A Royal Palace and an Irritatting Guest

"Wow~"

As Shayde and Utsumi walked toward the Royal Palace, Utsumi fiddled with the license in her hand. The License labeled Utsumi as an S-Rank Hunter immediately. Utsumi then asked Shayde what that meant, and she quickly explained that it was the highest rank and Hunter could receive.

"You also happen to be the third S-Rank Hunter in this nation, but are you really okay with having your actual race on your license?"

Shayde had urged Utsumi to put a fake race on her Guild License, such as a Demi-Human or a Beast-kin, but Utsumi wasn't willing to lie to that extent. Utsumi also agreed to only show her Guild License when it was absolutely necessary.

"Yeah, it's fine Shayde. I just wasn't comfortable lying about who I am to that extent. I will keep it a secret for now, but if I was just to claim to be someone I'm not, I wouldn't feel comfortable living here when the truth eventually comes out."

As Utsumi and Shayde neared the gate to the entrance to the Royal Capital, Shayde extended her hand to Utsumi. "Shall we?"

Utsumi nodded before grabbing Shayde's hand and walking up the long staircase that led to the gate. Utsumi worried for a moment if her legs would grow tired quickly if she were to trek such a steep incline.

Of course, this brief thought was cast away in thirty seconds after Shayde and she had traversed nearly half the steps to Utsumi and didn't even feel a tang of fatigue. 'I suppose my body has limitless stamina as well to match the monstrous magic power inside as well.'

It didn't take long before Utsumi and Shayde made it all the way to the gate that held the Royal Capital of the nation within. Shayde quickly walked over to two guards who stood on each side of the gate.

They were both of course Dragon-kin as well, but the Magical Signature radiating off of them was weak compared to nearly all the Dragons that I had seen so far. Especially compared to Shayde. I knew she was strong the moment she flattened half of the Forrest with one move, but compared to the rest of her nation, she was an unprecedented powerhouse.

'Why does she allow all the people weaker than her to step over her all the time? It still doesn't make sense to me even now. What is truly going on in this nation?'

"Crown Princess Shayde le Dragovia has returned! Glory to Dragovia!"

"Glory to Dragovia!"

As the gate opened, a glorious red carpet was held in the center of the street. A carriage slightly floating above the ground quickly stood out to Utsumi as she looked in disbelief. 'They managed to create hover vehicles before us! I mean, they also had floating buildings, so I still shouldn't be that surprised, I suppose.'

Shayde looked back toward Utsumi and led her through the Gate with a bright smile. One of the guards who had been preoccupied with all of his attention being focused on Shayde didn't even notice that she was holding an unfamiliar Lady's hand.

The Guard that stood on the right quickly questioned Shayde with a polite but curious grin. "Excuse me, Your Highness, who is that girl?"

The guard was quick to see that this girl's beauty was unprecedented, and she seemed to gleam and shine like a bright firework in the night sky. He found himself quickly enchanted by this mysterious young lady.

However, Shayde pulled Utsumi closer to her side and began to lead her through the Gate while she looked back at the guard with a disdainful snarl. "The Imperial Dragovia family appreciates your service, but make sure your comments remain respectful."

Without dwelling any further on the situation, Shayde quickly continued toward the floating carriage which awaited them. Utsumi was completely unaware of what had happened, so she stole glances at Shayde with a slight bit of confusion.

'Did she just scold that knight because of me? I didn't even realize he said anything to us. Or maybe it was just specifically Shayde, so I didn't think it involved me.'

Utsumi's questionary thoughts managed as soon as they both made it to the floating carriage. An older woman quickly got down from the front and greeted us.

"Glory to Dragovia, our Crown Princess has returned home… and with a friend?"

The older woman's eyes locked on Utsumi and she was quickly blown away by her beauty. "Is she from Dragovia?"

The woman's eyes scanned Utsumi to bottom, but she was quick to notice that she held none of the genetic traits of a Dragon-kin. Instead, if she were to guess, Utsumi would have been closer to a Demi-Human Beast-kin of some sort, but then again, she also didn't have any animal-like traits.

Shayde noticed the concurrent analysis of Utsumi and quickly broke off the women's examination. "Excuse me, but me and my friend need to get going soon."

The woman reluctantly ceased her assessment and walked over to the door of the carriage and opened it. Revealing inside was a beautiful mini room. Utsumi had never been inside a carriage before, so she didn't know what it was like, but she never expected a medieval vehicle to be this advanced.

The red velvet seats that resided on the opposite side of each other were accompanied by headrests that rested on top of the insanely comfy seats. This was all brought together by the golden décor that hung all around the carriage.

'Being friends with Shayde has brought me these cool things! What a great discovery.'

"What are you waiting for, Utsumi?"

Shayde stepped into the carriage and extended her hand to Utsumi, who showed a rather excited smile curving her lips. Utsumi didn't hesitate to take her hand and quickly stepped up into the carriage.

Utsumi took a seat on the same side as Shayde, which slightly surprised her as Utsumi plopped down right beside her.

"Um, Utsumi, why exactly did you sit there?"

Utsumi, who noticed Shayde's rising embarrassment, saw another opportunity for her to tease her close friend and quickly poked her on her cheek with her index finger. A smug grin crossed Utsumi's face as she watched Shayde flinch.

"Why are you so embarrassed? We're both girls here."

Shayde responded to this teasing with a huff and turned her head from Utsumi abruptly.

"Such a foolish girl such as yourself wouldn't get it!"

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It didn't take long before the Carriage arrived at the Royal Palace. Utsumi was slightly surprised by the amount of space inside the Royal Capital of Dragovia. 'The Royals are really separated by the commoners by a lot…'

The carriage was parked at the massive gold door that led to the inside of the Royal Palace, and numerous guards remained in wait at the door. Utsumi was slightly surprised by this. 'This Palace is already nearly 75 meters in the sky… what need to the Royals feel to have guards here?'

However, Utsumi's Inquisition was cut short by the announcement of Shayde's return by the driver of the carriage.

The several guards that were standing around by the entrance quickly made a line on two sides of the red carpet that led to the door of the Royal Palace. Utsumi slightly sighed as the driver opened the door of the carriage.

'These formalities feel really strange to me after all, but having people do everything for me might end up being pretty pleasant in all honesty. Plus, now that I've been here, I should be able to teleport to and from here to make the journey less annoying.'

Shayde had explained to Utsumi before that Teleportation wasn't meant to be a long-range spell. Mainly because traveling long distances requires a lot of magic power. 'But, thanks to being a human, I have endless magic power…'

Utsumi happily grabbed Shayde's hand as she escorted her down from the carriage. The two of them landed on the red carpet and guards who had created a two-collum line on both sides of the red carpet before saluting.

"The Royal Knights of Dragovia greet Your Highness!"

As all the knights shouted in unity, Shayde and Utsumi walked down the Red Carpet all the way to the door that Shayde simply placed her palm on, and the door quickly opened inward.

"Was that some kind of fingerprint technology?"

Utsumi asked Shayde as the doors opened, but Shayde only looked at Utsumi with a tang of confusion.

"Fingerprint technology? All I did was eject some Mana in the door?"

Utsumi almost wanted to slap herself out of embarrassment for bringing up technology from Earth here like it would be done the same way.

"Well, they're pretty similar so just ignore what I said."

"Okay…"

However, when Utsumi and Shayde walked into the Royal Palace even though the beautiful décor and furniture inside of the lounge were pleasing to Utsumi, she noticed a voice coming from a room down the vast hallway space that even made Shayde flinch.

"You can either meet my demands or a Rebellion will tear apart this entire nation!"