Glen had been walking for a lot longer than he would've liked.

It had been four days since the fall of the Palisade and he still had almost no information about the situation other than confirmation that it really had happened.

The area he was in was mostly flatlands, making the forested hills to his right stand out with particular contrast. The peaks of mountains could be seen in the far distance behind him.

“I wonder how much further I’ll have to walk…” Glen muttered to himself as he lazily walked down the road.

Though he didn’t have any way to know it himself, he was already less than an hour away from his first destination– the southern border of Sangrea. Shortly after he was made aware of the situation, he left for Jeraea’s southern gate.

While most would’ve treated such a thing as suicide and left for the north, the center of humanity’s enclosure, Glen figured that whoever was coming through the region border would guess that most humans would try to escape that way and already planned on surrounding them once they gathered there.

With that in mind, he decided to head towards the region border and follow it carefully so that he wouldn’t be expected by anybody crossing over. His ultimate goal was to use the region border as a path to reach a city called Tabre, known as the border fortress due to its lying almost exactly on the border between Sangrea and Gevilia.

Tabre was far from the capitals of any of the three nations, which caused the people there to end up isolated from most political conflict.

As rumor had it, the people there had been obsessively worried about the collapse of the Palisade for centuries, and had constructed and organized the city to defend against attacks from outside the region border.

Of course, the wider world treated them as lunatics as long as they’d been around, and for the most part, they had completely escaped the public eye. After all, who would find it reasonable to fear the impossible?

After walking a little longer, Glen spotted something interesting ahead as he crossed over a hill. There was a thin line drawn on the ground several yards ahead by the abrupt change in the color of the grass and foliage and the edge of an incredibly dense forest. He stared at the line as he continued approaching it, curious what could cause such a thing.

Suddenly, it occurred to him; this was the southern border. The grass on each side had grown differently despite being so close together because it was split in half by the Palisade. Similarly, the trees in the forest couldn’t drop their seeds through to the other side, ending the forest where it was.

Glen reached the southern border after only a few more moments, then stood still, gazing across it. Less than a week ago, this had been the end of the world for humankind. Despite the thousands of years this fact remained, he was looking across the place that had been the edge for all that time. He felt almost proud that he had been born to live to this day, but anxious that he had to decide what to do with that.

Glen cautiously reached his hand over the border.

“It's really gone…”

He didn’t feel a thing. He probably looked silly, but he was so bewildered that he didn’t really mind. Glen stood still for a few moments with his hand outstretched towards the tree-line.

He gazed into the forest before him. It looked no different than one would expect a forest to look, but knowing that it was a land beyond the Palisade made it feel like he was looking into another world. He felt drawn to step into the forest. The trees seemed to warp and meld together the longer he stared.

He felt like something inside him was changing.

Suddenly, Glen was snapped out of his stupor by the sound of many footsteps in the distance, approaching to his left. He instinctively dashed forward and hid behind a large tree. He couldn’t tell what was coming this way, but he decided it would be best to ensure he stayed out of sight over satisfying his growing curiosity.

He stood completely still behind the tree for several minutes before the footsteps got close enough that he couldn’t resist the urge to peak. Poking his head out a little, trying his best to remain concealed, he spotted the source of the sound.

There was a large group of uniformed men marching along the borderline with stern looks on their faces. Although they seemed to be ordinary men from a distance, a closer look revealed that they all had pointy ears and the same sharp features. He stared at the group, wide-eyed.

Abruptly shattering the scene, one of the uniformed men suddenly stumbled on a rock and fell to the ground, nearly tripping the one behind him. A man in the front of the formation who appeared to be their captain stopped, his face beginning to flush.

“Halt, men!” He shouted in a scratchy voice.

The entire group stopped moving at his command and stood still with one arm at their side and the other to their forehead. All except the one who tripped. The captain walked briskly around the formation to meet the fallen soldier.

“What are you here for, soldier?” The captain asked in a condescending tone.

The fallen soldier looked up at him with a fearful look on his face.

“T-to fight for my country, sir.” He said, looking at his captain nervously, clearly trying his hardest not to avoid eye contact.

“No. You’re here to bring pride to your country. To bring pride to the party.”

The captain looked down with a furious expression and pointed to the fallen soldier’s legs.

“Is this bringing pride to the party? What do you think, soldier?”

“N-no, sir! B-but...” The fallen soldier stuttered back, beginning to sweat.

His captain stared into his eyes for a few more moments before responding.

“‘But’ what? Please, continue.” The captain said in an even more patronizing tone than he’d already been speaking.

The fallen soldier swallowed before answering.

“T-there’s nobody around but us, sir. Is it really harming the party if nobody is around to see it?”

The captain looked down at the soldier with a murderous rage painted over his face. He leaned down and picked the soldier up by his collar, setting him down once he was back on his feet.

The soldier tilted his head in confusion for a moment before his captain slapped him so hard that the sound echoed off the trees.

The men surrounding him grimaced at the scene.

“Yes, it is, soldier! I'm here to see it. Your fellow men are here to see it. We all watched you disgrace the party as it happened. Even if you were completely alone, you should feel guilty for what you've done and take on the responsibility of punishing yourself.”

The captain glared into his soldier's eyes with unrivaled intensity.

“Yes, sir!”

The soldier responded curtly, now understanding that he had absolutely no authority to question his captain even if he was directly asked something by the man.

“Your mistake will be permitted once and only once. Do not let it happen again."

The captain walked back to the front and ordered his men to resume their march.

Just like that, they began moving in unison.

After some time, the group had vanished from Glen's view and he let out a heavy sigh.

He definitely made the right call by hiding when he heard their movement. After picking up his bag, Glen continued his journey along the border.