Your Guise Is Slipping, Miss Pearl

Esther couldn't believe Finnegan was actually smiling. She was upset. "What do you mean? We've been friends since we were kids. I'm obviously worried about you. How can you just smile when things are so dangerous?"

Finnegan looked sad for a moment and looked away, muttering, "So, it's because we're just friends."NôvelDrama.Org content rights.

Then, he raised his head and seemed to shake off the sadness. "Well, there's not much we can do right now. But I might be able to make things better if I go out now. And hey, make sure to lock the door behind me."

With that, Finnegan left the house.

Pearl and the others noticed the arguing had stopped quickly.

Then, there was a knock at the door.

Esther rushed to open it and saw Finnegan standing there with a grin.

She nearly failed to hold her tears back. "You scared me."

Finnegan softly touched her hair. "Don't worry. I'm not that weak."

Pearl and Richard were initially concerned, but seeing Finnegan handle the situation so calmly made them think he might be a lot better at fighting than they thought-maybe even as good as Pearl. Esther, on the other hand, thought Finnegan had narrowly escaped death and was waiting for him, worried sick.

"I took care of the troublemakers outside. But we should expect more people to show up. We need to leave soon," Finnegan said.

Initially, he wanted to talk things through with the villagers, but he quickly realized they were beyond reasoning.

Pearl agreed with Finnegan and suggested they start getting ready to leave.

But then, Esther realized someone was missing. "We're one person short. Where's the other girl?"

She remembered the third woman, the shy one who hadn't been seen much lately, especially that morning.

Amelia

early thiked uneasy. "She went out

to stop

morning, around six. I tried

O her, but she insisted sheet

fine and asked to be left alo

be

"Should we just leave her behind?" Esther couldn't bear the thought of abandoning the woman. But given the danger they were in, staying might mean they wouldn't be able to leave at all.

Pearl, seeing Esther's concern, offered, "Why don't you guys leave first? I'll go look for her."

"No way we're leaving you behind," Richard said, refusing Pearl's suggestion.

Suddenly, they heard some noise

outside. The missing woman was there, pointing at Esther and saying, "It's them. They told others about Esther!"