Arwen and Holt rode horses and walked side by side on the bumpy dirt road.
The roadside is covered with blackthorn, and occasionally deer can be seen passing by.
According to Holt's inference, this road is wide enough for two carriages to travel in parallel, and it should have been a trade route in the past.
Three days ago.
Arwen and Holt are separated from Geralt and Freyja.
The former went to Shoemaker Village to look for clues, while the latter returned to Temple of Melitele to repair the image and prevent Temple of Melitele from encountering any accidents.
Arwen recalled the timber merchant Theodore Reed whom he met shortly after coming down the mountain.
While chatting, he once mentioned that there was a Shoemaker Village that was haunted.
Haunted?
This reminded him of demon spirits.
The appearance of demon spirits is often caused by extremely strong resentment.
If I time it right, I might actually be able to find some useful clues.
"Arwen..."
Holt, who had been silent all the way, suddenly spoke.
His cat's eyes swept across the ancient giant sword behind Arwen, hesitated for a moment, and said again with an unnatural expression.
"Vesemir Is he okay?"
Arwen regained consciousness and paused.
"Master Vesemir is always the same in my memory, both stern and kind-hearted."
Holt took a long breath and said, "That's good."
The two walked out of the forest and looked into the distance.
A village of about fifty households appeared in sight.
The houses in the village are made of red bricks, with white smoke coming out of the chimneys. They look much wealthier than ordinary villages.
On the right side of the village, there is a small pond surrounded by cattails and free-range ducks.
The bumpy path leads directly to the center of the village, and beyond that, the forest returns to darkness.
Holt stretched out his finger.
"There is Shoemaker Village."
The two of them clamped their legs on the horse's belly and galloped away.
The gate of the village is surrounded by a wooden fence, and a sign is hung on the wooden post with the image of a boot engraved on it.
Far away, you can hear the clanging sounds in the village.
The greyhound wandering at the entrance of the village immediately noticed the sound of horse hooves and barked wildly.
When the villagers resting in the farmhouse heard the sound, they opened their eyes angrily and shouted angrily.
"Damn it! Who is it! You won't let anyone rest in the middle of the day!"
Arwen tightened the reins, stopped in front of him, and reached over his shoulder.
The villager's body suddenly froze, his arrogant arrogance completely dissipated, and the sharp aura hit his Tianling Cap, making his hair stand on end.
A pair of gray-yellow cat eyes looked down at him under the hood.
"Call out the people in charge of your village."
The villager swallowed his saliva and said tremblingly, "Yes, sir, I'll go right now, I'll go right now!"
Arwen moved the sword away, and the villagers rolled and crawled towards the village.
Holt's eyes lit up when he saw Arwen's direct method.
This style is completely different from Geralt.
Within a moment.
A stooped old man walked out of the village with more than 20 villagers holding pitchforks and flails.
The old man was using a cane, his skin was rough, and there were dense wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.
"The elders, they are the ones who pointed their swords at me as soon as they came."
The previous villager puffed up his chest and had a look of complaint on his face, instead of shrinking as before, as if the crowd behind him had given him great confidence.
The old man who was called the elder raised his head, his old eyes full of vigilance.
"I am the elder of Shoemaker Village, Xavier Brook. Are the two guests coming to the village to buy leather armor and leather shoes?"
"The tailoring skills in our village are famous in Kaedwen."
"No," Arwen interrupted, "I want to ask you for some news. I heard that this place is haunted, right?"
Shoemaker Village Elder squinted his eyes, and after seeing the badges on the chests of the two men and the sword hilts on their backs, his frown suddenly relaxed, and a warm smile appeared on his face.
"You are demon hunters? But you saw the notice in the city and came to help eradicate the ghosts in the village? This is great."
The crutch in his hand tapped the ground.
"Two demon hunters, this ghost has been infesting our village for many years."
"I'm willing to offer..." He stretched out his left hand, wiggled his five fingers, and finally raised his index finger.
"100 crowns, gentlemen, what do you think?"
Arwen swept over the villagers behind the old man.
Everyone's body is very strong, and there is a hint of ferocity in their vigilant eyes, which is very rare among ordinary villagers.
His eyes returned to the old man and his voice was indifferent.
"100 crowns, Elder, that's a lot of money."
The elder sighed.
"Demon hunter, you don't know something. Over the years, the village has been troubled by ghosts and has been resting on its laurels. If this continues, the blame will not be revealed."
Holt indicated that there was nothing wrong with the eyes, Arwen said.
"There is no problem with the amount of reward. I need information, exact information."
"Like when did your village become haunted? Who discovered it? What does it look like?"
The elder frowned with gray brows, the nasolabial folds on his forehead were densely packed together, and he was lost in thought.
"Hmm... the specific time of this haunting..."
The middle-aged villager beside him reminded in a low voice, "The village was just established not long ago, thirty years ago..."
The elder tapped his cane, "Yes... the village had just been established and everyone was very busy at that time, but shoes were stolen from time to time."
"In the beginning, one child was missing for most of the year. At that time, everyone thought some kid was playing tricks and didn't take it too seriously."
"But then it became more and more frequent, one every month, then one every half month. The village elder at that time, my father, mobilized the whole village to search, but nothing was found."
"It wasn't until a woman from one family got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night that she found a ghostly figure stealing shoes, muttering "boots... boots...""
"That's when I discovered that the village is haunted."
Arwen asked with a probing tone, "Thirty years? No one among you has asked the lord to solve the problem? Or move the village to another place?"
The elder sighed, "Mr. Witcher, you made us do what you said. This is a ghost. The lord sent knights to find out nothing. Instead, he said that we were hiding shoes, whipped my father several times with a whip, and increased the tax."
"As for moving? That's even more impossible."
A villager raised his head, crossed his arms and said, "Yes, this is just a few miles away from the royal capital. Upper March traveling businessmen who want to go to the royal capital basically have to come here."
The elder took the words, his eyes full of fear.
"If we just lose a few pairs of shoes every year, it's not a big deal given the village's output."
"But five years ago, this ghost started killing people."
"First it was a widow in the village, and then it was a passing fur trader. Ouch..."
"How did you discover the murder?"
"It's the local dogs in the village. They brought back the boots of the dead people. They were bloody."
"Later, I asked the brave young people to follow me and see. The forest on the hillside to the east of the village was full of blood."
The elder covered his face.
"Later, more and more people died, and the merchants were almost extinct."
"By the gods, we finally have two demon hunters today."
"Please, please help us."