Felicia City

After their short chat, they headed back to the carriage and left once again.

After a few days of traveling in the carriage, they finally saw the silhouette of a city in the far distance, Ireya recognized it as the one they saw on one of the Peak Mountains nearly 4 years ago.

The fat middle-aged man took the stick he was biting on out of his mouth and wiped it on his clothes before speaking, "Welcome to Felicia City, I guess you've never been here considering the look on your face?"

"Never been here, no.", Ireya appreciated his kindness.

"Tch, getting past the toll station at the gates is always the longest thing ever.", Nathan complained.

"Toll station?"

Nathan patiently responded to her, after a few days of hanging out with her he found that she wasn't that bad to chat with, plus she was quite beautiful in his opinion, too young though.

"We have to pay to enter the city, and then pay even more to gain a permit to live in the city, that's why all those tents are set up in front of the city and all around it.", he then pointed at many run-down tents and makeshift houses.

"You, on the other hand, won't have to worry about any of this with your noble badge, in fact, it's quite weird for you guys to not have a carriage in the first place. Luckily, my master doesn't care about small matters like that."

Nodding Ireya looked into the distance and at the savage beasts that were simply rolling past the gates without stopping, 'Must be cultivators.' she thought.

The curtains behind them then spread open revealing Raya's head, "We'll be stopping here, can you stop the carriage?"

Nathan nodded, "Got it."

After stopping Ireya got off the front and opened up the door to the carriage motioning for Raya to step down. She then bowed down towards the three that still sat within the carriage.

Raya then thanked them for their help.

"No problem young lady.", the man in the middle simply smiled back at them and closed the door.

Ney!

The carriage then rolled off, Ireya watched as Nathan waved at her from the front.

"Ah!", Raya took a nice long stretch after getting off the carriage.

"All of this noble acting is tiring, we should get cultivator badges already to make our lives easier already."

Ireya smacked at Raya's head now that the carriage was far from them, "Revenge."

Raya simply smiled at her action, Ireya was now a bit taller than Raya after these 4 long years.

---

Walking towards the gate a loud cry echoed throughout the skies.

Swoosh!

A vast shadow enveloped them as a giant beast flew above their heads, it was a combination of a snake and dragon with the head of a dragon but the body of a snake.

"Woah! What was that!", Ireya exclaimed.

"A Hydra Python, it has a sliver of the blood of a Wraith Dragon and a Flood Dragon combined with Python blood, the combination of all of that created this giant beast."

The people around them looked up all at once admiring the beast and the person on top.

"That's Lord Knight isn't it!"

"It must be! Only he's strong enough to ride a dragon!"

"Tch, two uneducated fellows, that must be Lord Vieret instead, only he can tame a dragon.", this man broke into the argument between two younger women only to then be berated.

"What do you know!"

"He's our knight, don't you dare disgrace him!"

...

Ireya and Raya watched as the chaos unfolded, many similar conversations broke out all around them.

"That beast is so strong Raya, I wonder who's riding it, they must be way stronger!"

Raya nodded in excitement, "Must be! He's probably at the peak of the Energy Formation Realm."

"Energy Formation Realm...", Ireya's eyes glittered in excitement as she imagined the future. The Hydra Python then disappeared into the distance entering the core of the city.

After their surroundings finally calmed down Raya gestured at Ireya to continue walking

"Let's go Ireya."

---

They finally made it to the gate and were greeted by a group of powerful guards, "Halt!"

One of the men stood out and seemed quite aggressive, "Badge!"

Raya nodded and took her noble badge out of her inside pocket, while she was doing this one of the guards gave her a side-eye and whistled quietly.

"Damn she hot...", his eyes glided all around her figure and finally landed on Ireya.

A sly smile appeared on his face.

"Oy.", one of the men nudged at him disrupting his session.

Ireya saw the look he gave her but just ignored it, she wasn't bothered to deal with the idiot.

Raya finally took her noble badge out and threw it over to the man at the front, his eyes analyzed the badge and took out another darker black token with a red dragon on it. Hovering over the noble badge the red dragon spewed out a golden light from its eyes then rested.

Seeing this the man's eyes blew open and he began sweating profusely, getting onto one knee he hurriedly apologized.

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience Madam Raya, I am extremely sorry for the delay.", after saying this he side-eyed the rest of the men with a stern look forcing them down on their knees.

"Huh?", Ireya was stumped at their actions, looking at Raya she saw her expression was still completely normal.

Raya then said, "Let's go Ireya, oh but wait I have something to do first.", she then stepped up to the man that had given them that sly smile, if he thought that she was blind then he had another thing coming.

Slap!

Her palm shattered his jaw sending him flying into the wall.

"Raya!", Ireya quickly got up trying to stop her but then realized that none of the guards had reacted.

"I didn't kill him, I only punished him. Not only that he completely deserved it."

Ireya couldn't say anything about that, she kind of wanted to do it too but she didn't have a noble badge. Raya could tell exactly what Ireya was thinking, "Let's go to the Cultivators Alliance to get you one then, that way you can smack people as much as you want!"

Ireya felt like Raya was turning evil like her mummy, but she liked it.

"How hard is it to get?"

"Hmm, considering your current strength it should be extremely easy. Just don't expose too much of your strength."

"Got it!"

The guards then watched as the two ladies walked off, another one of the men walked up to the young captain that had analyzed the badge, "Why did you just let them do that?"

"That's right captain!"

...

The young man watched as they complained and waited till they cooled down, "She's not a normal noble, just forget about today's matter, got it?"

Some of the men seemed reluctant to do so without a proper explanation.

He shook his head as he saw that some of them didn't listen to his words.

---

"Waaa! So many things to buy!", Ireya ran around jumping from vendor to vendor looking at all of the items they were selling.

Ireya's eyes landed on a solitary red gem in one of the jewelry shops through the window, "I want it!"

Raya finally caught up to her, "Buy it if you want, make sure to take the money out of your pocket and not directly out of your ring got it?"

"Mm!"

Making it to the door Ireya was greeted by a cute little girl, "Hello miss! Welcome to Fay's Jewels!"

"Would you like me to show you around?", the little girl looked up at Ireya with wide eyes full of expectation.

"Thank you.", Ireya kindly agreed to her request.

"I would like to buy that jewel over there", she then pointed at the red gem sitting in a glass case.

"Okay give me a second.", she then ran off her tiny little feet pattering across the marble floor.

Looking around she saw that the shop was quite empty except two old men who were in the middle of looking around. Sitting down on a chair she patiently waited for the little girl to come back, after a short wait the little girl in cute robes finally came back holding on to the hand of a young woman in exquisite white robes ingrained with red flowers and lines.

Bowing down she introduced herself, "Hello young miss, I'm this shops Vice-Lord, I heard you wished to buy the Electia Gem?"

"Electia Gem?", Ireya stood up at the sight of her.

"The red one at the front.", she patiently explained.

"Yep, how much would it cost?"

The Vice-Lord began explaining but was interrupted by wild laughter.

"Are you sure you can afford it, little girl?"

A handsome young man in elaborate clothing with a token with the number '256' written on the front of it entered the shop alongside two other young men both in similarly extravagant clothing.

The two old men and Ireya both turned to the young man, feeling annoyed Ireya then spoke out, "And who are you?"

The young man snorted and didn't bother answering to her, he then looked at the Vice-Lord, "I believe we had an agreement that this Electia Gem was to be auctioned in the Klaymore's Auction House and not sold individually?"

As if she only remembered it she gasped in shock, "I'm so sorry young lord, my mistake, my mistake."

Ireya suddenly felt a sense of animosity burst between the two, looking back at the young man she realized he wasn't here to annoy her but this Vice-Lord instead. She remembered Raya's words and decided to step back and wait to see how this conversation would erupt.

"And I'm pretty sure I remember you saying in front of all the other Rankers that you were willing to take back your word and allow me full ownership over the gem. Are you, a Ranker, going to go back on your own words?", her words contained many venomous traps but the young man simply went around them and pulled out a contract.

"Can't say anything now can you, bitch? Hmph.", he then flicked his robe and turned around and walked out. His two followers didn't say anything the entire time but were merely there to back him up.

"Bastard...", Ireya heard the Vice-Lord mutter under her breath.

The Vice-Lord quickly fixed herself and turned to Ireya, "Sorry for the interruption, I can no longer sell it to you. If you want to purchase it wait for the auction in Klaymore's Auction House 3 months from now. Sorry."

Bowing she turned around and walked back from where she came from.