BXBX NOVEL Chapter 124 - A Child
In the last stretch of their journey, Gawain and company bypassed the main roads and arrived near the stone bridge before Tanzan Town with the cover of the forest. Finally, they laid low at the southern side of the stone bridge and watched the Tanzan Gate opposite the bridge.
“Have you noticed? The town seems to be confined already.” Surveying the gates from afar, Pittman muttered in a soft voice, “There are no pedestrians on the bridge. There is an abnormally large number of soldiers at the gate. There are many boats at the dock beside the town. It seems they are all being detained there.”
The shadows beneath the nearby bushes contorted, and Amber’s figure came out from there. “I looked for a long while at the main road. I didn’t see any caravans or travelers pass by. The town’s confinement has probably lasted for at least two days already…”
“It looks like the town had restricted entrances and exits right after Golden-Eyed Piegel’s ship left.” Gawain analyzed. “According to the plan, Byron was to stay behind in Tanzan Town and continue to recruit serfs. His movements would have been conspicuous, so it must have been difficult to get free after the confinement. No wonder there wasn’t any news sent back.”
Amber jinxed for a moment. “He couldn’t have met with a mishap already, could he?”
Gawain shook his head. “Judging by the situation at the gates, the town has only restricted entrances and exits, the order inside is still normal. Byron is a former mercenary, and he’s really shrewd. It’s unlikely that he would stumble in such an environment.”
“Cough, cough. The problem is how we are going to enter.” Pittman coughed dryly. “Two sides of Tanzan Town are rivers, and its back is a mountain. The only entrances are a stone bridge and a gate at the front, both right under the noses of the soldiers. — Are we just going to strut in?”
Even someone as blunt as Sir Philip could not help but shake his head. “Right now, we’re unclear of the situation inside the town. If by any chance the heretic cult believers already have control over Viscount Andrew, we will definitely put those evildoers on alert by showing our faces.”
As it turned out, this young knight was only old-fashioned and blunt; he wasn’t a fool…
Gawain narrowed his eyes slightly. An HD 1 satellite imaging view immediately formed in his mind.
“There is a way through the Tanzan Mine. We can go around from the east of the town to the back. Moreover, this route directly brings us closer to the castle area.” Gawain opened his eyes. “But crossing the river is still a difficult problem. This bridge is— Who is it?!”
Gawain suddenly sensed a weak and furtive aura moving about nearby. He immediately turned his head in that direction and shouted out. Only after he made a sound did Amber belatedly sense an ‘incongruous shadow’ from the shifts in the surrounding shadows. She promptly drew out her pair of daggers and spun them before herself. “Come out! We’ve discovered you!”
It was deadly quiet in the dense forest, but a moment later, the bushes under a certain tree suddenly swayed. Then, a dirty and messy little head appeared from behind the bushes. It was a small boy, with a head of matted, withered yellow hair that looked like it hadn’t been trimmed in several years. He was dressed in a burlap short-sleeved shirt and shorts that were both full of patches and holes. This was a typical peasant. Years of malnutrition had him skinny with a sallow complexion, along with stunted growth. Only, his bright eyes held the kind of glimmer and liveliness that adults of his class did not have.
However, this pair of big eyes were covered by a thin layer of mist, terror brimming out of them. He woodenly stood up from between the bushes, his body trembling slightly. He even seemed to have forgotten about escaping.
“It’s a child?” Sir Philip frowned briefly. He never expected that what was ‘hiding’ in the forest and moving around sneakily was actually a child who looked a little older than ten years. Moreover, there weren’t the slightest energy fluctuations on him at all. The article regarding helping the small and weak in the knights’ code made his expression ease up a little. However, the combat training that knights received made him not dare to remove his hand from the hilt of his sword. “Don’t be afraid—— Walk over slowly.”
Yet the child abruptly let out a terrified ‘ah’, then turned and ran.
“You’re holding such a big sword. It’d only be weird if he didn’t run.” Amber gave Philip a glance like she was looking at a fool. Following that, her figure flickered, and she blended into the shadows. Moments later, short cries sounded from the direction where the child ran in; then the tree shade before Gawain began to wriggle. Amber appeared from the shadows again, holding the child’s collar. — A wicked level of talent with the shadows was just great: it was as if this rascal carried a dimension door with her when running.
The child was easily brought back by Amber, and in the middle, he probably even experienced a brief tour of the shadow realm. This completely frightened him so out of his wits that he really forgot to run, but his fear was rising because of this, such that Gawain believed he was about to burst out in tears in the next second. However, this child only strained to keep a straight face, pursing his lips. At last, he forcefully restrained his tears, only watching the strangers before him in great fear.
“Don’t be scared,” Amber quickly consoled the child at this point. “We aren’t good people…”
Gawain instantly gave this ultimate disgrace a glare.
“Ah no, we aren’t bad people.” Amber hurriedly corrected herself and then explained apologetically to Gawain, “Occupational disease from the past, I’ve yet to change it…”
“We won’t hurt you.” Sir Philip pressed his hand on the boy’s head. “Look, I’m a knight. I will protect you.”
The small boy was initially so unnerved that he shivered, but after hearing Philip’s words, he calmed down a little and nodded in hazy understanding.
Gawain took this chance to speak up. “Are you a child of a family that lives nearby? Why are you wandering in the forest?”
Yet the small boy was greatly startled by Gawain — this burly chap with a two-meter build and even a square face — that he backed away repeatedly.
“You don’t have to be scared. He is my feudal lord,” Sir Philip quickly reassured. “He is an upright and kind good man.”
At this point, Amber, noticing that the small boy hadn’t said a word from the start to finish, could not help but mutter, “He couldn’t be a mute, could he?”
Gawain was just about to warn her not to make blind claims without grounds but saw Pittman beside him frown briefly. Then, this old druid went forward, held the small boy’s chin, opened his mouth and then took a careful look.
“His tongue has been cut off.” The old druid relaxed his hold and said after a moment of silence. “And it has been cut off for at least two years.”
Gawain’s planned words were instantly jammed in his chest. He didn’t know what changes there were to his expression at that moment. He only knew that Amber abruptly shrunk her head when she looked toward him. He then suppressed his anger. “He’s such a young child. What wrong has he done to render his tongue being cut off?!”
Even if it was the barbaric, backward medieval laws, they could not slice off the tongue of a child aged 14 years old and lower. — Even the Church of the Blood God, which was notorious for dauntless cruelty, believed that a child of this age ‘would do no real wrong in language’!
Pittman shook his head. “The technique of cutting was skilled, and there were signs of magic being used to treat it. He’s not a criminal that was punished, but a dumb child servant, most likely a servant of a certain big merchant. Those big merchants often do this. They use dumb child servants as their personal servants because they can neither speak nor write. Unless these servants meet extraordinary beings who know soul magic, otherwise, they will never reveal their owner’s secrets.”
Gawain: “…”
He was totally at a loss of what he should say right now. But before he could speak, the little mute who had his tongue cut off stirred first. — He suddenly stared at Sir Philip’s breastplate, then grabbed the young knight’s arm while pointing to a certain spot on the breastplate, and started shouting out loud with “ah, ah”.
Philip was bewildered for a moment. This young and promising knight had no experience associating with children at all. He opened both hands to indicate that he completely did not understand what the other party meant, but Gawain noticed what the child was pointing to. “You’ve seen this emblem before?”
“Ah… Ah!” The little mute nodded repeatedly and pointed at the mark on Philip’s breastplate with even more force.
That was the emblem of the Cecil Clan.
Gawain was suddenly inspired and instantly connected certain matters. He immediately questioned closely, “Where did you see it?”
The little mute gestured wildly, ambiguous and unclear noises coming from his mouth, yet he was completely unable to communicate with the others. As such, he appeared to be very anxious. Finally, this child leaped onto a piece of rock near them and pointed in a certain direction from up high, gesturing desperately.
Then, he jumped off, grabbed Gawain’s arm, and shook it forcefully.
Gawain asked, “You know where it’s at, and you want us to follow you?”
The little mute nodded hard, an imploring expression on his face.
Gawain exchanged glances with the others beside him. With almost no consideration, he decided to follow this child.
Of course, he’d thought of a lot: for example, could this be a trap set up by the heretic cult believers, or perhaps, could this child be doing this because he’d been instigated and threatened? After all, those insane heretic cult believers were people capable of anything. But in any case — some dangers have to be faced, especially in such a situation where there was no alternative; following this child to check the specific circumstances was the only choice.
They swiftly left the main gate of Tanzan Town, waded into the forest behind the small boy, and then doubled back a small stretch following the flow of the White River. As they walked, Gawain suddenly realized where this child was leading them to——
Down this path, there was only one place that could be called a ‘landmark’. That was the ‘Goering Mill’ located in the southwest outside of Tanzan Town. It was a watermill that’d been there for some years. Right next to the White River, it was once a property of the Leslie Clan, but now, it’d already been neglected for years and was abandoned. The area near the mill was claimed by many vagrants, but now that things in the town were so tense, the rank thieves in the vicinity had probably run far away.
Sure enough, not long after they followed the trail in the forest, they heard the sounds of river water hitting the riverbanks. And walking out of the forest, a traditional Anzu-style watermill appeared before their eyes.
“Ah——Ah!” The little mute lifted a finger to point in the direction of the mill and then pointed at the emblem on Philip’s chest, indicating that the person with this emblem was right inside the mill.
The four people surveyed the surrounding terrain; then each kept their guard up and walked towards the mill.
Midway, they heard Sir Byron’s loud and robust voice from inside the mill. “You’re back again! You’re back again! How many times have I said! Get out of here. Go north along the river and find the people of the Cecil family. Go and seek protection from them! Or you can throw me out. Push me into an empty space and burn me in a bonfire! In short, don’t stay with me! Are you not only a mute but also deaf?!”