The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 42: Morning Glow and Evening Rain
After a night's rest, when Eric was preparing to set off the next morning, he actually saw a group of wood elves.

They have green eyes, long ears, and yellowish skin color close to that of humans. Their generally young faces make it difficult to tell their real age. They all carry homemade bows and arrows on their backs. They came out of the forest pulling trailers loaded with wine barrels.

"It really is a fine elven wine..."

It can't be said that wood elves hate humans, but they don't like them either. Therefore, their settlements are usually in the depths of the forest, far away from human cities, where they live a miserable primitive life - this also means that a considerable number of wood elves cannot go back after arriving in human cities.

Judging from their familiarity, it was obviously not their first time to sell alcohol in a human town.

"It seems like I can't go on living like this anymore."

The wood elves who lived in the forest near Dent County had sent envoys to the city lord's palace, so Eric had the opportunity to come into close contact with them. At that time, he never thought that one day he would be told that he also had elven blood flowing in his body.

Shaking his head, Eric jumped into the carriage and still sat next to the driver.

"lets go."

The two carriages drove out of the hotel yard one after another, left Redwood Forest Town, and returned to the main road.

Eric looked at the small town at the foot of the mountain and the edge of the forest for the last time. They didn't get up too early, but there was no sign of the two Arameans. He didn't know whether they had set out early in the morning or hadn't gotten up yet.

"drive!"

The carriage was galloping along the road.

According to Eric, traveling at night was dangerous and unnecessary, so he planned to travel as much as possible during the day and find a place to rest when it got dark.

When traveling, the driver naturally followed his instructions, which made things easier. The other two drivers weren't too many, so each driver could drive for a day, which was just right for rotation.

They continued their journey for another two days, and by noon on the third day, they had finally broken out of the mountainous area of ​​Holterdam.

In the afternoon, before passing a certain intersection on the avenue, the driver asked Eric if he wanted to go to the imperial capital to rest for a night.

Eric, feeling sleepy, raised his eyes and looked ahead. "Have we reached the outskirts of Lutia?"

"Uh...it's not far. If we turn left at the next intersection, we'll reach the outskirts of Lutia in just over an hour," said the driver.

Eric was stunned. It would take more than an hour to reach the Fifth Ring Road?

"That's still far away, so we'll have to take a detour to get there."

"We took a bit of a detour... I was wondering if since this was the young master's first time here, he might want to visit Lutia first," the driver said.

"I don't mind. There will be plenty of opportunities in the future anyway."

Turning his head to look at Sophie who was leaning against the small window, Eric smiled and said, "Miss Sophie, do you want to go home and visit?"

Sophie's eyes lit up, but she quickly shook her head. "If you're going all the way to the imperial capital just for me, then there's no need. The Saint's summons is more important."

Eric looked at her with some surprise, nodded, and said to the driver, "Then don't take the long way around, and continue heading towards the Holy City."

"Okay, Master..."

The driver couldn't completely hide his disappointment. Eric realized after a while that this guy probably wanted to go to the imperial capital for a night of fun, so he made this suggestion - the young master would pay for food, accommodation and transportation, so he wouldn't have to pay for it himself.

In the car, Sophie smiled at Alena. Alena smiled back and whispered, "Don't you really want to go home and see your family?"

"I do think so..."

Sophie let out a silent breath and said nothing more.

She turned her head to look out the car window, but the imperial capital was far away and nowhere to be seen.

Alena patted her hand gently.

That night, they also rested in a small town beside the highway.

The next morning, before setting off, the two coachmen stared at the gorgeous red glow in the sky for a long time, both with frowns on their faces.

"Master, it looks like it might rain today."

There weren't many clouds in the sky yet. Eric glanced at the morning glow and said, "Let the rain slow down. We can't just stop and wait for it to rain."

"Yes."

The carriage is waterproof and the driver has prepared rain gear, so traveling in the rain is not a problem, but you just have to go slowly.

"Will it rain?" After setting off, Sophie stuck her head out from time to time, paying attention to the changes in the weather.

"I remember it's rainy in the Breeze Plains area right now," Alena said. "It's almost summer, after all."

"Let it rain." Sophie looked forward to it.

More than two hours after setting off, the sky began to turn cloudy. By noon, the thick clouds in the sky had settled so low that it seemed as if a heavy rain would fall at any moment.

When they set off again after the rest, the driver had already put on rain gear and Eric also sat in the carriage - another carriage. Sophie rolled her eyes at the dark clouds in the sky.

Despite such preparations, the heavy rain did not fall until the evening when it suddenly poured down without warning.

Hua Hua——

The sky was already darkening, and with the heavy rain, it was almost impossible to see what was happening two or three meters away. The journey was impossible, so to avoid any accidents, the carriage had to stop at the side of the road by the woods.

The rain came in torrents, pouring down for over an hour before gradually letting up. Dark clouds covered the sky, and the sky was completely dark with no stars or moon in sight.

"I don't know how far the inn is, so let's spend the night here." Eric said helplessly, "We can only sleep in the carriage."

"Yes, Master."

Two carriages were parked side by side under the tree, with a distance of two or three meters between them. Several coachmen worked together to pull a piece of rainproof hard cloth over the two carriages, and then buried fire crystals in the soil underneath and in the wet branches they picked up to disperse the moisture, dry the soil, and then start a fire.

The food was some dry rations that they had brought with them when they set out. A driver said he heard the sound of water nearby, so he searched for a while in the drizzle and found a swollen stream, which solved the problem of drinking water.

"Let it settle first, and use the clear water on top to boil it."

"Yes, Master."

Eric skewered the hard dried meat and roasted it over the fire for a while. The dried meat became soft and easy to tear, and the aroma quickly spread.

Feeling that it was almost done, he took out two pieces of jerky and handed them to the two nuns.

"Take your time to eat. It's only just gotten dark, and the night is still long."

Alena thanked him, and Sophie nodded, blowing on the still-hot dried meat, her eyes sparkling in the flickering fire.

"If that's not enough, there's broth," said the driver, Willy. He tore the dried meat into small strips and added them to the clay pot on the fire to cook. He also added some grass leaves he found in the woods, which he said were some kind of spices.

Pat, pat—

Just as several people were sitting around the fire, drinking broth and eating dried meat, the hard cloth above their heads suddenly made a series of noises.

"The rain is going to get heavier again."

After a while, heavy rain came pouring down.

Eric looked at the tarpaulin stretched taut above his head and asked, "Will this tarpaulin collapse?"

"Don't worry, Master. I've reinforced every corner."

Dense moisture poured into the temporary shelter from both sides, bringing a refreshing coolness. One of the guards, who was once an adventurer, said that in the past, when encountering such a situation in the wild, the magician in the team would use a wind barrier to block all wind and rain.

"Really? He's quite nice then. The mages I've met only care about themselves."

"Ha, that's because he was caught and beaten while stealing alchemical materials, and his staff was broken. We pooled the money to buy a new staff!"

When the rain died down and no more sound could be heard, Sophie leaned over to Alena's ear and whispered something to her. Then they left together and went into the darkness.

Maybe it's convenient...

Eric caught a glimpse of the two men's actions out of the corner of his eye, but pretended not to see anything and continued to listen to the guards' increasingly excited bragging.

A few minutes later, a faint scream was heard outside.

"ah--"

Eric reacted immediately, picked up his sword and rushed out.

The woods were dark, and he threw out a ball of light, and soon spotted two figures not far away.

Sophie huddled against Alena, and there seemed to be someone standing opposite them.

Eric ran over and found that the man had a pair of gray wings behind him.

"...Winged Man?"

Or a female wingman.

She was completely soaked, with rain running down her cheeks. Her face showed a look of bewildered apology and unconcealable fatigue.

"I'm very sorry……"

(End of this chapter)