Nicolae could immediately find the origin of the sound with his sharp hearing. He walked silently to one of the black-painted boats parked by the river. He couldn't see anyone on the deck. He heard the voice of a woman grumbling in Polish, and a man responded, coming from inside the cabin.
Nicolae understood only a little, and he tried to guess what really happened and who they were. Did these two people hit their child because they considered her naughty?
No matter what, he couldn't let a child be beaten by an adult like that. He sneaked into the boat and paid attention to the situation inside.
As soon as his eyes caught the sight in the cabin, Nicolae's chest was filled with anger. He saw a woman in her 30-s with a cruel face was tying a girl about five years old with a rope. The little girl was struggling, but she couldn't scream. Her mouth was plastered with duct tape.
A note: When I wrote the criminal characters in this chapter to be Polish, it's just a coincidence. I have nothing against Polish people :). I just wanted to show that Nicolae could understand some other languages that are not his main languages, because of his travels.
We already know that anyone from any nation could be good or bad. The criminal in Singapore (Rosemary's father) who tried to hurt Aleksis was Singaporean, the evil girls who bully Finland were Indonesians, Elien Mikhailova who was used by the Russian mob to approach Alaric was Russian, and we'll also see French mafia later in the story.
Plus, don't forget, Alaric and his old assassin group consisted of people of different nationalities. They were, in a way, bad guys too.