Chapter 29 – 9. The Village Where Children Disappear (3)

9. The Village Where Children Disappear (3)

The child, no.
The children have disappeared.

The same words, but now their weight has completely changed.
The children who have disappeared so far are Hilda, Olga, Karl, Bok, and Venus. That’s five.

A whopping five.
In just over twelve days, five children have disappeared.

Without a trace, just vanished.

This was no longer a situation that could be dismissed and overlooked.
Naturally, as the atmosphere became chaotic, attention began to gather.

Some extreme parents were furious that action should have been taken long ago.
Parents who had lost their children raised their voices, regretting their late response and insisting that the situation needed to be rectified now.

With the situation escalating, the guards began to increase their numbers and put more effort into surveillance, even conducting spot checks on suspicious individuals.
Parents with children either posted requests to the guild, or those who found the situation unbearable roamed around looking for the children.

But no matter how many requests were made and how much the city was searched, not only were there no traces of the children, but there were also no traces of any crime.
It wasn’t an accident, nor a kidnapping. Then what the hell was it?

“…Demons, perhaps. Something like that.”

At a gathering of parents who had lost their children, Miel, the mother of Hilda, who was the first to disappear in the city, said this.
Demons.

Monsters that were no longer objects of fear due to the heroics of the hero and the saint.
Instead, they had become beings less than slaves, as if to settle their past deeds.

When the name came out of Miel’s mouth, the parents, who were sinking into gloom and losing their will, frowned deeply.
The reaction was from those who knew how belligerent and cruel these creatures were due to the war that had lasted for decades.

The first to react to her words was Mary, the mother of Olga.
She frowned so clearly that her discomfort was evident.

“Miel, I understand you’re upset, but I wish you wouldn’t say such dreadful things.”

“….”

The other parents, who had been quietly listening, didn’t say anything but looked at Miel with similar expressions.
Don’t talk nonsense; don’t even mention that. It gives us goosebumps just hearing it.

They knew well what Miel was going through, but there was one reason they didn’t mention it.
If demons really had something to do with this, the children were as good as dead.

The story that the demons took the children was not a joke; it meant they really took them to eat them.
It was a statement that there was not even a glimmer of hope.

That’s why they criticized Miel.
They silently blamed her for trying to trample on their hope.

Miel, biting her lip under their gaze, covered her face with both hands and defended herself.

“But it’s strange, isn’t it? We’ve searched so… so much, but there’s not even a trace….”

“They could have taken a boat.”

“That’s…!”

Miel almost raised her voice without realizing it, but she held back and continued speaking calmly.
She knew well that getting angry wouldn’t help, so she did her best to maintain her composure.

“Why can’t you understand… I looked for her first. I went to the harbor and begged for the list of ships that had docked and sailed. But… but there was nothing…! There was no ship that took a child.”

“She could have been taken secretly.”

But Mary contradicted Miel’s words again, forcing her argument. Miel, who had been running around for over ten days looking for the child, finally raised his voice.

“A kingdom’s privateer…? Taking a fellow citizen’s child? And a girl at that!?”

“Privateers kidnapping people is common! Am I wrong!?”

“That’s only applicable to enemy nations!”

Mary, who knew what privateers and those on board were like because her husband was a sailor, couldn’t bear Miel’s words and exploded in anger.

“They could make bad choices! Do you think those bastards are knights protecting chivalry!? They’re no different from pirates who claim to be privateers and act like pirates!!”

“So, are you saying my daughter became a victim on their ship!? Don’t say such horrible things!!”

“It’s better than dying!!”

As the voices continued to rise, a woman with black hair who had been sitting quietly cautiously raised her hand. She didn’t say a word, but the strange pressure she had ended the confrontation between the two in an instant.

There was an awkward silence for a while as the two who had been fighting stopped. In a situation where it was burdensome to start a conversation, it was Cecil, Karl’s mother, who broke the silence.

“…You’re Venus’s mother, right.”

“…Yes.”

The woman who threw the topic instead of the two was taken aback by the dry response. But she pretended not to be flustered and continued speaking.

“It seemed like you had something to say, didn’t you?”

“Ah… Rather than having such a meaningless argument, I thought it would be better to have a more constructive conversation considering the children….”

It was a harsh but correct statement, so the two who had been arguing loudly coughed and avoided each other’s gaze. Cecil, leaving the two behind, asked a question.

“That means… it sounds like you have a way, is it my misunderstanding?”

Cecil, who was looking at her with a small hope, couldn’t hide her disappointment at her shaking her head. But there was nothing wrong with her, so she was just a little disappointed then.

“I don’t know where the children are, but there’s a better way than running around aimlessly.”

“A way?”

“Find the place where the children disappeared last.”

It was such an obvious story that it was a bizarre story. The children disappeared without a trace, and they would find the last place they disappeared….

Feeling their gaze, the woman who brought up the story cautiously added.

“I’m not talking about finding exactly where the children disappeared.”

“It sounded exactly like that to me.”

At Mary’s gruff response, she shook her head.

“If you trace back where they went that day and who they met, wouldn’t you be able to find out where they disappeared? That’s what I mean.”

“Certainly….”

The seated parents nodded at the suggestion. It was a simple method, but in the shocking situation of a child’s disappearance, it was a solution they hadn’t been able to think of.

But then again…
Who should start, and from where?

As they were thinking and looking around, Miel, Hilda’s mother, who had been silent since their argument, cautiously opened her mouth.

“Can I… start with my daughter’s story first?”

The others, who had been watching each other, nodded, and with their affirmation, Miel began to tell Hilda’s story. It was about who she had gone out to play with that day and where they had played.

However, the incomplete story was filled in by the parents of Karl, Bok, and Venus, who had played with Hilda that day. They had decided to play hide and seek in front of the fountain in the city center, and it wasn’t until sunset that they realized Hilda was missing.

The problem was where she was last found.
And the answer to that problem was cautiously put forth by Venus’s parents.

“Ah, um… I’m not sure if I should say this, but… I think the last place I saw her was going into Old Lady Othel’s house.”

“At Othel’s house?”

“Yes… I live right next to Old Lady Othel, so when I do laundry, I can see who’s coming and going. After that…”

Although she trailed off, the implication was that Othel was the culprit.
However, everyone present knew what kind of person Othel was and shook their heads.

“No way. She’s such a good person. It’s a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding.”

“A person who has given birth to a hero wouldn’t do such a thing.”

She’s not the culprit, they said.
The conversation continued after that.

Where Olga had played, who she had played with, and where she was last found.
And again, Olga was last seen near Othel’s house.

“The kids she was playing with told me. She ate cookies at Old Lady Othel’s house…”

“No… Are you suspecting her now?”

“It’s not suspicion; it’s just saying that she was last seen disappearing at Old Lady Othel’s house.”

“That’s suspicion. Don’t you remember how good she’s been to us all this time?”

Just as another argument was about to start, Locke intervened among the parents who were discussing.

The adults were surprised to see the child suddenly intervene, but when they saw Locke’s parents standing behind him, they asked what was going on.
After a long pause, Locke cautiously opened his mouth.

“I, that day, I was playing with Karl, Bork, and Venus… We split up to look for Hilda, and Karl went to Old Lady Othel’s house and didn’t come back, so Bork and Venus went to look for him.”

But then…
None of the three came back….

At the mention of the name ‘Othel’ once again from the child’s mouth, everyone seated could only close their mouths.
Even though they thought it couldn’t be, the name ‘Othel’ was clearly engraved in their minds.