Ervian chuckled, his surprise at Adelle's comforting words mixing with a sense of warmth in his chest.
He hadn't expected her to reach out to him like that, and it made him feel unexpectedly grateful.
"Yeah, maybe you're right."
The soil then crumbled slowly into the hole, burying Claire's body inside for her eternal slumber.
After they paid their last respects to Claire, Ervian's Sensus radius picked up on another body.
As they approached the location, they realized there were actually two bodies - one partially buried in the ground. It was difficult for him to recognize it with Sensus.
Claire had mentioned that her grandson's name was Leriat, so when Ervian and Adelle discovered the bodies, they had a slight relief on that matter to find name tags on the chests.
"Teres and Anthony. Poor souls, rest in peace," Adelle prayed as Ervian put the bodies to their grave, just below a tree.
Ervian's solemn face was like a reflection of the clear sky above. It was evident to her that the Vision they had just experienced had added another weight to their burden, and the gravity of the situation was palpable in the air.
"Then we're going to look for Leriat, right?"
"Yes, that's the only lead we got. Let's head back to the carriage."
As they walked back from the deeper wood, their path now set on the King's Road, a sense of unease lingered in the hearts of the two adventurers.
The forest stood quiet around them, amplifying their restless thoughts.
Adelle, seizing the opportunity presented by the calm surroundings and the resolved incident with the carriage attack, mustered the courage to broach the subject they had discussed the previous night.
She turned to Ervian and, with a gentle tone, wanted to ask him about his feelings.
"By the way, Ervian. May I ask something?"
"You could just ask right away, Adelle. That would have been more efficient."
"Do you ... still mean what you've said last night before in the inn?"
Ervian had a little smirk. So it was true that it was the cause of her downer mood from the morning.
As bluntly as he always did, Ervian answered in a heartbeat, "of course. Why would I lie?"
She swallowed hard and looked away on hearing the answer. "W-why? D-did you hate me?"
'One more answer and if he did. Seems like I would truly regret my decision to come this far.'
'Hate? That's a strong word, but not really. If it were things that I hate, it would be literally those demons. Wait, hating her?'
"No, why would you think so?"
"Because you said that I was a burden!"
Ervian had a brief time to combine all his thoughts about her. Then he laughed. "Haha, of course. You are a burden."
"What?" A hint of confusion was clear on her face. "But you did not hate me—"
Adelle had a sudden stop and came into a realization about him.
"So that's what's been bothering you since the morning?"
She let her deliberate nod to answer him. She was the one that tricked herself.
Ervian chuckled shortly. "You weren't listening. You've helped me before and so I helped you. If the—say, that situation was getting out of control and going real bad, I'll always prioritize the Crystals over anything else, that's including your life."
"Sheesh, so cold-hearted."
"You've been warned," he answered lightly then snickered.
She smirked. "Fine. That worst case scenario wasn't going to happen anytime soon anyway."
"Well, who knows."
The abandoned carriage was now in front of them. Since there was nothing more worth noting, they agreed to continue their way to the city of Katalan.
Along the road, not far away, Adelle noticed a pattern on the King's Road.
"Ervy, look. It's a horse's track. I thought it was just randomly scrambled dirt all along the way."
Adelle pointed out the faint horse tracks to Ervian, suggesting that they could belong to the pair of horses that were with the one that died of burning.
His high intensity Sensus wasn't able to detect the nearly washed-out tracks, but when he pushed more of the Vis usage, reaching extra-high intensity, he was finally able to make them out.
"This ...."
Ervian quickly followed the direction of the tracks by extending his Sensus, which led him to where the tracks diverged from the King's Road, replaced by the trampled plants and it went deeper into the forest.
"It leads into the woods."
He kept extending the vision range with that extra-high intensity. As a result, he was able to see that the path of trampled bushes came to an abrupt end not too far away from a river at the base of a hill.
It was clear that the path should have continued on, but there was no evidence of it beyond this point.
"The horse! It's there, grazing about in the woods currently. But there wasn't any person arou—Ack!"
"Ervy, what happened?!"
Ervian winced in pain as the sudden headache hit him. His Sensus vision had abruptly deactivated. He rubbed his temples, trying to ease the ringing sound in his head. It was as if he had been hit in the head with a rock.
"That's strange .... I never had a burndown before using Sensus extensively."
"You sure you're alright?"
"Not that I need to worry too much. My vision is temporarily impaired, but the Aspect of Sensus should recover soon."
"You should rest then."
"Hn." Ervian nodded.
Even though he was assured, something else still bothered him. It was his first time experiencing a burndown on Sensus.
Usually, it was on his Praecantatio, the power of telekinesis that he would use excessively.
'System, show stat.'
From the blank void in his mind, a runic formation suddenly appeared, indicating the current condition of his Vis system.
—
Bearer: Ruvian Lucentin.
System Type: Venevisium.
System Level: 6,4 <<< 6,7.
Vis Pool: 108k/324k <<< 108k/400k.
Vis Aspects: Impetus, Inanis, Praecantatio, Sensus.
Traits: [Elementalist], [Runic], [Vis Pool EX].
Inanis Reserve: [Artema], [Primordial Crystal of Terra], [Ultima].
[Elementalist] Trait Description: "The world six Primordial Crystals gifted the bearer ability to control all Aspects. WARNING: An [Unknown] source was tempering with [Elementalist] traits."
—
"No!! How can this be?!"
"Ervy, you are starting to scare me. What happened?"
He commanded the system to project the runic status outside so Adelle can see.
"My Vis level! It degraded!!!"