There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

Chapter 398 There are Witches in this World

On the other side, the guest room on the second floor of the castle.

The two female students, although they had separate rooms, might have felt lonely and uneasy in the unfamiliar environment, so one found her companion after changing clothes to chat together.

In the archaeological team, the two teachers brought two students each, with a perfectly equal gender distribution.

"Lingling, I've found some information. It's said that this place has been here since the last century, and the owner of Prague Castle is hereditary,"

said a student in a gorgeous dress, excitedly flipping through a book while lying on the bed.

An Lin was looking at her laptop, and without lifting her head, she said, "Even if it's hereditary to this day, the world no longer has any nobility or lords, but Prague Castle still retains the tradition of slaves and servants."

"Ah?"

Upon hearing this, the girl turned her head in confusion and asked, "Is there something wrong?"

An Lin paused for a moment and then immediately shut her mouth, saying no more.

To the common NPCs, it would be easy to alter their cognition in such a bizarre place.

Although they knew they lived in a democratic society, they still wouldn't find the castle's system strange, nor question anything odd about the housekeeper mentioning the Castle Lord's Knights.

Their thinking was already trapped by the castle.

An Lin focused on reviewing the intel she had gathered.

As part of an archaeological adventure team, they naturally came fully equipped with all sorts of tools and resources. During their escape from monsters in the Dark Forest, An Lin had managed to save their backpacks.

Afterwards, she had volunteered to carry the luggage for a teacher who had broken his leg, which is how she now came to have quite a bit of equipment.

According to ancient records, there did exist a Prague Castle in this place, but it had already become history during political changes in the last century.

The archaeological team had stumbled into the Dark Forest following the guidance of locals, intending to search for the remnants of Prague Castle.

According to local legends, Prague Castle housed an Evil Witch from the medieval period.

The Witch loved to consume human souls, hunting down travelers who lost their way to the castle at night, using their flesh and blood to nourish her beautiful garden, and their spirits to maintain her youthful beauty and eternal life.

However, modern people scoff at the "witch trials" of the Middle Ages, with their atheistic view denying the existence of Witches—they regard it as nothing but a ploy by the Holy Court to delude the faithful.

Therefore, what the world is interested in is a different legend.

In Prague Castle lived a noblewoman who shared a mutual affection with the Knight Commander of the Holy Court's Knight Order, but societal constraints prevented them from being together, and eventually, the Holy Court vilified the girl as a "Bewitching Witch" and put her to death.

Indeed, this tragic love story captured people's hearts more.

People always prefer something more dramatic.

An Lin looked through the documents. If it were before, she might have agreed with the latter story.

But now, finding herself in the whirlpool of Prague Castle, in a bizarre predicament, she was more inclined to believe the former evil story.

Because her mission—

[Main Quest: Destroy the Witch's Heart.]

Sorry, Witches indeed exist in this world! Discover hidden tales at My Virtual Library Empire

And the quest even requires her to confront the Witch face-to-face, so she must first find a way to deal with the Witch from the intel!

If her predictions were correct, the Witch should be the owner of Prague Castle, which is to say, "Margaret Green," the lady the housekeeper spoke of.

Prague Legend doesn't record the Witch's name, nor the name of the castle's owner.

But...

The folk love story does include the name of the Knight Order's Knight Commander.

—Alex Green.

Looking at this surname, which was unlikely to be a coincidence, An Lin held her chin and fell into deep thought.

Could it be that the love story is also true?

Glancing over the messy records, An Lin felt a bit irritable as she flipped through her notebook.

"They only said that the Holy Court executed witches, but didn't really mention how they caught them—it's not like she could just walk up with a knife and scoop out her heart, right?"

"Wouldn't the witch just slap them to death?"

"Wuuu, Miss Green's fate is too tragic. The Holy Court's army is too much! It's bad enough they separated them, but to actually execute the Knight Commander's lover..."

Right then, the female student lying on the bed reading the book complained with a sad face.

Upon hearing the noise, An Lin, spurred by the thought that even rumors could be valuable information, leaned over curiously to take a look, only to discover that the book the female student was reading wasn't the archaeological data they had brought with them.

"What book is that, and where did you get it?" An Lin asked directly.

"When we passed that town, the tour guide gave me this storybook. After all, the 'Prague Legend' is quite famous there—it's almost become a tourist attraction," the female student explained, showing her the cover of the book.

The booklet was thinner than a primary school student's exercise book, with a fairy tale-like cover that featured a girl in a princess dress and a boy in knight attire embracing, surrounded by a border of rose flowers.

The first page was a self-driving tour map of the town.

The third page contained accommodation strategies.

The fifth page listed a guide to delectable foods.

In the end, the love story only accounted for the last six or seven pages, and it even included simplistic color illustrations.

An Lin took the storybook from her hands, "Let me have a look."

The female student pouted, "Weren't you uninterested just a moment ago?"

But she didn't get upset and, seeing that An Lin was engrossed in reading the storybook and ignored her, she painstakingly crawled out of bed and walked over to the full-length mirror in the room to take a look at herself.

The large mirror was set into the wall, with a gold frame outlining attractive patterns, and the girl in full attire appeared on the surface, looking like a real princess.

She happily twirled around, but when she turned back, she suddenly froze.

The female student blinked at the mirror, then stretched out her arms and waved them, only breathing a sigh of relief when she saw the reflection imitate her actions.

She nearly had a heart attack; when she was spinning just now, she momentarily thought the person in the mirror did not spin with her.

Not far off, An Lin, who sat on the bed reading the storybook, suddenly looked up at her, saw the female student admiring herself and posing in the mirror, then turned her attention back to the storybook.

She frowned deeply, took the storybook over to the desk, and began to carefully study it in comparison with the data she had gathered.

At this moment, the female student walked towards the mirror, her dress in hand.

The mirror was incredibly clear, reflecting every detail of the pattern on her dress and even the tiny mole on her collarbone, leading the female student to lean in and examine the makeup on her face.

The dress and hairstyle were the work of the maids in the villa, elegant and noble.

What girl wouldn't wish to be like a princess?

She couldn't help but cover her face and beam with happiness.

However, the next moment, several blood-red vines suddenly reached out from the mirror and snatched the female student into it with lightning speed.

Ripples spread across the mirror's surface, which quickly dissipated.

The mirror devouring the girl happened in a flash, so silently that not a sound was made, and it failed to attract the attention of the other person in the room.

In the quiet and lavish room, the occasional sound of pages turning was the only thing that disturbed the silence.

After a while, An Lin felt that something was off.

Why had it suddenly gone so silent?!

An Lin abruptly turned around, but the girl who had been admiring herself in front of the mirror was nowhere to be seen. The room's door was half-open, and she wondered if the girl had left because she was bored.

But why had she not heard any sound?

She hadn't heard the sounds of footsteps or the door being pushed open.

This castle, despite being full of people, was sometimes eerily silent.

An Lin stared at the dead-quiet room for a long time, then gathered the materials in her hands and got up to walk outside.

...