The locals refused to enter this part of the forest. Even after offering a high price, no one was willing to act as their guide.
They had no choice but to figure it out themselves.
For safety, Arabe had led her team as deep into the forest as they could go before their phones lost signal. Then, each person tied a long rope, woven from several strands and stretching thousands of meters, around their waist.
Now, the rope was nearly at its maximum length, and the terrain was getting moreplicated, but they still hadn''t reached the cliff where the group had fallen. The path grew harder to navigate, the direction harder to discern. By this point, Arabe''s heart had sunk.
Just as she was about to gather her team and select a volunteer party to push forward, she heard a familiar voice from a distance.
"Arabe."
"We''re over here!"
Arabe thought she was hallucinating fromck of sleep. She rubbed her ears, but when a team member beside her gasped and edged closer in fear, she realized it was real. It wasn''t just her; everyone had heard it.
“Oh god, are we dealing with ghosts?" someone thought in terror. The same tense thought was written on everyone''s faces. They had all prepared for the worst—that the three were already dead.
Arabe was the first to snap out of it, hurrying toward the sound. After a few steps, she remembered something and called out to one of the Carlisle family members on the rescue team. "Contact Glenn. Tell him we''ve found them and toe pick them up."
The man took off at a run to make the call.
With the reinforcements Kearney had provided, Glenn''s manpower had swelled, and he had teams searching every viable rescue point down the mountain. To ensure they found them as soon as possible, Glenn himself had stayed at the location closest to the mountain peak and their fall site.
He was about a thirty-minute drive from Arabe''s position.
After receiving the call, Glenn immediately handed over his duties to a trusted subordinate and prepared to leave. Before he left, he noticed Flora standing nearby, her eyes swollen like walnuts, looking at him with desperate hope.
The call hadn''t mentioned Soren specifically, but it had mentioned three figures. Assuming Soren was with them, Glenn thought for a moment and decided to bring Flora and a few of the Fawkes family members along.
Meanwhile, Arabe had finally reached the three bedraggled figures.
To avoid revealing they had seen Theresa, they had changed back into the clothes they were wearing before the fall.
Arabe had been convinced Finn
was dead. Seeing him now, standing before herpletely unharmed
she forgot everything else and
rushed toward him. fo
Finn grinned and called out, "Arabe."
Arabe, a mix of worry, lingering
fear, and anger, swung a light p at "You little brat!" Despite her
his arm You little b
words, a thin mist had already
formed in her eyes.
Then, she looked at Evangeline, a whirlwind of emotions churning inside her.
Evangeline looked at her sheepishly and apologized.
Finn had put himself in such danger to save her. Even though she and Finn were close, Arabe was his family, and she felt she owed her an apology.
Arabe just looked at her. At first, she had been angry, unable to ept it, but after so many days, the anger had faded. Besides...
"That damn fool jumped on his own. It wasn''t like you threatened him or forced him to do it," Arabe said, her tone still sharp with residual anger Even if he had died, it would have been his own bad luck nothing to do with you."
Finn could tell his sister was just venting. "Arabe~” he whined yfully.
Arabe ignored him.
Finn gave Evangeline a look, and she understood. She softly called out, "Arabe," and apologized again.
Arabe still had some lingering anger, but hearing Evangeline''s soft, gentle voice calling her ''sister'' made it inexplicably vanish.
Arabe couldn''t help butugh at herself. "You two..."
Before she could finish, Soren, who had been silent all this time, suddenly went pale.