Chapter 37: The Evil Descends (1)
The Barcan Estate consisted of numerous villages spread around the city. Traveling merchants roamed among these villages, selling goods that were in short supply. Like most regions, these villages formed an interwoven network, maintaining regular communication with one another.
Then one day, contact with one of the villages suddenly ceased. At first, no one found it odd. There were times when merchants failed to arrive or, by chance, no one ventured out of the village, causing a temporary lack of communication.
However, several days passed, and the village still did not send word. Concerned, people from a nearby village went to investigate, but they never returned. Those who went looking for them also failed to come back.
Alarmed, they notified the lord. After hearing the situation, the lord sent a tax collector to confirm what was happening. The tax collector did not return, either.
Realizing the severity of the matter, the lord assembled a squad of ten fully armed guards and dispatched them. Sometimes a village refused to pay taxes and either fled or barricaded themselves in, so he wanted to check if that was the case. Ordinary farmers stood no chance against such a well-armed force.
However, the guards did not return either. Only then did the lord realize that something dire was happening.
***
Ketal arrived at the guildhall early in the morning, just as he always did, and asked, “What kind of requests do you have for me today?”
However, instead of handing him the request board, Rosa spoke in a calm voice. “Today, we have an emergency request. It’s from the lord himself.”
“Hmm?” A look of intrigue flickered across Ketal’s face. “What is it about?”
“It’s to investigate a village that has stopped sending word.” Rosa explained that contact with a particular village had been severed a few days ago, and Lord Barcan had asked them to find out why. “It’s essentially a simple dispatch request, but the payment is unusually high.”