Salinger's Plague

It's not so much that Death once visited the sea-side town of Salinger, but rather that this corner of the Empire once bumped into Death. Countless wars have rained down on the area like rain and hail over the centuries, and none of them have left a crater or a scar here, but for no reason, from the first festival of the year, the situation seems to be a little ominous.

First, the coldest part of the empire actually blew a westerly wind, and in this festival, which froze to death a few people every year, the climate suddenly became unusually warm. Fearing that they had committed some unforgivable sin, people flocked to the headland to offer sacrifices to the sea god, only to find large swaths of sea fish swimming in droves towards this side, crashing into the cliffs on the edge of the headland at great speed, and dying one after another.

The townspeople then divided into two factions, one believing that this was a gift from the god of the sea, and because of the generous sacrifices of the townspeople every year, they deliberately answered with fat sea fish to show their appreciation and satisfaction with mankind; the other faction thought that this was obviously an ominous omen, countless sea fish left their homeland but came to the far northern frontier to die, and there must have been a terrible disaster in the far reaches of the sea that forced these sea fish to leave their homes.

The two sides quarreled, unable to obtain a unified understanding and opinion, and did not want to listen to the ideas and suggestions of other city-states, especially the officials of the imperial capital, and before the quarrel was so inflamed that it could lead to a bloody incident, both sides decided to adopt one of the oldest methods, that is, to determine the future direction of the town by the word of god.

So the inhabitants of Salinger reactivated the Ayamaya Temple, which is now buried by the sea, and each side sent a few young and strong young men, carrying the fire that had been waterproofed, to swim into the shallow sea through deep diving to find the underground entrance when the temple was built.

Because the age is too old, and the people of recent times are no longer familiar with the structure of the temple, almost no one knows the underground entrance left by the construction of the temple in that year. The townspeople had no choice but to take procrastinating measures, allowing young people to dive underwater to explore all the external structures of the temple, and then draw the shape of the temple they learned into a drawing based on memory after leaving the water, and then hand it over to the elderly and architectural experts in the town to recall and think about the entrance of the temple.

Fortunately, it didn't take long for these people to come to a conclusion, and the divers, with their guidance and the luck of the time, were able to quickly enter the interior of the temple. In the vast secret room of the temple, the air resisted the upsurge of the sea, and the young people who entered here ignited the fire in the fastest time, but found that the gods they wanted to appeal to and ask for the gods had long disappeared, replaced by the rare treasures piled up on the ground, and the types and styles of these treasures were simply unheard of, there were necklaces strung together like human eyes, there were glowstones that were red in color as if to burn, there were strange crystals that were black enough to flow oil, and even some people saw a human skeleton. It was made of crystal stone.

Faced with such a situation, young people could not make a decision, so they had to carry a strange stone as evidence, dive back out of the sea and return to the shore, truthfully reporting what they saw and heard to the townspeople.

The elders of the town immediately stated that this was the exact meaning of the divine word, and that the fish were gifts, not curses. So the whole city put aside the suspicion and began to act in full force, and all the sea fish that were killed were fished and transported into the city, and stored in special marinades.

It didn't take long for the weather to become chaotic, the clear sky instantly obscured by dark clouds, and the people of Salinger had never seen such a dark day. The luck of the most miserable gambler in the city suddenly became so good that even George White, who had lost half his hand, had won a family home, and his next goal was to marry the most beautiful girl in the city and give birth to a few children who had been proficient in gambling since childhood. He even joked that even God is his defeated general, and he has won tears, because even the sun and the moon can't afford to come out.

Not long after, a terrible news broke in Salinger that a dead man who had been dead for nearly a hundred years had been resurrected. Surprisingly, the man's skin and flesh were still there, and he could still wander around the town market in broad daylight, but judging by the routes he walked and the murmurs in his mouth, he was obviously still alive a hundred years ago, because from the names of the people he mentioned, the ancestors of several citizens were his close friends. But the townspeople still couldn't believe the facts in front of them, and they sent people to search the man's grave to see if there were the remains of dead people in it, but they saw nothing but rats in the pit.

Gradually, this man became active, and he pursued a prostitute in the city, called her Monica, instructed her to dig up a large sum of money from an unknown place, and even married her and had a cohabitation relationship. As far as the prostitute was concerned, it was a good thing that was unparalleled in the world, and she now had money and fame, and no living person could give her these things. However, this man died again within a few days, and his death was sudden, but it was normal, because he lived in a world that had been gone for many years.

After this incident, people began to stop trusting those ancient beliefs, because even the most beautiful sentences and beautiful vows seemed so weak in the face of facts, not to mention the interpretation of the world after death by those ancient teachings.

Gradually, what happened to Salinger became more and more unusual, and since the first festival, the warm westerly wind had not left here, but occasionally it was repeated, and people's clothes were reduced from thick fur to a thin layer of cloth, and even later some people even took off their cloth clothes, only wearing thin yarn, and wandering around the town all day, as if this place had never had winter.

But strange things gradually covered up people's concern for the weather, here began to lose things one after another, starting from the loss of clothes, jewelry, furniture, many people have reported that the loss of livestock, loss of food, even the clothes worn on the body will suddenly disappear, and then even the population has been lost, people are very afraid, think that here is an unknown terrible monster, not only love money but also like to eat, some people say that their crops hidden in the basement have been stolen, even the family's kittens and puppies have not been spared. The most ridiculous thing was that some people said that his family had lost their house, and he slept all night on the floor of the house, and when he woke up the next day, he went to the town hall to report the crime. All the citizens gathered to discuss the current troubles and discuss the countermeasures that should be implemented.

The unanimous approach was that each family sent a person to monitor its own home overnight, and if there was a disturbance in one of them, they would subdue the suspect together with other neighbors and send him to the town hall for centralized processing. But the strange thing is that no one in the family has caught thieves and monsters for three days, but the things in the family should still be lost.

There was no way, and the elders and citizens of the town unanimously decided to seek the temple's deity again as a guide for the future of the town.

But this time the young man did not get anything, and the treasure that had been piled up in the temple had long since disappeared, except for this strange thing. They said there seemed to be someone talking in the sea. But it was impossible to discern where the sound was coming from. By the time the crowd tried to confirm this fact again, the divers brought back even more shocking news, this time even the temple disappeared without a trace.

The inhabitants began to feel frightened, thinking that there must be something that had offended the gods, so much so unusual that in ordinary years they had encountered so many unusual things, but now that even the opportunity to atone for their sins had been lost, the gods were furious and withdrew the only temple to whom they could pray, and it was conceivable that the inhabitants here would be in trouble.

People began to encounter all kinds of incomprehensible things frequently, all kinds of weirdness was flashing, all bad things were happening, they felt that time was running out, and for the hope of survival in the end, they began to pack up their things and escape from the town. Even when they were packing their things, the family members who were talking across from them would suddenly disappear, and when they saw him again, it was at home or in another place on the street, and the testimony of the other person was exactly the same, they kept seeing the people around them suddenly disappearing, but suddenly flashing, they thought that there might be something wrong with the light in the sky, so that people could not always see what was around them. Even so, it would not stop them from packing up and leaving this place in the slightest, they could not care about these strange phenomena at all, and they did not dare to delay at all, because the wrath of God had already arrived, and the slightest hesitation would be extinguished.

While everyone was nervously busy leaving this strange place, only one person looked unusual. The man had been wearing a mink coat, and no one had seen her take it off since the first festival. She only moved in a small area of the headland, and communicated from different people, which seemed strange to those who knew her, because in their impression, she was a very lively and cute little girl. Since then, the words she said have also been strange, although it is not yin and yang, but it seems that she never talks about human things.

"The sea is frozen." It was her first strange remark. "The sea ice has melted." It was the last words she had heard. People thought she was crazy. But no one was paying attention to her at the moment, because everyone was busy escaping, and who cared about the crazy words of a crazy person. And the strange thing is that only this person never seems to disappear from people's eyes. Her clothes had never changed either, and the mink coat had always been clinging to her body.

All fled Salinger, leaving the girl in mink alone, standing alone on the edge of the sea, in the moonlight, watching everyone leave.

But not long after, everyone fled back to the town in despair, because they found that not far around the town was full of black oppressive armies. The soldiers of these armies not only use swords, but also bite people with their mouths, and even if they exhale slightly with their mouths, they can blow people out. It was clear that the king of the Empire did not want the people here to bring the curse to other parts of the country, and rather than rescue the whole country, it was better to abandon it outright, which no one could think better. So they sat in the city, killing their necks, witnessing the slaughter of their compatriots, and even some of them knelt on the ground and prayed, their heads cut off, and they were kicked back and forth by horses running back and forth in the streets. The last sight they saw, a group of cavalry galloping toward the headland, the little girl in mink turned and jumped off the cliff, jumped into the sea, and was salvaged by the people of the temple that suddenly appeared again, and the temple slowly moved toward the sky under the moonlight...

Many years later, on a sunny afternoon, the king sat on his golden throne, his left hand caressing an old, old-fashioned mink coat that had faded, and his right hand caressed the little boy sitting in his arms, leaning on his right arm, and said, "Before the rats destroyed the city across the sea, I rescued your mother by boat." Aside from scratches and finger marks everywhere on the stones, this was the only thing left in that city. ”