After walking around the village twice, Chief Hodel followed the group step by step.
With his consent, Gauss finally chose an open space in the village.
Then, under the curious gazes of the villagers, they unfolded the Folding House.
The moment the house popped up, the villagers—who'd been wondering how these outsiders planned to build a place to stay—were completely stunned.
Everyone stared at the house and started whispering in amazement.
"Chief, my teammates and I are a bit tired from travel, so we'll go in and rest first."
After saying that, Gauss led his party into the house and shut the door.
"Something's off, isn't it?"
Alia had been holding back her confusion for a while now.
But she wasn't dense—she knew how to read the mood, so she'd stayed quiet in front of the villagers.
Gauss sat down at the dining table in the living room and poured water for himself and the others.
His gaze drifted out through the one-way glass window. Outside on the open ground, the villagers were still crowded around the Folding House, clearly fascinated by both the strange magical building and the group who'd brought it, and even though the party had gone inside, no one had left yet.
"Don't you think it's strange? This is the first village that doesn't want any help from us," Gauss said slowly, turning his attention back inside.
It really didn't make sense.
Human nature is greedy and never satisfied.
When free help shows up at your door, even if your village is doing better than most, there's always something that could use improving, isn't there?
They could've asked to reinforce their defenses—herb powders or not, an extra layer of protection is never wrong. Or asked them to clear out monsters in the surrounding area, train some of the younger villagers, help York look for his missing daughter… Their party could offer quite a lot here, right?
And the lack of any real fortifications was suspicious in itself.
Even if the powders are effective, that's still just a "soft" deterrent. They live here—how can they not feel uneasy?
Even if the average villager doesn't think that deeply, the chief and elders certainly should. Their lives are on the line.
Unless… they're certain monsters won't attack their village?
Looking back now, the chief's "we're fine, thanks" attitude felt a bit like ushering them out the door.
But then, when Gauss asked to stay a few days, the chief didn't show any obvious discomfort or resistance.
"Isn't that a good thing though?" Alia said, nodding. "If they can handle things themselves, we get to save some effort for once."
She wasn't overthinking things the way Gauss was.
"I actually like it here. The air feels really clean."
Her keen perception made her feel this place was comfortable in a way that put her guard down. That alone had kept her from digging too hard into the odd details.
"This village definitely has something off about it," Serandur suddenly said.
He'd been wearing a strange expression since they walked in, and when Gauss spoke up, it seemed to confirm his own suspicions.
"How so?" Alia asked, sincerely curious.
"Back when I examined that man named York, I noticed a large amount of lingering medicinal power in his body. Clearly, he's been taking a lot of medicine for some time…"
"Normally, for a mental breakdown due to trauma, you don't need such strong drugs."
"In a village that lives off herbs, they should have at least one decent doctor."
Gauss and the chief's earlier conversation, plus Serandur's findings, finally made everyone realize there was something wrong with this "Herb Village."
"Should we get out of here quickly?" Alia asked in a low voice.
Moments ago in the fold-out house she'd been pretty relaxed—but after listening to the analysis from the two of them, she suddenly felt like they'd walked into a den of thieves.
"No rush. Let's investigate carefully first."
Gauss had looked around the village earlier and hadn't spotted anything obviously suspicious—no strange structures, no ominous figures.
And in the end, their analysis was still just speculation. They had no hard proof that anything shady was really happening here.
"Shadow, I'll leave scouting the village perimeter to you. While you're at it, check the distribution of monster groups nearby too," Gauss said, turning to the pensive Shadow.
She was still the best scout they had, and after advancing to Level 6, her detection skills had only grown stronger. Once she slipped into the darkness, even Gauss had a hard time sensing her.
"Alright, I'll circle around the village a few times. Just not sure if I'll find anything useful," Shadow replied.
Alia hesitated for a moment.
"If that village chief is hiding something, should we… maybe find a chance to use Charm on him?"
Charm worked like a truth serum on ordinary people. If Gauss cast it, there was basically no way the chief could resist.
Gauss paused.
He had thought about using that spell, but he hadn't mentioned it for a reason.
First, once the spell ended, the target would definitely notice something was wrong, and it would leave a negative impression. If there really was some shady secret, that'd be one thing—but if it turned out to be a misunderstanding, things would get awkward fast. If word reached the nearest town, Gauss would be the one in the wrong.
Second, there's the simple principle: you don't punch someone who greets you with a smile.
From the moment they'd entered the village, the chief and the villagers as a whole had treated them with respect. They were a little distant, maybe, but never rude.
Last, he had a vague gut feeling that using Charm on the chief wouldn't give him the answers he wanted.
That might sound vague, but gut feelings are built from all kinds of tiny details—and with Gauss's stats so far beyond normal, his "intuition" was often more accurate than most people's logic.
"Let's investigate on our own first," Gauss said, shaking his head and turning down Alia's suggestion.
He needed to clear the nearby monsters anyway.
Alia didn't push it.
She'd only thrown the idea out there on impulse. Truthfully, she didn't really like the idea of using charm magic on ordinary people.
…
After noon, they'd rested briefly and settled their approach.
The Gauss party came out of the Folding House, their expressions calm.
Outside, the villagers had all dispersed to their own work.
"Captain, I'm going to check on York again," Serandur said quietly.
He got the sense that if there was a breakthrough, it might be tied to that broken man.
"Alright. Be careful," Gauss nodded.
At the same time, Shadow quietly disappeared into the nearest patch of shade.
"What about us? What do we do?" Alia asked, turning to Gauss.
"We'll walk around the village a bit."
Gauss sounded relaxed.
He needed to wait for Shadow's intel—on both the village's secrets and the monster distribution—so for now, they might as well play tourists.
So Gauss led Alia and Albena on a lazy stroll.
If not for the odd undercurrent, Gauss would've called this village an ideal place to retire.
Being inside the forest, the air was extremely fresh.
The herb-scent in the air also masked the usual smells of waste and people.
A few old men sat on small stools outside their houses, puffing on pipes.
"Taking a walk, honored guests?" one gap-toothed elder called out cheerfully, his consonants a bit fuzzy from missing teeth.
"Yeah, just walking around after eating," Gauss smiled back.
"Our backwater doesn't compare to the big cities. No fancy scenery—just a lot of herbs and halfway decent air," the old man chuckled, eyes narrowed as he tapped ash from his pipe.
"On the contrary, this is the kind of place I'd want to retire in someday," Gauss replied easily. "Grandpa, how old are you?"
"Why don't you guess?"
"Sixty?"
"Hah! This old bag of bones is already past eighty!" the old man cackled proudly, tugging at his scraggly white beard.
"You look great for eighty. Don't look it at all."
"Of course I do! Herb Village's been a 'long-life village' for hundreds of years now. Within several hundred li of here, we've got the most old-timers who make it this far," the old man said, full of pride.
Gauss chatted with them for a bit more, then moved on.
"The elders here are all pretty sharp," he remarked as they walked.
In this era, living long wasn't easy for ordinary people—and staying sharp in mind and speech at that age was even rarer.
He hadn't guessed sixty as flattery; it was a reasonable estimate.
Compared to the elderly from his past life, the old folks in this world aged harder, and poorer diets meant dementia was more common too.
But here? The old people seemed almost too clear-headed.
And it wasn't just this one—so far, the chief, the smokers just now… all of them spoke smoothly, thought clearly.
What's their longevity secret?
Just calling it a "long-life village" didn't explain much.
Was it something about the environment? Or was there some other reason?
He and Alia wandered a while longer.
Every villager they met was friendly, some even trying to share preserved meat or jam with them.
Gauss, being cautious, politely turned all the food down.
"It's a pretty well-off village…" Alia sighed.
They'd passed through plenty of poor villages already, helping reinforce defenses and wiping out nearby monsters. This one wasn't large, but in terms of living standards, it was clearly the best off.
On what looked like a training ground, they saw the so-called "strong lads" the chief had mentioned.
Both men and women were practicing seriously, each fully focused.
Gauss chose not to disturb them and just observed from a distance.
"They all have skills already…"
"And that middle-aged man in front probably has a class level," he added.
The man held a staff and was firing off cantrips at a row of targets.
Though he only used basic spells, Gauss's eyes quickly judged his level. That wasn't just "I can cast cantrips"—it was at least a proper Level 1 caster.
"If the village has a classed spellcaster and this many trainees, it's not that strange they're not afraid of monsters in the forest."
One competent magic-user, plus a squad of local trainees who know the land, is more than enough to handle most low-tier monsters.
"But…"
Gauss glanced down at his own pale robe.
Anyone with eyes could see he was a caster.
And compared to him, that middle-aged man might as well still be an apprentice.
A village this tucked away in the woods probably didn't see many visiting mages—aside from the odd merchant or adventurer.
Even if not asking for guidance, you'd think the man would at least approach for conversation or shared theory.
Gauss's gaze lingered on the middle-aged caster and a few of the youths around him.
"Let's head back."
He'd been watching long enough. He could tell they'd noticed him by now, and he didn't feel like making it awkward by staring.
Back at the house, Serandur had already returned.
"Find anything?" Gauss asked.
"When I went over, that York fellow already had a doctor into see him," Serandur said.
"Looked like the guy had just given him more medicine."
"And to be honest… it didn't look much like treating him. More like…"
He didn't finish the sentence out loud, but everyone got the implication.
"You're saying… they're dosing him on purpose?" Alia asked, eyes wide.
"Yeah," Serandur nodded. "Judging from the potency, it's been going on for quite some time."
"What about his wife?" Gauss asked.
"The villagers said she fell sick shortly after giving birth and died. And York's an outsider. He came here to teach reading and writing. After his daughter disappeared, there's no one related to him left in the village."
"How could they do that… They don't seem like bad people," Alia murmured, rubbing her chin, suddenly doubting her own usually reliable intuition.
"…"
Gauss thought for a moment, then shook his head.
"If they really wanted to get rid of him, some poison would do it, wouldn't it?"
He'd hit the key point.
If someone really wanted him dead, that'd be easy—especially if the village had a good herbalist. A simple, clean poison would do the job. Why bother with this long-term dosing that turned him into a lunatic instead?
For people with truly malicious intent, a dead man is far safer than an unstable one.
"That's true…" Serandur admitted after hearing that.
Everyone fell quiet for a bit.
Just then, the door creaked open and Shadow stepped inside.
"You're back. How'd it go? Find anything?" Gauss asked.
"I did," Shadow replied.
"There are powders spread around the village perimeter. Lots of beasts and monsters are staying outside the boundary and not coming in."
"So on that point, the chief didn't lie."
She paused. Gauss kept silent, waiting—Shadow wouldn't say she "had a discovery" lightly.
"But," she continued, "while I was scouting outside, I found an old stone hut deeper in the forest."
~~~
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