Mercenaries and Adventurers

Outside, in the small triangular open space surrounded by three mills, Kiel's horses were using their hooves to push away the snow on the ground, trying to find autumn hay under the snow.

When it saw its master coming out, it neighed slightly. It was ready to continue moving forward, but the master did not come over. Instead, it followed another guy smelling of alcohol to the outer wall of the mill. The two of them He stretched out his hand and pointed at the outside of the mill. Seeing that its owner ignored it, it continued to lower its head and look for some food.

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

It's just that the marks are a bit old and located at a high place, so it's hard to tell whether they are scratches left by the werewolf when he climbed up the mill. Kiel started searching for traces from the scratches he found, and finally found a werewolf footprint hidden by the snowfall of the previous two days under the snow on an inconspicuous ground.

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

Kil placed his boots next to him and gestured. They were a pair of werewolf footprints that were much longer than human feet and had claws at least five centimeters long. Kiln naturally knew what he was looking for, but 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 are guarding, right?"

"Oh, that's true. 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.

Kil shrugged: "Maybe. You know, one or two scattered wolves can't change anything. Without the help of the wolves, they will soon be devoured by other beasts in the forest and become incapable of walking out of the forest. Offensive. Have you seen that thing coming over again recently? No."

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

Keel then walked around the outside of the other two mills and also found some scattered climbing marks. Although the strong claws on the opponent's fingers provide excellent climbing capabilities, they can also easily damage the less sturdy wooden exterior walls of the mill.

Outside another mill, Keel pointed to a series of climbing marks extending from the ground to the top of the mill. He turned to the middle-aged man and said: "If I guess correctly, the top of this mill is where the monster howls most often." Is this where it was called?”

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

The middle-aged man looked panicked again.

Kil muttered to himself in a low voice: "Fortunately you didn't peek, otherwise you would have died long ago."

"what did you say?"

"Nothing, I said you did a good job. Observing the other party is also very dangerous. After all, if you are caught peeking, the other party may ambush in the blind spot outside the mill, waiting for you to come out and bite you. Die. Your caution saved your life."

The middle-aged man smiled desolately: "Save me? My family is dead, what's the use of my life? It's just like weeds on the ground, just trying to survive."

Keir shrugged.

He secretly calculated the time for the next full moon and found that it would not appear until the next month. The full moon, in which three moons appear in the sky at the same time, is a fixed time cycle, but the calendar the local kingdom inherited from the empire has different lengths every month.

A long month has dozens of days, while a short month only lasts for a dozen days.

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

The kingdom that Kiel is currently in is a country that has only been established less than a hundred years ago. Even the rulers have not yet rotated. Therefore, the local calendar still follows the main imperial calendar brought by the immigrants from the empire.

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

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

If he lingered in the village for a long time, Ruf Wolf might notice something was wrong and run away. If the other party fled directly, he wouldn't know where to pursue him.

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

But these are not enough. There is no direct evidence that the werewolf who often appears is Ruf Wolf. Of course, Kil doesn't need these things. He is here to perform the task of Knight Lanissa, and kill the werewolf Wolf secretly without anyone knowing. That's it.

However, there is no direct evidence to prove that the other party is a werewolf in Kiel. Lanisa Knight said this. Based on his previous trust, he believed that Lanisa Knight did not deceive him.

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

-

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

Keir raised his head and looked at the rotating windmill on the top of the mill, but decided to look again.

"By the way, can I go into the mill, that is, the upper part of the windmill and take a look. Maybe I can find some traces there. After all, the monster often climbs to the top of the mill, and there is a basement level separated by the roof. Can you find any discoveries?"

"Okay, okay. There's 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. Nothing else, it's empty."

With that said, he first returned to the mill where he lived, took out a metal key, and then took Keir to the door of the mill where werewolves climbed most often.

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

He used the key to open the copper lock hanging on the wooden door, and it was dark inside.

The middle-aged man walked in first, as if he were going home, and without any lighting, he felt the walls and walked up the stairs along the inner wall of the mill.

Soon, the other party opened the wooden lighting window that had been closed in the middle of the mill, and the dark mill finally began to light up.

Only then did Keir walk in.

Small wooden windows for lighting are specially arranged next to the stairs going up. People who are familiar with it can easily open the wooden windows one by one without lighting.

Keir also followed the stairs in the circular mill. It was empty inside, except for the unceasing squeaking and turning sound of the windmill. The bottom was close to the stone mill, and a slight friction sound at the bottom could be heard. However, the stone mill was not connected to the rotating wooden pillar in the center of the stone plate, so it did not roll with the rotation of the windmill.

Geer guessed that the middle-aged man connected the stone mill of the mill where he lived to the windmill and started it. He probably also put the wheat grains on the mill and ground it into flour, cooked thick wheat porridge, or borrowed the stone basin by himself. Use an iron pot to simply bake some wheat cakes or bread?

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

The middle-aged man walking on the stairs with the window open in front of him casually talked about windmills and mills, which gave Keir a simple idea of ​​how to maintain this huge thing.

"Actually, it's nothing. I just have to regularly spread some grease on the areas where the windmill rotates and rubs. It's all refined grease that the village paid to buy from merchants. Speaking of which, the village chief told me at the time that if he knew that I put these If I dare to secretly sell the grease to a passing businessman, he will hang me on a windmill and kill me alive."

"Is he kidding?"

"How could it be! Our village chief served as a regular soldier of the empire when he was young. Although you may think he is carefree, he is actually ruthless! If you piss him off, 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 it, but he is actually quite nice. If there were no wolf packs that he could not solve, our Wumihu Village would actually develop best. You don't know, many people liked to come to our village before. After settling down, we people in Wumihu Village sing well, and it’s remote enough here that there aren’t so many people with messy thoughts. In addition, the previous Lord Knight rarely came to the village. When he came, he only brought some friends who looked awesome. Hunting in the forest for recreation.”

"Hey, it was a good time back then. My family is still here, too."

As he spoke, the middle-aged man started crying again.

This time there was no drink on hand to stabilize the other party's mood, so Keir had no choice but 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 a windmill was continuously rotating on one side. Behind the windmill was a strong and thick wooden pillar, which was placed horizontally and transformed the slow rotation of the windmill into a powerful torsion.

In the middle of the mill, there is a long wooden column that goes 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 converted into longitudinal rotation. This drives the stone grinding on the stone platform at the bottom of the mill.

In addition, there is a cabinet placed against the wall, with some earthenware jars tied with hemp rope for shockproofing firmly placed on it. They must be refined oil used to maintain the windmill. There were some cleaning tools nearby. The items were not placed neatly, but the top of the mill was 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 very empty, there is nothing superfluous.

But Keir's instinct told him that something was wrong.

Seeing that the middle-aged man next to him was bored and started cleaning the place, Kil finally knew something was wrong.

odor.

Yes, it's the smell. It's obvious that someone comes here on time to clean the place, and it doesn't seem like there are animals such as overwintering bats hiding here.

But the smell here is not very good.

After sniffing carefully, Keir felt more and more familiar with the smell.

It was the smell of decaying corpses.

"Do you smell anything strange?" Keel asked another person in passing as he sniffed this place on the top floor of the mill.

"Taste? No. My nose doesn't work very well. Maybe it's the result of drinking too much. Now my nose can only smell the aroma of wine. No matter how hard I try, other smells are not good." The young man used a brush with a long wooden handle to dip some grease from the clay pot, and then applied it to the important gears connected from a distance. At the same time, he answered Keir's question absentmindedly.

I see.

This person's nose is not working well, so for so long, he has never noticed anything 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 expanse of open space. Therefore, the only source of this rotten smell is from above - the top of the mill.

Keir looked up, but saw nothing but the heavy wooden planks at the top.

No, there seems to be something dark red between the gaps between the thick wooden roofs.

He looked around and picked up a wooden pole with a brush tied to the top. This thing should be a tool used to carefully wipe the windmill wooden shaft from a distance through the opening of the windmill wooden shaft from the top floor of the mill, and to oil and waterproof it.

Kiel grabbed it, then removed the brush at the top with a few clicks, picked up a dry cloth from the wooden cabinet next to the tool, moistened it and tied it to the top of the wooden pole with a rope. The middle-aged man stood aside helplessly, not daring to block Kiel's series of movements. He had to secretly pick up the brush head that fell on the ground, hold it in his hand and wonder if he could put it back as it was.

After finishing the things in his hands, Keir felt that the top of the mill, which had a small wooden window for lighting, was still a little dark. He directly pulled out his hunting sword from its scabbard.

This move 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 Kil's hand with a look of surprise.

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

The white light was so bright and dazzling that he could not see clearly. But when such a magical thing appeared in front of his eyes for the first time, this middle-aged man really couldn't bear to close his eyes.

By holding the hilt of the sword, Geir communicates his thoughts to his weapon. After the overly bright white light gradually decreased and became less dazzling, he raised the long sword to illuminate with one hand, held the end of the wooden pole tightly with the other hand, and stretched the wet piece of cloth into the gap between the roof planks.

After confirming where he hit with his eyes and hands, Keel swung the wooden pole and rubbed the top carefully there a few times.

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

Dark stains were left on the originally clean wet cloth. Without smelling carefully, Keir could smell the stench coming from this thing.

"What is this? Is there any rotten moss on the roof?"

The middle-aged man also came over and looked curiously at the thing that Kil spent a lot of effort to get. The man smelled it, but his expression remained normal.

Keir had to admit that this man's nose was really hard to use.

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

He winked. The middle-aged man finally reacted and looked up at the top of the mill with a shocked expression.

"What does the roof of your mill look like? Pointed or flat?"

Kil asked looking at the other person.

"Yes, it has a flat top. I heard that when the mill was first built, in order to protect it from lightning, a special space was left on the top of the mill to place the lightning protection blessing agricultural tools obtained from the Church of the God of Agriculture."

"Lightning Protection Blessing Farm Tools???"

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

The middle-aged man stammered in explanation: "When I took over the mill, the village chief told me that there will be lightning when it rains, and the higher things are, the easier it is to be struck by lightning. So in our village When we built the mill together with the Church of Saturn, it was a blessing farm tool specially prepared by the church's priests. As long as one of these things is fixed on the top of the building, it will have the function of sheltering the building from being selected by thunder and avoiding lightning strikes."

"That's probably what it looks like."

Kil patted his helmet and made a thumping sound. Only then did he understand how people in other worlds solved the problem of lightning protection for tall buildings in open environments.

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

Think about how in the autumn, the Church of Saturn gathered a large number of believers to pray together and perform very grand magical arts. Keir felt that this matter had become commonplace again.

Even the destroyed crops in the entire area can be restored to health using magic. This ability to protect against lightning seems to be nothing.

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

He already knew what was on it.

"I can tell you for sure that that monster doesn't just occasionally come and howl during the full moon. It obviously did some other things."

The middle-aged man looked at Keir nervously.

"You stay here, I'll climb up from outside and take a look."

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

Seeing that the man was getting nervous, Kil patted the middle-aged man, who was much older than him, and asked him to relax.

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

-

Kil came to the wooden shaft of the windmill that obviously allowed people to leave the inside of the mill. He first took off his wolf fur cloak and hung it on a protruding metal nail next to it. Then he carefully lifted his upper body out of the opening on the wall. to reach out.

Of course, next to him was the wooden shaft of the windmill that kept spinning, so he was careful not to hit it, but he was also paying attention to the middle-aged man in the room.

It seemed that he had said so much, but in fact, Keir had never let go of his guard against this person.

Fortunately, the other party did not act.

Also, if Ruf Wolf is really a werewolf, then the other party must be cautious because he has been hiding in Wumihu Village for so many years without showing his signs. It was unlikely that he would let his identity be known or cooperate with such a timid guy who liked to drink.

Moreover, this middle-aged man’s family members all died when wolves attacked the village. How could he possibly seek refuge with a werewolf?

After leaning out, Kil saw what he expected.

When the mill was first built, there was a 'simple' climbing path that allowed one to climb from inside the roof of the mill to outside the roof of the mill.