Chapter 163 Dark Shadows (Ben is biting his tail and rolling)

  Locks Town is located in the forest canyon west of Falkreath, very remote, with only one path leading to the outside. People here rely on crops, deforestation and mining for a living. They have lived here for generations, and they are just ordinary civilians. Work at sunrise, rest at sunset, and live an ordinary life.

   But recently, the town has been shrouded in a dark haze that makes it hard to breathe. It was as if the **** of death had shrouded this area, and all life seemed to disappear completely in front of it.

"Why………"

  Looking at the dark sky outside, Old Bent sighed, obviously the sun had just set. Logically speaking, people have just finished work at this time. In normal times, you will see men who finished their work and are planning to go home with their tools, as well as their wives and children waiting for them on the street. But now, the town is deserted, and there are almost no living people to be seen.

  To be honest, if you just stand at the door and look out like this, you will even have the illusion that you are the only living person left in the whole village.

Maybe this is not an illusion, maybe when you wake up tomorrow morning, you will see that the whole village is empty, and there will be no more living people in the whole world, and you will be the last living person in this world, and then . . . and there is nothing left but death and destruction.

  Thinking of this, Old Bent trembled all over, then shook his head, leaving that terrifying fantasy behind. Then he picked up the oil lamp and lit it, put it on the table next to it, and picked up the book next to it—maybe reading a book will make him temporarily forget the nightmare that this town is currently facing.

  Maybe... Maybe everything will be back to normal when I wake up tomorrow.

   "Boom boom boom."

  However, at this moment, there was a sudden knock on the door. Hearing this sound, Old Ben's hands softened in fright, and the book he just picked up fell directly to the ground.

   "Yes, who is it?"

   Soon, a voice came from outside.

   "I'm sorry to interrupt, I'm a traveler, I have something to ask..."

   Traveler?

  Hearing this, Old Bent tiptoed to the door, carefully looked out through the gap, and saw a petite red-haired girl with a big bag and hat standing at the door. She seemed bothered and disturbed.

   "What's the matter?"

   "It's like this. My rations are finished. If possible, can you sell me some dry food? I have been to the inn, but it is closed..."

   What a young girl.

  Hearing the other party's answer, Old Bent hesitated for a moment and sighed slightly. Of course he knew the reason why the inn was closed, but for travelers from afar, it might be very strange.

  Thinking of this, Old Bent stretched out his hand and gently opened a crack in the door.

   "Then miss, you want to..."

However, before Old Bent finished speaking, a big hand suddenly stretched out from the side and pressed against the door panel. Before Old Bent could react, he felt a huge force pushing the door panel open, and then he saw A tall black figure appeared in front of the girl, and a pair of scarlet eyes shone with a strange red light.

   is the devil!

   Seeing this scene, Old Bent opened his mouth to scream, but the opponent's big steel hand directly covered his mouth.

  The next moment, this huge black shadow bent over like this, and got in from the door.

   "Huh... finally finding someone who doesn't pretend to be dead is really not easy."

  Duanmu Huai walked into the room in front of him almost half-bending, then raised his head and took a breath. The top of his head was almost touching the ceiling. There is no way to do this, after all, almost all the houses in this era are small, to be honest, even now Duanmuhuai has to bow his head.

   "Really, Mr. Knight, why do you have to use this method!"

   At this moment, Guleiya rushed in too, and then quickly closed the door before complaining.

   "I can't help it. People won't let me in when they see me. If you don't use this method, you won't be able to find anyone."

   "I think it would be better for Mr. Knight to change this outfit..."

   Looking at Duanmu Huai, who was wearing black power armor and a skull-like helmet, Guleya murmured her opinion.

   "Then shall I go back and paint the armor pink?"

   "Uh...forget it."

   After chatting casually with Gu Leya, Duanmu Huai turned his head to look at Old Bent in front of him again. At this moment, the latter was already pale, sweating profusely, and his eyes were red. It's no wonder that such a huge, pitch-black steel giant suddenly appeared and grabbed him in his hands. Old Bent even felt that the other party could crush his head with just a little force!

"Listen, I have something to ask you next, as long as you answer obediently, I will be fine. Don't worry, I'm not a devil or a devil, I'm just an adventurer, and I'm here with you under the order of Lord Frederic Those who are investigating, do you understand what I mean? If you understand, just nod."

   "......!!"

  Old Bent almost exhausted his breastfeeding strength and nodded vigorously, but Duanmuhuai put him on the ground and let go of his hand.

   Almost in the next moment, Old Bent collapsed to the ground, unable to even get up.

   "Scared you? I'm sorry, because we didn't open the door no matter what we asked others before, so we had to use this method, sorry."

   "You, are you really the adventurers who came to investigate?"

  Old Bent took a breath, and then came back to his senses, he looked at Duanmuhuai, then at Guleya with trembling eyes—it has to be said, the gap between the two is too big!

   "Yes, you also know that I have no reason to lie to you, this uncle."

   Duanmuhuai sat down on the floor, staring at old Bent.

   "If we were really demons, we would have chopped you up and eaten you, why would we talk nonsense with you here?"

   "Wait, Lord Knight, your statement is not very good..."

Hearing Duanmuhuai's words, Guleya hurriedly wanted to say something, but Duanmuhuai just reached out, grabbed Guleya's tail, and then gently rubbed her tail belly. Ya let out a low moan, collapsed to the ground and did not move again.

   "Okay, those who get in the way also shut up."

   Glancing at Guleya, Duanmuhuai withdrew his gaze and looked at Old Bent.

   "You don't mind telling me about the past."

   "When, of course, what do you want to know?"

  Although looking at Duanmu Huai at this moment, Old Bent was still a little scared, but because of this, he felt that there might be hope this time. After all... the adventurers who came this time are so... extraordinary, maybe they can really solve the problems this town is facing?

   "From the beginning, when did you find out that it was abnormal? What's the performance?"

   "Okay, okay, I'll tell you what I know."

   Right now, Old Bent was also holding back hard, and nodded vigorously, then he recalled a little, and then he spoke.

   "If you want me to say, at the very beginning... It should have been two months ago... I don't remember the exact day, I just remember that day, the carpenter Karl died..."

   "Dead? How?"

   "I don't know anymore."

  Old Bent shook his head.

"It's strange to say that Karl went up the mountain to log, and then he came back to have lunch and rest. Then in the afternoon, I heard Karl's wife crying, saying that Karl was dead... We were all shocked at that time, after all I was fine when I had lunch before, why did I suddenly die..."

   "What was the specific cause of death?"

   "I don't know. Pastor Allen, who was in charge of looking after the corpse at the time, couldn't tell. In short, there seems to be no external injuries. I only suspect that he may have been poisoned or something else..."

  Recalling what happened that day, Old Bent couldn't help but sigh.

"I also went to Carl's burial that night. I looked at Carl lying in the coffin, as if he was asleep. To be honest, I wondered if he was just asleep at that time, but it was gone. Breathing... and his body is as cold as ice, which is not human body temperature at all."

"Um………"

   Duanmuhuai nodded.

"Then what?"

   "And then... weird things happened."

   Speaking of this, Old Bent also shuddered.

"It's strange to say that just two days later, Carl's wife also died. No one knew how she died. It was her good friend who went to visit her, but no one answered when she knocked on the door. Looking through the window I saw her lying on the bed, and then I asked everyone to open the door together, and when I broke in, I found that she was already lying on the bed and was out of breath. As for how she died...no one knows."

   While speaking, Old Bent sighed helplessly.

   "At that time, everyone thought that Karl's wife was overly sad, and she might have taken some poison and died, so she was buried soon, but..."

   "Let me guess, the next one to die will be that good friend?"

   Duanmu Huai raised his eyebrows, and hearing Duanmu Huai's words, Gu Leya next to him curled up into a ball. Old Bent also nodded heavily.

"That's right, right after that, that good friend also died! At this time, some people in the town began to feel uneasy. After all, three people died in a row in just a few days, and they all knew each other. Everyone felt that something was wrong. , We also asked the pastor to look at it, but there was still no result. No one knew what was going on. As a result, on the second day after that friend was buried, her mother said everywhere that her daughter came back to see her at night ...She said it was so cold in the cemetery, she wanted to come out..."

   "Hey——!"

   At this moment, Guleya was trembling even more. After all, this is not a ghost story, but something that really happened!

   "And then the friend's mother also died?"

   "Yes... the day after she finished saying this, she died."

"Then what?"

"At that time, everyone was also panicked. After that, no one dared to go out, but after a few days, no one died, and everyone gradually let go and went back to work. However, this time, there was another rumor from the mine. It was reported that the miners were attacked by wild beasts, and only one of the five people who went down the mine survived, but after the miner was rescued, he said... what they encountered was not a wild beast at all, but Karl, who was buried before them!"

"Um………"

"At this time, everyone was afraid to go to the mine, so they sent someone to find the lord. Later, the lord did send someone to search the mine, but nothing was found. The adults who led the team heard about Karl and the others. After the incident, I felt that something was wrong, so I went to the cemetery and dug up their graves, and then everyone found out..."

  Recalling that scene at that time, Old Bent swallowed involuntarily.

   "Karl and their bodies are all missing! And there is a hole under each coffin. Obviously, they dug a tunnel through this hole to escape!"

   "Under the coffin?"

  Hearing this, Duanmuhuai's eyes flashed.

   "Are you sure it's the bottom? Not the top?"

   "It's down there, I'm pretty sure."

  Old Bent nodded vigorously.

"At that time, everyone was terrified, and some people thought that Karl and the others had turned into ghouls, so the soldiers patrolled at the beginning, and then the soldiers went back without any gains. We formed a patrol team to patrol, result……"

   Having said this, Old Bent rolled up his sleeves, only to see a long scar clearly visible on his arm.

   "You were attacked?"

"Yes, they suddenly rushed out of the thick fog. We didn't know what happened, and several people were dragged away. I reacted quickly and hid, otherwise, I'm afraid I would be dragged away too. One of them. But after that, everyone didn’t dare to go out again, so they had to ask the lord to send someone again. I heard that the leader of the team this time was the guard next to the lord, but... he was killed. "

   "Killed? Are you sure? The cause of death is not as unknown as before?"

   "I just heard about it."

  Old Bent shook his head.

   "According to the guard in charge at the time, it seems that the adult had his throat cut by someone in his sleep, and deliberately put the dagger beside him..."

"I see."

  Hearing this, Duanmu Huai nodded. He thought that Lord Frederick was a little vague. Now it seems that this is obviously more like a warning and a demonstration.

   Otherwise, you wouldn’t have deliberately placed the murder weapon at the crime scene, would you?

   "That's how it happened."

   At this time, Old Bent also finished talking about what he knew, Duanmuhuai thought for a moment, then nodded.

   "Okay, then let's go."

"where to?"

"you still need to ask?"

   Facing Guleya's question, Duanmu Huai rolled his eyes.

   "Of course I went to the cemetery."

"…………Why??!!"

  (end of this chapter)