As we approached the square, the sun had started to set and it was slowly beginning to get dark.
“But Furutsu, the sky and the sun are...” Grida said.
Yeah. They’re fake. Everything in this village is fake, and it creeps me out. Surrounding the scaffold were oddly designed lights hanging on trees.
“I’ll gather everyone, so please wait here,” Okhar said. He left us behind and approached the villagers who were working at the square.
“It has been a long time since anyone came from that door,” Noix said. “It’s a first for many of our villagers to meet guests from beyond. I’m sure everyone will be very happy!” Her children were fooling around nearby.
It’s a very peaceful sight, but who is this Gaokerena that seems to control this village?
“I apologize for the wait. Over here!” Okhar called.
Fresa, Datil, and Gruszka lined up in front of the scaffold in the square. Villagers crowded toward them with warm smiles.
“It seems there aren’t many young people, oddly enough,” Datil said to Fresa.
“Yeah. If the story about the octuplets was true, there should be more than this.”
Okhar laughed behind us. “But of course! Children are usually chosen as the sacrifices.” He smiled.
That’s not funny at all! What do you mean?!
“Pardon me, did I just mishear you? You use, uh, children for your sacrifice?” Gruszka asked in shock.
“Indeed! The Great Gaokerena chooses twenty children and five adults every year!” Okhar replied happily.
Wait, it’s not just a single person?!
“Whaaat?! There’s twenty-five sacrifices each year in a village of like one hundred people?!” Fresa said.
“That doesn’t add up. The whole village should be gone by now,” Datil said. He and Fresa were visibly confused.
“Not at all!” Okhar replied matter-of-factly. “In Rhuvae Village, around thirty children are born each year! This is all by the wishes of the Great Gaokerena!”
How does that make any sort of sense? They lose almost as many kids as they have every year!
“Now, please don’t hold back. Today’s the festival.”
A village woman brought out food. She seemed very peaceful and happy, even though she might be chosen as a sacrifice only moments later.
Fresa and Datil were whispering to each other. “Datil...this village and its people are giving me the creeps!”
“I agree. They don’t seem normal at all.”
Thirded. They’re all very abnormal—why are they all happy to be sacrificed? The birth rate is abnormal too... Oh. I think I get what’s going on.
“You do, Furutsu?” Grida asked.
Gaokerena must be doing something that keeps the birth rate above the sacrifice rate.
“Huh? Is that even possible?!”
Who knows? I truly don’t have a clue—but consider this, for instance.
“The food?”
The villagers had prepared a lot of luxurious food for Fresa and the others. If there was something mixed in with their daily food and drinks... Grida, you felt something was off, didn’t you? The water and plants here are all unnatural. It feels very creepy, as though all these things were manufactured.
“Yeah, I really don’t like it.”
If everything in this village is prepared by Gaokerena, they could do anything they want. It’s just like how humans provide livestock with altered feed or certain drugs.
“It has been confirmed that poisonous items have been aimed toward the user. A lightning counterattack will be fired.”
The villagers started to panic at the sound of a large crack. A lightning bolt had struck a bowl of soup that Fresa had reached for. Wait, was that...?!
“Fresa-san!” Datil said.
“Mmhmm. That was a counterattack from Perkunas’s Mantle.”
Sounds like there was something awful mixed in with the food, and it was bad enough that even the mantle reacted since it thought Fresa was gonna get hurt. Yeah, this is bad. This village is really bad.
“My word! What happened?! The bowl is...” one of the villagers said, looking at the burnt ground and the bowl that was shattered to tiny pieces.
“The lightning was small and it happened in a flash, so it looks like no one noticed, I think?” Fresa said.
“If your mantle fired a counterattack, that means...” Datil muttered.