The past few days have offered a unique experience, to say the scantest. The key problem with [Sensing Sight] is that everything feels the same after a while. I get a surface outline and the internal structure mapped out, but that lack of color distinction makes it… more troublesome than I would’ve originally thought and time with the ability wasn’t helping as much as I wanted.

I can move well enough in the direct area surrounding me, but further directions wouldn’t be possible if I weren’t on a clear path or couldn’t maintain orientation. Knowing me, I could get turned around and get screwed for who knows how many days. Luckily, I had the others helping me along.

The first bit was rough as I got used to walking with my unfamiliar sight. Tripping and stumbling as Royse guided me with an arm. We made our way to a proper path and things got much easier. At our current pace, slowed a bit by my lack of physical endurance, we should arrive at the city, Bellmare, before the day’s end.

Royse was the most commutative of the group, helped because she was the one who guided me most of the time as the others walked on ahead. I asked about a few things, but kept it relatively light since I didn’t want to pry too much. They already seemed on edge, wouldn’t want to make that worse.

Bellmare was further inland and away from the kingdom’s border, safe from the immediate unknown of what’s beyond the Kingdom’s borders. We traveled through a few different forests, along rivers, and we were in a large open area of future farmland.

Edra was putting an emphasis on food production for the last few years, preparing for a drought that occurs every 20 years. It was still 5 or so years away, so it seemed a bit early to start excess production, but what did I know?

The kingdom knew about the drought for two reasons. It's happened on this cycle for the past 80 years, and the Oracles. I wasn’t sure, but it seemed like a direct class, not just a title. Or a title you gained when you had the ability? I shrugged my shoulders. It was something close to that.

Just like the painful rain, the Oracles predicted the larger events that happened within the Kingdom's lands. Or at least they were supposed to. As far as I know, that painful rain prediction never made its way to Greycott for whatever reason. It wasn’t a massive event, but it disturbed local life enough that the Oracles should’ve predicted it. At least, according to Royse.

And once the oracles or an oracle predicted that something should happen, they informed the Ruler, in this case the Young King, and the counsel on a monthly basis.

And then the counsel and King would deliver the messages to whoever it pertained to. I didn’t ask about this, but the Barren Moons group had been talking about it the last few days, trying to figure out what went wrong with delivering the message and how it’s related to Greycott’s invasion. It acted as a perfect cover for the night invasion, almost too well planned.

They talked about this so much that I believe this was related to whatever mission they were on. Since protecting knowledge is their whole stick, the turbulent mana man must have been a threat to that mission. He was evil, whatever that counts for, but as for why he was a threat to holding knowledge? I’ve no clue, but they’ve been talking about it way too much for it to be otherwise.

They didn’t seem too worried about me hearing what they were talking about, probably since the word will get out either way. Myconids invaded a whole yarking city, after all.

And after the conversation, they concluded the lord knew of the upcoming storm, but he refused to share that information, using it as a distraction to buy the Evil Myconid invasion a decent amount of time before the guards or Chevaliers could react.

The added chaos of the night made it possible to do whatever he was doing. And as for what he was doing? That was the main unknown at the moment, so Royse, Issac, and Garnot were heading back to their base to inform someone higher up of the incident, a Vice-Leader.

And that was something I didn’t want to be involved in. It’s already caused me enough pain and misfortune as it is.

Moving on from that, Bellare was grander than Greycott, hovering around 70,000 in population. It was large enough to support the finer things in life, like festivals, luxury goods, and a school for the young. Most of that didn’t matter to me, but there should be a lot to learn here. Even if it’s just the way of the people, or how society worked, rather than the few pieces of information I’d managed to put together from Hollow's books.

Not to mention whatever intrinsic knowledge I still have, that's probably why everything doesn’t seem completely alien to me, just crazy.

The temperature also dropped further with the amount of rain the past couple days, but my wolf hide armor helped with that. The wind swept in between the gaps of my armor, but my cloak blocked most of the breeze, and the clothes Royse provided fit much better with the armor, making it even better.

With one arm locked with Royse’s, we walked forward with Issac and Garnot ahead.

I sensed the walls of Bellmare towering double the height to Graycott’s. Guess that’s what you can do with more resources. It didn’t look beat up like the one at Graycott, which was a good sign at least. Three different entrances were placed evenly around the wall as a small line of people waited outside. The people were blurry at this distance, but the moving carriages made it easier to distinguish.

And to the other side of my senses, I could sense a group of small blurry buildings. I couldn’t really tell what the buildings were, but from what Royse said, it was a nearby outpost of the Barrens Moons. It wasn’t within Bellmare due to pressure from the Kingdom making it difficult to do so otherwise, but they allowed them to build on a plot of land far from the city, and of course, for a price, that is.

I’m not sure why, but she kept on asking if I wanted to head to the outpost with them. I honestly didn’t since I’d be a sore thumb with my meager capabilities and the whole [Villager] disguise. And I didn’t want that spotlight, so I tried to brush it off. Didn’t want to be too rude tho. They’ve already helped me enough, anyway.

I hardly talked with Issac or Garnot, they seemed to shy away every time I tried to talk to them. Garnot just seemed quiet, but Issac looked uncomfortable. Twitching when I called his name or just looking at anything but my face.

If I had to make a guess, he seemed somewhat afraid. Quite weird considering his capability to slice Myconids apart like nothing. You’d think it would be the other way around, but I guess it was just a part of his natural character, quite different from the one when we first met at the inn. I guess appearances can be quite deceiving.

That aside, I’ve been calmer compared to a few days ago. Just walking along and experiencing the world for once, taking in the fresh air, so to speak. It helped put my mind past the fun times just a few days ago.

I’m also surprised at how fast I’ve been adapting to my new mana sense. There’s definitely room for improvement, but the advantage of seeing everything around me is worth it. It’s just more… more of everything, completely sensing everything around me. It can be too much with so much information being absorbed at once, but since it’s an ability, I can turn it on or off, or just sense a particular direction.

With my hand around Royse’s arm, stepping along the dirt road while guiding me, I heard the rolling of a carriage behind us. It’s been getting closer since a while back. The carriage complained as it rolled over a few rocks, but the stout horned animal continued to pull along, without worry.

I didn’t know the species, but it was like a rough horse. Kinda ugly from what I could tell, but it looked sturdy as its muscles tightened with each step.

Riding said carriage was an actual [Villager] with bags of gain in the cart, probably as goods to sell in the town. I had a plan, an escape plan. I doubted Royse would just up and leave a blind person. Good on her for being so nice, but considering their mission was to investigate the Lord of Greycott, it wasn’t something I wished to get involved in.

Or rather, I wanted to prevent being dragged into something beyond me. I was just trying not to die and live my life, nothing more at the moment.

I stopped, letting go of Royse’s arm.

“What’s the problem, Ayla?” Royse said.

“You don’t need to head into Bellmare, correct?” I asked.

“Ah, yes?” As Royse confirmed.

“Perfect.” I looked back to the carriage approaching. She looked between me and the carriage as her pupils grew, realizing exactly what I wanted to do.

“Yo… you don’t have to! We can take you in and get someone to help with… with… you know.” She stared at the handkerchief still covering my eyes.

I appreciated the gesture, but that’s why I needed an escape plan. Didn’t want them to find someone to help me. I was fine on my own.

It’s going to be harder with the no eyeballs thing, but my cloak should keep my eyes reasonably obscured until I find a better solution.

“I’ve already inconvenienced you three enough. I can make the rest of the distance on the carriage.” By now the carriage had almost come upon us, so with my hood up, I turned to face it, waving my hand to catch the [Villager]’s attention. “Hey! Do you mind if I catch a ride the rest of the way?”

Issac and Garnot turned around, evidently not expecting the words coming out of my mouth.

The [Villager] studied me with a grunt, narrowing his eyes. “You ain’t doing something weird now, are you?” He said, raising one eyebrow.

“Nothing weird. My companions here are heading somewhere else and my legs have been killing me. I’ll pay a few copper for the ride.”

“Fine, hop on.” With a yank of the ropes in his hand, the creatures complained back as they came to a stop.

“Aylsia…” Royse mumbled.

I didn’t waste a second and jumped right into the carriage, giving Royse no time to object to my decision. I sat next to one of the grain bags and faced back towards the three. Royse had apprehension written all over her face before she pulled herself back. Glancing back up after a second.

“We will be at the outpost for a few days. You can come there if anything comes up or whenever, even if we're not there.” Her eyes wavered.

“Yup, I’ll keep that in mind.” Always nice to have a backup.

“You ready?” The [Villager] asked.

I looked back to the three, and Issac’s mouth opened first.

“We just moved the grand library to a place south of Yuor recently, so don’t go to the original… location.” Issac hesitated, clenching his fist. “I feel responsible for what happened since I wasn’t quick enough, so stop by and I’ll try to find something that can help with all my power, not that you need it, but… I just want to help where I can.”

I paused at the words. Something that could help? Didn’t think he would offer help in this fashion, especially since we just met 3 days ago. Not sure why he felt responsible, but it adds some good points in my book.

“Ok.” I tried to smile. I’m not getting implicated in anything till I figure out this world, so maybe later.

“Thanks for the help. It would’ve been quite interesting without help.” I did a single jut of my hand to wave goodbye.

Garnot and Issac nodded while Royse reluctantly waved as the carriage slowly pulled further away.

“Ha.. ha… hha… ha.. Ha.” The blood continued to drip down one of his arms. The bandages worked on one arm, but the other one refused to heal. He didn’t know what the fuck it was, but he assumed it to be a poison of some sort, corrupting him from the inside out. He could still use his mana, but at the cost of feeling like his insides were eating him alive.

It was not his first time contacting a humanoid monster from beyond the human lands, but this was beyond normal, almost reminding him of his homeland. Just having the capacity to get past his [Silent Wall] was a sign of trepidation, let alone the after effects tearing apart his arm.

It would be such a waste to let go of this body, but I don’t think I have a choice anymore. All the effort to create a robust animator was wasted. At least the mission didn’t completely fail. The King is still losing his reputation with the fall of a border city. More will come, but it’s a start.

Destroying all the information was a much higher paramount than this body. He could just create another animator, but the information of their plans couldn’t be leaked.

At all costs.

If anyone else knew, it would spill their end.

Besides the mission, the encounter with the Barrens Moons group yielded an interesting result. They took one look at the humanoid monster and wanted to protect it. The creature had unusual mana abilities, and was a [Villager] by Identify soul, but that was never reliable anyways. Specifically, Royse of Vale immediately called out to attack. The fact that she noticed something substantiates that the monster wasn’t your regular one.

That information alone might just be worth this body. Barren Moons’s members don’t get antsy easily, only if a precious Curator was involved, so there must be some sort of connection there if the monster isn’t already one. And hopefully something that the other controllers would know more about than myself. If not, then a warning would be good enough for now. Avoiding unplanned losses would keep the plan unbroken, even if it takes longer.

His face paled as he trudged through the forest, decorating it with a red sheen of blood in his wake. His other limbs lost responsiveness, only making each step harder. “This is it. I tried, but oh well. At least I got to kill the Chevalier Captain. The town should be a complete mess by now, especially since they lost all direction. It won’t collapse, but it’s enough. A sight to see, but too bad.” A smile adorned his face before his eyes closed, collapsing to the ground with a thud as a blackness covered his skin, eating it from the inside out.

Puddles of black oozed through his porous skin, dripping to the ground as it fizzled against the dirt below. Slowly, the body became unrecognizable, fading into the ground below. Only leaving a potted pile of dirt, soon to be covered on the next rainy day.