Chapter 260: Can’t Let the Wizard Tower Lose Face |
Could it be that those neatly arranged graves weren’t Mochi Mochi’s doing?
He’d already admitted to the killings—there was no reason not to admit to dismemberment.
Even if the latter was more cold-blooded and deranged.
“So it’s not that simple after all… maybe there’s a third party involved in the Grind Sail Town incident that I don’t know about,” Saul thought to himself.
Mochi Mochi, meanwhile, was oblivious to these thoughts. He looked a bit upset, his eyebrows furrowed into a “Y” shape.
“Don’t tell me someone stole my hard work? That’s outrageous! Absolutely outrageous!” He jumped twice on the spot, landing so lightly he didn’t make a sound.
“Saul, Saul, what does the town look like now? Tell me, quickly!” he urged.
Saul described what he had seen outside the town: the old madman at the gate and the ocean-like roaring waves behind the closed doors.
The more Mochi Mochi listened, the more his brow furrowed—so tightly it was about to twist into a knot.
He seemed more anxious than Saul, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him toward the door.
“Come on! Let me show you what real aesthetic sense looks like!”
Saul had no choice but to follow along as Mochi Mochi pulled him forward.
From Mochi Mochi’s expression, the anger didn’t seem fake. But people were such good actors nowadays, Saul had to confirm again, “You really didn’t make those grave formations?”
“Of course not! If it were me, I’d have dug a long narrow trench by the field and let the flesh and blood of the traitors flow like a mountain spring, so passersby would see exactly what happens to those who betray! Besides, you know I hate squares.”
As Mochi Mochi dragged Saul out the door, the latter saw the coachman fiddling with something atop the carriage, his butt sticking out.
“Coachman, coachman, stop messing around! We need to leave immediately!” Mochi Mochi shouted like he was the coachman’s master.
The coachman quickly turned, jumped down from the carriage, and stood aside. “Yes, sirs.”
Saul noticed he was holding an old ceramic pot filled with a bit of soil, and growing in it—a single mushroom.
A white-skinned mushroom.
Mochi Mochi also caught a glimpse of the item in the coachman’s hand but merely chuckled and said nothing, climbing straight into the carriage.
As Saul passed the coachman, he quietly warned, “Don’t forget you’re still human.”
The coachman didn’t respond, but he bowed even deeper.
Once aboard, the carriage sped off again, and by dusk, the two had returned to Grind Sail Town.
When they finally stopped, the horses were on the verge of collapse. Even though they were fine steeds bred by the Wizard Tower, they couldn’t withstand this kind of long, nonstop journey.
The coachman jumped down with concern and quickly pulled out something from his coat to feed the horses.
By then, Mochi Mochi had already leapt down and headed toward the fields ahead of everyone else.
He was quite tall. Back in the carriage, he had been hunched over the whole time, his head nearly touching the roof, looking very uncomfortable.
But he didn’t seem to mind, chatting animatedly with Saul about how, once he caught the one who messed with his work, he’d skin the guy alive and hang the skin on the city walls as a kite.
Saul listened quietly, only reminding him, “There’s something weird in there. Might be dangerous.”
At first, Mochi Mochi brushed off the warning. But as soon as he stepped off the carriage and reached the edge of the fields, his expression began to change.
“This isn’t right.”
Saul followed half a step behind, observing both the disturbed symmetrical grave formation and Mochi Mochi’s reaction.
The shock and seriousness in Mochi Mochi’s eyes didn’t seem fake.
Looks like things had indeed gone beyond what Mochi Mochi had expected.
But the question now was—would he still dare go into town to investigate?
“This is a curse,” Mochi Mochi suddenly said in a low voice. “Someone used my hard work to set up a curse.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“Not sure. I’ve never seen this kind of curse before. What is it… what is this?”
“I didn’t feel any fluctuations of magic here.”
“That’s normal. Curses are always hidden. They operate differently than magic or mental power. If you could sense it easily, it wouldn’t be called a curse.”
Mochi Mochi imitated Saul and dug up a few graves himself, confirming the bloodstains and chunks of flesh.
“Will we get cursed just by touching these graves?” Saul asked behind him.
“This curse isn’t simple. But for that reason, you don’t have to worry about getting cursed easily. The more powerful a curse is, the more complex its conditions for activation.”
Mochi Mochi shook off the meat bits on his robe and closely examined the blood.
“It’s likely a blood-related curse,” he concluded. Then, tossing the robe aside, he returned to the ridgeline.
“Still, this place doesn’t seem to be the origin of the curse. More like part of a supporting ritual, and not even a key one.” Mochi Mochi looked toward the tightly shut town gate, “If we want to break the curse, we’ll have to go inside.”
Saul calmly said, “But I feel like it’s very dangerous in there. Are you sure you want to go?”
Mochi Mochi’s eyes darted back and forth, then he said, “Go in we shall! Since when do wizards fear danger? Someone dared to challenge us at our doorstep—if I don’t respond, won’t that be a disgrace to the Wizard Tower?”
Wizards, of course, feared danger. Let alone wizard apprentices.
Saul had never believed that wizards were the type to rush headlong into danger like fools.
This Mochi Mochi definitely had secrets of his own. Entering Grind Sail Town might not be about revenge—there was probably something valuable inside.
Saul didn’t mind. Everyone had their own agenda.
Once inside the town, everyone depends on their own abilities. If something happened, there’d be no one to blame.
Mochi Mochi walked ahead, placing both hands on the gate—this time, the old madman didn’t appear to stop them, and gave a push. The sound of wood cracking followed.
The gate swung open, and a broken bolt fell to the ground behind it.
“If you’re worried, Saul, you can stay out. You don’t have to come in,” Mochi Mochi said without even turning his head, stepping over the fallen bolt and into the town.
Saul said nothing. He walked to the threshold and looked inside.
Still the same slightly decrepit street, only now, not a soul in sight.
The diary hadn’t jumped out to warn Saul either.
Which meant that Mochi Mochi’s presence played a significant role in this venture.
“Should I say—as expected of someone stationed long-term at an outpost of the Wizard Tower? You need real skill to hold that kind of post.”
Saul smiled faintly and followed into the town.
As soon as he stepped over the threshold and the broken bolt, the gate behind him slammed shut with a loud bang.
Saul looked back, “That’s straight out of a horror movie.”
He turned again and saw Mochi Mochi had already reached the crossroads and was about to turn. Saul quickly picked up his pace.
Just after Saul disappeared into the town, a brand-new wooden bolt quietly appeared across the tightly closed gate.
At the same time, a large caravan of nearly a hundred people was making its way through the desert, heading toward Borderfall City.
This was the Kenas caravan.
In the grandest, most lavish carriage sat Kenas’s seventeenth princess.
She was just past twenty, unmarried.
Yet her figure was alluring and her expression sultry—a seasoned seductress who had seen it all.
Only now, her charm had lost its effect.
The man sitting in the corner of the carriage merely held his harp.
He didn’t seem the least bit interested in embracing her soft, fragrant body.
(End of Chapter)