"This rag doll..."
Herag picked it up and gently dusted off the thick layer of dust covering it.
It was just an ordinary rag doll, not a Resentful Doll, nor was there anything unusual about it.
Herag looked at the doll, recalling everything he had experienced, and felt that sothing unfortunate might have happened to the Blacksmith Uncle’s family and this town, otherwise they wouldn’t find peace even in death.
He sighed and placed the rag doll back where it belonged.
Last night Herag hadn’t noticed, but in the daylight, from the room’s setup and color sche, he could tell it was a little girl’s room.
Herag looked around the room; it was about the sa as last night, except many things were already in ruins.
For example, when he pulled the cabinet door, the whole thing fell off, having completely decayed.
Inside the cabinet, there were still so clothes, all belonging to a little girl.
After leaving the room, Herag stepped on the rotting stairs to the attic.
The attic was even ssier, with many weeds growing, and there were several holes in the ceiling.
Herag glanced at the windowsill, no heads were there.
The window glass was broken, and half of the doorfra hung outside, looking like it would fall off at any mont.
After wandering around the Blacksmith Uncle’s house, Herag left, propping up the fallen doorfra and setting it back into place on his way out.
He actually wanted to find the corpses of the Blacksmith Uncle’s family, even if they were just bones, to bury them and let them rest in peace.
From what he observed last night, the Blacksmith Uncle’s family might have all turned into Evil Spirits, restless in death.
So he wanted to see if he could find any remains to bury the family.
After all, without the Blacksmith Uncle’s help, he could very well have died. Without the information the Blacksmith Uncle provided, he wouldn’t have been able to handle various situations later on.
But, unfortunately, he couldn’t find any remains.
After leaving, Herag went to check another place.
He arrived at the house next to the Demon Flower garden and found that the garden plot was still there, with many kinds of flowers growing, but no sign of the Demon Flower.
The house next to the garden had now beco a heap of ruins, lacking even the basic structure of a house, with just a pile of wood haphazardly stacked.
Herag continued to look around various places in the town, hoping to find traces of Robert, who had gone missing.
He inspected every resident house but found nothing and didn’t discover any corpses or bones.
"There are far fewer houses here than last night."
After wandering through these houses, Herag noticed that the number of houses was significantly fewer.
He had noticed it last night, that there were far more houses than when he first entered Valley Town.
"Is it really two different spaces?" Herag increasingly felt his guess was correct.
In fact, verifying it would be simple: just co back here again tonight.
But Herag would never return, not until he had enough strength to handle it. At the very least, he wouldn’t step back in until he could easily manage that spider swarm; otherwise, he’d just be courting death.
He continued down the mountain path, and when passing the tavern, he suddenly realized that the footsteps behind him had disappeared.
"When did they disappear..."
Herag found he hadn’t noticed, as the footsteps seed to have vanished long ago.
He thought back, rembering that he hadn’t heard the footsteps since entering the cave.
At that ti, his focus was on the murals and stone slab, completely missing the mont the footsteps vanished.
By the ti he ca out of the cave, it was already daylight, and he heard no more footsteps behind him.
Herag held his head as he pondered, "What on earth were those footsteps?"
This puzzled him greatly. Although the footsteps had followed him for quite a while, they hadn’t caused any harm, leaving him confused about what they were and their purpose.
While the footsteps had not led to any danger, Herag had a nagging feeling that the matter of the footsteps wasn’t over.
He glanced at the tavern, which had collapsed extensively, making it easy to see the tables and bar from outside.
After one last look at the tavern, Herag followed the mountain path down to the foot of the hill.
Looking back, Valley Town remained in decay, and the downhill path was overgrown with weeds at so point. It was estimated that before long, this mountain path would rge completely with the surrounding mountains, showing no sign of ever having been a path.
The One-Line Sky Canyon had also changed sowhat, and Herag clearly rembered how it looked on the way in.
On arrival, the path was fairly clean, and one could tell that it was regularly maintained.
But now, the entire Heaven’s Edge had beco nearly a primal forest.
Shrubbery as tall as a person filled the canyon, making it impossible to see the end of the path.
Herag drew out his Longsword, cutting through the bushes blocking the way as he walked.
By the ti he walked out of Heaven’s Edge, he was quite wet, from the dew clinging to the bushes, as well as the accumulated water in wide-leaf bushes that tipped over unexpectedly.
"Hmm?"
As Herag erged, he imdiately saw a familiar figure.
Robert was sleeping against a tree nearby, snoozing soundly.
Above his head, a squirrel perched on a branch, staring wide-eyed at Herag.
Herag walked over, and the squirrel, startled, chattered loudly before scurrying away out of sight.
Robert seed to be awakened by the squirrel, slowly opening his eyes to see Herag at once.
"Sir..."
Herag looked at him and asked, "Why are you sleeping here?"
Robert, puzzled, scratched his head, "I don’t know. I just rember having a Butter Beer with you and that uncle at the tavern, then nothing after."
"Anything else you rember?" Herag continued to ask.
Robert shook his head, "No, the last image in my mory is of the tavern, and then nothing. Just a Butter Beer, did I get drunk from that? Or was sothing added to it..."
Hearing his account, Herag pondered, "Robert’s last mory only exists at the tavern, so the Robert we t later, and the dismbered Robert, might not be the real one."
He suddenly turned to look at Robert, thinking, "Or perhaps, this one in front of isn’t the real one..."
Robert, sensing Herag’s stare, felt a chill down his spine, swallowed hard, and said, "Sir, what’s wrong?"
"Nothing, let’s hit the road, ti to head back," Herag glanced at the trees in the distance, where two horses were still tethered, leisurely grazing.
Reviews
All reviews (0)