"Madam, what do those words say? Do we have another prophecy for the future? Are we all safe now?"

Someone asked the female as she read and re-read those words in front of her.

But no matter how many times she read those words, they refused to change. She had a sudden realization that something must have gone wrong somewhere.

'H-How is this possible…? I was sure I needed to save our lord…? So why…?'

The more the female thought about it, the more she realized that it did not make sense.

Her denial was so strong that she was even starting to make excuses in her mind. But before she could go down the dark path and think even more, someone grabbed her arm and turned her around.

"Madam, get a hold of yourself! Now, tell us what message our lord gave us."

A person asked, and the female numbly gave him the slip.

As soon as the man read the message, he went pale-faced as well.

"Our lord…wants to be put back in the station? That cannot be right. Why would our lord want that…unless…"

The man trailed off, and everyone looked at him curiously.

"Unless what? What could be so important that our lord has to go back to the station?"

The strong female asked, her voice sounding angrier than anyone had ever heard before. They all took a step back from her.

But the man, their other leader, only looked at her with a relaxed expression.

"We all met our lord at that station. It was where our beginning started and where our lives changed. Our lord just wants to help out more people, so he wants to go back. That way, more people would be able to find their way here."

A lot of people nodded as they looked around. A sudden understanding was reached by everyone.

The only one who looked frustrated was the female, but even she had to come to terms with the logic her coworker was speaking of.

"You are…right. Our lord likely has a lot more people they want to guide to the right path. We should help him out here. But…how do we put our lord back? We will all get caught."

The female asked, and the male leader just gave her a relaxed look.

"It will be fine. Since our lord wants to go back, I am sure he would find a way for us to be able to put him back. We just need to be aware—"

"L-Leader, huge news! There was a train accident, and the whole station police and staff have been deployed to help out."

Someone ran in with the news, and the leader let out a relieved chuckle.

"See, I told you that there is no reason to get worried, right? Our lord has found his way back. We just need to follow his guidance and help him out."

Everyone seemed to be in awe of their lord's powers. Even the female who started all of this seemed resigned.

"Tsk, I don't like the fact that our lord is made to serve normal people. But since this is what our lord wants, I guess I have no reason to say no."

With that, they all worked together and brought their lord back to his rightful place. And they all also vowed to protect their lord so that the machine would not get stolen again.

By the evening time, everyone knew that the claw machine was back. And it did not take long for the news to reach Cyrus either.

__________

"S-Shopkeeper, I have huge news…! Are you there?"

My calm day was suddenly invaded by that loud voice, and I looked to my side, only to see that plump gossip lady from next door.

Her face looked red and her eyes wide, but the grin on her face told me she had something important to tell me.

The other people in the bookstore gave her a look as well, but they soon went back to looking around once they realized she was someone they knew.

"Do you need anything, Madam?"

I asked the frantic female as she leaned over my table to catch her breath.

She blinked at my question before she looked around with a flushed face. She suddenly seemed to have realized where she was and what was happening.

"I…ahm…I have great news for you. That machine I was talking about…you know, the one at the station that got stolen yesterday? Apparently, it is back now. No one knows what happened once again. Aren't you surprised?"

The female looked excited to tell me, and for a second I suspected she knew I was the owner of that machine.

Not that it would surprise me because I had made a public entry.

But we were also in a time period where phones and cameras did not exist. So most people only knew things from word of mouth.

The truth could get distorted pretty quickly.

"I see, Madam. That is good news indeed."

I told the female, not sounding too thrilled so that she wouldn't be provoked.

The excited female just frowned at my lack of response. She opened her mouth to speak more but then closed it.

"Ugh…I just remembered that I needed to go and do something else. I will be back to tell you more later, shopkeeper."

The neighborhood gossip lady left pretty quickly, and I could not tell if it was because of my cold nature toward her or something else.

Not that I had time to think about it because I needed to focus on my shop for now.

Once it was time to close the shop, I decided to head toward the train station. The police were patrolling all around, and they gave me a weird look as they watched me approach the machine.

At one point, it seemed like they would actually try and stop me. But they never did in the end.

I quickly checked up on the machine, but it was fine. There was not even a single scratch on it.

The only regret I had about it getting stolen was that it did not have many faith points for me to grab. So I pocketed the 30 faith points it had and looked at my 280 points total with a regretful face.

'Ugh, I could have earned so much more if the machine never got stolen.'

As I thought about this, I felt someone approaching me. I tightened my grip on my cane, only to see the station master walking toward me.

"Shopkeeper, are you here to check up on the machine you left behind? Then you must already be aware that it got stolen once. I apologize for that. It was my duty to keep it safe, but I failed."

The station master told me, and I quickly waved his concern off.

"Ah, that's no problem, and you don't need to worry about this machine either. This machine is rather…special. There is no need for you to be worried about it. I would rather have you focus on the station as you have been doing."

I told the station master, and he looked relieved to hear me say these words.

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