"Thrumm!"

Sirus and Riria both appeared in a damp cellar-like room upon walking through the gateway.

"Ugh I feel sick" Sirus said with a slightly green face.

Riria looked at him with a pitiful gaze, "I feel completely fine!" She said and proceeded to skip around the room as if to show him up.

He frowned and shot back, "Well you don't have a stomach do you? Aren't you just made of blood?"

She pretended to not hear him and continued to skip around the cellar, whilst Sirus just sighed and motioned to her the stairs leading upwards and headed up himself.

After checking that Riria was in fact following him and not still skipping around the room, he reached the top of the stairs and found a large wooden plank covering the exit, thinking that this was probably to keep it hidden or something, he pushed it up and to the side, climbing out, and into the harsh rays of the sun.

He hadn't seen the sun in an incredibly long time, so as soon as the brightness reached his eye, he instantly shut it.

"Ahh!" He shouted in pain and quickly shut his eye as his pupil tried to adjust to the foreign sunlight. Realizing that he had to open his eye at some point sooner or later, he decided to just get it over with and let his pupil adjust.

He grunted in discomfort but his pupil quickly adjusted to the light and allowed him to see much more clearly.

Riria, who he had momentarily forgotten in his pain, was still waiting by the exit in the shadows. He shot her a questioning look.

"Can't be in the sun or I'll burn up, remember?" She explained sadly.

He gave a frown and said, "Ah, well then go into sword form for now, 'kay?" She nodded and liquidized back into a sword at his hip.

"Mmm, my back always hurts when I go into this form for some reason" She complained.

Ignoring her complaint, he walked out of the alleyway.

Upon exiting the alley, a vibrant scene greeted his eye, many peoples were walking on the stone-paved street, there seemed to be a major fashion trent of ornate leather and fur clothes, along with brown top hats. Near the side of the street, a huge rail was planted with a steam powered locomotive car stopped on top, loading passengers.

A bell tolled loudly above him and he looked upwards, a massive clock-tower was planted some dozens of meters behind the shop building he had exited near.

"Huh" He said in surprise, "This is what I'd expect from the Gear Kingdom, not the Sword Kingdom."

"Well the Sword Kingdom still buys stuff from the Gear Kingdom. The kingdom's still communicate with each other besides the Magic Kingdom, because they think they are superior." She let out a mental sniff and continued, "The Magic Kingdom and Woodland Kingdom's can let magic do everything for them, but the Sword and Gear Kingdom's have to rely on technology to do the same things. The Gear Kingdom's manufactures and sells the technology to the Sword Kingdom, but the Sword Kingdom doesn't really bring anything especially unique to the table, so they're falling behind." She added as an afterthought, "I wouldn't be surprised if the entire Kingdom collapsed in the next few decades."

"That's... sad?" He shook his head and walked up to one of the soldiers that was stationed near the steam-train-car thing, and caught his eye.

"Do you know where any inn's are?" He asked the soldier roughly.

The soldier pointed down a wide road branching off the one they were currently on, "If you head down that road and turn left at the next bend, you'll see a building with a picture of a mug of beer on it's sign, that'd be berty's inn, it'll cost you money but ya seem like you can handle that."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

The soldier looked at Sirus' sword with envy clear in his gaze whilst saying the last part.

"You wouldn't happen to be looking to sell that sword by chance would you?" The soldier asked with a gleam in his eye.

Sirus coldly responded, "Not a chance." and swiftly walked away.

"Oh my, I'm blushing." Riria said in his mind.

He coughed and ignored her.

---

After getting lost an untold amount of times, they finally found their way to the inn that the soldier had told them about and headed inside, by now the sun was already setting and the sounds of steam engines were slowly fading away.

He walked up to the innkeeper and asked the price for a room.

The innkeeper looked him up and down before replying, "A band and 3 legals should do."

Naturally he had no idea what either a 'band' or a 'legal' was, but he put his hand in the pocket of his cloak and reached into his spatial storage to pull out 2 vials of the dungeon's health potion.

He handed them to the innkeeper, "Will these do instead?"

The innkeeper took them out of his hands and inspected them with a greedy expression on his face while mumbling, "Yes... that'll do juuuust fine." The innkeeper finished his mumbling soon after and handed him the keys to a room and pointed up the stairs to the second floor, "Fourth door to the left, food will be sent up in a couple hours."

He made his way upstairs and to the door to his room and roughly jabbed the key into the lock on the steel handle. The lock looked more likely to be stolen for its price in iron than to be any help in keeping the room secure, but it didn't really matter for now.

He went inside and closed the door behind him. The room was extremely plain, with some basic wallpaper and metal pipes running across the ceiling, there was only one bed though, which made sense seeing as the innkeeper had only seen one person.

Riria transformed back into her humanoid form and jumped on the bed, "Ugh, finally a proper bed, pillow, and blankets. Not some cold stone floor again."

Sirus grabbed one of the two pillows from the bed and one of the blankets, and started laying them on the ground and beginning to lay down.

"What are you doing?" Riria asked him curiously.

He responded blandly, "There's only one bed, so I'm gonna sleep on the floor."

"No you aren't." She said, grabbing his pillow and blanket and placing them back on the bed.

She shifted to the side of the bed and motioned for him to come over. "This bed is big enough for the both of us" She said with a wide grin.

"No, no, really it's fine, one of us should get a comfortable sleep today. I'll take the bed tomorrow!" He quickly said and backed away from the bed as far as he could go.

She just smiled and patted the empty spot on the bed..

He tilted his head down and slowly walked to the bed like a chastised child.

Her smile widened further upon seeing him walk over, and she lifted up the sheets, inviting him inside.

Climbing on to the bed slowly, he positioned himself right on the opposite edge of the bed, as far from her alluring body as he could possibly be whilst still on the bed. He also faced the wall instead of her.

"Oh don't be like that!" Saying so, she tried to grab him but only ended up grabbing one of the many blankets he had managed to pile onto his body. "Why do you have so many blankets around you?"

Sirus responded without turning around, "It's uhh... really cold."

She pulled off the many blankets covering him, "If you're so cold, I can keep you warmer than those thin blankets..." She said and forcefully turned him towards her.

He quickly re-covered himself and stuffed his face in more blankets.

Riria frowned again, "What is it now?"

"My uh... face is cold." He replied clumsily.

She pulled the blankets off of him again and pulled his face close to hers.

"I can fix that too," She said with an arousing smile.

She moved closer and pressed her soft pink lips against his, whilst her tongue invaded his mouth.

After a long few seconds she finally relented and pulled her tongue out of his mouth and backed a little away.

"Did you like it?" She asked, "My gift?"

Sirus, who was still frozen in shock replied, "Y-your gift?"

"You know, for saving my life."

"W-well, that was nothing! No need for any more gifts!" He exclaimed.

"Nonsense" She said, and slid her hand behind his head, pushing his face into her breasts. "You said your face was cold, didn't you? Perhaps this will help warm you up" She pulled closer and wrapped her arms around his back, and also entwined both their legs.

"Still cold?" She asked after a few moments.

"Mmph!" He replied, his face still buried in her chest.

She grinned, "I'll take that as a yes."

Seeing that his reluctance wasn't going anywhere, Sirus finally surrendered and wrapped his arms around her as well, and buried himself deeper in her bosom, enjoying the warmth of her skin on his.

"Good boy." She said, stroking his hair.