Stray

"They were drawn." Adrian's tone was certain.

"Although I don't know the means," An sneered, "but I think we all know who did it."

The Fuller Goat was shivering behind Jesse with a load of bags, even though Jesse couldn't stop it. The blond youth squatted down and rubbed the goat's face casually. "I wouldn't be stupid enough to do such a thing after just a few words." He kissed the goat's furry face quite naturally, "Besides, you saw it just now, did I do anything suspicious? To say the reason... um... just now, it seems that someone is experimenting with abyss magic, maybe the pack of wolves was frightened by the devil's breath."

Nimo stood a little embarrassed, he just did the law. But even he himself didn't know the effect of the spell, so he really couldn't deny the possibility.

"Okay, sorry, I really don't have any evidence." Ann said carelessly, "Nimo, don't mess around. Now that Oliver is awake, let's move on. It's just that This—" She waved her hunting spear at Jesse. "We don't welcome you."

"Mr. Dylan, we really have no intention of walking with you." Oliver said politely and distantly, "Can you stop following us?"

"Baby, we've only known each other for such a short time, we're about to be torn apart." Jesse said heartbrokenly to the Fuller goat, then looked at Oliver pitifully. "Well, Mr. Ramon, since you're so unwelcome to me... well, are you really going to stop thinking about it? I'm very useful! If you need a relationship guide—"

"Goodbye." Oliver nodded coldly. Nemo suddenly wanted to laugh a little—Oliver was much gentler with manticores just now.

Jesse sighed in a feigned sadness, he picked up the cloth bag, and blew a kiss at them: "I have a hunch, we will see you soon!"

Grey Parrot and Fuller Goat dawdled, reluctantly, and finally did not stay with Jesse. The blond young man didn't go with them this time. He sat down in the shade and started nibbling on those weird fruits leisurely. The brilliant blonde hair quickly disappeared from their sight.

The rest of the journey was without the awkward tension. Even if no one spoke, there was a reassuring and comfortable atmosphere floating in the air. Nemo knocked a few pebbles in his boots—perhaps for psychological reasons, and even walked a lot better. Oliver found a better way to practice controlling his powers—a few ice thorns floated around them, a cool breeze when the wind blew.

"If the direction is right, we'll see right away—oh, that's it!" Ann looked away from the map in his hand. "That tavern! We can teleport directly from it to the forest near the next town."

The owner of the tavern has a good business acumen. This place, which is not located in front of the village and not in the back of the store, is really suitable as a transit place. There are a lot of wine barrels at the entrance of the tavern, and next to it is a vegetable garden blocked by a wooden fence. A few chickens were bouncing around in the vegetable garden, and there were occasional loud sniffs from the backyard. A no-compromise small farm.

The middle-aged man who was picking weeds in the vegetable garden wiped the sweat from his forehead, smiled politely at them, and skillfully tied the fuller goat to the small grass shed beside him, even the forage Be prepared in advance.

Nemo wiped his sweat and rushed into the hotel as if he was fleeing.

The inside of the pub is much cooler than the outside. The decoration and service are not dealt with, the wooden table is clean and shiny, there is no strange nicks or black greasy oil stains. There are even bookshelves on the edge of each table, with a few anecdotes and materials to pass the time. Compared to Hiram and Noe's tavern, this place has a reassuring taste of home.

Although it was daytime, the pub was still about a third of the seats full, and the guests seemed to be mostly travelers with luggage, and—

"You will meet good things soon!" The familiar flirtatious tone sounded, Jesse Dylan was sitting at one of the tables, still holding the girl's hand - the girl He was bowing his head, blushing like a boiled shrimp. "Trust me, sweetheart, my divination is accurate."

"Ah oh." Ann said with emotionless expression. "This 'goodbye' is really fast."

Oliver took a deep breath and they took the seat furthest from the table. The waitress approached happily—a plump girl with a healthy wheatish color on her round arms, and a warm and friendly smile.

"What do you want?" Her voice was clear and pleasant, "If you want to use a teleportation array, just go directly to the backyard, you don't have to buy anything. By the way, we also provide horses It only takes one day to get to the nearest town—"

"I'll just have a glass of wine." Ann wiped the sweat from her neck, "It's better to have ice."

"Is pear wine ok?...Okay, what about these three gentlemen?"

"A glass of water, thank you." Adrian nodded. The girl raised her eyebrows at his monk's uniform, showing an understanding expression.

"I want a pear too... er, juice, thanks." Nemo thought for a moment.

"Same." Oliver was stunned for a few seconds, then added with a smile.

"Is there any news recently?" An placed a few more silver coins on the table.

The waitress smiled knowingly and wiped her hands with her apron. "What do you want to know? It's a remote place, you know, and we've got some boring little rumours—"

"Like missing. Have you heard of Merotti Delaney from Vincennes?"

"I haven't heard of it." The waitress shook her head, "In today's world... disappearances are not so uncommon, we are better here, there is no weird religion. A week ago, Roscoe disappeared all of a sudden. A dozen people - oops, it's scary."

"What about the other news? About Vincent Town, anything." Oliver shook his hands.

"Are you guys taking up the mission of Vincent Town?" The waitress glanced at their black badges, but she didn't show any fear. "Actually, I don't recommend going there now, the situation there is not very good." She said vaguely, "It's been a few months, they always have conflicts with those birds, who knows if it will be It's a naive fight. Recently, this kind of news has been going over and over again, and I don't think it has anything to do with your mission."

"Is there anything weird?" Nemo pulled out a book he hadn't seen before, God knows how long he hadn't sat down to read it - he even wanted to cry for a few seconds Eyebrows.

"Hey, this place—I mean this pub—has been attacked by monsters lately at night. It's annoying to have to fix doors and windows, though no one's hurt. We've lost a few chickens and trampled a lot of vegetables. Tried to catch it, but it didn't even touch a hair. If you can get rid of it, the drinks will be free in the future," she said half-jokingly.

"Only this?"

"Only this." The waitress gave Nemo a wink.

It doesn't seem to have anything to do with their mission. Nemo turned his attention back to the book, and quickly deflated—the cover had "Love Melody" squiggly printed on it, along with a few sunflowers that were out of shape. The title looks like a fairy tale, terribly old and not looking well-kept—the edges of the pages are creased and smudged. A bit far from the style of the pub. Some even look like... blood?

It's a book I haven't read. Nemo scanned the familiar titles of the other books and sighed inwardly.

He turned the pages with a sullen face, quite sure that the stains were blood. The inside of the book looks even worse than the outside. Stories are printed on one side, the blank side filled with scribbled symbols. There are also many handwritten marks on the side with the words, and the ink marks fill all the blank spaces. The printed handwriting takes a bit of work to distinguish.

Nemo, who used to work in the library, almost suffocated. Oliver, who was sitting next to him, played the ice shards for a while, and finally couldn't help being curious, and came over to watch together.

"Fairy tales." Nemo scanned two lines, then turned back a dozen pages. Every page is horribly devastated by that strange pile of symbols. "The usual routine, alas, lo and behold - 'The curse was lifted from the boy, and Merotti embraced him. They kissed passionately in the blessings of the people, and they lived happily ever after.' ...what a standard ending."

"Merotti." Oliver raised his eyebrows.

"…coincidentally, this name should be quite common. That—er, that lovely lady, this book is...?"

"Oh, that book. Dad picked it up in the woods." The waitress approached with a wooden tray. "We thought it would be a pity to throw it away, so we kept it—it still has sheet music in it, after all. It's been there for a few months, and a bard passed by last time, and it sounded pretty good."

Nimo frowned and turned the page again: "Can we buy it?"

"Nimo?!" Ann was the first to react.

"I haven't read this book, I'll take it as a relief on the road." Nemo flipped through it again, staring at the scribbled but still beautiful handwriting.

"There are several books over there! Do you want this book to look... like something swallowed and spit out?" Ann pointed to the small bookshelf next to her.

"I can even recite those books to you." Nemo replied bitterly. "Which page do you want to hear?"

"How much?" Oliver was straightforward.

"I'll send you." The waitress smiled heartily, showing her beautiful teeth. "I like good looking boys."

"...as you go." Ann said weakly, holding the handle of the glass and taking a gulp of pear wine down her throat. "Let's go after we've finished drinking, so that no weird stuff sticks up." She glanced in Jesse's direction.

However, it turns out that Nemo's choice was not very good - they were lucky to meet the suspect who attacked the tavern that night.

The bonfire had been lit at that time, and the four people were erecting tents on the edge of the woods, planning to rest. The annoying blond youth did not appear, but a deformed monster rushed out first.

It looks like a huge bird at first glance, but it doesn't look very much at close inspection - it is by no means a normal creature in its natural state. It was about two meters tall, and its bones were weirdly twisted, as if it had been melted and then randomly shaped, and then forcibly glued together. Blue-blue feathers grew in blocks on its skin, like the aftermath of some kind of skin disease. The exposed skin was a bit human-like, but the facial features were a bit like birds. The human flesh and blood were covered with alien skulls, which gave a sense of nondescript horror.

"Give it back to me." It said in a stumbling lingua franca, with a heavy accent and an unpleasant voice. "Give me back my sheet music."

(m..=)