It only took a few hours between Kotori closing her impromptu stall before the ship was soon approaching the Eris harbor. It had been a long journey, taking around a month, but Kotori was of course, in her room for most of it.

The city was hard to see on the horizon. It wasn’t until they got closer did Kotori realized that much of the buildings in the city appeared to be made of a sandy kind of dirt like pueblos.

The building were quite tall and cast shadows along the streets. Kotori could tell this was an intentional architectural choice. The shade would make it cooler to walk around.

It was of course extremely hot outside.

“Umi” Kotori called out.

She instantly felt a cold soothing feeling on her neck and forehead.

[Ahhh]

Umi had read Kotori’s intentions perfectly and was now helping cool her with her water.

What?

Kotori was a girl after all. She had to protect her delicate constitution (Not really).

[I wish I had some anmitsu right now. Or even an ice pop] Kotori thought. The heat would be much more bearable with some cooler treats.

[Is there ice magic? I want to learn it.] Kotori thought. Having magic that could cool her down would be excellent for this weather, and she wouldn’t have to rely on Umi’s water to cool her down.

The weather really was quite hot. The sun was relentless and bore down on it’s victims regardless of whether they wanted it or not.

Kotori could see a large oasis in the middle of the city with a palace behind it.

[So that’s where they get their water at least] She thought. It would be impossible for such a large city to exist without a water source to sustain it.

The oasis was large enough that Kotori could even see several small rafts on it.

Despite the lack of water, she could see a grove of palm-like trees nears the water.

[Those must’ve been the tree that were used to make the Daimaru] Kotori thought

The palace itself was around the building. It looks like a large flower bulb surrounded by smaller similar-looking buildings on the side. The petals of the bulbs were made of glass and colored in a myriad of pastels.

“It’s a pretty city right?” Fawks said with a look of longing on his face.

“Yes,” Kotori said absentmindedly.

Kotori was currently standing on the deck with Fawks, the higher vantage point on top of the ship was the only reason why she was able to see so much in the first place.

It was indeed quite a pretty city. The sandy-colored buildings were also draped in colorful fabrics that made the city have a mosaic-like look. The fabrics also covered some of the largest streets providing even more shade

The ship soon pulled into harbor and Kotori could see how much the Daimaru dwarfed the other vessels. It was at least twice as big as the other ships in the harbor and it even had a special extra-large docking area for it.

A crowd had soon approached the docking area. And Kotori was beginning to panic. Her fears were soon abated when a gold carriage pulled up and several soldiers came through to open up an area for them to walk past.

The carriage was being pulled by salamander-like creatures that had bronze colors scales.

[Are those dungeon monsters?] Kotori thought upon seeing them

Kotori waited below deck by the door until the door that led out onto the dock was opened.

The door was soon flung open and she carefully walked down with Fawks following behind. The carriage that was prepared was a work of art. It was made of white wood that was accented with gold engravings and decorations. It was something out of a fairy tale.

Kotori almost felt like she should be wearing glass shoes right now.

The people looked at her with awe. Many of them had tanned skins and dark hair like Fawks. All of them wore loose-fitting clothing that gave plenty of space for circulation.

Kotori could hear several of them talking

“Is she a princess from Faramouth? Wonder how that Fawks managed to pull that off”

“Are those her handmaidens? Surprising that some of them are more beautiful than her”

“Ah, Fawks is as dreamy as his brother.”

“Is she being forced to do this? Her expression is not very good”

Despite her urge to correct these conversations, Kotori held her tongue. She felt like it would be difficult to stop all the rumors that would now start from this first impression.

She still managed to try and put on a half heart smile and wave to the crowd. It would do her no favors if she was somehow viewed disfavorably by the population.

She did this until Fawks helped her up into the carriage. This time her party could sit with her unlike the party as the capital.

The carriage was large and the inside was luxurious. The seats were made of soft leather and the interior was surprisingly cool as if it had an ac.

Kotori wondered what the cause could be so she used [Gourmet] and located a small mana crystal in the ceiling of the carriage

[Is this Air Con?] She thought poking it curiously.

Kitsura

Sorry for the erratic posting quality, I have been so unmotivated, I've been working on my two other novels and I'm becoming increasingly aware of how much my writing quality lacks in comparison to other authors. It's been hard to want to write knowing that anything I write will have to take 3-4 rounds of revision to even get to a readable state. The worst part is knowing that I can tell when I get bored with my own stories and it always happens around the 15k word mark. I can't tell if it's because I've spent too much time thinking about it or the story is actually boring. This web novel is slightly different since I spent a lot more time plotting than usually and it's the place where I test things but writing with the idea of wanting a finished product in my mind just causes a detriment to my motivation and quality of writing. 

Love you all thanks for keeping up.

Newfypuppie.