“We will stay here today.”
Jin looked at the village welcome board in the distance and said to Jamie.
“Sure.”
They could move at night but since they weren’t going to meet Isis any sooner, they were staying in close by villages at sunset.
The two entered the village watching the setting sun across the mountains.
This was a decent sized village.
There seemed to be a lot of tourists so there were a few inns. There were stores selling souvenirs and pubs too.
The strange thing was that most of them weren’t doing business.
“… why is the town like this?”
“I hardly see people.”
As Jin said there were hardly any people in the village. If this was a town frequently visited by tourists the streets would be crowded in the evening.
The two felt strange as they walked down the street to find an inn. And at that moment they heard a child cry from afar.
“Ahhh! I was wrong… I won’t do that again!”
“Do you want to be cursed too? I did tell you that you’d get cursed if you went there! Didn’t mother tell you?”
“Ughhh… Sorry… I will not do that again…”
“Just go there again and see what I’ll do to you. I will kick you out of the house next time you act like this! Get it? I will send you to the bloody ghost myself…”
“Ahhhhhh! Sorry! Sorry! I won’t, mother! Forgive me!’
“This is the last time. Do you get it?”
“Yes…”
“Now have the food.”
Jamie and Jin looked at the mother scolding the child from afar. It seemed like the child sneaked somewhere and got caught by the mother.
As this was a common occurrence, the two coughed at the sight and went into the inn which looked alright.
“Is someone here?”
Jin entered the inn and called for the person and a middle-aged man with a tired look walked out to the counter. He was a man with great size and had a blue hood on his head.
“Welcome. I am the owner.”
“We would like to stay overnight.”
“Will you share the room?”
“One for each.”
“1 silver per room.”
Hearing it was one silver, Jin tossed two silvers and with the money in hand, the owner looked at the stairs and shouted.
“Nilva! Two guests! Get the bathing water ready!”
“Yes!”
The girl above answered with a cute voice. After hearing that, the owner said to the two,
“Go to the room marked on the key. I will prepare the meal and bath water.”
“Thanks.”
“Thank you.”
Jin and Jamie each greeted him and went up to the second floor. As they went out, they heard the sound of water being poured into the bathtub.
The two glanced at each other and went into their rooms. Jamie unpacked and cleaned his dirty clothes with magic.
The advantage of being a magician was that he didn’t have to worry about being clean.
In fact, he didn’t even have to bath, but Jamie liked to dip in hot water.
“It will take some time to fill the water.”
When he heard the sound of water, he guessed it.
He thought of going and helping, but why bother helping?
Then he sat on the bed.
‘The bed isn’t comfortable.’
The condition of the bed was so bad that it was horrible compared to the bed in his home or the residence he was given in the Magic World.
At that thought, Jamie grinned.
In his days as Diablo Volfir, he slept on a stone floor, but after just 13 years he was missing the comfort.
And he didn’t get enough sleep in the Harmonia palace either.
‘It isn’t that I cannot sleep, but…’
Although his body was used to comfort, his mind was the same, so there would be no problem sleeping.
Was it a matter of the mind?
“It is ready.”
At that moment, the voice of a child staff was heard from the bathroom. When he went out, Jin was also there.
He was still wearing his mask, but after a few days of looking at him with the mask, Jamie knew that he would never take it off.
The two of them opened the bathroom door and a cute girl with brown hair stood there smiling.
She had two towels in her hand, one for each.
“Call me if you need anything.”
The girl left with those words. And looking at her Jin said,
“She looks quite happy.”
“Right.”
Jamie answered as he took off his clothes and drenched himself in hot water with a towel over his shoulder.
“Ugh~ this is nice.”
Seeing that, Jin said,
“You are a 13 year old old man.”
After washing, they changed their clothes and went down. The smell of a delicious meal was hitting their noses.
“Seems good, right?”
“I guess this inn is good.”
The inn they stayed at in the last village was not good at preparing meals. It was so bad that even Jin, who was used to camping outside, couldn’t take a second bite.
In his mind, he wanted to smash the inn, but that was something villains did so he warned them about their bad food.
Next time, if the same thing happened, Jamie was sure he would blow the inn.
It wasn’t known how he would treat the inn in the next village, but it was true that he was angry when food came out bad.
“There is a saying that you should be cautious until we taste it.”
“Right.”
The two went down and sat at a proper table. On the table were two meals served.
It was stir fried meat and vegetables, but it was a simple meal which didn’t taste bad.
Jamie opened his mouth as soon as he took a bite.
“It is amazing.”
“About what?”
“What kind of person wants to eat while wearing a mask?”
Jin had a mask where there was opening in his mouth.
It was because the mask he always wore only had eye holes and covered the entire face he couldn’t eat, so this was one for eating meals.
“What does it matter what mask I have?”
“… right. You use it a lot.”
Jamie nodded and looked around.
“It seems full of people?”
“Right. There was no one before.”
“I think it’s a restaurant.”
“Right.”
Jin mumbled as he brought down his spoon.
Jamie looked at him and then with a fork he poked the meat and vegetables and put it in his mouth.
It wasn’t great, but it was enough to satisfy their hunger. The two didn’t talk much in the first place, but they didn’t even look at each other at dinner.
They just focused on eating.
“One beer here!”
“Yes~ one minute!”
The girl with brown hair with her hair split in the middle came with a bright face.
Was her name Nilva?
She seemed to be around 10 years, and was able to work this quickly at such late hours without showing any pain on her face. Even adults wouldn’t be able to hide their tiredness.
Looking around them, the tables which were filled had people’s faces dyed with exhaustion.
It was because they were all people who worked from morning till sunset.
On the other hand, Nilva didn’t look tired at all, how could she not?
“The order…”
“Wait!”
Even now, she was walking around with a smile and a beer in her hand and a menu in the other.
“Are you interested in her?”
“It’s just nice to see her work.”
“Well, 13 is the right age for first love.”
“… bullshit.”
Jin ate with a grin and Jamie too. At that moment, an interesting conversation began at the next table.
“Vilter too saw it yesterday.”
“This fucking neighbourhood. Why did this village turn into this?”
“Did we really get cursed?”
“I don’t know. The important thing is that there is something happening at night. It is also something so terrifying that it makes you faint.”
“It is because of them. Ever since they came to this town, weird things began to happen. That woman and her two kids need to be kicked out.”
“That is just an assumption. They are just ordinary people, people are so blinded by these words.”
When the oldest looking man said it was an assumption, the man complaining raised his voice.
“Why are you defending those people? Can’t you understand what we are going through!”
“Right! As Rio said, the problems came after they arrived in the village!”
“Do they look like people who bring trouble?”
“Dude, didn’t you say that dark magicians shouldn’t be judged based on their appearance?”
“Cough.”
Jamie coughed loudly at the man’s voice. Everyone looked at Jamie.
Jin looked at Jamie with a fork halfway in his mouth. And the food from Jamie’s coughing was all over his face.
Fortunately, he was wearing the mask so nothing got on his real face. Jamie took a deep breath and apologized.
“Sorry. What I heard made me do that.”
He said sorry to Jin who was still staring at him. and the conversation which stopped started again.
“Anyway, it is true that the village has been cursed since they came here. No one can deny that.”
“Ugh. Just let…”
“Do you have feelings for that woman? I have heard that old bachelors in the village keep looking at her, do you also have those feelings?”
“Brat! What are you even saying?”
“Right!”
“Customers, please lower your voices since others are here.”
As the noise grew, the owner went there and stopped them. Since the owner was huge and had a shaggy beard the people went silent.
In a small village like this, strong looking people were the best.
Fortunately, the place fell silent again and small voices could be heard. In the meantime, Jin wiped the mask with a napkin and raised his hand to call the staff.
“Here.”
“Yes!”
Nilva ran to them and asked.
“What is it?”
“One glass of beer. You?”
“I am good.”
Jamie didn’t feel like drinking anything. Instead he asked her one thing.
“There is something else I want to ask.”
“1 cooper for 1 question.”
“… you take fees for information?”
“Joke~”
The little one already had a knack for making fun of adults. Of course, Jamie wasn’t much older than Nilva.
“What are you curious about?”
“The noise from there. What is it about?”
“Ahh. It is interesting to hear from the others.”
“Is the village really cursed?”
“Well. I don’t know either, but I think quite a few people have seen ghosts since a couple months back. So the situation in the village hasn’t been good. And it is rumored that this village is cursed and the other villages are speaking about it, making travellers not come here.”
“Ghost?”
“Yes. A couple months ago, three people, a mother, with her son and daughter moved to this village and from then on the ghosts began to appear. So people have driven them out of the village, but the ghosts aren’t going away.”
“All sorts of strange things seem to be around here.”
Jin crossed his arms and mumbled.
“Anyway, in case you don’t know, leave this village as soon as possible. We never know what will happen.”
“But you don’t seem scared?”
Jamie asked Nilva who smiled. She pressed her finger on her lips and then answered bodly.
“I need to live positively. I will bring that beer!”
Saying that, she went into the kitchen.
Jamie looked at the direction she went and said to Jin.
“I will leave first.”
“Okay.”
Just because they were together didn’t mean they had to talk, so it was beneficial to head up and take a break.
That night, Jamie didn’t sleep until late at night.
The reason was simple.
“Ghosts.”
Ghosts were Undead.
And the curse is black magic.
And the two meant necromancy.
“Did a necromancer come into this village?”
Perhaps, the three people who appeared here a couple months back could be the ones. Whatever happened, this piqued Jamie’s interest.
Jamie started to think.
If ghosts really appeared, they couldn’t avoid his senses.
Because he was at the top of black magic. So even if he didn’t concentrate he could feel it.
How long was it?
Jamie slowly opened his eyes.
“It is true.”
The flow of energy from outside.
The collection of dead.
A spirit.
And since the spirit was an Undead, Jamie got up from the seat with a smile. It wasn’t known what was happening in the village, but he didn’t know if this could work against a mighty dark magician like him.
Jamie’s form disappeared like an illusion.
