"So, we didn't learn anything new. Apart from that the thieves were smart." Concluded Monica.
"Nah, I don't agree, We can also ask that Morris person about his version of the story. But I don't think that he is the crook. He would be immediately suspected if his wealth came from unexplained sources. And based on the size of his property, planning such heist would not be profitable enough for the risks." Adam disagreed.
"Either way, let's now go to the meet-up." Monica eventually said.
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"Our guy mostly talks about his neighbour, apparently they have some huge issues between them. But I don't think that the neighbour is the thief." Said Kyll, in the centre of their camp. While they were roasting their food above the fireplace.
"But we also got some other suspects from the victim. I think he is overly distrustful, but we will have to check them, or at least their livestock. But that's for tomorrow." Added Watt. He, Kyll and Iler went to ask out someone named Mathel together, and their results were about the same as those of Adam and Monica.
"Yeah, Seill also talked about a lot of people, but I think that they just want to have the investigation go far and wide, hoping for a miracle rather than suspecting their neighbours. Also, he too talked about Morris." Max added his piece to the conversation. "The guards, on the other hand, were not very useful, they told us that they were not present at the sites in the time of theft, there were just too few of them on guard in the night."
"So, the most popular suspect is that rich guy. How about me and Monica will go interrogate him? We have more people than victims to interrogate either way." Asked Adam, while talking about victims still to interrogate, he spoke about those they were supposed to ask out in the evening, as another two people were robbed aside from Lessie, Mathel and Seill.
"That's a good idea. In conclusion, after we eat, Kyll's group goes to Reich, mine to Sorut and Adam's to Morris. Afterwards, we go around asking the villagers, remember to question children, as there is more likely to tell us what they know without any ulterior motive." Max ordered the team.
A silence prevailed for a few minutes, as they ate their meals, mainly some roasted meat and potatoes.
"It's weird, don't you guys think? —— It seems it was a planned theft, but there are no criminal groups around, no truly suspicious people. —— And where the fuck did those animals go? They couldn't just dissipate in the air." Complined Iler, between taking aggressive bites of his potato.
"That's what I said!" Said Monica.
"I think we should check the woods tomorrow, it's the most likely place to find traces of those animals." Said Adam.
"We will think about it in the evening. Lest finish eating and go to the village." Max stifled the conversation.
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While walking towards Morris's house, Adam and Monica asked some people about the guy. After all, they didn't know how he came to be the wealthiest man in the village or anything about him, and such knowledge would surely be useful in the next few hours.
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Fortunately for them, everyone in the village knew the story, every kid wanted to copy it and become the richest in the village, just like every kid in Ferston wanted to find an iron deposit, buy that land and start their own mining company. It doesn't seem like it, but there is a bustling mining industry in Adam's town, thou for the moment it is still smaller in size than their leather and carpentry industries.
A random kid told them his story:
- Long ago, Morris Wheelbarrow was an ordinary villager. His fields were relatively small and unfertile, and his cows often fell sick, but he didn't stop trying his hardest even when a harvest didn't bring him enough bread, and cows lost the ability to produce milk. To survive the winter, he had to eat the cows. Local children envied him because there was meat on his table so often, While they tasted it only occasionally, then they started to pity him when their parents explained to them what that meant for him.
Death was nearby, at the end of winter he ran out of meat and had to resort to begging his neighbours for food, which he was given, but never without any price attached. One day he was asked to work on the field of his benefactor, the other, he had to clean the barn from vermin. None of the works he was asked for were gracious, and they all stole his time to work on his field, making his next harvest even poorer than the last. That winter, he nearly died several times, not only from hunger but also from cold, and a rat colony that nested itself in Morris's house under his negligence,
While working his ass away in the summer, he met the Wandering Mage from the Harop family. A person going around the villages and smaller towns and offering his services in exchange for money, and experience valuable only to novices in the field. The mage had grown to like him while he stayed in the village, they met often, as he was sent to serve and help the wanderer and his guards. In the end, the mage helped his new friend, giving him a chance to straighten his matters and live the winter in relative comfort as he finally found time to hunt down the rats.
Next summer, Morris got enough time to take care of his field for, the first time in years. The mage returned to the village this year, and helped his friend again, this time by enhancing his yield a few times over.
The mage and Morris became lifelong friends, no one knows why the mage still comes every year to the village, even after his wandering phase, but most believe that Morris is the reason.
While no one doubted his friendship with the mage, everyone knew Morris used their relationship as much as he could. His animals often were pregnant and delivered healthy, and his fields stopped to have worse phases, every year was bountiful. After some years, Morris's solitary strength became not enough to plough all his fields, which he expanded on every opportunity. Because of that, Morris started to hire workers from poorer villages. And with that, life made a full circle, from a worker who starved each day, he became the employer, who fed the starving.-
The story was long, and probably changed a bit by the adult to push principles into their children with it. Not only did it promote hard work and an unbending will to survive, but it also taught their children that it's okay to ask for help and not to be ashamed of their situation, but they should also assume to expect to be asked something in return.
A densely packed moralizing children's story, I would say.
The story also heroised the mages, but that was the part that could not be decided if it was changed by only hearing the story from the third hand.
They asked a few other people about the story, but it didn't change much from the children's version.
Adam and Monica eventually reached Morris's house, this time they looked at it thoroughly, as the time didn't chase them today, not like when they just arrived in the village barely day before.
The house was very similar to the one Adam's uncle had in Ferston, but about three times bigger.
It was mainly a wooden structure with stone-based lower walls, making the foundations. The roof was made from planks and clay, and it looked exquisite in the forest of roofs made from hay, with few of its structural siblings looming in the distance. The house had a second floor, which was its biggest marking point. No other house in the village could boast such a thing.
Adam felt that it only lacked a snowman before its doors for him to recognize it as the home he grew up in. Or three of them.
In that familiar house, a possible suspect lived. His history is probably different than the stories have told.