As soon as the gold lord finished speaking, the deck was in a hurry, and several dives in no particular order splashed beautiful water outboard, and the sailors who did not catch up opened bets on the spot.

Not only did the voice shout for help, but the crew members who had fun rushed to the upper deck faster than Kraft and Martin, and gathered to the side of the boat to join the onlookers and gamble, cheering on the bettors and judging their swimming styles.

Things quickly turned into a farce. Many of the able-bodied sailors were born in the warmer waters of the Term River, and their childhood pastime was swimming, and it was neither difficult nor serious for them to catch someone who had fallen overboard.

Martin squeezed through the crowd and hurried to the side of the boat with his crossbow in hand, and the fastest player had already caught up with the floating figure. At present, it seems that the water is sinking more than floating, and the splash is gradually getting smaller, but it should not prevent the sailors from fishing people up.

The atmosphere was very enthusiastic, the winner proudly collected one or two copper coins in chips, and the companions laughed and cursed the bettors and handed over the coins. Martin remained on the sidelines, and Kraft had serious doubts that if the target moved again, he would make up for it regardless of the risk of accidental injury.

But don't worry about that just yet. A sailor plunged beneath the surface of the water, and when he resurfaced, he had already hooked his chest through his armpits. Later, the companion did not turn back directly, but stopped for a while, taking care of him to lift the body of the person who fell into the water and swim back.

The sailors on the side lowered the rope ladder and welcomed them aboard.

The whole rescue process was very smooth, there was no panic pulling the rescuers when they fell into the water, which saved the sailors a lot of effort, and the guy was like he had passed out, and obediently pulled him back to the side of the ship and lifted him to the deck, and he didn't even use helpers.

Everything was fine, excellent technology, prompt response, teamwork and safety awareness – it would have been better if the rescue target had been okay.

Kraft rushed to the drowning man, and his sensitive sense of smell immediately sensed that the situation was not good from all angles, a bleak pallor became the dominant color of the skin, and the thoracic breathing movement stopped.

The fingers were placed on the two fingers outside the trachea for a while, almost making it feel like they were resting on a piece of freshly thawed meat, and there was no sign of pulsation in the cold temperature.

It stands to reason that according to the treatment process, if he still wants this guy to speak, he should immediately clear his airway and start CPR, but the part where the two crossbow arrows hit made him give up this idea.

The first crossbow bolt that hit, the one that broke his swimming stance, pierced his thigh, leaving those who had no experience of tolerating pain basically incapacitated and could only flutter on the spot. This is followed by a second branch, which penetrates from the posterior scapular angle and approximately the eighth intercostal space, creating an open pneumothorax that then obliquely ascends anteriorly into the mediastinum between the lungs.

As for the contents of the mediastinum, there is a lot of it, the esophageal tracheal aorta, and the heart is almost horizontal. It's impossible to put this thing in it and do chest compressions, and you can't pull it out, and emergency surgery can't solve such a complicated situation.

In short, just wait for death.

Oh, it seems that there is no need to wait, eighty percent of them are already dead.

After seeing the situation of the person who fell into the water, the people who had just gathered around to watch the excitement immediately dispersed and noticed that Martin had a murder weapon with a crossbow arrow in his hand.

"This damned heretic poisoned his food with the intention of murdering the believers of the Lord."

Very well, let's make a division first, characterize it as a pagan crime, and divide yourself and others present into the same faith identity group, such a skillful operation, at first glance, it is a member of a violent organization with experience in this field.

In fact, there is no need to explain so much, if a person not only has a sword and carries a portable crossbow with him, but also generously stands up and says that the person was killed by him and salvaged with a reward, then it is not difficult to understand that he has a special identity and a legitimate reason, or that you had better admit his special identity and legitimate reason.

The atmosphere was a little stiff, and the sailors weren't sure whether Martin should be allowed to do anything, and he didn't look like he had any actual evidence. Until the alarmed captain arrived at the scene and learned what had happened from the sailors.

"Heretics, poisoned? That's a terrible ......."

"He put a handful of poison fruit in my fruit bowl." Kraft stepped forward and explained that the physical evidence was preserved, but no one could prove that it came from the deceased. Relying on his indirect acquaintance with the captain through William, it is quite credible.

The captain wanted to leave this Martin directly off the boat, but for the sake of the friend involved, and the other party's identity was obviously not ordinary, he still had to endure it and take on the role of temporary adjudicator on the water, "I need to see the fruit, and the things in his room." ”

"I'll be responsible for explaining to the port manager the next time I dock, we're hunting these guys, and hopefully no one will talk to them after they get off the ship." The person concerned is completely fearless, lightly retracting the crossbow under his robe, and has a tendency to be anti-guest-oriented.

In fact, the matter is over, and the captain does have the right to adjudicate on the water, but it definitely does not include a person who seems to be dangerous, has a lot of background, and does not want to reveal his identity, since this person is so confident that the local governor will not do anything to him, let it be left to the local port governor.

"Don't touch the contents of the corpse." Martin shook off his sentence and went to the cabin with the captain, his face not very good, perhaps he would have preferred to see that it was a living man who had been fished up.

Luckily, belladonna was found in the cabin, in a small half-empty basket with other berries, and it seemed that the original plan was to actively mix it with the victims.

Maybe the other party didn't expect that the heaven-sent opportunity would be someone who could remember the location of each blueberry, Martin and Kraft's counterattack came so quickly that they even found him without alerting others, and didn't give him time to clean up.

Then he made the second mistake and took the initiative to expose the suspicion and tried to swim and escape. This wasn't a mistake in general, after all, he was a fast swimmer, but unfortunately not as fast as this kind of special portable small crossbow that Kraft had never seen.

The captain's face was no better than Martin's, and he was mixed with poison used in professional assassination, and it was also a loss that the other party's target was the passengers and none other than others, otherwise if it was put on the table, most of the ship would be finished.

"I'll testify for you, but I'm afraid I won't be able to afford the rest of the voyage, which is not included in our contract."

"It doesn't matter, the next stop is our destination, Westmin, after that everything has nothing to do with this ship." Martin handed the half basket of belladonna to Kraft, who was very satisfied, "Besides, I need to borrow this room for the time being." ”

"For the burial of corpses."

He pushed aside the extraneous debris, vacated the floor of the room, and moved the body back to where it had escaped.

……

"I'm guessing you're trying to tell me something, and you're supposed to tell me something." Closing the door, Kraft asked the question of what he had already had. He can control his curiosity and politely refrain from peeking into other people's secrets. But if it's self-relevant, that's another story.

An apparently professionally trained professional armed man, who was a knightly reserve squire, if not a knight, to comfort Hong Kong to deliver a message to an academic gathering.

Forget it, it is also equipped with a special crossbow, and the skillful action of winding it obviously comes from repeated use, rather than chasing ducks to the shelf. The messengers are at this level, is the school security department going to sweep through the kingdom? Why didn't the one on the Dunling seat change the president of Rivers University?

It's impossible for Kraft to pretend to be deaf and dumb, and there must be an explanation today.

"It's complicated." Suddenly, Martin was able to shoot at a large living man without hesitation, without immediately explaining.

He has a lot of secrets, but it seems that most of them can't be revealed. The hesitation itself reveals a lot of things, such as the fact that the situation was not planned in advance, and that the situation is partially out of their control, regardless of the origin and the will of the person it represents.

Bad thing, Kraft would rather hear him forcefully say "don't ask more questions that shouldn't be asked, just follow me" than see a teammate who is lost in thought, a teammate temporarily.

"Then let's go the other way, don't talk about it." Rather than waiting for the other party to speak reluctantly, it is more in line with the doctor's usual habit to take the initiative to ask questions, "I'll ask, you just need to answer yes or no, and if you don't want to answer, you can refuse, so it's always okay, right?" ”

Martin nodded, and for now, a compromise that would be acceptable to both parties could not have been better.

"First of all, is this invitation to an academic gathering real?" If that doesn't answer, then Craft will jump ship and swim back to Comfort Harbor.

Hearing this, Martin relaxed slightly, "Yes. The triennial academic gathering is a tradition at Rivers University, with the participation of various faculties, and in recent years the invitation has begun to be expanded to include of course scholars who have made breakthrough contributions in medicine. ”

"What about the professor emeritus?"

"Yes. The Order of the Oak Leaf has been waiting for you in the Great Hall, shaped in gold, and the artisans who have served TWestminburg for generations are set with emeralds, a symbol of honor that can be passed down with the armour. His attitude became serious, as if he were standing at the scene of the award, describing the authenticity and seriousness of the matter.

"Okay......" Kraft believed him for a moment, these things were hard to fake. So why would anyone assassinate a prospective professor emeritus who was not threatening and had just come to accept the award?

"Then the heretics you just spoke of were made up casually?"

"No, it's true." Martin once again showed that look of annoyance and disgust, kicked the corpse on the ground, and pulled up the thin clothes soaked in water, looking for something.

"There's a pagan religion in Westminburg that is marked by a ring, and it's going to give us trouble everywhere, collecting money, murders, strange rituals, and so on. Quite a few hanged people, but they couldn't deal with it. ”

With the ring as a symbol, the collection of wealth, the ceremony, and the tail are not lost...... Kraft thoughtfully suspects that you are suggesting an organization with a long history, strongholds throughout the kingdom, a large number of believers, a heavily industrialized organization, and its own armed forces that most nobles hate.

Seeing that Kraft was misguided, Martin immediately corrected his diction, "Their logo is only a single ring, like this." ”

Turning over the corpse from his clothes, a ring of unfamiliar tattoo was revealed, tattooed around an old scar, enclosing the slightly raised heterochromatic growth.

"They have a habit of drawing a circle on the wounded part of their body, and if the blind believers don't have an injury, they will make one themselves, cuts, burns, everything."

"What about the Inquisition and the lords?" To be able to keep this kind of thing active in the vicinity of Westminster for so long is simply out of the world. The proximity to the center of the kingdom, next to the king, and the strength of the Church, was an unacceptable disgrace.

"These damned infidels pretend to be members of the church to preach, and even the content is changed from the Holy Scriptures, and those people who can't even write their own names all their lives have believed it for years when they are discovered!" Speaking of this, the annoyance on Martin's face gradually overpowered the other expressions.

"The point is that it has been changed to be like that, the papal knights may not be as familiar with them as they are, and the church does not have enough manpower, how can those lords find out by themselves?"

Are you sure there wasn't a denomination in the church that was split and excommunicated? Kraft was tempted to ask, but for Martin's sake, he swallowed the question and got on with business.

"Does this have anything to do with academic gatherings?"

"It's not." Martin vetoed the connection between the two, "I'm only responsible for making sure you get to Westminster safely and do what a professor is supposed to do." These extra-medical content has nothing to do with it. ”

A very straightforward answer, although the credibility is somewhat questionable. If you were really invited for medical-related reasons, it wouldn't be much like a purely academic gathering and title award.

These are all pretenses to attract Kraft and to others who need medical assistance, to use academic gatherings as skins, and to send reliable people to accompany them.

"But it did happen, and right here, an 'unrelated' heretic put poisonous berries in my fruit bowl, do you think it's a coincidence, Mr. Martin?"

"I don't know......" Suspicion appeared on his face, every word that came out of his feet did not touch the ground, and he could not understand what this semi-professional assassination was all about.

Their journey was exposed, but it was a heretic.

"Did the letter mention that there would be a big man to award the badge?" Kraft guessed casually, widening the striking area.

“……”

"What does it have to do with what you're going to preach at the meeting?"

“……”

"What do you need me for other than the party?"

“……”

Well, things are in shambles, an invitation with an unclear end is linked to a paganism that penetrates widely and deeply into the unreachable corners of the aristocratic church, and the guide is not speechless and has no right to make decisions.

"Alright, Knight Martin, the name is always true, right?" Kraft picked up the basket and opened the unbolted door, as if before leaving, he remembered the least important question of title.

"Yes...... Well? Martin survived the series of questions, and subconsciously answered the daily salutation with a flash of effort.

Yes...... Martin Knight.

(End of chapter)