"Thank you, Dragon Rider, for saving us with your ingenious idea." Guard then looked at the dragons. "All three of you, too."

  "I'm a little surprised no one thought of it, to be honest," Ryder commented.

  "I believe it's because all of us have become so accustomed to our decades-old dynamic. It never crossed our minds that the way we live alongside each other can change so drastically. Thank you again, Dragon Rider. If not for you, it might've led to bloodshed."

  "You're welcome! I'm glad I was able to help out." The human smiled and entered the village with the gang.

  As for Amara, she scurried to the chiefs' back and spoke with a chilling voice. "Don't think I'll forget the fact that both of you sent the Dragon Rider to get rid of me."

  Bezalel's heart almost leaped out of his throat, though he forced his nerves to calm down. "Technically, I didn't tell the Dragon Rider to get rid of you. I only told him you appeared with the golems before the miasma did."

  "You-"

  "That's enough, Bezalel." Aviana interjected as she tried to sound composed. "I'm sorry for going along with his foolish accusation. Consider all your spending in the village waived until you leave as my apology. I won't try to justify my actions, but I hope you won't reveal what we did to the villagers." She then elbowed her partner to do the same.

  The craftsman took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Amara. I... I panicked. I thought that would somehow fix the issue, but I was very wrong. I guess I never changed from my days as a student when I lied that the ancient golem spell I found to be my original creation..."

  "That is an awful apology for trying to kill me, old man." The paladin mocked.

  He sighed. "I'll do whatever you want of me, Amara, to make it up to you. I have no excuse for what I did, but I hope you won't expose us to the villagers. They distrust us greatly already. Anymore than that will spell disaster."

  "...You two better remember your promise." Amara patted their shoulders with force before catching up to Guard and the others.

  Ryder slowed his footsteps so he would be far enough away from the crowd before asking, "What did you talk about with the chiefs?"

  She adjusted her pace to match with his. "Just demanding apologies from them for framing me as the one who spread the miasma."

  "It was pretty messed up. Someone else might've tried to kill you."

  "I'm glad it was you instead." She smirked.

  "Speaking of which, can you try to recall more details about the guy who planted the core?"

  "Hmm." The paladin closed her eyes and tapped her forehead. "I believe they had a broken horn? And... some sort of crest on their coat? It looked like chains, but I'm not sure. I'm sorry. That's all I can recall."

  "It's alright. That's better than having no leads at all. I know the others aren't keen on tracking down clues that may lead to the Commanders by themselves, but someone has to do it."

  "I bet the Terror of The East inspires a lot of confidence in you." She glanced at Purple.

  "He does, even though he's not as helpful as you may think."

  "It's not hard to believe, seeing how he demanded the feast earlier."

  "Say, why do you think the Domain only affected the golems and not the villagers?"

  "An experiment, perhaps? I've never heard of miasma affecting golems before, so maybe the Domain is meant to test if it works?."

  "Even if that's the case, why not infect both the golems and the villagers at the same time? Won't that make more sense?"

  "It may be intentional."

  "..."

  "..."

  "I guess we can only hope whatever they plan to do with the result of this 'experiment' won't come to fruition. We can spend some time tomorrow inspecting the core we obtained."

  "Sure." Amara lowered her voice. "By the way, someone by the epithet of Knight visited me a few months ago. He told me he had been rallying as many world-voyagers as he could to take down the Commander residing at World's Edge. The attack will commence when the next blue moon occurs."

  Ryder replied in a low volume too, "That's only a few months from now. Why are they attacking the third strongest Commander so soon? I know that guy can be brash, but this is suicide."

  "Apparently he managed to track Samurai down and convinced him to join the raid."

  "Samurai? The guy who took down a Commander by himself?"

  "Says the guy who took down Black Dragon with only his dragons and no one else."

  "...It's not as impressive as you might think."

  "I beg to differ. In any case, I'll be heading to World's Edge once things settle down in the village. What will you do?"

  "I'll gather as many clues as I can about the one who corrupted the village before heading there. If I come across any world-voyagers, I'll direct them to World's Edge as well."

  "Alright. I'll show you my and other world-voyager's address cards after the feast is over. Remember to update me if you find any clues. I'll let you know if I found anything as well, of course."

  "Will do. I'll share the address cards of the world-voyagers I've come across later as well. For now, let's relax and wait for the feast to start."

  She raised her voice back to normal. "Yeah. Hopefully, they'll prepare my favourite dish here - deep fried arachis~"

  "Ugh, really? That doesn't sound appetizing." He pouted.

  "It's better than you think. The ingredients Cook uses help cover..."

  The two of them continued to chat as they sauntered into the night.