"Also. . . I've been meaning to ask you something for quite some while," Rickston looked at me.

"What is it?"

"I know we touched on this topic a long time ago, but this idea of the Village of Facio is growing bigger and bigger. . . Where does this lead us?"

I nodded, my eyes read of conviction and determination. "I know where it does."

"Your family will find you. . . They're not as forgiving as you are with people."

"Tell me about it." I joked, attempting to lighten up the mood in this room, which was almost suffocating me.

"When the times come, we'll be ready for them. But as of now, I'll do my best to keep the Village of Facia the best it possibly can be."

"Alright then," Rickston replied, "You should probably head back. . . I need some time anyway."

I nodded, and with that, I left him as he wanted to be.

With everything going on, I didn't even know what the right move was.

People with their differing opinions didn't make it any better, too.

My thoughts were drowning me, but that soon stopped to a halt as I looked up ahead to see a group of people beginning to form like a mob.

What was going on there?

I managed to go to the scene to see the commotion; Zac was duelling another person.

I watched from close to see his movements, his every attack filled with an underlying venom.

He lunged forward, trying to catch his opposition off-guard.

It was interesting to watch a sparring match unfold; it only cemented my belief that Zac was a skilled fighter.

He was just as good as both Lusan and Tara. . . If not better than them.

Every attack had a purpose behind it, an attack that would cause a severe blow if it had actually managed to land, but his attacks soon crumbled, being all over the place.

That would soon be his downfall as he flew and hit himself on the ground.

The crowd laughed at him as he grumbled, leaving the place altogether.

While everyone else began to mind their own business, I watched him from afar, and that would soon lead me to follow him.

As I followed him, I could see his body slightly tense up.

WHOOSH!

That was a heavy hit.

He looked up at me in shock as I caught his fist of furry.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't know."

I chuckled, releasing his fist, "Don't be sorry, that was a good punch."

A small smile grew on his face, "Thanks. . ."

A looming silence appeared over us, "I've noticed that you've been working hard, haven't you."

Zac nodded, "As hard as I can be, someone has to in this Village."

I could hear a tone of resentment leaking.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

He shrugged, feigning ignorance, "Talk about what? There's nothing to talk about."

I sighed, knowing this would be much harder than I had anticipated.

"Look, we don't have to talk about it if you want, but there's a thing we need to sort out."

Zac remained silent.

"That anger you have in your heart," I pointed at him, "It's consuming you; don't let it do that."

He scoffed, crossing his arms, "You have no idea what you're talking about. This anger that you think exists is what drives me."

"Good." I nodded.

Zac wasn't expecting that answer from me at all.

"Anger is good at driving you, but that anger does nothing if it continues to be random instead of having a purpose."

"So, what do you want me to do?" Zac asked quietly, almost as if waiting for me to unlock the answers to his questions.

"When I see you, I know you can be one of the strongest." I declared, "But you must find why and why you do things. Not because you do it on a whim."

Zac let the words soak in, taking every possible part of it.

"That's why," I said, touching his shoulder. "Would you like to go on a little expedition?

"An expedition?" He tilted his head, "But I thought it was too late for one; after all, Tara and Lusam are on one already."

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I chuckled, shaking my head, "Sure, they are on one, but I'd like to think that this expedition will be a little bit more interesting. . . So what do you say?"

"Sure."

"Alright then, pack your bags. We should get going now."

———

It was something that I had been meaning to do for a while.

Felix had requested that we do this for some time, but I had never gotten around to it—until now.

We would head to the local markets far from the Village of Facia, taking bags of Solum with us.

"I wish we had a carriage or something to get us there," Zac grumbled, carrying the bags of Solum over his shoulder.

I chuckled lightly, catching up to him, "It makes the journey worth it, no?"

He sighed as we continued to keep moving forward.

We shared silence, and the other did not dare to interfere with it.

I was curious to know what Zac was thinking. I knew his mind was working overtime, thinking about something I had yet to learn.

"Can I ask you something?"

Until he did.

I nodded.

"Your Solum that you use. . . I've seen you use it occasionally, but do you keep it a secret to everyone else?"

I tapped my chin, smiling back at him. "Simple. If people knew, they would be out to have a target on our backs."

"But still. . . You have Purpura Solum; you've reached a human's highest stage, so what worry?"

"Trust me, someone will take you down if you think like that," I answered. That's why we sell plain, simple Solum, not just Purpura Solum because it'd be way too suspicious for a Village like ours to have that. We only trust a selected few. Understood?"

I looked over my shoulder to see that he was walking behind me.

He stayed silent momentarily, his eyes looking down at the ground. "Yeah. . . It makes sense."

"Like I said, Zac, you can be one of the best, but how you react to a situation will determine that."

He let the words in as he continued to walk behind me.

I didn't mean to beat him with my words, but if that were the only way he would understand his role in this Village, then so be it.

I stopped in my tracks, casting my arm as a blockade to prevent Zac from moving further.

"What's going on"

All Zac needed to do was look at the marketplace ruins to prevent him from asking any further questions.

Shops and carriages had crumbled onto the ground. Everything had been destroyed as if it were set to ground zero.

"What happened here. . ." Looking at the destruction, Zac muttered, "Could it be Plantea Beasts?"

I continued to examine the destruction, but there were no signs of Plantes Beats even being here in the first place.

"We'll scout the place."

"Right." Zac nodded, splitting up with me as we did our search for any life here

If anything, this place was a ghost town. Not a single sign of life could be found as I stepped on the rubble of the destruction caused here.

What surprised me the most was that it was recent. The smell of rust invaded my senses, telling me there had to be something more here.

From where I was, there were no traces of blood, which was even weirder to think about it.

A place that had been burnt to the ground; indeed, there had been some signs of blood anyone painted on the ground.

But no. . . None of that could be found here.

"Lenin! I found someone!"

I immediately saw Zac helping someone up, using his shoulder to support him so he could stand properly.

I watched the man's face to see that he was beaten quite severely; the bruises and scratches told the story all too well for me.

"Can you talk?" Zac asked gently, trying his best to ease the man's pain.

He slowly nodded, "Y-Yeah, I can." He tried to catch his breath.

"What happened here?" I asked him as he looked at him with the most sorrowful eyes.

"We were just setting up for the stores, but then a bunch of people out of nowhere with swords came raiding us."

"Bandits, huh?" Zac muttered.

The man nodded, "They took our people to one of their camps. . . They have my family there." He drifted off.

"Do you remember where they went?"

He shook his head, "No. . . But all I remember is they left that way." He pointed his finger at a forest not far from us.

"Do you remember what they took?"

"They. . . They took all of our weapons, our Solum." He muttered lowly.

Zac glanced at me as I placed my hand on his shoulder. "We'll find your family and get them back to safety; that's a promise."

His eyes brightened from those words that I had declared to him.

I knew what I had to do now.

You had to know one thing about someone born with Solum within them.

While people with Solum could sense traces of where it may be, their ability to do so would be limited by how strong that user was.

Thankfully, that wasn't the case for me.

I had sensed an influx of Solum approaching the direction of the forest that he had pointed out moments ago.

It means that there was only one place for us to go.

"Can you walk?" I asked as he began slowly nodding.

"Yeah. . . I think I can."

Zac continued to help him up for support.

"Alright then, let's go, shall we?"

We walked into the forest, and the smell of Solum was pungent to my nose.

While people beside me couldn't smell it, I could, every single bit of it, and we were getting closer to where the people from the local markets may have potentially been.

"What is your name, and what was the market before?" I looked over my shoulder as we continued deeper into the forest.

"Nolen." He cleared his throat, "My name is Nolen."

As he looked away for a split moment, I knew it was a sensitive topic for him to speak about after everything that had happened to him.

"Everything was peaceful and sound; the markets didn't always do too well, but it worked; the people there were like family."

Zac looked at Nolen, analysing every word he said to the tea.

"And these bandits, what were there like?"

"I don't know, but they came multiple times to our markets, wanting our supplies."

"Your supplies, huh?"

I took a glance over at Zac.

"A moment ago," Zac said, "You said that these bandits came out of nowhere, so why are you saying that came multiple times?"

Zac instantly stopped in his tracks as he looked into Nolen's eyes.

Nolen, who looked as if we had asked him the stupidest question in the world, looked at us.

But I continued to look over my shoulder, waiting in silence for an answer to come out of his face.

"Oh yes. . ." He muttered, looking at us, but in the corner of my eye, I could see something that made it clear what situation we were currently in.

"I did say that, didn't I?" He smirked.

WHOOSH!

Zac pushed him against the tree without a second of hesitation. "What game are you playing?"

Nolen chuckled, raising his hand in surrender, "Got you."

Zac titled his head, "Wh-"

WHOOSH!

There, the trees that had been nothing but silent had people on top of them jumping down as if they had been railing.

In an instant, they restrained us, stopping us from doing anything and kicking us to our knees.

Zac desperately attempted to fight back, trying to break out of their grasp, but that had only put an ever-larger target on his back as Nolen had kicked him to the floor, placing his foot onto his leg.

"Damn it! I'll kill you once I get my hands on you!"

Nolen chuckled, "You'll make a good slave like the others."

Zac gritted his head, and just as he was about to shout once more, he looked over at me and shook my head discreetly.

That was enough for him to calm down as we both realised there was some truth to what Nolen had been saying this whole time.

The other people at the markets would also be there wherever we went.

So lead us the way.