"Come on, walk faster" Knight was urging Uncle Dior who is very tired because of the long walk towards the Barren Hills.
"Just wait a moment" Uncle Dior was inhaling and exhaling heavily, he was exhausted.
"Flying would have been better wouldn't it?" Knight asked in ridicule and continued to walk with Don.
"Oh no, I'm okay" a single thought of flying made Uncle Dior shudder in fear as he mustered all his strength and chased after them.
"Why are you torturing that man?" Don sent a telepathic message to Knight.
Knight didn't say anything but chuckled quietly and walked beside him, followed by Uncle Dior.
When they chose to leave the Castle of Dragon king to reach the Barren Hills, Uncle Dior was adamant not to fly there but against his wishes, Don and Knight dragged him with them while he was screaming and threatening them to throw up.
However, after flying a few hundred kilometers, they descended on the ground and started to walk towards the direction Uncle Dior showed them. Seeing that Uncle Dior thought they had enough of him screaming and they finally chose to walk but the truth was Knight found there were human movements on the ground and Don had not wanted to be found flying without a magical item or broom raising suspicions.
Since they were crossing paths with humans, Knight had shrunk his size and transformed himself that similar to a puppy dog with wings, he would have hidden his wings too but simply he couldn't.
Even with his small size Knight was a faster walker than Uncle Dior, he had battle energy to prevent him from being exhausted or tired.
After a long walk, the trees and green were replaced by stones and barren lands. Tall mountains of various shapes started to appear in their eyesight in the distance, the cool breeze they felt till now was gone and hot dry air warmed them.
The man-made path became visible as they continued to walk as well as some humans and carriages moved by horses.
"What's the place we are going?" as he asked Uncle Dior, Knight made a leap towards Don and comfortably landed on his shoulder then wrapped his small tail around his neck for more comfort.
"Virnam the city of mining"
The trio stopped for a moment and gazed at the huge walls that were made by nothing but completely stone, there were not any man-made beams or pillars could be seen on the walls, this place had been provided defense by nature itself.
"Legends has that the walls were carved and put around the city by the Dwarven God Berronar"
"Don move faster. I want to see the city" Knight urged Don with excitement.
Don sighed inside and walked a bit faster to enter the city along with Uncle Dior.
As they got closer to the city entrance, Don saw the guards standing in front of the gates. Unlike the guards in the slave city, these guards wore full pate chainmail armor, an eagle symbol was carved on their chest.
"What's that eagle symbol?" Don asked Uncle Dior while walking to the guards
"That's the symbol of the kingdom Emir"
Don didn't respond as he walked while Uncle Dior started to give him some details about the city.
"Until five years ago Virnam was an independent city ruled by the circle but the king of Emir waged war to covet the mines in the city and won hence it became a part of Emir"
"What's a circle?" Knight asked.
"The people of Virnam chose seven representatives among themselves to govern the city, they had no King but the seven people called the circle "
"Oh that's a weird idea"
As Uncle Dior and Knight finished talking they reached the front gates as well as the guards, seeing Don and Uncle Dior a middle-aged muscular bearded man stopped them.
"What's your purpose of coming to Virnam?" the man asked.
"We've come to Virnam to buy some Kornite " Uncle Dior said to the guard with a little curtsy to show him respect.
The guard looked at them for a moment but when he laid eyes on the cute puppy sitting on Don's shoulder his eyes showed some surprise but he didn't ask anything about the animal, he just signaled them to enter the city.
The town was a maze of narrow winding streets, as complex as the human body. The streets were paved with some kind of gray stone. The sound of the smiths, beating iron and metals into shape, was the constant and dull pounding that repeated through the streets.
Unlike in the slave city, Don could see there were many people from various races other than humans walking on the streets. Most of them were demi-humans and half-orcs. He could even see some half-elves here and there but compared to the humans they were still less in numbers.
"So what's the plan?" Knight whispered to Don and Uncle Dior.
"We should find a caravan or anything that going to Emir, some of them pass through Barren Hills to make the trip shorter "
"Alright but before any of that, I need to eat some meat! this King had survived enough with energy" Knight licked his lips while thinking about meat.
Don knew there's no way to deny Knight of his meat so he started to walk towards it in the hope to find some restaurant.
"Don go straight I can smell food" Knight started to get a whiff of food as he instructed Don towards the source of the smell.
Eventually, after taking many left and rights Don and Uncle Dior reached the destination that Knight was eager to see. The shiny red bricks gave the two-story building a rich charm, on the top of the building a board with fine writings in black ink hanged to show the restaurant's name.
"Royal Dine huh? It's a suitable name for a place I'm going to eat" Knight's voice was full of arrogance when he said that.
"Come on go inside what're you waiting for?" Knight urged Don as he made his way to the front door of the restaurant.
"Welcome Welcome to Royal Dine guests" the first thing they saw when they entered the restaurant was a young man in red dress welcoming them with a smile.
However, at the moment the young man saw the puppy that was sitting on Don's shoulder he squinted his eyes and showed a troubled look on his face.
"Guests I'm sorry you can't bring in pets" the young man clearly didn't want to be rude as his eyes never looked directly at Don.
"Pet? Are you blind look at it, it's a rare exotic beast I've just bought for fifteen hundred gold you hear me fifteen hundred"
Don said, but seeing his acting Knight was actually proud to have someone with good acting skills.
Uncle Dior didn't seem very surprised at Don because he knew when Don put on his mike face that he would turn into a very different person to mingle with the crowd.
The young man trembled just when he heard the amount of gold he said to buy the beast. This amount was nothing when you're in the rich kingdoms such as the Archeron Kingdom or Capitol of Moon Empire but to a faraway city as this, it's a gigantic amount.
"Oh I'm sorry I'm sorry my lords! Even though I had eyes I've failed to recognize Mount Yarver "
The young man bowed up and down to reduce any chances of having the brown-haired young men wrath.
"It's ok but don't make the mistake again" as he said Don started to walk towards an empty table across the room. While he was walking he saw many rich youngsters and young women eyeing him and Knight but he didn't mind. He pulled up the chair and sat facing towards Uncle Dior just when the young man came running with the menu on his hand.
"Here's the menu my lord" the young man handed over the menu to Don and nervously waited for the response.
"Don order the Bœuf bourguignon, Coq au vin,Jambon persillé and Crème brûlée for dessert" Knight sent him a telepathic message of the items he chose from the menu. Don knew Knight was a picky eater so he just went along with him and decided to order him the food.
"Uncle Dior what would you have?" Don gave the menu to Uncle Dior, however at the moment Uncle Dior laid eyes on the menu, his eyes went wide and hands started to tremble.
Uncle Dior never saw or had anything as expensive as the items on the menu, every item on the list was higher than 5 gold pieces.
"Can I have a glass of water please?" Uncle Dior said to Don in a husky voice.
"Give me the menu" Don knew why Uncle Dior was so afraid, therefore he grabbed the menu from his hands and ordered something for him.
"Waiter we'll have two plates of Bœuf bourguignon, three Coq au vin,two Jambon persillé and three Crème brûlée" the waiter noted everything on his notepad.
"Sir what wine do you prefer? we have almost everything" the young man asked.
"Just give him the one bottle of your best wine" Don didn't need to ask Knight about the wine because they both won't drink alcohol so he just ordered one for Uncle Dior.
"I'll be right back with your orders sir" the young man bowed again and ran towards the back of the restaurant.
"Don are you mad? Didn't you look at the prices?" Uncle Dior whispered to him in an angry tone but Don just waved his hands to stop him from saying anything else.
"When you're in a rich place you need to act like one" Don said.
"Don don't look quickly, a young miss is looking at us" Knight sent him a telepathic message and signaled Don with his eyes at the direction of a group of young people sitting next to Don's table.
"I've noticed"
"I'll be mad as hell if this scenario turned into a cliche scene where young miss asking to buy the cute pet and the arrogant hero fight with her group to fall in love or kill her entire sect one day" Knight would get very irritated every time when a fight breaks out in the restaurant because of some arrogant young master's couldn't give up their seat or young misses want to buy a cute animal for her in Divine Continent.
"No, I don't think so let's just wait and see how it's going"
.