Lakshman first teleported to Alestor’s room using Phoenix Portal, who pretended not to see him appear. Then he flew out through the window and reached a height that made sure he would not get captured by any surveillance. After that, he proceeded to head towards an alleyway on the map marked by the older man regarding a safe spot for him.

Arriving at the scene, he could see the location was far away from the bustling streets and could be called as abandoned. So, he lowered himself to the ground and placed his hand down before activating his magic spell to mark the spot as a teleportation zone, travelling between here and a place in the city he had just came from.

“Activate,” he muttered the marking was completed.

In an instant, the magic circle glowed before several people wearing hooded robes and masks covering their faces appeared. Lakshman smiled at the success of his teleportation zone working like he intended it to.

“This is amazing, sir,” the members said, sounding surprised as they realised where they were.

Lakshman nodded and said, “Okay. Like I told you earlier, split up into three groups, with one group heading to the hospitals, the second focusing on the offices for heroes, and the third go and gather food supplies to bring back.”

“Yes, sir,” they replied in unison.

Then a masked person raised a question, “But, we can only bring so much with just us.”

“We should make several trips back and forth to send these, having someone stay here and work on transporting them back and forth while also acting as a guard,” someone else responded coolly.

“Oh. Sounds good,” the one that raised the question nodded in understanding.

“Alright. Good luck, all of you,” said Lakshman, addressing them with a smile. “Make sure to stay safe and cautious.”

“We will, sir,” they replied, and Lakshman left them to it.

He kicked off the ground and flew into the air while activating Hidden and Silence around himself to ensure he would not be seen as he flew above everyone else as he headed to the rest of the other abandoned alleyways to mark them with the magic to make them into a teleportation zone. Once he was done, he activated the Phoenix Portal and returned back to the house belonging to the leader of the Raven’s Guild.

Ever since moving the city, Lakshman had taken to staying at their residence and stated that he was willing to pay them as rent for letting him stay. He had discovered that he had been carrying the card that he received from the capital a while ago that held all of his reward money that he had received for restoring the part of the capital that was destroyed in the recent alien attack.

When he offered it to them, Ram and Aimi were shocked by the very thought and adamantly refused, stating that he was doing them a great deal of favour by helping them improve their social standings and the world around them despite Lakshman insisting to wanting to pay.

“While money is a concern,” said Ram with a sad smile, “I don’t want to lower our standards and accept your money after everything you’re doing for us.”

“That’s right!” Aimi said in support of her husband. “It might be a difficult life, but if we accept your money for payment for staying at our place, then I feel we’re doing you a disservice and that’s something we don’t want to have to think about.”

Lakshman was a little taken aback by their strong stance, but he eventually gave up and shrugged his shoulders while pocketing the card. Still, he told them if they ever needed any kind of financial help, then they are free to ask him since he had a large sum of reward money to use up.

“I think you should hold that money and spend it on something useful, Lucky,” Aimi advised him thoughtfully. “Items like accessories, tools, or gifts that you want to present to someone as an expression of your gratitude towards them.”

“Okay,” said Lakshman, accepting the advice and nodding in agreement.

After that, he proceeded to split himself into several copies of himself using Doppler spell and heading to different places to get water supply going. Luckily for him, the water piping system became visible when the pipes rose to the surface after breaking apart from him moving the entire city. At each pipe, he marked the place with water magic and activated it, causing water to flood through the tubes and begin supplying everyone with water.

“That takes care of that,” he said with a satisfied smile on his face.

In his mind, he heard Asura comment, “It sure feels easier for some reason after we mastered the ways of the Voiceless Incantation.”

“You’re right,” admitted Lakshman inside his mind, realising his past self was telling the truth

Ever since he began to use the magic spells without the need to say them out loud, he felt he had been quicker in doing things than before. This made him question why he had neglected mastering it up until Asura had decided to bring up the topic not too long ago and then spend many days inside his mind training while only a few hours passed in reality.

“It was good that we trained when we did because of our current situation,” thought Lakshman, feeling glad that their training paid off. “Although, saying the spell names out loud all the time shouldn’t be that bad, right?”

“If you want to sound like someone with a strange syndrome, then that’s your choice,” replied the voice of the fairy that also inhabited in his mind.

“Really,” Lakshman asked, sounding confused, “because, in my world, shouting magic techniques out loud is quite common. Of course, there are those rare individuals that bypass it all and rely solely on Voiceless Incantation.”

His words surprised her, and he heard her say, “Wow? Really? Just how old is your world?”

As he laughed, an old woman slowly came up to him and asked, “Boy, are you the one doing all of this?” and she gestured at the other copies of him that were moving around establishing water supply to other parts of the city.

“Yes, madam,” he replied with a smile. “Are you getting the water? Is it alright? Do you want any modifications?”

She shook her head and said, “No, dear. I’m just here to make sure you aren’t overstressing yourself by doing all of this.”

To her statement, he lowered himself because of her being very short and said softly, “It’s okay, madam. So long as you are happy with this, then that satisfies me and doesn’t tire me at all.”

“Ah,” she said, looking serenely at him. “So young, so brave, you are a great person, kid.”

He chuckled and thanked the old woman, who smiled at him and turned back to walk away. Now that he had stopped speaking to the people inside his mind, he realised people were watching him and his copies closely. He noticed that much of their expressions were filled with astonishment and wonderment at the feat he was capable of performing.

“With this, you’re going to become famous,” remarked the God of Energy inside his mind.

Lakshman chuckled and thought, “If, by the end of it all, everyone lives in peace, then I achieved my goal. That’s all that matters, not about me becoming famous or anything, Engraut.”

His statement made the God of Energy chuckle and state, “Only someone as pure hearted and strong willed as you would say that, Lakshman. That makes you a better man than Asura.”

“Says the guy who spies on people and stalks others,” retorted Asura coldly and caused Engraut to chuckle.

As the Solaris Hero smiled, he suddenly heard running footsteps from behind, and he turned to see Ram rushing towards him. He came to a stop in front of him and bent down a little to catch his breath after running all the way there from his house, which was located quite a distance away.

“Why’re you in such a hurry, Ram?” I asked curiously.

“The boys… they returned…” said Ram, gasping for breath.

“They did? Already?” Lakshman asked, looking amazed. “Did they get everything they need already?”

Ram shook his head and straightened up while heaving a huge breath to steady his rapid breathing.

“No, but they got very important information on the alien!”

As soon as he said those words, Lakshman instantly became serious and said, “Right! Let’s go!”

And so, the two of them hurried away to Ram’s home where the men were waiting.

[ ======= ]

While that was happening, the alien was slowly making his move at the castle by slowly putting the occupants under his mind control. None of them were useful to him, however, he still needed them to get information about anything in relation to some kind of secret that the royal family was hiding anything from the public.

“Damn! This is proving to be more difficult than expected!” The alien said, feeling frustrated with each failure.

Since Lakshman was no longer there to stop him in any way, the alien used his mind control magic to put more people into being his mind slaves. With them, he slowly began to push them together asking each other, their neighbour, and even a person they had never met before regarding anything the royal family was hiding to no avail.

So, with no other alternative, he began to mind control those in the castle to see if they have any information. Finally, to his delight, the close attendant to the king knew something about it, but even he did not know everything.

“Apparently, the king’s wife died of a great illness that destroyed her body because of the unusual ability she possessed,” the man said to the alien, his face as stiff as a board.

“Ability?” The alien asked, narrowing his eyes and looking quizzically at him. “Explain.”

The man nodded and said, “Yes. It’s an ability called Foresight, and it allowed her to predict many things in the future.”

This startled the alien, and made his eyes widen as he exclaimed, “You mean the ability to prophesy the future?” When the man nodded with an emotionless face, the alien looked shocked and muttered, “So, the humans also had an oracle on their side.” Her turned back to the human and demanded, “Tell me more! What else do you know about her and the oracle?”

There was a moment of silence before the man shook his head and said flatly, “I don’t know.”

To that, the alien clicked his tongue in annoyance and waved his hand, dismissing the man and making him go about his daily business. From there, he began to slowly move around the castle asking everyone whatever they knew as it became evident that the secret that they were hiding lurked within the castle walls. Most of them having information similar to that other human left the alien feeling frustrated.

He felt he was very close to uncovering the mystery that which would grant his master the power he wants to become the ultimate. However, try as he might but the results of his search left him unable to proceed any further. That was when the most unexpected person came into view and made him turn to him.

“Hey, Mike,” said Santa, who was strolling the corridors, and he appeared to be alone without his escorts.

“Oh. Hello, sir,” the alien replied, trying hard to control his desire to ignore this human and continue his search. “Where are your escorts, sir?”

“Oh? Them?” Santa replied, and he rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “I told them to stop following me around because I didn’t feel comfortable while being in their presence. So, I ditched them and came out for a walk.”

“What’s up? You look concerned about something?” The second prince asked curiously. “Is there something you need help with?”

When he posed that question to him, the alien momentarily wondered whether it was a good idea to put this human under his mind control like he had done to so many others. Each time he used his mind control on someone and released them, it left the victim in a state of shock and make them unable to function properly for a while. Yet, he never cared about any of that as he went on mercilessly trying to get the information he needed.

Yet, when he was faced with the thought of having to use it on Santa, he hesitated. He could not explain what it was that made him feel reluctant to use it on that person.

“Was it because he viewed me very highly compared to how badly I was treated back at home?” The alien wondered curiously. “Was it because I received better treatment here than with my own people? Could that be it, that I’m feeling sympathy and compassion for this human?”

He finally understood the feelings that were stopping him from invoking the mind control magic on the second prince. However, the alien had his priorities and knew the first and foremost to whom his loyalty to was always for his master, the Overlord. So, with that in mind, the alien finally decided on what he must do.

Raising his hand up, he aimed it at the Santa, who looked surprised and asked, “What is it?”

“Sorry,” said the alien and activated his magic with a sad look on his face.

In an instant, the second prince’s eyes widened to the maximum as the magic took effect, shocking his entire body. A moment later, the eyes returned to normal and stared at the alien with a blank look on his face. Now he was a obedient puppet waiting for his master to issue him orders to perform.

The alien glanced at him once before turning away and asking, “So, do you know anything about the oracle that your mother left behind?”

For some reason, he was hoping that the second prince would reply, “No,” to it just to spare him from the prolonged effects of the mind control. However, reality was much cruller as Santa proceeded to nod and say in a flat voice, “Yes.”

“This clinched it,” the alien thought, accepting the situation and turning to face him with a cold heart that he possessed to ignore all and everything for the sake of his mission. So, he looked at the second prince’s blank face and demanded, “Tell me everything you know.”