“Man it’s good to see the sun, for a while back there, I thought I never see it again.”

“Trust me Max, I’m pretty sure everyone was thinking the exact same thing.” All the passengers that was riding was exhausted. None of them went to sleep last night. I guess they were also expecting an attack last night, the ambush from earlier definitely felt like it was leading to another assault, so why didn’t they follow through? Is it because they change targets, or am I simply just over thinking things, probably the latter. Monsters may have gotten smarter, but they’re still simple-minded beasts, I doubt they can come up with such an elaborate plan.

“Excuse me!” The hero jumps over my head and lands in the cart that’s in front of us.

Does this guy ever get tired? It’s way too early to be this energetic.

“Excuse me everyone! I know you’re all tired, but I think I got something that’ll restore your energy." The hero points towards the edge of the forest. A huge mountain came into view the moment we exit the forest. The mountain took up the entire landscape in front of me and even nearly block out the morning sun, which was struggling to rise over it. It was an impressive view, but that wasn’t as impressive as the city embedded in the mountain. I remember when I first attack, I mean “visited” Athens, it was just a small village hidden in the mountain, now it’s everything but small.  The buildings stretch to the highest point of the mountain, overlooking the entire world below them, I guess this was the humans cocky way of saying “we own the world"

“What you see before you is the very definition of human’s resolve. It is said that Athens was the very first human city ever built. Incredible right? During a time when humans were threaten by the Demon King, monsters, and even natural disasters, we were somehow able to build a city. And now with most of the threats conquer, we continue build on top of it. Making it not only the oldest human city, but also the greatest. Ladies and gentleman, welcome to Athens.”

Chapter 36

The greatest city

“It’s about damn time.” The hero was right, seeing Athens did restore some of my energy.

“We finally made it.” It seems the view of Athens also revive Aaron, seeing that he had a wide grin on his face while he stare at the city in pure amazement.  “Even though our journey begin not too long ago, we went through a lot of trials to get here didn’t we sis?”

“Yea, we did go through a lot.” I got capture by orcs, ambush by monsters, got stuck with a nosy elf, and even met the hero. Pretty much everything I didn’t want to happen, happen to me all in a short time span at that.  

“Even though we finally made it to Athens, our adventurer is far from over. The moment we enter the first thing we need to do is find a place where we can sleep.”

“What about Alice? Shouldn’t that be the first thing we do?”

“That’s was my original goal, until I saw how massive this city is. We’re better off getting some rest before we even think about starting our search.”

After going over our plan the both of us, waited in anticipation for the gates of Athens to fully open up for us. The moment the gate open up, we were greeted to a huge statue of a man wielding what appears to be Excalibur.

It would seem “huge” is a word I’m going to end up overusing in this city. Also I feel getting lost is going to be a common thing too. The “huge” crowds and roads that stretch upwards through the mountain was enough to disorient me. There was way too many people and buildings for me to decide where I should even begin my search for Alice.

“Ok, that’s enough site seeing, let see if we can find an inn.”

“Alright.”

Even though I only called Aaron, both Max and Claire also jump off the cart and followed me. What a pain, I thought I be done with these guys the moment we enter the city.

“What are you guys doing?” I stop to question Max and Claire, who both looked at me confuse, as if following me was the most natural thing for them to do.

“Didn’t you guys come to this city because you had your own reason for being here?”

“There is a lot of things I want to check out in this city, but this is my first time here, so I thought I follow you guys until I get a better understanding of my surroundings.”

“Ok that make sense, so what about you Claire?”

“Well I followed you guys on a whim, so I guess I’ll keep following you until I find something more interesting.”

“…..” I don’t even know how to response to her. She actually followed me all the way here simply because I’m interesting. There has to be a limit to how carefree one can be.

“Well since you guys plan on tagging along, why don’t you help me find this buil-“

“Anna!”

“Great now what?” One of Alexander hooded men ran to me while happily waving. I immediately knew that the hooded man was the hero, since I doubt any other of Alexander man would wave at me, also because his white hair was sticking out from his hood. If he’s trying hide his identity from everyone, then he’s doing a terrible job.

“Anna, this is your first time in Athens right?”

“No, I been here a few times before.” Although back then it was nowhere near this huge.

“You have? Well this ruin my plans.” The hero tried to whisper to himself. Strangely, this is so called plan he had for me wasn’t the thing that was bothering me. I’m actually more concern as to how he learn my name, I’m pretty sure I never told him it. I seriously hope he didn’t spy on my conversations just to learn my name.

“What plan did you have in store for me?”

“Nothing big, I just wanted to take you on a tour around the city, but since you already familiar with this place, how about I treat you to something to eat.”

"That’s not going to happen. You think my sister is going with you after what you did yesterday?” Aaron clenches his hand as he walk towards the hero. I jump in front of him to stop him from doing something stupid.

“Calm down, we came here to find Alice, not to pick fights.” I spoke softly so that the hero wouldn’t be able to hear me.

“But he use Excalibur on you that must means he knows who you are.”

“If he knew who I was, then he would’ve killed both of us yesterday.” Talking about how I can be easily defeated was extremely irritating, but I need to shallow my pride and properly explain the situation we’re in.

“Listen Aaron, this is painful for me to say, but you need to know that right now we don’t stand a chance against him. Are best options is to simply ignore him, understand?”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“….” Aaron looked past me and glare at the hero. “I understand.” Aaron heads back towards the group while still clenching his hand. No doubt about it, he’s piss, but I feel like he’s more upset at how weak he is, then the hero himself. Which I understand, I also hate how weak I am. But right now, especially since we’re weak, we got to think carefully and don’t let our frustration get in our way. I turn my attention back to the hero who still waiting for my answer.

Now I need find to a way to get rid of him. Should be easy, even if without using my corruption, I’m pretty good at making people do what I want.

“I’m sorry about that, my brother can be a little overprotective of me at times.”

“Don’t worry, he’s has every right to be cautions of me. After all, I did hurt you yesterday. That’s why I wanted to treat you to something, to make up for what I did yesterday.” The hero gave me a typical heroic smile that every woman falls for, but he wasn’t going to fool me. I know underneath that kind smile is man who came up with a devious plan.

I’m confident he’s only asking me out so he can figure out why Excalibur attack me. If refuse to go with him, it’ll just make me look even more suspicious, but if I go with him he might find out who I am. I need to find a way to decline his invitation without making myself look suspicions.

“I’m sorry!” I clasp my together to make myself look as apologetic as possible. “I would like to go with you, but you see my party was assign a mission to escort a noble to his home, but thanks to the orc’s and monsters attacks, our mission have been greatly delay.”

“I see.” The hero’s shoulder slump forward, even though I couldn’t see his face, his body language told me he was disappointed for some reason. “Well, I don’t want to hold you guys up any longer, so I’ll take my leave.” I was surprise to see the hero leave so easily, I was prepared for him to question me until he found a hole in my story. I guess he really wasn’t planning on investigating me.

“Well Anna, I pretty sure we'll meet again soon.” The hero wave at me before he vanish into the crowd.

“What was that all about?” Max asked as I headed back towards the group.

“I don’t know, it seems he wanted to ask me out.”

“What?! You didn't accept did you?” Max shouted. The look on his face seem like he was about to have a panic attack.

“Of course I didn’t, I have better things to do. Now, will you guys help me find an inn?”

“I know a place!” Claire happily shouted.

“You do how?”

“Don’t worry about that, just follow me.” Wherever Claire was taking us, she seem to be extremely excited, since a moment ago she looked just as exhausted as all of us, now she happily skipping through the city.

“I always wanted to spend a night there, but I never could afford it.”

“Always? Claire you visited Athens before?”

“Yea, I use to live here actually. Why is that weird?”

“Yes, it’s extremely weird.” The reason you don’t see elves hanging around human settlement at all, is because elves see humans as inferior beings. Majority of elves have a superiority complex since they’re related to the entity Athena. But it seems Claire doesn’t look down on humans like other elves.

“So what did you do while you stay here?” I know it’s weird of me to start a conservation with Claire, since most of the time I’m trying my best to ignore everything she saying, but since she knows her way around Athens, it’s best to learn all I can from her life here, so I can at least figure out where to begin my search in this city.

“That’s… none of your business.” Claire said coldly before walking ahead of us.

None of my business? You been in my business since the day we met. The least she could do is share her past with me.

“Is this where you became a librarian Claire?”

“Shut up!” Claire ran back towards us and cover Aaron’s mouth.

“A librarian? You’re a librarian Claire?”

“No! I mean I was, but not anymore.” Claire faces was beet red from embarrassment.

“Why are you so embarrassed? I can think of plenty of other jobs that’s worse than a librarian.”

“That’s not it, it’s…never mind.” Falling silent, Claire continue walk uphill through the city, until we reach a tall building that had the words “High Life” and bright gold letters attach to it.

“Wow, this place looks fancy.” It even has a golden door and red carpet near the entrance.

“If think this is impressive, wait till you see what the insides looks like.”

“Yea Claire, I don’t think we can afford to stay here.”

“I know we can’t afford this place, but Max can. Isn’t that right Max?”

“Huh? Me? Max pointed to himself confuse

“Yes you. Renting a place like this is chump changes to you isn’t it?”

“I guess, but don’t you think staying here is going overboard? I mean why don’t we go somewhere cheaper?”

“I agree with Max, if we stay I feel like we’ll attract unnecessary attention.” Especially since I use Max as an excuse to escape from the hero, if he finds out Max is staying at an inn, he will definitely come looking for me.

“So what? What’s wrong with standing out? Come on Max I always wanted to stay here.” Claire grabs Max’s arm and tightly hugs it.

“I don’t know Claire, I think it’ll be smarter if we stay somewhere else.”

“Give it up Claire, you’re not going to charm him with that kid body of yours.”

“Why don’t you help me Anna? They have everything you can think of here. Hot spring, Delicious food, soft beds, and….”

“Stop. You had me at hot springs.” It doesn’t need to be said that it’s every guy dream to bathe with of women. Yes even an almighty being such as myself also dream of this, but the town I grew up in unfortunately didn’t have spa or open baths like this. But now finally, this body will actually be useful for something.

Unable to contain my excitement, left the group behind who was still bickering about where to stay.

“Anna, where are you going?” Aaron ask, just barley stopping me from entering the inn.

“Isn’t obvious? I look back at the group with a smile I couldn’t contain. “I’m going to go enjoy the high life.”

A/N: Sorry again, my excuse this time for late chapter is overwatch, simply overwatch. I seriosuly need someone to take that game from me, because that's seriosuly the main reason my chapters are taking so long, that and work too. But it's mostly overwatch though.

Anyway I hope you enjoy the chapter. See ya next time