"Hmm... what to do, what to do~." Anne mused to herself with a bored expression, with both of her hands resting on their respective knees and digging into her bony cheeks.

Within a mere few minutes after leaving the Adventurers Guild Hall building, the First Princess found herself with no goal in sight, sitting on the stone edges of a public fountain within the middle of the city. In front of her were the city's massive docks, an almost legendary work of construction that spanned the entire fjord from one end to the other, making as much use of the natural harbour as possible, lead towards the central district, where the guild hall was, by a wide, long lane of tooled, glistening stones. This long road to the city centre was called 'Glory Lane' by the residents and was made to amaze, with magical tiles and numerous glowing signs directing new arrivals to a variety of districts.

The City-State of Zlato has an entire eleven districts; the harbour, market, central, industrial, agricultural, magic and martial wards, red light, residential, luxury and the lord's castle districts. This does not include the unofficial underbelly of the city which acts as its black market, as well as source of all forms of shady income.

The Harbour district, as one may imagine, is the plot of land directly after the beach, filled to the brim with fisheries, warehouses, rudimentary smithies, general goods stores, pawnshops, emergency shelters, orphanages and slave processing facilities. It is the most disgusting part of town, with a myriad smells instantly assaulting any newcomer due to its peculiar combination of cold, arctic air and mercenary sweat, decomposing corpses, sick slaves and half-gutted fish. Despite this horrendous state of affairs, the harbour is seen as an almost holy place for the denizens of the city, as many of them are former slaves that have found themselves in Zlato seeking asylum, freedom and safety, all of which the city willingly provides in exchange for what is definitely not indentured servitude.

Anne had spent many hours pondering exactly why a slave would ever wish to come here, to this city of adventurers and glory hounds. Her first few hours within the city only served to further her confusion, as her public act of murder exposed the dangerous systems that this place worked on. However, with a little more digging, it had quickly become obvious as to why: cheap housing in the residential district, an endless supply of employment within the industrial and/or agricultural districts of the city, a plenty of just, good people skilled enough in magic to remove whatever form of slave collar, enchantment or otherwise will-binding frame used to enslave them, as well as the promise of safety provided by the presence of a potentially limitless amount of powerful individuals.

In complete contrast to the harbour, the Glory Lane is filled with wonders. Shops proudly presenting glorious sets of weapons and armour, high ranking alchemists cheerfully peddling their trade, numerous sculptors offering to create busts for the proud adventurers, as well as other artists, combined with the myriad enchanters offering their glowing, magical services to anyone that comes by.

Funnily enough, the actual market district of the city is behind all of these people, encircling the entirety of Glory Lane apart from the point located in the harbour. The 'real' market district concerns itself with less splendorous manners of trade, which means that more common materials, such as food and drink or other travelling supplies can normally be found there. This district is also where the city's other guilds are based, such as the merchants guild, labourers union and the provisioner entente are located.

The central district, where the Glory Lane ends, is nothing really special in of itself in Anne's mind. It looks to be a gigantic park in the middle of the city, with several fountains, lots of trees, benches, small leisure shops and cafe's are located. Despite being so small and seemingly insignificant, Anne's powers allowed her to realize that this is where the majority of the city's population could be found at waking hours of the day.

To Anne's left side and beyond the market district lied the twin districts which took care of the city's needs in unison, though from reading the souls of passer-by, Anne could already see that there were plenty of avenues for conflict between the industrial and agricultural sides of the city. Placing them so close together may have been a deliberate, but in Anne's view, poor choice made by the city's ancient, possibly-draconian lord. In any case, the Industrial District of Zlato served as a place filled with top-of-the-line steam works, foundries and other such facilities whose numerous products the city required in order to function. Not much else could be said about it, other than the fact that its low, annoying hum, as well as the rumbling of dwarven machinery could be felt all the way to the central district, which was several kilometres away from the place in question. Following directly behind the industrial district are the rolling, multi-hued fields, pastoral landscapes and picturesque fields that constitute the agriculture district. Being directly below the Mage Ward, the agriculture district is known for its entirely magical repertoire of produce, as nothing can actually grow on its own within this half-frozen land. Avarest is a continent of unnatural cold, with temperatures reaching such low levels that they are basically incalculable by any device, regardless of form. Still, being infused with copious amounts of druidic, shamanistic and otherwise magical power, as well as enjoying the protection of the immense heat barrier surrounding Zlato, the crops grow faster and bigger than anywhere else on the planet, tended to by an endless amount of willing slaves, working hard to earn their freedom and absolution.

From what she could gleam out of the souls of those around her, the great barrier surrounding Zlato is the result of a massive, channelled spellwork, a shield formed from dozens, if not hundreds of mages working around the clock to keep it functional. In order to achieve this grandiose feat, the city's dwellers raised five towers of glistening, black stone and enchanted gold which are high enough to remind Anne of the sky-scrapers back on earth. Every mage in this city has a dream which includes eventually retiring to work as a keeper of the shield, as it has become such a pivotal, respected and illustrious role within the city that its all the few children born here can think about. The keepers aren't a faction of their own as much as they are thought to be the heroes of everyone present and held in extremely high regard. If there was anything equatable to a crime within Zlato, then bringing harm upon one of the keepers was likely to be it.

To Anne's right lied the duo of residential districts; the normal and the luxury variant, that is. Their differences should be obvious, as the 'normal' district is occupied by commoners, released slaves or poorer adventurers, while the luxury district is a gigantic, beachside resort reserved for visiting nobility, rich merchants and famous adventurers. Like most of Zlato, these districts have been magically terraformed to better suit the various warm-blooded races living within it, though the luxury district takes that to an extreme degree as it basically looks like a tropical wonderland in the middle of a frozen hellhole.

Above these two living areas lied the Red Light district, suitably positioned to be surrounded by the commoners, the Lord's Castle and the martial ward. The First Princess found herself scowling at the presence of this district, not wishing to prod for information or even think about it more than was required. She did keep hearing about some kind of 'sale' going on regarding elves and felir prostitutes. That thought was also where her interest in the district completely died, as while elves are of some interest, the 'esoteric nature' of the felir being popular as prostitutes made her want to vomit.

Why?

Because the Felir are best described as a 'race of loli kemonomimi', who are bound to and have been created by one of the NAO, or the Nine And One called Davith. Anne remembers hearing that name for the first time from the lips of her grandfather. She remembers the spite and disgust that rolled off of his lips as he mentioned it. She also curses her innate curiosity as the event had caused her to do some research on the other gods of Aestra, only to find herself wishing she could vomit the memory instead of her stomach's contents afterwards. Learning about Davith did have one good result, which was becoming absolutely certain that all of the NAO gods were reincarnations much like her. Atlyon was just one of the nine, with the goddess of magic, Phexris, being his sister and Anne's grandaunt.

As previously mentioned, the Nine And One are a selection of nine individuals most commonly known to the races of Aestra as the 'old gods', as chosen by the creator himself to serve as the worlds protectors and guides. However, due to the unmistakeably evil and selfish nature of most of the NAO, this isn't how the races of the world see them, unless they were directly created by a NAO in ages past. The Inerti, much like the Felir, are one such race, having been born from Atlyon's essence during the long eon's of the gods endless slumber.

What disgusted Anne, as well as her grandfather, was the ridiculous, disgusting 'correction' imposed upon the species as a whole. Not only were they a species of relatively short lives, with the average Felir living up to a maximum of thirty years unless otherwise empowered, but they were also mentally bound, mind-controlled by a correction imposed by their own creator, to love and adore him and only him, forever and ever, from the moment of birth and till they inevitably perish. To be perfectly honest, Anne's disgust did not lie with the Felir themselves as much as it did with their divine father, as she knew full well that Davith was once just a normal guy, most likely some hyperactive, horny weeb at that.

Not that the other NAO were perfect beings or that her grandfather himself had zero faults in that regard. In fact, Anne often questioned just how a person like Atlyon even comes to be, as he was essentially given the power of a god, only to willingly sleep for eternity. It was an alien thought for Anne to ponder, often causing numerous head-shakes for the princess before she inevitably gives up on trying to figure it out.

In any case, Anne found herself standing up and turning around, looking for anything of particular interest with an equivalently bored expression etched onto her face.

To her current front lied the twin military districts of Zlato; the martial and magical wards, respectively. They operated much as one can imagine, with one side offering numerous training facilities, barracks, duelling arenas and generally anything a martial combatant might wish to use, while the other offered the same for mages; academies, libraries, places of silence and focus, magical focal points, exposed ley-line veins and more.

What caught Anne's attention though, was a magnificent, massive cathedral which she realized must be one of the two grand landmarks of the city; the legendary Katedra Est Dracul, which Anne figured meant something along the lines of 'Cathedral Of The Dragon' though she wasn't completely sure. In fact, knowing the name was likely some form of trick the city had to differ its usual adventurers from heroes like Anne, as foolish individuals would fall for the trap and speak its translated name out loud. Though, perhaps, this was merely little more than a thought caused by Anne's inner paranoiac, as she had no concrete proof for her conspiracy theory.

The cathedral itself was a wondrous construction built atop a sanctified hill, rising upwards and standing tall against the everlasting glacial mountains of Avarest, as if in defiance of the continents natural mystique and magical nature. The cathedral is said to be the only holy place in the entirety of Aestra whereas all manner of gods and goddesses are represented, excluding most of the NAO, but even if her grandfather was not part of the allowed pantheon within the place, she could still feel the immense, radiant power of the light echoing through the cathedral. It was strange that she couldn't feel it before, as its holy aura produced a soft, calming hum on the city's residents, almost like a bubble of inner peace that prevented most crime from even being planned. More than that, Anne felt drawn to it, to that seat of holy power, a realization that caused her to stop dead in her tracks as she couldn't figure out the reason why anyone would be summoning her there. She was a paladin sure, but a paladin of death. Nothing, no deity within that cathedral that she was aware of could possibly want anything to do with her.

Unless, of course, it was Phexris that was calling for Anne's presence. Being the sister of Atlyon and her grandaunt, Phexris had only communicated with Anne once or twice during her current life, most often through the appearance of helpful animal companions or guides, as well as what could only be described as 'strange magical winds' pushing her towards particular directions in life. Though Anne was not entirely certain as to why her grandaunt would even have a part of the Katedra dedicated to her, she was willing to find out.

"A thought for later..." The first princess nodded to herself as she turned her gaze westward, to the final important landmark of Zlato: the Lords castle. In many ways, the imposing structure, carved into the mountain in a fashion not too dissimilar from a dwarven hold, reminded her of home. Its blackened stones and golden spires mimicked those of the great towers protecting the heat barrier surrounding the city, though this vast, uniform building stretched out to cover an entire mountainside. It also reminded Anne of a diseased pustule, radiating hedonism and debauchery of the worst possible kind, so much so that the area around the castle seemed to be devoid of magic, though Anne could not figure out if that was due to some unseen enchantment draining the very air of life or because of the disgusting, lust-filled horrors that likely went on inside. Either way, the castle stood as the opposite of the grandiose cathedral not too far away from itself. Anne hoped to never have a reason to go there, even now.

With her mental exploration of the city complete, Anne focused herself and thought more of what she could do in order to waste time, yet as she thought deeper on the matter, she found herself becoming angrier and angrier, infuriated at the idea that was forming in her head; that being going to the nearest library and grabbing some good books to pass the time.

"Since when did I become such a nerd...?" Anne let out a sigh, inwardly blaming her numerous teachers for what they'd done to her. The torments she had to put through had become such a great part of her life that she could not do without them, it seemed, though not all was lost, for at least she could choose which books to read instead of being forced into what she believed to be boring literature.

A good look was given to her own sword, as the first princess remembered her battle with the drow, as well as the minos that came before him. Both of her opponents died miserly deaths, but both of them were also not slain solely by the blade in her possession and while Anne knew that this was due to the fact that all her training had been focused on developing her fists and kicks respectively, that didn't mean she stopped dreaming about becoming a master of all forms of weaponry. Perhaps, this freedom to seek out her own desired literature was a gift, not a curse. Who knows? Maybe by reading some book about an ancient sword art, Anne will learn of a hero that broke free of his ties to humanity in order to become something far greater.

A few minutes later...

Unsurprisingly, it did not take Anne a very long time to find what she was looking for, as right at the gates separating the market district and the mage ward, was a small alley with a lustrous book store which glowed with a number of exotic signs reminiscent of magical neon. It wasn't anything too splendorous when compared to every other shop she'd seen so far, but a nice, quiet place that didn't seem to have too many patrons called 'Foul-Cat Book store'.

A peculiar name and not one that Anne took a particular liking to, considering that all it took was one look inside for her to detect the soul of a Felir, yet despite this, the first princess found herself drawn to the place and so she walked inside, meeting face to face with the receptionist and likely owner of the place.

What seemed to be a young, twelve year old girl was standing on a stool with one of her elbows placed against a large oak table, with one hand pressing into her cheek and the other holding a book. She had long, dark green hair with a black hairpin somehow managing to hold the entirety of it together without fail. Her eyes appeared to be a striking, dark purple and the woman wore a rather detailed, beatific black dress.

Anne rolled her eyes as she carefully closed the door to the outside and made her way in silently, so as to not disturb the woman up front. "Figures that the first Felir I ever get to meet is a gothic lolita."

Meanwhile, the felir in question put her book down and quirked an eyebrow at Anne, before exhaling a breath of seemingly immense relief. "Oh thank fuck. A new child of the NAO in this gods-forsaken city!" Anne had to blink in surprise as the woman's thoughts etched themselves upon her soul, causing a stupefied look to appear on her own.

"Hello~! Welcome to Foul-Cat's Book store~! I'm Mimi, the owner and proprietornya~! How can I help nya- grr-..." Anne found herself blinking in confusion as she listened to the woman speak. Her soul and mouth seemed to indicate completely different sentences, as there was no sing along tone or ridiculous, excessive 'nyas' in her thoughts, unlike what was presented in reality.

Which likely meant that they were both just further effects of Davith's mind-control over his own species. Anne found herself recoiling in disgust, but quickly shook it away. "Uh, hi. Name's Anne Sedellean. I'm here to buy some books."

"No shit, bitch? Why the fuck else would you walk into a god damn book store? You think I can't see your disgust either, huh? Its written all over your fucking lion-ass face!" Mimi continued to smile bashfully as Anne's left eye twitched due to the unspoken insults thrown her way, though she admitted that her response to the shopkeeper was idiotic. "Yes, of course! And I'm here to help nya~! So what kind of books can I interesnya-... What. Kind. Of. Books; can I interest you in... nya..."

Anne could practically hear the veins popping inside of the felir's skull as her own braincells struggled against the onslaught of cringe. The First Princess slammed her right palm into her face in an effort to dislodge herself via shock therapy, as she rose a hand towards Mimi in an almost defensive manner. "Alright, look; I'm interested in whatever you have about swords, swordfighing, ancient hero tales..." She trailed off and blinked. "Oh- and some books about teleportation magic for beginners, if you can."

Mimi quirked an eyebrow and opened her mouth to speak, only to have Anne shush her with a finger. "Excuse me, but I can read your mind. Please, don't torture yourself any more, uh, Mimi."

To her credit, it only took the shell-shocked felir all of two seconds of shuddering to begin to cry. "Y-you mean I don't have to t-talk and you can hear m-my thoughts instead?"

Anne offered the tortured woman a nod, causing her tears to quicken before she wiped them off with a nearby book. "T-this... I don't even know what to say. We just met, but would you be willing to become my best friend? Also, please forgive me f-for the insults, I-"

"You're forgiven. Good lord, that shit must've been embarrassing as all hell for you." The first princess decidedly removed the shushing finger from the catgirls mouth with an awkward cough. "And I'm not sure you'd actually want me as a friend. Maybe give it some time first, get to know each other better and all that, eh?"

"You can't even imagine it, Miss Sedellean... Just think about it; spending your entire life thinking one thing and being forced to say an extremely embarrassing version of it." The felir muttered on the inside of her head as she leaped off of the stool she was standing on, being barely a meter and twenty centimetres high on her own. "But you're right about giving our friendship some time. Please, excuse my enthusiasm, as this is the first time I've met an Inerti that could actually Soul Read like the ones in my books."

"You've had Inerti patrons who couldn't do it?" Mimi let out an extremely annoyed sigh. "I only know of two others; a decrepit old wizard and some noble bitch from the Empire. The first had no clue such an 'art' existed and the other never cared to learn it." Anne let out a chuckle at the mention of the other Inerti she'd seen within the city, though she was surprised that the felir was aware of Soul Reading as an existing power even before today.

"Well, its not something every Inerti is able to master, as normally only the highest echelons of our society can actively use it." Mimi's lips curved upwards in a smirk. "Oooh~? What does that make you then, Anne?"

"A runaway noble heiress." Anne retorted with a smile of her own as Mimi rolled her eyes with a snort. "Tch. You're no funnya- blech..."

The felir woman quipped openly before she could stop herself, causing another visible vein of annoyance to pop on her forehead. Shaking her head out of her own stupor, Mimi waved what looked to be an oaken wand around, with hands of magic forming from thin air and gathering an assortment of books before placing them on the receptionist desk. "Here, these are what you asked for, containing everything I have on swords, teleportation magic as well as my own favourite hero story. I'll let you sift through them before buying but no magic instant-readthroughs allowed!"

Anne offered the shorter woman a nod, throwing a look at the assortment of about ten or so books with silent glee. "Alright, how much per book?"

"You can find the price tag on the first page of every book. They don't all cost the same." Mimi jumped up onto her stool and leaned into her desk once again, opening up her tear-stained book in order to continue reading where she last left off. "Oh, and one more thing; once you're done browsing and don't find yourself in a hurry, I'd really appreciate it if you could stay for a nice thought-chat with me. Hell, I'll even throw in a discount in it for you if you do."

Anne winced at the desperation in the woman's tone and then again at the sheer lack of true emotion present on the felir's own expression, yet she nodded nonetheless, sifting through the books with an approving frame. "I'll gladly stay for a bit but not too long. A very special someone is expecting me at noon, so we have about an hour or two left to chat."

As the first princess sifted through the books; she found a couple that caught her eye. One was a compendium of simple sword stances and blade types, while another was named 'How to Blink without killing yourself, for noobs' which made Anne wonder if there was a 'pro version' of that book, though the last one in the row, which the felir called her 'favourite hero story', was a well-read codex seemingly bound in a strange, bleached leather. It didn't take long for Anne to realize that this was, in fact, dried human skin. The book itself seemed to possess no special powers, as far as Anne could tell, though just looking at it gave her the creeps. The book was titled 'War aloft the Throne Of Sin, part two'.

"Hey, Mimi? This book you gave me says its a 'part two'. Do you have the part one too or...?" The catgirl looked up with a blink and nodded, but not before shrugging in a bored manner. "I do, but its just some boring story about a hero betraying humanity and turning evil. The second part details his actual war against the species, which is a lot more interesting."

"Maybe so, but I'd still like to read the whole thing, y'know?" Anne tried to hide her excitement, which thankfully only served to confuse the felir, as Mimi chuckled and nodded. "Right, right. I got you, don't you worry... just need to remember where I put the damn thing first."