Her mind went to wander about it because Lady Isabelle had named the books on vegetables. Was there some kind of link or representation when it came to the vegetables? The woman definitely didn't appear like a human but instead was a white witch. 

"Good morning, milady," Damien greeted the woman with a bright smile. The woman's face was calm where she didn't express the surprise on her face. 

"Good morning. How can I help you councilwoman and councilman today?" asked the woman but Damien had other unimportant things to comment on.

"I see you are not cutting vegetables anymore. If you need to hire a maid, please feel free to let me know. I will be sure to recommend a good one."

"I will note it down," said the woman, trying to figure out what they were doing back here and suspecting it was because of the empty files but even if they tried to enquire about any of the latest dispute, the council members wouldn't be able to get a speck of information out right now. 

Damien then said, "Could you call your guardsmen who guard the village? I had some questions for them."

"What is it about?" the magistrate asked, her expression still looking cool and calm. 

"Just want to make sure they are getting paid well. After all, even without disputes, there haven't been any attacks by the witches. Men like those need to be praised, do you know where I can find them?" he asked her.

The woman couldn't tell anything because Damien was aware that there were no guards in the village. Even if there was one, the people of this village appeared to not be in their good mindset. It appeared that they were all being manipulated with no voice of their own. 

"The guards actually pa.s.sed away," the lady said, that had Damien raising his eyebrows, "They were killed by the witches. The event must have slipped through my mind," she smiled at him as if wanting to get out of the sticky situation.

"My my, and here I thought this was one of the best towns to have a clean record. Were you busy cutting vegetables for your family that you didn't remember to note it down?" 

To Damien's comment, the magistrate white witch couldn't do anything about it. Damien and Penny already knew that the woman standing in front of them was not related to the council and she hadn't been appointed by one. If they had Alexander come with them, it would have blown the lady's cover of how she was involved in the Artemis but they wanted to dig out more from her. 

Penny couldn't help wondering why anyone would try hypnotizing a large number of people together, who appeared better in the daylight and turned to the statue during the time of night. 

Was it another ma.s.sacre?

But if it was truly a ma.s.sacre, then they would have done it by now. Killing of pets and having the humans and some of the vampires who lived in the village who belonged to the lower society of the vampires, she didn't know where to fix the puzzle as the other pieces were empty and lost. 

"Apologies for not being meticulous. Let me write it down," she said and started to pull the files but Damien waved his handoff. 

"I hope you have given them the respectful burial, aye?" he asked her. The magistrate nodded her head, saying a yes, "Good good," he looked around the room before saying, "Take us to the graves."

"What?" 

The lady hadn't expected Damien to make such a request. "To pay respect of course," he smiled and the woman nodded her head again. 

"Follow me."

The cemetery didn't stand too far away from the village and was attached to the behind side of it, almost near the forest. Unlike the other cemeteries, these tombstones were made of wooden crosses. 

It seemed like the bodies had been placed without a proper order as it was the forest, there were several graves that moved from one side to another. The magistrate lady led them to two graves that were in the far corner. 

"Here it is," her thin eyebrows looked at them sternly as if she had other better things to do than take them to tour the cemetery. 

Damien put out a very sad face as if it were his beloved plant that had died due to lack of sunlight and water. Penny in the meantime stood quietly behind Damien without offering a word. 

"I shall take my leave while you..pay your respect to the dead," the woman turned around and walked away, entering the village back and disappearing from there. Once she was gone, Penny asked,

"How do we know this is the graves of the guards?" 

"We don't yet but we can always figure out," he walked closer and used both his hands to pull out the cross that had been placed with no flowers, "Isn't it funny how there is not a single fresh flower in the cemetery. Makes it look like people have forgotten the dead."

"It is because of no one…" Penny's words trailed and she looked back at the village, "Did you notice something?" and when she asked it, Damien pulled out the cross to show her the below part of the wood which had been pushed deep into the soil. 

"The bodies we are standing in or around is more than a year old," he looked closely at the color of the wood, "Look, the color and the wet wood is usually different depending on the age of how it corrodes itself with the soil."

"You are smart," Penny praised him and he shrugged his shoulders as if it was nothing new, "We both know the woman is lying, why are we testing her again?" all they had to do was grab the woman and spew the truth out, and Damien was good at it. 

Damien pushed the cross back into the soil, stepping out and away from the cemetery, "Because we know the villagers are being controlled but we don't know the intentions of the white witch. If she's truly working for the Artemis or if there's someone else in the picture. It is always good to spread out the roots so that even if one of them gets damaged, there's another to sprout. Something tells me this is all for the bigger picture."

"Isn't that given though?" Penny had already thought about it, "My mother tried to run the ma.s.sacre with the other witches, the very same mother who was married into Artemis' family through my uncle and aunt."

Walking farther away from the cemetery, Damien asked her, "What were you going to tell earlier?" 

Earlier? Penny wondered before she remembered, "Did you notice how the villagers have been inside? Not a single person has left the village or away from it. No one in the farm, no cows or sheep or hens. There's nothing," and she was right. They were the only ones who had stepped in and out of it.