Chapter 151: Chapter 151 Don’t come to Buttuwat River in the summer (9)
Exclamations of joy erupted everywhere.
It was an endless procession of troops. Those in the front row held flags embroidered with the pattern of the imperial family. The four unicorns, placed in all directions, had their hooves up and defended the crown in the middle.
Their ferocious procession showed that they were firmly determined to defend the crown. The armor they wore and the crest of each family engraved on them differed from unit to unit, but there was only one emperor they served. They were united in their conviction that they would drive out the rebels and protect the emperor.
The private soldiers of the local families loyal to the imperial family arrived at the capital in a timely manner according to Lard’s arrangement. Soon, the huge army encircled the Engre family’s combined troops from behind. The tables turned. The pro-emperor troops overwhelmed them numerically.
It was right after Pascal borrowed a book and came back to Wendy’s room that he knew she went missing. In her room, there was only the light scent of black tea, but she was nowhere.
There was no possibility that she, who felt guilty about taking a light walk, went without saying anything to him.
So, he looked for the maid who brought tea and asked her whereabouts, but she said she knew nothing. There was no trace of her anywhere in the palace.
As time passed, Pascal eventually had to think about the possibility of her being kidnapped by somebody outside the palace. Didn’t she already experience the same thing before?
He soon informed the emperor of her disappearance.
Pascal interrogated the maid who last served tea for Wendy began, but he did not hear from her about Wendy’s whereabouts right away. She was dubious in many aspects, but there was no time to wait for her to answer.
Pascal assumed that Wendy had been kidnapped and began looking for her.
None of the soldiers guarding the gate said they saw Wendy’s face. Pascal thought she was forcibly bound or taken out of the palace unconscious.
Pascal looked into the list of wagons coming and going out of the Imperial Palace during that short span when her abduction was expected. As the nobles who were conscious of the chaotic situation refrained from entering and leaving the palace, there was no possibility that their wagons passed through the main gate, but he found a record of two wagons’ entrance into the palace through the entrance dedicated to the carts used by the palace workers. All were wagons that supplied food to the imperial family, and their destination was a couple of farms.
Both farms were located on the southern side of the capital, so Pascal chased the wagons with the support of the 1st Imperial Knights trained in the search. It wasn’t long before they found a strange trail.
Sir Muel looked at Pascal with a strange expression. He was a survivor of the explosion at the palace.
“Did you feel the same way?”
They stopped the horses at the same time. Getting off the horse, Pascal touched the red traces on the ground by hand. It was moss.
“I’ve seen this several times.”
They doubted the existence of the moss growing vividly on the soil without any moisture.
As it survived in an environment where it could not, they felt more strange about it.
Its edges were a bit dry, but it was definitely alive.
Pascal felt something artificial in it. Though it grew gracefully, he felt it strange that it was growing not in clusters but apart from each other. The traces continued as if somebody left red marks.
“Then, this is her doing, I think,” said Sir Muel.
Pascal found a piece that looked white in the middle of the moss. When he pulled it out, a part of the moss root was taken out. It was smaller than a nail, but it was definitely a piece of paper. The red moss broke through the piece before taking root.
They started driving the horses fast. After a long run, they reached a fork. The two knights did not hesitate to turn to the right. The knights following the two called out loud.
“Sir Dowain, Sir Muel! ”
“You have to take this way to get to the farm!” said the knights, pointing to the left.
Pascal, who hastily stopped the horse, turned around and cried to them, “We are not going to the farm. Follow us!”
Pascal drove the horse again. His gaze followed the red traces on the dirt.
Meanwhile, Wendy, who relied on the green leaf floating on the Buttuwat River, was unable to stand up.
She bit her lip and diligently ate the Bahazman fruit. She barely woke up when the warm sun dried her hair half way. As she moved, the water hyacinth carrying her bobbed in the water slightly.
Her pain was gone, but her entire body felt stiff. Above all, she felt very heavy because her big dress was still wet. She began to squeeze the skirt of the dress little by little even though it was cumbersome. The water flowed through the smooth leaves and joined the river.
A dragonfly sitting at the edge of the leaf jumped at the falling water drops.
Wendy put down the skirt of her dress and looked at the surrounding scenery for a while. The dark green trees of the Rainey Forest in the distance and the blue sky, the blue river and the wide leaves of the hyacinth floating on the water were beautiful and serene, so much so that she felt the reality was so far away from her.
“Whew… ” She sighed deeply.
She couldn’t believe the reality before her eyes.
‘Oh my god,’ she had almost crossed the threshold of death a while ago. When she recalled the pain again, she shuddered. She couldn’t tell if it was because of her wounded back or the weight of her wet dress that her body drooped, but she was definitely exhausted.
“Son of a bitch!”
To pull herself together, she remembered her grudge against the duke’s group. Her attempt certainly worked, bringing strength to her wobbly limbs. Hatred was a special medicine to stop her from feeling weak-minded.
A little later, she finally got up carefully. As her weight leaned to the side, the water hyacinth carrying her sank into the water. While leaning against the round petiole, she thought about the direction of her cruise. Soon, she began to walk across the hyacinth.
Splash! Splash! Splash!
Whenever she stepped on the leaves, there was the sound of water hyacinth sinking into the water. She quickly stepped on the leaves to cross the river. It wasn’t easy, but she finally made it. Her good motor skills helped her a lot. As soon as she set foot on land, she knelt and fell. Her breathing was rough. Her back ached a lot. She wanted to check it, but she couldn’t, which worried her a lot.
She pulled herself together again and started walking. Because she lost her shoes when she fell into the water, she had to walk barefoot. The sandbank on the riverside was smooth, so she had no big problem. She tried to find a village nearby more than anything else.
After walking for a long time, she found a small village of several houses. It was a village where the villagers lived by fishing. There were two men trimming the nets beyond the low wall.
“Excuse me.”
When she cautiously greeted them, they stopped working and raised their heads.
One of them was an old man with grey hair and the other was a middle-aged man.
Seeing them, she stepped back because the face of the middle-aged man was very familiar to her.
“Who are you…? ” The old man asked in surprise. The two were surprised by her ugly appearance, and they were surprised again by her terrified reaction. It was not long before that the middle-aged man opened his eyes wide, looking at her figure curiously. Finally, he recognized her.
“You…! ”
Pretending not to have heard him, she quickly turned and left.
Because of her urgent actions, several fishing rods that were standing on the wall fell one after another. It sounded loud, but she couldn’t stop walking.
She never imagined that she would see him here.
He was the very man who tried to steal the Bahajman tree from Rajabude Museum! Yes, he was that criminal!
She vividly recalled the image of him scaring Melissa Lowney.
She heard that he had been imprisoned in Bagium Prison, so she couldn’t figure out how he was here. Besides, as he remembered her face, this was a dangerous situation! If he bore a grudge against her because of his imprisonment, her encounter with him would put her in another danger. She couldn’t be more misfortunate if that was true.
The man hurriedly called her when she quickened her step to escape while blaming her luck.
His voice was desperate, “Wait a minute! I’m not trying to hurt you! “
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