Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 119
“Actually, it’s not about standing vigil at all.”
After a moment, Alayne suddenly spoke up. “This is… a complete sacrifice.”
“To whom?” Bai Zhou asked.
“The Red God,” Alayne said. “People from the other world… like red. The moment Samhain arrives, the world turns upside down, and they take the opportunity to come over.”
“Are all people from the other world Red Gods?” Bai Zhou asked again.
Alayne shook her head. “No. As far as I know, they are not. There are many Red Gods… Each of them owns an inn, and all the inns are red. Hence, the owners of the red inns are called Red Gods.
“The inns are used to attract passersby. I’ve heard there are countless delicacies and endless banquets held there. Every guest who enters the inn can eat unlimited food. The other world is actually a good place, but only for the people there. For us, going to the other world means death, saying goodbye to our loved ones now…”
Inns? Unlimited food?
Bai Zhou remembered that the owner of the Tartar Inn, Tartar, had said that everyone could freely eat the meat in the seven pots at the inn’s entrance.
So he asked further, “Is Tartar related to the Red God?”
“Tartar?” Alayne blinked, then shook her head. “Oh no… Of course not. She runs a legitimate inn. The inns in the other world should be quite different from here.”
“Then back to standing night watch. What did you mean by sacrifice?” Bai Zhou said.
“Although the Red Gods run inns, providing selflessly for those from the other world, or ghosts… It seems, they are good people, but that’s only towards ghosts. They are not kind to humans. They will consume us to gain energy, to nourish those spirits.”
Alayne said. “I’ve heard our village offended a very powerful Red God. He wasn’t an ordinary visitor from the other world, who could be scared away by the Bone Fire, or by every household’s lights. That Red God is powerful, and if angered, the entire village could be destroyed.”
“Every year… that Red God consumes people from our village. 32 is his maximum demand. Exactly how many he consumes each time depends on his mood.”
“At most, he consumed all 32 people, and at least, he only ate 8. Anyway, these 32 people will be sacrifices. We use their lives in exchange for the safety of everyone else.”
Alayne suddenly paused, then looked at Bai Zhou and asked, “So… are you fast?”
“Being fast can improve the Red God’s mood and avoid death?” Bai Zhou countered.
“I’ve heard the Red God likes to play the ‘Drop the Handkerchief’ game. If someone can outrun the Red God and catch up with him, that person will be spared by the Red God. But…” Alayne said, “Who can outrun a ghost that comes and goes without a trace?”
After saying these words, Alayne looked up at Bai Zhou again.
“I’ve told you everything I know. I was practicing running for my parents, for my clan, but now… it’s your turn to answer me.”
Alayne asked him, “If you’ve had my experience, have you ever lost? Tell me, what should I do?”
As the twilight deepened, the outline of the crescent moon became clearer.
Corresponding to it were the torches around the square and the huge fire in the center.
The flames fluttered like a flag in the wind.
The central fire gradually lost its yellow hue, turning into a ghostly blue, like will-o’-wisps dancing in the night—that was the color of the Bone Fire.
Bai Zhou’s tall figure stood against such a backdrop, his expression hidden in the darkness, away from the firelight.
“I haven’t lost, and I won’t lose. Someone like me can’t afford to lose.”
After a long while, Bai Zhou spoke gravely.
“I don’t understand.” Alayne frowned. “You just said it, didn’t you? It’s not fair. Why do we have to bear such a burden from birth? Everyone is just using us. When we’re useful, they praise us. Once we lose and become useless, they discard us and even blame us…”
Bai Zhou looked at her and said, “But your mother didn’t do that, right?”
Alayne frowned and didn’t speak.
Bai Zhou continued, “As long as there are people in this village you want to protect, what you do still has meaning. You’re fighting for your mother and for yourself. My situation is the same.”
“But I’ve already lost…” Alayne said. “What should I do at a time like this?”
“This time, I will stand guard for you. You must survive. As long as you live, there’s a chance to win. Then, next, you just need to become stronger.”
“When you’re strong enough, no one can hurt you. When you’re strong enough, the father who hurt you and even the rest of the villagers will only kneel on the ground, begging for your protection. Talent may burden you, but it also brings you power.”
Alayne thought for a moment, then asked him, “Begging me? Like… like begging a god?”
“Exactly. Just like begging a god.” Bai Zhou nodded.
Alayne said, “If one day the god becomes useless to mortals, will they still beg him? If people abandon the god, would the god be disappointed? Would the god be cursed?”
Bai Zhou continued walking forward.
“When you become a god, you won’t care anymore about how so-called mortals view you.”
Watching Bai Zhou’s back, eight-year-old Alayne fell into deep thought.
—If she truly became like a god, indifferent to all mortals… would she still know how to protect her mother? Would she even forget her mother?
Suddenly feeling something, she looked down and saw a red lotus blooming in the palm of her hand.
……
On the square, Zhou Qian, after a long wait, finally managed to get two offerings for burning for himself and He Xiaowei.
The villagers were lined up to receive the offerings, then went to the side to get the meat soup for the dogs.
The voice of Innkeeper Tartar kept ringing. “I remind you to bring bowls, so don’t forget them. The iron bowls I have here aren’t enough to share with you all.”
After receiving the offerings and meat soup, the villagers began to leave one by one.
Of course, Zhou Qian didn’t leave. Besides him, the remaining players included Hidden Blade, Ke Yuxiao, Yun Xiangrong, and Yin Jiujiu. Bai Zhou had ventured off to explore the night watch line, and Qi Liuhuang, not quite at ease leaving He Xiaowei alone, had gone with him to find flammable minerals and wasn’t present either.
Eventually, even Village Chief Ab temporarily left, leaving only Tartar as the NPC who hadn’t departed. She seemed thoughtful as she looked at Zhou Qian, then scooped out two more bowls of meat from the pot.
Then Tartar said, “You don’t need to take these. There’s plenty more in the inn. It’s just… two families haven’t come to collect yet. I wonder if they haven’t found their dogs yet.”
Naturally, Tartar was referring to Tara and Brega.
Zhou Qian had managed to send them away in the game, as they were looking for extremely important dogs and hadn’t returned yet.
Speaking of which… the deserters from the Land of Silence were under three prohibitions.
Who issued these prohibitions?
Why does it seem specifically targeted at the deserters?
In an instance that clearly involves magic and undead, such prohibitions seem unusual, almost like a curse.
With a vague guess in mind but still unsure of the specifics, Zhou Qian turned to Tartar and said, “We seem to have lost our memories during our escape. Other than the fact that we come from the Land of Silence, we know nothing else.”
Tartar smiled, seemingly not understanding the purpose of Zhou Qian’s question. “So?”
“So, we’ll stay here with you, waiting for those two to return. But just waiting is so boring.” Zhou Qian smiled. “We could chat.”
Tartar threw Zhou Qian a coquettish wink. “Chat? It’s boring to chat here. Maybe you want to date me? I’m free all day tomorrow.”
Before Zhou Qian could respond, Hidden Blade, who was standing by, was taken aback—damn, the god just left, and he’s already moving on? No, as a brother, he couldn’t stand by and watch the god be cuckolded.
With a cough, Hidden Blade stepped forward. Contrary to the tumultuous waves in his heart, his face was cold and almost rigid. He said, “I’ll accompany you! How do you want to date?”
Zhou Qian looked at Hidden Blade in surprise, then back at the innkeeper. “I’m in a hurry. Can’t wait until tomorrow.”
Hidden Blade: “……”
Zhou Qian had a slightly malicious smile in his eyes. “With so much meat and soup in the inn, they’ll still be useful, right? I’m really worried my pet might knock them all over…”
The innkeeper’s expression changed. She looked at Zhou Qian with a somewhat angry gaze. “Are you threatening me?”
“Getting angry makes you age faster, which isn’t attractive. I’m not threatening you. I genuinely want to chat with you,” Zhou Qian said. “You dared to let us stay in your inn, so you must know something about us, right?
“I guess, you don’t want to say because you might want to use our background as leverage later, to make us do more work for you?”
“Don’t worry. We’re very diligent and won’t slack off.”
Seemingly hit by Zhou Qian’s guess, Tartar’s expression fluctuated for a while before she finally said, “This is Nameless Village, which belongs to the Kingdom of Words. People from the Land of Silence certainly wouldn’t dare come here.”
Hearing this, all the players present exchanged glances.
The “Silence” of the Land of Silence and the “Words” of the Kingdom of Words expressed completely opposite meanings.
Is there a story between the two?
“I learned about you from a horseman in the Land of Silence. You are deserters. He took your money and sent you through a secret channel to me. From now on, you’ll be doing manual labor for the villagers, and I’m supposed to get a cut. You’ve made an agreement with the horseman about this, so don’t think about reneging. As for why you’ve lost your memories…”
“I think it was probably the work of a powerful magician,” Tartar continued. “He’s called Liu Shui, always working for the king of the Land of Silence. The king, of course, is furious about deserters, so he would definitely send a magician to punish you.”
“The king probably wanted Liu Shui to kill you. But magic that kills brings backlash, and the conditions are very strict, especially over such a distance. It would be difficult for Liu Shui to directly kill you with magic.”
“So, I think, besides making you lose your memories, the magician also placed other restrictions on you. If you break those restrictions, you will die.”
Tartar’s words indeed answered many questions related to the players’ identities.
At the same time, the origin of the prohibitions was also explained.
The three prohibitions were set by Liu Shui for the players, or rather, the deserters.
He predicted that the deserters would be in the Nameless Village of the Kingdom of Words but couldn’t come to execute them himself. So, he placed a curse of prohibitions, hoping they would violate them and thus die, fulfilling the task given by the king.
This meant he had enough understanding of the customs of the Kingdom of Words and even Nameless Village—
Firstly, he knew that the inn’s glass would turn blue at night, and the bones the village chief asked the deserters to burn would emit blue flames, perfectly visible through the blue glass.
Secondly, he knew about the game of “Drop the Handkerchief” held here at night.
Lastly, he was aware of two villagers named Brega and Tara.
Beyond this, there were other issues.
First, of the three prohibitions related to the deserters, two were obtained by Zhou Qian in the matching center of Blue Harbor City, considered external hints.
If they ignore external hints, where in the story of the instance were the other two prohibitions hidden?
Second, in this instance, players directly saw only one prohibition related to Brega.
It was discovered when they investigated the second floor of the inn and went up to the roof, where the prohibition was inscribed on a stone tablet.
But who was responsible for this?
Likely, they were helping the deserters. But why would they help the deserters, and how did they know about the prohibitions placed by the magician Liu Shui?
Thinking this, Zhou Qian immediately took out his binoculars to look at the stone tablet, wondering if Tartar knew when it had appeared there.
But then he found—the stone tablet was gone. Where the stone tablet used to be, there was now just a wheat field.
The magician Liu Shui from the Land of Silence hadn’t succeeded, so there might still be other prohibitions to be imposed.
Perhaps there was still a chance to find this NPC, who seemed to be helping the players by alerting them to the existence of the prohibitions.
As Zhou Qian was contemplating this, he saw Ke Yuxiao approaching the innkeeper, politely asking, “I want to ask. Are the Land of Silence and the Kingdom of Words enemies? After all, magicians from there don’t dare to come here. We, who have completely betrayed the Land of Silence and are deserters, dare to come here to hide, thinking that people from the Land of Silence won’t come here looking for trouble, right?”
“Yes. They are indeed enemies now. But before… it seems these two countries had a good relationship,” Tartar said. “I’ve only been in this village for two or three years, so I’m not clear about the past. I’ve only vaguely heard that the Land of Silence once married the most beautiful girl from the Kingdom of Words.”
Ke Yuxiao quickly followed up. “Who was that girl?”
“It was a girl born in this Nameless Village. Her name was Amei. Amei, the most beautiful flower of the Kingdom of Words.”
Tartar’s gaze showed a hint of longing.
But soon, that longing turned into a sigh. “But later, she became a criminal in both the Kingdom of Words and the Land of Silence.
“Don’t ever mention this name in front of the villagers. I’ve heard they all deeply hate this woman.”
As Tartar said this, Zhou Qian heard footsteps coming from behind him. Putting away his binoculars, he turned around and saw Tara and Brega. They were hurriedly running towards the square, both looking as pale as if they hadn’t found their dogs.
Of course, they hadn’t been able to find it. Zhou Qian thought to himself—the little dragon was still playing with the dogs.
Observing them closely, Zhou Qian noticed that this man and woman weren’t young. Perhaps, then, more of the village’s stories could be learned from them.
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