Volume 4: The Undead Chapter 180: The Uninhabited Village (Part 2)
Ogata followed closely behind Atachi, running forward with them one behind and one in front.
Not long after, Obara saw the vague shadows of buildings beginning to appear in front of him.
"There really is a village..." Ogata muttered, "Atachi, your eyesight is really good..."
"Of course. Good eyesight is one of the abilities I'm most proud of... huh?"
A-Ming suddenly sniffed her nose, then slowly frowned.
Another person who also frowned was Ogata who was walking beside her.
Almost at the same time, both of them smelled a... strange smell.
"...It's the stench of a decayed corpse." Ating's face darkened instantly, and he raised his hands to cover his mouth and nose, "And...it seems to be coming from the village ahead..."
"Take a closer look..." Ogata said solemnly, "There is no smoke from cooking in this village... There is no smell of fireworks at all..."
"Ayi, here."
A-Machi pulled out two black handkerchiefs and handed one to Ogata.
"We can smell the stench even from this far away from the village... I can't imagine how bad the stench is inside this village. We'd better cover our mouths and noses with a piece of cloth."
"Thank you." Ogata took the handkerchief handed to him by Atachi.
The handkerchief that Ating handed over was very large, more than enough to cover the mouth and nose.
The two of them took precautions and slowly moved towards the village in front of them that was constantly emitting a foul smell...
As the distance between them and the village continued to shorten, Ogata slowly drew out the katana from his waist in preparation for any eventuality.
And Atachi also pulled out the wakizashi hanging on her lower back.
As the distance got closer, Ogata gradually saw the whole picture of the village.
From the outside, it looks like an ordinary village, not too big, but not too small.
However, this village only looks ordinary on the outside.
Deathly silence, no smell of life, flies flying everywhere, and bloodstains everywhere... These scenes intertwined together, casting a weird atmosphere on the village.
Omachi, who was standing outside the village with Ogata, said softly:
"There seems to be no one in this village..."
"... Let's go in first." Ogata responded, "See if there are any villagers inside. If there are no villagers, then search the village to see if there are any items worth taking away. By the way, look for a well in the village . We are short of two things right now - medicine and drinking water."
"Okay." Atachi said as he tightened the wakizashi in his hand.
…
…
The two of them supported each other and slowly walked into the dead silent and stinking village.
The air in this village is filled with a suffocating stench.
Because the stench was so strong, neither Ogata nor Atachi could tell where the source of the stench was.
"This stench is really terrible..." Ating tightened the black handkerchief covering her mouth and nose, "It makes me want to vomit... and is it just my illusion... Why do I feel like it's getting stinker..."
"...No." Ogata, who had been silent since entering the village, said softly, "It's not your illusion. It's really getting stinker. And - I found out why it's getting stinker."
After saying that, Ogata pointed his chin in the direction in front of him and Atachi.
Ating looked forward.
They saw a person lying on his back on the muddy ground in front of them.
No... to be precise, there was a corpse lying on its back.
Even though they were some distance apart, Ogata and A-machi could clearly see that the body was already highly decomposed.
Countless flies were dancing and reveling on the corpse, and a lot of blood was splattered around the corpse.
"...Let's go." Ogata tightened the handkerchief on his face, "Let's go up and take a look."
"Well..." Ating nodded, "Let's go..."
After slowly walking to the side of the corpse, Ogata waved his knife above the body to drive away the flies that were hovering over it.
While Ogata was shooing away flies, Atachi bent down and began to observe the corpse.
"...He's been dead for about 6 or 7 days." A-Ting said in a deep voice, "Look, A-Yi, this man still has a sword on his waist... Is he a samurai?"
"That should be the case." Ogata nodded in agreement, and pointed to the corpse's outstretched right palm. "There are calluses on his right palm that only sword practitioners have. And judging by the size and thickness of the calluses, this person must have practiced sword very diligently."
Ating continued to observe the body.
After a while, Ating found a lot of strange things on the body.
"Ayi , look."
A-Ming pointed toward the corpse's abdomen.
Ogata looked in the direction that Atachi's finger was pointing.
There was a very conspicuous scar on the abdomen of the corpse.
And this scar looks very much like... a bite mark.
Ogata looked at the body carefully several times and found bite marks of this type all over the body.
"There are bite marks all over this guy's body..." Ogata muttered, "Was he attacked by some ferocious beast?"
"No..." Ating's expression became more serious. "Ayi, don't you think these bite marks look familiar?"
“Looks familiar…?” Ogata once again fixed his gaze on the bite marks on the corpse and observed them carefully.
After taking a closer look, Ogata discovered that - just as A-Machi had said, the bite mark looked quite familiar...
——? !
Ogata's pupils suddenly shrank, and then a look of horror appeared on his face.
It was just as Ating said - the bite mark looked very familiar...
Because all humans can create such bite marks...
Ogata felt a chill in his heart and said in a deep voice:
"This guy...was bitten to death by humans?"
"It could also be an ape." Ating said softly, "Ape teeth are very similar to our human teeth..."
"Are there such vicious monkeys in the world...?" Ogata couldn't help but mutter.
"I actually hope that this person was bitten to death by a vicious ape, rather than by a human... If he was bitten to death by a human, that would be too horrible..."
After saying that, Ating stood up.
"Ayi, let's stop our observation of this corpse for now."
"The body is too decomposed, and the information that can be found from it is too limited."
"And I can't stand the smell anymore ..."
"Hmm..." Ogata nodded slightly, then shifted his gaze to a thatched hut next to him.
"A body is lying in the middle of the road, and no one has come to clean it up... It looks like this village is deserted. Let's search every house in the village one by one to see if we can find anything useful."
"Yeah, okay."
Although the corpse at their feet had a knife on his waist, Ogata had no intention of taking his knife.
Because——the knife on this man’s waist was already dripping with corpse fluid... Ogata could be said to be reluctant to accept such a disgusting knife...
