"Ezekiel. What I am about to say is something that I should not be saying, it might even get me killed. But brother… please save me… I think the village chief is going to slaughter the entire settlement."
The village chief? Does he mean the elder? But why? Wasn't he the one who wanted me to subjugate the Witch and save the settlement? I had many questions that I wanted to ask Lloyd but for now, I kept quiet, waiting for him to continue speaking.
"It happened last week," he fidgeted a bit more as his fingers tapped against each other in a rhythmic fashion before he continued," I had returned from the main town after selling my goods and leaving my wife with her in-laws. It was pretty late at night and the entire settlement was asleep, plus given the Witch situation, I tried rushing as fast as I could to get here. That night…"
He paused, looked at me with a fixed gaze, and his fidgeting stopped.
"…I saw the chief walking alone in the forest with a short sword and a red coloured bag in his hand."
Taking out a water bottle from the drawer, he took a sip out of it, and then he continued again,
"Under normal conditions, I wouldn't have been too sceptical about it. But the thing was Ezekiel that the red coloured bag, was dripping. There was some form of liquid coming out of it. Honestly, I was horrified, but for some reason, I followed behind the elder as he walked a bit deeper into the forest."
His eyes kept gazing at me, and then looking into the empty space in between us as he recalled what he saw before getting back to me again,
"Up until this point, I was pretty much only curious about what he was doing. Horrified too, but it wasn't enough to terrorise me. I have seen the worst in my short yet long life, you know? But then something else happened. The elder paused in the middle of the forest and began digging some sort of grave. He kept digging for at least 5 to 10 minutes before he stopped and then took out what was within the bag."
Using the handkerchief which he took out from his breast pocket, he wiped the sweat from his forehead before he finished his sentence,
"It was the head of a man."
So the chief is suspicious. Perhaps murder. But that doesn't add up.
"And why do you think the chief is going to eradicate the settlement?" I asked curiously.
"That is because he was speaking in demon language," the answer came from behind, as another familiar figure stood there. The long brown hair, and an aged charm, she, Tierra Porti, stood there with a serious expression on her face.
Slowly walking past me, and then towards Lloyd, she turned around and stood against the counter before continuing,
"He has been burying men and women of unknown origin into that forest spot for a while now and then saying prayers in demonic language."
I gave a serious look to Tierra and then to Lloyd. Then I spoke about the most important question that was present in my mind.
"Then why are you guys still here? Why not leave the settlement and call for help? Perhaps tell the churches or the authorities about it?"
The words Demons and Demon Worshipper carry heavy weight in the world of Arcadia. It is not to be taken lightly under any circumstances.
"Because we can't," Lloyd answered the question.
"Lloyd, Sebastian and even I had tried leaving this place many times in the past 3 weeks but every time we moved out, we ended up returning to the settlement. It's akin to a curse," Tierra explained the situation.
[You have been afflicted with a knowledge curse!]
[Curse of the Lost Path (Knowledge): Once the user gets to know about the curse from the NPC, he can't leave the designated area until the Curse User is killed. The Player can't share the information about the curse through any means other than word of mouth, and to any player that the user has shared the curse knowledge by words, will also be inflicted with the curse.]
[Favourability with Inara Settlement increased by 25!]
I looked at that curse and almost laughed out loud. It is true that within the game, you cannot message and tell anyone about the curse unless they are physically present in front of you. But the biggest loophole, that is the offline meet-up, is something that this curse cannot bypass.
Still, if someone who knows about this curse through offline means mentions it within the game, they either get the curse or a similar level penalty.
But this entire thing did not solve my troubles about the Witch. In fact, this addition of a demon worshipper made things more complicated. I observed Tierra looking at me with a slight pitiful gaze before speaking,
"You wanted to know about the Witch, right? That is what brought you here, after all. Well, since we have already told you half of our biggest problems, I guess, we can share the other half as well."
So the favourability and trust were due to the protection of the players rather than due to animosity towards strangers, huh? Interesting.
Lloyd sighed as he saw me apologetically before saying," Sorry, I got you in this mess. But it was necessary since you are one of the blessed immortals. You are the only one I can trust to solve this problem and save us."
Not that I mind… just why isn't the quest window showing up though? He told me so much but there was neither any quest nor any change to the original quest.
That thought lasted a few more seconds as Tierra finally began speaking what I truly wanted to hear.
"The Witch… is actually my sister, the real mother of Aerie and Lila."
[Quest: Weeping Widow of the Night(II) is being updated!]
[New Quest: The Truth and the Lie!]