POV: Lo'ju

  "And what about you?" I asked.

  "I'll stay with Jim. It doesn't make sense to leave him here alone," Jer-kal replied.

  "Got it."

  I didn't waste time. I quickly filled them in on what was going to happen. The man, Bahmos, agreed without much hesitation. Natasha, of course, agreed too.

  I pointed at the ground and sent out my triver. A massive bird monster, with two heads and black feathers. Its eyes stretched from the front of its face down to its chin, like a stack of neatly arranged books.

  I helped them onto the monster. I got her son and husband on as well. Once everyone was settled, holding onto my creature, I prepared for the flight.

  POV: Vernisha

  Everything was dark. Once again, the darkness seemed to move around me, as if it had a life of its own.

  I floated through the space for what felt like forever. I knew this wasn’t death. Unless, in this world, dying meant experiencing the same thing as my dreams.

  Gradually, things started to clear. The bright sky appeared.

  Nice. I’m really alive.

  I had no idea what I was lying on, but it felt… animal-like. I turned my head to the side to get a better look.

  Feathers...? And… we were high in the sky?

  “You’re finally awake,” Natasha said, looking at me. “That’s good.”

  “Yeah...” I tried to move, but my body ached.

  I coughed up a thick black liquid and wiped my chin, staring at it.

  Lo'ju said, “You... were eating monster flesh?”

  “No...” I replied, still dazed.

  "And you contracted Malertaria? You need to get to a doctor."

  “A healing elixir wouldn’t fix it?”

  “It doesn’t kill parasites.”

  Ah, shit. I guess this was what I got for indulging in a monster organ feast. I’ll survive, though.

  Natasha asked him, “How dangerous is it?”

  “It depends. If she ate a lot of monster flesh, it can kill her in a week or two.”

  Oh. That doesn’t sound too bad. I thought. I’d expected it to be more urgent.

  “Is the medicine for it cheap, or does it require surgery?”

  “Medicine. A bit... Yeah, it’s expensive.”

  I muttered, “We pay taxes and we can’t get medicine for cheap. Garbage-ass country.”

  He smiled. “You’re a Vlandos, and below the working age, a child. If you say that, you’ll get it for free.”

  Why the hell?

  He noticed the shift in my and Natasha’s gazes.

  “Jer-kel told me. I’ll keep your secret... well, secret.”

  Tch.

  I said, “Then you know that I wouldn’t be telling anyone I’m a Vlandos. Especially someone who works for or is partnered with the state.”

  He frowned. “I’ll ask my wife for a favor.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “She’s a doctor?”

  “She works at a drug store.”

  “Oh... I wouldn’t need a prescription?”

  “No.”

  “Isn’t that illegal?”

  “Yes. You’d rather go to a doctor? Honestly, you should, since we don’t know the strength of the Geio tablets you’re going to need.”

  “No, drug store.” I wasn’t taking any risks with them testing my blood and discovering I was a Vlandos.

  He shrugged, the wind blowing his hair back and forth.

  I asked, “Do you have control over your hair? Or does it move on its own?”

  “Control. Like moving your fingers.”

  “Pretty cool. When you make those short dreadlocks, do you control your hair to get the style, or do you use your hands, or both?”

  “Both, kinda. And it’s braids. My wife braids it for me.”

  Could’ve fooled me. Maybe it was just the hair texture.

  “She’s better at it?”

  “Yeah. She used to be a hair stylist.”

  “Oh, that’s cool. Does she do her own hair, or do you?”

  “Me. Gets tiring doing it yourself, you see.”

  “Yeah, for sure.”

  I looked down at the bird beneath us. “How many minutes until it has to land?”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  He raised an eyebrow.

  I expanded on what I meant. “Until you lose control over it.”

  “Long.”

  “How long is ‘long’?”

  “Don’t know. When the time is up, I’ll tell you.”

  No way in hell he doesn’t know. When a monster’s thoughts grow stronger, you can feel it. If he’s been an adventurer for long, he definitely knows how long his control will last.

  But he was keeping it secret. Why? Because that was vital information.

  What would I even do with it, though? I needed to know how long his monster had been out too.

  “How fast are we moving? In miles per hour?” I asked.

  “Not sure. Maybe 150?”

  Oh… With that, we’ll reach the capital in no time!

  I sat up and looked at the land below. Villages, towns, rivers, and a whole lot of green mountains.

  There was a white river. Two guys were in it. They seemed to be dancing together—naked.

  Wait.

  Oh.

  Never mind.

  I looked elsewhere, observing a group of people working on a small house, nailing galvanized sheets onto the roof.

  In another spot, some people were carrying buckets of water. Others were hiking.

  It was cool to see all this. Even cooler that I didn’t see anything grim—no kidnapping, no murder, and so on.

  Emphasis on ‘didn’t see.’

  “I’m sorry…” Caren muttered in his sleep. I wondered what nightmare he was having this time.

  “Sorry…”

  “Sorry. I am sorry.”

  He repeated the same words over and over again.

  Lp’jul pointed ahead. “Check it out. We’ve reached.”

  I looked ahead. In the center of three massive mountains, two of which seemed to not belong (they lacked a mountain range), and one in the back that seemed naturally placed.

  I guessed the capital had been built there for defensive reasons.

  On the mountain to its right, there was a monster zone.

  But damn, that was a massive city, surrounded by black walls—maybe twelve meters tall. I’d heard it was built by Eren Starworth after the original walls had been destroyed during the Falsker invasion.

  Those walls were lined with watchtowers.

  I asked Lo, “In those watchtowers—they’re all Vlandos?”

  “No, not enough of us for that.”

  “So… just ordinary guys?”

  “Most are. We’ve only got two knights stationed there, and they’re at the entrance gate.”

  Interesting.

  We descended a short distance away from the gates. Apparently, that’s the law.

  Lo helped us get to the gate, easily carrying Caren as if he weighed less than fifty pounds.

  The knights wore armor unlike any adventurer’s. They looked like knights straight out of legends. Their armor was gold and red, with swords at their waists and shields on their backs.

  The two men were massive, both easily towering over 6’9”.

  One of them asked, “What is it?”

  I pulled out our residence papers, and Lo showed his adventurer’s license. One of the knights stepped forward, scanning our papers and Lo’s license with a mark-stone—a device that resembled a tablet.

  It took a moment, but he gave us a nod. They asked why we were here. We explained it was for medical reasons, pointing to Caren and Ulah.

  The other knight asked, “What kind of sickness do they have? Is it transmittable?”

  “No, they ate some bread that made them sick and seems to be having a weird mutative effect on them. And Vernisha has Malertaria, she’s spitting up black liquid,” Natasha explained, leaving out their violent outbursts.

  The two knights checked for obvious signs. I obliged by spitting up black, bloody vomit for them. Then they took some blood from us and ran it through their mark-stone.

  Obviously, I’m worried about them taking my blood, but they discarded it as soon as they got the results. I assumed it was to verify we didn’t have any transmittable diseases.

  They then asked how long we planned to stay and if we had a place to stay.

  If it weren’t for Lo, that would have been a problem. He stepped in, saying that we’d be staying with him until our family members were treated.

  We paid the entrance fees—fifty bronze pints for Natasha and Caren, half that for Ulah and me.

  Oh, and Lo didn’t have to pay since he was an adventurer. I wasn’t sure why, but it seemed like the knights didn’t like him. They were just being professional.

  One of the knights knocked on the gate, and soon after, the double gates opened for us.

  Oh, random note: the residence papers have a part that identifies citizens as either Vlandos or regular.

  As we entered the city, the knights offered a parting comment:

  “We hope your experience in Sundawn is great.”

  “May the stars shine on your family’s future.”

  They seem cool.

  Once inside, I was surprised by what I saw. The place was beautiful. Massive concrete buildings lined both sides of the roads—commercial buildings, it seemed.

  Elves, punchios, a few Julioes, and other human races bustled around.

  Oh, there’s a Silyuk. They all have big foreheads, half-white and ginger hair, and a high concentration of fat in their lower bodies. Big butts, no breasts.

  It reminded me of my high school principal from Earth.

  Even the guys had it, which—from what I’ve heard—makes them a target in prison.

  I looked around and spotted a Mulvar—a dark-skinned figure with a sharp jawline but no eyebrows. His long brown hair and eyebrowless face reminded me of Super Saiyan Three.

  On another street, I saw a Balash temple with three holograms in front of it. The first depicted a yellow-haired woman with yellow eyes, her gaze fixed on the distant light of a star. The second showed an orange-haired man, illuminated by a blinding light from a star. The last, the largest of them all, was a blood-red-haired man surrounded by hundreds of stars.

  The three mortal gods.

  Lo noticed my gaze and remarked, “The universe sure has its favorites.”

  All of them were humans. Kinda feels awkward.

  I cleared my throat and replied, “There might be another mortal god who’s a punchio, but hidden.”

  “In our legends, there used to be. Anyway, let’s get your family to a doctor. I’ll grab the medication for you.”

  “Yeah, thanks a lot again.”

  We walked for a while before hopping into a taxi—a lizard-driven carriage. However, Bahmos, who had been silent the whole time, took a different taxi.

  I turned to Lo’jul and said, “You’re much nicer than I thought.”

  “Oh. Well, Jer-kel asked me to help you all. So she must like you a lot.”

  “Ah. That’s good to hear. She saved me too.”

  He nodded slowly, looking somewhat surprised. Not sure why that surprised him.

  It took about ten minutes, and after crossing a bridge with a river running beneath it, we arrived at a private doctor’s office.

  Lo commented, “It should be better than a regular hospital.” Then he took a card from his pocket, stopped, and asked, “You guys don’t have a pyramid communicator?”

  Natasha replied, “No.”

  Lo clicked his tongue and looked at me.

  ’Lo’Jul sons'ver’mol’yu is trying to form a communication line with you.

  Oh! Telepathy!

  I confirmed the request. Once done, he returned to his normal demeanor and faced forward.

  ’Give me a thought if you need something.’ I heard his voice in my head.

  ‘How close do I need to be?’

  ‘A mile, maybe.’

  “Thanks,” I said aloud.

  “Yeah.”

  Lo glanced out of the carriage and spoke to the security at the office’s closed door. “When the person inside is done, help them in.”

  “Of course, Lo’jun.”

  Then he disappeared. Maybe people don’t have many adventurers in the city? Or Lo has a lot of connections.

  The security offered us benches, which we gratefully took.

  The only problem with going to a private doctor’s office was that we didn’t have an appointment, and it would cost a lot more than a state-funded hospital.

  But I hoped Lo knew this and chose the office for a reason.

  I glanced at Natasha, who was glaring at a tall boy—a Vlandos, based on his height—around 6’5” and maybe fifteen years old.

  He had blood-red and blonde hair, yellow eyes, clear skin, and was ridiculously handsome—enough to be a model who could capture anyone’s attention, even more than the average Vlandos man (just by a noticeable amount).

  I wondered if it was just lucky genes, the power of being Vlandos, or if he could afford beauty products. Maybe he dyed his hair... or belongs to one of those star families?

  I asked Natasha, “You know him?”

  Her fist relaxed. “No.”

  That was odd. This was the same woman who didn’t even get angry at Caren when he was being a handful.

  I pressed, “Are you sure? You look like you know him.”

  “I’m sure.”

  On his finger was an emerald ring.

  Hmm… That guy is definitely rich. Maybe nobility? Or has an important job. I should probably avoid him, especially since Natasha doesn’t seem to like him. But if I can make friends with someone influential or wealthy, it might be useful.

  Thanks to my connections with Jim and Jer-kel, Lo had helped us when we needed it.

  I didn’t know when or how this would pay off, but making friends in high places could be beneficial.

  I stood and walked up to him. “Hello.”