Free Web NovelKare was amused by Luna’s sudden knock and question at the door; he grinned and said,
“Big Sister Luna, last time we came this was already a dead village. It’s only been a day—how could anyone have moved in, haha...”
But halfway through laughing, Kare stopped laughing.
Everyone was staring at him in silence. Realizing something was wrong, Kare quickly made a zipper-across-the-lips gesture at his mouth and shifted into a fighting stance toward the sentry post.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?”
A dry, old voice came from the window.
Luna lowered her hand and said, “We are adventurers. We got lost while passing through and wanted to find a place to rest.”
“We don’t welcome outsiders here!” the dry, old voice said.
Luna was about to keep bluffing when someone at her side moved first!
Boom!
With thunderous momentum, the bald Arc threw a punch, smashing down half the wall!
At the side, Kare—who had been ready to act—froze. He had not expected anyone to move even faster than him!
After smashing the wall, Arc jumped straight into the ruins, grabbed the owner of the dry, old voice by the clothes, and dragged him out, throwing him before everyone.
It was an old man, thin as a skeleton.
“You despicable outsiders! The God of Death will curse you! You will die wretchedly!”
Smack!
Arc slapped the old man across the face. “Speak. Who are you? Why are you here!”
The old man, stunned by the slap, suddenly burst out crying: “Wuwah! We’ve guarded this little town for generations, never once derelict in our duty. Three hundred and sixty days a year, never a single day off. And you, an outsider, what right do you have to humiliate me like this!”
“Too loud, you’ll startle the snake,” the gloomy black-haired man Pus reminded flatly. “If there are others in town, that would be bad.”
Meanwhile, a crow landed on the collapsed ruins, but when Pus threw an ice blade it flew off a step early, only a few feathers sheared away.
“My aim is getting worse and worse.”
The old man’s mouth frozen shut, his eyes filled with fear. He tried to get up and run, only to find his feet and hands frozen too.
“Isn’t this a bit much, treating an old man like this?” Kare scratched his head. “Big Sister Luna...”
“First we have to confirm he’s even human,” Luna said.
Kare suddenly went silent. “So you’re all thinking he’s not human, huh!”
“Miss Priest...”
Luna turned her head to Vieya. “Can you tell which kind of monster he belongs to? Evil spirit? Ghoul? Or parasite type?”
At her words everyone stepped back, making a path and looking toward Vieya standing at the rear.
“...”
After a moment’s hesitation, Vieya stepped forward.
However!
The instant he saw Vieya, the old man bound hand and foot suddenly went into convulsions, shuddering like he’d been struck by lightning!
That terrifying look startled Liufir. Everyone’s expressions had been tense since entering this town, and now they only tightened further!
“Unseal the ice on his mouth,” Vieya said.
Pus raised his hand; the ice on the old man’s mouth instantly melted into a puddle of water.
With his speech restored, the old man did not immediately shout. Instead he became cautious, looking at Vieya again and again, trembling as he asked,
“Are... are you the god who has come to save us from these villains?”
“?”
Everyone looked at one another, as if wondering whether the old man’s brain had been frozen stupid.
“Blame Arc’s violent slap just now. Now the old man’s mind is broken,” Kare smacked his lips and looked at Pus. “And you—his mind was already bad, but your freezing and shocking gave him ice and fire both at once and fried the old man’s brain.”
Pus was speechless. “Is this old man your grandfather?”
“Your grandfather!” Kare snapped.
“Bounce back!”
“Bounce back!”
“Bounce back your bounce back!”
“...”
Luna covered her face after a long silence, half unwilling to admit these were her disgraceful teammates. She sighed deeply. “Miss Priest, do you have any clue?”
“How could I have a clue... I don’t even know this old man,” Vieya spread her small hands.
“20,000 gold coins, act as the catalyst,” Luna said without expression.
“...”
Vieya’s small mouth opened slightly, wanting to say something, but in the end she swallowed the mmp at her lips.
Money is hard to earn; shit is hard to eat!
Hmph!
“First undo all the restraints on this old man. If he dares to run, you—” Vieya pointed at Kare.
“Me?” Kare blinked.
Vieya put her hands on her hips and ordered, “Yes you, the one with the hat. If this old man dares to run later, break his legs for me! Hear that?”
“Ah this... all right.” Kare ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) drooped. He was, after all, a model young man who respected the elderly and loved children.
As the ice melted, the old man’s limbs regained movement.
He suddenly stood up, and then stood before Vieya. Clearly aged like a dried corpse, at this moment he stood like an old soldier awaiting a superior’s inspection!
As the saying goes: old soldiers never die; they only fade away.
Plop!
The old man bent his knees and knelt hard before Vieya, thudding his head to the ground.
At such a change, everyone’s faces showed strange looks, their minds racing. But no matter how they racked their brains, they could not figure out why this foul-mouthed old man was kneeling to a little girl.
What on earth was this old man doing?
Just moments ago, hadn’t he been gleefully cursing “outsiders” at them?
Just moments ago, facing their slaps and ice blocks, hadn’t he been unyielding, spewing filth from his mouth?
Why now, at the sight of this little girl Vieya, did he drop to his knees like a dying old dog begging its master for a bone and mercy?
Is this moral decay? Or human nature twisted?
Or does the old man know Vieya is a Priest and is clutching at Buddha’s feet at the last moment?
“Could it be that these 20,000 gold coins are that powerful?”
Of course, not only Luna and the others couldn’t make sense of it—Vieya herself couldn’t make sense of it either.
Looking to the sky, what the hell is this situation?
“Sigh. If you have something to say, just say it,” Vieya said softly.
In the drizzling weather, in the cold damp air, the old man, dressed in thin clothing, remained kneeling in the mud. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
His body trembled in the rain, as if from cold, as if from weeping.
“Please... help us...”
He choked out the words, creeping forward as if to press his head to Vieya’s shoes, then suddenly stopping as if afraid to dirty them. “All of us left here have been waiting for you, waiting for you to end this eternal, hopeless cycle of time.”
“Please, Hero-dono! Back then it was we who were wrong... we were wrong... please don’t go on with this. Please...”
“Sorry. You must have the wrong person.”
Vieya frowned and stepped back. In the drizzle Liufir held a wavering leaf umbrella over her.
For some reason, regret rose in Vieya’s heart at having agreed to come along on this trip.
Ever since setting foot again in this town shrouded in endless rain, the negative emotions inside her had begun to grow without end.
Under Liufir’s astonished gaze, Vieya stepped out from under the leaf umbrella and looked down at the old man still kneeling in the mud.
“We’ve never known each other. But if you want to die, I don’t mind granting you death once.”
