Early Evening - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

As I walked out of the cottage, I changed back to my dragon form and stretched. "Ahhh.. mmm.."

A wave of sleepiness started overtaking me before something caught my attention.

-Oh.. My ID melted..- While fighting the assassin, I never regulated the temperature around me since it was unnecessary, but it seems like it was still too much for my ID.

-Oh well..- Although it was definitely an inconvenience, I wasn't too worried about it -Maybe I should ask Oliver if I can get one made out of a material that won't melt so easily..-

Finally making it to the hot spring, I tossed my ID to the side and hopped in.

"Haah.. that's nice.." A wave of nostalgia washed over me as I floated in the warm water. -Although I only did it once, it was nice to swim in that little fountain..- [1]

As I layed there and bathed in the memories for a moment, a suppressed desire crept through. -I really wanna take a dip in the ocean.. Mother would probably freak out though..-

Growing up, Mother would give me countless warnings and tell horrifying stories about the vast abyss called the ocean, but somehow I still wanted to explore it for myself.

From what I pieced together through Mothers lessons about it, the oceans were filled to the brim with dangerous creatures that only got stronger as you went deeper.

It was a simple principle that was even visible on Earth with the exception of larger fish struggling to sustain themselves on food, but for whatever reason, I put way too much faith into it. -Even with the help of mana, I find it hard to believe fish can live in water as deep as what Mother talked about..-

According to what I assumed to be an outlandish exaggeration, Mother would always mention that some parts of the ocean could get down to well over a hundred kilometers deep, with some parts being too deep for even the oldest of dragons to handle.

There was still an ounce of doubt lingering in my mind though. -What if the ocean really is that deep..-

Almost immediately, a chill went down my spine and a mix of curiosity and anxiety filled my gut.

“Haah..” Quickly trying to ease the conflicting emotions, I tried to calm my mind and sank into the water.

I ended up floating in the water for the next several hours, simply getting lost in my thoughts as I used water magic to float weightlessly.

It wasn't until I heard an unusual hum that I finally came back up to the surface. *Quiet humming*

-Huh? Oh, it's just the lift..- Not paying mind to it, I laid my head back down on the surface of the water and closed my eyes.

"I'm glad you enjoyed your shopping trip Lucy.." Sarah’s voice was drained of energy.

In contrast, Lucy was the complete opposite. "Of course! Thank you so much Auntie!!"

"Hah-hah.. No worries Lucy, it was fun.” Her voice was so drained, I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic. “Next time though, I think you should be a little more conservative with your spending.."

"Hm? What do you mean? I haven't gone shopping in months, so I only spent my saved up allowance."

Sarah tensed up a bit as Lucy mentioned her ‘allowance’. "Sure.. but you bought so much stuff I had to call someone to help deliver it all to the palace.." Casually looking around the shelter, she noticed me and gave a light wave before turning back to Lucy. "Well, let's go inside first, it seems everyone is inside."

"Alright, I want to give father a gift too!"

They continued to talk as they made their way up to the cottage and walked inside. *Click*

“Haah..” With them gone, I was once again left to the silent hum of nearby artifacts and fell into a light sleep.

I hadn't been able to relax at all since I arrived in Kaelallan so I planned to take advantage of the peaceful silence.

But sadly, it didn't last long.

*Click*

Walking out of the cottage less than a few hours later was Sarah wearing something similar to a swimsuit.

Waking up to the click of the door, I looked over and took a second to look her up and down.

-Swim suits in this world look quite.. good..- It was a bikini similar to what you'd find on earth, but gave a bit more coverage. The material was also high quality and had some frilly designs making the bottom seem similar to a skirt.

As she got close, she noticed my look but didn't say anything and just blushed slightly.

"I didn't know the humanoids had swimsuits."

She looked over as she slowly got into the water. "They are pretty rare actually, very few people have the luxury to swim. Bathing itself has only recently become more common with the newly discovered ‘water source’ artifacts."

"What's considered recent?"

"I guess around 50 years it finally reached most areas around the continent."

"So what are they? Do you know how they work?"

"Yes, it's quite common knowledge nowadays, at least outside of the slums and backwater towns. All it is, is a monster core with a water rune written on it. We haven't quite figured out why, but if someone sets it out in the open, it will produce water on its own. It doesn't usually work well indoors though so how it works is still unknown."

"You seem to be quite well informed, you knew more than I expected.." -To think the science of this era is this young though..-

"Well that's to be expected.. gathering information is one of the biggest parts of my job." She looked down and awkwardly played with the water as she spoke.

"What's the other big reason?" -That cant be the only reason she chose to be a prostitute..-

She stopped swirling around the water before her expression darkened slightly. "..money.."

-What?- "Weren't you an adventurer? Don't they get paid really well?"

"Well I wanted to settle down just like the rest of our group since adventuring without a party is a death wish, but I had no where near enough funds saved up to retire and I didnt have a talent like cooking so I decided to make a prostitution company in the red light district."

"Oh so you're the owner?"

"Yes, technically. A close friend of mine does most of the managing though."

"Well even so, it's quite commendable that you were able to make a successful business. What's the money like?"

"Thank you.. the money is quite good actually. I make several times what Lewis does from his bar, but that's been changing in recent years."

"What's been happening?"

"There’s been a huge influx of immigrants. People have been coming from the Kingdom of Sinder and our surrounding towns in droves recently."

-Hm.. I wonder why… Is it the Tower’s doing?- "Do you know what happened in Sinder?"

"I'm not entirely sure, people just keep saying something about ‘the rod of god'."

-Pfft... If that's the Tower’s doing, that's hilarious...- "What about nearby towns though?"

"Well, bandits have started becoming more and more of a problem and there has been a huge spike in extremely strong monsters appearing recently."

"What's considered extremely strong?"

"Haah.. I guess around S rank? I'm not entirely sure... They've been causing some major problems and have been killing a huge number of adventurers though. Kaelallan has already lost a few S ranks.."

-Ah.. That could be something..- Although it was only a gut feeling, I felt as if there was some sort of connection between the bandits and the monster wave. -Maybe I should look more into that..-