When Comoros opened the door, the girl was already a corpse, her skin was pale from the lack of blood, her weak body collapsed on the ground, so fragile that one would feel regretful for her, there was even a strange sense of beauty in that.
Quite a few villagers were following Comoros. As they saw the girl's body, they all gasped. This girl was the village chief's granddaughter, a beautiful girl, the dream lover of many youths of the village, but now she was dead.
She was also once Comoros' dream lover, but now that he saw her dead body, he didn't feel regretful or mourning for her, instead, he felt extreme fear. His darkest memories, his moments of cowardice and weakness from a few days ago were being displayed right in front of his face.
Sure enough, the girl's corpse once again spoke in an eerie tone of voice. The dead had spoken once more, but she wasn't the one speaking.
『 Hak hak hak! Comoros, you have really disappointed me. At this point, someone is still preparing to go against my will! 』
"Benevolent Negary! Please forgive our foolishness and ignorance, we would absolutely never defy your will!" Comoros hurriedly prostrated. Affected by him, the other villagers also hurriedly prostrated themselves to the ground.
『 You might not, but someone else does. They intend to contact the heretic church of Divine Grace and go against my will. O' foolish bunch, if you do not desire my glory, then I can only bestow the plague upon you 』
"Forgive us, great Negary! Who would do such a damned thing, please tell us the name of the sinner!" someone shouted in a frenzy: "They would be the sinner of this entire village, we would never forgive them!"
After seeing the village chief killed by Negary's messengers after mere words of disrespect, and now a corpse talking, these villagers had completely been convinced of Negary's existence. They were forced to fear the inevitable coming of the plague, the air of unrest quickly spread.
『 If that is the case, if you sacrifice the sinner to me, then I shall give you another chance 』Wang Yuan slowly spoke through the girl's mouth: 『 The sinner is the man called Jacob Dakmi 』
『 Offer him to me, let my messengers take him away, and I shall consider forgiving you this once 』
『 Choose, the plague, or sacrifice, this will be the final chance I give to you 』after those final words, the girl's mouth closed shut, and Wang Yuan stood waiting for the villagers' reactions.
"Do we have any other choice?" Comoros stood up and loudly declared: "For his own benefits, Jacob had given up the faith of our Cauchy tribe, he is not simply a sinner of our village, he is the sinner of the Cauchy tribe as a whole!"
"To protect the village, we have no other choice!"
"This youngster is also growing" Wang Yuan praised Comoros' performance.
Under his guidance, Jacob was abandoned by his own village, a mob of people were rushing towards Jacob's house. At this point, the mob was already completely swept by their emotions. The few that were still rational couldn't do anything to change the bigger picture, against the threat of the plague, most of them had already gone insane.
"Two days later, we will go and seek help from the church of Divine Grace" Jacob pulled his wife's hand: "Before that, I have to bring you somewhere safe, it's too dangerous in the village right now"
"Jacob…" when Isabella was about to say something, various noises came from outside his house, most of them were calling for Jacob to give himself up for the sake of the village's peace.
"How is that possible!?" Jacob's expression turned grim. He hurriedly took the knight's sword hung on the table and faced the mob of people that broke down his door, glaring at the young man leading them.
Comoros, everything only happened after he returned.
"Jacob, you wanting to seek help from the heretic church had incurred the wrath of Lord Negary. So that the village would not fall to the plague, for the sake of the village's safety, please put down your weapon and cease your resistance!" Comoros was forcing himself to maintain a somber expression, but the corners of his mouth couldn't help but perk up a little.
Comoros was now enjoying the feeling of being under Negary's domination. Before, he was nothing but a newcomer who joined the hunting party, but what about now?
Even the head guard of the village, someone that the entire village looked up to, someone who was likely going to become the next village chief, isn't he completely powerless against me right now?
Jacob clenched his sword tightly, his fingers going pale from using too much force.
Is Negary really so powerful? The things I had just decided a few moments ago were already found out.
As he looked at the mob of villagers who came, the eyes of these people who used to contain admiration and praise, now contained hatred and fear.
Making Jacob unable to swing his sword, even more, were the gazes of the others, the look of begging in their eyes.
Please, lower your sword.
Please, give up resistance.
Please, become the sacrifice.
Please, sacrifice yourself for the village!
Jacob's hand holding the sword slowly became powerless. He knew, he knew that he couldn't go against them, so he turned around. Isabella was teary-eyed looking at him, shaking her head as if she had something to say.
He smiled, stopped her from speaking, pointed at her belly with gentleness in his eyes, then turned back to Comoros and spoke: "I can give myself up and let you do with me as you please. But my wife is innocent, all the sins came from me alone, please let her go"
Comoros' expression changed a bit and glanced at Isabella's baby bump. The corner of his lip slightly twitched as he spoke: "Negary's will was only for you, the sinner, to pay the price. We have decided to pass your judgment at the big tree behind the village, please come with us"
"Understood" Jacob turned around to look at his wife, then was led away by the mob to the big tree behind the village. His hands and legs were tied and forced to kneel on the ground. However, even as he knelt, his back was as straight as ever.
From afar, two crows flew over and began to peck at Jacob's body without hesitation, the villagers all prostrated without hesitation, Jacob didn't bother to look at the crows, only at the blond young woman who was crying and praying from afar.
Jacob started shedding tears. He wasn't afraid of death, but he still hadn't been able to see his child be born, he still hadn't fulfilled his promise to accompany Isabella until her death, he had gone ahead of her.
As his blood flowed, Jacob's vision began to turn blurry, a scene seemed to manifest in front of his eyes. In it, Isabella was holding the hand of a blond little girl. Just like her mother, the girl was also a beautiful little lady.
Wang Yuan was hovering not too far away from Jacob.
This man certainly had something worthy of praise. If he was given the chance, he might have been able to become a great hero known widely across the land, but then again, there are no 'ifs' in life.
"Even in the face of difficulties, you decided to stand up, that is bravery. Even in the face of death, you did not show dread, that is fearlessness" Wang Yuan looked at Jacob as he slowly bled to death: "I have bore witness to your death"
A huge cluster of white mist and cool aura flowed towards Wang Yuan.
"Your fearlessness and bravery, I shall accept!"