The villagers of Hope Village eventually left. After shouting back and forth across the distance, they seemed to be reassuring themselves, or perhaps they had finally received Su Mo's firm affirmation.
Once humanity's desire to survive on the wasteland had been reignited over the past two months, a little natural disaster like this was nowhere near enough to destroy these tenacious survivors.
As for the two surviving lion people mixed within the villagers' ranks, Connie let out a distant roar toward them—a cry steeped in both sorrow and profound relief.
That indescribable roar meant many things.
It was Connie bidding farewell to her past self, and it officially severed her ties with the lion people who had birthed her, raised her, and ultimately abandoned her.
This was her pledge of loyalty to Su Mo and to Hope Village.
After the rainstorm ended, the two lion people would be tricked by the villagers into drinking poison that Su Mo had prepared long ago.
