow after defrauding others of their property. She just likes to pretend to be weak and seduce men."
Sounds like green tea.
"Marlene and Woolf are getting married this afternoon." Catherine continued, "But Baker is a little reluctant."
She sighed and said sarcastically, "Why is he not as rich as Woolf?"
"That's always the reality."
Xia Ya smiled and said instead of continuing to listen to this village gossip.
“Thank you very much for the information, Ms. Catherine.
I hope my reward will satisfy you. "
"Satisfied." Catherine nodded and smiled, "This gold coin of yours has covered my sales for several months."
Char's eyelids closed slightly, she slowly stood up from her seat, and praised Catherine.
"You are kind and beautiful."
Catherine frowned slightly. With the hideous scar on her face, she couldn't be called beautiful.
If someone else said this to her, she would definitely think it was a mockery.
However, there was no teasing or deliberate compliment in the words of the person in front of him. Instead, they were very sincere and made people unable to feel any disgust.
Catherine's brows relaxed and she replied.
"Thanks."
After nodding to Catherine, Char and Sebas pushed the door open and left.
Catherine watched them leave and murmured, "These people are much more polite than the last group of people."
"What are you here for?" The strong man named Haron came over and asked.
"I don't know." Catherine shook her head, "It seems that she is also here to find the Headless Horseman."
Harlon frowned, "Isn't that a legend from many years ago? Does it really exist?"
"I heard that some people in nearby villages saw the Headless Horseman, and some were beheaded." Catherine said, waving the gold coins in her hand.
Harlon nodded solemnly, "It's become more and more uneasy recently. I heard that the West French people have been going crazy recently, not only fighting the Brittanians, but also attacking the British Isles.
I don’t know if it will spread to our side.
Now there are so many outsiders here. "
Catherine took a deep breath, then let it out slowly.
"What are you thinking about? We are far away from West France."
With that said, she was about to lock the gold coins in a cabinet on one side.
But the next moment, under Catherine's gaze.
The gold color on the gold coin was slowly fading away. After a while, the originally brilliant gold coin turned into an ordinary stone.
"What's going on?" Harlon obviously saw this scene.
"I don't know." Catherine was also a little panicked, "I understand"
After a pause, she seemed to realize something, her face turned visibly red, and she gritted her teeth.
"That person must have used some kind of deceit to deceive me, these damn strangers!"
Catherine looked at Harlon and said sternly, "Harlon, chase me, they won't be able to run far!"
But Harlon was indifferent. He opened his eyes wide and looked at Catherine's face in disbelief, as if he had seen something strange.
"Catherine you...your face."
Catherine frowned slightly, Harlon's expression obviously hurting her.
The corners of her mouth drooped and she said displeasedly, "What's wrong with my face?
It's all like this, no matter how ugly it is, how can it be so ugly?
You said you don't dislike me! "
"No." Harlon's tongue swirled a little, and he said in horror, "The scar on your face is gone!"
"What?" Catherine seemed not to hear clearly for a moment.
"I said, the scar on your face is gone!" Harlon shouted again.
His voice seemed to attract a few people around him.
They also turned their attention to Catherine, then their eyes lit up and they said in surprise.
"It's true, boss lady, your scar is gone."
"Boss lady, what medicine did you use?
Scars from decades can be healed. "
"Speaking of which, the boss lady turns out to be so beautiful."
Listening to the conversations of people around her, Catherine gradually believed Harlon's words.
Her breathing was a little rapid, and she reached out with a trembling hand to touch her face. The raised, ferocious insect-like scar could no longer be touched.
Instead, there is extremely smooth skin.
She looked at Harlon and said with tears in her eyes, "Where's the mirror?"
"Didn't they all get smashed by you?" Harlon said helplessly.
Because of the scar on her face, what Catherine hated most was the mirror.
Sometimes it's hard for him to shave.
Catherine quickly picked up a basin from under the counter and filled it with water, as the water ripples gradually stabilized.
Soon, she saw the beautiful face in the basin, with smooth skin and no blemishes.
Tears rolled in her eyes, and she covered her mouth in excitement to prevent herself from crying.
Suddenly, what the stranger said just now flashed through her mind.
"I hope my reward will satisfy you."
She seemed to realize something, pushed open the bar door, and ran quickly outside the tavern. She ran to the village road and looked around.
However, Char and Sebastian were already far away at this moment, and they could not be seen at all.
(End of chapter)
