That girl looked exactly like Layla!

The clues revealed by this check were enough to resolve Shen Lin’s doubts,  Layla was, in all likelihood, the sacrificial offering lost all those years ago. However, in this childhood memory, Layla’s appearance was not much different from how she looked now, as if her time had been frozen at the age of fifteen or sixteen.

But… Shen Lin recalled, in his memory, the girl he encountered had blonde hair and blue eyes, but Layla’s eyes were violet.

According to the clues they currently had, as an outsider, Layla shouldn’t have been able to live in Moonfall Town for long, her body would have mutated because of it. But in reality, that didn’t happen. Layla remained as healthy and youthful as ever, with no changes to her body.

Maybe the curse didn’t only develop in a negative direction, but could also develop positively? Shen Lin thought carefully, biological evolution is always about survival of the fittest. Perhaps Cain simply couldn’t adapt to the environment of Moonfall Town and underwent negative changes, while Layla, as a sacrifice, had by chance glimpsed a divine miracle, and thus received the blessing of Moonfall’s deity, undergoing positive transformation.

Her eyes became violet, and her appearance no longer changed with age.

But then again, would a deity bless its own sacrifice?

Shen Lin was silent, his mind racing, trying to set all the pieces of this event back into their original places.

Ten years ago, Harrison’s heir, Wesley Harrison, brought his younger brother Dylan Harrison, his fiancée Princess Louise, six sacrificial offerings required for the ritual, and a whole ship full of supplies to Moonfall Town. During this time, something happened ,  one of the sacrifices, Layla, was lost, causing the ritual to fail.

Wesley Harrison suffered the backlash of the failed ritual and was bitten to death at home by a strange and evil force. Princess Louise, deeply affected by Wesley’s death, performed an evil ritual to obtain their child, and also, from getting too close to the divine miracle, lost her sanity and died in madness.

Dylan, who returned to the Harrison family with Wesley at that time, returned to Moonfall Town ten years later in silence, once again bringing sacrificial offerings to hold the decennial ritual according to custom.

He was even more absurd than his brother Wesley, he directly lost six sacrificial offerings.

Shen Lin: “KP, do you think your setting makes any sense?”

KP: “…”

As one of the sacrifices, Layla survived in Moonfall Town, received a blessing, changed her appearance, and was not troubled by the curse, living peacefully until now.

What does she want to do? Back then, how did she escape as a sacrificial offering?

Shen Lin still had many unanswered questions, he needed more clues.

But he believed Layla’s nature was kind, or at least, what she showed was kindness. What he said to Layla today was not just flattery to please an NPC, but came from the heart.

Layla was a good girl.

The next morning, Layla got up to wash and prepared breakfast for Mrs. Annie and Shen Lin and the others. Supplies were scarce, each of them only got a very small portion of food, but Layla didn’t show any favoritism.

After breakfast, Layla wrapped her hair with a cloth and went out carrying a flower basket.

Shen Lin said, “Make a Stealth check.”

KP asked, “You want to follow Layla?”

Shen Lin nodded.

KP: “Then make a Listen check first.”

Shen Lin rolled success.

“Come here, little cutie with blonde hair and blue eyes.” From behind came the call of an old lady, it was Mrs. Annie calling him.

Shen Lin turned around and saw the old lady slumped on a bench, looking like she was at death’s door. The bald parrot beside her tilted its head and looked at Shen Lin.

She was truly extremely old, older than any elderly person Shen Lin had ever met. Her sunken mouth clutched a soft flatbread, crumbs scattering everywhere as she ate.

Shen Lin walked over and wiped the crumbs from her mouth.

Mrs. Annie paused for a moment, then smiled at Shen Lin: “You really are a good child.”

Shen Lin sat beside her and asked, “Mrs. Annie, is there anything I can help you with?”

“Just want to chat with you.” Mrs. Annie looked kindly at Shen Lin. Her thin, withered hand grasped Shen Lin’s hand, giving him the feeling of being caught by a tree branch. “You remind me of what Layla looked like when she first came here.”

Shen Lin asked softly, “What was she like when she first arrived?”

“Just like you, a pretty one with blonde hair and blue eyes. Later she had a fever ,  such a high fever she almost died. After the fever broke, her beautiful green eyes turned into the violet ones she has now. But they’re still beautiful, that’s a holy color.” Mrs. Annie’s drooping eyelids fluttered as her high, bright voice now softened to a whisper. “I prayed over her, surely the deity heard my voice.”

“You’re amazing,” said Shen Lin. “I’m getting more and more curious about what happened back then. Mrs. Annie, how did you do it?”

“She was already dying at that time,” Mrs. Annie lay back in the recliner, her lips opening and closing weakly. “She cried so hard, her parents didn’t want her anymore, her nurse didn’t want her either, she was about to die, and she was still so small.”

After saying this, she seemed extremely tired. Trembling, she finished the last piece of flatbread and then lay in the recliner, unwilling to say another word.

Shen Lin patiently chatted with her for a while, but couldn’t get anything more. The old lady had fallen asleep.

He stood up helplessly, looked around, and said, “Make a Spot Hidden check.”

He rolled.

35/31, success.

Then, he quickly discovered something odd in the kitchen, the kitchen was too cramped. When he stepped in, behind him was a small blind spot that was hard to notice, where there seemed to be a door-shaped gap.

Yan Xiuyi moved away the wooden shelf blocking the gap, and as expected, it revealed a locked door.

Shen Lin pushed it, he could only hear the sound of the lock rattling, the crack of the door was dark, making it impossible for him to peek inside through the gap.

“Do you have Locksmith?” Shen Lin asked.

Yan Xiuyi shook his head.

Locksmith isn’t a general skill, the base value is only 1 point, neither he nor Yan Xiuyi has this attribute, no matter how lucky he is, it’s impossible to roll a 0 under 1.

They had to think of a way to get the key.

He returned to Layla’s room, rolled a Spot Hidden, trying to find the key, but the clues given were all useless, in that case, the key must be kept on Layla, he could try a Sleight of Hand to steal the key from Layla, but the probability wasn’t high, his Sleight of Hand is untrained, only 10, if Layla discovered it, it would be a big problem.

Shen Lin said to Yan Xiuyi: “You stay in the room, I’ll roll a Disguise and go out to find Freud and the others, I remember Bayer has Locksmith.”

Yan Xiuyi didn’t respond, his gaze looked out from the second-floor window, several townspeople were wandering in the street, yesterday’s events had spread, Mrs. Fournier’s death became Benson’s mind-altering drug, inciting the villagers to madly hunt for them, these outsiders bearing sin.

Yan Xiuyi didn’t want to let him go out alone: “It’s too dangerous.”

Shen Lin avoided the fanaticism in his eyes uncomfortably: “…Then you roll a Disguise first, if you pass we’ll go together.”

Yan Xiuyi rolled: 30/3.

Extreme success.

Shen Lin: “???”

KP said: “He always liked the plays you acted in, sometimes would dress up like you, imitate your acting expressions, so he put some points into Disguise, but I didn’t expect an extreme success.”

Shen Lin: “…”

Then Shen Lin also rolled a successful Disguise.

After the roll, Shen Lin suddenly realized a problem: “What do we use to disguise ourselves?”

KP said excitedly: “Layla has spare clothes, you guys can wear women’s clothes!”

Shen Lin: “?”

Shen Lin said: “I think maybe Mrs. Fournier had a son or grandson, his clothes might just fit us, I’ll roll a Luck.”

“Luck isn’t omnipotent.”

“But not letting me roll Luck is absolutely not allowed.”

KP compromised: “Go ahead and roll, we’ll see after.”

Shen Lin rolled, and unsurprisingly succeeded.

KP said: “…………Go ask Mrs. Annie.”

Shen Lin and the others went downstairs, Mrs. Annie had woken up, lazily lying there, the bald parrot instantly locked its gaze on them.

Shen Lin said: “Mrs. Annie, we want to change into a different set of clothes, could we borrow two pieces from you?”

Mrs. Annie raised her hand, pointed to the wardrobe in her room.

“Thank you.” Shen Lin helped pull the blanket over her knees, then entered the room.

The old lady’s room was very tidy, Shen Lin instinctively said: “Rolling Spot Hidden.”

He rolled: 35/55. Fail.

Yan Xiuyi followed with a roll: 80/72. Success.

Yan Xiuyi discovered that the old lady’s room was clean and neat, on a table in the corner was placed a photo album, on it was a group photo of Layla and her.

At that time, Mrs. Annie hadn’t aged like now, looking carefully, Layla’s pupils were hard to distinguish between green or purple, but her smile was bright and clean, showing that the two had a very close relationship.

Shen Lin flipped to the back, a string of dates was written: August 19, 1925, but it was crossed out with a pen, that was three years ago.

He remembered this time point, Luther had said Mrs. Annie had a serious illness three years ago, and Mrs. Fournier’s son also died in an accident three years ago.

Yan Xiuyi took out two sets of clothes and shook them open, one of them turned out to be women’s clothes.

“Oh my,” Mrs. Annie said full of nostalgia, “This set was what Layla wore when she just came here, so beautiful, I kept it until now, it still has the scent of lilies.”

Shen Lin: “…”

KP: “Stop struggling, one of you has to wear women’s clothes.”

Shen Lin’s pride wouldn’t allow him to wear this set of women’s clothes, but that outfit’s size clearly couldn’t fit Yan Xiuyi, Shen Lin braced himself mentally, then tried putting it on. He was tall and slender, the ladies’ floor-length dress fit his waist just right, but became a mid-calf dress on him, the lace brushed past his lower legs, highlighting his long calves and fair, delicate skin.

“So beautiful,” Mrs. Annie sincerely praised, “You really look like a noble lady, elegant and charming.”

Shen Lin put on the headscarf with a blank expression, embodying a reluctance to be seen.

Yan Xiuyi’s eyes turned deep and quiet.

Shen Lin scowled and pushed him to go change clothes.

Mrs. Annie laughed: “Looking like this, you and Layla really do look alike, especially those beautiful eyes, you both have such fine upbringing.”

Shen Lin saw that she had some energy, so he unfolded the old writings they had transcribed and showed them to Mrs. Annie: “Mrs. Annie, do you recognize these characters?”

He deliberately scrambled the order of the characters, and added some unnecessary noise.

Mrs. Annie carefully looked at those characters, Shen Lin used a magnifying glass to trace them one by one for her, and finally obtained the correct interpretation of those characters.The information he wanted was also very simple, the god worshiped by this town was called:

Serge Slaki.