Chapter 198 Suspected Related Person
Unlike the "Redwall Farm" incident, which had been thoroughly investigated by the Night Watch before being filed in the unsolved files, and it was even determined that a sealed object was involved, the "Mist Shadow Forest" incident was a standard unsolved case where even the source of the incident had not been found.
The Bancroft family, who own Redwall Farm, are foreigners. After Master William was involved in a strange incident and died, the Bancroft family avoided Redwall Farm as much as possible and were unwilling to send their own children to manage it. They sold this dangerous land to the Gold Coin Church at a very low price. After the incident was resolved, the Gold Coin Church would own a farm worth , so of course they were willing to do their best.
In contrast, most of the terrain in the Misty Forest is poor woodland on slopes that cannot be developed into farmland. The Night's Watch certainly doesn't have much motivation... not to mention that the owner has no intention of selling at a low price. After all, this is all the Korf family has left.
Of course, the Night Watch still abides by the code of conduct. No matter what, they did conduct a thorough investigation. The investigators who participated in the investigation of the incident compiled dozens of pages of investigation reports before archiving them. All kinds of details were stuffed into a black leather notebook. When the church is willing to deal with it, they will have more comprehensive intelligence to support the restart of the investigation.
In other words, the information in this black leather book is really messy. It contains all kinds of information, but it seems to have little connection with the incident. No wonder Qin Guan, a UP host who usually does a lot of writing work (writing video copy), can't stand it.
In serious games, the quest text is written as concisely and fluently as possible, and the important contents are marked in red fonts! Even so, many players have to run around the map for a long time and are not willing to read it seriously until they can't find the quest monster...
This top student does not have the problem of "getting a headache after reading too many words". After patiently reading all the documents, she has keenly found the key parts of the redundant information.
"First, let's look at page 7." En Bu Zeng showed the page to Qin Guan. "This is the record of investigator 'Mountain Rat' questioning the former lumberyard workers. Look at the fourth paragraph."
"Hmm..." Qin Guan came over patiently, touching his chin and reading the words above.
"...Karl: I don't know, sir. Our work during the day is very tiring. At night, we just want to sleep and don't have the energy to run around."
"Then how do you know someone came here at night?"
"Karl: Because the rope I put on the tree stump is missing. It's a hemp rope made by old Hume, more than four meters long. Squirrels and foxes in the mountains won't steal it."
"Who do you think stole the rope?"
"Karl: Who knows? It's really annoying. There are obviously clumps of wild hemp growing in the ravine over there. Can't you just rub them yourself?"
"Have people from the nearby villages ever stolen anything from the lumberyard?"
"Karl (he suddenly became excited): Yes, sir! Last month, someone who came to the mountains to collect firewood stole the machete that old Hume forgot to take back. Even the broken saw blade was taken away quietly. The foreman did not blame those thieves who stole the things they had taken. Instead, he asked us to be responsible for the lost things and deducted our wages!"
"People from nearby villages would come to steal things from the logging camp. Is this a clue?" Qin Guan said.
There is no explanation for the fact that entropy does not increase. Turn to page 14: "Look here again."
"...Kaludo: How could anyone die in the forest? Don't listen to the nonsense from outsiders, sir. Since I became the butler of the Korf family 20 years ago, I have never heard of any incident in the Korf family's Misty Shadow Forest. You know, I am the only butler left in the Korf family, and there are only two male servants. If anything happened to the important assets of the family, I would definitely know."
"Then why did the neighboring village say that the Fog Shadow Forest would eat people? This rumor had already spread in the village before the fog in the forest became abnormal."
"Karudo: That's just nonsense made up by those stupid people who have nothing to do. Not to mention that people have died, there has never been any major incident worth mentioning in the Mist Shadow Lumberyard since the Baron's father's generation. The worst accident was that a worker accidentally cut off his toe a few years ago."
"What about the worker who lost his toe?"
"Carudo: Of course, he came back to work after recovering from his injury. He worked in the lumberyard until the hateful fog made it impossible for the lumberyard to start work. Look over there, that old Hume in the yard with the funny red nose who always complains about people."
[The recorder called old Hume into the living room and asked him to take off his shoes for inspection, confirming that they were correct.]
"Karudo: These workers have been working for the Korf family for four or five years. Although the forest farm cannot start work, the Baron has decided to continue paying the workers the minimum wage. I hope you can help the Korf family because the Baron is so kind, Mr. Mountain Rat."
"I'll do my best, Butler Kaludo."
Qin Guan carefully read the passage that En Bu Zeng pointed out to him, but he still didn't understand what the clue was. He looked at En Bu Zeng with confusion.
En Bu Zeng turned to page 32 and handed the black book to Qin Guan: "This part is the investigation of the nearby villages by the 'Mountain Rat' investigator. You can read the following pages together."
Qin Guan had no choice but to be patient and slowly flip through the black leather book.
Page 32 reads as follows:
“…Weber: I’m not lying, sir. This is true. There really are man-eating monsters in the Mist Shadow Forest!”
"Have you seen it with your own eyes? What does the monster look like?"
"Weber: As strong as a bear, with a tail as flexible as a leopard, a head as big as a millstone, and teeth longer than a child's legs. Although I didn't see it with my own eyes, the hunter saw it, and that's what he told us!"
"I asked the hunter in your village. He never told anyone that he had seen any monsters in the mountains and forests over there. He said that the only larger prey in the Misty Shadow Forest area are rabbits and foxes. You have to climb over the mountain over there to see wild deer. If you want to hunt wild boars, you have to climb over at least two mountains."
"Weber (his face flushed and he began to stutter): I, I, I actually heard these from Drunkard Mike. He said these were all told to him by the hunter when he invited him to drink... Damn it, this guy is usually so stingy that he has to go to other people's fields to pick shallots to cook soup. How could he be willing to treat others to drinks? This bastard must have been bragging and deceived me!"
Page 33 reads as follows:
"... Needham: Those are just nonsense that the idle people in the village tell to kill time. A few years ago, before Baron Korf started construction in the Misty Shadow Forest, not many people cared about that area. When I was young, I went there from time to time to collect some firewood, but I never encountered anything that could scare people."
"Have you been in the forest over there during the years the logging camp has been open?"
"Needham: We would go there to pick some mushrooms and wild vegetables around the planting season. In the fall, we would also go there to see if the wild pears had grown. Master Jeff's second wife liked to use those wild pears to make fruit wine, and she would generously exchange salt for the wild pears we picked."
"Does Mr. Robert Jeff live in the village?"
"Needham: I come back to live for one or two months every year. I live in the city most of the time. Usually, only Mrs. Jeff lives in Jeff's big house. We are close to the city, and Mrs. Jeff often goes back to live in the city. She is very kind and is happy to let villagers take a ride with her every time she goes to the city."
"Chief Needham, do you think Robert Jeff is a benevolent lord?"
"Needham: Of course, sir. Since our village became the fief of Master Jeff more than ten years ago, every year when we pay the autumn tax, we don't have to go through so much trouble to pay the tax."
Qin Guan was shocked when he saw this part: "What the hell? The lord of a village? Are lords so worthless?"
"He is a family knight bestowed by local nobles." En Buzeng said, "Robert Jeff is a family knight of the Darcy family. Viscount Darcy bought a village and bestowed it on this knight. There is an introduction in the list of related persons on the last few pages."
Qin Guan quickly flipped to the back page and saw the name Robert Jeff on the list of suspected persons listed by investigator "Mountain Rat", with a long background introduction below the name.
Regardless of whether the overall ethos of the Gold Coin Church is gold-only, the Night's Watch still pays great attention to detail when doing things. Investigator "Mountain Rat" not only listed the background of Robert Jeff, whom he had personally investigated, but also analyzed why the Viscount Darcy's family, whose fiefdom is in Kane Town, did not allocate a piece of land on their own territory to "Master Jeff", but instead bought a village on someone else's land.
Simply put, the "Mountain Rat" believes that the Darcy family intends to focus on training Robert Jeff, and wants to support this family knight to strive for the top and compete with the Korf family, which occupies the title but is on the verge of collapse. The villages around the Misty Shadow Forest were originally the fiefdom of the Korf family, so the people in this area would take it for granted to enter the Misty Shadow Forest to collect firewood and hunt, because the people in this area were originally supposed to pay taxes to the Korf family, and both the people and the land were their property.
In theory, the taxes paid by the people on the fiefdoms had nothing to do with the petty nobles who directly "owned" them, because the laws of the Rhine Kingdom stipulated that 10% of the taxes belonged to the church, 10% to the king, and 10% to the local lords, such as Adela III before and Rex now.
However, when the people on the fiefdom had to pay the autumn tax, they could only sell grain to the small nobles who directly "owned" them, and then use the money from the sale of grain to pay the tax. This left a lot of room for manipulation... During the Chinese feudal dynasty, local officials dared to openly engage in kick-and-fights when collecting grain, and these unsupervised small nobles could do whatever they wanted.
When Rex said that he didn't want his share of the tax revenue, he was actually publicly "forcing" Yang Qiu not to peel off the skins and suck the blood of the Westerm people when collecting taxes...
Qin Guan carefully read the introduction of the knight Robert Jeff, and flipped through a few more pages to look at the information of other people.
Other suspected persons of relevance, such as the Korf family, the Korf family's housekeeper, the foreman and workers of the logging camp, the hunters, village chiefs and villagers who were the focus of the "mountain rat"'s questioning, etc., all had intelligence introductions obtained by the investigator himself, but none of them were as detailed as Robert Jeff's introduction, which was so accurate that it even listed how many lovers (concubines) he had.
"So it seems that investigator 'Mountain Rat' suspects that this Robert is a key person of contact?" Qin Guan's eyes lit up.
"The investigator probably can't be sure either. He didn't find any evidence." En Buzeng shook his head. "Otherwise, this investigation report wouldn't be so unfocused, listing all the information in detail."
"Anyway, you also think that Robert is the key person, right?" Qin Guan was too lazy to think about it further.
"I do have this idea, but my starting point is different from that of investigator 'Mountain Rat'. Of course, I have no evidence, so it's hard to say." En Bu Zeng nodded first, then shook his head. "Anyway, let's try to find that 'rope'. If we can find this missing 'rope', half of the mission will be solved."
Qin Guan broke out in a cold sweat: "Hey, don't joke, sister. Look how big this place is. Looking for a rope in such a big forest? That's too bad!"
"No need to search everywhere, just search around the logging site... um, within a hundred... two hundred meters." En Buzeng raised his head and glanced at the front of the crowd. "We're here. That's the logging site, right?"
At the end of the path, on a slightly flat open space, there were a few lonely cabins and a few piles of logs that had not been moved away in time and were placed haphazardly in the sun.
