A Pitstop in the City

Having just passed by the city gate's, we turn the corner on the street as I release my control over the light, revealing us in the empty alley.

"You were right, the security here is really lacking," I say.

"I know I'm the one who said that, but I don't think there's a lot of people who can notice you when you can turn invisible for a few minutes. With a skill like that, you can probably sneak your way into any place you want, with the exception of the most heavily guarded areas," Yue says.

"Indeed, that is quite the ridiculous skill you've picked up, Cordelia," Aurelia says.

"Says the poster child of ridiculous skills. But more importantly what's the best place to eat around here?" I ask.

"I wouldn't know, I've never been to this city before, what about you, Yue?" Wanjing asks.

"I've been here before, but I was always just passing through. I did eat at one place here a few years back and it was a decent place, but I don't remember exactly where the restaurant was located. Although it shouldn't be too difficult to find since there aren't many restaurants in this city."

"Before we go, I've been meaning to ask for a while now, but what's the name of this city? The both of you have just been referring to it as 'this city' or the city'," Lia asks.

"Now that I think about it, neither of you have mentioned the city's name," I say.

"It's called Wushan," Aurelia says.

"Just how did you know? I ask.

Raising her brow slightly, Aurelia says, "just who the hell do you think I am?"

"Ok, fair point, that was a stupid question. Let's just look for a place to eat, then we can decide on what to do next."

As we walk down the streets of Wushan, I bend the light around the wings and horns of me and Lia so as to avoid attracting too much attention to our Dragon features. Compared to when I first used this technique, I can keep it up for much longer and the burden of having to only conceal our wings and horns is much less compared to full bodies.

After asking around for a bit, we find out that there are only three restaurants within the entire city, although there's also a bar that provides a light snack, but that's all there is for places to eat. Other than those four we'd have to go to the market and buy ingredients to cook for ourselves. Since it was on the way to the closest restaurant, we did stop by the market to buy some more raw ingredients since most of our stock had been eaten over the past week since leaving Zhongyang.

We arrive at one of the three restaurants and the only thing I can think of is how small the place is. I get it, the city is small and doesn't see much traffic, but damn, there are only seven tables. Two of the tables are full, but it's just a few old folks chatting with each other.

Having noticed our group, someone who I assume works here comes over and says, "a table for five?"

"That's right," Yue says.

"Right this way," the waiter says as he guides us to one of the larger tables in the restaurant.

Taking our seats, we look over towards one of the walls of the restaurants which has pictures of the food served here, likely replacing a physical menu.

"I'll have eight pork buns," I say while the waiter looks at my stomach then back at my face with a look of surprise.

"Uhh... ok, eight pork buns. Do the rest of you know what you want or should I come back in a few minutes?"

"I'll have the same as her, eight pork buns," Yue says.

"I'll have... the curry, that is curry right?" Lia asks pointing at one of the pictures on the wall.

"Yes, it's chicken curry," the waiter responds.

"I'll have the roast pork," Wanjing says.

"Stir-fried vegetables for me," Aurelia says as Lia, Wanjing, and I give her some strange looks.

"So that's two orders of eight pork buns, a chicken curry, roast pork, and order of stir-fried vegetables. I'll bring you food out as soon as it's ready," the waiter says before leaving our table.

With the waiter gone, Aurelia, seeing our expressions and our gaze which is directed at her, says, "what? I'm not a carnivore like you lot, I try to maintain a balanced diet.

"Ok, whatever you say, weirdo."

"You are one of the last people who can call someone else a weirdo, Cordelia."

"Putting Aurelia's strange taste in food aside, what should we do now? This isn't exactly the best place to be discussing our plans," Wanjings says.

"Oh, don't worry about that, I already set up a barrier to block the outgoing sound so that the people around us can't hear our conversation. I, however, happened to hear about a naughty cat questioning my taste in food, I wonder who that was?"

"I wonder, ahhaha..." Wanjing says, letting out some dry laughter.

"Since we can talk freely, what's next? We've already finished up most of our business here, so what's the plan moving forward," Lia asks.

"Honestly, we can just walk the rest of the way to the Capital, Long. I originally thought about a few out of the way routes we could take to avoid the border patrol in the Xia province, but with Cordelia's ability to conceal us for a period of time, we can just walk right by the checkpoints. Until we reach Long that is. Security is much higher in Long and it's neighbouring cities, so we will need a new plan once we are in Xia. But for now, we can just calmly walk our way in."

"I'm fine with that, as long as I don't need to dig all the way to the Capital then I'm honestly fine with anything."

"Should we head out today or should we find a place to stay for the day?" Lia asks

"I can see the waiter coming back with our food, so I'm going to take the barrier down. For now, we can decide after we eat," Aurelia says.