Chapter 167: The Man with the Little Thief
The two girls looked at the mud in his hand curiously, Catherine was about to reach out to pick it up, Sophia had reached out and snatched it first, she followed Rogge's example and put it under her nose and sniffed it, but she didn't smell anything, and asked in surprise: "Nothing special, just ordinary mud!"
"What do you think?" asked Rogge back to Catherine.
Catherine glanced at the piece of dirt in Sophia's hand, and didn't see any difference in it, but she didn't want to be the same as her answer, so she replied, "I don't know, but I think it's a little disgusting." β
"Okay. Rogge reached out and took the piece of dirt from Sophia's hand and said to the crowd, "Actually, it's a piece of dung." β
"What?" The people present were taken aback, Sophia felt even more sick to her stomach, thinking that she had sniffed it just now, and subconsciously covered her mouth with her hand, but she thought that she had also taken the piece of feces with her hand, and couldn't help but feel nauseous, and hurriedly covered her mouth with her arm, almost throwing it up.
"I'm sorry, Your Highness, maybe I told you earlier. Rogge looked back apologetically at Sophia's embarrassed expression, and Catherine on the side turned her face away with a happy face, and couldn't help but cover her mouth and snicker.
"Let's get down to business," said Rogge, gently twisting the piece of dung with his hand, "Dry manure has a completely different texture from dry soil, which becomes very hard when it dries, while dirt is very brittle, so it's not ordinary dirt." β
"But what does this tell us?" asked the dwarven prince Thor, puzzled, "You just said that this is the key to finding the Void Hunter. β
"That's right," said Rogge, who puffed a faint wisp of light smoke from the corner of his cigar mouth, to those present, "there are a lot of animal excrement in this forest, which can be stepped on if you are not careful, and the excrement of each animal will be located in their territory, in other words, if we know what animal left it, we will know the location." β
Murphy echoed in agreement: "When I was adventuring in the wild, I also saw a lot of animal feces, each animal is different, and it contains a lot of things that can represent their identity, I think you must have found something, right?"
"That's right, this is it!" Rogge broke it open, pulled out a lump of dark brown hair from it and handed it to Murphy, Murphy took the hair and looked down at it, the hair was soft and elastic, about seven or eight centimeters long, and dark brown throughout.
"Your Highness, is there an animal with this hair in the vicinity?" Murphy asked the dwarven prince Thor, who was beside him.
"It looks like brown bear's hair," Thor said, looking at the hair in Murphy's hand, "but there are no brown bears in our territory, bears are generally in elven territory, and rarely cross the neutral zone to move on our side." β
"Are there any suitable animals around besides brown bears?" Murphy asked, looking at the fur in the dwarven prince's hand, only to hear Rogge on the other side suddenly speak, "You have forgotten your good neighbor, Your Highness Thor." β
"Good neighbor?" Thor looked up at him in surprise, and Rogge nodded affirmatively and said, "I came to Suncastle five years ago, and I helped you pull a fight. β
"You mean, centaurs!" Thor exclaimed in surprise.
"That's right, I've lived in the centaur tribe for a while, and they maintain the most primitive animal-like lifestyle, and you can see their droppings everywhere in your territory, and this hair is relatively consistent with the color and length of the centaur's coat, and the important thing is that there are no other animals in your territory that are eligible. β
"So, those Void Hunters are hiding in Centaur territory?" Thor asked, looking as if he had caught a mosquito that had bitten himself all over his body.
"In my opinion, it may be more than that. Rogge stood up, took the cigar from his mouth, and said, "If I'm not mistaken, the crown and armor stolen from your treasure room were used to bribe the centaurs." β
"Damn centaurs!" Thor straightened up angrily and gritted his teeth, "They are in the same league as the Dark Wizard's men, I'm going back to gather troops to clean them up!"
"Slow down, Your Highness!" said Rogge, waving his cigar-holding hand, "I advise you not to do that, the centaurs can't even catch up with the elves, and the Void Hunter's escape ability is even better, and if you are overwhelmed by the soldiers, it will only be difficult for us to find them." β
"What then?" asked Thor, confused.
"Please take your troops back to Fortress of the Sun first, my companion and I will go to the territory of the centaurs, and if we are lucky, we may be able to steal what we are looking for. Rogge dropped the burning cigar and stepped on it, lifted his hat and said, "Don't forget, I'm the man with a thief with me!"
The dwarven prince pondered for a moment, and felt that there was no other way, so he had to follow Rogge's advice to lead his army back to Liesun Castle, and Rogge asked Jim the Tree Man and Monica to leave with the dwarven army and wait for them to return outside the city of Lieyang Castle.
"It's still early, we can walk there, we'll be in the Centaur territory when it's almost dark, the Treants are too big to hide our whereabouts, don't forget the guys, we're going to be thieves this time!" Rog said to his fellow travelers as he walked.
From morning to evening, the group went deep into the forest southeast of Castle of the Burning Sun, during which they rested only at noon, ate a little of the rest of their dry food, barely drank a little juice from wild fruits, and then hurried on their way again.
It soon got dark, Rogge led the team in front, Murphy and Catherine walked in the back of the team, Catherine, who has night vision and keen hearing, took on the task of reconnaissance after breaking in the night.
As he walked, the hat on Rogge's head suddenly moved, and the little furball came out of the hat and squirmed onto his shoulder, yawning lazily, and asked sleepily, "It's dark, isn't dinner okay?"
"We haven't even eaten much of lunch, but you've slept all day, and you're embarrassed to ask us for dinner?" replied softly as Rogge watched the shadowy forest around him vigilantly.
The little owl was stunned for a moment when he heard his words, twisted his little head around, looked at the surrounding environment, and asked suspiciously: "Why did we run to the forest again and say that hΗode eats delicious food in the palace?"
"We're going to find the centaurs now, those robbers are likely in their tribal camp, and we're going to have to get back the Super Guns they stook, and we'll need your help later, Miss Thief. Rogge glanced back at her and said meaningfully.
"I hate it, people just woke up, their stomachs are hungry, and they have to let people work. The little furball pouted and lay down on his shoulder, suddenly his eyes widened, and he looked back to the left front, and Rog, Sophia, and Catherine, who was walking in Zuìhòu, also turned in that direction at the same time, and the team hurriedly crouched down to keep quiet.
Several tall figures walked through the forest in front of them, they were more than two meters tall, the upper body was like a shirtless man, with long hair scattered, a sharp bone spear in his hand, and the lower body was like the body of a war horse, with four long strong legs, covered with long brown hair, and a thick and long tail behind the buttocks.
The slow sound of horses' hooves was particularly crisp in the silent night forest, and Rogge and the others hid behind the trunks of several large trees, carefully observing the movements of the centaurs, only to see them look around this way, and found no people hiding, so they whispered a few words and turned to leave.
"Little one, go and follow them and see if you can find their camp!" said Rogge, turning back to Lilith on his shoulder.
The little owl shook its wings, leaving a string of belly cooing sounds in Rog's ear, and flew in the direction of the centaur's departure, Rogge looked at her back as she flew away, and said to Tali, who quietly came forward, "The little one is quite well-behaved today, and he didn't complain when his stomach rang." β
He asked everyone to stop and rest for a while, waiting for Lilith's return, but they didn't come back for a long time, and everyone was wondering in their hearts, when they suddenly saw the little furball fluttering its wings and landing on Rog's shoulder, and before he could speak, he first passed a big burp into Rog's ears.
"Where did you steal food?" Rogge asked, looking back at her with a frown.
"I didn't steal food, I'm burping hungry, not full!" cried out the little furball with a look of wrong.
"Oh no, you can come up with the word 'hungry burp!'" Rogge looked at her with a sneer, shook his head, and said, "Tell me, did you find their camp?"
"I found it, I inquired with the bird friends nearby, seven or eight hundred meters ahead, there is a big camp, there are many centaurs in it, they are eating dinner by the campfire, their roasted rabbit is so fragrant, but there is a little less spice, if ......"
Speaking of this, the little furball with flying eyebrows suddenly forced the little mouth, she found that all the people were staring at her with a strange gaze, the little guy blinked his eyes wide, shook his head and said, "I didn't steal their roast rabbit to eat, I just guessed it by smelling the taste!"
"You don't have to explain, the proverb says that an explanation is a cover-up, and your little belly says it all!" Rogge flicked his hand on her bulging little belly, stood up and said, "Since you are full, then we will work, shrink us and take us to the camp!"
The little owl let out an "oh" and added, "But I really didn't steal!" After saying that, he shrunk everyone with a shrinking technique, and then let them climb on their backs, flap their wings and fly towards the centaur camp.
The little black owl quickly melted into the dark night, and the soft feathers on her two wings allowed her to fly forward silently, passing over the heads of several centaur patrols on the way, and the centaurs did not react, not even noticing that something had just flown overhead.
The little owl quickly entered the range of the centaur camp, and on the ground below her, dozens of camps were connected from end to end, and the fire in the camp was reflected in the distance, and many centaurs moved around the camp, and the noise was incessant.
The little owl flew silently above the camp, and the centaurs in the camp were completely oblivious to her presence, and Rogge, who was standing on her back, swept his gaze around, and suddenly, his eyes were locked on an unusually large camp on the right, and several people in black cloaks around the campfire caught his eye.