"Yes," the village chief nodded heavily, "no matter how hard we try, if we step more than five meters past the village boundary, we always end up back at the entrance before long."
She glanced at the job request in Roger's hand. "That's also why we can't update the job details."
"Some wizards who heard the real situation tried to leave too," she continued, "but just like us, they wandered in circles and ended up back here."
Erza pressed further, her voice sharp with concern. "What about those wizards who came back to the village? Are they still here?"
"No," the chief shook her head, her expression helpless. "They all vanished from the village the same night they returned—just like the other men in our village."
"The men disappeared on their own? In just one night!?" Erza exclaimed, her eyes wide.
"Yes," the chief's voice cracked with emotion. "On the morning of the fourth day after we realized we couldn't leave, we woke up to find every adult man gone."
"Fathers, husbands, brothers…" Her voice trailed off, heavy with grief.
"Completely silent, no warning at all. We searched every corner of the village, but there wasn't a single clue."
"We're trapped here, clueless, and our only hope is the job request we managed to send out."
"A village you can't leave… missing men…" Roger rubbed his chin, his mind racing to piece together the clues.
Suddenly, he remembered the little girl's scream earlier and asked, "What's this about a 'ghoul'?"
At the mention of the word, the chief visibly flinched, her face paling as her voice trembled. "On the second day after we found we couldn't leave, a creepy nursery rhyme started spreading among the children."
Taking a deep breath, she recited in a shaky, fearful tone:
"Red-haired ghoul, white-haired hide,"
"Sweet voice creeps through the window wide."
"Sun goes down, the moon will rise,"
"Fluffy fur bursts! Tears through guise!"
"Ten thousand blood-red needles fall,"
"Claws that crack! Fangs that maul!"
"Jagged jaws snap the doll's ladder in all!"
When she finished, the chief leaned against the doorframe, gasping as if the words had drained her. "In just one day, every child knew it! I asked who taught them, but they all said they didn't know—it was like… they just knew it."
Fear filled her eyes. "Even worse, that evening, we heard animals shrieking outside the village! At dawn, we found them—several animals with two deep puncture wounds in their necks, their bodies shriveled like dry wood… as if something had drained their blood!"
"The villagers were terrified. Everyone wanted to offer more money to hire stronger wizards to fix this, but anyone who tried to leave with the money just ended up back at the village entrance."
Erza frowned, asking another question. "You can't change the job request… so there really were bandits at first?"
"Yes," the chief explained. "At first, bandits kept harassing us, so we posted the job. But soon after, they vanished into thin air—gone in a single night!"
"We thought some passing wizard might've dealt with them, so we tried to go to the guild to cancel the request… but that's when we realized we couldn't leave the village."
In Roger's mind, the clues started clicking together like a puzzle: The bandits' sudden disappearance (real or staged?)—followed by this inescapable curse—the eerie nursery rhyme spreading out of nowhere—the animals' gruesome deaths—the men vanishing en masse.
"Everything seems to happen at night," Roger muttered.
He turned to the chief. "I need to investigate the area to figure out what's causing this."
Her eyes lit up with a spark of hope, different from the resigned answers she'd gotten before. "Good! Good! We'll have lunch ready for you when you return."
Roger nodded, exchanging a quick glance with Erza. The two shared a silent understanding and left the chief's house.
They headed to the village square where the children were playing. Roger pulled out a handful of colorful candies from his pocket, flashing a warm grin. "Hey, kids, want some candy?"
The candies' bright wrappers seemed to have a magical pull on the children, like something straight out of a Fairy Tail guild's sweetest stash.
Though there was no strong scent, the kids' eyes locked onto the candies, swallowing hard, their faces full of longing. But their hands stayed behind their backs, hesitant to reach out.
Are they scared of getting in trouble? Roger wondered. Just as he was about to speak, he noticed one girl staring nervously at Erza beside him.
They think Erza's the ghoul! That's why they're too scared to take the candy.
"You're really not a ghoul, but a wizard, right?" a girl—the same one they'd met when they first arrived—sidled up, eyeing Erza curiously.
"Of course not," Erza said, rolling up her sleeve to reveal her Fairy Tail guild mark. "I'm human. Do you think a ghoul could join a wizard guild?"
The girl tilted her head, thinking hard. "Hmm, probably not. My mom says wizard guilds are full of awesome people who beat up bad guys and monsters! A ghoul that evil would totally get chased off if it got caught!"
She stepped forward, grabbed a candy, and popped it into her mouth. The moment the sweet flavor hit her tongue, her eyes sparkled. "This is the sweetest candy I've ever tasted!"
Seeing her reaction, the other kids couldn't resist anymore. One by one, they lined up to grab a piece.
"I'm Casey," the girl said, her voice muffled around the candy. "You're here to ask about the ghoul, right?"
Erza nodded, a flicker of curiosity in her eyes. "Have other wizards come to ask about it too?"
"Yeah," Casey pouted, her eyes narrowing. "But they were either super grumpy and mean, or they acted like we were the monsters, too scared to even come near us!"
"You guys are different," she added. "Talking to the chief and then giving us candy with big smiles? That's a first."
"About that song," Casey said, thinking hard, "we really don't know who started it. One day, it was like we all just knew it."
A small boy in the back raised his hand timidly. "I… I remember! I heard it in a dream! There was a little girl singing it in my ear the whole time…"
"Oh! I had that dream too!" another kid piped up.
"Me too, me too! In my dream, the girl's hair got super long and burst her clothes, and her teeth turned sharp!"
"I had it too, but she chased me for ages. I woke up terrified!"
"Wait, I thought it was a boy singing in my dream," another kid said, confused.
"A dream?" Casey frowned. "Now that you mention it, I think I heard the song in a dream too. Every line matched something about the ghoul, so when I saw you, I thought you were it."
"Dreams…" Roger repeated softly, his suspicions starting to take shape.
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