The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 141 Kidnapping
They chased after the carriage along the road, and fortunately there was only one road in front of them. Eric kept waving the reins, urging his warhorse to speed up. After chasing for a while, they finally saw the carriage running ahead in the distance.

"It's good that you rode here on horseback..."

Wary of the other party's methods, he did not rush to catch up, but kept a visible distance and followed from afar.

"Why is your voice hoarse?" Elise pressed herself against his chest and turned to look at him.

"I accidentally inhaled a little poison gas just now." Eric swallowed again; the pain in his throat had subsided considerably.

She turned her body more sharply, staring at his face, "Are you alright?"

“It’s alright,” Eric said. “I’ve already been treated.”

After looking at him for a while, Elise looked ahead again.

He had just jumped onto the horse, leaving almost no space between them. Feeling the heat pressing against her back, she shifted uncomfortably. "Who are those people?"

“I’m not sure either, I only have some guesses.” Eric briefly introduced the master of soul research he was looking for, and his relationship with Molly.

“In that case, those people shouldn’t hurt her easily,” Elise speculated.

"Probably, but who knows when they'll let her come back." Eric gazed into the distance. "We'll try to save her if we can, but if we can't, there's nothing we can do."

"Your Highness gave up too quickly," she couldn't help but say. "I saw you two holding hands over there earlier."

"...How long exactly did you stand there watching?"

Eric looked down at her, his gaze lingering on her neckline for a moment before quickly looking away before being drawn in by its depths.

“Let’s start from when His Highness put his arm around her shoulder,” Elise said.

Eric was speechless for a few seconds. "Well, it's good that you watched for long enough. Those guys might be waiting for me to leave somewhere. If I had left earlier, I probably wouldn't have found out about this."

Elise snorted but didn't say anything.

Maintaining their distance, the two trailed far behind the carriage, following it for half a day.

"Could they be planning to take people away from Castelfel?" Elise wondered.

“That’s troublesome.” Eric frowned and glanced at the sky. It was already dusk when he went to Molly’s stall, and after all this trouble, the sun had sunk below the horizon and the sky was getting darker.

Should we chase after them and stop them?

Eric shook his head. "Who knows what other tools those alchemists have? We can still chase them from a distance for now, but if they discover us, they might throw something out."

There were other vehicles and horses on the road, and they were far apart from each other, so Eric was sure that the other party had not noticed him yet.

Now that it was getting darker, he felt he could get closer.

"drive!"

The warhorse accelerated, overtaking other pedestrians and carriages on the road, and approached the target ahead.

Because of the limited visibility, all the carriages on the road were slowing down and dared not go too fast, except for the carriage in front, which continued to move forward. Eric sped up to catch up and slowly closed the distance.

"Running so fast even though it's dark, do you have such good eyesight?"

"Could it be the effect of alchemical products?" Elise wondered.

“It’s possible… well, probably from drinking the cat’s eye potion.” Eric quickly recalled a certain alchemical potion that could enhance night vision.

But they didn't have such a potion. Elise tilted her head slightly. "Can you still see?"

“It’s alright now.” Eric looked ahead, the gray of night rapidly covering the sky. “You won’t be able to see it in a little while.”

He thought for a moment, "I'll find a place to drop you off up ahead, and then I'll rush up myself and see if I can catch him off guard."

Looking at the desolate wilderness ahead and the increasingly dark sky, Elise took a deep breath and leaned back slightly. "Then you must be careful."

"I know."

The person behind her responded, and then she felt something being placed in her hand.

It was his short sword.

Elise smiled silently.

Although this thing was completely useless in her hands, it at least proved that he cared about her safety.

Taking advantage of the moment when visibility was temporarily restored, Eric stopped by the roadside and put Elise down.

They clasped hands, then separated, and looked at each other from head to toe. "You better hide."

"Ah."

He flicked the reins and chased after them again.

The surroundings quickly quieted down, or rather, the sounds of people and horses' hooves faded away, but the commotion in the wilderness continued unabated.

He deliberately found a secluded spot for her to put down. Elise stood there, gripping her short sword tightly. After a while, she squatted down again.

She suddenly regretted it.

She didn't regret sending him the horse, but rather regretted coming with him.

She has almost no fighting ability; let alone assisting in battle, she can barely protect herself.

Neither of them expected the carriage to be so fast...

"Hiss..." She pressed her inner thigh. She had been riding a horse for so long, and the saddle wasn't for two people, so it was rubbing against her and it hurt a little.

At that moment, the chirping of insects behind us inexplicably stopped.

Elise tried to tell herself not to care, but the more she tried, the more she couldn't help but care.

Why did it stop...? Are there wild animals?
She drew her short sword, slowly turned around, but behind her it was all darkness, and she could see nothing.

Da da!

The sudden sound of horses' hooves made her hand tremble, and she almost dropped her short sword.

The sound came from the direction Eric had left. She stood up, gripped her short sword, and listened as the sound of hooves grew closer.

"Elise—"

"..."

She breathed a sigh of relief, "Here!"

Eric fired a small ball of light, which stopped beside her, allowing her to mount her horse.

Sitting behind him, she could hardly resist the urge to get closer to him, using the space she filled to dispel the unease she had just felt.

Then she remembered to ask, "Did it fail?"

“No.” The warmth pressed against his back was still trembling slightly, but Eric paid no attention to the other sensations that were now impossible to ignore. “When I caught up, I found that they turned at the intersection ahead. There was a mage tower inside, so it seems we’ve caught up with them to their lair.”

Elise was taken aback, "Then..."

“I need to go check on things, but I can’t ride a horse anymore, so I’ll come back to pick you up first. You’ll have to wait for me on horseback for quite a while,” Eric said in a low voice.

She was silent for a moment, then said, "Wouldn't that be too risky?"

“If it were a group of bandits, it might be more dangerous, but since they are a group of alchemists, even if they are discovered, there is room for negotiation,” Eric said.

By the dim light of the illumination orb, she looked at his profile. "Isn't this an adventure?"

Eric chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm pretty good at escaping, to say the least."

After saying that, he gently patted her hand twice.

Elise then noticed that she had somehow wrapped her arms tightly around his waist.

She loosened her grip slightly, but not completely.

Eric pulled on the horse's reins and continued forward. "There's a light at the intersection over there. Just wait there."

"...Is there a light?"

"Yes, it's one of those cold-flame streetlights, but it has a more mage-like feel to it. You'll see when you see it... Even in this desolate wilderness, those mages don't forget the sense of ritual."

As the warhorse moved forward, after a while, as they rounded the bushes at the intersection, Elise saw the streetlights ahead.

To be precise, it was a mage-like humanoid sculpture, holding a spellbook and raising a short staff, from which the flickering cold flames emanated.

The area illuminated is very small. Rather than a street lamp, the sculpture serves more as a way of telling passersby that there is a road here and a tower inside.

Not far away, there is another identical sculpted street lamp.

She raised her gaze, and a cold light shone through the darkness.

“The carriage went that way,” Eric said.

Elise clung to his shoulder. "Then where should I wait for you?"

"Inside, there's a place where you can see the mage's tower. I still need you and this horse to escape."

She nodded, and followed him onto that road, going a little further in.

Soon, she saw the mage tower not far away, hidden in the night and the woods. There were lights on the top of the tower, and shadowy figures could be seen moving in the small windows all over the tower.

Eric stopped there and touched the mage statue next to him. "Doesn't it make you feel safer leaning against this thing?"

Elise looked at him without saying anything. "...Okay, I'll get out as soon as possible. If there's any danger, just run."

"it is good."

Eric headed towards the mage tower, but slowed down and looked back as he got closer.

Elise, mounted on her horse, stood close to the mage statue beside her, its cold flames flickering, wishing she could climb up to it.

He grinned, refocused, and continued forward.

The sky had completely darkened, and there was almost no light in the areas where the cold flames couldn't reach. However, Eric was still very careful, trying to stay to the side and walk in the blind spots of the mage tower, so that someone inside might have drunk the cat's eye potion and be able to see him.

However, such worries seemed unnecessary. He stopped to look several times but did not see anyone peeking out from inside.

"So confident... I just tied someone up." Eric muttered to himself as he reached the base of the mage tower.

This tower is not as tall as typical mage towers, which are often tens of meters high, and it is also wider in diameter. It is divided into two parts: one is the tower itself, and the other is a ground-level building, connected by a suspended corridor.

Eric pressed himself against the wall, using the cover of darkness to reach the steps leading to the ground entrance.

Light shone from inside, and the carriage he had been chasing all the way was right at the door, but it was completely still, obviously the people in the carriage and the kidnapped people had been moved.

He listened carefully to the sounds inside for a while and could vaguely hear some conversations.

"...Get the person to the bottom of the tower first..."

“She said she didn’t know… Even after we gave her the medicine, she still said the same thing… Nehm said to increase the dosage… Well, we’ve already used it all up, so we have to prepare a fresh batch…”

"...Stop saying she arrested the wrong person! She's Rusdy's student, she must know where he's hiding!...At worst, we'll release her, pay some compensation, I've heard, this woman is a money-grubber...You stay here and watch over her, I'm going to find Nehm..."

The voice gradually faded away and became completely inaudible.

Eric pressed himself against the wall, glanced at the mage tower next to him, and slowly crept towards it.

The walls were so thick that he couldn't hear anything coming from inside. He circled the base of the tower but couldn't find any entrance. It seemed the only way in was through the overhead corridor.

If the skybridge were lower, he might try to jump up, but given the current height, there was absolutely no possibility of jumping up, especially since the tower was so smooth that there wasn't even a foothold to grab onto. He could only try to find a way up from the entrance.

Back on the other side, Eric lurked in the darkness and glanced inside.

In the ground floor hall, only one figure could be seen, completely wrapped in a robe, facing the entrance, seemingly lost in thought.

If he were alone, Eric felt he could shut him up before he could speak, but it was hard to guarantee that there weren't other people hiding in angles he couldn't see.

Looking at the carriage parked outside, he thought for a moment, then slowly reached over and gently poked the horse's rump with his sword.

Startled, the horses neighed and started running with the carriage.

Eric quickly hid to the side.

Hearing the commotion, the people inside quickly ran out and stared in astonishment at the chaotic carriage.

"Why did he suddenly go crazy..."

His answer was a precise chop to the back of his neck, the angle and force perfectly applied, and the alchemist immediately fainted.

Eric caught him before he completely collapsed, dragged him to a dark corner, and waited a while longer, but no one else came out.

It seems there's only one person guarding this place...

He was about to sneak in when he thought for a moment, then took off the alchemist's hooded robe, draped it over himself, covered his head, picked up his staff, and walked in openly.

Once inside, the structure becomes clearer: one staircase leads upwards, another downwards, and a suspended corridor connects to the left.

He had just heard that Molly was locked at the bottom of the tower, so he went straight there.

The suspended corridor connects to the lower part of the mage tower. Upon entering the tower, one is greeted by spiral staircases going up and down. Eric adjusted his robes and began to descend.

There was no one guarding the area, and when he reached the dimly lit bottom of the tower, he immediately spotted Molly, who was bound and hanging her head, seemingly unconscious.

Eric was about to approach when he heard footsteps above.

"...If they still won't talk even after being given the Truth Potion, what's the use of giving them gold coins?"

"Just give it a try!"

The alchemists have arrived.

Eric looked around, then hid under the steps, concealing himself and watching Molly from the darkness.

The group quickly came down.

"Fred isn't here? Where did he go?"

"Never mind him, let's get her to talk first."

Eric watched silently; Fred must be the alchemist he had knocked unconscious.

The group walked up to Molly and spoke to her very politely.

"Miss Molly, Miss Molly, wake up, please wake up."

"How did he faint?"

"The side effects of the medicine... I already told you to feed it less... Here's the smelling salt."

One of the alchemists turned and walked toward Eric, who immediately held his breath and remained motionless.

Fortunately, the other person didn't get too close. After taking a few steps, they stopped, rummaged around on the table in front of them for a while, and found a small bottle.

"found it."

He quickly returned to Molly's side with the small bottle, then opened the cap and held the bottle up to her nose.

"Uh!"

Molly woke up almost instantly, her body tensed, and she made a strange sound as if she was about to vomit.

Several alchemists frantically tried to comfort her, patting her back and giving her water.

After a while, Molly finally recovered from the shock of the smelling salts.

"What are you making me smell...?"

"...smelling salt."

"Smelling salts?! Are you even human?!"

"...I'm so sorry, Miss Molly, because you've been unconscious..."

"I was unconscious because of you all!"

"sorry Sorry……"

"Let me go!"

One of the relatively young alchemists was actually about to go up and untie her when he was pulled back by another person who glared at him fiercely.

“Miss Molly, we’ll release you immediately if you tell us where Rusdy is.” He held a bottle of potion in his hand. “We’re all Rusdy’s friends. We’ve known him for over a decade. We have absolutely no ill intentions toward him. We just want him to do something for us.”

"You're kidding me! I've been following my teacher for over ten years and I've never even seen you!" Molly didn't believe it at all.

“Over the years, we have been collecting the purest materials all over the continent, and we only recently returned to Castelfel,” another alchemist patiently explained. “I have investigated, and it was after we separated that Rusdy found Miss Molly among a group of homeless children. It’s normal that you don’t recognize us.”

"Then why doesn't the teacher want to see you?" Molly asked immediately.

"We...have some ideological conflicts."

He paused for a moment, "However, this is only because Rusdy hasn't really understood what we want to do yet. As long as I find him and have a few words with him in person, he will definitely be willing to listen to me."

Molly sighed, "But I really don't know where the teacher went..."

“Miss Molly, you’re still trying to deny it…” The alchemist who seemed more agreeable let out a long sigh. “In that case, we have no choice but to use some force. Seize her.”

He and his assistant each grabbed one of Molly's arms and forcibly supported her head with their other hand. Then he looked at another companion and said, "Pour only a little, just a few drops will be enough. If you pour too much, people will really become stupid."

"I know."

The man opened the bottle in his hand, and the next moment, a figure suddenly appeared in front of him and snatched the potion from his hand.

"Fred...you're not Fred!"

Fred is taking a nap by the door.

Eric kicked him in the back of the knee, knocking him to the ground, pointed his sword at him, and then looked at the other alchemists, "Let her go."

The group was shocked, looked at each other, and were at a loss. Then they scrambled to their feet. Eric poked the man on the ground in the shoulder and used his companion's painful scream to calm them down.

"Who are you?" the leading alchemist asked.

“Molly’s friend,” Eric said, pulling down his hood, “the one who’s been following you since the school gates.”

The group was shocked again, and then they all looked at one of them.

"Didn't you say you'd already dumped him?!"

"I...did get rid of him before!"

(End of this chapter)