Chapter 3984: Outlaws (Part 1)

Rem used Lith’s Mimicast spell to amplify the vibrations produced by her body and spread them through the air.

The homecoming song reached the Desert Heart, resonating with its petals. They carried the notes of the melody to the hollow space at the center of the stone flower, where they reverberated into countless overlapping echoes.

Then, the homecoming song reached Zhur, transmitting a strong sense of peace and belonging that he further amplified before it returned to Rem, and from her it spread to the rest of the audience.

The members of the Verhen, Fastarrow, and Ernas families belonged to different races and possessed different physiologies, but the emotions carried by the homecoming song touched their hearts no less than the merfolk’s.

Raaz closed his eyes, and the vision of the small wooden house of his parents appeared in front of him. He recalled the day Elina had moved in with them, making it her home as well.

Then came the memory of the death of Raaz’s parents. The house had become emptier and colder, filled with painful memories from which the poor, young couple couldn’t escape.

Then, Elina gave birth to the twins. The two newborns brought life and light, making the small wooden house a home again. Each child Elina gave Raaz made the house warmer and more beautiful until it rivalled the Royal palace.

Raaz’s ancestral home had changed so much over the years that nothing of its original materials remained. Still, he could now see its original, run-down wooden form beating like a living heart inside the beautiful stone cottage that had replaced it.

Protector watched the shadow of the Trawn Woods, his home as a wolf and a Ry, be replaced by Selia. As for the huntress, she didn’t see the old shack where she had taught Lith how to skin and butcher his prey.

She was suddenly back into the first cottage Ryman had built for her and Lilia deep in the Trawn woods. That was her first home. A place where she wanted to be. Where she was loved for who she was, not for what she provided to the citizens of Lutia.

The others experienced similar visions.

Menadion found herself in the old house in the Trawn Woods that she had shared with Threin. Lith and Solus returned to the old Verhen house as well, but theirs was the version Lith had found upon his rebirth.

Orion, Jirni, Friya, and Quylla saw the majestic walls of the Ernas Household, and then the vision moved to their respective rooms. Only Orion had been born there, yet it was the only home the various members of the Ernas family knew.

Even to those who had lived in more than one house, the Ernas Household was the only place where they belonged.

Lith felt an insistent tear mist his eyes and blinked several times to push it back. It was then that he noticed it. Salaark stood with her hands covering her ears, conjuring a Hush spell around the children as she gave him an apologetic shrug.

It was then that the homecoming song reached the mismatched bunch of buildings that was the merfolk village. The stone tents turned the song into a shrill shriek, the tall houses into honks, and the large villas into frenzied bangs.

The pandemonium shattered the visions and brought the crowd to their knees. Everyone felt like a drill was piercing through their brains, and begged the gods to make that agony stop.

Salaark obliged, Hushing the Desert Heart and putting an end to the homecoming song.

"The houses, you moron!" Rem jumped back to her feet in outrage. "How could you forget to fix the houses? Now the welcome ceremony is ruined!"

"I thought you had taken care of that." Zhur tried to deflect the blame.

"Do I look like a builder?" She snorted. "Besides, I had to look after our guests and help you Songsters with the Desert Heart. I wouldn’t have had the time to remodel a single house even if I wanted to!"

"What’s the point of assigning blame?" Salaark asked. "In your shoes, I’d focus on fixing the problem. Merfolk are experts at earth magic. You don’t need to raze your old houses to the ground and build them from scratch.

"Just alter them according to what you have learned while crafting the Desert Heart, and everything will be fine."

The merfolk bowed like frenzied parrots to the Overlord and their guests, ashamed of offering such a spectacle.

To make things as fast and painless as possible, the Songsters reshaped all the buildings in the Starry Lagoon village according to the current form of the Starforge tower. Some were taller, others larger, and all of them had different plants in their gardens.

Yet they looked similar enough to give the village an orderly and pleasant appearance, making Salaark sniffle.

’Finally, I don’t have to endure that architectural abomination any longer!’ She inwardly thought. ’I didn’t think this might happen when I chose the shape for Lith’s tower, but I’m glad I did.’

"I’m really sorry." Rem bowed to her guests, who were still recovering from the shock. "Please, give us another chance."

"Don’t worry, Rem." Lith said. "Accidents happen. I’m just surprised you didn’t notice the discord between the Desert Heart and the houses during the rehearsal of the ceremony."

Rem’s and Zhur’s eyes widened as hindsight struck them like a punch to the gut.

"That’s because we didn’t make one." Zhur scratched his neck in embarrassment. "Once more without speeches, Rem."

The representative sang the homecoming song from the beginning. When it reached the village, its beauty was further amplified, and the visions it conjured became so vivid that Lith could almost touch the desk in the old room he had built with his first earnings as a Healer.

Almost.

Screams and yells broke the illusion before his hand reached the cheap wood, while the booming sound of a small storm filled the air.

"Seriously?" Rem’s eyes snapped open in fury. "What did you forget this time?"

"Nothing!" Zhur was just as outraged. "I checked the buildings myself. I-"

As everyone turned around, they noticed that the merfolk houses weren’t the source of the noise.

A ragged group of people was running for their lives towards the Starry Lagoon village, crying for help. They were covered in blood and sand, carrying nothing with them but their clothes and those too young or old to keep the pace.

Behind them came a large group of people riding beasts similar to horses, and dressed in yellow robes that made them almost invisible in the sand cloud raised by their steed’s hooves.

The riders killed the stragglers if they were old or ugly and captured them if they were young or good-looking. They lifted their prey with one hand and stowed them on the back of their steeds before turning around and running back in the direction they had come.

The merfolk were flabbergasted, and so was everyone else. Even Solus didn’t move a muscle. Lith looked at Salaark, expecting her to burst into flames of fury and rain justice upon those who dared break her law in front of her, yet she remained still.

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