The group returned to the royal city amid crowds lining the streets, with Vivian and Lily walking at the very front. In the eyes of the Ark's people, they had practically become gods—or at least transcendent beings of a similar kind. In this "world" ruled by superstition and ignorance, controlling people's hearts through religion was incredibly easy. All it took was a little intimidation and a few supernatural phenomena. Vivian was very familiar with this.
Lily walked stiffly beside Vivian, occasionally trying to hide behind Hao Ren. At first, she had joined in purely for fun, but things had developed far beyond her expectations. "Wow... This is way too lively, isn't it?"
"You'd get used to it if you'd lived through the Mythical Era," Vivian said softly with a smile. "The older the era, the more reverence people had for all things. Seven thousand years ago, I only had to conjure a few small flames to intimidate an entire tribe. To me, this place isn't much different from Earth back then."
What followed could almost be described as complete chaos. Although Hao Ren's side had been the one to push things to this point, the reactions of the locals, spurred on by both superstition and excitement, were still difficult to get used to. Hao Ren met the king of the High Tower Kingdom—a tall, broad-shouldered, dark-skinned middle-aged man—then met the scholar groups from the other three kingdoms. He also had to lead the old man around to greet the nobles and dignitaries in the royal city, while he and Vivian racked their brains to improvise a crude myth to fob off the scholars' and king's endless questions. The one thing he was grateful for was that the "Ice Witch" commanded absolute authority in their eyes. Thus, no matter how many