Chapter V: Punishment
Turning over and stepping onto the dark horse, the young knight's legs were lightly clamped, and without the need to give orders in person, the spiritual Hayek left the dark alley and came to the bustling road, Aldrich, who was condescending and had a wide field of vision, looked around and did not find the young man who was suspected of being a thief. He reached out and gently stroked the thick mane that accompanied his companion on hunting in the wilderness, and the black horse twitched its nose like a good hound, silently swimming against the current.
Aldridge heard the complaints of the pedestrians and the countless rolls of his eyes, and with some shame on the reins of his horse, he led Hayek to the side of the road, and walked through the corner of the two alleys, and suddenly saw an unusually familiar back in the corner of his eye, and gently turned over and dismounted, and the young knight walked slowly over. His mood was calm, as if he had gone back to the time when he had caught a lone elk in Triss not long ago, and he stretched out his right hand and slowly pressed it on the shoulder of the thief who had only stolen fourteen coppers.
Caught off guard, Videsque, the goldfinger foreman of the dagger and cloak union, shuddered violently, his body instantly stiffened, and he turned his neck to look back, as if the rusty gears lacked lubrication made a tooth-aching sound.
"Hey, we're meeting again. Aldrich smiled and bowed his forehead, and his smile was so bright that Videske felt like he had seen the ghost of his ancestors, and he let out a scream, and his shoulder was badly wounded as if it were broken when the young knight was holding down, and his body collapsed to the ground limply, slippery and slippery that Aldrich did not grasp.
The young man who fell to the ground and kept twitching made the knight look at his right hand suspiciously, carefully examined the slender and powerful palm, and scratched his head suspiciously: "Strange, I didn't send out the penetration force to destroy his internal organs. By the way, maybe he has a dark illness and is suddenly stimulated, and I have to peel off the pain with every effort to help him recover. ”
When Aldrich's hand pressed against his chest, the violent tremor disappeared instantly, and the wise golden finger immediately struggled to his feet, keeping as far away as possible from the knight and keeping a safe distance.
"Now that my body is back to normal, can I return the money bag that belongs to me to the owner himself? Don't worry, I know the rules, if you pick up my accidentally lost property, I will give you a tenth as a reward. ”
Run, run away, this person is too dangerous. Even if he didn't let go of the smile on his face, his tone was full of the biting cold wind blowing from the cold winter.
Videsque turned and fled, throwing his legs off and running wildly, disappearing from Aldrich's field of vision.
"What a disobedient child!" the young knight shook his head slightly, his left foot in front and his right foot in the back, his squatting body leaning forward slightly, his back, waist, legs and feet in a straight line, like a bent bow that tightened the tendons of the beast.
With a "whoosh", the gray arrow shot out, and it took only three breaths to catch up with the fleeing thief, leaving deep footprints along the way, and the winds that rolled up threw the exploding mud skin into the corner of the wall.
With his hands diagonally behind his back, his leaning forward body pressed almost to the ground, this strange way of being a familiar figure for Aldrich gave Aldrich a familiar look, but a slight accident did not disturb his plans to recover the lost property.
"Hey, is running at a high speed bad for your body, don't you need to stop and rest?" Aldrich, who still had the strength to speak against the wind speed, did not have the slightest disturbance in his breath, as relaxed as a walk after a meal.
On the contrary, Goldfinger Videske's speed had begun to slow down, and he didn't even have the strength to speak, so when he heard the knight's teasing words, he didn't refute it back, but continued to squeeze his physical strength and speed up by one percent.
'Come on, get to the construction site of Squirrel Street at City Hall, which is full of scaffolding, and everyone has to slow down, and then it's up to everyone to see who is more agile. In this regard, I can definitely play to my strengths. ’
The two men ran through four alleys, and the path that allowed six people to walk in parallel suddenly became narrow, and there was a clanging sound from an old building wrapped in wooden rope nets, and only half of the road was closed down.
Aldrich involuntarily slowed down, fearing that his physical superiority would squeeze the poor and hateful thief to the ground.
Here's your chance. Huh!, how could there be an extra pile of sand?' Videske didn't slow down, gritted his teeth, and directly pounced on it, curled up and lay on his side, rolling and unloading the force.
For the sake of the fourteen coppers, he also did his best. Aldrich ran over slowly, reaching out to lift the thief, who was covered in sand and was already dizzy and couldn't tell his way.
Just wanted to open his mouth to ask for the return of the real thing, but who knew that the cunning Goldfinger was just pretending, in order to take advantage of the knight's kindness to deceive.
With a "swoop", Videsque fled again, this time with a much slower pace and a calm and unexpected turn in the alley.
Running in a straight line was no match for the Knights, and he wanted to use the labyrinth of alleys to get rid of the hateful trackers, or at least make his calm smile disappear.
Aldrich began to suffer, he didn't run a few steps to catch up with the golden finger that was within reach, but the cunning thief quickly turned and fled into another alley, and when the knight who had stopped his feet returned to pursue him, Vidsk took advantage of the terrain and threw off Aldrich at the last moment. Once or twice is fine, three or four times make the knight reflect on his strategy.
'Smart kid, I know that long-distance running, which tests endurance, is no match for me, and I know how to use my strengths, but switchback running is also my forte. He didn't know that as a knight, there would be no obvious shortcomings. The only thing to worry about is that the money bag, sword, and iron bracer I carried with me felt heavier and heavier, and it began to affect my physical strength. ’
The clever rabbit could not escape the pursuit of the cunning fox, the distance between the two shortened again, and the corner of his eye caught the knight's approaching figure more and more, and Videske decided to "surrender".
Stopped on a crossroads, pressed his hands on his knees and panted for breath, and looked at Aldrich with a pale face: "You...... You win, it's ...... I picked up ...... Pocketbook. ”
He put his hand into his arms, and the knight, who was a little turbulent, exhaled a breath of turbidity, ready to step forward to retrieve the lost property, but who knew that the face of this golden finger who stubbornly persevered until the last moment changed suddenly, and then his hands touched his whole body, and finally sat on the ground in shock.
"No...... It's gone. ”
Aldrich couldn't help but shake his head: "If you want to continue performing, it's a pity that you don't go to the theater." He pointed to his ear, "No slight sound can escape my hearing, let alone the crunch of a small bag of metal coins falling to the ground." ”
"Probably...... It was dropped on the sand, the construction site. Videske, whose breath had returned to normal, couldn't hide the past, and his eyes turned from side to side, as if he was considering whether there would be a result of escaping again.
It's a pity that the exhausted body faintly warned him not to overexert his physical strength again, and his calves, which were twitching, silently refused.
"You're not a lone traveler, you must have companions to pick them up, let them show up, I don't have many lost items, only fourteen copper fennigs. ”
Videske's face changed suddenly: "What? only a handful of copper!" This time he was really surprised, he didn't expect that a knight with a lot of money was no different from a poor bastard.
He pouted and let out a shrill whistle, and it wasn't long before three and a half men came out of the dark alley nearby, cowered into the sun, and came to Aldrich.
Retrieving his purse from the short-haired young man, the knight untied the tie on it, untied the slipknot, poured the copper inside into his palm, pinched up two finneys and handed them to Vidsk.
"It's a nice day! I've just entered town and I'm walking around Eastwood, and I'm really grateful that you're a good guide and would be interested in serving me. ”
"You'd better spare me! Honorable knight, we are all small people who can barely make ends meet. "Videske is very depressed, today is really blind, will meet this kind of fat sheep who does not play cards according to common sense, 'maybe it is really a knight!'
"That's a pity!" Aldrich stood up and watched as the three teenagers stepped forward to help the weak golden fingers, seeing that they were about to leave, he suddenly remembered something, "Wait a minute!"
Videsque's body tensed instantly, and his companion immediately noticed that something was wrong, and he was also a little nervous, looking back at the knight who stepped forward with trepidation.
"There's no need to be so afraid! I just used a penetrating force on your body, if you leave it alone, you will start to urine blood after three days, and your kidneys will fail after seven days, and you can only bend your waist for the rest of your life, just like an old man who has entered the twilight of his life, and his whole body will be painful, tormenting you to sleep all night. ”
Goldfinger's legs sat limply on the ground, and his face became extremely ugly, "Why don't you just kill me." ”
"It seems that you have understood your mistakes, I believe that it is not the first time that you have picked up someone else's lost property, and it is good that this lesson can help you increase your memory, and what I hope most is that you will change your ways, leave the gray area like a mire, go to the sun, and earn money to support yourself with your industrious hands and sweat on your forehead. As for now, I will personally save you from doom and crack the infiltration that has been planted with my strength. ”
Aldridge's hands were pressed against the boy's shoulders, and Vidsk, whose hands and feet were weak, felt that there was indeed something burning in his body, and he kept pulling away.
In less than a moment, the knight withdrew his hands, sweating profusely, and the golden fingers on his chest and back were really unable to stand this time, hanging softly on his partner's shoulders.
"Alright, you should be fine with two days of rest. And one more thing, remember our agreement!" Aldrich, who had been punished with great commandment, turned away, and did not seem to be disoriented, and walked three blocks before he saw Hayek, the dark horse.
Videske had been carrying him around in circles, but fortunately the knight with the ability to remember had not lost his way in the labyrinthine alleys, and had even drawn a rough map in his head, which was admired by Goldfinger, who was at the forefront of the Dagger and Cloak Guild.
"Miscalculated, I have to go hungry once today, he is not a fat sheep at all, but a fox in sheep's clothing. ”
Videsque, who was carried back to his lair by Jack, the bridge crosser, was very sorry to tell his companion about his mistakes, and no one blamed him, after all, no one knew that the target was actually a full-time knight, and he was not the same as the lord knight of the town hall.