novelraw Chapter 146: The Cursed "Benefactor"
Chapter 146: The Cursed "Benefactor"
Lin Jie personally ignited the great fire that combined purification and destruction.
The flames rapidly spread, transforming the centuries-old theater museum at the town center, filled with sin and art, into a crematory tower.
The orange-red fire consumed the oily, flammable substances on the stage, made from human fat and chemical reagents.
The flames then climbed the dry velvet curtains and wooden sets.
The fire expanded outward and upward along the theater's internal wooden structure until the entire building became a towering torch.
The fierce blaze tore through the night, illuminating half of the Alpine valley's sky in a dark red hue.
Burning wooden beams and debris crackled within the flames.
The main body of the Limb Collector UMA, crippled by William's iron fists, was incinerated and vaporized in the fire, ultimately reduced to basic particles.
When Lin Jie and his two companions, supporting each other, rushed out from the theater's side door, now a sea of fire, the night wind carrying rain blew against their fire-scorched faces, bringing a sense of freshness and reality.
They had succeeded.They had survived once again.
Yet, when they raised their weary heads to look toward the direction of the inn, no victor's joy arose in their hearts.
A chill colder than what they faced inside the theater with the UMA swept through their entire bodies.
Because they saw.
On the open ground in front of the inn, the hundreds of Oberammergau townsfolk who had been besieging them earlier had now all stopped their attacks.
They no longer roared or brandished their weapons.
They simply, as if by unspoken agreement, turned around.
They stood quietly there under the illumination of the firelight, gazing with an eerie and complex look at the burning, collapsing town "sanctuary" before them, and at the three "blasphemers" who had emerged from it.
The gaze was complex.
Within it was the shock and disbelief of witnessing their "Guardian Deity" and its "temple" being destroyed together by fire.
There was also the fear of an uncertain future after the centuries-old "devil's contract" was torn up at this moment.
But more than anything, it was an icy hatred that seemed ready to devour the three of them alive.
Hatred.
Yes, it was hatred.
It was not the righteous hatred directed at "murderers."
It was a twisted hatred for those who "repaid kindness with enmity," a hatred for the "calamitous stars" who shattered their happy lives and destroyed the foundation of their faith.
Beneath the light of the burning theater, the town's residents silently encircled Lin Jie, William, and Julian once more.
This encirclement lacked aggression, replaced instead by an isolating, judgmental intent.
The Iron Triangle team did not become heroes in the eyes of the townsfolk.
When they emerged from the great fire, covered in blood, they sorrowfully discovered they had become mortal enemies in the eyes of the very people they had saved.
This judgmental, silent standoff lasted a long time.
Until dawn arrived.
When the first golden rays of sunlight pierced the eastern horizon, still stained red by the fire.
The ancient theater, which had burned all night, saw its charred wooden dome collapse with a great roar, sending up a final cloud of dust and smoke.
The Limb Collector that had plagued Oberammergau for centuries, along with its bloody "devil's contract" with the town, turned to ashes in the purifying fire.
The "corpse puppets" all collapsed limply to the ground the moment the master controlling them died, reverting to cold corpses once more.
The crisis was resolved in the most direct way.
Mayor Vogel, who had been standing at the forefront of all the townsfolk, raised his gloomy face.
He walked towards Lin Jie and the others, unhurriedly.
William's exhausted body tensed, and he instinctively wanted to raise his gun.
But Lin Jie gently pressed his hand down on him.
The fight was over. What was about to unfold was a trial uglier than any battle.
Mayor Vogel finally stopped about ten feet away from them. His rigid eyes were now filled with fear, despair, and a sense of loss.
He did not utter any words of thanks.
He merely used a voice hoarse from a sleepless night to direct a venomous and ungrateful accusation at the three benefactors who had liberated his hometown from a demon's grasp.
His voice grew sharp with anger and fear: "You damned outsiders!! You... what have you done?!"
He pointed a trembling hand at the theater ruins still billowing thick smoke, at the bodies of relatives and neighbors lying on the street, at the women and children who, having lost the "divine miracle's" protection, would now have to face the future.
"You destroyed our 'Guardian Deity'!!"
"You destroyed the peace and prosperity we've maintained for centuries!!"
"Yes! The Great Craftsman occasionally took some travelers! But it also protected our town for generations! It kept us safe from the Black Death! It spared our children from having to go to war! It even bestowed inspiration upon us! Made us the most prosperous 'artistic homeland' in all of Bavaria!"
Flames of spite shot from his murky eyes towards the three men: "And you! You self-righteous heroes! To save a few outsiders we don't even know, you destroyed everything we had!!"
"You will be repaid! I swear it! You will definitely be repaid!!"
"Famine and plague will descend once more upon this land that has lost its guardian! And you! You three damned calamities!! Your names will forever be spat upon and cursed by every single person in our Oberammergau!!"
This absurd, truth-inverting accusation made Julian, a scholar who always prided himself on civilization and reason, tremble with rage.
He wanted to step forward and argue with these ignorant villagers, to tell them that what they had lost was merely a "false paradise" built on lies, and what they had regained was the real world, founded on freedom and humanity.
But Lin Jie held him back.
He just looked calmly at the out-of-control mayor before him, and at the hundreds of villagers behind him staring at them with hatred in their eyes.
Lin Jie's face showed neither anger nor disappointment.
Only the calmness of one who sees through it all.
He understood he could never wake people who were pretending to sleep.
He turned to the indignant and bewildered William and Julian and said softly.
"Let's go."
Under the venomous "watchful eyes" of the entire town's residents, Lin Jie and his two companions, dragging their exhausted, battered bodies, departed like heroes ultimately exiled by the very people they had protected.
They left in silence this outwardly beautiful but inwardly rotten "Puppet Town."
As they passed the town boundary.
A private carriage, seeming out of place in the countryside, was parked by the roadside ahead, though no one knew when it had arrived.
Professor Schmidt stood by the carriage with a grave expression, holding three thick, warm woolen cloaks.
He had escaped from the inn's basement last night and had been waiting here for some time.
"Get in, gentlemen."
Professor Schmidt's voice was a mixture of respect, gratitude, and deep shame for his fellow countrymen.
"I... on behalf of all Germans who still retain a shred of reason and conscience, I offer my most sincere apology for everything you just endured."
Julian and William said nothing.
They silently took the cloaks and boarded the warm, comfortable carriage, carrying their weariness and indignation.
Before getting on the carriage, Lin Jie couldn't help but turn back.
His gaze traveled across the distance, past layers of numb, ignorant, hate-filled adult faces.
It finally settled on a thin, small figure at the very back of the crowd, sheltered behind his parents.
It was the disabled boy, Hans.
The boy was not hurling venomous curses at them like the others.
He was just hiding behind his father, looking deeply at the three benefactors about to depart far away, his eyes filled with gratitude, admiration, and longing.
Lin Jie saw the boy break free from his parents' restraint and rush a few steps towards their direction.
He waved vigorously at Lin Jie.
Then, with a silent mouthing of words, he formed two words.
"Thank you."