Miss Witch, please don't leave your fragrance everywhere

Chapter 93 The Witch Lady and the Sacrifice
 
"Miss Victoria, do you know anything about a living sacrifice?"

"Live sacrifice? Of course I know. In order to offer sacrifice to the gods, devout believers will carefully select fat cattle and sheep, and kill them to offer to the gods in the sacrifice."
Miss Victoria is a religious knight lady. Many knight academies are funded by the church. In addition to learning magic and fighting, knights also have to learn to pray.
"In some places, there are similar beliefs in living sacrifices, but their sacrifices include not only livestock, but also... humans."

"Alas?!"
Victoria shuddered.
"No, that's impossible. That's too cruel. Besides, only evil gods and demons would be happy with sacrificing living people." "But if there are clear benefits, that's another matter, Miss Victoria. For example, making the land fertile, you should know that the characteristics of the Hannibal tree include more than just cannibalism."

Yes, the reason why the Hannibal tree is notorious is that it is a rare plant with the ability to kill people, and the second reason is the roots of the Hannibal tree. The roots of the Hannibal tree will go deep into the ground to absorb the magic of the earth veins, but the manifestation is not that the soil loses its vitality.
"The roots of the Hannibal tree can absorb the magic power in the soil, which will activate the soil for a period of time. Ten years ago, the villagers near the Dokum Mine found that the land had become fertile. At that time, the Hannibal tree should have taken root here. Although the Hannibal tree can activate the soil, it will cause irreversible damage to the earth veins. Specifically, it is like draining the pond to catch all the fish."
Excessive hunting will cause the extinction of species. Draining the lake to catch fish can catch all the fish in the lake, but there will be no harvest next year. However, the Hannibal tree naturally cannot understand this truth. It will endlessly extract magic power until the earth veins are completely destroyed.

"I think the earth veins here have reached their limit, so the Hannibal tree can no longer activate them. People who are unaware of this think that their sacrifices are not enough, and start to perform endless living sacrifices on the Hannibal tree. This is the truth behind the recent disappearances of villagers near the Dokum Mine."
"……wrong."
Victoria recovered from the shock.

"How could someone do such a stupid thing? Because - the Hannibal tree preys on living things, and it has nothing to do with its absorption of magic power!"
The Hannibal Tree has two feeding systems. One is to catch prey that falls into the trap through its Venus flytrap-like shape, and the other is to absorb magic from the earth veins through its roots. However, the two feeding systems are not related to each other. It does not mean that if you feed the Hannibal Tree a living sacrifice, it will stop absorbing magic or increase its absorption.
Seeing Victoria's disbelief, Angelica raised her head and used the brim of the wizard's hat to check the dim sunlight.

"Well, they will probably come tonight too, so we might as well wait here."
…
night.
Several furtive figures appeared in the sparsely populated forest. They were carrying a woman on a stretcher, but the woman did not seem to be a patient. There were no witch doctors living in the forest here. The woman struggled violently, but she was tied tightly to the stretcher like a mental patient.

The men leading the way lit fires to escort the people carrying the stretchers.
"arrive."
"Huh...how many is this...?"

"I don't know... you can't even count them, right?"
"Oh sacred tree, please forgive our sins and save our crops!"
"Please save my orchard! I don't have much food left at home, and my family and children all depend on the blessing of the sacred tree!"

As the men spoke, they freed the woman on the stretcher. The woman struggled even harder, but was held down by the men and had no chance to escape.
Perhaps because they thought that no one would come to rescue them even if they screamed at the top of their lungs in the deep mountains and forests, the men even tore off the cloth covering the woman's mouth.
The woman begged the men for mercy, crying.

"Please spare me! I haven't gotten married yet, and I don't want to die!"
"It is because no one is willing to marry you that you were chosen as a sacrifice to the sacred tree. You should be grateful, at least you as a woman have created some value."
"No! Save me! Father! Mother! Save me!"

"...You're still asking your parents for help? What a fool! You're going to die anyway. To tell you the truth, we took you away with your parents' consent."
"Wha...what? You lied..."
"Do we have to lie to you? Do you really think your parents love you? When they found out that it was a girl, they almost cried. The reason they agreed to let us kidnap you is very simple. Marrying a daughter requires a very expensive dowry, and they can't afford it, so they might as well let you make some contribution to the village."

"In a few days they will say that you eloped with a strange man who came from nowhere. Just symbolically look for him, and soon no one will remember this matter."
"Don't worry, you're not alone. This is how all the women who have gone missing have disappeared recently."
"We have to be careful too. The town governor has hired people to investigate."

"As long as the sacred tree shows us favor again, we will stop immediately. So instead of worrying about the investigation from the Archon, we should revive the sacred tree first."
Perhaps the content of the men's discussion was too shocking, the woman even stopped crying.
The men planned to throw the woman into the Hannibal Tree to serve as food for the tree, just as they had done in the past.

"--stop!"
Victoria couldn't bear it any longer and stood in front of the villagers. The villagers immediately panicked. They didn't expect that someone would ambush them here, and it was a fully armed female knight.
Victoria's expression was not pretty. She did not have the slightest joy of finding out the truth. She finally understood why the patrols were ineffective. It was all due to the disappearances caused by a conspiracy of several nearby villages.

All the missing women were used to feed the sacred tree they mentioned: the Hannibal Tree.
"M-Miss Knight?"
"I heard everything you just said. It's ridiculous! This tree is not a sacred tree. It's a man-eating tree called the Hannibal Tree. Are you actually worshiping it?"

"Han... What kind of tree is Han? The sacred tree is the sacred tree. The sacred tree can make our land fertile, and everyone can live a good life. We only need to sacrifice one person to the sacred tree every quarter, and we will..."
"Nonsense! The Hannibal tree cannibalism has nothing to do with making the land fertile! The Hannibal tree is not a savior ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) either. For ten years, it has been activating the soil in this area, while also destroying the earth veins...! I understand. You have been kidnapping people to sacrifice to the Hannibal tree because you found that the soil can no longer be used as a natural fertilizer like before. But the culprit who destroyed the land on which you depend for survival is your sacred tree!"