The next morning, Levisia was thankful that Chetter was nowhere to be seen as she left the estate with her luggage. The sun had barely risen, and most of the estate seemed to still be asleep except for her and the Kraidens.

What she noticed, however, was that the mood was somewhat sour. She sat awkwardly next to Elizabeth, who was silently fuming with her lips pursed like she was holding back some choice words. Opposite them Lidan, who was sprawled out on the seat like he owned the carriage. Yet despite his carefree mannerism, Levisia could tell someone was up with him from the way he kept fidgeting with his hands and looking at his nails.

“So, the stone barrier has been damaged. Just putting it out there.” He finally said after the uncomfortably long silence had dragged on for long enough.

“Nonsense. A stone barrier cannot be damaged easily.” Elizabeth said, frowning intently at Lidan. “How has it been damaged exactly?”

Levisia sat there, listening to the Kraidens have their argument. She knew that the stone barrier being damaged was a serious issue, but she didn’t know how serious it was.

“Was it not just for separating the territories?” She asked, trying not to flinch at the glare she got from Elizabeth. She knew that there were the myths that a fairy king had blessed some land, and used a stone barrier to distinguish between the blessed and un-blessed land. But she had no idea which tales were true and which weren’t.

“The fairy king’s blessing to the Empire is real, Levy. Although most of them don’t realize it because they are enjoying it so naturally.” Lidan said, looking out the window. “Look at Elizabeth and me. We’re proof of the fairy king’s blessing. And the same goes for you, Levy.”

“It does?” Levisia slunk into her seat. She couldn’t help but feel a little strange when one of the Kraidens pointed at her and said that she was the same as them. Not once in her life had she ever felt that she was the same as them. Even if they’d received the same blessing, they had a huge difference in standards.

She shook her head, thinking about what had happened last night. With everything that happened within the Mentine estate, including Viola being struck down with the mysterious disease, could there be some possible explanation?

“Does the stone barrier being down have something to do with all of the strange phenomena that are happening in the South? It could explain why all the crops aren’t growing. As well as, say… are people falling sick? Does the blessing affect a person’s health directly?” She said, trying to keep her voice as nonchalant as possible.

“Well, I don’t know if it’s just that or not, so we’ll have to continue the inspection for now.” Lidan folded his arms and drummed his fingers on his elbow. “And as for making people sick, you mean what happened at the Mentine estate? That could possibly be the case, though it has not been known to make things worse. I could be wrong, though.”

“Oh.” Levisia said, tilting her head in confusion. “So, was the damaged stone barrier at the Mentine estate not an abnormality? But then what could it be? What else could cause people to act like that? To have an atmosphere that feels so heavy that it makes people sick just being in the area?”

Lidan sat up straight in his seat and stared straight at Levisia. She immediately regretted her decision to ask him.

“Here’s the problem. For generations, we’ve all been used to blessings. But every so often, they are all gathered up and things go back to normal for a bit. We are so used to these blessings that we don’t realise what things are like without them. Though it rarely happens within the Empire itself. That being said, we have to hurry and restore the stone barrier before anything else can happen, and then focus on fixing the land that has been badly affected.

“How difficult will that be?” Levisia asked. “Surely you can just rebuild it, right? Get some stone and cast a magic spell?” She let out a forced laugh as she rubbed the back of her neck. Lidan glanced at Elizabeth and shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s difficult, but it must be done.”

The responsibility of the restoration somehow looked like it fell to the Kraidens. Levisia decided not to ask for further details to Lidan, whose mood was looking increasingly irritated.

“Whilst it is fortunate that it can be restored, I’m not sure everything will be resolved just by fixing the stone barrier,” Elizabeth spoke up for the first time during that carriage journey. Lidan eyed her up suspiciously.