At last

"Shall we wait for him outside?" Kyle had suggested, and the rest agreed to it by moving out of the house.

However, an hour had passed, and Ezekiel was yet to return. Lucas and Kyle had gotten bored just standing around waiting for Zeke, so they decided on some beneficial activity to pass their time and started sparing intensely in the nearby forest while Zeres and Alicia stayed at the house's doorway. There was a long-backed bench that Zeres had placed Alicia to sit and rest while waiting.

Alicia had been trying to initiate a conversation with Zeres for the first few minutes after he had put her on the bench, but eventually, she stopped. It was not due to Zeres' short and blunt responses but for the only reason that she was already starting to feel weak again. This evidence of weakness totally disgusted her. For her to be so weak to the point that she could not even sustain a simple conversation was making her even more miserable.