Professor Drake’s research materials stated that he collected information from citizens who had claimed to have seen the Lady of the Lake. After excluding those who were obviously making up stories, he combined local legends and folk customs and concluded Here are five rules for meeting the “Lady of the Lake”.
First of all, you must appear alone by the lake in the west of Huntington City. You can have mounts or pets, but you cannot be accompanied by other humanoid intelligent creatures;
Secondly, when encountering the Lady of the Lake, the sun must still be above the horizon, because there are no sightings that occur on a dark night;
Third, all the people who claimed to have encountered the “Lady of the Lake” or entered the “Lake of the Cherubim”, including Professor Drake, were all men, even those rumored in local folklore stories The protagonists are all male;
Fourth, those who encounter the Lady of the Lake need to carry items that prove their “courage” and “wisdom”, that is, they need a book and a weapon;
Fifth, and the most important point, if you always think about meeting the “Lady of the Lake”, then you will definitely not meet it. Only by forgetting your purpose can you turn around and see that person inadvertently. The legendary lake.
The above rules were summarized by Professor Drake himself. Many people have read this information, and even the local church has obtained these information from Professor Drake, but no one has been able to see the rumored goddess again. .
But for Shade, having clues is better than having none, and the professor’s summary seems reasonable.
He prepared his notebook, gun and sword, and went into the city to visit Professor Drake again in the wheelchair. He talked with him in more detail, and had lunch in the city before leaving the city again. Headed to the west of the city.
Different from the great plains and low hills to the east of Huntington, the west of the city is mostly wetlands and lakes because it is close to the Pantanal. Although the terrain is relatively flat, it is affected by miasma every summer. Swampy areas drifted out, making them uninhabitable.
On the edge of the city just west of Huntington, there are several smaller towns. Further west, you can only see small farms and orchards interspersed between lakes.
The road here is quite difficult. Even if you are riding a horse, your horse’s hooves will occasionally get stuck in the mud on the road. There is little regular maintenance of rural dirt roads, and coupled with the influence of the Pantanal, there is almost no infrastructure here.
The clues that Shade currently has are not enough for him to directly find the Lake of Cherubim where the Lady of the Lake is rumored to live. Therefore, according to Professor Drake’s notes from back then, he planned to re-take the path that Professor Drake took.
The first stop was Lower Luther Village, located in the west of Huntington City. The professor set out from this village, and there happened to be an eyewitness of the “Lady of the Lake” in the village. The origin of the village’s name is that the village is located to the south of Lake Luther, just below Lake Luther on the map.
This is a typical rural village of Kasenlik. When the well-dressed Shade came on horseback, the villagers cast curious eyes but did not dare to get too close. It wasn’t until Shade stepped on the mud and led the maroon horse into the village that the village sheriff approached cautiously and asked Shade about his purpose.
Most of the local villagers have strong accents, but the accent of the middle-aged police officer who looks strong is very standard. When Shade explained the purpose of his visit in broken Kassenric and hoped to meet the old Mr. Grave who claimed to have seen the Lady of the Lake eight years ago, the sheriff happily agreed:
“Old Grave loved telling this story to people, and we liked hearing it at first, but then he kept repeating it over and over again, and people got tired of it. Sir, you come from a big city, and you may not understand the countryside here. Life. It’s fun to listen to other people’s stories on boring days, but when that story is repeated for eight years, no one can stand it.”
Old Mr. Grave lived a pretty good life in the small village. When he was young, he fished beside Lake Luther. Later, he dug fish ponds to raise fish artificially. Although his annual income was not as good as that of people in the city, it was at least better than that of people in the city. The villagers who forage in the fields are better off.
When Shade saw this old gentleman, he was sitting in a rocking chair, basking in the sun in front of the gray-white earthen wall of his house. There was also a string of bacon drying on the wall. When the skinny old man looked at Shade, Shade noticed that there was nothing in the socket of his left eye.
Since the language communication between the two parties was somewhat difficult, the peace officer who had no time to join in the fun was the one who translated for both parties.
The content of the conversation was very simple. Shade asked the gray-haired old Mr. Grave about his past affairs. The talkative old man spoke in a thick country accent and described the “big adventure” eight years ago in as much detail as possible.
The rough process is that eight years ago, in the winter of 1845 in the universal calendar, because there was nothing to do in winter, on a snowy morning, Mr. Grave, then 43 years old, carrying a fishing rod on his back and a bucket, With my notebook in hand, I planned to go fishing in the frozen Luther Lake.
He set out at eight o’clock in the morning that day and found a suitable location on the lake at nine-thirty. After breaking the ice, I actually caught a black snake with the first rod, and the snake spoke:
“I’m going to kill you that’s what it says.”
The old man excitedly described to Shade that when he opened his mouth, Shade could clearly count the few teeth he had left.
Most people living in the countryside have seen snakes, but they have never seen a talking snake. In this era of low literacy and relative superstition, the old man was chased by the snake on the ice for more than 20 minutes before he finally jumped ashore from the other side of Lake Luther. After entering a forest that was bare in winter, the snake disappeared, but a big fluffy rabbit jumped out again:
“You’re going the wrong way, that’s what it says.”
Old Mr. Grave waved his hands and tried his best to imitate the sound of the rabbit back then, while the middle-aged Sheriff was trying hard to suppress his laughter. It seemed that no matter how many times he heard the story, it was still interesting to him.
The rabbit had no ill intentions toward Mr. Graves. Instead, he asked him to leave the woods in a friendly manner and told him how to avoid the snake. Therefore, Mr. Graves, who did not dare to go near Luther Lake, planned to take a detour home. However, as soon as he left the woods, he encountered a raven flying from nowhere on the snowy dirt road in the countryside. :
“Let me tell you, where you should go now it says so!”
The old man telling the story became more and more excited, as if he had returned to the “big adventure” that day again, with the wrinkles on his face stacked up in a smile. Shade had a sullen face and said nothing, listening to him continue to speak.
Under the guidance of the raven, the old Mr. Grave eight years ago went further and further away. After passing through an unfamiliar winter wetland shrub area, he unexpectedly encountered a small lake that he had never seen before.
At that time, Mr. Grave seemed to have been “revealed by the gods”. Somehow, he stepped on the frozen lake into the center of the lake, and met a white-haired old woman on the island in the middle of the lake.
The old man on the island in the middle of the lake invited Mr. Grave to fish with her. Mr. Grave thought that he could not go home empty-handed, so he agreed. We fished from noon to evening. Mr. Grave, who was very lucky, caught six big carp, while the old woman caught three.
“She said at the time that I won her, so she allowed me to make a wish.”
At this point, the old man’s eyes seemed to light up. This was obviously the climax of his memorable story.
“So what wish did you make?”
Shad asked curiously, glancing at the Sheriff, who was staring at him, as if he wanted to see what kind of expression Shad would show next.
“Yes, I want her fishing rod!”
Mr. Grave raised his hands and praised Shade:
“Her fishing rod is really good. I have been fishing for so many years and I have never seen such a beautiful, strong and convenient alloy telescopic fishing rod. The fishing line and matching fishhook can only be found in big cities. Even if she doesn’t give it to me, I’m willing to exchange my house for that fishing rod, so when she asked me to make my wish, I immediately agreed!”
“What happened next?”
Xia De asked curiously.
“Later?”
Mr. Grave was stunned:
“Then I came back with the fishing rod and the fish.”
“Where’s the fish?”
“I ate them eight years ago, should I keep them?”
“Where’s the fishing rod?”
“Three years ago, my grandson, the naughty little Louis, poked me. I was sad for a while. Later, someone from the cathedral in the city bought it for 10 pounds.”
Because Mr. Grave’s story was more like a random fairy tale, Shade had to look at the Sheriff who was holding back a smile, and the latter nodded:
“Yes, eight years ago, after Grave came back with that beautiful fishing rod and his story, it did attract people in the city, but people came to listen to the story. As for that piece of film Grave couldn’t find the magical lake when he looked for it. I bet he fell into the lake and was so cold that he lost his head. As for the fishing rod, I don’t know where he picked it up. “
As he spoke, he laughed. Old Mr. Grave was not angry, but repeatedly explained to Shade that his story was absolutely true. Although there are some processing elements in the details, the experience is absolutely real.
Not only the Orthodox Church and Professor Drake, but also many people in this village have heard the story of old Mr. Grave. Most of them were interested in the “Lady of the Lake,” but no one could find the lake based on Mr. Grave’s story.
But no matter what, at least this story is still very interesting, and Shade thinks that his time was not wasted.
He left 1 pound to the old man as a fee for listening to the story. Before leaving the village, Shade asked the enthusiastic middle-aged sheriff what happened to old Grave’s blind left eye. The reporter asked strangely:
“Is this also related to his story? That left eye was lost many years ago.”
“What time is it exactly?”
Shade asked again and led the maroon horse. The latter docilely ate the grass that the neighbor had piled outside the house for the winter, causing Shade to have to pay 5 pence. The woman with her head wrapped in a scarf waved her hand and said she didn’t want any money, so Shade gave her child a few sugar cubes.
“I really don’t know about this. I was transferred here from the next town to be the Sheriff. That is, 12 years ago, he was already blind.”
The Sheriff followed Shade, who was leading the horse, towards the entrance of the village, and then loudly greeted the gray-haired old man who was forging iron with his upper body bare at the end of the village:
“Hans, when did old Gretel lose his eyesight?”
“Damn, how do I know?”
The old blacksmith cursed something in Kasenlik that Shade could not translate, and then said:
“When you’re blind, you’re blind.”
The middle-aged Sheriff turned to Shade and shrugged:
“You see, country people have no sense of time. If nothing memorable happened in that year, it would be difficult for people to distinguish 1853 from 1852. However, old Grave’s blindness did begin more than the story he told Before, it was much earlier.”