Inside of the city, the people were more diverse than Elanore expected. For every ten humans, there was at least one or two beastmen. However, there seemed to be some tension between the races. There were some sidelong glances and many people sticking with others like their selves.
Elanore and Naela's guide, Tal, gestured towards the market near the entrance. "You can find a lot of supplies here. People set up shop near the gates to interest travelers coming into the city."
The vampire nodded, noting that at least the people didn't seem to be at each other's throats. All things considered, the race relations aren't overly bad.
She observed that some of the people even disregarded the social standards of their group. They boldly approached food stands belonging to other groups, partaking in cultural exchanges.
Elanore looked up the street and saw something she'd been wondering about since her arrival. There it was, a tall wooden building with a stone frame. In front of the place, a sign dangled there. It held the insignia of a shield, and laying on top of them was a staff crossing a sword.
Tal noticed her gaze and chuckled. "That is Synnaralis Adventurer's Guild."
"So it does exist. Though, is there a reason why there were none of these out in the forest."
The guard placed a hand on his armored chin. "I see. You came from that forest, then?"
Elanore nodded.
"This is a rather new calling. It was only recently that our kingdom allowed the building of those, and it hasn't spread too much. A rival nation has been doing this for a long time, and our king proposed such a thing. Before, there was just the military and scattered mercenary groups."
Elanore followed Tal towards the entrance, and the guardsman opened the door for the two ladies. The vampire expected to be greeted by a bar and a long desk with receptionists. The receptionist desk did exist, but there was no bar. Instead, off to the right there were food vendors.
In the early light, there were lots of people inside the place. There were armored warriors and swordsmen. Though, there weren't that many spell casters. The vampire wrinkled her brow.
"Where are all of the magic users?"
Tal shook his head. "People who use magic won't sign up to be adventurers often. Adventurers are more about controlling pests that spring up where the military can't get them. They also handle requests from travelers or merchants. It's not a safe calling for magic users."
Elanore tilted her head. Her idea of a magician protecting the rear of warrior adventures was starting to crumble. Though, she remembered there was a magic user in that mercenary party when she fought the zombies.
It was Naela who spoke. "The magic users are simply babies who want to hide behind the city walls, isn't it?"
The few magic users present turned to the group, but none of them said anything.
Tal chuckled awkwardly. "Please hold back your comments about such things, or at least say them quieter."
Elanore laughed. "I quite like her honesty." The vampire turned her gaze back towards the reception. "Is this where we are going to get identification?"
"No, that won't be handled here. We can head to the city square. There is a kingdom agency that handles all identification processing. Since my commanding officer has given the green light, we can make the process fast."
They left the adventurer's guild and started walking towards the distant castle structure. Elanore took note of the maintained roads and light poles. It seemed that even if this place wasn't so technologically advanced, it had good upkeep. Though, sometimes technology makes certain things worse.
The vampire remembered her own decaying streets on Earth. The walk to her apartment was littered with potholes, and on certain windy days, even the street lights wouldn't work. Compared to that, this place was like a luxurious throwback to ancient empires. There was something fascinating about maintained stone buildings.
Even in such a large city, it was still less population dense. There was room to walk on the sidewalks without bumping into people, and it wasn't long before they passed a church, similar to one she'd been imprisoned at before. Only, this one was much larger, and the depiction of the goddess on top was a bit different.
The stone woman sat cross-legged, and on her lap, there was a small mammoth facing the plaza. Does Synnaria really keep chibi mammoths around?
For a brief moment, the vampire imagined what herself would look like depicted as a statue. Perhaps her followers would put a pot on her lap? But what about Naela?
Elanore looked to the wyvern, and the other girl smiled. The vampire felt her heart skip a beat. She turned her attention back towards the road ahead of them, and they finally arrived at their destination.
Inside of this plaza, there was a white stone building that was distinctly different from the others. It had a set of large roman pillars at the front, banners scrolling down each one.
There was no door to the place. The stone opened up where a couple of doors would be, but when they crossed the lattice, Elanore felt a familiar feeling return. It was once again like entering the dungeon. Though, this feeling of cobwebs over the skin was noticeably lighter and felt more ticklish.
They entered a grand hall with marbled flooring. Towering statues of the goddess sat on each side of a stone counter. There were plenty of workers manning the reception, and each of them had stone tablets in front of them, angled towards their faces like computer screens.
Elanore was reminded of airport terminals, and much like how some airports had a faster boarding, there was one such thing here. Tal led their group to a completely empty line in front of one of the receptionists. This one was cordoned off by guards and yet another thing that the vampire didn't expect.She immediately inspected it.
[Legendary: Synnarian Golem - A legendary golem used in the Olimer Kingdom. Crafted by an expert Elf. ]
The vampire's eyes widened. It was the first time since coming here that she'd seen a golem, and it reminded her of her own class dealing with such things. Would Pot be considered a golem?
This one in particular looked nothing like the cauldron. It was a towering creature with arms and legs like a humanoid, only made of rocks. It stood at least triple Elanore's height, and its mana core was openly displayed on its chest. It was a green emerald, and it shone with a light of its own.
The moment the group got close, the golem turned its rocky head towards them.
Though, a voice stopped the golem's movements. "Stay!"
Elanore looked at the woman in surprise. It was the first elf she'd seen since coming here. The woman was much taller than her, Naela, or even Tal. She wore green-white robes, and her eyes were emeralds matching the stone creature's chest.
The tall girl's eyes locked onto the vampire right away. Then they turned towards Naela and softened slightly. "It's good to see you again."
Ella's eyes flashed towards the wyvern, but Naela was looking away.
The elf frowned. "Don't tell me that you're still mad about..."
"I am not mad. I don't even know how you knew it was me!"
The green-haired girl laughed. "You can change the color of your eyes and your hair, but you can't change the color of your mana. Though, it was hard to recognize you with the new additions..."
Elanore looked between the two of them. The vampire felt a small pang in her chest when she thought about these two possibly having history together. She grabbed the wyvern's hand with her own.
The elf smiled at the interaction. "How amusing...and what is your name."
"It is Elanore if you must know."
"Elanore...So you are the one that tamed her..."
Tal stopped their dialogue. "I am glad you know them, Fianis, but we are here on official business."
Fianis straightened herself. "Of course. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Fianis Emergreen." She gestured back towards her desk. "Now, allow me to take care of whatever you need. I've not had any customers today."
The elf woman walked behind her portion of counter, and when they were close, Elanore noticed the magic glyphs spreading on the surface of her counter. The blue glyphs bore different depictions, but the vampire noticed that if she focused on them something strange happened.
I can read these? It was as if she knew what each glyph meant translated into words. Enchanting. Printing. Seeking. Understanding...
Fianis's eyes studied Elanore. "I see you are a master of the arcane. Though, your existence is surprising in itself. I can't even see your magic power. Is it a skill?"
Tal sighed. "We are not here for this. I told you already. These two just need identification."
Fianis wrinkled her brow. "I guess I have been relegated to this position." The elf sighed. "I won't be able to make a personal identification for Elanore, and there is no need to do such a thing anyway." She reached down beneath her desk and produced a medallion. "You can have this."
Elanore held the large piece of metal with both hands, observing it in the light. "What is this thing?"
"The King's Medallion. It will allow you to go anywhere you want, and it saves me the trouble of having to produce an identification for you."
"Wait," Tal said, "why can't you make her a plate?"
"I don't want to break kingdom property with trying to scan her with my device. It's likely to produce errors that would take me forever to fix, and that would be too much work."
///
It was only when they left the building that Elanore noticed Naela's face returning to normal. Her previous meek demeanor changed, but she still held a frown on her face.
"Tal," Elanore said, "please leave us."
"But, my orders were..."
"You have completed your task."
The man didn't respond right away, but after a few seconds he nodded. "I will leave you to it then. Make sure that if you have any problems, you come see me at the gate."
Elanore nodded and waited for the man to leave before she grabbed onto Naela's hand and the two walked away from the government building. The vampire found a stone bench further away from that place, and the two sat down.
"Mistress, that girl was..."
"Was she a friend of the wizard?"
"Yes, we were all friends once, mistress." The wyvern stammered. "But, I wasn't trying to hide it from you!"
Ella chuckled. "Silly girl, I already know that. There are plenty of things we've not told each other about our pasts."
Naela looked up from the ground and stared into Ella's purple eyes. "You too, mistress?"
The vampire nodded.
Naela grinned and then let out a small laugh. "I had no idea you were capable of such mystery. I thought you were born of energy drinks somewhere up in the mountains, mistress."
Elanore grabbed onto Naela's cheek, remembering how her heart kept tugging at her. The vampire thought to that jealous feeling of knowing that someone knew things about Naela she didn't. It felt wrong that other people should know things about the wyvern, and it made the vampire want to spring into action. So she did.
This time, it was her claiming Naela's lips with her own. The vampire's inexperienced lips sealed the wyvern's in an awkward kiss, but it was still enough for Naela's cheeks to redden. And Elanore could hear the beating of Naela's heart.
Once their delicate kiss ended, the wyvern spoke again. "Why did you..."
"You are mine."
The words came out from Ella's mouth without even thinking, and once spoken, she couldn't take them back. She was as surprised by her own words as the girl in front of her, yet she couldn't bring herself to take them back. Nor did she want to. Elanore waited for a reaction of denial or disdain, but it didn't come.
"Mistress, I love you."