Kaiser of the New World

As the two of them made their way back to the city, Kai reminisced about his time spent in the Singing Vixen.

Turns out that the tavern Yelena had brought him to that also turned out to be a brothel also turned out to be some sort of adventurers guild that acted as a centre for the entire city.

They had a board for commissions, acted as a middle man for any business dealings and was just a massive hub for any sort of entertainment that someone was looking for. Be it music or the kind of entertainment that you only get at night, they had it.

After finally making it back to the gargantuan wall that guarded the city, Kai let out a sigh of relief.

Approaching the gate, Kai hung back and let Ezekial go through all the procedures of being let back into the city.

It was actually quite a long procedure. They had to take Ezekial's finger print whenever he entered and exited, one of the guards had the ability to create light from his fingers so he had to shine it into the blue haired swordsman's eyes, then there was someone who had the ability to check the recent memories of people, which seemed kind of lacking but also kind of convenient.

To be honest, Kai thought it was a little overkill at first, especially since they were even examining the King's strongest swordsman, but then Ezekial explained that that there was some type of monster that roamed the blizzard and that it had managed to infiltrate the city in the past by taking over the body of one of the hunters that were hired to get some meat for one of the butchers in the city.

Apparently, its kill count was in the hundreds before it went disappeared a week after it infiltrated. It went missing soon after, so everyone assumed that it just got bored and left the city, that's why they had to check everyone who left and entered.

Still, there was the chance that it was still in the city and it never left.

After all the procedures were finished, Ezekial nodded at Kai and entered the gate that had just been opened by some of the guards.

For some reason, Kai had never gotten checked. It seemed like the guards were pretty bad, but Ezekial also explained that it was because they saw his recent memories so they knew that nothing had taken over his body while they were out hunting.

It also meant that the person who could view recent memories gave Kai a small nod of approval as he passed because they saw him kill that rhino bear in Ezekial's memories.

Once they were back inside the city, Kai walked up to the right of Ezekial and just watched all the people around them.

Even in a city where food struggled to grow, where it was hard to stay warm, everyone was happy and content. In the month he spent here, Kai had never seen a person be upset.

Parents were always talking and acting all lovey dovey, children were always playing with their friends in the street.

Even in the brothel section of the tavern, contrary to what Kai expected, there was never any conflict, people treated the girls who worked there with respect.

After a couple minutes of walking, they finally made it back to the Singing Vixen. Pushing open the front door, Kai ignored all the eyes on him as he made his way to the front desk.

Ezekial didn't follow him in, while this place did function as a tavern and adventurers guild, it was still a brothel, and Ezekial had said that it would look bad for the King's sword to be seen in their.

But Kai didn't mind, it's not like he would be here for long anyway.

Walking up to the desk, Kai smiled softly at the black haired girl who was standing behind it.

"Annie, how are you?"

Annie, the girl who had flirted with Yelena on the first day Kai was here, smiled back. She was a bit of a special case in this place. She was the only brothel worker who didn't give her services to men.

She was happily married, but even married people need to make money somehow, so she made a deal with her husband to work here as long as she only catered towards women. Kai wasn't sure if that was that much better, but its not like he was in a relationship so he couldn't talk.

Her husband also worked in the tavern, acting as a sort of handyman for when anything went wrong. Needed something fixed, he was your guy.

He had forgotten to mention that he had been talking to her quite a lot over the last month. Whenever he came here to buy something it was always her that served him, which he didn't mind as he wasn't exactly sure what to say if one of the other servers tried to convince him to add some... other activities to his tab.

"It's going well, today is quite busy. I have a client booked in ten minutes so I'm kind of in a rush."

Kai nodded as he tapped his spatial storage ring a couple of times.

"I get it, no worries. Anything, I've got all those rhino bear parts you wanted, will I just leave them in the same place?"

Annie smiled at the fact Kai still wasn't calling the beast he had hunted by its proper name, but she still took out a pouch of coins from under the desk. However, before she handed them to Kai she asked:

"Do you want me to take the cost of a Molten Cocoa out of your payment?"

Kai nodded his head as he smiled back at Annie.

"That would be great, thanks."

A moment later, Annie picked a coin out of the pouch and put it back under the desk. She then pushed the pouch over to Kai and placed a to go cup of Molten Cocoa beside it.

"Thank you for your service, Sir Kai."

Kai sighed. While Ezekial never actually entered this building, he was always seen walking to and from here with Kai, and that inadvertently gave him the title of Sir. It wasn't like it was that big of a deal though.

Picking up the cup, Kai brought it up to his lips and blew on it softly to cool it down a little so he didn't end up burning and embarrassing himself.

Taking a sip, Kai savoured the taste and let out a content sigh.

"Thanks a bunch, Annie. If there's any more requests just let me know."

Annie nodded as she began to adjust her dress, presumably to get ready for her client.

"Of course, Sir Kai."

With all said and done, Kai put the pouch of coins inside the spatial storage on his finger and carried the cup in his other hand. However, just before he was about to leave, he turned back to Annie and asked the question he asked every day before he left, a little bit of reassurance just in case his opinion on everything in this city was wrong.

"What do you think of your life?"

In response to the question, Annie's smile beamed and grew much wider, her eyes shining with every sign of life possible.

"Life is great, I love it."

Smiling, Kai gave her a small nod before turning around for the exit. Once he reached the door, he turned his head and saw Annie's husband softly patting the back of her head before getting back to work, making Kai smile even more.

Once outside, Kai saw Ezekial leaning against the wall of the building with his arms crossed, managing to look cool without even trying.

Sighing, Kai made his way back to the swordsman and said:

"We just have to put the goods in the storehouse, then we're good to go."

Nodding, Ezekial pushed himself off of the wall and said:

"You have the payment, correct?"

Kai gave the blue haired swordsman a quick thumbs up as they began walking around to the back of the building.

"Yep, though I don't get why you take money, wouldn't you be rich enough already, being the King's right hand man and all that."

"It's not about the fact that I am already rich, it's about making a statement. These people can't expect His Majesty to do everything for them for free, they also have to work for their food, their families, their lives. Still, we do charge a cheaper price than the average hunter."

Kai sighed softly as he shook his head.

"And what about the average hunter, aren't they also working for their food and their families?"

And to that, Ezekial could only respond with.

"I suppose they would be."

It's not all that really mattered to Kai, he was just trying to make small talk with the blue haired swordsman. Even though they had been together every day for the last month, Ezekial had yet to open up to Kai, which was a little disappointing, but not world ending.

Once they dropped off the goods to the workers in the storehouse, Kai finished his Molten Cocoa before throwing the cup in the bin as he left the building.

And after a couple of minutes, the two of them approached the main gates of the castle, and Kai let out a content sigh as he walked through them.

Life really was great here.