Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 627 - 93 Pannis Returns_1

Chapter 627: Chapter 93 Pannis Returns_1

At dusk outside the City of Knowledge, it was the busiest time of the day. Merchants from the nearby villages and towns, with empty wagons and heavy purses hanging from their belts, returned home with the joy of a good day’s trade. Winter was coming, and after selling the last batch of goods, these part-time village merchants would not continue to shuttle between the city and the villages. They preferred to hide in their warm homes and spend a comfortable winter.

The girls were slowly moving against the flow of traffic towards the City of Knowledge. On the way, whenever they encountered familiar vendors, Catherine would always wave hello to them with a smile. However, the vendors who were greeted didn’t seem so cheerful. After seeing Catherine, they often hid on the other side of the wagon as if they hadn’t seen her. Despite this, there were a few vendors who hadn’t had time to hide, and were forced to return the greeting with a distressed expression.

"You’re still quite terrifying in the eyes of these traders, big sister," Freya teased, having confirmed that nobody recognized her in public. "I still remember how powerful you were when we went to the market together. It scared me off from going out for several days."

"It’s the achievement of a knight," Catherine replied unabashedly. "In order to achieve such results, I visited every farm and ranch near the Holy City. I even consulted several scholars in the market to record the prices of every kind of vegetable and meat in detail."

"Was it all just to save a few gold coins?" Freya sighed and shook her head. "You really are stubborn."

"Don’t underestimate a few gold coins," Catherine rebutted. "You should understand the value of accumulation. Saving a little here, a little there, over a few years, it adds up to thousands of gold coins. Besides, for an ordinary person, a month’s expenses are just a few gold coins. Every coin saved is enough for them to comfortably get through the month."

"Catherine." As the two girls were squabbling aimlessly, they heard someone calling Catherine’s name from afar. Looking up, Nicole from the antique store was driving a wagon head-on, waving and shouting: "You’ve been gone a long time this time. Did you just get back today?"

"Yes, we just came back from the Mountain Country," Catherine responded, raising her whip. "Why are you leaving the city so late? Where’s Rachel? Isn’t she with you?"

"We’ve been busy all day, so we had no choice but to leave at night. I’m meeting a friend in Glanye Village tonight, and I have to pick up a batch of goods from him. Nicole responded as she gave Ava, who was sitting on top of the wagon, a curious look. "Rachel’s watching the shop so she didn’t come along. In any case, it’s not far, we should be back by tomorrow afternoon. There’s no need for both of us to go."

"You really should hire a shop assistant," Catherine advised. "Seeing how your business is booming, you can afford it. If you had someone helping you run the store, you two could breathe a little easier."

"Forget it. Many items in our antique store are too dangerous for ordinary people. We might risk an accident. Hiring professionals would be much more expensive than hiring an ordinary person. It’s best if we handle it ourselves," Nicole argued. "By the way, recently a little girl has been coming to the mansion every night. It seems she has some urgent business, but she won’t tell us what it is."

"A little girl?" Catherine was surprised. "You’ve never seen her before?"

"No, we don’t know her," Nicole responded. "However, she usually comes at night. If you’re lucky, you might see her tonight. If not, I imagine you’ll find out eventually. I don’t think it’s anything urgent, otherwise she would definitely have asked us to deliver a message."

"Alright, thank you," Catherine replied thoughtfully, still a little puzzled. "You should get on your way. I shouldn’t have held you up to chat. We will be home soon and are in no rush. You, on the other hand, have to travel at night. Never mind, let’s stop chatting. You should get going. Come back early tomorrow. If you’ve got time, come and have dinner at our mansion. We still haven’t thanked you for helping us take care of those kids. I bet the four of them combined are enough to give you a headache."

"Hahaha, they’re actually very well-behaved. Alright, I’ll be going now. See you tomorrow," Nicole laughed, whipping her horse to continue her journey, her eyes still lingering a few times on Ava. It wasn’t because she had noticed anything unusual, but she was curious how Catherine had found such a delicate doll-like little girl with such alarming strength in less than three months. If Legendary Rank professionals were so easy to come by, the human world would surely have more than a few dozen.

"It seems she really didn’t notice anything," Catherine turned her head back to look at the golden-haired girl on the roof. "Ava, you should return to the wagon. Even though no one seems to recognize you, sitting on the roof is not normal."

"Understood." Ava stood up emotionlessly and flipped into the wagon. "Executing command, command completed, entering standby mode," Ava said habitually in a mechanical voice.

"Cough, cough, cough." Catherine almost choked, took a few dry coughs, and said, "Ava, you should really change your speaking style. Practically nobody in this world speaks in the way you do. If you don’t change, it will be difficult for you to truly fit into human society."

"Alright, I understand. I will try to change." Ava’s speaking style changed, but her voice still lacked emotion: "Being in a human-like form is troublesome. If I remained connected to the control center, a few instructions would suffice to bring about changes. However, in this form, adapting takes time."

"This is part of becoming a normal human. Don’t rush, take your time, as long as you remember this," Catherine consoled Ava for a bit before turning back and flicking the horsewhip, "Let’s go, Freya. I’m quite concerned about the little girl Nicole mentioned, who came looking for us. I hope we can see her today... I’m somewhat worried."

"You’re worried, so hurry back and check." A voice sounded again from the roof of the carriage, "At most, we’re one hour away from home, including the journey through the city."

"That’s why I said we needed to hasten," Catherine reflexively responded, before a sudden realization struck her. She excitedly looked back and said, "Huh, Pannis, you startled me appearing like that all of sudden. When did you get back? How did you find us on the road?"

"Let me think, it was probably around the time Ava complained about her body being unfit," Pannis said as he sat where Ava once sat, "As for finding you, it was too easy. I just asked the people on the road where the beauties were, and they naturally pointed me to you. Hey, hey, put down your sword. I admit I overheard people praising you for your heroic actions at the marketplace, and that’s how I learned that you weren’t home yet, so I came after you. Otherwise, I would have gone straight home."

"You should have just said so earlier," Catherine murmured, rolling her eyes. She returned her sword to its holder and spurred the horses into a faster pace, "How did your mission go? You weren’t hurt, were you? You didn’t die a few times again, did you?"

"Not at all, everything went smoothly," Pannis replied, "There were three elf demigods, two dwarven demigods, and two winged-people demigods. Oh yeah, Odin helped as well. Along with me, we had a total of nine demigods. No, actually, I should say ten. The leader of the lizardmen from the swamp also went. But by the time he arrived, the victory feast was already over. Everyone joked that he only went to take a nap. Nine demigods fighting twenty-one demigod magical beasts gave us a slight advantage. Especially since those demigod magical beasts were fighting each other as well, so we didn’t have to expend much energy. No one was even injured. However, the winged people did lose over ten gold rank youths. Their population is quite small already, so these losses are quite poignant."

"That’s very unfortunate." Although it didn’t concern her at all, Catherine still released a somber sigh, "Does this happen often?"

"According to the elves, this has never happened in their generation," Pannis said as he laid back on the carriage roof, using his arm as a pillow and looked at the sky, "The sudden exodus of herds of demigod magical beasts from the Forest of Death, that’s a first. Everyone agreed something must have occurred deep in the Forest of Death."

"What kind of event could drive dozens of demigod magical beasts out?" Catherine shook her head, "I think if something like that happened, the entire Yarran Continent would sense it."

"I think so too," Pannis said, "But, maybe something has occurred which we don’t know about. Nobody can confidently confirm or deny these things. Anyway, the rest is not my business. Everyone agreed to leave the investigation of the mystery behind the movement of the demigod beasts to the elves. After all, they’ve lived outside the Forest of Death for thousands of years, and have the most experience dealing with the forest. They will figure out the cause, and then we’ll decide how to solve this issue."

"That’s pretty good," Catherine said, "Is there something wrong?"

"Not wrong, but..." Pannis hesitated for a moment before responding, "This incident is indeed strange, since nothing like this has ever happened before. I’m worried, I fear it may lead to problematic issues. I don’t want to see another problem added to the troubles of the Yarran World which are already plentiful."

"Don’t think too much about it," Catherine consoled, "Even if there is a problem, we’ll handle it."

As they continued chatting, the number of travelers and pedestrians around them steadily increased. The city gate was already within sight. (To be continued. If you like this novel, please come to qidian.com to vote, and your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile phone users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)