– Fighting this creature alone is a risky endeavor. With all due respect to your fist-fighting skill, – Ottar remarked. – The most likely candidate is the healer. The only healthy peasant woman, she knows all the victims and met with me... The second candidate is the elder. I ran into him right away. Just as I entered the village. It was he who recommended lodging to me and listed everyone I ultimately went to see. The third is an unfamiliar peasant woman with a bucket of water. Who she is – unclear. Where she lives – also unclear. But she saw me. The carpenter, the hunter, and the apprentice looked far worse off than that trio... they are bedridden and very sincere in the pitifulness of their condition. Nevertheless, the creature is an excellent actor. It could have been one of them as well. But the chance is small. And, of course, the creature might not have been among that six at all. I put 30% on the healer, 20% each on the elder and the peasant woman with the bucket, 5% each on the remaining three, and the other 15% on everyone being clean.
In reality, Ottar believed that fighting the creature at night was the only chance to defeat it for good. But he did not want to risk the master. This village was not worth the life of the capital's best physician.