Hours passed, and Luz laid lazily on the carriage as a scream echoed through the woods.
"What the fuck is going on?" Luz groaned loudly, but before he could lament further, Francis grabbed his collar and commented quietly, "You two, please remain vigilant," before dragging Luz out of the carriage.
"Wait, why me and not Lewis?" Luz cursed, and the two soon reached a hill made of bones.
By now, Luz had grown numb to such scenes and casually asked, "What happened here?"
"Do I look like a witness?" Francis gave Luz a blunt answer while inspecting the hill. After the two examined or rather glanced through the skeletons, Francis opened his mouth. "twenty-five skulls… cleanly picked… no insects on them… don't seem old, yeah a massacre must have happened over the last few days."
Luz nodded in agreement, and Francis hesitantly asked, "Luz… are you sure we reached the right place?"
Luz answered, "Let's take a closer look into the surrounding."
The duo investigated their surroundings until they found a burned area filled with ashes.
"Yeah, this is indeed the place where Liv burned all the women," Luz commented coldly before something confused him. "But Liv, in her fury, did not leave any bones…."
"I see," replied Francis while scratching his beard. "It seems like these skeletons must be the remains of the male villagers."
"It seems like we came too late," Luz sighed while cleaning his hands from the ashes. "Well, at least that means the perpetrator is active as well." He wasn't sure if the last sentence should reassure or frighten him further.
Francis nodded. "Seems like we gotta stay vigilant. Anyway, let's take another crew member and search through the village or what remains of it. Hopefully, we can find a survivor or some helpful information there."
A few minutes later, a trio made up of Luz, Francis, and Tony soon walked through the ghost village that looked as if the villagers dropped whatever they were doing for a moment and never returned.
"So quiet," Tony muttered while unsheathing a dagger. Luz followed suit. The eery feeling gave him goosebumps, and Luz slowly opened the squeaking door of one of these houses. However, the trio searched through everything only to find nothing out of the unordinary and a few silver coins, which Luz quietly slid into his pocket, of course.
'A dead man has no need for money,' Luz thought, and the group soon went from house to house, and on their fifth house, which Luz thought would end up as a failure, Francis found something in one of the drawers.
It was a small leather booklet filled with dust, and after blowing away the dust, Francis read aloud the tile, "「Diary for my children,」" before opening a random page and reading the content aloud.
「Today, I married my wif…」"Yeah, we gotta skip further," Francis commented before jumping to a different page.
「three days before the culling.」
「Around three in the morning, the village elder got killed…」"Yeah, that's too far," Francis sighed, and he soon found the right place.
「five days before the culling.」
「Today, a three-meter tall man wearing a dark cloak visited us, and as he stood in the middle of the village, he raised his arms resembling that of an insect and shouted, "by the end of the week, half of your female population will be infected. Till then, you have time to decide which one of them you want to sacrifice, while all of you are barred from leaving this village till the sacrifices have been met."
Enraged by such news, some of the villagers began attacking the man, only to be slaughtered and devoured by hordes of insects that came out underneath his cloak. After that, the village elder demanded that everyone went home.
However, the people did not listen to him, and those who tried escaping were attacked by hordes of insects surrounding the village. Those unfortunate enough to survive the encounter returned with horrifying injuries… some had their whole arm eaten, and others came back with no skins… It was terrifying, and I can still hear their scream now. On that day, I prayed that everything was a bad dream since I had a daughter and a wife, which I was not ready to give up upon.」
「four days before the culling」
「Today, all women were barred from leaving the house, while we men ended up discussing how to deal with the sacrifices. As one might expect, it was a heated discussion that led to nowhere since we came to no agreement. But at least ideas have been thrown into the room.
Some men were in favor of raffling off which females should survive. Others believed that those women who helped the village the most should be exempted from those raffles. But one group, in particular, wanted to decide the outcome by the blade…」
「three days before the culling」
「Around three in the morning, the village elder got killed by a group of men that I once considered friends, and their leader crowned himself as the new elder against everyone's wishes.
Instead of the suggested lottery, which had broad support from quite a few males, a duel system was decreed. For every girl a family has, their fathers or brothers must murder another man from a different family who also has a female. Those fathers and brothers who forfeit a fight to save their own asses will sacrifice their female relatives instead.
"That proposal was ludicrous at best, and would only result in the further destruction of the village," shouted the butcher of the village before leaping with a butcher knife towards the leader, only to get killed by the leader.
In the end, those who stood in opposition could only grit their teeth and accept the new rules. As for me… my duel was supposed to take place tomorrow, and I am scared… scared of failing to kill at least two men… scared of fighting against those whom I once considered as my neighbors…」
The trio was fixated on the diary, but when Francis turned to the next page, an empty page awaited them.
"Why is it empty?" Luz asked in confusion while Francis flipped through the pages, only to see empty ones awaiting them.
"It seems like that poor fella did not survive," Francis sighed before closing the book and standing up.
"Quite a shame," Tony muttered as goosebumps covered his skin.