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Moonlight filtered through the narrow window, casting a cold patch of light onto the dusty wooden floor.
The corridor was so quiet that only the faint, crisp rustling of old, yellowed paper could be heard as Noah flipped through the pages.
Leon leaned against the wall with his eyes closed, but the tense line of his jaw showed he wasn't truly relaxed.
He remained alert to any slight movement in the surroundings.
Noah spread the heavy 'Village Chronicle' across his lap. The book's cover was made of rough, tanned animal hide, feeling hard and cold to the touch.
He opened the first page and saw no printed type; instead, what met his eyes was dense, yet exceptionally neat, handwritten Spanish.
The handwriting was vigorous and powerful.
At the very bottom of the title page, there was a signature.
Bitores Mendez.
Noah immediately recognized the name; the handwriting was identical to the signature on the alert order found in the valley farmhouse.
"This isn't some chronicle," Noah spoke, breaking the silence in the corridor. "This is Mendez's diary."
Leon opened his eyes and looked at the book in Noah's hands, a flash of surprise in his blue eyes.
"That guy... kept a diary?"
Noah didn't answer. His fingertips brushed over the slightly yellowed pages as he began to read the contents aloud in a low voice.
"October 3rd."
"Today, Old Jose left. He passed the burden of Village Chief to me. Everyone in the village is looking at me, their eyes filled with expectation. But looking at my own young face in the mirror, I see only panic. Can I really lead them to a good life on this barren land? God, please guide me."
Leon let out a noncommittal grunt.
It was hard to connect the hesitant, anxious young man in the diary with the monstrous giant in his memory who could toss a person aside like a tattered sack.
Noah didn't pause, continuing to flip through the pages.
The next dozen pages were records of the village's development. Mendez's writing was filled with youthful drive and passion.
"November 7th."
"We did it! In the back mountain, we actually found that abandoned Ore vein! Thank God, the quality of the Ore is even better than we expected! I've negotiated a price with the Merchant in town. With the first payment, we can add a new diesel generator to the village! The children won't have to read by those choking kerosene lamps at night anymore!"
"January 20th."
"Today is a good day! The second-hand fishing boat I bought from the city finally launched! It runs much faster than our old broken boats! When Mateo started the engine and the white waves churned, everyone stood on the shore and cheered! We will surely catch more fish! Finally, the children can have meat on their tables every day!"
"March 9th."
"The logging camp and blacksmith shop are also up and running. We have our own saws, our own iron plows. The men are full of energy, and there are more smiles on the women's faces. I see them making new clothes for the children with cloth we wove ourselves. That feeling... is wonderful."
Noah paused here.
His fingers traced the handwriting that showed slight pressure from excitement.
From these words, he could clearly feel how a young Village Chief had poured his heart and Soul into leading a poor village toward prosperity step by step.
Leon also fell silent.
From Noah's steady narration, he sketched a picture filled with life and hope, starkly different from the blood and madness they had experienced.
"During the day, I teach the children reading, writing, and arithmetic. They are very smart and learn quickly."
"In the evening, everyone gathers in the square to light a bonfire. Uncle Juan plays his old accordion, and we sing and dance together. The air is filled with the scent of roasted corn and wine. At that moment, I feel like the happiest person in the world."
As Noah read this passage, both of them simultaneously thought of that blood-soaked, now deathly silent village square.
The laughter of the past and the desolate silence of the present formed the most ironic contrast.
"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes," Leon spoke slowly, his voice carrying a strange tone, "I would have almost believed this place was a paradise."
Noah didn't respond; he simply turned another page.
From this page onward, the tone of the diary quietly shifted.
"June 12th."
"Strange patients have started appearing in the village. At first, it's just headaches and insomnia, but then... then they become very irritable, aggressive, and even fail to recognize their own families. Everyone calls it the 'Madness Disease'."
"I went to see the master of the castle. Previously, he hired the strongest young men from our village to excavate something in an ancient ruin beneath the castle. I asked him if this 'Madness Disease' was related to that excavation. He just smiled and told me not to overthink it, that it was just an occasional plague in the valley and would soon pass."
"But I don't believe him. Because the first person to fall ill was one of those miners."
Leon sat up a bit straighter.
"It's the parasites," he judged almost immediately. "They dug up the 'plaga' during that excavation."
Noah nodded and continued reading.
Mendez's anxiety grew with each subsequent entry.
"July 5th."
"The situation is getting worse. Three more people have fallen ill. I've isolated them in the abandoned warehouse on the east side of the village, but this isn't a solution. Their families cry every day. I watch them, but I can't do anything."
"I went to the town doctor. After he saw them, he just shook his head in terror, left some sedatives, and fled. He said he had never seen such a disease."
"July 19th."
"The grandfather of that little boy from Jose's family has also fallen ill."
"He's a very smart and pitiful child. His mother passed away early, and his father was a drunkard who drowned in the river years ago. He has always lived with his grandfather. I often see him reading by the river; those books are all ones I brought back from the city. I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he said he wanted to go to Madrid to be a scientist."
Noah reached this point and exchanged a look with Leon.
Both thought of the smooth-talking Luis Sera, who claimed to be from Madrid, was once a policeman, and now appeared here.
Noah's finger slid slowly to the next paragraph.
"August 2nd."
"The boy's grandfather started showing symptoms this morning. He locked himself in the house and won't let anyone near, shouting nonsense that no one can understand. I saw the child sitting alone on the doorstep, hugging his knees, motionless. I went over to comfort him, but he looked up and asked me: 'Mr. Mendez, where do people go after they die? Is it Heaven or Hell?' I didn't know how to answer him."
"August 4th."
"In the early hours of this morning, Jose's house caught fire. The fire was huge; by the time we arrived, the entire wooden house was burned to a skeleton. In the ruins, we only found his grandfather's charred corpse. But... the little boy was gone."
"Some say he might have been burned to death inside, but the fire was too big and nothing was left. Others say he might not have been able to take the blow and ran into the mountains alone. I sent people to search all day, but we found nothing."
"The child who wanted to go to Madrid to be a scientist just disappeared like that."
"Luis..." Leon whispered the name in a voice almost only he could hear.
He finally understood the heavy past hidden behind that man's cynical facade.
An orphan who witnessed his relative's transformation, his home destroyed, and finally fled alone.
Noah closed that page, his heart also feeling somewhat heavy.
He could imagine the unhealable trauma left in a young child's heart after experiencing all this.
He turned to a new page.
It was the page where this diary truly descended into the abyss.
"September 1st."
"Today, a group of strangers came to the village."
"They were all wearing large black robes, covered from head to toe. They came from the direction of the castle, and the leader held a black flag with a strange emblem that looked like a spider or some kind of arthropod."
"They preached to us in the square. They said we were all sinners and this 'Madness Disease' was God's punishment. But they are messengers of the 'Church of Light' and can bring the Lord's forgiveness and salvation."
Leon's fist tightened instinctively upon hearing the words 'Church of Light'.
"They said they have a way to cure the 'Madness Disease'."
"I asked them what the method was. The leader pulled back his hood. It was a face so pale there wasn't a trace of color, and in his eyes flickered a fanatical light. He told me that as long as we were willing to believe in their Lord and accept the Lord's 'gift', all pain and sin would be washed away."
"That afternoon, they performed a 'baptism' for all of us in the assembly hall."
"They brought out some syringes filled with a pale yellow liquid and told us this was the Lord's 'gift'."
"The Villager went mad. Those nearly broken by the 'Madness Disease' scrambled forward, stretching out their arms. I also... I also accepted the injection. I couldn't stand by and watch my Villager die one by one. If this was the only hope, I was willing to try."
As Noah read this, his voice lowered significantly without him realizing it.
He could imagine that frantic and desperate scene.
A group of people with nowhere to turn, grabbing onto a poisonous snake they thought was a lifesaver.
He turned to the last page of the diary.
There were only a few lines on this page. The handwriting was completely different from the neat and powerful script he had seen before. It was twisted and scrawled, as if the writer were using all their strength to resist a massive pain capable of tearing the Soul apart.
"September 15th."
"The village... has quieted down."
"The patients who were injected with the 'gift' are no longer irritable or aggressive. They have become... very docile, very obedient. Like tamed sheep."
"I also feel the change. The voices in my head... have disappeared. The cries of the Villager and the wails of the patients that tortured me day and night... are all gone. The world has become clearer than ever before."
"But... why... can I not feel joy, nor can I feel sadness anymore?"
"Inside my body, it feels as if something is dying. And something else is waking up."
"They promised us salvation... promised us a new world without pain..."
"But... can they... really be trusted?"
This was the very last sentence of the diary.
Noah slowly closed the book, and the entire corridor fell into silence.
A responsible man who wanted to lead his Villager to a good life.
A tragic hero who, in desperation to save his people, did not hesitate to test the poison himself.
In the end, he turned into that cold executioner controlled by parasites, slaughtering outsiders.
This diary recorded the downfall of a man and the destruction of a village.
Noah remained silent.
He just felt that this ending was too cruel.
Leon slowly stood up from the ground.
He didn't speak, but simply walked over to the large portrait of Saddler, the leader of the Church of Light.
He looked up at the man in the painting, shrouded in shadows and radiating an aura of madness and arrogance.
"FUCK!!!"
A roar, suppressed to the extreme and filled with endless fury and loathing, suddenly erupted from the ace agent's throat.
"These damn cultists!"
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