Meanwhile, in Winterseed, everyone woke to shocking news!


    It was morning, and the vige was busy as usual, but no one left for their farms. They all rushed toward Rowan''s ce with surprised expressions on their faces. The streets were filled with vigers hurrying toward the same location from different parts of the vige.


    A group of men and women could be seen hurrying along. The men, mostly elderly, looked among themselves, disbelief disyed in their gazes.


    "This can''t be true!" one of them eximed in disbelief to the men walking beside him.


    "I think the same. I can''t believe this at all. We have all set our hearts on the fact that he is dead! But now he is back? How is that even possible?" anothermented with disbelief as well.


    "I need to go see for myself if what they said is true," another added.


    "What if Lord Dragun decides to take back the leadership from Lord Rowan? Which side will you be on?" one of them asked, causing silence among the group.


    "Let us just hurry to see for ourselves before jumping to conclusions."


    With that, the group of elderly men, just like every other group, continued down to their lord''s house.


    After a few minutes of walking, the group of elderly men finally arrived at their destination but were shocked to see a lot of people gathered, crowding and blocking their views. The men filtered their way through the crowd and found themselves in the front row.


    Meanwhile, while everyone gathered outside to see the face of Dragun, inside, Dragun was speaking to Brandon and Ri.


    The room was filled with a tense atmosphere at that moment.


    A middle-aged Dragun with a huge and muscr build looked at Brandon and Ri with a calm smile on his face. His shoulder-length ck hair fluttered gently as the morning breeze blew, and his blue eyes focused on the two people in front of him.


    Nevertheless, this new clean look was a miraculous change from his ragged appearance yesterday when the soldiers brought him in—he was covered in dust, mud, and leaves, which left him stinking harshly. If it wasn''t for the intervention of Brandonst night, he would have remained the same.


    "Why did you return?" Brandon suddenly asked, a deep frown on his face.


    Beside him, Ri stood and observed the face of Dragun, the man who had taken her in and cared for her for years, then suddenly disappeared, leaving the vige in chaos. At this moment, she didn''t know how to feel. Hate him or ept him back? The decision was difficult.


    Dragun chuckled at the question tossed at him. "Why shouldn''t I return?"


    But Brandon scoffed. "You have the guts to feel so neutral and positive after leaving the vige and everyone in it to suffer? Because of your reckless actions, we became ves and targets to every other vige surrounding us. So many innocent men died trying to clean up your mess while others almost died of starvation.


    There is so much more damage your reckless actions have done to the vige, so much I can''t even list it all!"


    Brandonined even more without holding back. He used to be friends with Dragun before he suddenly disappeared. Two months after Dragun disappeared, his friendship with him ended as he realized Dragun had left a mess no one could clean up—at least, till Rowan showed up and miraculously took care of it.


    The vige was finally getting better and peaceful, and then the deserter of a vige head suddenly returned! For what!?


    Dragun could only listen to theints of Brandon with the usual calm smile on his face.


    "I will exin why I left to my son when he returns. For now, I will go greet my people outside," he said.


    "Your people?" Brandon asked, squinting.


    "What? Aren''t they my people anymore?"


    "The people you left to suffer and die because of your recklessness and irresponsibility?" Brandon queried with a re.


    "Irresponsible? Reckless? Hahaha. I might have left you people without warning but I am neither of those." Dragun replied with the same smile on his face.


    Brandon observed Dragun and shook his head, refusing to utter any word. He only shook his head and walked out of the room with a deep frown, leaving only Dragun and Ri.


    Dragun  turned to Ri, "Ri, you have grown so much since Ist saw you."


    But she kept looking at him without responding.


    Dragun could only sigh. "Why is everyone acting so strange?" he grumbled as he made his way outside.


    The crowd outside was restless and rowdy, their whispers and grumbles of disbelief creating a noise across the area.


    As they watched on, they saw a huge figure step out of the house with a smile on his face as he waved at them.


    Instantly, their eyes widened and their jaws dropped—it was really Dragun!


    "He is really alive!"


    "How is this possible?"


    Some expressed their surprise.


    "Why is he back after leaving us to rot?"


    "Why did he find the special milk only after Lord Rowan seeded in taking care of his mess?"


    "Leave!!"


    Others expressed their hatred and disgust without holding back.


    Very soon, the whole ce was covered in chaotic noise.


    The elderly were both shocked and disgusted at the presence of their irresponsible former vige head. The youth were disgusted at him while the young children only observed him with curiosity—they all knew about the tales of Dragun Winterseed, the lost Lord, but had never seen him before.


    Brandon stood at a corner in the crowd and observed the chaos building up against Dragun. He turned to observe the expression on his face.


    Behold, Dragun still had the same calm smile on as his eyes darted from one face to another.


    "Why is he still smiling?" Brandon gritted his teeth.


    On the other hand, Dragun waved at the people once more before speaking, "It is good to see you all after such a long, stressful time."


    His words fell on the crowd, and they quickly picked them up and threw them back at him, hatefully.


    "It is not good to see you!"


    "You are not wee at all!"


    "Go back to the forest where you belong! Who knows what you''ve been up to? Probably impregnating some innocent monkeys!"


    "Why are you still standing? Leave!"


    "Lord Rowan is a far better leader than you will ever be!"


    At this moment, none of them held back, and it made Brandon smile. ''Yes, show him how much of a loser and irresponsible bastard he is!'' he thought.


    Even with all the harshments from the people, Dragun''s smile still didn''t wear off; instead, it became brighter and brighter as the noise increased.


    He continued to strike up conversations with the people even though none of them paid attention to his words. Once he noticed their noise reducing, he would try to speak, resulting in even more aggressive uproars, but those didn''t even seem to break his smile.


    His unbreaking smile made Brandon and the others wonder if he had suddenly developed some sort of psychological problem or if he had hit his head against a wall before arriving.


    Dragun observed the rioting crowd for a few more seconds before heaving a loud sigh and muttering to himself, "If only they knew the hell I went through in my six years away from the vige."


    He gave them one more nonchnt wave before proceeding inside the house with a calm expression on his face. The smile on his face disappeared the moment he was out of sight, reced by a contemtive expression.


    Brandon observed the back of Dragun for a few seconds before leaving the area with a group of twenty soldiers to the vige square as usual, to prepare for the distribution of food for the day.


    ---


    After releasing all their pent-up anger and stress, the vigers left and returned to their various workces. None of them had a single strand of forgiveness in their hearts, as they couldn''t ept Dragun after all he had done.


    Ri left as well. She gathered thedies learning tailoring under her, and they headed to the vige square where they had been holding their daily sses for the past three days.


    In the past two days, more than ten out of the thirtydies learning under her had finally grasped the basics of tailoring and be efficient in it. For those who had already mastered the basics, their sewing speed became faster as well as their creativity.


    Ri also gained her advantages as well from teaching—first off, her timidity began lessening the more she conversed with others, and her tailoring skills and creativity also improved.


    Aside from those, her reputation in the vige also improved, and most of the youngdies began to see her as a role model.


    Ri was excited with the positive changes happening around her, it made her want to help more around the vige and be useful to Rowan.


    ....


    CHECK AUTHOR NOTE!