Just as Lia predicted, it only took a couple of days before we got to Talonia. We actually arrived at the port Town of Zagas, the place where we originally set off from. If we were only going to Mount Dragspear, then it would've just taken a few hours of flying at my top speed, but since I decided to ignore the base and head to the Capital, Draelgium, first. Although not much, it's still a little further away than the mountain is, but we still arrive just after sunset.
On Lia's suggestion, I land a couple of kilometres away from the city, so as to not cause too much of a commotion. But from what I can see, a small regiment of guards are rushing in our direction, so I don't think it would have changed much if I had made landfall closer to the city. With my size, someone is going to see me no matter where I land.
Once everyone is off my back, I shift to my humanoid form and I hear Wanjing say, "so this is what a city beyond Shengdi looks like. Although the architecture is a little different, it doesn't seem too far from the cities in Shenzhou. Both have high walls and are pretty big."
"But we've only really seen this one city, it's not like we could really tell what the others we passed looked like from our position in the sky and with the speed we were moving at," Boshi says.
"From what I could tell in passing, many of the settlements didn't seem to have much in the way of walls, let alone high walls like this," Gyosu says.
"That is probably because we only passed through the territory of the Elves and Dragonoids. The Elves primarily live in forest protected settlements, and the Dragonoids are nomadic and seldom live sedentary lifestyles. That isn't to say neither have large permanent settlements like cities. For the Elves, those places can be difficult to find due to the forest and the Dragonoids have Mount Dragspear, but that's the base of the Dragon Bandits and has less to do with the Dragonoids as a true city."
"My impression of Mount Dragspear is more of a fortress and less of a city, at least from what I've heard of it, since I've never personally seen it," Aurelia says.
"Well, the side of the mountain is lined with artillery, so that description isn't too far off," I comment.
"I agree that is a rather apt description. But we need to explain to the guards running towards us, so lets meet up with them. And for the sake of time, someone should probably carry Hakase," Lia says, causing the rest of us to look towards Wanjing.
"*Sigh* fine, you don't have to say anything, I'll do it," Wanjing says, having accepted her role as the Hakase carriage.
As we move to meet up with the guards, we, and I mean Lia and Aurelia, give the four from Shengdi a brief overview of Draelgium. And after a few minutes, we are greeted by the guard regiment that was likely sent to investigate our sudden appearance.
"Halt!" an armoured dwarf calls out, "you there, state your business and... wait, you're Princess Lia of the Blue Dragonoids, the right hand of Khatun Milla, are you not?" then turning to me, the dwarf asks, "and are you the Dragon Guardian, Cordelia?"
"You are correct, although I haven't heard the title Dragon Guardian before," Lia says.
"From the information my doppelganger provided me, that should be the result of Milla's propaganda. She's been pretty active in spreading Cordelia's name," Aurelia says.
"I see, well it doesn't seem like a bad thing," I say.
"The alliance leaders are convening tomorrow, Khatun Milla should have already arrived. Would you like us to escort your group to her current abode?" the dwarven captain asks.
"No need, it should be the usual place, right? We intend to show our foreign guests around first," Lia says.
"Very well, and for the sake of our report, just to clarify, the giant monster that was flying in the sky was Lady Cordelia, correct?"
"Yeah, that was me, unless there was another giant Dragon flying around," I say.
"Then all is well, we shall return and bring word of your arrival. Your group shouldn't have any problem entering the city afterwards," the dwarf says before returning to the city.
Once the guards are a good distance away, Wanjing asks, "Hey, what were you talking about, I couldn't understand a word you were saying?"
"Oh, that's right, the translation ability of Shengdi doesn't work beyond its lands. Now that I think about it, how are you two still communicating with them without a problem?" I ask, facing Aurelia and Lia.
"Being connected to your head, I just need to wait for you to process what everyone is saying," Lia says.
"I learned the language while we were in Shengdi," Aurelia says.
"Alright, that was silly of me to ask. More importantly, I'm hungry, let's go get some meat skewers from the old man."