Chapter 327: Ghost Town-I

Elise and Ian both looked at the man with their brows raised. Elise saw the man circled his way out from the counter, "What do you mean by stuck?"

The man went closer and lowered his voice considerably, just enough for both Ian and Elise to hear, "I mean stuck, trapped! I know your carriages must have broke on your way near this town, don't you? This is a ghost town, just like you two I have been trapped here." The man said with desperation on his expression. 

Elise looked at Ian, she then asked, "This is a ghost town?"

"It's a ghost looping town," replied the man, he then looked at how posted the two people were, wearing dress and clothes of a higher class. "I don't think you two might believe my word and I hope you won't panic once I have explained you. But believe my words, I am not telling a lie!"

Ian raised his hand to the man, telling, "Cease your yapping and tell me what happened."

The man didn't know who Ian was but by the look of it he appeared to be a very wealthy man, he decided to become more polite saying, "This is what happened, sir. Three weeks earlier, I was with my horse, about to visit another town that distanced a forest away from here when I suddenly realized I have been going on the same path for the sixth times until dawn! It was then when I came to this village as it was the only place I could rest my tired horse and myself. I am not sure what had taken place here, but I know for sure this must be the work of dark sorcerers."

"Are you trapped here, unable to leave this village?" Elise questioned the man before he trailed away from main point of his report.

"Yes! And oddly enough, you won't believe me for what I am saying, but do believe that this is the truth. Please do not crate a ruckus after I have revealed to you what I found. If you don't follow this rule..."

"You would suddenly disappear?" Ian continued the word, clicking his tongue as the human man had spoken so slowly. 

The man brought his head up and down vigorously. "Which why please promise me not to make a ruckus. I fear to be alone here."

"We won't make a scene," promised Elise. She had experienced many odd and strange things that wouldn't be easily believed by others if she was to tell what she experienced. She doubted there would be anything that could surprise her after learning her ties with Demons. "Can you explain us what do you mean by rules?"

"Well, after I came here, there was few people who was also trapped here. One time there was a caravan filled with people. Suddenly one by one disappeared, leaving almost no one because they had done things that isn't allowed here. First no one should be allowed to enter the houses in the town without the magistrate's permission. Second, we cannot use violence to the magistrate. Third, we cannot break the houses in this town. The last is that...we cannot try to escape from here."

"Not escape?" Ian raised an eyebrow, "With that much rules, it only interest me more to break them. Rules are created to be broken, right?" and at this, the man looked frightened by his confident response as it seemed Ian did look like he would leave the inn to break all the four rules that the man had said.

Elise shook her head in reply, seeing Ian shrugging his shoulders, "Having different opinion is often said to be a trait of newlywed. I can tell we would never get bored of each other."

"I don't think we should break the rules without knowing anything yet," Elise said and Ian didn't reply with promise but a nod was enough for him to try. She then turned her head to the human man, "Does no one come to search for you all the people from the caravan who had disappeared?" Caravan usually have more than ten people, it would be strange for no one to search for the missing people.

"No one searched for me either, I doubted anyone would searched for the, or you. Do anyone of you posses a pocket watch? Keep it with you and wait for it until it strikes to ten, believe me Sun doesn't come up for the entire day!"

Suddenly a sound of burst rang from their left, enough to have the human man run toward the counter, hiding under the table. Elise took a step back only to see Beelzebub getting inside the house. The blonde-haired demon swept his hair up, his eyes stared at Ian, "He doesn't answer me anything."

Elise didn't understand and she looked up at Ian, he took the chance and explained, "Beelzebub's Blood power is to force answer from people, they would reply to all the question he directed with only truth. It always work to all type of people, Demons, Angels, or human. Yet it didn't work," Ian hummed in a deep thought, wondering what was going on here.

Being the Lord of Warine, he wasn't aware of this case ever happening. There had been no notice of sudden missing people or a ghost town that pulled people in before trapping them in it forever. The Church didn't notify him cases such as this either as if it was swept under the rug. 

"What did you find out about the magic here?" asked Beelzebub who had taken off his coat that was drenched as the snow had melted. He then closed the door and shifted his eyes to look at the human man who hid under the table. "What about this human?"

"He had been trapped here like us," Elise explained and Beelzebub gave a look of understanding.

"It is certainly a dark magic. As to how to break this loop magic, we will need to find the mastermind," Ian stated and his eyes looked at the window while Elise followed his line of gaze, "The one who performed this magic must be here somewhere with us." Not far from them was a white crow that had been following the carriage Ian and Elise drove. It left for a moment and followed them here to the ghost town. The white crow continued to watch for its red eyes to dipped to golden as if turning to the eye color of its owner to share the view it was watching.