The next morning, a fine spring rain drizzled from the sky, soaking the fields around Sanglen Village, all lush with green wheat shoots. Cooking smoke rose from village chimneys nearby; distant mountains lay shrouded in mist. Only the Silverthread River still ran on, light and quick, shattering the morning’s hush.
In an old timber-and-stone cottage at the village’s east end, Aunt Masha, past fifty, woke early to find the next room empty. She couldn’t help thumping the door hard. It was her son Gil’s room. If he wasn’t there first thing in the morning, it wasn’t because he’d gotten up early—it meant the brat had gone out carousing again and hadn’t come home all night.
「You little wretch!」 she cursed, about to head out to the fields, when her son with the saddle nose and less-than-handsome face walked in from outside, expression rather blank. She snapped at once, 「Where’d you go fooling around this time? You bastard! At least you still remember to come home!」
On a normal day, Gil would stiffen his neck and ignore her, not reacting even if she gave him a kick. Then, after eating, he’d head back out and do as he pleased. Masha had seen that incorrigible routine many times.
Strangely, today was different.
She saw Gil look at her and, in a polite tone he had never used before, say, 「I sincerely apologize, Mother. I’m sorry for my past misconduct. My actions lacked due consideration and responsibility. From now on I will prioritize your expectations. Please rest assured.」
He even bowed.
Masha froze. Was this really her illiterate thug of a son?
That tone, that grammar, those word choices—this was exactly like the teachers at a private academy in Autumnwind City!
「Don’t you put on an act for me! Did you take the wrong medicine, or drink yourself stupid last night? Think a few pretty words will satisfy me? Still trying to fool your own mother, you bastard!」
Masha decided he was performing. The more she spoke, the angrier she got: 「What good is talk? I told you to split firewood yesterday—did you? Get to it!」
「Yes, Mother. I’ll take care of it at once,」 Gil said, immediately grabbing the axe from the corner and heading to the backyard to work.
Suspicious, Masha followed and found her son actually chopping wood—and doing it far better than expected. Every log was split into uniform pieces and stacked neatly against the wall.
Now Masha truly felt something was off. Before, whenever she told him to chop wood, he’d curse and do a shoddy job. His technique was terrible—uneven, crooked splits. How could it possibly be this perfect now, as if stamped out by a mold?
She swallowed, then couldn’t help stopping him. 「You—what on earth is going on with you? Gil, where did you go last night?」
「I didn’t go anywhere, Mother. I fell outside and passed out. When I woke up, I came home,」 Gil replied at once, even pulling back his clothes to show the bruises in blue and purple as proof.
But one fall—could it scramble a head like this?
Masha locked eyes with him and found that although he was smiling, his dark eyes held a hint of emptiness and dullness—utterly unlike the lively, nimble spark her son had always had since childhood. It was as if a fake person were wearing her son’s skin.
「A-are you really Gil?」
「Of course, Mother.」
「When you stole money from home and I beat you, do you remember why?」
「I do, Mother. I took the thirty-three copper coins you kept under your pillow and went drinking at the tavern with Mars Kent,」 Gil answered instantly, with no pause to recall—so precise it was clearer than Masha’s own memory.
Masha fell silent. She stared blankly at her son. All the anger and resentment in her heart disappeared, replaced by a chill that sank to the bone.
Something’s off, she thought.
This is absolutely… off.
While Gil was provoking his mother Masha’s suspicion and fear at home, Mars and Ron—the other two village thugs—were likewise stirring Sanglen’s villagers to doubt and astonishment.
Back home, Ron suddenly turned over a new leaf, taking on the hard, thankless work of caring for his bedridden, lame mother.
Orphaned Mars became a village volunteer, going around asking whether anyone needed help, and actually doing the work—no fear of filth or fatigue—asking only a bowl of food to “maintain vital signs.”
Compared to the old trio of village bullies, they were like different people!
And so, after everyone felt the drastic change, by the afternoon of the third day, word that the three had been “possessed” spread through Sanglen like the wind, stirring much discussion.
Some thought they’d been possessed by evil spirits and were acting like different people because of it. Some believed they’d simply come of age and seen the light—prodigals returning. Others suspected it was just a performance to play a prank on the whole village.
Of these, the “evil spirit possession” theory briefly became the mainstream view.
Soon after, at the request of Gil’s mother Masha, Mr. Arnold, the resident priest, summoned the three to the church. Using the divine arts he knew, together with the exorcism circle inscribed beneath the church, he called down Holy Light to purify them.
Strangely, even after purification, the three did not revert. They even thanked Arnold politely, instead of shamelessly cadging a meal before leaving like before.
That meant it definitely wasn’t possession. This was a branch church of the Evergreen Revelation Society—small, yes, but the exorcism circle was real, and the Druid was real! What evil spirit could hide from exposure under the Holy Light of an exorcism rite?
In the few days that followed, while everyone remained baffled by the trio’s eerie behavior, a new bit of information surfaced—from the chubby local boy Hank—offering a plausible lead to their transformation.
According to Hank, on the night before Mars and the others’ personalities changed, he saw the three carrying rope and weapons into a stand of trees at the village’s edge. Deep within those woods lay the residence of the enigmatic amnesiac girl—Yvette!
The moment this was said, it caused a sensation. Almost instantly, it added a clear arrow marker to the tangled plot: the root of everything pointed to the silver-haired girl who’d moved into the village half a year ago!
Especially given all the details, it could be inferred that when the three went into those woods that night, they most likely had ill intentions toward the silver-haired girl. The conclusion became even more obvious.
In short—Mars and his two cronies tried a night raid on that lovely, rich lady living alone, but she was far from simple—so the three ended up like this!
But——.·.
Who is she, really?
Could she not be an ordinary fallen noble lady, but someone who wields mysterious power?
Can the three ever go back to how they were?
Book 3: Chapter 195: Something’s Off
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