“A horror story about a deserted village? I actually quite like that theme, but there's no need to worry; these red butterflies will protect us.”
The girl in the black dress pointed to the red butterflies filling the sky. Those fluttering translucent butterflies seemed to be responding to her, vying to land on her fingertips.
“As long as you don't leave the red butterflies, you—I mean, we—won't be in danger.”
Shad looked at her for a long while before nodding.
“Alright, I'll enter the village with you, but I have things to attend to at the mountain peak in a bit, so let's move quickly.”
“No problem. I can accompany you to your destination in a moment. I know a shortcut in this village that leads directly to the peak.”
Smiling, she took Shad's hand and led him out of the eerie jungle and into the black mist, officially entering the village wrapped in darkness, as if existing in a state of eternal night.
【Outlander, you have once again entered the interior of a location-type relic.】
“I know.”
The Whisper elements grew increasingly dense. The terrifying black mist, laden with powerful curses, swept toward the two of them; ghastly faces could even be seen within the fog. However, surrounded by the fluttering red butterflies, not a single shred of black mist could get close to them. On the contrary, as if fearing the red butterflies, the mist gradually thinned around Shad and the girl in the black dress.
“What a powerful curse.”
Shad looked around with lingering apprehension. If he had been alone, he certainly wouldn't have entered.
“Sir, do you also study curses? Yes, this is a curse bred from resentment, hatred, regret, and the calamities of the deep underground. It's best that we don't touch them too much,” the girl in the black dress said, clearly well-acquainted with the place.
Countless undead wandered through the dilapidated mountain village. These souls within the relic had been corrupted by the Whisper elements, turning into twisted monsters more terrifying than malevolent spirits. Walking through the deserted village, it seemed as though there were no enemies around, but Shad's keen intuition told him that evil spirits, hidden and nearly blended into the environment, were watching them.
Yet, under the shroud of red butterflies, no enemy dared to appear. Consequently, as Shad and the girl strolled through the village, all they saw were buildings that had been abandoned for countless years.
It was evident that this place had once prospered. Although it was an old mountain village, most of the buildings had been renovated before being abandoned, save for a few prominent houses at the village entrance. The ground in the village was quite level, and the few buildings in the center looked like estates where only a town mayor or a sheriff would reside.
Perhaps this village had an additional source of income.
The girl in the black dress, who claimed to be a student of the Midhillburg Mechanical Academy, knew a great deal about the village. As they walked along the only small path in the ruined settlement, she told Shad the story of what had once happened here.
It was a story from long ago. The small village was nestled in a remote mountain; the villagers had stayed for generations, rarely leaving to make a living or marrying far away. Those peaceful days vanished with an earthquake.
The earthquake hadn't caused much destruction to the village, but afterward, people discovered a gold mine beneath the cracked village well. The villagers unanimously decided to keep this a secret. Using the excuse of "building towers in the village," they deceived the villagers of nearby settlements and the nobles in the town below, conducting secret excavations beneath the towers.
“So, what did they dig up?” Shad asked, looking at the houses standing in the darkness. Most of these houses had locked doors; one would likely need a key to open them.
“No one knows what it was. Perhaps it was an entrance to the so-called Hell, or perhaps the lair of some slumbering Ancient One. In short, when uncontrolled greed drove the villagers to deliver the final blow at the deepest part of the mine shaft, black mist began to seep from the irreparable fissure. It corroded the earth, summoned the undead, and prevented the villagers from leaving. Only by sacrificing two children under the age of ten to the fissure every ten years could the encroachment of the black mist be slowed.”
As the girl in the black dress spoke, Shad looked around through the gaps between the red butterflies.
“Judging by the situation, they failed.”
The girl in the black dress nodded and led Shad to the base of the village tower. The village was very small, so they hadn't actually walked far.
“Look, this is the tower. A small mountain village doesn't actually need such a building, so there was no planned purpose when it was first built; they simply claimed it was being constructed as a bell tower.”
Shad looked up at the grey stone bell tower. It was completed, but it was only about four stories high. Like the other buildings in the village, it appeared to have been abandoned for a long time, but the tower's main door was tightly shut.
“Do we need to search for a key?” Shad asked, glancing at the nearby buildings. “The key might be in the village chief's house or the sheriff's house. We might have to solve some puzzles from the past or encounter some terrifying undead, and only after defeating them and listening to their pasts can we find the key in some strange corner or the village cemetery.”
“That does sound interesting,” the girl in the black dress smiled. “But there's no need for such trouble. Mr. Hamilton, since you are a detective, opening this door should be no problem.”
Two translucent red butterflies landed on her shoulders. Even after her black coat was illuminated, it remained only black.
Shad nodded. “Yes, of course I can pick locks; it's my specialty. However, please let go of my hand first.”
He tried to pull away the hand that had been gripping his.
“Of course.”
The girl in the black dress let go, then teased, “Then, sir, can your lock-picking skills open every single lock?”
“Of course not. For example, the locks on a lady's heart cannot be opened just any old way.”
As he spoke, he reached out his right hand to touch the rusted black iron door. As he attempted to twist his wrist, he felt a massive force suddenly surge from the direction of the door.
That giant force nearly sent Shad flying, his feet leaving the ground, but fortunately, the flock of fluttering red butterflies spontaneously gathered behind him. Like a giant red net, they gently caught him.
Clearly, this door was the key to the relic's core. The power of the relic was preventing Shad from opening the door by means other than a key.
“It seems we still need to find the key,” Shad shrugged.
The girl in the black dress shook her head again. “Detective, come, let me help you.”
She took a step back, moving behind Shad, and then almost embraced him from behind. Her right arm passed under Shad's armpit, her soft arm winding around his, and then her fair hand pressed against the back of Shad's right hand, her five fingers sliding into the gaps between his. Miss Aurora had performed a similar action with Shad before.
The girl behind him seemed to be inhaling deeply, but the sound was very soft. She was pressed completely against him, standing on her tiptoes, her head resting gently on Shad's shoulder, whispering in his ear
“Move now, detective. I think you're also curious about what's inside the tower.”
“Yes.”
This very unrefined posture made Shad extremely uncomfortable, but he also knew that the girl in the black dress behind him would absolutely not be pushed away.
Two hands reached out together toward the iron door of the bell tower, and before he knew it, the dense swarm of red butterflies had actually wrapped around both arms. After the palms touched the cold, jagged metal, the outward pushing force appeared again, but it was easily neutralized by the girl's hand.
“You're quite strong,” Shad praised.
“During the days waiting for my sister's return, I had to live on my own. Being a bit strong is merely for self-protection,” she whispered in his ear.
The two hands pressed against the door and turned together. With the effect of the spell [Key of the Door], the swarm of red butterflies flapped their wings to provide power for Shad. Whisper elements countered Whisper elements, and the power of the deserted village was clearly no match for this swarm of red butterflies.
Thus, the iron door of the bell tower opened silently.
The iron door opened a crack, and a thick stench of corpses wafted out from the gap, even more severe than the smell permeating the mountain village.
“Let's continue the story from before. Sacrificing two children under ten every ten years to suppress the black mist in the gold mine—how exactly did that fail?” Shad inquired, hesitating for a moment. “Did the two children intended as sacrifices escape?”
“That was only one part of it. The other part was that outsiders came here. Unable to bear the cruel things continuing to happen, they stepped in to stop the sacrifice of that year, leaving the place in this state,” the girl in the black dress said, then stepped to the side to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Shad.
Shad nodded; that made sense. Although this world wasn't said to be teeming with transcendents, the number of Witches or Ring-casters in either the Fifth or Sixth Epoch was generally not small. This was a relic, so the accident must have occurred during the Fifth Epoch; it wasn't impossible for a kind-hearted Witch to pass through.
“The ones who passed through back then were...”
“A pair of black-and-white twins, arriving with red butterflies. Because they encountered the two children who escaped that year—nine-year-old twin sisters—they promised to end it all. The Church calls that pair the [Red Butterfly Twins]. They are girls of unknown origin who wander the material world; although their age changes with time, they always follow a twenty-two-year cycle. Despite being twins, they rarely appear together.”
Shad looked at the red butterflies filling the sky, momentarily at a loss for words. “Those twins must have been very powerful, right?”
A slight smile appeared on the girl's face. “Before entering the mountains, I obtained some information through friends in the Church. The [Red Butterfly Twins] are called Angel-level relics, suspected of possessing part of the power of the Old God [The Twin God]. Whenever they appear, twins are always born nearby. The black dress brings the curse of fate to the twins, the white dress brings the blessing of relics, and their joint appearance inevitably brings calamity. Therefore, they are also known as the Calamity Twins, the incarnations of disaster.”
“I see...” Shad pursed his lips, looking at the iron door before him. “Then, does the Church's record say whether they've fared well over the years?”
The expression in those blue eyes seemed to become even softer in an instant.
“It doesn't matter if it's good or bad; life is but a vast, empty dream. Perhaps, they simply haven't woken up from the dream yet.”
That last sentence was almost a murmur.
Shad's mood suddenly turned sour. He turned his head slightly to look at the girl beside him, only to find that she had been watching him all along. Surrounded by the red butterflies, with their wings flickering and red sparks falling, she seemed to become somewhat unreal.
“I...”
“Sir...”
(End of Chapter)