Tonight’s market was especially lively. Many people gathered in the square and the tavern, as well as near the only inn in the marketplace, pointing at the dozen or so horses tied there and discussing something.
Aside from occasionally bringing up “Maggie”, “Julian”, and “the witch”, most people were talking about the group of knights who arrived here after nightfall today.
That group of more than ten knights didn’t know where they came from. Their attire looked bright and polished, and the way they spoke was different from this countryside. The young man leading them was blond and blue-eyed, tall and upright. The rest of the knights were also young and strong men. As soon as they arrived, they filled up the entire inn.
The people in the marketplace did not dare go into the inn to speak with them. Yet they were curious about what these people came here to do, so they all gathered nearby.
The innkeeper came out from the door. Someone familiar with him raised his voice to ask, “Old Danny, what are these knight lords doing in a countryside place like ours?”
Old Danny went to feed the knights’ horses with fodder and waved his hand, “How would I know? If you want to know, go ask them yourself.”
He saw those people were not easy to provoke, so he did not dare speak recklessly.
“Didn’t they say there’s a witch here? They must be here to catch the witch, right?”
“What nonsense are you talking about, shut your mouth already!”
“Bruce has been talking about it all day, saying if he still can’t find Julian tonight, tomorrow he’ll ask people to go search that house by the forest. He really dares to go, huh?”
“Who knows? Poor Bruce, Maggie died so tragically, now even his only son is gone…”
“Julian might not be dead, he could have run away. A child that big might hide somewhere after getting frightened. Bruce is just being too anxious. Hey, but I’m definitely going with Bruce tomorrow to watch the excitement!”
“What excitement! If it really is a witch… you’ll be in trouble!”
It was rare to have a big event in this place, and now suddenly so many outsiders had come. Almost half the people came out to join the commotion, gathering together chatting idly.
A group of children, bolder by nature, ran to the inn’s back door and windows to peek. They saw the dozen knights on the first floor gulping down wine and devouring meat. They turned their heads and excitedly shared with their friends, “Look, they’re eating!”
“Did you see that knight who looks the best? The one with golden hair!” a slightly older little girl asked, only to be ridiculed by others.
One boy clinging to the window turned his head to speak to his companions, when he suddenly saw a familiar figure walking toward the darkness. He couldn’t help but shout, “Evan, where are you going? Come look! Knights from outside, real knights!”
Evan was exactly Hesha’s younger brother.
At dusk, he saw his sister leave for the house in the forest and she had not returned yet. He had been restless at home, not even interested in watching the novelty outside. He only worried that his sister had also been captured by the witch.
His parents were watching the commotion at the square. He had just gone around them for a bit, wanting to tell them, but remembered how his sister repeatedly warned him not to speak before leaving. He didn’t dare say anything.
He was still young and didn’t know what to do in such a situation. So he gritted his teeth and decided to go look for his sister himself.
Ignoring his friends calling out to him, Evan sneaked into the night. Fortunately, the path leading to the small house in the forest had no forks. Heart pounding with fear the whole way, he found the place.
He, a child alone, peeked from outside the garden. Seeing no firelight inside the house, he didn’t dare enter for a long time. Anxious, he kept scratching his head.
At this moment, a voice sounded behind him, “What are you doing here?”
Meili had just found the marsh monster in the forest and was leading him back. She saw a small figure lingering outside the yard and at first thought it was a thief. She looked closely and recognized Hesha’s younger brother.
It was already so late. What was he doing here alone?
Evan was startled stiff. Seeing that it was Meili, he was so scared he almost flattened himself against the fence. But thinking of his sister, he forced himself to regain a bit of courage, puffed out his chest, and loudly asked, “Where did you take my sister!”
Hearing his trembling voice, Meili’s expression changed a little. “Your sister, Hesha didn’t go back? When the sun set she came once, but now she should be home.”
Evan immediately said, “You’re lying! I waited at home the whole time, she didn’t come back!”
“It was you who hid her! You witch! Give me back my sister!”
Meili did not want to argue with a child. She left one sentence behind, “Wait here, don’t run around.”
She secretly squeezed the swamp monster’s hand, then pushed the door open and entered the yard.
If Hesha had gone missing, it must be related to the previous disappearances of Aunt Maggie and Julian — they happened too close together.
The more she thought about it, the more certain she felt that this matter could not be separated from Madam Pegg.
In any case, she would first find Madam Pegg and make things clear.
Madam Pegg was not in the room on the second floor.
Meili rushed downstairs again, taking the shovel she hadn’t used last night, and opened the door leading to the basement for the second time.
Madam Pegg was indeed there. The basement still looked the same as yesterday, filled with a fairytale dreamlike scene.
This time, she was wearing clothes, sitting by the pool, with a gentle little deer lying beside her.
Meili stomped down the stairs, disrupting the dreamlike setting. She asked bluntly, “Where is Hesha? Did you take her?”
Madam Pegg looked at her, showing no intention of answering, only saying coldly, “Get out, do not disturb me.”
It seemed verbal persuasion would not work. Meili silently searched for what she wanted to find, then suddenly raised the shovel and unexpectedly smashed it hard toward a golden “tree trunk” beside her.
Crack—
The glowing golden trunk shattered into fragments, falling onto the white round stones.
Madam Pegg’s expression changed, her red hair floating behind her as she shouted in fury, “Get out—”
Her voice was sharp, no worse than when the swamp monster cried at night. Seeing her so tense, Meili was even more certain her guess was right. She sped up and smashed the shovel wildly.
After she shattered three or four golden tree trunks, Meili felt her vision flash. The dreamlike basement world instantly turned into another appearance entirely.
No friendly fairies, no clear pool water, no golden tree trunks — everything changed.
A terrifyingly bloody basement, Julian’s corpse hanging there dripping blood — nothing needed to be said, Meili already understood exactly what was going on.
The scene reversed so suddenly that even though she had some mental preparation, Meili was still stunned.
Madam Pegg, furious, floated toward her. Her movements were swift, and her withered hands clamped tightly around Meili’s neck. Her tone was cold and eerie, “It’s not your time yet, but you just had to cause trouble for me.”
Meili, being choked, finally saw the “little deer” curled up by the water’s edge — it was Hesha, whom she had been worried about the most. She had not been harmed, only severely frightened, lying on the ground unable to move.
Not harmed yet — Meili quietly let out a small breath of relief. She swung the shovel at Madam Pegg, trying to force her away, but the shovel passed through her body without the slightest resistance.
Meili: “……” Damn, physical attacks really are useless against ghosts? Then wasn’t she just offering herself up as food?
The force choking her throat was not heavy, showing that Madam Pegg did not intend to kill her immediately.
However, Meili was not optimistic because from Madam Pegg’s tone, it seemed she was waiting for an appropriate moment to deal with her.
Tch, she had thought before that Madam Pegg remained here as a ghost because she worried about leaving her daughter Meili alone.
Dropping the useless shovel, Meili used both hands to pry Madam Pegg’s grip, using the strength she built from a year of manual labor, forcing the iron-like fingers away for a brief moment.
Grabbing that sliver of space, Meili struggled and shouted, “Cute!”
“Cute—!”
From the moment Meili rushed into the house, the swamp monster had been lingering outside. Just like before — when Meili went home, he waited outside, because he could not enter this house.
There was something in this place blocking his steps. Every time Meili walked in here, he could no longer smell Meili’s scent.
Her voice calling out reached his ears. The swamp monster sensed her urgency and suddenly stopped. For the first time, he tried forcing his tall body through that low doorframe.
“Buzz—”
A sound like countless bees flapping their wings rang out as the swamp monster pushed part of his body into the doorway.
A soft light wrapped around the entire house like a loyal guard, resisting the swamp monster’s intrusion.
“Cough, cough… mm…” Meili lifted her head.
Madam Pegg’s hand was so thin it didn’t look human, clutching her neck. A slightly mocking smile appeared on her face, “Are you calling that swamp monster? Unfortunately, it cannot help you. It is merely a monster after all.”
“My time is almost up. Because of you, I failed the first time. This second time, I will absolutely not allow failure again.”
Madam Pegg’s tone grew gentler, but her expression was hideous and terrifying.
Meili desperately pulled at her hands, gasping out in broken breath, “What do you want to do… we can… talk… maybe I can… cooperate…”
Madam Pegg revealed a bizarre smile. In her eyes, the contempt was the same as always — as if what she held in her hands was not a living person, but a tool that could be used at any time.
Tools should not speak, nor resist.
Meili glanced at Hesha trembling beside the blood-red pool, wanting to stall more, when she suddenly felt pain at her neck. Madam Pegg’s sharp nails pierced into her skin.
“Ah—”
The cry of pain spread outside the house. The swamp monster, unable to enter, grew anxious. His slow movements seemed to speed up a bit, but no matter how he tested, he could not break through that soft glow and enter the house.
After pacing helplessly for a while, his tall and thin body suddenly sprawled over the house.
The soft light covering the house flickered rapidly, the brightness intensifying, bursting with a strong sense of expulsion. In that light, the swamp monster’s body began melting like mud, dripping downward.
As those drops hit the ground with wet splashes, the earth quickly turned into marsh. He moved around the house, and all sides became a swamp.
The glow enveloping the house shone brightly, but soon seemed to be exhausted, gradually weakening and turning gray in some parts.
The swamp monster reached his head into that gray gap and grabbed the bricks inside. The hard bricks slowly dissolved into sticky swamp mud in his hands, sliding down with his pull.
Evan hid outside the garden. He didn’t understand what was happening. He heard shouting inside the house, followed by screams. The sound made him extremely uneasy. He hesitated, unsure if he should go in to look, when a sudden flash of light burst before his eyes.
In that instant, he saw something terrifying.
A towering monster was sprawled over the house, mud constantly falling from its body, as if it were melting.
It suddenly appeared before him, and a moment later it suddenly vanished. Evan could no longer see the figure — only the marsh that appeared out of thin air around the house, and the damaged building.
“M-monster—!”
He fell to the ground, limbs weak, scrambling backward and stumbling as he fled back up the path he came from.
From the third-floor window of the inn in the market, one could faintly see the edge of the forest.
There, a hazy light flickered — only invisible to ordinary people.
The blond man sitting by the window with one leg bent played with the sapphire necklace in his hand. Staring toward the distant forest, he spoke with emotion, “No matter how many times I see it, I still think these things are truly magical.”
“What do you think, Mr. Bole?” The man turned his head to look toward the shelf inside the room, his sapphire-like eyes sparkling with tiny light.
On the shelf stood a round, plump owl. Two white, ear-shaped feathers on its forehead stuck outward. It nodded like a gentleman and said in an aged voice, “Yes, Alex, the mysterious forces of nature are always fascinating.”
It flapped its wings and flew to the window, also gazing toward the edge of the forest. “Oh, the last time I came to check the situation was in winter. The winters here are truly cold.”
