Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 108: Excuses for Being Late

“Ike, do you still want Vero to go fishing on the lake at night?” The next day Claude arrived at school and asked Erickson.

It was the end of October, but the merchant fleet led by Captain O'Truni still did not return to White Deer Town. Eriksson became a little nervous, and he said he often couldn't sleep, so he often asked Verikero to take a small fishing boat to the lake for night fishing, exhausting himself to sleep for hours.

“Well, I can only fall asleep on a fishing boat right now, and if I were in my bed at home, I would definitely have those dreams of shipwreck...” Erickson answered somewhat inexplicably.

“It's okay, I think your father will be back in a few days, and then you'll have no nightmares.” Claude can only be so comforting.

“Now that Boa is busy with his business at home, you have to take care of the forest farm, and the four of us are getting together less and less. In more than 20 days, we'll graduate. By then, we'll all be on our way. We don't know if we can get together again... Time has passed so fast, we'll have grown up...”

Erickson mumbled a little sadly.

“Alas, there's no way, everyone will grow up, but I'm sure we'll have time to get together in the future. Well, I'll see if I have time at night, and if I can spare some time, I'll go fishing at night on the lake with you. If I'm not at your dock by 8: 00, you don't have to wait for me.” Claude said.

Erickson nodded, “Well, we'll just wait till 8: 00, and if you don't show up after 8: 00, it means you're not coming, right? ”

“Well, the woodland was a little unstable these past two nights, and Theorie said he was missing a few chickens from that little chicken farm in the woods and didn't know what had taken him. Fences that have been checked at the chicken farm during the day are good, and it looks like the situation should be at night. So I decided to set some traps around the chicken farm in the evening, and if it was too early, I'd come to you, and I wouldn't go.” Claude explained.

Eriksson didn't answer, he just stretched his thumb and lay down on the desk, and now he's, like Claude before, remembering in the morning class.

Verricolo on the other side had already slept very sweetly. Unlike Ericsson, Ericsson went fishing at night on the lake because he couldn't sleep, and he was mentally insensitive when he fished. According to Ericsson, Velricolo was the best at night fishing on the lake and was able to stand it all night long, only to start sleeping as soon as he returned to school in the morning.

“Hey, Claude, what happened to your woodland?” Bok Al asked curiously.

Claude shrugged: “Nothing, a few of the chickens that Theori raised these past two days have disappeared, and I suspect they're foxes, badgers, or nightgoats, and they're staring at this woodland chicken farm. So I'm going to set some traps for two days, and if the traps don't work, I'm going to ambush them for two nights, and I'm going to figure out what's going on. ”

“Unfortunately, I don't have much time right now, otherwise I will go to your side to help...” Bok Al said unwillingly: "My father gave me a lot of work and I was busy going home after school every day. I never thought I'd look forward to school one day, because I didn't have time for leisure at school. I really want to play with you guys...”

“Oh...” Claude grinned. “We're graduating soon. After the New Year, we're 18 years old. We're not worry-free students anymore. Everyone has their own business ahead of us. You're just a step ahead now. Your father has told you so many things to do, and he just expects you to be the only one sooner rather than later. ”

Bok Al stopped talking, everyone understood the logic, but when it really was his turn, he couldn't stand that constraint. Previously, Bok Al looked forward to graduating early and becoming a successful businessman. But what he didn't expect was that being a businessman had to learn and understand so much knowledge, and that his father taught him about the world, something he never mentioned in books.

After school, Claude still went back to the woodland and toured the Theories' woodland chicken farm. Theories were digging a ditch on the outskirts of the chicken farm with an iron shovel head, which they probably thought would keep the chicken farm safe.

“Here, right here...” Theorie leads Claude to the fence of the chicken farm, pointing to the ground and saying, “Chief Claude, look, that's where the guy enters the chicken farm and bites the chicken and takes it away from here. If I hadn't noticed the chicken fur on the fence, I really didn't know this fence had become that guy's dark door...”

Theorie broke the fence, but saw a wooden slab with a fence rising tall. Claude took a closer look. Turns out the fixing nail under this plank has rusted away. It looks intact from the outside. You can push this plank and shake it inside and out. This becomes a dark door to the chicken farm.

“I'm going to dig a ditch outside and check to repair the fence on the whole chicken farm so it's safe.” Theorie said.

Claude shook his head: “It's no use, I doubt it was the fox who came in to steal the chicken, it's smarter and it can swim. You can't stop a ditch from digging, you're just wasting your energy. The best way to do this is to have two hunting dogs so you can rest assured you're not on the chicken farm at night. ”

“Well, let's just say we can't find the right dog for a while. Better breeds of hounds are expensive and we can't afford them either.” Theorie shook her head and said.

In fact, the Theories were totally disqualified as forest folks, spending more time on private work, even visiting the woodlands mainly to pick up some mountain goods. One of the things that usually helps is taking care of the two horses at the stables, and Claude became the head of the woodland, covering almost everything related to the woodland.

This little chicken farm in the woods did suffer a lot during this time, and several chickens were stolen away by thieves. The Theories were sad and moved to the chicken farm at night. It's just that the chicken thief was so sly and never found out until today that Theorie found out how it got inside the chicken farm.

“Don't dig the trenches, dig a few big pits as a trap, maybe the chicken thief will fall in.” Claude didn't think much about the Theories' chicken farm, which had nothing to do with the forest farm, but the couple's private life. If he cared too much, he could easily misunderstand, so he could only offer some kind of advice.

Theorie nodded, indicating that he knew. So Claude talked to him about the little things he found during his forest tour, like growing a lot of mushrooms on the north slope to pick them up, and there was a little pile of fallen wood on the south creek, and it was time to clean it up, otherwise it would be easy to block the flow of water, etc.

After that, Claude went back to the pharmacy lab to continue his pharmacology studies. At night he made himself something to eat, and by 8: 00, Claude started to prepare, and of course he wasn't going to look for Ericsson and Verricolo, and going fishing at night on the lake was just an excuse, and where he was going was Julian's grocery store, and he had a smooth deal.

I checked my gear, brought 21 Sullivan gold coins and two gold kroner purses, and just as I was about to walk out of the door, Claude remembered the experience of fighting Black Snake's oblique Camedy last night, and felt I should learn from these groundhounds too, carrying a sharp device with me just in case, so I wouldn't feel defenceless.

Thinking about Claude finding out that he doesn't usually buy a good knife dagger or something at home is not as good as Verricolo's. The more money the guy has, the more he likes to buy these short weapons, especially the weirder they look. By the way, didn't you buy a black iron dagger last time? Though I think it's magical, I haven't found out what the magic effect of this black iron dagger is. Forget it, take this black iron dagger with you.

Claude finds the black iron dagger and inserts it into his boot barrel, takes two steps and jumps a few times and decides it's okay.

Going out to the stables, he pulled out the big black horse Jamie and put him on a carriage, waved the whip gently, drove him out of the woodland and walked along the mountain path towards the lakeside pier.

Claude's goal was to park the carriage on the private pier of the Ericsson family, which is why he told Ericsson he was going fishing with them at night in the morning. But Claude didn't get out of the woods in a carriage till 8: 30, just to make sure he was late, and Erickson and Villicro had already left, not waiting for themselves at the pier silly.

It takes more than forty minutes from the forest farm to the pier.

Indeed, at the private pier of the Eriksson family, Uncle Pegg, the guard of the gate, unfortunately told Claude that Eriksson and Veriksson had waited at the pier until around 8: 30 to make sure that Claude would not come, and that he had sailed on a small fishing boat and had now walked for about 40 minutes.

“I'm sorry, Uncle Pegg.” Claude sighed, “The woods are a little busy, and I didn't come out until 8: 00. If it wasn't for the wagon running off a wheel on the highway and taking half a day to get it back on, I'd have caught up with Ike and Vero. But it's okay. I'll park the wagon here and look along the lake shore. Ike told me they'd be fishing for longtails on the shore tonight, and if I saw their boat, I'd call them to pick me up. If you can't find me, come back..."

Uncle Pegg looked at the two wheels of the carriage, and one of them was really covered in yellow mud and grass leaves. Looks like this is the loose loss of the pin in the middle of the axle that caused the wheel to fall off. This kind of trouble is common, so just find the wheel and put it back on and replace the pin. Normal carriages have their own plug-ins and maintenance tools.

“Fine, then go. The carriage's parked right here. I'll take care of it. But when will you be back?” Uncle Pegg asked.

“About an hour. If I find them on the boat, I'll have Ike take me back.” Claude said.

“Do you need a lantern? ”

“No, thank you, Uncle Pegg. The moonlight was bright at night and I could see the way. If you bring a lantern, you won't be able to see far away. And my backpack has a flamethrower that lights and signals fine.” Claude said as he jumped off the pier and stepped on the gravel by the lake in the direction of the slums.

After cleaning up the black snake club last night, Claude went over to the woods to see if anyone was around, took off his robe, ripped off the masked towel on his face and headed back down the lakeside trail. When he saw the shimmering Lake Beringa under the moonlight, he suddenly thought that he could come here entirely from the sand on the shore of the lake, put on a robe and a veil in the woods, and then reach Julian's grocery store from the alley in the lakeside neighbourhood.

The later the night, the less visible the road was, and nearly November, the weather had gotten a little cold, and no one would be frozen by the lake on such nights. And the other advantage is that if you walk by the lake, then the trail on this lake embankment can't see itself down there even if someone walks by, you can go back unwittingly, and nobody can find you.

Claude hit on Erickson, and the best option was to go down the lake from his private pier, close to the woods over there, and the carriage could park at the pier. The only thing missing is a good excuse, which is why Claude came up with the reason for being late for night fishing.

Twenty minutes later, Claude was still dressed as a masked man and appeared in Julian's shop.