Chapter 162 - Strange Things Happening

Since Luca and his brothers moved, the harvest has been bigger and better, which could be considered a miracle for the village, which is why Baron Silvo has become more interested in such a prosperous village.

The spare harvest is increasing year after year, the pilgrimage to the city in the autumn next to the Harvest Festival has been going on for five years.

Everyone's life is getting better and better, the only strange thing was Luca and his younger brothers, as they looked so much better looking, with much cleaner skin and much healthier than the others.

However, they worked even more than others on the plantation and still helped other families with fewer adult members. The strangeness frightened the residents, but the benefits they attached to this family were too great to overcome any superstitious fear.

Despite Luca's youthful appearance he was already 20 years old, but his younger appearance made him look 16-years-old, the truth is that Luca had stopped growing up at that age. Therefore, Father Bellini thought that the young man was someone who lived in the city and recently moved to the countryside, fleeing the cities contaminated by the pandemic that ended a few months ago.

Was Luca a devil or was he an angel?

Since only good things happened in the village, the villagers positively thought it was an angel or something holy, with the arrival of Bellini's group that day, they were relieved to see that no one had teased the young man's family.

Of course, they didn't know about the attack Bishop Savoia carried out against Luca.

The group of villagers consists of young people over 20 and adults in their 30s, all men among hunters, two literate people, and some experienced farmers in the town.

The rush of the group of villagers was so great that even at dusk they struggled to reach the city that was considered sacred to them. They saw the city with the sun setting behind the glorious Holy Mountains, not seeing the danger on the road.

The scent of blood was quickly noticed by the hunters in the group which put them on alert, but there were no traps to be seen and nobodies on the road.

Some of the group were on the alert, Luca who came further behind because he had stopped to pick up some pink berries that only came close to the Holy Mountain, which tales and history told about the healing power of these small fruits, of course, they're just legends and the healing power was minimal.

However, Luca who had nothing but his family at heart thought that his grandparents might feel better eating these fruits or maybe he would earn some copper coins if he sold them to other foreign merchants.

Luca was calmly returning to the group, the trip had been strangely smooth and without problems, there were no dangerous animals or bandits on the way, which the elders of the group thought was strange, but they thought the city had done some sort of cleaning before. of the Autumn Festival.

However, they were mistaken as Luca in the distance saw his group being captured by Dark Sorcerers right at the gate of the city they considered to be saints.

Well, it does not look so holy now.

Bellini's group was in a great dilemma, the boy's body found in the street naked was too shocking for the delegate to turn a blind eye to the violence on the poorest streets of the city.

His group has just entered the city along with dozens of other groups that came to the Autumn Festival that would happen in a short time.

Logically, if a murder of this nature that has never occurred in the city before, but now it's happening... The logic is quite simple to say that foreigners and visitors can be the criminals of such an act of barbarism.

Of course, the necessary investigation will be carried out... Too bad for Matteo Abbey, as Bellini's group would have to stay longer than anticipated in the town of Laison.

Young people dying in the declining streets of the City of Laison were no big deal for Chief Gianni Esposito, a daring and newly empowered city Chief Officer.

Small towns had a precinct with a dozen or more authorities, but a few dozen guards patrolled the streets, the physical and investigative force commanded by two delegates and the legal part commanded by three judges, with two prosecutors and two lawyers of the legal system itself.

The city's laws were a mixture of the laws of the local lord (baron or viscount) along with the laws issued by the crown of the Kingdom of Dawn. What provided some justice for the people and the nobles could not be so hard on the peasants if discovered there would be punished with removal of the noble title.

With the rise of firearms, magic weapons, and items that facilitated daily life, society evolved together and became more chaotic, which required more legal and social order.

Therefore, villages and towns with good enough crop development to trade with other cities on their own were already targeted by local Lords as a focal point of economic and social development, the more cities the Lords have the more rights they have to plead and even secure some investment from the Royal Family.

Of course, the army of Lords (Baron or Viscount) was constantly kept under surveillance by Crown inspectors, a Lord's army cannot surpass 30% of the Crown's own military power. There were still classifications of what lords could have in armies, such as paladins and marksmen, below Marquis you cannot have paladins and marksmen could not have weapons that were more technical than those of the Marqueses.

This was to prevent Barons and Viscount from teaming up to overthrow their master, who were usually Counts, Marqueses, and Dukes. Which would generate unnecessary internal wars, which would leave the country much weaker to be attacked.

If it were in other times, the Royal Family would have fun watching the nobles fight, but now everyone is united like a sheet of iron, if there is a crack the society they are building will crumble.

In any case, Deputy Gianni, Baron Esposito's second son, who has just returned from army training ending up with a captain's rank, was sent by his father to spend time in the post-pandemic city to ensure order.

Even if some don't want war, others don't mind causing problems, after all, there would always be cities that are more prosperous and with much more financial wealth than others.

Some people who want to gain more from their masters are determined to mess with others.

Gianni Esposito is just over a month away as a delegate, he had gone to the border with the Northern Tribe, some skirmishes had broken out between them and the crown army, so he had already seen his share of dead people and blood.

He himself had already killed a few dozen barbarians from the north.

However, nothing could be more frightening than seeing people die with horrible purple blisters on their bodies and spewing blood.

An experience in the army made Gianni willingly accept his father's request, but now seeing the boy's body on the cold marble table with two doctors working for the court with shocking looks at such a violent death, he regretted it a little to have made a commitment to his father for this town.

Gianni had already received some reports that it was normal for young people to die from stabbings, beatings by their parents or others, or even sad stories of parents selling children to brothels.

However, that child with his body violated and his throat cut, with his face disfigured by beatings... That left Gianni with a sick stomach, now in a very bad mood, he was in front of Father Bellini asking questions.

Bellini looked up at the young man who might not have even been twenty-five yet, with the clean blond beard, dark green eyes like a dense summer forest, and hair cut too short to be considered in good taste by normal society.

Years on the borders made Gianni never have long hair in his life, head lice and other things could get caught in his hair, where they could hardly bathe as they pleased.

Other than a bath in the icy lake that separated the Northern Tribe army's camp, but with its two predominant seasons between the lightest winter and the freezing winter, there weren't as many opportunities for bathing as one might imagine.

The marks of the clashes were found in the scar on his eyebrow made by a spear that had nearly blinded him, and an atrocious scar that cut from his chest to the end of his hip, which would almost kill him.

Fortunately, there were "healers" in the army, people smuggled in by the Lords to help young soldiers survive, Wizards who had to pretend to be healers, whose powers to suture (bind flesh cut by magic) and give more vitality to people who had lost so much blood saved the lives of many, including Gianni's.

Even so, with the adverse conditions, the death attack left a large, dark scar on his body that constantly reminded him of the horrors of war.

"So, Father.... Oh, Father Franco, what time did you get to town?" Gianni asked seriously, there was a cup of steaming and fragrant tea which chased away the awful smell of sewage and rotting blood he had smelled when he was introduced to the boy's body.