The bridge that was connecting to the palace was about ten meters wide and it was the biggest out of all in the city. When they reached the end, about five guards were blocking the entrance. However, as soon as they saw it was the princess, they let them pass while bowing their heads towards her. Unfortunately, Xuefeng wasn't spared from weird glances and jealous glares.
The news travels fast in Eligma, especially when it's such an important matter like the partner of the future queen. When Xuefeng appeared in the palace, the guards and maids already started circulating that information everywhere.
As they stepped into the city Xuefeng realized that it was basically a doughnut-shaped forest with a large parent tree in the middle that had a Palace built around it. On each tree, there was a house and sometimes it was just a plaza platform where markets and shops were placed. Everything was connected with a web of flying bridges all together forming a huge city above in the sky.
Although the males of the Forest Elves Race were unfriendly towards him, the females were very open and kind. Some of the ladies they met on the way, didn't mind the Princess Yiren presence and even winked at Xuefeng trying to win his approval.
Although male elves were handsome, they were too proud and arrogant. This caused the female elves to become interested in the kind-looking, smiling Xuefeng.
"Let's get him out of here or those vixens will eat him alive," Tangwei whispered in Yiren's ear causing her to realise the situation.
"Xuefeng, how about we eat something in the restaurant? Let's go." Yiren hugged onto Xuefeng's arm, shooting a glare at the female elves before dragging Xuefeng away.
They only giggled at Yiren's overprotection and continued with their business. Although they looked young, they were actually a fifty to a hundred years old.
"What is this? Looks like an arena." Suddenly, Xuefeng spotted a big round building on one of the trees that looked like an ancient gladiator arena from Ancient Greek, which he read about on Earth.
"It is indeed an Arena, but it's closed at the moment. There will be a monthly competition tomorrow so if you want to check it out, we can go together." Seeing he was interested, Yiren proposed to watch the contest together. She didn't mind what they were doing, as long as she could spend time with him.
"Sure, we can go. I'm quite interested in how your race fight." Xuefeng nodded agreeing. He was indeed curious about the art that Forest Elves uses with different elements. Maybe in the future, he could copy them and use it as his own.
"That's great! We have a special seating lodge for the royalty, so we don't need to book tickets, we can just come. You could even participate if you want and you'd have a chance to win a lot of Fate Stones." Yiren jumped twice excitedly, not worrying about her public image.
"Wait, did you just say Fate stones?" Xuefeng stopped walking and asked in excitement. Because of Ling, he was quite overreactive to everything that had the word "fate" before their names.
"It's the currency we use. Here." Yiren pulled out the round golden stone from her storage ring and passed it to Xuefeng. It was a translucent crystal that shone lightly with golden light. It was quite similar to the one Ling uses as her space.
'Interesting, to think that those stones contain trace amounts of Fate Qi. I can actually absorb this Fate Qi, but it's just some vague amounts. You should find out where they take them from, so I can absorb more.' Ling said, feeling the Fate Qi from the stone.
"This is just a low tiered stone, which contains the most impurities. There are also middle and high tiered ones, but I don't have any with me right now." Seeing him interested she gladly explained.
"Where do you take them from? Do you mine them?" Xuefeng asked with a curious expression.
"Haha, no dummy, they are streaming down in the river and we just gather them. You will see what I mean later at night." Yiren booped his nose as she laughed cutely.
"You like to touch others noses, huh?" Xuefeng reached and booped hers which caused her to giggle. He felt surprisingly relaxed around her.
"Yeah, how did you know?" Yiren asked playfully.
"Intuition." Xuefeng smiled.
"Okay, I'm out or I'm going to puke. We will see each other back in the palace." Tangwei finally couldn't withstand their cuteness and walked away which caused both of them to laugh.
"Let's go. I will let you sample the best food in the Eligma!" They passed a few houses and flying bridges as they finally arrived at the restaurant. Not many people were here as it was still some time until dinner.
The whole building was carved inside a wide tree with its walls covered in red vine flowers. As they entered through the open doors, Xuefeng nodded seeing the space inside appointed perfectly. Each detail, flowers and beautifully engraved furniture were giving off a pleasing "There's no place like home" vibe. There was also only one floor so everyone could feel equal.
With roughly fifty tables in total, about half were taken and some elves were already eating while others were still waiting for their meal. What connected them was that when Xuefeng and Yiren entered the restaurant, everyone stopped what they were doing looking at their direction.
'Is this a custom in all the restaurants that when I enter, everyone has to quiet down?' Xuefeng thought, seeing the gazes of everyone in the room.
"Oh, my beautiful granddaughter is here. Come greet your grandma." Before they decided where they should sit down, they were greeted by a mature blond lady who just exited from the kitchen wearing an apron and holding a tray full of snacks that were wrapped in leaves.
"Auntie!" The moment Yiren saw the lady she exclaimed happily and ran up to her, throwing herself into her arms. Thankfully, the blond lady put the tray down or else she would drop everything to the ground.
"You are still so beautiful, you don't need to call yourself grandma. You will always be an auntie for me." Yiren seemed to have a good relationship with her auntie as she hugged her head into her auntie's still ample and perky bosom. Because of Yiren's movements stretching her dress, it was even possible to see the side boobs of the auntie.
Looking at the patrons of the restaurant, Xuefeng realised they weren't looking at him from the start, but waiting for Yiren's auntie to come out of the kitchen. Although she had some small signs of ageing, she was still a decent looking mature lady. She was slim with the right curves and overall she looked to be around 35 years old.
People often want the most what they cannot have. Xuefeng noticed that only some of the elves had golden hair and the rest were mostly black or brown haired. Most people with golden or only slightly darker hair were working in the palace. Recalling the teachings Yiren recited, Xuefeng theorized that it was dependent on how pure your elf blood was.
'Maybe they are jealous of me because of my blond hair? That might also be possible.' Xuefeng thought before he looked back at the auntie and Yiren pair. They were already finished with their greetings and were currently watching Xuefeng thinking to himself.
"Cough… I'm Liu Xuefeng, nice to meet you." Xuefeng coughed awkwardly and approached them to introduce himself. He reached with his hand for a handshake but it was dodged again and a sneak kiss was planted on his cheek.
"You look quite decent and have such nice hair. No male in Eligma has such pretty, golden hair. Yiren, you got lucky this time." The lady combed Xuefeng's short hair and sighed.
"Yeah, I'm lucky." Yiren nodded as she watched Xuefeng with satisfaction.
"...How about we eat something?" Xuefeng felt like he was a tourist attraction, so he proposed the change of setting.
"Okay! Auntie, will you make some of your specialities for Xuefeng? I promised him the best of the best." Yiren asked as she hugged into her auntie's arm.
"Sure. Everything for my sweety. Let me deal out these and I will make you guys something special." Auntie patted Yiren on the head and with a last smile to Xuefeng, she picked up the tray and started distributing the food to the Patrons.
"Isn't she the best?" Yiren pulled Xuefeng to the free table in the corner and asked proudly.
"Yeah, you have a nice family." Xuefeng nodded as he prepared to sit in front of her by the table.
"No, come sit with me." Yiren grabbed his arm in the last second and forced him to sit on her side.
Yiren chose the table that didn't have anyone around them, so they could have some privacy.
"You know, I always imagined what you would look like, but I didn't expect you would be so nice. I thought you would be arrogant and hard to talk to like others males are, but you are the exact opposite." Yiren placed her head on Xuefeng's shoulder and said quietly from her heart.
"Uhm… Thanks." Xuefeng didn't know what to say so he just thanked her.
"Mhmm... Do you think you could love me if we met normally?" Yiren looked him in the eyes and asked cutely.
"... I guess I …" "Yireeen!" Xuefeng thought for a moment and was prepared to answer, but was stopped by a loud shout coming from the doors.
"Damn, why did this idiot have to come right now." Yiren's face darkened seeing their special moment stopped.