"I saw the genius work," they said with pride that bordered on arrogance. "I was there when he remade an artifact with pure mana."
Some of the former peasants that Ren had elevated with his cultivation methods and others he had saved in the war began openly calling him "the Messiah" again, a title that had appeared and disappeared from gossip for years but now returned with renewed force.
The word spread through common districts like wildfire. "The Messiah broke the rules again," they whispered over market stalls. "He made the impossible possible, like always."
But then there were the skeptics.
"Theater," they insisted, voices dripping with contempt for those 'gullible enough to believe'. "Selphira and the castle are always inventing things with the boy to divert attention from their own political moves."
