Nice to meet you, this is Eduard reporting...

Yesterday, I arrived in the city of Zhanty, but I was very tired, so I went straight to bed.

When I woke up, I was alone in my room. Yubel was nowhere to be seen, and I thought about going out for a meal with Amelia. However, in her room, I only found the dragoness who almost destroyed my armor, reading books while eating dried meat.

I asked her about Amelia, and she replied...

“I think she went out to eat something at the dock, and if you have no other questions, let me read in peace, fatty.”

For some reason, this dragoness only calls Amelia by her name. She knows what Yubel and I are called, but she calls me fatty and Yubel musclehead.

I feel like I drew the short straw with this dragoness; I don’t hate her, but it’s clear that everything she does is selfishly motivated...

I can hardly believe she saved those girls from the kidnappers. If Yubel hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have believed it.

Anyway, I went down to the inn’s bar and had the cheapest thing on the menu, which oddly included a mug of beer. Since Ester’s disappearance, we haven’t had a drop of alcohol. Although I feel calm, I know he will be alright, and since our destination is the war zone with the demons, the Kingdom of Amster, I trust in my heart that he will be there waiting for us...

I finished my meal without touching the alcohol, and when I got up, I noticed a customer had taken the mug to drink it... I hope he enjoys it.

Even though it was night, I wanted to take a walk around the city. You can’t always see the largest trading port on the continent.

As I left the inn, I saw Yubel on the roof in a meditative pose. That guy has always been an oddball since childhood. I care about him a lot, but he is indeed an oddball. I ignored that and started exploring the city streets, marveling at the local technology and architecture.

I also passed by some shop windows and saw beautiful armor. Although I have a keen eye for these things, they prioritize appearance over performance, which kills my interest.

During my walk, I reached the brothel district. It was a long alley with guards at the entrance checking that no minors entered. I wasn’t particularly interested in sex, but I wanted to see what the courtesans of this city were like...

It was a spectacle of many beauties of various races and different prices. Those who seemed like slaves were the cheapest. They didn’t look bad, but I suppose a woman’s status increased her price.

There were also men working in some establishments, although they didn’t catch my attention. But I noticed that in one of those male sex worker bars, they were saying goodbye to a client, a small man who seemed to be a friend...

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“Handsome, congratulations on winning the Silver Shark Festival. We really wanted Tommy out of the city; now we can work more peacefully.”

They were saying this to a short man; I think he was a dwarf, and from his hands, I noticed he was a blacksmith. But what caught my attention was the newspaper hanging on the shelf of the male bar...

The newspaper had a news story about the winners of the Silver Shark Tournament. It showed a woman with a strange helmet and a man who was undoubtedly Ester.

So that idiot was here. The dwarf saw me looking at the newspaper and said...

“Are you a fan of the Silver Shark Tournament?”

I replied that I wasn’t, that the man in the picture was my friend, who has been missing for some time. The man gave a heavy look and replied...

“Yes, I know him. He worked in my workshop for a few days. He left the city a while ago. He said he was heading to the northern lowlands accompanied by a vulgar woman”...

I thought at that moment...

A vulgar woman?

When we left the city of Sandiie, I was told they saw him leaving the red-light district with a woman... I suppose he came here with that woman...

I replied to the man, “Thank you very much, sir, and nice to meet you, my name is Eduard.” The man introduced himself as Ellen and left.

What should I do now with this information?

...

After an indefinite amount of time in the brothel district... where I definitely didn’t do anything wrong, I returned to the inn to find a real mess...

Amelia was having a panic attack, while Yubel was consoling her and Shiva was just standing next to them reading a book. I asked Yubel what happened...

...

What Amelia told me was that something happened to Ester, and since then, she had been inconsolable.

I then reached into my pocket and pulled out the newspaper article showing Ester with the other woman.

Amelia’s panic attack stopped, but it started getting cold in the room; Amelia’s panic turned into anger.

She said quietly, “While I was worrying about that fool, he was winning a tournament with another woman”...

Then she looked closely at the photo and noticed that Ester wasn’t wearing his gloves in the picture, which was unusual, as he always had a complex about his hands. I also told them that Ester was on his way to the northern lowlands.

At least now Amelia seems calmer, and I prefer to see her angry than panicked, as long as she’s not angry with me.

Putting aside all the problems... we stayed four days in Zhanty...

On the last day in this city, we wanted to trade our horse for three earth dragons. They were necessary for the journey to the northern lowlands, as we have to pass through the monster zone, and earth dragons can endure the miasma of that area...

I also noticed that the earth dragons didn’t get along with Shiva. I asked her what was wrong. Shiva told me...

“These animals are very rude, and it’s rare that the winged dragons get along with the earth dragons.”

I replied, “If you could carry us on your back, we wouldn’t need to buy the earth dragons.”

Shiva’s face turned red, and she hit me on the head. I have a lot of resistance to physical blows, but that one did hurt...

“Not in your dreams, pervert.”

Shiva shouted as she stormed off angrily. Then Amelia crouched to talk to me, as Shiva’s hit had knocked me to the ground...

“Eduard, it’s clear you don’t know anything about dragons. Humanoid dragons only allow their partners to ride their backs. That’s why I never asked her to transport us during the trip, and I think Shiva can be useful to us in other ways, so don’t pressure her.”

Once I recovered from the blow, we continued buying the earth dragons and had to go to the inn for our things.

I wanted to take the opportunity to apologize to Shiva. I noticed she had packed a bunch of books in a large cloth...

“Shiva, I’m really sorry about this stupid thing…”

Then she threw the large bundle of books at me before I could finish speaking and said...

“Follow me.”

Reluctantly, I carried the books to the Adventurers' Guild. She went to the receptionist and asked if they did delivery missions.

The receptionist said they did, but it was a bit expensive. Depending on the delivery, a letter is cheap, but a large package can be more costly.

The dragoness paid three gold coins and asked for good adventurers to deliver the package to Titanica territory, noting the address on a sheet.

The receptionist happily accepted the request, completed the paperwork, and we left the package of books at the guild.

Once we were out of the guild, Shiva said to me...

“Thank you for the help, and about this afternoon, I know you didn’t mean to offend me, but I thought you were laughing at me, especially in front of those stupid earth dragons, which just drove me further up the wall. You didn’t deserve that hit; I’m sorry.”

“Thank you very much, Shiva. I also apologize for the misunderstanding. You are my first dragon friend; I’d be happy to learn more about you.”

We smiled at each other as we high-fived. I think I understand why Amelia grew so attached to Shiva so quickly.

Although later that silly dragoness made me angry again, but that’s another story…