industrial lord

Chapter 550 Finding the "Devil"

The towns in the White Mountains rely on the surrounding resources.

There are many alpine pastures in the mountains, which mainly raise a kind of sheep called "snow sheep".

The wool production of snow sheep is not high, but the quality is excellent. It is as white as snow, very fine, and has no peculiar smell. It is deeply loved by dignitaries. The sheepskin can even be used to make fine parchment.

Although the promotion of Wesson paper has been extremely rapid in recent years, after the printing process of parchment was discovered, the status of books such as the "Holy Book" made of parchment and decorated with exquisite decorations in the luxury market has not been greatly affected.

At the same time, leather clothing also provides new sales channels for sheepskin.

Snow Sheep Town is located on the north-south trade route of the White Mountains. The surrounding roads facilitate travel to surrounding pastures, and over time it has become an important snow sheep trading and processing center.

The lord of the town, Baron Abex, is a man with ideas. He introduced new wool spinning machines from the Duchy of Wessen to open a factory to process sheep wool. He also introduced canning factories and concentrated soup factories to process mutton and mutton bones. He also sells blood meal and bone meal for agricultural use. In the past two years, the territory has gradually prospered.

These industries are inseparable from butchers and skinners. These two groups are the most powerful people in the town. The presidents of the guilds even assume some administrative functions.

Skinner was the best skinner in town. He worked quickly and steadily. By the time others had skinned one sheep, he had already finished skinning the third one.

But that happened a few years ago. Ever since that day when a ram hit him in the chest, he gradually began to have difficulty breathing.

His ancestors have been doing this business for generations. He eats plenty of meat and is tall and strong. However, if he works for a long time or walks a long distance, he will become short of breath and have to stop to catch his breath.

Skinner spent a lot of money on medical treatment and went to the best hospital in the Principality of Wessen. The examination results showed that there was a problem with his right lung and it was not used for normal breathing.

Fortunately, his skills have not been wasted and his hands are still the steadiest, so the bosses are still willing to let him handle good sheep.

That evening, Skinner had just sharpened his knife and was breathing in the somewhat turbid air in big gulps, preparing for the last sheep of the day.

In recent years, he has found that when he holds his breath while working, he is more focused, his hands are steadier, and he works faster.

Just as Skinner was about to take action, he heard hurried footsteps and shouting from the road next to him.

A boy of about eleven or twelve came running over. He was Skinner's neighbor and usually sold goat cheese at the market outside the town with his mother.

"Uncle Skinner!" The boy ran out of breath. "Hurry, Grand Commander Wesson is here. He can definitely cure your illness with a miracle!"

During the days when the caravan was waiting for Lovina, the news of Frederick's recent deeds had been spread by merchants passing by, and many people were eagerly waiting, hoping to witness the birth of a miracle.

There are many patients in the town, but the most famous and the one with the most bizarre illness is Skinner. Many people hope to see him cured.

Skinner would be lying if he said he wasn't moved.

Not to mention the inconveniences at work, in terms of life, he cannot do strenuous exercise due to shortness of breath. He has been lying still for the past two years. Over time, his family status has changed, which is unbearable for a man in his thirties.

Unconsciously, his hands began to tremble.

The boy tugged at his clothes and said, "Their convoy has just arrived. You should go quickly."

Skinner immediately came to his senses and, not caring that he couldn't run, ran towards the town gate as fast as he could.

In his haste, he forgot that he was just about to skin the sheep and had the knife in his hand.

Skinner was a well-known figure among the common people in the town. When people on the street saw him running down the road with a knife in his hand, no one dared to stop him and they all made way for him. Curious people even followed him to watch the fun.

On the other side, Frederick had just got off the car, and Lowena gathered his hunting dogs and talked to him about the local lord.

"Baron Avex is my wife's distant cousin." Lowena pointed to the white castle on the top of the hill next to the town and said, "He was a student at the Faculty of Arts. We played football with his college."

Frederick thought for a moment and said, "Then I may have seen him. I remember one year the college finals were between the College of Arts and Engineering, and I went to watch the game."

The University of Weissenberg has many children of nobles from all over the country who want to gild themselves, socialize, and find their own teammates. They go to the Faculty of Arts just because it is easier to graduate from there than from other professional colleges.

Many children of the nobility received traditional military training since childhood. They were not powerless writers. In addition, they had little study pressure and often played football, so the football team of the Faculty of Arts became a strong team in the school.

Frederick was happy to have these people pay tuition, so he didn't care.

As he was speaking, bursts of exclamations came from far away and gradually approached.

Thanks to Baron Avex's frequent propaganda that although Frederick was in a high position of power, he was a kind and helpful person, Skinner subconsciously believed that he would definitely help him without any hesitation.

Skinner didn't know Frederick, but he had a very good eye for people. He saw a young man with an extraordinary demeanor in the convoy, followed by a nun and a man standing half a body length behind him. He thought this must be him.

So he rushed towards Frederick. In Frederick's eyes, suddenly there was a sturdy man rushing towards him with a sharp knife, and he thought that he was definitely not inviting him to dinner.

Lowena had already drawn his dagger and was about to move forward, but Frederick stretched out his hand to stop him. Since this was an acquaintance's territory, it would be better not to shed blood easily and just let the other party stop.

The Duchy of Wessen police funded the research of a number of non-lethal magics, some of which could render a person incapable of action while protecting him from harm.

As a result, the magicians with their wild imaginations came up with a lot of magic that made people hard to evaluate, such as the magic that makes people burp continuously, and the one that Frederick is about to use.

A long period of coughing is not a pleasant thing for people. Even the strongest person will not be able to do anything if he keeps coughing. It will also cause dizziness and related muscle cramps.

Frederick kicked Skinner in the chest, sending him flying three meters away, and the knife in his hand fell to the side.

At the same time, a magical energy penetrated from the soles of Frederick's feet into Skinner's chest and began to stimulate his respiratory system.

At this moment, Skinner's mind went blank. He had long forgotten what to do and just knelt on the ground coughing.

People around him were talking, but he couldn't hear them. The only sound in his ears was his own coughing, as if he would have to cough out all his coughs in one day.

At this time, a shout came from the city gate, and two knights on war horses drove the pedestrians on the street to both sides, followed by a rather luxurious carriage.

When Frederick saw that the local lord had arrived, he ignored Skinner and let him continue coughing there.

Baron Aibex saw Frederick through the car window and hurriedly opened the door without waiting for the car to stop.

He had a lot of ideas in his mind and had planned to seek help from the principal when he had the chance, but he didn't expect Frederick to come.

But what surprised Avex was Skinner, who was kneeling on the ground and coughing. He knew that Skinner had a good reputation among the people and was usually quite righteous, but the current situation was confusing.

Avex didn't care. If it was Skinner who bumped into the principal, he would just take him to the city gate tower and hang him upside down for a long time as punishment.

Just as he walked up to Frederick and was about to greet him, a cry of surprise came from the side.

Skinner was still coughing, and a dark red substance, as thick as a finger, appeared in his mouth and kept coming out.

The onlookers were frightened by this scene, but many of them could not resist their curiosity and resisted stepping back.

The two knights of Avex were also frightened, but they were worried that Skinner would spit out some monsters, so they immediately went over and drew their swords. Flames came out of the swords, and they would chop them down immediately if they saw anything unusual.

Frederick also noticed something strange, and he didn't know what was going on, but he understood that if it was an alien or some parasitic beast, it couldn't wait to be born.

He walked over, took out a handkerchief from his pocket, wrapped his hand around the dark red thing, and with his other hand held Skinner's head, slowly pulling it out.

From Avex, Lowena, Fontana to the little boy and his mother who had just gone to find Skinner, all the onlookers were trembling with fear at what happened next.

Frederick slowly pulled out a dark red thing from Skinner's mouth. This thing was a bit like a branch. After it was pulled out of the mouth, it immediately spread out in all directions.

Some people at the scene began to pray, thinking that there was such a strange thing in the body, it must be a possessed demon.

Frederick understood at a glance that this was an extra-large blood clot in the shape of a trachea. The branch-like bronchi of the upper, middle and lower lobes were clearly visible when coughed.

It was obvious that there was something wrong with this person's lungs. Blood had accumulated in half of his lungs and formed a clot, which was coughed out by the violent coughing just now.

But the onlookers did not have the medical knowledge that Frederick had.

Many people only know that Skinner has been in poor health in recent years because of problems with his lungs.

You can breathe through your mouth, and if you accidentally drink water, the water will go into your lungs. So it is common sense that the mouth connects to the lungs. Everyone knows this.

Now someone pulled out a branch-like object from Skinner's mouth. Even college students like Lowena and Avex had never heard of such an organ in the human body. The same thought occurred to many people at the same time:

There was an evil demon lurking in Skinner's lungs, and now it has been brought out.

Avex broke out in a sweat immediately. There was a devil lurking in his territory. If the principal had not discovered it in time, the consequences would have been disastrous if the devil had completely taken over Skinner's body.

The bishop of the local church arrived later than Avex and was sweating the most now.

Skinner had been having health problems for several years, and during this time he had not been able to discover the devil in his body. His life would be difficult if he was held accountable by his superiors, and if anyone suspected that he was in collusion with the devil, he would be dead.

The bishop quickly thought of a solution. Being bad and being stupid are two different things. Colluding with the devil is bad. Such public opinion must be avoided. He could only say that his business ability was poor and could not compare with that of Grand Captain Wesson.

(End of this chapter)