Those many years passed in an instant. The cold from the winter months had faded away, with the warmth of spring peeking on the horizon. It was finally time for us to set off toward the capital.

"Someone's excited," Maya commented. "You're grinning."

"Well, yeah."

It was finally time for me to get a look at the capital, the place I lived for a good portion of my previous life.

Well, not literally. While I spent a lot of time on Mimosa Online, it wasn't the game I spent most of my time in, I think?

Besides, it had been years. What does the capital look like now? Would I meet any of the characters from the game? Did the laws remain unchanged? Had they discovered new magic and stuff?

So many questions circled my head.

“Do you have everything ready?” Mom asked. I did one final check on my belongings, although I didn’t actually need to. If I left something behind, I could just return home.

It was a trick I hid from Maya and my family because I thought it would be funny. I had already tested it before in secret, and it worked exactly the way it did in the game. The elementless spell, Teleport. It was a complicated spell. In the game, you just need to select a location you visited often enough. In this world, you needed to be able to picture a near-perfect image of where you wanted to go, and then paint the symbol for teleportation above it. I struggled a bit, but after some practice, I got the hang of it.

There were times when my parents were awake at night. In theory, it should prevent me from going out, but no. All I needed to do was teleport to the forest, then come back before dawn.

It's an incredible ability, definitely worth the trouble.

“I’m ready,” Maya said. We hugged my parents. After some more words of advice, we exited the home.

Villagers gathered in front of our house, about to bid us farewell. Even Father and Mother came to see us goodbye. They stand among the crowd, in their human forms. They had visited us several times at this point, occasionally treating this village as their vacation home.

The two of us stepped forward and exchanged hugs. I occasionally spent time in the dragon village, so I was practically their adopted son by now.

“Stay safe, okay?”

“We will. We’ll be off, then.”

We did one last wave. I then extended my hand, taking Maya’s. I made sure Maya held her suitcase. She looked confused. I gave her a reassuring smile, then closed my eyes. I imagined the interior of Syla’s Adventurers’ Guild. I had visited the place so many times in my previous world that I memorized the place exactly. I then painted the Teleport symbol on top of my imagination.

Here I go.

Nothing happened.

“Fortis, what’s wrong?” Mom asked in worry.

“Huh, that’s weird.”

I kept my eyes closed. I changed my destination, imagining my room instead. I painted the teleportation spell above the picture.

I opened my eyes, finding myself inside my room. Teleportation definitely worked. I tried again, this time painting the sight of the street in front of our house.

“AH!”

“Teleportation!”

“Our son can use teleportation!”

“That spell existed?”

"My goodness! I can't believe my eyes!"

Came the shocked words from the people.

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So the guild changed…

That's too bad…

I was hoping I could skip the tedious journey.

“You can use teleportation? That is surprising.”

“Haha…” I laughed wryly. “... Guess we’re flying there.”

* ••

It was a bit embarrassing, but I could do nothing as Maya got changed. I was planning on showing off, hence why I told Maya to just wear her regular clothes.

After a short while, she reappeared wearing a piece of large cloth over her body. She took a deep breath and deployed her magic. Within a few seconds, she transformed back into her dragon form. I climbed onto her back, putting our suitcases in front of me.

“Are you ready, Fortis?”

“I’m ready.”

I waved toward the crowd as we took to the skies. The village shrunk as we flew further away, heading straight for Syla.

* ••

Some hours passed. The beautiful view was mesmerizing for the first few hours. After that, I was bored.

“Is that it?” Maya asked all of a sudden.

I was half-asleep when Maya made sudden movements, waking me up. She flapped her wings, slowing her speed and stabilizing her flight. I held onto her back and looked in front of us. A massive city spanned in front of me.

“Yeah.”

From this high up, the city looked similar to how I remembered it. Or, at least, the center part of it. The city had expanded quite a lot. There was even a new layer of wall being built. Maya descended, looking for a place to land.

“Let’s land there.” I pointed toward an empty road southwest of the capital. Maya turned around and slowed down, making a smooth landing like how an airplane would land. I told her to hide behind the nearby trees before changing into her regular clothes.

Once she finished, we headed into the city.

"So this is what a human city looks like."

"Yeah."

Unlike our little village, the capital was filled with people. Crowd occupied the streets while sellers promote their wares on the sides. People conversed with each other, enjoying a snack or two as they wind down. We headed deeper into the city, going past the middle walls. It once had been the outer walls, the walls that greeted an adventurer returning from their journey. The familiar gates had been repainted, and guards no longer stood next to its large doors.

It’s different.

Brand new shops, buildings with different colors, roads with different surfaces. No wonder I failed to teleport to the capital.

The Adventurers' Guild must have changed as well.

I guess the huge time gap had its effects. It was dumb of me to think that the capital remained the same. To be fair, I did expect it to change, just not this much.

“Where should we go, Fortis?” Maya asked.

The school was open all year round, because unlike me, not everyone had a dragon friend they could ride home on. That said, the school’s curfew was at eight in the evening. The sun had already set, and I doubt we could reach the school by eight. School didn’t start until the first day of next week anyway, so we have time.

“Let’s look for an inn.”

“Okay.”

We began traveling down the crowded capital streets. Unlike our small village, the capital’s roads were both crowded and bright at this hour.

“And you see, she said this after that!” Loud drunkards laughed as they enjoyed their beer. I moved away from any tavern I could see.

“Ah, you are not comfortable with that.”

Maya and her family brought me into a dragon’s equivalent of a tavern before. She noticed how uncomfortable I was. I did die from them, after all. I also hated the smell of alcohol. Her family was understanding enough to never bring me to a similar establishment after that.

Besides, what kind of human could finish a barrel of wine? A freaking barrel.

“We should hurry. I’m pretty tired.”

“I did nothing and I agreed with that statement.”

"You slept the way here."

"Sorry."

We moved away from the taverns and looked for the closest inn we could find. After a few minutes of searching, we arrived in front of one.

“Good evening-” The receptionist’s eyes widened when she saw Maya. “A dragon? This is the first time I saw one… Ah, I’m really sorry for that!” She bowed her head.

“It’s alright," Maya responded.

"Two, please.”

“One room would be alright.”

I jerked my head upon hearing Maya’s response. “But- but…”

“Dragons cannot feel romantic affection toward humans. I thought you know about this?” Maya looked at me. “Besides, we will only be staying for a while. Won’t two rooms be a waste of money?”

“I… Fine…”

“I see… one room it is… then.”

We paid the fee, and the receptionist gave us our key. We went to the building’s second floor. The room contained double beds, much to my relief.

“I will be taking this one.” Maya sat down on the one near the window.

“Sure.”

She yawned and stretched her hands. “Good night.” She turned around and went to sleep right after.

She looked pretty adorable when she was asleep.

I set my luggage down, then went to bed myself.