Something Strange Happened Again

"This is just an effect created for the movie. If you ask me, it all depends on looks," Zheng Yichen said. "I mean, if a beautiful and capable witch took a liking to you like in the movie, an ordinary person would have no reason to refuse..."

Or rather, anyone with a reasonably good head on their shoulders wouldn't refuse. They wouldn't have much ability to refuse, either. But this was a movie. If the protagonist didn't refuse and just happily agreed when a beautiful witch showed up at his door, what would there be left to make a movie about?

Well, it wasn't as though the story couldn't continue. The witch could say, "I've come to join you," and then a new enemy could appear—someone who hunted witches. The male lead and the witch could fight together against the witch hunters.

Or, in the end, they could turn the tables, persuade the witch hunter, and get him to look the other way so the matter could be put behind them.

"That sounds rather shallow." Katrina parted her lips slightly. Zheng Yichen's answer struck her as unbelievable—or, more accurately, as something that went beyond the understanding of people in this era. Most people in this age kept their distance from beings like witches.

Looks? To most people, anything associated with witches was ominous and evil. Beauty didn't count for much. In fact, if a witch was beautiful, people might think that her looks were a weapon she used to tempt the ignorant.

"That's just how it sounds. Most people tend to choose whatever benefits them, after all. Take the Headless Knight. Maybe he had a special story of his own when he was alive. But now he's killed innocent people, so there's nothing more to say."

As a modern person, Zheng Yichen wasn't particularly prejudiced against witches, demons, Yokai, or the like. Most of the time, he let his eyes do the judging—especially when the other party was well disposed toward him. That was hardly something he couldn't accept.

"The party over there is almost over. You should go back, or your father might come looking for me with a gun."

Katrina glanced toward the house where the party was being held. People had begun filing out, so she quickly stood and smoothed the wrinkles in her dress from sitting for so long. Then she hurried back. "I'll head back first. See you tomorrow."

The girl ran back. Zheng Yichen still hadn't found a suitable place to stay. The town chief was out of the question; the Town Chief's Wife was suspicious.

It wasn't too cold just yet, so he could make do somewhere. One night roughing it wouldn't be a problem, and nighttime was also a good time to investigate.

Alone, he made his way into the forest. At night, mist hung over the Woods, but it wasn't the kind of fog that brought strange phenomena.

A man from the town watched Zheng Yichen enter the Woods alone and disappear into the mist. He hesitated, but didn't dare follow.

After the man left, Zheng Yichen appeared again. "What's going on...? Could someone really be planning to rob and kill me?"

He'd been robbed the night before, though the thief was clumsy and hadn't actually gotten around to anything before the noise woke him. Now, just for walking around at night, someone was watching him again?

There was a decent chance he'd been targeted. If people knew how to use the things in his Backpack, any one of them would be a treasure in this era—let alone the emergency medicines inside. Those would be miracle cures by the standards of this age.

Zheng Yichen spent two hours wandering around the forest. Finding nothing, he treated it as a late-night workout.

He returned to town empty-handed and spent the night in a haystack. He had a simple tent in his Backpack, but it came vacuum-packed, and once he opened it, it wouldn't be easy to pack away again. He'd rather not use it if he didn't have to.

He was dealing with being transported to another world, not a nighttime adventure.

The next day, he woke before the townspeople had begun their work. He went to the river to wash his face, and noticed a faint trail of blood drifting down from upstream. Hm?

Zheng Yichen looked at the blood, his expression turning grave. After shaking the water from his hands, he followed the river upstream and found a headless corpse wedged between some rocks. The clothes it wore immediately caught his attention.

They were just like the clothes worn by the man who had followed him the night before.

And now the man was dead here?

Looking at the corpse, Zheng Yichen felt an urge to dispose of it. He mainly thought leaving it there would be troublesome, and might cause problems at a time like this... right?

"I found the body. Is there anything you want to ask me?" In town, Zheng Yichen addressed the people gathered around him. Everyone there held some standing in the town; their clothes set them apart from the ordinary townsfolk.

"That's Brom. No mistake—it's Brom. He wore those clothes at the party last night!" A middle-aged man stared at the headless corpse and spoke with certainty.

"I don't know him," Zheng Yichen said. Confirming the dead man's identity meant nothing to him. He wasn't a detective who had to investigate this and that. His goal was simple: find the Headless Knight, take him out, and claim that cool-looking sword he carried.

But when it had been killing people, the thing seemed to have gone out of its way to avoid him. What was that about? What kind of Headless Knight went after ordinary people instead of him? He was itching for a fight. He could take it!

Meanwhile, the older men gathered there began to look at Zheng Yichen with suspicion, as if he were the murderer.

"...If you have something to say, say it. Don't look at me like that!" Zheng Yichen was getting annoyed. His goal was perfectly straightforward and pure: he just wanted the Headless Knight's cool sword, and then... to eat it!

Now, for no reason, he was being linked to something else. What the hell!

"Ahem. Brom was one of Katrina Van Tassel's suitors," the town chief said quickly, clearing his throat.

As one of the young beauties in town, Katrina naturally had plenty of suitors. Nothing had ever happened with them before, but now one had died just after Zheng Yichen arrived in town, and Katrina had been spending a lot of time with him these past two days.

It was hard not to read something into that.

"That's your reason? What does his death have to do with me?" Zheng Yichen glanced at the corpse's neck. The scorch marks were still there.

"And someone saw you take out something related to witchcraft. It had the soul of an innocent person trapped inside."

"That's such a clichéd accusation." Zheng Yichen had thought this sort of thing wouldn't happen, but now someone had said it outright. It felt ridiculous, and it also made him very unhappy. If he tried to explain, the old men gathered there probably wouldn't even understand what a phone was.

If he didn't explain, their suspicious looks would only grow more suspicious later. They already doubted him, and no amount of explanation would help. The only way to make them believe him would be to force them with violence... Since that was the case, he wouldn't explain.