The devil and the devil are different. Although the two people feel similar, in fact they are completely different beings. Of course, for ordinary people, seeing either of the two is a complete disaster. Looking at Mayor Bender, who had lost more than ten years of life in an instant, everyone present felt a cool breath rise behind them. Cheese knows how dangerous the devil is, but it is very difficult to meet these guys. There are a lot of devils roaming this world, so he thinks that there must be a connection between the devils that appeared at this point in time and the magical plague in the county.

"Can you elaborate on how you got to be like this?" the mage asked.

Although he was skeptical of Cheese's words, based on his own experience, Mayor Bender vaguely felt that the possibility of encountering the devil did exist. So he didn't hide anything, and told the whole story.

In the mayor's description, the incident can be traced back to a year ago. At first, it was the townspeople who began to complain to the town hall that there had been a suspicious person in the town who had been in contact with the town's children in recent times, and that the children had repeatedly mentioned a masked man in a gray robe in conversations with their families. This eccentric guy often accosted lonely children, sometimes asking them questions, sometimes asking them about their troubles. And the children who have talked to this strange masked man will have some changes in their words and deeds, and even more can be said to have a drastic change in temperament. The children's abnormality worries the townspeople, and the children's parents have searched for what the children call "Mr. Smiling" more than once, but strangely, no matter how much they search, they can't find any trace of this person, as if his existence is just a joke made by the children of the town. But the effects didn't stop, even though the parents forbade the children from going out, the children still said they were being visited by "Mr. Smiling", and strangely, some of the children were in the living room or room next door when they were visited, and they could guarantee that no one would enter their house. Panic led the parents to turn to City Hall, where they hoped that the mayor would come forward to find the so-called "Mr. Smiling" and evict him from town.

Mayor Bender has been in charge of the town for nearly ten years, and he is well aware that this incident has never happened in the history of Sweetwater, so he uses his experience to send almost all the guards to search Sweetwater, and they check the list of people who have recently entered and exited, and ambush in the meadow by the lake where the children frequent, but the result is nothing. Mayor Mare is as confused as everyone else in Sweetwater.

Cheese nodded slightly when he heard this, and he said.

"The devil is invisible to ordinary people, they are like ghosts or ghosts, and only children who are sensitive to nature and have a pure heart can see them directly. To appear in front of adults is to break certain rules of the world, which will cost them dearly. ”

The mayor agrees with the mage's words, because the next development of the matter seems to confirm the "price" in Cheese's mouth. Accidents began to occur to the child, first of whom was found drowned in a well, and the townspeople, though saddened by this, only regarded it as an unintentional misstep in play. But then, another child was found hanged in mid-air by a coiled vine from a tree, apparently because he had accidentally slipped while climbing the tree, and his head happened to be hooked by the vine. These two accidents add to the atmosphere in Sweetwater. Parents forbade their children from going out, and they locked them in the house, thinking that this would keep them safe. But the horror didn't spare them, the third child died from a knife that wasn't put away, and the fourth child died from an accidental fire in the kitchen, but his parents didn't know why the child went to the kitchen. Panic is like an invisible hand on the neck of every Sweetwater kid. Just when everyone thought there would be a fifth dead child, everything stopped. The children no longer claimed that they had seen "Mr. Smiling" and no more children were injured, as if it had all passed. In fact, this is all that all the residents of Sweetwater know so far, and they can only classify it all as four accidents that happened to happen. Only Mayor Bender knew that the deaths of those children were not what they seemed. Because on the third day after the death of the fourth child, the "Mr. Smiling" approached the mayor.

"I was sorting out the papers in my study that night, and when I looked up, I saw the guy. Mayor Bender said.

"He's wearing a gray robe with a smiley mask on his face, and I guess that's why the kids call him Mr. Smiling. ”

"Mr. Smiling" opened his mouth to speak to the mayor, his voice was pleasant, and his words were polite, like that of a cultured nobleman. First of all, he expressed his condolences to the children who died, and said that there was no way to do it, because he had to see the mayor, so the death of the children was a price that had to be paid, and this was to save more lives.

"Nonsense. Elsa frowned and whispered. In her opinion, no matter how justified the reason, sacrificing the lives of those children was a very evil act. And others agreed with her.

Mayor Marew continued, saying that although he was as angry at the masked man's actions as the proprietress is now, what he said next had made him forget about it for the time being.

"You mean, he predicted the plague?" Cheese summed up the mayor's words.

"No, it is accurate that he prophesied the plague and all that would happen throughout the county in the week after that day. Mayor Bender said.

"Mr. Smiling" claims to have come with good intentions to save the people of Sweetwater from the plague. Of course, as the mayor at that time, he naturally didn't believe the nonsense of this masked man, but "Mr. Smiling" turned into a wisp of black smoke after saying these ridiculous predictions, and the mayor had nothing to do with him. Over the next few days, the Masked Man's prophecy came true, from the implementation of one of the Earl's decrees to the production of a wild dog in Sweetwater, but this did not make the mayor believe his nonsense, only that the Masked Man planned all this.

Then, when the first week had passed, "Mr. Smiling" appeared in front of the mayor again, and like last time, he prophesied about the plague and the following week, this time, he declared that he still had a lot of things to do and could not afford to delay too long in Sweetwater, and although he understood Bender's anger and distrust, he hoped that the mayor would accept his advice sooner. Of course, Mayor Bender still didn't respond to him.