All Dead.
[Ace POV],
After Emma asked Sir Roland to gather the people who brought the paintings from the merchant who came to their village a few weeks ago, Sir Roland demonstrated the brains of a leader by bringing the paintings the locals brought without being asked.
Sir Roland's position in this village was most likely given to him because he was a knight.
I assume he is a knight because if the ways nobles offer territories in this place are similar to those in my world's medieval ages, then there can only be another leader with more authority than a village headman if he is a knight.
As these random thoughts raced through my mind, I examined the paintings in front of me.
When the paintings were brought here, I had a suspicious thought that more oil puppets would jump out of them, but nothing of the sort happened, making me wonder if the oil puppet we just killed was the only one in the village in the first place.
There's also the part where the paintings in front of me never gave me the same feeling as the first.
All of the paintings in front of me gave me a normal feeling, despite the fact that the painting quality was comparable to the one I first saw.
As I considered these things, I turned to Emma, who was about to begin a conversation with Sir Roland.
"Are these all the people that brought a painting from the merchant?" Emma asked as Sir Roland who heard this nodded his head in confirmation before speaking.
"These are all the people who brought a painting from the merchant, though some of them here were not the ones who brought the painting directly because the ones who brought them were all victims of the strange disappearance," Sir Roland said, as at this point we could basically say that the merchant who sold the paintings was responsible for all the villagers who disappeared.
Sir Roland spoke again as I was thinking about this.
"So, as you might have guessed, something all of these people have in common here is that the people related to them were all part of the villagers who disappeared," Sir Roland said, as Emma fell silent and focused on the paintings in front of her.
Seeing this, I concentrated my attention on the paintings in front of me while silently circulating the mana in my body in case something unexpected occurred.
I wasn't the only one who thought this, as I noticed Sir Roland tightening the knife in his hand as we followed Emma to where the paintings were gathered.
Emma observed the paintings in front of her again after stopping a few meters away from where the paintings were gathered, she suddenly raised her right hand a few seconds later as she cast a wide healing spell on the paintings that were gathered together.
When Sir Roland and I saw Emma's action, we immediately prepared our bodies for action, with Sir Roland tightening his grip on the knife in his hand and me coating both my arms with flames as we awaited what would happen next when Emma's healing spell came into contact with paintings.
When they saw our sudden action, the villagers who had positioned themselves at a distance far away from us in the beginning when they sensed something was wrong distanced themselves even further away from us.
I don't mind what happens to the villagers as long as they don't get in my way, thus their actions just now were very much welcomed by me.
I concentrated on the paintings in front of me as this thought ran through my mind.
When Emma's healing spell came into touch with the paintings, the scene I was expecting to see did not happen as what happened instead was the paint suddenly releasing a huge cloud of black smoke as the oil paint on each portrait in front of me began to dissipate, much like the black liquid on the floor earlier evaporated from Emma's mana.
After the last mass of black smoke faded away, the scene in front of me consisted of only empty portraits with no painting.
When nothing strange happened after a few seconds, I relaxed my guard slightly and turned to Emma, who had a slight frown on her face, and asked a question.
"What happened?" I inquired as she turned to face me with a conflicted expression.
The scene of the oil paintings before releasing a large amount of black smoke, combined with Emma's expression, led me to believe there was something I wasn't seeing.
Well, there would be something I wouldn't see before since I don't have Emma's ability to do what she had just done in this quest and there was also the part about the bell-like sound I heard in my head from the primordial chronicle.
It should be related to the quest, but I can't see it right now for various reasons.
For one thing, it would be odd in the eyes of the 'natives of this world' if I began staring blankly at the air. This means nothing to Emma, but it could mean a lot to the villagers who haven't displayed the 'basic' functions of the primordial chronicle or even shown any evidence of having the primordial chronicle in the first place.
This was strange as it made the world and quest even stranger.
Emma eventually opened her mouth to speak as she addressed me, and because Sir Roland was present and paying attention, she spoke in a language we could all understand.
"The paintings are exactly like the one that abducted the little girl," she said, but Sir Roland cut her off by speaking.
"So why didn't anything come out of the paintings?" He asked quickly as I could tell he was eager to know the answer.
Emma did not immediately respond, instead looking at both Sir Roland and me for a few seconds before speaking.
"Did you see the black smoke when I cast the healing spell on the paintings?" Emma inquired, and both I and Sir Roland nodded in response.
"This proves that all of these paintings are likely the same as the first, so let me put it straight for you," Emma said as Sir Roland and I focused on what she was about to say.
"I believe nothing came out of the painting except black smoke because the painting had finished serving its purpose," she explained as Sir Roland and I were perplexed by her words.
When Emma saw this, she decided to clarify her words as she spoke again.
"What I'm trying to say is that, unlike the girl we just saved from that thing, the other paintings had already done what they wanted to do with the villagers they captured because no one was there to stop them, and this proves it because nothing came out apart from black smoke from the paintings, which gave me the same feeling I got from the strange creature that came out of the painting earlier," she explained pretty fast.
Hearing this, I spoke up.
"So you're saying that the smoke earlier was all from the creatures that should have come out?" Emma nodded in response to my question.
Seeing this, I spoke up again.
"Doesn't that mean they're dead because they also evaporated?" I inquired while Sir Roland, who was attempting to understand us, spoke.
"If that's the case, what happened to the villagers they kidnapped?" Emma, who had heard this, responded.
"Since those creatures died before I finished them up, that can only mean one thing," Emma stated.
"What exactly is it?" Sir Roland inquired.
"The villagers are probably also dead because the creature who took them in the painting died," she said.
"Every single one of them?" I inquired.
"Yes, all of them," she said, looking at the blank portraits near us as she spoke again in hushed tones.
"They're all dead."
....
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