"Pig?" Mei understood. So Kiana was talking about that kind of pig...
Both Bronya and Mei hesitated in their steps. The next moment, the three exchanged glances, turned around, and ran back to the pigsty.
"It really is a pig... Looks exactly like the picture in the files..." Mei glanced from afar, surprised.
"See! I told you there was a pig in there!" Kiana returned to the wall, stretching her neck to look inside, simultaneously lifting Bronya so she could see too.
"A white pig... different from the wild boars Bronya has seen," Bronya blinked, implicitly accepting Kiana holding her up.
"It's different from the pigs I've seen too..." Kiana tilted her head up, thought for a moment, then scratched her head, troubled. "Can't quite remember what they looked like, but definitely not like this!"
Shu, being dragged along: "?"
Have you three never seen a pig before? Why did you all flock over there?!
In fact, the three of them really hadn't seen this kind of large white pig. Mei's family business had nothing to do with animal husbandry. Even if Raiden Ryoma took her somewhere for inspection, it wouldn't be a place where she could see such pigs.
Bronya grew up in a snowy land, so the only pigs she saw were wild boars, which were vastly different from these large white ones.
Kiana was the most likely to have encountered such pigs, but she had more contact with horses, and the pigs she saw were wild boars Siegfried took her hunting for in hunting grounds.
So, the three who had eaten pork really hadn't seen a pig run...
Fortunately, the three kept an eye on Shu and only lingered for a couple of glances before catching up.
"You three, don't run off. It'll be troublesome if you get lost," Shu leaned back, trying to keep as much distance from the old grandma as possible, reminding the three worriedly.
"Hehe, we won't get lost," Kiana smiled playfully.
Shu didn't want to talk to the person most likely to get lost. He looked at Mei. "Mei, has that rope been secured?"
Mei nodded. "It's fixed in place. When we need to go back, we can follow the rope."
"Shu," Bronya quietly reminded Shu, gesturing for him to look around.
Shu raised his head and looked around.
The surroundings were still consistently white. The road surface was white, the walls and buildings were white, the hanging cloths were white, and even the people passing by wore pale white clothes.
Shu frowned.
He didn't see a single young or middle-aged person. As far as the eye could see, there were only elderly people sitting on the doorsteps.
All were aged and decrepit, with white hair, making the place feel lifeless.
Everyone looked like the old grandma when Shu first saw her, with a habitual smile on their faces, yet devoid of any vitality.
The entire village felt lifeless.
The only signs of life in the whole town were a few very young children, with runny noses, of varying sizes, huddled together squatting in a corner, staring blankly at the group.
"Uh..." Kiana looked over curiously again. "Shu, they seem to be playing with mud..."
"Is Kiana still at the age to play with mud?" Bronya speechlessly reached out and pulled Kiana back, retorting.
"How could I!" Kiana widened her eyes. "I'm already seventeen!!"
Seventeen and still so curious about them playing with mud?
Shu didn't even know how to retort to Kiana anymore. Truly like a city person returning to the countryside, curious about everything...
Shu withdrew his gaze and continued scanning the village.
He still couldn't see a single able-bodied middle-aged person or youth.
Some houses had tightly locked doors, with a thick layer of dust accumulated in front.
Houses with open doors all had at least one elderly person sitting in front. However, few sat in pairs; most were solitary figures sitting on the doorstep, eyes vacant, staring into the distance.
He didn't know what they were looking at.
Or perhaps... waiting for something...
The cement road they were walking on wasn't wide, probably just enough for one car to pass. There should have been quite a few cars here before; tire tracks occasionally appeared on the ground...
Pigsties or cowsheds were always next to the houses.
An old white cow with a bell around its neck stuck its head out from the wooden fence, chewing while staring at the group.
"Mei, this cow is huge!" Kiana went over again, comparing her hand to the cow's head, then ran back to Mei's side, gesturing the size of the cow's head with her hands.
Just the head alone was wider than her waist!
Along the way, dogs, cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese... every creature likely to appear in a rural village showed up, but still no young people...
"Meee—" Amidst the sound of bells and the dense bleating of sheep, the old grandma pulled Shu to the side of the road. They stood with Kiana and the others, watching a large flock of sheep pass by.
This... isn't this just a perfectly normal rural village?
Cement road, stone houses, these animals... and these people.
Shu genuinely couldn't see anything unreasonable.
The only slightly odd thing was the absence of young people... but...
Are villages without young people rare? Are villages with only the elderly left behind rare?
Holding onto the idea that "lack of abnormality is the greatest abnormality," Shu didn't let down his guard.
His senses were constantly operating at high intensity. The Honkai energy concentration in the air was the same as outside. Everyone sitting in front of their doors was normal... except for their physical condition.
The passing dogs...
Shu looked down at a sheep that nudged him with its horns. He watched the old grandma pull out a branch and shoo the sheep away, paused silently, and casually scanned it.
He scanned every passing sheep! There was just nothing wrong!
He might not understand other things, but having crammed biology-related knowledge with Otto, he definitely wouldn't fail to recognize these common animals!
But there was just nothing wrong...
That was the biggest problem! Three months after the Honkai swept the globe, you're telling me a place like this could still have a normal village?
Shu's nerves grew increasingly taut. He continued scanning every passing sheep.
And Kiana? She had plucked a handful of grass from somewhere and started feeding the sheep!!
"Smack!"
Mei slapped the grass out of Kiana's hand.
"Kiana, stop causing trouble," Bronya said expressionlessly.
"Okay..." Kiana visibly deflated.
Shu's eye twitched. Suddenly, his peripheral vision caught a figure that seemed somewhat out of place.
Shu immediately turned his head and, without hesitation, threw a scan at it.