"Continue what? Continue!"
Upon hearing the words from below, the village chief's forehead veins bulged.
"Just come up when I tell you to! Stop with the nonsense!"
This time, those below seemed to sense the anger in his words and finally stopped responding.
After a while, a lean figure slowly climbed up from below.
"What's the matter? Why did you have to call me up so urgently?"
The village chief didn't reply, but stared at his son, Hayato, with a look of exasperation, and said, "All you ever do is go down there! Go down there! You'll die on a woman's belly sooner or later!"
Upon hearing this, Hayato retorted with dissatisfaction, "You go down there all the time, don't you?"
"You..."
The air froze instantly upon hearing this, the village chief's face grew even darker, and his hand involuntarily rose high as if about to fall.
Upon seeing this, the Hayato quickly took two steps back, fearing that the slap would actually land on his face.
The village chief took a deep breath, trying to calm his anger. Finally, he slowly lowered his raised hand and said in a deep voice, "Come with me!"
Seeing that the slap hadn't landed, Hayato secretly rejoiced and quickly followed his father's steps.
"Dad, didn't you go to contact the vendors who were supposed to come to the market in a few days? Why are you back?"
The village chief didn't answer, but quickened his pace, and the two soon arrived at the room at the highest point.
Inside the room, the village chief stopped, turned around, and looked at his son with a grave expression. "This time, we might be in trouble! Someone has come to the island to investigate!"
"Investigate? Investigate what?" Hayato said nonchalantly, his mind still reeling from the basement he had just been in.
Snap!
"What are you asking about investigating?"
The belated slap finally landed, bringing Hayato to his senses slightly. Clutching his slapped cheek, he asked, "You said you're here to investigate us?"
"Nonsense, besides us, which other family on Shoura Island needs to be investigated?"
With our second uncle around, who would cause us trouble?
"So this time it wasn't the government that came; it must be the Demon Slayer that the ghost mentioned!"
" Demon Slayer?" Hayato repeated. "So that means we're not the target? We can just chase him away and stop him from investigating!"
"Get rid of them? How? What reason should you give?"
Tell him our village isn't accepting guests lately, and tell him to get the hell out of here!
"You even told him you don't take customers? Why didn't you just tell him we have a problem!"
"Then just tell him to get lost. If he doesn't, I'll teach him a lesson he won't forget!"
The village chief chuckled coldly, "If only you could show him the power of your fists! Then you could just go and kill the ghost, and none of this would have happened!"
Hearing the village chief say that, Hayato realized that Demon Slayer ordinary people and were probably not someone he could bully.
The village chief paced back and forth in the room, his right fist clenched and repeatedly tapping against his left hand. After a long while, he finally spoke:
"It's all that idiot's fault! I told him not to do it so often, not so often, it'd be too easy to get caught. But he wouldn't listen, he insisted I find one every month. Now look what happened, after only a few months, Demon Slayer are already knocking on my door!"
Upon hearing his father's words, Hayato suggested, "Isn't that guy supposed to be one a month? How about we use this Demon Slayer to fill in this month?"
Upon hearing Hayato's suggestion, the village chief paused for a moment.
"No, if this Demon Slayer dies, their headquarters will definitely think there's something wrong with us, and even more Demon Slayer will come!"
"How about we tell the Demon Slayer that we accidentally discovered the ghost, and let Demon Slayer kill it?"
The village chief thought for a while, then slowly shook his head.
"We don't know if the Demon Slayer can defeat the demon. If he can, that's fine, but if he can't, the demon will immediately come looking for us. It's better if the Demon Slayer finds us!"
Seeing that his suggestion had been rejected again, Hayato couldn't help but feel a little discouraged.
"If this won't work and that won't work, then let's just wait to die!"
Upon hearing Hayato's words, the village chief began pacing back and forth inside the house again.
a long time.
Unable to think of a better solution, the village chief gritted his teeth, his eyes flashing with a fierce light.
"Let's confuse this Demon Slayer Demon Slayer way we always have before sending him over. Even if he's powerful, can he really defend himself? We'll deal with any other Demon Slayer that come later!"
The village chief's son, standing nearby, smiled and chimed in, "That's exactly how it should be!"
The village chief glanced at his son and said, "You better watch your step these next few days, and try to stay home as much as possible!"
night.
Teiichi walked alone on the village path, surrounded by silence, with only the cool moonlight falling on her like a veil.
Two days have passed since Teiichi arrived at Shoura Island.
During these two days, Teiichi would spend half the day sleeping soundly and the other half gathering information in the village; after nightfall, he would patrol the village to prevent any evil spirits from harming people.
Just then, a soft "fluttering" sound suddenly came from the sky.
Teiichi looked up and saw White Feather flying towards him at an astonishing speed, finally landing lightly on his shoulder.
"Have the identities of all the missing people been investigated?" Teiichi asked as he continued walking.
White Feather nodded and said, "We've investigated the missing persons; they were all merchants!"
Teiichi nodded slightly upon hearing this.
This is roughly in line with my own investigation and guesses.
The information he has gathered from the villagers over the past two days indicates that there is nothing unusual inside the village and no villagers are missing.
With no one missing within the village and only merchants coming from outside, the situation is as follows:
It's highly likely that those who have disappeared are all merchants; White Feather's arrival only confirms my suspicions.
After all, ghosts that eat people don't care where you're from.
Therefore, if the hunters were able to accurately kill the merchants without accidentally harming the villagers of Shoura Island, it was most likely a deliberate act.
After figuring out that it was man-made, Teiichi lowered his head slightly to think.
The purpose of seeking out vendors is likely to make money!
If it's about seeking wealth, who would it be?
Images of the island villagers he had seen in the past two days flashed through his mind as he tried to sift through his memories to identify any suspicious individuals.
But every face seemed so ordinary that no one could be directly linked to the disappearance.
Since you're after money, you'll definitely want to spend it.
The village chief, huh...?
It seems that apart from the village chief's family, no one else on Shoura Island is particularly wealthy...
The scene of my brief encounter with the village chief the day before yesterday replayed in my mind frame by frame.
The scene paused when the village chief saw the Nichirin Blade.
Teiichi paused briefly.
It seems we should pay more attention to the village chief...
The problem is, if he didn't commit the crime this time, does that mean I have to stay in this place for another half a month...?
Teiichi continued his patrol of the village while pondering the matter.
Although it's speculated that the disappearance of this mission was most likely deliberate, it's ultimately just speculation, and patrols are still essential.