Ride from the White Water River Wharf in New Cecil Territory, just a day's walk from the town of Tanzania.

In the last section of the journey, Gao Wen and his party bypassed the main road and arrived near the stone bridge in front of Tanzania Town under the cover of trees, and then lurked on the south side of the stone bridge to watch the Tanzan gate on the other side of the bridge.

"Noticed? The town seems to be under martial law," Pitman muttered in a low voice, looking at the gate from afar, "there are no pedestrians on the bridge, there are unusually large numbers of soldiers at the gate, and there are many boats by the dock at the edge of the town, which seem to be detained there." ”

The shadows under the nearby bushes writhed, and Amber's figure poked out of the shadows: "I just looked on the main road for a long time, and I didn't see any caravans or travelers passing by, and the martial law in the town should have lasted for at least two days......"

"It seems that as soon as Golden-Eyed Pigel's ship left here, the town was restricted," Gawain analyzed, "and it was planned that Byron would stay in Tanzania and continue to recruit serfs, and his actions were conspicuous, and it would be difficult to get out after martial law, so no wonder there was no news coming back." ”

Amber Crow snorted: "Surely something has happened?" ”

Gawain shook his head: "Look at the situation at the gate, the town is only restricted in and out, and the order inside is still normal, Byron is a mercenary, and he is very slippery, so he will not be stuck in this environment." ”

"Ahem, the question is how do we get in," Pitman coughed dryly, "Tanzanian town is flanked on both sides by a river and a mountain on the back, and the entrance is only a stone bridge and a gate in front of the town, all under the noses of the soldiers—swaggering in?" ”

Philip Knight couldn't help but shake his head: "It's not clear what the situation in the town is now, in case the cultists have taken control of Viscount Andrew, our appearance will definitely arouse the vigilance of those criminals." ”

It turns out that the young knight is just old-fashioned and upright, and he is not stupid......

Gao Wen's eyes narrowed slightly, and a high-definition satellite image immediately took shape in his mind.

"There's a road from the east side of the town to the back of the town, and it's directly close to the castle district," Gawain opened his eyes, "but crossing the river is still a problem, and the bridge is ...... Who?! ”

Gawain suddenly sensed a weak and sneaky aura shaking nearby, so he immediately turned his head in that direction and asked, and after he spoke, Amber noticed the "uncoordinated shadow" from the surrounding shadow fluctuations, and immediately pulled out two daggers and turned a knife in front of him: "Come out!" We've found you! ”

It was deathly quiet in the woods, but after a moment the bushes under a certain tree shook twice, and then a dirty, messy little head emerged from behind the bushes, it was a little boy, with a stray hair that seemed to have not been trimmed for years, and a pile of patches and holes, shorts and shorts sewn from burlap, a typical pauper, who had been stunted and stunted by years of malnutrition, but only a pair of eyes, a pair of bright eyes on his face, There was a kind of agility and light in his eyes that adults of his class did not have.

But these big eyes were now tinged with a faint mist, which was full of terror, and he stood up from the bushes in a daze, his body trembling slightly, and he even seemed to have forgotten to escape.

"A child?" Knight Philip frowned, he didn't expect that the "lurking" in the jungle, sneaking around would be such a child who looked to be in his early tens-and there was no power fluctuation in his body, the precept in the knight's code on helping the weak made his face slow down slightly, but the knight's martial arts training made him not dare to take his hand off the hilt of the sword directly, "Don't be afraid-come slowly." ”

The boy suddenly screamed "ah" in horror, then turned around and ran.

"You are carrying such a big sword, people don't run to get a ghost!" Amber glanced at Philip like a fool, and then the figure flickered into the shadows, and a moment later, there was a brief exclamation from the direction of the child's escape, and then the shade in front of Gawain squirmed, and Amber came out of the shadows with the child's collar - the ghost beast-level shadow talent is good, this guy ran away as if he had any door with him.

The child's easy capture by Amber, and a brief trip to the Shadow Realm in between, made him completely stunned, and he really forgot to run away, but his fear increased so much that Gawain felt that he was going to cry in the next second—but the child just stiffened his face, pursed his lips, and finally didn't cry, just looked at the stranger in front of him in fear.

"Don't be afraid," Amber quickly took advantage of this time to reassure the child, "We're not good people......

Gawain suddenly glared at this shame of all things.

"Ah no, we're not bad people," Amber quickly changed her words, and then explained to Gawain apologetically, "The previous occupational disease hasn't changed ......"

"We won't hurt you," Philip Knight pressed his hand to the little boy's head, "You see, I'm a knight, and I'll protect you." ”

The little boy was frightened at first, but after hearing Philip's words, he calmed down a little and nodded as if he didn't understand.

Gao Wen took advantage of this time to speak: "Are you a child of someone nearby?" How do you hang out in the woods? ”

The little boy was startled by Gao Wen, a two-meter-tall and Chinese-shaped man, and retreated again and again.

"Don't be afraid, he's my lord," said Knight Philip, "he's a good man of integrity and kindness. ”

At this time, Amber saw that the little boy did not speak from beginning to end, and couldn't help muttering, "He can't be a mute, right?" ”

Gawain just wanted to say that there was no basis for it, but he saw Pitman next to him frowning, and then the old druid stepped forward and pinched the little boy's chin, opened his mouth and looked at it carefully.

"His tongue has been cut out," said the old druid, who let go of his hand and was silent for a moment, "and for at least two years." ”

What Gawain wanted to say was suddenly choked on his chest, he didn't know how the expression on his face changed at that moment, only that Amber shrank his head sharply when he looked at him, and then he suppressed his anger: "Such a young child, what crime should be cut out of his tongue?!" ”

Even the barbaric and backward medieval discipline law would not cut out the tongue of a child under the age of fourteen - even the Church of the Blood God, known for its iron-blooded harshness, believes that children of this age are "guilty of not having words"!

Pitman shook his head: "Tongue cutting is skillful, and there are traces of magic treatment, not for crimes, but for mute child servants, most of whom are slaves of some great merchant - those great merchants often do this, and they use dumb child servants as personal servants, because they can neither speak nor write, and will never reveal their master's secrets unless they meet a transcendent who knows soul magic." ”

Gawain: "......"

He had no idea what he was supposed to say at the moment, and before he could speak, the little mute with his tongue cut out moved—he suddenly stared at Knight Philip's breastplate, and then, while grabbing the young knight's arm, pointed somewhere on the breastplate, and cried out "Ahhh

Philip was at a loss for a while, but the young and promising knight had no experience in dealing with children at all, he opened his hands to show that he didn't understand what the other party meant, but Gawain noticed the thing on the child's finger: "Have you seen this emblem?" ”

"Ah...... Yes! The little mute nodded again and again, pointing harder at the object on Philip's breastplate.

That's the crest of the Cecil family.

Gao Wen's heart moved, and he instantly connected some things, and immediately asked, "Where did you meet you?!" ”

The little mute gestured wildly, making muffled sounds in his mouth, but he was completely unable to communicate with others, so he looked extremely anxious, and finally the child simply jumped on a nearby rock, stood on a high place, stretched out his hand and pointed in a certain direction, and gestured desperately.

Then he jumped down, grabbed Gawain's hand, and shook it vigorously.

Gawain: "You know where you are, let us go with you?" ”

The little mute nodded vigorously, a pleading look on his face.

Gawain exchanged glances with a few people around him, and decided to follow the kid without much thought.

Of course, he thought a lot, such as whether this would be a trap set by the cultists, such as whether the child in front of him would be instigated and coerced to do so, after all, those cultists with bad brains can do anything, but no matter what, some dangers must be faced, especially in this situation where there is no other way, following this child to see the specific situation is the only option.

They quickly left the main gate of Tanzania, followed the little boy into the woods, and followed the flow of the Whitewater River and turned back a short distance south, and as they walked, Gawain suddenly realized where the boy was taking him—

There is only one place that can be called a "landmark" down this road, and that is the "Goering Mill" located southwest of Tanzania, which is a long-standing water mill, next to the Baishui River, which once belonged to the Leslie family, but is now in disrepair and abandoned, and the mill is home to many unemployed homeless people - but now that the atmosphere in the town is so tense, the nearby reckless thieves may have avoided it.

Sure enough, not long after walking along the path in the woods, they heard the sound of the river crashing on the riverbank, and then walked towards the outside of the forest, and a water conservancy mill with the traditional style of Ansu appeared in front of several people.

"Ahh The little mute raised his hand and pointed in the direction of the mill, and then pointed to the emblem on Philip's chest, indicating that the man with the emblem was in the mill.

The group of four people observed the surrounding terrain, and then each raised his vigilance and walked towards the mill.

They were halfway through when they heard the angry voice of the Byron knight coming from the mill: "You are back again!" You're back! How many times have I said that! Get out of here, head south, and follow the river to find the people of Cecil's family and ask them for protection! Or just throw me out and throw me into the open field and burn it again! All in all, don't be with me! Are you not only dumb, but also deaf?! ”