Fairy Tale: Little Red Riding Hood's Wolf Mentor

Chapter 149 Missing Magic Beans?

"Why did this vine die here... and it looks like it has been dead for some time."

Lake searched around the huge, almost two thousand meters long, folded together, dry and dehydrated vines.

The Poro also followed the girl.

"Polo, am I... remembering it wrong?"

"If we look at what was in the magic mirror before, there shouldn't be any problem. It's just that we're a little late."

Poro said in a deep voice that the memory ability given to him by [Spiral Beacon: Sage] would not be wrong.

"So what should we do now?"

There was a trace of confusion in Lake's eyes.

"From this pod..."

The Poro walked forward, stretched out his claws, and opened a dry bean pod—

This is the only pod on this nearly two-kilometer-long vine, and it is empty.

"There should be more than one magic bean in this pod. Someone must have gotten there first."

Poro thought for a moment and then added, "Perhaps, we can go to the surrounding villages and towns to ask about the situation in this village..."

Fortunately, the nearest town, Cod Town, is not far from here, and there are no other settlements at a similar distance.

If there really is information related to the magic vine, then this place undoubtedly has the greatest possibility.

"This town looks better than the one in Boren...at least there are quite a few merchants."

"Well, it looks like a big market. I think we've come to the right place this time."

Although the town of Kode is located on the border of the Biwei Kingdom, there are quite a lot of people coming and going. It seems that most of them are residents of nearby villages and towns.

However, as a border town, although there are many people and vendors here, the environment is not that formal.

Although there was a guard post of the kingdom, there were only a few soldiers at the gate, not wearing armor, just dozing with their spears crookedly on their backs...

Obviously, they don't care much about the public security here.

"Um, where should we ask first?"

Lake looked at the farmers selling crops, hunters selling their prey, and vendors selling sundry items in the market... and was a little hesitant.

There were also a few guys who looked like gang members standing at the entrance of the market, glancing at those passing by.

Several of them saw Lake and seemed to start whispering something again.

Poro didn't care too much.

Now, no matter how tall such an "ordinary person" looks, it is difficult for him and Lake to pose a threat.

Besides...

The two did not plan to stay in this town for long.

"We have money, so maybe we should find a local guide from the market."

Poro thought for a moment and said, and just as the two began to think about where to find such a "local", a little girl in simple clothes came towards them not far away.

"Miss, you are from out of town, right? Do you need a guide?"

The little girl looked up and said seriously, "I know where to buy things here. I can save you time. I'm very cheap. It only costs a few copper coins..."

"Uh, copper coins... Is this silver coin okay?"

When Lake opened her pocket, she remembered that in order to travel light, she had given up the copper coins and exchanged them for gold and a small amount of silver coins.

"silver?"

The girl took it with surprise. "Of course, miss, what do you want to ask?"

After a little thought, Lake told the girl in detail about the magic vine.

"Magic vine?"

The girl was stunned for a moment, then thought for a moment before she began to narrate, "That magic vine inexplicably grew a long time ago. I heard that several houses in that village collapsed because of the magic vine..."

So later on, they all left.”

The girl hesitated for a moment, then continued, "A week ago, the vine seemed to have rapidly withered and then died. As for the vine having pods, I haven't heard of that."

That's it...

Lake listened and nodded, looking a little disappointed. But at this moment, the little girl suddenly thought of something and said:

"But a few days ago, there was a short man with a robe covering his face coming to the market. He seemed to be selling a handful of beans that looked just a little bigger than ordinary beans..."

"Bigger beans!?"

Lake's eyes widened and she asked hurriedly, "Do you know where he is? Can you lead us to him?"

The little girl blinked, shook her head apologetically, and said:

"I'm sorry, I really don't know about this. The rest of us always thought he was a liar, not the person you're looking for, miss."

"why?"

Lake asked doubtfully.

"He told everyone he was hungry, and then he asked for a cow in exchange for a handful of beans. He also claimed that the beans had unusual magical properties."

The little girl shrugged. "No matter how good the beans are, would you trade them for a whole cow?! Who would be so stupid?"

The little girl said this, looked at Lake's anxious eyes, and suddenly shrank her neck, "Uh, Miss, of course, I'm not talking about you, I'm just saying...

The dwarf came for several days in a row and just came yesterday, but unfortunately, he didn't come today.

I guess...

Either it was actually bought by someone, or they felt they couldn’t cheat anyone and left on their own.”

"That's it..."

Lake asked the little girl some more questions about the trafficker, but the little girl didn't know any more details.

Following the little girl, we passed by several stalls of herbal farmers or hunters.

But after some inquiries, no one could provide any information about the vine. The people here didn't seem to care much about the strange plant.

From the questioning, Reik Poro also grasped a strange feature of this area -

Around here, large plants always grow out of nowhere for unknown reasons.

But it quickly withered away.

Although this is rare elsewhere, most plants have no greater value than being a sight to behold.

Only a small portion has valuable utility.

But it was obvious that the vine did not contain any effective and valuable ingredients, so no one cared about it.

It was already late, and Lake and Poro had not found any more useful information.

Lake said goodbye to the little girl and headed towards the market exit.

But what she didn't see was...

As the little girl happily walked towards the alley on the side, two tall men blocked her way. One of them took out a piece of candy from his arms and handed it to the little girl.

The little girl took the candy and said thank you. She obviously knew the two people in front of her.

"Sir, what are your instructions?"

She asked sweetly.

"Can you tell how rich the foreign girl you brought today is?"

The man asked bluntly.

"Well, she must be very rich. I saw a lot of gold and silver in her pockets."

The little girl replied that the people living in this market never dared to mess with these gangs, and most of the children were also spies for these gangs. "Just as a guide fee, they gave me one silver coin."

"Oh, that's great."

A trace of greed and smugness flashed in the eyes of the two men. After they waved their hands and let the little girl go, they began to talk in low voices:
"I was saying, that girl has fair skin. She must be a young lady who ran away from somewhere. She must be rich!"

"Besides, the style of her clothes is not from the Biwei Kingdom, so there won't be any worries."

"But didn't the boss say..."

"Tsk, that young lady must be from some noble family. We've been exploited by those masters for so long, so what's wrong with taking a little interest?"

"What you said does make some sense..."

"Hey, gold? I'm going to get rich now!"

(End of this chapter)