A dull longsword and a heartbroken villager

"This one will do."

"Okay, I'll take this."

Bray accepted the letter of authorization from the receptionist; this would prove that he had accepted the commission.

"gone back."

“Oh!” Levy responded.

Bray left the Adventurers' Guild reluctantly, feeling uncomfortable being stared at by the guild members.

---

"The 'Demon Hunter' didn't threaten you, did it? The atmosphere here seemed quite tense just now," an adventurer tried to ask the receptionist.

Everyone wanted to know what the "Demon Hunter" had just said.

"No threat...it doesn't seem like one." The receptionist rested her index finger on her chin, lost in thought.

That person wasn't as terrifying as the rumors suggested.

"Nate Town, that's the name of the place where we accept commissions." Naruko sat in the carriage in a very unladylike posture.

Knight Town is a very ordinary town, neither poor nor rich.

This ordinary town is located in the southern part of the Will Empire.

Because it's close to the border of the Will Empire, quite a few travelers pass through here.

"Do you think I don't consider the client when I accept a case?" Bray was speechless.

"Tsk, I just wanted to find something to talk about with you, didn't I?"

“Ah, Bray is such a boring man.” Naruko picked up Levy.

"Isn't that right, Levy?"

"Oh!" Levy, not understanding what was going on, instinctively responded with a soft "Oh!"

Although I didn't understand what Naruko was trying to say, all I had to do was say "Oh".

"Meow!" Fireball had the same thought.

It didn't understand why its master said "Oh," but Fireball felt that as long as it agreed, that was enough.

"Bosses, we've arrived," the coachman outside called out to Bray and his men, pulling on his horse.

“Okay, thank you.” Naruko waved to the coachman in response.

"Let's go, let's go, let me see what this so-called Knight Town is like." Naruko jumped off the carriage excitedly.

"Sigh—" Bray sighed dejectedly.

Why is Naruko always so energetic? Where does she get so much energy?

However, Bray had no choice but to follow Naruko, otherwise things would be terrible if Naruko took Levy somewhere.

"Um! Can I ask you a question?" Naruko stood at the entrance of the town and casually grabbed a passerby.

"Huh?" The passerby looked completely bewildered.

"We are adventurers who accepted a quest to subdue your town. Is there someone in charge or something?" Naruko asked.

"Ah, they're on night watch." The passerby looked as if he had just realized something.

“Yes.” Naruko nodded emphatically.

"I'll go tell everyone; someone should be looking for you soon," the passerby said.

---

It didn't take long before Naruko found the person in charge of the commission for Bray.

Their speed of action far surpassed that of Lei Bu.

"Hello, are you two the adventurers who accepted this commission?" A blond man extended his hand, wanting to shake hands with Bray.

He completely ignored Levy, who was following behind Bray and Naruko.

Such a creature probably isn't an adventurer.

"Hello, Blakeras."

"This is Naruko," Bree introduced Naruko casually.

"She is Levy." Of course, we can't forget the ignored Levy.

"I've got it, I've got it." The blond man laughed a few times.

The person in charge of the commission was named William.

It's a pretty common name, but Bray likes it because it's super easy to remember.

"Let me arrange accommodations for you first, and then I'll explain the details of the incident," William said, before leading the way.

Bray chose to follow them directly; William was probably taking them to their lodgings.

“Nothing was happening in our town of Knight a few months ago; the strange things have only started recently,” William said as he walked.

"Although I haven't seen it myself, some townspeople say that many strange monsters appear in the town at night."

"But some townspeople said nothing happened during the night."

"Ugh...this is so annoying." William sighed.

Different people had different opinions, which annoyed William, who handled these town affairs.

Who knows what the real story is?

Maybe there really aren't any monsters at all.

So even with the mayor's authorization, William only invited some low-level adventurers.

This could be seen as testing the waters.

"So we're going to find out the actual situation? And if there really are monsters, we'll just take them down while we're at it?" Bray tried to say.

“That’s how it is in theory,” William said.

"However, several groups of adventurers have already come before you."

“They all encountered so-called monsters, but they ran away in fear without even fighting them…” William gave a wry smile.

What a shameful adventurer to be scared away by monsters.

"In other words, there really must be monsters."

"But to be honest, I've tried staying up late at night, and I haven't seen anything." Knowing that there was something strange about the town, William had stayed up late into the night before.

Unfortunately, like some of the townspeople, William didn't see anything at all.

"So I'll have to trouble you to defeat that monster," William said.

"What does that monster look like?" Even if they were scared away, those adventurers from before should have seen what the monster looked like.

Bray still wanted to learn what the monster looked like before nightfall.

“…” William was silent for a while.

“We really don’t know,” William said, shaking his head helplessly.

"As for what it looks like, didn't the previous adventurers tell you?"

“All they reported to us was the word ‘disgusting’,” William said, shrugging.

None of the adventurers before had described the monster's appearance in detail, which was quite strange.

“This is where you’re staying. It’s not very nice, please forgive me,” William said, stopping and turning back to Bray.

William stopped in front of a small bungalow.

The fence was a bit rusty, and the walls were somewhat old.

Overall, however, Bray's situation is still acceptable.

“You can stay here until you complete your mission and leave,” William said.

"I'll leave you with this tonight," William said solemnly.

It's still morning, and everything seems normal.

But who knows what nighttime will bring?

"Then I'll take my leave now." William waved goodbye to Bray and the others.

After watching William leave, Bray used the key William had given him to open the door.

After opening the door, the room was extremely dark.

"Light the fireball," Bray said to the fireball above Levy's head.

"Fireball, be good." Levy touched the fireball on her head.

The fireball narrowed its eyes, spat out small flames, and lit the lights on both sides of the passageway.

"How old-fashioned, it's an oil lamp," Naruko remarked.

"It's alright, it's very clean." It looks a bit old from the outside, but it's quite clean inside.

“That’s true.” Naruko nodded. Living in this place wasn’t too bad.

The lamp is a bit shabby.

Magic lamps are generally used; oil lamps are rarely used anymore.

"I've always felt that places without light, especially those with oil lamps, look particularly eerie," Naruko remarked.

“It’s morning, you idiot,” Bray said, scoffing.

"Then why are you lighting the lamp?!"

“Dark,” Bray said matter-of-factly.

Next, Bray used fireballs to turn on the lights in the darker parts of the room.

Although it was morning, the house was indeed a bit dark.

It wasn't just this house; the entire town of Knight gave Bray a very oppressive feeling.

The sky was always overcast, and Bray was in a bad mood the whole way. Although they were probably going to be up late tonight, theoretically Bray and the others should have gone to bed earlier.

However, in order to obtain more information, Bray decided to ask the people in town some questions.

"You mean at night... Actually, I sometimes stay up late too, but I haven't noticed anything strange at all..." A scholar who often stays up late pushed up his black-rimmed glasses and answered casually.

"At night... don't even mention it. We can't see anything outside, but we keep hearing ghostly wails and howls," a seemingly cowardly man said tremblingly.

"There might be monsters at night? But nothing's happened in town yet." This was a comment from a random girl passing by.

"No one's missing or dead in town, which proves nothing serious has happened." This was said by a rather oblivious resident.

Bray asked several people, and each person gave a different answer.

It's as if every night is different for everyone.

The town's buildings were not simple at all; they were comparable to the central city of the capital, and the decorations on the houses were quite nice.

There were quite a few people coming and going on the street.

The carriages were parked on the side of the street, waiting for customers.

Wooden crates were neatly stacked in the corner; they were goods ready to be moved.

Bray walked down the street, lost in thought, without immediately returning to his residence to rest.

"Wow, this is really weird, it's like we're all living in completely different places," Naruko complained.

“I feel the same way.” Bray frowned. Did these people really live in the same place? Why were their descriptions of the night all different?

Some people suspect that there are monsters at night, while others believe that nothing happened at night.

Could it be because there was only one monster that appeared in the town at night, so people in different places felt it differently?

However, Bray quickly dismissed this idea, because even his neighbors might give different answers when he asked them.

"Oh! Levy doesn't know!" Levy, along with the fireball on her head, had completely taken on the role of a mascot, completely oblivious to what was going on.

“I know you don’t know.” Bray casually touched Levy’s hair.