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Staring at Lily who was eating heartily, Hao Ren wanted to taste it too, so he took a bite but frowned instantly. Though the food wasn't as bad as what Lily had claimed, it wasn't good; the solid food was bland and coarse while the paste tasted fetidly sweet. These were apparently mass-produced using the simplest synthetic formulation. Though things in the eco-dome was more than sufficient to provide for the need of Aerym Royalty, they didn't take it—it was an attitude.

Vivian and Y'zaks both tried. The demon had no complaint about the food. But Vivian and Lily obviously had the same tastebud; even during her poorest time she had never eaten such unpalatable thing. It was so unpalatable that Lily put everything back into the cabinet. She then took a pack of brownish snack out from her bag and started eating. While she was at it, she offered some to Hao Ren. "Landlord, I bet the dinner wouldn't be any better. For now, just eat this. Battie, you can eat if you want."

While waiting for Hilda to return, Hao Ren, Vivian and Lily sitting at the table and wolfing down the snack. Y'zaks wasn't interested at all; he found a quiet corner, sat down and started daydreaming as usual.

"There's always food to be found on your body, eh?" It wasn't a surprise to Hao Ren. Apart from her unusual strength and formshifting ability, she always had a portable supply of food. Her bagful of supplies was enough to feed the poor in the mountain. "Oh, this thing's good, tastes like beef, where did you buy it?"

The pellets were crunchy in Lily's mouth. "Dog food..."

Puke —

Hao Ren and Vivian would have spurted in each other face if not for their quick maneuver. He coughed as he cleaned his mouth. "What the hell, why didn't you say it earlier?"

"It tastes good." said Lily as she looked at them, baffled. "What a waste. One pack of this is even more expensive than your breakfast."

After Vivian was done was spurting, she licked her lips and said, "Hmm... taste not bad."

"See. I said so." Wagging her tail happily, Lily said, "In fact I've never tried this before, since I've bought it so I might as well give it a try. Once tasted, I couldn't stop eating. If the ingredients on the packaging is anything to go by, it's definitely better than rice that human's consuming..."

After clearing the residue in his mouth, Hao Ren raised his head with an incredible look on his face. "Dogs are having good life nowadays, huh?"

"That's true. Sometimes humans do have less privileges than dogs." Vivian nodded in total agreement. "Just look at me, I'm a Countess to say the least."

The two pretty maidens—appearance-wise—began to talk in length about dog food. Hao Ren couldn't bear to look at them any longer, he turned his head away pretending to look at the scenery outside while trying to hypnotise himself in his mind. They weren't not humans, so they coudn't be looked at in terms of human perspective. It wasn't animal cruelty by feeding dog food to them, he was damn confident of the law, he thought.

Time flew as the two maidens immersed in their noisy chat, dusk had finally come to an end. A gleam of golden light slowly disappeared quickly in the horizon as the floating island spun on its axis. The Aerymian elves were using the rotation of the floating island to simulate the transition between day and night, and the protective shield to create a natural filtered sunlight. Even that, it was obvious that the world under the dome was very different from that of a natural planet—the lack of depth of the sky, the abrupt fall of the night, and the harsh sunlight. People who lived at the edge of the floating island could clearly observe the distortion of the sky. He could now truly understand what Hilda meant when she said:

"I envy you people, the vast sky and landscape..."

Suddenly, on the horizon where the sun had just set, a flash of faint light appeared.

The flash quickly subsided. Hao Ren thought it was an illusion. Soon, a commotion was heard down in the city streets. Some bright light columns appeared at the edge of the city as some flying objects were flying towards the Royal District. Residents were all out on the streets as if they were expecting some news coming from far away. Hao Ren could see everything happened in the city with his bio-enhanced eyesight, including people on the roof of the steeple who gazed out to the same direction—the horizon where the light had just appeared.

"Something's happening." said Lily as she stuffed a bunch of dog food in her mouth. her ears stood erect as she came up to Hao Ren. "Commotion."

"There was a flash of light, probably an explosion." said Hao Ren quickly before darting to the end of the hall and call a lift. The massive lift had two royal guards on standby, Hao Ren had noticed the strange expression on their faces as well. "What happen outside?"

"Don't worry, guards are handling the situation, everything's under control." said one of the elven warrior whose eyes were filled with anxiety though he still behaved professionally as a royal guard. "The queen is back from the elder assembly. She will attend to you all shortly..."

Hao Ren waved his hand, signalling the restless lot behind him and storming into the lift by force. "We're here not as a guest. Lead us to the exit and tell us what the hell is going on."

"But the queen has ordered..."

"There was no explosion when she gave the order!" Hao Ren pressed a lift button. "Just do what I say, I'm sure your queen would agree. By the way, why the door still not closed?"

"...that's... that's the open button..."

Hao Ren was embarrassed. "Why the arrow here mean the opposite? Unlike anything on Earth."

Seeing the guests were determined, and thinking about the unusual attitude the queen had towards them, the elven warriors gave in. They paged their superior using some kind of communication equipment, as they got the nod one of elven warrior operated sent the lift down to the exit on the ground floor. "A propulsion system exploded, some damage to the surrounding walls. But was sealed...temporarily."

A hum was felt in his head as Hao Ren thought: he was no scientist, but he at least knew what was outside the floating island—a spaceship with a thin layer of shield, the shield was the only thing between the city and the space, and it was punctured!

He wished the lift could go quicker, complained—in his mind—about the height of the steeple where these elves lived (they probably had gotten used to living on trees in the past). A minute was felt like a century in the lift and finally they came down on the ground in half a minute. They darted out of the lift as soon as the door opened while the elven warriors followed from behind. "Please wait a minute, I'll get you magic-guided flying car..."

"That toy isn't as fast as we do!"

Hao Ren turned his head around and held on to Vivian's arm. "Let's take off."

As he said it, the vampire maiden had already flung the wings open, and carried him into the air. Meanwhile, Lily was howling like a beast as she began to run on her four limbs. Y'zaks was following closely behind like vicious humanoid chariot, the earth trembled as he ran. In a blink of an eye, they disappeared into the distance leaving the two elven warriors and guards behind.

"...what a bunch of unusual guests the queen brought back."

"What if flying vehicle collides with the the flying one?"

"...if we could catch up...err... probably we couldn't catch up."

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