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The maple leaves had begun to turn crimson, painting the forest in layers of blazing red.

As the tractor rattled forward, the brilliant scarlet of the maple leaves gradually filled Lilith’s field of vision. In the end, the entire mountain forest seemed to be set ablaze, the burning red swallowing every other color until nothing else remained.

After about half an hour of travel, Lilith finally caught sight of a corner of gray city walls rising among the fiery canopy of maple leaves.

“Maplefall Town… City?” Staring at the towering wall, nearly twenty meters tall, and the large characters engraved upon it, Lilith could not help but complain. “So Maplefall Town isn’t actually a town at all, it’s the name of a city!”

And not a small one either, because no ordinary town would ever possess city walls that rose twenty meters into the air.

“Of course.” Liana puffed out her chest proudly and declared, “Maplefall Town is the largest and most prosperous city in the entire Skysouth Dominion. Even across the whole Aurelion Empire, there are only a handful of cities that can compare.”

“Is that so?” Yet instead of feeling excited at the thought of arriving somewhere bustling and prosperous, Lilith felt a growing sense of unease brewing inside her.

A big city… which meant lots of people. And she was currently sitting on this thing…

“Can I get off early? We’re basically there already, right?”

“What are you talking about, Mountain Ghost? Maplefall Town is huge. It’ll still take quite a while to get from the gate to my house. As your host, I must responsibly escort you all the way there.”

“I don’t need you to be responsible!” Lilith wailed in despair, but as usual Liana refused to listen at the most critical moment. Not only did she not slow down, she actually sped the tractor up a little.

“Don’t you have to stop for inspections or something?” Lilith glanced toward the massive lines of people waiting outside the city gate for entry checks, and a faint glimmer of hope appeared in her eyes.

“It’s fine. I’m the Third Young Miss of the Ye family, one of the three great families of Maplefall Town. The gate guards all know me and my mount. They won’t stop us.” With an expression that said you can leave everything to me, Liana charged straight toward the city gate without slowing down in the slightest.

“This is exactly why I hate those damn privileged elites!” Lilith covered her face in despair, wishing she had a hood or something to completely hide it.

The tractor was simply too conspicuous. Even from eight hundred meters away, people had already begun casting curious glances toward them. And as the tractor drew closer, nearly everyone turned their eyes in their direction.

When they saw Liana, they thought, ‘Ah, it’s the Third Miss of the Ye family. That’s fine. We’re used to it.’

But when they noticed Lilith sitting behind her…

Lilith could clearly feel the heavy sense of pity contained within those gazes. It was as if they were silently saying: Which foolish girl with a loose screw in her head boarded the wrong ship again? No, wait… the wrong tractor.

‘But I didn’t do it willingly, I was forced!’ Lilith desperately wanted to shout that to the crowd, but Liana gave her no chance to clear her name. The tractor rattled loudly as it charged straight through the gate.

Sure enough, the soldiers guarding the entrance recognized her. Not only did they refrain from stopping her, they even helped clear the road ahead.

But the looks in their eyes made it seem as though they were watching some foolish girl running recklessly down the street, worried she might trip and fall, so they carefully swept the stones from her path.

This was hardly the treatment one would expect for the daughter of a prestigious family. It felt more like they were looking after the neighbor’s slightly dim-witted child. Had Liana’s reputation among the city’s citizens really sunk to this level?

Lilith felt numb. She no longer had the strength to complain, nor the desire to resist. She simply allowed the tractor, which had already bounced her backside numb from the constant jolting, to carry her onward as they entered the city.

In an instant, a wave of noise rushed toward them, temporarily overwhelming even the clattering roar of the tractor.

What greeted her eyes were endless streams of people passing back and forth, vendors shouting out their wares, and carts pulled by horses and oxen piled high with goods. Just as Liana had said, this was indeed a prosperous city.

Most of the buildings on both sides of the street were two- or three-story wooden structures, completely devoid of any modern atmosphere, retaining an old and rustic charm. In the distance, the faint outlines of grander buildings could be seen.

Most of the pedestrians wore dull gray work clothes and hurried along with purpose. Occasionally, one or two individuals dressed in luxurious robes drifted through the crowd at a leisurely pace, standing out awkwardly from the rest.

The dividing line between poverty and wealth was clearly visible to the naked eye. As for transportation, almost everything was pulled by oxen, horses, or other beasts of burden.

Aside from the tractor beneath her, Lilith had yet to see any other piece of “technology.”

“Looks like technological products are even rarer than I imagined,” Lilith sighed softly.

The tractor continued forward unimpeded along the road.

Whether they were pedestrians, street vendors, horse-drawn carts, or wealthy passersby, once they recognized this highly distinctive vehicle, they all instinctively stepped aside to clear the road. Yet after making way, they would inevitably cast Lilith, who sat in the back, a strange look of pity whose meaning was impossible to miss.

But by now, Lilith felt she could completely ignore them. Truly, a person’s thick skin was the easiest thing in the world to train. In barely a dozen minutes, she had already hardened hers to the point where swords and spears could no longer penetrate it.

‘But that was something I never wanted to train in the first place!’

Just as Lilith raised her head toward the sky in despair, lamenting that the innocent and pure version of herself was now gone forever, Liana seemed utterly unaffected by the gazes of others. After several self-assuredly “magnificent and stylish” drifting turns that nearly shook Lilith’s backside into eight separate pieces, the tractor gradually drove into an area where ordinary pedestrians became increasingly scarce.

At the same time, the architectural style of the surrounding buildings slowly began to grow more elegant and luxurious.

‘So this must be the so-called rich district?’ Lilith thought to herself. But just as the thought formed, she noticed the tractor gradually slowing down. “Are we there?” Lilith’s eyes lit up with hope as she asked.

“Not yet. The Ye family residence is further ahead, but…”

Following Liana’s gaze, Lilith looked forward and saw that the broad avenue ahead had somehow become completely blocked by a group of black-clothed figures wearing identical uniforms.

Only then did the sounds of wailing and grief finally pierce through the tractor’s roaring engine and reach Lilith’s ears.

“Captain Li, you must stand up for me!”

Through the gaps between the gathered onlookers, Lilith saw an elderly woman dressed in fine clothes clinging desperately to a middle-aged man in black attire. Completely abandoning all dignity, she sobbed in unbearable grief.

“All twelve members of my family died at the hands of that Moon Demon! Their deaths were horrific. Not even a single complete body remained. How am I, an old woman all alone, supposed to live on after this?”

“Um… Madam Liu, please stand up first. Regarding the Moon Demon, we are still investigating. I believe we will soon be able to give you a satisfactory answer.”

“Still investigating? You’ve been investigating that Moon Demon for five whole years! Five years! If you had caught him earlier, my entire family wouldn’t have been slaughtered like this…”

“Madam Liu, you know it’s not that we haven’t tried. It’s just that the Moon Demon is incredibly elusive and strange. We truly…”

“I don’t want to hear your excuses! Let me tell you this. When the city lord called for donations to capture that monster, my husband was the very first to step forward! Now you cannot simply brush us aside like this. You must catch that Moon Demon. When you do, I will personally tear him to pieces!”

……

“Liana, what exactly is the Moon Demon?” After quietly watching everything unfold, Lilith suddenly asked.

“The Moon Demon?” Liana thought about it for a moment before answering seriously. “He’s basically a murderer who likes to come out and kill people during the full moon.”

“And?”
“That’s it.”

“That’s it?” Lilith blinked in surprise. “Other than the fact that the Moon Demon is a murderer who kills during the full moon, there’s no other information at all?”

“Yep. Didn’t you hear what they said just now, Mountain Ghost? The city lord’s office has been investigating the Moon Demon for five entire years, and they still don’t even know whether the person is a man or a woman.”

Liana spread her hands helplessly. “So for ordinary people like us, that’s naturally about all we know.”