Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 254 - 20 Lively Campsite_1

Chapter 254: Chapter 20 Lively Campsite_1

As night fell, the camp was bustling with chaos. The young city guards seemed to have inexhaustible energy, frequently playing around and chasing each other, undeterred by Captain Ayrland’s constant reprimands. For many of them, it was their first time away from home, away from the city to such a distant place. The thrill of novelty excited them, and they found themselves needing physical activity to let off steam. More experienced members of the team understood their exuberance, which could last a whole day, even keeping most of them awake at night.

"And then they’ll be tired and spiritless the next day, only then will they regret it." Catherine was working on splitting a long piece of bamboo into slender strips with a small knife, sharpening both ends. She was making it for Pannis. It was said to be an essential part of a certain hunting trap. They had started from the Holy City and it was expected to take at most 15 days. Although everyone had brought enough food, a stack of food for over 80 people to last 15 days was just too big. The convoy didn’t have enough space to carry it all, so they could only take compressed, dried food, which could only ensure people got enough energy. As far as taste and nutritional balance were concerned, they would be better off discussing the weather. That being so, Pannis decided that after leaving the city’s sphere of influence by the afternoon of the next day, he would hunt some wild animals to supplement their meals in the wilderness.

The proposal was unanimously supported by all, with many eager guards actively volunteering to assist in the hunt. Of course, the ones who volunteered usually had no idea what hunting was about and were generally more of a hindrance than a help.

"Young people recover quickly, their lack of energy won’t last long." Pannis was crouched by a small campfire reserved for the adventure team, yawning lazily like an old cat, and casually scratched his cheek. "Those guys rarely get to go so far, they must find it exciting. Let them be and look, even Ayrland has stopped trying to control them. Yawning~~~ It’s true that sitting by the fire in winter makes one sleepy, but those idiots are too noisy."

The fire pit was ablaze at the heart of the campsite, many guards who had finished dinner were singing and dancing around it. Several females in the team were particularly favored, each surrounded by zealous male guards adding to the clamor.

Of course, not only the guards but everyone in the wedding convoy sat around the fire. Nearly fifty people in charge of the convoy were mostly in their thirties. They watched the youthful revelry with benevolent smiles on their faces, occasionally chatting about ordinary, everyday life.

"Aren’t you going to accompany Freya?" Pointing his lips at the luxurious carriage in the middle of the camp, Pannis asked Catherine "She seems alone in her carriage, can’t join us for dinner and a chat."

"I wanted to go, but she said she is too excited and hasn’t slept for two days." Catherine said helplessly: "She’s too tired even to keep her eyes open and insisted I leave because she needs to sleep immediately."

"Tsk, tsk, another one too excited to sleep." Pannis remarked with gloat: "Considering what Freya described, what is your opinion of Wesker?"

"He’s quite good." Catherine replied: "It’s a quite a romantic coincidence. It seems that he’s very thoughtful and devoted to Freya. It’s her luck to find such a man. But, it’s a pity that after her marriage, she will probably no longer be able to join us on our adventures, which is really quite regrettable."

"Is it?" Pannis mused aloud: "Maybe she really will be quite happy."

"What?" Catherine asked incisively: "You think there’s a problem?"

"Not necessarily." Pannis lazily rolled over, presenting the other side of his body to the warmth of the fire. "I’ve just been trying to figure out the threatening letter situation, trying to connect all the dots, but there’s been no progress yet."

"It would have been better if the chairman had told us everything he knew." Catherine sighed: "Now, we have very few leads. It might be pretty difficult to connect everything."

"No point thinking too hard about it." surprisingly, Lina wasn’t reading, but sitting by the fire, poking the burning charcoal with a thick branch, seemingly lost in thought. "You’re overcomplicating things. It’s futile."

"And then?" Catherine waited for a while, noticing that Lina, with her cold demeanor, didn’t seem to have any intention of continuing. She snapped irritably: "Are you going to finish your thought or what?"

"That’s all there is." Lina neglected Catherine’s bad temper with an unwavering, nonchalant tone: "Just what I mentioned. If you don’t understand, use your head."

"Ugh." Knowing that Lina was behaving abnormally today because of her unpleasant nature, Catherine sighed futilely: "Alright, I can guess what you’re trying to say. Since we don’t know who the other party is or what their plan might be, there’s no need to bother thinking about it too hard. All we need to do is thwart their attacks, and ensure Freya’s safe arrival at the City of Freedom, right?"

"Hmm, you’re not entirely stupid." Lina suddenly stood up, holding a hammer, and said: "Think and do as the situation demands. I’m going to do a patrol now, try to spot potential issues."

"That girl, honestly, she’s so hard to deal with." Seeing Lina off, Catherine massaged her temples, she said: "Why has she chosen to wear such an unlikable mask this time?"

"I find it rather amusing," Pannis chuckled, mimicking Lina’s tone, "Well, you’re not as stupid as you look."

"You shut your mouth," Catherine glared at Pannis, "You better take this mission seriously and protect Freya. Do whatever it takes to ensure she doesn’t get hurt."

"Actually, if my thoughts are correct, Freya will not be harmed at all," Pannis sat up and replied earnestly, "Odin’s actions and attitudes suggest this clearly. Freya will not be harmed; otherwise, Odin wouldn’t care about anything else and would have been here himself."

"Your point makes sense, but there’s a problem," Catherine said, "The problem lies with the threat letter. Its existence refutes your theory."

"No, it does not refute it at all," Pannis explained, "Think about it, the threatening letter never stated that it would harm Freya."

"Hmm, that seems to be the case," Catherine recalled for a few seconds, then nodded, "It did not mention harming Freya. I almost forgot. I even asked the president about this at the time. With this in mind, could the intention of the threat letter be to obstruct the wedding?"

"Yes, I believe that’s the intent of the person behind the threatening letter," Pannis said, "Regardless of the method, if they can stop the wedding, it’s a victory for them."

"Okay, we just need to guard against this angle then," Catherine pondered thoughtfully with her chin rested on her hand, "However, we can’t let our guard down with Freya’s safety. All of these are just our speculations."

A team member ran over to the wagon train carrying some entertainment items and a bundle of snacks. As he dashed back, he slipped and crashed into a wagon, causing a muffled sound and dropping his stuff everywhere, resulting in an uproar of laughter from his friends.

When his teammates helped him up, he was dazed from the impact, it took a while for him to recover, and to his embarrassment and anger, he had crashed into a wagon full of gifts. Some of the items he was holding ended up smashing onto the wagon, almost breaking some fragile gifts. Luckily, the thick oilcloth covering the wagon was tied tightly around it, providing a degree of elasticity, thus averting a disaster.

"What happened?" Captain Ayrland, unable to sit still, walked over and chided, "How could you be so careless? Did you hurt yourself?"

"I’m not hurt, but this is the culprit," said the fallen member, kicking an item on the ground. It was a lump of sheep tail fat from earlier food roasting. The fat was slippery and greasy and would melt once roasted. After some unlucky team member discarded it, the fallen one slipped on it, almost causing an accident.

"As long as no one’s injured, quickly clean up the mess," Ayrland turned to leave, "No more playing after this. After cleaning up, sit still for a while, and go to bed early. We have to hit the road first thing tomorrow."

The unfortunate victim had to endure his teammates’ complaints while cleaning his mess. As he was doing so, he abruptly exclaimed, "Whose sugar jar is this? I smashed it."

There laid a broken ceramic jar on the ground, clearly smashed when he fell. Hundreds of tiny sugar balls spilled all over the ground, under and over the wagon. The city guard members looked at each other in confusion, not knowing to whom the broken sugar jar belonged. It seemed to be an unclaimed item, much to the relief of the victim: "Probably someone packed it accidentally. Please don’t go spreading this around, or someone may come looking for compensation. This kind of sugar is expensive."

The members jokingly gathered up the stuff from the ground, leaving the broken sugar jar and sugar balls scattered in the mud completely wasted.

From a distance, Pannis and Catherine watched this entire fiasco. Pannis then continued, "Now that we have established that the adversary’s primary objective is to obstruct the wedding, what could they possibly do? Or rather, what could make it impossible for Freya to get married?"

"Well, there could be multiple things," Catherine answered, "But all things can be reduced to one point that’s preventing Freya from reaching the City of Freedom within a month. There could be numerous methods: forcibly stopping the wagon train on the road, causing the wagon train to be stranded, forcing the wagon train to turn back. There are plenty of possibilities."

"Is that so?" Pannis rubbed his chin and broke into a smile, "I just thought of something quite interesting." (To be continued. If you like this story, please visit qidian.com to vote and recommend. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)