Apology

This town had been rebuilt once after falling into ruin, then abandoned again for unknown reasons. As a result, Salomon and Wanda could see eighteenth- and nineteenth-century architectural styles jumbled together here. The decayed old inn at the town entrance gave off a terrible smell of mold. Under the illumination of a magical orb, rodents scurried out in panic. The inn's sign was illegible, and many tables and chairs that had yet to be cleared were coated in mud. A dreadful stench, like that of an ancient tomb, rushed straight into their nostrils. New England's extreme temperature shifts had turned the place into a nest for vermin. Every piece of furniture had long since warped and deformed. A well-preserved mirror lay on the floor, covered in rat droppings. Wanda covered her nose and mouth with a handkerchief and held onto Salomon's arm, which kept her from falling onto the collapsed ceiling during the sudden earthquake.

"There's nothing worth seeing here." Salomon helped Wanda out of the inn. This was a forgotten place; even the oldest people in the surrounding area could not recall any tales about it. It was cursed land. Even the naughtiest children would instinctively stay away from this ominous place, and even a Homeless Man had no desire to rest here. The other shops in town were no better. Every building was in the Puritans style, and eighteenth-century furniture would have been worth a fortune today. Yet after Salomon and Wanda entered, they found no signs of theft, as though even thieves had no interest in visiting this place. Nearly all the glass was intact. Aside from the dust covering it, there were scarcely even any cobwebs.

There were no corpses. The entire town had been emptied overnight. Its only residents were rats—no insects, no birds. No