“… Wow.”

Ports. Or, as Saori described them, the economic and cultural hub of any city with access to the ocean.

The bustling noise of the people talking, walking, working at the harbor, the sounds of ships unfurling their sails and beginning their voyage, and the screeching of the seagulls flying above all of us in search of food resounded across the pier. Not to mention, for us, the newcomers, having to walk through crowds of people shuffling around, trying to reach their next destination.

“Oi, ‘ere the stops! Ank’ down, rope her up!”

“Hey, porter! Move thems crates to the next loading deck, already! Bluebloods waiting for’em. Ya necks under the water, if those snail-legs ain’t moving faster!”

“Phweeeeeh!” A whistle. “Come on, come on! Move! Faster, faster! The ship’s about to depart! Tickets ‘ere, people! Come here!”

It was loud. I had thought Gleisvale’s river harbor had been already filled to the brim with people, but it couldn’t be compared to a major harbor like this one, located right on the beach next to the Principality of Yeos’s capital, Elyonda. The city itself was about three blocks away, but that just meant the harbor had more room to work with.

Numerous ships, whether commercial or passenger, were moving in and out of the port. Activity was booming and, honestly, surprised me with how many people were around. Most of the port workers and seamen were rowdy and moved around like New Yorkers, pushing anybody stupid enough to just dawdle awound sightseeing. If you wanted to look, you had to do it while keeping on moving.

Admittedly, I had never, ever been to see a port once in my life, well, outside of Estralia. I knew New York had a port, but I never visited it. It was never part of my life. I didn’t know what was going on, so my curiosity was causing me to inconvenience others.

“Eyes on the road, people. Let’s move to a tavern! Drinks on me, lads!”

“““Oooooooh!”””

Adhi led his crewmembers and my group through the crowd, deftly avoiding large incoming parties and slipping through people transporting cargo. After a while, it got a bit too annoying for me, so my group took to the skies, scouring above them to give the levianewts info on where they should go.

After an exhausting trip through the port, we made it to the commercial district of the harbor. There were still a ton of people around, but it was laxer and you could find benches to rest on. Adhi, and his crew of eight men, led us to a nearby tavern he always visited whenever he came here. Once we entered it, I couldn’t help but feel out of place.

Smelly, salt and sweat in the air, and filled to the brim with muscular men gorging down on mead and food. With every step I took into the building, my shoes stepped on something. Fallen food and mead; whatever it was, I had to make sure I wouldn’t slip.

But even without all those issues, there were also the seamen themselves. Loud, with too much energy. They would tell tales of what they experienced on their recent voyage, boasting it to other seafarers while they either laughed heartily or rebuked them with what sounded like roars.

I like it.

It had that adventurer feeling. But, even if I liked the atmosphere, I understood mother and I weren’t what you expect to see here. My group stood out like a sore thumb, especially Tasianna, who was mortified at how filthy the place was.

Hmm, there are a lot of beastmen here.

Another thing I noticed after moving around a bit was that the majority of patrons here were beastmen of various kinds. Wolfkins, katzune, and arvisians were the most common present, but they were everywhere in general. Some rarer types like bovlines, leonids, and pathereons were also here, impressing others with their muscles.

But—

“Oooh! Levis and dragos! Come ‘ere, come ‘ere! Good to see more Caedhulens and a few Loatryxians!”

There were also merfolk and nagas around.

“Melichertha’s greetings, seafins! Did you just dock?” Adhi clapped hands with the merfolk who greeted us and gave him a quick handshake.

“Aye! Good tidings, today. Waves are calm and smooth, ‘ike me mood, krakhahahkrak!”

The merfolk were generally more fish-like than reptilian. However, unlike a goldfish or koi, the merfolk I saw here looked a bit like a depth’s terror with his completely black eye protruding 50% of itself from his socket and orange scales covered his entire body with fins on his back and limbs. Lastly, his wide grin showed me his numerous sharp fangs, looking very much like a piranha or shark.

“Waitress! Give us…” A naga shouted before pausing and counting how many of us there were. “14 more mugs!”

Unlike the merfolk and Adhi, this naga was easier on the eyes, as it was a race with the torso of a human and the bottom of a sea serpent. His upper body was what you would expect from a human-like beastmen, with smooth blue skin and a couple of animalistic features, like claws, fins, and whiskers. On the other hand, his long tail was completely covered in azure scales and serving in place of a chair for him right now.

After the order was made, the friendly merfolk and naga sailors brought over a table and several chairs for our group, enough for everybody to take a seat. While Adhi’s crew members celebrated meeting fellow Caedhulen, the twins and I were confused as hell.

[“Hmm, there was nothing like this in Gleisvale.”] Shay spoke, noting how the tavern was mostly beastmen. Even the waitresses were foxians.

“Adhi Bayudra, captain of the Kartika Pearl. We arrived just now from our voyage from Gleisvale.” Adhi began talking with the Caedhulens after taking a sip from his mug.

“Gleisvale?” the naga looked at him weirdly. “That’s no sea route, you went down the river? Why are you sailing so deep inland?”

“Mhmm. Some business I got my wide mouth into,” Adhi answered remorsefully.

“Captain Adhi has a wide mouth and drinks like a whirlpool. If he starts yapping while drunk, take everything he says with a grain of salt.”

“Ha, ya woulda think the man would be more competent when he speaks with our clients, but we had to go down the river to get back home. Hahahaha! We’re stuck here ‘cause of our Cap!”

Adhi’s crew members began some bantering, laughing at their captain’s account. The latter scratched his neck before downing the whole mug in one go and ordering another mug.

“Refill, waitress!” He threw his hard-earned coins on the table, prompting the smiling foxian to pour him more ale.

“Oi, cap! Ya can’t drink just yet! We gotta help Lady Hestia and Her Grace before that!” Adhi’s crewmate pulled the embarrassed Adhi away from his mug and back onto his seat. Adhi smacked his fist on the table and shook his head, apologizing to me in the process.

Oh jeez… I smiled wryly. It was nice seeing him so animated, but this was as chaotic as talking with any adventurer.

“Ahem.” Adhi cleared his voice. “Well, about the Gleisvale thing. Got ourselves in a storm over there. Melicertha be thanked, that we got out, but it’s ‘cause of this dragonewt’s help. Lady Hestia and her mother, Honored Lady Melloxtressa.”

“Hmm? Some true dragonkin spawns?” the merfolk question. “From which clan?”

“Clan Nordor. S rank silver dragon,” Mother answered with pride, even if they mistook us for dragonewts.

““Ooooooh.” The nine merfolk and nagas expressed their amazements.

“Uhm, excuse me, before we continue this discussion, could I ask why there are so many beastmen in this tavern? This is all part of a human city, right?” With Beth and Shay still unable to speak in their dragonewt forms, I had to ask for them, although I was equally curious.

Adhi nodded and began his explanation, “The sea is vast, and you get all sorta guests. Every group needs a place to rest, right?”

What Adhi meant by that was, due to being a maritime city, Elyonda received a ton of ships everyday. Most came from the Empire, but about the crewmates on these ships? Even Caedhulen races come in and out, like Adhi and the merfolk and nagas here. As such, opportunistic merchants took it to themselves to take advantage of this fact.

Taverns and other entertainment facilities were needed to greet the incoming sailors after their long voyages. The principality of Yeos and the other human countries around them weren’t big fans of beastmen, so any interactions between the two could become hostile if they intermingled too much. As such, a few businesses were made for only beastmen.

I looked over my shoulder, noticing a few humans enjoying themselves inside the tavern. Adhi explained, if you were crewmates, you were allowed to get in on your best behavior. A bit hard for sailors, but at least they weren’t throwing racist remarks around them.

“Mhmm, better than the scuuma tavern a few buildings to the right. Bunch of pink skinned goblins, really. Hateful bunch,” the merfolk spat out that racist remark, probably directed at a human-only area. “The amount of crap they spit out whenever we walk around the area can fill a whole aquarium.”

““““Hear! Hear!”””” All the beastmen voiced out in unison.

“Scuuma” was apparently sun-dried, rotting fish oil, and a term Caedhulen sailors liked to use to call out a rotten-to-the-core captain. Adhi mentioned his own experience, as one of the people over there threw a mug of ale at him. As such, if you weren’t a human, it was advised to not even approach the area to the right of us.

This tavern was closest to the main road that headed towards the city, so it was really easy to avoid the area he mentioned. I noted it in my head. Honestly, never have I ever heard something this bad before. The treatment of beastmen in Artorias and Estralia was pretty decent, but what was going around here?

Tamae’s and Asaka’s group had mentioned how beastmen also had a hard time in Artorias’s Lecartiglio duchy, but since I never experienced it, I couldn’t tell. The worst experience I had was in Carine village, but that was mostly ‘cause the villagers were paranoid about me from what their previous beastmen experience was. The bandits who attacked them had a rhinoceros beastmen leader.

“Anyways, my brothers, I need your help. Well, this young lady needs your help,” Adhi brought the discussion back to my problem. “We’re looking for a Champion and a Saint of the Depths Goddess.”

“Wait, ya kidding?” the merfolk doubted him, looking at him confused. “Nah. No way. We’re the only Caedhulen crew around right now. No Blessed came with us. We woulda known with how most depth priests holler their voices out at the break of dawn.”

But Adhi shook his head. “Nah, Lady Hestia has proper intel on this. A Champion and Saint are somewhere in Yeos. No idea if they are—”

“Uhm, they are here,” I interrupted Adhi after Aurena just answered that question for me. “One is a raptorsilian priest and the other is a naga warrior. They should have been pretty noticeable, since the raptorsilian is in a party of other saurians. Two carnosilians and one sarcosilians. I am sure the saurian came here on land, not on a ship.”

That last part was ‘cause I knew the Saint didn’t go back to Caedhul. He went around the land, looking for criminals to lock up. He was a very good friend, and I was impatient to meet him again.

“Hmm? Saurians?” The merfolk looked at his crewmates but none of them knew what I was talking about. He then stood up and drew the attention of the whole tavern. “Hey, seamen, you’ve seen a bunch of scalekins? One is a priest and another is a giant, hulking beast of a warrior with a crocodile head.”

The beastmen patrons contemplated what he said, trying to remember any information they could. However, it wasn’t them that said anything, it was the two human patrons.

“Large beast? Yeah, we saw something like that,” one of them said, causing the sides of the mouth to curve up a bit.

“At this city market, that thing was causing such a fuss with people, you know. The guards eventually came cuz a few nervous onlookers called for them. I don’t know what happened afterwards, sorry.”

“No, thank you very much!” I shot up from my seat and pulled out some Davi to pay for my party’s drinks. I picked up Rajah and everybody rushed out with me.

“Wait, Lady Hestia!” Adhi followed after, stopping us once we’re outside. “That was a fast one, so I hope I was of help.”

“Thank you very much!” I told him with a wide smile, but my legs were restless to move to the city. “Will you be staying around in the city for a while, or will you take the next ship to Artorias?”

“Mhmm, no idea. Temporary sailor contracts ain’t good pay, especially if it isn’t a long voyage. I’ll need to work around the docks to earn enough for my crew, or we can just work as sailors for the ship to Annencia.” Adhi brought up some future options. “Anyways, if you need us for something, come over to the beastmen district. There are tons of inns over there.”

He pointed to the left, at a distant neighborhood. I guess that meant goodbye to Adhi for now.

“I still need a guide for the port, as you said. I don’t know if I’ll come back before you leave, but if you are still around when I visit, please take care of me there, Adhi!”

“Mhmm! As the Depth Goddess is my witness, I shall help you if I can, Lady Hestia. May calm waves guide you forward, my friends.” He bowed deeply.

“May Goddess Plesia bless you with calm waters, Captain Adhi.” Tasianna prayed in response before my group left for the gates of Elyonda.

“You must really like this priest, huh?” Mother said with a teasing smile. “Is this scalekin that interesting?”

“I’ve already told you that story,” I said in an annoyed way, feeling like she was misunderstanding everything. “Master Kush. My first magic master. He taught me the basics of magic and also how to create custom spells. He is the reason for my progress and growth as a mage. Of course I would want to see him!”

“Hiehie… he better be strong, then. My daughter only deserves the best teachers, and I would certainly feel bad as your current teacher if he were disappointing.”

Oh, I guess it’s just competition, huh? She’s jealous for not being my first teacher!

I had already told Mother about Master Kush and the saurians before, so her suddenly asking about him was weird. Until it became clear that she was jealous. Jealous that Master Kush was my first master and not her. Mother really had some cute moments.

Entry into the city was a bit problematic when I handed the guards our IDs. As the IDs Mother and the twins had were the same model as mine, they could hide their profile.

They scrutinized us heavily, eyeing us as if we were not welcome. When they checked the ID, they shook their heads and told us they wanted to see our entire profile. It seemed they knew of our IDs’ actual function.

Mother was expectantly annoyed and so was I. Thinking it really didn’t matter if he knew it or not, since my role here was to be a Champion of Aurena, I deactivated my IDs function and gave it back to him. He scoffed at me, mumbling “I could get you imprisoned, rat,” before using the [Crystal of the Divine System].

And his eyes blew up.

“… Tell whomever you want, but can I enter the city now? Or, will we have a problem? … Mister Guard?” I glared at him.

“W-What?! No, no, no! Uh, Y-Yes! Shit! Move, you idiots! Move!” He pushed his fellow guards away and bowed in front of me, presenting the entrance to the city to me. “Welcome to Yeos’s Gem, Elyonda, m’lady!”

Hmph. ‘Gem, indeed.’

After we moved past the guard, he quickly ran into the garrison, probably informing the guard captain about this. The other guards, having seen this, simply moved away from us, none willing to annoy us at this point.

“I don’t like this city already.” Mother’s happy mood instantly turned around.

“Maybe it was a bit too early to stop disliking humans, hahaha,” Tasianna giggled at the irony of the situation before shrugging. “We should expect some envoys later in the day, Lady Hestia.”

[“If they annoy you, Master, I shall not allow them to come to you!”] Rajah enthusiastically stated, but I had to cool him down. He was still only rank E. He could defeat a normal human, but not a proper adventurer.

“Evolve first, Rajah. You need to learn when you’re outmatched or not. Don’t say something like that, otherwise I will actually drag you into a nearby forest and powergrind you,” I chastised Rajah. I liked my cute virigress, but even I could be annoyed at him for showing confidence he hasn't earned yet.

Actually, fuck it. I’m putting him through a wringer after I find Master Kush and my Big Sis.

It was decided. My parallel minds were already structuring his training schedule.

[“M-Master?!”] He could feel my glare.

I shall turn you into a man, Rajah… Then again, he’s the age equivalent of a kindergartner right now. I shall turn you into a boy!

Anyways, with the tip from the sailors, we went over to the marketplace after asking for directions. There, we went around asking for more information, specifically targeting vendors and merchants. Buy one or two items of merchandise, and they suddenly could remember what happened the moment they woke up.

“Oh? That big fellow? Ah, yeah, some guards tried to stop them but some freaky fishman in some dark blue armor came up and explained everything. Even handed them something. The blokes ran away the moment that happened, hahaha!”

“Oh, fuck me, you’re asking about those freaks?! Fucking hell, you scalies. If you want to meet with your damn friends, then get the hell out of this place. Or we’ll get some adventurers to kick you out of the city! We don’t need fucking walking monsters roaming around!”

“Hmm, oh yeah, I remember those guys. Very generous with their money, really. Hmm, too bad you can’t get some people to broaden their minds, ya know what I mean? Would make more money if we didn’t scare off you beasties from entering the city. Maybe you’ll find your buddies in the mercenary guild? They got dragged there by the ‘peacekeepers’ the merchants here brought out.”

People actually paid mercs to scare off Master Kush and the others? Jeez, good thing Akasht is a mild giant. Krim-Slak and Grazlahta probably would have punched them, if they weren’t in the city.

The information digging went by quite quickly with Tasianna and me asking everybody we saw. It also helped that the city was seemingly getting ready for the festival happening in three days, on the first of HarvestFest. Merchants from all around the lands for this event, not to mention the farmers and peasants wanting to sell their products.

Aurena informed me the Festival of Yeostar would also act as this year’s harvest festival, and as such, would run for two weeks straight. Like, wow, that was how you knew something like this was important. It probably held as much cultural value as Artorias’s one week festival for their founding anniversary.

And, this was my first time here. Elyonda certainly was smaller than both Gleisvale and Griffonpeak as a city, and its architecture was probably less impressive than both of them, but the streets were booming. Although it was just the pre-fest, Elyonda felt extremely alive.

If only the populace were a bit less hostile towards us. The amount of annoyed looks I was receiving from people was astounding. I was starting to doubt if performing here would be worth it.

Hmm, as an idol, I should but…

Considering how Aurena mentioned how my idol job was made for this sorta situation, to bring people together with songs, I guess I had to be brave. What was an idol who was scared of performing?

Anyways, while pushing an extremely irritated Mother away and dragging Shay and Beth who actually wanted to start culling people for acting so brazen in front of me, we eventually made it to the mercenary guild. It also helped that the people we asked for directions were elated that we were “learning our place and going back into a cage.” Somehow they thought some mercenaries would be capable of enslaving me.

Little by little, I felt a growing desire to abandon this Divine Quest and shout at Aurena and Yeos. God or not, some warning would have been nice.

“Ha ha ha!”

Wait. That awkward style of laughing. Isn't that—

But that thought and all my anger disappeared into the noise of the city and I burst into the guild, perching my ears until I noticed a conspicuous group of scalekins laughing and drinking with a bunch of human and beastmen adventurers.

“Hmm? Oh? He—”

“Master Kush!” My rocket boosters activated and flew right into Master Kush, shocking him with my appearance that he didn’t even embrace me.

“Ooofk!” I knocked the air out of him, pushing him onto the ground before I wrapped my arms around his scale body and pressed my face against his soft priestly robe. “Arghk! My girl, ha ha ha ha! You almost knocked down over 600 Health with that one slam. Ha ha ha, were you trying to kill me that badly?”

“W-What?! Oh shit!” Flustered, I push myself up and sent my white fire out to heal him. At first, he was surprised at the flames, before noticing how he wasn’t being burnt.

His eyes widened. “I see… you’ve grown, my precious student. Not only your flames but that aura around you. The mana you wield. It seems that we have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Hiehie.” My mouth curved into a big grin as I couldn’t help but giggle and nodded over excitedly. “Kri! Yes! It’s been almost one year since we last met, after all, Master! I’ve missed you!”

“Lady Hestia!”

“Little princess!”

“Woah!”

From behind, a strong arm suddenly pulled me off Master Kush into a big bear-like hug. A bunch of blue scales were shoved right into my face coupled with hard metal and leather. With the embrace intensifying, it became harder and harder for me to breathe, forcing me to strengthen my arms with mana and push myself out of that tight grab.

“Woah?!” I heard a surprised voice as I landed back on the ground. “By Xohulotel, how strong have you gotten, little princess?! Can't believe you managed to break my grip like that.”

I stuck my tongue out at the blue carnosilian. “Yeah, too bad for you, Krim-Slack! Have you been sleeping and eating around all the time while I was out training and becoming stronger? You got beaten by a little young-scale!”

“Them’s fighting words! Now that I remember it, we never had a round before, right? I’ve only been sparing with Saori!” Krim-Slak bared his fangs in a playful manner, egging me on to fight.

“Stop!” But before we could become rowdy, another saurian pushed us away from each other. A red-scaled one. “You two know you shouldn’t fight here. You especially, Krim.”

“Argh, jikla, get off my case, Grazlahta. Turn around,” Krim-Slak pushed the red-scaled saurian around to, where our eyes met. “By Xohulotel, you think I coulda stopped myself from speaking with her? We’ve been waiting for this, ya numbskull.”

“Hiehie,” I grinned, holding my arms out, offering him a hug.

“… He.” He suddenly patted my head and then took the embrace, kneeling down to my height. “It’s good to see you again, Hestia.”

“You too! Grazlahta!” I was ecstatic.

The wise and fatherly Master Kush. The energetic and boisterous Krim-Slak. The stoic and warrior-personality Grazlahta. We were reunited after almost eleven months of being separated. However, that was only three. There was still one more left.

“Hey, big guy!” After I let go of Grazlatha, I arched my head back, looking up at the person casting the large shadow over all of us. “Akasht, how are you doing?”

“Go… od… to se… e… you.” He struggled to speak, but I could still feel his sincerity through his voice. He was an extremely intimidating person, but I could feel the warmth his greeting gave me.

“Still hard to speak, right? I really should learn Aelulash just to make it easier on you.”

“Kraaaahahaaahaaa!” The giant crocodile-saurian bellowed out a deep laugh, understanding my joke.

100%. This was the reunion I imagined.

“Ha ha ha.” I turned around as Master Kush was dusting the dirt from his clothes, standing back up to give me a proper hug. After he let me go, he inspected me from top to bottom. “Mhmm. Kri, you really did change. Even without [Identify], I can just tell how much you’ve grown by your general aura. That draconic power inside you, that fire. It’s shining so brightly now.”

It was the best praise I could have ever imagined. I was already on the road to becoming a true mage before I met Master Kush, but he was the one to push me into the right direction. He gave me all the tips I needed to grow faster than ever before.

“Excuse me.”

But our small moment to reunite was just that, a small moment. It was a blissful one, but the five of us couldn’t live in our tiny world forever. After all, we were inside a guild, after all. But, more importantly, there were other people waiting for us.

I turned around to that voice.

Mother, Tasianna, the twins, and Rajah were standing there, looking at me as if I was the cutest thing in the world. I felt my face heating up into a blush, finding this all too embarrassing. However, before it got to the point I had to turn away, another imposing person talked.

“The gods have guided us to each other. Blessing of the tides to you, young scale.”

He was a naga. An intimidating half-man, half-snake in marine blue armor, looking like some sorta deep diving soldier from an ancient ocean-dwelling society. Actually, this was exactly it.

His helmet suddenly let out a shrill sound like a boiling kettle before separating itself into several pieces, revealing his face from behind it. Greyish-blue skin with black long hair framing the face of a handsome young man.

“My name is Tehmrayn. A Depth’s Adjudicator, and Champion of the Depth Goddess, Plesia.”