LENIN

Everyone around me seemed nervous for what was to come.

They had no idea how this would go down, but if anything, we would have prepared for the worst or the best.

We only had a couple of hours until we met them.

"What if it's a trap?" Lusan suggested, worried that this meeting could go wrong. "Knowing these people, I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to ambush us again."

"They won't." I smiled reassuringly, "They know better not to do something reckless like that. They'd be more careful after what we did to their warriors the first time."

It seemed that everyone was satisfied with my analysis of mine.

"Zac." I asked him, "Would you like to accompany me?"

Surprised, he blinked until he regained his composure and cleared his throat. "Of course, it would be an honour to do so."

I nodded, "Good, alright then you may all leave."

They all left except for Eleanor, who seemed to have a couple of questions she wanted to ask herself.

Before she could even ask, I beat her to it, "Yes, you're coming as well."

She chuckled, "I wasn't going to ask this, but thanks anyway; I was going to ask you why you picked Zac out of the others."

I raised an eyebrow in amusement. Out of all the questions she could have asked me, I wasn't expecting this to be the first one that popped into her mind.

"Well, to answer your question, he's quite intelligent but can also be a bit more aggravated about his beliefs."

Eleanor nodded as she sat before me, almost as if she was interrogating me.

"What's with this interrogation?" I joked, "I thought we were both past this stage."

"Oh, we are so past this stage that I've been practically trusting you blindly through this process." She looked at me.

"But I can't help but wonder if, as truthful as you are, you're still hiding things I might want to know."

"I wouldn't say you're wrong." I declared as Eleanor wasn't expecting me to reveal it so quickly.

She cleared her throat, regaining her composure, "Okay. . . Then why aren't you revealing it?"

I sighed, smiling, "You would think differently of me if I did." I answered honestly.

"It's probably best for you to know. . . But maybe I'll tell you once everything is done?"

Eleanor stared at me briefly before nodding, "I can do that."

It'd be too early to reveal anything personal to her now.

Even if we had already established a trade agreement, there were still things I'd say to keep for myself for now.

"Lenin!"

We whipped our heads to see Lusan looking at us.

I was in a hurry.

"What is it?"

"He's here." He declared.

I looked at Eleanor, exchanging a nod as we prepared for this to go down.

"Send Zac in."

Lusan nodded, leaving the room.

While waiting for only a few minutes, it felt like the longest minutes of our lives.

I instantly could tell as much as she wanted to put on a brave face; she was nervous to meet whoever would enter this room.

After all, it was no surprise that she was nervous. She had never done this before and had not faced conflict until now, which was partly our fault for letting it happen in the first place.

WHOOSH!

To my surprise, the man I had beaten down entered the room.

Whilst the others were surprised at this revelation, I knew he wasn't the leader at all, as in came the man.

He entered the room, and I must say, he was exactly what I imagined to be the leader of Scopa.

His eyes examined us, never leaving our faces.

His body was just as I expected: muscular but more slender.

His left eye was scarred to a degree, not that one would ever notice it, but it was there.

Soon enough, he sat beside us, with the man and Zac exchanging looks at each other, more tense than we were.

"Jove, you look quite tense. I can assure you nothing wrong will happen, " he declared.

So that big man was named Jove, huh?

Now, his eyes shifted to the both of us, a warm smile appearing on his face.

"Meeting the man who destroyed my soldiers is an honour." He continued smiling, "My name is Frienson." He placed his hand on his chest.

"I would like to apologise for the actions of my right-hand man." He looked at him, "He can get quite aggressive when he doesn't get his way."

Eleanor broke our silence first: "I'm surprised with how calm you are about this whole situation."

Freinson smirked, shrugging his shoulder in response, "Why should I be mad? It's clear that I am at a disadvantage." His eyes never laid off me, almost as if he was trying to gauge my reaction.

"So why are you here?"

"To talk." Freinson declared, "Isn't that what every man wishes?" He let out a slight chuckle.

"Then get to the point; what do you want to discuss?"

He glared at Elenoir, "I'm sorry, but am I talking to you?" Freinson looked back at me, "I'm talking to this man over here who hasn't said a single word yet."

"I have nothing to say," I smiled brightly. "You don't interest me all that much."

Freinson chuckled once more, looking straight into my eyes, "I suppose that's valid, which is why I'm telling you this now: whatever your demands are, I reject."

"Reject?" She scoffed, "How do you have the nerve to reject us after attacking my people?" She questioned.

He cleared his throat, "I have every right to reject. Despite my ordering of my soldiers to your village, I never requested them to kill any of your men." He paused for a moment. "While your men mercilessly killed my soldiers who had families and children."

It was enough for Eleanor to keep quiet as he did make a logical point.

"Not only that, but the only reason why we demanded your livestock was because we were misled into believing it was your village doing the action."

"What do you mean by that?" Eleanor questioned.

A simple grin appeared on his face as his finger pointed to us, "They were secretly spying on us."

Eleanor looked at me with confusion. "Is that true?" She asked, not wanting it to be factual.

I nodded, "It is."

"The Village of Facia caused the problem in the first place." He clapped his hands together, "If it weren't for them, the two of us wouldn't have this problem in the first place."

It looked as though Eleanor felt disheartened hearing this information.

"Could you leave the room for a moment?" She looked at Freinson.

He smirked and nodded as he stood up and left the room.

"You did this?" Eleanor spoke out. "I mean, they came here because of your people."

"We didn't mean to." Zac attempted to reach out to her.

"I think I've heard enough." She waved her hand in dismissal as she looked at the two of us. "I think you should both leave this village. . . I need time to think about this."

"For how long?" I asked.

"I don't know." She answered, "But please just leave."

I couldn't say anything at the moment to appeal to her. The last thing she wanted to hear was me trying to convince her that he was wrong, but there was no point.

Freinson was right. We did all those things, and we couldn't argue against them.

I left with Zac, and the first thing I saw was that Jove and Frienson were seemingly waiting for me.

"You've won this time." I looked at him straight in the eye.

"Won?" He smiled and shook his head. "I have no idea what you mean. There's no such thing as winning. I was only giving my perspective to this whole little dilemma."

I remained silent, letting his words soak in even more.

"Let's go," I announced to the other as we walked past him.

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I looked over my shoulder to see Jove spit onto the ground, and I knew this wouldn't be the last time I would encounter them.

"Are we just going to leave like that?" Zac hurried beside me, whilst I could tell that Tara and Lusan were thinking the same thing.

"We are." I declared.

"But we can't just do that," Tara said in immediate rebuttal. "It's obvious that they're planning something."

"This is why we'll be ready to return to The Village of Ustrin."

They all smiled, nodding with determination.

That was the least I could do for them now.

———

When we arrived back at The Village of Facia, there was only one thing to say.

"Woah. . ." Lusan said in awe.

Woah indeed.

We all watched as people were already constructing whatever Rickston had in mind for us.

"Oh!" Rickston shouted from afar, approaching us. "You guys made it!" He said with a cheery smile.

"Where did you get all of these workers?"

Rickston shook his head in confusion. "I thought your expedition to the Village of Ustirin worked?"

"Not really. . ." Tara muttered, but her eyes immediately lightened again, "But that means she was nice enough to uphold her part of the deal."

I nodded, "I think I have to go somewhere."

"Do you need anyone to come with you?" Lusan asked.

I shook my head, smiling. "This might take a while, but thanks for asking."

They all looked at me with confusion, but they didn't need to ask me any more questions to know that whatever I was doing had a purpose.

They couldn't be any more right about it.

ELEANOR

It had been a couple of days after that situation happened. . .

I still couldn't wrap my head around it all.

It was hard to digest that Lenin and his people were the reason the Village of Scopa came to demand our livestock.

I told them the truth about the village, which is how he repays me.

Maybe I overreacted too much to the situation, or perhaps I had every right to be angry at his actions.

In all honesty, I didn't know what to feel about it.

I still couldn't believe I had decided to send some workers to their village to work on whatever they were constructing there.

Hell, if I didn't know any better, they were probably using that to trick me into falling for their plans. I didn't know what to think anymore, sighing to myself.

WHOOSH!

My eyes widened, "What is it, Dove?"

"The Village of Scopo! There he-"

But before she could utter another word, a splatter of blood dropped to the ground.

Dove looked at me, and I realised that blood had been coming out of her mouth, but that wasn't the worst part of it all.

She looked down at her stomach to see a sword right through her.

Her mouth quivered as the sword pulled back, leaving her body as her body dropped to the ground, lifeless.

"Jovo, what are you doing here?" I instantly reached for my sword, arming myself for what would come.

"Payback." He boastfully chuckled, "If I can't kill that bastard, Lenin, then I'll be damn to kill you."

"But your orders from Frienson was to back off."

He grumbled, but that didn't stop him from smiling: "His orders are irrelevant; he's too soft, too weak." He chuckled even more as he approached me closer.

"Which is exactly why he's currently occupied."

Occupied? That could have meant many things, but I couldn't think about it now.

All I could think about was how I would take Jovo out.

WHOOSH!

He swung his sword viciously as I managed to evade; his attack caused everything in the room to drop to the ground.

He lunged forward with greater precision.

Given his size, I was more than surprised by how handy he was in attacking me.

I quickly dodged the attacks away with all my strength.

It took all of my strength to even block one of his attacks.

"Not bad little girl!" He chuckled manically, swinging his sword even more, "You're a lot stronger than the men I have fought against. So at least you'll die knowing that."

I gritted my teeth, continuing to block and dodge the attacks he had been attempting on me.

Time and time again, I scurried around the room, but the onslaughts of his attacks had been taking a toll on me, my sword slowly chipping away.

He grinned even more comprehensively than ever before, realising that he was having the upper hand.

WHOOSH!

Out of nowhere, he threw his sword away, swiftly using his hand to hold my throat, lifting me in the air.

I did everything I could, punching him, but there was no use; his skin was too hard as it was hurting me more than it did him.

I dropped my sword to the ground, gasping for air.

WHOOSH!

He threw me through the window as I rolled on the ground. I did everything I could to stand up on my own two feet, but I saw the utter destruction around me once I did.

"You have no idea how much I wanted to see this insignificant village burn to the ground."

My hands trembled as I readied myself to fend him off.

"I'm impressed at how you manage to stand on your own two feet." He declared, "I almost feel sorry having to kill you."

"Do your worst." I spat on the ground, glaring at him.

He smirked, "Oh, I'm well."

WHOOSH!

At that very moment, I thought it would be over in a rapid second.

As corny as it sounded, I truly believed that my life flashed before my eyes, something I thought I would never experience.

But no. . . It seemed that I wouldn't be facing death just quite yet, that it wasn't my time to finally be with my parents quite yet, as if I still had some fight in me.

I slowly opened my eyes, and like a dream, there in front of me. . .

"L-Lenin?"

He shielded me from Jovo's sword, catching it with his hand, blood dripping from his hand as it dropped to the ground like a puddle.

Lenin looked over his shoulder with a smile, instantly telling me it would be alright.

The look on Jovo's face was a joy to see.

It was a face wrapped in fear, confined by that fear.

His eyes clearly show that the last person he expected was him.

Hell. . . I wasn't expecting it to be him after I practically scolded him, but I was lucky he was there.

BOOM!

Before I knew it, Lenin had shattered Jovo's sword, sending him flying miles away.

Seriously? How strong are you, Lenin?

LENIN

I took a deep breath, looking over the aftermath of what had just happened.

It was an unfamiliar silence that I would never get used to.

"Thanks. . . For helping." Eleanor finished off by saying.

She was ashamed for apologising after the onslaught of words she had said to me a couple of days.

I shook my head, a gentle smile plastered on my face. "I should be thanking you; you still sent those workers after we didn't tell you the full truth."

Eleanor sighed, looking at the ground, "I guess I owe you another one after saving my butt, huh?"

"No." I declared, "You don't have to owe me anything; I don't want this partnership to be based on having to owe each other."

"Yeah." She nodded in agreement, "That sounds pretty good if I say so myself, so what's next?"

"Well, it's about time we visit The Village of Scopa."

Eleanor's eyes widened ever so slightly, "After what just happened, you seriously want to go there?"

I nodded, "This is the best time to go there." I answered.

She sighed, a little smile etched on her face. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go."

———

One thing I learned about these travels to other villagers is that it always took a couple of days to arrive there.

I had never actually been to The Village of Scopa, but from what I gathered from the others, I should expect something to happen here.

We walked further deep into the forest, where the soil was wet, and the plants were rolling with water.

The air was cold, but we continued.

But to my surprise, there were bodies in front of us, waiting for us to discover ourselves.

I crouched down, examining what might have caused this.

Eleanor looked over my shoulder, "Aren't those. . ."

"Scopian men?" I looked over my shoulder, "They are."

"Who could've done this." She muttered.

Their bodies had been sliced and diced up; it was obvious that an all-out battle had happened here.

After it all, there were bodies scattered throughout the forest waiting to be found.

It was a massacre—a bloody one at that.

Nonetheless, we enter deeper into the forest to see bodies across the ground.

It was only when we exited the forest that we finally found ourselves on the outskirts of it.

There, soldiers, or should I have said prisoners, were lined up, having to head to some unknown place.

I didn't have enough information to know what was happening here.

It was about time that I decided to tap into my Solum discreetly enough that Eleanor would not be able to notice it.

An air of purple flowed in their air, seeing the trace of everything.

The life of plants, the Purpura Solum that was everywhere, and, more importantly, the heat signs of everyone near us.

Funnily enough, I sensed people above the trees, waiting in silence.

"Eleanor, you trust me?"

She looked down for a split second, "I do."

"Then do exactly what I tell you to do," I whispered, and Eleanor sensed the urgency in my tone.

WHOOSH!

Before we could say anything, they had already jumped ahead of us, which was exactly what we wanted.

PHOOSH!

I rubbed my eyes slowly as I instinctively moved my arms, only to realise that chains had restrained my arms.

In the corner of my eyes, I could see Eleanor, knocked out cold, her hands too restrained by chains.

How long had we been out for?

"Oh, good. You're awake." Freinson smiled; he, too, was locked up.

But that wasn't the only surprising thing; his face had been bruised, and despite all that pain, he still managed to have that classic smile.

"I was beginning to wonder if you'll wake up. It seems that you did before Eleanor did."

He chuckled only to begin coughing out blood. "My apologies. . . It appears that we're in an interesting predicament."

"We are, " I replied. "Tell me, how did you end up like this?"

"Like all men do." He smiled, "Too ambitious, too naive and more importantly, too forgiving."

"Jovo?"

He tilted his head, his smile growing more comprehensive than ever before. "You're pretty intelligent yourself. I always knew that Jovo was aggressive, but I thought I could control him." Freinson looked away for a slight second.

"But it appears I was wrong. . .which is why I must tell you. I truly apologise for him attacking her Village. Those were not my orders to be sent out." He muttered, looking over the unconscious Elenoir.

I realised from his eyes that he genuinely meant every word he said.

"Well, if it makes you feel better, Jovo has been taken care of," I answered.

"Taken care of huh? Did you kill him?"

I shook my head, "I let him go."

He scoffed as he began chuckling even louder than before, "That was your biggest mistake; if I were you, I would've killed him straight away. He's a cancer."

"Maybe. . . But everyone deserves forgiveness."

He raised an eyebrow in amusement, "What are you, some saint?"

I chuckled and shook my head. "No, I wouldn't say that. I'm simply an idealistic person."

"In an unrealistic world," Freinson answered the last part for me.

"Yeah. . . That." I replied with.

"You know you can't have something like that with the people surrounding us, right?" He grinned.

I shrugged, "You may be right, but someone has to believe there's hope for all of us, or we are all truly doomed."

Whether or not that affected Frienson in any way, as long as he listened, was all that mattered to me.

"Where are we."

Eleanor rubbed her eyes, realising that she was trapped.

"Good." Freinson chuckled, "It seems that we're all awake."

Eleanor glared at him, "I should've never trusted you."

Freinson chuckled, "I find that quite insulting; what have I done to lose your trust?" He questioned her, "I have done nothing but keep the interest of my people at heart. Tell me, have I ever lied to you once."

Eleanor gritted her teeth, but she knew that there was no argument to be made. "But still, you are not to be trusted."

He shrugged, accepting her declaration, "You can believe whatever you want; I can believe you're weak."

"If I could, I could kill you where you stand." She spat on the ground.

"I expect nothing less." Freinson grinned, "But for now, it appears that we should use our collective minds to escape, right?" He titled his head.

Eleanor mumbled to herself, knowing that he was right.

If I wanted to, I could break out of these chains instantly, but I knew it was probably best not to reveal anything too soon.

"So, what do you suggest?" I asked.

"I'm glad you asked." He smiled, "Since Jovo had taken over my village, it's clear that the people who follow him are a reflection of him."

"Meaning?" Eleanor asked.

"If they're anything like my former right-hand man, they'll be open to corruption and greed."

I exchanged looks with Eleanor as she reluctantly nodded.

"Alright, what's the plan?"

WHOOSH!

The door opened to reveal a guard assigned to check whether everything was working as it was meant to.

"Ah, we have a vis-"

GUH!

The guard kicked Frienson's chest with full force, causing him to cough blood.

Freinson became almost ragged, "You always despised me, didn't you, Vistof?"

WHOOSH!

He grabbed Freinson by the chin, "Damn right I did. Serving under you was the most pathetic experience ever." He spat on his face.

Eleanor let out a light snicker as Vistof looked over his shoulder, "And you? What's so damn funny."

"No, I'm glad I can see that bastard in his place."

Vistof was not expecting that response: "Hey, maybe you're not so bad after all."

She nodded, "How about we make a little deal?"

"A deal?" he asked, shaking his head. "I'm listening."

"If you let me go, I promise I'll give you bags of Solum."

His eyes widened in glee when he heard the word Solum. "And why would you do that? Even if I am inclined to let you go."

While their conversation happened, I did my best to release myself from the chains that trapped me.

Thankfully, it wasn't placed well enough to keep someone here.

As Vistof ultimately had his back against us, I managed to break it with some strength.

"What?"

WHOOSH!

I immediately kicked him from the back, causing him to fly to a walk and knock himself out.

First, I released Eleanor from her constraints using the key on him.

"Thanks." She smiled, stood up from the ground, and looked at Frienson.

"Mind setting me free as well? After all, it was my plan."

"I prefer to say no." Eleanor snapped back.

"A pity." He sighed, deciding to stand up for himself.

"Wait? You were already set free? When?"

"From the beginning." Frienson smiled, "It would have been a wonderful surprise, but it appears that Lenin already knew that."

We eyed one another as if he were a sly person.

He could have escaped whenever he wanted to, but he didn't.

What he was trying to do was the real question.

"Besides, you need me." He answered, "I know a way out of here."

Eleanor looked over at me as I shrugged my shoulders.

He wasn't wrong about that at all.