The hotel room was quite good. Besides the bedroom, there was also a dedicated large kitchen and a small living room. In this building, apart from Bian Locke, there were only Kevin and his three familiar Hunters. After going upstairs, they didn't rest immediately. After a simple wash-up, they gathered again in the small living room.
At this moment, everyone's gaze was on Gawain. Because just downstairs, Gawain had inquired about information regarding his sister. Initially, everyone thought that the relevant information would be somewhat concealed, but unexpectedly, Bian Locke was very straightforward and told them everything he knew without reservation.
"A female Hunter, nineteen years ago—I probably know who you're talking about. But I was still young then and didn't know much. I only knew it was the last festival. The festival is held every nineteen to twenty years. So that time left a particularly deep impression on me. That female Hunter did indeed clash with us, but she didn't die by our hands; she died during the festival. As for exactly how she died, I can't say much more, as it involves the festival. I'll tell you this piece of information for free, as thanks for your generosity."
Kevin didn't hesitate to spend money when asking for information; he gave whatever the other party asked for, which made Bian Locke quite fond of the few of them.
After that, Gawain's mood was clearly low.
"Now that you know something about your sister, I suggest you leave after a while. Their festival likely involves human sacrifice. From your appearance, you probably can't accept such a thing." Menchi said bluntly.
Though they had only spent a few days together, Gawain's character was easy to see through. Everyone could tell what kind of personality he had at a glance. For the chivalrous Gawain, the act of human sacrifice was absolutely unforgivable. Conflict would definitely arise then; it was almost a certainty.
Kevin glanced at Gawain and also felt that he definitely couldn't accept it. Based on Gawain's personality and Nen ability performance, the composition of his Nen ability was likely related to this. Once Nen ability was involved, for something that touched his bottom line like human sacrifice, conflict was bound to erupt. This was the reason why Gawain's face was solemn and he remained silent at this moment.
He had already accepted his sister's death and had never fantasized about seeing his sister alive here. He just wanted to know exactly how his sister died, whether she was framed or persecuted. Now it seemed that there were factors in this regard, but it also seemed to be related to his sister's own actions. They came from a knightly family. From Gawain's words and actions, it could be inferred that even if his sister wasn't as exaggerated as him, she was definitely a righteous person.
"Impossible, I must find out exactly what kind of festival my sister died in. Since I happen to be here during this festival, this is the only opportunity." The next festival would be in another nineteen or twenty years, which was simply not something he could afford to wait for. "Moreover, if there really are innocent sacrifices, even if it costs me my life, I will stop it." Gawain's expression was serious and earnest; he was clearly not joking.
Though the three of them had long expected this, when Gawain clearly expressed it, Menchi still couldn't help showing a look of annoyance. "How troublesome. What about us? Are we supposed to participate in that seemingly repulsive festival?" Ever since she learned that it wasn't a harvest celebration but that kind of festival, Menchi had been very resistant to leaving at the end of the year. She detested this kind of thing from the bottom of her heart, but she had no motivation to stop it, as she didn't have such a strong sense of justice yet. Out of sight, out of mind. As for Gawain wanting to take risks, let him be. Menchi had only known him for a few days; giving him a couple of pieces of advice was already doing her utmost.
Buhara shrugged and spread his hands, indicating that he didn't care and was fine with anything. Having traveled around the world for many years, he had seen many repulsive scenes of sin. Compared to those, human sacrifice was still less severe.
Then, both of their gazes turned toward Kevin, with a hint of seriousness in their eyes. They had known Kevin for a year. Though it wasn't a long time, their friendship had developed rapidly, and they also had business cooperation. Based on their understanding of Kevin, if he were to witness a scene of human sacrifice firsthand, it was hard to imagine him standing by and doing nothing.
"There are still three months, aren't there? I can leave anytime, so there's no rush. Besides, we just arrived here.
"Not even one night has passed. We've only learned some basic information. It's not proper to start guessing wildly now," Kevin said.
Hearing Kevin's words, the three of them came back to their senses.
"You're right. I was too impulsive, not calm enough." Gawain reflected on himself after realizing.
"Moreover, my goal is not in the village, so these issues in the village can be discussed one or two months later; it won't be too late." He came here to capture mythical beasts and find materials. These troublesome matters in the village could be dealt with after completing the main task.
After chatting for a few simple sentences, everyone returned to their rooms to rest.
Hunter Association Headquarters.
Inside a certain training room, the door opened, and Netero, the Chairman of the Hunter Association, walked out wearing a simple tank top and a towel around his neck, looking refreshed. Also exiting the training room were the Twelve Zodiacs members [Tiger] and [Ram]. [Tiger] was short but had a fierce look, with elements of a tiger on his body. [Ram] had a large head and a fat body, with fluffy hair like a sheep and ram's horns decorating his forehead.
"Oh, that was really interesting today, thank you." Netero waved with a smile.
"Feeling not excited," Tiger blurted out a strange sentence.
"It's 'feeling grateful', and you're using it in the wrong place," the Ram next to him retorted and reminded.
"Hahaha." Netero laughed a few times without restraint.
"Alright, you two go rest first. I still have things to do." Netero said, walking toward the other side with a relaxed but slightly helpless expression.
He walked all the way into his office. Some documents were still piled on the desk. Green Bean Person, the Chairman's secretary wearing a small suit, hurried forward.
"There are still so many? How about letting Miss Kite handle it?"
"No, Chairman, these all require your personal signature. There are also some important data files that you must personally review and confirm." Green Bean Person quickly advised against it. Then he added, "And Miss Kite herself has many things to be busy with. The legal issues of the [Spiral] organization are at a critical stage right now. Please don't trouble others casually. Moreover, Miss Kite is just a member of the Twelve Zodiacs and doesn't have that much authority."
It was unclear if Netero heard Green Bean Person's words, as he suddenly said, "If her authority isn't enough, then let her be the Vice Chairman." He had a smug look, clearly satisfied with his idea.
Even though Green Bean Person was already used to Netero's way of doing things, he was quite helpless at this moment and could only raise his voice and say, "You just confirmed the candidate for Vice Chairman not long ago! It's impossible to change positions so quickly! Chairman, you can't be so willful. It's time to work." In fact, this was already a streamlined workload; the Twelve Zodiacs helped handle some of the tedious tasks. The reason there were still so many documents piled up was entirely because Netero always procrastinated and only started handling them when it was almost time.
"Then there's no other way." Netero sighed and walked to the desk with a lack of interest, starting to process the documents listlessly. Though his attitude was somewhat perfunctory, he read each document carefully, signing what needed to be signed, returning what needed to be returned, and giving opinions where necessary. It must be said, he was indeed worthy of being the Chairman of the Hunter Association. Besides being highly skilled in combat, he was also quite good at paperwork.
It wasn't until he was reviewing one of the documents that his movements gradually slowed down. He stared at the information in the document, thinking carefully.
Seeing Netero's unusual behavior, Green Bean Person curiously leaned over. "Is there a problem with the Mystic Realm entry and exit records?" This was just a regular list of information that needed to be reviewed by the Hunter Chairman. For Netero, he could finish it with a glance.
Netero looked at the entry and exit records above, a smile appearing on his face. Every year for the Hunter Exam, Netero served as the examiner for the final stage, so he knew every Hunter in the Association. He knew exactly which ones were promising talents and which were just ordinary Hunters. For promising newcomers, he would pay attention and remember their names to some extent.
And this time, a Mystic Realm entry and exit record showed that four people entered the Mystic Realm at the same time. He had paid attention to three of them and remembered their names; he also had an impression of Buhara.
If it were just like this, it wouldn't have made him look so seriously. The key was that the Mystic Realm these four people entered was the [Food Village], where the festival was to be held this year. As the Chairman of the Hunter Association, Netero had the right to access some important information and related speculations about Mystic Realms.
"This year, is it the festival of [Food Village]?" Netero suddenly asked.
Green Bean Person, who was still curiously looking at the file next to him, nodded directly upon hearing this, seemingly organizing and searching for the relevant information without thinking.
"Unless there's an unexpected situation, it should be this year. Of course, there's also a certain probability that it will be next year." Netero nodded, an interested smile appearing on his face. "What a coincidence. So, can you bring me a surprise?"
Netero knew about the problems in this Mystic Realm. In his youth, he had even accompanied companions there. Originally, he had planned to directly resolve the hidden dangers in that Mystic Realm, but unfortunately, he was unlucky at the time—they went there the year after the festival. Netero didn't have that much time to make an agreement for over a decade or even twenty years and deal with it then.
Morning. It was just getting light, and there weren't many villagers up early and busy on the town's streets. It wasn't until the sun was fully up that more villagers started coming out of their homes.
At this time, Kevin and the others began to wander around the village. Facing Kevin's unfamiliar faces, the villagers' reactions varied. Some just looked and then ignored them, some cast curious glances, and some simply came over, wanting to chat with them. Kevin and the others didn't refuse this, chatting with the villagers while strolling through the village. They found that, except for younger children, almost all villagers from the teenage stage onwards possessed Nen ability.
After wandering around, they found that there was only one shop in the entire village. Almost all kinds of items needed by the villagers for daily life could be bought in this shop. Passing by the villagers' homes, they saw some villagers processing various ingredients in their yards. The villagers used Nen ability during the process of handling ingredients. Many ingredients and processing methods were not only something Menchi and the others had never seen but had never even heard of. Seeing this scene, Menchi and Buhara could barely move their feet.
They slowly made their way to the village chief's house and exchanged for the currency used in the village. It was called currency, but it looked like bone coins made from the bones of some kind of creature. Given the population size of this village, bartering was actually a more common method, but they were indeed using this bone coin now. When Kevin took the bone coin, he felt a faint desire emanating from it. As expected, it was some kind of biological material, but the quality wasn't too high, roughly at the average level of C-grade.
Afterward, they came to the village square. This square was circular and quite large. In the center of the square was a platform built of rough stones, and a slender, grayish-black pillar made of some unknown material stood in the center of the platform.
"They can't leave the village too far, so where do these foods come from? Looking at the situation around the village, the Hunter Association doesn't seem to be transporting food, which means these foods are all obtained by themselves." Buhara asked doubtfully. He and Menchi had already planned to use the money they exchanged to find a chef in the village to learn cooking. But before that, they were very curious where these villagers' ingredients came from, after all, they were restricted here, with a limited range of activity.
"Why bother with this? Just go back and spend some money to get Bian Locke to answer us," Menchi said indifferently. They had been wandering around the village since early this morning, precisely because they wanted to understand the situation of this enclosed village.
"So now, how about we act separately for the time being?" Kevin suggested, looking at the others. Everyone had things they wanted to do. Now that they had walked around the village and had a general understanding of the situation, there was indeed no need to stay together all the time.
Hearing Kevin's suggestion, the others nodded one after another and then dispersed. Menchi and Buhara naturally went to find a chef in the village; Gawain went to chat with the villagers he had just met, trying to learn more from the side; Kevin went straight to the village library.
It was strange to say, but there was actually a library in this village. Kevin was also very curious why there would be such a building. The library was not large, a small two-story building. Inside the not-so-large building, rows and rows of bookshelves lined the walls, filled with various kinds of books. An old woman was cleaning.
"Oh my, a rare guest. I don't think I've seen you?" the old woman said, looking at Kevin. The broom in her hand for cleaning instantly disappeared. Seeing this scene, Kevin couldn't help wanting to complain. The item that was materialized was actually a broom. The way the Nen users here used their abilities seemed too close to daily life.
"I'm a Hunter who just arrived last night. My name is Kevin."
"Oh, so you're a guest. Feel free to read if you want, but don't damage the books. If you see any damaged books, you can also bring them to me, old woman. My health isn't very good, so I can only trouble outsiders with such things." The old woman finished with a smile and then motioned for Kevin to look around freely.
Kevin walked around the library, roughly browsing the books here. He found that about half of the books came from the outside world, published after the village was enclosed. They were clearly brought in by the Hunter Association or past Hunters. The other half were books that the village originally had in its collection, and these were what Kevin was truly interested in.