Mystery: The Stars Returner

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 good."

"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 that a female priest is required 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 it would help me gain some fame."

The girl said something that surprised Hastur, but if you think about it carefully, this is very mundane 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 had almost finished asking.

"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 unknown 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 everything he knew about the situation.

The mayor also doesn’t know how the girl who was first sacrificed became the Breath of Spring goddess enshrined in 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 in order to have 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 bumper 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 just wrapped around the mayor's feet suddenly surged wildly. In just a few breaths, the mayor was wrapped into a white spider cocoon and hung in the air.

In the dream world, which was originally half divided, the golden fields were completely swallowed up by the spider web world.

Deep in the white spider web, white spider cocoons hanging in mid-air began to crack, giving birth to adult-sized spiders with white abdomens, red spots on their backs, and black spiders everywhere else.

"Did you sense the danger and exert influence from afar?"

Hastur did not hesitate and immediately left the mayor's dream.

In reality, the mayor was lying on the bed and sleeping soundly. His body was also completely wrapped in spider silk, turning into a white cocoon.

Those white spider silk threads are spreading to the edge of the room with the mayor's body as the center.

The culprit is a spider the size of a thumb.

These spiders came from the mayor's navel, where a hole opened, and more and more spiders crawled out and began to build webs.

Soon the whole house became a white spider cave.

The strange scene made Hastur retreat to the window. When the spider thread spread over, Hastur left from the window.

The strange thing is that after the spider webs covered the entire room, all the spiders followed the navel and burrowed into the mayor's body again.

Hastur stared at the house opposite for a long time, until a suppressed exclamation sounded in that house.

Although the mayor's relatives were panicked when they saw this strange scene, they did not yell as expected. Instead, taking advantage of the fact that it was late at night, they carried the mayor's cocooned body on their shoulders and got off. The building is placed on an oxcart covered with straw and covered with thick straw and other fruits and vegetables.