The journey began with optimism that Rey recognized as dangerously naive but allowed to persist because crushing it prematurely would undermine group cohesion.
Twenty young people walked the northeastern road in loose formation that suggested organization without military precision.
Their clean secondhand clothing and coordinated movement made them appear like merchant apprentices or minor sect servants rather than street beggars attempting social elevation through calculated risk.
The first day passed without any significant incident.
They walked through cultivated farmland where peasants worked fields with methods that seemed primitive compared to both Earth's mechanization and H'Trae's magic-enhanced agriculture. The Cultivation World operated at a technological level roughly equivalent to Earth's medieval period, with mystical enhancement substituting for industrial development.
