"It's not your fault."

"It is..."

"You know it's not. It was self-defense."

"We could have just asked for help..."

"So you'd rather starve to death? Even if I went up to him and asked for help, things would still be the same."

"You can't know that Crystal; maybe he would have helped."

"He had nothing but greed and delusions of grandeur in his mind, girl. If he found us first, the outcome wouldn't have changed."

Lila went quiet after Crystal pointed that out. Neither of them knew the guy, but judging from the way his father reacted, he must have been a good person, at least a good son to his father. And the rest... The looks they gave her when she hesitated to give the hat back...

Why did she hesitate? It's been a full moon cycle since the massacre, and she's already no better than Nosdramo, Erthur, and Gerda. What she did when she denied Tuel was worse than what they've done to her. She was different than them, but that didn't mean she was any better. She took what wasn't hers to take, and she lied when she had to. No... No, she wasn't like them at all. On the contrary, everything she did was self-defense, right? She wouldn't have done those things if they had just left her alone.

In fact, she wouldn't have done any of that if her village hadn't been massacred. But that was her fault too. If only she hadn't listened to Alara. With that, she raised her head from her knees. Up until this point, she always blamed herself but never once thought about the person who convinced her to take the glowing crystal in that cave.

"It's all her fault. If Alara hadn't lured me to you, none of this would have happened. I'd still be in Gladeside, and everyone I know would still be alive!"

Crystal was baffled by her statement. Wasn't she talking to herself back then? As far as it knew, she was the only person there.

"Who is Alara? Did she discover the cave and tell you about it?"

This crystal... Surely it jesting as usual, or so Lila thought.

"This isn't the time to be joking. Alara was right there in the cave. You even told me not to think about it too hard once she was gone."

"You were speaking to yourself, lass. There was no one there other than you; I thought you were hallucinating due to exposure to overwhelming mana."

This new revelation from Lila caught its interest, so much so that it read Lila's mind to confirm her claims. No, she wasn't lying nor was she hallucinating. Her thoughts were too coherent to be the ramblings of someone high on mana. There was someone else present in the cave on that fateful day. Who was she? Who could have been powerful enough to hide their presence on top of masking themselves completely from its detection?

"You're right. But... I do not know who she is or how she avoided my attention," Crystal said.

This person hid herself from Crystal and the reason why she did that was clear as day. She used Lila right from the start. The reason for this was unknown to the young adventurer, but that did not matter. All this time, she wrongfully directed her anger and sorrow at herself. Now she has finally found the answer to a question she was dreading to ask, fearing that the answer would be her own name. The person responsible for her village's destruction was none other than Alara...

Lila felt anger overtake her thoughts. All other worries flew away as she stood up and started to pace around her room.

"Lila?"

She ignored Crystal's whisper. A sudden whiplash of emotions was making her head feel dizzy. Her anger was boiling up, and it had nowhere to go. She wanted to hit something, anything. She turned around and punched the thick wooden door, hard enough to draw blood from her knuckles but not enough to make her feel the pain.

"Lila, calm down!"

This time, she heard it. She turned her attention to Crystal, "It was her! She was the one who lured me there. She was the one who told me to take you. Mom, Dad, Maya, Elias... She is the reason why they're gone!"

Crystal didn't need a link to feel the anger emanating from Lila. Her bloody fist was still clenched tightly, dripping blood on the ground.

"Remember this feeling, kid. It will keep you alive until you can make her pay for it," Crystal encouraged her.

She nodded with determination. She didn't think she was capable of forgetting it anyway. Now that she had a goal, her reason to keep moving was reborn.

"We need to get going. We spent enough time in Rath, and God knows where Alara is right now."

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Lila hastily packed her things and flew downstairs. She ignored the prying eyes of the patrons and walked to the counter.

Before she could say anything, Mardro pulled out a pouch full of coins and held it in front of Lila's face.

"You did the right thing, lass. Besides, your presence alone was enough to fill my tavern to the brim for the past few days. This is the least I could do for you."

Lila was genuinely surprised at Mardro's generosity. Grabbing the pouch in front of her, Lila gave him a slight nod and turned around to leave. But that didn't feel right at all. After seeing how bad people could be, including herself, this small gesture of kindness was invaluable. It was like a candle beneath a starless night to her, showing her that not everyone had a dark heart deep within. She turned back to the barkeep and bowed her head in gratitude.

"Thank you, Mardro. For everything."

"Don't mention it, kid. Take care out there."

Lila bowed even deeper. However, she had a final question for Mardro before she left.

"Mardro, what's the nearest town to Rath, and which way should I take for it?"

This final question confirmed the barkeep's doubts about her. Any merchant living around the area would have known the way there and she did not. But, it wasn't his place to question her. Everyone has their reasons to hide the truth, especially people in desperation.

"Well, that'd be the town of Cimia. Just go through the north gate and follow the road straight ahead."

With her target in sight, Lila was about to enter truly unknown territory. She knew about the Settre Outpost from her father, and she had a vague idea about the surrounding areas, but she knew nothing about what lay beyond Rath. Last time when left without any preparation, she ended up half-dead under a tree, in a forest full of monsters. But not this time, not again.

She gave Mardro one final goodbye before she left the tavern and rushed to the town butcher before he closed his shop. After barely managing to catch him as he was about to close the shop for the day, she bought as much preserved meat as she could with the money Mardro gave her. She then went to the town square to fill her water flasks from the fountain. As she was filling her water flasks, she noticed a presence.

It was Tuel, staring at her from a close distance and his hands were behind his back. There wasn't a lot of distance between them, but to Lila, it felt as if he stood right in front of her face. Mardro wasn't there to hold back the grieving father this time, so she could only guess what would happen next. She hung her flasks on her hip and readied her iron dagger, waiting for the worst.

Unexpectedly, Tuel brought out a hat as he came closer. It was different from Nosdramo's, but it was a similar one. It was a wider hat made of brown leather, and its band was broader around the top.

"Calm down, I'm not here to fight or argue."

This did not cause Lila to drop her guard. He was still quite inebriated, judging from the stench of alcohol oozing from him at that distance. Once he got closer, he noticed the knife in Lila's hand.

"You may drop the knife. I don't want any trouble."

"Then explain why you're here," Lila asked, unsure about his intentions.

"I wanted to apologize. And give my thanks, I guess. You seemed to have liked my son's hat a lot, but you still gave it back. I'll never forget that."

With that, Tuel pushed the hat forward.

"This was my own hat. It's a little bit cheaper, but it was made by the same shop."

"But... I..." She hesitated.

"Shut up and take it. I don't want to stay indebted to a stranger."

Lila's shame overtook her desire for vengeance at that moment. She damned this man's son to a gruesome death and almost kept his son's last memory from him. But there he was, thanking her.

"I'm... I don't deserve this..."

"Just take the damn hat. It was lying around in the house. It's not like I need it anymore," Tuel said, fully pushing the brown hat into Lila's embrace.

Before Lila could try to object, Tuel turned around and hastily left the square, stumbling in his steps and leaving Lila all alone with her consciousness. He may have gotten closure on his son's demise, but Lila? A punch to her pale face would have hurt less than what he did to her. Perhaps in his heart, he knew the truth, and this was his way of getting revenge.

"Let's just go," Crystal whispered in Lila's mind.

"Yes... Let's go..." Lila replied as she watched Tuel disappear into the town.

This encounter left Lila stunned, so much so that she didn't realize they walked past the north gate and put quite a distance from it in a matter of minutes. She thought she could leave Rath behind and focus on pursuing Alara. But she knew, Rath and the things she went through there would never leave her. The brown leather hat on her head cemented this.

Suddenly, Lila heard Crystal's voice in her head, stopping her dead in her tracks.

"Stop! There's someone following us."

Lila stopped and unsheathed her knife. A chill ran through Lila's spine at that moment. Every inch of hair on her body stood up and warned her of the oncoming danger. She didn't know where her predator was, but she knew it was close by and had its eyes on her. Was it a monster or a wild animal? No, the bloodlust started after she took out her knife. It can't be either of those, it must be a human. Would that be even possible? A human to have such bloodlust.

Suddenly, a shadowy figure with a knife in its hand prowled at the girl from the side of the road. If she hadn't been expecting it, she most likely would have fallen prey to her attacker. She jumped back from her spot and dodged the incoming sneak attack, but her attacker was relentless. It pressed on and jumped back at her. This time, she was caught by its tackle, and they both fell to the ground but she was able to avoid being pinned down due to the small figure of her attacker. They struggled on the ground for a while, with Lila moving frantically to avoid the knife that pursued her head.

Eventually, she managed to stab her attacker in the shoulder, making it shriek in pain. After that, she immediately shook it off her body and threw the small, hooded figure to the side. Lila was honestly surprised that she managed to accomplish this. Whoever that person was, they must be really light for her to be able to throw them with her still-recovering body. Without delay, she got up and rushed to her attacker's side. Its hood was no longer covering its face, revealing that the attacker was a child.

This reveal briefly caused Lila to recoil as she did not expect a small kid to be the one attacking her, a moment which was exploited by the child to give Lila's leg a weak slash. Lila yelled in pain and quickly kicked the knife out of the kid's hand. She then started to stomp viciously on the wound she gave him, kicking the kid on the ground again and again until his voice gave out.

In the middle of her rampage, Lila stopped to take a look at the child's face. It was a familiar face indeed, a face she had seen earlier today; it was the beggar!