Chapter 463: Not the Children's Doing

"What's wrong? Luosa, it's one thing that you didn't come to help me when I needed it earlier, but now you're looking at me with that kind of expression."

After speaking, Priest Feilina realized something, and she followed up by saying.

"Oh! Is it that those children don't want to stay here with me, so they deliberately told you some bad things about me? Don't listen to those little ones; your journey is so dangerous, it's impossible for them to follow. So no matter what they said, don't believe it. The children are still young and cannot correctly distinguish right from wrong; they really like to rely on lying to achieve their overly obvious goals, haha."

Priest Feilina had misunderstood; she thought those boys also wanted to follow Warrior Jier and his caravan to rescue the captured Changmai Village villagers—who were the parents and family of those children—but how could such a thing ever involve these little ones who only knew how to cause trouble? This was absolutely out of the question.

Priest Bataer was taken aback by Priest Feilina's words; his intuition told him that Priest Feilina, who could say such things, could not possibly have done something like instigating children to steal a Sacred Artifact. Therefore, he withdrew his gaze, lowered his head slightly, and did not respond to the priestess.

"You all, what is going on?"

Priest Feilina was still very sharp; she sensed that something was wrong with Bataer, so she didn't go do other things she needed to do, but instead chased after the three of them, questioning them the whole way.

Jier still wanted to brush off Priest Feilina, who in his view was unrelated to this matter, but Xueya Site felt that the Sacred Artifact should be recoverable now, so he boldly stated the matter.

"Oh, Priest Feilina, don't be shocked or angry after you hear this." He said in a smug tone.

Priest Feilina glanced at the silent Priest Bataer: "Fine, I won't be shocked, and I won't be angry. Besides, why would I be angry, right? You tell me first what exactly happened."

Xueya Site shrugged: "Well, simply put, Priest Bataer had merit for settling the Refugees earlier, so the God of Agriculture rewarded him with a, uh, Sacred Artifact? That's how it's said, right? I don't feel comfortable saying outright that it's a Wooden Bowl."

"Luosa!!! You never told me you were granted a Sacred Artifact by our God!!! A Sacred Artifact!!!" Priest Feilina screamed in shock all of a sudden.

But Priest Bataer did not look panicked or flustered as if he had been exposed to his face; he just tried to take a deep breath and remained silent. In fact, he was currently thinking in his mind about how to persuade Priest Feilina and make her hand over the Sacred Artifact she had stolen.

But before Priest Feilina could finish being shocked about the Sacred Artifact being granted, Xueya Site added another sentence: "But that's the problem. Last night, Priest Bataer and Jier were drinking with that Sacred Artifact—oh, that Sacred Artifact is a Wooden Bowl; as long as you hold it and tilt it, endless ale flows out. After they finished drinking, Priest Bataer drank too much and passed out. For the safety of the Sacred Artifact, Jier took it with him and returned to his own tent to rest. But just now at daybreak, when Jier woke up, he found the Sacred Artifact was gone!"

"Luosa! Luosa! Such a big thing happened, why didn't you call me! Didn't tell me a word! It was your companion who told me!" Saying she wasn't angry, Priest Feilina still flew into a rage.

Jier looked helpless, while Xueya Site twitched his mouth, muttering that the priestess was just like his wife.

"We can handle this matter, Feilina, you don't need to worry about it, we can handle this matter." Priest Bataer said, while his hands pushed Jier and Xueya Site toward the place where the children were.

But Priest Feilina followed regardless: "The item was lost in the Church I am guarding, and it is a Sacred Artifact granted to you by the great God of Agriculture, how could I not manage it? Where are you going? Have you discovered who stole the item? Are there any clues or leads?"

"Yes, yes, yes, just don't worry about it; there are so many things at Big Tree Village, you should hurry and attend to your own business." Priest Bataer still wanted to say more to persuade her to leave, but Xueya Site interrupted smugly: "Ha, we previously suspected that the long-haired cat Beast in the team stole the Sacred Artifact, but we just checked and asked, and they didn't know where they got some smelting knowledge last night; they were actually busy trying to smelt metal themselves."

Priest Feilina suddenly realized: "I was wondering why they came to me to buy some firewood in the first half of the night; so that's what it was for. But I remember that to melt metal, the heat from burning firewood alone doesn't seem to be enough. You need coal or high-quality charcoal, paired with a bellows tool."

Jier shrugged: "It seems you know more about smelting and forging than those Mao Mao. They were busy all night; they were exhausted, but it was of no use at all, because they have a lot of fur and are afraid of fire."

Priest Feilina sighed: "That's a real pity, but if they come to me to learn planting techniques, I would be willing to teach them."

Priest Bataer interjected: "It's also a pity, those little ones eat meat; they almost never eat grain."

"But I also have some insights and techniques for animal husbandry!" Priest Feilina became much more impressive when talking about this: "From the breeding of domestic poultry, preventing epidemics, to the breeding of domestic dogs, the fattening of Farm Pigs, the penning and free-range grazing of sheep, the distribution of physical strength for Plowing Oxen during labor, to the raising of beef cattle, I know it all!"

Priest Bataer's face flushed; he wasn't capable of that. He had only learned some skills in wheat planting; as for the rest, he had only seen some introductions in books within the Church and just had an impression in his mind; he couldn't say he knew how to do them.

Turning the topic back, Priest Feilina saw the three of them stop at the door of the room where the children lived, her brows furrowed, her mind racing, and she tentatively asked: "Since it wasn't those furry aliens, then who stole the Sacred Artifact?"

Xueya Site pointed smugly at the children in the room who were getting up to fetch water and wash.

In the room, the older children got up earlier than the younger ones; because they were older, they shouldered the responsibility of taking care of the smaller children. So they got up early, two in a group carrying a small bucket to the well in the Church to fetch water. After carrying the water back, they poured it into the Wooden Basin in the room, and only then urged the children who didn't want to get up to wake up.

They took out dirty Linen Cloth towels to wipe the faces, arms, and necks of the little ones, and then they themselves poured out the murky water and fetched a new bucket of clean water for their own use.

The girls would take out the wooden combs lent to them by Priest Feilina to carefully comb their hair; the older ones also combed the hair of the younger ones. The boys were much more casual, just using their hands to brush through, ensuring there were no fleas sucking blood on their heads and no other small insects present.

By the time this whole process was finished, it would take about an hour; then they would line up to find Priest Feilina, and the priestess would lead them to a wealthy Farmer's house nearby to eat breakfast.

After eating, they were free and could play casually in the Church and its surroundings, but they would gather once at noon for Priest Feilina to take a headcount, then they would continue to play for the whole afternoon until they gathered for dinner at dusk.

Therefore, don't look at Jier and the others rushing around early in the morning; in fact, at this time, the children were still washing and combing their hair, cleaning out whether there were fleas or bedbugs hiding in their hair.

"You suspect which child took it?" Priest Feilina couldn't believe it.

She looked at Priest Bataer: "But they are your children from Changmai Village! How can you suspect them? How could they possibly take such a precious thing? I don't believe it! Luosa, you don't believe it either, right?"

Priest Bataer didn't speak, but the subtext of not speaking was that he also felt the children had taken it, and there was a significant possibility that Priest Feilina had let the children take it.

You have to know that the item was lost from Jier, which made for a very interesting coincidence.

Because if Priest Feilina instigated the children staying there to take the Sacred Artifact from Priest Bataer, then although the children were small, they would likely still not do it. But Warrior Jier was different; the children hadn't spoken to this big uncle who wore armor and had a serious expression; they were not familiar with Jier at all.

It was not difficult to let them go into Jier's tent to take a small trinket.

One could coerce, deceive, or even use begging methods to trick immature children into doing things for her.

Xueya Site said at this time: "Everyone listen to me; the children taking the item away doesn't necessarily mean it was intentional. My wife has given birth to children, and I have raised children myself; I have experience."

"My guess is that children are lively and active, with strong curiosity; they want to touch, look at, and play with everything. And Jier's tent is obviously bright and colorful, which easily attracts children's attention."

The people on the scene all watched Xueya Site speak, while Priest Feilina frowned and made the children stop everything they were doing and gather around them, appearing without a single one missing.

"There are many people coming and going at dusk, and at that time there were long-haired cat Beast playing with them, so although Jier's tent aroused the curiosity of some children at the time, no one went over to curiously take a look. However."

The point of things is always the 'however', Xueya Site said smugly about his judgment: "However, after midnight, some children who were not very sleepy woke up; everyone guess, would they take advantage of this time when no one was watching to run over and curiously explore Jier's tent?"

"In Jier's tent, there aren't many things, but the eye-catching ones are just a few: his sword, his Magic Dagger, and that Sacred Artifact that looks like a Wooden Bowl. Everyone put yourselves in the children's perspective and think, if you were there at that time, what would you take to play with? The sword is too heavy, they probably couldn't lift it; the Magic Dagger looks too expensive, the children might not dare to touch it; the only thing left is this Sacred Artifact that looks like a Wooden Bowl on the surface but is actually interestingly translucent, right?"

Jier pursed his lips; he hadn't thought of this layer, but what Xueya Site said at this time was only a guessed motive and general process, even turning this whole thing into a harmless coincidence.

Was it really such a coincidence?

He, Jier, didn't believe it. Previously, when he was in Grass Rat Town of the Western Province, he cracked the case of the murder of a military merchant; behind it was something that would inevitably happen after the expansion and infiltration of the Thieves Guild reached a certain level.

And this time with the loss of the Sacred Artifact, he didn't feel it would be that easy, a coincidence.

Priest Bataer was somewhat swayed; not only did what Xueya Site said make a lot of sense, but he also seemed to have a lot of life experience, and it looked like that was exactly how it was. Moreover, Priest Bataer did not want the loss of the Sacred Artifact to really be because Priest Feilina was unwilling and jealous, instigating the children to steal the Sacred Artifact.

Therefore, after Xueya Site finished expressing his opinion, he immediately agreed: "It makes sense, it makes sense. Maybe it really was some child being naughty, sneaking into the tent in the middle of the night and taking the Sacred Artifact. If that's the case, then the Sacred Artifact is likely still in the children's room, right?"

"Is that so? But I have been taking care of the children these days, and I don't think they would secretly take other people's things. Although they are all children of Farmers, this does not mean that they lack upbringing and morality in their hearts."

Speaking of this, Priest Feilina saw the children walking out of the room and gathering around the four of them, so she pointed and directed Priest Bataer: "The children are all here now, there is no one in the room; since you think it was the children who did it, then go into the room and look, and I will ask them one by one."

Xueya Site was the first to walk toward the children's room, and Jier hesitated for a moment before following. When Priest Bataer was also about to follow, Priest Feilina glared at him: "Luosa, I let you go, are you really going? They are your children from Changmai Village; you actually don't believe them?"

"No, it's not that, sigh, Feilina, I, how should I put it." Priest Bataer found it hard to say; he couldn't say that he even suspected that the children stealing the Sacred Artifact was instigated by her, could he?

If these words were spoken, he knew with his heels that his friendship with Priest Feilina would be over.

"You just stay here; don't you see that the children are a bit panicked and a bit scared? Tell them what happened, ask them if they took it, and soothe their emotions." Saying this, Priest Feilina squatted down, asking the children about the situation one by one, asking carefully, and observing the children's expressions closely.

Priest Bataer had no choice but to squat down and ask the children one by one as well.

They asked a round; although the children were a bit confused and even slightly afraid, everyone's emotions were relatively stable. When asked if they had snuck out in the middle of the night to a tent in the backyard to take something, everyone answered no without fear.

The children are still young; although it is the age where they like to tell lies, at their age, lying is too easily seen through. Since asking around yielded nothing, it is clear the children truly did not steal the Sacred Artifact in the middle of the night.

"How about that? I told you it couldn't be these good children." Priest Feilina crossed her arms and boasted triumphantly to Priest Bata'er, as if these children were not from Changmai Village, but from her own Big Tree Village.

"Yes, yes. It isn't them; it is best if it isn't them. But the problem is, if it isn't them, and it isn't those long-haired lynx Beast, then what is going on?" Priest Bata'er was somewhat bewildered.

On the other side, Jier and Xueya Site each went into a house to search for the existence of the Sacred Artifact.

The house where the children live is not large, and it is basically packed with wooden beds of varying sizes that Priest Feilina had someone newly make. The wooden beds are neither large nor high, and on top of them are spread coarse linen mattresses filled with finely crushed Wheat Straw, while what they cover themselves with are sturdy little quilts sewn from two layers of Fine Linen; because the weather is gradually getting hot, they do not need to cover themselves with anything particularly thick.

After Jier entered, he swept his gaze casually and saw that most of the children had stuffed some things under their wheat-husk pillows.

He picked up a pillow beside him to check underneath and discovered that some small, colorful Shitou were hidden under this pillow; they looked quite nice.

Jier subsequently checked under the mattress and did not discover any extra things.

Looking at another wooden bed, under the pillow was half an unfinished wheat cake, the tooth marks on it small, looking like food left over from yesterday.

Checking one by one, most were things the children had picked up to use as toys: dried butterflies, blue dragonfly corpses, little figures woven from grass stems, little figures holding hands drawn on dried tree bark, and so on.

Jier checked under the beds again; the vast majority had nothing, just some grass-woven shoes. Only under one girl's bed was there a Wooden box, but after opening it, inside was hidden an incredibly ugly large jumping frog, which let out a "croak" and jumped onto Jier's face.

Helplessly removing the jumping frog from his face, Jier silently put it back into the Wooden box and placed it under the pillow of a boy nearby.

He then looked up to check the high parts of the house to see if it was possible to hide things in a higher place.

But there were not many things in the room to begin with, and when Priest Feilina arranged the living quarters, she seemed to have carefully cleaned the children's room, so there were no places to hide things or any extra items in the high parts of the room.

Walking out of the room, Xueya Site outside had already finished checking.

"How is it? Did you find anything on your side?" Jier asked.

"Nothing, just some things belonging to small children. They don't eat here either, so naturally, there are no Wooden Bowl. Jier, how about you?" Xueya Site asked in return.

"You can tell from my expression that there wasn't anything." Jier let out a breath, greatly lowering the possibility that the children had done it.

Priest Feilina, who heard the conversation between Jier and Xueya Site nearby, puffed out her chest and said triumphantly to Bata'er: "Look, what did I tell you? It is impossible for the children to steal things, let alone precious treasures like the Sacred Artifact. Although they are small, they understand reason; they understand what they should do and what they cannot do."

After finishing, Priest Feilina led the dozen or so children away.

The three of them, Jier and the others, gathered together, first sighed in unison, and then began to discuss.

?? Welcome everyone to subscribe to this book, and if you like this book, please give it plenty of recommendation votes, monthly tickets, and tips to support it. Thank you everyone.

? (End of this chapter)