After the borel collection was complete, the next step was to secure some water. The borels sure taste great, but eating it somehow leaves you with a dry throat, which was why they chose the river as the next favored place to go. The water from any river isn't naturally safe to drink from, but those problems are solved by applying a few drops of minoin—a chemical invented by Yeon Althain that purifies water. If necessary, minoin can also be used to disinfect simple cuts and wounds of the body. On their way to the riverside, Ryuzo warned the team of something he heard. Other people were approaching. Ayuki peered as best as she could to see what Ryuzo heard, and sure enough, silhouettes were drawing near. He certainly wasn't joking about his sensitive hearing, she thought. The person walking in front was a familiar brown-haired man with a scarf around his neck—Dwayne. Is he the leader of their group? Ayuki wondered. As far as Ayuki knows, Dwayne is not the most apprehensive person, but he certainly is brave, strong, and talented. There's also something familiar about him, but Ayuki couldn't put her finger on it. "Howdy," is how Dwayne greeted Ayuki and the rest. "How's it going?" he asked. He was accompanied by two other people. One of them was a man with an eyepatch called Miles. He was probably the oldest among the recruits and always had a stern look on his face. Ayuki felt he must've been through a lot of grief since he never smiled. The person standing next to Miles was the senior Elizabeth. Among the recruits, she's ranked the highest. She's a bit muscular but it in a feminine way, like the muscles complement her body well. On top of that, she's beautiful. They're quite an impressive group. They might be the best performing recruits among us. Yuu waved his hand to them. "Hi there. Not bad, I gotta say. We've got our food for the day." He showed his half-eaten borel in his hand. "We're now off to fetch some water." For the sake of interest, Ayuki used her Fes just to feel Dwayne's current reaction and intentions. The moment Dwayne saw Yuu's borel, his curiosity increased. It seemed that he never saw a borel before, yet knows something about it. Ayuki deactivated her Fes again so that others wouldn't notice it. "Ah, is that the borel I heard about?" Dwayne asked. "Nice. We were just about to collect some ourselves. How much did you collect?" Yuu crossed his arms. "We got plenty." He pointed at the borrel collection Ryuzo was wearing in his backpack. While everyone held one Borel, Ryuzo volunteered to hold the remaining ones. It must've been heavy, but he didn't complain so far. "You've done something useful this time," Elizabeth said in a joking manner. "Any interest in sharing some with us? We're aiming for fish and made all the arrangements by the riverside. Maiden and Bayne are on the task now." "Fish..." Selyn started to drool a little. She apparently likes fish a lot. Ayuki spoke without thinking, "Fish does sound nice." Without much words spoken, it was unanimously decided to accompany Dwayne's team back to the riverside to take some delight in fish and water. Upon arrival, you could see Bayne standing in the river with a sharp handmade spear in his right hand. Without moving an inch, he just stood there as if the time had stopped. Focused on his job, he changed the grip on his spear as it weaved while he lowered himself to his target. With a swift lunge, his spear pierced the water. Bayne retrieved the spear out of the water only to find out that his effort was in vain. The target escaped. "Keep practicing! Your form is good!" Elizabeth yelled at Bayne. Bayne turned his head towards Elizabeth and responded with a fist pump in the air. He must have taken his job serious since he kept quiet so that he wouldn't scare the fish away. "Hey, looks like he caught a few already." Dwayne pointed to the glass-wearing Maiden standing on a boulder next to the river. She was cooking one skewed fish on a campfire. All the recruits were taught how to make fire without Fes, but Ayuki was almost certain that this team used Fes after all. Dwayne's ability is fire, and he certainly is the type of guy that uses his ability if he ever gets the chance. Four skewed fishes seemed to be already fried and ready to eat. It looked very appetizing. Just seeing the fried skin, imagining the fresh and tender taste of a well-cooked fish made Ayuki's stomach growl. Before the night would fall, both Yuu's and Dwayne's team decided to stay together and enjoy a meal together around the campfire. There was enough wood to keep the fire up, and enough food and drinks to survive the day while having a good time together. "It's nice having no instructors around telling us what to do, huh?" Maiden asked. "We're finally free to choose ourselves. It actually feels like a holiday, doesn't it?" Dwayne burst out in laughter. "It does! We should have more training sessions like this. I love it already!" "Dwayne." Yuu poked Dwayne on the shoulder and said, "Can I ask you a question?" Dwayne toned down his enthusiasm and simply shrugged. "Sure, hit me." "Your last name...is it Gyllen?" "Ah, yes." Dwayne frowned. "That's correct. Why?" "I knew it! So, you're Zeffrick's son?" Dwayne smiled when he heard that question. "I see, that's why you're asking it. Yup, that's me. You know him?" Yuu raised his eyebrows and grinned. "Who doesn't? He's always there on the night patrol, leading the east-side guards. I've seen him in some afternoon cases too. But man, it makes sense then, how you're so good at fire and stuff!" Yuu wasn't the only surprised one. Ayuki finally saw the resemblance. Dwayne got a similar nose and eyes as Zeffrick. So, Zeffrick's last name is Gyllen? Didn't knew he was a fire user. Ayuki thought. It's been a while since I seen him. He's the first nice person I've met since I live here. I would've liked to see him again, but he must've been busy. I wonder what he's been doing lately. More questions were thrown at all the people sitting around the campfire. What's your goal in the Order? What do want to achieve? What are you looking forward to? Personal things were said that might've been undeniable stupid, or on the contrary, very inspiring. It was a time for everyone to share each other's ambitions and dreams, a time to get closer as well. "Hey, Ayuki?" Dwayne suddenly asked her. "Do you have other stories for us, like the forest guardians? You seem to know stuff. We wanna hear more interesting things." Studying in the library gave Ayuki a lot of knowledge of this world—enough to make her wonder whether she knows more things now than the average recruits here. For a long time, in the beginning, it was Ayuki herself that needed to ask a lot of questions. That's been changing since of late. She held her hand against her mouth before she spoke, "Well, let's see...have you heard of the invanes?" Ayuki asked and looked at everyone's faces. Elizabeth was the only one that didn't seem to be that interested as she kept nipping at some borel pieces. Dwayne cocked his head to the side. "Invanes? It does ring a bell." Eye-patch Miles frowned and asked, "Really? You haven't? My whole family warned me about them when I was young. Said that they're dangerous people with an uncontrollable Fes. They're a threat to the world." "Ah, yeah!" Dwayne suddenly shouted. "Now, I remember! The destroyers of the world, they were called, right?" Ayuki nodded. "That's what they're saying. The stories about the invanes are so old that they go back way before even The Dark Days occurred. What makes someone an invane is a mystery, but people mentioned that invanes had destructive power and caused countless catastrophic incidents, even wars were fought against them. They say that an invane possesses an unlimited amount of Fes and use it for their own desires. Throughout history, they have been either castaway or assassinated by orders. Rumors say, that they're people who are possessed by evil spirits. Some people even claimed that the Dark nature is all their doing. Whether that is all true or not can't be proven since there's never been any witness of an invane's existence ever since the Dark nature's appearance. Whether these claims are true or not, it's up to you to believe them." "Wow, so if all of this is true, then killing those invanes is our solution?" Dwayne snorted. "Hah, how can you believe this if nobody from our generation ever witnessed one? It's just folklore that's exaggerating some frightful people that may or may not be real. It's just like those useless ghost stories purely made to give people a good scare." Ayuki raised her hand to get Dwayne's attention. "Actually, there's one possible proof that you might change your mind. One of the wars mentioned in there happened here in this forest." Dwayne widened his eyes. "Seriously?" "Do you remember the lake during the second round of the SA?" "You mean the Red Lake?" Elizabeth started to join in now. "Yes," Ayuki confirmed. "The Red Lake. You know the shape of that lake, right? It's like multiple craters next to each other. It was written that one of the invanes during that war had explosive powers and caused those crater-like-shapes. Many people died there and caused the lake to be filled with blood which is why the lake has been named the Red Lake." "Damn...that's—" Bayne got interrupted by a high-pitched sound that echoed through the forest. It sounded like a bird that sang a powerful and repeating rhythm from a great distance. "W-what's that? Selyn panicked. "Wait, isn't that the sound of..." "Someone died," Ryuzo quickly said. "Well, figuratively I mean." Although it sounded different than Taile's demonstration, Ayuki agreed with Ryuzo that this was the sound of a breaking glass pendant. Something happened to a recruit. "B-but how? There shouldn't be any Dark nature inside. M-maybe it's just an accident." Selyn's voice trembled a bit as she anxiously watched her surroundings. It was the first time for a training to be held at night. Thanks to the campfire, only the river and a couple of trees were lightened up. Apart from that, it was completely dark. Ayuki didn't imagine she'd feel that vulnerable without any proper light around. Nobody was talking now, they all tried to listen closely to what was going on. Just when the breaking pendant sound began to diminish, a second one appeared. "Another one? Damn...this ain't no accident. Something is attacking the recruits." The burning campfire made it hard to hear what was going on. Ayuki doubted whether she heard something else besides the pendant alarm, but it seemed like people were screaming in the background. "W-what should we do?" Selyn asked. "I dunno," Yuu replied. "Normally, it's best to escape...but that's against the rules now. Taile specifically said to stay here the coming days..." "So, we can't do anything then..." Bayne rummaged in his backpack. "Damn it. Besides our knives, they haven't even given us any serious weapon training." After the noise died down, everyone remained quiet and stayed on high alert. They decided to distinguish the campfire in order not to attract any enemy. Was this the right choice? The campfire felt like the only hope there was in the darkness... The thought of an attack coming from any direction and any moment kept Ayuki on edge. Every sound being made kept her awake. If we're outside the city, will every night be like this? Will we never feel safe then? How can someone remain calm when death can lurk in every corner? Nothing was happening now, yet Ayuki felt terrible. Dwayne suddenly spoke. "Don't worry." In an instant, fire flowed around his hand in a circular motion as it vanished away. "If there's anything close, I'll use my fire to light up the place and burn the enemy down if needed." "Y-You can also count on me," Ryuzo said. "I'll give a warning if I hear something threatening." Breath in, breath out. Phew, okay, I'm fine. Ayuki felt a lot better after hearing Dwayne and Ryuzo's comforting words. "Thanks, guys. That sounds reassuring." That night, a total of three broken pendants were heard. The cause of it, unknown.