“You’re the leader of the Raven’s Guild?” Lakshman asked, looking amazed with his eyes widened a little.

“Correct, hero,” replied Ram with a small smile on his face.

His small statement made Lakshman narrow his eyes in an instant and reply, “Please don’t add ‘hero’ at the end of your sentences. I don’t like the way you say it.”

“Sorry,” apologised Ram, “but I don’t hold such a high regard for heroes.”

The Solaris Hero was surprised and asked, “Did we do something to bring you harm? If it’s about your colleague that was arrested, he’s fine but serving his sentence in prison.”

This actually made Ram chuckle and shake his head before saying, “No. It’s not that.” Then he hesitated as he appeared to think about something before saying, “Well, come outside and see what I mean.”

Nodding in return, Lakshman deactivated his healing magic and after checking that he had healed himself sufficiently enough, he rose to his feet and followed Ram out of the house. The tall man and the shorter man followed after them while Aimi stayed at home and watched them go with an apprehensive look on her face.

Ram opened the door and walked out first, and Lakshman walked out behind him to become surprised by finding out where he was. He appeared to be standing in a place near the partially destroyed area of a city, which he had fought the aliens in a few weeks ago after being summoned to this world.

“What?” He asked, glancing around in surprise at the familiar surroundings, remembering the semi-destruction that had occurred in that city. Feeling confused, he hesitantly asked, “Is this…?”

“This is the city that got nearly destroyed a while ago when the aliens attacked a few weeks ago,” explained Ram, spreading his arm at the scenery surrounding them. “Since then, it’s been like this while the workers slowly bring in the materials for when the government finally decides to begin reconstruction of this place.”

“Wait. What?” Lakshman asked, looking at the surroundings and then at Ram in shock. “What do you mean ‘when the government finally decides to begin reconstruction’? Are you saying there’s been no progress since then?” When Ram shook his head, the king from another world was shocked and asked, “And the people? Where have they been living in?”

“In what was left of their homes or built makeshift homes for them to temporarily live in,” stated Ram, looking a little sad when he spoke, “which, I must admit, aren’t exactly safe to live in.”

Lakshman stared at him with his mouth hanging in astonishment before asking, “Seriously? They couldn’t think of leaving this place for the capital?”

His statement was greeted by a sudden laughter from both the tall man and the shorter man as if what he spoke was funny to them. Even Ram cracked a grin, but Lakshman could see that the same was not shared in his eyes as they felt cold and unhappy.

“Sir, this city doesn’t hold any importance with the government,” said the taller man, emphasising the last two words he spoke with a sad smile.

“Yeah. The big shots don’t want us coming near them,” added the shorter man with a shrug of his shoulders.

Lakshman stared at them in confusion while Ram said, “Let’s tour the place, and you’ll find out. Follow me.”

He led the way through the area that was not destroyed. It appeared that the inhabitable part of the city was fine as they saw kids playing around happily while the adults went about their daily business. However, things changed when they stepped out in the part where much of the destruction occurred at. A lot of buildings had lost their sides or roofs, where it appeared as though the people were doing their best to survive in while there were small makeshift buildings that were made to house the families in until their homes got repaired.

“The good thing is that it won’t rain, and the only thing to worry about is the heat from the sun,” remarked the taller man in a bright voice.

Lakshman did not say anything because he was overwhelmed with shock and horror at the living circumstances the people were living in. As they passed, several people noticed them and waved at them with grins on their faces, not showing the slightest pain or sadness on their faces about their current lifestyle.

“Ram! How are you?” Called an elderly woman, and they walked over to her.

“I’m faring well, ma’am. How about you? Is your water supply working properly?” Ram asked politely with a smile.

“Ah…! It’s working great thanks to you young lads working so hard for us!” She replied happily, extending her aged hand and placing it gently on his cheek. “You’re doing us all a wonderful job, Ram.”

Ram grinned broadly and said, “Gosh, you embarrass me, ma’am.” Then, as they were leaving, he said to her, “If anything troublesome happens, let me know soon. Okay?”

“Sure thing, dear,” she replied, and waved at them as they went on their tour of the place.

Once they were going, Ram turned to Lakshman and asked him, “Well, what do you think of the place? I think we’re doing okay, right?”

Lakshman nodded distractedly and said, “I can’t believe this. What are the government doing, leaving this place and not doing anything to repair this place back to the way it was?” When he noticed the looks on their faces, he faced them with a firm expression and said, “I saw them quickly go into repairing the damaged properties during the attack the aliens launched directly on the capital!”

“Yes, well, Lucky, there’s the problem with priority because it leaves out the rest,” said Ram in a sad voice.

His statement made the Solaris Hero narrow his eyes in seriousness and turn to the taller man, asking him, “You said that this city holds no priority to the government. Why is that? Don’t the government have the responsibility of taking care of all cities around the world since you all have one king, two princes’ and a princess to rule over you.”

“Yeah, about that,” began the taller man, looking a little sad. “When I said our city lacks priority, I meant what I said.”

When Lakshman continued to look confused, Ram finally understood and explained, “This city comprises of all low-class civilians, Lucky.”

“Low class?” Lakshman asked, looking surprised. “By low class you mean poor right?”

“That’s right,” agreed the leader of the Raven’s Guild with a nod of his head. “There’s a system in the government where the priority of tasks is governed by a program, and in that system, our city that is full of poor people is not of great importance since they prioritise repairing damages done to capitals or places of great importance.”

When he finished, the king from another world looked at him with a disbelieving look on his face and began to ask, “How do you—?”

“I know because I found out when I was released from my 200 years of confinement and been granted the minimal citizenship rights along with a poorly installed M.E.D,” replied Ram, smiling sardonically as he glanced at the device attached to his wrist. “It’s an old model and requires me to pay to have it upgraded, and I don’t have much of a choice since the resources that the government produces don’t support older generation of the M.E.D.”

Lakshman stared at him in shock and said, “That is… extortion.”

“It is,” nodded Ram sadly in agreement, “and it’s only getting worse because the repairs finally began here.”

His words made the Solaris Hero raise an eyebrow in amusement and asked, “How is that bad? It’s good that they finally come to repair the damages and bring this place back to the way it was.”

Ram chuckled while the taller man shook his head and said, “Sir, you misunderstand the leader’s words.”

“Yeah. He’s being sarcastic,” the shorter man said, glancing sideways at Ram curiously.

“Since when did you two start understanding my way of talking?” Ram asked, looking amazed.

“Sir, we’ve been with you for more then five years. In this time that we’ve been together, do you think we missed any part of you ever since you started the organisation?” The taller man asked, and Ram had to nod in agreement.

“Good point,” admitted Ram with a smile. Then he turned to Lakshman and said, “No, Lucky. It’s not a good thing because they only brought supervisors and the materials and are making us build for them to save labour costs and resources that could be utilised elsewhere.”

Lakshman was rendered speechless upon hearing such words about the cruelty that was being exhibited on the poor. In his home world, there was the oppression on the weak despite the valiant efforts of Felix Phoron, who was the previous Phoenix Emperor at that time. After that, the oppression of the nobles abusing their power, engaging in salve trading, and extorting money from others was finally put a stop when Lakshman became king and abolished the slavery system.

He was spurred on to commit those acts because of the pain he felt when he saw the slaves being abused, and even had a fateful encounter with his wife, Emilia, who was once a slave and had to survive being trade from master to master, who would make her experience terrible things. So, he was pleased when he finally put a stop to all of that, but now, seeing something similar being repeated in this world made him feel very shocked.

For a while, they walked in silence as they continued touring the place until they came upon the construction place, where the workers were apparently taking a break. Ram was explaining about the different parts of the construction, but Lakshman was not listening as he was disheartened and feeling upset by the people he once supported.

It was then when he caught a glimpse of something and looked in that direction to find a man, a woman, and their companions sitting together. In an instant, his memory jogged back to the time when he first got summoned to this world, and his body reacted automatically by making him run towards them as fast as he could. His action shocked Ram, the taller man, and the shorter man because they did not understand what he was doing.

He raced to the spot the small group of people sat at and caused dust in the ground to rise up and surround them. They group of men and women looked up at him apprehensively, alarmed by his sudden appearance and sneezed a few times due to the risen dust around them.

“Hi!” Lakshman greeted them excitedly with a big smile on his face.

“Um…?” The woman asked, being the first to recover and plucking up courage to speak. “Who are you?”

“Don’t you remember me?” Lakshman asked, undeterred by them not immediately recognising him. When she and her companions looked confused, he went on to elaborate, “You know the time when some men were assaulting you, a stranger came in and beat them up? Then you later took that unconscious man away to your shelter and wrapped his injuries with white tape before he let himself out of that shelter?”

In an instant, the woman, the man, and another of her companion recognised him as the man that had saved their lives. The rest of their companions looked on in confusion as they did not know what he was talking about.

“It’s you!” The man asked, quickly rising to his feet while his female and another male companion rose to their feet.

“Man! Where have you been?” The second man asked, sounding relieved as he smiled at him.

As Lakshman smiled at him and asked them how they were, Ram and the two other men caught up with them. When they saw him, they shifted their attention to him and greeted him in a friendly manner.

“Do you know them?” Ram asked Lakshman curiously, smiling at the small group that had risen to greet him.

Lakshman nodded and indicated the three people he recognised as he replied, “Yeah. These three saved my life when I first got to this world.”

“Really?” Ram asked, looking amazed while the three strangers that saved Lakshman looked confused.

“What do you mean?” The second man asked, looking puzzled.

“Yeah. I’m confused,” admitted the first man, looking quizzically at Lakshman. “What do you mean when you first came into this world?”

Ram chuckled at their apparent confusion and explained, “Of course you’d be confused. He’s the hero that Princess Erza summoned, or to be exact, he is the Solaris Hero.”

As soon as he announced who Lakshman was, a ripple of surprise, astonishment, and shock went through the people there.

Everyone stared at him in shock and seemed momentarily frozen on the spot, including the small group of people that Lakshman was speaking with. A moment later, the three people snapped out of it to look at him with great happiness.

“Oh wow!” The woman said, clapping her hands to her cheek and looking amazed.

“Oh man! You’re a hero?!” The second man asked, looking disbelievingly at him but he still smiled the same.

The first man, who apparently had more sense than the two, said with a smile, “Now it makes sense how you got out of the shelter! You’re a summoned hero!” Then he laughed and said, “Who would’ve thought we would’ve been saved by the hero that we ended up saving in return!”

While they were happy, everyone else however were not so happy to find out that this stranger was actually a hero. It made many distance themselves from him out of fear for their lives. They feared the government and any official that came from them, and so it made their fear of him just grow that much stronger, causing them to instantly put up an invisible wall and back away with fear for their life.

Lakshman did see them, but he was distracted by the cheerfulness of the people in front of him. A while later, they heard the sound of a whistle which meant that the supervisors had returned and were ordering all of them back to work. And so, Lakshman bid farewell to the three people before quickly walking away with Ram and the two other men.

“Oh!” He said, suddenly realising something he had forgotten to do. “I didn’t get their names.”

“It’s okay,” replied Ram with a smile. “They live here so you can talk to them later on.”

“Yeah,” said Lakshman, looking over his shoulder once they reached a safe vantage point to see from.

He could see that the workers were carrying the materials from the dump point to the designated places around the site. Often, he could see them glance at him with fearful expressions on their faces, making him feel a little sad at the scar that the government had carved into them. Unable to do anything for the moment, he left the place to follow behind Ram as they returned to his home.