Maybe in the field of magic, Pierre is just an ordinary human who knows a little about fur, and the weakest vampire will not take him seriously, but in terms of investigating intelligence and collecting historical secrets, Pierre can be called an absolute expert, and his ability in this area may not be worse than Nangong Sanba: human beings are a curious race, and the weakness of their own strength will also urge spirit detectives to pay special attention to the collection of intelligence, Pierre has investigated a lot of things before coming to this village, and in the two months he was trapped, He was also constantly studying the broken ancient books he had brought, and during this time, he found out more than Hao Ren had imagined.The noise in the village square continued, and the long celebration didn't know how long it would end, and the strange villagers didn't seem to be worried about someone escaping the place, or that they had other ways to monitor the village borders, and until now no one came to check on the longhouse, Hao Ren was a little surprised: "I thought they would be watching very closely. ”"Spying on whom?
You guys?
Or me?
”Pierre shook his head, "There is a pattern to their actions, although there are no loopholes to get out of, but by following the rules, you can find some gaps."
They tend to be more lenient with newcomers to the village, presumably to prevent suspicion, as newcomers still retain a considerable degree of self-will, and if the villagers behave too abnormally, it can cause a series of problems.And as you stay in this village for longer and longer, you will subtly accept this place, identify with this place, become unwilling to leave, and even forget where you are and where you came from, and then the villagers will use the rules of the village to bind you, and you will gladly accept it.At the end of the day, you're a complete walking corpse, you think you belong here, you're even born here, and you're going to have a false memory of being born and raised in this village, and you're destined to live your whole life - when all the foreign signs on your body will be corrupted, and you'll be dressed in their clothes, and you'll be in their ranks, and yes, you'll be 'villagers', as you see during the day." ”Vivian was suddenly surprised: "You said that those villagers were also changed by people trapped here?!"
”"If my investigation and guess are correct, it should be so," Pierre nodded slightly, "When I first came here, I found traces of the newly completed 'transformation' on several villagers, they had Elvis Presley tattoos on them, but after a month these marks disappeared completely, and they became complete 'villagers'."
That's probably how the village chief Winston came. ”Vivien touched her chin: "I remembered the allusion to the tiger. ”"There's only a fence outside this village," Hao Ren looked up at the window, and due to the angle, he could see the village boundary from here, and the tattered low fence was clearly visible here, "You haven't tried to go out?"
Theoretically, there is no way for the villagers trapped here to leave this land, and the chances of you breaking out should be quite high. ”Pierre knew that Hao Ren would mention this, and he shook his head with a wry smile: "Impossible, no one can cross that fence, the other side of the fence is still the village, I have tried many times."
There's magic in effect here, and of course, you might be able to try it. ”Hesperith frowned: "Everything was fine when I came here three hundred years ago, what happened here?"
”Pierre immediately looked around cautiously, as if what he was about to say would attract some kind of evil spirit in the dark night, he lowered his voice and said in a mysterious tone: "According to my investigation, I am afraid that it has something to do with the evil witchcraft rituals performed by an ancient family. ”"Family?
Witchcraft rituals?
”Hesperius was stunned, no matter how she thought about it before, she thought that what happened in this place should be caused by Hercules and that ancient artifact, but she didn't expect that it would involve other aspects, "What did you find?"
”"The earliest records are from more than two hundred years ago," said Pierre, who lowered the window panels of his room and lit another oil lamp in the room, as if to dispel the gloom of the surroundings, "at that time the village was just a remote and poor ordinary village, and although it was hidden deep in the dense forest, there were no bad rumors, and the town outside the forest had occasional communication with the village.Later, a down-and-out aristocratic family moved here, and they were part of the French Revolution.
The exiles, who had lost their power and status and were left with only wealth, made their home in a small town outside the forest, but the family was soon ostracized and hostile by the townspeople, and the situation was so serious that the lives of the family members began to be threatened......"
Vivian interjected: "Why?
”"Because of the study of witchcraft, even those who have returned from other places have brought the family a bad reputation.At that time, there were not many such downtrodden aristocrats, because of the violent turmoil in social status, life was precarious, they began to seek some not so legitimate spiritual sustenance and strength, these records cannot be found in the official history, but I found evidence from many secret documents.The down-and-out nobleman who had migrated here was one of those who were quite obsessed with the study of witchcraft, and his family was even more devastated than the others: they had been obsessed with it for generations, and they possessed some real knowledge of magic, unlike those who could only shout around the campfire with fake magic books."
Because of this, this noble family, which had lost its position of power, was ostracized by the townspeople and was even in danger of being guillotined, so they had to move out of the town, and later built a house somewhere between the town and the village in the woods.""
In the forest?
The heart is really wide......
"Vivien raised an eyebrow, "and then?"
”"There are several versions of what happened after that, some say that the family summoned an otherworldly devil in their basement, and the devil destroyed the town outside the forest and cursed the village in the forest, and some say that their family patriarch went crazy because of the study of witchcraft and became a devil himself, but my investigation is more inclined to the third theory: the village in the forest originally hid a magical item with considerable power, and the nobleman who migrated here himself came for this magical item, He and his family tricked a hermit in the village into stealing the artifact from the hermit and attempting to obtain the artifact's magic.The hermit came alone to ask for an explanation after discovering that he had been deceived, but the nobles deceived him again by poisoning the wine under the pretense of returning the artifact.In the end, the weakened hermit and the nobleman fought a witch war, and the nobleman was defeated, and when he was dying, he lit a fire, burned down his house, burned all his family members and wanted to die with the hermit, but the hermit escaped with the power of the artifact......"
Pierre paused here, and the next words were the point: "The hermit who escaped from the fire returned to the village with the artifact, but he was poisoned and died at the entrance of the village, and his dying anger polluted the magic item, So the magical power of the ancient era immediately diffused and cursed the entire village.I guess the hermit's obsession is 'no one can take anything from this land,' and that obsession is twisted by a curse and no one can leave the land.That's all my research and speculation. ”After Pierre finished speaking, Hesperius crossed his arms and nodded: "I'm afraid your guess is indeed the closest to the truth, but only one thing is unlikely - that 'hermit' is not a guy who can be handled by ordinary humans." ”When Pierre heard this, he suddenly realized that these people in front of him probably also knew part of the truth, and his eyes widened: "Do you know who the 'hermit' in the story is?"
”"We're here to find him," said Haoren, "and his name was Hercules." ”Pierre reacted for a few seconds, and finally there was a strange cry: "Ancient Greek mythology, the Hercules of the Twelve Trials?!"
”Hesperius muttered beside him: "To be honest, I think the twelve trials back then were quite unauthentic, it was too embarrassing, but it's a pity that Hera was stirring up behind her back, and it was useless for me to ask Zeus to report the problem a few times......"
Pierre had a strange look on his face, as if it was the first time he had heard someone blow this kind of ancient myth in the first person, and he was a little uncomfortable - although Hesperius didn't blow it."
But anyway, Hercules is indeed missing now," Vivien touched her chin, "It seems that the crux of the problem is related to the family back then, and they are afraid that they touched something that should not have caused the power of the artifact to get out of control."
Pierre, do you know where that family is located?
”"Outside the village," Pierre pointed in a certain direction, "it's not far from here, the ruins of the old house have been swallowed up by the forest, but I guess the main body of the house is still there, it is a house built by the nobility, according to the records, it was built with a lot of stone and ancient concrete."
I knew that the key to lifting the curse should be there, but unfortunately I couldn't get out. ”"Let's go," Hao Ren stood up, "The space-time warp here shouldn't stop us." ”"You'd better wait until dawn," said Pierre, "and there will be some changes in the village." ”(To be continued.) )