Chapter 188: Presto and Freya (1/2)
”Hahaha.” The old lady dryly laughed, ”I'm nothing but an old woman with a foot in her grave. Besides, I should be the one asking you that question, right?”
Calvin glanced at the Ghoul before he turned to look at the old lady, ”Why do you have such a repulsive creature in your backyard?”
”Why are you in my backyard?” The old lady retorted with a question.
Calvin bitterly smiled. It seemed that he must answer the old lady first and satisfy her with his answer before she would respond to his questions.
”I came here to retrieve something.” Calvin vaguely said. Honestly, he had no idea what to say.
”Retrieve? Are you here to retrieve Presto's bones, perhaps?” The old lady smiled. Her mouth went slightly ajar, revealing her unsightly blackened gums that had no teeth attached to them.
”How did you know?” Calvin's pupils constricted.
”Young man, do you believe in divination?” The old lady asked.
”Divination?” Calvin blankly uttered, ”Are you saying that you divined my arrival here?”
”Nope... You're half right and half wrong. Your arrival was indeed divined, but I was not the one who did it.”
”Who predicted my arrival?” Calvin frowned.
The old lady shook her head, ”I have no idea. But he knew that you are going to arrive. At first, I didn't believe his words, but when he told me that I have a rare constitution that gives me the ability to tame monsters as if they are my pets. I became a believer in his words.”
The ability to tame monsters as if they were her pets?
Calvin thought to himself.
He knew a lot of orthodox and unorthodox information with his decades' worth of knowledge, but this was the first time that he heard that there was a rare constitution out there that could let someone tame monsters and treat them as if they were household pets.
But Calvin was willing to give the old lady the benefit of the doubt—after all—it wouldn't be strange if he hadn't heard of them since they were 'rare'.
But...
”How can I be so sure that you are not lying to me?”
Calvin asked.
The old lady smiled before she turned around and started walking into her house, ”Come inside. I'll show you my collection of pets.”
”No thanks.”
He wasn't stupid.
If the old lady did have a collection of monsters as her pet inside her house, then it was tantamount to suicide if he went into that house.
”I am not going to harm you.” The old lady added, ”If I wanted to harm you, you would've died already.”
”Oh?” Calvin raised an eyebrow, ”How certain you are that you'll be able to kill me so easily?”
”This is not a matter of certainty, young man. It's an irrefutable fact.” The old lady simply shrugged.
”Interesting.” Calvin let out a smile, ”Since you're that powerful, then I will surely not go into that house!”
The old lady stopped in her tracks. Then, she started laughing, ”Hahaha... It sure was foolish of me to invite you to go into my house after I've told you that I am powerful enough to end your life. Of course, you'll have your guard up!” She raised her arm and all of a sudden, a chair came flying from inside the house into her hand.
The old lady handed over the chair to Calvin and gestured for him to sit, while another chair flew towards her hand.
”Okay...” Calvin took the seat and he sat a few meters away from the old lady. He focused his senses on the old lady's arm, then he discovered that despite the chair weighing at least ten kilograms. The old lady's arm didn't even tremble as she caught the chair in mid-air!
What did this mean?
It meant that she was physically stronger than she looks!
Calvin placed one of his hands into his pocket as he clenched a few pieces of crumpled paper under his palm. He was ready to react at any moment and if the situation soured, he was confident that he could escape.
He sat there staring at the old lady as the old lady let out a sigh and said, ”Seeing that golden light that you threw earlier to Chad, you must be a member of one of the three Judiciaries of the Kingdom, am I right?”
”Yes...” Calvin glanced at the Ghoul and he didn't know whether to laugh or to cry knowing that it had such a name as 'Chad'.
”In that case, then I shall find solace to the fact that not any soul would ever find out as to what had been the topic of today's discussion.”
The old lady chuckled.
”The topic of today's discussion?”
”You came here for Presto's bones and that is enough for me to know that Freya...” The old lady sighed, ”Let's not talk about that anymore.”
”I made you take a seat because I want you to know that the Village of Tulog has a danger that you could not possibly hope to defeat. If the danger in that village is only in the form of a few Corpse Eaters and monsters, then it would be fine...”
”But that is not the case when it comes to that village.”
”I'm sure you know about the Our Lady of Holy Death, right?”
”Yes, I've heard its origins from one of its residents.”
”From one of its residents?” The old lady's pupils constricted, ”There's still someone alive in that damned village?!”
”Yes, he's part human, part monster. He managed to survive by eating his own flesh and relying on the regenerative properties of his cursed body to recover that consumed flesh.”
”My goddess...” The old lady gasped in shock.
”But since he's already affected by the curse, there's only one way left for him. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.”
Calvin nodded, ”He's going to be eliminated in the end. There's just no way that the church would give him sanctuary given that he possesses a curse whose means of infection isn't even known as well as its origins.”