Krafft's Notes on Anomalies

"Sir, I really don't know what that guy did." The man looked up in horror at the iron man who rushed into the house with a group of soldiers, and couldn't figure out what big trouble he was involved in.

The city guards who were usually brothers hid behind the two soldiers, with their eyes fixed on the floor. They had no intention of helping them for the silver coins they received every month. They even shrank back, for fear of getting involved in the slightest.

He usually does some less compliant business, and his talents are diverse, ranging from the transfer of small amounts of personal property, the collection of security fees for fixed shops, to the lead metal pouring technology of special dice, and his scope of development and flow rate are well-known in the industry. But he has always clearly positioned himself and managed everything in place, so why would he not put on such a grand scene to arrest him, right?

However, this was the case. Someone came to tell him that the atmosphere on the street was not right and he should avoid the limelight. Then someone kicked open his door. It was still a big silver foot equipped with greaves and leg armor, which kicked all the curse words he was about to blurt out into his stomach.

The group beat him up upon entering, followed by inexplicable interrogations about a lead-filled dice victim.

Poor God, he just let his men go to the door twice, thinking that the guy had a serious servant job, so he could pay back some of the money, but before he could do anything, the incident was revealed and he was pushed to the ground.

"Did you force him to do this?"

What on earth did he do? The man lying on the ground just wanted to know this, but the other party seemed to have acquiesced that he was involved in this matter, and had no intention of explaining at all.

"I really don't know! Sir, why don't you check it out? It's under the floor in the corner." The sword was placed on his neck, and every part of his body felt painful.

I feel like crying right now, and I can't find the direction even if I want to figure out an answer. Fortunately, he still has some talents. Literacy and accounting are the basic professional qualities required for debt collection.

"Maybe changing a place will make it easier for you to think about it. Go to jail and think about it." The submissiveness of the person in front of him made Diego more and more anxious. He waved his hands impatiently, and a soldier immediately stepped forward to take away another unlucky guy. .

He could tell that the leader of a dynamic social group with some reputation in the neighborhood really didn't know anything about it.

But who cares? This guy is just one of a large number of people affected by the incident. In essence, he is slightly similar to him, the security chief of Rivers University.

At Rivers University, which is equivalent to half the backyard of Westminster, guests invited to an important banquet disappeared out of thin air, and the suspect also disappeared.

Approximately, someone broke into the Duke's backyard and took away the Duke's guests. Considering that that person is not a very patient person, he'd better make some achievements before the thunder comes, otherwise his end may not be as good as How much better is the "result" that was just towed away.

It must be said that this is not an easy task. Most of the people participating in the banquet have another level of identity that can be passed down, and they do not hesitate to contribute to issues involving their own safety.

Now the armed forces in the city are like hounds out of the cage, biting everyone they see. Basically, all the neighbors, relatives, and close friends who are related to that damn servant have been caught.

But this can't stop him. Anyone who can get the job of university security director is not bad at heart. Diego slapped his thigh, developed reverse thinking, and couldn't he find negative related people with whom he had a bad relationship?

Facts have proved that this constructive angle makes sense. Given that the leader of the social vitality group is indeed notorious, it is easy to find out that he sends people to collect gambling debts.

"Oh, I've caught one." Diego Knight took off his helmet, still frowning, and took the account book that the retinue found from the corner and flipped through it.

It's not enough to just catch one, but to add his subordinates as well, it just proves that he didn't do nothing. To make up for it, he has to produce some more meaningful results.

According to the information revealed by the colleagues who were directly under the Duke's transfer, the matter has already gained some clues. With his ability, he can't be expected to play a key role. Otherwise, why didn't he choose to stay in Westminster like Martin?

Thinking of this, Diego sighed again, feeling that his future was bleak. He waved away and looked at the servants and soldiers with coins scattered on the table, "It's yours. Hurry up, we'll leave in a moment."

Everyone cheered and praised the knight's generosity, gathered around the table, and Diego's retinue began to distribute the food. Diego was not very interested in this, so he walked to the door with the ledger in hand and flipped through it, leaving space for his subordinates.

As a person with a flexible mind, Diego's grades in knight training were average, but his grades in the minor courses of literacy and simple accounting were really good. This was to prepare them for management when they have their own fief in the future, but unfortunately it does not count against ability. In the evaluation.

But perhaps because he has been at Rivers University for a long time, he has always felt that reading and writing is an important skill, and it comes in handy at times like this.

The owner of this account book received a worrisome education, and his vocabulary is poor. In many places, he used simple and self-created symbols to replace it. However, his writing attitude is still serious. Reading at the level of Diego Cavalier is overkill.

He flipped through a few pages, but the content was lackluster and the description was not very clear. It was enough to convict but not enough to clarify what was done.

That's not what Diego wants. He wants to look for the transactions inside and see if there is anything that can be explained as related to the current incident. If he can't explain it, he can arrest the person and forcefully explain it. It's not a good thing anyway. .

This gang controlled a street of pickpockets, extorted money, opened small black casinos privately, used some despicable means to control winning and losing to make people owe large debts, and then loaned out the last bit of profit.

When the other party is unable to pay, they don't mind accepting any form of mortgage, including metal, real estate, and even people.

"This thing deserves to go to hell." Diego cursed and kicked the tied culprit hard. The pointed tip of the toe guard was no less effective than an awl, causing him to roll several times in pain.

Diego had heard that such things that were detrimental to the Duke's face would happen in the city, but he didn't expect it to be so rampant. In the past year alone, they have detained eight or nine people. Based on the seemingly low interest rate, which is actually high, a rough calculation shows that it is impossible to redeem them.

But he didn't see those people here, not one of them.

It is also reasonable. It is impossible for a gang to keep useless people for a long time, and there is nothing useful in the business. The most normal option is to sell them and turn them into real profits.

The jingling of coins in the room gradually subsided, and Diego almost lost his patience, browsing faster, looking for those buyers.

It can be seen that few people dare to do this kind of business in Westminster. The first two last year only sold out after a few pages. This made Diego a little confused. At this rate, the remaining people should still be here.

In the last few pages of the record, roughly within the time period of this year, he found the reason. The same buyer took away at least six people one after another.

For such a large transaction, the buyer only received a very simple single representative letter, or symbol, on the account book.

【A circle】

"Who is this?" The account book was spread out in front of the leader. Diego pointed at the stick circle and found the next target. In terms of personal likes and dislikes, he felt that this buyer would be very suitable to appear on his results list.

…

…

Searching for those rats and ants hiding in dark corners often inevitably leads to places that are detrimental to the dignity of knights. Diego was mentally prepared for this, but he never thought that there would be such a deserted area not far outside the city. A place where all traces of human creation remain.

According to what his captives said, what they were looking for was a wild crossing hidden here, controlled by the buyer whose identity was only represented by a circle, to handle business and tax avoidance that were inconvenient to pass through normal ports.

Leaving the main road and turning into a branch road that was overgrown with grass and barely visible from the ground, the man bound by the rope led the team forward, holding the other end firmly in the hands of the subordinates and circling it several times.

Based on their directional intuition, they arrived at a forest near a river. Far away from the development direction of cities and villages, on the difficult-to-cultivate land that no one has ever thought of using, some forests that have been blessed by river water sources are growing like crazy, retaining the disorderly and lush appearance that nature should have.

Unlike those straight and tall oak trees cultivated in universities, the varieties and shapes of the trees here can be said to be disgusting. It seems that specially disturbed and mixed branches are growing vigorously above the head, and the shadows of the trees are blocking the sky. The soft and bent trunks of those inferior woods may fall into a situation where they may lie like weeds.

In fact, this was indeed the case. They were repeatedly blocked by sloping logs on their way. The once-canopy branches and leaves of these tree corpses have long since rotted in the ground, turning into nutrients for waist-high grass, while colorful fungi burst out from the cracks in the moisture-repellent wood.

Diego carefully stepped over these obstacles buried in tall grass, and his eyes were inevitably drawn to the mushrooms.

Of course, people who grew up in the local area have never seen these things that enrich the dining table, but they grow so vigorously here that it is amazing, like the exaggerated flower arrangement art loved by some nobles, but it is made of brightly colored fungi. Classes replace flowers, clustered together.

Bright, rich and almost unreal umbrellas, imbricated tiles, and ball-shaped varieties grow out of the gaping and sunken defects on the fallen tree trunks. Soft and mushy fungi cover large areas of green and black wood bark.

The exuberance of life on dead plants is almost decadent, like some kind of cross between moldy cheese and jewelry.

A guard stepped on a piece of rotten wood in a state of confusion. With a slight crashing and collapsing sound, his foot sank in completely, and he found that the inside had actually been completely hollowed out and occupied by fungi.

The strange feeling of the broken umbrella cover and the slippery fungi on the wall made him pull his feet out immediately, as if he had stepped into a living corpse.

As they went deeper into the woods and approached the wild ferry, this situation became more and more obvious. They would even inadvertently touch a cluster of wet umbrella covers on the trees that were still standing. They doubted themselves every time they set foot. Trampled on soft things.

The dense vegetation still obscured their sight, and the guide also needed to stop frequently to distinguish the route. The attendant who was holding him pinched his nose, held back a sneeze with difficulty, and whispered uncertainly, "Did you guys smell something like dust?"

Diego took a deep breath and made a silent gesture, "No, keep it down..."

"clang!"

The harsh sound of metal colliding and scratching sounded between them, and the shock in his waist and abdomen broke up the second half of the knight's sentence. He experienced half a breath of confusion and watched a wooden pole with a pointed head and tail feathers bounce off and fall. Into the grass.

If he hadn't had hallucinations due to living a comfortable life for too long, the thing that stayed in his field of vision for a moment seemed to be...an arrow?

"Enemy attack!"