Chapter 464: Anomaly
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 464: Anomaly
The uncle swayed and stumbled, his dancing clumsy and unsightly, yet a smile of genuine happiness radiated from his face.
No one mocked him. Everyone was completely immersed in the festival atmosphere, singing and dancing with abandon. It was as if they all hoped to make the celebration even more boisterous, hoping to draw the pitying gaze of the Goddess.
"No fire allowed... Is it some kind of custom?"
Muen rubbed his chin, recalling the Cold Food Festival from his previous life.
That, too, was an early spring festival where lighting fires was forbidden. Though the two festivals existed in different worlds, they shared a coincidental similarity.
Muen naturally chose to respect the local custom. Besides, even without a bonfire, dancing under the night sky seemed like a romantic endeavor.
"So..."
Muen leaned over with a smile and extended his hand to Anna.
"My beautiful lady, may I have this dance?"
"I’m no noble lady; I don’t know any fancy footwork," Anna replied, her smile bright and her eyes playful, offering a classic display of feigned reluctance.
"It doesn't matter."
Muen took a step forward and proactively took her small hand.
"A beauty like you, Senior Sister, would be the most dazzling presence in the crowd even if you were just hopping in place. Why worry about footwork? Just move however you like."
"Oh, Junior, I wonder how many innocent young girls that mouth of yours has deceived."
Anna feigned distress, but her steps were already moving in sync with Muen’s.
Muen held her slender waist and grasped her soft hand, guiding her unfamiliar steps until they became fluid.
The ethereal sound of a harp drifted from an unknown source, providing an accompaniment to their movements. It lent an air of elegance and grace to what was originally a spontaneous dance.
Even the reveling townspeople were drawn to their performance. They couldn't help but gather around, clapping and cheering for the moving display between the handsome man and the enchanting woman.
Some of the bolder residents even joined the rhythm. Mimicking the pair, they pulled their companions close and performed clumsy, mismatched versions of noble ballroom dances.
One dance ended, and another began.
The night grew deeper, and the hazy starlight bathed the earth.
"Phew..."
After a vigorous bout of dancing, their steps finally came to a halt. Muen let out a soft breath.
While it wasn't exactly strenuous exercise for him, it was enough to warm his body. He noticed a few beads of sweat, glistening like dew, on his Senior Sister’s forehead.
"Well danced! Well danced!"
The stout Town Mayor Auntie appeared out of nowhere, clapping excitedly for the two of them. She then held out a small tray toward them.
"You must be hungry. Have something to eat! This is food specially prepared for the festival. It’s delicious!"
"Thank you."
Muen took the tray, his eyes landing on the fragrant piece of meat in the center of the porcelain plate. He couldn't help but swallow.
Perhaps because he had just danced his heart out, he was indeed quite hungry.
Muen reached out, slowly moving to take the meat.
Conditions in the countryside were simple, and it was impossible for them to provide Muen with silver utensils. He wasn't the type to be fastidious about such things, so he didn't mind using his hands.
But the moment Muen’s fingers touched the meat—the instant he felt that cold, slimy texture—his brow furrowed, and his movements stiffened.
Something... felt wrong.
Muen looked up, scanning his surroundings again while his mind instinctively began to race.
Since the Spring Festival forbids open flames, it’s normal that the specially built bonfire stack isn't lit, right?
Since the Spring Festival forbids open flames, it’s normal that we’ve been dancing late into the night in near-total darkness, save for the dim starlight, right?
Since the Spring Festival forbids open flames, it’s normal that this piece of meat in my hand... is raw, right?
Everything was normal.
Was there anything wrong?
"I suppose I’m being too cautious again, just like before."
Muen shook his head and gave a self-deprecating laugh.
He resumed his movement, intending to fill his stomach first...
"No!"
Muen’s pupils shrank. He abruptly dropped the raw meat—a piece of flesh so slimy and greasy it was nauseating, something he would normally never touch given his upbringing.
...He felt something was wrong, yet upon careful thought, nothing seemed anomalous... That was the greatest anomaly of all!
This was different from before. This wasn't over-caution; it was his intuition... screaming a warning!
Muen took a deep breath, focusing his consciousness.
He closed his eyes and snapped them open. In that instant, deep within his blue pupils, pitch-black flames seemed to surge, forming a massive, majestic Pitch-black Sun!
The moment the black flames ignited in the depths of his spirit, Muen’s body shuddered violently. A chill surged straight to his brain.
What did I mean, "no anomalies"?
From the moment he had asked why the bonfire wasn't lit, this entire festival had been nothing but a series of bizarre occurrences!
If open flames were forbidden, why build a bonfire stack at all?
If open flames were forbidden, why wasn't the festival held during the day? Why continue into the dead of night where there was no light for illumination?
If open flames were forbidden, why hadn't they prepared preserved foods in advance? Why were they making their guests eat raw meat?
And of course, the strangest thing of all: with so many glaring anomalies, why had he felt everything was perfectly normal until he invoked the Black Flame?
A massive wave of dread washed over Muen. He jerked his head toward his Senior Sister, only to find that Anna had fallen into deep thought even a step ahead of him.
"It’s the sound of the harp."
Endless, deathly darkness seemed to brew within Anna’s shifting shadow. Raspy whispers, incomprehensible to ordinary people, leaked out from that gloom.
"The harp music influenced our thinking, preventing us from noticing the anomalies."
"The harp?"
Muen extended his perception, trying to locate the source of the music.
But now, the music had stopped.
It was exceptionally quiet.
So quiet that only the somewhat noisy chirping of insects remained.
The cheers, songs, and applause of the townspeople had vanished. The once-boisterous festival had transformed into a silent funeral.
Muen was struck with horror. He turned to look around, only to realize that the townspeople had surrounded him and Anna at some point.
Their faces no longer held joy or passion, only a deathly gloom. They stared fixedly at Muen and Anna with fierce eyes, speaking in eerie, low tones:
"Eat. Why aren't you eating?"
"It’s delicious. It’s really delicious."
"Hurry and eat. Once you eat... once you eat... the will be happy."
The crowd swayed, gradually closing in. Countless faces pressed together, all wearing the same expression, using the same tone, and speaking nearly identical words:
"Eat. Hurry and eat!"
At some point, they had taken up "weapons"—farming tools or sharpened kitchen knives. It seemed that if Muen and Anna didn't consume that raw meat today, they would become the "raw meat" themselves.
Muen’s hand instinctively moved to his sword hilt, but he hesitated to draw.
"They’re just ordinary people," Anna said, her sharp gaze sweeping over them. "They’re just being controlled by some means."
"Can you break the control?" Muen asked.
"No," Anna replied after a brief attempt to sense the situation. "I can't even sense mana. I don't even know what method of control the enemy is using. I can't break it yet."
"Then what do we do? We can't actually attack these civilians."
Muen’s expression was grim.
He didn't know who the enemy was, what their goal was, or even what methods they were using.
The only thing he knew for sure was that the townspeople before him were truly just innocent, pitiable people.
There was no mana in them, nor any other strange aura. They were still wearing their simple, mud-stained clothes, having just returned from a hard day’s labor in the fields.
But it was precisely this "normality" that made the "anomaly" so apparent to Muen now.
"For now, we need to get away from them without causing harm. For such a major anomaly to occur in this town, the observers from the Silence Bureau stationed here couldn't have noticed nothing."
Anna retracted the darkness into her shadow and pulled out her usual long whip.
"We break through, then regroup with Jin Ze. He should have gathered some intelligence by now."
"Understood. I’m quite good at making an escape."
Muen nodded. He let go of his sword hilt and clenched his fist. Extending his arm, he threw a light punch toward the encroaching crowd.
With his powerful yet precise physical control, Muen forcibly restrained his explosive power, releasing a soft, wave-like hidden force instead.
The inner circle of people closest to Muen was immediately pushed back, tumbling over one another.
However, Muen’s expression remained heavy. He didn't relax for a second.
With his speed, escaping these ordinary people wouldn't be difficult. The hard part was doing it without hurting them.
"There are too many of them."
Anna looked at the hundreds of people packed tightly around them.
"This won't work. Grab onto me; I’ll use a Levitation Spell to take us out."
"Right."
Muen nodded, agreeing that flying was much more reliable than relying on speed.
But before Muen could move, the crowd seemed to sense their intention to leave and suddenly became agitated.
"Eat! Eat it for me!"
In the chaos, the drunken uncle Muen had questioned earlier squeezed out from the mass of people. He brandished a hoe and lunged unsteadily at Muen.
Such a slow and powerless attack naturally couldn't touch Muen.
Muen frowned slightly. He grabbed Anna’s slender waist as she began to ascend and sidestepped, easily dodging the blow.
But the drunkard’s movements were even stranger than Muen had imagined. It was as if his limbs were uncoordinated; he tripped over nothing and fell flat on his face.
The hoe flew out of his hands and into the air.
His head slammed heavily against a stone on the ground.
In an instant, like a shattered watermelon, his skull split open.
Zzzzt—
A sharp, clear, and noisy insect chirp rang out.
Within the flowing contents of his head, finger-sized black insects crawled and squirmed along the cracks in the skull and the torn flesh.
There were so many of them it was horrifying. They seemed to have used the man’s head as a nest until this sudden accident disturbed them.
Muen could see sharp mouthparts extending from the front of the insects, joyfully sucking as if they were blood-sucking mosquitoes.
"Eat... hurry and eat..."
The man was actually still alive. He stood up unsteadily. As the insects sucked, his two eyeballs rolled irregularly in different directions. His limbs and body twitched and spasmed like a freshly killed frog.
"This is..."
At that moment, Muen finally realized the anomaly he should have noticed first.
—In early spring, where would such loud and clear insect chirps come from?
And... the chirping he had been hearing all along—where exactly had it been coming from?