Three days later:
A mile or so from the palace was a ruined farmhouse. Previously, some palace servants had passed by and hauled away the dome shard that had crushed the building, like they had done for the rest that had been affected.
Now, a small crowd had gathered in front of the crushed house. While the majority of the people there were humans, there were also those of foreign races. There were humanoid frogs, foxes, deer, boars, and even birds. They were all watching a human of uncommonly short stature, who was clad in all white, raise his glowing arm and engulf the house in pink and blue flames.
After a few seconds, the flames subsided and the building that had been utterly destroyed was now restored to its previous state before being crushed.
The human, which was Ran, then breathed out and caught his breath before turning around and leaving.
But, upon turning, he was surprised to see a bunch of random people crowd around him.
And when they saw that he finished and was about to leave, they all clapped and cheered, some even cried a tear or two. Ran, after being initially surprised, no longer was stunned by these. Indeed, this was the fourth time this week!
Back then, after saving a few people's lives, he figured out he could fix their houses. And let me tell you, when the servants at the palace figured out they could take advantage of this unpaid labor, they had removed all the dome's shards within a day. Not only that, but because Ran went around doing this, he quickly became a small, local celebrity.
As the shards had all dropped within a two mile radius of the palace, most of the shards had luckily dropped on farm or agricultural lands. Unfortunately, because of this, there would most likely be a short period of famine in the city, as well as increased deaths due to hunters dying in the wilderness.
And in this area, there were about a hundred farmers, with the majority being affected. While the majority were saved due to the palace's servants' efforts, Ran himself had saved a dozen of them! Now you can see why these people had surrounded him.
Ran himself had found it quite strange in the beginning until he figured that the reason that most of these people, as well as their homes, could be saved was because of the Lord's actions. If the Lord hadn't saturated the dome with so much of his concentration, to the point it could maintain solidity for days, then it would have dissolved and seeped into everything, rendering both the people and their homes unsavable.
The shards were so solid in fact, that even if they cut through someone, it wouldn't contaminate the open wound. It was only now, a few days later, that they had begun to melt a little.
And yet, just as Ran was going to leave and go around the crowd, an elderly man with a child following closely behind him approached him from the crowd.
The man reached out to Ran, clasping Rans hand with both of his. He shook and he shook and he shook his hand, whilst profusely thanking Ran, until Ran couldn't take it anymore and stopped him. Ran was also confused, he didn't understand what the man was thanking him for or who he even was.
The elderly man, seeing his confusion, quickly stopped and apologized, wiping the tear from his eye.
He bowed, saying, "my sincerest apologies, young man…"
He stayed silent for a moment or two before continuing:
"This was my son's farmhouse… he's no longer with us, but he left me with a wonderful gift of his own," and the man embraced the kid behind him with an arm, making the kid feel less vulnerable.
"If it wasn't for the palace's support, we would have died due to the events a few days prior. And without you, we would've had no place to stay and even worse, make ends meet. And for that, you have my gratitude."
Ran, now understanding the situation, was cleared of his confusion. He himself didn't take what he had done too seriously, but clearly not everyone felt the same. And the reason he felt this way was because he was aware of the why.
He wasn't behaving under some moral imperative or what have you; he did it because ultimately, at his core, his heart, he simply wanted to do it. An act of fulfilling a selfish desire.
Okay… Actually, all of that that I just told you, it was all a lie.
Okay… Actually, it was only a half-truth.
He did do all this simply because he wanted to, but that was only one side of the coin. There's also what he didn't want to do.
Ran, too, knew what he didn't want to do and that was why he was doing this even more over the past few days.
Over the course of the past few days, but also immediately upon entering, he found himself feeling… under the weather.
To put it simply, he didn't like spending too much time in the palace for one reason and one reason only:
It reminded him of home.
It wasn't the palace itself per say, but it was the more minute details here and there that brought a lot of nostalgia. The busyness and constant stream of servants working; facilities like the kitchen were places he visited often as well because Ann had been his personal cook; even just the air there made him more comfortable, too comfortable that he disliked the feeling.
Thinking of this, Ran patted the man's shoulder before rubbing the kids head as he smiled.
"I'm sure your son would be grateful to know his gift is being taken care of by such an honorable man."
Ran then turned and left. Before leaving though, he wished the both of them the best and then disappeared from their and everyone else's sight.
From everyone's point of view, this person was very mysterious because not only was his powers strange, but even his character was obfuscated. Most people in this city didn't wear white, let alone all white, and most certainly did not have a spell of darkness on their hood to cover their identity.
In fact, only the people from the palace know what Ran looks like because he would take his hood off out of respect to the palace itself and the Lord of the city.
…
Having returned to the palace after a hard day's work, Ran ate dinner before looking for the rest of the group. Over the course of the last few days, the group had been deciding when to leave and whether or not to consider what to do next.
They could try and track down Ran's father, Torian, or consider finding the ruins that gave Kingsley his enhanced abilities despite the Lord's advice not to. They were more keen on looking for Torian because the ruins were located on the western side of the middle-layer which was near the ocean, whereas Torian went to the eastern side where most human cities were located.
Moreover, no matter what, they couldn't leave until the Lord woke up as there was another matter they had to discuss with him. Particularly, it was related to Bob's storyline.
Thinking about these things, Ran soon reached the infirmary where he found the group, minus Fluffy, surrounding the Lord's sleeping body.
The group actually didn't have much to do so when they weren't outside or meditating, they just saddled themselves to Queenie, like now. They just stood there, watching, as Queenie cared for her father; only at times like this would her cold exterior melt.
"How's the Lord doing," Ran asked, seeing Queenie carefully clean his body with a rag.
Queenie smiled in response, "my father is recovering, thankfully. An attendant said he should wake up within a few days."
Queenie herself had tried to investigate her father's situation, but fortunately found his body beginning to naturally reject the foreign soul juice, meaning he was indeed healing.
…
Soon after, the group prepared to leave the infirmary. They had decided to rest for a bit before resuming their discussion.
However, right when they were going to open the double doors, a particular servant had just so happened to have just entered the infirmary.
He had been rushing, but was experienced enough to stop himself before he would collide into the group.
His disposition was seemingly fragile at the moment as he was pale and sweating and his condition visibly worsened the moment he saw Queenie. Worse still, when he saw his Lord in the situation he was in, the servant directly flopped onto the ground, his face grimaced.
Queenie, on the other hand, recognized this servant somewhat. Of course, he was a nobody, but she recognized that he was from a very special place in the palace. He was from the palace's communications room.
Unlike Ran's communication stone, if the palace wanted to know what was happening at the edge of its city, then with their current understanding of runes, they would have to create a physical connection between the palace and the edge of the city.
Indeed, they had so-called runic "landlines" that were connected underground from the palace to the many nodes at the edge of the city.
Thinking of this, Queenie couldn't help but get a bad feeling at the bottom of her stomach; could something have happened?
To find out, she picked up the servant by his clothing, giving him a shake while she was at it.
"Hey, snap out of it! For what purpose did you come in here?"
Under the Queenie's questioning, the servant finally snapped out of his own head, responding in a rather mute tone.
"Squirrels…"
Queenie did not quite hear that so she pushed for him to say it louder.
"Mistress, it's the squirrels… the Snow Wood squirrels are invading!"
Thud.
Letting go of the servant due to sheer shock, his head hit the floor first, causing him to go unconscious.