Ayan looked at the ground that turned to coke after the lightning strike. 

It looks like a storm, but not the kind where rain pours and wind howls. 

“This whole place is about to be sealed, you must hurry up to escape Ayan.” Coco urged. 

“No.” She said firmly. “Beatrice, Lady Dianne and the grand duchess are trapped here. I cannot leave them.” 

Coco looked at Old White, he was answered by a shake of a head. 

“Let Blue, Red and Old White escape. Find Clayton and the children. Do not leave their side.” Ayan ordered. “We are not certain what is going on with this barrier. It's better to have an assurance, at least.”

Coco quickly instructed his brothers and sisters. He, Green and Yellow will remain with Ayan to find the source of this thing. Elder White knows several barrier spells, if he could not find a solution to break this seal from the inside, they still have another help from outside. Ayan could think of such a quick solution in a short span of time. Even he was surprised. 

“Do not waste time.” Ayan urged. 

Seconds after the fairies dispersed, the fog rose blocking the sight of the palace and the nearby orchards. 

“So we are completely isolated now.” Ayan said vigilantly.

As she was about to move, she heard Beatrice’s frantic call.

“Ayan! Ayan!” 

Then followed by Lady Tatiana’s angry outburst. “Watch your step first! What do we do if you break your legs from all that jumping?” 

“Begging your pardon Your Grace, I was too anxious.” Beatrice groaned, “I was sure I saw her standing nearby a few minutes ago but then…” 

“Don’t move, it’s me.” Ayan replied through the mist. “Beatrice, would you be a dear and count softly from ten to one so I can follow your voice? This way I can find you accurately.” 

“Ayan!” 

“It’s her.” 

Lady Dianne and Beatrice chirped in unison.  

“Count!” The grand duchess roared, making Ayan chuckle lightly. 

The elderly lioness was fierce but she couldn’t deny that hint of worry in her roar. 

“O-One… two… three…”

Ayan shook her head smilingly and walked leisurely towards their direction. Coco looked extremely puzzled. In fact, she didn’t have to fool the poor girl into counting because he was leading the way. Who could be more reliable than him? But then, maybe Ayan noticed that Beatrice was too nervous and chose this method to distract her. 

Hm, my mistress is really softhearted. 

A few steps away, the fog began to clear and they could finally see Ayan’s red hair moving towards them. 

“Is everyone safe?” She asked, looking at the three women standing close together. 

Beatrice burst into tears and rushed into her crying so heartbreakingly.

“Wohohoho~ I thought we would not be able to see you— I was so frightened!” 

“Alright, calm down first.” Lady Tatiana scolded. “No one died so stop wailing, foolish girl.”  

Beatrice had to suck back her tears and took several deep breaths. 

However, an even more horrific scenario greeted them as the fog completely dissipated. 

“Oh God…” Dianne uttered nervously. 

Everyone raised their guards and looked around vigilantly.

The environment has completely changed. 

The dry land and sparse trees. Gray skies. A long queue of lifeless people in tattered clothing pass in front of them in a slow stream. This lifeless, almost godless atmosphere… 

They were no longer in the lush prairie— not even in the emperor’s territory! 

“Where is this?” Ayan asked, gripping her sword tightly.

“Plaguelands.” Coco answered. 

Her heart sank to the bottom of her stomach. 

“We were transported thousands of miles away from the empire?!”   

“Yes.” 

The old lady who had more life experience and has seen many places in the world was a lot calmer. She looked at the terrain first, then the position of the blurry sun before coming into conclusion. 

“We must find a place to rest before dusk and burn fire.” 

“Aunt, do you know where we are exactly?” Lady Dianne asked anxiously. 

Lady Tatiana raised her head towards the looming black mountains shaped like jagged teeth. 

“The Plaguelands five thousand miles away, west of Asturia.” 

“Oh dear.” Beatrice turned pale. 

She had never set foot outside of the empire but the tales she heard about the Plaguelands were not few; she could recite them by heart. Due to the thick miasma, the sun could not penetrate through the clouds causing abnormal temperature shifts. This former paradise has completely fallen into a wasteland.   

The year-long drought caused severe famine. Forcing one third of its population to flee in every direction to seek for new life. In those years of great scarcity, thousands of deaths occurred and along with mortality came a horrendous disease.  

“If only we were transported near the border we could easily show identification to the soldiers and return back home.” Beatrice murmured, “But this place where we landed is so far away.” 

They neither have a mule cart nor a horse! 

Ayan patted her back and walked to the biggest boulder in front. “There seems to be a village ahead. We should walk there.” 

“Will they take us in?” 

She looked at the nervous Beatrice and smiled. “We won’t know if we don’t try.” 

The women looked at each other in agreement and began to move along. Half an hour later, the overgrown weeds and dilapidated fences came into view. Smoke rises from the kitchen vents of several small huts, thin and sallow looking children played along the empty yard. When they saw Ayan’s team approaching they stopped running. 

“Hello, is there an adult inside we can talk to?” Ayan smiled amiably. 

The children held vigilant gazes especially when they saw the weapons on their hands. 

One with the most clever eyes and composed demeanor made gestures to the smallest kid. Soon, the small child broke away and ran into the house. 

“Are you travelers?” The boy asked.

“Yes, but we encountered a bit of trouble on the road and lost our way.” 

The boy grunted, giving them a look as if he understood. “Twice a month merchants in caravans would pass by here to trade goods. There are also those like you. Some of them got into an accident.”  

Dianne, Beatrice and Lady Tatiana looked at Ayan how she handled a friendly conversation with the clever boy and felt a little in awe. She didn’t appear nervous at all nor was she condescending. 

“My name is Ayan Rozenberg, may I know yours?”

 “Tet.” He said. “I’m sorry I could not let you in before the village elder comes.”

“No, no, we don’t mind.” Ayan smiled. “By the way, these are my family. My cousin Beatrice, our aunt Dianne. Then our grandmother… Tatiana.”  

She was afraid she might offend the old lady so she gave her an apologetic smile before presumptuously calling her intimately. 

“Silly girl.” She heard her snort softly. 

A couple of minutes later, an old man with a wooden cane is being pulled by a little boy about five years old. 

“Grandpa look, I told you there are beautiful people. Brother Tet was talking to them.” 

“Yes, yes wait a minute… oh, do not pull. My old bones are going to break!”

“Faster grandpa, it’s almost sunset.” 

The old man’s name was Fulio, he greeted the ladies as soon as he came near and invited them in a hurry. He is the village chief of Lassa, mainly in-charge of arranging jobs and smoothing disputes with nearby villages. 

Most of the children they saw in front earlier were left alone by their parents in order to travel several miles towards the marketplace to exchange their products for food. 

“Thank you for taking us in,” Lady Tatiana said solemnly. 

These people need not to considering that they are defenseless and extremely lacking in supplies. Accepting strangers so generously is very dangerous. As for motive, the four of them felt none when they entered the village so that means that these people were genuinely concerned about them having no shelter. 

Grandpa Fulio nodded, he then looked at two young ladies playing with the children on the yard through the window. “It was but a mere gesture of goodwill, we did not do much. By the way ladies, might you be citizens of Port del Sol or Asturia?”  

“We came from Asturia Empire.” It was Lady Dianne's turn to speak. “We— the family originally joined the annual hunt but a strange magic sent us here.” 

“How unfortunate! Who had such black heart to do such a thing?!” Looking at these women’s dressings and their complexion, he just knew they would not last here in the Plaguelands. “Night is about to set in, the wraiths and furies outside will begin to be restless.” 

“What do you do when the demons come?” Lady Dianne asked curiously. 

She never once thought that there would still be people living within the Plaguelands until today. This made her curious about the methods they use to avoid attacks. 

“This,” the old man tensed and hesitated. 

“Dianne.” Lady Tatiana warned. 

“My apologies, village chief. I didn't mean to pry.”  

Fulio breathed a sigh of relief. This is the secret of their village and also one of the reasons why they always get harassed by those nearby.  

Outside, Ayan paused. “A magic ward you say?”

“Yes.” Coco confirmed. “You see those visible lines on the ground, they are not ordinary stains because those are formed from a powerful spell. They were etched permanently so that it can never be washed up by rain nor erased and it covers the whole village of Lassa.”  

“How interesting.” she murmured with a smile. “Is it possible that there are more of these scattered around the Plaguelands?” 

“Possible—”

“People from Lassa, come out and face us!”

A shout from outside startled everyone in the yard. 

“Old Man Fulio, the deadline for returning the bag of wheat you borrowed from my family has come!” 

“A week has passed, our mother misses the taste of freshly baked bread. You don’t want her to starve because you refuse to pay, don’t you?” 

Ayan: A riot?

Beatrice: (＃｀д´)ﾉ

Here comes the pests.