Chapter 240

"The vegetables were stolen? What happened?" Lucas furrowed his brows, not expecting to hear such news right upon his arrival.

"City Lord, it's like this…" 

The overseer began to narrate nervously. How could he not be anxious? The vegetables in this greenhouse were a winter miracle, and now they had been stolen.

It turned out that last night, while the overseer was looking at the cucumber greenhouse, he discovered that many of the cucumber vines had been torn and a significant number of the small cucumbers had been picked.

"Oh?" Lucas raised an eyebrow, surprised by this revelation.

To think that a squad of ten soldiers was stationed here for patrols, and even with their presence, vegetables were still stolen—this thief must be quite skilled.

"Let's go, take me to the place where it happened." Lucas instructed.

"Yes, my lord!" The overseer quickly got to his feet and hurriedly led the way.

The greenhouses were arranged in a grid pattern, and the stolen cucumber greenhouse was located in one of the corners.

Upon entering the cucumber greenhouse, the scene that greeted them was one of chaos. Some wooden frames had been cleaved down by a sharp instrument, and cucumber vines lay scattered all over the ground, causing Lucas to frown.

"Young Master, this thief is quite skilled," Mina observed as she squatted down, examining the faint footprints. "These prints are steady and deliberate. The thief wasn't afraid of being discovered, and the wooden frames were cut down with a longsword—very neatly done."

Mina's analysis stemmed from years of 'borrowing' experience; she didn't mind being discovered, believing that she could always fight her way out if necessary.

"How does that compare to your own skills?" Lucas raised an eyebrow, trusting Mina's judgment.

"It's hard to say!" Mina shook her head. With just these traces, she could only make rough estimates about the thief's abilities. Factors like weapon choice and fatigue would greatly influence their effectiveness.

"This is interesting; they actually dared to steal from my place." Lucas mused. He approached the cucumber vines, noting that a good portion of the main vine was still intact. Turning to the overseer, he instructed, "These half-cut cucumber vines will branch out and grow new vines after a while. Rebuild the wooden frames."

"Yes, my lord!" The overseer replied immediately, relieved that he wouldn't be facing a harsh reprimand after all.

Lucas then inspected the rest of the greenhouses, telling some ways to the caretaker he had read from the internet before heading to the military camp in the east of the city.

"Clip-clop, clip-clop…"

In the carriage, Lucas pondered whether the thief who stole the cucumbers had accidentally stumbled in or if there was someone inside leaking information. The implications of these two scenarios were quite different.

In the first case, Lucas would only suffer a temporary loss and just needed to catch the thief. In the second case, it would lead to a series of troubles.

"Young Master, are you considering sending people to keep watch?" Mina asked as she approached Lucas from behind, her slender, pale fingers pressing gently against his forehead.

"Yes! Based on your analysis, this thief will likely come again." Lucas closed his eyes, feeling that the former scenario was more probable. If Ben had sent someone to oversee the greenhouses, he must have conducted a thorough investigation first.

Some of the more confidential matters, like managing the greenhouses and selecting the villagers to help with weeding, were personally handled by Ben. The current villagers were still relatively innocent and unsophisticated.

Lucas decided to confront this vegetable thief who had dared to trespass on his territory. It was one thing to steal, but it was unacceptable to break the vines in the process.

"..."

More than ten kilometers away from Lucas's territory, there was a small hill with several mounds about ten meters high, formed from a rocky terrain.

In one of the hills, several boulders stacked together created a gap that served as a natural shelter. At this moment, Freya was hiding here.

"Crunch, crunch…"

Freya held a frozen, hard cucumber in her hand, slowly grinding it with her teeth. In this snowy weather, many things quickly froze solid, especially those with high moisture content.

She had been pursued by Santner's beastkin knights for two or three weeks, finally shaking them off just a day ago. The dog-like beastkin who had been following Santner was no slouch either; his skills were nearly on par with hers, and he had continually blocked her escape.

Although Freya had killed quite a few beastkins along the way, it had exhausted her significantly. If it hadn't been for her years of experience surviving in the woods, it would have been much more difficult to evade them.

After losing her pursuers, Freya hid in this rocky crevice, not even daring to make a fire for fear of attracting Santner's beastkin knights.

She knew that those beastkins would not give up until they caught her. Yet, at this moment, Freya felt more relieved because there was a good chance that the princess was still alive.

After all, the treasure map was not in her possession, meaning the princess must still be alive. Otherwise, the treasures of the Valtoria Beastkin Kingdom would have already attracted widespread attention.

"Phew…" Freya sighed, taking a hard bite of the cucumber, its coldness causing her gums to ache a bit.

"Forget it, I'll wait until tonight to pick some more." She said, tossing the cucumber aside. She missed the crisp taste of the cucumbers she had just harvested the night before.

Yesterday, Freya had gone out searching for food and stumbled upon those strange houses. She had hidden inside for quite some time, overhearing peculiar conversations and eventually managed to pick those cucumbers.

"Cucumber? The name really fits. It's incredible that those bizarre houses can grow vegetables." She said, tugging at the animal skin jacket she wore.

She was waiting for nightfall, planning to make another trip. The cucumbers suited her palate perfectly, but this time she needed to be cautious. The occupants would surely be on alert now that she had visited their vegetable-growing abode.

"By the way, it seems like I'm not far from Sedona City. Should I go in?" Freya pondered. She was worried that if she exposed herself, it might lead Santner straight to that place, which would spell disaster for Sedona City.

From what she had seen in Blade Edge City, Santner had at least three hundred beastkin knights under his command, and they were all busy crafting armor. If given a little time, Santner would definitely be able to organize an army of fully armed beastkin knights.

This was much more formidable than Bella's forces. Santner's beastkin knights were fully equipped and could stand against a thousand human knights. If things continued like this, in a few years, the Kingdom of Siacan might truly lose a significant portion of its territory to Santner.

Sedona City currently had a significant number of beastkins, and Santner's eyes would undoubtedly be fixed on it, as the beastkins were exactly the source of soldiers he needed.

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