novelODS Chapter 186, Commandment 5
Chapter 186, Commandment 5
Chapter 187 The Fifth Commandment
Catherine's brown hair shone like ripe flax seeds in the candlelight, and her eyes gleamed with a mocking light.
"I originally asked Jessica to find someone to help me, but instead a troublesome little brother showed up."
She pushed a glass of ale in front of him, propped her chin on her hand, tilted her head, and watched Henry eat with great interest.
Henry wolfed down the food Catherine had provided—a few pieces of rye bread and a bowl of broth—muttering something under his breath as he ate.
"I'm not a little brother."
Henry shrugged helplessly, "I just didn't expect people in big cities to be so cunning, trying to scam me just because I'm from out of town!"
Today, a large middle class has begun to emerge in Bohemia. For example, Prague has 50,000 citizens, and Kutenberg has 30,000. These citizens are vastly different from the country bumpkins from the manor houses in terms of language, clothing, and demeanor.
The largest town Henry had ever visited before was Rattay, which had only a few thousand inhabitants. The spirit of its citizens was vastly different from that of Kutenberg.
"Okay, you're not a child, just too immature. If you're going to listen to my advice, you need to change your clothes and your demeanor."
Catherine, like a sharp-tongued older sister, taught him how to survive in the city.
"First of all, you should cover up your armor and weapons. Even if you are a knight's squire and have the right to wear armor and carry a sword, you should not walk around in such an obvious way on the street. That will only make the surrounding citizens uneasy and attract the attention of the guards."
"No problem, I can get two aristocratic coats tonight," Henry humbly accepted.
"What do you mean by 'going to get two sets tonight'?"
"Um, just a little tip for saving on living expenses. Don't worry about it, please continue!"
"Secondly, you need to adjust your accent. Don't always speak with that Skaritz regional accent. Speak with longer vowels, and if you could occasionally throw in a few Latin phrases, that would be even better. Do you speak Latin?"
"Not only can I speak, but I can also write."
One has to admire Henry's learning ability; he learned Latin and practiced writing while he was in Lathai.
When he went to Trostich to deliver a letter, he told Hans the young master that he did not understand Latin, which was far too modest.
"Third, stop looking at me like that. Kutenberg has 30,000 people, and there are plenty of pretty girls. Don't act like some country bumpkin who's never seen the world, staring around like that."
After Catherine finished speaking, she took a small pair of glasses from her handbag and handed it to him. "Wear these, and you'll be able to cover your eyes so that no one will notice you're always sneaking glances at places you shouldn't be looking at!"
"Oh~"
Henry regretfully looked away from Catherine's chest, took the small glasses and put them on; she did indeed look much more elegant.
"It's definitely different."
After her teasing, Catherine's expression gradually turned serious. "Henry, let's get down to business. I need your help. Alice is dead."
"Who?"
Henry also became serious, but he really didn't know this girl.
"Alice was my informant, a lively and cheerful girl who loved to dance. Her skirt flowed like a blooming lily. She used to work with me at this tavern. But she was murdered three days ago."
"What happened?"
Henry frowned.
"She was hacked to pieces and left in the rubbish heap outside the city walls."
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Catherine's voice trembled slightly. "I suspect it was done by the King's spies. They may already be watching me."
6
"Don't be afraid, I'll protect you. Shall we evacuate?"
Henry patted his chest. It was too much to kill a girl in such a cruel way.
Although he was very confident in his swordsmanship, he could not stay by Catherine's side to protect her at all times.
Catherine shook her head and refused, "Not yet, I haven't found John in Liechtenstein yet, I can't leave."
"Then how can I help you?"
"I'm not sure if I'm being targeted by the Sentinel Organization, so I need someone to help me investigate whether Alice's death is related to me. If possible, find the murderer and make him pay!"
"No problem, I will!"
Henry once again took on the task, believing that his expertise in stealth and intelligence gathering would make such a small matter easy for him.
But when he actually started investigating, he discovered that things were far more complicated than he had imagined.
The next morning, Henry arrived at the churchyard.
The gravedigger was a hunchbacked old man who was slowly sweeping fallen leaves from the stone path.
In a small shed in a corner of the cemetery, Henry found Alice's body.
Even after countless battles, the sight before him still made Henry's stomach churn.
The girl's long, golden hair was stuck to her face with dried blood, and her once bright eyes now stared blankly at the wooden planks on the ceiling. Her body was cruelly dismembered, and her limbs were twisted at unnatural angles.
"It's so tragic." The gravedigger shook his head. "How could such a good girl suffer like this?"
Henry forced himself to examine the body carefully. The edges of the wounds were clean, clearly the result of professional swordsmanship. The killer was not only a highly skilled swordsman, but also extremely ruthless.
Henry's first suspect was Alice's adoptive father, a priest at the church. He remembered Catherine saying that Alice had complained that the priest was too strict with her.
In the main nave of the church, Henry found the priest praying. He was a haggard old man, and his black priest's robe looked empty, as if his body was gradually disappearing.
"I'm here to ask about Alice," Henry said cautiously.
The priest looked up, his eyes bloodshot: "My poor child..." His voice choked, "I told her to live an honest life, not to yearn for those unattainable people, and not to get involved in dangerous things."
"What is it?" Henry pressed.
The priest remained silent, only silently twirling the rosary beads in his hand.
Do you know who killed her?
'
"I have no idea!"
The priest's voice suddenly became agitated, "But if I can find the murderer, I will make him pay! Even if it means breaking my vow!"
"What oath?"
When Henry came out of the confessional, his doubts were not completely dispelled.
But he began to believe in the priest's innocence. A real killer wouldn't have such a pained look in their eyes, nor would their voice tremble so much that they could barely pray when mentioning their victims.
At the church entrance, Henry encountered a young girl. She was wrapped in a tattered shawl; she was Alice's good friend, and they had once worked together as servants in Sir Grower's household.
"Poor Alice," the girl murmured to herself, "she was so kind and helpful, why did she have to suffer such a misfortune?"
"9
Henry asked her some questions but didn't get much useful information, and the investigation stalled.
Until someone mentioned a righteous city hall scribe named Lumir.
This Lumière, who was also the one copying and organizing the victim's file, told Henry that at least six other girls had suffered the same fate during this period. However, no one dared to investigate. When he tried to investigate, he was treated like a madman and driven out of the city hall. From then on, he became a drunkard.
At Henry's insistence, Lumière agreed to help and provided Henry with information about the girls who had been victimized.
Henry began investigating one by one. One of the girls, Zidna, was a shrewd thief who seemed to have stolen something extraordinary before disappearing.
Henry tracked down the thief Zidna through various clues and found that she had run to a mill near Malesov to sell her stolen goods. However, when Henry caught up with her, he only found Zidna's body. The poor girl had been caught, beaten, tortured, and finally killed while trying to escape.
Henry, however, found a ring with a noble emblem on the man's abdomen.
This was clearly an important clue, but Henry did not recognize the emblem on the ring. Just as he was about to return to Coutenburg to find Lumir for confirmation, he was surrounded by a group of Hungarian soldiers, with a string of civilians trailing behind them.
"Halt! You sneaky scoundrel! Tell me, aren't you the horse thief who stole Master Feng Boergao's warhorse last night?!"
The Hungarian soldiers, hired by von Polgar to search for his lost warhorse, arrested many innocent civilians. When they saw Henry riding a gray horse, they thought they could take the opportunity to extort him, or at the very least, seize the gray horse and hand it over to von Polgar to recoup their losses.
"Wait a minute, I have something to say. This is a huge misunderstanding!"
Henry was secretly pleased to hear that von Polgau's horse was lost, but when he heard that he and Little Grey were to be taken away as payment, he immediately objected. He quickly used his "eloquence" to persuade the soldiers.
"What do you have to say? Hurry up, or we'll have to take you back to report."
The soldier urged impatiently.
"You said Sir von Polgár's warhorses are missing. How many are missing?"
"all."
"I can't believe it," the soldier said impatiently.
"All of them? How many?"
Henry pressed for an answer.
"More than twenty warhorses, dozens of packhorses, perhaps more."
The soldiers had already gripped their sword hilts, and it seemed that if Henry asked one more question, they would draw their swords.
Henry was also astonished. Where did this ruthless person come from? He had taken over the entire von Polgar family's horse farm.
While offering his blessings to the bandits, he began his own sophistry: "Look at me, riding alone, do I look like someone who could steal dozens of horses by myself?"
"What if you're just a lookout?"
The soldier sneered, "Arrest you, torture you, and you'll find out who's behind you and what they'll say."
Damn, does it have to be this smart?!
When Henry realized that persuasion was not working, he resorted to intimidation.
"You bastards, do you even know who I am?"
Henry suddenly put on a stern face, which actually frightened the soldiers.
The soldier asked cautiously, "Who are you?"
"I am Sir Kutner of Kutenberg, and this is my family crest. Do you, a lowly commoner, even recognize it?"
After Henry finished speaking, he showed the ring he had just retrieved from the girl's body.
"Ah, this is...."
'
The uneducated soldier had no idea what this was; he only saw that the ring was golden and had strange patterns, and it was obviously very valuable.
These soldiers were also bullies who preyed on the weak. Seeing this, they stopped making things difficult for Henry and let him leave.
"No matter who caused Feng Boergao to suffer a great loss, I will call them a friend if we meet again in the future."
Henry thought to himself.
Fortune