Could this village have been ransacked by bandits?
After all, there was no other explanation.
They had originally planned to leave immediately, but then they remembered that they usually collected goods in this village and exchanged them for money.
If the village had truly been ransacked by bandits and vanished, it meant they would earn less money, and this route would no longer be safe. They would have to take another road.
If that was the case, they would have to make quite a detour and waste a great deal of time. To merchants, time was life!
So, they wanted to find an empty house to rest in and investigate whether there were any survivors left in the village.
But when they opened the door of one house and entered the courtyard—
"Why does it stink? What's rotting?"
Ever since entering the village, a faint, intermittent stench had hung in the air.
Whenever they caught the smell, they instinctively took another breath to determine where it was coming from, only to find nothing, as though the smell had been an illusion.
Yet before long, that faint stench would drift back into their nostrils.
It tormented them terribly.
But after entering the courtyard, the smell became distinct.
The guards immediately split up to search for the source of the stench.
That said, they had already guessed what was giving off that smell.
The village had been ransacked by bandits. It was impossible that no one had died, so the smell must have been...
"Ah..."
Suddenly, a terrified cry rang out from somewhere.
The guards nearby immediately ran toward the sound.
When they arrived, they saw a guard vomiting. As he vomited, it was as though he had seen something horrifying; he staggered backward as if trying to flee.
The surrounding guards exchanged glances, then hurried forward to support the vomiting guard without bothering about anything else.
"What happened? What is it?"
The guard stretched out a trembling hand and pointed inside the house.
Only then did the other guards notice the scene inside, and they were instantly terrified.
Two ropes hung from the beams, suspending two heads. Below them lay two headless corpses, while in the corner of the room was another body, smaller in size and presumably a child's.
The bodies had likely been dead for some time. Maggots crawled through them, and bloody fluid had spread across the floor.
The stench of decay and the heavy reek of blood hit them head-on. After crying out in terror, the guards could not help but bend over and vomit.
The merchant had seen the corpses too, so he vomited even more violently.
It looked as though he could vomit up even the meals he had eaten a week ago.
After he had vomited nearly everything, a guard came to report. "Sir, judging from the level of decomposition, they have probably been dead for more than ten days."
It would have been better if the guard had said nothing. The moment he spoke, the merchant, who had just straightened up, vomited again.
But after vomiting so much, his stomach was already empty. He had even vomited up all his stomach acid.
Now he could only dry heave.
The merchant shakily raised a hand and pointed at the guard, unable to say a word.
"Huh? Where did that rope in the sky come from?" a guard asked in confusion.
His confusion was immediately answered as a rope with a noose at one end descended from the sky.
Its target was the guard who had asked the question.
Though he had no idea what was going on with the rope, the guard instinctively dodged aside.
But after taking one step back, the back of his head bumped into something rough and prickly, like... hemp rope. Could it be...
"Ahhhhhhh~~~"
The moment the guard realized the hemp rope was behind him, a noose slipped around his neck and hauled him a meter off the ground. No matter how he struggled, he could not free himself from the rope around his neck.
"Protect the master!"
The guards immediately drew their blades and gathered around the merchant, protecting him in the center.
As the guards gathered around the merchant, two more guards had ropes descending from the sky loop around their necks and hoist them up.
At that moment, a rope targeted the merchant. One of the guards beside him drew his blade and slashed at it.
But unexpectedly, the blade did not cut the rope. Instead, the rope coiled around it. If the guard had not let go of his sword in time, he would likely have been hauled up by the rope as well.
"Ah—"
Because he had been paying too much attention to the merchant, he failed to notice that a rope had appeared above his own head. Without surprise, it looped around his neck and lifted him into the air.
The merchant had brought six guards. In such a short time, they had already died... No, they were not dead yet. They had merely been hanged and still had some time before they stopped breathing.
But under these circumstances, there was hardly any difference between that and being dead.
"Protect the master!"
The merchant had been scared out of his wits. He stood there rigidly without moving, his limbs no longer obeying him.
But the deadly ropes in the sky did not care about his condition. When one rope failed to catch the merchant, three more appeared.
In desperation, one guard threw himself onto the merchant, saving him from being hanged.
But the guard who had tackled the merchant was not so lucky. After letting out a scream, he was hoisted up by a rope.
Then another scream rang out. His last guard had been hoisted up as well.
The merchant stared wide-eyed at the guards struggling to claw at the ropes around their necks.
Their necks were being squeezed so tightly that they could not even speak, only make meaningless sounds.
Their bulging eyes, forced outward by the tightening ropes around their necks, stared at the merchant lying on the ground after being tackled.
"Hehe... urgh... urgh... urgh..."
As the ropes continued to tighten, the guards' necks were finally crushed. A trace of relief flashed through their eyes. But it was not over yet. Even after crushing their necks, the ropes continued to contract.
With a thud, something heavy seemed to hit the ground.
Under the relentlessly tightening ropes, the guards' heads were severed from their bodies.
Their bodies fell to the ground, but the ropes had caught on scraps of flesh or bone in their necks, leaving their heads hanging from the ropes.
Because of their weight, the heads hung upside down. Blood flowing from their necks soaked their protruding eyes, making them look completely red.
Whether by coincidence or not, the faces of all six upside-down guards were turned toward the merchant.
"Ah... ah... Aahhhhhhh..."
Stared at by six pairs of bloodshot, incomparably scarlet eyes, the merchant finally suffered a mental breakdown!
The merchant screamed desperately, but his cries were useless. They drew no one.
Instead, as he screamed, countless ropes appeared before his eyes, less than a few dozen centimeters away.
The guards' miserable fate was right before him. The merchant did not want the ropes to crush his neck. He wanted to run.
Perhaps because he was too tense, his leg... cramped.
The intense pain calmed him somewhat, but if he wanted to escape, and his leg had cramped, then he could only crawl with his hands.
He propped up his body with his hands. Even with one leg cramping, he used the other to push himself forward with all his strength. Even when his head struck stones or slammed into walls, he did not care. It was as though he could no longer feel pain.
And just like that, he... escaped the village.