A few days have passed since Niles joined the village. So far, he hasn't shown any suspicious behavior; on the contrary, he has been doing everything from chores to hunting monsters, accepting complaints and consultations from the residents, and before I knew it, he had become a part of the village.
He's never been outspoken, and he's always kept a low profile. In the past few days, his popularity with me has been on the rise. He used to be a hunter before he became a chief priest, and I could expect a lot from him as a warrior.
He had a mighty mace in his hand, and a powerful attack that blasted away with monstrous strength. He also has a huge shield to protect himself and his allies. He could also handle a higher level of healing magic than Chem, which was a good thing as it reduced her burden.
"I owe you an apology for suspecting that your exaggerated reaction was theatrical."
He seems to have truly repented, and the way he runs around busy every day is somehow enjoyable. Smooth sailing and peaceful days. I hope that nothing will happen to him until the next [Temptation of the Evil God]. While I was absentmindedly looking at my PC screen on a Sunday afternoon, thinking about this, I had a visitor.
"Yoshio, how's that new boy doing?"
I'm not sure how I feel about this. Destiny's figure was stuck to the glass panel, staring at us.
–He's scared.
An adult man and woman who understand each other's feelings are in a private room. This would normally be a good scene, but with Destiny never taking his eyes off of us, and my sister, Sayuki, staying with us with drinks and snacks, nothing can happen.
"I want to know that too. He's a very cute boy, isn't he?"
My sister took a bite out of Seika's question. Their impression of Makoto has improved a lot since then. The two of them were insistent on whether he was really a man before, so I asked his permission to take a picture of him in light clothing during a break from work and showed it to them. Incidentally, when I told Makoto why I was doing this, he said, "I'm sorry to hear of such a misunderstanding."
It made me feel uncomfortable.
"I have him come in twice or thrice a week to work. My senior colleague, Ms. Misaki, sometimes has to take time off for her children's events, so he's been a great help.
Ms. Misaki is quite fond of Makoto, though she complained about the reduced opportunities to work together. Both the president and Mr. Yamamoto are good-natured people, so Makoto seems to be gradually getting used to them. Also, I was once invited by Makoto to visit his home, and his father thanked me for the visit and bought me grilled meat.
He seemed to have exaggerated his praise of me, and I was horrified when his father bowed to me and said, "Please keep up the good work."
Although I felt that it was an excessive evaluation that was not appropriate for a guy like me, I would like to praise...myself for having the courage to reach out to him, who was in a similar situation to me in the past.
"Oh, by the way, I saw something on the internet recently, do you know the story of the old village called Iryu-Mujin-Village?"
"Iryu-Mujin-Village? What's with the long village name?"
"It's the one that's being talked about on videos now, isn't it?"
I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but Sayuki seemed to know and leaned forward on the glass table.
"Is it a hot topic?"
"Don't play games all the time, brother. Why don't you watch some videos once in a while?"
It's true that the "Village of Destiny" is always running on the PC, and the other PC is only used to chat with Makoto or do research.
"Yes, you're right. I'll have to be proactive too."
There are requests from the God of Fate. The internet is full of gossip, so it's no surprise that some of it is player-related.
"So, about ten years ago, there was a thread that was popular on the occult board...and it was called 'I've arrived at a dangerous village.' It's being rekindled on video posting sites."
Her tone is usually calm, but today it's feverish. Occult...Personally, I'm not a fan of horror stories, but Seika liked that kind of stuff. She liked urban legends and horror movies, and I can't tell how many times she invited me to a courage test or a horror movie. I went along with her because I had a sense of pride as a man, but honestly speaking, I wanted her to give me a break.
"So, so…The abandoned village mentioned in that thread is called "Iryu-Mujin-Village". The location of the village was recently discovered, or something like that, and a not-so-popular streamer posted a video of him going there. Oh, it's easier to understand if you look at the old thread first."
I used my PC to search for the occult board's summary site that Seika told me about. It's true that there is one called "I've arrived at a dangerous village ". Let's click on it.
0: There's a tunnel that's closed to traffic.
A picture of a mossy tunnel, barely wide enough for one car to pass through, was posted on the wall. The entrance was blocked by a ragged board, but most of it was rotting away, so there was enough space for a person to enter.
△: Lies!
X: Oh, where did you get that picture? It looks so real!
0: I'm serious. Here, let's do this.
The second picture was accompanied by a newspaper with the date of the day printed on it.
△: You're going all the way to the crime scene? What kind of horror spot is this?
0: We're going into the tunnel now.
X: Iryu-Mujin-Village. That's a long and strange name. Sounds interesting, go, go!
◇: I did a little research. I've been doing some research. It says that the village was destroyed by fire in the early Showa era.
No more posts from 0 for a while.
0: I managed to get through the tunnel, it was really long. But more importantly, look at this!
A new photo was posted, showing the ruins of a plaza where not a single plant or tree had grown, and an abandoned village that had been burned to the ground.
△: Fishing is tough today.
X: If you went this far you might as well go all the way.
◇: Hey, I was wondering if...this is for real?
0: It's up to you guys to believe it or not, but honestly I'm a little freaked out. I didn't think it was possible....
△: I'm not scared. Let's explore some more!
X: Is there a body?
◇: There's no way. The incident took place in the early Showa era, right?
0: Whoa. Seriously?
△:You' re wasting your time!
X: Let's get going.
◇: Hey, man. If it's really bad, go home.
Ten minutes later, a photo was uploaded. There was what looked like a blackened humanoid corpse lying on the ground. The head, body, arms, and legs had been cut off.
△: You're too elaborate.
X: You just burned a...mannequin, didn't you?
◇: I'm not sure if this is a scene from a horror movie or not.
There were no posts from 0, only photos being uploaded one after another. A burnt village. Countless things that looked like burnt bodies.
X: This is definitely a fake. The first thing that's strange is that there are still dead bodies. It's also strange that there are no weeds growing on the ground. If it's been decades, there should be weeds growing on the ground.
◇: I don't know.
△: I don't know what to say. You should write something 0.
◇: If you want me to believe you're real, you'd better write something.
0: This place is Tusketekurushii.
0: What the hell? I didn't type that!
△: Damn, that gave me the creeps for a second.
X: Actually, me too. I'm creeped out.
◇: I'm a little freaked out by this.
0: No, it's not! Seriously, I didn't write this, it's changing all by itself!
△: That's enough!
X: We've lost, so it's important to draw the line.
◇:We've lost.
0: What the hell is that? I'll take a picture now.
In the photo that was uploaded, it was a scene of a burnt and mutilated corpse floating in the air and coming towards the 0. The second photo was just "Omaera Monigasanai" written in red blood letters.
△: Okay, this is a movie promotion! It's a promotion using a message board! It's not that bad.
X: I don't like it.
◇:I'm just kidding.
After this, there were no more posts from anyone.
"It's a well-written story. It gave me chills for a minute."
"When I first saw it, it was late at night and I regretted it. I was afraid to go to the bathroom."
"I know, right?"
Why does Seika seem so happy to see us siblings a little freaked out? When I saw this site, I just remembered that I've seen this topic a few times on the net. I didn't know the details or the title, and I've been avoiding those kinds of stories, so I've completely forgotten about it.
"I think it was about a week ago that I found the location of the village, and I've been posting videos of the process of getting there."
I'm not sure what to make of this. In the video, an unremarkable looking young man is frightening himself at the entrance of the tunnel, chewing repeatedly.
"You're sounding like a bottom-feeder."
"You're being nice by not saying that."
I'm not sure what to say. I thought about it for a while, but I didn't say anything...
"It looks just like the cave I saw on the website."
"Yes, it does. It's a little different in some ways, but it looks like it's just been weathered by the passage of time, which makes it more realistic."
The surrounding weeds have grown a little longer and the moss seems to be increasing. The young man walked into the tunnel, talking idly. From there on, he hummed a bad song, but after about four songs, he must have run out of repertoire, because from there on, there were enough images of him walking in silence.
For some reason, we couldn't take our eyes off the video and concentrated on it, even though it was the same old video. After a long, long tunnel, what we saw was an abandoned village that had been burned to the ground.
"Oh my God!"
The camera and the young man's scream fell to the ground. Then, the disturbing images were cut off.
"Are you really scared, big brother?"
"Yoshio, you're not very good at this."
I'm doing my best to put up a false front as a brother, but can you please stop seeing through it so easily? I think the video is very well done for a fake. That dull young man is quite an actor if his scream at the end is an act.
"The Internet seems to be divided between the real thing and a promotional video for a movie.
"Oh, I see. If you think of it as a promotional video, it makes sense."
"It's a big success, isn't it?"
I'm a little embarrassed that I thought for a second that it might be real. Oh well, it all makes sense when it comes to movie promotions.
"But, even after all this buzz, there's no information about the movie's distribution anywhere. Isn't it strange that this video was posted about a month ago and only became a hot topic in the last few days?"
"Like a very steady advertising campaign?"
They both look like sisters, tilting their heads in distress.
"Oh, wait a minute. If this is real, aren't there other people who went to this place?"
"You'd think so. But the poster didn't clearly specify where it was, so no one knows where it is."
I don't know what it is, but I'm strangely curious about this topic.... If it's not a promotion and it's just a horror story, it's scary, but there's something else that's bugging me apart from the curiosity of seeing something scary.
"I find real stories more romantic....hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"
I'm not sure what to make of it. I thought she had come to surprise Seika as usual, but she was just staring at the computer screen.