Hey guys, my previous laptop died so I had to buy a new one. Still ain't used to write on a desktop so I am pretty slow...

Well hope you'll enjoy it, I had an hard time writting this part after such a long time.

Enjoy and don't hesitate to leave a comment !

* * * * *

Part 2:

Arsal leisurely forced the wyrm to land a few kilometers away from the city as he heaved a light sigh, he had originally intended to settle near the city but quickly abandoned this thought. He didn’t want to send the city into disarray and have to use strength to oppress them into obedience.

Normally, he wouldn’t care the slightest about their feelings and do as he wished. But he had come to chose a birthday present with his cute little daughter, he didn’t want to make the inhabitants terrified and have them spoil this precious moment.

Dismounting first, Arsal stood beneath the wyrm ready to catch Shina, not expecting her to make a double somersault and land right in front of him. He looked slightly disappointed but also amused by his daughter’s attitude.

After landing on the ground and waiting for both his riders to descend, the large and impressive wyrm uttered a majestic howl like a king proclaiming this land as his own.

As ludicrous as it sounds, while he was scared of the man sitting on his back, at the same time the wyrm who held in his blood a certain amount of dragon blood couldn’t help but feel proud of the fact that the man had chosen him among every of his peers.

Shina who was observing the area with a wide smile couldn’t help but put her hands on her ears to diminish the sound of the roar which almost gave her a headache.

Observing Shina’s reaction, Arsal glared with eyes full of murderous intent at the wyrm who felt so oppressed that his heart suddenly stopped beating for a few seconds yet his body remained immobilized by his contracted muscles. He secretly cursed his instinct and wished he could find a mountain to bash his head against.

Shina who couldn’t feel her father’s killing intent looked at the pitiful wyrm whose eyes became watery as he lowered his eyes while looking at her asking to be spared. Looking at this majestic beast who normally dominate the sky staring at her with puppy eyes, she couldn’t help but laugh.

The wyrm was thrown in disarray, he had acted just like those little animals who were begging for their life whom he enjoyed hunting when he was bored. Being a few hundreds of years old, he had come across many humanoid beings and knew that the young female ones were sensible to cute things.

While looking distraught, the wyrm looked at Shina with bright eyes. He knew that if she doesn't say anything then the man will definitely kill him.

In normal times, the wyrm would never have yielded or fall so low to beg for his life. But merely being stared at by Arsal made him feel like a peasant in front of an emperor. Gathering all his courage, the wyrm stared at Shina and slowly opened his large jaw.

“Meowww”

Shina stared at the large meowing wyrm in a daze, her extreme shock could be seen on her face. Shina had since long understood his situation, but she didn’t expect the hundred meters long wyrm to throw away all his self-esteem and pride like this.

“Pwhahaha; what the hell? Are you a cat?!”

Tears could be seen in Shina’s eyes as she stared at the wyrm’s wronged expression. Seeing her like this, Arsal couldn’t help but smile at this little demoness.

Yet this reaction couldn’t compare to the one she got after seeing the wyrm’s next action... Never did they expect the wyrm to be so ashamed that it would burrow his head in the ground.

Even the indifferent Arsal couldn’t help but smile.

“You are wrong… Can’t you see that he is an ostrich?”

Not able to handle it anymore, Shina fell to the ground as a loud laugh comparable to the wyrm’s roar could be heard in the land…

* * * * *

“*Cough* *Cough* My stomach still hurt…”

Arsal grinned at his daughter’s pitiful appearance whom he supported with her hand, her legs were still shaking as she recalled the pitiful wyrm’s attempt to coax her into saving his life.

Due to Arsal not wanting to alarm the city, it took them a few dozens of minutes to walk the several kilometers which separated them from the city’s gates. If it wasn’t for Shina’s sake, he wouldn’t have taken their feelings into account.

In front of them stood an immense wall with a large door mostly made of iron, weighing probably severals thousands, if not tens thousands of pounds. From her position, Shina could only estimate the wall’s length to be around thirty meters.

While the wall gave a medieval feeling, the guards weren’t wearing any heavy armor. Most of them were dressed in a very light leather armor and armed with a spear.

A large amount of wagon were waiting for their turn in line to enter the city, most of them belonged to nicely clothed men who were probably merchants. Some others were carriage transporting some vegetables.

It would probably take hours for all the wagon to enter the city. Shina showed a slightly annoyed expression as she wondered how much time they would have to wait to enter the city.

Negative thoughts rose up in Arsal’s mind, he had already made many concession in order to spend a good moment with his daughter. But in no way was he ready to wait a few hours to enter the city, if it wasn’t for the fact that he wanted to let Shina discover some new sceneries and look like a ‘normal’ father in the city, he would have already teleported them inside.

Secretly sighing, just as Arsal was going to teleport them, three guards made signs for them to approach.

Two of them looked like simple guards, but the third one was wearing a reddish armor completely different from the two others. His expression carried some trace of wickedness despite his smile which made Arsal frown as they had caught his attention.

The man looked at Arsal while throwing a few glances at Shina, scrutinizing carefully every inch of her body with a secretive grin.

“Are you travelers? I don’t remember seeing you around here.”

Unnoticed to the man, a hint of disgust and hatred had formed in Arsal’s eyes as he glared at the man who didn’t seem to notice anything.

One of the two guards looked angrily at his superior from behind, it didn’t take long for Arsal to know about the man’s bad intention.

Arsal nodded while secretly glaring at the man with hidden killing intent. Had he not wanted to make a mess, he would already have killed him over a thousand times until he was mentally broken.

“Haha, I thought so. Seeing you wearing this kind of clothes, you must be a war refugee right?”

Indeed, among the people sitting in the wagon, most of them were wearing a shirt and an easy to move in pants most of the time made of leather. Only a few people were dressed in a ragged cloak dirtied by their travel. Arsal’s pure white clothing looked pretty similar to their attire.

“Times are starting to become hard… Some people like you already started leaving their Kalunda, but the problem is you see… We were told not to let any escapee enter the city.”

The captain kept glancing at Shina as he feinted a saddened expression, Arsal’s indifferent countenance finally became noticeable, making the man think he started to become desperate.

Arsal’s beautiful features and noble appearance combined with his unstained clothes even after probably traveling a few hundred miles. In the man’s mind, there was no doubt that Arsal was probably a very rich merchant or noble who fled war while taking his most prized possessions.

Therefore, how could he let such a large sheep enter without taking some advantages of it? If it wasn’t because they were in public, the man would probably have already tried to rob him of his belongings like a bandit.

Within an instant, every expression vanished from Arsal’s face as a very friendly smile had instead formed.

Shina felt her heart beat very hard at this sight. It wasn’t like she hadn’t noticed the man’s evil intentions, after living a few years among hateful people, she had naturally become able to easily see through such people.

She had seen Arsal smile a few times in the past, but his current very friendly smile terrorized her.

Such a friendly smile, how could her father who normally don’t openly express any emotion smile like this? For Shina who was quite close to her father, she noticed that this smile actually lacked warmness.

‘Hmph, you want to exploit me? Fine, let’s play by your rules…’

“Sir, there must be a way for us to… enter, right?”

The red dressed man widely smiled as he approached Arsal, whispering a few words to his ears.

“Please don’t spread it around, I actually have a lot of connections in the city, letting you enter wouldn’t be a problem but… You see, most of them won’t act if they don’t win a little something…”

Arsal innerly snorted, this was the very first time someone actually tried to rob him like this. Would Mystel be here, she would probably be laughing until death, the sight of Arsal being exploited by a little human… A tiny captain from a city would definitely have killed her.

Taking a purse from under his white tunic, Arsal took out of it a few shining jewel. They looked unworldly, each of them was at least as large as a finger and could probably be sold for tens of thousands of gold.

The three guards eyes were wide open in front of such beauty, Arsal had only taken out three of these… There was no doubt that each of them would be enough to buy a mansion, various thoughts filled the man’s head. Seeing Arsal leisurely take out such precious things like it was nothing, he started to panic.

‘Did I misjudge him? This man probably has a huge background… Maybe he is a flying prince from Kalunda? No, this kingdom only has three princesses… He must probably be a rich noble who fled his home to avoid war, all he has is money but no power. That would explain why he is acting so friendly, not minding being slightly taken advantage of.’

“I am sorry Sir but to tell you the truth… We are actually having a jewel surplus, we are having so much of them that they are now only worth their weight in gold.”

Hearing their captain lying, the two guards felt like punching him until comatose.

‘A jewel surplus? Don’t you also have a surplus? A surplus of stupidity! Even a brat would come up with a better excuse!’

Even Arsal couldn’t help but feel shocked from this man’s stupidity.

“Sir, I understand your surprise but that’s the truth. What is the most valuable right now is… slave. With the rise of inhabitants, the fields need to be expanded but most emigrate actually refuse such type of tiring work. If you wish to, might be able to sell your slave for a few… hundreds gold. Just enough for you Sir to enter the city.”

The atmosphere around them suddenly froze as Arsal’s smile vanished into oblivion. Compared to Arsal unstained clothing and elegant demeanor, Shina’s slightly tarnished black dress from running around in the forest earlier and her lack of footwear which she found uncomfortable and refused to wear indeed made it seems that she was of a lower status.

A strong breeze suddenly blew on the wall, the man didn’t think much of it… Not did he know that he almost died a few times during this instant. Killing intent filled Arsal’s body, making the man shudder without knowing why; never in his life had Arsal feel such a strong urge to kill someone.

Feeling like killing someone, yet being unable to for some reason… Only Mystel had made him feel like this before, but it had never been this intense.

Arsal felt a little hand pulling his sleeve, Shina’s expression looked slightly annoyed as she looked at the captain. Looking at his adorable daughter pulling his sleeve while pouting, Arsal felt like all his anger was slowly vanishing.

Her horns and growing scales had been hidden with magic, she looked like a small doll with long black hairs and bright purple eyes gave the impression of a tiny goddess who descended in this world.

“Dad… Can I beat him up?” She whispered to her father.

Arsal felt slightly amused at the thought of his daughter beating this stupid man until he begged for mercy. If it wasn’t because of Shina’s birthday, he would probably have taken him back home and use him as a target for her bow practice, but giving it a second thought, he also vomited at the idea of letting such a disgusting man close to his daughter.

Refusing his daughter’s plead with a shake of his head, Arsal only desire was to hurry and enter the city before that man made him so angry that he would destroy it on an impulse.

“I am sorry but she is not for sale, this is my daughter. Please wait a moment, I am sure that a few merchants here would be willing to give me the ‘few hundreds gold’ needed in exchange of some jewel.”

The guard suddenly felt cold sweat forming, while he indeed had some connection in the city, the price of a single jewel could be counted in tens of thousands gold. Should someone know of his plunder, he was afraid of the repercussions.

“Please wait, Sir! You absolutely don’t need to do so, I am sure you sacrificed a lot to obtain those jewels. You see, I feel very ashamed of calling your daughter a slave, as an apology let me take care of convincing my friends of letting you enter the city!”

At this point, Arsal didn’t care anymore of this man’s shamelessness. Simply conversing with such a man had made him tired beyond belief and they hadn’t even entered the city.

‘You might as well enjoy those ‘gifts’ for a few hours… Just you wait until tonight…’

On the red clothed man’s order, Arsal and Shina entered the city without any problems… Apart from the few men sneakily following them on the guard’s order, Arsal sighed as he wondered if that man’s greed had a limit.