Ranarge, having just gone through all the entrance and exit requests that had been administered from yesterday until now and then having created a consolidated report, got up to get something to fill his stomach with. Lunchtime had passed without him even knowing as he had been trying to finish the report.

He got up while mentally ordering the system to send the report. A flash of light and a slight sound indicated that a report had been sent but as he was about to exit his office, an alert stopped him.

"Shit, what is it now?" A frown grew on his face but he turned back nonetheless.

Unless an exception occurred, the artificial spirits were usually able to handle most of the tasks related to the entrance and exit authorization. Having been implemented hundreds of cycles ago and having been constantly improved, exceptions were so rare that had never encountered them during his service.

The holograph expanded in size following his command and he thanked God that he had returned as he gazed at the two names highlighted on the holograph.

Inero-ie

Cile Etrost Mus-Draik

The first one should have been transferred to the capital and with his temperament, he had no reason to return. Then there was the other name, someone who had not once stepped foot inside this settlement before but the name attached at the end would make that problem disappear. Not even the masters of this settlement could do anything.

What he worried about was that the Seeker was no longer here this time. If they found that Inero-ie was here and in her absence, they will surely try to get rid of him not that they finally had the chance, completing the work that had remained incomplete for tens of cycles.

The cogs in Ranarge’s mind spun and he called two of his subordinates, both of them indebted to the Seeker just like he himself was.

“Sir?”

The holograms had been turned off for the moment, the less who knew about it the better.

“This needs to be sent to the Seeker Fria-al and this to the Lord Representative.”

“I can have it sent to the Lord Representative, my kid is working there,” One of his subordinates said to which Ranarge nodded, giving his the data stone encrypted with the information.

“Deliver it as soon as possible.”

“Yes.”

“Head to the teleportation station and have them forward this message urgently,” Ranarge said to the other man while handing him the other data stone.

With those things handled, Ranarge headed toward the entrance gate, most of the men having left the premises as he had ordered asides from the few whom he had instructed to stay. They too had the lives of some dear saved by the Seeker.

“Have you made sure no one unnecessary is here?”

“As you ordered, I made sure to send everyone else on random errands. It will take some time for them to come back,” the one in charge of the entrance gate told him.

“But why were we gathered here, boss?” another person asked, all sorts of equipment hanging on his uniform and splashes of oil on his face, hands, and clothes.

“Inero-ie. He is currently outside along with a Mus-Draik who has never before stepped foot inside the settlement.”

“You mean that kid traveled from the capital all the way to this place, on land? Just what you would expect from that ill bastard!” said the person with equipment hanging from his clothes, laughter escaping his mouth.

“Who do we do now, supervisor?” asked the in charge of the entrance gate.

“Emergency entrance. I am thinking of calling Doctor Shedill and stating an emergency entrance. That way I will be able to hold off the report and hopefully Seeker arrives by then,” Ranarge explained to all those present.

“Enbos, you take one or two others with you and exit on the basis of maintenance and then invoke the emergency entrance, we will handle from there,” Ranarge told the man with equipment hanging from his clothes.

“As you order boss,” replied Enbos, quickly running towards his workshop, taking two people with him.

***

A gate opened but not the one designated for the entrance, instead, a few hundred meters away from their position, the exit gate opened, and out three armor suits. Attached with them were additional appendages implanted that were moving at the moment, scanning the gate, trying to find any faults that may have formed. Slowly, the three armor suits made their way toward Inero-ie and Cile who were both waiting.

Inero-ie motioned Cile and both moved back, sitting. His Threads had already made him aware of who was piloting those suits and with the entrance gate still closed, he decided to wait for Enbos.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

While the two extra appendages were focused on scanning the entrance gate, the armor suit Enbos was piloting pulled out the blades and skillfully carved words on the frozen, steel-hard ground, informing them of the situation.

Inero-ie nodded, then using his Threads, conveyed the whole thing to Cile who just nodded at the end.

Seeing the message had been communicated, Enbos slashed at the ground repeatedly. Pieces of ice flew around and within moments any sign of carved letters was gone.

Inero-ie, Cile following him, left the place heading towards the forest of towering ice pillars. Because of the heights of the columns of ice, the shadows and darkness danced along with brief rays of light making it very difficult to see anything despite the powerful lights that were positioned on the top of the settlement.

Moving between the shadows and darkness, making sure there were no sensors in the surrounding, Inero-ie executed a technique, and Cile followed him a moment after. Layer upon layer of ice started covering their bodies, sealing them. Each layer acted as a barrier that would protect their body from harm and a the same time, isolate them from the relentless cold that was outside.

This was a seal used by harvesters as a last resort to keep them alive in case their armor suits received critical damage making them unusable. As both were capable of controlling the ice, they were not rendered immobile and with ease that could not be compared to outside the Grand Formation, controlled the ice and accelerated toward the entrance gate. As he had done so many times before, Inero-ie just emulated the wobbly control he had when he was severely injured, trying to give a feeling of urgency.

***

After creating a small commotion outside to make sure there would be no suspicion, Enbos took the two inside, initiating emergency procedures and directly handing both over to Doctor Shedill who quickly brought them away to the hospital.

Inside a small private room with only a few healing pods, all currently empty, she removed the seals on both of them causing the seals to crumble away.

"Your Highness, I am Shedill Killen Octon. It is a pleasure to meet you," the doctor said after giving a light bow.

"Likewise. But what is a member of the Octon family doing in such a small place?" Cile asked, her actions completely different as her face that had never so much as twitched, seemingly frozen in that blank mask, now was smiling as she conversed with the doctor.

"A friend of mine told me there was an interesting case that would help in my research in this place," the doctor replied while looking at Inero-ie, " and though he left a while ago, I remained here because this place is quite unlike the bigger settlements. I can focus on finalizing my research here."

Cile too looked at Inero-ie and though she wanted to know what the research was about she did not actually do so. In this place where knowledge was the most precious resource you could possess, it was forbidden to ask such a thing.

"I did not think we would meet again in this place, so soon at that. How have you been?"

"Okay," Inero-ie replied.

"Well get in there. I had told you not to act recklessly. Let's see if you have recovered from your last stunt."

Inero-ie nodded and then got inside the pod which, upon closing, got filled with a liquid causing his body to float.

It was a short session, not even an hour had passed but Inero-ie got out feeling refreshed. Despite having overloaded his core many times, his body could not adjust to the load it had to bear, something that he had grown used to, thus able to ignore. It did not mean the exhaustion and wear and tear went away.

"Much much better. Did you use it again though? Your body was utterly exhausted," asked the doctor while looking at the data.

"Yes."

"Princess, will you like to have a session too?"

"I am fine, thank you. May I see the data?"

The doctor looked towards Inero-ie, asking for his confirmation to which he nodded and then sat down.

"How long did it take this time?" The doctor asked, still going through the data.

"Around three cycles."

"Quicker than I expected."

"Yes."

"Something happened?"

"Yes."

"As always, the core recovered correctly. How you use this suicidal technique and have still survived, when will you tell me?"

"Next time."

He had already documented whatever he had learned in his life, either the skills and techniques that he had created or learned or his experiences while wandering outside the Grand Formation for cycles upon cycles, once he left for the Frozen Sea, they would automatically be delivered to all of the people who had helped him much despite him acting as he usually did.

He was tired of it all now, exhausted. He had been preserving it until now but it was too much, living like this, voluntarily expelling everything in his life all for the sake of his achieving a contradiction. To die but also to do everything to survive. And had did survive. And it had left him exhausted. But he had finally found a way out, the princess had made a promise, he would get access to the forbidden zone and he would enter it after undergoing Shedding.

“Make a promise,” having finished checking all the data, the doctor asked him, sure he would do his best to fulfill his oaths.

“Promise. The next time we meet, I will tell,” Inero-ie replied making an open-ended promise. Though he would not return this time, she would still get a copy of the document. The doctor had been very generous with her knowledge, much more than she needed to be.

“I will wait then. Escort the princess and return to the capital. As quickly as possible. There is a limit to which Ranarge can delay reporting.”

Nod.

***

“Princess, will you return to the capital?” Inero-ie asked as they walked out of the hospital and into the subsection completely assigned for the facilities required by the harvesters whether it be the hospital, harvesting stations, repair stations, and so on.

“I have some things to do so I will return later,” Inero-ie manipulated the jumble of Threads, creating his reply.

“Escort me to the central tower. I will be there for some time and when you are done, head there,” Cile replied, his face having returned back to that blank mask.

“As you command, your Highness.”