Stealing vegetables?
I, a count, would come steal your vegetables, inside a dream, no less?
Hastur suppressed the twitch at the corner of his mouth, recalling a certain farming game. Back then, it had truly been a unhinged craze, some people even set alarms in the middle of the night just to wake up and steal crops. Completely insane.
"I'm just curious why your vegetables grow so well."
"Of course it's because we have the goddess's blessing!" the girl replied as if it were only natural.
Hastur feigned ignorance and continued, "Which goddess?"
"The Grain Goddess, the Goddess of Spring, that's what we all call Her. She has always protected this land. She's our guardian deity." When speaking of the god she believed in, the girl unconsciously straightened her chest and raised her voice.
"Oh, I've heard of her. Supposedly, every year there needs to be a priestess to preside over the ritual."
The girl beamed brightly. "I'm this year's priestess for the Harvest Festival."
Hastur smiled as well. "Impressive. I've also heard that the priestess changes every year. Is that chosen personally by the goddess?"
"Of course not. My father specifically went to the mayor to buy the slot. He said it would help me build a reputation."
The girl's answer surprised Hastur, but thinking about it carefully, it was both worldly and normal.
No wonder the priestess changed every year. Their tradition had long since declined, now the priestess was nothing more than a symbolic puppet pushed forward by the mayor.
The girl added worriedly, "You mustn't tell anyone. I'm only telling you because you seem like a decent person. If others find out, my father will definitely punish me."
Hastur assured her he wouldn't leak anything and praised her for being so capable at such a young age to serve as a priestess.
While she was in a good mood, Hastur took the opportunity to ask about other secrets.
For example, the origins of the Harvest Festival, what kind of offerings were made during the ritual, and whether anything unusual had ever happened in the town.
After a back-and-forth of questions and answers, once Hastur had asked enough, he prepared to leave the dream.
"Will we meet again?"
"If there's a chance."
Faced with the girl's reluctance, Hastur only smiled and gave a vague answer.
The girl's eyes lit up, and she smiled happily. "I have a feeling we'll definitely meet again, very soon."
When Hastur left the dream, the light faded from the girl's eyes. She stood there blankly, not knowing what to do, as if she had lost her soul.
Hastur left Miss Liv's room and returned to the street, his expression heavy as he headed toward the mayor's residence.
According to what Miss Liv had said, the Harvest Festival did indeed originate from a ritual to worship a girl who once lived in this town. But that girl had not willingly sacrificed herself for the town's harvest.
Because she herself had been the first chosen sacrifice. For the people at the time, exchanging one human life for a bountiful harvest was a trade that required no hesitation.
But for some reason, as time passed, that sacrificed girl gradually replaced the deity who had originally granted blessings. She was posthumously honored as the Grain Goddess, the Goddess of Spring, and became the deity who now received offerings.
Every year during the Harvest Festival, the sacrifice was not the priestess, but young couples.
As for the details, the girl had not gone into depth.
The fact that she knew this much already struck Hastur as strange. Logically, such secrets should not be known by a young girl like her.
Arriving at the mayor's house, Hastur once again used his dream-entering ability.
This time went smoothly. The mayor's dream was split into two halves: one side was fertile farmland, the other a grotesque world of spider webs.
In the dream, the mayor's feet were bound by spider silk. His eyes were dull, his expression vacant, perfectly matching the description of a nightmare's effect.
Faced with Hastur's questioning, the mayor answered like a machine, revealing everything he knew.
He didn't know how the first sacrificed girl had become the Goddess of Spring worshipped in the Harvest Festival.
He only knew that if the town wanted a great harvest every year, the festival had to be held, otherwise, disaster would befall the town.
This was something every mayor was told upon taking office.
At the very beginning, the priestess herself had indeed been the sacrifice.
But over time, it gradually changed into couples, and they had to reproduce in front of the statue of the deity.
From just one couple at the start, it had increased to five couples now. The deity's appetite was growing larger, yet for the sake of harvest, the festival still had to be held.
So in recent years, the town had secretly bought couples from other places to serve as sacrifices, in order to please the deity and obtain a good harvest.
As for selecting the priestess, it had originally been done by drawing lots. But as girls who had served as priestesses found it easier to marry and could command higher bride prices, some eager parents began bribing the mayor in secret to buy the annual slot.
This year's priestess position had been purchased by Old Jeff for 50 gold pounds.
"What happens to the couples chosen as sacrifices?"
When Hastur asked this, a strange smile appeared on the mayor's face. In a sinister tone, he said, "Of course, they're eaten by the deity."
"Where is this deity you speak of?"
"Hehe… it's right beneath this land…"
Before the mayor could finish speaking, the spider silk wrapped around his feet suddenly surged violently. Within a few breaths, it cocooned him completely into a white mass and hoisted him into the air.
The once evenly split dream world was entirely consumed by the web-filled nightmare.
Deep within the white webbing, cocoons hanging in midair began to split open. From them emerged spiders the size of adults, white abdomens, red markings on their backs, and black everywhere else.
"So it sensed danger and is influencing things from afar?"
Hastur didn't hesitate and immediately left the dream.
In reality, the mayor, who had been sleeping soundly in bed, was now completely wrapped in spider silk, forming a white cocoon.
The silk spread outward from his body, extending across the room.
The culprits were thumb-sized spiders.
They crawled out from the mayor's navel, which had split open into a widening gap, more and more spiders emerging to spin webs.
Soon, the entire house became a white spider nest.
The eerie scene forced Hastur to retreat to the window. Only when the spider silk began spreading toward him did he leave through it.
Strangely, once the webbing covered the entire room, all the spiders crawled back through the navel and reentered the mayor's body.
Hastur watched from the house across the street for a long time, until muffled gasps of shock came from inside.
The mayor's family, though frightened, did not scream as expected. Instead, taking advantage of the late hour, they carried the cocooned mayor on their shoulders, went downstairs, and placed him onto a straw-covered ox cart. They concealed him with thick layers of straw and some fruits and vegetables.
Seeing such odd behavior, Hastur naturally followed.
The ox cart wasn't fast and Hastur managed to keep up.
Even when he briefly lost track of it, he relied on fate's guidance to find the direction again and continue the pursuit.
The cart left the town and followed the main road for a while before turning onto a small path leading into growing farmland.
At the far end of the flat fields stood a small hill about two hundred meters tall. The cart stopped at its base.
Without the cart's speed, Hastur quickly caught up.
There were four people: one in front holding a lantern, two in the middle carrying the cocooned mayor, and one at the back keeping watch.
Their coordinated roles made it clear this wasn't their first time doing this.
Hastur thought of the five couples from last night's ritual. After the ceremony, they had all disappeared.
It seemed they had met the same fate, wrapped in cocoons and secretly transported here.
Feeding the deity?
Hastur followed them up the hill.
Tonight, the crimson moon was obscured by dark clouds, leaving the sky dim. Cold winds swept through the mountains. Though it was warmer than Backlund, the deep night still carried a chill that soaked into clothing and skin.
At the summit, after passing through a forest path, they arrived at a deep cave.
The two men carrying the cocoon cautiously approached and then directly threw the heavy bundle into the cave.
Afterward, all four knelt and kowtowed, muttering prayers for forgiveness.
Only when faint dragging sounds came from within the cave did they hurriedly leave, not daring to look back.
Once they were gone, Hastur stepped out from the shadows and approached the cave.
The cave descended vertically. In the dim moonlight, it was impossible to see what lay inside.
Dense spider webs blocked any further view.
Hastur observed cautiously from the edge for a long time, but did not choose to enter.
He had no intention of offering himself as bait. Without understanding the situation, he wouldn't take such risks.
Still, he didn't leave immediately. He waited to see if anything would change.
After about an hour, Hastur moved a large rock and threw it down into the cave.
Based on the time it took for the sound to echo back, he estimated the depth to be around 130 meters.
Given the height of the hill, the cave's midpoint would likely be where the spider nest was located.
Soon, faint dragging sounds came again from below.
After listening for a while, Hastur brought over two more large rocks, each weighing about 100 kilograms.
He dropped one, waited for the dragging sounds to resume, then threw down the second.
Almost immediately, a harsh noise erupted below, as if countless spiders were swarming upward.
"Tch, can't take a joke, huh."
Hastur moved away from the cave and climbed a three-meter-tall tree, standing on a branch to overlook the area.
Under the faint glow of the crimson moon, pairs of dark red, blood-like eyes lit up within the cave.
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T/N: That's all for the mass release, if I can, I'll post a few more chapters later :)