Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 95 - 19 Disappearance_1

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"Priest Milak, what exactly has happened?" Lina urgently burst into the side meeting room of the prayer hall, seeing five villagers talking to Priest Milak in panic.

"Lina... Priest." Milak hesitated a bit in addressing her, then said: "You’re here at just the right time, something has happened."

"I know something has happened, get to the point." Lina waved her hand to interrupt Milak: "And you guys, stop chattering, all of you shut up."

Milak stopped the babbling of the villagers, took a breath: "Some people are missing from these villagers’ homes."

"People are missing?" Lina was taken aback, and asked: "Then hurry up and report to the city, this should belong to Olan Town, oh no, it’s been upgraded to Olan City now. Report to Olan City quickly and let them send the City Guard or investigators to look into it."

"We already did, but the likelihood of City Guard being able to provide timely assistance is not high." Milak shook his head to reject Lina’s suggestion: "Olan City has seventeen affiliated villages, but the city guard consists of only a hundred people. With every village having the Harvest Festival recently, the City Lord has dispersed eighty City Guard members to maintain order in various villages. Our Angus Village is rather large, so we received six ..."

"Focus, focus." Lina tapped the table, reminding Priest Milak.

"Oh, yes, the main point." Milak continued: "The remaining twenty members need to maintain law and order in Olan City, even if they receive news, they would likely not have enough manpower to allocate here. Even if someone did come, it would take until tonight to arrive back and forth. Right now there are more than four thousand people in the village and outsiders combined, I fear even if there are clues, it would be too late by then."

"Ah, your worries make sense." Lina frowned: "But, what did you call me here for? I’m not the City Guard nor an investigator, you won’t get anything from me."

"You’re an adventurer, aren’t you." Milak tentatively asked: "And moreover, it occurred to me this morning, you probably aren’t a priest, are you a Sage?"

In the World of Yarra, after a person joins the church, if they aren’t professionals, then they can only become priests or nuns, but if they are professionals, they can become clergy. When clergy are devout enough to the Deity and are acknowledged by the deity, and their religious knowledge and spellcasting skills are sufficiently proficient, they can obtain qualifications for promotion only after passing the rigorous and difficult tests of the church. After promotion, some clergy who are proficient in religious knowledge are assigned to manage the headquarters of the church or its divisions in various countries. These promoted clergy are called hierarchs. Another part of the clergy, who are skilled in spellcasting and have a high affinity with the deity, are assigned to various temples under the divisions, and they become the person in charge of the temple. These promoted clergy are called priests. Of course, the division of duties between the two is not that strict, the person in charge of some divisions may be held by priests, and some temple priests may be held by hierarchs. For example, Ankava, who is in charge of the City of Knowledge division, is a priest, and again, Priest Milak of Angus Village is in charge of the temple because there aren’t enough priests. But these situations are not common, normally, duty distributions still follow the distinction between priests and hierarchs.

However, in addition to these two advanced clergymen, there are a very few who are already promoted but they do not want to be hierarchs involved with too many official duties, and they do not want to be priests confined in a temple in a certain area; they love freedom and wandering around the world to preach, teach, or heal the people. Although they have advanced, they no longer are clergy and preferred being called clergy, and they are also called clergy by outsiders. But within the church, they have a separate professional classification - Sages. Just like Lina, who is actually a sage.

"Yes, I am a sage." Lina pondered a bit, and admitted her profession: "And also an adventurer, so what? Are you planning to entrust us to investigate this disappearance?"

"No, no, no." Milak quickly shook his head: "I know the rules of the adventurers, they can’t accept tasks privately. I was hoping you could represent the Church of the Earth Goddess to conduct the investigation for now. I will have a city guard from Olan assist you. Normally, I should be the one to do this, but as a sage and an adventurer, you’re already much stronger than a priest like me, who has never fought and has no investigative experience, so it would be better for you to do this."

"Hold on, let us discuss this." Lina pulled Pannis to one side, and whispered in the corner: "Should we accept this?"

"Ah? You’re asking me?" Pannis answered in confusion: "If you want to accept, then just accept, otherwise just forget it."

Lina discontentedly said: "Before, Catherine always made the decisions, now Catherine’s not present but you are, so you decide. Vivian and I don’t have such comprehensive minds, we can’t make decisions and don’t want to make them, besides the two of us, we don’t want to practice how to make decisions at all. So, we’ll listen to you."

"Alright, I’ll make the decision." Pannis sighed with resignation: "But even though I’m the one to decide, it’s still important whether or not you want to help."

"Of course I want to help." Not having to make decisions for the adventure team, Lina seemed relieved: "But I don’t know if it will have any impact."

"Then agree to it, there won’t be any impact." Pannis said: "Just that it’ll delay the entertainment activities at the Harvest Festival, perhaps missing out on many delicious foods, which is a bit of a pity."

"Hey, this could involve several lives, you know." Lina glared at Pannis: "You’re still thinking about food? Besides, the Harvest Festival lasts for three days, there’s not much to miss out on if we delay by one day."

"One day?" Pannis gave a noncommittal smile: "If you are concerned about a certain situation happening, then it is more likely to happen."

Lina completely didn’t understand: "What are you saying? What do you mean?"

"It’s a law taught to me by a lion." Pannis shrugged: "Who knows what it means."

"How very strange." Lina muttered in confusion, she then pulled Pannis back to Milak: "We’ve decided, we agree to your request."

"Thank you very much, Sage Lina." Milak deeply bowed to express his gratitude.

"I’m a priest, Priest Lina." Lina seriously emphasized.

Milak nodded understandingly: "Okay, Priest Lina. The city guard who will assist you will arrive soon, please wait a moment."

"No problem, we can take this time anyway to ask everyone about the situation." Lina turned to the five villagers, pointing to the one farthest to the left and said: "You guys tell us your situations one by one, starting from you."

"Me? My son has gone missing." The villager said with some uncertainty: "After the festival ended, my wife went home to set up the stall. While cleaning up the stall, she sent my son to bring me a newly sharpened sickle from the field outside the village. However, it’s been more than an hour and he hasn’t arrived yet. We followed the route he should have taken, but found only our sickle on the way."

"The sickle was on the ground?" Pannis asked.

"No, it was hung on a tree by the road."

"Alright, I understand. And you?" Lina pointed to the next villager.

The second villager anxiously rubbed his hands: "I can’t find my wife. After the festival, she took two travelers who stayed at our house last night to buy some stuff at the grocery store in another street. They never returned. When I went to the store to look for them, they said my wife had never shown up."

"The two travelers have gone missing as well?" Lina asked.

"Yes, they are also missing."

"I see, next." Lina pointed to the third villager.

The third villager pulled the person next to him and said: "We are husband and wife. My father went out for a walk this morning and hasn’t returned since. We thought perhaps he went straight to the festival, but he didn’t show up there either. We asked many people when we came back, but they all said they hadn’t seen him."

"What about you?" Lina pointed to the last female villager.

"My husband went to the fields to prepare for the festival this morning, but after the festival ended, someone told me he didn’t show up at the fields at all. I couldn’t find him anywhere, so I came to seek the priest’s help urgently."

"Alright, I think I understand the situation," said Lina, knocking on the table. "Wait a moment for us to discuss it."

Lina pulled Pannis and Mirak aside, whispering to Mirak: "How do they usually behave?"

"All of them are very honest," Mirak seemed to be very familiar with these villagers. "They all have happy families."

"What do you think, Pannis?" Lina turned her gaze to Pannis.

"I’m not sure," Pannis shook his head, "I can think of at least twenty different reasons for each of their disappearances. It’s impossible to guess based on what they’ve said. We have to go and see for ourselves."

"Just in time, here she comes," Mirak greeted a person who had just entered the room, "I’m glad you’re here, my child."

"Father, is there a problem?" the woman dressed in leather armor with a shield slung over her shoulder asked, looking at the people in the room.

Mirak pointed to Pannis and Lina, saying, "A few villagers have disappeared, and we have asked two professionals to help with the investigation. These two are very capable professionals, so I ask that you assist them."

"Yes." The female in the leather armor saluted Pannis and Lina with her right hand touching her left shoulder.

"What is your name?" Lina looked at the newcomer from the City Guard. She was just an ordinary girl, stronger than an average woman, her skin was tanned from constant outdoor training, and her brown hair was cut short. Calluses covered the area between her thumb and index finger.

"Lydia." The woman in leather armor responded with brevity and precision, demonstrating a military demeanour.

"Nice to meet you, Lydia. My name is Lina and this is Pannis. Thank you for coming to help us," Lina nodded at Lydia.

"That’s my duty, madam." Lydia answered loudly.

"Alright, alright, I’m not your superior, and this isn’t the City Guard, you don’t need to be so formal. Relax a bit," Lina patted Lydia on the arm, "We’re pressed for time, let’s get moving and continue talking about the situation on the way. Let’s go to the scene of the incident."

"Yes." Lydia still responded with a serious tone.

Lina shrugged helplessly at Pannis, who snickered, then turned to wave at the villagers, "Alright, everyone, please come with us. We will take a look at the place where you found the sickle first, please show us the way."

"Priest Lina." Mirak suddenly stopped Lina, whispering, "When you’re investigating, could you...?"

"Understood," Lina nodded, "We won’t cause too much disturbance if we can avoid it. Don’t worry."

"Thank you," Mirak said with a nervous laugh, "Sorry for the trouble."