Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 336 - 48 Footprints_1

Chapter 336: Chapter 48 Footprints_1

"Bastards, bastards, bastards!" Despite inwardly cursing, the four security guards maintained an appearance of respect and submission, standing by the seven Upper Rank professionals and awaiting their orders. It was mid-January, the coldest time of the year. Although the sun was slowly rising, there was still an icy chill in the air that created a fog every time they breathed. The best thing to do in this weather was to hide in a warm room, snuggling with your wife under the quilts, not doggedly following a bunch of random professionals on an over seventy-kilometer investigative journey in the wee hours of the morning.

The worst part was that even though the on-site examination was over, they still had to search for some magic Array outside the town. Now they had found the Array, and they were clearly set to return, but some idiot insisted on circling the town once. Was he out of his mind? At the time of the event, nearby stationed troops had already sent people to investigate and found no valuable clues around. Wouldn’t it be better to wait until it was a bit warmer to look? Really, what a jerk.

Despite grumbling in their hearts, the dissatisfied security guards could only paste smiles on their faces when dealing with these professionals who had direct contact with the lord, enduring the cold wind and shivering in the morning light.

"Mr. Pannis." The priest of the Wind God spoke in a calm voice, staring at Pannis, "Two questions. First, you proposed to circle the town for inspection, now that we’re halfway through, have you discovered anything? Secondly, the suggestion to investigate around the town was yours, too. I hope that you can be more attentive and focus on the surroundings instead of continuously staring at my back."

"Hahaha, how could it be? I’m inspecting the surroundings." Pannis chuckled awkwardly, wiped away some saliva from the corner of his mouth, and put on a serious face when he turned back around, "In my judgement, thirty-six... no, no, I mean, there must be some valuable clues nearby. We need to go around a bit more, yes, a bit more."

Even with priests’ self-control, Teresa’s face twitched with fury, she clenched her teeth and said, "Mr. Pannis, may I ask, until when do you plan to keep searching? And what kind of clue are you expecting? Please tell us in advance so we can help look out for it."

"What... what kind of clue?" Pannis was taken aback for a moment, then suddenly laughed awkwardly, "Hahaha, those trivial matters aren’t important. A man’s intuition, hahaha."

"Just go to hell, that’s too embarrassing." Before Teresa’s anger could explode, a fist of justice had already descended on Pannis from behind. Pannis flew out with a scream under the punch, landed face-down, and stopped moving.

"I’m sorry." Lina withdrew her fist, regained her noble and sacred posture, and apologized to Teresa, "I’ve caused you trouble, please forgive me."

"Er... no... it’s nothing." Teresa inwardly rejoiced at the sight of Pannis’s brutal treatment and quickly prayed for her god’s forgiveness. She awkwardly smiled at Lina’s apology and said, "But... isn’t Mr. Pannis flying that far... is he going to be okay?"

"He’s fine, don’t worry." Lina gently smiled, revealing a startling truth, "He’s used to it. If he doesn’t fly a few times a day, he feels uncomfortable. I’m just making him satisfied."

"Hey, don’t spread false rumors." Pannis, who had been playing dead on the ground, immediately lifted his head to glare at Lina, the perpetrator, and retorted loudly, "Who would have such a stupid habit?"

"So, dear Mr. Pannis, who doesn’t have such a foolish habit." Lina laughed gently, speaking softly like a goddess, "Aren’t you going to get up? Or have you fallen in love with the ground? If that’s the case, that’s fine, I can help you carve a tombstone there."

"Don’t say such terrifying things so serenely." Pannis transitioned from lying down to squatting, waved his hand and said, "Come here, look what I’ve found. Luck’s really on my side today, finding a clue after such a trivial fall. If only I could be this lucky every day. Lina, well done."

"It can’t be real." Everyone around him, including Muir, the elf who knew Pannis’s past, were stunned, gaping at the squatting Pannis, "You’re joking, right?"

"He never jokes about these things." Lina sneered, went first to squat beside him, and pinched him hard in the process, "That’s for messing around. I’ll pinch you to death."

"Look here." Pannis pointed at the flat ground, "This is half a footprint. See, it’s the front part of a foot."

"Hmm, it does look like a footprint." Lina squatted on the ground, scrutinizing the footprint for a while before nodding her agreement, "But it’s weird, why is it only half a footprint? And it seems like this footprint was frozen. Is it... a liquid?"

"Clearly, it’s a liquid." Pannis looked around and pointed at an Array node nearby, "And it’s right next to the magic Array. The location is very delicate. We can assume that the owner of this footprint is one of the culprits."

"So you think that he stepped in some liquid somewhere else, and then left the trace here?" The beautiful Enbow asked thoughtfully: "But it doesn’t make sense. The nearest place from here is the town. Even if we assume that the person came from the town and had liquid on his feet, the trace should have dried up on such a long journey. It’s impossible to leave it here."

Pannis looked pityingly at Enbow, he sighed: "There’s an animal called a horse, and also a transportation tool called a chariot."

"I don’t quite understand." Teresa suddenly became humble at this moment, she asked for advice on the side: "Even if we know that this footprint was left by one of the murderers, what does it mean? Can we find him through this footprint? Or can we guess his identity from this footprint?"

"It’s hard to find him through the footprint." Marcia, familiar with outdoor survival and hunting, had already quickly searched the surrounding area at this moment and spoke disappointedly: "There are no corresponding traces, no horseshoe prints, no wheel prints, no other footprints, nothing at all. The ground here is very frozen, and people from the nearby garrison have inspected it once before. Even if there were traces, they would have been mostly destroyed, so it’s probably very difficult to track someone through this footprint."

"With only half a footprint, it’s impossible to determine the person’s height and weight." Muir also shook his head and said, "If it were a complete footprint, it would be okay. But with only half of it, it’s basically impossible."

"Everybody get over here." Pannis called everyone over to form a circle, "Do you smell anything?"

"You’re not thinking of tracking by scent, are you? It’s been a night, the scent would have dispersed by now, impossible." The group, hunched over and head-to-tail in a circle, Lina sniffed the footprint on the ground and said, "Besides, I couldn’t catch a whiff of anything unusual."

"Indeed nothing." The rest of the crew also shook their heads in disappointment: "Mr. Pannis, did you smell something wrong?"

"No, there is indeed a smell." Muir and Marcia, both familiar with hunting, fully supported Pannis: "There is a very faint scent, extremely faint, it’s hard to tell what it is, but we can confirm it’s there."

"It’s the smell of honey water." Pannis directly revealed the answer, "Most honey water has no scent, only a few types do. And one of these types happens to have this scent."

"Honey water?" Nearly everyone at the scene had drunk this delicious beverage, but most of them couldn’t smell it here, only Muir hesitated to say: "There is a faint scent of honey, but it’s mixed with other scents, it’s hard to distinguish."

"Risela’s Honey Drink, a brand that has been around for 180 years." Pannis pulled out a bottle casually. The bottle was still unopened and filled with golden liquid, "The shop is located in Diersalem City, the owner is Old Risela, but now the operation is in the hands of the young Risela. They only sell 100 bottles a day. Look, just such a small bottle costs one hundred and eighty silver coins. That’s nearly two gold coins, it’s practically robbery. Even though it’s expensive, people still line up to buy it. They sell out within an hour after opening for the day. Thinking about it, it’s a huge profit. I think I may start selling honey water in the future."

"I’ve actually never heard about it." Marcia listened to Pannis’s introduction blankly, "Even though I rarely come home, I’m still a warrior in a nearby temple. I can’t believe I’d never heard of it."

"These security guards should know." Lina looked at the followers with questioning eyes.

"Yes, Miss Priest." The most diligent one among the four security guards immediately replied, "Although we can’t afford it and don’t have the chance to drink it, we’ve heard of it. It’s said that some affluent families in the city would arrange for their servants to queue there long term to buy it. Basically, the first customer of the day would take all the drinks. So, for the past several years, unless you queue for half a month, it’s impossible to buy."

Teresa nodded thoughtfully and asked Pannis, "So Mr. Pannis, you think this case is related to this shop?"

"I wouldn’t exactly say that." Pannis sat down cross-legged on the ground, opened the bottle and took a deep, indulgent sniff, "If I accidentally stepped in some honey water, then went off to murder someone and stole something, should the blame also fall on Risela and his son? However, maybe we can find a breakthrough from this."

"I only have one question." Lina suddenly furrowed her brows, asking in wonder, "Where did you get this bottle of water?"

"Hahaha, it definitely wasn’t from seeing someone carrying a big box full of this and casually taking one yesterday morning, definitely not." Pannis scratched his head and laughed heartily. (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for it at qidian.com, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)