Sometime later in the next day, the advent of the Storm was manifested as a strong wind. Everything went so fast. After the destructive wind, people didn't have much time to recover, much less to reprepare.
Therefore, the most sensible thing that they thought they should do was to travel due east. The faster they are from the White Boundary, the less risk.
If not for the Imagis accompanying the traveling population, there would've been more tragedies. Humans have only come so far in this dangerous world because of the existence of Imagis. That's why they were sometimes revere as Gods due to their powerful nature.
Since the destructive wind, the more experienced elders have already chosen to let their people travel. However, the more they move, the more they learn that others have left their home as well.
The only thing that they hoped was to find any of the West Green's Kingdoms. However, first come first serve. Many tribes, towns, and even cities have pleaded to enter the closest kingdom they have arrived to but they were rejected.
When the wind arrived, desperation has accumulated and hatred formed. All over the West Green, there were skirmishes and grudges being newly formed.
The Kingdoms have no choice but to send the group of people they call 'trash' and kick them out to welcome the people who have strong Imagis with them.
The 'trash' group was composed of non-working common people or people who have unnecessary professions.
As the first round of rain came, these groups of people could only travel further east, risking themselves and their families. Only some kind-hearted Imagis have accompanied them. But since there's a scarce of Imagis in the first place, some went without one.
Many died that week. The Storm has even reached the border of the Death Palace before dissipating into mere light rain.
There was only Flood that had even reached Hramm City. With this, herds of beasts were already in the middle of their movement. Herbivores were ruthlessly fought over by different species of predators.
Meat has reached a dearth.
These hungry predators looked at the traveling humans as if they were walking meals. But because of the humans' number, they were only attacked if one for stranded. But it was the same for the humans as they don't have enough food. Furthermore, after the storm, many have become sick while many died.
The population in the West Green was grimly halved since that destructive wave of wind.
While almost everyone was fighting for survival, the Enova family has become charitable. The Town has become dependent on them and was even shocked how the hell did they have so much stock of meat. Seeing that these stocks were still fresh, they have only hunted them recently.
The experienced realized that the meat was all gained on the same day or so. Mass hunting? Didn't the Emeralkan Academy do that?
The Townspeople began whispering about it in their homes. This eventually reached the elders' ears.
"They have been hiding that they have a connection with the great Emeralkna Academy!?"
The words have already morphed into these baseless rumors.
"But that's to be expected, right? Their daughter is a genius!"
"What luck!"
"No, they adopted a parasite so maybe their luck balanced out."
"Luck balanced out!? They have a seven-year-old Imagi as their daughter! That girl should be the greatest genius Reland has seen! Even if I have three parasites as children, I would feel like I'm in heaven to have that one kind of child as the fourth, even with half the talent of the Enova daughter!"
"That's that... there's nothing that we can do."
The Town Mayor said with a depressed face. The others agreed. Power is everything. They don't have the confidence to defeat an Imagi even if they all ganged up on one. Furthermore, they would be too cruel to try and kill a child.
Now that Heron and his family were actively helping the Town, they would be devils to still act against him. The only thing that they can do was let the family help them in this crisis.
In Hramm City, there had been disputes about what to do with the people. Merim suggested letting the 'unfortunates' inside the castle-like Emeralkan Academy. Even though it was large, the majority that was living inside it were workers. The Imagis were too few in numbers.
Now that the workers have come back to their homes, there were a lot of free spaces. However, the thought of letting commoners enter their academy which the city treat as something like a sacred place was akin to sullying the place, they thought.
"But this act will make the people put their trust in us. The only thing they can do while in here is to obediently obey our every word. Not only will we be helping them, but we will also be exacting our authority over them. The common people are still the majority of the city, we cannot ignore them."
Headmaster Hilbert said before glancing at both Merim and Hresha. Under their noses, there have been changes in how the common people think. They've become more and more... virtuous and these people have interacted with Merim or Hresha once.
At first, Hilbert was just hearing some words that there are groups of people acting benevolently even in times of crisis. But this had become frequent that as the headmaster of the Emeralkan Academy, a position that is even higher than the city's mayor, he had to investigate.
Soon, he learned that the people near the areas where Merim and Hresha have been managing were affected. This was too suspicious, yet, abnormally positive. Headmaster Hilbert didn't do anything to deter them, instead, he had given Merim and Hresha wider areas of management.
On the other hand, Elihim has been thinking about that possession he had. In the end, he concluded that it was a memory he forgot when he encrypted them.
And just as he predicted, emissaries the nearby kingdoms have come knocking on Hramm City's doors, asking for 'assistance'
These emissaries were all Imagis that are equaled to an Academy Elite and they number ten in total.