"She's his sister, after all," Paimon No. 2 whispered back. "And that hole really was kind of big..."
"Kind of big? It was huge!"
"Shh—don't let Mo Wang hear you."
As the two of them muttered, the group had gradually left Naxia Town behind, heading north along a winding path.
The terrain around them slowly grew rugged, with low hills and jagged rocks beginning to appear on both sides.
After they walked a while longer, a deep canyon stretched across everyone's path.
The rock walls on either side of the canyon were steep and perilous, and from the valley floor came the faint, mournful sound of wind blowing through.
The group continued forward along the small path at the canyon's edge and rounded a bend—
Then they all stopped in unison.
In the middle of the road ahead stood a person.
No, to be precise, a person was crouching there.
The man's clothes were ragged, his body covered in dust, his hair as messy as if he had been struck by lightning. His face was smeared black and gray, and his clothes were full of holes and scratches. He looked exactly like a beggar who had just crawled out of a refugee camp.
He was crouched beside a rock. Hearing movement, he suddenly lifted his head.
The instant he saw Mo Wang's group, the man's eyes abruptly lit up. He staggered to his feet and shouted in a voice filled with grief and indignation, nearly through gritted teeth:
"I finally waited for you!"
Lumine: "???"
Mo Wang: "???"
Columbina: "?"
All three of them froze in place at the same time.
Mo Wang stared at the "beggar" in front of him, looked him up and down, then turned his head and asked Lumine, "Someone you know?"
Lumine shook her head