As the three shidiots made their way towards the icy mountains in the north, Jack's party kept walking towards the eastern part of the continent. As of now, they were in a mountainous area, which, in all honesty, was pretty barren and rocky. They had taken a small break so Jack could help Izen master her skills. She had quite a unique trait and skill set, which Jack noticed while choosing her. It genuinely interested him, but in all honesty, she was... in terms of using her skills... well. "Shit,” he said out loud as Izen, who had been trying her best, looked back at him. He sighed and rubbed his temples. While all of them could simply use their skills by thinking about them only, that didn't seem to work for her. He honestly didn't know how to help her out, and at this point, he was more irritated than anything. “Why can't you do it properly? For fucks sake, it's not even that hard.” Jack told the little girl, who seemed to be on the verge of tears. Carus simply looked at this and decided he should step in to stop Jack before he scars her for good. But before Carus could step into Jack's communication Amulet lit up as he excused himself to go talk to Pyotr. As soon as Jack left, Izen couldn't hold it together anymore as she started crying. Carus simply sighed as he used his finger to rub her back, due to how small she was compared to him. Izen sobbed as she spoke in between tears. “I did try my best... I really am trying. Why am I like this? What am I so useless at? If I were a bit useful, my brother wouldn't have-” She couldn't even complete her sentence as a stream of tears flowed down her cheeks. Carus simply let her cry as he sighed before she calmed down a bit. He handed her some water as he spoke. "Look, I don't know what happened with your brother, nor am I in any position to say if it was your fault or not. But I doubt he would have considered you useless. Sure, you're not the strongest of us by any means, but I would say you're far from useless. Besides, I doubt it would make your brother happy if you treated yourself like that, taking blame for his death. You're still young; you will grow stronger, maybe stronger than all of us, so don't blame yourself and let your past hold you down. What happened is something no one can change. So simply learn from the past work in the present and focus on the future.” Izen simply nodded, drinking the water and wiping away her tears as she looked up at the giant, who looked at him with a more friendly smile, if anything. She decided to keep trying as she got up and began practicing, while Jack came back from the forest with an annoyed look on his face. He gives people one job, and no one can do that properly. He sighed while holding his forehead as Carus looked down at him. “It's tough being a leader,” said Carus, looking down at Jack. “It is, especially when everyone is so incompetent,” Jack said in a begrudging tone, making Carus look at him with some pity. “Maybe this might sound arrogant coming from me, but the capability of one is drawn out by the person leading them.” Carus spoke, looking down at Jack. Jack looked up at him with a look that said, ‘The fuck you said to me just now?’ before he spoke. “It's not my fault; I've been given useless tools.” Carus sighed in disappointment upon hearing those words. “People aren't tools. They have feelings, wishes, and dreams. As long as a person exists, those things will exist with them. A leader is someone who gathers people's dreams into the ambitions of the group. I'm sorry to say, but if you are only going to look at them as tools, then the incompetent one isn't the people but the leader,” Carus said with a stern face. This was the first time he had seen this man act like this, making him realize maybe he was in the wrong this time. “Maybe you're right. Sorry for that,” Jack said to Carus, to which the giant simply smiled as they both watched Izen try to use her skill. She was too focused right now to listen to what they were talking about. As she kept her eyes closed and thought about her skill concentrating mana between her hands, Jack watched, realizing how hard she must have been working—for a kid no less. As he was going to get up to stop her before she overworked herself, a black orb formed between her hands as she looked down and looked back at Jack. “I did it,” she said with a look that said nothing more than how happy she was right now, while also trying her best not to break her focus. Meanwhile, Jack couldn't help but realize something. “Shit. Maybe I was actually the incompetent one all along.”