After Albina and I punched out that blowhard faker, his friends got a little heated and wanted to fight us. Evidently, they didn't expect us to actually follow up on their threats by actually throwing the blowhard at them. Well, Albina did anyways. She is apparently rather strong despite her thin looking build.
What followed after that was a tavern wide brawl that ended with everyone passing out or getting knocked out, including us. I don't remember when, but at some point, judging by my new black eye, I got punched in the face and was promptly knocked out. For the record, I remember knocking out at least four other people. My parents didn't raise a milksop.
Luckily, Savina had managed to drag my unconscious form to bed and away from the chaos... I'm assuming. When I woke up, I saw her lying facedown in her assigned bed sleeping with her clothes on. I guess she hid until the chaos ended to drag me upstairs and promptly passed out.
Evidently, it appeared Bori and Albina had a better night than I did. Albina appeared to be sprawled out on her bed with a smile on her face while barely having a scratch on her. Bori likewise looked fairly content with his slumber, though I did notice a welt on his forehead. Having been in enough scrapes growing up, those were the telltale bruises of headbutting someone. Good on ya Bori.
Just as I was getting up and possibly get breakfast, Bartleby barged into the room and loudly shouted, "Ho there, cadets to be! It appears you four got into a spot of disorderly behavior last night, yes"?!
The combination of loud shouting and door slamming had in order, surprised me, caused Savina to roll out of bed, Bori to squeal/jump out of bed and Albina to shoot up of bed with a grumbling noise.
"Ah to be young and brash. Don't worry about any issues with authorities, I was told of the whole situation and patched things up. But we are leaving in an hour so I expect you four to be ready in ten minutes and downstairs to eat before we fly onwards. See you then!", he said before turning around and heading back to the tavern floor.
"Sil-Sil".
"Yeah Savina"?
"Don't start another fight until we get to the capital please", Savina asked tiredly.
"Fair enough".
[Awww. No more punching people]?
_________________________________________
"Ho there, cadets! Look below and behold! The Imperial Capital"!
[Huh. Never thought this place would still be standing after all this time...].
Coming over the horizon, towers of white stone capped with gold began to form. As the Sandroc flew closer and closer to the city, I was able to make out more and more details about how and why this place became the new Imperial Capital.
Surrounding the city was a massive wall several feet thick and dozens of feet high. Even without sensing the aether, I could see carved into each and every brick was a rune, similar to the menhir back home, but even more elaborate than that and filled with shining metals. Guardian binders patrolled the perimeter of the wall and on the wall itself, some had their monsters out and by their side, others were riding their monsters, while more still kept their beasts hidden in the drajules.
Albina let out a long whistle before commenting that this place was more secured than a Beetalion hive, ironic since there was a guardian Binder with a Beetalion by his side.
We flew over several stone buildings and districts, with all manner of people coming and going. It wasn't until we flew for another five or so minutes that Bartleby loudly announced, "Welcome to the Grand Imperial Binder Academy"!
Straight ahead of us was a huge, imposing yet regal looking citadel where a large crowd of people was milling about in the courtyard. As we got closer and closer to the citadel, several other flying majimonsters soon flanked us, each with their own controlling binder and group of cadets. I couldn't help but feel a tad bit excited for what was going to happen next.
[Huh...].
[What's up Voxea]?
[Nothing much, just...Hmmm... I'll tell you later. I could be wrong about this...], Voxea said enigmatically.
[Okay....].