“...... In the far, far south, there is a valley, and there is a small village in the valley...... "I don't know whose voice in my memory has told him many ghost stories about this village, and it always begins with the same sentence."

"Drive. With his legs between his legs, he whispered to Shirahoshi to pluck up the courage to approach the village, which often reappeared in childhood nightmares. Shirahoshi shook his ears, hesitated for a moment, and followed the instructions of the young rider on his back. There is a makeshift sentry at the entrance of the village, which seems to have been hastily put into use before it was fully completed. On the low wooden watchtower, someone raised a torch and shouted to Ian, "Who is down there?!"

The voice was full of timidity, where was the majesty of a soldier on duty.

Ian dismounted, looked up at the questioner above, and replied, "Traveler passing by, want to find a tavern to rest for the night, and feed my horse some forage by the way!"

The watchtower was low, and by the light of the fire, Ian could now see that there were only about two people on it. They discussed for a few moments, and then there was a sound of soos and footsteps on the stairs, and an emaciated man appeared at the entrance to the village. He held a torch and struggled to move a barricade out of the way for Ian to pass. As soon as Ian led the horse into the village, the man immediately put the barricade back in place.

The so-called barricade is nothing more than a wooden shelf with a wooden spear inserted, and if any enemy really appears, I am afraid that its effect will be limited. The man was dressed in coarse cloth, without any armor and armor, and with a short axe hanging from his waist, he was the only arm. Ian frowned, he didn't look like a soldier at all.

"This is Crescent Village, right?" Ian tried to confirm. A simple question, but perhaps too sudden to startle the man, Ian looked at him and almost jumped, and then said with some anger, "Of course!" He scratched his hair in embarrassment, perhaps to hide his gaffe, "Ah, by the way, you're going to the tavern." Follow this path, it's on your right, and you won't miss it. ”

"Thank you......" Ian looked suspiciously at the nervous man, while his companion stared at him from the watchtower, not moving, not saying a word.

What are they afraid of?

The tavern was indeed close, and Ian had arrived before he could figure it out. He almost missed it, though, because the tavern was too quiet to be what it should be. Ian tied Shirahoshi to the nearby stable, wondering if the tavern was closed. It's dark now, but it's not too late, so it's so quiet. Eventually, the light from inside and the faint smell of bread convinced him to finally push the door open and enter.

The tavern is not big, only two floors. The first floor can be regarded as a lobby, and the stairs next to the bar should be guest rooms. The bar is facing the doorway, in the deepest part of the hall. In front of the bar, there are several benches arranged randomly around the pit in the middle. The fire in the pit was blazing, and an iron kettle hung from a stand, presumably boiling water.

Ian glanced at the door and saw that there were only three customers except for the owner behind the bar. When the three heard Ian come in, they all looked up, but quickly lowered their heads to drink again. Two of them looked like businessmen, chatting. It's not so much the attire as Ian judging their merchant status from the way they look at him. After traveling outside for a long time and meeting more people, the first reaction of a businessman to see people is always instinctively to estimate whether you will become his customer. The two men apparently judged at a glance that Ian wasn't a guy with money to make.

The remaining one, apparently not with them, or at least not a merchant, was sitting alone on the bench on the other side, his glass empty.

Ian walked straight to the bar and said hello to the boss and asked for something to eat.

"Feed my horses. He pouted at the door, and the boss answered and went out.

He sat at the bar with toasted buns, cold cheese and a bowl of beef stew in front of him, ready for dinner. There was also a bottle of rye wine and a tall oak cup, which the owner had left on the side, and had not yet opened. After all, he is a tavern, and there are not many guests who only eat and do not drink. Ian thought about how much he was drinking, but didn't touch it.

He was feasting on it, but after a few bites, a man sat down next to him. Ian turned his head to see that it was the guy who was drinking alone in a daze.

"Hey, Traveler," the guy greeted a little drunkenly, reaching for the rye bottle, "Ask me for a drink, I'll tell you something, how about it?" He stared at the bottle in his hand, clearly not drunk, knowing what he was doing.

Ian swallowed the cold cheese and smiled, "Is your intelligence worth this bottle of wine?" and then Zhengse, "I'm just passing through here, I'll leave tomorrow morning, I don't need your information, go ask them." ”

"Of course...... Of course it's worth it," the man grinned, "don't you think Crescent Village is deserted and scary?, there's a reason, it's good for your trip to be well-informed, don't you want to hear about it?" he seduced Ian, wanting to trade it for the bottle.

"You're drunk," the boss said back from outside, then turning to Ian, "the horse is well fed, it's a good horse." With that, he reached for the unopened bottle of rye, but the man next to Ian clutched his hand and didn't let go.

"Tsk......" the boss said dissatisfied, "if you want to drink, pay for it, and then make trouble for me to call the guards." ”

“...... Where's the guard?" The man suddenly laughed, "Hahaha, you go outside and take a look, where are the guards?"

The boss became alert: "You don't want to go wild in my shop......" He turned and took out a thick wooden stick from under the bar, obviously he was prepared to deal with these people.

"Hey—" The man immediately pulled his hand back from the bottle, held it to his side and waved, "Just kidding, don't be nervous, friend." I'm still 'talking business' with this friend, maybe he's going to invite me for a drink......"

When Ian heard him say that there were no guards, he immediately remembered the crude watchtower at the entrance of the village and the trembling sentries—who looked like untrained peasants had been pulled out to stand guard on a makeshift basis. Considering the boss's reaction, his words may be true.

"What's going on here, where are the guards?" Ian asked.

"A glass is fine. The man triumphantly handed the cup over.

Ian looked at the boss, and he stopped talking. Why discourage guests from buying alcohol?

"Okay, a glass of rye, for this ......?" Ian looked at the people around him.

"Roger. Roger waved his hand happily and bowed slightly, which was regarded as introducing himself.

"Well, Roger," Ian replied, "what do you know?"

"Ahh......h

As he uttered those two words, the tavern seemed to fall silent, except for the occasional crackling of firewood in the fire. The unusual silence caused Ian to turn his head and find the two merchants glaring at him, Roger, to be exact.

"Shut up, Roger!" cried one of the fat men in a low voice, "I warned you not to say this!"

"Oh, my dear employer," Roger turned and bowed casually to them, "I'm fulfilling another of my contracts, and as a mercenary I have to fulfill them, don't I?"

His flamboyant tongue made the two merchants speechless for a moment, and the other merchant said hatefully, "You'd better remember your mission." Dutt, let's drink, ignore him. ”

"Yes, yes, drinking, drinking is the best choice. Roger answered without permission and poured himself another glass.

He turned to Ian and said, "As you can see, the people here, even the travelers who pass through here, are afraid of this word. So to avoid more trouble, let's stay a little shy away. He laughed, "though I don't think there's anything terrible about it." ”

"What kind of curse?" Ian asked, unconcerned about their taboos.

Roger shrugged his eyebrows: "Every three days, a child disappears here." See, it has nothing to do with us. ”

The tavern owner glared at him, "When you have children, you'll know why everyone is so scared." ”

"To avoid such a stupid weakness for me," Roger shook his head, "then I'd rather not have children." ”

"You don't understand...... the boss sighed, knowing that there was nothing to argue with the drunkard, so he turned to Ian, "The villagers are about to collapse. At first, it wasn't that bad, everyone thought it was just a child getting lost, which was a tragedy, but it happened occasionally. But slowly things are getting more and more wrong, and very regularly, a child goes missing every three days. ”

Roger took over: "They couldn't find any trace, and the child just disappeared out of thin air. There are a few children in every family here, and the prettiest one is always the first to disappear......"

The boss wanted to interject again, but Roger rushed ahead of him: "Hey-I'm fulfilling my contract, sir, you can't rob me of my work!" The boss glared at him and swallowed the words back.

Roger continued to say to Ian, "Slowly, word spreads that it is a curse, or that it may be some kind of evil god who is using the children of this village to sacrifice...... You know," he said, "people in this little place like to imagine things like ghosts and gods to scare children, or to explain problems that arise from their short-sightedness, as they do now. ”

"That's not imagination!" the boss interjected. This time, though, Roger didn't stop him again, as he was busy pouring wine into his glass again.

"As soon as the incident began, the village chief reported it to the lord, who also sent the village's guards to search the neighborhood. But," a hint of fear appeared on the tavernkeeper's stone-stiff face, "nothing, everything was normal around me. But when they returned, the children continued to be lost. And when the guards patrolled at night, they could always hear the laughter of children, and they dared to look for it, but they couldn't find anything. After a long time, finally some guards couldn't stand it anymore and left here. None of them returned to the lord's fortress and fled directly. From the first one, like dominoes, there is nothing left of the last one. ”

"And then, the lord didn't send any more men?" Ian asked.

"Send more men?" cried the boss indignantly, "the lord excuses the outbreak of war, so he no longer sends soldiers. In fact, no one is willing to come at all, they have all abandoned Crescent Village!"

"His soldiers are ordinary people who can be feared," Roger added, ignoring the boss's complaints, "and his administrator had suggested that he send a commission and invite mercenaries to deal with it, or leave it to the priests and priests who were chattering with the gods......

"How did he choose?" asked Ian.

He received an edict from the Emperor and marched to Black Eagle City with a large group of men, leaving only a small number of soldiers to defend his fortress. And his administrator made the right choice, and asked the Mercenary Guild to issue a commission......" Roger smiled, "However, I've been here for two days, and a child should be missing tonight, but I haven't got any clues yet." ”

"You took their commission?" Ian was stunned.

Roger nodded, took out his emblem and shook it, and immediately put it away.

"I'm trying to make one more commission along the way," he lowered his voice, "escorting those two stupid businessmen right past here, it's more efficient to make money, isn't it?" he winked at Ian.