Chapter 55: The Strange Village of Big Black Tree
The caravan stopped at the fork in the road, and Dandelion immediately complained: "Aren't we going to Big Black Tree Village? I was hoping to see what sort of hospitality they'd offer!"
Arthur laughed: "What, you didn't get enough of Grey Dog Village's stewed chicken?"
At the mention of stewed chicken, Zoltan immediately swallowed hard: "The chicken was good, but the serving size was too small. It was gone before I could really taste it. Dandelion said Big Black Tree Village is much wealthier than Grey Dog Village; they must have plenty of good food!"
Arthur, who had already stepped down from the wagon, turned back upon hearing this: "Big Black Tree is wealthier? I hadn't heard that."
Dandelion leaned in, speaking in a 'telling you a big secret' tone: "Did you know that every household in Big Black Tree Village grows parsley?"
Parsley... Arthur recalled the lesson from his monster studies: this was a strongly scented herb known to be a powerful repellent for many cursed creatures. Under certain conditions, it could even help break a werewolf curse.
The repellent effect was like the smell of durian to someone who hated the fruit.
But what does that have to do with Big Black Tree Village being wealthy?
Seeing Arthur's confusion, Mara explained: "Parsley has a lovely flavor, and it can be used to aid in postpartum recovery. It's very popular in upper and middle society."
So this stuff is a cash crop... Arthur nodded, but still insisted that the others remain behind:
"The situation in Big Black Tree Village is different from Grey Dog Village. I'm going in first to scout out the situation, then we'll see if you should follow."
Dandelion started to protest but was silenced by Kolgrim: "Be careful, lad. We'll wait for your message here."
Watching Arthur's retreating figure, the Witcher sighed inwardly: The boy still hasn't let go of what happened at Kaer Amell…
On the other side, the atmosphere in Big Black Tree Village was indeed strange.
Village women were huddled behind fences, whispering. A child pointing at the greatsword on Arthur's back and yelling was quickly shooed back into a house. The idlers standing in front of the tavern made no effort to hide the sheer dislike in their eyes.
It was as if they hadn't been fighting tooth and nail with Grey Dog Village at the crossroads just a few days ago.
Arthur felt uneasy. He dismounted and asked:
"Is the hunter here? I heard his family was attacked by a monster a few days ago."
The idlers did not reply. Arthur stepped toward the tavern. Usually, if you bought a few coppers' worth of food and drink, the tavern owner could provide the latest and most complete information.
But several hairy arms blocked his path. The idlers waved their hands, as if shooing away chickens or ducks: "Shhh! Shhh! Go away!"
Arthur's eyebrow twitched, but for the sake of his progression points, he forced himself to be patient: "I heard the rye whiskey in Big Black Tree Village is quite good. Would you care to share a drink with me?"
He avoided using his Knight of the Throne crest to pressure them; the oppressive power of nobility was too strong and easily drove people to extremes. An old sage once said that peasants in these backwaters were the most stingy, cunning, cowardly, spiteful, inept, and murderous people around.
Arthur was here to grind progress points, not to commit a village massacre.
"We don't drink with outsiders!"
"Get lost, kid, unless you want your backside busted!"
The idlers remained blocking his way. One man with a thick beard even threw a punch. Arthur noticed that this was one of the villagers who had blocked the road at the crossroads a few days earlier.
As the fist rapidly grew larger in his vision, Arthur's expression suddenly relaxed:
"Whew. I'm much better at dealing with this sort of thing…"
With a slight turn of his head, Arthur executed a clean duck-and-weave, evading the bearded man's attack, while simultaneously slamming his own fist into the side of the man's abdomen.
The gut-wrenching pain of the liver shot instantly doubled the bearded man over. Arthur mounted him, raining blows down like rain:
"You were blocking my way at the crossroads just a few days ago, so why are you trying to drive me away today?"
"Is there really a monster in the village or not? Is the story about the hunter's wife true or false?"
"Who is ordering you to do this, and how does he usually contact you?"
Arthur's barrage of punches looked vicious, but he was actually holding back his strength. Firstly, he still needed to question the man. Secondly... a quick beating was enough for troublemakers; there was no need to commit murder.
During the assault, the bearded man's companions tried to jump in, but Arthur grabbed and pushed them away, tossing them all over the fence line.
Despite his tough-looking facade, the bearded man began squealing like a pig after only a few hits:
"I'll talk! I'll talk! Stop hitting me!"
"The hunter's story is true, there really is a monster in the village!"
"It's the Chief, the Village Chief told everyone to shut up and not speak to you!"
Arthur stopped punching and dragged the bearded man into the tavern. He then turned back and shouted toward the few idlers wailing outside the fence:
"Stop howling, get up and come drink!"
It wasn't that Arthur had money to burn, but he figured it would be easier to extract information if there were more people present.
The few idlers helped each other into the tavern, their faces as glum as if they had drunk stale horse piss. Around them, a faint red barrier shimmered.
"This barrier prevents your voices from carrying outside. So no one will know where the information leaked from, understood?"
The idlers nodded, but still inadvertently glanced at each other. They were neighbors who had lived together for over twenty years; they could easily guess the next half of a sentence and quickly coordinate their stories.
But the moment the first man spoke, the expressions on the others' faces changed.
"What? Can't hear your companion's voice, can you?"
In the idlers' eyes, the slow smile that spread across Arthur's face looked demonic: "You didn't actually think I would believe you would tell me everything without trying to hide or tamper with the information, did you?"
"This barrier doesn't just block sound directed outside; it also blocks sound internally. In other words, you can only speak to me, but you cannot communicate with each other."
The bearded man's face twitched violently. He looked up at Arthur, trembling: "Are you… are you a Master from the Sorcerers' Council?"
Arthur was about to deny it, but then suddenly recalled Triss saying that the sorcerer who used shadow teleportation should also be from the Council. He nodded in affirmation.
This identity worked better than Arthur expected. The bearded man's tears and snot burst forth instantly:
"M-Master, this had nothing to do with me! It was all the Village Chief and that Rience fellow's doing!"
From then on, Arthur didn't need to press him further. The man spilled everything he knew like beans poured from a bamboo tube:
There was indeed a monster in Big Black Tree Village, but it wasn't a natural creature or a migrating one; it was created jointly by a sorcerer named Rience and the Village Chief.
The monster's movements were erratic, and no one in the village had seen what it looked like.
The monster had never harmed villagers before, only catching a head of livestock each month for food, so the villagers weren't overly concerned.
It wasn't until the hunter's wife died recently that everyone became afraid. But they were suppressed by the village elders and never dared to speak out.
A few days ago, the Village Chief was away on business and heard that a Witcher was headed this way. That was why they frantically ran to the crossroads to block Arthur.
But because their message was unclear, Arthur went to Grey Dog Village first. Once the Chief returned, he went door-to-door to scold everyone, which resulted in the villagers' initial enthusiasm turning cold.
Arthur nodded. The other idlers' accounts differed slightly in tone from the bearded man's, but the sequence of events was consistent, suggesting the story was true.
Seeing Arthur nod, the idlers collectively breathed a sigh of relief. Just as they were about to pour a drink to calm their nerves, they were startled by Arthur's cold comment:
"But you are still hiding something from me."
......
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