the world

"Because his son was a member of the missing incident. Everyone thinks that the real culprits are Nanako and Mimiko. He has long wanted to kill them to avenge his son, but because Taki Wakaba's obstruction has never been successful, he has been I hate Taki Wakaha." At this point, the village head raised his eyes and looked at me cautiously, "Aren't Nanako and Mimiko really the murderers? Really? Look at them again?"

Such nonsense makes me sick to even respond.

"Did you kill Taki Ruoye?" If Taki Ruoye is dead, I won't stay any longer, and I will execute all the non-magicians in this village now.

"...maybe he's dead, maybe he's not dead." The village chief's eyes were dull, and then he slowly covered his face with his hands, "I'm still thinking, the woodcutter who came down from the mountain that day is really the same person as before Is it not an evil spirit? He took a group of people up the mountain to burn Taki Wakaba to death, and all the people who went down the mountain died. Perhaps, when he was on the mountain, he had already killed Taki Wakaba? It was the dead Taki Wakaba The vengeful spirit controlled him, let him lure everyone up the mountain, lure everyone to die!"

"What about the corpses of the dead? How come you never mentioned it?"

"Their bodies were buried by us and reported together with the previous abnormal deaths." The village chief replied timidly.

"So did the people who went up the mountain kill Taki Wakaba?"

"I don't know, I don't know! The people who went up the mountain with the woodman were all unconscious when they came down the mountain to the village. We took care of them until dawn, and they all died. I didn't ask anything."

"Did you go up the mountain to see it later?"

"Who dares to see it! Everyone who went up the mountain before died, who dares to go there to see it!" The village chief shivered, "I can tell you where that mountain is, but I won't take you there! If you go there, you will die! You will struggle to die like those people!"

"I won't take care of your emotions, is there any useful information?"

"...There is one body left unburied, that of the woodcutter."

"Why? If he died before you reported it, it would have been several days? Why was he the only one who wasn't buried?"

"Because the way he died was different from everyone else, more miserable and painful than everyone else." The village head fell into self-defeating soliloquy again, "No living person has seen Taki Ruoye that day! That's why I thought Ah! Could it be that the woodcutter has killed Taki Wakaba, and Taki Wakaba’s spirit is taking revenge on us! That’s why we dare not bury the woodcutter, kill Nanako and Mimiko, and wait for you to deal with this matter thing--"

"Enough, take me to see the woodcutter's corpse."

The village chief took me to the yard, and the woodcutter's body was rolled up with only a piece of grass and discarded in the corner.

I lifted the straw mat and saw a miserable corpse. The village chief turned his head away. I took off the corpse's clothes and examined it carefully.

The most direct wounds on the woodcutter's body were dozens of sword wounds, each of which avoided the vital organs. The cause of death was not damage to important organs, but hemorrhagic shock.

"It's kind of weird..."

The artery from the wound ruptured, as if it had been ruptured, and the cross section of the blood vessel caused by the sword should be smooth.

I examined the limbs and found that the blood had dried on the distal extremities.

"It's a massacre for the purpose of torture." I judged.

"Right? Right? They are not good things—" the village chief said quickly.

"Really? I think this kind of ending is quite suitable for you."

The village chief turned pale and closed his mouth.

I reframed the incident in my head.

The wounds on the cursed spirit I exorcised were not the same as the wounds on the woodcutter.Although the wound on the woodcutter's body was weird, it didn't have the characteristic of deteriorating in all directions.

The vast majority of magicians mastered the innate spells, and not everyone was as perverted as Gojo Satoru.Therefore, I temporarily judge that the woodcutter was not the victim of Taki Wakaba.

But this is also based on the premise that the wound on the curse spirit was caused by Taki Wakaba. As the village head said, everyone who saw Taki Wakaba that day died, and there is too little information.

I took the village chief back, and Mimiko and Nanako looked at me expectantly and timidly, waiting for me to speak.

"I need more information."

"I've said everything I can say!" the village chief argued.

"I need to be more precise, down to what's happening minute by minute."

"...Let me talk first." Nanako took a step forward, "My sister went out at six o'clock in the morning..."

Through the narrations of Mimiko, Nanako and the village head, I roughly sorted out what happened that day.They could only tell what time it was, and I just recorded it in my head.

am.6:00 Taki Wakaba left Mimiko and Nanako's house to exorcise the cursed spirit.

am.12:00 The woodcutter ran to the village, told everyone that Taki Wakaba was unconscious, and called on everyone to kill Taki Wakaba.

am.12:30 Three villagers were sent out to catch Mimiko and Nanako. Mimiko and Nanako ran out of the house, but the three villagers did not chase after them.

pm.1:00 About ten villagers (including the woodcutter, but this team was spontaneously assembled by the villagers, the number is not clear) formed a team to bring gasoline up the mountain.

pm.1:30 Mimiko and Nanako who were hiding were found by the villagers and locked up.

pm.2:00 The villagers found two dead bodies in the houses of Mimiko and Nanako. The cause of death was trauma, suspected to be a sword wound; the other person's whereabouts are unknown.

5:00 p.m. Nine villagers returned to the village. When they arrived, they were unconscious and had no external injuries, but they were in pain all the time. They all died in the early morning.Not the woodcutter, whose body was found in the wild the next day.

According to the filth of the curse spirit I detected at the village chief, the powerful curse spirit should only be the one I exorcised.If the woodcutter wasn't the one who moved the hand of Taki Ruoye, then who would it be?Who killed those nine villagers and the villagers who captured Mimiko Nanako?

"I have to go to that mountain first. Nanako, Mimiko, wait for me here." I patted the heads of the two girls and released a magic spirit to protect them.

If the villagers who went down the mountain died because of a curse, it would be safer for me to find out the unknown curse first.

"...Can you bring my sister back?" Mimiko's big eyes showed hope and prayer.

"I will," I promised. "As long as she is alive, I will bring her back. I will get you out of here."

I walked up to the mountain indicated by the village chief alone, and found messy footprints halfway up the mountain. Following the footprints, I came to a piece of grass that had been obviously trampled on.

There were several barrels of gasoline on the grass, which seemed to have been thrown on the ground in a hurry, and the bottle caps were not even opened.

Along with gasoline, I also found severed twine.The hemp rope was scattered beside a big tree. I guess it was used by the woodcutter to bind Taki Wakaba, and tied the unconscious Taki Wakaba to the trunk to prevent her from escaping.

The footprints also ended in this grass, and the villagers should have fled in the direction they came and went, so there were no new footprints derived.

Is it not, or has it been dealt with cleanly?

There are three possibilities for Taki Wakaba's whereabouts:

[-]. After waking up, she cut the hemp rope by herself and left.

[-]. She was taken away before the villagers went up the mountain. (conscious/comatose)

[-]. She was taken away after the villagers went up the mountain. (status mood/coma)

Considering that Taki Wakaha would not ignore Mimiko and Nanako, I ruled out the first possibility.

Who is the second person who is hidden and no one knows?The villagers were so flustered because of what they saw?

The woodcutter suffered a different kind of torture than other villagers, because he had done something to Taki Wakaba before, so that person treated the woodcutter extra "kindly".The one who took away Taki Wakaba and the one who killed the villagers are very likely to be the same person. It would be best if he and Taki Wakaba were on the same side, at least Taki Wakaba's safety can be assured.

I watched the sky getting dark and walked down the mountain.

Still lacking clues, but what is available is enough for me.

"Spirit manipulation—"

I released nearly a thousand spell spirits and ordered them to conduct a carpet search on the mountains near the village. As long as that person hasn't taken Taki Wakaba out, I can find her.

At night, I stayed at the home of Mimiko and Nanako, closed my eyes and rested my mind, accepting the message sent to me by the curse spirit in my mind.

Mimiko and Nanako stayed in the same room with me, refusing to sleep, sitting on the ground silently, with their heads buried in their knees, I knew they had been waiting for me to tell them where Taki Wakaba was.

Their longing and timid expressions made me wonder what their lives were like before Taki Wakaba came.

Wanting to alleviate their uneasiness, I started looking for a topic, "Did Taki Wakaha fix the hole in the roof?"

Nanako nodded, "My sister repaired it, and the wall they smashed was also repaired by my sister. Although people in the village say that my sister has a brain problem, they also keep saying that Mei Meizi and I have a brain problem. Who would believe them."

They can see the curse spirit that others can't see, so they are regarded as heretics by the villagers, and they are wronged and abused.

"Did Taki Wakaba tell you, what are those things? What kind of power do you have?"

"...My sister didn't tell us, she doesn't seem to know what it is, why only we can see it." Mimiko and Nanako looked at each other and replied.

...So Taki Wakaba is a "wild" magician like Mimiko Nanako?

"Your older sister, Taki Wakaba, might be very strong." Without teaching and training, she has the strength to fight against super-level curse spirits. I saw the possibility of her talent in Taki Wakaba.

If I can find her, teach her, and develop her into a like-minded companion, my strength will be greatly increased, and the future I look forward to will be realized sooner, right?