Red reined his surprise in and looked over at Domeron. The swordsman was staring at him with an inquisitive gaze, as if waiting for his input.
Red just shook his head. Whatever he needed to say to the swordsman could wait until they were out of here.
Domeron frowned but didn’t insist, looking back at the girl. “Was that all you heard?”
“It’s all I remember.” The girl sounded disappointed. “I-I was scared when she started to speak like that. She didn’t even notice I was in the same room before she started packing.”
“Did you see her write this?” Domeron pointed at the table.
“I did.” The girl nodded. “I asked her what she was doing, but she ignored me.”
“Did you see her do anything else?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I tried to stop her but she… she didn’t listen.”
“It’s fine.” Domeron patted the girl’s head. “You’ve already told us enough. Now run along and let us speak to your elders.”
The girl nodded and left the house after throwing a glance at Red one final time.
A few seconds later, the men were left alone in the room again.
Domeron looked over at the elder with a stern expression. “Why did you want to hide this from us?”
The elder gritted his rotting teeth. “They told us they were workin’ for a big shot in town. I told them what the girl told me about her mum, and then they said if we told anyone anythin’ about that, they would have our hides.”
Red immediately had a guess. “Did they mention the name Gustav?”
“Aye, that’s the one!”
Domeron and Red exchanged glances. Neither of them was surprised by this, but just because Gustav’s name was mentioned, it didn’t mean the merchant was directly involved in the matter.
The swordsman frowned. “So what you told earlier about threatening them was a lie?”
“It wasn’t! I did threaten them, but they weren’t scared and kept poking around! Only after I told them what the girl said to me did they finally leave with their threats.”
This explained a lot to Red.
“What made you change your mind?” Domeron asked.
“It’s been almost a week already with no news of these men or Erika.” the elder said. “Folks disappear sometimes around these parts, eaten by monsters or what not, but not in the way Erika went. A-After what happened with her husband, it would be remiss of me to ignore somethin’ this strange what with her daughter now all alone. So I thought it wouldn’t be any harm to ask you for help if you were offerin’… but when the girl barged in, I- I started to get cold feet.”
Domeron looked at Red, and the youth hesitated with a frown. This was their silent way of communicating with each other about whether they thought the elder was lying. At this moment, Red couldn’t detect a lie in his crimson sense, but after earlier, he wasn’t too confident in his power.
It seemed like the youth’s hesitation was all the swordsman needed for now.
He looked back at the elder. “Is there something else you’re hiding from us?”
“No! That’s all I know.” The elder shook his head. “… W-Well, there is somethin’ else, but I’m not sure if it’s important.”
Domeron insisted. “Tell me.”
“Well, some of us have been havin’ nightmares.” The elder said. “Nothin’ strange about that, but it’s been happenin’ too often to too many people. Been worried that somethin’ bad is happening here.”
Red frowned. “What kind of nightmares?”
“I-It’s not the same for everyone.” The elder shook his head. “But people have been sayin’ they have been seein’ themselves die in all kinds of ways. Y-You understand why I’m worried, right? I mean, what if we’re bein’ haunted?”
The youth understood it all too well. He imagined the elder’s earlier concern about the girl was all an excuse to appear righteous in front of the duo and the only reason he actually opened up to them was because of these nightmares. In the end, however, he was probably justified in doing it.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Have they also been seeing or hearing things?” Red asked, the image of the rotting villagers gathered in the square still fresh in his mind.
“Not that I know.” The elder shook his head.
Domeron nodded. “It might just be coincidence, but given the circumstances, we can’t discard anything out of hand.”
“So what are ye goin’ to do?” The elder looked at them with some eagerness. “Are ye goin’ to warn the baron about it?”
Domeron nodded. “We’ll be informing him about what has happened here without delay.”
Red didn’t say anything, but he knew the swordsman was definitely lying. His words, however, seemed to be enough to satisfy both the elder and the young farmhand.
“Is there anythin’ else you need?” the elder asked.
“No.” Domeron shook his head. “We will be on our way posthaste.”
The two of them did just that. They picked their weapons back up and left the village under the scrutiny of the inhabitants.
Even right to the last moment Red was on these grounds, the villagers all still seemed to be walking corpses in the process of rotting. As soon as they were out of his sight, he couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.
Domeron looked at him with a weird expression. “What happened?”
Red shook his head. “Let’s get far enough from here first.”
They walked for almost half an hour, and only after they confirmed they weren’t being followed did they stop to talk. When it came down to it, however, Red was still hesitant about what to say about what he saw.
Domeron frowned at this. “You still don’t trust me?”
“Nothing has changed.” Red shook his head. “But I do recognize that as things stand, you know more than enough of my secrets to have compromised my well-being a long time ago… However, I can’t claim to trust you completely either.”
The swordsman sighed. “You know we can’t go back to speak with Hector right now. Not if we still plan on doing anything with this dagger.”
Indeed, they were already a week behind whoever those mercenaries were, and if they decided to go back to town, it would take at least another week until they returned. Who knew what could change during that time?
In the end, Red relented. “I saw something as soon as I arrived in the village… The villagers, they all looked like zombies to me.”
Domeron frowned as he heard this. “I assume this was the reason for the weird question, right?”
Red nodded. “Not only that, but I felt that with every passing moment, their bodies were deteriorating.”
Before he could say anything else, though, Aurelia’s voice reached his ears. “What did you see exactly? Describe it!”
Red, of course, chose to ignore her for now.
Domeron spoke up. “I don’t necessarily know why you saw what you saw, but considering everything that is happening, it can’t be a good sign. Maybe it’s even a premonition of some kind.”
“A premonition?” Red frowned.
“It’s hard to explain. No one really knows why it happens, but some cultivators suppose that some cultivators can become naturally attuned to the threads of fate of the world and get a glimpse of events yet to come. It’s how clairvoyants can predict the future to some degree, but I hear it can happen to normal cultivators on rare occasions, too.”
“That’s ridiculous! It can happen, but that’s only for powerful cultivators. How could someone like you…” Aurelia trailed off as if realizing something. “It’s that damn tumor of yours!”
Red also came to the same realization, but he didn’t say anything. He looked at Domeron. “So you suppose that I am seeing a future where all these villagers die and their corpses are left to rot?”
“That would certainly be a way to interpret it.” Domeron nodded. “Unfortunately, I don’t think premonition can be interpreted in such a direct manner, but I don’t have any experience in it.”
Red frowned. “What else could it mean?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, but it certainly can’t mean anything good for the villagers.” Domeron shook his head. “Which brings us to the matter at hand - what kind of energy is at work in this village?”
Aurelia scoffed. “Visions of white-haired women, rotting corpses, and possibly possession. What else could it be but some kind of undead influence?”
“It has to be some kind of undead influence.” Red said.
Domeron nodded. “I agree. I thought at first that the girl’s mother might be some kind of spy, but we found nothing to indicate anything else, which leads me to believe she was probably possessed by something. Do you still remember what she wrote?”
“I do.” Red nodded.
“Good. We could try deciphering it later. The crux of the matter, however, is still this supposed bone dagger of Rimold’s.” Domeron said. “No one in the village mentioned it, which seems inconsistent with his earlier reports, but it’s hard to say from just a single case. It might be that this Gavin just didn’t mention it to anyone, but in the end it doesn’t matter. Dagger or no dagger, it’s clear that we are dealing with something very powerful here, capable of influencing things from very large distances. On top of it all, this force is possibly sentient if we are to believe it was talking with the girl’s mother and leading her on to another place.”
“We could try tracking this woman.” Red said. “The trail might be cold after a week, but we could also try following after those supposed mercenaries if they were after the same thing.”
Domeron sighed. “Before we make a decision, we need to get all our facts straight, understand what we are dealing with and the kind of dangers awaiting us. If this is really affecting the entire regions, it’s easy to believe that what is happening in this village is also happening in all other villages where those disappearances happened… There could be hundreds of lives at stake here, maybe thousands if this manages to reach our town or beyond.”
Only now did the weight of what they were dealing was truly dawning on Red. An unseen, malicious force spreading through the region and possibly corrupting every inhabitant without their knowledge. This was worse than a monster they could see.
“Do you have any idea what the woman was talking about?” Domeron asked. “‘Where the Moon meets the earth.’”
Red, of course, knew it all too well, but he hesitated to speak on it.
“… I have some ideas, but-”
The youth’s words were caught in his throat, because at that exact moment he saw a change in Domeron. A grey aura, weak at first, started to spread around his body before covering his entire person, much in the same manner as it did to Rimold once.
The swordsman, however, seemed oblivious to it.
He looked at Red in confusion. “Is something wrong?”