Dill woke him up with a slap. She pressed a crumpled piece of parchment to the maddened man's face, the relic of Mr. Cole that she had caught out of the beak.
"Remember this?"
The mayor opened his eyes in a daze and said, "I...?"
"Mr. Cole's so-called werewolf plague is this thing, isn't it? The same thing you guys just added to the wine."
Not needing an ominous reminder, Dill knew something was wrong when she saw the silverware that had been replaced. The silver cups could be tested for poison, and gooseberry, a chronic and virulent poison that would cause a person to fester and die all over, was the tip that Mr. Cole had ripped out of his herb notes and the culprit that had killed him.
Under the effect of Mi Illusion, the mayor regarded the girl in front of him as a dead dear friend and could not think at all, but just caught Dill's hands one by one and apologized.
"The plague... gooseberry, that is something that has been handed down from generation to generation; I have no way to stop the others; there must be a "werewolf," and the people above will not give up this piece of barren land! You can see the silverware in the sanctuary, all of which the church has rewarded us with to deal with the werewolves. Those bloodsuckers in Castle Sennenberg have even allowed us not to pay taxes, not to surrender our sons and daughters as slaves! We all volunteered to sacrifice; those old, sickly family members volunteered to go into the woods! We all just wanted to make this town a better place to live."
He cried bitterly, "But that night, Lily, she saw us! It was just a kid's joke, and it took me desperately trying to convince the others, but now even you know... You're a plague doctor; you have so many friends in the church that everyone will believe anything you say. Shulk said he could spare your daughter and your wife as long as you died in the Plague of the Werewolves. I'm sorry, I couldn't save you."
Dill could barely contain herself from slapping him again.
"Then why do they want Lily dead? Lily falling into the water wasn't an accident, was it, and now they want her to be some kind of ghost guide?"
The mayor shook his head in despair. "We were just trying to get rid of that Silver Knight; he's so annoying; he's constantly chasing us around, asking questions as if he suspects us. It's almost like the Bronze Knight before him; Shukaku's very disturbed."
As if praying for forgiveness, he kept explaining to Dill, "Peter's mother has been complaining; she had a crush on you when she was young and lost to Lily's mother... She kept saying that Lily was simply disturbed and that the drowning must have been a result of her letting those little friends of her son get up to no good! "
"Peter's mother?" Dill's heart hung in her mouth.
"She's the alarmist's dark sentry who keeps an eye on what Lily says and does."
Dill blanched; she'd told Mrs. Cole to take Lily into hiding, and where did the other woman say she was going then? To the home of her most trusted friend.
While the ominous signs give her guidance, they also confuse her judgment and are ultimately a curse in the Dillng.
"Damn it!" The young girl was cursed.
The great white goose that watched the window flapped its wings, and Dill, sensing that someone else was coming, immediately dropped a hint to the mayor.
"If you really want to make amends to Mr. Cole, stall them here as long as you can."
The mayor nodded with a confused look on his face, then, with a shudder, he stayed seated and didn't move a muscle.
Dill beckoned to the great white goose and immediately slipped out the back door.
This was the first time Dill had seen a town at night. There was no moonlight to guide her tonight; the darkness of the night hid all the evils and dangers. She was like a small shrimp eager to jump into the bottomless sea, but even though her feet were trembling, she had to melt into the darkness with a hard head.
Dill could only follow the ominous signs that seemed to guide her; the thumping in her ears could be heard under her chest, and the occasional rustling of the leaves in the breeze added to the paranoia.
Quickly, quickly!
She had finally caught the Jonestown werewolves, but she had also realized a clear and horrible truth: those greedy fools had attracted the "real thing" to her.
The dumbed-down alarm man was the werewolf's warning that the thing was hiding in the shadows, ready to make the legend come true.
But there was a moment when Dill wished the werewolf would come out right now and tear those heartless bastards to pieces.
The young woman came to a door and knocked politely, the broken words of doom growing more shrill, almost screaming, as footsteps approached from inside.
The woman responded briskly, "Coming!"
The door opened, and a large white goose snapped and moved a powder of some unknown mix directly at the woman.
The woman didn't realize that the person who opened the door wasn't her long-awaited accomplice; she didn't even have time to scream before she fell to the ground with a thud like a statue.
Dill jumped over the body on the ground and quickly rushed into the house.
Several candles were warm and yellow in the room, as if they had been lit to entertain the guests, and Dill almost tripped over the obstacles as soon as she entered.
The old hound on the floor was tied up with the hemp rope used to tie the pig's mouth and limbs. Dill rushed to untie it. The old hound whimpered and pushed her nose against Dill. The young girl followed the hound to the inner room.
The girl followed the hound to the inner room. There was not only one person lying on the floor, but two.
Dill saw the faces of the two men, and her blood curdled for a moment.
It was too late.
Mrs. Cole, dead or alive, slumped over her daughter; the floor was strewn with cups and water; the table and chairs fell over; Dill picked up a wooden cup with trembling hands; and the remains of the purplish-red liquid drifted with a thick, almost pungent aroma.
Gooseberry!
Dill's body was cold, and she rushed over to pick up Mrs. Cole. The shrewd and amiable woman was now with empty eyes and black blood coming out of her mouth and nose; she was already lifeless.
A large amount of gooseberry is an instant poison; the person who gave it either did not know the dose or had the heart to put the two mothers and daughters to death.
Dill let go of the dead Mrs. Cole and fell to the floor in a state of dismay, the glass falling to the ground and the strength of her limbs draining away with the last bit of liquid from the glass.
She hadn't been able to save them.
Doom no longer whispered, and her silent despair nearly overwhelmed her.
MILL, THE GIRL IS ALIVE.
Laurel's words were like moonlight shining into the darkness, and Dill sat up sharply as she helped Lily to her feet.
The old hound nudged Lily, and though the girl's nose was bleeding, a weak breath could still be heard.
The corners of Lily's mouth were watery, her hair was stained at the temples, and her chest was a large water stain, and it was only then that Dill noticed the wooden cup that Mrs. Cole was clutching in her hand with a death grip, and the clear liquid coming out of it was water.
The mother had desperately tried to pour life-saving water into her daughter's mouth before she was poisoned. Dill realized this fact as she looked at Mrs. Cole's pale face, and strength seemed to return to her body.
Mrs. Cole had given Lily the hope of living.
The invisible life force was draining out of the girl's pale face; the old hound was not moving an inch from her side.
There was no full moon gel in her hand, and there was no moonlight tonight, but Dill no longer felt lost.
The light will not go away, and it is because of the darkness that there is light. Amber told her.
The powerful witch who could walk fearlessly through the lightless night, who raised the essence of moonlight from the night's dew and glowing stones to save the village people who were dying of poisonous herbs by mistake, was the light in the eyes of those people.