The group returned to the caravan and there stood the Guard Captain with a line of guards standing in wait. The moment they neared the Guard Captain 2 guards stepped forward and pointed their spears towards the group as the Guard Captain barked out, “Halt!”

He looked to the group for a moment before his eyes landed on Adrith and Evelyn. His eyes squinted as his gaze began to scan Adrith and Evelyn incredulously. He stepped slightly back as he began to circle behind his line of guards and began to circle them like a farmer inspecting their cattle. Connor and the others were then barked at by the Guard Captain, “You may enter”.

However that did not give Adrith and Evelyn access, the Guard Captain began to encircle them once more. Now much closer and with a much more detailed eye. Evelyn stood, taking hold of her arm as she looked around. She was quite nervous at first as it had been some time since something like this even happened. For her, the last time something like this happened it was when she was eyed up by unsavory men while in the dungeon. Evelyn gritted her teeth as the thought began to enter her mind, yet the moment she could begin to remember the event, it felt as if someone jammed a knife into her head. She stumbled for a moment as she leaned into Adrith for a moment.

Adrith turned and looked down to Evelyn, her face was incredibly pained, it looked like she was struck by something yet he could not see what had done such a thing. Adrith began to look around, people looked to him strangely as they thought he was in shock, yet none seemed even to notice Evelyn. In Adrith’s worry, he didn’t notice the Guard Captain standing before him and his voice cut through Adrith’s thoughts, “You two may join my caravan”.

The man spun on his heel once more and walked away. Another guard began to move forward again, now holding the soul scale once more, it had a different monster core than what Adrith remembered. Upon a simple look of the core, Adrith instantly knew that it was a core that was from a Shadow Beast. It may not have been larger than some of the other cores that what they brought up, however, it must have been one that Connor and his group used to enter. Adrith took a breath in, as he sighed and began to move towards the Wishing Star, yet the moment he turned around, he saw the Wishing Star was empty. His eyes widened as he looked around, it was then he saw Connor holding 4 crystals and threw them over.

Adrith looked at the cores strangely as he set one onto the scale and it weighed roughly the same, Adrith realized that his weighed a somewhat more than theirs, around a 1/8th heavier than their own, they seemed not to care one bit. The guard did not remark on the difference in weight on the scale as he took the monster core Adrith gave off and placed it into his bag. After which the guard held out the scale again expecting him to pay the toll for Evelyn as well. Adrith took another core and put it onto the scale, and even though the scale was a little off again, this time it was ever so slightly lighter then the one guard put on. That small difference was enough for the guard to stop them and say, “You haven’t paid the full toll”.

Adrith looked utterly dumbfounded, “Could you not just consider the amount extra I gave from my own to be enough”.

It was then the guard got defensive, “No sir, you must pay the full toll or leave”.

In that moment multiple guards began to move over from the commotion, Adrith looked confused for that moment longer. It was until he realized they were trying to escalate the situation he took the core off and tried to place another one, which that one was incredibly light, he looked at each of them once more and saw that the heavy one was most definitely a Shadow Beast core as well, however, it was slightly lighter. How this worked wasn’t something he could understand, nor would be something he would try to, all he knew was that both of these would be enough.

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The moment Adrith placed the other core onto the scale, the scale swung down and was weighted to Adrith’s side. The Guard looked to Adrith still like some kind of criminal for a moment, yet after a second longer he rose his free hand and lightly waved it. The multiple guards that were coming closer began to turn away to return where they came from, not before giving Adrith a small side-eye. The moment the Guard took hold of the cores and placed them into his bags, he said, “You may enter the back cart with the others”.

Adrith nodded his head as he turned to Evelyn once more to see she was still wincing in pain. He took hold of her shoulder as he began to walk them over to the cart where he saw Connor and the others had gathered. Connor gave a light wave as he then noticed Evelyn seemed in pain, “Hey what’s going on there?”

Evelyn had been fighting through a pain that started from when they were being inspected by the Guard Captain, and it had not subsided. As she was being brought into the cart she was reliving memories she didn’t even remember. She was with her group, many of them she could not remember their faces. She could barely remember their names as everything began to become a fog. She could remember her going into the dungeon, they had been tasked with killing a Chimera Dragon. They had ventured to the 38th floor and found a Chimera Dragon there. After a tough yet quick battle with Evelyn and someone she believed to be her master used magic to kill it through overwhelming force. They rested down there, yet she could not remember anything else. All she remembered after that was a light.

As the moment Evelyn began to focus on that light she was ripped out of her thoughts with Connor over her yelling, “Hey!”

Evelyn shook violently as she came out of her mind. She looked around as she was drenched in sweat. She found herself in a cart, the cart was filled with multiple people, most of them she knew, yet a few were keeping themselves covered and away from the croud that formed near the back. Evelyn began to sit up and asked, “What happened?”

Connor sighed out in relief, “Well, when we were allowed to go by the Guard Captain, he inspected you guys for a while longer before letting you go. I think it was here when you looked ill”.

Connor looked among his group to get a general consensus, as most nodded, “Well while you and Adrith were distracting them, we went and grabbed your things and used Gloria’s magic to place them into a pocket she can make”.

Gloria lightly waves as Evelyn nods her head in thanks, Connor then continues, “From there once you guys were able to get in, I threw you guys some cores for you to pay the fare. At the start Adrith was struggling, however after the guards seemed to try and shake him down, he was able to wisen up and knew that they were trying to shake him down for what they could”.

Evelyn nodded her head as she then said, “So where are we?”

Connor lightly gestures, “Well, when we started traveling we had to help you into the cart and figure out what was happening. Most of us assumed that you were just trying to feign shyness or something to not need to interact”.

Gloria then chimed in, “Then we realized as we began to leave you were breathing quickly and sweating, you must have been going through something”.

Connor then quickly stated, “So I punched you hard enough to knock you out and woke you up by having gloria heal you”.

Evelyn looked in horror as she said, “What?!”

Connor and the others then laughed as he said, “No no, we just used a spell to have you sleep and woke you up a moment later”.

Evelyn shook her head as she began to sit up and looked around as she noticed Adrith wasn’t near them. She saw at the very back that Adrith was looking out into the scenery, as the sun had risen to its highest point. As Evelyn began to move over to him, she could see his eyes looking out to the dull grey sky and the sea of dead yellow grass.

As Evelyn could see in his eyes, sadness and horror.