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"Alright, now that we’re done, shall we depart?" I asked. "Once we’ve registered and shopped, we’ll come back to do everything, Khione. We won’t take too long, maybe two hours at most."
"Seems reasonable. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of time before what I saw becomes reality... I hope," Khione said. "Take your time and rest. You’ll need as much energy for the battles to come."
"Understood," I nodded. "Let’s go, everyone! I’m kind of hungry already. Let’s enjoy some local food."
"About time!" Rita said. "We ate everything here, but I’m still hungry... I guess having a strong body really makes you hungrier, huh?"
"Yeah, it’s all about calories and needing to maintain your stronger body with them," Lily nodded. "But we simply need to taste whatever delicacies they have in this city to feel refilled with energy, I’m sure."
"I wonder what local food they have~?" Elisa wondered. "I’ve grown rather fond of the food in this little Realm, if I say so myself."
"They probably have a lot of ice cream and sweets," Elena said. "Judging by what Khione ate..."
We walked out of the castle and started moving through the busy streets of the Ice Fairy City. The streets and houses were all made of ice bricks, which were harder than stone.
There were mostly Ice Fairies, but also some Forest Fairies, Goblins, and Gnomes here and there. On the way to the big Market Center, which was pretty much just a mall, we saw a pair of recognizable fairy friends.
"Ah, there you are!"
"Oh? To think we would find them like this..."
It was Frosty and Snowflake. Both fairy guards flew to our side, glaring at us with rather serious expressions. They seemed tired, as if they had been searching for us.
"Ah, hello! Are you heading to the Market Center too? We were going to register at the Hunter Guild later," I said.
"So that’s what you’re doing... What was your conversation with Queen Khione?" Frosty asked. "Y-You were a lot of time with her! I hope there was nothing suspicious going on..."
"Suspicious?!" I wondered. "Frosty, what idea of me do you have...?"
"Please forgive her, she’s such a dork~" Snowflake said. "She doesn’t know how to start conversations properly, so she always begins speaking like this instead. It’s her bad habit..."
"What are you talking about, Snowflake?!" Frosty cried, growing redder. "T-That’s definitely... not the case!"
"It’s fine if she’s shy," I giggled. "Anyway, the Queen rewarded us for taking down the Ice Troll camp."
"We got a lot of rewards!" Rita said. "She even let us eat doughnuts and drink hot cocoa... which I had no idea they had here in Avalon."
"It was nice of her. She even gave us scrolls to learn Spiritual Arts," Mark said.
"S-Spiritual Arts? Wait, but you’re humans! How could you ever learn such powers? You need to have a Spiritual Heart for that, and only Spiritual Beings like us are born with them..." Frosty muttered.
"She had a special device that let us create our own," I said. "Turns out, as Druids, we were more than capable of getting them. Then she let us absorb some high-quality Spirit Beast Cores, and we ended up getting Spiritual Heart Beasts... well, only me. The rest are still developing them as eggs."
I showed her my three beasts right away. They flew around Frosty, only making her more shocked, to the point she almost fainted.
"T-This is crazy...! Not even I have one of these yet!" she muttered. "W-Woah... Okay... I yield... Maybe you are... strong."
"Haha, come on now, don’t be like that," Snowflake giggled, patting her head. "Um, I noticed you were looking for this place? Shall we act as your guides~? It’s the least we could do~ What do you think?"
Snowflake was much friendlier and more relaxed than her partner. We quickly agreed to her offer, and she led us inside the Market Center, a literal mall that the ice fairies had created, where merchants from all places gathered, setting up their own shops or selling at smaller stalls.
"Wow, this place sure is huge...!" Gabriel said, flying around. "Hahaha, so many people everywhere too! W o o o o a a a h h !"
As we walked through the first floor and saw several shops and stalls, we noticed there were more than just Fairies, Gnomes, Brownies, and Goblins.
"Is that a talking cat?" Elisa wondered.
"It is!" Monica nodded.
"Wait, is it a person?" Elena asked.
"Nyah?! I’m not a talking cat, disrespectful humans!" the merchant reacted angrily.
He looked like a fat cat the size of a gnome, with orange and white fur and angry emerald eyes, wearing a blue coat and a hat with colorful feathers.
"I’m sorry, sir... they’re stupid," Frosty apologized. "They’ve never been here before, tourists."
"Ah... hmph! For your information, I am a Cat Sith! We are Spirit Folk just like any other Fairy, Gnome, and so on, nya!" the cat said. "My name is Kajithe, and if you have no interest in my wares, then get lost! Hisss!"
He really took it personally. We quickly walked away. We had to be less disrespectful with the people of this place, as not everyone would be tolerant of our ignorance.
"I’m sorry, it was my fault," Elisa sighed. "I was just amazed... there are also dog people, huh?"
We also noticed some dog people talking. They were small, only slightly taller than the Cat Sith.
"Those are Cu Sith. They’re the canine equivalent of Cat Sith~ They’re much nicer than the cats, though, so don’t worry," Snowflake smiled.
"Oh, wow..." I nodded. "So there are that many Spirit Folk? I really thought there were only three or four races at most..."
"Haha, of course not. Avalon is enormous. There are people of all kinds everywhere. It’s just that near our King’s Capital, its mostly fairies," Snowflake giggled, eating some cotton candy she had purchased earlier.
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