Cecil and Lucia, who were riding on Silver, arrived at the city and walked right up to the city's checkpoint by the gates. In towns, you needed to leave your monster companions at ranches located outside the town, but at cities, all you needed to do was show some identification and the guards would give a collar to be put on your monster and let them in. The collars acted as a sign that the monster in question was tame and had an owner. If your monster caused any problems in the city, then the guards would hold the owner responsible.
Of course a punishment would be in due course, but it would only depend on how severe the offense was. The lightest punishment would only be a warning, while the harshest would be imprisonment. There were more severe punishments than that, but those kinds of punishments would only be reserved for severe cases.
When they arrived at the gate's checkpoint, Cecil jumped down from atop Silver and showed his guild ID to the guards. The guards took a glance at the ID and brought out a small collar, handed it to Cecil and waved them in.
Cecil took a glance at the collar in his hand. It was small enough to be a bracelet. With how small it was, it didn't seem plausible to wrap the collar around Silver's neck, but the unique magic spell inside the collar would activate when it detected a monster's unique mana signature and it would expand or contract to match the size of the monster in question. Cecil handed the collar to Lucia and she moved to wrap the collar around Silver.
"Grrr..." Silver let out a low growl, he was not pleased.
"Bear with it. Okay, Silvy?" Lucia said while putting the collar on Silver. Silver whined a bit, but he still let Lucia wrap the collar around his neck. If he didn't wear the collar then he would have to stay outside the city.
"Come on Silv, it's not like this is the first time you're wearing this!" Cecil said.
After the collar was wrapped around Silver's neck, Cecil's group went into the city, but just before going through the gate, Cecil focused his eyes a bit and turned his gaze to the ramparts surrounding the city. He always did this because what he saw always astounded him. Through his eyes, magic crests of all shapes, sizes, and colors dotted the walls. It was awe-inspiring no matter how many times he's looked at them.
Naturally, the crests were the magic spells that were used to reinforce the city's walls. He deactivated his mana sight when they went into the pathway past the majestic gate that was gilded with gold and magic crystals. It was a bit dark inside the pathway so when they finally passed through the gate, Cecil had to raise his hand to block the sun's rays that shone brightly into his eyes.
When his vision finally adjusted, what came into his view was a majestically paved road with buildings made of bricks and cement lined on the sides. On the sides of the road were sidewalks that had small trees planted on it. The trees were evenly spaced apart and there were small bushes that filled in the space in between them. The city was bustling with activity. On the road, Cecil could see wagons, carriages and even monsters moving along it.
While on the sidewalks, he could see stalls that were selling foods and many other different things. The people were bustling down the sidewalks walking and chattering about. Added with the stall owners and peddlers constantly shouting and hawking their wares, it only added to the liveliness and boisterous atmosphere of the city. This was the capital city of the Anglaria Kingdom, Angla City.
After taking a look around, Cecil smiled and jumped on top of Silver, seating himself right behind Lucia who was already riding on him.
"Okay, first we'll go to the adventurer's guild and turn in our quest and the subjugation proofs!" Cecil had to speak up loudly so that his voice wouldn't be drowned out by the bustling environment.
"Let's not forget that we should also sell the useless monster materials that we have!" Lucia said back to him in a loud voice. "Alright! You heard him Silvy, let's go!"
Lucia pointed forwards and Silver started trotting down the road heading towards Angla City's adventurer guild. On the road, Lucia kept on looking left and right. Cecil knew that she was looking for something that could pique her interests from the stalls. If she found something interesting, she would immediately pester Cecil into buying it for her.
Most of the time it was only food. It was only on rare occasions would she want Cecil to buy something like jewelry or clothes for her. While Cecil was staring at Lucia, he saw that her gaze was fixed on one of the stalls. Her eyes were sparkling. Cecil turned his gaze towards the stall in question and he saw that they were selling meat skewers.
Cecil nudged at Silver's sides with his feet. Silver looked up and saw the sparkly eyed Lucia and turned his gaze to the stall as well. He immediately knew what Cecil was hinting towards him and went towards the stall and waited by the roadside. Lucia snapped out of her daze and immediately went red when they stopped by the stall she was gazing at earlier.
"Wait here, Lulu, I'll go buy some. Which ones do you want, the spicy or the sweet flavored?"
"Thanks, Cel~ just buy a few for each flavors!"
"Okay."
Cecil went to the stall owner and purchased 5 of each flavor. He went back and gave Silver 2 spicy meat skewers before handing the rest to Lucia.
"Yay~! Thanks Cel!"
"You already said 'thanks' earlier."
"Ehehehe~"
Lucia then happily ate the skewers. Seeing that Cecil was lying down on top of Silver, Lucia turned back to him and offered him a spicy skewer.
"Here you go Cel! Say Ahhh~"
Cecil only took a glance at the skewer and opened his mouth for a bite. A crafty glint flashed in Lucia's eyes and she quickly retracted the skewer in her hand right as Cecil was about to bite down. His face turned dark at her prank. Seeing him like that, Lucia immediately roared in laughter, "Nahahahahaha~!"
"Tsk, if you're not gonna give me one. Then don't prank me!"
"Nahaha~ I'm just kidding Cel! Here, here. Say ahhh~"
Cecil narrowed his eyes cautiously at her gesture. Lucia saw this and said in displeasure, "You don't want it? Fine then, don't eat it! Hmph!"
She turned her head and harrumphed. Seeing as she was starting to get mad at him, Cecil reluctantly said, "Fine, fine."
Lucia's face immediately brightened and she once more offered him the skewer, "Say ahhhhh~ ahahahahaha!"
Lucia pulled away the skewer again just as Cecil was about to bite down. She turned around and said smugly, "Hmph, you didn't want it before so now I'm not giving you any!"
She then started nibbling on the skewer in her hand while cautiously taking glances at Cecil who clearly looked like he had popped a vein. He was quick when he moved and locked Lucia in a tight hug from behind while his hand grabbed onto hers.
"H-Hey, wait!"
Cecil naturally didn't wait and quickly guided Lucia's hand that was holding the skewer to his mouth and he bit down on the meat skewer. He took the meat into his mouth in one bite and chewed before turning a smug gaze towards Lucia.
Even though she was cautiously looking at him from the start, Lucia was still unable to do anything because when he started hugging her from behind, she was actually distracted because she felt a little happy with the hug, thinking that Cecil was trying to coax her into giving him a skewer. Unfortunately, however, that wasn't his intention at all. She was late to react when the meat she was nibbling on was suddenly eaten by Cecil. She looked at Cecil's mouth then towards the skewer she was holding. Her face immediately started blushing red in embarrassment.
Cecil didn't pay her expression any mind and finished the skewer in Lucia's hand. When he was done, he let go of Lucia and went back to lie down on Silver's back. Seeing the empty skewer in her hand, Lucia's red face darkened, "CECIL! MY SKEWER!"
"Haha! Your fault, not mine! Hurry up and finish the rest so we can be on our way! Or, do you want me to eat them?"
Lucia moved a bit away from Cecil while protecting the rest of her skewers. She began nibbling on them with relish while making sure she kept a close, vigilant eye to Cecil. Cecil only chuckled at her cautiousness before closing his eyes and started concentrating on the mana cores in his eyes. Even when they were on a break, he would never neglect his training.
--------------------------------------------------------------
After Lucia finished her skewers, the party ran swiftly down the road in the direction of the adventurer guild. It still took the party 15 minutes or so to get to the adventurer guild that was located in the middle district of the city. This was because the size of the cities in Alterna actually rivaled the metropolises back on Earth, especially the capital cities. Angla City even boasted an area the same size as New York City!
When they first got here, Cecil was in total awe of how huge the city was. There were no skyscrapers, but there were plenty of multi-storied buildings in the capital. The city was also divided into 4 main districts. They were the Outer District, Middle District, Inner District and Royal District.
The Outer District was where most of the bustling activities of the city took place and mind you, the outer district wasn't there to discriminate between the classes of the people. There was no such thing in Angla City as everyone with an ID was free to go to any district in the city with the exception of the royal district since that was the area where the royal castle of the Anglaria Kingdom was located.
The Outer District was where most of the merchants, peddlers, and shops were situated in. The merchant guild and mercenary guild was also situated here. The housing of the citizens was located in the Middle District. The Middle District consisted of inns, pubs, craftsmen's workshops and various guilds. The houses of permanent residing citizens were also in this district. The adventurer guild was also situated here to provide ease of access for citizens and adventurers who wanted to take or issue a quest.
The kingdom's officials, soldiers, and magicians' housings were in the Inner District. The Arks Royal Academy was also located here and they had a large plot of land all to themselves. The plot of land the Arks Royal Academy was situated on was big enough to build every possible facility that would make academy life convenient for the students. An arena, a smithy, weapons and armor shops, leather workshops, magic shops, the students' dormitories, and everything else you could think of were on the campus' land.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
The citizens of the city even categorized the land the Ark's academy was on as a separate district from the Inner District which they dubbed the Academy District. The students of the academy were required to live on campus and with the conveniences provided; they did not even need to head into the city for anything. The Arks Royal Academy could even function as a separate small-scaled city within the city because it had its own economy, guilds, and military force.
The economy was driven by the students themselves. Even the Academy's military force was made up of the students who were in their later learning years of the academy. The academy was created for the students and was run by the students.
Finally, the Royal District of the capital was a small cordoned area where the Royal Castle of Anglaria Kingdom was situated at. The area was closed off from the public and only the royal family along with their subordinates had free access to the place. The regular people could only go there if they were granted audiences with the kingdom's royalty or if they had received an invitation from them.
When Cecil and Lucia finally arrived at the guild, they brought Silver into the stable at the side and went together into the guild building. As usual, Cecil was required to 'shut up' by Lucia and let her do the talking. This became a normal thing for them especially after Cecil's blunder. To prevent such a thing from happening again, this was the best method they could think of. Until Cecil fully grasped the language, Lucia had to do everything for now.
By the way, Cecil and Lucia were already famous within the guild for being the youngest adventurers to have reached 5 Star Gold Rank which was just one rank away from 1 Star Platinum Rank. Since Cecil was always quiet when they were in the guild, not letting even a little bit of his voice out, everyone thought that he was mute at first. Lucia was easy to get along with so she was popular with the other adventurers who were around their age.
Although they were young, their strengths and abilities were already proven to the rest of the adventurers. Cecil's swordsmanship as well as his unique martial arts and Lucia's fiery destructive spells were famous in the guild.
Many adventurers who were around their age admired the two and since they were almost platinum rank, their admirers began giving them titles and started calling them with their titles instead of their names. Silent Sword and Inferno Witch were the titles given to the two based on their abilities and characteristics. The names spread throughout the guild so everyone started calling them that. Since they were given titles, Cecil and Lucia's guild ID's were also changed.
Name : Cecil Silvaria Age : 14 Title : Silent Sword Class : Magic Swordsman Rank : 5-Star Gold
Name : Lucia Age : 14 Titles : Inferno Witch Class : Spellcaster, Enchanter Rank : 5-Star Gold
They kept their stages a secret so it didn't show on the guild IDs, but Lucia was already at the Mana Sea Stage with around 5500 units of mana while Cecil was at the Mana Sea Stage with 5015 units of mana.
Of course, at the start it wasn't like this, in their first week at the guild, many other adventurers who were ranked at the same level as Cecil and Lucia were naturally jealous and small conflicts occurred occasionally. They were young so everyone felt that the two were pushovers.
Naturally, they were proven wrong and Cecil packed the troublemakers up with ease. Apparently, the guild master of Angla City was a close friend of Lucia's uncle who was the guild master of Forest Hill Town's adventurer guild, so he was already paying attention to them from the moment they checked in with the guild. It caused Lucia to be puzzled at how influential her uncle was to have connections reaching all the way to the capital, but upon remembering her eccentric uncle, she tossed all thoughts and concerns to the back of her mind.
The guild master was concerned about their constant rapid advancement and perfect track record of quest completions because, unfortunately, instead of inspiring awe and admiration, their performance only attracted unwanted attention towards them at the start.
So when it was time for them to advance in rank, the guild master issued a 5 Star rank promotion quest for the two. For promotion quests, the ranks would start from 1 star and ending at 7 stars. Normally, 5 Star promotion quests were issued only to those who wanted to advance ranks from gold to platinum. So, for Cecil and Lucia who were only 5 Star Silver rank at the time, it was hopeless for them to even think about advancing to 1 Star Gold rank.
The promotion quest was a monster subjugation quest that required them to destroy the high golem that was located in the mountains to the west of Angla City. The guild master didn't mean any harm, he only wanted to look out for the two when he heard that they attracted the jealousy and envy of the other adventurers of the guild and were constantly being harassed. He wanted to give them a small bump on their road and with the failure from advancing; the guildmaster hoped that it would stave off the bad attention that the two brought to themselves.
After Lucia and Cecil received their promotion quest from the guild, they immediately rushed towards the mountains with Silver and they pulverized their high golem target in a half hour long fight. Swords and blades couldn't damage the magic armor of the golem, so Cecil used his fists and legs to pummel the golem into the ground with Lucia and Silver supporting him with magic spells.
When the two came back from the mountains with the high golem's core and magic materials, the guild master and all guild personnel as well as the adventurers who were present could only watch the two in absolute shock. Even a high golem was taken care of by them and the most frightening part was the duration they took for the quest.
It did not take Cecil and Lucia even a week to finish their promotion quest. The average 5 Star Gold Rank party that took on a 5 star promotion quest required anywhere between 3 weeks to 1 month to finish the quest, and this was for a party of 6, not 2.
Since then, no one had come to them to look for trouble. The adventurers were no longer envious but rather frightened and in awe by their achievements. There were the occasional conflicts with newcomers, but that was only because they were ignorant. The newbies would immediately quiet down when the other veteran adventurers told them about the duos' accomplishments.
Just by finishing a 5 star promotion quest in less than a week showed everyone that although Cecil and Lucia were at gold rank, they had combat prowess that was on par with individuals and parties at the platinum rank.
When it was finally their turn to go up to the counter, the guild receptionist lady greeted them with a big, bright smile, "Welcome~! Lucia and Cecil, how are you two today~?"
Cecil only nodded back and kept silent while Lucia immediately brought out the materials required for their quest and quickly greeted the receptionist, "Heya, Mimi! We're here to turn in our dungeon subjugation quest!"
"As expected of the Silent Inferno duo~ it didn't take long this time too."
"Ehehehe~" Lucia laughed shyly at her words.
Silent Inferno was the name everyone started calling their party of two. The guild receptionist, Mimi, took care of the materials and checked them. After making sure the two had fulfilled the requirement, she stamped a piece of paper and handed the two their quest reward.
"Here you go, thanks for your hard work as all ways~"
"You too, Mimi!"
"Speaking of work, aren't you two suspending all guild work beginning next week?"
"Huh? Oh... yeah, haha... how'd you know Mimi?"
"The guildmaster naturally informed all the guild personnel. It's really sad that you two would no longer be visiting the guild for a while. We're already used to having you two around!"
"Hehe, we have to attend the academy since that was our main objective for coming to the capital~"
"Yes, but with your capabilities, everyone at the guild is sure that you two will pass the tests with flying colors!"
"Thank you, Mimi!"
Cecil who was listening in on their conversation from behind Lucia only let out a small smile of thanks. Mimi who was talking with Lucia noticed his smile and turned to him, "You're welcome Cecil!"
Cecil only nodded back to her. Since he never spoke, Mimi and some other guild personnel who were close with them had already gotten used to reading Cecil's expressions. He was somewhat of an open book after all. Lucia soon wrapped up their conversation and the duo walked out of the guild.
On their way out, the other adventurer parties greeted them and gave the two their blessings for passing the academy's entrance exams. They picked up Silver from the stable and road him towards the smithy they frequented. The smithy was run by Mr. Argon's brother, Radon. When they first arrived, the owner, Radon, immediately started asking how his stupid brother was doing.
Radon was the same as Argon, they were both friendly people. Radon's smithy was pretty popular in the capital since it was run by a dwarf. All the equipment created and sold in the smithy were all top tier with their quality being guaranteed by the Ark's Royal Family since they were coincidentally the smithy that provided the nation's armies with their weapons, armor, and equipment.
They were heading towards the smithy to craft both Cecil and Lucia's new equipment from the magic ores they mined from the dungeon. Also, Cecil wanted to ask if Radon could craft the adamantium they had. Since Radon was Argon's brother, Cecil hoped that Radon had the ability to craft their adamantium, as well as trust that the man would keep their adamantium a secret from other people.
'Hopefully, he can craft it. I want a weapon that could withstand all my mana.'