Chapter 284 The Price of Harvest
Stealing food?
Will I, a great lord, come to steal your food, or is this just a dream?
Hastur suppressed the corner of his mouth that wanted to twitch, and couldn't help but think of a certain penguin's food-stealing game. At that time, everyone was really stealing food, and some even set alarm clocks and got out of bed in the middle of the night. It was really crazy.
"I'm just curious about why your vegetables look so delicious."
"Of course it's because we have the blessing of the goddess!" The girl answered matter-of-factly.
Hastur pretended to be ignorant and continued to ask: "Which goddess?"
"The God of Ceres, the goddess of the breath of spring, that's what we call him. He has always protected our land and is our patron saint." When she mentioned the gods she believed in, the girl unconsciously puffed up her chest and raised her tone.
"Oh, I have heard something. It is said that a female priest is needed to preside over the sacrificial ceremony every year."
The girl's face was filled with a bright smile, "I am the priest of this year's Grain Sacrifice Festival."
Hasta also had a smile on his face, "That's awesome. I also heard that the priestess of the Grain Sacrifice Festival will be changed every year. Is this also chosen by the goddess herself?"
"Of course not. This is a place my father bought specifically from the mayor of the town, saying he wanted to gain some fame for me."
The girl said something that surprised Hastur, but if you think about it carefully, this is worldly and normal.
No wonder the priestesses are changed every year. It turns out that their heritage has long since declined, and the current priestesses are just symbolic dolls pushed out by the mayor.
The girl worriedly said: "You are not allowed to tell others. I only told you because I think you are a good person. If others find out, my father will definitely punish me."
Hastur had no choice but to promise her that she would not leak the secret, and praised her for being able to fulfill the position of priest at such a young age.
When the girl was in a happy mood, Hastur took the opportunity to ask her some other secrets.
For example, the origin of the Grain Sacrifice Festival, what kind of sacrifices were offered during the sacrifice, and whether anything out of the ordinary happened in the town.
After asking and answering questions, Hastur wanted to leave the dreamland when he was almost done with the questions.
"Will we meet again?"
"If there is a chance."
Faced with the girl's lingering thoughts, Hastur just smiled and gave an uncertain reply.
The girl's eyes lit up, she smiled happily and said, "I have a hunch that we will definitely meet again, very soon."
When Hastur left the dream, the girl in the dream lost her light in her eyes and stood there blankly, not knowing what to do, as if she had lost her soul.
Hastur left Miss Liv's room, returned to the street, and headed towards the mayor's residence with a solemn expression.
According to what Miss Liv just said, the origin of the Grain Sacrifice Festival is indeed to commemorate a girl who once lived in this town, but the girl was not willing to dedicate herself to the harvest of the town's crops.
Because she herself was the first sacrifice chosen, for people at that time, being able to exchange one's life for a good harvest was a deal that no one had to think about.
But for some reason, as time went by, the girl who was sacrificed gradually replaced the god who gave the blessing, and was posthumously named the Goddess of Ceres, the Breathing Goddess of Spring.
Become a god who now enjoys sacrifices.
The sacrifices offered during the Grain Sacrifice Festival every year are not the priestesses, but the young lovers.
The girl did not disclose the specific situation in depth.
Hastur found it strange that she knew so much. Logically speaking, a little girl like her shouldn't know these secrets.
Arriving at the mayor's house, Hastur once again used his dreaming ability to enter his dream.
This time it went well. The mayor's dream was divided into two halves, one half was a harvest farmland, and the other half was a weird world where spiders made webs.
The mayor in the dream had his feet tangled in spider silk, and his eyes were dull and foolish, which fit the description of the nightmare ability.
Facing Hastur's inquiry, the mayor was like a answering machine, telling him everything he knew.
The mayor also doesn’t know how the girl who was first sacrificed became the Breath of Spring goddess worshiped during the Grain Festival.
He only knows that if he wants the town to have a bumper harvest every year, he must hold a Grain Sacrifice Festival, otherwise disaster will come here.
This is something every mayor is told when he takes office.
In the original Grain Sacrifice Festival, the priestess was indeed the chosen sacrifice.
But later they gradually evolved into a couple, and they had to reproduce in front of the statue of the god.
From one couple in the beginning to five couples today, the gods' appetite is getting bigger and bigger, but for a good harvest, the Grain Sacrifice Festival still needs to be held.
Therefore, in recent years, the town has secretly purchased several couples from other places and made them sacrifices to please the gods, thereby achieving a good harvest.
As for the selection of the priestess, it was randomly drawn at first. But as it became easier for girls who had been priests to get married and obtain high betrothal gifts, some anxious parents would secretly bribe the town mayor to buy an annual gift. Priesthood.
This year's priestess's quota was purchased by Old Jeff for 50 gold pounds.
"What will happen to the lovers who become sacrifices at the Grain Sacrifice Festival?"
When Hastur asked this question, a strange smile appeared on the mayor's face, and he said sadly: "Of course he was eaten by the gods!"
"Where is the god you speak of?"
"Haha, right here in this land..."
Before the mayor finished speaking, the spider silk that was originally wrapped around the mayor's feet suddenly surged wildly. In just a few breaths, the mayor was wrapped into a white spider cocoon and then hung in the air.
The dream world that was originally divided in half, the golden field was completely swallowed up by the spider web world.
In the depths of the white spider web, the white spider cocoons hanging in the air began to crack, giving birth to spiders the size of adults, with snow-white abdomens, red spots on the back, and black spiders on the rest of the body.
"Did it sense the danger and exert influence from a distance?"
Hasta left the mayor's dream without hesitation.
In reality, the mayor, who was lying on the bed and sleeping soundly, was also completely wrapped in spider silk and became a white cocoon.
Those white spider silk threads were spreading to the edge of the room with the mayor's body as the center.
And the initiator was a thumb-sized spider.
These spiders came from the mayor's belly button, where a crack appeared, and more and more spiders crawled out from it and began to weave webs.
Soon, the whole house became a white spider cave.
The strange scene made Hasta retreat to the window, and when the spider silk spread over, Hasta left the window.
Strangely, when the spider web covered the whole room, all the spiders went back through the belly button and drilled into the mayor's body.
Hasta watched for a long time in the house opposite, until a suppressed cry came from that house.
Although the mayor's relatives were panicked when they saw this strange scene, they did not shout as expected. Instead, they took advantage of the late night and carried the mayor's body wrapped in a cocoon on their shoulders, then went downstairs and put it on a straw-covered oxcart, covering it with thick straw and some other fruits and vegetables.
Seeing such strange behavior, Hasta naturally followed. The speed of the oxcart was not fast, and Hasta barely followed behind.
Occasionally, if he lost the direction of the oxcart, he could also find the right direction for himself through the guidance of fate and continue to chase.
The oxcart left the town gate, drove along the main road for a while, then turned into a small road and drove into the growing farmland.
At the end of this flat farmland, there is a two-hundred-meter-high hill, and the oxcart stopped at the foot of the hill.
Without the oxcart to speed them up, Hasta quickly caught up with them. There were four people in the group. The person in front was responsible for holding a lantern to lead the way, the two people in the middle were responsible for carrying the cocooned mayor, and the last person was cautious and alert to prevent anyone from following.
Looking at their skilled division of labor, it was obvious that this was not the first time they did this kind of thing.
Hasta thought of the five young couples who were at the sacrifice last night. After the sacrifice, they disappeared accordingly.
It seems that they should also be wrapped in spider silk into cocoons like the mayor, and then secretly sent here.
Feeding the gods?
Hasta slowly followed them to the top of the mountain.
Tonight, the light of the crimson moon was temporarily covered by black clouds. The sky was dim and cold, and the mountains were blowing cold winds. Although it was much warmer here than Backlund, in the middle of the night, people still felt the cold air wet their clothes and penetrated their skin.
After reaching the top of the mountain, passing through the dense forest path, they came to a deep cave. The two people carrying the mayor's cocoon approached carefully, and then threw the heavy objects on their shoulders directly into the cave.
After doing all this, the four people knelt on the ground and bowed, chanting words such as asking the gods to forgive and forgive their sins.
Until a slight dragging sound came from the cave, the four people hurriedly got up and left here without looking back.
After they left, Hastur appeared from the dark and came to the vicinity of the cave.
This deep cave was vertically downward, and the dim moonlight that was not very bright could not see the things in the cave at all.
Moreover, there were spider webs everywhere, which blocked the prying eyes.
Hastur carefully observed the edge of the cave for a long time, and did not choose to venture in.
He didn't have the hobby of feeding the tiger with his own body. Under the condition of unclear situation, he would not let himself take risks easily.
But he didn't leave immediately, but waited here to see if there would be any other changes.
After waiting for about an hour, Hasta moved a big stone from nearby and smashed it directly into the bottom of the cave.
According to the time it took for the stone to fall to the ground and make a sound, it is estimated that the cave should be about 130 meters high.
According to the height of this mountain, the navel of the mountain should be the location of the spider's nest.
Soon, the sound of dragging heavy objects was faintly heard from below the cave.
Hasta listened for a while, and then moved two big stones from nearby, weighing about 100 kilograms each.
He threw down a big stone first, and when the dragging sound was heard again below, Hasta threw down another big stone.
Soon, a harsh sound was heard below, as if many spiders were pouring out of the cave below.
"Tsk, I can't afford it."
Hasta left the vicinity of the cave, climbed up a three-meter-high tree, stood on the trunk, and overlooked the location of the cave.
Under the faint light of the crimson moon, pairs of dark red blood-like eyes lit up in the dark cave.