Chapter 60: Treasure

Rust Hammer District, the market.

“Where is everyone?”

“How is it that there isn’t a single soul in the market so early in the morning?”

Vivian muttered softly to herself as she strolled alone through the market aisles.

The streets that were usually packed to the point of being impassable were now completely empty. Whether it was Uncle Ethan’s butcher shop or Aunt Rosie’s vegetable stall, not a single person was in sight. She looked around the market, but she couldn’t even find someone to interact with.

‘Did the Lord of the City issue another Demon subjugation order and draw everyone away?’

Vivian suddenly thought of the subjugation order from last week and hurriedly ran toward the front of Blake’s bakery. When she arrived, she found that aside from the ruins before her, the place was equally deserted.

“Where are they? Did everyone get transported to another world without me?”

Frustrated, Vivian kicked a stray stone on the side of the road.

“Yip yip yip!”

The stone flew into a nearby alley, followed by the sound of a dog barking. Vivian’s eyes lit up with joy; she was glad to have finally found a living creature.

Following the sound into the alley, she saw a local dog with a balding tail spinning in circles. It seemed to be looking for something. Squatting next to the dog was a child wearing ragged, heavily patched robes. He was looking at the dog—whose head had been hit by the flying stone—with a pained expression, reaching out to rub its furry head.

“Little Toby? What are you doing here?”

As Vivian approached, she realized the child was one of her classmates from the classroom.

“Ah! It’s Big Sister Vivian!”

Toby jerked his head up, his eyes filled with a mix of surprise and a hint of fear. Ever since Vivian had taught him a lesson for cutting in line and then pulled him into the group to play, Toby had been completely won over. He had followed the other children’s lead in calling her Big Sister Vivian.

“Beibei seems to have caught the scent of treasure, so I followed him here.”

Toby picked up the dog and held it out toward Vivian as if presenting a precious prize.

“Woof woof woof!”

Vivian looked at the panting dog with a bit of disdain and quickly waved her hand for Toby to put it down.

“How could there be treasure in a place like Maern City?”

“Even if there were, it would just be bread gift boxes hidden by Blake during the festivals,” Vivian said, spreading her hands.

“There really is! Beibei has found treasure for me more than once.”

“If you don’t believe me, look! Woof!” Toby imitated a dog’s bark and gave Beibei a command.

The dog, Beibei, turned around, wagged its balding tail, and scurried into a residential house in the alley.

“Follow him!” Toby shouted, running into the house after the dog through an unlocked back door.

“Isn’t this just breaking and entering… I’m not some Bohemian Sword Saint,” Vivian grumbled, clutching her forehead. She planned to follow him inside to correct the child’s values one more time. If he was doing things like this at such a young age, what would he become when he grew up?

“Ah!!”

Just as she stepped forward, she heard Toby scream.

‘What happened? Did the owner catch him?!’

Vivian rushed into the house.

The interior was pitch black, with only a small window open on the wall, allowing a single beam of sunlight to cut through the darkness. A bright band of light hung in the air, with fine dust motes floating within it. Toby was slumped on the floor in front of the patch of light, his hand trembling as he pointed forward.

“Big… Big Sister Vivian…”

Vivian stepped past Toby and saw two strangely shaped corpses lying on the floor.

“Woof woof woof!”

Beibei the dog was excitedly running around the corpses, wagging its balding tail as if asking for credit.

“Move aside…”

Vivian gave Beibei a gentle kick, sending it over to Toby’s side. She gathered her skirts and crouched down to observe the scene closely.

The two corpses were a man and a woman, likely a couple who lived in the house. Their skin was an ashen, deathly white, clinging tightly to their bones and shriveled like sun-dried old leather. Their eye sockets were deeply sunken, and their faces were contorted in agony as if they had seen something extremely terrifying before they died. Their limbs were as thin as firewood, twisted by the contraction of their skin, losing all semblance of human form.

“Um… Big Sister Vivian… do you know what those things are?”

Toby finally regained his composure and walked over to Vivian, speaking in a shaky voice.

“I don’t know either. Let’s go ask Priest Derek. He’s well-traveled and might have the answer,” Vivian replied honestly. After all, she was just a student who liked to daydream in class; her head was empty of such knowledge.

Bang!

The front door of the house was suddenly kicked open, sending dust swirling throughout the room.

“There are two more here!” a man’s voice rang out.

A squad of armored soldiers split into two lines and burst into the house together.

“We’re finished, Big Sister Vivian! Are we going to jail?!” Toby cried, hugging Beibei the dog in fear.

“Does catching two petty thieves really require this much fanfare?” Vivian muttered in confusion, standing up to face the two rows of soldiers who had broken in.

The soldiers’ formation slowly parted in the middle, and two figures walked out.

“Vivian? You’re actually here! I was just about to go looking for you.” It was Nolan’s voice.

Vivian looked toward the center of the group and saw Nolan walking toward her.

“Weren’t you lying at home? Why did you suddenly show up here?” she asked, bewildered.

Before she had left the house, Nolan had been lying in a coffin, seemingly on the brink of death. How had he become so lively all of a sudden?

“Priest Derek came to the house to find me. He wanted me to investigate the deaths that have occurred in the city.”

“Deaths? What happened?”

“Just like these two corpses in front of you. Many similar bodies were discovered early this morning.”

Nolan signaled the soldiers to collect the two mummified corpses and drag them out through the front door. Vivian turned around and whispered to Toby, “Take Beibei and get out of here quickly. Something bad has happened.”

With tears shimmering in his eyes, Toby nodded, then scooped up his dog and slipped out through the back door. Nolan didn’t care about the fleeing Toby; instead, he waved at Vivian, gesturing for her to follow him.

The two of them walked through the front door and arrived at another street. This was the residential area opposite the market, where the narrow dirt and stone paths were lined with all sorts of miscellaneous items. Animal droppings were scattered across the road, and at the end of the street, a dark-skinned cow was eating fodder in a shed. A large crowd of people was gathered in the narrow path, packing the area tightly.

“So this is where everyone went…” Vivian whispered.

“Two more!”

The crowd cried out as they saw the soldiers dragging two bodies from the house.

“It’s Lyle’s family! It looks like they couldn’t escape this calamity either.”

Someone in the crowd recognized the bodies, and a commotion broke out. Nolan waved to the crowd and ordered the soldiers to maintain order. The crowd retreated in an orderly fashion, clearing a path. The soldiers placed the two newly discovered bodies in the center of the road.

Vivian focused her gaze, her pupils shrinking instantly as she was stunned by the scene before her.

Three rows of corpses covered in hemp cloth were neatly arranged on the road. There were men and women, and she even saw the body of a child. He had just been playing with Vivian in class yesterday, and after only one night… he was lying motionless on the ground, turned into a cold corpse.

“This…”

For a moment, Vivian didn’t know what to say. She silently counted as she walked past. There were forty-one corpses in total!

“No… Judy, my Judy…” a low voice came from behind.

Vivian turned toward the source of the sound and realized it was Uncle Ethan, whom she knew well. This cheerful middle-aged man, a sturdy fellow who wouldn’t even grunt if his arm was broken, was currently kneeling before a mummified corpse. His hands hung limply at his sides, and he repeatedly muttered his wife’s name, his expression looking as if he had lost his soul.

Vivian took a deep breath of the stale air, suppressing the chaotic thoughts in her mind.

“Have you found out who did this? Nolan.”

She clenched her fists, her eyes barely containing the surging rage within.