Chapter 2: 'Cursed Village': Normal (2)

One of the villagers, who seemed to have power in the village, came over to Augus, Christopher, Allura, and Lana. He had a fairly common face, not too handsome, and not too pretty.

After getting close enough to Augus, Christopher, Allura, and Lana, the man with black hair, and brown eyes, said in a friendly tone, "I'm Thomas, the head of this village. Are you foreigners? Welcome to our village!  It's been a long time since the arrival of guests in our village."

Allura, the little fairy with a sly face, replied, "I'm Allura, nice to meet you Thomas."

Then, Lana, Christopher, and Augus introduced themselves to him.  Thomas greeted the four of them well, he even seemed pleased with the four of them for some reason. Not only that, Thomas asked one of his villagers to help prepare a house for the four of them. No matter how Augus observed Thomas, he could only see that this person was very friendly, and had nothing to do with the so-called curse.

On the way to Thomas' house, a villager called for Thomas because he wanted to ask him for help regarding the problem of the well in his house.  Thomas could not refuse the request of his citizens, so Thomas asked Jack, a villager who happened to pass by them, and handed Augus, Christopher, Allura, and Lana to Jack.

Jack happily accepts Thomas' request and takes Augus, Christopher, Allura, and Lana around before heading to Thomas' house. Of course, they went around after a brief introductory session. Jack took Augus and the others to alot of places like rice fields, gardens, and baths while continuing to chatter passionately along the way.

"Well, before we end this traveling session, hmmm, maybe we should pay him a visit first!" Jack said excitedly, then led Augus and the others while humming cheerfully.

When he reached his destination, Jack immediately shouted excitedly, " Geez Bram!! At this time of night, shouldn't you be sleeping, why are you still busy cutting meat?"

Bram, the person who looked like a butcher, turned towards the source of the voice with a cold expression as if he was annoyed. However, when his gaze landed on Jack, Bram's expression became a little more friendlier.

"Jack, why did you come here at this time of night?" Bram asked while looking at Augus, Christopher, Allura, and Lana with a curious look, mixed with the look of displeasure that was well hidden. Unfortunately, Augus and Lana were professionals at seeing people's emotions, so they both knew it right away.

'Why does this person seem upset with our arrival?' Lana wondered.

Jack entered the yard of Bram's house, then said, "I brought some guests who had just arrived in this village.  It's been a long time since our village had guests right?"

Bram nodded, then returned his gaze from Jack to the four 'guests' who had come to his village.  Afraid that the situation would become awkward, Jack immediately introduced them to each other. "This is Bram, the butcher in our village, if you want meat, you can get it through him!  Now, the black-haired one is Augus, the black-robed one is Lana, the silver-haired one is Christopher, and the little person who can fly is Allura."

Bram nodded his head again, then smiled and said, "Nice to meet you all, as you all know, I'm Bram."

Allura replied with her trademark sly smirk, "Hello, its nice to meet you Bram."

Then Augus, Christopher, and Lana also said their greetings in their own ways. After the greeting session, Augus watched Bram closely, while Bram himself was chatting with Jack.  Why did Augus pay attention to Bram? Because the smell of blood that Bram emitted was very thick and a bit rotten, which meant that Bram had killed alot of living things.

'Is it because he killed a lot of animals? But, can killing animals make the smell of blood this thick?' Augus thought as he continued to observe Bram.

While Augus was busy speculating, Jack said, ending his talk session with Bram, "Well, we'll get going now so we won't bother you anymore, see you, Bram!"

Then, Jack followed by Augus, Christopher, Lana, and Allura started walking towards the main destination of their tour, Thomas' house.  Throughout the journey, Jack kept talking non-stop, but unfortunately, among the four people, no one paid attention to Jack, who was very excited to talk, because they were busy with their own thoughts.

'What is the curse in this village, that transparent screen?' Lana's brain was spinning hard to find the most appropriate theory that could explain the current situation.

'Is there even a curse in this village?  I didn't see anything unusual while walking around.' Allura thought confused.

'If the curse is something threatening, I just have to destroy it.' Christopher thought as he clenched his fists.

'Hmm, Bram... the butcher is very strange..' All this time, Augus' thoughts had not been distracted.

As long as they were busy with their own thoughts, Jack never stopped chattering, so things didn't get awkward. The situation of the trip could be described like this, one person was talking non-stop and passionately, while the other four were 'listening', even though the four of them were busy with their own thoughts. Unfortunately, Jack will never know that fact.

As soon as they arrived at Thomas' House, Thomas immediately greeted them warmly. Then, after relaxing at Thomas' house for a while, Augus, Christopher, Allura, and Lana were taken to a place where they would be staying for a while. Meanwhile, Jack had returned to his house when his task of escorting the four village guests was over.

Thomas brought them to an empty house in the village. Or, which is more like a warehouse for the four of them.  The house is empty, there were some haystacks. Luckily Augus, Christopher, Allura, and Lana didn't complain one bit about it. And, although it looked abandoned for a long time, the house was not so dusty and dirty.

'The house was probably cleaned up by a guy that Thomas ordered.' Allura thought, guessing.

Meanwhile, Thomas was relieved, because they didn't seem picky about where to rest. The reason is, in that village, there were no more rooms or empty places that can be used to rest.  So Thomas decided to use a simple house, that had been abandoned by its owner for a long time, as a place for his four guests to rest.

Of course, Thomas said truthfully to Augus, Christopher, Allura, and Lana, "If you guys aren't comfortable sleeping in a place like this, I'll give you my bed instead, so just tell me if this place isn't good enough."

The four guests shook their heads and refused Thomas' offer. The village head just didn't know that the four guests were happy to have a house located on the outskirts of the village.  Because now, they can move more freely without any supervision.

After Thomas said goodnight, he walked back to his house. Meanwhile, Augus, Christopher, Allura, and Lana entered their temporary residence to start exchanging information.

Wasting no time, Allura immediately said, "So did you guys find anything strange?"

No one answered, the place was quiet as a graveyard. Augus, Christopher, and Lana stared at Allura with intense gazes. Allura would have realized, as someone who had only known each other for a few hours, of course, they would not immediately trust each other. However, Allura's main fear was not the distrust between the four of them, but, the conflict that could occur because of that mistrust.