The only area within the range of the village that no one ever thought about going towards. It was just a large unexplored area, even on a map of the village itself. Such a map was currently being held up by Page herself.
"That is why we are going looking for our lord here," she said as she finished explaining their reasoning for this outing while pointing at the area in question.
"Seriously, as there is no guardian of the South. It's just an area no one ever wants, as not even the village ancestors wanted to," a boy told her as he was following her.
"There must be a reason why that is the case and why I am the only one that can think about exploring this place, Carter," Page exclaimed.
Carter was the name of the boy who was the actual child of the two that raised Page alongside him. Her only friend within the village, as well as the only person to acknowledge her as a villager besides his parents. Currently, it was only his mother at the moment who acknowledged her, as his father had vanished one day after claiming he was going to the store. He never came back from it, and his mother was still sure that his father did not abandon or leave them behind like this willingly, that something happened that has prevented him from coming home. His mother was absolutely sure of this without question, and Page, who looked up to her, also believed her completely as well.
Carter, however—well, he was not in the same frame of mind as his mother or Page, but he also was not siding with the rest of the village, who thought his dad was a deadbeat that left his family behind. That was not like his father at all; thus, he knew something was going on that no one had an explanation for currently. Since there was no explanation for his father's vanishing act, he was hoping for the best but at the same time preparing for the worst.
"You will see. When we find our lord, that's when I will show you that he must exist," Page said suddenly as she grabbed his hands.
"Fine, as it's not like we'll find anything out here anyway, as we have already looked over almost everywhere in the area," Carter said, sighing.
"That is right, as we have only almost looked over everything, not that we have looked over everything. There must be something I am overlooking, a place that is escaping my grasp and attention," she said.
The duo explored the surrounding area, as they did not have to worry about anything roaming within this domain, even though this area was smack dab in the middle of the village itself. None of them bothered Carter or any of the other villagers at all. Though Page was another story, as they would be on alert around her... if she came here alone, something Carter picked up on very early in their exploration of this area. Page seemed unaware of this fact, as she did not like being alone outside the house that often, thus convincing Carter to come with her most times when she did. So she did not seem aware that it was his presence that kept the creatures docile and fully left the duo alone. He did not know what this meant fully but also was not going to let this discovery get out, as if anyone other than him learned that Page alerted these creatures that just existed within the center unexplored area of the village, it would fuel the reasoning for claiming Page is not truly a member of the village as a result.
"Those two must know something if they are not being attacked by any of these creatures at all, as we can only avoid them because of the tech we are using to do so," a voice said.
"True, as they might even lead us to where we have been looking for ourselves," a second one replied.
They were an unlikely duo of a human and a mecha that had managed to make their way into what remained of the southern domain with the idea of claiming it for their own faction. Though the village that Page and Carter were from happened to be the only one that seemingly accepted them for some reason. Though for this reason, they all forgot just how strong they actually were in reality. It was the strength of these creatures that kept outsiders at bay for all this time, yet this did not prevent the other factions that existed from all surrounding regions from trying to enter the domain of the mysterious South on their own, for it was not connected to anyone, thus considered free land. Though free land that was hard to even think about attempting to claim.
"Documents copied from that person did have records of the place where something related to the supposed southern guardian might be," the human stated.
"If it leads to the southern guardian itself, then I'll just take them out and become the new ruler of this domain myself," the mecha laughed.
Having no clue just how hard something like that would truly be, as there would be only one in this current era that even knew a fraction of their true strength after all. They were not currently able to reveal anything given their state of being.
The four continued on their own ventures as their paths would soon cross with one another as they all made it to one singular place. None of them knew about it at the moment it was found, but it would be the place that would bring the starting point of great changes for not just the village that Page and Carter were from but for something that had been kept dormant. Dormant for countless years and even centuries, it was about to be unearthed and awaken into the world once more.