200 Long, the Capital of Shenzhou

"We've been through this, what, like three times now? The border and two checkpoints, so just sit still and let us do your makeup. Your the only one left so quit putting it off," Yue says.

"I'd rather dig than let you put that stuff on again!"

"Why are you so against it, you look nice with it on?" Yue asks.

"I don't know how the rest of you can stand it, but your makeup irritates my skin and I keep scratching at it. I'm fairly certain I'm allergic to whatever is used to make it, although I don't know what it is nor am I going to eat it to find out."

"Even so, this time, digging isn't an option this time. Just where do you think you're gonna pop out in a city like Long."

"How about I just turn myself invisible and stick close to Lia when you all walk through the city gates. In addition to hiding Lia's horns and tail as well as Wanjing's ears and tail, I should still be able to keep myself invisible for a couple of hours."

"I think that's a great idea!" Lia shouts after listening to my proposal.

"You really will use any possible excuse you can to stick close to Cordelia. But regardless, I think that would probably work. Ideally, the dogs would just think that Lia has a strange scent. Worst case, a fight breaks out, which let's be honest, will happen with Cordelia around, be it a drunken bar fight or skirmish with the authorities," Aurelia says.

"I hate that you're probably right," I say.

"Well, I also think that we could probably fool them like that. In most cases, I wouldn't say this is a good thing, but the guards around Long are a bit too relaxed in their duties, if we exclude the Imperial Guards. This being the case, there is actually a decently high chance that such a simple plan can at the very least, squeeze us into the Capital," Yue says.

"Great then let's put it to action and make way for the city. I can't wait for my next gourmet tour."

Without waiting for a response, I begin bending the light around me as well as Lia and Wanjing's nonhuman features. Due to the limited time that I can spend invisible, there isn't any argument over remaining idle, although it did help that pretty much everything from the campsite was packed and everyone else had been ready for a while.

It didn't take much more than half an hour before we arrived at one of the entrances to the Capital and queued up with everyone else to pass through the inspection. The queue itself isn't very long and it doesn't take more than a few minutes before it's our turn to get questioned by the guards. But thanks to Yue's presence we get to skip by a lot of the usual procedures, although it may also be because they're lazy and since we're with an official they don't feel the need to do an in-depth check on us. Yeah, probably the latter, I see a couple of the guards playing simple games. Yue was right, these guys are way too relaxed. I probably didn't even need to hide myself, with their attitudes they probably wouldn't have even noticed I'm a criminal.

With the entrance behind us, we begin walking around the city and I can't help but appreciate the architectural decisions behind each city in Shenzhou. Since every city has the same basic layout, even I have trouble getting lost as the similar layout makes it very easy to find my general location, it's just trying to navigate through each district can be a bit of a problem sometimes. But this is still much better than everywhere else I've been to in Grauntia.

So far the only problem is finding a good spot to undo the invisibility since no matter where I look there's a crowd, although, this isn't unexpected considering this it the Capital of Shenzhou. Without any decent place to undo the camouflage, Yue decides to bring us to the hidden base she has here in the Capital, this place apparently serves as one of the core operation headquarters for that gang she runs, the Scarlet Wings.

After a few minutes, we arrive at a dumpling shop as Wanjing gives Yue a questioning gaze, but the rest of us quickly figure out that this is probably just a cover. Yue guides us to a back room and begins to change her outfit to that of her Scarlet Feather persona as she begins to explain.

"Wanjing looks to still be in the dark, but the rest of you have probably figured out that the dumpling service is just a cover to hide this place's true purpose. However, those dumplings are still fit for a nice snack, they are made per my specifications after all. But I digress, this place is the entrance to the main hideout of the Scarlet Wings, oh, and speaking of, take these," Yue says as she hands us a small red feather-shaped badge.

"Wanjing asks?"

"An insignia that will tell your subordinates to let us through, right? We have something similar back home, don't we?" I ask.

"Yeah, we do, although you never use it," Lia says.

"Right, you did mention that you two were a part of a bandit group. Although from what Cordelia's told me, they're mostly bandits only in name," Yue says.

"Well, as far as activities in our home nation goes that is, but our subordinates do act like real bandits outside the Alliance borders," Lia explains.

"If we ignore the lack of activity on the sea, they're basically privateers," Aurelia says.

"Makes sense, I do recall you lot mentioning that the leader is an important government leader in your homeland. But moving back to the topic at hand, with this badge you can freely enter the hidden bases of the Scarlet Wings, not that we have a lot, but let's ignore that, follow me, I'll show you around," Yue says as she knocks on the floor to reveal a stairway leading underground.