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From a logical point of view, there was no reason to deny Eva’s request.

She would be able to wield Manipulation in a combative style and would be more alert when a crisis occurred.

It wouldn’t be an unusual situation, either.

Syrus, in her past life as a mercenary, trained hundreds of people. Yeah, training someone whom she shared a body with might be tricky, but who knows, she figured it potentially might be easier.

She had even thought about teaching Eva the basics of fighting for a long time now.

However, a feeling had emerged inside her. That out of everyone, Eva shouldn’t have to fight. She wasn’t a warrior, and Syrus didn’t believe Eva had the heart to become one.

Syrus had seen villagers rise up in times of strife, but not everyone should hold a sword. It took a while for Syrus to think this way, she understood the idea of fighting for yourself, however, she saw too many people hurt from being caught in the crossfire and trying to fight when they couldn't.

“I will think about it.” Said Syrus, she paused and then added. “We need to wait until the body has recovered.

[Okay, thank you.] (Eva)

Eva could feel Syrus’s unease. She didn’t exactly understand why but hypothesised it might just be the stress of everything that was going on.

Anna was able to move into the forest to sleep the night away. They got comfortable in a tree and tried another experiment while they slept.

Then the morning came around again.

[We didn’t shift back to normal while asleep.] (Eva)

[Good morning to you as well.] (Syrus)

Syrus had stayed in the body while they slept, so she was only just waking up while Luna and Eva stayed in the Soul Space.

[Feeling okay?] (Luna)

“Yeah…” Syrus scratched her head and slid down the tree. She felt okay ignoring a few problems she was beginning to feel. “Let’s get into town, Syrus ate the remaining fruit in her bag and continued forward to Greenvale.

After an hour-long walk, they had reached Greenvale.

Then they went through the front entrance, where the single guard there stopped her.

Dirt had stained their clothes, and her face was kind of pale.

The guard “Stop, who are you?”

“Syrus, I’ve just been out for a walk.”

The guard asked out of concern, “Why do you look like that?”

“Fell over into the dirt,” replied Syrus.

“Okay,” said the guard. He decided to stop bugging the woman and let her into the city.

[Well, it is definitely bigger.] (Eva)

[It’s not that big.] (Syrus)

[Agreed, but it’s still bigger than anything I saw in this life.] (Eva)

The city was many times larger than a small town like Ihere.

The streets were bustling; a few people turned their heads when they saw Syrus, curious about this dirty girl, but no one stopped or said anything.

The trio walked around the city with one main goal in mind. To find Elly and the children, along with that, they would take note of anything that could be of use that they saw.

[Do we have enough money for new clothes?] (Luna)

[Based on the prices, maybe, but we need to choose something that will work for any size changes.] (Eva)

[That’s going to be a pain to consider for future occasions.] (Syrus)

They were… hesitant to get rid of some of their clothes. Because it belonged to their parents and villages, but that didn’t change the fact that they didn’t exactly fit them–no matter what form they took.

Besides the clothes, all Anna managed to take from the village was some money, Anna’s notebook, the Manipulation Guidebook, and George’s diary. The latter of which they hadn’t read yet.

“Where would they have gone?” Syrus mumbled to herself.

They didn’t want to ask around, as if Elly wanted to move secretly, then trying to publicly dig up her trail would only be negative for her.

But they had now spent hours walking around. They did stop quite a few times to rest as it was required with their body’s current state, but no matter where they looked, they couldn’t find a trace of Elly or the children. The dizzy spells Syrus was facing weren’t helping the process either.

[Maybe we are looking in the wrong area?] (Eva)

[That could be the case, but we have done multiple laps around the city.] (Luna)

[I think we understand they are hiding somewhere, I’ve been peeking through the buildings, but I haven’t seen them in any.] (Syrus)

It was already getting late and they had found nothing.

[We need to get into Elly’s head. Where would she set up shop.] (Syrus)

[Shop?] (Eva)

[That means where she would bunker down, where she would hide.] (Syrus)

[Okay, I think a good place to start is how much money she has access to?] (Luna)

[Wouldn’t that be determined by how much she was able to carry?] (Eva)

[No, Elly was far richer than anyone else in the village. To the extent she had money stored separately, in the banks. So, all she would need to do is withdraw the amount required.] (Syrus)

[I see, then would it be more likely that she rented a hotel, or bought or rented a building.] (Eva)

[That’s… a good question.] (Luna)

[If she wanted privacy, then renting or buying a building would be better.] (Syrus)

[Can she withdraw that much from the bank?] (Eva)

[She doesn’t need to. If the person she is getting the building from is a part of the town’s bank, which they would be if they lived here, they just do a direct transfer.] (Luna)

[Then the next question would be, is Elly signed with the bank in this town?] (Eva)

[It’s likely, after all, that the banks are only in the capital city and other large cities. And this is technically the closest one to home, so if she wanted to transfer money from a place, here or the capital would be it. Not to mention she could have money stored in both banks for safety.] (Luna)

[I think we should explore this line of thought. Let’s check the buildings that may’ve been up for rent, looking towards the edges of the city might be better.] (Syrus)

They started to move back out to the edge of the city.

However, their search reached a sudden halt.

After two full days of Syrus being in control, something went wrong.

“Argh…” She kneeled to the ground, sick, but pulled herself along the wall into an alley to sit down.

[Syrus!] (Eva)

“Umghaaaaa, I’m fine.” A wave of dizziness attacked Syrus and brought her to the ground.

This wasn’t a new sudden phenomenon; for the last five hours, she felt a headache forming and the body going wheezy.

“Just let me sit down for a moment.” Syrus stayed on the ground and leant against the wall. However, minutes passed and she wasn’t feeling better; if anything, it was just getting worse.

During this period, a drunk woman walked into the alley; her eyes wandered around before they settled on Syrus with hostile intent.

“Ah, poor child, let me help you.” The woman smiled as she walked towards Syrus, “I know a place that can help you.”

Syrus looked and saw the woman’s evil smirk unhidden due to the effects of alcohol.

The woman wearing a long blue dress reached down to grab Syrus by the arm.

[I’m jumping in to help!] (Luna)

“Argh fuck off.” Syrus pushed herself off the wall and, in a single motion, grabbed the woman's head and slammed into the junk-filled alley.

[Is she…?] (Eva)

[Don’t worry, she is alive.] Luna quickly checked the woman, and even healed her a little bit, but still left her unconscious.

[We need to move!] Syrus said, but as she walked towards the exit, she noticed a burst of energy following through her system.

With Luna entering the body, they were changing back to Anna.

[Ah! Wait, before we go out, I have to hide our horn.] (Eva)

They rapidly moved towards the outer edges of town without attracting any unnecessary attention. This was made easier by the fact that there were fewer people out during this time of day.

Once they were alone and safe, Luna asked, [What happened?]

[We were about to be grabbed and taken somewhere we wouldn’t like to be.] (Syrus)

[No, why did we collapse.] (Luna)

[Oh, no idea.] (Syrus)

Eva considered the facts and came to a conclusion.

[Simply because we are able to move fine now, I think it was because Syrus was in control for too long. Well specifically, we were in Syrus’s form for too long.] (Eva)

[It was only nearly two days?] (Syrus)

[And that seemed to be long enough.] (Eva)

[Sigh… I guess we just have to walk around as Anna now.] (Luna)

[Do we want to use a code name?] (Syrus)

[Anlesa is fine, it works for our current form.] (Luna)

With that, Anlesa started another walk around the outskirts, looking for places that had recently been purchased or rented. They knew this line of thinking might be wrong, but it was their best guess for the time being.

They were hopeful but were fully aware this might end in failure.

But, after another hour of searching, they finally found their target…

“They made it…” Eva said; happy that they were all able to escape alive.

Inside a small two-story house, the curtains were closed but there was enough of a gap to see through. A bunch of children with sad faces were asleep on the ground in makeshift beds, and one tired woman who looked like she hadn’t slept in days sat on a table.

[Should we go inside?] (Luna)

[...Maybe not. But we are going inside.] (Syrus)

Knock Knock Knock

Syrus knocked three times.

Some of the children awoke from the noise, but Elly quickly shushed, and she worriedly walked to the door.

Before she opened, she asked, “Who is it?”

Luna said, “Hello, I’m a cousin of Anna. I wanted to know if she was able to make it.”

Elly faced a sudden, blunt force of confusion to the head, nearly enough to wake her up.

The voice sounded so similar to that of the child who stayed behind. Only slightly similar in tone, but nearly exactly in the occasional coldness pronunciation.

She opened the door to see a face she didn’t recognise—a girl much older than she expected. She knew it wouldn’t be the girl, but deep inside, she hoped it was.

“Can we talk privately? I can’t be in the area for long.” Luna's eyes darted to the kids.

Thousands of thoughts ran through Elly’s head, and she quickly decided that even if this person was suspicious, she had to let them in to talk. The worst case would lead to the same result, whether she let them in or not.

So, Elly told the children to keep sleeping and that she was organising food and clothes for tomorrow. Elly took Anlesa upstairs, into a side room, where she sat down at the small table to talk.