"Thank you all for gathering here."
In front of me were all of the people living in this place. As what I confirmed earlier, there are eleven of them, though one of them isn't here; Sarge told me that he's out for selling something in Lucent. I also met Tarc and greeted him before the assembly formally started. Tarc is a nine-year old boy, one with brownish hair and eyes, and has this cute but prideful atmosphere around him.
"As you well aware, I am Avy Cross. I'm here after being banished by my family. But, instead of being disheartened because of it, I am delighted on this opportunity to finally seize my freedom and stay away from that corrupted place."
Someone raised his hand so I gave my attention towards him.
"Yes, you are?"
A middle-aged man, bearing golden eyes and grey hair and beard short enough to be at the skin's level; seen on both arms have visible scars possibly from sharp objects and is bulker than Sarge.
"I'm Randall. May I ask why the heck happened and we gathered here? And aren't you acting a leader now? Tch. This is the reason why nobles are pain in the ass."
Out of the blue, a pebble was thrown to Randall's head. A child stood up – it was Tarc.
"Hey, don't be rude to her old man Randall."
"Ha? Me being rude…? Hah! Shut up squirt. Have you forgotten how we are being treated in that nasty place?"
"She's the reason why I'm here, free from slavery! She's the one who helped me and my siblings to escape!"
"Ha? There's no way that is true. Let me guess, you've been threatened by that scum to support her now right?"
The supposed-to-be peace talk is now in turmoil. I must find a way to assess the situation or else…
"Mister Randall."
"Huh? What is it now scum noble?"
"I know that it's unpleasant to you to see someone from Lucent to come in your only sanctuary. However, my sole purpose of gathering all of you here is because I want to help –"
"And then what!? You're going to enslave all of us? Heck no; could you just get your noble ass out of here?"
This guy seems to have experienced a lot of awful stuff and that made him into this current character of his. It's understandable; the majority of the population in Lucent is as what he said: scum.
"Stop it...uncle."
Sophia?
"Kuh! Sophia, not you too…"
"Uncle, you know that I can discern lies from truths right? Based on my magic alone, she isn't lying all this time."
"But…"
"Do you want me to not to utter a single word to you uncle?"
"Ugh…okay you win."
Shaken by her threat, Mister Randall slowly sat down on his place.
Sophia…she's merciless.
"Well, I shall continue the briefing now."
In this gathering, I explained to them the must-have for this place to prosper. Thanks to Tarc and Sophia, I managed to convince them even if it's just a little. However, in order to do that…
"I need to infiltrate my previous house and get an equipment of mine stored in a space bag. Due to some reasons, I wasn't able to carry it with me the moment I was banished, since the contents of my luggage are just random set of clothes thrown by my father just to have me set out immediately."
The people murmured after hearing this.
"Excuse me. So to make it short, you'll return to Lucent?"
"Yes. Don't worry, I'll only go there at night and I'll make sure no one would ever spot me."
Thankfully, the forest is covering this area is vast and dangerous enough for any ordinary person to enter. When I asked Sarge how they're able to go in and out of this place, he said, "We dug an underground passageway for us to safely come here. With Sophia's knowledge in magic, the area where we live in is covered by a barrier of some sort that has multiple effects like [Camouflage], [Anti-Intruding], and [Monster Repellant]".
I was amazed of Sophia's prowess in magic. Someone without mana like me can't copy that.
When the night came, I started preparing myself for my infiltration. Sarge gave me a scarf which is imbued with [Stealth]. Sophia on the other hand, wished me luck and told me that she'll use [Teleport] for me to arrive there faster.
Just how many skills does Sophia have?
"I can't go with you though. I can only serve as a panel for you to go to a designated location. So you have to return here on foot."
"That's plenty enough. Thanks for helping me."
With these, I'm ready.
"I'll be back tomorrow then."
I smiled to all of them who gathered and eventually vanished in the thin air after Sophia casted [Teleport].