Soul echo

Chapter 415 Amazing Discovery
The plague believer incident in Winterthur was sloppily resolved, but subsequent incidents continued to affect the Westland.

This is not only a matter for one country of the Hallstatt City-State Alliance, but even the three surrounding countries have been affected. If it is not handled properly, a major famine will break out next year.

"No matter what you have heard before, you are not allowed to say it." Facing the priests, the bishop stared at the bloodshot eyes, and said with difficulty, "If this matter is known to others, it is very likely that it will be reported in the public eye." Chaos ushers in before the problem is solved, which is not conducive to solving the remaining problems.

"So, no matter who asks you about this matter, you are not allowed to answer! You can only say that we have solved a group of plague believers, and you are not allowed to say anything else!"

"Understood! Your Excellency Bishop!" The priests replied in unison.

They are also very aware of the seriousness of this matter. As priests, they have learned a lot, and they have a broader vision than ordinary people, knowing what will happen once this kind of thing is exposed.

So they decided to strictly guard against it and never mention it.

After finishing the order, the bishop ordered the priests to dismiss and enter the mansion to search for more information.

Afterwards, the bishop turned his attention to Zhong Ye and the others—mainly Lily and Lilian.

He hesitated for a moment, then sighed: "I heard that Her Highness the Fourth Princess of the Kingdom of Gaul is also one of His Excellency Zhong Ye's companions. Among the two, which one is Her Highness Princess?"

"I am." Lily stood up and tilted her head in doubt, "What's wrong? Do you need me to do something?"

The bishop nodded, and said with a sad face: "I hope you can write a letter for us, and we will deliver this letter to His Majesty the King as soon as possible through channels within the church. This is to allow you to testify and convince His Majesty that there is indeed A plague has spread that will jeopardize next year's harvest."

The brow behind the mask frowned, and Lily asked again: "What do you want to do?"

"The strength of the church alone cannot cope with this disaster. We need the support of the nobles, and only the nobles will have a lot of grain and seeds in their hands." The bishop said dryly.

"So, you hope to influence the nobles of the Gaul Kingdom through my father?" Lily was very surprised, "It seems that you really don't know the group of 'nobles' at all!"

As she said that, Lily couldn't help shaking her head, "Because I'm also a member of the nobles, I have more contact with other nobles, so I know better than you that if they know that there will be a great famine, most of them will definitely take it The grains and seeds in my hands are tightly covered, even if they can be sold, the price will be raised, only a small number will be willing to help you, but such people are very few among the nobles."

The bishop fell silent, then shook his head and said, "...Even so, we have to try—other than this, we have no other way."

The major churches would store some grains during the harvest years, but they would also give to the poor at ordinary times, and they could not save much throughout the year. Faced with this disaster that may have affected one-fifth of the Western Continent, it was just a drop in the bucket and could not solve the problem at all.

Apart from the church, the only ones who might have a large amount of grain in their hands are the nobles.

No matter how difficult it is, the bishop wants to try it first, otherwise, after the beginning of spring, people will start to plant the new year's grain, but find that the grain they planted will not grow for a long time. At that time, even if there is no news Spreading it out is enough to cause people's pain and despair.

——This problem must be solved, and it is best to solve it before the beginning of spring!

This is not just a matter of a city or a diocese of Winterthur. This incident involved one-fifth of the Westland, so after this, the bishop reported this matter and asked for punishment.

Just as Zhong Ye and the others were talking with the bishop, two priests quickly walked out from the depths of the mansion and came to them.

"Master Bishop, we found their hidden ledger."

The two clergymen were the clerical monks responsible for bookkeeping and financial management in the Earth Mother Church and the Artisan Church. After finding the hidden account book, they quickly deciphered the hidden information in the account book.

Although it was a hidden account book, it was actually not hidden. They searched carefully in that office and found a hidden compartment on the bookshelf, in which the hidden account book was stored.

"The hidden ledger records another kind of business activity they are engaged in..." The clergyman in charge of telling the story took a deep breath and said in a low voice, "Our guess before was correct, they did have a relationship with Winterthur's Disappearance case - they're human trafficking!"

The attention of Zhong Ye and the others was instantly attracted by that sentence - 'Human Trafficking'?Is this related to the group of 'painted skins'?
"Can you expand on it?" Zhong Ye asked seriously.

The clergyman nodded, "That's exactly what I mean."

Then, he raised the ledger in his hand and said: "This ledger records the profits and total amount they earned from human trafficking. Through comparison, it is not difficult to find that they still have a group of companions, but they are not plague believers, but Others, presumably only cooperate in human trafficking."

Another clergyman added: "The following is just our guess - we believe that the reason why they do human trafficking may be to subsidize the losses incurred by selling food and seeds at low prices."

At this time, Zhong Ye and the others noticed that the cleric was still holding a few ledger-like things in his arms.

So, the second clergyman explained: "These ledgers are normally used ledgers. Apart from the normal ledger and the hidden ledger, we have not found a third kind of ledger, so we speculate that even if they are selling the seeds that carry the plague This is the same type of ledger that is used.

"We randomly selected a few of them, and found that, except for the normal price in Winterthur, when they sell grain and seeds in other places, the price is lower than the market price. Although it is not much lower, if you count the Travel expenses, they are basically losing money."

"So, they developed another business!" Zhong Ye paused.

"Yes." The cleric who spoke first nodded, "The earliest records can be traced back to nearly 12 years ago, and they bought this manor eight years ago."

With other people sharing dividends and losing money in the daily grain business, it only took four years to earn enough money to buy a manor from a declining nobleman, which means that they must have more than one big customer !
Zhong Ye tried his best to suppress his anger, but some anger still showed uncontrollably.

"Where are the people who do business with them?" Zhong Ye asked coldly, "Or, do you know where their group of companions are?"

"Sorry, we are not omnipotent." The clergyman shook his head, "We can only see some things from the ledger and make some guesses, but the two issues you mentioned before are not within the conjecture range."

Then, he paused, and said again: "However, we can be sure that maybe we will be able to catch this group of people in a short time——

"Because according to the information given in the ledger, they will act twice a year, one in spring and one in autumn. If there is no accident, those people will come after a while."

This is it!

Zhong Ye took a deep breath, turned to look at the bishop, and briefly explained what they were investigating before.

Listening, the three priests present couldn't help but widen their eyes.

— No matter how you look at it, this is not like a coincidence!
The human traffickers that Zhong Ye and the others are tracking are also operating in Spring and Autumn, and Winterthur is very close to the northern border and not far from Turika. If things are really as Zhong Ye guessed, then Winterthur may also be that way. One of the stops on the human traffickers' transport route.

In addition, these plague believers are grain merchants, and it is not surprising that they sell a large amount of grain through their hands.

After speaking, Zhong Ye took another breath.

"Your Excellency, I'm sorry that we have to leave, and we can't help you with the rest of the matter. We will continue to investigate those traffickers."

The situation discovered in Winterthur made Zhong Ye tense. If the group of 'painted skins' were related to the abyss, if the god who appeared on the battlefield in Luzelburg was on the side of the abyss, then after so many years , Does the human trafficking business they operate have other purposes?
　I wish you all the best in the new year, all the best, success in your studies, success in work, a new year with a new atmosphere, a new year with new scenery, and pray that everyone can sweep away the haze and obstacles of the old year and welcome the new year well. meet the future
　　
　
(End of this chapter)