The village chief looked at him strangely. "What are you talking about?" he asked.
The chief picked up a glass. Poured tea into two cups. The tea was very pale. It made him feel uneasy.
"Please sit down. I want to talk to you about whats going on. We don't have hunters. I meet you at one in the morning. You must be tired" the chief said.
"I'm not really tired. I don't sleep much " Elric replied politely.
He looked around the room. His sharp eyes checked every detail. He saw cracks in the walls dust in the corners and old furniture. He stood there for a time. The homeowner spoke up.
"Do you like my house, Hunter? I'm not selling it " the chief said.
"No that's not it. I just wonder why it's so old. You haven't fixed anything. Is there a reason?" Elric asked.
The chief. Drank his tea. He didn't take off his mask. He pointed to a photo on the wall.
"My family. I don't want to forget my wife. That's why I haven't changed anything " he said.
"I see. I like your house. Can I look around?" Elric asked.
The chief smiled a little. "I don't want you to."
Elric stopped talking. His eyes got darker. He was getting annoyed. He clenched his teeth.
This house was hiding something. Everything was untouched. It made him think that everything here was evidence.
Elric already knew the narrative.
"I heard you had nine kids. They all died. You must not feel much about it."
The room was silent. The chief stared at him. His body was stiff. His eyes behind the mask were cold.
"What a strange joke, Hunter. Course I feel sad " the chief said.
Elric shrugged. He smiled. He pointed to the photo.
"You said you never changed anything. You're wearing a mask with your wife. That's okay.. What about your kids? If you cared about them there should be something left.. I don't see anything."
He looked around the kitchen. There were things for two people. Two plates. Two spoons. Two tea sets. Everything was neat. There was no space for a person. Let alone nine kids.
"You've crossed the line" the chief said coldly.
Elric ignored him. He pulled out a book. "I found this"
The diary of the Starlight Prince...
He got it by following the shadow. It led him to a tree. The book was hidden there. It was the diary of the ninth child. Elric thought it was strange. Why would the ninth shadow lead him to the ninth child book?
"I've never seen this book " the chief said.
"It belongs to your child"
The chief froze. He took the book. His hand was shaking. His eyes were wide behind the mask. He flipped through the pages. He was trembling.
"You killed all nine of your children " Elric said.
The chiefs voice was cold. "That's ridiculous."
"You never saw them as your children " Elric continued.
It seemed he was terrible at hiding his emotions, even behind a mask. Or perhaps this was just the simplicity of Level 1 difficulty? Either way, it made things much easier.
The chief was getting angry. His body was tense. His voice was rough.
"Are you going to kill me and turn my body into a wolf like your children?" Elric asked.
The chief froze again. His body was shaking.
"Why do you wear a mask?" A glint of suspicion flashed in Elric's eyes.
The chief gritted his teeth. "Mind your business."
Elric said, "I heard there was a child..."
The chief sighed. "You've dug into my past."
Elric didn't need to hear more. He already knew. Without a word, this reaction confirmed Elric's suspicions. It seemed he had finally accepted that he was the child who had been driven out of the Sun Village some thirty years ago.
The chief stood up. He got a knife from a shelf. He walked back to Elric.
"How much do you know?" the village chief asked, his voice trembling.
"Not everything, but I know all the key points," Elric replied confidently.
"I've loved experimenting with science since I was a child. I conducted experiments. One day I heard the kingdom was facing problems and needed a large army" the chief said.
Elric added "But you had already been exiled from the village. So you wanted revenge using the things you had experimented on." Elric continued, expanding upon his theory.
Indeed, the core of this tale was nothing but an overflowing vengeance. A child driven out from his only sanctuary, cast away even by his own parents.
Before Elric set foot in the Sun Village, he had sensed a swirl of complex emotions hidden behind that mask. It was loathsome, yet hauntingly familiar. At the time, he couldn't grasp what it was. But as he delved deeper, the truth became clear: the man before him was no different from himself.
They shared the same brand of hatred.
That was why the sensation felt so intimate. Gazing into the man's eyes, Elric didn't deny that revenge had its place, but he despised the notion of murdering one's own wife and children. Whatever the reason might be, based on every possibility, there was only one path left.
"You deceived that woman just so she would bear your child. If I'm not mistaken, your wife came from the Sun Village."
He loathed that place—hated it so much that he wanted to exploit everyone from there. Just like the nine unfortunate souls who were born. They were all birthed by women from the Sun Village, which was why the man infront him never once looked at those children as his own flesh and blood.
Instead of answering Elric's words, the village chief broke into a horrific smirk.
"Aren't you afraid I'll kill you?" The chief grinned.
"You can't. You don't even know how to hold that knife. Don't underestimate a Hunter."
Elric surmised that a man like him couldn't kill anyone in a direct confrontation. Judging by his physique, he wasn't particularly strong. From Elric's observations, no information in a narrative was ever truly useless—in other words, every detail served a purpose. That was the core principle he had grasped.
Recalling the environment, a five-meter-high fence surrounded the village. It appeared sturdy enough to fend off wild animal attacks, which was his initial thought. However, it could serve another purpose: to keep the people inside from wandering out.
The village was situated on a plain, with a river flowing through the east and a forest to the south—the very place where the 'Hunter' role had to venture. The origin of the mist haunting that forest traced back to the day the village chief's wife had a heated argument with him. In an act of defiance, she had fled into the woods.
"I suspect the reason you two fought was because she found out you were experimenting on humans—your own children, no less. That's why she fled to the forest in a rage."
The reason the forest was so misty was because...
"You have no evidence " the chief said.
"I have proof."
The chief was silent.
"There's a tree with golden leaves there as well. I took a brief look—doesn't it seem to have too few leaves? Is it a deciduous tree? Perhaps, but I didn't see any of those fallen leaves anywhere."
The rules mention shadows, and there are nine shadows—matching the nine children. That means there's a very high chance the nine children who died were the same nine shadows he had encountered before. They were probably lingering around the places where they died. The reason the shadows stayed near the alleyways, places with poor visibility, was probably because of that.
Thinking along those lines, the mist in the forest may have come from the village chief's dead wife. Of course, there was another theory: when he went after her and killed her, he used the fallen golden leaves as fuel, then set her body on fire to hide the evidence. That created smoke from the burning, which may have been the source of the mist.
If the rules are all tied to the story, then the voice calling out to him or the hand grabbing his leg in the forest might have been the wife still wandering there. The reason the rules said to hide in the golden-leaf tree was probably because that had been her hiding place in the past, but she failed. The village chief then used the leaves in that area—those golden leaves as fuel, because she had hidden there by chance.
As for the black shadow and the rule about something grabbing his leg, the reason the voice only appeared at night was because all of it happened during the night.
When exactly did it happen? Of course there had to be loud noise to drown out the screaming.
"I think you killed her when the village bell rang."
Yes, at one in the morning.
"You went looking for her around midnight didn't you?"
The reason the rule said the church was the place in the village was because midnight was when he went searching for his wife.
The rule said inside the village was safe but did not mention outside it. That was the clue to this event.
He spent an hour finding and killing her which matched the bells ringing perfectly and covered up the noise.
If you asked the NPCs they would probably only say the two of them argued and the woman ran away.
"Judging by your expression you really do know everything. I never thought anyone would know this much about me."
The village chief looked like he had surrendered.
"I came around one-thirty and found my ninth child. He was the one who survived. He was waiting near the entrance."
Elric nodded, knowing what would happen next.
The ninth shadow appeared there.
It was not hard to guess.
If the rules are a description of the narrative then the rules for each person are hints from the beginning.
You just have to notice them.
Of course, because he saw that he was able to understand it.
To put it simply if one narrative has a rule that says do not speak then we can infer that we may be hinting at silence or the inability to speak.
The rules will not tell you directly. Instead give you clues.
You have to observe
If we keep looking for explanations the rule about knocking on the door three times probably refers to the event where he opened the door to kill his wife.
The Starlight Princes diary mentions him and one of the details is that he liked to knock three times.
That may be where the rule If you knock three times do not open the door came from.
Other rules like never staying in the forest likely exist because that is where the murder took place.
The rule about not lighting fires probably comes from the method used to dispose of the body.
Walking loudly at noon is because it is daytime so act normally.
At midnight walk as quietly as possible because in the past the village chief had to hunt his wife.
He needed to carry out the murder quietly as possible.
Walking backward at noon may symbolize that you are already leaving the murder behind and that you must act inconspicuous so no one suspects anything.
Never stay in a house that has no residents. Perhaps that refers to an event where one of his children did that and died.
"You wanted revenge without caring about anything else didn't you?" Elric said firmly.
"You don't understand me."
"No... I do understand."
Yes he understood everything.
He had resentment too.
He hated one man.
"I also have resentment. I want to kill someone. He used to be my friend. He murdered my father and mother and framed me ruining my entire life."
"why are you -"
"I just can't accept that you dragged other people into it. Course not all ten of them were your family... The villagers of both villages too."
The village chief was. Rushed forward to stab Elric but Elric dodged in an instant.
"I'm number 15. I'm not supposed to die."
course the reason the villagers had numbers was because the village chief intended to kill them in order according to their numbers.
"Take this."
Elric handed over a newspaper.
It said that Sun Village had been attacked by a pack of wolves for reasons.
"You probably figured out by now that I can tell the difference between humans and wolves."
At first he may not have noticed. When looked at closely it really was like that.
He didn't know how the other roles were connected. The Farmer role had to provide blood to the strange plants.
That wasn't a plant. It had to be wolves.
"The wolves don't attack -" Elric dodged another attack.
"They don't attack Starlight Village because you created them by modifying bodies."
The village chief kept trying to hurt Elric. Elric dodged every time.
"Why not think it was a coincidence."
"A coincidence? That's funny. You built a wall and the wolves never attacked anyone except Sun Village. On top of that there's this paper you gave me."
The village chief refused to back down and tried to explain.
"Then why would I want hunters in the village? You work hunting them so why would I kill wolves myself if I created them?"
Elric punched the village chief in the head cracking the mask.
"Simple. I told you they were bloodthirsty. The wolves you made are humans. So you had to kill people to feed the wolves."
He had wondered for a time why they hunted wolves but never ate them or used them for anything.
He had never known the reason before. Now he understood.
Maybe that was why cerulean stone had to be used?
He wasn't sure because he knew little about the stone.
Maybe...
Otherwise they could have used something as bullets.
When they were still young or in the stages he had farmers supply blood to nourish them.
Once they grew he released them into the forest. Waited until there were enough before sending them out all at once.
If they died from hunger he needed the wolves to feed on each other.
Even if their numbers decreased, compared to the number of people who would become wolves the net result was still an increase in wolves.
He slowly increased their numbers waiting for the day he would unleash them to attack.
Course he may have released small groups from time to time to gradually erode the other villages defenses.
The village chief slowly pushed himself up his muscles tensed beneath his clothes.
Then he looked down at Elric with eyes of fury as if ready to tear everything apart.
"Why aren't you unconscious?"
Elric glanced at the teacup beside him. Answered flatly "I don't know if the tea was good but I pretended to drink it."
The spilled tea on the floor was still wet revealing his intent.
"Damn it."
The village chief lunged at him at once grabbing a knife and slashing without hesitation.
His movements were violent but lacked precision.
He tried changing tactics. Thrusting, slashing, rushing in to grapple. Yet every attack missed awkwardly.
Elric dodged with ease.
The Hunters instincts made every move from the man appear in slow motion.
He could see every flaw in the attacks of someone who had never truly fought before from weight shifts to overextended force.
"I was never accepted."
"Ever since you came out from there you founded this village just to take revenge."
Thirty years of accumulated resentment.
The timing information had come from the questions and answers he received beneath the Sun Village church.
He had asked who the village chief was. They didn't know him so he had to change the question.
That answer became the key that tied everything together.
He still wasn't entirely sure how the missing villagers of Sun Village had disappeared or been kidnapped or what method had been used,. It didn't matter anymore.
The mystery had been solved.
"I give up" the village chief said softly placing the knife back where it belonged.
Success.... Why had nothing happened yet?
He had thought the narrative would end the moment the other man surrendered.
"I was envied because of my face so I had to wear a mask all the time afraid I would be rejected."
He paused briefly before continuing.
"She came into my life. I loved her.. I never showed her my face."
He held his head tightly laughter escaping in a way his whole body trembling like a mind coming apart.
"I loved her much. She was such a person... But she was also the thing I hated."
A strange smile appeared on his face.
He laughed, stopped, laughed again repeating it like someone slipping away, from reality.
"So you were going to kill her."
"No... I just accepted her. I thought I could let go of thirty years of resentment."
Elric froze.
His eyes widened immediately at those words.
The assumptions he had carefully pieced together began to waver.
"My nine children. I only killed the one... The other eight were killed by my wife."
"She knew I had once planned to hurt her hometown, Sun Village. So she hurt me by killing the eight kids."
He slowly stood up calm again. Then he reached for a framed photo on the wall. It was a picture of him and her smiling a time ago. The image was still clear. He looked at it for a moment then threw it to the floor. The sound of breaking glass filled the room.
"I couldn't accept that... So I killed her. You were right, but not fully. I'm a dad. I could never kill my kids. I wanted my village to be peaceful. I wanted peace. But why..." He paused. "The ninth kid was a kid right? That's partly true. He sold info about my life to the church people. I didn't want to kill him.... He wanted to kill me."
Elric stood silently shock in his eyes. The story he thought he knew had just changed.
"You saw the diary didn't you. Why was he called the Starlight Prince? Because he was good to others maybe.. I'm his dad. I knew him well. He always wanted to be first above everyone... Even me."
He put his head down gripping his face tightly still wearing the mask. "You know I didn't change anything in the house because I didn't want to forget them... Except for the kid's stuff. He once stabbed me."
He slowly opened his shirt showing a scar across his body. The old wound looked twisted like pain was still inside it. The skin around it was rough.
"I wanted to deny this truth... So I used the knife. I tried to change everything so I could forget that kid existed."
A gentle smile appeared on his face. "I let go of my anger ago but when this happened I started to hate my wife again. I began my revenge plan over."
Even though he hated her he still loved her. That's why they both stayed in the house.
"I didn't want the kids near her because she killed them. So I kept their things. You said I didn't see them as people... That's not true. I loved them.... I also hated myself. I miss my kids... More than anyone can understand. My wife did too. No matter how bad she was I was no different."
Elric nodded slightly. He understood that feeling. Anyone who lost a kid would probably go crazy. As a dad he would have done anything to vent that pain.
"I won't blame you. I have no right to judge.. You must accept your guilt. What you did was wrong. That's a truth."
The village chief stood still. His shoulders shook slightly like someone who carried something for too long. Silence was around him, heavy and suffocating. The sorrow inside him slowly came out.
In the end it was a misunderstanding... And no one willing to talk.
Who was really at fault? Maybe the village chief. Maybe his wife. Maybe the parents who expelled him. Maybe the villagers who envied him.. The kids should never have had to suffer.
No... Everyone had a share of the blame. That's humanity. Everything brings consequences.
That the price of becoming human.
"Do you think anyone would accept me?" he asked, his voice shaking.
"I can't answer that.... You should start by accepting yourself. You've been, through a lot."
"Is that so... Thank you."
He slowly took off the mask. Under it was a face stained with tears. His eyes had softened. He smiled for real—for the time.
Those tears were not anger or resentment. They were acceptance... Of everything that had happened.
At that moment a strange voice rang out.
[You have cleared Narrative of the Peaceful Village with the full score.]
[Returning to the white room.]