The coachman lowered his voice as he began to recount the story.
“A while ago... maybe a year or two back, there was indeed a careless fellow who went there. I heard that idiot wanted to take a shortcut, to save some money on the way to the islands. But he only stayed overnight in Heglais Town, and when he came back, he was completely mad...”
“Mad?” Luo Wei frowned.
“Yes, mad!” the coachman immediately replied. “I heard he ran around all night, disheveled and screaming at the top of his lungs. Eventually, people from the neighboring town found him. When they did, he was shouting, ‘Fish!’, ‘It’s all fish!’, and other nonsensical things. He couldn’t communicate properly anymore, completely insane. They sent him to several mental hospitals, but none could cure him...”
“Fish...” Luo Wei pondered the word, confused. What was so terrifying about fish?
“What else?” he asked again.
The coachman continued, “There was another incident not long ago. I heard a merchant who dealt in seafood somehow got wind that the town used to have a thriving fishing industry. He thought there might still be a fortune to be made there, since the place had been abandoned, but fish don’t just up and leave. So he took a group of people there to investigate, but none of them came back. It’s said they all died there...”
Luo Wei thought to himself, “The place has supposedly been abandoned for ten years, but from what you’re saying, it seems like people have been living there all along. Otherwise, how could anyone stay the night?”
“People living there?” The coachman gave a strange smile. “Do you really think it’s people living there?”
Seeing Luo Wei fall silent, the coachman added, “That place must be cursed by the gods, a pitiful land no longer touched by the light of the true deities. It’s said that when the city hall of Brugge went to suppress the town ten years ago, the townsfolk were all fearless lunatics. If there are still people there now, they must be something far more terrifying than madmen or monsters...”
When the coachman mentioned Brugge’s city hall, Luo Wei looked suspicious. “Didn’t the city hall do anything about it afterward? It’s their jurisdiction, after all, and such a thing happened...”
The coachman shook his head. “I don’t know about that...”
Luo Wei’s frown deepened. The whole situation was bizarre, and the more he heard, the more questions arose.
Even so, Luo Wei had no choice but to go. For one, it was a system task, and for another... Tilis already knew he had returned. Ignoring it would only lead to unforeseen trouble in the future. Luo Wei was no longer the person he was when he first arrived in this world, filled with resistance. Instead of avoiding the problem, he decided to take the initiative and face it head-on, resolving the issues left over from his first playthrough.
Now, Luo Wei had regained some of his strength and had “them” by his side, which gave him a bit of confidence and courage even when facing the powerful witch.
Luo Wei looked at the coachman and smiled as he proposed, “Heglais Town, three one-way tickets, five times the fare. Will you go?”
“I told you it’s not about the money!” the coachman shook his head repeatedly, refusing to go.
“Ten times the fare.”
“Deal.”
...
By the time Luo Wei returned to the inn, it was already dark.
Opening the window in his room, a fresh breeze tinged with the salty scent of the sea greeted him.
The night view of Brugge wasn’t as grand as Saint Callen’s, but the flickering lights dotting the sea as the waves gently lapped against the pier had a unique charm.
Helena was already fast asleep on the bed. Luo Wei sat by her side and gently touched her forehead.
It felt slightly warm, and her cheeks were flushed. It seemed she wasn’t just carsick but also suffering from a bit of travel fatigue.
Luo Wei and Evelyn had enjoyed the seafood feast at noon, but Helena, perhaps out of habit from her childhood of not wasting food, had cleaned her plate. Luo Wei hadn’t realized she might not actually enjoy such food.
“Tomorrow, we’ll have something lighter...” Luo Wei muttered to himself as Helena, half-asleep, murmured softly.
“Mmm... brother...”
She shifted uneasily, her lips pursed, and her arms and legs instinctively wrapped around Luo Wei, who was sitting by the bed.
Looking at Helena, who clung to him like a koala, Luo Wei smiled helplessly and tried to tuck her in.
But just as he was about to stand up, several slippery black tendrils wrapped around him, clinging tightly and refusing to let him move an inch.
Although Luo Wei had grown somewhat accustomed to her tendrils by now, the sensation of them slipping under his clothes and touching his skin still felt... strange.
“Uh... Helena?”
“Brother, don’t go. Just stay a little longer...”
Luo Wei gently pinched the tendril wrapped around his waist, trying to loosen it a bit.
But the tendrils only tightened further, six of them now coiling around him, almost as if they wanted to envelop him completely.
Luo Wei sighed and looked at Helena, who was fast asleep. No longer mumbling, she now wore a content and satisfied expression, as if this closeness brought her peace.
Luo Wei had no choice but to quietly lean back on the bed and stay with her. The sea breeze gently brushed past, and after a long day, he too began to feel drowsy.
Just as he was about to fall asleep, a noise came from the room.
Luo Wei opened his eyes to see Evelyn staring at him and Helena with a look of utter disbelief.
“You two...”
Her eyes were fixed on the tendrils wrapped around Luo Wei and his seemingly content expression. For a moment, she was at a loss for words, her mouth half-open as she stared in shock.
“Ew... gross...”
She gave Luo Wei a look that was hard to describe, then clicked her tongue.
“So this is what you’re into... how perverted...”
“Wait, let me explain...” Luo Wei felt wronged. Why was she looking at him like that, as if he were some kind of freak? It wasn’t like he had asked for this!
“It’s fine. I’ve heard that all men have some twisted desires deep down. And you? Well, there’s no doubt yours are even more twisted. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone your secret.”
“Me? Twisted? I’m perfectly normal!!”
Luo Wei stared at Evelyn, who was holding a variety of shopping bags, and wondered what kind of image he had in her mind.
Evelyn gave him a look that clearly said she didn’t believe him. “If you weren’t twisted, why would you be surrounded by people like us? Wasn’t your desk mate pretty? Weren’t there any attractive girls in our class? Didn’t the girl from the next class send you a love letter? Why did you ignore them all?”
Luo Wei looked at her, baffled.
Then he suddenly realized that what she said made a bit of sense.
“Well, that’s true...”
“Wait, no!” Luo Wei felt like he was being led astray. “It’s not like I went out of my way to get involved with you guys! If I just dated some random girl, it’s not like you’d be the one ending up dead in a ditch!!”
Evelyn covered her mouth, laughing.
“Brother...”
The noise in the room finally woke Helena, and the black tendrils slowly retracted.
Luo Wei breathed a sigh of relief and shot Evelyn an annoyed look.
“You were supposed to gather information for me! But you came back so late, and with all this stuff! Were you just having fun the whole time?”
Evelyn placed her day’s “spoils” on the table and then shot Luo Wei a dissatisfied glance, huffing.
“Who said I was just having fun? I didn’t just go shopping! I bought these along the way. The reason I came back so late...”
She went to close the windows and doors, then lowered her voice. “I went to see people from other families. Brugge has some old vampire friends of mine.”
Luo Wei remembered the sunny, almost scorching weather from earlier and asked, puzzled, “There are vampires here? Didn’t you say sunlight is bad for blood magic? Shouldn’t they hate this place?”
Evelyn rolled her eyes. “You dummy! They just don’t come out during the day!”
Luo Wei nodded. “Oh, right.”
However, being unable to go out for half the day still imposes too many restrictions. In his imagination, Brugge was indeed not the kind of city where a large family should be stationed.
In fact, vampires are mostly active in Saint Callen and some northern regions.
"Their family is the type that frequently interacts with humans and excels in business," Evelyn casually explained, then added, "But that's not important. Let me first tell you about the intelligence I've gathered regarding that witch of yours."
Luo Wei's expression immediately turned serious as he listened intently.
Evelyn spoke slowly, "What you and I discussed about her is already in the past. Now, she's practically one of the top leaders within the Magic Hermitage, essentially a cult leader! Do you know the current bounty on the Church's wanted list? The Magic Hermitage as a whole ranks first, and she alone ranks second!"
Luo Wei was shocked. "To be placed so high on the Church's wanted list... what exactly has she done over these four years?"
Evelyn looked at Luo Wei with a bitter smile. "None of your old flames are ever ordinary, are they?"
"To the Church and the hunters, Tilis is known as the 'Calamity Witch'..."
"It's said that wherever she goes, death, terror, and disaster follow..."