Professor Drake's research materials recorded 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 summarized five rules for seeing the "Lady of the Lake".
First, you must appear alone by the lake in the west of Huntington City. You can have a mount or a pet, but you cannot be accompanied by other humanoid intelligent creatures.
Secondly, the sun must still be above the horizon when encountering the Lady of the Lake, as no sightings have occurred in the dark of night;
Third, all those who claimed to have encountered the "Lady of the Lake" or entered the "Lake of Cherubim", including Professor Drake, were all men. Even the protagonists of the local folk tales were men.
Fourth, people 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 most importantly, if you always think about meeting the "Lady of the Lake", you will never meet her. Only if you forget your purpose, you may accidentally turn around and see the legendary lake.
The above rules were summarized by Professor Drake himself. Many people have read these materials, and even the local church has obtained these materials from Professor Drake, but no one has been able to see the legendary goddess again.
But for Shad, any clue is better than no clue, and the professor's summary seems to make sense.
He prepared his notebook, gun and sword, went into the city to visit Professor Drake, who was in a wheelchair, again, talked to him in more detail, had lunch in the city, and then left the city again and headed to the west of the city.
Unlike the great plains and low hills in the east of Huntington, the western part of the city is close to the Pantanal swamp, so it is mostly wetlands and lakes. Although the terrain is relatively flat, it is not suitable for living because of the miasma that drifts out of the swamp area every summer.
There are several smaller towns just west of Huntington on the city's edge, and further west you can only see small farms and orchards dotted between the lakes.
The roads here are quite difficult to walk on, even on horseback, the horse's hooves occasionally sink into the mud on the road. There is no regular maintenance of rural dirt roads, and coupled with the influence of the Pantanal swamp area, the infrastructure here is almost completely non-existent.
The clues Shade currently had were not enough for him to find the Lake of Cherubim, where the goddess of the lake was said to live. Therefore, he followed Professor Drake's notes and planned to retrace the path that the professor had taken.
The first stop is Lower Luther Village, located in the west of Huntington. The professor started from this village, and there happened to be a witness of the "Lady of the Lake" in the village. The village got its name because it is located south of Luther Lake and is just below Luther Lake on the map.
This is a typical rural village in Carsenrick. When the well-dressed Shade came on horseback, the villagers cast curious glances at him, but did not dare to get too close. It was not until Shade stepped on the mud and led the bay horse into the village that the village sheriff approached carefully and asked Shade's purpose.
Most of the local villagers had a heavy accent, but the middle-aged sheriff who looked strong had a very standard accent. When Shade explained his purpose in broken Carsenric and hoped to meet old Mr. Graves who claimed to have seen the Lady of the Lake eight years ago, the sheriff happily agreed:
"Old Graves loved to tell people this story. We liked to listen to it at first, but later he kept repeating it over and over again, and people got tired of it. Sir, you come from a big city, so you may not understand our rural life here. It is indeed interesting to listen to other people's stories on boring days, but when that story has been repeated for eight years, no one can stand it."
Old Mr. Graves lived a good life in the small village. When he was young, he fished by Lake Luther. Later, he dug his own pond and raised fish. Although his annual income was not as much as that of city dwellers, it was at least better than that of his fellow villagers who worked in the fields.
When Xia De saw the old man, he was sitting in a rocking chair, basking in the sun in front of the gray-white earth wall of his house, where a string of bacon was drying. When the skinny old man looked at Xia De, Xia De noticed that there was nothing in his left eye socket.
Since there were some difficulties in language communication between the two parties, the sheriff who was free to join in the fun was asked to translate for both parties.
The content of the conversation was simple. Shade asked the gray-haired old Mr. Grave about his past. The talkative old man spoke with a heavy country accent and described the "great adventure" eight years ago in as much detail as possible.
The general process is that eight years ago, that is, in the winter of 1845 in the universal calendar, Mr. Graves, who was 43 years old at the time, had nothing to do in the winter, so on a snowy morning, he carried a fishing rod, a bucket, and a notebook, and planned to go fishing in the frozen Luther Lake.
He set out at eight in the morning and found a suitable spot on the lake at half past nine. After breaking the ice, he caught a black snake with his first rod, and the snake spoke:
"I'm going to kill you—that's what it says."
The old man excitedly described it to Xia De, and when he opened his mouth, Xia De could even 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 onto the shore from the other side of Lake Luther. After entering a bare forest in winter, the snake disappeared, but a big furry rabbit jumped out:
"You're going the wrong way—that's what it says."
Old Mr. Graves waved his hands, trying his best to imitate the voice of the rabbit, while the middle-aged sheriff was trying hard to hold back his laughter. It seemed that no matter how many times he had heard it, this story was still funny to him.
The rabbit had no ill will towards Mr. Graves. Instead, it kindly asked him to leave the woods and told him how to avoid the snake. So, Mr. Graves, who did not dare to approach Lake Luther again, planned to take a detour home. However, as soon as he left the woods, he met a raven flying from nowhere on a snowy dirt road in the countryside:
"I'll tell you where you should go now—this is what it says!"
The old man who was telling the story became more and more excited, as if he had returned to the "great adventure" of that day, and the wrinkles on his face piled up in his smile. Xia De kept his face stern and didn't say anything, listening to him continue to talk.
Under the guidance of the raven, eight years ago, old Mr. Graves went further and further away. After passing through an unfamiliar winter wetland bush area, he actually encountered a small lake he had never seen before.
At that time, Mr. Graves seemed to have received "divine inspiration". He didn't know how he walked on the frozen lake surface into the center of the lake, and met a white-haired old woman on the island in the middle of the lake.
The old lady invited Mr. Grave to go fishing with her. Mr. Grave thought he couldn't go home empty-handed, so he agreed. They fished from noon to dusk. Mr. Grave was very lucky and caught six big carps, while the old lady 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, for this was clearly the climax of his memorable story.
"So what did you wish for?"
Shad asked curiously, glancing at the sheriff, who was staring at him, as if trying to see what expression Shad would make next.
"Yes, I want her fishing rod!"
Mr. Grave raised his hands and praised Shade:
"Her fishing rod is really nice. I have been fishing for so many years, but I have never seen such a beautiful, sturdy and convenient alloy telescopic fishing rod. The fishing line and matching fish hooks are also the stuff you can only see in big cities. Even if she doesn't give it to me, I am willing to exchange my house for that fishing rod, so when she asked me to make a wish, I agreed immediately!"
"And then?"
Shade 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?"
"It was picked up by my grandson, naughty little Louis, three years ago. I was very sad for a while, but later someone from the cathedral bought it for 10 pounds."
Because Mr. Graves' story was more like a fabricated fairy tale, Shade had to look at the sheriff who was trying not to laugh. The sheriff nodded:
"Yes, eight years ago, when Graves came back with that beautiful fishing rod and his story, it did attract people from the city, but they only came to listen to his story. As for the magical lake, Graves couldn't find it even if he tried to look for it himself. I bet he fell into the lake and was frozen unconscious that day. As for the fishing rod, I don't know where he picked it up from."
He laughed loudly, and Old Mr. Graves was not angry, but repeatedly explained to Shade that his story was absolutely true. Although there were some processing elements in the details, the experience was absolutely true.
Not only the Orthodox Church and Professor Drake, but also many people in this village had heard the story of old Mr. Graves. Most of them were very interested in the "Lady of the Lake", but no one could find the lake based on Mr. Graves' story.
But no matter what, at least the story was interesting, and Shad felt that his time was not wasted.
He left the old man 1 pound as a fee for listening to his story. Before leaving the village, Shad asked the enthusiastic middle-aged sheriff how old Graves's left eye was blind. The latter asked curiously:
"Does this incident have anything to do with his story? That left eye was blinded many years ago."
"What time exactly?"
Shade asked again, and led the bay horse over. The horse docilely ate the hay that the neighbor had piled outside the house for the winter, so Shade had to pay 5 pence. The woman with her head wrapped in a headscarf waved her hand to indicate that she didn't want any money, so Shade gave her child a few sugar cubes.
"I really don't know about that. I was transferred here from the next town to be the sheriff, which was 12 years ago. He was already blind."
The sheriff walked to the village entrance with Shade, who was leading the horse, and called out to the gray-haired old man who was working as a blacksmith with his upper body bare at the entrance of the village:
"Hans, when did old Gretel go blind?"
"Damn it, how should I know?"
The old blacksmith cursed in Kasenric, which Shade could not translate, and then said:
"When you go blind, you go blind."
The middle-aged sheriff then turned to Shade and shrugged:
"You see, country folk have no sense of time, and if nothing memorable happened that year, it would be hard to tell the difference between 1853 and 1852. But old Graves went blind much earlier than the story he tells us begins."