Death... and me

"Hmm...they didn't go far, nor does it look they were in a hurry." Rean followed their tracks until he reached the base of the mountain. There, the trail began to skirt around it as he followed the clues. Eventually, he came across a cave entrance. "Seems like they went inside."

Rean kept his Divine Sense and Soul Power Scan spread as he moved through the cave. Naturally, one would never know whether it could be a trap or not. 'Sister Orb, if you detect any formation, let me know.'

[On it. There doesn't seem to be anything as far as my detection range goes, though.]

Rean nodded, knowing how precise Sister Orb's detection was. She might take a very long time to analyze a high-level formation. But if it was just detecting one, then he had never seen her fail.

Rean also kept his Light and Divine Sense bending skill active, just in case. He didn't have to walk for much longer, though. After twenty minutes or so, he began to hear two people talking to each other.

"Hahaha! So that's what Naile did, huh? He's such a figure."

"Hehe. Well, that's Naile for you. He would be happy if he could see you right now, you know?"

"It's fine. This is something I decided on myself. Besides, I'll obtain a huge reward when it's over."

Rean could see that it was Fatax and Langara talking to each other. However, he couldn't help but feel that Langara seemed somewhat different.

Fatax's eyes narrowed as he became pensive. "Sister, things are not so simple anymore, you know? While you were sleeping, many things happened."

Rean was surprised to hear that. 'Sister? I see...that's not Langara, but the soul of the owner's body, Eminia. So Langara can allow the owner's body to take over...or perhaps she has to do it periodically.'

Eminia patted her brother's shoulders as she said in response, "It's fine. I trust Matriarch Langara will find a solution for it. I'm just happy that she allowed you to follow her because of me. That little already shows a lot about Matriarch's character."

Suddenly, Eminia touched her head, feeling some pain.

"Is matriarch coming out?"

Eminia nodded in response. "Yes, she has rested for long enough. This break in that Cosgles Race's village was a huge relief for her as she was close to reaching her limit." Eminia then smiled at Fatax, telling him, "I'll see you another time, brother."

Fatax didn't look very happy as he nodded. "Sure, I'll see you another time."

Eminia then closed her eyes. As Rean watched it, he could feel the demeanor of the girl changing before she opened her eyes once again. "Sigh...the intervals are getting smaller. We need to reach the fairies soon. Truly, what a terrible moment for that man to start stirring up problems in the clan."

It was then that a voice came from behind the cave room Fatax and Langara were talking. "Oh, so do you want me to increase our travel speed?"

Fatax and Langara were taken aback as they looked in the direction of the voice. "You! How long have you been there?"

"Long enough to know that you need to take some time to rest," Rean explained. "Don't tell me I shouldn't have done it. You two had been out of the village for many hours, you know? It was obvious that Roan or I would come out to look for you. Of course, if I noticed that you wanted to leave our group, then I wouldn't have come as you aren't our prisoners or anything like that."

Langara narrowed her eyes after hearing that. "However, there was no need to be that sneaky, right?"

Rean shrugged his shoulders. "If I wanted to, you wouldn't even know I was here. In any case, there was no need to keep this problem hidden from me. We have a deal about the fragments, don't we? I would have tried to increase our speed. Still, what do you mean by intervals getting smaller? Could it be that you have to change into another body soon?"

"That's not your problem. In any case, this situation shouldn't happen again," Langara answered. "So, how's your Golden Rascol? Is it ready to fly?"

Rean sighed after hearing her words, nodding soon after as he replied, "Rascal is definitely ready to take flight. That's why I came to look for you. Let's go."

On the way out, Rean also offered, "Well, if you feel like you're having issues with your soul, let me know. Light Element is very useful for these kinds of matters. I don't think I can heal the issue with compatibility between you and this little girl. However, I can definitely alleviate the strain."

Langara couldn't help but say in response, "You're quite naive, aren't you? Or perhaps a pushover could be a better description."

"Hahaha!" Rean laughed in response to those words. "Roan often says the same thing. Do you think it's a flaw?"

Fatax and Langara nodded together. "In the Realm of Gods, it definitely is."

Rean then asked back, "Then, do you think this is an issue with me, or is it an issue with the people in the Realm of Gods? Is it really bad to be a good person? Or is it the Realm of Gods' way of thinking that makes it seem that way?"

"This..." Langara and Fatax were taken aback. Was it really a bad thing to be good? In normal circumstances, they would say yes. Then again, wasn't it because Rean was good to them that they reached this far? That also included Roan, although, in his case, he simply thought it to be more interesting to have more hardships.

"Think about it. Perhaps you'll see the world in a different light in the future."

Rean then left ahead, leaving Langara and Fatax with pensive expressions. Of course, they quickly recovered from it and put those thoughts behind their mind. Above everything else, they needed to reach the fairies' territory.

Roan was already waiting close to Rascal, ready to depart at any moment. Of course, he heard everything that happened with Rean through their Soul Connection. "You're finally back. Let's get going."