OBS Chapter 2979: Closing Time Cumming's Father
Chapter 2979: Closing Time Cumming's Father
Chapter 2979 Closing Time - Father of Cumming
Even though the hunter kneeling on the snow was now under forcible control, 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 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 therefore traumatized, he is simply a villain. He is cruel, vicious, bad-tempered, and hates this forest very much.
He was not allowed to leave here, but he yearned for the outside world, so he did everything he could to blaspheme my faith. In 1829, when the boy was eighteen years old, he seduced a woman from the city and had sex with her in front of this temple. I killed him, and I killed my adopted son and buried him here too.
Xia De took a deep breath. This development of the story was indeed something he had not expected:
"Since the tree let you raise him, then you won't be punished if you kill 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 at that time that the purpose of raising the child, the purpose of everything, might be just to let him be eighteen years old. I am guilty, but God, why don't you ever respond to me? I know you have left, but why don't you show me any mercy?"
The hunter no longer struggled, but tears were still streaming down his face.
Xia De's face turned a little cold, and he thought of a possibility:
"What is the 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 named James Cumming!"
James Cumming was born in 1830, and came into contact with the tree hole in 1854. He traveled through time to make Erica pregnant in 1803, which led to the birth of his "father", Baron Cumming, in late 1803. Five years later, in 1808, James' mother was born, and was stolen by Baron Cumming from the 1809s in 20, causing James' mother, the future Baroness, to be adopted by foster parents.
The adopted Baroness had an affair with the "wild boy" in the forest in 1829 after marrying the Baron, and eventually gave birth to James Cumming in 1830, who was not related to the Baron by blood, but was in fact related by blood.
At this point, the Cumming family's complex relationships and family connections that have lasted for half a century have finally come to a close, and Shad finally knows the question 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 about how Miss Owl would react to such an ending to the story.
In the story involving love, hatred and vengeance of three generations, everyone's actions are voluntary and reasonable, and they are in line with the characters' personalities. So together, together with the book "Opening the Forest Door: Our Animal Companions", they jointly wrote this family story with entangled character relationships and heavy-tasting plots, and involving the grievances of three generations - if this story is written and published, it will probably be more popular than a detective novel.
Even the stranger was silent for a long time, but he still remembered that the reason he came here was not because of the missing boy, nor because of solving the mystery of the Cumming family:
"Is your adopted son's body also here?"
"Yes."
Shade looked at the corner outside the temple, where the bodies were hidden. Because it was not next to the temple ruins, this was not blasphemy, but a primitive ritual to kill the blasphemer and let 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 since 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 ones looking for kids, yeah."
Thinking carefully, Shade couldn't describe any special features 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 normal people:
"Are there any strange ordinary people who come looking for the child?"
Miss Orlanod's magic was still in effect, and the hunter answered the question:
"There was an ordinary person who almost found us. The way he appeared was strange, as if he appeared out of thin air in the forest. Afterwards, I wanted to trace his traces in reverse and investigate the path he took, but I couldn't find any traces."
Xia De knew that this was the person he was looking for:
"What happened to that man? Was he killed by you? Or by that kid?"
"I never actively hunt humans, and that kid didn't have the ability to kill back then. I used illusion to create a trap to lure him away, and then he went to the city. I kept an eye on him for a while, and although he entered the forest several times afterwards, he 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 downtown accordion hotel that Schade had guessed.
"He rented a house in the old town, at 8 Herb Garden Alley."
After more than thirty years, he did not still remember the address, but the memory hidden in his soul was forcibly turned out by the bone claw.
While the magic was still in effect, Shad asked a lot of questions. It seemed that the Bennet family was not the only one serving the tree in this forest. It had more than one pigeon, but Bennet was probably the most important.
The tasks performed by hunters in the forest, apart from raising children, which is the most important, are mostly small jobs such as "dig something out from somewhere and send it to somewhere on a certain day of a certain month of a certain year", "guide people who are lost somewhere", and "drive away poachers".
Rather than working for the Ancient One, it was more like he was taking a part-time job as a "forest ranger" in exchange for the "boy's resurrection."
After careful investigation, he really hadn't done anything bad over the years. In fact, the only person he killed was the adopted son who desecrated the temple - killed twice. In this forest, there were only seven followers of the old god [Hunter Lady], and this hunter was the highest level ring warlock.
Others didn't know that he was serving the Ancient Ones, and the disappearance of his "adopted son" was explained away with the excuse that "I sent him to study in another province. He doesn't have the talent for a ring sorcerer and shouldn't be with us."
Therefore, these believers of the old gods can still be won over to the camp of the church and the college.
The power to stop time that the hunter used just now of course also came from the forest. In fact, except for the night of 1819, he had never seen the giant tree in his memory that seemed to connect heaven and earth.
All the orders he received were "told by the forest." This was not because he had hysteria or delirium, but because the Hunting God's cult itself had a tradition of "communicating with the spirit of the forest," which was left by the elves in the cult during its heyday.
In this way, he has carried out about 300 orders over the past 30 years. He will obtain the power of time and tree after completing 50 tasks.
This also has a lot to do with the fact that he was able to become the highest-ranking ring warlock in the now declining cult.
The hunters even have a good relationship with the [Forest Hermits], and they often go to the hermits to exchange supplies or help the hermits patrol the forest. If it weren't for the different beliefs and lifestyles, the hunters would probably have moved to the hermits' residence many years ago.
Xia De asked questions for a full twenty minutes before the bone claw disappeared. The hunter fainted due to excessive mental energy consumption.
Xia De checked his condition, bound him with the "Light of Imprisonment", and then came to the interior of the temple ruins with a heavy heart. There was actually nothing to see here, because there was no roof, so the light was very good and everything could be seen at a glance.
Miss Orlanod was standing in front of the square stone platform in the middle, checking something. She didn't turn around when she heard the sound of Shade's boots stepping on the snow behind her. Instead, she spoke directly:
"In our time, the demise of the Old Gods' cults had already begun. Guess what was the main reason for the demise of the cults?"
Xia De came to her side and thought about it:
"After the gods left, the believers did not receive a response, and after several generations, their faith became unsteady, which led to the collapse of the cult?"
As he spoke, he turned around to look at the hunter outside the ruins. The hunter had just called out several times, "God, why don't you respond to me?"
Although Shade had witnessed the departure of the gods with his own eyes and knew what "departure" meant, it was impossible for others to know. They had only read a few words in the book, so they could have any idea in their minds.
In the period when gods really existed, firm faith was of course normal, but it is hard to say after that.
"Yes, doubts and confusion may be overcome for believers who once knew the existence of God, but as faith continues to be passed on, doubts will eventually arise. When doubts are not answered, confusion will give rise to blasphemy, and ultimately lead to the end of unified faith. Even if there are still one or two devout people in the end, the ending of the story will not change much."
Miss Olanord's hand gently brushed across the table in front of her:
"I heard all your questions and answers just now. I'm not sure about the whole story you want to investigate, but I can tell that this cult is about to disappear. Even if this incident didn't happen, the Hunter Cult would definitely have problems in a few generations."