When the rusty copper bell in this small settlement was ringed less than a minute, Hayes found them surrounded by Fitz's tribe.
These people generally have deformities. Recalling Fitz's appearance, Hayes found that Fitz was very normal in comparison. The average height of these fishing people in the eye clan was no more than 1.5 meters tall, and their eyes were very large, some even had eyelids. The pupils in the eyeballs were as small as needles. The big whites in the protruding eye sockets seemed to fall off at any time.
The second most conspicuous one is the big mouth, which is also reflected in Fitz. At the same time, their skin also has psyllium and markings similar to fish scales.
If it were the past, Hayes would have been afraid to die in the face of this scene, but now he is just answering every question in a gentle manner.
But they are actually asking the same thing.
Where is Fitz?
Obviously, this means one thing, the death notice was not delivered to them.
"Fez...Fez is back?"
Just when Hayes didn't know how to answer, an old voice made the crowd separate the road.
The man who had been talking to Hayes came forward with a hunchbacked figure than him. When he came to Hayes, the visitor opened his heavy hood, revealing his slender white hair and his face eroded by wind and rain.
She looks relatively normal and looks a bit similar to Fitz.
But the old woman still had some mutant features, with sunken skin and covered in scars, her gray dead flesh shining, her eyes were larger than normal, and her mouth was so.
“You are…”
"Oh, this gentleman, forgot to introduce himself. I am Fez's grandmother, just call me Mwamaka."
Hayes said nothing, but took out Fitz's expedition manual, the copper pendant he held before his death, and his nameplate.
The moment he saw these three things, the old woman's body suddenly shaking, and the people around him hurriedly helped her, followed by a cry of sob.
Hayes never thought he would take on the role of a mourner, which made him feel sad, but he also felt a little guilty. If it weren't for him, would Fitz's family have been holding on to hope?
Even false hope...
Later he learned that these can be said to be Fitz's family. They are a big family that has been around forever. At first, he met the cousin of Fitz. Their family has settled here for hundreds of years, but has been suffering from mutation and deformity. Fitz is the young man with the lowest mutation angle among them. In a sense, it is also the only "hope" of this miserable family.
In the eyes of others, such mutations often represent impiety and depravity. For the Paleo Eye tribe who has little knowledge, the suffering they suffered from since birth gradually formed a theory of original sin in the subtle influence around them, and this argument became a certain statement under the repeated claims of the priests.
In order to atone for their sins, they often donate half of their harvest to churches in Linhu Town, hoping to obtain redemption.
But for hundreds of years, salvation has never come.
They are still suffering from mutation, and they continue to donate fishing from their blood and sweat to the church, and endure poverty and discrimination. Only Fitz hopes to change all this.
But Fitz also knew nothing. All he could do was listen to the propaganda of the priests and eventually took the pendant of his dead mother to the battlefield.
After hearing this, Hayes was in a very bad mood, but he could not use words to describe his inner emotions.
The scene when Fitz was killed rolled in his mind like a wave, and all he could say was to tell these miserable people that their Fitz died like a hero, and everyone was proud of him, and the God Emperor would favor everyone.
That's all.
Because he knew that it would be difficult to use certificates of deposit in the bottom nest, Hayes had exchanged the precious metal currencies before coming, put them in a solid small bag, and handed them to Fitz's family, and said that it was left by Fitz.
To thank Hayes, the Bubble Eye Clan specially brought out the best food to entertain him in the cleanest room.
Although Hayes was a little resistant to those "fishes", it was not easy to refuse directly. Fortunately, there were not many, two or three.
His two wives definitely didn't want to eat it. He gritted his teeth and peeled off the red shell that had been boiled, picked up the pale pieces of meat inside and put them in his mouth.
In fact, it’s not bad, except for a fishy smell, it’s nothing, and the taste is even tender.
But soon Hayes discovered that it seemed that he was the only one eating "fish" in this village, and the others were huddling in the distance and gathering in the shadows.
When he walked over and saw that they were all eating something that was simply boiled in water, similar to algae and aquatic plants, including children. Then he asked Fitz's cousin curiously, but the other party was hesitant and unwilling to say it. At his request, he finally told Hayes that fish is very precious and the only way for them to obtain various daily necessities, so they eat salty algae salvaged in this water every day - and the fish had to be handed over part to the church and part to the town, and finally left a little dry. Wait until some festivals were celebrated or sold in the town for a good price.
"We are used to everything, we can eat it without hurting our tongue..."
Hayes squatted down speechlessly, and in their astonished eyes, he picked up a piece of wet salty algae from the pottery that looked like some kind of filthy swamp and put it into his mouth.
The moment he entered the mouth, he seemed to have been directly filled with salt. After rejecting for a moment, he felt that his tongue and upper teeth were almost numb, as if there was no water plant in his mouth, but a whole dry hemp rope.
No matter how hard he tried, he could not swallow it. Even in the most difficult moments in the group, he had never eaten such a bad thing.
But these people from the Puff Clan have eaten for hundreds of years!
Before leaving the pomegranate clan, Hays repeatedly asked if anyone had sent letters or anything during this period, but they all replied that no one would come to deliver letters in this place, and they were all sent to the church in the town, but the church notified them to collect them.
This has always been the case.
Hayes finally understood something, but he said nothing, saying goodbye to these fishermen who looked ugly but were actually simple, kind and even cowardly.
Chapter completed!