Even though the hunter kneeling on the snow was now being forcibly controlled, Shade still pretended to be hearing about this for the first time:
"You should be talking about the disappearance of Earl Winslet's youngest son in 1819. The newspaper said that the Earl's youngest son was indeed found by a hound, but the other child did not appear."
"The child made a wish to the tree, so the tree asked him to pay the price and he had to stay here, and I raised him in the forest. But I don't know if it was because his soul was forcibly recalled and was traumatized.
He is simply a villain. He is cruel, vicious, ill-tempered, and hates this forest.
He was not allowed to leave here, but he longed for the outside world, so he did everything possible to blaspheme my faith. In 1829, when the boy was eighteen years old, he seduced a woman in the city and had sex with her in front of this temple.
I killed him, I killed my adopted son, and buried him here."
Shade took a deep breath. The development of this story was indeed something he had not expected:
"Since the tree asked you to raise him, won't you be punished for killing him?"
"It just asked me to send the woman back to the city. Later I heard that the woman gave birth to a child a year later. I didn't know why I suddenly understood the purpose of raising that child, everything.
The purpose may be just to keep him at the age of eighteen. I am guilty, but God, why do you never respond to me? I know that you have left, but why don’t you show me your slightest mercy."
The hunter no longer struggled, but still burst into tears.
Shade's face turned a little cold, and he thought of a possibility:
"What is that woman's last name now? What is the name of the child she gave birth to?"
"Cumming, that woman's husband is a baron, and the child she gave birth to, my adopted son's child, is called James Cumming!"
James Cumming was born in 1830, and came into contact with a tree hole in 1854. Through time travel, Erica was pregnant in 1803, which led to the birth of his "father" Baron Cumming at the end of 1803. Five years later, in 1808
, James' mother was born and stolen in 1809 by Baron Cumming, who came from the 1920s, so that James' mother, the future Baroness, was adopted by adoptive parents.
The adopted baroness had an affair with a "wild boy" in the forest in 1829 after marrying the baron, and finally gave birth to a child in 1830. Although she did not have a father-son blood relationship with the baron, in fact, she did have a father-son blood relationship.
James Cumming.
At this point, the complex relationship and family lineage of the Cumming family that has lasted for half a century have completed the final closed loop, and Shade finally knows the issue that Flora has been concerned about for a long time - who is James Cumming's biological father.
At this moment, he was not thinking about the purpose of the complicated drama arranged by the tree, but how Miss Owl would react to such an ending.
In the story involving the love, hatred and resentment of three generations, everyone's actions were voluntary, reasonable, and in line with the characters' personalities. So they were put together together, plus the book "Opening the Forest Door: Our Animals"
"Partners", jointly composed this family story with entangled character relationships and heavy-flavored plots, and involving the grudges of three generations - if this story were written and published, it would probably be more popular than a detective novel.
Even the outsider was silent for a long time, but he still remembered that the reason why he found this place was not the missing boy, nor was it to solve the mystery of the Cumming family:
"The body of your adopted son is also here?"
"Yes."
Shade looked at the corner outside the temple, where the body was hidden. Because it was not next to the ruins of the temple, this was not blasphemy, but a primitive ritual of killing the blasphemer and letting him atone for his sins:
"Did anything else happen in 1819 when you accidentally killed him? Did anyone come here to look for him?"
"People have been looking for him in 1819, but I hid him well. I am a hunter in the forest. I am not only good at tracking, but also good at avoiding danger."
"I don't mean the people who are looking for children, yes."
Thinking about it carefully, Shade couldn't describe any special characteristics of Flora's uncle. In Flora's description, the uncle was just an ordinary person, and his appearance and temperament were not beyond the scope of a normal person:
"Have any strange ordinary people come looking for the child?"
Miss Olanode's thaumaturgy was still taking effect, and the hunter answered this question:
"An ordinary person almost found us. He appeared in a very strange way, as if he appeared out of thin air in the forest. Afterwards, I wanted to trace his traces in reverse and investigate his path, but I couldn't find him.
Any footprints."
Shade knew that this was the person he was looking for:
"What happened to that man? Was he killed by you? Or was he killed by that kid?"
"I never actively hunted humans, and that kid didn't have the ability to kill people back then. I used illusions to create a trap to lure him away, and then he went to the city. I kept an eye on him for a while, although he entered again several times later.
forest, but never came close to our hiding place, so I stopped paying attention to him."
"Do you know where that man lives in the city?"
"Know."
But the answer wasn't the Accordion Hotel downtown as Schad suspected.
"He rented a house in the old town, No. 8 Herb Garden Lane."
It was not that he still remembered this address more than thirty years later, but the memory hidden in his soul was forcibly brought out by that bone claw.
While the thaumaturgy was still in effect, Shade asked a lot of questions. From this point of view, it seems that the Bennet family is not the only one serving that tree in this forest. It has more than one pigeon, but Bennet should be
The most important thing.
As for the tasks performed by hunters in the forest, except for raising children, which is the most important, most of the other tasks are "dig up something somewhere and send it somewhere on a certain day of a certain year, a certain month and a certain day" and "bring it to a person who is lost somewhere."
Small jobs such as "guiding the way" and "driving away poachers".
Rather than working for the Ancient One, it was more like he took on the part-time job of "forest ranger" in exchange for "the boy's resurrection from the dead".
After careful investigation, it turns out that he has indeed done nothing bad over the years. The only person he killed was the adopted son who desecrated the temple - twice. And in this forest, the old god [Hunting Lady]
] There are actually only seven believers, among whom this hunter is the highest level ring warlock.
Others did not know that he was serving the Ancient One, and the disappearance of his "adopted son" was excused with the excuse "I sent him to school in another place. He has no talent as a ring wizard and should not be with us."
Therefore, these believers of the Old Gods can still be won over to join the church and academy camps.
The power of stopping time that the hunter used just now certainly comes from the forest. In fact, except for the night of 1819, he has never seen the giant tree in his memory that seemed to connect heaven and earth in these years.
All the orders he received were "told to me by the forest." This was not because he was suffering from hysteria or delirium, but because the Order of the God of Hunting itself had the inheritance of "communicating with forest spirits", which was at its peak.
Left behind by the elves in the Order.
In this way, he has executed about 300 orders intermittently over the past thirty years. The power of time and trees will be obtained after he completes fifty missions.
His ability to become the highest-level ring warlock in the currently declining cult is also closely related to this.
The hunters even have a good relationship with the [Forest Hermits Group]. They often go to the hermits to exchange supplies, or help the hermits patrol the forest. If it weren't for different beliefs and different lifestyles, the hunters would most likely have met the hermits many years ago.
So he moved to live in the hermit's residence.
Shade asked the question for a full twenty minutes before the bone claw disappeared. Due to the excessive consumption of mental energy, the hunter fainted.
Shade checked his condition and bound him with the "Light of Confinement", and then came to the interior of the temple ruins with many worries. There was actually nothing to see here, because there was no roof, so
The light is very good and you can see everything at a glance.
Miss Olanold stood in front of the square stone platform in the center to check something. When she heard the sound of Shade's boots stepping on the snow behind her, she did not turn her head, but said directly:
"In our time, the demise of the Old God Religion has already occurred one after another. Guess what is the main reason for the demise of the Religion?"
Shade came to her side and thought about it:
"After the gods left, the believers received no response, and a few generations later their faith became unstable, leading to the collapse of the religious order?"
As he spoke, he looked back at the hunter outside the ruins. The hunter had just called out "God, why don't you answer me" several times.
Although Shade has witnessed the departure of gods with his own eyes and knows what "departure" actually means, it is impossible for others to know. They have only read a few words in the book, so they may have any thoughts in their minds.
In the period when gods really existed, it was certainly normal to have strong faith, but after that it was hard to say.
"Yes, doubts and confusion may be overcome by believers who once knew the existence of gods, but when the faith continues to be passed down, doubts will eventually appear. When doubts are not answered, confusion will give birth to blasphemy, which will eventually lead to unity
The end of faith. Even if there are still one or two devout people in the end, the ending of the story will not change much."
Miss Olanold's hand gently brushed the countertop in front of her:
"I heard all your questions and answers just now. I don't know the full story of the story you want to investigate, but I can hear that this sect is about to disappear. Even without this incident, the Hunter sect will definitely disappear in a few generations.