Chapter 7: Naroka

After leaving the Old Tavern, Lu Mian stood on the rammed earth road, hesitating about where to go.

The morning sun was falling, carrying a bit of chill.

Just then, Raymond Craig came over from the side:

"I was just about to look for you."

"Is there something?" Lu Mian returned to normal and asked deliberately.

Raymond looked surprised:

"Did you forget? We were going to find old people who are about the same age as my grandfather and are still alive today to ask about the wizard legend."

Lu Mian raised his hand to press his head, looking painful:

"Is that so? How come I don't remember, or did you have a hallucination?"

Raymond was both surprised and scared, about to recall the details to confirm whether what happened yesterday was his own fantasy, when he suddenly saw a smile on Lu Mian's face.

"You bastard, you're pranking again!" Raymond couldn't help but curse.

"That curse has no force at all." Lu Mian sighed with emotion, "Ava can curse better than you."

Ava Liziye is a beautiful girl in Cordu village, now a "goose girl".

Her father, Guillaume Liziye, is a shoemaker who is good at using leather provided by shepherds to make leather shoes and is quite famous in several surrounding villages.

"Ava..." Raymond's expression changed.

He then looked at Lu Mian:

"Ava is our friend, right?"

"Yes." Lu Mian nodded with a smile.

The two of them, plus Guillaume from the Berry family and Ava's cousin Azema Liziye, are young people who often play together.

"Why not let Ava also participate in our investigation of the truth of the legend?" Raymond suggested, "You know, her father always says 'why must women be given a portion of property when they marry? Many good families have fallen because of this.' This makes her very uneasy. If she could obtain some treasures or rewards in the investigation, she should be able to rest assured."

"I've heard similar words from the male heads of several families in the village, including the priest. They wish their brothers would stay at home forever, even if they marry, they wouldn't go out to establish a family separately, as that would require dividing the property they deserve." Lu Mian looked at Raymond with a smile and said casually, "So many families tend to let one of the children be a shepherd. That way, he basically won't marry and has a certain income, and can support himself most of the time."

Raymond's face gradually turned gloomy.

He really hadn't thought about this problem.

This is also the reason why he likes to hang out with Lu Mian. Although most people in the village say this guy has a bad character and likes to lie and prank, his knowledge really exceeds all his peers. Unlike himself, who doesn't know much and spends his days muddled, only able to listen to the family's arrangements.

Good to know... Lu Mian muttered to himself and pulled the topic back on track:

"It's too late now. We have to hurry to ask people. We'll find Ava tomorrow. Hmm, later we can also let Little Guillaume and Azema join. Besides possibly bringing gains, this is also an interesting activity that can exercise our abilities."

"Let Little Guillaume and Azema join too?" Raymond was a bit reluctant.

The more people who share the reward, the less he gets.

And most importantly, that way, he wouldn't find an opportunity to please Ava.

Lu Mian looked at this guy, his gaze carrying a bit of kindness and pity:

Silly kid, do you think Ava can look up to you? Her eyebrows are high; she only wants to marry into a good family. She clearly has a certain good impression of me, the "bad guy," and can control herself...

In the slang of the Daliezh region, "eyebrows are high" means having high standards and not looking up to ordinary people.

"My sister said that many hands make light work." Lu Mian explained simply, "Which old people need to be visited?"

"You didn't investigate?" Raymond asked in surprise.

After that card incident, I didn't have the energy to ask... Lu Mian laughed:

"Of course I investigated. Now I want to test your ability to collect intelligence."

Raymond didn't suspect:

"There are nine old people in the village who are about the same age as my grandfather, or older, respectively..."

Six women, three men. Women are indeed longer-lived... Lu Mian listened quietly and thought for a while:

"The last two don't need to be visited. They are from other villages and married here.

"Uh... let's find Naroka to ask first. She is the oldest, and she was likely already an adult when the wizard incident happened."

Naroka's real name isn't this; this is an honorific for her.

In the Leiston province, married women with prominent family backgrounds or who are the actual heads of the family have the right to obtain the title "Lady". Specifically, it is adding an "a" to the end of the name to indicate female, while also crowning it with "Na" in front of the name, which means "Lady" or "Mistress".

Naroka's husband died early, and she took on the entire family. Even after her two sons became adults, married, and had children, and she herself became old, she still held the financial power of the home.

This phenomenon is quite rare in Cordu village. In the vast majority of cases, men are dominant. In families without a father, once the child becomes an adult, they naturally take back the power to manage the entire home from their mother.

"Okay." Raymond had no questions.

After bypassing a few buildings, Lu Mian saw four old women sitting in front of a two-story house, chatting casually while sunning themselves.

At the same time, sitting very close to each other, they were also picking lice off each other, which seemed quite leisurely.

—In the countryside of the Intis Republic, picking lice for each other is an entertainment activity that brings relationships closer and shows intimacy.

"Ask now?" Raymond hesitated.

He was afraid that their investigation into the truth of the legend would spread.

"Wait a bit longer." Lu Mian nodded heavily.

According to his observation, many rumors in the village were generated and spread layer by layer through such gatherings.

After a long while, the other three old women left one after another because they still had work to do at home.

"Good morning, Naroka." Lu Mian walked over immediately.

Naroka was already white-haired, her eyes slightly turbid. She wore a dark dress made of coarse cloth, her hands seemed to be covered with a layer of chicken skin, and her face had obvious patches.

"When will Aurora come out to gather? Many people in the village are thinking of her." Naroka looked at Lu Mian and asked with a smile.

Many men, right? Lu Mian entered the state of "you say yours, I say mine" and asked with a curious face:

"Naroka, I heard you've seen a real wizard? The one whose coffin nine cows couldn't pull."

Naroka's expression changed slightly:

"Who told you?"

"His grandfather came back at night to tell him." Lu Mian started to talk nonsense.

Naroka was stunned:

"Can souls really come home..."

"My dad told me; grandfather told me when he was alive." Raymond couldn't stand Lu Mian lying to the elderly.

Naroka was actually a bit lost, and after a long while, she said:

"Before that person died, none of us knew he was a wizard. He behaved very normally."

Just like you don't know Aurora is a wizard... Lu Mian replied in his heart.

"Until he died suddenly, and that owl flew over..." Naroka fell into memories.

What she said later was basically the same as the legend.

Lu Mian continued:

"Where did that wizard live at that time?"

Naroka looked at him:

"It's the place where you and Aurora live now.

"After that wizard was buried, the priest at the time took some people to take away the valuable things and burned down that building. For twenty or thirty years, no one dared to approach that place. Later, this matter was gradually forgotten. And later, Aurora came, bought that piece of land, and rebuilt the house."

It's our house? Lu Mian was shocked.

This answer was completely beyond his expectation!

In a flash, he thought of some problems he usually ignored:

With Aurora's ability to make money, with her hidden extraordinary ability, why did she choose to settle in Cordu village, such a countryside place?

Whether it was the provincial capital Bigor, the textile center Suchit, or the capital Trier, they were all better choices. Even if she wanted to pick a place with good environment and good air, those big cities had certain areas available.

Aurora once said that the best hiding is to hide in a big city... Lu Mian's thoughts rolled, hard to calm down.

He only knew today that the piece of land Aurora chose, the piece of land where she built the house, once belonged to a wizard...

"Where was that wizard buried?" Raymond, who was on the side, couldn't help but ask.

There was no hope for the property in the house; he could only see if the wizard's remains had anything special.

Naroka laughed and said:

"Such a big thing would definitely alarm the priest.

"At that time, everyone used nine cows to pull the coffin to the cemetery next to the church, where the priest held a ceremony, performed a purification, and finally burned the body into ashes and dug a hole to bury it."

"I see..." Raymond was disappointed.

"What do you want to do asking these?" Naroka sized up his expression for a while and asked.

Lu Mian laughed and said the truth that sounded more like a lie:

"Want to find the wizard's treasure."

"Young people shouldn't always fantasize." Naroka warned.

"Okay." Lu Mian performed very obediently.

He and Raymond said goodbye to Naroka and walked onto the road leading to the village square.

"No hope, Lu Mian, there's no hope for this matter." After bypassing a building, Raymond opened his mouth in frustration.

"Indeed, everything that should be burned has been burned, and everything that should be taken away has been taken away for decades." Lu Mian nodded.

Because a turning point appeared in the dream matter, he was relatively not so disappointed.

Raymond agreed:

"Yeah, in the whole legend, only that owl hasn't been destroyed."

"Owl..." Lu Mian's eyes lit up, and he cast his gaze toward the mountains and forests outside the village.

Raymond shivered and hurriedly added:

"But so many years have passed, it must have died long ago."

He was very afraid of coming into contact with evil creatures like owls.

In the south of Intis, owls, nightingales, and crows are all considered inauspicious, evil creatures that serve the devil, often taking away human souls or bringing bad luck.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 8 =====

(End of chapter)