Goddess Kaleidoscope

"It's just a misunderstanding. This lady knight probably thinks I'm a cultist."

Lude smiled and shrugged, but the bound Sharo struggled to sit up from the ground and shouted weakly with all his might.

"No, don't listen to him! He's not... not a good person."

Because of the weakening effect of the thorns draining her essence, Shanis felt weak all over and her mind was dizzy. She wanted to expose Lude in public, but she didn't have the strength to say the words.

Lude simply smiled innocently at this.

"Perhaps he drank too much?"

"Looks...like it."

The villagers were surprised and somewhat embarrassed to see the priest clashing with the knight, but most of them were emotionally on Rudd's side. Especially the earliest villagers of Pine Village, these old neighbors who had experienced the bandit war, were all die-hard fans of Rudd!

At Ludwig's request, the villagers carried all the subdued knights back to the empty barn. Although they did not use force against them, their weapons and armor were all taken away, which made the knights, who had temporarily lost their ability to resist, feel an unspeakable humiliation.

Especially Sharo, who is not only the daughter of a count but also the captain of the warlord knights, was already humiliated enough that her entire company was captured despite being outnumbered. Now, even their weapons and armor have been confiscated.

Especially when the two elderly women who removed her armor took off her breastplate, the look of surprise on their faces, as if they were gasping in astonishment, made Sharo want to smash her head against a nearby pillar and die.

"This girl is so flat-chested!"

Soon, all the knights were stripped down to their shirts and trousers. Rudd walked around the barn and finally came to Sharo. He glanced at the sheer cliff that could be described as a "natural barrier" and couldn't help but show a hint of pity in his eyes. Sharo was so angry that he squeezed out a resolute shout through gritted teeth.

"Gulp... Kill me!"

"Miss Knight, please calm down, okay? I'm really not a good person... Ugh! I'm really not a bad person!"

Sharo clearly didn't believe Lud's explanation. She was too weak to speak, and could only glare at him with all her might. Lud could only sigh helplessly and turn to leave the barn.

Old Rom, who was waiting outside, immediately went up to Lud and asked him anxiously.

"Your Excellency, what on earth has happened?"

"To be precise, it's a misunderstanding. Do you remember Hamilton and Jegan who came to our village not long after winter started last year?"

"I remember! What happened to them?"

“They went west and haven’t returned yet. These knights actually came looking for them, but now they suspect us.”

"That's ridiculous! What does it have to do with us?"

"It's no use saying anything now, they just won't believe me."

Lude gave Old Rom a general overview of the situation, omitting the part about the fluorescent powder that directly triggered the conflict, and focusing only on Sharo and the others' suspicions about the village. In fact, it was understandable that they were suspicious, because the situation in Pine Village was indeed very unusual; the mere mention of "dragons delivering meat" already made people suspect it was all nonsense.

Therefore, Ludwig felt that in order to clear up this misunderstanding, he not only had to find time to invite Nidhogg over, but also had to find Hamilton and the others who were currently missing. Otherwise, there were many things that were really hard to explain!

End of this chapter

091. The Taste of Lies

The connection between Ludwig and Nidhogg is mainly through the black dragon scale left behind by the other, which is imbued with Nidhogg's magic to maintain the scale's activity. Therefore, when Ludwig taps the scale, Nidhogg, who is hundreds of kilometers away, can sense it.

As winter was drawing to a close, Ludwig told Nidhogg to stop sending meat to the village, as the preservation of meat had become a problem as temperatures continued to rise.

In fact, they hadn't even finished eating the meat that had been delivered earlier, so Lud had to get the villagers to quickly turn the remaining meat into dried cured meat. The reserves were even enough for them to eat until the end of next winter.

What puzzled Ludwig was that, based on his understanding of Nidhogg's doting fatherhood, even if he wasn't allowed to deliver meat to the village, he would definitely find another reason to come here. But it had been seventeen days since he last visited.

Therefore, Ludwig guessed that Nidhogg and his wife might have encountered some trouble and were unable to leave for the time being, which is why they had been delayed until now.

Regardless, Ludwig still managed to knock on a dragon scale and send a message to Nidhogg. He needed Nidhogg's presence on this matter, and even needed his help to find the missing Hamilton. Dragons not only fly fast and high, but also possess extraordinary eyesight, able to spot a hare on the ground hundreds or even thousands of meters in the air; finding someone would be a piece of cake for them.

So Ludwig left Hume here to keep an eye on Salo and the others, firstly to prevent them from escaping, and secondly to prevent the villagers from causing trouble.

With more people in the village now, it's inevitable that there will be some scoundrels with extremely poor character, who mingle among the crowd and wait for an opportunity to do evil.

Songshu Village has seen a number of criminal cases this winter, including as many as nineteen attempted rapes, which has increased the workload of the village militia. Every day, in addition to being careful to keep an eye on wild animals and bandits outside, they also have to keep a close watch on criminals mixed in with the villagers.

And as it turned out, Ludd's fears were correct; that very night, Hume arrested three groups of scoundrels. Two groups were after the knights' money, while three other bastards had their eyes on Sharo, intending to take advantage of the female knight's inability to resist.

Lude had long known that the seemingly honest villagers were not all honest people, and conventional methods of education were ineffective for some; they only knew fists and whips.

The village showed no mercy to these people, arresting them all and publicly whipping them before subjecting them to weeks of forced labor.

The next morning, Lud came to Sharo again. After a night, the captured female knight was noticeably calmer, but her gaze toward Lud was still filled with undisguised hostility.

If it weren't for Shanis's thorns still binding her tightly and constantly draining her strength, she would definitely have jumped up right now and wanted to fight Lud a second round.

"Did you sleep well last night?"

"It's alright, thank you for the blankets."

"So, is it convenient for us to have a proper chat now?"

“I don’t think there’s anything to talk about. I am the eldest daughter of the family, a knight with a sense of honor. You can kill me or torture me as you please, but don’t even think about making me bow down to evil!”

"So you're concluding I'm evil just based on that fluorescent powder used to detect the dead? Don't you think that's a bit too arbitrary?"

“Arbitrary? I have more than just that much evidence.”

"Then why don't you tell me, and confront me face to face?"

Knowing he was now a prisoner, Sharo decided to go all out and, in front of Rudd, recounted all the information and analytical conclusions he had gathered. However, he omitted the part about the "Eye of True Sight" to prevent Rudd from discovering this divine artifact.

After listening to her analysis, Ludwig thought to himself that although the reasoning had some preconceived elements, it was generally plausible. Ludwig himself had been a policeman, and he would have been suspicious too.

"I must admit that your reasoning is not entirely flawed, but because the information you have is incomplete, the final conclusion is... a tiny difference from the truth, yet it is worlds apart!"

"Haha! We're already like meat on your chopping block, are you still going to keep acting?"

Seeing Sharo's disdainful expression, Ludwig shook his head and then took out the communication dragon scale given to him by Nidhogg from his pocket.

Do you recognize this?

"Dragon scales?"

“This is a keepsake left to the village by the black dragon Nidhogg. Tapping it three times will summon him. It's a gift to thank me for healing his wife. I only learned from you that Hamilton and the others didn't return to the village for several months after leaving, so I just tapped the dragon scales to call Nidhogg over, to explain things to you in person, and to ask him for help in finding Hamilton. Although you probably don't believe me now, I still have to say that Hamilton and I are friends.”

As Lude spoke, he tucked the dragon scale back into his pocket, then took out the Eye of True Sight, which he had obtained from Hume's search, and solemnly placed this lie detector in Sharo's hand, speaking earnestly.

“It’s hard to tell the truth your whole life. Sometimes we accidentally tell a lie without even realizing it. And not all lies are malicious. Miss Sara, you’re still young. Being righteous is never a bad habit; it’s impulsiveness that is.”

After Lude finished speaking, he got up and walked towards the door. Sharo stared at the Eye of True Sight, which she had lost and then regained, for the artifact was now in the same state as when she had secretly tested Lude, displaying a grayish hue of deception.

As Ludwig said before, it is indeed impossible for a person to never lie in their entire life, and sometimes they are not even aware of it.

Outside the barn, Ludwig immediately instructed Hume to have some food prepared for the knights and not to neglect them.

After all, Sharo is the daughter of a count, and this conflict was largely a misunderstanding, not something that cannot be resolved.

Although the Medicine God Cult is developing rapidly, it has only gained a foothold in this one village. Not to mention confronting those first- and second-tier major sects, it is also not to be trifled with the secular forces led by nobles.

Fortunately, the current Earl of Ramley is quite virtuous. From many rumors about him, it is not difficult to see that he is a very reasonable nobleman. Moreover, Pine Village is currently a nominally royal territory. For Sharo and others to come here is "cross-border law enforcement", which is not legally justifiable.

Just as Ludwig was pondering how to negotiate with the Earl, the village chief's eldest son, Ron, suddenly arrived. Ludwig, seeing the big, clumsy man's flustered appearance, knew something must have happened in the village again.

End of this chapter

"Your Excellency! Something's happened!"

"Ron, what's wrong?"

"You, you should come with me. My father is looking for you."

Seeing Ron's panicked expression, Rudd realized the situation might be serious and quickly followed him to the village chief's house. When they arrived, they found that old Ron had already summoned all the village leaders.

These people are the former village chiefs of other villages that were merged into the village. Now they hold the title of "elder" in the village and are called over when there are consultations or discussions. However, the person who truly has the final say in the village is Lu De, who has firmly established himself as the spiritual leader.

"Brother Rom, what happened?"

"Let him speak."

Old Rom pointed to a middle-aged man sitting by the fireplace. Lud remembered his name as Danka, one of the village's hunters.

In a typical village, hunters have two important functions: first, to hunt wild animals to provide the village with meat; and second, to patrol the area around the village to check for any threatening monsters or bandits.

This winter, thanks to the constant supply of meat from the black dragon Nidhogg, the hunters of Pine Village, after the village merger, had little opportunity to utilize their specialties. Therefore, their main task became patrolling, and the patrol area was expanded due to the increased number of hunters.

Seeing that Danka was trembling as he warmed himself by the fire, looking as if he had been frightened and his nerves were on edge, Rudd cast a calming spell, which immediately calmed the hunter down.

"Thank you, Your Excellency."

"Don't panic, my child, what happened?"

"A large cluster of tents suddenly appeared over there in the forest to the north, and there were so many demi-humans. I've discovered their camp..."

The hunter was clearly still a bit nervous, his speech somewhat incoherent and rambling, but Lud still caught the main point. Danka had discovered a large demi-human campsite in the forest north of the village, and the enemy was very likely approaching them.

The elders, upon learning of this, initially dismissed it, thinking it was no big deal. After all, demi-humans weren't uncommon in this world; it was a general term for many non-human minorities.

Some demi-human races have actively integrated into human society, successfully securing a place for themselves based on their unique strengths. Others, due to past conflicts with humans, have been forced into hiding and continue to live a life resembling that of primitive tribes.

Normally, these subhuman tribes are not large, with a dozen or twenty people being the norm, and a hundred or eighty people being considered a large scale.

In earlier years, these subhuman tribes hid in remote mountains and forests, far from human territory, so they didn't see each other and were not bothered. There was no contact between them and therefore not much conflict.

However, with the resurgence of human kingdoms and the relative peace of recent decades, the populations of various countries have entered a period of rapid growth, thus necessitating territorial expansion for survival. These outward-expanding settlers inevitably encounter subhuman tribes, making conflict between them unavoidable.

However, in most cases, the settlers have an overwhelming numerical advantage. Even if they occasionally encounter some powerful enemies, they can ask the lord's army for help. In such cases, nobles are usually quite willing to help, because annihilating demi-human tribes can be counted as military merit.

In view of this, the elders did not think there was anything wrong with discovering the camp of the demi-human tribe. Pine Village was now a large village with a population of over three thousand, with about two hundred militiamen alone, and even more able-bodied men who could take up arms and fight. Therefore, they were all very bold.

However, when Danka told everyone present the number of demi-humans he had deduced based on the size of the campsite, the elders who had been boasting about how fierce they were in their youth suddenly fell silent.

"How much did you say? Tens of thousands? You...you...are you really sure you saw it clearly?"

Faced with the elders' questioning, Kadan swore to the goddess on the spot that what he said was absolutely true. He had been conscripted and served as an archer in the king's army, so he had seen how large a camp of ten thousand men could be, and the campsite he saw in the mountains was definitely no smaller!

"That valley is less than thirty miles from the village. It was filled with tents. I saw at least a dozen different kinds, including orcs, gray elves, and ogres. I even saw several giant monsters!"

Seemingly to convince the elders of his abilities, Danka excitedly stood up from his chair. Lude quickly cast another calming spell, then told Ron to take him away to rest, leaving the rest to him.

After Danka was taken away, the room fell into a deathly silence. The elders all frowned, their initial relaxation completely gone.

"If Danka is not mistaken, and there really are tens of thousands of demi-humans lying in ambush in the northern forest, then our village is in danger!"

"Elder Narus, didn't you just boast that you were invincible in your youth, able to take down a dozen or so orcs by yourself?"