Chapter 878: Torito Village Under the Night (Part 4)

On the road that followed, Jier did not speak much more, and the two archers naturally maintained their excellent professional standards as hunters, speaking only when necessary.

The Herbalist whom Jier and his group intended to visit under the cover of night lived on the other side of the village, so the three of them still had to bypass the area in the center of the village where the Dwarves lived and were active, circling around along the road on the outer edge of the village.

Because Jier's group had set out a few moments later than the crowd from the gathering just now, he did notice while circling through the village that nearly half of the Villagers' houses had lit their precious Lighting Stone Lamps.

For places where the economy is not so developed, night lighting is a very unnecessary and expensive expense; the Villagers avoid lighting oil lamps or candles after dark whenever possible. Of course, Torito Village, under the management and assistance of the Dwarves, was not that impoverished, and in order to be able to move at night in case of emergencies, the Villagers' homes were basically equipped with things for night lighting.

If it were some other villages outside, apart from torches and bonfires, it would be difficult for ordinary Farmer households to produce qualified night lighting items that would not easily cause fires. From this point of view, it is hard to say whose life is better, Torito Village or the villages in the outside world.

Jier naturally noticed and thought of this, but he also clearly knew that at this time, words and thoughts unfavorable to resisting the Dwarves should be avoided as much as possible.

Especially when they could not be spoken by him, an outsider Knight who was leading the resistance against the Dwarves.

Thus, he did not chat with the two Tusi Brothers beside him on the road; he simply pricked up his ears, lightened the sound of his boots, and paid attention to the movements inside the various Farmer households that had lit their lights.

There were arguments, excited celebrations, and even the cursing of young people, along with the sounds of a middle-aged Farmer, who was the head of the household, reluctantly subduing and tying up his own children. It was not hard to guess that as this night passed, the number of people standing on his side to resist would more than double.

On the first day he arrived in the Valley, he was miserably chased and driven away by the Dwarves and Humans within the Valley.

But on the second day, the situation would inevitably change—changes that would surprise the Dwarves.

"Sir Knight, that house ahead is the Herbalist's home."

Datus pointed to a two-story stone and wood house ahead, illuminated by the thin moonlight, and said.

Jier did not approach immediately, but stood in place to observe the house. He discovered that the house was located closer to the north side of the village, and since the Dwarves' mine was in the Xīběi direction of Torito Village, this Herbalist's home was actually very close to the Dwarves' position.

It should be noted that it was not close to the Dwarves' houses in the center of the village, but close to the Dwarf mine.

Jier keenly noticed this point; clearly, the role of this Herbalist was very important to the Dwarves.

Borrowing the moonlight shining down from the thin single moon in the sky, Jier subsequently noticed that although the Herbalist's house was a two-story building, it was not a traditional Human house made of wood; the walls of the house were largely built with neatly laid stone bricks.

This technique of carving natural rock into neat stone bricks was, naturally, something only the Dwarves had mastered.

It was not that Jier had never seen Human buildings constructed of stone, but clearly, a Herbalist in a village could not afford these construction costs. These were usually buildings of the Church, or buildings associated with Nobles and wealthy merchants.

It seemed that the Dwarves had also personally helped a lot when this Herbalist's house was being built.

Realizing this, Jier hesitated somewhat.

Would a Herbalist who received such preferential treatment join the ranks of those resisting the Dwarves, as he had heard from the Villagers' mouths earlier? And would they, by virtue of their prestige among the Human group in the village, call upon more people to resist the Dwarves?

I am afraid not necessarily.

"Let's go, let us meet this Herbalist."

Jier took the lead and walked forward, while the two Tusi Brothers followed behind him.

After approaching the Herbalist's home, Jier discovered that the courtyard of this house was truly large. From the simple small wooden gate at the entrance of the courtyard to the entire front yard, it was at least twenty meters, enough to fit the houses of several ordinary Villager families in the village.

"Should we go in directly, or call out at the gate of the courtyard as a matter of etiquette?" Jier asked a question. The two archer brothers looked at each other and shrugged in unison.

It was clear they were leaving the decision back to Jier.

Clearing his throat slightly, Jier decided to be polite, so he stood outside the courtyard gate. Just as he was about to use his gauntleted finger to knock on the door panel, he discovered a small piece of iron hanging on the wooden gate of the courtyard, with a small iron nail hanging next to it by a string.

It was clearly meant to be struck to make a crisp metallic sound to call someone, so Jier pinched the small iron nail hanging by the string and tapped the small piece of iron on the door a few times.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

The sound was crisp and pleasant; in this restless night, it was like the sound of a clear, cold spring flowing.

Jier waited for a moment and heard movement on the second floor of the sturdy stone and wood building ahead, but it quickly quieted down.

A feeling of being carefully watched came from the house ahead; clearly, someone was observing them.

However, the person peeking overestimated their night vision; apart from a blurry mass outside the courtyard gate, they could not see what was in the shadows outside the gate at all.

Considering the events in the Valley during the day and the terrifying tremors and huge smoke column at the village center in the afternoon, the peeper did not dare to move at all. Not only did they lean quietly behind the second-floor window, but they also comforted their equally frightened wife and two children.

"What could be ringing the bell outside?" his wife asked in a low voice, using the lowest volume possible, fearing that what was knocking outside the house was some terrible Monster.

The two children's eyes were bright; although they obediently kept quiet and leaned in their mother's arms, if they were allowed to speak at this moment, they would clearly ask in a very loud voice exactly who was visiting their home.

The middle-aged man guarding behind the window looked at his courtyard gate again through a gap in the wooden window. His gaze crossed the insect-repelling herbs outside the window, seeing only a blurry shadow. With the insufficient moonlight tonight, he still did not see exactly what it was.

Although there was no answer, he still had to comfort his family's emotions. After thinking for a moment, he also answered in the lowest voice possible: "It certainly won't be a Monster or wild beast from the mountains and forests; after all, those things wouldn't politely ring the doorbell when visiting at night."

The attempt at humor worked well to make the two children squint their eyes with smiles, and the middle-aged man's wife also breathed a sigh of relief, saying quickly in a slightly louder voice: "Then it must be the Dwarves coming to find you, right? Since that's the case, there's no need to be so careful; we must go down immediately to greet them. Coming at this time, it must be that someone was injured today!"

The wife wanted to turn and go downstairs, but before she could take a step, she was grabbed by the arm by the middle-aged Herbalist and pulled into his arms.

"Shh! The person who came is not necessarily a Dwarf."

When he said this, the expression in the Herbalist's eyes was unreadable, and his expression was also very intriguing. Fortunately, there were no lights lit in the room, and the glowing plant planted in the corner of the room was only a seedling, so no one could see the expression on his face.

Hearing her husband say it was not a Dwarf, the wife immediately hugged the two children and became nervous again, wanting to hide the children. But this bedroom only had the space under the bed to hide people, which was clearly not a good place for hide-and-seek.

"Calm down! Calm down!" the Herbalist comforted, but the effect was poor. His wife chased the two children to the corner of the wall, then grabbed her husband's arm and whispered: "If it's not a Dwarf, then it must be that outsider Knight you met today! The Dwarves haven't been able to defeat him until now; he must be taking advantage of the night to clear out the Villagers who have good relations with the Dwarves in the village! We are in danger! Let's go, Soye! Let's run away! Before that guy comes in, let's escape from the backyard as a family!"

The young woman paced anxiously in the house, saying as she hugged the two children in the corner of the room tightly: "Yes, yes, yes, go out from the backyard, and in a few steps, we can reach the Dwarves' mine. Even if they don't let us two in, the children must be sent in. You said it yourself, it's very safe in there!"

Soye-Zuojigela, the Herbalist in everyone's mouth, raised his head. The faint moonlight slipped in through the gap in the wooden window, shining on half of his face, revealing a serious and nervous face.

The Herbalist was somewhat nervous, but not because of his wife's suggestion just now. His chest kept expanding and contracting, expanding and contracting from continuous panting, and his palms were hidden in the place the moonlight could not reach, nervously clenching and opening, clenching and opening in the shadows.

He broke out in a cold sweat due to his nervous state, and when he came back to his senses, he found that his young wife's face was just being illuminated by a ray of moonlight.

Nervousness, panic, anticipation, despair, and so on, all these emotions were revealed in those young and beautiful eyes.

The Herbalist sighed, then said in a hoarse voice: "We can't escape, don't think about running away."

He was startled by his own hoarse voice, but he quickly cleared his throat, adjusted his throat, and then explained with the reliable voice he used when comforting injured people: "That is an outsider Knight. Although he is very young, I promise you, we cannot run away."

"Why..." the young wife was somewhat desperate.

"Because, you know, I came from the outside. I understand, I have seen the skills of those outside Knights. After all, those Dwarves you are familiar with are not this Knight's match, are they?"

After speaking, the Herbalist no longer carefully walked toward his wife and children. The sound of the wooden floorboards deforming under his feet, that abrupt creaking sound, even startled him a little.

"That's fine, now he knows there is someone in the house." The Herbalist smiled and comforted his family: "Although he came to find me at this tense time, and I don't know if he knows about our family's relationship with the Dwarves, I think my Herb Healing Skill is an important reason for him to come to me, right?"

His explanation made his wife breathe a sigh of relief. Although the fight between that Knight and the Dwarves during the day was more intense than the Villagers could have imagined, since he came to find her husband, it was likely he needed her husband's skills to do something. Perhaps, the battle was not without a price; perhaps that Knight was injured and urgently needed treatment?

Thinking this way, the young lady felt mostly at ease. She sent the two children in her arms onto the soft bed in the room, let them hide under the thick quilt, and after whispering to the two children not to come out, she hurriedly helped her husband dress in a way that was not impolite.

"First, turn on the Lighting Stone Lamp." The Herbalist ordered while putting on his cold wooden shoes.

His wife took a well-preserved stone lamp from the sturdy wooden cabinet at the head of the bed; the object was the size of a fist, yet it was not light in weight, though this Dwarf household item, which she usually needed both hands to lift for cleaning and maintenance, did not feel as heavy as she had imagined this time.

The lady lifted it with one hand, gripping the handle at the back of the stone lamp with her left hand and reaching for the small mechanism at the front with her right, but because her hand was shaking, she failed to catch anything; she tried again, and only then did she slide the mechanism on the front of the stone lamp horizontally by more than a hundred degrees.

Then, the previously pitch-black room instantly brightened, and a milky-white radiance shone from the opened front of the stone lamp, illuminating the entire room brightly.

Two children poked their small heads out from the thick bedding on the bed, looking at the marvelous object in their mother's hand with excitement: "Mother, Mother, let me see!"

"Is it dawn? It's the sun! So it was hiding inside the lamp at home?"

"It must have hidden inside secretly."

"Because it also needs to sleep at night; when it falls asleep, the sky turns dark."

"So that's it, brother, you are so smart."

The two children discussed it among themselves, one after the other, and their words left the couple feeling both amused and helpless.

"It's fine, I'll go down first to open the door for that Knight. You tidy up, take my medicine box and wait on the stairs; I'll call you when you should come down."

The Herbalist instructed his wife in a low voice.

The young lady nodded and handed the Lighting Stone Lamp in her left hand to her trusted husband, but the Herbalist almost failed to catch the stone lamp she passed over; he froze for a moment, then hugged his wife tightly, took a deep breath of her hair's fragrance, and comforted her in a low voice: "Don't worry, no matter what, people always need reliable medical treatment; it has always been this way."

The wife nodded.

Jier waited for a while; he heard voices behind a wooden window on the second floor of the house facing him, but no one actually came downstairs to greet him.

Just as he was about to knock again on the 'doorbell' installed on the wooden courtyard gate, the room on the second floor of the house where people were suddenly lit up.

It was not the light of an oil lamp or candle that the Villagers were reluctant to use, because the light source did not flicker or sway at all, as if the glowing object were emitting a bright radiance at a constant rate.

Just like his Hunting Longsword.

But no one had ever told him that this Herbalist was a follower of the Sun God, nor could he be a follower of that deity.

Jier looked back at the Tusi Brothers without speaking, but the meaning was conveyed to them.

Do you know what this light is about?

Apparently, Datus, who had more social experience, guessed Jier's thoughts and immediately replied: "I have seen this kind of thing in a Dwarf's house." He shrugged and gestured with his hand, indicating an object about the size of a fist.

"A lighting tool made of stone, similar to a common oil lamp, with a handle to hold, a front like a small box, and a small protruding mechanism on the front that can be turned; once turned, it emits light, and I heard there is a stone inside that can glow."

Jier guessed based on the description: "Dwarf Baishi?"

"What is Dwarf Baishi? Sir Knight," Zhongtusi asked in confusion.

Jier rolled his eyes, but no one saw it: "At the border checkpoint between the Western Province and the Southern Province, there is a ruin left behind by the Dwarves. The massive rock checkpoint walls are all built from a type of white stone that can glow. Regardless of day or night, it emits an astonishing amount of white light, and you can see it from very far away."

Datus scratched his hair and said indifferently: "I'm sorry, I haven't been there."

Zhongtusi said embarrassedly: "I haven't even left Sasi County a few times in my life, but sir, after we get out of this damn Valley, I will definitely go to the place you mentioned to take a good look; it must be very spectacular. After all, you are a Knight from a very far place and must have seen a lot; if even you find it surprising, it must be very spectacular, right?"

Jier affirmed: "That's right, very spectacular; I guarantee that once you see it, you will never forget it for the rest of your lives. But one side of that place is not safe; if you want to travel to broaden your horizons, it is best for the three of you brothers to take a large Caravan together."

Datus asked curiously: "Is it not safe? As a border checkpoint between two provinces, there should be many troops and Knight lords stationed there, right?"

Jier sighed: "The reasons behind it are complicated and have deep historical roots. The troop I led killed at least a hundred Bandits in the uninhabited wilderness just by passing through there."

Jier was still understating it, but this number still left the two archers with their mouths agape in shock.

While they were talking, the light inside the house moved from the second floor to the first, and then to the main entrance of the house.

After a pause, the house door opened from the inside.

The bright white light shone from there to the courtyard gate, illuminating the not-so-tall wooden gate and, incidentally, revealing Jier and the other two on the other side of the gate clearly.

Jier squinted his eyes; his vision was not much affected by the suddenly shining white light, and he saw the person holding the stone lamp behind it directly.

Hmm?

The person was not someone he hadn't seen before, but the middle-aged man he had first interacted with and spoken to when he was among the group of local farmers working in the fields outside the Cunzi this morning.

He pondered the attitude of the farmers toward this middle-aged man at the time and realized that if this person were the Herbalist, it would fit perfectly.

"That is quite a coincidence."

Jier's mouth curled up.

On the other side, the middle-aged Herbalist's gaze followed the stone lamp in his hand, and when he saw the armored foreign Knight outside the gate, his eyes narrowed, but he quickly relaxed. However, he then saw the two archers with Large Bows on their backs standing behind the foreign Knight.

This discovery was truly beyond his expectations.

He knew that during the day, it was the Tusi Brothers—who had entered here from the outside just like him—who had taken the young people in the village to assist the Dwarves in hunting down the foreign Knight, but who could have imagined that in just one day, these two Tusi Brothers would be standing behind a Human Knight.

The situation in the village must have undergone a major change.

Especially on the Human side in the village.

What about the Dwarves then?