Chapter 11: Chapter 10 – How Normal Is Normal?

 Aviorah and I were a few meters away from the entrance of our target village. From the outside it looked plain. Like how you would expect a village to be. However there were no guards or anything along those lines, just like the previous village.

Maybe they just believe that they don't require those things, even though they are scared to death of the possibility of a Witch residing in here. As I think about it, a regular human wouldn't be able to kill it anyway so it's understandable why things would be that way.

Taking a deep breath, I mustered up the courage along with Aviorah and we walked passed the wooden posts that acted as a gateway into the settlement.

There were people walking about normally, children playing and even old people taking a stroll. You know for a village that is quote unquote inhabited by a Witch, these people seem rather calm.

Aviroah turned to me and asked, "Huh hey are we in the right place?"

I looked about and said "Yeah we definitely are. This is the last village on the road. There's nothing but trees and a dead end after this."

"It just seems rather peaceful."

Yeahhh a bit too peace. It's almost identical to one of those starter villages when you play an rpg.

"Ayato don't you have this creepy feeling as well?"

"Well we're in unfamiliar territory so I wouldn't blame you for feeling that way because it's the same for me as well."

*sniff* *sniff*

Huh what's that smell? It smells like decay. Maybe a dead animal is near by?

Aviorah noticed the smell as well and also noted that it must be a dead animal.

We are somewhat in the woods as well so we can't rule out that possibility.

As we stood at the entrance of the village looking around. Several people stopped and stared. After all,  we do stick out like a sore thumb due to our uniform. Finally someone approached us. A young woman who looked like she is in her early teens.

With a curious stare and a curious tone of voice, she said. "You two must be from Umbella."

Aviroah replied, "That's correct. We're here due to reports of a Witch residing in this very spot."

The young woman laughed, "Where did you hear that silly report from? Is it from the village just before our very own?"

I said, "Half and half, the village reported strange activity and cases of people going mission which are backed up by reports made to authorities."

She continued to laugh, "You guys sure are funny but I'll allow the village chief to ease your concerns." Then motioned for us to follow her.

Both Aviorah and I looked at each other before following the villager. As we walked deeper into the settlement. The smell of decay became even stronger. I felt like I wanted to throw up in my mouth but I steadied myself.

While still walking Aviorah asked, "What's that scent?"

"Oh that's just a few dead cattle and other life stock. Something has been going around and causing them to get sick.

Hmm. That would make perfect sense on why they didn't just eat them.

Aviorah leaned in and whispered. "Don't you find it weird that we haven't seen one single of those so called carcasses?"

i whispered back, "Yeah but the activity here has been normal."

For some reason I couldn't place my finger on it but I did get a creepy feeling from the place.

After a bit, we finally arrived at the village chief's house. It was built right smack dab in the middle of the place and of course in true village leader sense, it was also the biggest house there.

Our guide in the young female teenager called out, "Village Chief we have a visitor!"

After waiting a few moments for an answer there was none so she called again.

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"We have visitors!"

A few seconds later, there was a rustling sound and the wooden door of the house opened and out walked a mature woman who was seemingly breast feeding a baby.

I quickly averted my eyes elsewhere because I didn't want her to think that I was looking at her breasts. Even if I was, it would be pretty disrespectful of me because I am positive this is the village chief's wife. 

She noticed our uniforms and said, "More of you accursed people. We already said that there isn't a Witch in the village.

So that statement alone confirms the fact of previous investigators being here. What an interesting thing this is shaping up to be.

Aviorah replied, "We're just looking into the reports, we haven't come to turn your village inside out. So do you mind if we speak to the chief?"

The lady rocked the baby in her arms and said, "My husband isn't home at the moment but he will be later on."

Right now I need her to define what later on means because based on the position of the sun it's a little after 4pm so that means it's going to be dark soon and I would like to leave here as soon as possible.

I replied, "It's fine we can wait. Do you mind if we look around the place?"

The village chief's wife sighed, "Knock yourselves out."  then went back inside.

Aviorah sighed and said, "Well that isn't very welcoming." 

The young girl who guided us finally introduced herself as Genie. I would say Genie is around 4'6 with shoulder length burnt orange hair, tanned skin with brown eyes. She wore a light purple kimono with a daisy floral pattern.

Aviorah and I also introduced ourselves and we became further aquianted. Genie told us about the recent strange activities occurring but none of them sounded like actual Witch activities.

I was getting a bit annoyed now. It was a mixture of this heat, the constant decaying smell and none of this adding up.

Genie continued to show us around the village and it will overall just looked like a regular place. The children were even freely playing outside so there has to be no witch.

Think Ayato think. There's no way you can write this off as a normal place, the reports were far too detail and all of them gave accounts of the same time.

We approached an old man who seemingly ignore us. It was more like he was staring out into the far beyond.

I tried to get this attention, "Um sir. Excuse me sir."

Still there was no response. Until Genie waved her left hand and then the elderly man started to speak.

"How may I assist you?"

"We are just gathering information on the missing persons and we wanted to know if you maybe aware of anything. I am asking this because elderly people usually have their ear to the street and are aware of everything that transpires in or around the village."

The elderly man didn't even think about it. He just brushed us off by waving his hand.

We moved on after that response and he went back to staring into the beyond. Is this normal old people behavior?

I placed my hands in my pockets and said, "Genie do you know what happened to the other investigators who were here before us?"

Genie placed her hands inside her kimono sleeves and replied, "They left after they realized that there was no Witch."

Aviorah replied with a confused tone of voice, "If they did then why wasn't it reported to Umbella that this village is a false flag? This just makes zero sense."

Ugh. I feel like we have more questions than answers right now.....

 

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