Chapter 297 A Conspiracy?

A village by the name of Chesterville. It was close to Blood Spear Academy, just two days away. Arthur, Liz and Lucas left the school during the early hours of the morning, excited to complete their first quest together.

"Arthur, what do you think is behind the missing people's reports?" Liz asked.

"Don't know, but I bet nothing good, and I hope nothing too strong." Arthur said.

Lucas was beside them, and said, "I agree with you on that one. I don't wish to die so young."

They chatted along the way with nothing unusual happening, and without them realizing it, they reached the small village of Chesterville.

? If Arthur would guess, the village had at maximum 200 villagers. The first villager they came across was the guard, who was waiting at the village's gate, making sure no one strange went inside.

He did not do that before, but with the missing people, they were trying their best to avoid that of happening again.

"Who are you?" The guard said when he saw Arthur approaching.

It was a dumb question, as anyone could see the school token on their uniform, and when the guard realized that, he instantly became more humble and aware of the three youths in front of him.

"We are from the Blood Spear Academy. I heard there are a few missing people around this area?"

"You are here to help us solve that? Thank you, thank you."

The guard had tears streaming down his face, and he even kneeled in front of Arthur. That reaction was a bit too much, but Arthur quickly realized what had happened.

"Don't worry, we will find the person you lost. Come, show us the village."

While they were walking around the village, Liz tackled Arthur with her elbow and asked, "how did you know he lost someone?"

'ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ NovelB(i)n. ᴄᴏᴍ',

She was hoping Arthur would give her a decent explanation, as she truly wanted to learn, but what Arthur answered gave nothing, but it was still something he would say.

"Because I am just too good. Young, handsome, and strong."

Liz could only roll her eyes at that and did not ask further questions. The guard showed all the houses, farms and the locations where the people went missing.

No one knew the exact time, but all the people who went missing disappeared during night-time, and that was only to be expected. Now what Arthur needed to know was who or what was behind these attacks.

The first thing to do was ask these villagers more questions, and for that, Arthur, Lucas and Liz parted ways, each one of them exploring a distinct part of the village.

Arthur was with the guard, and he asked, "can you tell me more about it? Any information might help us find the culprit."

He looked reluctant at first, probably because an important person of him went missing.

"The last person to go missing was my sister. It happened three days ago. She went outside to get a bucket of water from our well, and never came back. We all formed a searching group, just like what we did with the others, but we found nothing..."

"I understand. Thank you for your help. We will find your sister and the others!" Arthur said.

That little piece of information would help him a lot. Now Arthur knew who the last missing person was, the day it went missing, and also the location.

No one in the village found tracks, but if Arthur would find one, then it had to be in the place where the last person went missing. The environment could erase tracks easily, especially the weather changes, so Arthur went as fast as possible to the well that the guard told him.

He knew its location because the guard had toured them throughout the village just a few moments ago. Arthur walked through the village's main street, which was only a normal-looking road of mud, going toward one of the biggest houses in the nearby area.

It was where the guard lived with his sister. The house was made of fine-wood, had a well outside, giving them fresh water, and it even got a few dummies behind, presumably where the guard did his training.

"The disappearing happened outside, so going inside is just a waste of time. Also, I did not ask permission from the guard." thought Arthur.

He strolled toward the well. It was twenty meters away from the house, and it was close to the nearby forest.

'ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ N ovelBi(n)',

"Someone could stand behind a tree, waiting for an opportunity to strike. The well is far enough from the house, so the guard would take some time to realize what happened."

Arthur could imagine the scene of a beautiful lady pulling a bucket filled with water from the well, while a creepy guy watched her from behind the tree, and when the time was right, attacked her, putting a hand on her mouth to avoid screaming, knocking her out and pulling her into the woods.

"If I can imagine such a scenario, there is no way a trained guard like him could not. They probably searched in the woods, but how could they find nothing?"

The entire situation was weird. Not only the disappearing itself, but the search group as well. They had lots of people to search in this small area, yet no one find a single thing, and gave up after only three days of search?

Something smelled fishy, and Arthur would surely find the answer he was looking for. He glanced at the well, and also went to the nearby trees to see if he could find something, and he did.

There was a footprint hidden by a few bushes. Just by looking at it, anyone could tell someone had put the bushes on purposely.

"Someone is hiding the kidnapper's tracks. But who? And why? The kidnapper is from the village or knows someone from it." Arthur thought.

The more he looked into the matter, the stranger it got. There was nothing else near the well, or the trees, so Arthur left and look for Liz and Lucas to see if they had found something else.

"Lucas, Liz. What did you find?" asked Arthur.

Even though the village was small, there was an inn, and that was the place the three of them were staying.

"Something feels off. I asked the same questions to different people, and although the words they spoke differed, the meaning was still the same. For me, it looked like they had previously talked with each other to think about answers if anyone came asking." Liz said.

When she said that, Arthur was sure something was happening in the village, and all the villagers had their hands on it.

"What about you, Arthur?" Liz asked.

"Well, I also found something strange. So I went to the place where the last person went missing, and found some footprints near the area, but someone purposely put bushes above it to hide it, and the search group the village formed did not find such an obvious track, which is really weird."

"This is surely weird. I feel like all the people here know who the kidnapper is, but no one will spit it out. What is happening here?"