Krafft's Notes on Anomalies

"It's quite reasonable."

Kraft felt that his cousin really had a talent for being a troubadour in the bar. He remembered the stories he heard from William quite clearly, and there were also details about the sea and ice fields that he heard, which he reasonably inserted. In this story, it’s as if he really followed William and watched this journey to the ice field.

Unfortunately, Kraft was the only one listening on the road. If it were in a tavern, such a story that contains today's hottest elements such as sea voyages, exotic customs, and church escorts, and then artistically adds some content about human primitive impulses, would definitely make the audience buy him drinks and repeat it over and over again. It’s okay to hold a special show every month.

But Cousin Ryan didn't realize this business opportunity for the time being. He took out his water bag, drank a large amount of water for himself, and continued talking.

…

…

Frank froze in place in the cold wind. In this era before television and Bear Grylls, probably except for the ice people, few people knew that humans could defeat the wilderness with bare hands.

Even many ice tribes that have not performed sacrifices for several generations will soon become doubtful about whether anyone can complete the ritual, until a peerless man appears again to win over their simple beliefs.

But now there is one person who looks worse than Frank, and that is his entourage. Others may think that Frank is giving up, but he knows Frank. Being silent does not necessarily mean that he wants to go home. It may also mean that Frank is really thinking about the feasibility of this matter.

Before coming, Mr. Follower had thought about many bad possibilities, such as the bad living environment, extremely unfriendly locals, and how to build a church from scratch. The worst thing about this is that Frank wants to imitate some hard-core ruthless people in church history and build his own church with his own hands - then he can only stay with him until the end.

The reality is far more outrageous than imagined. If Frank really wanted to participate in this ceremony, would he go in person, or would he, his entourage, go on his behalf? There is no essential difference between the two. They are just committing suicide after Frank's death, or freezing to death earlier.

"The Holy Scriptures record that St. John walked barefoot on a hot iron plate without causing any damage. In order to spread the voice of the Lord, I will also accept the test of the Lord." Frank raised his head and looked at the man firmly. A rock as a starting point, “So when can we start?”

William was stunned, and the sailors who followed him were stunned. Even Bjorn was shocked. The Icelanders who were still unloading the sled looked confused. They couldn't understand Norse and didn't know where this was. what happened.

Before William could react, Bjorn quickly stopped his casual smile, took off his fur hood, and looked at Frank with a serious attitude. After receiving an equally firm look from Frank in response, he slowed down his speech, as if he was afraid Frank could not hear clearly, and said word by word in clear Norse: "This is not a joke."

Frank nodded.

Next to him, William could clearly distinguish a respectful and serious expression that he had never seen before on Bjorn's face, which was covered in mineral dye, and he was so frightened that he did not dare to speak. He straightened his beard and reached for the single-edged ax carried on his back with his left hand. William almost thought he was going to use the ax to kill Frank to the stone god.

But Bjorn did not grasp the ax handle. The gapped ax blade sliced ​​open his palm, and blood dripped from his palm, but he seemed unaware of it. He raised his bloody hands, opened his arms, and shouted to the mountains in the distance: "Herges!"

Now the surrounding ice people understood, and there were indescribable expressions on their faces. They dropped the things in their hands without hesitation, and did not even notice that the wine barrel that was not fixed rolled away.

"Herhes!" All the ice people present let out a deafening roar. A loud voice opened every door in the settlement. Ice people wearing different fur coats, regardless of whether they were men or women, young or old, put down what they were doing and walked towards this side, quickly forming a circle around them. A huge semicircle.

One of the icelanders, who was as tall as Bjorn, stretched out his hand to push aside the crowd and make way for the old man behind him who was half a head taller than him. William knew them all, one was Bjorn's father, the leader of the entire tribe. The old man with gray beard and hair is the old priest of the tribe, the man who stood here thirty years ago.

The priest walked slowly to Frank, who was surrounded by the crowd. He didn't say much, nor did he raise any questions about his stature that was half shorter than himself. He just looked at him from the rough fur clothes that were similar to other ice people. He pulled out a stone knife.

Like Bjorn, the stone knife slashed across the palm of his left hand. The wound was deep, but only a small amount of dark, viscous blood seeped out from the wound. The old priest stretched out his hand and used blood to smear a black and red oil paint-like blood mark on Frank's face, who was holding himself up from falling. He turned to look at Bjorn.

"The old priest recognized your courage, and we also informed the mountains of your arrival. Strip away all foreign objects under the stone, and you can set off." Afraid that Frank would be uneasy, he added, "The warrior responsible for witnessing the ceremony You will be selected immediately, and no matter you succeed or fail, there is no need to worry about your reputation."

….

…

"Ah, this..." Kraft was completely speechless, "So, will the bodies be collected over there in the snowfield?"

"I have to say, he is really a real man." Ryan laughed a little gloatingly, "But you guessed wrong. When William and the others went to find this guy the next day, they found that he was not dead."

"ah?!"

"Not only was he not dead, but they found the unconscious Frank in the snow five kilometers away from the stone. When they found him, he seemed to have lost weight, and his body temperature was so high that it felt like he had been there overnight. It was like burning all the fat in his body." Ryan touched his face. His face was a little round. It was hard to imagine what it would be like if it happened to him. "Anyway, he survived like this unexpectedly. When we came down, one of the few ice warriors responsible for witnessing was Bjorn, and he laughed at his god’s incompetence and didn’t stop them.”

"I declare this to be the biggest failure in this story. Do you think you are boiling lard? It shrinks as soon as you throw it into the pot."

"But this is true." Ryan shrugged, expressing his contempt for his ignorant cousin.

Now Kraft was dissatisfied: "Are you afraid that you didn't listen to William's words when he was drunk? Do you still have evidence?"

"It's true. Don't you think the name Frank sounds familiar? Think about who is named Frank at Wendeng Port College?"

"Professor Frank from the seminary? Impossible, the wrinkles on his face are about to hang down. He should be at least sixty years old, right?" Kraft does know this person. It is said that Teacher Anderson said that he has a close relationship with him. Difference. When he was in the academy, this person relied on the power of the seminary, and coupled with his incompatibility, he often squeezed out those like Anderson who liked to study abnormal phenomena.

This person didn't like people from outside the academy to step into the academy's gates, especially he looked down upon uncultured "country nobles" like the Wood family. Lane and Craft sometimes had to be careful to avoid him when they went to deliver letters to Anderson's acquaintances.

Ryan let out a hiccup-like laugh, "I bought William three bottles of wine to learn about his dark history. Teacher Anderson may not even know about it. His wrinkles are not wrinkles at all, but the skin is too long after becoming dry and thin, otherwise you would think Can he still be a lot older and still have blond hair?”

"Okay, we are almost at Wendeng Port. You can find a student from the seminary to ask Frank when he came to the college. I guess he just didn't dare to go back after he became ugly, so he stayed in Wendeng Port. .”

Thanks to the good weather, the two were much faster than when they arrived. By the time the story was told intermittently over more than two days, some vague buildings could be seen ahead, far larger than the villages and towns where they had stayed and rested during the past two days. There is a tall, slender building that is particularly conspicuous among them. It is the bell tower of the college. It was built with money from the church and is naturally located on the territory of the seminary.

The wind carries a slight fishy smell, and the bells tremble slightly. Kraft knew that they had returned to Wendeng Port, a rare city in the northern part of the kingdom.