Evelyn walks along the rocky path of a hill that went up like a spiral with a trembling barrier around her that blocks the pouring rain from above, she used her sound elements to create this barrier as using a fire barrier wouldn't be as effective for the rain.
While walking through the rain, she seems to be looking down with a pondering look.
Although she was not expecting much from the cities that she was going to visit, she didn't expect the mayor of Beah City to have already foretold this would happen and even done his own preparation. Evelyn was completely shocked at how much the mayor has planned his help.
Due to being saved by Rex and the others during the demon invasion, he feels grateful.
Knowing his limit of helping a figure such as Rex and the others that are way more powerful compared to a normal human like him, the mayor decided to put front the view of Rex being the hero of the city and always campaign his name.
Because of that, the citizen of Beah City has developed a sense of indebtedness to Rex Silverstar.
Not the greatest way to influence a lot of people since his intention was purely personal, to be able to help Rex, but it's very effective as every person Evelyn talked with in Beah City has expressed a very positive view of Rex Silverstar and the Awakened that saved them back then.
The mayor didn't stop there as he knows that Rex is a Werewolf, so he needs to add another view.
After long thought of how to improve the view of the citizen towards certain Supernaturals, one day he caught a whim of information regarding the fact that there's an Elf roaming around the neighboring cities.
Upon gaining that information, the mayor got an idea, a risky one that might just work wonderfully.
Spending quite a bit of money to hire a fifth-rank realm Awakened, the mayor decided to search for this Elf that he heard about. Someone he really needs to make his plan in motion, to educate the citizen about the view that he wanted.
Miraculously he managed to find the Elf was currently being chased by the citizen of the said city.
The Elf's identity was exposed and the citizen of the particular city he was in wanted to impale her on a stake and burn her alive, hatred of Supernaturals is common everywhere. But the mayor and the Awakened managed to save her before that happened and bring her back to Beah City.
With the Elf feeling grateful to him, he now can set his plan in motion.
For weeks the Elf has been told to dwell with the citizens, the mayor doesn't need to tell her to be kind as she already has a kind nature. Of course, he didn't let her roam free and told the hired Awakened to keep watch on her every movement.
Although he has high hopes, the Elf managed to surpass his expectation.
In the timeframe of a couple of weeks to almost a month, the Elf managed to become very close to the citizens and she even got called an angel by many. Some of the younger boys even confess to her, showing that she managed to adopt to this place.
Knowing that the time is right, the mayor finally made a speech that went against the norm.
The mayor told the citizen that there are some Supernaturals are not bad in nature, and the future might change to a drastic turn where Supernaturals and Humans co-exist. In that regard, he got a heavy backlash from his own people.
Many started questioning his side but the mayor finally revealed the shocking truth.
Bringing the Elf woman to the stage, she opened the veil that is always covering her head which exposes her pointy ears. Everyone was silenced due to the shocking revelation, the person they called an angel turns out to be an Elf.
Nobody can rebut the fact that the Elf is kind, unlike the Supernaturals they depicted in their minds.
Although It's not an instantaneous process, the citizen finally accepted her.
Evelyn heard the story from the mayor and she can't help but praise the effort that the mayor did to ready the city to accept Rex and help him if he so ever needs a place to hide, he takes very seriously on what Rex did for him as the UWO would abandon the city if the last batch of Awakened can't save them.
It was only thanks to Rex that the city is saved, the city the mayor was born in.
After giving her compliment regarding what the mayor did as a sign of appreciation for Rex's side, Evelyn then met with the Elf woman and she finds that the Elf is quite kind in nature. The Elf refused to talk about her past but that's okay, it's probably something traumatic. Moreover, she's only a fourth-rank realm Elf, not a huge threat.
But just in case, Evelyn condensed a simple fireball spell and trapped it in an orb.
At some point, if there's any indication that the Elf would do something bad, the mayor can just crush the orb and the fireball has the power of a fifth-rank and will shoot forward. It's not wrong to be ready for the worst.
Since she just went through all of the mayor's explanation, Evelyn was in a trance-like state.
'I can't believe he's willing to go through such a length just because of feeling indebted to Rex, it's really true that anybody can do anything if they set their minds to it. Maybe a person like the mayor is the one we'll need...'
Looking up to the pouring sky covered with storm clouds, Evelyn sighs helplessly.
'Rex has done many things in the past that benefitted humanity, it's just sad that he's been treated this way. The people that act as the pillars of humanity should've known that, but they were blinded by hatred'
Evelyn looks down at her clothes and finds them tattered, 'I need to change, this just won't do'
Back when she was still at the foot of the mountain she met with a misty creature that attacked her just by using her dark red fire to light up her way, the mist is hindering her vision so she needs to make a torch for herself.
Just as she did that, she was attacked by the creature and got into a fierce battle.
Due to the advantage the misty creature had inside the mist, Evelyn finds it hard to pinpoint its location and decided to aim for escaping not beating the misty creature. Now she was left with tattered clothes, evidence of her fight earlier.
With that, she picks up her pace before she finally reaches a mighty stone wall.
Although she sensed that someone is in the outpost that she just passes through, she kept walking as she doesn't intend to hide. The place she's heading to is Lountain City, another city that Rex has saved.
Standing in front of the stone wall, Evelyn looks up to see the guards on the wall.
But just before she can even say anything, she suddenly frowned and looks to the ground seemingly in pain. Out of nowhere, her body got breezed by a freezing cold wind that penetrates directly into her bones.
It made her experience a severe migraine, and she needed to stop for a moment.
'What's wrong with me, where did that cold wind come from? Is the next full moon nearing?', Evelyn thought while grabbing her throbbing head, she was completely caught off guard by this as she forgets about the full moon.
For a brief moment, the sense of longing for Rex increased dramatically.
Although she doesn't know what's the next full moon going to be, she knows that she needs to be beside Rex before it happened. With that in mind, she quickly looks back up to the guards on the wall intending to announce her objective for coming here.
But then out of nowhere, her eyebrows furrowed together.
Evelyn sensed something is heading towards her from the side, she quickly turns her head to look at her side and finds that there was an Awakened with lightning covering her entire body heading towards her quickly.
Squinting her eyes, she finds that there's a glistening object on the Awakened's hand.
Blitz!
"W-Wait!", Evelyn exclaimed but the Awakened didn't listen to her and strikes an attack.
Clang!
Thrusting the sword covered with violet lighting stream forward, the Awakened was the one to be surprised to find that the sound barrier around Evelyn blocked her strike completely. Both of their eyes made contact as they stayed in their spots.
Evelyn widened her eyes when she realized that the Awakened is very young, not older than ten.
But not intending to stop the attack, the Awakened jumps back before she lowers her stance to really close to the ground with the blitzing sword held by both hands beside her right cheek. "Great Lightning Spell, Hymn of Lightning Thrust!"
Swoosh!
Moving even quicker than before, the Awakened dashes forward while pointing her sword forward.
"Stop this at once! I'm not here to cause any trouble!"
Despite Evelyn's declaration the Awakened didn't stop and thrust her sword forward powerfully and hits the sound barrier once again. Lightning burst into the surrounding, but then the lightning also infiltrates the sound barrier and started to spread around.
It strains the resonance of the sound barrier and made a crack in it.
While looking at this, Evelyn was completely caught off guard, 'Very strong! She's naturally gifted!'
'Although my sound element is not as strong as my fire element, it's still equivalent to peak sixth-rank realm power. But this young girl, she's able to crack my sound barrier without even using her spirit energy!'
Just as the Awakened was about to move again, Evelyn shouted, "I'm a friend of Rex Silverstar!!"
Upon hearing that name the Awakened's sword stopped mid-track as her eyes slowly widen, then a cute light voice escape her mouth, "Sister, you're mister Rex's friend? Are you lying to me?", the Awakened asked.
"Yes, I'm here on behalf of Rex. Can you put your sword down?", Evelyn asked with a wry smile.
If she had known that the people here also know Rex by name like this, she would've started by saying that in the first place. But then again she realized that from their perspective, there was an unknown Awakened heading towards their city.
From the research she did, Lountain City is quite unwelcoming of outsiders.
Evelyn should've expected that something like this would happen.
While lowering her sword, the young girl looks at the wall before she waved her hand to a particular woman looking at her from the wall, "This sister said that she's mister Rex's friend!", she shouted with her small voice.
Upon hearing this, the woman at the top glanced at Evelyn.
"Are you really Rex's friend? If you can't convince me then we won't let you in", the woman said.
Knowing that she would be eventually asked this kind of question when she went to the targetted cities, she takes out her phone from her bag and replied, "Girlfriend actually, I can show you our pictures together if you're not convinced"
Although she hesitated for a moment, the woman decided to open the gate.
Evelyn followed the young Awakened girl from the back before she can't help but ask, "You're a very talented young girl, to be able to crack my barrier means you should be also in the sixth-rank realm. I've never seen such a genius like you"
"Actually, I'm still in the fifth-rank realm", the young girl replied which caught Evelyn off guard.
But then she continues with a saddened expression, "Spirit is so expensive, I don't want to make the others sad and tired. Whenever I need to buy something, they always work harder and tire themselves, I don't want them to do that..."
Upon hearing this, Evelyn can only smile wryly.
For a city that is only as big as this, the cost of a spirit should terrify them.
Only Awakened from a good background can afford to buy a spirit, and even if they are able to buy a spirit it would be the lowest grade one. Stronger spirits are reserved for high-ranking families, the regular people wouldn't have any chance of obtaining them.
"If it's okay to ask, what is your name? and how do you know Rex?", Evelyn asked.
Glancing at her briefly, the young girl then replied with a light smile remembering what Rex did for her, "My name is Nadia, and mister Rex is the one that made me an Awakened! Everybody is thankful for him, now the city has an Awakened of its own! Me!"
"Eh...? Rex turned you into an Awakened?!"