CHAPTER 72: CHAPTER 72: TURMOIL

Cassias suddenly smiled. His expression appeared easy-going. Zerra stiffened. She wanted to look away, but it would hurt her neck, so she just put on an innocent expression.

"If you want to know a secret, how about exchanging it for yours?"

Her heart thumped loudly at his words. Even until now, she hadn’t known whether he had witnessed her fox form transforming into a human or not yet.

What was with that question and that meaningful expression?

"What secret can I have?" Zerra snorted. She pulled out a trick she hadn’t used for a long time. She sulked like a spoiled child. "If you don’t want to tell me, just be upfront about it."

A laugh rang in her ears, making her feel more annoyed. He was playing with her!

Cassias’ laughter faded, and he raised his eyebrows. "Alright. I won’t tease you anymore. My space can hold living beings for a limited time. Once the time runs out, I have to let them out and put them inside again."

"How long will it last?"

"Around a day," Cassias answered.

A light of envy flickered in Zerra’s eyes. "Then, if we are in danger, why don’t you just pull all of us into your space? A day is quite a long time."

He shook his head. His next words made her slightly disappointed. "I can only put plants and animals there."

Well, that also made sense. Otherwise, the male lead would have been too overpowered. She adjusted her fluctuating feelings.

Anyway, Cassias also had the mutated mushroom in his space. She had asked him to keep it for her since she couldn’t use her own space. It turned out for the better because it meant that she could keep the mutated mushrooms alive.

Cassias left again after a while. When he returned, he brought two tails. There were Laziel and Nyra following behind him. Laziel unceremoniously got into the car and sat beside her. Nyra took the passenger seat.

"Did Darren come to you earlier?" Nyra’s tone tinged with apology. "Sorry, it was because of me. I told him Cassias’ car still has some space left. So, he must have thought that you are the one who put the items in your space."

Zerra inwardly sighed. Here we go again; a misunderstanding that would be the beginning of yet another conflict.

Nyra was the one who had swept the items to her space to make room for her and Laziel in the car. She didn’t want to tell Darren about her secret, and thus, she used her younger sister’s ability as a cover.

The drama started as early as when Laziel requested to ride in the same car to Cassias. Nyra decided she wanted to take care of his injured foot and followed.

Darren must have thought that she was deliberately acting spoiled again. She clicked her tongue.

Zerra didn’t answer her. She had closed her eyes, pretending to sleep. Nevertheless, her senses were alert, listening to their conversation.

An awkward silence fell when she hadn’t answered Nyra’s apology even after a long time had passed. She could vaguely feel scorching eyes glancing at her.

"She fell asleep." Laziel muttered, "She must have been very tired."

Her breathing was steady. Like she was truly asleep. Even Laziel lowered the volume of his voice upon this discovery; something that was impossible for him to do before this.

After a brief silence, the topic of their conversation changed.

They discussed Scott, who had turned into a zombie by the time they opened the door. Nyra tried to fish for a reaction from Cassias.

"How did he get trapped there?"

Laziel sent a quick glance at Cassias, then shook his head, keeping his mouth shut. People might have been aware that it was their doing, but none spoke about it bluntly.

Well, specifically Cassias’ doing. They were just watching when he lured Scott into the barn.

Still, even though it was a ruthless move, no one would blame them. After all, Scott was equally merciless. The sin of eating a fellow human was greater than simply killing them.

Nyra seemed dissatisfied with them for keeping their mouths shut so tightly. Her face stiffened for a moment until she changed the topic again.

This time, they discussed the arrangements for the people who would follow them to the base.

Laziel was happy that his elder sister shared the same opinion. They similarly thought that it was too risky for them to bring the people there.

Still, some people, who had lived in this rural residential area for a while, showed genuine fear when they heard that there was cannibalism among them.

They begged Darren and Henry to bring them along, scared that they would be the next target. In the end, they only picked people who were trustworthy enough according to Jake’s suggestion.

"What happened?" Cassias rolled down his car window when he saw Draven approaching.

"Eh... it’s..." The ice ability user stammered. He scratched the back of his head. "Mr. Virethorn, it’s like this. Some people received the news about cannibalism, and now a lot of people are getting scared."

"It would delay the departure, because more and more people are coming to Mr. Valez and Mr. Brown, asking to follow us to the base."

No one was happy when they heard such news, but they also had no choice. They were not decision makers after all, and they came with the team, so they had to follow the mission leaders’ decision.

"Alright." Cassias waved his hand off.

After Draven was gone, Laziel opened his mouth. "Do you think that someone deliberately spread the news to create panic among the people?"

No one answered his question for a while.

"Perhaps." Nyra’s face was full of contemplation. Then, she excused herself and got out of the car. She went to find Darren.

Only three of them were left in the car then. They weren’t planning to go back to Scott’s house even if it has no owner now. Laziel and Cassias had gone to pick up their things before. The place wouldn’t make them comfortable.

Since they would set off tomorrow, they slept in the car.

After Nyra came back, she informed them of the departure time.

"So, how is it? Are they going to bring all the people along?" Laziel didn’t seem happy. The trauma, stemmed from almost ending up as a zombie’s food was still fresh in his memory.

Although he felt pity about their predicament, the thought that there were man-eating monsters in human skin among those people made his stomach churn uncomfortably.

At some point, Zerra ’woke up’ and quietly listened.

Nyra scrunched her face unhappily when she heard this question. "They decided to bring more people to the base, especially the ones who had awakened superpowers."