"Whoa," Drake says as Sacred Gale's walls comes into view. "That is… huge."

We stop at the crest of the hill for a few minutes, mostly so that the sheer size of Sacred Gale can sink into Drake's mind. Blue Hills, the town between the inn and here, only had around ten thousand residents, nearly double Silent Valley's count. Sacred Gale, however, has nearly eighty thousand.

Unlike Blue Hills and Silent Valley, its walls aren't made of logs, either. No, they're made of stone, imported from the mountains to the north. Every fifty yards, a guard tower rises up out of the wall, and it's patrolled at all times.

Not for invading armies, considering our kingdom's the only one on the continent, but for monsters that might have come from the forest. Sure, they patrol the side facing away from it, but that's mostly so that the patrols are even.

At least, according to Cassidy, who grew up here and later moved to the capital to become a member of the royal guard.

"Sacred Gale," I tell Drake. "Doesn't come close to matching Silver Zephyr in size."

"Silver Zephyr?" He asks.

"The capital," I explain. "It has nearly four hundred thousand residents, almost five times as much as Sacred Gale."

"I can already hear and smell it," Drake tells me. "It's going to be noisy and smelly."

"Pack eighty thousand people in one place," I say. "And it's only natural you'd think that. Come on, let's head in. Once we've rented a room at an inn, we can discuss something."

"Discuss what?" He asks as I pull up the hood of the cloak I pulled on earlier, hiding my face in its deep cowl.

"Something," I answer.

We resume the trip, descending the hill and making our way past more farms, fields of wheat turning into fields of clover, potatoes, turnips, and other things. Eighty thousand people take a lot of resources to support, and the river that cuts through the center of the city helps, too.

It only takes another thirty minutes to reach the city, falling in line behind some farmers bringing in a harvest.

"There's no inspection?" Drake asks after we pass by the guards, who only give us a cursory nod as we enter.

"No," I answer. "Why would there be?"

"To look for illicit goods?" He offers. "Or criminals?"

"With the Inventories," I say. "It can be quite easy for someone to sneak something illegal in. As for criminals, well if they're determined to get in, they'll get in. Most criminals who'd be in the city are already inside, though. They're people who grew up here. So stopping every traveler and harassing them is just harassment."

"Oh," he says. "Where are we going? Do they have many inns here?"

"A fair few," I answer. "Adventurers come from the capital to train for CP."

Which unfortunately means someone is going to recognize me here, even if because of my brother. That's why I'm wearing a cloak with a deep cowl, it will make it take longer for someone to recognize me.

"Do you think you'll meet someone you know?" He asks.

"It's possible," I answer. "Though it's more likely that someone who knows one of my brothers would recognize me."

"Oh," he says, then looks at me. "Oh."

He just realized why I'm wearing the cloak. I swear, I've told him three times in the last day and a half why I'm wearing the cloak here.

"Yeah," I answer. "We can find some decent accommodations this way."

I lead Drake through the city, following the directions Cassidy gave me when I changed my plans and decided to stop this way. Originally, I had planned on leaving the continent as soon as possible. The more I travel around the kingdom, the more likely people would recognize me.

But Sacred Gale sits on the edge of the kingdom, right on the path leading to the Wind Crystal. Avoiding it would add a little extra difficulty to the journey, and it contains Dungeons we can use to get CP. Since I'm needing to change my route, that means I need to get CP where I can, and the same goes for Drake.

We reach the inn Cassidy suggested and enter. The dining area to the right is packed full of people eating, drinking, and chatting as a band performs on a small stage in the corner, and I tilt my head down a little, to hide my face some more. We cross the lobby to the counter in just a few steps. A tall muscular, gruff man stands behind the counter.

"We need a room," I tell him. "One or two beds."

"Two hundred vanri," he says. "Per night, an additional fifty for a second bed."

"Okay," I say. "How many Dungeons are within range?"

I asked about this back in Blue Hills, but wanted to ask after arriving here just to make sure what I heard was correct.

"Seven," he answers. "If you're looking to farm them, you can complete them in three days. There's also a Crystal Dungeon two hours' walk east if you're looking to take on a Class."

He's probably trying to figure out if Drake is old enough or not, and has probably figured that we might have come from a town without a Crystal Dungeon nearby, since the nearest ones are either in Silent Valley or Silver Zephyr.

His gaze is settled on the meteor dragon, and I can tell he's also curious about the scales and reptilian tail. Drake is unique, after all.

"Four nights, then," I put eight hundred vanri on the counter. "A single room."

What the innkeeper said matches up with what I was told back in Blue Hills.

"Four?" Drake asks. "Aren't we-"

"We'll do the Dungeons before moving on," I tell him. "The CP will prove invaluable. That's enough to bring us up to Tier II."

Dungeons have a minimum of five rooms, after all, and with Drake causing us to have every room proc something, that means a minimum of 210 CP, and we only need 207 CP to hit Level 25, then do Class Ascension Trial. Two of the Dungeons have six rooms, and one has seven, while the other four have five, the minimum. Overall, that's just a little bit more than we need to reach Tier II.

"New adventurers always think that," the innkeeper tells me. "But trust me, kid, it ain't that much. Four of them only have five rooms. It takes 525 CP to hit Class II from starting."

"I'm already Level 24," I state. "We aren't new to the System. We just came from speaking with the Oracle."

"You're from Silent Valley, then?" He asks. "Not many adventurers come out of there."

"Four nights," I indicate the vanri on the counter. "We'd like to go to our room, now."

"Right, right," the innkeeper takes the vanri, logs it, then hands me a key. "Go up the stairs to the third floor, Room Three-Oh-Five. It'll be on the right."

"Thank you," I turn and start walking to the stairs, then stop when I notice Drake hasn't moved. "Drake, let's go."

"I'm smelling your brother again," he sniffs the air. "I didn't notice it at first because of all the smells, but he's here. I think he's in the dining room, but it's hard to tell. There are so many people."

I spin, turning my gaze to the dining room and sweeping my gaze across the dozens of people in there. It only takes me a moment to spot him among all the adventurers and nobles.

Golden-blond hair a little messy atop his head, blue-green eyes that sparkle with light. I can't tell what he's wearing, as he's on the other side of the room, past many people, but he doesn't seem to have noticed us.

Yet.

But it's my brother, I'm sure he'll realize we're here soon enough. What bad luck, to be caught with him.

"We have a higher-than-normal customer rate," the innkeeper tells us as I realize that there are a lot more guests staying here than I'd have expected. Even with the Dungeons, it's usually only starting adventurers who come this way, and while there might be a few of them at a time, definitely not enough that any single inn would be this full. "Two dozen nobles from the capital, plus the crown prince himself, are staying in town, and that's before considering their guards and adventurers. Half the inns in town are booked full. You two are lucky, you got my last room, and it only just became available a few minutes ago. Had a few guests already, guess your brother got lucky, making it here before they booked us up."

My brother's one of those nobles.

If he only had one room left, then he should have just told us when we asked about the pricing. We wouldn't have been able to book a room with two beds or two separate rooms with one bed each.

Calvin shifts, then his gaze turns to us. He can't see my face clearly, but I'm sure he's going to suspect something is off about me. Not many people keep their face hidden like this while in an inn, not unless they have something to hide.

Subtly, I pull out one of the knives he gifted me, barely pulling it out of my cloak, just enough for him to see. He gives me a slight nod, then I turn away.

"Come on, Drake," I tell him. "He's probably too busy being in awe of all the nobles there for us to bother."

Drake follows me upstairs, and it's clear by his expression that he's confused. He's figured out I'm nobility of some sort, that doesn't take a genius. Because of that, my statement about my brother being in awe of nobility has probably confused him.

"Nate-" Drake begins once we're in my room.

"The crown prince was in there," I tell him. "It's not every day someone gets to meet him. Our father comes from a famous family of adventurers, and our mother came from a lesser noble family."

"So we might meet the crown prince?"

"I've met him before," I say. "He's not all that impressive."

"You were only twelve when you moved though, right?" He asks.

"Yeah," I answer, then stretch. "Anyway, I do think it's best if we stay and do the Dungeons before heading to the Wind Crystal, Drake. That's part of what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh," he says. "So that we can reach Tier II, right?"

"Yeah," I answer. "We'll both obtain a new Skill, too, and we should have a few CP leftover to obtain a few more Levels into the next Tier, though after conversion, it's less."

"Conversion?" He asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "Conversion to Tier II. Rather than being 26 CP to reach Level 1 of a Tier II Class, it's 2 CP. It costs the Tier number times the next Level. Comes out to being cheaper than costing the total Level of that class."

"Okay," he says. "I agree, reaching the next Tier sounds good."

"Now for the full thing I wanted to ask you about," I say. "If we spend another three weeks traveling the area after here, we can obtain a second Class and bring it up to Tier II. I did some asking around and plotted out an optimal path for us. If we do that, it'll give us a little bit more to use for doing the Trial of Wind. However, with how strong you are and from what I could find out about the trial, you're probably powerful enough already to handle it on your own with just reaching Tier II in Knight."

At least, as long as he's got someone to help him deal with the traps.

If we do go for more CP before undertaking the Elemental Trial, though, it'll increase the risk of someone identifying me. The trip involves going around a huge portion of the Kingdom and completing many of its Dungeons, but avoiding the area around the capital.

So I'd honestly rather avoid doing this. When people realize who I am and who I'm related to, it'll gather unwanted attention, especially since it's actually pretty well-known that I was living near Granny. Which means people will suspect that I was learning the magics she had.

Because of that, people will be asking me questions, asking for advice. Far more so than either of my brothers would. When possible, I would avoid adventurers in Silent Valley because of that. Getting asked things was rather annoying, and I was grateful the locals knew I wasn't there to learn from her.

Heck, most of them didn't even realize I was actually related to her, they thought I just visited her regularly to be nice to the Oracle.

Drake just stares at me, a look of slight confusion on his face, and I realize that he's not realized I was asking his opinion on that. To him, I was just stating something I'd learned.

"Drake," I say. "Do you want to wait a few more weeks to get another Class and take it up to Tier II, or just the few days to get to the next one?"

"You said I could handle it," he tells me. "Let's do the trial. I want to get moving."

"Okay," I say. "Then after we finish the Dungeons here, we'll do the Class Ascension Trial so we can advance ours to Class II for the additional Skill we'll each get. After that, we'll head over to the Wind Crystal and do the trial. Sound good?"

"Yes."

"Let's head to a restaurant," I stand and pull my hood back up. "Get something to eat."

"We aren't eating here?" He asks.

"The dining room is packed," I say. "Full of people who would recognize me because of my brother. They'd also know I was living near the Oracle. I'd rather not get into that mess."

"What mess?" He asks.

"Nothing that will matter too much once we leave the continent," I answer. "The risk of running into someone who'd recognize me because of my brothers would be much smaller. Come on, I'm hungry."

"Are we getting me a new sword first?" He asks.

"No," I answer.

"But you said we were replacing it once we got here."

"I did," I tell him. "But it can wait until morning, or at least until after we eat, Drake. I'm starving."

"Oh," he says. "Okay."

"Come on," I walk to the door and grab the knob. "Let's go find somewhere to eat."

"Can't we wait for them to leave?" He asks as I leave the room, and he follows me.

"No," I answer. "Not unless you want to wait until morning. Groups of nobles and adventurers like that don't just finish eating and leave. They'll be there for hours."

"Oh," he says as we descend the stairs. "How come they aren't staying at a noble's place here? Isn't that more normal?"

I'm guessing that's how things are on other worlds? Since he wasn't really allowed to observe worlds, he's probably going off the stories he heard.

"Sometimes," I answer. "But if they hear about a good inn or tavern with good food and drink, they're just as likely to become patrons there as well. It helps support them rather than just freeloading somewhere."

"I see," he says. "Can we go somewhere that serves steaks?"

"Sure, though they might not be willing to serve it raw."

"I'll ask anyway."