After she left Jerome's place, Felici went back to Lady Ursula's house to ask for help with her new plan of leaving the village, and although Felici made it clear that she wasn't the one that came up with the idea, Lady Ursula was impressed by her volition to go ahead with the plan, so she promised to support her.

Apparently, Lady Ursula herself had left the village a couple of times as a teenager, when the Baale still patrolled within the village.

No one knew exactly why it was a taboo to leave the village. It wasn't impossible but you'd have to take permission from the Elders before leaving and more often than not, they never allowed people to leave. So some people resorted to illegal means. The people who masterminded the whole procedure were known as Burrow-Boys. Regardless of how goofy their names sounded, Burrow-Boys were insanely rich individuals in the village as many people resorted to selling off all their belongings just to pay the hefty prices that the Burrow-Boys charged for their services.

At the height of the era, when times were hard in the village, no less than 3 families were illegally helped to leave the village by the Burrow-Boys. As their names implied, the Burrow-Boys helped people leave the village without the Baale finding out by digging deep tunnels beneath the ground that led all the way out of the village beyond the view of the Baale. But these tunnels were unstable and tended to collapse on so many occasions, killing several people in the process. So the journey was just as risky as the effort that went into hiding it.

People who were caught by the Baale were immediately sentenced to death by hanging. Even a rumour of a plan to leave the village was enough to warrant a punishment just as severe. Although those who were wealthy enough could buy their way out of the punishment.

A couple years later, the Elders rounded up all the Baale within the village and assigned them to the outskirts of the village to increase and strengthen the security. With the new development, Burrow-Boys immediately started going out of business as countless of their tunnels were found and destroyed. Some of them were even apprehended while some went into hiding, and as time passed, that whole era slowly became a myth to the future generations. Even Lady Ursula herself saw it as a long lost memory. But now, she had to dig up all those memories to help a teenage girl, just like herself all those years ago.

Meanwhile, Felici who was now feeling a lot better decided to go home. If Peter liked, he could fornicate with every whore in the village in front of her and she wouldn't care the least bit, because for once in a long time, she had something to look forward to.

But unlike usual, there were no women in the house, not even the maids. After further investigation she was able to find the head maid in the back of the house preparing dinner. She asked about what was going on and the head maid told her that Peter had sent everyone home for the day, even the ones that lived in the house with them, except her. He was hungry so he asked her to stay back and cook.

Felici went up to her room and began going through her belongings. Even though she was yet to get a feedback from Lady Ursula, she couldn't help but want to prepare herself for her departure.

She was going through all her clothes, shoes and jewelries, trying them on to see which ones she'd take with her when she heard a knock on the door. She quickly turned and was surprised to see Peter standing there.

"Where are you going all dressed up?" He asked.

"Nowhere you need to know", She paused, and rephrased herself, "Nowhere." Then she turned around and faced the mirror, "I just felt pretty."

He looked at her in the mirror then stepped in, "You do look pretty."

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"I didn't say you could come in."

"My apologies." He stepped back out.

"What do you want?" She asked.

"I heard you went to see Jerome."

"I did, so?"

"How is he?"

"You can go see for yourself."

"I can't."

Felici turned and looked at him, then looked back at the mirror. "Why?"

"Because I can't look him in the face, just like I can't look you in the face." He bent his head.

"You've been looking at my face all this while, what do you mean?" She was irritated.

"I've been looking at your face in the mirror. I haven't been looking at your face." He explained. "Infact I can't remember the last time I really looked at you."

Felici had been looking at him through the mirror as well, and what he said wasn't completely a lie. "It still doesn't explain why you're here."

He scratched his head, "Felici, you probably won't believe me but I'm sorry for the way things have been up till now. I mean going from really close childhood friends to a false couple who cares little about the other's happiness. I'm really sorry. I know it's mostly my fault and there's really nothing much I can do about it at this point but, as you depart from the village, I just hope someday you'll find it in your heart to forgive me." He said then turned to leave.

Felici was utterly confused, "Huh?" She ran after Peter, "What did you say?!"

"What?" He stopped.

She grabbed unto his shirt and yanked it, "I said what did you say?!!"

Peter was getting uneasy, "I said I'm sorry, you don't have to make a big deal of it if you don't want to accept my apology."

"Not that, you said I was departing."

"Oh, yes I did. Aren't you?"

"How do you know about that?!"

"I heard a couple of the maids talking about it, even some of the girls I had over today said the same thing."

"How? How do they know?! How did they find out?!!" She yanked his shirt even harder.

He grabbed her hand forcefully and pulled it off his shirt. "I don't know! I told you, I just heard them talking about it!" He immediately turned away. "If you need more information ask Irin!"

Irin was the head maid. Felici wasted no time, she ran towards the kitchen screaming Irin's name.

"Yes My Lady!" Irin ran out of the Kitchen screaming as well. She was shocked. What could the mistress need so desperately for her to scream her name like that.

Felici was breathing heavily, "My departure... Who did.... Who did you hear it from?"

"One of the other maids. She went to the market to get some of the foodstuffs I'm currently using to prepare dinner. I'm guessing she heard about it in the market."

The terror that grew in Felici's eyes frightened even Irin. "M-Mistress are you alright? Is everything alright?" She asked.

But Felici didn't answer, she couldn't answer. She was in deep trouble and she knew it. She pierced her nails into her skull as she wondered how the secret got out so fast. The only two people who knew were Jerome and Lady Ursula, and neither of them had any reason to spill the secret. Then it hit her, what if Jerome lied? What if he never forgave her? What if this was payback for everything she had done to him? Or rather Lady Ursula, what if she had gotten tired of her constant complaining and just decided to get rid of her? She was in that sort of business so it didn't seem far-fetched. She couldn't tell.

Just then, amid her steady ascension into a frustration fueled madness, Peter held her shoulder from behind and said. "If everything they say about people who tries departing the village is true, you really shouldn't be here right now."

She panicked even more, but she knew he was right. So she got up and ran out of the house.

"Where are you going?!" Peter asked. But she didn't answer.

It was almost sundown. Felici ran as fast as her legs could carry her but it was quite difficult running in a long dress. She'd accidentally step on it every once in a while and stumble but it didn't stop her, she had decided to go to Lady Ursula's house and she needed to get there fast. It dawned on her that if people in the markets and Peter already knew the secret, it wasn't going to be long before they got to the ears of the other Elders, which would spell trouble for her, which also meant she needed help, serious help, and the only person capable of giving her that sort of help was Lady Ursula.

On getting to her house, she thought of knocking but quickly shoved the idea aside. She pushed the door and to her surprise it was open. She wasn't expecting it to be that easy considering how hard it was to enter that same place a couple days ago.

She wasted no time. Half running into the house, she headed for Lady Ursula's room. But as she ran past the living room, she heard voices inside, one of them being Lady Ursula's. She quickly pushed the door open and entered inside, only to come across a very surprising, frustrating and disheartening sight. In front of her, the whole council sat angrily around a table.