Your life is a tiny ripple in time—a tiny pebble tossed into a lake. Focus too much on the past or future, and you’ll fail to see the waves you’re making at present. You are failing to live in the now and embrace all life gives you.

~Dagda, the All-Father, Chief of the Gods

Approaching the keystone, a group of women and an abnormally large man made quite the sight. Not only because all the women were inordinately beautiful, but the giant was hauling a wagon like he was livestock. The man wasn’t even working up a sweat.

Laying in the wagon was another man. Acco looked pale and feverish but was alive and alert. The missing left hand was the reason for his current state, and blood loss made him look sickly and weak. The women took turns attending to him because they felt guilty about his current state.

The only one not among them was Song Xue, who had disappeared after everything went down. No matter how they looked at it, they shouldn’t have had the power to fight against Madame Rouge, but somehow they escaped her clutches again. Once more, it was primarily because of Acco’s grasp of spatial abilities. They didn’t expect the coachman driving Madame Rouge could directly attack his space tunnel. While that was unfortunate and tossed them about, it helped them get away cleanly. Not even they knew where they would end up. Based on how Mara felt after exiting, she knew it was much further than Acco would have usually been able to send the entire group.

It also helped that Mara had close contact with Crow for a very long time, so she was sure she’d gained unfated status along with him. The others were probably the same, especially Otto.

However, all that was minor compared to Acco’s decisive actions. Given just half a moment of freedom and access to a sharp blade, the Astrologer chopped his hand off to escape the mana-draining shackles. Before Madame Rouge or the Coachman could do anything, he opened the space tunnel and dragged the entire group in. Mara wasn’t the only one shocked by the boy’s actions and now understood why Crow had brought him into the fold.

It was just that nothing made sense. Madame Rouge’s reasons for capturing them were bogus—she spouted the same nonsense about recruiting for some mysterious sect. Everyone knew she was lying, but they couldn’t figure out why she wanted them so badly. That crazy woman was particularly interested in the Song sisters, and her obsession was borderline manic. She’d stare endlessly at the two sisters when she was around, making everyone uncomfortable.

“Don’t worry, little fool,” Mara comforted Acco. “We’ll get the medicine to help you regrow your hand. I promise I’ll use all of Darkstar’s resources to do so.”

Acco nodded and grunted lightly, but she could tell by his brooding eyes that he was traumatized. Even though he acted decisively, it was almost as if he did so mechanically. They all knew he was in shock, so they took turns keeping an eye on him.

“What is this place?” Song Lin asked, seeing a massive hollowed-out tree trunk filled with tents, stalls, and other festivities. They knew this was the Moonlight Market but were surprised by how active and boisterous it was.

“You are from Darkstar?” A woman approached garbed in merchant clothes. Almost everyone peddling wares wore similar clothes, so they could only assume it was to help keep order over the place. Either way, the quality of her attire was top-notch, so Mara was sure they weren’t dealing with a low-level power.

“Yes?” Mara said, but it sounded more like a question.

“You are the proprietress of the Darkstar Boutique?”

“Bou-boutique?” Song Lin had never heard of that, but Darkstar was a faction, and no one could imitate it without receiving retaliation from the tower.

“Over there.” The woman pointed, and sure enough, there was a large sign declaring it was the Darkstar Boutique. Next to it was another merchant stall—both locations were swarming with customers.

“What a unique store!” Nin appraised, seeing that it was selling women’s undergarments. “Since that woman isn’t struck down, you know what that means, right?”

“Huh?” Mara and Song Lin looked at the dragon girl.

“If I’m right, Crow discovered your little farm and retaliated,” Nin laughed uncontrollably. Even Acco chuckled, unable to contain himself.

“That guy doesn’t know how to do things discreetly, does he?”

“So, is that your store?” The merchant asked.

“It should be, but it must have been something my husband created,” Mara sighed.

The merchant woman looked at the laughing group with a strange glint in her eye. She expected them to be hard to deal with, but seeing the atmosphere among them, she felt delighted in the opportunity before her. And based on what she just saw, they didn’t even realize one of their group created a women’s undergarment brand.

She’d already investigated and knew that the Darkstar faction was reasonably popular across the Wood floors, especially their auctions. They were a unique existence, but when she approached the woman running Darkstar Boutique, she got nowhere. Now she understood.

“I’m assuming you are Mara, daughter of Maddox?”

Mara looked at the merchant and could tell the woman had a shrewd mind. Over the last few years, more than a dozen people had tried collaborating with them, but their offers were insulting at best. The number of people that could get information on Mara wasn’t large, which meant this little merchant girl had connections.

“Don’t misunderstand. I’m not here with ill intention. I’m Daria of Gealbhan Shipping. We do have a lot of stores and other merchant-related businesses. However, our specialty is in moving goods. I’ve investigated your faction and realized you are lacking in this area. I can help. Especially enterprises like Darkstar Farms and Boutique. You can outsource your shipping to us, and I’ll give you rates that others can’t. I’d even venture to say that no one could beat our prices.”

Mara contemplated everything the woman said, and Nin listened attentively. The two women looked at each other, and Nin nodded, feeling what was being offered could help. If Darkstar Boutique was really as popular as it looked, having someone ship, process, and sell them might be ideal. It’d be one less headache they’d have to deal with, and if the cooperation went well, they could use them for other products in the future.

“I’m willing to negotiate and talk about collaboration, but I need to talk with that woman to find out what is going on. You should know that my husband is the leader of the faction, but we are the ones responsible for it. We separated a few years ago because of some circumstances, so we haven’t been able to communicate with him. Let me figure this out, and we can talk tomorrow afternoon. Can we find you here?”

“I’ll come to you,” Daria said. “Moonlight Market only lasts for three days, and if this is your first time here, I highly recommend exploring. After that time I’ll have to leave because this place doesn’t allow people to stay long term. The only exception is the woman running the stall next to the boutique. Her cooking is phenomenal, and no matter how long you need to wait in line, order something from her. She calls it Mana-Infused Culinary Art, and I’ve tried to talk to her a few times because her food is magical. But she refused to work with anyone and said she’ll be leaving when her people finally arrive.”

Mara almost laughed at how chatty this Daria woman was. She was easily excitable, and Mara had to admit the woman was a fountain of information. After another thirty minutes, they finally said goodbye to her. Otto parked the wagon in an empty place near one of the few permanent structures around the keystone. It was a large stone building that wasn’t quite an inn but served as one. Only it was free and first come, first served. Some people managed it but claimed they weren’t allowed to take any money. They also explained many of the market’s rules and how the hollow tree trunk was a guardian that forbade all kinds of crimes.

The longer they were there, the more fascinated Mara was with the place. There was only one room available, but that was fine. Otto carried Acco into the room and laid him on the bed.

“Otto stay. Too noisy.” The giant told them and shooed them out of the room while he remained in the room with Acco.

Approaching the boutique, Mara didn’t bother waiting in line and entered through the door on the side of the stall.

Madam Ara looked up when she saw the door open without the guardian reacting. Seeing the strawberry blonde hair, she smiled.

“I’m guessing you are Mara?” Ara asked.