Chapter 401

401 Moths and Garlands

Selma Payne’s POV:

Looking down from the cliff, I could see the vast ocean. It was said that the other side of the sea corresponded to a human country. Someone had once drifted here by accident but only regarded everything as a beautiful dream. After leaving, he never came back.

“Like all the old stories, the female elf who fell in love with a human did not manage to wait for the return of her lover. She was so heartbroken that she jumped into the sea on a dark rainy night with her swaddling child. The female elf suddenly regretted it before she died. She felt that she should not have dragged her child to death with her, so she pleaded with the Goddess of Nature at her last breath. The goddess then saved her child and raised him.”

Claire told me about the local legend.

“It’s a pity that this boy, like his father, grew up to be a heartless man. He deceived a young witch and then abandoned her. The furious witch sacrificed herself to a demon to seek revenge on her cruel lover. The boy was so scared that he turned into a moth under the demon’s temptation and hid in the goddess’ dressing box.”

“The demon pretended to ask for a boy from the goddess on behalf of the witch, and the goddess was undoubtedly unwilling to hand over the child she had raised. So the witch cried to the goddess about her experience. The goddess knew she was in the wrong and was in a dilemma, so she had to turn a blind eye to the matter and not help either side. The boy who had turned into a moth was dressed as a decoration on the goddess’ garland, but he did not know that a moth only had nine days to live. When he felt that his life was ending, he tried to turn back into a human in fear, but he was too late. The angry witch found him, grabbed her lover’s stiff insect body, and swallowed it. ”

“As it happened, the boy was hungry while pretending to be a decoration on the garland, so he secretly ate a few leaves on the garland. Those leaves were the first leaves that the mother tree grew in spring, symbolizing pregnancy and new life. As a result, the witch who ate her lover became pregnant. Since she had sold her soul to the demon, her descendants served the demon for generations.”

After the storytelling, we were all very emotional. But of course, we didn’t just listen to it for fun. There was a very important piece of information in this legend – the garland of the Goddess of Nature.

“It’s said that because of this, the goddess threw away the garland to avoid thinking of people. A mayor of the northern border picked up this garland, and it became the most honorable family heirloom of that family. It’s said that the chewed leaf is still full of vitality as if it had just been picked from a tender branch.”

That was right. After a comparative selection, the barren background didn’t have any treasures worth targeting compared to the wealthy area. Only this garland, whether it was the leaf or the legend related to the goddess and the demon, made it a target of plunder for the cultists.

In fact, there were many things related to the divine in the northern territory. Most were not very precious, such as the nitraria fruit everywhere. However, these things were everywhere in the mountains and plains. We couldn’t guard against them even if we wanted to. Moreover, if the cultists’ target were these things, they wouldn’t be a threat to the city, so the urgency wasn’t that high.

The more remote and backward a place was, the more closed it would be. The northern border was such a case. Garland City – yeap, that was what it was really called – the mayor refused to let us see the legendary garland.

“Only the previous mayor, his wife, and his children can see it,” the mayor of Garland City said seriously. “This has been a rule since ancient times. I’m sorry, but I can’t break it for you.”

“We understand your difficulties, but the situation is urgent. Your family heirloom is in danger of being stolen. I beg you to let us see it to protect its safety and the entire Garland City. I swear to god that we have no ill intentions. We want to evaluate its value and see if the cultists are eyeing it covetously.”

However, no matter what we said, the mayor of Garland City wouldn’t agree. Compared to the missing wanderers, it seemed we were the thieves with bad intentions to him.

If we had enough manpower, I could leave a team behind to protect Garland City. However, our manpower, including the werewolves and elves, was only enough to protect one city. There were so many city-states at the northern border that had the ultimate goal. Were we going to give up everything else for a rumor?

It was getting late, so we could only rest in Garland City for the night.

Dorothy contacted me this morning to tell me that she had temporarily obtained the right to communicate with nature from the Elf King. However, she was severely exhausted, and even with the secret efforts of various parties, she would need at least three days to recover. Therefore, in the three days that we still couldn’t find any traces of the cultists, we still had to be on high alert and constantly guard against the possible arrival of danger.

After finishing the night watch, I stretched my tired shoulders and prepared for bed. A gold-threaded tapestry on the wall caught my attention, shining in the light.