"The sea breeze is quite noisy tonight!"

Joey is already sailing back to the Gold Rush town.

Because he was not very familiar with the current situation in Gold Rush Town, he chose to arrive at night in order to avoid unnecessary risks.

Although Captain Zoro had informed Joey that he had previously sent six men to Gold Rush Town to investigate the situation, Joey had not yet made contact with them and still needed to be cautious.

The sea breeze was strong tonight, and the waves rose and fell, but Joey's sailboat rode the wind, broke through the waves, and sailed smoothly closer and closer to the gold rush town.

This sailboat is really nice, absolutely amazing!

"arrive!"

Joey sailed for another hour or so, and the coastline was already faintly visible under the moonlight.

This time, Joey didn't sail directly into the port of Gold Rush Town. Instead, he chose to moor the sailboat at a point a kilometer away from the port, not wanting to repeat the accident that happened last time.

He towed the sailboat onto the beach, slowly moved it to a dense forest, and finally covered it with some dead branches and leaves to disguise it.

While the night was still out, he began to sneak toward the gold rush town.

The gold rush town had quieted down late at night, and most of the shops on the street were closed, with only a few shops favored by men still open.

Joey tried to conceal himself and avoid the slightly flickering candlelight as he walked toward the mayor's house.

"They're still keeping the candles lit!"

Joey walked to the outside of the wall of a villa. Candlelight shone from the third-floor window, and several figures moved back and forth in the candlelight, seemingly not intending to go to sleep.

The security at the mayor's house was unknown, and Joey didn't dare to climb over the wall. He didn't want to race against a few vicious dogs if they came at him.

Joey circled the villa, looking for the crooked-necked tree that often appeared in stories.

"Hey, there really is one. So the TV dramas from my past life weren't all made up!"

Joey muttered to himself, secretly pleased.

He hugged the thick tree trunk and began to climb the tree.

Once Joey had climbed the tree trunk, he moved along a branch toward the window.

At this moment, the figures visible through the window became much clearer. There were three people in this room on the third floor, and two of the figures looked somewhat familiar.

"One of them seems to be Charlie, the clever son of our mayor, and the other is a soldier staying in that secluded wooden house, a guy who's not to be trifled with!"

Joey crawled a little further forward, thinking that if he got closer, he might be able to eavesdrop on something.

"If we can't find that girl, I'll hand you over to Prince Barton and let him deal with you!"

The person speaking must be the mayor. Although Joey couldn't see his face, he could tell that Joey was furious.

If it weren't for his father, Joey really couldn't think of anyone else who could make such an arrogant and domineering guy like Charlie act like a docile rabbit without daring to utter a sound.

However, Joey kept Prince Barton in mind. He felt that this was a key figure, and that the poor girl Catherine was sold out here, which must have been partly due to this prince.

"Father, I've been trying my best to find her. If I had known this woman was so important, I wouldn't have dared to sell her even if I had ten lives!"

Charlie seemed a little aggrieved. His father, the mayor, hadn't told him anything about this important woman and kept her locked up in that cabin. If he weren't short of money, he wouldn't have bothered to take advantage of the woman in that cabin.

"Trying to find him? Don't think that searching for a few days counts as trying. He was lost while you were in his care, so you have to take responsibility!"

"Also, what happened at the port that day?"

The town mayor seemed to be deliberately biased towards his son. After giving him a simple reprimand, he turned to ask the soldier beside him.

"Your Excellency Mayor, the woman was indeed spotted that morning, along with the man who bought her!"

"It was just a little late, which allowed them to escape!"

The soldier answered the town mayor's questions with great care and showed no intention of hiding anything.

"But I heard that a dwarf was left behind. Why wasn't he captured?"

Joey was overjoyed when he heard the news from the tree. It seemed that the bearded man had a lucky streak when he killed people, and he hadn't been caught by them when he was covering the rear last time.

However, Joey also became curious about how the bearded man managed to escape from that desperate situation.

"Mayor, it's the same group of people again. The group you asked me to investigate showed up again that day. They seem to be deliberately going against us, always popping up to ruin our plans!"

The soldier's tone was unfriendly, suggesting that this wasn't the first time the group he was referring to had messed things up for him.

"It's them again?"

"Have we not yet found out where these guys who suddenly appeared a few months ago came from?"

The mayor restrained his anger.

"They are acting very cautiously, and we haven't been able to catch them yet, which has slowed down the investigation. But one thing I'm sure of is that they are very likely from the military!"

The soldier spoke with absolute certainty, and the town mayor had no choice but to believe him and begin to think about it.

If these people are indeed from the military, then which military unit do they belong to?

The town mayor is equivalent to a local official. Although his position is not high, he shouldn't have allowed a group of soldiers to come to his territory without permission and cause him so much trouble.

The mayor was still pondering the connection, but clever Charlie had already figured it out.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!