Mercenaries and Adventurers

Outside, in the small triangular clearing surrounded by three mills, Keel's horses were pawing away the snow on the ground, trying to find autumn hay under the snow.

When it saw its master coming out, it neighed softly. It was ready to continue on its way, but the master didn't come over. Instead, it followed another guy who smelled of alcohol to the outer wall of the mill. The two Pointing at the outside of the mill with his hand outstretched. Seeing that the owner ignored it, it continued to look down for some food.

Keel walked around the outside of the mill with the middle-aged man, and indeed found some suspicious traces.

It's just that the traces are a bit old, and they are located at a high place. It is difficult to judge whether they are the scratches left by the werewolf when he climbed the mill. Keel traced all the way down from the scratches he found, and finally found a werewolf footprint covered by the snowfall two days ago under an inconspicuous ground under the snow.

"This, doesn't it look like a wolf's paw print?" The middle-aged man is a good drinker. He said that he drank a lot during the experience, but at the moment his thinking is quite clear.

Kiel gestured with his boots beside them. They were a pair of werewolf footprints that were much longer than human feet and had claws at least five centimeters long. Keir naturally knew what he was looking for, but the others didn't, so he could only casually brush off the middle-aged man's questions.

"Perhaps it is because of the different footprints that it can climb up the mill you guard, isn't it?"

"Oh, that's true. Then can you take care of it? Are you a member of the lord's hunter team? What about this northern wolf?" the other party asked tentatively.

Keir shrugged: "Maybe. You know, a few wolves here and there can't change anything. Without the help of wolves, they will soon be swallowed up by other wild beasts in the forest, and they won't have the ability to get out of the forest." Offensive. Have you seen that thing coming over lately? No."

"Uh, that's what you said." The middle-aged man fell silent, but he was obviously relieved.

Keel then went around the outside of the other two mills, and also found some scattered traces of climbing. The strong claws on the opponent's fingers, while providing excellent climbing ability, can easily damage the not-so-sturdy wooden facade of the mill.

Outside another mill, Keir pointed to a row of climbing traces extending from the ground all the way up to the top of the mill, then turned to the middle-aged man and said, "If I'm not mistaken, the top of this mill is where the monster howls most often." Where is it called?"

"No, that's right! You can often hear the screeching sound of climbing and the high-pitched howling of wolves at night on the top of this mill. But I was very scared of that guy at the time, so I never thought about watching it grow from the wooden window. What does it look like?"

The middle-aged man panicked again.

Keir muttered to himself in a low voice: "Fortunately, you didn't sneak a peek, or you would have died a long time ago."

"what did you say?"

"It's nothing, I said you did a good job. Observing the other party is also very dangerous. After all, if you are spotted while peeking, the other party may specifically ambush you in a blind spot outside the mill, waiting for you to come out and bite you death. Your prudence saved your life."

The middle-aged man smiled desolately: "Save my life? My family members are all dead, so what's the use of my life? It's just like the weeds on the ground, surviving."

Keel shrugged.

He secretly calculated the time of the next full moon, and found that this month is gone, and it will not appear until the next month. A full moon with three moons appearing in the sky at the same time is a fixed time period, but the calendar that the local kingdom inherited from the empire has different lengths for each month.

There are dozens of days in a long month, and only a dozen days in a short month.

Moreover, in various places, even because the climate is different from that of the empire, the calendar will be modified locally to adapt to local production and life.

The kingdom that Kiel is now in is a country that has only been established for less than a hundred years, and even the ruler has not yet rotated, so the local calendar still follows the main imperial calendar brought by the migrants from the empire.

Calculating the time, it is not impossible to ambush the werewolf Worf in the mill here, but in terms of time, at least it will be possible until the next month's full moon.

"Bah." He curled his lips. At that time, he might have caught all the sunken fish, and there was no time to spend in Wumi Lake Village to deal with werewolves.

If he didn't stay in the village for a long time, maybe Lufu-Wulf would see something wrong and run away. If the opponent fled directly, he didn't know where to chase him.

The testimony of the middle-aged man guarding the mill is useful, and the climbing marks on the mill that are not human-like can also indicate that there is indeed a werewolf near the village.

But these are not enough, and there is no direct evidence that the werewolf that often appears is Lufu Worf. Of course, Kiel doesn't need these things either, he's here to carry out the mission of Knight Lanisa, to kill the werewolf Worf secretly without anyone knowing, and that's enough.

However, there is no direct evidence from Keir to prove that the other party is a werewolf. Knight Lanisa said so. Based on his previous trust, he believes that Knight Lanisa did not deceive him.

But he was a little awkward in his heart. It seemed that only by finding direct evidence in his heart could he deal with the other party thoroughly.

-

Kiel thought for a while, and the middle-aged man next to him was shivering from the cold, and he looked at him with a flattering expression after Kiel came back to his senses.

Keel looked up at the windmill spinning on top of the mill, but decided to take another look.

"By the way, can I go into the mill, that is, the upper part of the windmill to have a look. Maybe I can find some traces there. After all, the monster often climbs to the top of the mill, the basement floor across the roof, maybe Can you make some discoveries?"

"Yes, yes. There is actually nothing in it. There used to be some grain stored in the mill, but now there are only some tools for maintaining the windmill. There is nothing else, it is empty."

As he said that, he first returned to the mill where he lived, took out a metal key that had been put away, and then took Kiel to the gate of the mill where werewolves most often climbed.

The gate of this mill is also very small, and taller people have to bend slightly to enter.

I opened the copper lock hanging on the wooden door with a key, and it was pitch black inside.

The middle-aged man walked in first, as if he was going home, he walked up the stairs beside the inner wall of the mill without lighting.

Soon, the other party opened the closed wooden window for lighting in the middle of the mill, and the dark inside of the mill finally gradually lit up.

Keel just walked in.

The small wooden windows for daylighting and lighting are specially arranged on the side of the stairs going up, and familiar people can easily open the wooden windows one by one without lighting.

Kiel also followed the stairs in the round mill and went up step by step. The inside is empty, only the jerky sound of the non-stop squeak and rotation of the windmill floats in the mill, and the bottom is close to the stone mill, and a slight bottom friction sound can be heard. However, the stone mill is not connected to the rotating wooden pillar in the center of the stone plate, so it does not roll with the rotation of the windmill.

Kiel guessed that the middle-aged man connected the stone mill of the mill where he lived to the windmill to start it. It is estimated that he would usually put the wheat grains on the mill to grind into flour, make a thick porridge, or use the stone basin to turn it on. Iron pan to simply bake some oatmeal or bread?

It's also good to change the taste, otherwise it would be difficult for a person to live alone in the mill for several years.

The middle-aged man who opened the window before walking on the stairs casually talked about the windmill and the mill, which made Kiel simply know how to maintain this huge thing.

"Actually, it's nothing. You just need to sprinkle some oil on the frictional parts of the windmill from time to time. It's all refined oil that the village bought from merchants at the expense of the village. Speaking of which, the village head told me that if I let him know that I put these If you dare to secretly sell oil to a passing merchant, he will hang me on a windmill and die."

"Is he joking?"

"How come! Our village chief was a regular soldier of the empire when he was young. Although you look at him carelessly, he is actually ruthless! If you annoy him, he will really turn people to death like this."

"Oh, I didn't expect your village chief to be such a harsh person."

"I dare not say, but he is quite nice. If there is no such thing as wolves raging that he can't solve, our Wumi Lake Village will actually develop the best. You don't know, many people like to come to our village before. Settling down, the people in Wumi Lake Village sing very well, and the place is remote enough, there are not so many people with messy minds. In addition, the former knight lords rarely come to the village, and when they come, they just bring some friends who look amazing Hunting in the forest for recreation."

"Hey, it was a good time. My family is still there."

As he spoke, the middle-aged man began to cry again.

This time, there was no drink at hand to stabilize the other party's emotions, so Keel had to let him vent his emotions. Anyway, there was no third person around, and he didn't know the other party, so the other party naturally had nothing to take care of.

Soon the two of them came to the top of the mill, where there was a continuously rotating windmill on one side, and behind the windmill was a strong and thick wooden column, which was placed horizontally, transforming the slow rotation of the windmill into a powerful torsion.

In the middle of the mill, there is a long wooden column straight up and down. The two strong wooden columns meet at the highest point in the center of the mill. With the simple gear structure of metal casting, the horizontal rotation is transformed into a vertical rotation. Thereby driving the stone mill on the stone platform at the bottom of the mill.

In addition, there is a cabinet placed against the wall, on which are firmly placed some clay pots tied with hemp ropes to prevent shocks, presumably the refined oil used to maintain the windmill is inside. There are also some cleaning tools beside it. The things are not neatly placed, but the top of the mill is not very messy.

It seems that when he is not drinking, this middle-aged man is indeed maintaining the operation of the windmill.

The place is empty, nothing superfluous.

But Kiel's instinct told him something was wrong.

Looking at the middle-aged man next to him, who was idle and bored, and started to clean the place on his own, Keir finally knew what was wrong.

odor.

Yes, it's the smell. Obviously someone came here on time to clean the place, and it didn't look like there were bats or other animals hiding for the winter.

But the smell here is not very good.

Sniffing carefully, Keel felt more and more familiar with the smell.

It was the smell of rotting corpses.

"Do you smell anything strange?" Keel sniffed the area on the top floor of the mill, and asked another person by the way.

"Smell? No. My nose is not very good. Maybe it's because I drank too much alcohol. Now my nose can only smell the smell of wine. No matter how hard I try, the other smells are not very good." The young man used a brush with an extended wooden handle to dip some grease from the clay pot, and then spread it on the important gears connected to it from a distance, while answering Kiel's questions absent-mindedly.

I see.

This person's nose is not good, so after all this time, he has never noticed that there is something wrong with this place.

From the platform at the top of the mill to the ground at the bottom of the mill, there is only a large open space. So the only source of this rotten smell was up there—the top of the mill.

Keel looked up, but saw nothing but the thick planks of wood on top.

No, there seemed to be some dark red things between the gaps in the thick wooden roof.

Looking left and right, he picked up a wooden pole with a brush attached to the top. This thing should be used to carefully wipe the wooden shaft of the windmill from a long distance from the top floor of the mill through the opening of the wooden shaft of the windmill, and to oil and waterproof it.

Keel grabbed it, then removed the brush at the top a few times, took a dry cloth from the wooden cabinet next to the tools, and tied it to the top of the wooden pole with a string after it was wet. The middle-aged man stood on the side at a loss, not daring to stop Kiel's series of actions, so he secretly picked up the brush head that fell on the ground, held it in his hand, and wondered if he could put it back as it was later.

After finishing the things in his hand, Keel disliked that the top of the mill with the small wooden window for lighting was still a bit dark. He directly pulled out his long sword hunting from the scabbard.

This action startled the middle-aged man next to him, and the brush in his hand fell to the ground. He leaned lightly against the wall of the mill, looking at the long sword in Kiel's hand in surprise.

Because as soon as the long sword was pulled out, the entire body of the sword was wrapped in a white light, and then lit up like a torch.

This white light was so bright and dazzling that he couldn't see clearly. But when such a miraculous thing appeared before his eyes for the first time, this middle-aged man was really reluctant to close his eyes.

By holding the hilt of the sword, Kiel communicated his thoughts to his weapon. Some of the too bright white light gradually decreased and became less glaring, then he raised the long sword to illuminate it with one hand, held the tail of the wooden pole with the other hand, and stretched the wet cloth piece to the gap between the roof planks.

After confirming that the top was in place through his eyes and feel, Keel swung the wooden pole and rubbed the top of it carefully a few times.

Retracting the wooden pole, Keel put his face in front of the wet cloth on the other end of the wooden pole.

Dark stains were left on the damp cloth that was still clean, and Keel could smell a stench from the thing without sniffing carefully.

"What is this? Is there rotting moss on the roof?"

The middle-aged man also leaned over, looking curiously at the thing that Keel had spent a lot of time getting. The man smelled it, but his expression remained the same.

Keel had to admit that the man's nose was really bad.

Leaving the wooden pole on the ground, Keel inserted the long sword back into the scabbard: "Hmph, this is not some rotten moss, but something more serious rotten."

He winked, and the middle-aged man finally came to his senses at this moment, looking up in shock to see the top of the mill.

"What does your mill roof look like? A pointed one or a flat one?"

Kiel looked at him and asked.

"Yes, it has a flat roof. I heard that when the mill was first built, in order to protect against lightning, there was a special space on the top of the mill, which was specially used to place the farm tools for lightning protection and blessings obtained from the Church of the God of Saturn."

"Lightning Protection Blessing Farm Tools???"

Keir's eyes widened, and he didn't understand what these words together meant.

The middle-aged man stammered and explained: "When I took over the mill, the village chief told me that when it rains, there will be lightning, and the taller things are more likely to be struck by lightning. So when our village When the mill was built with the Saturnalia Church, it was a blessing farm tool specially prepared by the priests of the church. As long as one of this thing is fixed on the top of the building, it will have the function of protecting the building from being selected by the thunder and avoiding lightning strikes."

"It's probably like this."

Keir patted his helmet and made a thumping sound, only then did he understand how people in another world solved the problem of lightning protection for tall buildings in an open environment.

Good guy, it turns out that the Saturnalia Church still has this ability.

Think back to the autumn when the Saturnalia Church gathered a large number of believers to pray together and cast a very grand magic spell. Keel thought it was becoming normal again.

Even the destroyed crops in the entire area can use divine magic to restore them to health. This lightning protection ability seems to be nothing.

Nodding, since the top of the mill is indeed flat and there is a small space, then contact the werewolf again.

He knows exactly what's on it~www.readwn.com~I can tell you clearly, that monster doesn't just come here occasionally and howl when the moon is full. It apparently does something else as well. "

The middle-aged man looked at Kiel nervously.

"You stay here, I'll climb up from the outside to have a look."

"Please be careful. If it doesn't work, go back to the village and tell our village chief."

Seeing the man getting nervous, Keel patted the middle-aged man, who was much older than him, to let him relax.

"Don't be nervous, this has nothing to do with you. I'll come as I go."

-

Kiel came to the wooden shaft of the windmill that clearly allowed people to leave the inside of the mill. He took off his wolf fur cloak and hung it on a protruding metal nail next to him, and then carefully lifted his upper body from the opening on the wall poke out.

Of course, next to him was the wooden shaft of the windmill that didn't stop spinning for a moment, so while he was careful not to hit it, he also kept an eye on the middle-aged man inside the house.

It seems to have said so much, but in fact, Keir has never let go of his guard against this person.

Fortunately, the other party did not act.

Also, if Rufu Worf is really a werewolf, then the other party must be cautious because he has been hiding in Wumi Lake Village for so many years and has not shown his feet. It is unlikely that he will let his identity be known or cooperate with such a timid guy who likes to drink.

And this middle-aged man's family all died when wolves attacked the village, how could he take refuge in a werewolf?

After leaning out, Keir saw what he expected.

When the mill was first built, it was a 'simple' way to climb up from the inside of the roof of the mill to the outside of the roof of the mill.