Adventures of the last Wild Dragon-Chapter 174: Touring

Bazen led the 4 women down the Main Street of the city of Cragkieth, the bustling crowd parting naturally around him. This was not done consciously, but was in fact a subtle use of the man’s presence, it harmlessly nudged the populace out of the way without them even noticing.

Violet and Luna of course noticed him doing that, their eyes finally torn away from the bustle of the city as they stared at the intricate movement of his presence. Seeing their stunned look Bazen chuckled and spoke over his shoulder.

"This is just one of many tricks that can be accomplished by utilising your presence. I would be happy to train you in some of the finer points at a later date, for now just enjoy the show." He winked at them before turning back around.

And enjoy the show they did, the companions tried to follow how his presence gently enveloped the pedestrians. How it building them out of his path, how it so effortlessly directed them without the people even realising they were being effected.

Susan and Rhyana were both equally awed at the display, whilst they had not gained as great a mastery over their presence when compared to Violet and Luna. They had been training diligently with the methods shown to them by Ivy, so they understood just enough to understand how impressive the display truly was.

The group slowly made their way down the street, the flow of people only increasing the deeper into the city they went.

They passed by open squares, lined with merchants selling everything from textiles to food. The smell of which instantly captured Violet attention. She found herself wandering over to the stall, her nose twitching at the delectable smell.

The store owner noticed her approach and smiled wide, the older dwarven female made a welcoming gesture and spoke up with a kind and raspy voice.

"I see you have a good nose there! Can I interest you in the finest Penolo in the city?"

Violet looked up at the elderly dwarf and nodded vigorously. "Yes! What is it? It smells amazing!"

The dwarf smiled at her as she began readying the food. Said food was a mix of meats and grains stuffed into a flatbread of some kind, covered in a hardened crisp of cheese. As the woman explained the items within she presented the parcel of food to Violet, she gently took it from the dwarf and took a large bite out of it, a soft moan escaped her mouth as she savoured the taste.

With her mouth still half full she managed to speak. "This is amazing! I want them all!" The dwarf smiled at the energetic woman before her, only for her mind to catch up to what was said.

"D-did you say you want them all?" At Violet’s energetic nodding the dwarf smiled wide. "Of course dear customer. I must confirm that you have the funds before I begin preparing it however." At that Violet remembered the literal piles of gold and gewles that resided within her storage item.

Thinking about it she summoned forth a handful of golden coins and placed them on the cart. The dwarfs eyes opened wide as she gazed upon the small pile of golden coins that appeared out of no where. The amount of money that was so casually proffered to her could buy her house, cart and hell she’d even be willing to sell herself for that amount of money!

It was then that Bazen quickly approached, he quickly gathered most of the coins and thrust them back at Violet saying. "That is far too much, a single gold coin is already more than enough for all of her food here." He then gave the dwarf a meaningful look that practically screamed ’don’t go asking for more’.

Dumbly the dwarf nodded and then proceeded to begin prepping all of the food.

The rest of the girls had also naturally followed and began to dig into the Penolo. All of them thourghly enjoying the food being presented to them. Any excess was quickly stored away in Violet’s storage, ready to be consumed at a later date.

Before long the stall was out of food and the smiling dwarf proceeded to pack away her cart.

Then Violet proceeded to wander over to the next food cart along to just repeate the process all over again, this time only paying a singular golden coin for all of their food! She was smart dragon after all!

Bazen looked on with a blank look in his eye as he watched the voracious dragon and her friends clean out an entire market of all of their food. He felt his eye twitch as the glutons actions.

He let out a sigh and quietly muttered to himself. "Like mother like daughter apparently."

Whilst he had never personally met the dragon princess as he was not alive during her time. He had heard the tales of her voracious appetite, of how she would walk, or more likely fly into a city and nearly clean it out of food. He chuckled to himself as he watched the excitable dragon dash from stall to stall, collecting enough food to feed a small army and spending enough gold to pay said army.

Eventually though Bazen did intervene, pulling Violet and her friends away from the food stalls. "If you buy everything no one else will be able to eat. Plus don’t you already have enough food to last you for a while?"

Violet pouted slightly at that, muttering under her breath as she was led away. "But it’s all so tasty."

"And if you stay here for a little while then you will have plenty of opportunities to taste all of the cuisine that this fair city has to offer." He said in a light hearted manner.

She did relent at that, thinking that it wouldn’t actually be all that bad to have a chance to relax in comfort for a little while. She had never really had a chance to just relax, the closest that she ever really got to that was when she and Luna were waiting for the storm to pass.

She suddenly felt a wave of melancholy as she remembered that her mothers body rested at the top of that mountain, the memory of her tinted with a new light thanks to some of the stories she had heard about her from Ivy. She once more felt Luna’s hand take ahold of her own, giving it a gentle squeeze and bumping her shoulder into Violet’s as they walked on.

Violet smiled up at her companion, her reassuring presence warming her heart and helping her shake off the dour mood she momentarily took on.

The group continued to wander through the city, taking seemingly random turns as they followed the Minotaur deeper into the city.

Luna took note of the various people that populated this place, some she recognised, some were entirely foreign to her. It was fascinating for the girl, seeing so many different species living together in apparent harmony.

When compared to her small clan of snow leopard beastkin, this metropolis of myriad species was beyond anything that she had ever imagined seeing. More people lived in a 20 meter radium from her than lived in her entire clan. It was a sobering thought.

But what truly amazed Violet was the relative strength of the average citizen. Whilst their was the odd Lord scattered about, most people were significantly weaker. If she had to guess she believed that most people were only in the second tier, with plenty not even out of the first tier.

She remembered Susan explaining as such, yet to actually see so many weak beings all gathered in a singular place... it took her some time to truly comprehend. Eventually she just straight up asked. "Why is everyone so weak here?"

Bazen smiled wryly at that question, taking a moment to think up his response. "Well it’s mainly because not many people want to risk their lives fighting. Most just want to live a peaceful life. Those that don’t want to fight contribute to the city in other ways. Which as the cooks that you bought all of that food from, they probably have not fought a single beast, yet they provide a valuable service to the city."

That mostly made sense to Violet, she supposed that it made sense that not everyone fought. She had seen plenty of strong people wandering around, although Bazen was the only sovereign that she had spotted so far. The strongest individual that she had seen past him was in the late stages of Tier 4.

Still it was a strange thing, to not have to fight for survival. To not have to worry about someone strong just stumbling across you and deciding that you looked tasty. But it was also quite reassuring, to know that the world was not entirely full of conflict, that places of relative peace could exist.

The group continued on, until eventually they stopped outside of a large compound, a tall black stone wall surrounded the space, with 2 guards standing outside of an open gate leading further in. They wore the emblem of the Wild Order, a grand tree wrapped in vines.

As the group approached the guards bowed towards them, receiving a grunt of acknowledgement from Bazen as he strode past them, into the compound. Violet and Luna shared a glance, before they too strode through the gate, entering the Wild Order.