Chapter 113: The Past of Swamp Forest City
Chapter 113: The Past of Swamp Forest City
"These are great wizards. They will examine your bodies carefully. Please cooperate with me." Naxi, the eldest son of the city lord, stepped forward and gave gentle instructions to prevent the people inside from offending the nobles.
"Lord City Lord, please spare us. We really didn't mean to hurt anyone. Lord City Lord, please spare us." After hearing his words and looking at the apprentice in the wizard robe, someone in the cell was frightened and begged for mercy, and the others followed suit.
Naxi's eyes widened, looking at the civilians kneeling on the ground in disbelief.
The city lord Simmons was also very embarrassed and felt like he was on edge. He wanted to drag out the person who took the lead in begging for mercy and whip him.
"You all shut up!"
Simmons took control of the situation with a shout.
Only after Simmons's appeasement and suppression did the group of people become willing to accept inspection and questioning.
Afterwards, the people in the cell were examined and questioned one by one. The situations were similar. There were no lines on their heads and no other obvious characteristics, but they did have episodes of madness, and would suddenly hurt people or smash things for no reason.
Most of them go crazy more than once.
When they are not sick, they look no different from ordinary people.
Heidi and her colleagues conducted several tests on them, including identification of foreign particles and blood tests, but still found nothing abnormal.
After coming out of the cell, the apprentices checked the demonized beasts killed by Swamp Forest City and found some incoherent line patterns, some more or less, some long or short, but it was difficult to find any useful clues from them.
City Lord Simmons was afraid that they would turn around and leave, so he suggested, "Sir Heidi, why don't you stay in Swamp Forest City for a few days? According to what happened in the past, new situations will soon emerge. What do you think?"
"no problem."
Heidi glanced at the others and did not reject the city lord's request.
At her request, the city lord arranged two larger adjacent houses for them, one for the enchanting team and one for the hunting team. Although the two teams arrived together, their missions were different.
"Heidi, I will take people out of the city tomorrow to check and see if we can find any traces of energy leakage." Wolfan said. He was inclined to believe that there was an old laboratory nearby. Once found, it would not only solve the problem but also bring other benefits.
"Okay, leave the city to us." Heidi nodded in agreement.
After the two leading apprentices set the rules, the two teams moved into the large mansion prepared by the city lord.
The next day, according to the agreement between the two, Heidi led the enchantment team to explore the city, with each person visiting one area to see if there were any unusual energy fluctuations.
Ivan was assigned to the north of the city, which was obviously an area with a lot of poor people. He did not let the people sent by the city lord follow him.
The houses on both sides of the street are low and one-story. The lower part of the house is made of brick and stone walls, only one to two meters high. The upper part is built with wood, and the roof is made of tree bark, soil and dead grass.
The streets are not very clean, sewage is dumped in front of the houses at will, and excrement can occasionally be seen.
Despite the series of incidents that occurred in Swamp Forest City, there were still a small number of people who came out to seek a living. When they saw him in a wizard robe, they didn't dare to look at him for even a second and quickly moved away.
Ivan didn't care.
To be honest, detecting energy fluctuations in this way is like looking for a needle in a haystack, unless one of them is extremely lucky.
He walked slowly on the street, and when he passed by a place, he casually stopped an old man sitting at the door of his house.
"Sir, the old man has always been honest and has never done anything bad."
The old man was so scared that he knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly, which made Ivan look very upset. Is he really that scary?
"Old man, let me ask you a few simple questions. Is there anyone going crazy around here?"
"No, no, absolutely not. I heard there are some in Kushui Street. They were caught by the city lord and put in the water dungeon. They have nothing to do with me. Really nothing." "What about the livestock?"
"According to the Lord's order, we killed them all. If you don't believe me, you can search my house. I am telling the truth. Please let me go."
After asking several questions in a row but failing to get any results, making it seem like he was being tortured, Ivan let the old man, who had not dared to look up at him, go.
He went to another block and still found nothing special.
At the corner of the street, he noticed someone staring at him, and when he looked in the direction the person was looking, he saw a ragged little boy secretly looking at him, as if he wanted to get closer but didn't dare to. It turned out to be a little beggar about ten years old.
Ivan waved at him, and the little boy walked over hesitantly, lowering his head and not daring to look at him.
"Aren't you afraid of me?"
"Yes - a little scared. I'm hungry."
Hearing the little beggar's words, Ivan was speechless. It turned out that hunger overcame his timidity. People in Swamp Forest City were in a panic and prices were rising. It would be strange if he could beg for food. Judging from his appearance, he must have been hungry for quite some time.
"That's easy to say. Let me ask you, why are people here afraid of wizards?"
The little beggar thought about it and said, "Well, well, I heard from adults that many people died."
Ivan asked, "Be more specific. Why did so many people die?"
The little beggar whispered, "Anyway, many, many years ago, many, many people followed the wizard, and only a few of them came back alive. Now those people are dead."
Ivan then asked about a few key points and figured out the general context of the matter.
A wizard once recruited a large number of young and strong men in the city, about two to three thousand people, but it was unknown what they were used for. In the end, only a few dozen people came back alive, and some of them had lost their memories.
Since then, information about the cruelty of wizards has been passed down in various obscure ways, and various stories about persecution by wizards have also emerged. Elders often use wizards to scare children, causing the civilians here to fear wizards from the bottom of their hearts.
"You're hungry, aren't you?"
"Uh-huh."
Hearing his words, the little beggar nodded repeatedly, looking at him expectantly and fearfully.
Ivan suddenly had a sense of evil interest and handed over a nutritional potion: "Here, if you have the guts, take a sip. After you drink it, you won't be hungry anymore."
The little beggar stared blankly at the potion in his hand. This was the wizard's evil potion, which was said to be mixed with human blood, snake venom, and owl's eyes.
But it smells so good!
At this moment, his body made a gurgling sound, and his stomach instinctively urged him to do so. The little beggar gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, raised the potion and poured a small sip into his mouth. It was as if he had eaten a handful of poisonous insects, and he swallowed it while suppressing the discomfort.
The little beggar sipped his lips and found the taste a bit strange. It turned out that something extraordinary was mixed in.
Soon, the little beggar found that his stomach stopped growling and he was full. He realized something and tightly gripped the glass bottle in his hand, looking at the wizard in front of him with a twinkling eye.
Ivan smiled and said, "Don't worry, it's yours now."
He handed the bottle cap over and ignored the dazed little beggar, continuing to look along the street.
By the end of the day, he had found no useful traces.
It's a new day, and the few of them are still searching separately for unusual energy fluctuations.
However, after several days, both teams were unable to find any useful clues, and no unexpected events occurred. Things were very different from what they had expected.
(End of this chapter)