Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 650 - 14 - The Body in the Snow_1

Chapter 650: Chapter 14 - The Body in the Snow_1

The white giant wolf opened its mouth wide, revealing teeth still stained with blood and emitted a deep growl from its throat. All eight wolves bowed their bodies simultaneously, muscles tense, the fur on their necks standing erect. They looked ready to spring into an attack at any moment. However, none of the four people were deterred by these white magical wolves. A few Silver Rank magical beasts obviously could not scare off three Legendary Rank professionals. As for the last member of Drake clan, it was difficult to classify his strength by rank, but judging from his physical condition, he possessed at least Golden Rank strength, and naturally, he wouldn’t fear these magical wolves either.

Despite the constant growling threats, the wolves gradually retreated. These magical beasts were intelligent creatures. They could keenly sense the tremendous pressure emanating from the four people before them. After retreating a few steps, the alpha wolf understood that if they continued to retreat, they would lose the remainder of their food. With a long howl, it prepared to pounce on the four. However, just as it was about to do so, it locked eyes with Pannis. It was a bland and ordinary stare devoid of any energy or momentum, yet the alpha wolf growled miserably as if its neck was stepped on and tucked its tail between its legs. With the rest of its pack, it turned around and fled. On the snowfield, such fights among magical beasts were quite common. The wolf’s retreat signified their acceptance of the others’ territory and usually, they would not return.

"I thought you would kill these magical wolves to vent your anger." Mackervillain glanced at Pannis: "I didn’t expect you all to just scare them away. You truly caught me by surprise."

"We aren’t bloodthirsty people." Catherine replied, "If they attacked us aggressively, we would naturally kill them in self-defense. However, if they retreated, there was no need to kill them if we weren’t hunting. Regarding revenge, from all this deer blood, it’s clear they only ate the already dead bodies. We can easily notice such an apparent fact. If they didn’t kill the deer, why should we take revenge on them?"

Pannis disregarded the conversation between the two and trudged through the snow towards where the bodies were. The deer carcasses were in a mess. One remained only as a pile of upturned hide and bones, covered in sinew, while the other still had half of its body intact. Clotted blood spattered across the pristine snow.

Pannis casually glanced at the two deer carcasses before focusing his attention on that leg. A lonely leg lay in the snow, the thigh exposed with thick clothing still wrapped around the calf. From the break in the thigh, one could discern from the uneven wound that it had been torn from the body by a massive force. On touching, one could find the amputated limb already rigid from the cold, not knowing how long it had lain there.

"It appears to be a young female’s leg," Pannis announced with a frown. "Judging from the skeletal structure, she should be under twenty, and physically weak. Considering the temperature, the leg appears to have been severed yesterday morning, or, no, perhaps late yesterday evening. That is, during our banquet. The problem lies in identifying whether this leg belongs to Betty. Hmm, perhaps Old Dak could identify it."

"Ha, ha." Catherine forced a laugh without replying. It required great courage to present a man with a severed leg that could potentially belong to his daughter, and Catherine didn’t believe she could accomplish this task with much finesse.

Shrugging his shoulders, Pannis set the severed leg aside, kneeling on the snow to examine the traces inch by inch. Despite the blizzard having obliterated all previous footprints, and the pack of wolves causing further chaos on the snow’s surface, Pannis’ careful scrutiny still quickly yielded results.

"There’s something amiss here." Pannis slapped the snow and began to use his hand as a makeshift shovel to dig the snow. Shortly, a fragment of a fur clothing edge was exposed. Catherine and Ava also lend a hand in the excavation, and before long, a body appeared from under the snow. The body was a gruesome sight, its clothes and body filled with claw marks likely left by a magical creature akin to a snow leopard. The face of the body, cleared of snow, belonged to a male in his twenties. The fatal wound was a tear in the abdomen which resulted in the intestines spilling out, but the cold promptly froze them.

"Could this be Neil?" Catherine and Pannis examined the body’s wound: "Actually, the wound on the abdomen froze the intestines, and was not immediately fatal, but he lost too much blood and fainted from it. He probably froze to death in the snow. But, was he attacked by a snow leopard? Why wasn’t he dragged away? That’s unusual. Let’s search and see if we can find the owner of the leg."

Unfortunately, after a while, they did not unearth another body, only fragments of clothing and some cheap jewelry along with the shattered remains of a backpack. Just as they were engrossed in their search, the distant barking of dogs startled them, clearly the group waiting from afar, anxious due to the silence from their end, had arrived in their sled to check the situation. They saw the overturned sled in the snow from a distance and the four professionals circling and digging up the ground. Without getting close to the overturned sled, Old Dak’s body started to shake violently. When he saw the body and the severed leg, he fainted on the sled. The townsfolk who came along could not revive the desperate old man, despite trying for quite some time.

"Come take a look." Pannis signaled to the other townsfolk. "You should all be familiar with Neil and his sledge. Come and identify it."

A few villagers, looking a little vacant, trudged through the snow to the body. After carefully examining the bluish face of the frozen corpse, they solemnly nodded. Some turned to check the damaged sledge aside, grinding their teeth, "This is Neil’s sledge. The scratch beneath here, I remember clearly, it’s the exact one I left when I borrowed it a few years ago. So this definitely belongs to him, there’s no mistake about it."

"Indeed, we can make the preliminary identification then." Catherine nodded, "The sledge matches with the body, as does the pair of sledge deer. The question is the whereabouts of Betty. We can’t say with certainty that she has met an unfortunate fate until we prove that this leg belongs to her. It’s best to..."

"That leg is Betty’s." Old Dak’s weak voice sounded out. Looking over, all the vigor had left the once spirited old man. Old Dak seemed to have aged twenty years in an instant, his eyes filled with despair and his spine bent over. He spoke in a low voice, "As a child, she once climbed the roof and slipped on some ice, falling onto a piece of farming equipment that left two holes in her thigh. The incident left visible scars even after she healed. As soon as I saw, I knew this leg ... " He broke down into sobs.

"The leg is hers, but it doesn’t necessarily mean she’s dead." Catherine grit her teeth, raising her voice, "It’s not time to give up yet. Let’s expand the search area. If we can’t find her, it means there’s a high probability that Betty is still alive."

"There’s no need to comfort me anymore, Miss professional." Old Dak said sorrowfully, "Growing up in the Snowfield, I know it well that in such cold weather, if one is attacked by a magical beast and lost a leg, no one could survive. If she didn’t bleed to death from the severed leg, she would surely freeze to death due to the extreme cold. Huh, you don’t need to trouble yourselves any further. Let’s go back. It’s her bad luck, I..."

He had only spoken half his words when, to everybody’s shock, Old Dak fainted again. The old man became a widower in his middle-age and had never remarried. For the latter half of his life, he held his only daughter dearer than his own life. Often, he’d rather die himself than see his daughter hurt. But now, his daughter had barely grown up only to be met with such a fate. The torment and guilt in his heart at this moment, perhaps no one could truly understand.

"Let’s go back." Pannis said to Catherine very seriously, "We should go back right now. Let’s take Neil’s corpse and this leg of Betty’s with us, also the broken sledge. We have to inform the Mayor about this tragic news."

"But Betty, she..." Catherine began but stopped abruptly, noticing Pannis eyeballing her silently. After over a year of teamwork, she absolutely trusted Pannis’s judgement. His sudden request to go back must have reasons. Thus, Catherine nodded and said to the other people, "Let’s take the damaged items, everyone. We’ll put the body and the mutilated limb on our sledge. Thank you everyone for your efforts in this search. Please bear with it a little longer for this last leg of the journey. Let’s hurry back to the town. Oh, and Mr. Mackervillain, you please come with us. We need you to witness this incident and hope you won’t find it too inconvenient."

"Inconvenience is inevitable." Mackervillain gestured rubbing his bald head, sighing slowly, "But you are friends of the Drakes, and hence you are friends of our Dragon-devoted clan too. We will try our best to accommodate your requests as friends. Since you need, I’ll accompany you for this extra journey."

"Thank you." Catherine gave Mackervillain a forced smile. Carefully, she and Ava lifted the frozen corpse onto the sledge, Pannis carrying the mutilated limb followed behind. With high hopes, the group left the small town only to return, ultimately, with unspeakable despair. (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to qidian.com to vote for recommendation and monthly tickets. Your support is my largest motivation. Mobile readers please go to m.qidian.com for reading.)