It's Shank Town, not Witch Town, and a death news on Death Penalty Hill

After a tiring journey, I arrived at my small house. Then I slept for a few hours. In the afternoon, I woke up. After eating, I got ready for my next activity, which was running. I didn't forget to strap a watch that could be a performance tracker to my wrist. I also put a bottle of water, a bottle of electrolyte drink, and a raincoat into the back of my running jacket.

I already had a plan for this afternoon's running route—of course, I called it an afternoon time run, because both morning and evening runs have the same atmosphere. I planned to go around the small complex where my house is located, then to the highway. Then, after that, head to the hill, which is located about 3 km from my house. The hill has a steep, high cliff on one side.

The hill I'm heading to is called Raustrat Hill. The name comes from two words in our language, namely 'Raus' and 'Trat.' Raus is a 'colloquial word' that means 'to get out' or 'get out of here,' while trat is the past tense of the word treten. Treten has many meanings, and one of its meanings is 'to step.'

The name of Raustrat Hill can more or less be interpreted as 'to step out.' Behind the name of the hill, there is a rather dark history. ‘Stepping out’ comes from the history that this hill was once the location for falling executions. It was an execution in ancient times by throwing the victim from a cliff.

The cliff where the execution took place was about 25 meters high. The rocks below the cliff would guarantee the victim's death. The victim's body would be destroyed, and the victim would 'step out' of this world along with his soul.

Who were the victims of this hill? Among them were murderers and rebels, or traitors, or political enemies of the rulers at that time. Apart from that, elderly people who were deemed unable to take care of themselves also became the victims of executions on this hill.

For murderers and rebels, they would be executed directly by being dropped without mercy. Meanwhile, for the elderly people group, before being dropped, they would first be intoxicated with a neurotoxic plant. The execution of the elderly people group was also carried out with certain ritual procedures.

But as time went by, there were no more punishments carried out on this hill. Although it still bears the name Raustrat, there was no more news of deaths coming from this execution hill.

(***)

I carried out my running route plan completely. Now, with my breath still out of breath, I sat on the grass at the top of Raustrat Hill. In sequence, I drank a few sips of water and isotonic drinks.

While holding a bottle of electrolyte drink, I enjoyed the view of the small town that was within my reach. A small town that could be said to have been established not long ago, only about ten years ago. I could see the lights that were always on—because we were in eternal twilight—in streets, town parks, fields, houses, and other buildings, as well as several vehicles passing by.

Of course, my eyes also did not miss the view of the large lake where our small town stood. The lake is called Obersee or Upper Lake. This lake is one of the three combined bodies of water that form a giant lake called Lake Boden. Besides Lake Ober, the other two bodies of water are Lake Unter, or Upper Lake, and a large, elongated body of water called Rheinsee.

Lake Boden borders two other countries. The clear border itself has not been agreed upon by Deuschtonia and the two countries. That is why there is a large military presence in our area. Likewise, our neighboring countries also station their army near this lake.

The town I live in is called Hessestadt. This town is located in the state of Baden-Württemberg. In the Federal Republic of Deuschtonia, there is another state called Hessen. The name Hessen comes from the name of a tribe or population that has long occupied the area. But the name of my town does not have the same case.

Hesse, the name of my town, comes from the word 'Hesse', which means "shank" for beef or goat meat. It came from the town planning that was designed to stretch around the edge of the lake. The design made our town look like a cow's shank when viewed from above.

However, because our town was still not fully occupied, when viewed from a bird's-eye view, our town looked like the shape of a witch's hat. Because of that, there was a joke that our town was a witch's town. The witch's town in our language could be called "Hexenstadt," where the pronunciation is similar to the pronunciation of our town's name.

But of course, our town is not a witch's town, okay? Our town has a history of having a hill that was once a place of execution. But there is no history of our town being a headquarters or meeting place for witches, okay?

From this former human execution site, I could also see a dome-shaped building that is now a research facility. The dome is not near residential areas but rather a little on the outskirts of the town. The dome is the largest building in this small town, which is why I can still see it even though its location is further from residential areas.

The research site is where I currently work. My coworkers and I called that site the Hill or the Dome. In addition to the large half-spherical building, the research site also has a large area next to the building. Some of the land is used as a runway and helipad for the personal interests of our research site. This facility is one of the many assets owned by the Five.

A few seconds after I returned the electrolyte drink bottle to my back, drizzles of water began to fall from the sky. I quickly stood up while grabbing the raincoat attached to the back of my body. I put the raincoat that was originally in the form of a roll on my left hand. By pressing a button, the roll spread to cover my entire body.

As I prepared to step back, my watch made a notification alert sound three times quite loudly. Then the watch said in a voice message, "Our artificial intelligence has detected the latest news that may be important for you to read—"

The voice message was not finished; I had immediately pressed the button that showed the hologram of the watch. From the floating screen, my eyes widened slightly, seeing the news that was presented. Reflexively, I commented, "News of death?!"

Fermi Isai Herzwarm was found dead in a remote location on the Hinter Lake in Ramsau, Bavaria. There was a suspiciously large stool-like device tied to his body, which sank into the lake.