Chapter 62 - Strange Village
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Not only the Markey clan, but lots of clans had established places to gather intelligence throughout the Continent. Big clans would set up an intelligence network in Montenegro Fortress, not to check out military affairs, since not many military events occur here. They established it only for one main purpose: talent!
The aristocracy in the Ark Continent, after thousands of years, naturally was very aware of the importance of talent. For a noble, a powerful warrior would be a great help to them, so those major clans would send intelligence agents to Montenegro where mercenaries and adventurers were concentrated. They had to find potential warriors that could become the strengths of those clans.
It was precisely because of this that, when Zhao appeared in Montenegro Fortress, a lot of large clans had received messages regarding their arrival.
But those people that were tracking Zhao had miscalculated. They did not consider that Zhao would stay out of the towns that he passed, and that he would go into his space and rest at night, so there is no way for those people who were trying to track him find his whereabouts.
With such a performance from Zhao, the people were surer that he was a black mage.
Zhao was not aware of the people that were following him. He was just going at his own pace, his speed not being too fast. Going to Casa City from Montenegro, even with a horse, would take seven days, and Zhao was riding on his undead with a similar speed.
Right now it has only been three days, and in this period of time they have ran into two towns and numerous small villages, which showed that the Purcell Duchy was indeed prosperous.
On the morning of the fourth day, they were going along like usual. It was not the rainy season yet, so going through the dirt road was very smooth. But Zhao felt that something was a little off, but he didn't know what it was.
Seeing Zhao looking puzzled, Meg spoke up, "Ah, Master, it's strange. We've been going for more than two hours, but he still hasn’t seen anyone. At this time of day, there should be a lot of people."
It was as Meg said. Zhao finally realized that after two hours, they haven't met a single person today. No wonder he felt weird, like something was lacking.
"Stop," Zhao said as he felt that something was wrong. The undead immediately stopped. Zhao got up and leaned on its ribs to speak to Green. "Grandpa Green, what has happened? Why didn't we meet any people, after so long?"
"I've noticed, Master. But don't worry, we will move forward. I want to see what happened. It's not a big deal anyway, since Master can just go into the space to hide so nobody can find you."
Zhao didn't think that Green had already noticed that something was amiss. Even if it's a little irresponsible, going forward to find out what happened was a valid reason. There was nothing they could do but to keep moving.
Thinking of this, Zhao nodded. "Well, let's go."
Alien immediately started moving at the same pace as before, it really was moving at a leisurely pace. But Zhao and Meg were tense. They didn't have much experience in these situations. Unlike Green who was calm, they restlessly looked around at the surrounding woods, as if at any time a spirit beast would burst out.
To Zhao's surprise, they walked through the whole morning without encountering a single person.
Passing through a village, they carefully looked around, but no one was there. And to Zhao's surprise, there no signs of being attacked, like all the villagers had simply got out of bed and left. They didn't hear any chickens or even the sound of a dog. Complete silence.
Zhao couldn't help but feel a chill going down his back. This village was too strange.
Green carefully looked through the village for a long time, yet he didn't find anything. His face was gloomy as he turned to Zhao. "Call out Meirin. She might be able to find something."
Zhao immediately called out Meirin from the space. Meirin had been paying attention to the situation outside. Naturally, she knew what was happening, so after she came out, she didn't ask anything and just carefully looked around. She closed her eyes and softly chanted a spell.
A mass of blue light left her body. With the same radiance as the sun, the light flashed for a full five minutes before slowly disappearing.
Meirin slowly opened her eyes. "Master, black magic was used to make some kind of temptation spell. Every living thing in this village was lured away."
Zhao was shocked. "Black magic? You mean there was an actual black mage here?"
Meirin nodded. "Some time has passed, so the magical energy has almost disappeared, but I can be sure that someone was here using black magic."
Zhao's and Green's face fell. They were sure that the reason why they didn't encounter anybody today was related to this thing. They must fix this or they will be implicated. Let’s not forget that, Zhao's identity was a black mage. But there was an actual black mage using black magic. They couldn't hide from this situation. Just like how Meirin discovered the black magic, other mages would be able to do it too. When news of all the missing people spread out, Zhao might fall under suspicion.
Green and Zhao were worried about this black mage. With a temptation spell to lure so many people away, that mage would certainly have nothing good planned, which would bring Zhao no small amount of trouble.
Meirin apparently thought of this too. "Master, you should stop dressing up as a black mage, otherwise it would bring you trouble."
Zhao shook his head. "If I pretend to be someone else, it may make it easier for people to discover our identity, which would make the situation more dangerous. Grandma Meirin, can you sense which direction that black mage brought all those people? Let's see if we can solve this annoying problem. If we can solve it, then that's good. Even if it's not resolved, we still can't let the Purcell clan suspect us."
Such a big thing, it would be impossible for the Purcell clan to not find out about it. But if Zhao was able to find the real killer and handed the guy over to the Purcell clan, naturally they would not be suspicious of him.
Meirin looked at Green, wanting to know if they should go along with Zhao's plan. If Green agrees, she will find the way towards that black mage.
Green nodded. "Well then, let's do it according to the young master. Find that guy and hand him over to the Purcell clan."
Meirin used her magic, but this time it took her a whole ten minutes. After she finished, she pointed in the direction of Casa City. "That way," she said.
Translator Notes: This chapter was MTLed by Trung and edited by Kinokey. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.