On the way to the village, weighing her options, Tacha Macha was leaning more towards asking Molly Ridger, the old lady that had helped her the first time she came to the village.

It was thanks to her recommendation that she could avoid paying an exhorbitant price to stay at the local inn. Moreover, the system had recognized her as Molly’s best friend.

Having a chat with her wasn’t going to be problematic.

Aside from that, Tacha had a few questions to ask her. She had the intention to ask a couple of days ago, before she went to the ruins, but unfortunately she didn’t meet her in time. When she went to her home, she wasn’t inside.

With a rustic house with a well tended garden appearing on her view, she knew that she had arrived. She passed through the colorful flowers, glancing at the spot where her precious flower, the Star Chaser, was planted.

Tacha stopped abruptly. The Star Chaser was gone. Not even the little small flowers that used to surround it were there.

She thought it to be weird. Molly treated that flower like her pride and joy, it was strange that it had disappeared so suddendly. Tacha went closer and crouched down to have a better look.

The ground where the flower had been planted previously had a few blades of grass growing out of it, and it looked like it had been dug up recently. Maybe it died so she dug it up?

It was a pity that the flower was gone. It seemed like her desire of seeing it in full bloom was going to remain just that: a desire.

Shaking off the dirt from her hands, she got up and knocked on the door. After a minute Molly opened up the door “Sorry for the…” a look of surprise passed fast through old Molly’s face and it was soon changed to a pleasant smile “It has been a while. I thought you had left the village”

Granny Tacha shaked her head “I have been exploring the surrounding forest. I wanted to find a new flower to show to you” she felt no remorse in shamelessly lie to her.

“I see, there might be new plants in the depths. I don’t dare to go too far for fear of encountering strong monsters” then, as if suddendly remembering, Molly opened the door fully moving to the side along with it “But please, come in. I’m so excited to see you again that I forgot my manners”

With a nod, Tacha walked inside and old Molly closed the door behind her. Then the two headed for the living room, where they sat on the couch.

They chatted a bit about flowers and tea before Tacha brought up the Star Chaser “I saw that the purple flower surrounded by the little white ones disappeared. What happened to it?”

Molly’s lips twitched at the question “Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago it suddendly died and I have no idea why” she sighed before continuing “I couldn’t even see it bloom”

A couple of weeks? But the ground looked to be freshly dug up? “How unfortunate. I was really looking forward to it” inwardly Tacha was thinking of the reason why Molly was unwilling to say more. From her first impression of her, she was expecting to be drowning in complaints about the flower and its ways to die.

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Someone that knew how to grow up a rare flower species would definetly know how to keep it from dying.

Casting this suspicion aside, Tacha finally decided to ask for the information she came here for “By the way, while I was out in the forest I found some old ruins north west of here...” before she could continue, Molly made sign to keep silent.

Granny Tacha quietened down, indicating for Molly to explain with her eyes. The elderly lady first glanced at the windows before gesturing to Tacha to come closer.

When Molly saw Tacha leaning in, she whispered as she was afraid of being heard by someone “Never mention to the villagers about those ruins, they believe them to be cursed”

Tacha widened her eyes, as if it was the first time she heard of it “Are they?”

Molly shaked her head “No” then she smiled mischievously “Apparently, I heard this from the previous village chief, some great anciestors of his used to make a sacrificial ritual there. He was quite drunk that day, enough to spill the fact that he still kept a record of those rituals in a notebook”

Tacha fell deep in thought. It seemed like she had to pay a visit to the village chief. There was a high probability that he kept the notebook, more so since it was related to a chain quest.

“Then was it the previous chief that spread the word that the ruins were cursed?”

Molly thought about it for a bit before answering “I don’t think so. The fear of the ruins seemed to be rooted deeply in them. Probably it was a rumor started by his family a few generations prior. The position of chief in the village has always been hereditary, so it wouldn’t be strange for them to be able to keep it a secret for so long”

A hereditary position? If it goes as far back as the skeleton in the ruins, then maybe I can find out more about the ‘Tears of the Moon’ quest too. That would be killing two birds with one stone.

If, and only if she could make the chief talk.

Tacha nodded in satisfaction. Even if she didn’t get any new information from the chief she at least gained a few important clues. Then her mind flashed past to the moment her and Frӧst were trapped inside the secret chamber by someone. “Have you ever been to the ruins? They looked to be in the verge of collapse, so I didn’t dare to get too close”

“Yes, but there wasn’t much. Just a statue with peculiar clothes and some ruined books” Molly looked like she was trying hard to remember what she had seen.

The answer was similar to the one Old Hans, the innkeeper, had given her. Even if she wanted to suspect someone, there wasn’t enough evidence to pinpoint the culprit.

Of course, the decisive evidence was the posession of the sword Kirio had given her. That had been the mechanism to keep the secret passage open.

Tacha chatted with Molly some more about the ruins, but no more details came out except for the name of a few villagers.

Brett Frisk, the current village chief. Caius Prime, the one responsible for keeping the village history records. And lastly Ella Midwright, whose family could be also considered to be one of the oldest in the village.

All of them could hold clues about the history of the ruins. In hopes of gaining a few more clues, Tacha tried to ask a few more questions from different angles about those people. However maybe it was because she was unwilling to share any more details, but Molly didn’t say anything relevant to her quest anymore.

It seemed like she couldn’t get any more information out of her.

After chatting some more and exchanging a promise of seeing each other again soon, Tacha left to continue her investigation.

Now she had a few options in front of her: she could go ask the people Molly told her about a few questions, or go the roundabout way and ask Old Hans about it instead. Lastly she could go back to the ruins and see if the one that had trapped her and Frӧst down there had laft any clues behind.