"Performance arts used to be a barely existing field, with at most bards who travel around and sing their songs or stories where they went in the distant past. The world was far less peaceful and prosperous in those days, and entertainment tend to be far from one's mind when survival was what mattered most.

As peace and prosperity set in over the last few centuries, performance art started to crop up. Evrett Dalheim, considered the pioneer of modern plays, was the first to incorporate mist illusions into stage plays, and his techniques are still in heavy use in this day and age. Now it is far from an uncommon sight to see theater troupes and other performers visit even villages from time to time, instead of just seeing them in the biggest cities." Excerpt from "Development of Performance Arts" by Ragnar Magnussen, Jötunbergian author and famed director of stage plays.

After another two weeks of travel through harsh terrain and tropical jungles - some of the group actually found the trip quite relaxing, as they were merely carried by others - the group finally reached their destination. Saelostov was within sight.

It was a sunny afternoon when they finally spotted the city. Saelostov was set by the foot of a hill, where the iron mines used to be. Even these days the remnants of those mines still existed, and much of the hill's interiors were in the form of mineshafts leftover from the mining days, many of which had collapsed by now.

The city itself was very easily noticeable from afar, due to the vivid colors that decorated the walls and roofs of most of the buildings in town. Every shade from red to violet could be seen, on almost every surface of the city, with even the walls not spared from the decorative colors.

Once the group walked closer they noticed that most of those colors actually formed paintings and murals. Those pictures depicted every sort of scene, from the happy to the sad, the combative to the lewd, all of which were openly on display. Every single one was painted lovingly by hand, supposedly by the inhabitants of the city.

Guards who manned the gates of the city wore clothing in similarly festive and vibrant colors under their breastplates. Their gear was a show of wealth and power, as plate armor was generally something most cities could not afford to equip their guards with.

For what it's worth, the guards were serious and seemed quite competent despite their flamboyant outfits, and checked the credentials of every visitor carefully. Groups with artists in their midst tend to be processed faster than merchants or normal travelers as well, which Cal noticed since Kino's being a bard got them waved through the checkpoint sooner.

Once inside the city, they saw that not only were the walls and roofs of the buildings decorated with paintings and pictures, but even the roads were decorated with more of the same. Many colorful banners also hung from the buildings, which often took the role of typical placards that tell people what the building was, just more colorful and artful.

Bards that played their instruments or sing their songs were present in nearly every street, often near other performers as well, be they acrobats, jugglers, dancers, or other sorts. Cal even saw some men and women who performed a graceful sword dance in one of the more open areas, to the applause of many.

Smaller, open-air theaters were abundant as well, and one the group passed happened to display what looked like the story of brave, young adventurers who fought against a horrifying creature. Cal could detect the magic even from afar, and thus noticed that the creature in question was a mist construct rather than a real creature.

The effort and diligence put into it made the creature look very lifelike, and when one of the adventurers' weapons struck it, bleeding wounds opened up flawlessly, which furthered the sense of realism it gave out as a whole.

Kino seemed familiar with the city, as she walked confidently through the streets, and eventually led them to an area where the houses were notably larger in size. Other than the size difference, the houses were decorated in the same festive and vibrant manner as the rest of the city. They stopped before the door of one house from which hung a banner that depicted a fox's head in yellow on a field of blue and green.

"Yes? How can I help you, madam?" asked a therian butler shortly after Kino knocked on the door. She had gone there with Cal, while they had allowed the rest of their group to freely look around and enjoy the city, with an inn as their meeting point in the evening.

"Is Master Evrett Dalheim here? He told me I could find him in the Faerrel residence last we met," asked Kino to the butler in return, looking as if she belonged to the city.

"The master is present, but has not left a word about visitors," replied the butler with a polite bow. "May I ask madam's name so I can inform the master of your presence?"

"Just let him know that Kino Aphelia Renard came to visit, to discuss about the new blood," said Kino in return, as the butler nodded and bid them to wait before he quietly closed the door and went into the house.

"He's not hiding his name? Or identity?" Cal asked with some uncertainty in her voice. From what Kino told her, the Champion of Mist was a famous figure especially amongst artists.

"It's the reverse. He's just hiding in plain sight," replied Kino with a giggle. "Evrett had a huge extended family, which made Dalheim a common surname in this region. And after what he did back then? It'd be rare to find an artist family without an Evrett in them every generation or two. There's probably half a dozen Evrett Dalheims in this city right now, even."

"With that name being so common, who'd have thought he's the actual Evrett Dalheim people wrote about in the history books?"