After a short time, the four of us soon reached the city gates where several guards await; the guards had serious expressions on their eyes, it was as if they were anticipating a battle. Their hands grasped onto their spears tightly; eyes stared at us as a leader-like man took a step forward and asked.

 

“Do you three have identification cards on you?”

 

Without hesitation, Mana took out her identification card followed by Leisha while, for me, I took out a simple platinum card that differed from their silver and bronze cards. The platinum card was apparently a special card handed down to the Queenshelm members, though I haven’t seen any other members except for Aurora, she also has one like mine.

 

The guard took both Mana’s and Leisha’s cards, looking at them thoroughly before nodding as they handed theirs back before he looked at mine and simply nodded. It was like a free pass; a single glance was enough for the man to ignore my card.

 

“The three of you are free to go,” he said while returning Mana’s and Leisha’s cards, walking past us as he went on with inspecting the other people behind us as we moved inside towards the city where a cold breeze swept past us, causing us to blink.

 

After opening our eyes once more, the sight of the warm city appeared before us. The warm atmosphere of the city could be felt from afar; people walked side by side, discussed at several shops while some shopped around, worked, carried heavy things. It was the busy city we knew.

 

“It feels like I haven’t been here for a week…” Mana said, stretching her arms as we walked down the streets, heading towards the direction of our residence.

 

The residence was a bit away from here, but it isn’t that far. Though, it does feel tiring since a certain deer girl was still pouting after not being able to find a single boar in our entire path; it wasn’t weird why she wasn’t able to find one at all, especially if she kept singing about boars.

 

“Mwama! Flowa smell boar meat!” Flora suddenly spoke, sniffing her nose to the left which intrigued us as we turned towards the direction before an elderly woman barbequing some kebab could be seen on the side. The elderly woman had a cute little girl with common brown hair by her side, dipping the kebabs onto some sauce as she handed the dipped ones to customers.

 

The two looked a bit thin that even I could see from a single glance that they were either from a common family, a widow, or someone from a different town or village that migrated here without preparing a marginal number of coins to rent. The rent here is pretty expensive around five silver coins every two nights.

 

“Do you want to eat kebab?” I looked at Flora and asked before she nodded in rapid succession, a literal machine gun of nods that showed how much she wants to eat them as she spoke with an enthusiastic voice and glimmering eyes.

 

“Kebab! Flowa wants to eat kebab!”

 

Well, when she is like this, the chances of getting destroyed upon denying is high. A cute selfish girl that really loves to be spoiled with food, that was who this little deer girl is. There was no option from the start other than to buy her some kebabs.

 

“I see then, we’ll buy some,” I said with a smile before she reached out to me, kissing my cheeks as a bright smile blossomed on her face.

 

Her smile was similar to Mana’s which took me back for a second, the two of them both squints their eyes upon smiling, their cheeks would rise a bit and their heads would tilt a little to the right. I don’t know whether it was because she is imitating Mana or simply because of natural growth but this little girl is slowly resembling Mana a bit.

 

After regaining my composure, with Mana and Leisha, the four of us walked over to the kebab street food where the elderly lady looked at us and smiled warmly as she said in a slow matter, “Are you four perhaps wanting for some kebab?”

 

The little girl next to her stared at Flora with envy; the difference between the normal or rich and the poor in this world is large, at my current state, both Mana and I are considered above-normal class which is far-cry above from the poor. It was understandable why the little girl stared at Flora with envy especially since Flora was chubbier than her, was dressed in nice clothes.

 

“We would like to buy as much as this little girl wants to eat; the two of you can keep the change,” I said while handing five gold coins to the elderly lady who looked surprised, her face paled a bit. It was a large amount for the people in the poor class.

 

Many people stared in our direction upon seeing the gold coins, several stared at the elderly lady with evil intentions while others stared at the elderly lady with envy but that doesn’t mean it was all unhealthy stares, some were genuinely happy with the elderly lady.

 

“I can’t take this much…” the elderly lady said.

 

“Feel free to take it; the amount is little for us, it would have more use to the two of you,” Mana answered while smiling. She didn’t question my actions at all since either one of us would do the same, as we always have done.

 

After a few moments of hesitation, the elderly lady soon nodded as she placed the gold coins in her pocket before taking out a silver coin as she placed it on where the gold coins were at first as she looked at us and said, “This should be fine, would it, young ladies?”

 

It was the first time both Mana and I were given back at least a tiny bit of change in these situations, the two of us didn’t know what to do as the lady simply smiled a warm and gentle one. It felt like we were under pressure to take it.

 

“Okay, it will be a comprise…” I said, taking the silver coin as she continued on making her kebabs. The kebabs smelled super delicious that the gluttonous child, Flora kept drooling as she stared at them with her hands itching.

 

After a short while of cooking, the little girl soon took out a tiny plate of wood and handed it to the elderly lady who soon placed several kebabs onto the plate as the little girl walked towards the bucket of sauce, dipping them onto the sauce for a few moments before taking them out as she returned it to the plate, walking over to our side while handing the plate.

 

“Here, have one as well,” Mana said while taking the plate and grabbing a piece under the surprised gaze of Flora, handing the piece to the little girl who was also surprised who looked at the elderly lady for a second who simply smiled at her, leaving it to the decision of the little girl.

 

After some time of constant staring by Mana, the little girl was forced to take the piece, bowing down to Mana who simply smiled, patting the little girl’s head as she handed two pieces to Flora who was biting onto Mana’s shoulders already from the hunger.

 

Without wasting a single second, Flora took the two kebabs, munching on them with a warm atmosphere on her that influenced the surroundings as we sat down on wooden stools they had provided.

 

“This tastes good…” Leisha who took a piece a few moments ago mumbled after she wiped her cheeks that were painted with the sauce. After seeing the two of them eat happily, Mana also took a piece and took a soft bite onto the meat as juice squeezed its way out before the meat entered her mouth as she nodded.

 

It felt like my stomach was punching at me which forced me to take a piece from the plate, biting onto the meat as the juiciness of the meat devoured my tastebuds. The sauce tasted like a mix of soy sauce and vinegar or was its lemon, but it was an absolute delicacy. It was a unique sauce that you most likely couldn’t find in this place.

 

“This taste absolutely good… especially the sauce,” I said with a delighted expression as Mana and Leisha looked at me, nodding before a sudden idea popped inside my mind. It was an idea that might benefit Flora a lot.

 

What if I hire these two to cook for us for the entire duration of the sleepover…?