"Welcome to your new home"

"Eh?" Evan uttered, "So, I'm not the only one transported here."

Evan looks at the group of people who arrive at the same time as him.

As he gazed toward them, his eyes scanned their unfamiliar faces except for two.

He recognized Albert's wife and son, the people he had met briefly during the banquet that now felt like a distant memory.

Their expressions mirrored his own—etched with the weariness of uncertainty of being thrust into this unfamiliar prison island.

They looked dishevelled as if shaken by the same inexplicable journey that had brought them to this desolate place.

Evan assumed that they, too, had been subjected to the same treatment as him.

Seeing familiar faces on this desolate island offered a small flicker of comfort to Evan's heart.

"Obviously not,' the soldier who escorted Evan remarked with a roll of his eyes. "Who would waste resources to exclusively transport you alone?"