The Port City

It was only a few minutes' walk before we reached the city center.

The city was big, but the buildings were a lot more spaced out than in Newron and some even had farms or large fields between them.

Once the sound of the ocean current could be heard clearly, it finally felt like we were here.

The city center had many smaller market stall-like buildings that were covered with rags, most likely shops that would open during the day.

From the front of the city center was hill and beyond that was the ocean. It was quite misty outside so we couldn't see that far out, but the fresh smell of salt water was a nice change.

"We're almost to our place. We just need to go past that pillar over there." Lewis said as he pointed towards the stone pillar on the outskirts of the city center.

There were two different paths leading from the city center. One was through the stone pillar while the other arched to the right and went downhill.

"What's down that way?" I asked.

"Oh, that leads to the docks. If you look between those buildings, you can see the ships. Well, maybe not right now. The night here gets pretty cold, right? And the mist doesn't help at all in seeing that far. It's one of the reasons this city is an easy picking for the pirates. Never mind that though, just watch your steps up this hill. The road can get slippery."

The hill leading out of the city center had no buildings on it. It was a nice grassy hill and I'm sure the view of the ocean would be amazing from up here.

After we climbed the hill, we reached a place Lewis called the Higher Central. Apparently the city center would be where most of the lower class people would be selling their stuff while in the Higher Central, there would be more expensive and higher quality stuff.

Lewis stopped in front of one of the buildings in the Higher Central. It was a tall three-story building made of bricks. There were moss growing everywhere I looked and the building itself appeared very old.

"Well, here we are! Home sweet home," Lewis said as he opened the door.

Immediately after entering the building, the first thing I noticed was the smell. It smelled like the carpets were wet and hadn't been cleaned in ages. There were also no windows nearby to let in fresh air.

"I feel like I'm going to throw up…" Mun said as she covered her nose and mouth.

Even Tal, who would normally argue with Mun, nodded. "I can't say this is the worst place I've been in, but still…"

"This is their home, we shouldn't be saying stuff like that," Lorelei claimed.

I would normally agree with her, but not this time.

"Lorelei, I think you're only fine with it because you can't smell," I said as I plugged my nose.

Chris remained silent but she had already covered her face with her scarf. Lewis was the only one who seemed unbothered by the smell.

"Ah… just the way we left it," he said proudly. "Here, let's go to the second floor, you can leave your stuff there."

I was only hoping the rest of the house didn't smell like this and to my pleasure, it didn't. For some reason, it was only the hallway on the first floor that smelled that badly.

"Just a quick tour here, the kitchen is on the first floor right past the stairs, there's bathrooms on the second and also the top floor, and we have two guest rooms here in the second floor so you can decide how you want to split up. Chris and I will be staying in the room on the top floor."

"Din and I can share a room," Tal suggested.

I asked, "Are you sure?"

He nodded. "Even though Lorelei doesn't take any actual form, I feel like girls still need their privacy so we can just have them be in one room."

Mun seemed really happy about this decision. "More room for me!"

"Are you fine with that, Lorelei?" I asked.

She nodded.

As we walked towards our room, I noticed a peculiar painting on the wall.

"Huh? What's this?" I asked.

It was a painting of a tall blond man with his wife, who was also blond.

Lewis walked next to me and rested his arm on my shoulder. "Oh this? This was three years ago. Ah, good ol' time. We had a great time there, right, Chris?"

I looked over at Chris, but she didn't respond. She did seem a bit flustered though.

"Who are the people in the picture?"

Lewis looked at me with a confused expression and it was then that I realized, the picture was of them!

"You two are married?!" I screamed out.

"Y-yeah, Din. Why are you so surprised?"

I looked back at the painting. The man was tall, but unlike Lewis, he was skinny and almost looked like a skeleton. I couldn't even process how the woman could be Chris. She was smiling with pure joy! I don't think I ever saw anything besides a stern face from her.

"H-how? Just how?!"

"What's all the noise about?" Tal asked as he stepped outside of the guest room and into the hall.

I pointed towards the painting.

"Hm, that's a happy looking couple… what about it?"

"That's Lewis and Chris."

Tal remained silent for a second. He looked at the painting and then towards Lewis and Chris. Then he laughed, "You can't be serious, Din. Lewis is a titan of a man, not a twig like that guy."

"You know, you're being awfully rude there," Lewis murmured under his breath.

"Besides, Lewis and Chris are like completely opposites, there's no way they're a good—!?"

Chris had suddenly hit Tal on his side. With a scream of pain, he fell to the floor and then remained there, silent.

With a sigh, Lewis explained, "Yes, Chris and I are married. I didn't think it was that of a surprise. We've known each other since we were kids and fell in love a couple years back. Oh I remember the time I confessed my feelings to her. It was at the hillside past Higher Central. I told her about how I felt and then I was really surprised when she—!?"

Lewis had gotten hit on his side as well. Chris' face was red, but I couldn't tell whether she was angry or embarrassed.

Without a word, she walked down the hall and then climbed up the stairs. I waited for the sound of the door to her room to close before checking on whether Lewis and Tal were actually okay.

—About an hour after our arrival, Lewis, Tal, and I decided to head out into the city to get a few drinks. I wasn't too keen on drinking, but I wanted to get to know Lewis better. To be honest, I didn't really know much about Tal either.

I wore my robe and then hid my face under my hood. It had been weeks since the night of the Ace knight ceremony so news about me probably traveled to Lanport by now.

The last thing I wanted was to be recognized and then having to flee just after reaching the city. We still had the issue of renting a ship to take us to Aegis in the first place.

Lewis patted me on the back, "You look very suspicious dressed like that, Din."

"I'm not going to take any chances," I replied.

"You know, the laws here in Lanport aren't like the ones in Newron. Because of how often we get visits from other cities and countries, we have a lot of different kinds of people living here."

"What does that have anything to do with this?" I asked.

He sighed.

"Let me finish. There are a lot of different kinds of people coming and going from here. That includes criminals. Even pirates come here and are free to go about. That's because the law allows them to be free as long as they haven't committed any crimes in Lanport. Anything they've done outside, the law here doesn't care for them."

"Doesn't that make this place dangerous, then?"

"Sure it does! That's why we in Lanport must be tough and skilled. If there's an attack, we know how to defend ourselves. I'm sure the average man in Lanport can take on a Silver knight with ease. They might have trouble against Gold knights though and definitely don't stand a chance against Platinum and Ace," he gave out a cough before collecting his thoughts, "As I was saying, you don't have to hide your face here. You'll be just fine."

I took off my hood and then took in a deep breath. It was hard, but I was able to calm myself eventually. If any trouble arose, we all still had our weapons beside us.