The four made several rounds in the area, dropping another five seeds of the human-faced fruit. With five seeds left, Lynch decided to make a trip outside the city at noon to plant them in the woods where they had first appeared.
After circling the threshing floor a few times, Lynch realized that ancient cities were not nearly as idyllic as he had imagined.
Rough, dilapidated houses; narrow, bumpy roads; messy, chaotic streets...
If those were still bearable, what proved truly unbearable to Lynch—having transmigrated from a civilized society—was the sewage overflowing in the streets and the excrement scattered along the roadsides.
In truth, even Fifth Age Rhine City could not entirely avoid such sights, but it at least maintained a clean, polished facade; most of the filth was hidden away in dark alleys, and at worst, Lynch could choose simply not to go there.
As long as I can't see it, the filth and darkness don't exist.
In this ancient city, however, filth was everywhere. He even spotted a man relieving himself right by the roadside. The air throughout the entire city reeked of the foul, sour stench of garbage, sewage, and human waste, leaving only repulsive sights wherever one looked.
“That is often how diseases spread.”
As a professional, Miss Diana could only sigh. The limitations of the era were not something a handful of people could change. The group had no choice but to turn a blind eye, stepping around the filth littering the ground as they followed the shouting toward the threshing floor at the center of town.
In the Third Age, which lacked clocks, time could only be estimated. It was likely past eight in the morning by now, yet many farmers still lingered around the threshing floor, showing no intention of heading outside the city for farm work.
The farmers gathered in small clusters, whispering amongst themselves with tense, anxious expressions. Their eyes darted periodically toward the fortress and the tall castle to the east.
A dozen or so well-dressed outsiders sat in a circle along the edge of the square with gloomy faces. None of them spoke anymore, only letting out occasional sighs. Behind them stood a tavern marked by a beer mug sign—the only entertainment venue in this small city. Yet at this hour, the tavern's doors remained firmly shut, clearly not open for business yet.
Panic hung heavy, casting a dark cloud over everyone.
“All has long been foreordained! Abandon all hope and enjoy your final peace to the fullest!”
The mad old man's voice remained as sharp yet raspy as ever, echoing above the threshing floor like the cawing of an ominous crow.
“Shut up, you old lunatic!”
Unable to endure the relentless, cursed preaching any longer, a farmer picked up some street trash and hurled it at the grain pile. The white-haired elder was pelted, leaving his head stained and bruised, yet the mad old man acted as though he felt nothing, continuing to flail about madly and broadcast his doomsday message at the top of his lungs.
“The city lord and his knights are quite irritable right now. Guess what happens if you beat this madman to death—will they take their frustration out on you and sentence you for murder? You wouldn't even need to kill him yourself. He's so old that a fall from up there might finish him off, and then you'd be the killer. What was the death penalty in this city again? Hope you like it.”
Lynch remarked casually as he brushed past, and Judy immediately translated for the farmer. The four of them walked straight ahead without looking back, while the farmer's face turned green. Glancing up at the steadily standing mad old man, the farmer quickly backed away several paces.
Lynch curled his lip, thinking to himself that these folks clearly hadn't encountered enough scam artists if they dared lay hands on an old man.
Ignoring the old lunatic who continued to rave, Lynch first approached the gloomy travelers.
Compared to the farmers tucked away in this isolated small town, these travelers possessed far broader horizons and sharper logical reasoning. More importantly, as outsiders, orchestrating covert schemes would be far more difficult for them. The likelihood of them being the masterminds behind the scenes was minimal, making the information gathered from them much more reliable.
Furthermore, a shared status as travelers made it easiest to build rapport. While the townspeople might be wary of the four of them, these travelers likely would not be—especially when they couldn't even drown their sorrows in alcohol. When Lynch magically produced two flasks of strong whisky, he instantly won everyone over. The fine liquor from the Fifth Age swiftly charmed the travelers, and they all warmed up to him, allowing Lynch to quickly piece together the full picture.
Traces of ghouls appearing in the vicinity had begun seven days ago. The ghouls merely roamed the surrounding area without attacking humans. Because of that, travelers back then had not been overly alarmed, and quite a few had left Noran to continue their journeys.
Three days ago, however, someone discovered the corpses of several travelers. The bodies were covered in massive bite and claw marks, clearly left by the roaming ghouls.
Terrified, the discoverer rushed back to Noran to alert everyone. At that point, panic spread from the citizens to the travelers; travelers no longer dared leave the city, and farmers avoided going outside as much as possible. Over the past three days, the city had been plunged into widespread terror.
Lynch listened in silence. Instinct told him there was a major issue here, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was at the moment and could only set it aside for now.
Next, the four approached the whispering farmers on the threshing floor. Posing as transnational grain buyers immediately gave them solid footing among the farmers.
In reality, these farmers were not authorized to sell grain directly—the harvest was managed centrally by the city lord—but once sold, everyone received a small share of the profits. That was why Lynch and his companions had been treated well since entering the city, and they quickly earned the farmers' trust now.
Unfortunately, the farmers did not know much either. Many could not even explain clearly what ghouls were, knowing only that a ghoul tribe had lurked near the city for many years without causing trouble for either side. There were even rumors that the monsters occasionally disguised themselves as humans to sneak into the city and abduct human children as emergency rations, but that was just a story told to frighten children, holding little credibility.
The farmers had actually learned about this ghoul crisis from the travelers as well. In the days leading up to it, several people had indeed spotted roaming ghouls—there were eyewitnesses present even now—but due to past precedent, no one had paid it any mind until travelers discovered the mangled corpses, at which point the farmers finally grew anxious.
Lynch frowned and asked thoughtfully, “So... aside from hearing it from the travelers who brought the news, none of you actually saw the mutilated corpses yourselves?”
“No, no, no, many people saw them,” a farmer corrected. “Those travelers' corpses were found by different people. And after they came back to report it, the soldiers brought all the bodies back. Many people saw them when they were carted in.”
“Yes, yes, I saw them! Wounds this long!” several farmers gestured. “Quite a few people threw up; it was far too bloody.”
Seeing the citizens back each other up with such vivid descriptions, Lynch did not doubt their words, yet that uneasy feeling from earlier returned.
The accounts from both sides only made his sense of something being wrong all the more pronounced.
Something was definitely off here.
Sorting through the information once more yielded no obvious anomalies, and these people did not seem to be lying. Suppressing the frustration of not finding an answer, Lynch asked casually, “What did Ms. Sven say? Is she the only healer in the city?”
“That's right. In the past, if anyone got injured, we just had to endure it. Now that she's here, things are so much better.” Simple smiles appeared on the faces of several middle-aged farmers. “We all grew up with her; it's wonderful that she came back. She's been a good girl since she was little, always caring about everyone. We heard several big cities tried to invite her, but she turned them all down and insisted on returning to Noran for our sake. And seeing how terrified everyone was, she even specifically suggested to the city lord that he send for reinforcements from the capital.”
Hm? She proposed it?
Lynch felt a jolt in his heart, realizing this lady doctor seemed more complicated than he had imagined. Judging from her suggesting the request for aid, her suspicion of being the mastermind seemed even smaller, making her genuinely trustworthy. But...
The divergence this time around had begun precisely with the attack on the messenger sent for reinforcements, and she was the one who had initiated the request. Was that really a coincidence?
Hah. A coincidence in the world of mystery?
Rate on N.U.
