Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 96 - 20: Looking for the Missing Person_1

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"It’s here." A villager, whose child is missing, pointed to a small roadside tree. This was a rather secluded path close to the outskirts of the village. Even during the ongoing festival, few people passed by. The group had been standing here half a day and didn’t encounter a single passerby. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

"What’s your name?" Pannis asked the villager.

"Sir, you can call me Harry." The villager was surprised and flattered to be addressed by the imposing figure of Pannis.

"Alright, Harry, I need to ask, is this the only path you take from your home to your field?" Pannis gauged the small tree Harry pointed out while asking the question.

"Sir, this path is the quickest way," Harry replied cautiously.

"Where did you hang the sickle? Can you show me?" Pannis asked.

"Over there, sir," Harry pointed to a high branch, "After searching for her back and forth several times and finding nothing, we saw the sickle here by chance when we passed this place."

Pannis lightly hopped onto the branch, over two meters high. He crouched there, examining for a moment, and pointed to a spot, "The sickle was hung here, right?"

"Yes, sir, it was around that area, but I don’t remember Exact location anymore."

Pannis nodded, gently jumping down and said, "Alright, Harry, we’ve noted it. Now let’s explore the next location. This one ... ah, thank you. Let’s go to Bob’s house now."

"Thank you, sir." Bob, whose wife was missing, quickly led the way, "My house isn’t far from here, we’ll reach it in no time."

"How’s it going, great Upper Rank Explorer?" Lina didn’t partake in the actual search, she entrusted all the investigation tasks to Pannis. "Have we made any discoveries?"

"Cannot say for sure yet," Pannis replied with a furrowed brow, "Let’s first examine the other sites."

Bob’s home was indeed not far from their current location. After several turns, they reached it in less than ten minutes. Pannis stood outside the shed that Bob had pointed out, "The travelers stayed here, right? Did you go in to look?"

"Go in? Isn’t it inappropriate?" Bob hesitated, "They passed by this area frequently and had stayed at my place several times. They didn’t mention anything about leaving. We still have nothing confirmed, so it seems inappropriate to go in and check."

"No problem, we’re all here, including Miss Lydia from the City Guard," Pannis pushed open the unlocked door. "We won’t mess things up in there, only taking a look. As expected, all their belongings are untouched. Let’s go, we’ll recheck if they still haven’t returned by tonight and we haven’t found any clues. Now, let’s move to the next house. Mr. and Mrs. Brown, please hold on, we’ll first check Mrs. Schneider’s home."

The crowd hurried over to Mrs. Schneider’s home, her husband had gone missing. Led by Mrs. Schneider, they took the usual route her husband took from home to the field. Pannis rubbed his smooth chin thoughtfully, lost for a while, then nodded and said to the final couple, the Browns, "Mr. Brown, you showed us your house on the way from the temple, so does your father have a fixed walking route?"

"Fixed route? Not really," Mr. Brown shook his head strongly, "However, my father used to take a walk outside early every morning, generally wandered to the outskirts of the village near the fields, and then returned home for breakfast. As you know, our house is right in the center of the village, so he isn’t fixed to take any particular route."

"Alright, I understand." Pannis nodded, "Everyone, we’ve pretty much got the basic situation. You could go home and wait for news now. We’ll take care of the specific investigation and we’ll definitely inform you about any findings. Don’t worry, we’ll sort it out for sure. The City Guard and Priest Mirak can vouch for it."

Seeing that the villagers were reluctant to leave, Pannis pointed to Lina standing beside him, "You recognize this Priestess, right? The priest presiding over your celebration, the spokesperson of the blessed Goddess. She could testify for me."

Lina glared at Pannis fiercely, then helplessly stepped forward to appease the villagers who were reluctant to leave, "Yes, I too can assure Mr. Pannis’ promise. Everyone can go home now, we’ll definitely solve this."

Upon hearing the reassuring words from religious figures trusted by the villagers, the anxious villagers slowly disbursed, frequently looking back uneasily as they departed.

"Lydia, do you know much about Angus Village?" Pannis asked.

"I don’t understand, Sir." Lydia stood straight, chest out, as she responded.

"Relax, relax, you’re scaring me." Pannis wiped his forehead free of nonexistent sweat and patted the head of the little nun sent by Priest Milak to find them and subsequently assigned to follow and assist them: "Little sister, could you do me a favor? Please go get Priest Milak here. We will wait for him by the side of the road."

"Sir, are you looking for someone familiar with the village?" The little nun proudly puffed out her chest, "I am quite familiar, there is no need to find Priest Milak, I can help."

"But you’re not a priest." Pannis squatted down and said patiently to the little girl: "Once you’ve grown up and become a priest, you can help. So, what you need to do now is grow up, alright?"

"Alright." The little nun seemed to consider and then nodded before she ran off.

"What is it? Is there a problem?" Lina saw that Pannis was taking the serious step of bringing in the Priest and couldn’t help but ask, "Is it very serious?"

"If I’m not mistaken, it’s quite serious," Pannis replied, frowning: "There is something in the village."

"You mean, something took these people away?" Lina asked curiously, "What is it?"

"I would like to know as well." Pannis sat down on a stone by the roadside. "I guess it’s a magical beast, so Miss Lydia, you should consider not following us any further."

In the Yarran World, untrained ordinary people can handle small wild beasts, and hard-trained warriors can deal with aggressive ones. But when it comes to a magical beast, even the weakest one would require several warriors to deal with, and casualties could occur during the battle. If the magical beast is any stronger, then no matter how many ordinary warriors cannot combat it, and it has to be handled by professionals. Lydia, from the City Guard, although well trained, is obviously not a professional. In a contest between professionals and a powerful magical beast, she might be in danger. Hence, Pannis advises her to reconsider.

But Lydia refused Pannis’s proposal very solemnly: "Sir, I am a warrior of the city guard, and it’s my duty to fight for the safety of the people. Please do not deprive me of my right to fight."

"Your choice, your right." Pannis shrugged, not trying to discourage her further, because asking a warrior to retreat before a fight is quite impolite: "That being said, let us all prepare for the battle. I will give a detailed explanation once the Priest arrives."

No one else spoke, as the three of them lined up on the side of the street, each preparing their combat equipment. Lina had originally come here with no intention of fighting and had brought very little equipment suitable for an adventure, only her personal weapons. Now she was reorganizing whatever she had with her, feeling a bit frustrated about her lack of preparation.

Soon, Priest Milak came running, panting heavily: "So, Sage Lina, or Mr. Pannis, what did you discover?"

"Yes." Pannis took out a few blank sheets of paper from his package and started sketching: "This is the general scope of the village, this road is where we are standing now, here is the Brown couple’s home, here is Mrs. Schneider’s home, here is Bob’s home, and here is where Harry found the sickle."

As he spoke, Pannis circled the mentioned locations on the paper with his pen. But even though he stopped talking, his hand didn’t. The pen moved quickly across the paper, drawing nearly a third of the village’s topographic map at a rapid pace. Each street the group had passed was clearly visible.

"Impressive." Milak was truly amazed: "The positions of the streets are almost exactly right. Here is Seth’s Home, here is the Rudolf Grocery Store, it’s almost identical to the actual locations, Mr. Pannis, you really are amazing."

"It’s nothing, just small tricks." Pannis pointed with the tip of his pen at Bob’s home. "Firstly, Bob’s wife took two travelers to the Rudolf Grocery Store. This route is the shortest, normally the three of them should have taken this route. Now with so many people around, it’s too chaotic to confirm this with the local neighbors, so we’ll assume they took this, route at around one hour before the start of the Harvest Festival. The grocery store had not yet opened, so they needed a local, Bob’s wife, to knock on the door and buy things. Then there is Mrs. Schneider’s home, her husband left the village along this road, yes, the one I’m drawing a black line on, at about one hour and ten minutes before the start of the Harvest Festival. Then here, Harry’s son left from here, from his own home, running along this road to catch up with his father who forgot his sickle, where he found it, the sickle I mean, but the boy disappeared. The boy left about an hour before the Harvest Festival."

"What does all this show?" Milak looked at the map repeatedly: "These three paths don’t intersect."

"Finally, there is Mr. Brown’s father." Pannis didn’t answer Milak’s question but drew another line on the map: "His father didn’t have a fixed walking route, but generally, he walked outside the village. His home is in the village centre, he could go in any direction, and we currently don’t have any clues. But, if we assume the old man took this road or this road, then the situation becomes pretty clear."

Milak still didn’t understand, but Lina did. She said somberly, "Indeed, you’re right. There really is something in the village, it’s hunting."

"Exactly, it’s hunting." Pannis tapped on the paper: "And the beast has a large appetite, it must be a big one. Priest Milak, you’d better be prepared, the four missing people are likely already dead."

"Could you explain?" Milak said with a grimace: "I don’t understand at all."