Howl led the way to the village while Maria and Nao followed behind. Maria could have opened up her map anytime instead of following Howl but she did not want Howl to leave her sight.

Despite her words, Howl certainly cared about her family and the desperation led her to hurry up.

The village was a small community-type of space that held the market on the entrance. Maria could spot the fire from a mile away and changed her path toward that at once.

“Maria, stop. You can’t go in any further” Nao caught Maria’s hand as soon as Maria reached the village entrance. Maria rested at the back of the crowd with her arm in Nao’s arm.

“We need to help. This fire, it’s not normal. We cannot allow it to fester any longer” Maria might not be a noble any longer but she had been raised as one her whole life.

And as a noble, she had been taught to honor the ones living under her protection. Not everyone had magic to save themselves and technology could only take you so far.

“Leave it to Howl. She’s an apt magic user as well and can handle this place. More importantly, look at the side of the crowd” Maria pushed herself on her tows and looked past Nao’s shoulder.

She instantly ducked back down as a royal guard looked in her direction.

Maria felt her heartbeat painfully at the jump scare. The presence of royal guards was a wake-up call for her and also indicated her limitations.

“Excuse me. Can you tell us what happened?” Maria watched as Nao whispered to the nearby lady. Maria decided to keep her head down and out of the conversation.

It would not do anyone any good to have her be recognized in the crowd.

“We don’t know. One second, royal guards are barging in to ask us questions about anyone new who might have entered the village in the past 24 hours, the next second fire had broken out in the market section. It might not be a coincidence that this happened. That shop lady is known to be rather hard-headed” the elder explained.

Maria decided to take a step back and wiggle herself outside the crowd. Nao helped steer her in a direction that did not have any guards watching them.

“Let’s leave this to Howl. We should start heading back to the hut” Nao dragged Maria back to Nao’s house and then the waiting game began.

Looking at what had happened tonight, it should have been safe to assume that Howl would not be joining them any further.

And even if she decided to be stubborn and join them, Maria would not allow her to continue this journey.

Heavy footsteps followed inside the house almost an hour in on their wait and Nao gestured for Maria to stay still.

“I’ll go and take a look” Maria wanted to protest but she knew the importance of her one presence. She had to stay out of the way.

Nao left the room and Maria felt her nerves skyrock with worry. What if it was not Howl who was back but the royal guards who had found this place.

Nao would be able to take two or three of them at a time but even she could not take a dozen royal guards. And there might also be a call for backup which would be even more problematic for them.

There was a small knock on the door and Maria tensed. Her hands moved and magic rose around her.

And then it all dropped at a familiar face in front of her. Nao was back and had dragged Howl behind her.

Howl looked dead to the world, her face pale and her eyes sunken. She seemed to have aged quite a bit in the short time she had been away and Maria could not help but feel responsible.

Was it better to not have told howl the suture and allow things to play out as they had in the original timeline?

“Are they-?” Maria asked, not wanting to finish that sentence. Whatever the news was, she had no will to be able to hear it.

“They’re alive but both damaged their lung. The village doctor looked them both over but the damage has already settled. They won’t recover unless we find a magical expert willing to help us” Howl sounded sad but also relieved.

Maria had no handle on the mixture of pity and relief swirling inside of her.

“What are you going to do now? You can’t leave them here alone” surprisingly, Nao was the one who asked. Nao’s face was angled toward the window but it felt more than a mere observation.

Nao almost had a regretful sound in her voice. It was something Maria had never heard before from her.

“No. I’ll still travel with you both. I will just need a little more time to settle my family down” It did not escape Maria that Howl had said ‘family.’ For someone who was convinced that she was not their daughter, these were strong words.

“This is more than acceptable. I will go ahead with Nao for now. You can join us once your mother and Shou have settled down. I’ll send you how to contact us on the journey ahead” Nao’s voice held a finality that could not be contested against.

Not that Howl seemed like she wanted to do.

Despite her physical presence in the room, her eyes darted to the door every few seconds. Her mind was not in there with them and Maria could not fault her.

“Go to them. We will leave early tomorrow. You’ll finally be rid of us” Maria made sure her tone was light and joking. It did its work and caused Howl to break out into a small smile.

“I’ll make sure to join you both shortly” Howl did not hang around the pair any longer.

As soon as she left, the easy air left the room. Nao and Maria shared a look before they bolted the door close.

“The riyal guards were in the city. Likely looking for us and they might reach this place tomorrow. We cannot wait that long for them to come and we can not put this family at risk like that as well” Maria reasoned and Nao agreed.

As much as Howl was a comrade, she also had her own life. She would risk her life if she came after them. It was better to eliminate her presence from their life entirely.

“We need to leave today. Let’s pack and head out now” Nao already had their bag ready and the window was also open. It was easy to slip out of it and jump down to the unpaved patch of land below.

In the night, two figured slipped past the royal guards and their journey began. It was a lucky night for them that they decided to leave in the night.

Because the secluded house was raided by the royal guards the very next morning and the family was taken into custody.