Chapter 75: The Return Journey (First Part)

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I must do something.

This matter started because of me after all, although passively. Neither I nor the previous Peylo would want to see this country one day filled with corpses and flowing with blood. If I don’t do something, I won’t even be able to sleep well.

Probably seeing through my determination, the smile on the Duke’s face faded, and his expression turned serious.

“I understand. For now… you stay at home, and I’ll let you know if there’s any next step.”

I finally smiled.

“Okay.”

Madam handed over another pastry, which I swallowed in one bite, chewing slowly in my mouth.

Carlos didn’t bring many pastries, and I had already eaten most of them… but I was still hungry.

I rubbed my stomach, and when Madam saw this, she immediately understood my thoughts and said: “Just fill your stomach for now, I’ll cook for you when we get back.”

It will take a long time to get back…

Later, I slowed down my chewing speed, quietly savoring the sweetness in my mouth, but the pastries were still finished by me during the conversation between the Duke and Lafayette. After smacking my lips with lingering desire, I looked outside.

The curtains of the carriage weren’t pulled down, and the black night was lit up by a string of torches. Soon after, Carlos and the others appeared.

They brought back the two frozen rigid corpses, seemingly planning to take them into the city. Who knows what they want to do with them.

Could it be that they want that doctor to slice them up for research?

I curiously watched them place the two corpses on the ground, then walk to Bella and Hoover who were talking nearby. They said something to them and pointed at the corpses on the ground. Hoover nodded and waved to call over several hunters, giving them instructions.

Those hunters then walked towards the corpses, and at this time, Carlos’s gaze turned towards me.

“Little Syl.” He waved at me, “Over here.”

…Are you calling a puppy?

I’m not going over there.

But my body was gently pushed by someone. I turned my head to look, only to hear the Duke say: “Go on, let’s go over together.”

After saying this, he stepped out of the carriage. I looked at Madam, and saw her smile at me saying: “Go ahead.”

So I had no choice but to get down from the carriage huffily and follow behind the Duke towards Carlos.

“Is everything settled here? We can head back first.” Carlos pointed to the Church’s horned carriage, “Let’s go up there to talk.”

The Duke nodded, made a gesture towards Hoover’s direction, said something to Bella who was not far away, and then got onto the Church’s horned carriage together with Carlos, the bird-beaked whatever doctor, and the robed old man.

I was the last person to enter the carriage. After settling down beside the Duke, the horned carriage turned around and slowly drove towards the forest.

The night was deep black.

Outside the carriage, countless hunters were still holding torches taking stock of the battlefield. They gathered the captured city guards in one place, not knowing what fate awaited them… but I didn’t want to say anything extra either. Let the Duke decide everything, I believe he’s a person who knows his limits.

A bright fire was lit at the front of the horned carriage, followed by the one carrying Madam and Lafayette, with Hoover still acting as the coachman. The two horned carriages traveled quickly one after another in the black night, followed by the hunters from the third team and part of the second team of Shanter’s army, holding torches and forming a long dragon of fire in the night.

With the beast hooves thundering, I let down the carriage curtain.

“Little Syl.”

Carlos called out to me.

“Hmm?”

“Can you tell us about those two heretics you fought with?”

I frowned and stared at his face unhappily.

No, shouldn’t you guys tell me first? Explain why people from the Gate of Truth appeared here, why they had guguo grass in their hands? Why were they able to get involved with the Crown Prince of the Valen Empire?

You guys investigated busily for two months without telling me anything, and in the end, I just ended up fighting them in confusion?

…Well, for the sake of the pastries.

“They, used guguo grass. Then, Valarr said, something like, revival phase. That is… one person, revival phase. Another one, blood sacrifice phase. But quickly, died.”

“……”

After a brief silence, the whatever doctor spoke first, spreading his hands: “That’s all?”

I nodded.

“Mm.”

“……”

After another strange silence, the whatever doctor was still the first to speak.

“Uh… did any of you understand what she was saying?”

“Hmm… somewhat.”

“I think she means the heretics used guguo grass, and the two people were in different phases?”

“Little Syl, could you explain in more detail?”

Even the Duke showed a bitter smile.

“Let’s do this, Little Syl.” Carlos thought for a moment and proposed a solution to the problem, “I think I can understand what you mean, let me explain the rest, and you can just add supplements, how’s that?”

I immediately nodded.

“Mm.”

This is better, it saves me a lot of unnecessary trouble. Originally, I had always had problems with speaking, and earlier, I thought it was just because I wasn’t very skilled at pronouncing the human language, so I always stuttered. In fact, after staying in the small village for some time, my tongue felt more flexible than before, but it has stayed in this state ever since.

Now, when I’m speaking most fluently, for example with relatively simple language, I can only spurt out three to five words at most in a sentence before getting stuck. This isn’t a problem with my tongue or oral cavity, but rather my brain not being able to react fast enough.

That feeling is like having someone with a B-level English proficiency but well-learned phonetics read a complex article word by word. They might be able to read through it with basically no major pronunciation problems, but it definitely won’t be smooth.

It’s similar to this feeling, not a physical defect, but something missing in the consciousness. This “something,” I haven’t figured out yet whether it’s an issue with the Abyss or a special condition that appeared due to the influence of Peylo’s consciousness.

Anyway, this has always troubled me, never being able to accurately express what I want to say, so the solution Carlos proposed at this time, I fully support with both hands up.

“Good, then let me first talk about my results. During these two months, I’ve been investigating the matters of guguo grass and the orphanage, and have already encountered heretics from the Gate of Truth more than once, but they were all entry-level believers, most of them masked assassins, and a few merchants. They were conducting guguo grass transportation work in the background, note that it’s transportation, not selling, with supplies coming from Sylgaria. Among these people, the vast majority don’t possess blood sacrifice power. In other words, I haven’t found any high-level believers.”

I nodded to show I understood, and listened as Carlos, sitting opposite, continued.

“As far as I currently know, there are three transportation routes for the goods. The first route is through the Church’s entry channels, mixing the goods in batches with the merchant teams from the orphanages, sending them from the Republic of Sylgaria to many orphanages in the Valen Empire, and the Winter City we investigated is just one of them, there are at least 10 such orphanages. They used the orphanages as transfer stations, to facilitate the transportation of goods to the next two routes…”

At this point, Carlos paused.

“One of them is the Order City.”

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